Bardic Lore: Ogham

[HalWhitewyrm]

He said, "Ogham is a gift from the Mother Goddess to her children, the druids. She gave it to her son, Oghma, the Danann warrior-poet, and he in turn gave it to us. It is a language of nature, of magic. It is as deceptively simple as some notches on a rock, but it hides the secrets of creation." I told him I wanted to learn the secrets of ogham, thinking he would do as every other adult around me had always done, laugh and shoo me away. But he didn’t. "You are not a druid," he said, and my heart sunk. "You are a bard, a fili, and you must fulfill that destiny first. When you are a fili come back to see me, and I will teach you then." It was twenty-two years before I went back to study with Connor McCroghan, but he was still waiting for me, and indeed he taught me the secrets of ogham. And it is in his honor and memory that I created the ogham stone that today marks his resting place.
— From the journal of Amergin Ó Míl

Bardic Lore: Ogham details this ancient Irish written language for your d20 Fantasy game. Learn the history and myth of this once-secret language, and infuse your campaign with its runic magic, allowing druids to tap into the very magic of nature. Includes a short history, an ogham reference chart, notes on ogham magic and its place in the world, as well as magical ogham stones, two new feats, including the powerful Scribe Ogham, and Lore/Knowledge information.

Written by: Daniel M. Perez

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Bardic Lore: Ogham is a more substantive work than its companion volume - Bardic Lore: the Fachan, which I received free this past St. Patricks Day with the purchase of BL: Ogham. In this case the booklet contains 12 pages, one of which is the OGL. The book has illustrations, pictures of the characters of the Ogham alphabet, and a photograph from Kerry of an Ogham enscribed stone. As with the Fachan the author, Daniel Perez, begins with the Bard Amergin Ó Míl* as this time he meets with a Druid carving an inscription upon a stone, a man who who will in time become his mentor.

This is followed by a historic account of Ogham (pronounced ‘OH-am’) and the 25 characters that make up its alphabet, designed to be scribed in either stone or wood. Mr. Perez adds a few optional characters for English letters who's sounds are missing from the Gaelic for those who wish to simply use Ogham as a cipher. He cautions that there is no proof that the language was ever used for mystical purposes, but then follows with some interesting ways to use them in such a fashion for a fantasy game.

Three of the uses described serve to create some very large magic items indeed, by scribing the characters upon the standing stones. Given that the powers he ascribes these stones have been featured in legends of standing stones from all over the British Isles I would call it a decent conceit. He follows then with smaller, more portable scribings that may be used to duplicate magical feats, like wands these items have a limited number of uses. Next comes a new item creation feat for Ogham inscriptions, and a new metamagic feat that is pretty nifty, I am going to be using in my D&D game when I pick it back up again in a few months, as well as some suggested additions to the Druid’s spell list.

As in Bardic Knowledge: the Fachan a description of what Bardic Knowledge has to say on the subject adds a bit of depth when the scribings are found in game. Unlike Fachan a web bibliography helps those who want a little more information find there ways. The bibliography also credits some print books, for those who prefer to do their research in a bookstore.

As a third generation Irish-American I give this 5 out of 5 stars, or 9 out of 10, again - the inclusion of Bardic Knowledge DCs brought the rating up a notch, I would like to see this idea used more often. This rating is likely biased by the fact that I was looking for magics to use on some standing stones in my game next week, but I found it exactly what I wanted for my OGL Steampunk scenario. I will be using the Bardic Knowledge information as Knowledge (History) for the game.

*EDIT* Without the Bardic Knowledge DCs and rthe fact that I needed the supplement that very week I would likely rate it 4/5, but it does, and I did, so I am leaving the rating where it is. I would also drop the number of charges in the minor Ogham scribings to 20 rather than 50, and use Craft Wonderous Item rather than give Scribe Ogham its own feat for purposes in my game. But just seeing people start using metamagic in my games would make it worthwhile! All together it would be fair to say that the rating is closer to 4.5 out of 5.

* For those of an historic bent, I suspect that this name is most likely taken from the Song of Amergin, an old Celtic lay in Ireland and Wales, though this is not confirmed in the product.

*EDIT* Confirmed, Amergin is indeed the same Amergin as the Lay of Amergin. Picking up on an obscure piece of trivia gives me a warm feeling inside!

 

[Khur]

I have to wonder, given your five-star rating, if you actually read the same PDF I did. The mechanics in this publcation were perfect in your mind? They were easy to understand and made sense when compared to other, similar mechanics (magic item rules)? The writing and organization of the information was likewise? Or does your rating more reflect that you liked the idea of ogham and ogham stones, regardless of the above? I'm not trying to push your buttons. On the contrary, I'm trying t understand where the rating here comes from. It seems high to me, and I'd like to know how you rate things when I consider your opinions in the future.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

I will admit that part of the rating is enthusiasm for something that fit what I was looking for right at the time I was looking for it. Being able to get the Fachan and Ogham at the same time was a good thing. Had I not needed it right then I would likely have gone with a lower rating.

I also very much liked the inclusion of the Bardic Knowledge difficulties, together with the immediate need they raised the rating from a 4 to a 5. (I have an OGL Steampunk game that had a standing stone with Ogham as one of the key points.) I wish that more people would include the information for Bardic Knowledge, it seems to be one of the best, but least used, abilities for the Bard. And I can have the BK difficulties serve dual purpose as Knowledge (choose appropriate) checks, perhaps raising or lowering the DCs.

