Psion
Adventurer
Empire
Empire is one of AEG's "one word topic" books targeted and d20 System fantasy (AKA, D&D) games. Empire provides rules to allow players of d20 System fantasy characters to take the role of leaders of political entities of various sizes and manage those domains, to include features such as growth and conflict.
Empire is written by prolific d20 System author Mike Mearls, one of the strongest freelancers to regularly contribute to AEG's fantasy titles. As Mike has accepted an exclusive position with Malhavoc, this may be the last product by AEG to bear his name.
A First Look
Empire is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $24.95.
The cover of the book bears a simple painting by Ed Cox, depicting a finely dressed woman on a balcony overlooking a section of a mist-shrouded coastal city. The interior is black and white and features artists Eric Lofgren, Shane Coppage, and Lee Smith. Coppage has several dynamic looking illustrations; Lofgren has some good, active looking peices as well, but much of the book has a placid look to it.
The text layout is straightforward and readable, and using an adequately conservatively sized body font text. The tables have no major errors and are clear, using an alternating shaded block approach.
One possible snag is that there are a few forms for use with the system which use shaded blocks (which sometimes don't photocopy well) and there is no "permission to copy" statement for those pages (which may make a difference with more paranoid copy shops.)
A Deeper Look
Empire is organized into five chapters, plus an introduction and appendix.
Empire starts out by defining a philosophy which becomes the substrate for the domain management and combat system used throughout the book. To wit, the book aims to cover scales ranging from baronies to empires all with the same system. It aims to achieve this by use of the scale system. The rules do no vary in how they handle different scales; they presume that the results will be appropriate when translated for the three scales used.
The scale used are Barony, Kingdom, and Empire. The system uses generic "units" for a variety of important concepts in the game, such as population, gold, land, and number of soldiers. What each "unit" represents varies by the scale chosen for the campaign. In Barony scale, for example, one population unit represents 100 people. However, in Empire scale, one population unit represents 10,000 people.
This system adds a fundamental degree of flexibility to what the system can represent. That said, despite this strength, there are some oversights handicap the ability to represent different scale campaigns. Though things like population and wealth are clearly defined in terms that allow the GM to translate results of the system to and from the core d20 rules, other items are discussed that are not clearly defined. For example, cities and fortresses are things that you can build with the Empire system, but there is no discussion at all of what size settlement or fortification these represent in d20 System game terms or real terms.
The domain system allows a player to take the role of a leader and make military and economic decisions. The game handles economics by assigning each player a number of land units of varying types. Different types of land have different benefits in terms of the types of resource units that can be produced therein, such as lumber units from forests. Similarly, the player may have different population types under their control, which also have different benefits, largely based on racial stereotypes (e.g., dwarves are better at mining, elves are better at using resources of forests, and so on.)
Activity using the domain system is divided into seasons. Seasons are essentially campaign turns. Each turn, certain activities are available to each player, such as allocating food stores to your subjects, recruiting troops, and (yes) adventuring. Some activities are only available in certain seasons or are best performed in certain seasons.
The second chapter includes mass battle rules to resolve conflicts between the large armies in the game. Like the previous chapter, everything is scaled by the domain scale chosen in the previous chapter. Sizes of units, length of combat rounds, and grid scale are all determined by the domain scale. Units further have a size rating from "solo" to "colossal"; combined with the domain scale, this defines the number of troops in the unit.
As with most such abstract mass combat systems, Empire works by using many elements of the standard d20 combat system, and tweaking some elements to define a unit as a single entity. Elements like AC and attack bonuses are pretty much the same as the basic creature that comprises the unit. Other elements like damage and hit points are abstracted to make them more manageable on a large scale.
Spells and creature special abilities undergo similar conversions, though some such conversion make more sense than others. For example, fast healing and regeneration are divided by 5 to put them on the same scale as mass combat hits. However, this neglects to consider that the time scale is different, and such abilities would actually be much more telling than this conversion suggests.
