Psion
Adventurer
Charge!
Charge! is a military rules supplement for the d20 System by Living Imagination, publishers of the Twin Crowns setting and generic fantasy rules supplements like Spellbound and Agents of Faith. The book is written by Harald Henning, Inger Henning, Steve Novella, and Joseph Unfried.
A First Look
Charge! is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $19.95. At one time this would have been competitive but not unusual. In 2004, it's becoming harder to find d20 System books of this format at this price.
The cover illustration is a beautifully detailed painting by Jhoneil Centono depicting some warriors flanking a spellcasting woman of some sort, preparing for battle in rugged hilly terrain.
The interior is black-and-white. Marcio Fiorito, who has illustrated earlier Living Imagination books, makes a return as the sole artist, providing many interesting character portraits in his distinct style.
A Deeper Look
"Ug! Another mass combat system book!" Okay, that was my first thought too. Okay, we have to review this one right. Flip it open.
The first thing the book says is that this is not a mass combat system, but a sourcebook for war in a campaign. Hmm, alright then, so perhaps we should be comparing this more to the likes of AEG's War than Eden's Fields of Blood or Malhavoc's Cry Havoc!. Fortunate, as the field of the latter books is a little crowded.
The book is divided into 10 chapters plus a bibliography and an index.
The first chapter, the source of whose name King and Country is not readily apparent, introduces new core classes. The three featured core classes are soldier, mariner, and monarch.
What the soldier and mariner classes represent should be self-evident. Their structure is fairly similar: 2 good saves, 1 specific bonus feat at first level and 1 bonus feat from a list at 2nd level and every 3 levels thereafter. Overall, they seem weaker than fighters and stronger than warriors, though they are pretty close to PC class material. The mariner receives 8 skill points per level which seems to me a bit excessive for an NPC class... but the book never states that they are NPC classes. A later chapter does seem to indicate, however, that soldiers would be a step between warrior and fighter.
The third class, monarch, is a rather specific class exclusive to heads of state and their immediate successors. The class receives a special ability at each level related to divine right or ruling.
Justification for new core classes is a constant point of concern to me. The mariner and soldier I have mixed feelings about. There is already a default rank-and-file soldier in the D&D game, the warrior. The soldier and mariner, however, don't seem out of line for an "alternate warrior" class like the samurai. If you wish to assume that there is less of a dichotomy between PCs and NPCs than is assumed in the typical d20 System fantasy game, then these classes can be an appropriate substitute, but one should be conscious that this represents a shift in the basic assumptions of the campaign.
The monarch, on the other hand, seems entirely too narrow a class concept to be a core class.
The second chapter, We Happy Few covers prestige classes appropriate to a military campaign. Most of these are drawn from historical forces of some sort like Gurkhas or Centurions, or are unique veterans. One prestige class I found interesting was the bounder, a cowardly last-survivor and tale spinner. Most abilities fit this unusual model, though one had me raising eyebrows (a +20 to a skill seemed like a bit much; + class level would have been more appropriate.)
The class requirements for many of the prestige classes restrict entry to 5th level or higher in most cases. This tends to play in with the impression I got earlier that this book seems to assume a higher than standard level for rank and file, though to be fair, some of these forces historically were elite forces.
Some of the classes use nonstandard saving throw advancements. I don't have a huge problem with this if it is limited to a singular intermediate save and is used consistently. However, the save progressions used in the prestige classes not only vary from class to class, but in some cases in the same class, which can make for some confusion and inelegancy.
The third chapter, military feats, presents new feats primarily suitable for, you guessed it, military characters. Some of these originally appeared in LI's Pirates!. There are a few decent feats here that are worth snagging, like Been There, Done That, which has an odd name, but an interesting effect: if you make a save versus a spell, one per day you makes saves versus that particular spell for the rest of the encounter.
Others, I am a bit dubious about. Battly cry is a bit of a gambit; by sacrificing initiative and AC points, you gain the same number of points in morale bonus to attack rolls. The cap to this is 20, which sounds like it could easily be abused.
Though most of the classes are representations of historical forces, dragoon is not. In this book, its a spellcasting calvaryman, and an unappealing are hard to qualify one at that. The class has mostly abilities to boost mounted spellcasting, but receives no continued spellcasting progression, making it very weak.
The "army leader" feat chain is another interesting feat that may be too potent. Most of the feats in this chain allow a leader with the feat to allow those under his command to reroll rolls for multiple rounds. This is an interesting way to depict leadership, but likewise seems very potent; if applies to a party of high level characters, for example, characters with multiple attacks and large threat ranges could really mop up in combat.
The fourth chapter is entitled Magic in Warfare. Though brief, it is probably my favorite in the book. The chapter discusses that age old conundrum about fortresses in fantasy settings. To wit, most fortresses in fantasy settings are based on medieval fortresses, but would lack effective defenses against certain magic attacks. The book suggests fighting fire with fire, i.e., provides magical defenses.
Though some of these are standard spells (and interesting ones, like teleport queue, which could be a rude surprise to a teleporting party), others are rituals as introduced in LI's Spellbound book of Twin Crowns campaign setting. The rituals make excellent defenses against common magical attacks. Though the book does not give you enough rules to run the rituals without the aforementioned book, their role in fortress defense if compelling. They would be a lot more sensible than enchanting a castle, but lacks the overly generous approach of letting simple spells counter potent magic.
Chapter 5, Culture and Economy in warfare lays out likely effects of alignment on military forces, as well as relationship with subsistence level with composition of forces. The chapter builds to a peak wherein it derives a fairly simple system for describing the composition of forces of a nation according to its subsistence type/culture and overall welfare. More sophisticated and well of nations have more sophisticated troops.
The rest of the chapter sort of goes downhill. It sensible drives home why agriculture is important in raising large standing armies, but invites the DM into accounting to determine army composition that seems beyond what most DMs would have the patience for.
Chapter 6, Presentation of War and Tactics, provides exposition on a variety of war-related topics such as inter-service rivalries and atrocities. Like many topics in AEG's War, some of these topics are of mild interest to GMs and have campaign potential, but are often things most gaming enthusiats have some familiarity with in the first place.
However, the chapter waxes practical, and provides rules for handling a variety of tactics in game, such as the use of elephants, archery, firebombs, and so forth.
Chapter 7 is entitled Players on the Battlefield. (I can only assume the author meant Player Characters on the Battlefield.) This chapter is essentially a collection of tasks for PCs involved on one side in a war to pursue as the basis for military campaigning. Each goal has suggestions for associated activities and challenges, including combat encounters and roleplaying challenges. This is a nice resource for a GM running a military game.
Chapter 8 is a brief creatures chapter. Most of the creatures are undead either deliberately raised to play a role in combat, or spontaneously as a result of the carnage of combat. The statistics blocks for most of these seem suspect. Some creatures have hp averages that seem off, skill totals that exceed the maximum their stats will allow without any mentioned racial bonuses, and in one case, the formatting of the special abilities is a little hard to follow, not highlighting special abilities as normal.
Chapter 9 is Exotic Weapons & Defining Moments.an odd mix. As is immediately obvious, the chapter provides a few exotic weapons, though I question the judgement of new stats in some cases (I have a hard time believing the gladius is not a short sword.)
The defining moment moniker refers to an interesting set of rules, one I have conteplated but have never seen anyone attempt. Have you ever wondered if characters that were fighters were always fighters. Or for that matter, most PCs? You see few characters that have a level of commoner or some other NPC class to represent their early experiences and training. A brief set of rules herein provides a means to start characters out as NPC classes, but then allows them to spend XP to convert those levels to levels in PC classes. This can happen over time, or when, as the chapter name implies, a defining moment comes about that shapes the character's life.
The last chapter, Encouraging Roleplaying, is primarily advice on the use of social skills in the game. To be exact, diplomacy and intimidate. The methods espoused here are similar to the ones I use myself (to wit, that the GM should interpret the situation and modify the roll accordingly), and I would highly recommend that any GM who feels social skills sap the life out of roleplaying. This is good advice. That said, it is advice that has appeared in forum posts many times.
Conclusions
Charge! has a few warts in it, including a few mistakes that designers should be over this late in the game. Further, to make the best use of it, you have to shift your assumptions about the character level of rank and file troops a little. That said, there are some good tidbits in it here and there. The prestinge classes, with some brushing up, could be good analogs to historical forces. The magic chapter and defining moment "NPC class evolution" rules are also nice tidbits that might be worth grabbing the book for.
