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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011823" data-attributes="member: 18387">By Ian Hewitt, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine RackInitiative RoundOGL Ancients is a 256-page players guide to campaigns set within an Ancient Egyptian or Greek setting. Produced by the very prolific British game designers at Mongoose Publishing. Cover art from Scott Clark displays three likely heroic figures from the setting. Jesus Barony, Eric Bergeron, Andrew Dobell, Martin Hanford, Jon Netherland, Tony Parker, Phil Renne, Ronald Smith and Jason Walton contribute the interior art. Richard Neale earns the ‘Development and Layout’ credit and Jesus Barony contributes the cartography. OGL Ancients is a chunky hard-bound book of the production values that one might expect from Mongoose Publishing. The pages are glossy and the art is color throughout.The premise and intent of OGL Ancients is to provide a single book detailing everything needed to run a game set within the ancient real world of Egypt and Greece. The book slants toward the mythical versions of these lands although the option remains to play a more accurate historical version of the Classical Age with just a hint of ”poetic license to allow for easy game play.”The book begins with a similar format to the Core Rules PH, giving information regarding ability scores and character creation. This is largely derived from the SRD, although an interesting new rule ”Grievous Wound Threshold” is presented. The rule is very simple and essentially provides a quick formula by which you can determine if a wound is ‘grievous’ or not. Grievous wounds represent a higher percentage of your total hit points and are significant wounds that heal much more slowly – if at all – without medical or divine attention.Humans are the only race presented in OGL Ancients but the various ethnic groupings each receive their own attention. These include Amazons, Assyrians, Barbarians, Nubians, Persians, Hittites, Phoenicians and Scythians. Each of these ethnic groups may choose from the following social classes: Slave, Worker, Middle Class, Noble (Female), or Noble (Male). A PCs choice of character class is significantly influenced and restricted by their choice of ethnicity and social status. Additionally several cities are briefly detailed and provide a character with certain advantages and disadvantages which is an effective method of tying the characters to the setting and making them a viable part of their world. Lastly, and in keeping with the mythic theme of the setting a new player may choose to have divine blood, divine patronage, or a divine boon. Obviously having Zeus as your father, or Hera as your personal sponsor, or an Archilles’-type invulnerability grants significant advantages to any PC.The classes available for play are alternates to those found in the Core Books. They include the Aristocrat, Artificer, Bard, Courtesan, Egyptian Priest, Greek Priest, Noble Warrior, Sage, Seer, Thief, Warrior and the Witch. These classes appear to be well balanced and written and certainly cover each of the archetypes one would expect to find in this kind of themed setting.A chapter follows on skills, which is again derived heavily from the SRD. Some new skills are introduced that are specific to the setting such as Debate, Hekau (ritual magic involving symbols and hieroglyphs), Medicine (you’ll need this to heal those grievous wounds because Heal just isn’t good enough!), Presence (the ability to use force of personality and appearance to influence others), Rhetoric, Solve Conundrum, and Witchcraft.A chapter on feats is up next, introducing two new types of feat: Divine and Formation. Divine feats are what you would expect – feats that increase your ability to use magic. Formation feats are available only to Warriors and involve fighting as part of a unit. Many of the feats in this chapter are derived directly from the SRD, but a significant number of new campaign-specific feats are introduced, such as Chariot Combat, Interpret Divine Will, Prophecy, and Smite the Damned.An extensive equipment chapter provides a thorough collection of chronologically accurate arms and armor separated by the Egyptian and Greek nations, with additional information on the weapons available to those from Assyria, Persia, Scythia, and Nubia. The chapter is rounded out with a selection of herbs, miscellaneous gear, tools, clothing, mounts and vehicles.The combat chapter introduces a few spins on the standard d20 Core Rules. For example, attacks are made on a variation of an opposed skill check roll. If the attack is successful and the target wears armor, he is allowed a Coverage roll to see if he is struck where he wears armor which then absorbs damage (the armor itself doesn’t actually make you more difficult to hit). Other unique introductions to the standard rules make for a dangerous combat, such as the Decapitate option, which is effectively a called shot at a –4 which will provoke an attack of opportunity but have the desired effect if successful; or the Hamstring which is essentially the same