Red Steel (boxed set)

Red Steel

Cover of the boxed set
Genre	Role-playing games
Publisher	TSR
Media type	Boxed set

Red Steel is an accessory for the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

Red Steel features a dust, vermeil - which grants extraordinary powers to anyone who brews it up and drinks it, but also may cause excruciating physical deformities - and rocks, cinnabryl - which can be formed into jewelry that fends off the side effects of vermeil, and shaped into weapons capable of wounding magical creatures. Both substances permeate the war-ravaged lands of the Savage Coast (introduced in 1985's X9 The Savage Coast module), spewing enchantments.

The box includes two booklets, the larger one devoted the game systems, and the smaller one to the Savage Coast setting itself. Rounding out the package are three maps and a compact disc.

Originally colonized by outcasts and criminals, the subtropical shoreline now consists of a string of self-contained city-states populated by lizard men, the feline rakasta, and intelligent spiders. Vermeil has tinted the plants, sky, and even the residents' skin a dull red. A thorough history provides insight into the region's brutal past. The Dream River, bordered by amber lotuses whose pollen induces sleep, runs from the canine kingdom of Renardy to the Plain of Dreams. The aranea, a race of devious arachnids, occupy Herath, the City of Mages.

In addition to the usual humans and elves, player characters can be aranea, rakasta, lupins (dogheaded humanoids), or tortles (bipedal turtles). New character kits include the Gaucho and Webmaster. Virtually all intelligent creatures, PCs included, gain magical abilities called Legacies when they enter the area. Most characters get a single Legacy, though some, such as those taking the Inheritor character kit, may acquire several. Legacies resemble standard AD&D game spells, but as soon as a character gains a Legacy, he begins to lose points from an ability score (chosen by the DM). He also begins to turn red and develop a physical deformity related to his Legacy. These deformities may be avoided by wearing a cinnabryl amulet. Cinnabryl, however, goes dead at the rate of one ounce per week.