Mongoose are rapidly becoming one of the most prolific d20 publishers around, churning out books at a rate of one or two each month and with an impressive product schedule lined up for 2002.
Seas of Blood is, as you can probably imagine, a nautical sourcebook. A nautical fantasy sourcebook, because they take care to include the fantastic elements that make D&D...well, D&D. This one is an impressive 128 pages, and feels crammed with information. I'l tell you in advance - this is a good book - I'm finding it increasingly difficult to fault Mongoose these days (although I'll try my best!)
So, what's inside?
Men of the Sea
This chapter begins with a brief look at how the standard classes can be used in a nautical setting, and follows up with a couple of new skills: Knowledge (Seamanship) and Profession (Navigator). Fairly standard stuff, exactly what you'd expect. More interesting are the new core class (Sailor) and the three new prestige classes (Buccaneer, Reaver and Navigator-Wizard). While none of these are particularly innovative, they certainly do what it says on the tin. The Buccaneer, essentially a sea-based rogue, is the most interesting of these, with abilities such as Witty Repartee and Sabotage. The Reaver is a nautical combatant, and has abilities such as Inspire Crew and Instil Fear, while the Navigator-Wizard has various seamanship and weather-prediction skills. This last class strikes me as more suited to NPCs.
This is followed with a couple of pages on hiring crews, stats for various crewmen (Ruffian, Hardy Seaman, Veteran Seadog etc.) and mercenaries (Archers, Shock Troops, Berserkers).
13 feats and two nipples(!) conclude this chapter. The feats range from the expected Strong Swimmer and Sea Legs to the more generic Bargain and Eagle Eyes. This is a good section, and Mongoose have covered the bases well.
Nautical Travel
A thorough chapter covering navigation, movement at sea, weather and other nautical stalwarts such as starvation, disease and mutiny. There's not much I can say about this chapter - if you need rules to govern sea travel, these are them. Reasonably simple but comprehensive.
Battles on the High Seas
Ah, the juicy stuff. This chapter introduces combat between ships. Ships have statistics such as Structure Dice, Hardness, Speed, Turn Rate etc. as well as details on weapons and crew. Combat is much like standard D&D combat - 6 second rounds, initiative rolls) and the ability to perform ranged attacks or close-combat (Ram or Boarding) attacks. Four fire arcs determine the facing of various shipboard weaponry. The chapter mentions that miniatures are not really needed unless entire fleets ar ebeing used, but I imagine that great fun can be had with the use of miniatures.
Crew Combat introduces Mongoose' Open Mass Combat System, which will apparently feature in more detail in The Quintessential Fighter. Despite its clunky name, the system seems streamlined and easy to use. The crew itself has a stat block (in the same way that a single monster would have) and is treated as a single entity. Morale figures into the equation, as do the captain's charisma modifier and relevant feats. PC and important NPC actions are treated separately and can affect the morale of the rest of the crew. There are even guidelines for allowing the crew as a whole to gain experience.
I haven't tested the rules, but they seem pretty useable. I'm certainly curious as to how the full OMCS will pan out (yes, Mongoose' marketing strategy worked!)
Ships of the Sea
This is essentially a Monster Manual of ships, from fishing boats and barges, to gnomish submarines, trading ships, frigates, galleons, battleships, deadnoughts and the Dwarven Floating Fortress. 21 ships in all, of various sizes and from various races.
Then come guidelines on creating new ships, including cursed ships, ghost ships, skyships (hovercraft, really) and details on ship-mounted weaponry and equipment. A fairly utilitarian chapter, and pretty comprehensive.
Ship Deck Plans
A few pages of deck plans with permission to photocopy. These an also be downloaded from Mongoose' website. The plans in the book aren't actually to miniature scale, so you'll need to enlarge them.
Sea Magic
This, as you can guess, is a list of spells and magic items suitable for nautical campaigns. The spells have a couple of themes - those for sailing (Control Currents, Predict Weather, Pacify Storm) and those for fighting (Enchant Ram, Hold Ship, Shellskin, Tsunami). Also included are some other elements such as Teleport Ship and Skyship (turns it into a hovercraft).
The magical items include a few figureheads, magic shipboard wepaonry and a couple of extras such as a magical spyglass and a wyrdstone which allows the ship to fly. A page on intelligent ships follows (Knight Rider by boat...)
This chapter is, as are the others, sturdy. As with previous chapters, it does'nt leap out at you, but it certainly does the job well.