and slashes the muscles of your opponent’s thigh leaving them with only half their movement and the inability to run or charge (until you do it again to their other leg!)The magic chapter marks the most significant deviation from the SRD. Any character class with the relevant skills may attempt to cast a spell effect or pray for a miracle. Nobody gains spells as they advance in level, but the DC of the various spell effects enforces a balancing factor as the more potent spells are obviously out of the reach of the lower level characters. Many other factors influence the success or failure of spellcasting and add further depth and complexity to the mechanics. For example, attempting a specific spell effect for the first time is more difficult than after you have performed it several times; the phases of the moon have dramatic effects in both directions on witchcraft; praying for a miracle is more likely to succeed when within a temple or when employing sacred herbs or extensive rituals; casting or praying in large groups of allies is also very beneficial. The spells themselves, of which there are more than eighty, are broken into various schools including Bewitchments, Blastings, Consecrations, Curses, Exorcisms, Healings, Invocations, Makings, Manifestations, Manipulations, Seemings, Transformations, and Unmakings. The magic chapter ends up with a handful of ‘divine’ items such as Apollo’s Arrows, Dionysus’ Chalice, and Zeus’ Thunderbolt.A nine page timeline provides some brief history of the region from 2000 BC to 323 BC. This is followed by a chapter detailing ‘Religions and Philosophies’ which details the Greek and Egyptian pantheons and the Divine Points rule. Divine Points represent the intercession of deities on the part of their favored followers. A character earns Divine Points by performing dedicated acts in the name of their faith and can spend them to gain significant bonuses to their die rolls and checks. Additional material in this chapter include a discussion of the philosophies available to Greek players of a Historical campaign, the effects of being in or out of favor with your deity as a result of your actions and piety (sacrifice, propitiation and atonement are each discussed at some length as means to stay in favor), death and what the characters believe comes next, and the game mechanics of spiritual and undead creatures. The penultimate chapter deals with ‘Artifice’ and the creation of masterwork and marvelous items as well as mechanical wonders. The final chapter is the ‘Bestiary’ and this details all of the classics that a campaign of this nature could not do without including the Gorgon, Minotaur, and a handful of others. The book is polished off with a color OGL Ancients character sheet and three separate color maps. The first is featured on the front inside cover and details the whole of the Ancient World, the second and third on the inside back covers, zoom in on the Egypt and Greek regions respectively.Critical HitThis book covers a great deal of ground and meets its target of providing all the rules necessary to play such a niche campaign. The spell system is a really interesting spin on the traditional d20 System rules and allows for a greater interpretation of the myths of the region with all characters being able to utilize their faith and not simply priests. The attention to historical detail is thorough and demonstrates that this was a well-researched piece of work, but never do the designers allow ‘history’ to interfere with their own interpretation of the time and the region. This is a book that contains no prestige classes! Some may not consider this a ‘Hit’ but there absence is not a glaring hole – they simply were not warranted - while the PrC’s in some books seem like gratuitous additions this product avoids their need entirely.Critical FumbleSome players may wish for a d20 Ancients, and this is close to that but isn’t quite. It is OGL Ancients and so there are some significant deviations from the standard rules, particularly in the magic system and the character classes. In the case of the magic system, this seems to work in favor of the setting enhancing the flavor greatly, however the character classes could likely have been covered with the core classes that everyone is familiar with. All of the rules for play are present, but little attention is given to the region itself. Cities are mentioned as character background, but the DM is going to have to do all of the leg work herself to detail the towns and cities and surrounding areas, their inhabitants, intrigues and of course the adventures.Coup de GraceThis is clearly a niche product. If you are interested in playing within the campaign that this offers, or if you are interested in importing Ancient Egyptian or Greek characters into another setting then this is the book for you. OGL Ancients offers considerable mileage to those interested in milking it for ideas for a similar region in their world, but for most standard (temperate, medieval European-type) settings this product has little to offer. Final Grade: C+</blockquote>

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