Psion
Adventurer
Trojan War
Trojan War is a book in Green Ronin's Mythic Vistas line of setting related books. Trojan War, in particular, is a d20 adaptation modeling Greek legend, in particular the events and personages depicted in The Iliad. The book is written by Aaron Rosenberg with contributions (some from prior books in the series) by Scott Bennie and Robert J. Schwalb.
A First Look
Trojan War is a 160-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $27.95.
The cover of the book is decorated by a wrap-around painting by James Ryman depicting a mass battle involving bronze age charioteers and foot soldiers.
The interior is black-and-white. Interior artists include Caleb Cleveland, Kent Burles, Joe Wigfield, Lisa Wood, Jonathan Kirtz, Britt Martin, Drew Baker, and Beth Trott, with cartography by Shawn Brown. There is no simple line art herein; all pieces in the book are professionally shaded pencil or pen-and-ink drawings.
A Deeper Look
Trojan War is primarily concerned with the events of Homer's Iliad. As such, it leads off with a nice, succinct retelling of the Trojan War to introduce (or re-introduce) the reader to the major events. In short, the Iliad describes a heroic era, but one which was driven by the weaknesses of men and gods alike.
Trojan War does not make the same sort of deep changes that some d20 adaptations do. It does, however, entertain some changes to the available core classes and to a lesser extent, some shifts in the magic system.
The most apparent change in a Trojan War game would be available races. Both Achaens and Trojans are humans, and the system does not redefine the race to assign specific attributes to different human cultures. Other than humans, the only other race available per Trojan War is the divine offspring, which are beings born of humans and gods. Divine offspring come in three varieties. The weakest is the minor divine offspring, which has a level adjustment of zero. Medium and major divine offspring have +1 and +2 LAs, respectively. Most of the advantages of divine offspring are physical in nature (the stronger the offspring, the higher the modifier), but all suffer a minor hit to intelligence, owing to the fact that they rely more exclusively on their physique.
Humans and divine offspring both have a list of allowed classes. Notably absent core classes include the paladin, monk, (probably not a great surprise), cleric, and wizard (both of which have more setting appropriate replacements in this book).
There are four new core classes. The charioteer and the dedicated warrior are more specific fighter types. They are probably too specific for adaptation to general d20 system fantasy games, but may be strong enough archetypes that they are appropriate in the Trojan War setting. The focus of the charioteer should be obvious. The dedicated warrior is a warrior dedicated to a given Greek deity, drawn to the Trojan War by their dedication. The dedicated warrior's class abilities are combat boons derived from their deity's favor.
The magician, the default arcane spellcaster for the Trojan War setting, is fundamentally similar to the wizard with a few exceptions. The class prepares its spells much like a wizard, but only has a limited number of known spells. However, magicians focus their magical power through a wand. Further, they lack the traditional bonus feats of a wizard, instead receiving a small suite of specific class abilities. Most of these abilities are enhancements to their wand, or abilities that allow them to incur penalties to saves against their spells in certain situations (such as if they have some blood of the target.)
The priest is a bit more of an extreme alteration. The priest does not use the traditional spell slot method at all. Instead, they are granted a number of "petitions" they can tender to their patron deity per day. These petitions require a caster level check against a DC of 20+the spell level (though the maximum spell level you can petition for is limited by your priest level). If the roll succeeds, they spell effect requested is granted. This method will resonate with some gamers who feel that divine favors and miracles are not well represented by spells. However, mechanically, I can see a few issues. The most immediately apparent is that the difficulty of casting spells only goes up half as fast as the characters gains access to spells. As a result, at low levels, the character has great difficulty with the best spells they can petition, but at higher levels, a character has a very easy time petitioning the best spells they can muster.
Similar to clerics, priests have access to domains according to their deity and have additional "domain petitions". However, deities as presented here have spheres that are said to limit what the priest can petition. Unlike domains, there is no list delineating which spells are appropriate to which sphere of influence; GMs are left to their own judgement in deciding what is appropriate.
Regarding magic itself, the magic chapter has an introductory chapter that discusses the hows and whys of including roleplaying game style magic in the game. It analyzes a number of perspectives and alternatives, ranging to the notion that what we read in Homer is all there is and magic is relatively rare, to the notion that magic is common but not mentioned as the source behind various effects. The treatment of magic and the magic classes assume that you want to include mortal-wielded magic in the game.