Overall Grade: C
-Alan D. Kohler
Charge! is a military rules supplement for the d20 System by Living Imagination, publishers of the Twin Crowns setting and generic fantasy rules supplements like Spellbound and Agents of Faith. The book is written by Harald Henning, Inger Henning, Steve Novella, and Joseph Unfried.
A First Look
Charge! is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $19.95. At one time this would have been competitive but not unusual. In 2004, it's becoming harder to find d20 System books of this format at this price.
The cover illustration is a beautifully detailed painting by Jhoneil Centono depicting some warriors flanking a spellcasting woman of some sort, preparing for battle in rugged hilly terrain.
The interior is black-and-white. Marcio Fiorito, who has illustrated earlier Living Imagination books, makes a return as the sole artist, providing many interesting character portraits in his distinct style.
A Deeper Look
"Ug! Another mass combat system book!" Okay, that was my first thought too. Okay, we have to review this one right. Flip it open.
The first thing the book says is that this is not a mass combat system, but a sourcebook for war in a campaign. Hmm, alright then, so perhaps we should be comparing this more to the likes of AEG's War than Eden's Fields of Blood or Malhavoc's Cry Havoc!. Fortunate, as the field of the latter books is a little crowded.
The book is divided into 10 chapters plus a bibliography and an index.
The first chapter, the source of whose name King and Country is not readily apparent, introduces new core classes. The three featured core classes are soldier, mariner, and monarch.
What the soldier and mariner classes represent should be self-evident. Their structure is fairly similar: 2 good saves, 1 specific bonus feat at first level and 1 bonus feat from a list at 2nd level and every 3 levels thereafter. Overall, they seem weaker than fighters and stronger than warriors, though they are pretty close to PC class material. The mariner receives 8 skill points per level which seems to me a bit excessive for an NPC class... but the book never states that they are NPC classes. A later chapter does seem to indicate, however, that soldiers would be a step between warrior and fighter.
The third class, monarch, is a rather specific class exclusive to heads of state and their immediate successors. The class receives a special ability at each level related to divine right or ruling.
Justification for new core classes is a constant point of concern to me. The mariner and soldier I have mixed feelings about. There is already a default rank-and-file soldier in the D&D game, the warrior. The soldier and mariner, however, don't seem out of line for an "alternate warrior" class like the samurai. If you wish to assume that there is less of a dichotomy between PCs and NPCs than is assumed in the typical d20 System fantasy game, then these classes can be an appropriate substitute, but one should be conscious that this represents a shift in the basic assumptions of the campaign.
The monarch, on the other hand, seems entirely too narrow a class concept to be a core class.
The second chapter, We Happy Few covers prestige classes appropriate to a military campaign. Most of these are drawn from historical forces of some sort like Gurkhas or Centurions, or are unique veterans. One prestige class I found interesting was the bounder, a cowardly last-survivor and tale spinner. Most abilities fit this unusual model, though one had me raising eyebrows (a +20 to a skill seemed like a bit much; + class level would have been more appropriate.)
The class requirements for many of the prestige classes restrict entry to 5th level or higher in most cases. This tends to play in with the impression I got earlier that this book seems to assume a higher than standard level for rank and file, though to be fair, some of these forces historically were elite forces.
Some of the classes use nonstandard saving throw advancements. I don't have a huge problem with this if it is limited to a singular intermediate save and is used consistently. However, the save progressions used in the prestige classes not only vary from class to class, but in some cases in the same class, which can make for some confusion and inelegancy.
The third chapter, military feats, presents new feats primarily suitable for, you guessed it, military characters. Some of these originally appeared in LI's Pirates!. There are a few decent feats here that are worth snagging, like Been There, Done That, which has an odd name, but an interesting effect: if you make a save versus a spell, one per day you makes saves versus that particular spell for the rest of the encounter.
Others, I am a bit dubious about. Battly cry is a bit of a gambit; by sacrificing initiative and AC points, you gain the same number of points in morale bonus to attack rolls. The cap to this is 20, which sounds like it could easily be abused.
Though most of the classes are representations of historical forces, dragoon is not. In this book, its a spellcasting calvaryman, and an unappealing are hard to qualify one at that. The class has mostly abilities to boost mounted spellcasting, but receives no continued spellcasting progression, making it very weak.
