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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2008538" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.Heroes and Magic Sourcebook is an introduction to 0one's world of Arthad in the form of Arthadian races, a new class, and some magic guidelines for the world. It is also an introduction to 0one's Seven Avengers line. It is a free 1.35MB .pdf download from http://www.0onegames.com/Presentation: The .pdf file is 12 pages long. The first page is an average piece of colour artwork (if slightly cartoony), depicting a scantily-clad woman levitating in the middle of a stone circle, weaving magic around herself. The last page depicts the same scene, except a text overview of the file replaces the woman. The second page contains the OGL and credits and the third page describes the contents. The internal colur artwork is poor and suffers from the same cartoony feel as the first page. The text is relatively dense with little white space (except at the end of the sourcebook where 1/2 page is left comletely blank). In fact, the text in the tables in the sourcebook is almost too small at times. There are several grammatical mistakes in the text and the literary style is very simplistic, though nothing that renders the text unreadable.Whats Inside: After a brief introduction to Arthad and the raison d'etre for the sourcebook, eight new races are covered: Drakand (black-skinned barbarians who wear magical bone armour), Draman (viking-like guardians of a magical sword), Land People (tall red-haired folk who are caught up in internal disputes between the many duchies that make up the territories of the Land People), Nath (a nation of spies with aquiline features), Randrom (nomadic horsemen), Scinthy (mountain warriors), Svariji (solitary archers), and Zenith (a created barbaric race with shamans who experience magical dreaming). Included in the races section are three tables - one indicating racial ability adjustments, the second giving stats for bone armour (including magical Drakand bone armour), and the third detailing two new weapons (Drakand bone mace and the Scinthy scimitar-like sabrah). Next up is the cavalier class, which essentially replaces the Paladin, since there are no gods in the world of Arthad. Indeed, the Cavalier class is in many respects like the Paladin, in both description and stats, with some subtle differences (the Cavalier has a squire and a monthly income, a little like a mediaeval knight). A table outlines the Cavalier's stat progression although, as noted in previous reviews, several abilities are missing from the table that are described in the text. The next section deals with the magic of Arthad - symmetry (arcane magic) and harmony (divine magic). Magic is very rare in Arthad, and opponents can suffer a morale penalty when facing symmetry magic. Symmetry magic benefits if the caster is near an ancient monument or artifact (known as a symmetry spot) - a feat is included that gives a bonus to sensing symmetry spots. Similar rules exist for harmony, though harmony magic is not reviled like symmetry magic and proponents of harmony gather together in brotherhoods. The vibrations of both types of magic can be sensed by other spellcasters. The sourcebook ends with two examples of brotherhoods.The Good: First off, its free. Thats a good start. Secondly, the section on magic is inspiring and interesting. The whole sourcebook has moments of interesting tidbits that hook you into wanting to find out more about the world. It allows players to devise characters ready to play in forthcoming Seven Avengers adventures, in what looks to be a setting not too far removed from the world of David Gemmell's Drenai novels, a concept that I find exciting despite its dubious legal implications. The Bad: The races seem more like human subraces (except perhaps the Zenith) to me and would be more honestly offered as such. The use of +1/-1 ability adjustments prompts this approach even more strongly. The art and the literary style are somewhat jarring at times with the intensity of the description. At the end of the day, this is still just an introduction to a setting, and is limited in its depth.Conclusion: I'm going to give this a Good rating based purely on the fact that it does what it sets out to do - that is, provide a free introduction to some of the concepts underlying Arthad and the Seven Avengers, and a basis for players to develop charcaters for use in that setting. That aside, there are a few ideas in here that could be modified for use in other settings (I myself am particularly atttracted to the idea of symmetry and harmony spots). Treat the races as human subraces, accept the cavalier as a paladin-replacement and enjoy the stuff on magic. Try and ignore the art and the simplistic literary style.</blockquote>

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