Legends of the Dark Ages

[Crothian]

Price: $10.95 (ebook)
Writer: Charles Rice
Cover: Jeremy Simmons
RPO4200
ISBN:

Welcome to the fall of civilzation. In 476 the greatest empire the world has ever known lies in ruins. Through the rubble stride barbarians, conquerors who will remake the world of Europe in their own image through blood and fire and iron.

Welcome to the Dark Ages.

Legends of the Dark Ages brings the world of Europe from the fall of Rome to the death of Charlemagne to your favorite role playing game. Using mechanics introduced in RPGObjects' Ennie nominated Legends of Excalibur and further popularized in Legends of the Samurai, Legends of the Dark Ages brings this grim era to life.

Legends of the Dark Ages features:

* 5 bloodlines of humanity: Slave, Serf, Barbarian, Lesser Nobility and Royalty.
* 12 new core classes: Charlatan, Hermit, Marauder, Mercenary, Monk, Noble, Nomad, Priest, Seer, Skald, Soldier, Thief.
* New weapons and armor detailing the wrought iron weapons in use during the dark ages, as well as the monetary system of the times. The equipment section also features the two exotic materials used in the dark ages, meteoric iron and Damascus steel.
* A complete history of the age from 476 to 814.

Check one of the gorgeous maps by Dominique Crouzet:

 

[Crothian]

[imager]http://www.rpgobjects.com/images/RPO4200.jpg[/imager]

The dark ages in European history are an interesting time after the fall of Rome. There are not enough historical aimed RPG products on the market these days, not that there really has been ever for my tastes. So, I was pleased when RPGObjects asked me to review this for them and to receive it a bit before it got released to the public. It is hard to get a review that comes out about the same time as the book.

Legends of the Dark Ages is the latest book by RPGObjects. These guys have had some serious good books with their Legend of the Samurai series, Legend of Excalibur and their great Darwin’s World books. This seventy eight page books has a tight lay out, some really good art, and some lovely maps. There are not a lot of maps in the book, but the full page ones they have are full color and look like wall hangings. These maps are really that good.

The book starts with a really good explanation of the Dark Ages. This chapter covers why they are considered dark, what different people thing of them and covers what was going on in the time period. Then they start off with the fall of Rome and and it covers the basics and important events and people in the time period. It has a very nice side par the lists all the popes and kings important in this time allowing for a starting point for people to do their own research.

The book starts of with a good tone and really getting across the feel of the Dark Ages. The nice thing as we move to the mechanics of the book is that the feel stays the same. Characters start with determining their bloodlines which is basically the background of the character. RPGObjects has used this basic mechanic in their books before always to a really good effect. A character can be a slave, a barbarian, a serf, a lesser noble, or even royalty. While a DM might not offer all these different choices in their game is is always good for the book to offer more then the DM wants. That is much better then not getting enough. Each background starts with a good description of what the back ground means in the game. It covers the look of the character, basic attitudes toward religions, personality, relations with others, and lands. For the nobles there is actually a mechanic to determine his deeds and personal values. It is a very nice section that really shows what is expected from royalty and what they can and cannot do according to the rules of society. This is very similar to the honor system that Legends of the Samurai uses.

There are a lot of new classes in here. There are no prestige classes in this book, just good old twenty level base classes. With the backgrounds and classes here it gives people a wide range of character possibilities. I’ll start off with a quick list of the classes: Charlatan, Hermit, Marauder, Mercenary, Monk, Noble, Nomad, Priest, Seer, Skald, Soldier, and Thief. That’s twelve new classes all of them well built and really fitting for a game set in the Dark Ages.

The magic system of the book though is really interesting. They have developed a really nice point base system. They have redone all the meta magic feats so they work with a spell point system not the preparation magic system of the standard game. One nice thing is the characters gain access to higher levels spells faster but they are very costly. It costs a lot of spell points to do so but also automatically fatigues or exhausts the caster. For instance a seventh level caster can potentially cast a single fifth level spell something usually a ninth level caster is needed to do. But in doing so, it will be pretty much the only spell the person casts that day. It givers the players a lot more options and control over their magical ability and I really like that.

