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Message: <blockquote data-quote="trancejeremy" data-source="post: 2010342" data-attributes="member: 924">Slaine is a d20 setting from Mongoose Publishing. It's almost more a d20 game than just a setting, though it still requires the Player's Handbook (PHB). In a sense, it's D&D 3rd Edition with completely different classes and a completely different magic system (and no alignment).  It's a hardcover, 192 page, full color book priced at $34.95, which is a bit steep (I traded for it, and didn't notice the price tag until now).Slaine is based on a comic of the same name, apparently from the company that puts out Judge Dredd, apparently. I had never heard of it, but the background of it sounded very interesting. Basically, Slaine is based on Celtic pre-history. By pre-history, I mean, well before recorded history, history that we only have echoes of. Right after the last ice age ended.It's not 100% Celtic mythology, there's some other stuff grafted on, like the norse legends, and even a bit of King Arthur (though that was also originally part of Celtic myths, sort of), and in this, the Celts are refugees from Atlantis. There's also a touch of the Cthulhu mythos - in Slaine, the Fomorians of Celtic legend are like Deep Ones - creepy, evil, aquatic critters who worship the evil god Dagon.As mentioned, while it's essentially D&D, it has completely different classes that replace the standard PC classes. There are 5 new base or core classes (the ones that start at first level and go to level 20) used in Slaine, and while none are from D&D, some are similar to D&D classes. The classes are the Noble Warrior (sort of like a Fighter - get a lot of bonus feats), Tribal Warrior (sort of like a Barbarian - they 'rage' in combat), Thief (sort of like a Rogue - they get lots of skill points and are sneaky), Witch (unlike any other d20 witches, someone fairly skilled in magic use but also good in combat), and the Druid (not really like the Druid in the PHB, someone who is an expert in magic, also something of a priest and scholar). No multi-classing is allowed, and this seems to be factored into how the new core classes are built. Some of them are "front loaded", that is, they get a couple real nice abilities early on. For instance, the Thief gets the "Jack of All Trades" ability, which gives him 1 skill rank in every skill. This works fairly well for the concept of the Thief class in Slaine, but could be misused by multiclassing (someone could just take a level of Thief to get that). Similarly, the Druid has an ability at first level called "Druidic Awe". This is quite powerful, as requires anyone attacking the Druid to make a will save against a fairly decent DC to see if they can actually attack the Druid or not (this is mooted if the Druid attacks). This ability was apparently meant to make up for the Druid's lack of skill in combat, but again, fits the Druid concept well.To mitigate the low number of core classes and lack of multiclassing somewhat, there are several prestige classes. The Bard, The Battle Smiter (sort of like a bodyguard), the Charioteer, the Fool, the Red Branch Warrior (an elite bezerker type that specializing in warp spasms), and the War-Witch. There are only 3 player character races. The human (which is pretty standard), the dwarf (slightly different than the typical fantasy dwarf), and the "Warped One". The latter is quite odd. Basically, it's someone that is more or less human, but are of a special bloodline, descended from Beast Lords. The reason they are called "Warped Ones" is that one certain occasions, they have a 'warp spasm', in which they freak out and get bigger/stronger. Sort of like when Popeye eats Spinach, complete with steam cloud (no little song, though).The specifics of the 'warp spasm' (which was quickly called a 'wargasm' in my group) seem to be unique to Slaine, but it's based on Celtic myths - I've read some of the myths and if I remember correctly, some of the celtic heroes did sort of go nuts. It's possibly unbalacing in terms of combat prowess, but it's balanced overall by warped characters suffering from a major 'geas', which is essentially a restriction - something fairly common a character can't do.Because of the fairly primitive setting, the range of equipment available is fairly small. Especially when it comes to armor. There are only a couple of types of metal armor, and they are likely out of the price range for PCs. So this definitely favors characters with high dexterities. Also as a nice touch, there are rules to simulate the generally lousiness of iron weapons - they lose their sharpness fairly quickly.Also as mentioned, Slaine has it's own magic system. It's something of a fairly simple spell point system. Each character (except Dwarves) have Earth Points, which represent how much Earth energy they have in them. It's essentially a spell point system - you spend them to cast a spell, and they regenerate over time. You can also gain more Earth Points by sacrificing things (this is often necessary for bigger spells). There are also some fairly length rules involving stone monuments (things like Stonehenge). Learning spells is done using skill points. There is a skill named 'Sorcery'. When a rank in that is taken, the character learns a spell (2 spells for a Witch or Druid). I thought this was pretty clever, as it allows anyone to learn some spells.They also generally require a magic attack roll. Each class