Additional rules round out the chapter, with new morale and leadership rules, rules for formation, and optional racial special ability rules.
For those not wishing to do all the conversion work, the third chapter consists entirely of converted combat statistics for a number of common D&D creatures and troop types. All that remains is to decide what size of unit to place the creatures in and apply the appropriate modifier.
The standard character generation rules don't really provide much in the way of leadership abilities for standard d20 system fantasy characters. The fourth chapter aims to rectify this by providing character options and add-ons that have a sensible impact on the Empire realm management system.
A majority of the chapter adds new abilities to each of the 11 standard base classes. These abilities strictly affect the domain management and combat systems, and are introduced at every 5th level of the classes (i.e., 5,10,15, and 20). As only the PHB classes are covered, you are left to your own devices when it comes to prestige classes or other character classes.
The remainder of the chapter is comprised of new options. A new noble NPC class appears here that has more class abilities (but less combat ability) than the aristocrat NPC, including several domain-system relevant abilities. Other character options include prestige classes (political mastermind and hero of the people) and feats related to the domain system.
The fifth chapter is mostly advice and ideas for running games using the Empire system, including campaign models and adventure design considerations.
An appendix provides a somewhat scattered grab bag of optional rules, such as rules for mobs, command and control, and skirmish combat.
Conclusions
Empire provides the GM with a fairly solid baseline for running campaigns wherein the players control items on the large scale, and the domain scale system makes the book one of the more flexible takes on the subject.
Two main things would keep me from using these rules, however. First, the system seems to be written from a bit more of a top-down perspective or as an original wargame that you can hang RPG trappings off of; it seems less suitable than some other domain style systems for quantifying what you already have. (The abstractness and lack of match to D&D dwelling categories is an example of this.)
Second, while most of what is here is competently conceived and functional, I found myself asking a lot of "what about" style questions, wondering how I would handle a number of situations that could arise. Perhaps a book like this needs a little more room to touch on all of the necessary elements.
Overall Grade: C+
-Alan D. Kohler
Empire is one of AEG's "one word topic" books targeted and d20 System fantasy (AKA, D&D) games. Empire provides rules to allow players of d20 System fantasy characters to take the role of leaders of political entities of various sizes and manage those domains, to include features such as growth and conflict.
Empire is written by prolific d20 System author Mike Mearls, one of the strongest freelancers to regularly contribute to AEG's fantasy titles. As Mike has accepted an exclusive position with Malhavoc, this may be the last product by AEG to bear his name.
A First Look
Empire is a 128 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $24.95.
The cover of the book bears a simple painting by Ed Cox, depicting a finely dressed woman on a balcony overlooking a section of a mist-shrouded coastal city. The interior is black and white and features artists Eric Lofgren, Shane Coppage, and Lee Smith. Coppage has several dynamic looking illustrations; Lofgren has some good, active looking peices as well, but much of the book has a placid look to it.
The text layout is straightforward and readable, and using an adequately conservatively sized body font text. The tables have no major errors and are clear, using an alternating shaded block approach.
One possible snag is that there are a few forms for use with the system which use shaded blocks (which sometimes don't photocopy well) and there is no "permission to copy" statement for those pages (which may make a difference with more paranoid copy shops.)
A Deeper Look
Empire is organized into five chapters, plus an introduction and appendix.
Empire starts out by defining a philosophy which becomes the substrate for the domain management and combat system used throughout the book. To wit, the book aims to cover scales ranging from baronies to empires all with the same system. It aims to achieve this by use of the scale system. The rules do no vary in how they handle different scales; they presume that the results will be appropriate when translated for the three scales used.
The scale used are Barony, Kingdom, and Empire. The system uses generic "units" for a variety of important concepts in the game, such as population, gold, land, and number of soldiers. What each "unit" represents varies by the scale chosen for the campaign. In Barony scale, for example, one population unit represents 100 people. However, in Empire scale, one population unit represents 10,000 people.