Legends of the Dark Ages is a very good d20 book, but can also be used for other games. Obviously the d20 rules will be of little use in other game systems but the tone and information on the Dark Ages can be used for such games like Call of Chuthulu Dark Ages and Vampire Dark Ages. And those books can really add some interesting ideas to someone basing a game around Legends of the Dark Ages.

Legends of the Dark Ages is another great book expanding the realm of fantasy into our own history. It sets a solid tone and has a good understanding on what the Dark Ages were. It has a great understanding on the d20 rules creating interesting new classes and options for players and DMs alike. The spell system is really nice and easy to use. The one thing the book is missing is adventure ideas and a frame work for structuring a campaign. Sometimes playing in a semi historic setting makes the adventures a little tougher for people to come up with.

 

[DragonTurtle]

Legends of the Dark ages is a 78 page pdf, the layout and cover are in color but the internal art is black and white.

Description: Legends of the Dark ages is a resource to help a GM run a game that uses real historical facts and views to add realism to fantasy. The main dilema for historical gaming is how accurate can it be once you add magic in the mix. While it is without a doubt that many people of that time believed in the supernatural, there wasn't any actual magic being thrown about. In Legends of the Dark ages, magic is real, both divine and arcane, and they present some rules to help it fit in a way that matches what people believed it could do (and even a class that capitalizes on peoples beliefs about magic). Personally I enjoy the addition of magic in my games which is why I play D&D. Other D20 games give an option to play different levels of magic and I think Legends of the Dark ages does a good job in presenting such an alternative.

Chapter 1: The books starts out by answering the question of what was the Dark ages, which is helpful as there a variety of opionions of what and when the Dark ages were. I have to call out attention to the maps which are in full color, they are a great touch. The maps help you to see the political boundaries of a couple of different reigns that occured in the Dark Ages. 12 pages of history and maps help you determine where and when to place your game.

Chapter 2: In any game you need to know how to create your character, and
this is what is covered next. Humans are the only playable race so in the interest of giving character options each character can choose a bloodline.

Each bloodline gives certain advantages that can include bonus skils, feats and even ability score adjustments.You also get a favored class. Available

lineage choices for Legends of the Dark ages include: Slave, Barbarian, Serf, Lesser nobility/Peerage, and Nobility/ Royalty.

It is worth noting that Legends of the Dark ages uses a nobility system in lieu of alignments, it is based on your starting lineage and can go up or down based on your deeds.

The classes have also been redone to better fit the setting and include:
Charlatan: Able to cast some spells, the charlatan uses them to make
themselves appear more powerful than they are.
Hermit: Divine casters and healers, able to brew potions and perform
chiurgery.
Marauder: Barbarian like character from the northern Germanic tribes.
Mercenary: A fighter that is motivated by money and even gets a bonus to
attack if properly paid.
Monk: Another divine caster, monks are more educated than many of their
contempories.
Noble: A representative of what it truly is to be noble, they inspire
others and smite their foes with thier wrath.
Nomad: The mounted warrior, represented by the Huns and Mongols.They are
masters of mounted archery.
Priest: Healers, but more martial than the hermit or monk.
Seers: Masters of prophecy and divination, they have their own spell list.
Skalds: Bard-like barbarians, while unable to cast spells they can inspire
both courage and rage.
Soldier: Perhaps the closest to the fighter class, soldiers get a number of
bonus feats and specialize in a military specialty like archery or cavalry.
Thief: Similar to the rogue with trapfinding and sneak attack, they have a
few unique abilities like mugging and fleet of foot.

The chapter ends with some new rules for skills and some new feats, including a madness chain that allows your barbarian additional uses of thier rage.

Chapter 3: No character is going to go off adventuring without equipment, which is detailed in this chapter. New rules on wrought and metoric iron along with descriptions of weapons and armor to be found in this time period.

Chapter 4:Magic and Religion are finally detailed in this last chapter of the book, here you will find rules on spell points and the spell lists for the classes in chapter 2. No flashy magic within, meaning no magic missiles, fireballs or lightning bolts. The spells listed will still give
your casters plenty of options and none of the casters in this book depend completely on their spells. One intersting note is that both the monk and hermit are listed as having their own spell list in the class description, however there is no spell list for these classes to be found. I suspect that the priest spell list is to be used instead. A little disappointing as I expected to find some druid spells listed for the hermit.A few new spells round out the chapter.
Overview: This is a good start for a campaign set in the Dark Ages,from what I have seem in the past from RPG objects they usually come out with additional books to fill in the rest of the setting, with that in mind I would consider this a player's guide, as there are no monsters are treasures within.

