Gladiator: Sands of Death is a departure from Mongoose Publishing's established lines of Slayer's Guide and Encyclopaedia Arcane series. Mongoose as a whole are starting to branch out into quite a wide range of different areas within the d20 industry, as a cursory glance at their website will indicate.
This book presents background information and rules on how to drop a gladiatorial arena straight into your game. Of course, by gladiatorial arena, Mongoose don't mean to include only Romanesque settings, and take pains to point out that various fantasy cultures have their own forms of this bloodthirsty sport.
That said, the book does tend to concentrate on the Roman stereotype, briefly digressing on occasion to the arenas of other cultures (it gives examples of five such alternative arenas). Also, given its stated intention of providing arena rules for fantasy games, it does very much gloss over the influence of magic in such a situation, mainly by stipulating that magic is usually outlawed in the arena unless the battle is set up specifically to be a 'mage killer' style affair. One thing that did jar with me was the inclusion of the quote Those of us who are about to die, salute you! in large type, which is quintessentially Roman in orgin.
Unlike previous Slayer's Guides, this book concentrates more on 'crunchy bits'. I observed in my review of Necromancy: Beyond the Grave that Mongoose appeared to be addressing the complaints of many fans due to the high level of 'fluff' in their Slayer's Guides - and Gladiator certainly backs up that observation. From gladiatorial feats to new prestige classes, form random tables with which to roll a random gladiatorial match to rules on chariot combat, the book certainly adds meat to your game. Some of this is very gladiator-specific (such as the prestige classes), and some can be easily utilised elsewhere (such as the feats, which consist mainly of combat techniques). One interesting little addition in the Slave core class - if a PC takes this class at 1st level but then multiclassed at 2nd level, the Slave class is considered forgotten and does not affect his level total of multiclassing options (although the PC retains any skills, feats etc. gained form that class). In effect, it's almost a 'freebie' given to those players willing to spend their first level playing a slave for the sake of the story. It's easy to imagine a party composed entirely of slaves at the beginning of the campaign and is a mechanic that fits well.
The prestige classes, Gladiator Champion, Animal Handler, and Charioteer didn't really do anything for me, but I recognise them as necessary staples of a gladiatorial setting. They aren't particularly useful once when leaves the arena - although I imagine that once that happens the whole flavour of the campaign is changing, and thus the PCs should be looking to branch out and multiclass elsewhere as they learn to adjust to their new lives. The prestige classes are solidly written, however, and Mongoose cover all the bases. I wonder, hwoever, whether they need to exist as prestige classes - I tend to feel that prestige classes should be few and far between and that the core rules are flexible enough to handle most character concepts.
The backgound information in Gladiator also seems more useful than that in early Slayer's Guides. It talks about how arenas are run, the role of the 'stablemaster', the different types of contest fought etc. in detail, making it easy for any DM to run such a campaign. It's all very well written and interspersed with short stories, and Matthew Sprange manages to make the whole thing come alive. Even if you have no intention of running a gladiator-style campaign, the book makes a great read.
At the end of the book is d20 game called Sands of Death. It's basically the gladiator equivalent of Bloodbowl or Necromunda - each player takes the role of a 'stable master' and spends his stating money on a number of gladiators. Different fights are rolled for each day (including starting conditions, allowed armour and weapons etc.) and battle ensues (using the standard D&D combat rules). The stablemasters (and their gladiators) gain Fame and, of course, money (their Fame score affects the performance of their gladiators in the arena), and the gladiators (if they survive) increase in level just like normal PCs. When I first heard of this, I thought it was a bit pointless - but when I actually sat down and read it, I found myself looking forward to a game with my players. It's the sort of thing you'd play as a one-off, as a break from your regular campaign. Somewhat unfortunately, however, I found that the mini-game doesn't seem to work. There isn't really space here to go into detail, but it seemed that it really wasn't balanced correctly - players are often forced into win-or-lose-everything style conflicts early on when they have few resources, and are drummed quickly out of the game; and those who spend all their gold on a single powerful gladiator tend to run the others into the ground in rapid time.
