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ShortQuests -- individual adventure modules! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed to plug in to your game.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2010582" data-attributes="member: 1129">Let me give you a little background about how I'm approaching this review. I like the idea of a mercenary campaign. My last campaign was a mercenary campaign based in the Scarred Lands with a group called the Soldiers of Fortune. I stole a lot of material from the anime Berserk as well as the Black Company fantasy novels. I've been looking forward to reading a hardcover from Other World Creations for months now and was a little surprised that this book came out in a larger page count in softback. Having said that, onto the review.Born of Blood is broken up into fourteen chapters and varies in content from crunch to useful fluff. Each chapter starts off and ends with a short piece of fiction ranging in genre and pacing.In terms of role playing, it provides a good break down of what a mercenary is, the tendencies of different alignments, races, and core classes to go into those fields. Want to know about monsters? Most of the creatures found in the Monster Manual are given a similar breakdown. Things included in the breakdown or tendency are alignment, type, and power level and while it's not a perfect listing, it does provide some quick ideas that can have the GM using the formula on creatures from any source. Those looking for something new get the war loving Gorkha, a halfling race that specializes with knives. The stats look like they need work as it follow an uneven pattern with a +1 to Con, +2 Dex, -2 Wis and -1 Int. Sure, the stats balance out but it doesn't follow previous established patterns and seems to do so for no good reason.Of equal importance to those wishing to role play are titles, the ranks that characters can go through, and the prestige and command abilities that are associated with them. Want a typical day in the life of? You've got it. Want to know about the laws and customs that mercenaries follow and what happens when they break those laws? Detailed. Want a table to roll on for why you became a mercenary or things that have happened to you since that day. Done.In terms of rules, like how many people in each unit and how much they get paid or how easy to find recruits, the book does a good job of laying out the material. One of the things I liked was that it didn't just focus on the soldiers or the fighters but talked about the other non-combatant roles that have to be filled. Whose going to be doing the cooking? Whose going to be handling the herds to feed the men? Whose going to be the quartermaster and handle the supplies. How can a unit gain more fame and hence, more fortune? All covered.Want to know not only what you get paid but what equipment you have available to you? How about by era? Done. How about working out things like resources, reputation and common equipment? Done. Heck, they've even provided a sample mercenary fortress as well as several mercenary companies with NPCs to interact with characters.A mix of roleplaying and crunch comes into play when discussing the classes and how they fit into the mercenary pattern and tendencies. Most classes, as they're designed as adventurers, tend to have fairly high scores but those adventurers that gain power through deities or an ideal, like paladins, druids, and rangers, tend not to fit into the mercenary lifestyle so well. Of course specific deities can change that. For example, since Tempus, a god of war in the Forgotten Realms, isn't about honorable battle but battle, I'm sure that every mercenary company would have a priest or two of that god.The crunch in this section comes in when detailing two new twenty level core classes, the professional, the soldier of the future, and the soldier of fortune, the soldier of the present. Both are basically fighters with more skill points. In some ways, these two are very tempting targets to replace the fighter as a core class as not only do they have more skill points, but more skills to spend them in.There are sixteen new prestige classes in the book. They're a mixed lot for the most part. Some of them look like they might've stepped out of the Black Company like the Illusionary, a master of using illusions to fool their enemies (Goblin anyone) while others are specialist of weapons ranging from the Gurkhali (a knife fighter) to the Forlorn, a doomed mercenary who uses a greatsword to chop through pole arms and create openings for his allies. The good news is that each one is a full ten level PrC. The bad news? If you run a fantasy campaign then some of the material isn't for you as you've got Commercialists, semi-fighters who trains and utilizes men for a corporation, the Traditionalist, a good old fashioned pulp fiction style hero like Indian Jones or Laura Croft,  and the Specialists, a master of 'electronic warfare''. One thing missing was a battle mage. While the Soul Catcher uses demon gold to sign up foolish mercenaries and the necrenary animates legions at a time, there's no mage who specializes in blowing things up real good. No real spies or scouts either. It's a broad field however and I can appreciate the historical PrCs that fill in a lot of roles here.As far as problems, I don't like the organization. At first, it looks like it's alphabetical, but then the order's off for that. Then, because it's a multi-genre sourcebook, there's material for modern and futuristic settings with the standard stuff. I can see mixing historical and fantasy but the other settings jar me a little. Lastly, while some may wonder about the abilities of the PrCs, (I'm not too worried about that because your mileage may vary.) What I am worried about is that some of these are just too easy to get into. The Legionnaire requires the user have a Constitution of 12+ and be Neutral Good. That's not a prestige class.Other crunch comes in the form of magic. Now horns and banners aren't often covered, but here we get new ones for just about every occasion. Those more interested in spells will find an interesting variant of Summon Monster with Summon Mercenary, although I personally found most of the spells  under valued because of the focus on d20 Modern or futuristic campaigns. Ammo Explosion? Animate Firearm? Protection from Bullets? These things will increase the appeal of someone using this book in a d20 Modern Game that uses magic or a cross genre campaign but left me cold. What about feats?  Many of them are general use, and we do get some of the dreaded +2 to two skills, others are for modern campaigns or future campaigns. Replacing limbs with cybernetics or cloned tissue? Uh, I'll pass on that thanks but will help myself to some of the feats that provide bonuses with ranged weapons, probably aimed at the modern crowd again mind you but I'll take 'em anyway. With 60 feats, there should be something for almost everyone.One thing that the book didn't let me down with is a bibliography. Want to know some historical references? Done. Want to see some fantasy novels with mercs in them? Covered. While it misses the anime Berserk, it covers some wide ground and provides the ever valuable ISBN numbers for the books mentioned. Just as important, it provides a well documented index to make moving around the book and find what you need easy.How does this book hold up to AEG's Mercenaries? It has more material on mercenaries  and a more gritty feel. It has more information and a sample contract. It has codes of conduct, as well as punishments, both from your fellow mercenaries as well as the local rulers.It includes material for historical, modern and future settings not only in terms of equipment, spells and feats, but organizations, core and prestige classes That makes it more useful to those not running a standard d20 fantasy campaign which AEG's book doesn't do. It includes rules on reputation and mercenary ranks and titles. Most importantly, it includes a bibliography so that fiends like myself who want more information or to see the root sources of this book, can go look it up.AEG's book is bigger, tends to have a better layout, some better art and a more fantasy feel, but in general is more a sourcebook then a book about Mercenaries.My problems with the book are partialy based on what I was hoping for. I wanted a mercenary core class for a fantasy campaign. The fighter is a great class but limited skill points and skill selection leave him out as a real viable choice. I didn't want to see all of the genres mixed in because I was afraid that it'd be a little confusing and at times, I was indeed personally confused. Read the Soldier of Fortune and tell me where in that first paragraph does it show what setting it's for. Not there. I'm hoping that this non-standard fantasy stuff in future books gets put into an appendix or at the end of each chapter.One serious issue is with the book's layout. While it follows the standard two column text and has some good illustrations, the text itself is jagged and uneven in many places giving the book a very zigzag uneven feel that's distracting and rough on the eyes. Another problem is that while there's a ton of new equipment, there are hardly any illustrations for it. What does all of this new and neat stuff look like? Won't know from reading this book.Born of Blood is a good start to the new Vertigo series by Other World Creations. I'm very curious to see if other readers think that the future and modern material should be put in an index or appendix and would love to hear how other readers use this book.If you're looking for more material for your campaign, fantasy, historical, modern or far future, that focuses in on the Mercenary mold, than Born of Blood is your book.“Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth." George Washington.</blockquote>

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