Simon Collins
Explorer
This is not a playtest review.
The Falians is an accessory for the Slaine RPG from Mongoose Publishing. It is the third book dealing with the tribes of the setting, this one dealing with the Falians, otherwise known as The Tribe Of Shadows.
The Falians is a 32-page mono softcover product costing $9.95. The layout resembles previous books in the Tribes series, with ads and OGL being placed on the inside cover pages, large fonts for titles and subtitles but little white space. Artwork is minimal and taken directly from the Slaine comics, but is appropriate to the text where used. One of the characters on the excellent front cover seems to bizarrely illustrate Mel Gibson, Braveheart-style! The accessory is written by Ian Sturrock, the original author of the Slaine RPG, and the writing style is both literate and appropriate to the subject matter. Editing seems good.
Unlike the rest of the tribes, the Falians have no compunction about backstabbing, poisoning, or other forms of assassination. Indeed, the tribal warriors paint themselves and their accoutrements black to make it easier for them to ambush enemies or sneak over their city walls in the night to quietly murder its inhabitants. Its not that they don't have honour, just that their sense of honour does not include the concept of a fair fight!
We learn of the origins of the Tribe of Shadows, the tradition of sacrificing their king every seven years, the sanctity of the hare, and their proclivity for the night rather than the day, which has helped to dissolve their alliances with the other tribes along with their treacherous behaviour. Five new tribal fighting styles are covered, which give minor bonuses dependent on the environment in which the warrior grew up - e.g. +1 bonus to Climb and Jump checks for warriors from a mountainous area, rising by +1 every five levels.
The next section looks at character concepts for Falian characters. Character Concepts give character roleplaying hooks with minor advantages and disadvantages attached:
* Glamer - these druids live near the Glamour Lands and make the study of its nature and glamour spells their life's focus, though their divining abilities suffer due to that focus.
* Black Fleet Priest - these druids aid the Falian sky chariot fleet in their wars against Falian enemies.
* Black Fleet Captain - these noble warriors captain the Falian flying warships, losing some of the normal ground-based fighting skills in return for those more suited for battles in the sky.
* Sun Hero - these noble warriors worship the war-god Lug. Unlike most Falians, the Sun Hero functions best in the day and loses the normal night-time abilities of the Falians. They are fanatical killers and grim misogynists.
* Poisoner - these thieves have special knowledge of debilitating and incapacitating poisons (generally not lethal ones through a twisted sense of honour). Several poisons and their effects are covered in a sidebar, including a description of the game effects of hallucinogens and some basic rules for gathering poisonous plants and fungi, and creating poisons from them.
* Strangler - these thieves are proficient in using a strangling-cord (a new weapon described in detail in a sidebar) to kill their victims, but suffer reductions in the other weapons and armour they can use.
* Black Fleet Sailor - these tribal warriors man the flying warships of the Falians.
* Assassin - these tribal warriors only kill their tribal enemies, they don't kill for money. Though they gain additional sneak attack abilities, they still have a sense of honour and may loudly proclaim their assassination to the enemy immediately the assassination is accomplished, even at the risk of their own life.
* Night's Sorcerer - the magic of these witches is strongly tied to the moon and hours of darkness, with penalties for attempting magic in the day.
* Weather-Witch - these witches may work for the Black Fleet to provide them with helpful winds, or live in a community providing them with suitable weather for the agricultural year.
Two prestige classes are also provided:
* Blackshield - elite warrior class, specialists in night raids. These warriors tend to be melancholic at best, insane at worst.
* Hare-Witch - this class is able to transform into a hare, and can benefit from various magical powers attributed to hares in myth and legend such as gaining Earth Power by stealing milk from a cow's udder.
Four new feats are provided including Hare's Tread (improved stealth) and seven new spells (several hare-related spells for divination and glamour purposes, and Sign Of The River, whereby a river is conjured into the landscape). Nine Falian NPCs are described and statted out, including Gwydion (the Falian leader), the Sun Hero Hywel of the Grinning Skulls (whose stat block strangely does not mention the Sun Hero prestige class), and Llywarc'h The Black (the most notorious thief in Eriu, who exemplifies the Falians' twisted sense of honour by bragging of his abilities but still stealing from those he is bragging to). A trio of odd characters runs a dragon farm in the Glamour Lands.