I liked the book overall and think it does a great job of setting a tone and allowing you to play all the archtypes you would think of during that time. Anyone looking to play in a historical campaign should check this book out. For those looking to mine ideas, the section on history, available equipment and classes should really be of use.

 

[John Cooper]

LEGENDS OF THE DARK AGES
By Charles Rice
RPG Objects product number RPO4200
78-page PDF, $10.95

Legends of the Dark Ages is another historical/mythological RPG setting based upon a real-life era on our own good old planet Earth. I agreed to look at this one because of how much I enjoyed Charles' previous venture, Legends of the Samurai. The long and short of it: I didn't enjoy Legends of the Dark Ages as much, but then perhaps a part of that is the fact that I find the Dark Ages nowhere near as interesting as I find ancient Japan.

The cover artwork is once again attributed to Jeremy Simmons, and consists of a compilation of images representative of Dark Ages life: a cathedral, fighting knights, and an illuminated manuscript. It certainly fits the focus of the PDF, so nice job there, Jeremy.

The interior artwork also once again comes from the pen of Joseph Wigfield, this time in the form of 9 black-and-white illustrations. This was also another good call, as I really enjoy Joseph's work. He does a great job with textures and shading (he renders an excellent chain mail, for example), and over on page 14 he produces one of the most tastefully rendered scenes of a woman about to be raped that I've ever seen (not that I've seen a whole lot of those). It acknowledges the fact that such things weren't exactly uncommon in the Dark Ages without stepping over the line into overly graphic unwholesomeness.

Cartography is credited to Dominique Crouzet, and I wish I could comment on it, but the two pages that were apparently to have her maps on them are - in my copy of the PDF, anyway - blank pages with the captions "Europe 500" and "Europe 814" posted in the middle. Hopefully this has already been fixed up, as it's the most noteworthy problem with the PDF. (The second most noteworthy problem being the lack of an OGL section at the end of the PDF; hopefully that's been taken care of as well.) [edit: see comments below for resolution of this problem]

Here's the layout of Legends of the Dark Ages:

• Introduction: A one-page description of the Dark Ages
• Chapter One - History of the Dark Ages: An 11-page historical brief of Europe circa 300-814 AD (although the author uses the terms "BCE" and "CE" instead of "BC" and "AD," I'm going to stick to my own preferences)
• Chapter Two - Characters: Sections on possible bloodlines (slave, barbarian, serf, lesser nobility/peerage, and nobility/royalty, which take the place of races, since all PCs will be human), Nobility and Allegiance rules (which take the place of alignment), the 12 core classes (charlatan, hermit, marauder, mercenary, monk, noble, nomad, priest, seer, skald, soldier, and thief), changes to existing skills, and 11 new feats
• Chapter Three - Dark Ages Gear: The Dark Ages monetary system, armor, weapons, and some miscellaneous equipment
• Chapter Four - Magic and Religion: A new spell-point system (the same one used in Legends of the Samurai), 13 metamagic feats, brief descriptions of the more prevalent religions (and sects), Fate and Destiny rules, and spell lists with 13 new spells

Proofreading and editing were pretty good; I found virtually no typos at all, so kudos to editor Andy Rau for that. However, there were quite a few things that got overlooked in the sections on spells. The spells crusader's zeal and martyr's blood are mentioned in various places, but neither spell actually appears in the PDF. Furthermore, none of the spells nobility/ignobility shield, nobility/ignobility ward, noble armor, noble mantle, or noble/ignoble weapon actually made it onto the spell listings, which naturally makes the spell listings somewhat less than optimal. The spell listings also managed to drop a lot of the superscript "M" (for "material component") and "X" (for "experience point cost") entries down into normal font; not as big a problem as far as usability goes, but irritating nonetheless.

