Setting Tomes [ Drakonia ] | Review

Before starting this review of the two Drakonia Setting Tomes, I want to thank Gamers Hunter Edizioni for giving us their physical version.

If after reading this review you would like to purchase The Casket of Ak’ar Gast and The Ancient Empire, you can find them on the Gamers Hunter Edizioni store. The bundle containing the digital and digital version of the single tome (and the PDF of the ruleset) costs 15 euros, while the only digital version costs 5 euros.

I also remind you that on our website you can find the review of the Drakonia game rules.

Review of Drakonia Setting Tomes: the Aesthetics

As always, I would like to start this article by saying something about the aesthetics of the two manuals. I’m talking about both, since the same fonts, layout and illustration style are used. These three elements just mentioned are very classic and simple. The illustrations aren’t so many and, thanks to the fact that they propose the typical features and themes of fantasy, they are coherent with each other. While reading, sometimes I would have preferred to see some more of them linked to specific contents.

Certainly the chosen font, its size and the two columns on which it is arranged allow the text to be read easily. The red boxes, the brown ones and the small tables make reading more varied, identifying each segment of text and breaking the classicism of the manual. The maps are also very frequent and well made, allowing us to delve into the game world in an even more engaging way.

Probably the most fascinating aspect are the two cover illustrations, created respectively by Fabio Porfidia and Dany Orizio. The metallic writing and the suggestive image have a strong impact.

The Contents of the First Volume: The Casket of Ak’ar Gast

Let’s now see the contents of the first volume: The Casket of Ak’ar Gast. In this first book we are told about the world of Drakonia, which we gradually discover through a playable adventure. This approach makes assimilating the contents much more pleasant and, fortunately, we will also find the same technique in the second volume.

In fact, even before telling us about the game world, the synopsis and objective of the characters are made clear. Obviously I can’t tell you the whole story and ruin the surprise, but I’ll just tell you that the adventurers will have to recover a very important piece of map which, once completed, will lead them to the treasure of Ak’ar Gast.

Various cities are described, including Oxian, a place where magic and culture reign supreme. The enemies they will have to face and the riddles they will have to solve are different, with varying degrees of complexity. This way we have an adventure suitable for players of all experience.

In the final part of the volume we can find the pre-made characters of Drakonia. Furthermore, the manual provides us with the adventurer’s sheet, a section for taking notes, and a QR code to read the rules.

The Contents of the Second Volume: The Ancient Empire

Perhaps due to the greater richness of content, perhaps due to personal taste, I preferred this second volume to the first. At this point the story has already started and the adventurers continue their journey to find the second piece of the map. This, according to the latest reports, is located in an old imperial palace of a powerful queen. The palace, certainly not easy to reach, is located in the Cursed Valley.

At this point maps become fundamental for orientation and Veronica Wu did a great job; each place to explore corresponds to a map and the quality is always high. How will the story continue for the adventurers once this adventure is over?

The Drakonia Setting Tomes are not finished and, in addition to the two presented in this review, others will follow.

Conclusions of the Review of the Drakonia Setting Tomes

These two volumes that we have analyzed have very valid contents and are light and full of adventures. Even greater attention to the aesthetic would certainly have given added value. You shouldn’t expect anything complex or detailed from these two volumes, rather a well-crafted game world and classic fantasy stories. A very positive element is the fact that they combine setting and adventures so as to make the former pleasantly assimilable through the latter.

I recommend these two volumes to anyone who, after reading the game rules, wants to experience something that allows them to put what they have learned into practice. I believe that, due to its complexity and content, it is also suitable for novices who want to approach the world of roleplaying games.

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