The dragon farm provides the basis for one of the Five scenario hooks provided, and the other hooks are also tied into the personalities described in the previous section. The book ends with standard stats for Falian characters such as a hare witch, and independent tribesman, and a Tribe of the Shadows warrior.
The High Points:
The character concepts and prestige classes serve a double purpose - as well as providing game rules and hooks for player characters, they also demonstrate the important factors that differentiate the Falians from the other tribes of the Slaine RPG setting. I found this mixture effective in making the most out of the 32 pages available and the information was presented in a readable and engaging fashion. Linking the scenario hooks to the NPCs provided helped to bring a little more life to them and was appropriate to the theme of the book - people rather than place.
The Low Points:
More the fault of the concept/format of tribal books than the information provided, but 'The Falians' taunts the reader by its lack of integration with other setting factors, such as place and equipment. I wanted to know more about the Dragon Farm (and dragons in general), the Glamour Lands, the Falians' airship fleet, and whilst the scenario hooks do introduce information on the internal politics of the Falians, I wanted to know more about relations with other tribes and the uses of the airship fleet to repulse the Drunes and other outside threats. Little is said of the curse on the Tribe of the Shadows, and their relationship with the mysterious Avanc. Much of this information can be found in the other sourcebooks, so its not a big issue really, but it does mean it needs to be used in conjunction with the rest of the Slaine material when creating characters, adventures and campaigns.
Conclusion:
The Falians is an excellent resource for players wanting to play a Falian character (or any sneaky character) in a Slaine RPG campaign, particularly the imaginative character concepts. It is also a good resource for GMs in that it cleverly gives a feel for the Falians via game material, and provides some useful ideas for adventures involving NPCs from the Tribe of the Shadows. Perhaps due to the shortness of the accessory, the nature of the subject material (people rather than setting), or the brief sentences that captured my imagination but were not fully explored, I was left wanting more. But maybe that's no bad thing...
The Falians is an accessory for the Slaine RPG from Mongoose Publishing. It is the third book dealing with the tribes of the setting, this one dealing with the Falians, otherwise known as The Tribe Of Shadows.
The Falians is a 32-page mono softcover product costing $9.95. The layout resembles previous books in the Tribes series, with ads and OGL being placed on the inside cover pages, large fonts for titles and subtitles but little white space. Artwork is minimal and taken directly from the Slaine comics, but is appropriate to the text where used. One of the characters on the excellent front cover seems to bizarrely illustrate Mel Gibson, Braveheart-style! The accessory is written by Ian Sturrock, the original author of the Slaine RPG, and the writing style is both literate and appropriate to the subject matter. Editing seems good.
Unlike the rest of the tribes, the Falians have no compunction about backstabbing, poisoning, or other forms of assassination. Indeed, the tribal warriors paint themselves and their accoutrements black to make it easier for them to ambush enemies or sneak over their city walls in the night to quietly murder its inhabitants. Its not that they don't have honour, just that their sense of honour does not include the concept of a fair fight!
We learn of the origins of the Tribe of Shadows, the tradition of sacrificing their king every seven years, the sanctity of the hare, and their proclivity for the night rather than the day, which has helped to dissolve their alliances with the other tribes along with their treacherous behaviour. Five new tribal fighting styles are covered, which give minor bonuses dependent on the environment in which the warrior grew up - e.g. +1 bonus to Climb and Jump checks for warriors from a mountainous area, rising by +1 every five levels.
The next section looks at character concepts for Falian characters. Character Concepts give character roleplaying hooks with minor advantages and disadvantages attached:
* Glamer - these druids live near the Glamour Lands and make the study of its nature and glamour spells their life's focus, though their divining abilities suffer due to that focus.
* Black Fleet Priest - these druids aid the Falian sky chariot fleet in their wars against Falian enemies.
* Black Fleet Captain - these noble warriors captain the Falian flying warships, losing some of the normal ground-based fighting skills in return for those more suited for battles in the sky.
