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Message: <blockquote data-quote="DragonTurtle" data-source="post: 2588411" data-attributes="member: 26206">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.</blockquote>

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