I generally like this book. It has flaws, as mentioned above, and I seriously doubt that I'll ever actually run a gladiator-style campaign - but it made for a good read and contains plenty of materal that can - and will - be pulled out and used in my regular game.
This book presents background information and rules on how to drop a gladiatorial arena straight into your game. Of course, by gladiatorial arena, Mongoose don't mean to include only Romanesque settings, and take pains to point out that various fantasy cultures have their own forms of this bloodthirsty sport.
That said, the book does tend to concentrate on the Roman stereotype, briefly digressing on occasion to the arenas of other cultures (it gives examples of five such alternative arenas). Also, given its stated intention of providing arena rules for fantasy games, it does very much gloss over the influence of magic in such a situation, mainly by stipulating that magic is usually outlawed in the arena unless the battle is set up specifically to be a 'mage killer' style affair. One thing that did jar with me was the inclusion of the quote Those of us who are about to die, salute you! in large type, which is quintessentially Roman in orgin.
Unlike previous Slayer's Guides, this book concentrates more on 'crunchy bits'. I observed in my review of Necromancy: Beyond the Grave that Mongoose appeared to be addressing the complaints of many fans due to the high level of 'fluff' in their Slayer's Guides - and Gladiator certainly backs up that observation. From gladiatorial feats to new prestige classes, form random tables with which to roll a random gladiatorial match to rules on chariot combat, the book certainly adds meat to your game. Some of this is very gladiator-specific (such as the prestige classes), and some can be easily utilised elsewhere (such as the feats, which consist mainly of combat techniques). One interesting little addition in the Slave core class - if a PC takes this class at 1st level but then multiclassed at 2nd level, the Slave class is considered forgotten and does not affect his level total of multiclassing options (although the PC retains any skills, feats etc. gained form that class). In effect, it's almost a 'freebie' given to those players willing to spend their first level playing a slave for the sake of the story. It's easy to imagine a party composed entirely of slaves at the beginning of the campaign and is a mechanic that fits well.
The prestige classes, Gladiator Champion, Animal Handler, and Charioteer didn't really do anything for me, but I recognise them as necessary staples of a gladiatorial setting. They aren't particularly useful once when leaves the arena - although I imagine that once that happens the whole flavour of the campaign is changing, and thus the PCs should be looking to branch out and multiclass elsewhere as they learn to adjust to their new lives. The prestige classes are solidly written, however, and Mongoose cover all the bases. I wonder, hwoever, whether they need to exist as prestige classes - I tend to feel that prestige classes should be few and far between and that the core rules are flexible enough to handle most character concepts.
The backgound information in Gladiator also seems more useful than that in early Slayer's Guides. It talks about how arenas are run, the role of the 'stablemaster', the different types of contest fought etc. in detail, making it easy for any DM to run such a campaign. It's all very well written and interspersed with short stories, and Matthew Sprange manages to make the whole thing come alive. Even if you have no intention of running a gladiator-style campaign, the book makes a great read.
At the end of the book is d20 game called Sands of Death. It's basically the gladiator equivalent of Bloodbowl or Necromunda - each player takes the role of a 'stable master' and spends his stating money on a number of gladiators. Different fights are rolled for each day (including starting conditions, allowed armour and weapons etc.) and battle ensues (using the standard D&D combat rules). The stablemasters (and their gladiators) gain Fame and, of course, money (their Fame score affects the performance of their gladiators in the arena), and the gladiators (if they survive) increase in level just like normal PCs. When I first heard of this, I thought it was a bit pointless - but when I actually sat down and read it, I found myself looking forward to a game with my players. It's the sort of thing you'd play as a one-off, as a break from your regular campaign. Somewhat unfortunately, however, I found that the mini-game doesn't seem to work. There isn't really space here to go into detail, but it seemed that it really wasn't balanced correctly - players are often forced into win-or-lose-everything style conflicts early on when they have few resources, and are drummed quickly out of the game; and those who spend all their gold on a single powerful gladiator tend to run the others into the ground in rapid time.
I generally like this book. It has flaws, as mentioned above, and I seriously doubt that I'll ever actually run a gladiator-style campaign - but it made for a good read and contains plenty of materal that can - and will - be pulled out and used in my regular game.