Adventures in the Northern Wolderness, Magical Sting

The Palladium Role Playing Game has always been one that I have  had a soft spot for. I am not sure why but I always have. I know  that the time period when it was released had something to do  with it. I had just graduated high school (please no one do that  math) so I had free time and a larger player base to draw from.  It was also the system though. I remember thinking it cool to be  able to play races like Ogres, Trolls and Changelings.

The Adventures In the Northern Wilderness supplement added some  great information on the Wolfen. This was not a race that I had  any interest in for a long period of time until I saw this cover.  I think of this cover to a great extent when I think of the game  any more. The book also spends some time going over the  environmental concerns in dealing with adventures in the north. I  think that this should have been expanded on even more but then  that leaves room for the GM to put their own stamp on it.

The book spends a some of its space dealing with the tribes and  politics of the Wolfen Empire. I think that this is something  that should have been expanded on even more than the weather.  There is enough there to build a framework off of but other areas  in the game world received a better treatment.

The real strength of this book is the six included adventures.  Each of these are of varying length but each holds up well on  their own and would provide the GM enough information to run as  printed or serve as the start for something grander if they chose  to work off of the adventure.

If there is an area that I think the book has a notable weakness in it would have to be some of the interior art. As  great as the cover is some of the interior art leaves something  to be desired. The work by Kevin Long is as always good but some  of the other art is not up to what I would have expected from a  professional book of this quality. It may have been an attempt to  capture the rough nature of the area it is set in. I will leave  it at that and hope that it is right.

I think all of the Palladium fantasy books are worth owning. Even  if you never play the system the books are gold mines of maps and  ideas. Many of the books seem to still be in print or were up to  some point in the recent past. This is one of the last ones that  went out of print and it crossed the editions of the game or was  right at the end of the first edition. Still the books can be  found fairly inexpensive online and I would suggest picking up  any you can.

Published: 1989
Pages: 96

Front cover summary: 

An adventure and source book for the  Palladium RPG. Six stunning adventures!

User summary: 

Adventures in the Northern Wilderness is a 96-page  sourcebook with six adventures: The Pirates of Dragon Claw,  Journey to Darkwood, To Serve the Pixie Crown, Avaxa's Gate, The  Forest of Broken Wings, and A Most Royal Conspiracy. The book  contains rules for traveling during winter and many illustrations  and maps.


Spell:

Magical Sting

Level: Fifth
Range: 9"
Duration: Instantaneous
Area of Effect: 6" Radius Sphere
Components: V,S
Casting Time: 3 Segments
Saving Throw: Halves + Special

When this spell is cast the magic user causes those in the area  of effect to suffer damage from the magic items in their possession. Those affected are entitled to a save but making the  save could affect the magic items.

The victims of this spell will suffer 1d4 damage to to magical  feedback from the magic items in their possession. Only higher  types of magic items will cause any damage. Potions and Scrolls  will be exempt but rings and wand up would still count. The spell  can cause no more dice of damage than the caster has levels as  well. So if the caster were 12th level and the victim had 20  magical items they would only suffer 12d4 of damage.

The victims of this spell are entitled to a saving throw. If the  save is made they will only suffer half damage. If the save is  made though the mitigated damage will affect the magic items  that caused the damage. Each magic item will need to make a save  at +4 or be destroyed by the magical feedback. Items such as  Artifacts and Relics can not be destroyed in this manner. Instead  the DM will need to come up with an new negative effect upon the owner of the item. This will persist for a number of game months  equal to the owners level at the time of the change.

Disclaimer: The spells that you will see, for how ever long the  write ups last, were all written up or conceived of back in the  80's so the terminology may not appropriate for anything other  than 1e and depending on how well I did back then it may be  slightly off for that as well. If there is any duplication of  spells that exist now it is most likely I wrote mine first :)  Please feel free to comment on them but try not to be too hard on  me. If anyone wishes to use these in anything they print please  let me know in advance and all I ask is proper credit.