Trade & Commerce
Prices and availabilty of goods, rules for opposed profession (merchant) checks to get a good price (with bluff and sense motive synergy bonuses), rules for fishing at sea... I'm not sure how interesting this will be to the average D&D player, but if you want to really run a nautical campaign with this level of detail, the rules are there for you. Actually, they are fairly simple and easy to use.
Underwater Adventuring
Remember all those sections in various DMGs about combat in unusual envireonments? Well, this is one of them. Exactly what you'd expect - rules on breathing, sight and sound underwater, underwater spellcasting (yay! electricty based spells!). It pretty much retreads old ground, and if you have the 2nd edition DMG you probably won't gain much from this chapter. If you don't have it, the chapter is useful and at least it's 3E (sorry, d20!).
Monsters of the Deep
11 monsters, including one new PC race. The monsters include stalwarts such as the Leviathan, killer underwater plants, undead, a dragon-like Sea Drake, and the new race, the Talorani. The Talorani are an aquatic humanoid race, hairless with webbed hands and telepathic communication. They can change shape into a single type of aquatic creature. They swim quite well. They're the Dimernesti (or Dargonesti, I can never remember which is which) from Dragonlance.
Campaigns on the High Seas
This is 4 pages discussing how to run a nautical game, from single voyages to entire campaigns. A few adventure hooks (not bad ones at that) finish off the chapter. To be honest, if you've read this far, you're already thinking about various possibilities - I was, and I've never considered a nautical camapign before.
Appendices
In the appendices, you get a ship record sheet, a crew roster sheet, a nautical glossary (useful) and a rules summary which repeats versious tables and charts from earlier in the book. And an index. Of course.
In Summary
This one is a hard book to judge. There's no doubt in my mind that its good. My problem lies with a lack of originality balanced by its general comprehensiveness. There was nothing really new there, or particularly outstanding - but then, there was nothing missing or done badly. It seems fairly defintive to me, when it comes to running a nautical campaign. if you do want to do so, then buy this book.
Mongoose are a pretty solid bet. After a slightly shaky start woith their early Slayer's Guides, I feel that they are turning into a reliable and sturdy publisher. Nothing flashy, but you can tell they'll be here for a while and when they do something, they actually get the job done. They're carpenters, not rock stars. And they get a solid 4/5 with this one. If you are intent on running an entire nautical camapign, then you can raise that to a 5/5.
Seas of Blood is, as you can probably imagine, a nautical sourcebook. A nautical fantasy sourcebook, because they take care to include the fantastic elements that make D&D...well, D&D. This one is an impressive 128 pages, and feels crammed with information. I'l tell you in advance - this is a good book - I'm finding it increasingly difficult to fault Mongoose these days (although I'll try my best!)
So, what's inside?
Men of the Sea
This chapter begins with a brief look at how the standard classes can be used in a nautical setting, and follows up with a couple of new skills: Knowledge (Seamanship) and Profession (Navigator). Fairly standard stuff, exactly what you'd expect. More interesting are the new core class (Sailor) and the three new prestige classes (Buccaneer, Reaver and Navigator-Wizard). While none of these are particularly innovative, they certainly do what it says on the tin. The Buccaneer, essentially a sea-based rogue, is the most interesting of these, with abilities such as Witty Repartee and Sabotage. The Reaver is a nautical combatant, and has abilities such as Inspire Crew and Instil Fear, while the Navigator-Wizard has various seamanship and weather-prediction skills. This last class strikes me as more suited to NPCs.
This is followed with a couple of pages on hiring crews, stats for various crewmen (Ruffian, Hardy Seaman, Veteran Seadog etc.) and mercenaries (Archers, Shock Troops, Berserkers).
13 feats and two nipples(!) conclude this chapter. The feats range from the expected Strong Swimmer and Sea Legs to the more generic Bargain and Eagle Eyes. This is a good section, and Mongoose have covered the bases well.
Nautical Travel
A thorough chapter covering navigation, movement at sea, weather and other nautical stalwarts such as starvation, disease and mutiny. There's not much I can say about this chapter - if you need rules to govern sea travel, these are them. Reasonably simple but comprehensive.
Battles on the High Seas
Ah, the juicy stuff. This chapter introduces combat between ships. Ships have statistics such as Structure Dice, Hardness, Speed, Turn Rate etc. as well as details on weapons and crew. Combat is much like standard D&D combat - 6 second rounds, initiative rolls) and the ability to perform ranged attacks or close-combat (Ram or Boarding) attacks. Four fire arcs determine the facing of various shipboard weaponry. The chapter mentions that miniatures are not really needed unless entire fleets ar ebeing used, but I imagine that great fun can be had with the use of miniatures.
