[Hourglass of Zihaja] PDF v1.0 is Finally Here!

[Zeta Kai]

Here it is, all 651 pages of it. It's taken us over 3 years to do, but the complete Hourglass of Zihaja campaign setting is finally ready for download, completely free, & all in one* huge file (33.89 MB). Just click on the link below to grab a copy, & let us know what you think. Enjoy.

Hourglass of Zihaja, v1.0

* = The maps were too large to fit into the PDF, but a thumbnail for each IS in the file, which are linked to the full-sized versions on my DeviantArt account. I did my best.

[Reverent-One]

Holy Agrabah, Batman! It's finally here! I admire all the work you three put into this and your dedication to getting it done. 3 years is a long time to work on one project.

Now if only I were at home and could dig into this now. Ah well. Good timing on your part, I'm considering starting a game for my RL group to fill a void left by another DM taking a break, and I would like to use this setting. Just need to see if I can convince people to try out such a different setting.

[Pokonic]

Huzzah! Fantasitc job from all of you, and may may you three continue to pump out epic stuff like this!

[Human Paragon 3]

I'm impressed that you guys had the follow through to pull this off!

I have a few critiques after a very cursory look-over.

The use of ampersands instead of the word "and" drives me crazy, and the information is sort of poorly organized. The sections could use short introductory paragraphs to center the reader, and large titles and graphical elements could be used to visually break up the different chapters a little bit better. Starting off with a glossary of terms as the very first thing is kind of disorienting. That sort of thing should come at the end. It really just feels like a big mess of information. It's overwhelming, and at times it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to where things are. Why is the time line right after list of all the gods, for instance, instead of in a history section?

[Grinner]

Color me impressed.

Edit: And it's OGL too. I love you all.

[KoboldCleric]

You certainly have my thanks; You did some wonderful things with this setting, and I look forward to using it extensively over the next few years (at the very least).

[Zeta Kai]

Well, I hope everyone enjoys the setting, & appreciates the work that went into it. We have fallen in love (& out, & back in again) with it over the long production cycle, & have tried to make the best product that we could. Ultimately, even after three years of near-constant additions, revisions, & tweaking, we still feel that it wasn't complete. But if we didn't put something out now, we would never be done. "Art is never finished, only abandoned," said Leonard da Vinci. While we would never have the hubris to compare ourselves to such a luminary figure, we hope that the resulting campaign setting approaches art, even if it perhaps doesn't fully qualify.

There were several things that we wanted to include in the setting, but never had the time to complete. Here's a list of things that we hope to add later, if given the chance:

• Racial writeups for the genies, the houris, & the rakshasas, to complete the Races of Najmah section
• Fluff for the Hoplite, as well as a 4th Edition version paragon path
• Adding other prestige classes/paragon paths, with an eye for fleshing out the setting &/or improving game balance
• A mid-level dungeon about acquiring the Colossus of the Ral Zadi, where the dungeon is the prize
• A high-level dungeon about Johoum, bound inside the Shrine of the Imprisonment
• An epic-level dungeon about Ahuma, the rakshasa lord poised to shake the very foundations of the Kamala
• A complete list of 1,001 Adventuring Ideas
• A map/writeup for the setting as it was during the Age of Kingdoms, so players could experience & explore the worlds before the Pactspell

Also, given time, we'd like to fix a few things that haven't quite lived up to our expectations. We are very proud of the work we've done, for the most part; most things have been worked over several times in order to polish them to a shine. But a couple of things could still use a tweak: the Djinn Lord, Zihaja's Palace, & the Magical Rituals have some troublesome spots that we'd like to make better, given time. We plan to keep working on the setting & make periodic updates available.

Lastly:

The sections could use short introductory paragraphs to center the reader, and large titles and graphical elements could be used to visually break up the different chapters a little bit better. Starting off with a glossary of terms as the very first thing is kind of disorienting. That sort of thing should come at the end. It really just feels like a big mess of information. It's overwhelming, and at times it seems like there's no rhyme or reason to where things are. Why is the time line right after list of all the gods, for instance, instead of in a history section?

We have tried to keep the information organized in intuitively-categorized sections, for quick referencing & easy indexing. Of course, as the project has grown, it has perhaps gotten too big for its chapter count. Do you have suggestions for how we could improve the presentation? Introductory paragraphs would be a good place to start, but what else can we do to make the experience better?