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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pinotage" data-source="post: 2495540" data-attributes="member: 15194">A Question of Honor: A Guidebook to Knights is a pdf supplement from Alea Publishing Group. It features a whole host of new material to revitalise the medieval knight and crusader, including feats, spells, prestige classes, equipment, magic items and new rules. This pdf has a page count of 66 pages - 2 devoted to covers and cover art, 1 for credits, 1 for a table on contents, 3 for OGL declarations, and 1 blank page for campaign notes, leaving 58 pages of knightly content. A Question of Honor: A Guidebook to Knights normally retails for $7 on RPGNow.comInitial Impressions:A Question of Honor: A Guidebook to Knights is a fully bookmarked pdf. Also included in the product is a separate pdf that helps to identify all the OGL items in the pdf, as well as well-drawn maps of the free Hill Lands supplement contained in the appendix. The artwork and layout is well done, although not spectacular. Layout is in two columns, the text is easy to read, although the chapters flow into each other without a suitable page break between them. There is some really good material in here, but also some very ordinary, but the variety means that there's probably a little something for everyone with a taste for knights.The pdf contains a lot of crunch material, although after reading through everything I had to admit that the Hill Lands supplement and its fluff was probably one of the better parts of the pdf. While I like crunch as much as the next guy, the prestige classes, for example, were described with very little in the way of descriptive text or roleplaying background. Many of them were even only slightly over half a page long, leaving me with the feeling that it was just one crunchy bit after the next. That's not a bad thing if you like your crunch, but some parts, such as the optional rules for fighting styles, were confusing, while some of the other crunchy bits were sometimes bland. There's a lot to like about the pdf, but it wasn't jump out of the page stuff, perhaps because of the lack of supporting descriptive material amongst all the rules and rules material. In any event, time to explore in a little more detail.The Details:The pdf is divided into seven chapters and two appendices. It starts with a brief and catching introduction on knights and the medieval concept of knighthood and the crusades, focusing on the commitment that it required, all which I found compelling and an interesting read. I'd hoped to find more of that amongst the rest of the pdf, but it was generally lacking in flavorful descriptions that got me hooked on the ideas they had.Chapter 1: This chapter presents several new rules and expands on the existing core rules to incorporate the concept of the medieval knight. It covers everything from critical attack bonuses that certain weapons gain when confirming a threat, to the concept of a delay time when buying magical items or searching for that elusive mithral armor. It has to be said that it's a daunting task to cover aspects of the medieval knight, and the rules presented are a bit of a mixed bag of success and failure. For example, the critical attack bonus appear to be nothing more than a complicated, yet interesting, take on the magical armor fortification ability. I found it very difficult to grab hold of something here that inspired me.Chapter 2: If you're after new feats then this chapter has got scores of them. New types of feats such as advancement feats and taboo feats are presented, the former giving you an LA on taking the feat, while for the latter you give up some aspect in order to gain the benefits of the feat. Advancement feats, while there weren't many of them, were lacking in details on how they worked, and how taking the feat would affect taking a level at the same time. New skills and new uses of skills are presented, but again a bit of a mixed bag. The diplomacy skill, for example, is extended to include its use to force surrender during a siege, but very little detail is given on medieval sieges, how they were performed and what was required to capture a city or town.In addition, fighting styles are presented for a more accurate take of combat, presenting a complicated and confusing mix of new skills called combat skills. I was left with a confusing aftertaste, and couldn't help but wonder why four or five extra rolls would be worth the effort for your strength bonus in damage, and how that would be enjoyable. It's not a bad system, but the complexity doesn't make it worth it. It was particularly interesting to note that those creatures that can't possess combat skills, such as most monsters other than humanoids and giants, are immune to their effects, meaning that in many campaigns this won't find any use in any case.Chapter 3: Prestige classes. I have to admit that I'd have loved to see a little more detail on these classes. Roleplaying background, some more descriptive text, rather than what sometimes appeared to be an endless stream of more rules material to cram another class in. In addition, the rules text for the prestige class abilities was done alphabetically, leaving the reader with no real feel of how the class progresses from one level to the next. Some of them were interesting and good, but the pdf just didn't do enough to get me hooked, while others such as the Ancestral Knight offered little incentive to ever bother taking the class. The Knight Hospitillar and the Knight Templar were good, and the idea of trophies, granting benefits to the knight that displays them, behind the Knight of the Wild was interesting and different. The Troubadour, a romantic bard, offers some excellent roleplaying material, and I can see a lot of players enjoying the class for what it offers. Overall though, I got the impression that it was just another string of prestige classes sprinkled with some good ones.Chapter 4: A handy addition to the pdf in providing stat blocks for typical followers for those knights with the leadership feat, or presumably capable of hiring them. There were some minor errors in the stat blocks, but these ready-made followers offer a nice time-saving addition to a knight's repertoire.Chapter 5 and 6: These chapters present the new equipment and magical items suitable for your knight character. Awakened items are interesting, being items that develop as you progress your character and achieve certain feats with respect to the items, thereby unlocking their powers. New special materials are presented which are both good and useful, and the new weapon enhancements are well done. The mundane weapons and armor incorporate the new rules of critical attack bonus and the like, although Crusading Armor, granting a +10 AC with a -5 armor check penalty, is probably too strong an armor even with the weight supposedly being a restriction. A well done chapter with a bucketful of useful tidbits for most campaigns.Chapter 7: This chapter presents a useful collection of spells, ranging from the damaging Cleansing spells to the Ease spell that will reduce your arcane spell failure chance for your next spell. Sense Evil/Good is another useful spell, offering a detecting spell that's not concentration limited.The Appendices: One of the most useful parts of this book, the appendix details the Hill Lands, a land where you can set your knightly adventures, or it can be used as a bigger part of the world of Terra. The history, background details and presentation of the material was well done, a good and sometimes intriguing read, offering some novel ideas that can be used for adventure hooks. It would've been nice to see some more details such as a timeline or perhaps a summary briefly detailing the history, rather than scattered bits of history and background in the descriptions of the terrain or cities of the Hill Lands.The pdf concludes with two new creatures, the green night and the rust knight, as well as an NPC in Sir Gerald Winters. Again there were a few stat block errors contained in these, but adventuring knights would be warned to make sure they pay these creatures proper respect.Conclusions:A Question of Honor: A Guidebook to Knights offers a whole host of new material for a campaign based on the medieval knight. There's a lot of useful material in there, but my overall impression was that the descriptive text that hooks you on an idea or a concept was lacking, leaving an endless stream of rules material in its wake. If you like your rules, then you'll like this pdf, but to me the concept of the medieval knight and the crusades is much more than just rules. In the end it was the Hill Lands supplement that was the most interesting, although there are a few intriguing bits in the pdf that might find use even in a non-knightly campaign. This pdf gets a grading of average or three stars, containing lots of material, but unfortunately not bringing that material home for me.</blockquote>

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