The "army leader" feat chain is another interesting feat that may be too potent. Most of the feats in this chain allow a leader with the feat to allow those under his command to reroll rolls for multiple rounds. This is an interesting way to depict leadership, but likewise seems very potent; if applies to a party of high level characters, for example, characters with multiple attacks and large threat ranges could really mop up in combat.
The fourth chapter is entitled Magic in Warfare. Though brief, it is probably my favorite in the book. The chapter discusses that age old conundrum about fortresses in fantasy settings. To wit, most fortresses in fantasy settings are based on medieval fortresses, but would lack effective defenses against certain magic attacks. The book suggests fighting fire with fire, i.e., provides magical defenses.
Though some of these are standard spells (and interesting ones, like teleport queue, which could be a rude surprise to a teleporting party), others are rituals as introduced in LI's Spellbound book of Twin Crowns campaign setting. The rituals make excellent defenses against common magical attacks. Though the book does not give you enough rules to run the rituals without the aforementioned book, their role in fortress defense if compelling. They would be a lot more sensible than enchanting a castle, but lacks the overly generous approach of letting simple spells counter potent magic.
Chapter 5, Culture and Economy in warfare lays out likely effects of alignment on military forces, as well as relationship with subsistence level with composition of forces. The chapter builds to a peak wherein it derives a fairly simple system for describing the composition of forces of a nation according to its subsistence type/culture and overall welfare. More sophisticated and well of nations have more sophisticated troops.
The rest of the chapter sort of goes downhill. It sensible drives home why agriculture is important in raising large standing armies, but invites the DM into accounting to determine army composition that seems beyond what most DMs would have the patience for.
Chapter 6, Presentation of War and Tactics, provides exposition on a variety of war-related topics such as inter-service rivalries and atrocities. Like many topics in AEG's War, some of these topics are of mild interest to GMs and have campaign potential, but are often things most gaming enthusiats have some familiarity with in the first place.
However, the chapter waxes practical, and provides rules for handling a variety of tactics in game, such as the use of elephants, archery, firebombs, and so forth.
Chapter 7 is entitled Players on the Battlefield. (I can only assume the author meant Player Characters on the Battlefield.) This chapter is essentially a collection of tasks for PCs involved on one side in a war to pursue as the basis for military campaigning. Each goal has suggestions for associated activities and challenges, including combat encounters and roleplaying challenges. This is a nice resource for a GM running a military game.
Chapter 8 is a brief creatures chapter. Most of the creatures are undead either deliberately raised to play a role in combat, or spontaneously as a result of the carnage of combat. The statistics blocks for most of these seem suspect. Some creatures have hp averages that seem off, skill totals that exceed the maximum their stats will allow without any mentioned racial bonuses, and in one case, the formatting of the special abilities is a little hard to follow, not highlighting special abilities as normal.
Chapter 9 is Exotic Weapons & Defining Moments.an odd mix. As is immediately obvious, the chapter provides a few exotic weapons, though I question the judgement of new stats in some cases (I have a hard time believing the gladius is not a short sword.)
The defining moment moniker refers to an interesting set of rules, one I have conteplated but have never seen anyone attempt. Have you ever wondered if characters that were fighters were always fighters. Or for that matter, most PCs? You see few characters that have a level of commoner or some other NPC class to represent their early experiences and training. A brief set of rules herein provides a means to start characters out as NPC classes, but then allows them to spend XP to convert those levels to levels in PC classes. This can happen over time, or when, as the chapter name implies, a defining moment comes about that shapes the character's life.
The last chapter, Encouraging Roleplaying, is primarily advice on the use of social skills in the game. To be exact, diplomacy and intimidate. The methods espoused here are similar to the ones I use myself (to wit, that the GM should interpret the situation and modify the roll accordingly), and I would highly recommend that any GM who feels social skills sap the life out of roleplaying. This is good advice. That said, it is advice that has appeared in forum posts many times.
Conclusions
Charge! has a few warts in it, including a few mistakes that designers should be over this late in the game. Further, to make the best use of it, you have to shift your assumptions about the character level of rank and file troops a little. That said, there are some good tidbits in it here and there. The prestinge classes, with some brushing up, could be good analogs to historical forces. The magic chapter and defining moment "NPC class evolution" rules are also nice tidbits that might be worth grabbing the book for.
Overall Grade: C
-Alan D. Kohler
