This article originally appeared in Pyramid #11

Pyramid Pick

TALES OF GARGENTIHR

Published by Sanctuary Games
Written by Richard Cooper and Alistair Cowan
Price: $29.99

Sometimes a game comes along which has such a weird and wonderful background that your jaw drops when you read it. And you devour it from cover to cover and then think, "Well, that was amazing but . . . what do I do now?" Tales of Gargentihr does not suffer from this. By the time I'd read my way through the 350 pages, I had an entire campaign planned out in my head — enough to keep my gaming group going for at least a year. This game is dripping with ideas.

Sanctuary Games is a Scottish-based company, and this is their first product. Full of evocative (though, I have to admit, sometimes derivative) artwork, it immediately draws you into its bizarre world. Gargentihr is a planet full of magical Sa-energy, where huge continents float about on oceans of silt. On the continent of Agasha, many strange alien races live. The south has recently been colonized by the Karro, a human race from another continent, who are slowly spreading north, converting the mystical Ha'esh to their authoritarian religion. The old magical ways are dying, while new technology is being born — steam engines, rock-pipes (a sort of gun) and printing presses are all coming into their own. The cities are a cross between Charles Dickens and Blade Runner, the countryside filled with powerful Kyashi spirits and strange creatures.

The PCs are all members of a secret society called the Clondis. . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: January 1, 1995

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