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Seas of Blood: Fantasy on the High Seas
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<blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2008565" data-attributes="member: 18387"><p>A good stab at the nautical rules but lacking the flavour and panache of previous Mongoose products. </p><p></p><p>Of all the books put out so far by the Mongoose publishing this is the one that has probably the most usefull rules. See travel and combat is something that happends in almost every campaign and having detailed yet simple rules for handling this situations is a good thing. </p><p>Three principal areas for which new rules are given are:</p><p>-Regular travel by ships including assembling and maintaining ships </p><p>-Combat at sea, which covers both "ship vs ship" and "crew vs crew" scenarios</p><p>-Trade</p><p></p><p>The best of the three and generaly the best part of the book is the one that deals with the combat. Both sets of rules are remarkably simple avoiding the pitfall of turning a mass battle within an RPG into a wargame and yet thet convey excellently the spirit of the nautical combat. Balance between the importance of PC's actions and the combat readiness of their ship and crew seems to be maintained and the interaction between the two is well thought of and interesting. As a sample of the upcoming mass combat systems this rules are leaving me craving for more. I am also very happy that Skulls and Bones - a game I am quite looking forward will be using this rules. </p><p></p><p>Ship travel section is simple and to the point but presents nothing that a DM would not be able to improvise on without much effort. Having the systematic rules that are not difficult to remeber is, however, usefull and I guess that this ones are going to be as good as any others that cover the same ground.</p><p></p><p>While I was very happy that rules on Trade were included at all I found them a bit too short and bland. One great feature of Mongoose books so far was that they succeded in making the simple rules that awakened some of the powerfull fantasy concepts within the DnD framework. While seafaring trade is definitively such a concept the rules from this book somehow fail to give it a flair that it deserves. I would be realy happy if the expanded version of these rules were to make its way into the "Quintesential Rogue" but it seems that for the good trade rules we will have to wait till the kingdom-running book is finally made by someone. </p><p></p><p>To capitalize on this three sets of new rules adittional feats, spells and classes are introduced.</p><p></p><p>Two prestige classes, Bucaneer and Reaver are, at first glance at least, balanced. Bucaneer is interesting and fills sort of a niche between rogue and a fighter. I am not too big on prestige classes so it leaves me unimpressed. Reaver strikes me as entirely unnecessary being essentialy a seaborn fighter. As a replacement for this class I simply suggest the carefull selection of the feats for a regular fighter. </p><p></p><p>Sailor class (I believe that it is supposed to be an NPC class) is something between warior and a (rather specialized) expert. I am still somewhat unsure as to how i feel about the NPC classes but untill I decide i will probably be using this one as it does capture the sailing men capabilites. </p><p></p><p>Feats in the book are usefull in the nautical context but are largely nothing that your characters will be taking if the sea plays only a minorto moderate role in a campaign. They are largely designed to give bonusses to the stuff coverd by the new rules. one or two seem somewhat unbalanced (Amazing Agility) but overall they are Ok if a bit geared towards the NPC's. </p><p></p><p>Just like the feats, spells and magic items are closely tied in to the new rules. Nothing spectacular here either but they do the job.</p><p></p><p>Nice touch (in the best spirit of the breathing life to the great fantasy sterotypes) are cursed ship, undead hulk and the ghost ship templates that cover this three rather interesting phenomena. </p><p></p><p>Ship deck plans (of which there is a lot) are another boring but extremly usefull bit in this book. </p><p></p><p>There are also sections on new aquatic monsters and on underwater adventuring. They seem OK but as I do not anticipate using them much I have only glanced them over. </p><p></p><p>Besides the rather skimpy trade rules my biggest objection to this book is that so far it has been the first Mongoose book that I have found almost no pleasure to read. Slayers guides, and particularily Encyclopaedia Arcane, have been true gems among the RPG material in that they were actualy excellent prose. Prose in "Seas of Blood" descends to almost WotC levels in being patronising and dry. The begining of the book is particularily bad on this count with sweeping generalizations and hyperbole making it sound more like an advertisment "look how cool the sea is" then the sourcebook. Fortunately, towards the second half of the book, Mr. Sprange drops this rather contrieved style and reverts to his more natural and much better writing. </p><p></p><p>Artwork is another fairly low point of the book. About the half of the illustrations, while vaguely nautical in character, have little or nothing to do with the subject matter next to which they are located which I find somewhat distracting. I also find the use of computer generated images rather bad choice as they are almost invariably poorer in the feel and the atmosphere then the hand drawn ones. This holds particularily true for the babe-art, I may be speaking only for myself but I find very few thing as unatractive (or unsexy) as a polygon-drawn naked female (such as one on page 18). Of the remaining illustrations there are few gems but most are average or bellow. The schematics, however, that illustrate the ships deckplans and the new equipment are done very well. </p><p></p><p>Overall, despite some misgivings I recomend the book to those who are interested in the nautical rules. It has many strong points and I believe that somewhat negative tone of my review has more to do with my, by now rather inflated, expectations of Mongoose products then with some deep failings of the book. On the more fine tuned scale it would be getting 3.7 out of 5 from me.