* Sun Hero - these noble warriors worship the war-god Lug. Unlike most Falians, the Sun Hero functions best in the day and loses the normal night-time abilities of the Falians. They are fanatical killers and grim misogynists.
* Poisoner - these thieves have special knowledge of debilitating and incapacitating poisons (generally not lethal ones through a twisted sense of honour). Several poisons and their effects are covered in a sidebar, including a description of the game effects of hallucinogens and some basic rules for gathering poisonous plants and fungi, and creating poisons from them.
* Strangler - these thieves are proficient in using a strangling-cord (a new weapon described in detail in a sidebar) to kill their victims, but suffer reductions in the other weapons and armour they can use.
* Black Fleet Sailor - these tribal warriors man the flying warships of the Falians.
* Assassin - these tribal warriors only kill their tribal enemies, they don't kill for money. Though they gain additional sneak attack abilities, they still have a sense of honour and may loudly proclaim their assassination to the enemy immediately the assassination is accomplished, even at the risk of their own life.
* Night's Sorcerer - the magic of these witches is strongly tied to the moon and hours of darkness, with penalties for attempting magic in the day.
* Weather-Witch - these witches may work for the Black Fleet to provide them with helpful winds, or live in a community providing them with suitable weather for the agricultural year.
Two prestige classes are also provided:
* Blackshield - elite warrior class, specialists in night raids. These warriors tend to be melancholic at best, insane at worst.
* Hare-Witch - this class is able to transform into a hare, and can benefit from various magical powers attributed to hares in myth and legend such as gaining Earth Power by stealing milk from a cow's udder.
Four new feats are provided including Hare's Tread (improved stealth) and seven new spells (several hare-related spells for divination and glamour purposes, and Sign Of The River, whereby a river is conjured into the landscape). Nine Falian NPCs are described and statted out, including Gwydion (the Falian leader), the Sun Hero Hywel of the Grinning Skulls (whose stat block strangely does not mention the Sun Hero prestige class), and Llywarc'h The Black (the most notorious thief in Eriu, who exemplifies the Falians' twisted sense of honour by bragging of his abilities but still stealing from those he is bragging to). A trio of odd characters runs a dragon farm in the Glamour Lands.
The dragon farm provides the basis for one of the Five scenario hooks provided, and the other hooks are also tied into the personalities described in the previous section. The book ends with standard stats for Falian characters such as a hare witch, and independent tribesman, and a Tribe of the Shadows warrior.
The High Points:
The character concepts and prestige classes serve a double purpose - as well as providing game rules and hooks for player characters, they also demonstrate the important factors that differentiate the Falians from the other tribes of the Slaine RPG setting. I found this mixture effective in making the most out of the 32 pages available and the information was presented in a readable and engaging fashion. Linking the scenario hooks to the NPCs provided helped to bring a little more life to them and was appropriate to the theme of the book - people rather than place.
The Low Points:
More the fault of the concept/format of tribal books than the information provided, but 'The Falians' taunts the reader by its lack of integration with other setting factors, such as place and equipment. I wanted to know more about the Dragon Farm (and dragons in general), the Glamour Lands, the Falians' airship fleet, and whilst the scenario hooks do introduce information on the internal politics of the Falians, I wanted to know more about relations with other tribes and the uses of the airship fleet to repulse the Drunes and other outside threats. Little is said of the curse on the Tribe of the Shadows, and their relationship with the mysterious Avanc. Much of this information can be found in the other sourcebooks, so its not a big issue really, but it does mean it needs to be used in conjunction with the rest of the Slaine material when creating characters, adventures and campaigns.
Conclusion:
The Falians is an excellent resource for players wanting to play a Falian character (or any sneaky character) in a Slaine RPG campaign, particularly the imaginative character concepts. It is also a good resource for GMs in that it cleverly gives a feel for the Falians via game material, and provides some useful ideas for adventures involving NPCs from the Tribe of the Shadows. Perhaps due to the shortness of the accessory, the nature of the subject material (people rather than setting), or the brief sentences that captured my imagination but were not fully explored, I was left wanting more. But maybe that's no bad thing...