On the item creation rules for Ogham - I like metamagic feats, but no one in the game seems to use them, by having a charged item that allows their use I am hoping to see them used more frequently. Having a charged item also allows a good temporary treasure, I like consumables as treasure, even if the bite you in the backside they don't last forever. I am likely dropping the number of charges down to 20 for my own game, as fifty is an awful lot of maximized Call Lightnings! ANd it gives a reason for buying language skills.

I am not using the Ogham item creation feat, allowing these to be made with Craft Wonderous Item instead, with a prerequisite of knowing Ogham for both creation and use. Bards and Druids will both potentially start off with this, for Druids I am making it a bonus language, and bards have Language as a class skill. As both share a common heritage in my game I am allowing the Bards access to the language. I will likely also allow the Norse equivelant in the use of runes to duplicate this. In the game I am aiming at for that use Godi are similar, almost identical, to Druids, and Skalds are almost indistinguishable from Bards. Class skills and weapon proficiencies are the major difference.

So I agree that the item creation feat was a bit redundant, though I did not mention it in the review, and should have. Other than Craft Wonderous Item the ability does not fit any of the normal item creation feats, and let us be honest, CWI is a catch all, there are charged items, permanent items, and even potion like items created with it.

I hope that this clears it up for you!

The Auld Grump

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Oh, and I don't consider it perfect, even allowing for the enthusiasm it is more of a 4.5 than a 5, or as I put it in the 1-10 scale a 9. I tend to use the 1-10 for myself, then rework for the 1-5.

The Auld Grump

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Boy I wish that I could edit posts here... I would stuff all three of my recent comments into one entry.

The fact that I needed Ogham for the weekend after St. Patrick's Day was no coincidence, we had originally had it scheduled for the day itself. But two players could not make it, so we played Mordheim instead.

The Auld Grump, again...

 

[Khur]

Thanks for the explanation (and the review). I agree that the ogham language is good and the item creation feats are at least a good idea. I also salute your "trivia" knowledge. That stuff is always handy for roleplaying.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

Behind the Scenes

Just to provide a small glimpse behind the curtain...

The first draft of Ogham included the Scribe Ogham feat, but it worked very much like CWI, and indeed included more standard CWI rules.

Mark Gedak made various good suggestions that resulted in the rules included in the final version of Ogham. The logic behind his argument was sound, and the rules he provided supported the idea 100%. Yes, the system in unorthodox and deviates from the standard item creation rules, but it was innovative enough, and fresh enough, for me to be happy including it. I normally like to stay within the status quo of the rules, which is why I went with that approach off the bat, though, that said, systems that deviate from the standard in a well, thought-out manner, that push the rules in a new direction, are always great for me to see as a customer, writer and publisher.

I figured Scribe Ogham would be redundant in most campaigns, as CWI can certainly take care of it without a problem (thus why the inclusion of rules to handle CWI), but for some types of campaigns, especially for the implied setting permeating Bardic Lore releases, it is the right tool to make druids behave more like their historical/mythical counterparts, and to enhance the Celtic feel of a campaign.

Thanks for the review and the comments!

 

[Crothian]

Bardic Lore Ogham

Languages are an area of the game that is mostly neglected. Languages are known or not, there is no really good examples of what the different languages are like, and at times it seems like they were just placed in the game to have without the need to make them feel real. At times it seems the game would work better to just assume everything speaks the same language and be done with it. Aside from a few attempts like in the Kalamar Players Guide though languages are just a secondary ability on a character sheet. Bardic Lore Ogham looks at this language. It is not a common language like Common is, but still it is further detailing a language and shows the potential of such products.

The PDF is not a big one only covering twelve pages. It is nicely laid out though and has some art in it. The book marks are well done even for a small book such as this. It only has one file of it and does have some color to the pictures so it can eat up some ink for people concerned about that especially with its green borders.

The book first gives a nice historic look at the language. It has the alphabet and what letters in our alphabet they correspond to. They have added five letters to it as well to make it more closely resemble our own and make it much easier to use. The letter s each have a name, how they are pronounced, and even the tree associated with them. The language is presented to be used as Druidic for the druids and if suggests bards might be familiar with it. I like that it brings the druid a little bit back to its Celtic routes, but thing the class should be overhauled to really fit. A new version of the core class that used Ogham and other ideas from the Celtic myth would have really strengthened this product.

The language is given some magical ability in the book. It is like Draconic is for arcane magic in that the letters themselves can hold magical ability. A product that actually makes draconic magical would be a great sequel to this book. There are a few magical standing stones that use the language depicted here. There are feat a druid can learn to be able to craft such items. The book does add a few spells to the Druids list of kno0wn spells to help with this all. There is also a metamagic feat that allows for curses to be integrated into the other spells. This addition to make the druid a bit more Celtic, but it just is not enough.

The book does a nice job of given definition to something that is bland and without purpose in the core rules. Now the druids secret language has purpose and reason for being. It serves to aid them and to off mystery and new options. That alone is enough to make me look favorably on a book. I hate to harp on the druid but I like the Celtic feel this brings to the class and just wish they would have taken it farther.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

Thanks for the review, Crothian. Just to give you a little more info, though it wasn't covered in BL: Ogham, we do have something in the works for bringing the druid back to its Celtic roots (in fact, we'll be doing that with the bard, too, as well as with other Celtic elements from the game). The reason it wasn't included in this product was focus: this was all and entirely about Ogham. I do understand your comment, about how it could have strengthened the product, and I agree with it as well. Eventually, when the BL releases get collected and the greater picture emerges, I think everything will make sense and fit into place. Once again, thanks for the review.