This system adds a fundamental degree of flexibility to what the system can represent. That said, despite this strength, there are some oversights handicap the ability to represent different scale campaigns. Though things like population and wealth are clearly defined in terms that allow the GM to translate results of the system to and from the core d20 rules, other items are discussed that are not clearly defined. For example, cities and fortresses are things that you can build with the Empire system, but there is no discussion at all of what size settlement or fortification these represent in d20 System game terms or real terms.
The domain system allows a player to take the role of a leader and make military and economic decisions. The game handles economics by assigning each player a number of land units of varying types. Different types of land have different benefits in terms of the types of resource units that can be produced therein, such as lumber units from forests. Similarly, the player may have different population types under their control, which also have different benefits, largely based on racial stereotypes (e.g., dwarves are better at mining, elves are better at using resources of forests, and so on.)
Activity using the domain system is divided into seasons. Seasons are essentially campaign turns. Each turn, certain activities are available to each player, such as allocating food stores to your subjects, recruiting troops, and (yes) adventuring. Some activities are only available in certain seasons or are best performed in certain seasons.
The second chapter includes mass battle rules to resolve conflicts between the large armies in the game. Like the previous chapter, everything is scaled by the domain scale chosen in the previous chapter. Sizes of units, length of combat rounds, and grid scale are all determined by the domain scale. Units further have a size rating from "solo" to "colossal"; combined with the domain scale, this defines the number of troops in the unit.
As with most such abstract mass combat systems, Empire works by using many elements of the standard d20 combat system, and tweaking some elements to define a unit as a single entity. Elements like AC and attack bonuses are pretty much the same as the basic creature that comprises the unit. Other elements like damage and hit points are abstracted to make them more manageable on a large scale.
Spells and creature special abilities undergo similar conversions, though some such conversion make more sense than others. For example, fast healing and regeneration are divided by 5 to put them on the same scale as mass combat hits. However, this neglects to consider that the time scale is different, and such abilities would actually be much more telling than this conversion suggests.
Additional rules round out the chapter, with new morale and leadership rules, rules for formation, and optional racial special ability rules.
For those not wishing to do all the conversion work, the third chapter consists entirely of converted combat statistics for a number of common D&D creatures and troop types. All that remains is to decide what size of unit to place the creatures in and apply the appropriate modifier.
The standard character generation rules don't really provide much in the way of leadership abilities for standard d20 system fantasy characters. The fourth chapter aims to rectify this by providing character options and add-ons that have a sensible impact on the Empire realm management system.
A majority of the chapter adds new abilities to each of the 11 standard base classes. These abilities strictly affect the domain management and combat systems, and are introduced at every 5th level of the classes (i.e., 5,10,15, and 20). As only the PHB classes are covered, you are left to your own devices when it comes to prestige classes or other character classes.
The remainder of the chapter is comprised of new options. A new noble NPC class appears here that has more class abilities (but less combat ability) than the aristocrat NPC, including several domain-system relevant abilities. Other character options include prestige classes (political mastermind and hero of the people) and feats related to the domain system.
The fifth chapter is mostly advice and ideas for running games using the Empire system, including campaign models and adventure design considerations.
An appendix provides a somewhat scattered grab bag of optional rules, such as rules for mobs, command and control, and skirmish combat.
Conclusions
Empire provides the GM with a fairly solid baseline for running campaigns wherein the players control items on the large scale, and the domain scale system makes the book one of the more flexible takes on the subject.
Two main things would keep me from using these rules, however. First, the system seems to be written from a bit more of a top-down perspective or as an original wargame that you can hang RPG trappings off of; it seems less suitable than some other domain style systems for quantifying what you already have. (The abstractness and lack of match to D&D dwelling categories is an example of this.)
Second, while most of what is here is competently conceived and functional, I found myself asking a lot of "what about" style questions, wondering how I would handle a number of situations that could arise. Perhaps a book like this needs a little more room to touch on all of the necessary elements.
Overall Grade: C+
-Alan D. Kohler
Last edited:
