I buy a lot of RPG products. I do my research ahead of time, and so I generally know what I am going to get. I am not above taking risks these days, and trying projects out of the blue with very little information. Luckily I have the income to test the waters outside of my comfort zone. As a result, I have found a lot of games/products that were not my cup of tea, not realized well, or just bad. On the other side of the house, I have also discovered some truly awesome gems. Products like Midgard, Spears of Dawn, Ehdrighor, and New Fire were so good that I am in awe. Great concepts - perfectly realized. Again – these gems are RARE, but when I find one it is worth every middling to poor product I otherwise gamble on.

Let me be clear - Primeval Thule is a gem. Ambitious of scope. Beautiful illustrations and layout. Really fantastic writing. Extremely well designed. It is what I would call an A+ product. You should really check it out.

So what is Primeval Thule all about? I will quote the book’s first chapter page:

“It is a land of deep jungles and golden seas, mysterious and unexplored.

It is a land of knife-edged mountains and deadly glaciers, trackless and forbidding.

It is an age when humankind is a young race, newly arisen on an ancient and monster-haunted Earth. Mighty cities and sprawling empires rise and fall, weaving a tale of great deeds and epic tragedies that will be lost and forgotten by the peoples who came later. Even the land itself is fated to fall beneath the numbing cloak of endless winter, burying the triumphs and defeats of this vanished age beneath miles of ice.

But for this glittering moment in the slow dream of time, Thule lives—and it is a fierce, cruel, splendid, and marvelous moment indeed.”

Primeval Thule starts off with a great overview of the setting. You will really get a feel (and you will get excited) about the setting from reading this section. In short, Primeval Thule from a thematic perspective is just about the best RPG setting to take on the “bronze age Sword and Sorcery with Mythos overtones” genre I have ever seen. I would take the description a step further and describe it as: “a Sword and Sorcery land which has been overrun by the Mythos”. Its inhabitants hang on the teetering edge trying to survive a strange shadow-haunted land that is slipping from their grip. This chapter covers the setting, 25 core adventure hooks, topography (from Fjordlands to Tundra to the ever encroaching haunted glaciers - which just might be … alive), cities, culture and life, languages, religion and cults (everything from Mithra, Ishtar, Nergal, Set, etc to the range of Mythos Great Old Ones.). Lastly comes a primer on the continent’s history. This chapter is where you really start to SEE the setting.

Next, the book dives into character. Races and ethnicities are covered completely. Everything from Atlanteans (remnants of the sunken isle and it’s colonies), humans (Dhari – noble savages, Kalay – northern natives, Lomari – dark skinned folk who emigrated a couple of generations ago, and Nimothan – scandinavian ancestors), Thulean dwarves who delve to deep and awaken beasties of a Mythos nature, Thulean elves who are fading and watching their “Rivendells” being devoured by haunted glaciers and mythos creatures, and even Thulean Halflings. Classes (Pathfinder in my case) are reviewed to show the Thulean lense in which the classes are flavored. Then come Narratives – which are a lot like Backgrounds in 5e. They really introduce the flavor of the setting by focusing on story concepts to engage your characters (of pretty much any class) into the setting. Write-ups include: Atlantean Noble, Bearer of the Black Book, Beastfriend, Dhari Hunter, Free Blade, Corsair of the Golden Sea, Guardian of the Nine, Ice Reavers, Initiate of the Mysteries, Jungle Trader, Katagian Pit Fighter, Occult Scientist, Panjandrum, Quodethi Thief, Sacred Slayer, Sooth-sayer, Star-Lore Adept, and Tribal Outcast. Lastly we get a quick overview of major villains and forces at work against the PCs. At no time in this chapter did I feel that clunky tension you often find when combining a cool setting with a favorite ruleset. Instead I felt the rules were part of the setting (I wish all campaign settings were as successful). This is where you begin to FEEL the setting.

Next up is the Gazeteer, which provides a lot of detail on the continent of Thule, and is rife with adventure hooks. From Imystrahl , City of the Black Lotus – to darkest Dhar Mesh – to Ikath, City of Serpents – to Thran, City of the Black Circle – to sinister ruinsoverrun by mythos beasties, to haunted head-hunter filled forests, to mountain tops where the MiGo swarm and hunt, to desecrated former Atlantean colonies lost to the wilds waiting to be rediscovered, and so on and so on. The writing throughout the chapter is evocative and dripping with flavor - and it carefully fleshes out the setting with just enough detail to flesh it out, while leaving the exact right amount of unknowns to make it YOURS. You can tell this setting was written experienced game designers - products like this show you how perfectly a gaming book can be put together. Each section is filled with details, plot hooks, and the illustrations that ooze into your soul. This is where you start to get DIZZY on the setting and its possibilities.

After the Gazeteer we get the chapter on the Thulean Campaign. This provides a wealth of information on running a Thulean game. Everything from encounters, to character names, to using Narratives, to details on Cults and other threats.

Next up was a city gazeteer for Quodeth - one of the major city states in Thule. Similar to Conan's Zamora it is a cesspool of intrigue and danger - again, with great writing and the right amount of detail. It covers the city, wards, factions, etc. This is where you have become DRUNK with Primeval Thule and start planning your campaign!

Then you get a few of adventures (“The Tower of the Black Flame”, “The Cavern of the Golden Tears”, and “The Scent of Jasmine”). Most of the time when adventures are included in "core setting" books, I find them weak, brief, and not meaty enough to ever really consider using them. Absolutely not the case with these. These adventures were fantastic and WILL get played. Great intros to the setting and the style tone. By the time you made to this part of the book, these adventures really convey the tone in which you will run this setting - again with just the right amount of detail.

There is a small bestiary of unique beasties and Mythos entitles written in the ruleset of the Thule book you purchased (Pathfinder, 13th Age, or 4e - I am hoping a 5e is on the horizon once 5e's silly OGL status gets worked out). Would have like a picture of each creature – but that is this product’s only nitpick. I would have loved to see a pic of a MiGo hunting. But they did include winged apes, so I am okay! The art throughout this product is gorgeous and evocative. They spared no expense on the art.

Finally we have a rules system specific chapter (mine was Pathfinder), which fills in some of the unique details regarding using your particular ruleset with Primeval Thule.

IN CONCLUSION - to me this is pretty much a perfect product in my eyes - something that does not come along often. I can't recommend it enough. I don't write many reviews - but I felt compelled to do so. If I had a gripe at all, it was that I totally missed out on this kickstarter and I really want a hardback copy of the game. The kickstarter looks to have had a deluxe version that I really really REALLY want to buy - but as with all kickstarters - once the time runs out you are out of luck.

Folks - go and buy this bad boy right now. Really. It is that good.