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Messageboard Golem, post: 2008565, member: 18387"] A good stab at the nautical rules but lacking the flavour and panache of previous Mongoose products. Of all the books put out so far by the Mongoose publishing this is the one that has probably the most usefull rules. See travel and combat is something that happends in almost every campaign and having detailed yet simple rules for handling this situations is a good thing. Three principal areas for which new rules are given are: -Regular travel by ships including assembling and maintaining ships -Combat at sea, which covers both "ship vs ship" and "crew vs crew" scenarios -Trade The best of the three and generaly the best part of the book is the one that deals with the combat. Both sets of rules are remarkably simple avoiding the pitfall of turning a mass battle within an RPG into a wargame and yet thet convey excellently the spirit of the nautical combat. Balance between the importance of PC's actions and the combat readiness of their ship and crew seems to be maintained and the interaction between the two is well thought of and interesting. As a sample of the upcoming mass combat systems this rules are leaving me craving for more. I am also very happy that Skulls and Bones - a game I am quite looking forward will be using this rules. Ship travel section is simple and to the point but presents nothing that a DM would not be able to improvise on without much effort. Having the systematic rules that are not difficult to remeber is, however, usefull and I guess that this ones are going to be as good as any others that cover the same ground. While I was very happy that rules on Trade were included at all I found them a bit too short and bland. One great feature of Mongoose books so far was that they succeded in making the simple rules that awakened some of the powerfull fantasy concepts within the DnD framework. While seafaring trade is definitively such a concept the rules from this book somehow fail to give it a flair that it deserves. I would be realy happy if the expanded version of these rules were to make its way into the "Quintesential Rogue" but it seems that for the good trade rules we will have to wait till the kingdom-running book is finally made by someone. To capitalize on this three sets of new rules adittional feats, spells and classes are introduced. Two prestige classes, Bucaneer and Reaver are, at first glance at least, balanced. Bucaneer is interesting and fills sort of a niche between rogue and a fighter. I am not too big on prestige classes so it leaves me unimpressed. Reaver strikes me as entirely unnecessary being essentialy a seaborn fighter. As a replacement for this class I simply suggest the carefull selection of the feats for a regular fighter. Sailor class (I believe that it is supposed to be an NPC class) is something between warior and a (rather specialized) expert. I am still somewhat unsure as to how i feel about the NPC classes but untill I decide i will probably be using this one as it does capture the sailing men capabilites. Feats in the book are usefull in the nautical context but are largely nothing that your characters will be taking if the sea plays only a minorto moderate role in a campaign. They are largely designed to give bonusses to the stuff coverd by the new rules. one or two seem somewhat unbalanced (Amazing Agility) but overall they are Ok if a bit geared towards the NPC's. Just like the feats, spells and magic items are closely tied in to the new rules. Nothing spectacular here either but they do the job. Nice touch (in the best spirit of the breathing life to the great fantasy sterotypes) are cursed ship, undead hulk and the ghost ship templates that cover this three rather interesting phenomena. Ship deck plans (of which there is a lot) are another boring but extremly usefull bit in this book. There are also sections on new aquatic monsters and on underwater adventuring. They seem OK but as I do not anticipate using them much I have only glanced them over. Besides the rather skimpy trade rules my biggest objection to this book is that so far it has been the first Mongoose book that I have found almost no pleasure to read. Slayers guides, and particularily Encyclopaedia Arcane, have been true gems among the RPG material in that they were actualy excellent prose. Prose in "Seas of Blood" descends to almost WotC levels in being patronising and dry. The begining of the book is particularily bad on this count with sweeping generalizations and hyperbole making it sound more like an advertisment "look how cool the sea is" then the sourcebook. Fortunately, towards the second half of the book, Mr. Sprange drops this rather contrieved style and reverts to his more natural and much better writing. Artwork is another fairly low point of the book. About the half of the illustrations, while vaguely nautical in character, have little or nothing to do with the subject matter next to which they are located which I find somewhat distracting. I also find the use of computer generated images rather bad choice as they are almost invariably poorer in the feel and the atmosphere then the hand drawn ones. This holds particularily true for the babe-art, I may be speaking only for myself but I find very few thing as unatractive (or unsexy) as a polygon-drawn naked female (such as one on page 18). Of the remaining illustrations there are few gems but most are average or bellow. The schematics, however, that illustrate the ships deckplans and the new equipment are done very well. Overall, despite some misgivings I recomend the book to those who are interested in the nautical rules. It has many strong points and I believe that somewhat negative tone of my review has more to do with my, by now rather inflated, expectations of Mongoose products then with some deep failings of the book. On the more fine tuned scale it would be getting 3.7 out of 5 from me. [/QUOTE]
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