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Message: <blockquote data-quote="cthulu_moose" data-source="post: 2011054" data-attributes="member: 17946">Well here I go again with another Malladin's Gate Review.  Since my last one a couple of weeks ago I have been back in touch with Ben and he's asked me to review a few more, so here's the first review done on a complimentary copy send to me for expressed reviewing purposes.Okay lets not beat about the bush too much with this one.  Other reviewers have said it already, and I can only agree.  DarkLore is excellent!  It's dark, it's got fantastic games mechanics and it's a damn good world in its own rightThis is Malladin's Gate's latest product, an 80 page campaign 'primer' that is only a couple of chapters short of a full campaign setting book.  This brings me to the book's value.  At $5.00, it's a great buy.  Most other PDFs seem to be around the $1 +10c/page mark.  That would put DarkLore at $9, so its almost half price the going rate.But I don't want to get too carried away with simple economics, I want to talk about the game.Firstly, I'll look at the game mechanics.  I'd like to say that these are the strongest part of the book, but that would be a diservice to the setting itself.  That said, I'd give the book a 5* review if it were a simple toolkit, without their added campaign world thrown in.  The idea of using D20 Modern for a dark fantasy game is not entirely original, I seem to remember one of the first posts onthe WotC website intimated that someone on the wizards' staff was doing this already.  However, Malladin's Gate's real coup de gras is the was in which they take this principal and apply it properly to the fantasy world.  We're not stuck with anachronistic D20M hero classes and a bunch of advanced classes derived from the basic D&D classes.  Instead we've got 6 new core classes that allow us to explore the details the kinds of fantasy crunch that you want from the early levels.  These classes have talents and feats like in D20M, but they are played around with to a much greater degree.  Hence the Warrior class gets few talents whilst the Scholar (who can become the wizard types of the game) get more, with which to expand their spellcasting ability.  The talents are brilliantly simple and, with free multiclassing, you can really develop whatever character concept you like.  I've been designing characters ever since I got hold of this; its a really good system and fun just to get out the pencil and paper and have a play.  I particularly like the Destined class.  As I read through the book I wasn't sure how they were going to tackle Paladins, Bards and Sorcerers.  From reading the world background it didn't surprise me that paladins are not part of the Wis based Devout class, and to find how all three such different classes can be skillfully handled through the different talent trees of the same class was a real eye opener.  Malladin's Gate are real masters of this kind of game mechanics manipulation, as shown by their strong pedigree of class books.Another point to mention here is the races.  They take the standard fantasy races and make them a bit better, even the humans, by the application of a sub class.  Other races are just plain better (a very tolkeinesque approach).  This is something that really captures the dark fantasy feel, and is not just a symptomn of the setting.  In dark fantasy games, where your character is from is very important; this system makes you think about it more and forces you into playing the racial streotype, or someone who its trying to break away from it.  The races ties in with a new Advantages system, which captures the political aspects of the dark fantasy genre, as well as providing options for magic items or a mysterious 'destiny'  for those how want to simply hack and slash.  Being a more powerful race, such as Elves and Dwarves (and they use the tolkein spelling, too - great), means that you're short of Advantages and will be at a disadvantage compared to your human and halfling companions.  Advantages are a really interesting system that I can't wait to try out.  They actually let the players partially modify the story, allowin them to ask for a specific NPC to appear or a riot to start at an opportune moment.  I really like this idea of playing with fate and with right-minded players I'm sure this will add a lot to the gameplay.Other systems that emphasise the darkness of the setting are found in teh apporach to magic.  No character is able to cast higher than 5th level spells, and add to this that any spell worth casting is usually a level higher.  At level 1 your character isn't going to be able to cast anything better than cantrips, so you're goingto have to work at your spellcasting if you want to become a wizard par-excellence.  That said, Necromancy spells, particualrly the offensive ones, are readily available to wizards, but beware the dark path, as it can send you insane!  A lack of information on what actually happens here, simply stating that they develop derrangements, but none are listed.  I suppose something had to give in this 'primer'  I'd normally be more critical here, but I think it's important to see why the publisher has done something and I think that overall we don't suffer for missing these rules, I just think, well, it's only $5 anyway.Okay, that's not everything, but I need to press on to the world background.  The DarkLore setting is a beautiful blend of a different fantasy staples.  I'd liken it to a fine blended malt whiskey (not any of that nasty grain-mixed rubbish).  There is some alternative european elements, some typical 'fantasy merchants', an oriental setting and then some really unusual stuff thrown in on top.  Asholm seems to be a fantasy version of the Logan's Run world, and the Kingdoms of Spice are an indionesian-type setting.  It may seem strange to put all this together, but it's done really well.  And the thing that holds it all together is the History.  It's history that holds Middle Earth together and makes it such a great fantasy world, and whilst it would be daft to say that DarkLore is in the same League as Tolkein, it's certainly laudible to see that they have made a good attempt to stick to his rules when creating their world.  You can just see how it all fits together and how the balance of power has moved over the centuries and how it now hangs in the balance.  The world is almost a renaissance fantasy world and has black powder weapons and an emphasis on rapier styles of swordplay.  This goes hand-in-hand with a deep level of intrigue in the world and really helps to keep players on their toes.  There are secret societoes plotting throughout the world and, it seems, hundreds of hidden secrets - you could almost say the the setting is made not by what we are told about the world but by what we are not told.  There's a real air of mystery about it.Anyway, I'm going to end it there.  There's much more to the book than I've had time to write here, too.  Fighting techniques, exopanded and adadpted from Unearthed Adventurers, small career classes to develop your improving character.Lets hope we get a supplement for it soon - I NEED to know MORE!!!</blockquote>

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