Crew Combat introduces Mongoose' Open Mass Combat System, which will apparently feature in more detail in The Quintessential Fighter. Despite its clunky name, the system seems streamlined and easy to use. The crew itself has a stat block (in the same way that a single monster would have) and is treated as a single entity. Morale figures into the equation, as do the captain's charisma modifier and relevant feats. PC and important NPC actions are treated separately and can affect the morale of the rest of the crew. There are even guidelines for allowing the crew as a whole to gain experience.
I haven't tested the rules, but they seem pretty useable. I'm certainly curious as to how the full OMCS will pan out (yes, Mongoose' marketing strategy worked!)
Ships of the Sea
This is essentially a Monster Manual of ships, from fishing boats and barges, to gnomish submarines, trading ships, frigates, galleons, battleships, deadnoughts and the Dwarven Floating Fortress. 21 ships in all, of various sizes and from various races.
Then come guidelines on creating new ships, including cursed ships, ghost ships, skyships (hovercraft, really) and details on ship-mounted weaponry and equipment. A fairly utilitarian chapter, and pretty comprehensive.
Ship Deck Plans
A few pages of deck plans with permission to photocopy. These an also be downloaded from Mongoose' website. The plans in the book aren't actually to miniature scale, so you'll need to enlarge them.
Sea Magic
This, as you can guess, is a list of spells and magic items suitable for nautical campaigns. The spells have a couple of themes - those for sailing (Control Currents, Predict Weather, Pacify Storm) and those for fighting (Enchant Ram, Hold Ship, Shellskin, Tsunami). Also included are some other elements such as Teleport Ship and Skyship (turns it into a hovercraft).
The magical items include a few figureheads, magic shipboard wepaonry and a couple of extras such as a magical spyglass and a wyrdstone which allows the ship to fly. A page on intelligent ships follows (Knight Rider by boat...)
This chapter is, as are the others, sturdy. As with previous chapters, it does'nt leap out at you, but it certainly does the job well.
Trade & Commerce
Prices and availabilty of goods, rules for opposed profession (merchant) checks to get a good price (with bluff and sense motive synergy bonuses), rules for fishing at sea... I'm not sure how interesting this will be to the average D&D player, but if you want to really run a nautical campaign with this level of detail, the rules are there for you. Actually, they are fairly simple and easy to use.
Underwater Adventuring
Remember all those sections in various DMGs about combat in unusual envireonments? Well, this is one of them. Exactly what you'd expect - rules on breathing, sight and sound underwater, underwater spellcasting (yay! electricty based spells!). It pretty much retreads old ground, and if you have the 2nd edition DMG you probably won't gain much from this chapter. If you don't have it, the chapter is useful and at least it's 3E (sorry, d20!).
Monsters of the Deep
11 monsters, including one new PC race. The monsters include stalwarts such as the Leviathan, killer underwater plants, undead, a dragon-like Sea Drake, and the new race, the Talorani. The Talorani are an aquatic humanoid race, hairless with webbed hands and telepathic communication. They can change shape into a single type of aquatic creature. They swim quite well. They're the Dimernesti (or Dargonesti, I can never remember which is which) from Dragonlance.
Campaigns on the High Seas
This is 4 pages discussing how to run a nautical game, from single voyages to entire campaigns. A few adventure hooks (not bad ones at that) finish off the chapter. To be honest, if you've read this far, you're already thinking about various possibilities - I was, and I've never considered a nautical camapign before.
Appendices
In the appendices, you get a ship record sheet, a crew roster sheet, a nautical glossary (useful) and a rules summary which repeats versious tables and charts from earlier in the book. And an index. Of course.
In Summary
This one is a hard book to judge. There's no doubt in my mind that its good. My problem lies with a lack of originality balanced by its general comprehensiveness. There was nothing really new there, or particularly outstanding - but then, there was nothing missing or done badly. It seems fairly defintive to me, when it comes to running a nautical campaign. if you do want to do so, then buy this book.
Mongoose are a pretty solid bet. After a slightly shaky start woith their early Slayer's Guides, I feel that they are turning into a reliable and sturdy publisher. Nothing flashy, but you can tell they'll be here for a while and when they do something, they actually get the job done. They're carpenters, not rock stars. And they get a solid 4/5 with this one. If you are intent on running an entire nautical camapign, then you can raise that to a 5/5.