However, those quibbles aside, Charles has once again managed to distill a historical era into a coherent game system. While my lack of enthusiasm for the Dark Ages will probably preclude me from ever playing in a Legends of the Dark Ages campaign, I at least feel that if I wanted to, I have pretty much all I need with this product to do so. (My one request would have been for a sort of "Dark Ages bestiary" chapter, like was done for Legends of the Samurai, allowing for a less-historical, more-mythical style of play. While it can be argued that the Monster Manual has plenty of such creatures, I would have liked to have seen some of the more historically-accurate - at least insofar as popular belief went - monsters, like maybe a tarrasque more in line with the creature that supposedly terrorized the French countryside and less like the "Japanese monster movie" creature in the Monster Manual.)

The historical chapter was pretty interesting to read considering that I tend to find real-world European history somewhat dull. Charles did a good job making it readable and entertaining. As for the character classes, I think he did a pretty good job there as well, especially since some of the "logical" Dark Ages classes seem rather dull. (Poor Charles had to come up with a way to make 20 levels of monk - these are the bald-headed monks that sit in monasteries and copy books all day, mind you, not the martial arts type of monk - interesting.) It was certainly a good idea making the soldier class as versatile as he did, as opposed to creating separate classes for archers, swordsmen, cavalry, etc. This way the soldier can pick-and-choose his specialties while still staying in the same class. For the most part, most of the D&D classes are represented (sorcerers and wizards are seers, clerics are priests, bards are skalds, barbarians are sorta-kinda marauders, and so on), although there's not really a martial artist like the D&D monk, and surprisingly there's not much of a counterpart to the druid. I did like the fact that for each class he provides some real-world examples.

I did kind of wonder about the hermit, however - nowhere in the class writeup is there any mention of the hermit spending time away from the rest of civilization. As written, there's nothing wrong with a "hermit" living in the middle of the city. (It brings to mind the Monty Python sketch about the colony of hermits living together in the hills, spending all day gossiping about one another.)

One problem I did note is that a few of the class features don't have any game mechanisms behind them. An example: a noble gains "Land and the Lord Are One" at 20th level, which pretty much just means that if he's been faithful to his deity, his people and lands will prosper. Okay...so just how does that get implemented in-game? Likewise, a 13th-level priest gains "Declare Infidel" - he can call a group of people infidels. Big deal, so can I. You there, reading this - yes, you, with the red hair parted down the middle, and wearing the jeans with a hole in the left knee. You're an infidel. Because I said so, that's why.

In addition, I have a bit of a problem believing that a skald can actually blow into a horn and call for help up to 5 miles/level away. So, a 20th-level skald blowing into a horn can be heard from 100 miles away, huh? I realize that this is a fantasy version of the Dark Ages, but I just don't buy it. Neither can I accept that a skald can be heard from 1 mile/level just using his voice. I think the "Clarion Call" feature of the skald class needs some serious rework.

Also - and this is merely an observation, not a critique - I noted that there were no prestige classes at all in Legends of the Dark Ages. I've gotten so used to seeing prestige classes in every campaign book that it actually seems a little weird not to have them around.

The monetary system is a little confusing, given that the term "pound" is used as both a unit of weight and a unit of wealth. One section refers to burning "100 lbs. of incense" without specifying which "lbs." is being referred to - as you can imagine, there's quite a difference between the two! Even something as simple as using the "£" symbol to denote "monetary pounds" would go a long way towards making it easier to differentiate.

I was a little surprised at the lack of very many new spells this time around. There are only 13 in the PDF (although, as I mentioned above, there are 2 spells referenced that are currently "missing in action"), and of those, four of them are variations of penance spells - basically, the D&D atonement spell broken between multiple levels. Perhaps that's a good indicator of my overall lack of enthusiasm with Legends of the Dark Ages: so much of it seems to be very slight tweakings of the core D&D game, with few new innovations (and most of the cool new stuff - like the variant spell-point system - is simply grafted on from other works in their line).

I give Legends of the Dark Ages a rating of a high "3 (Average)." What's here is pretty good, but I don't seem to sense the same level of enthusiasm that went into Legends of the Samurai. It also seems like the product wasn't quite in finished form when I reviewed it, judging from the missing maps and the lack of an OGL page at the back. (Those problems, at least, should be easy fixes.) [edit: see comments below for resolution of this problem] Also, I'm going off the assumption - backed up by the description of the PDF on the RPG Objects home page - that this is a standalone product, and not the first in a series of three like the Bushido Handbook was to the Legends of the Samurai line. Legends of the Dark Ages is a fair beginning to the subject, but it just doesn't feel entirely complete.