gets a magic attack bonus, just like the regular base attack bonus. The witch is the best, with Druid second and the other 3 pretty low. Works basically like physical combat. The spells that aren't combat/person orientated require a skill roll (there are 2 magic skills, Bless and Divination)Slaine spells are somewhat like regular D&D/d20 spells, in that they sometimes have material components or XP cost. There's not a huge number of spells in the book, maybe 65 or so. Including perhaps the most painful spell ever, "Ligature". Other than that, most spells aren't too powerful, even the ones with high point costs (and those are likely out of the reach of PCs). These high point costs spells can be cast by sacrificing things, most notably animals (including people), and torturing them first gives you even more points. So this game is perhaps not for the sqeamish. The spells tend to be fairly subtle, not flashy like D&D spells, though there are a couple like that ("Lightning", for instance, is somewhat like the D&D spell "Call Lightning"). (There are a couple of editing gaffes in this section, with notes on artwork placement left in).Also to fit the genre, there are rules for mass combat, charioteering, and skyships. The rules for mass combat essentially scale regular d20 combat up. Individuals are grouped into units, and the hit points are totaled. Everything else basically works the same, though it's a bit more abstract when it comes to positioning. It's also very basic when it comes to unit types, there's no support for archers (just slingers) or true cavalry (with lances, they're just treated as fast infantry), but then, this fits the setting, as before the stirrup was invented, cavalry couldn't really charge with lances.The chariot rules seem quite comprehensive, the skyship rules a bit basic. The latter are mostly for NPCs, anyway, as they require constant magical energy, usually by sacrificing animals/people.There's also a selection of critters, ranging from normal animals to supernatural beasties to new races. About 25 pages or so worth. One notable thing about this is that Slaine gets rid of Challenge Rating (CR) for reasons I don't quite get (the reason is explained, but I don't get it).The production value of this book is very high. It's in color, with glossy paper. There's a lot of artwork, though it seems mostly (solely?) from the comics. To me, the title Character, Slaine, looks a lot more like a professional wrestler than I thought a celtic warrior would, (there's also this woman with really odd lips, rectangular isntead of round) but the art is pretty nice. There's a nice table of contents and index.  The outer margins have the name of the chapter, which makes it easier to find things (though it's not numbered, and some of the chapter names are odd, so not much easier)All in all, this is a great book, but not perfect.My main trouble is it doesn't give a good feel of how life is like. For instance, the economic system is explained fairly well, but I'm confused how it works in practice. Things cost chickens. But does that mean people walk around with chickens in their pockets? (Perhaps giving rise to the ancient phrase "Are you happy to see me, or is there..." and the nickname for man's favorite organ). And are the richest people chicken farmers? In my experience living in a rural area, chickens are incredibly easy to come by. The biggest obstacle to owning lots of chickens is feeding and housing them. (They're also really really annoying)Another aspect left vague is slavery (probably because of it's awfulness). It's mentioned that as part of the economic system is the 'crumal', or female slave. But just how common is it? Can anyone be made a slave? Does the average free person have one? Just what is the average family structure life? I get the idea that a person's family is important, but it's sort of skimmed over. And what is the average home like?The game "Pendragon", originally from Chaosium, had a somewhat similar background as Slaine. It was set in the same region (British Isles), also fairly celtic, but around the time of the Arthur and the introduction of Christianity. It provided a lot of info on the nature of a character's family, life in the offseason, etc, which are things that it seems that Slaine really needs too. It does introduce "Enech" which is a way of tracking a characters honor or more accurately, "Face".I also really have to wonder - did they really fight naked? I mean, there is a reason that male athletes wear protective cups, and they also wear clothing. I can't imagine fighting naked is plausible. Volleyball, maybe (with perhaps a different way of serving). But combat? My experiences being naked outdoors have invariably proven to be both awkward and painful. The only other real downside to the lack of detail about everyday life, is the price. While it's not outlandishly expensive in terms of the value you get, it's high price for it's page count.Ultimately, this is a very interesting setting/game, and in my experience, does have a different feel than regular D&D. Not a huge difference, but this feels almost Conan-ish or even Elric-ish (well, maybe more Corum than Elric, particularly the 2nd Corum series). Mongoose did a great job. Very much worth picking up if you like the basic D&D 3E rules but are looking for a grittier style of game (Slaine also drops "Alignment", sure to make many happy). A-</blockquote>

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