The magic chapter is quite a bit more detailed than Testament in defining which existing magic is appropriate, to it's benefit. For example, ressurecting characters and creating undead is not something that is part of the setting, nor are fireballs or the like, but enchantments and illusions are perfectly appropriate. There are two spell lists, one divine and one arcane, defining appropriate spells from the existing spells in the PHB and adding new spells.
New spells introduced for Trojan War are a bit more subtle and indirect than the existing spells, helping to fit spellcasters to the feel of the setting a bit better. Spells let the spellcaster summon angry seas, buff or protect creatures, send false omens, or create useful auras.
In addition to the new core classes, there are three new prestige classes, the orator, the seer, and the runner, helping represent particular character archetypes. All of the classes strictly stick with handing out their own abilities vice extending the abilities of other classes, and none of these classes presume you are using the spellcasting system in the book or not. Accordingly, such classes should be fairly portable outside of the setting. The orator seems a particularly strong candidate for this, for those seeking a leaderly orator without resorting to the slightly over-specialized bard class.
New feats and skills round out the list of options that help make up Trojan War characters. A new use of appraise allows a character to determine the station of a person they meet. New skills include boat, decipher omen, drive, and knowledge (tactics). Appropriate tasks and modifiers are provided for each, and a reference list is included that shows which existing and new classes should have these skills as class skills. (Missing such an entry is an all too common pratfall in d20 system products that I was glad not to see repeated.)
Of the new feats, many interface with the new chariot combat rules. For example, chariot attack allows the character to trample with the chariot without needing a roll to retain control. Other feats relate to other new rulesets, like favored, which allows a character to gain boons as if their piety were much higher, or like a number of battlefield oriented feats to be used in mass combat. Finally, many of the feats relate to the bearing or appearance of the character, like distinctive, or that must feat for Helen-of-Troy wannabes, stunning (which actually allows you to stun onlookers, which may be a little over-the-top, if appropriate for the setting.) This last category of feats is interesting if you would like to make feats that are an important part of your character's description.
The equipment section of the book is something I normally only mention is passing. There are a few things worth highlighting here, though.
First off is currency. There is a discussion of standards as they existed at the time. On the low end of the scale, there are few known standards, though nobility used talents. That said precious metals were used in exchanges. Trojan War suggests that you use the d20 system standard system as an abstraction to simplify play, though it does provide simple and reasonable barter mechanic to liven things up a bit.
Armor is a major point of difference from d20 system fantasy games. A peicemeal system is provided that lets a character slowly collect more powerful armor. Unlike the standard, simplified system of D&D, the Trojan War system allows modifiers from individual pieces to stack, and even factors in layers. Arcane spell failure is not used as a standard (though a possible system for those who do is suggested), but AC, weight, penalties to maximum dexterity modifier, and armor check penalties all accrue. Movement is not as rigorously penalized, making cost and weight the primary balancing factors for these armors.
Trojan War features a mass combat system, the Homeric Battlefield Resolution System. The system takes some cues from the Testament battle system, and they are both appropriate for large scale battles.
Like most combat systems in d20 system games on the market, the system works by representing units as one attacker under the d20 system. The Homeric system requires the GM to choose a scale for combat: realistic, heroic, or mythic. Hit points represent how large the unit is. For realistic scale, each hit point represents 1 person, while heroic and mythic scale units have a base of 50 or 1000 people respectively. These basic "hit points" are multiplied by a factor given by troop quality, which also affects their base attack bonus, morale, damage, and the number of "battlefield feats" the unit receives.
The damage a unit deals is the same on the battlefield scale as an individual soldier would deal in the normal combat rules. The first thing that strikes me as odd here is that damage is modified for troop quality, but it is not modified for troop size. This may not be a big issue if you use consistent troop sizes (as the example units in the back do), but it becomes rather odd if you use units 2 or 3 times the size of another unit; the side with smaller units invariably has more damage per round output to it for the same quality of troops.
As with Testament, the units are distinguished from one another in terms of training and style by battlefield feats, an analog of character feats. These feats may affect combat statistics directly (such as deft attack, which applies to damage), or provide bonuses in certain situations.
Individual characters can contribute to combat in a variety of ways. While in the role of captaining a unit, a character may contribute to the efforts of the units under command, attack an enemy unit or captain. Spellcasters can cast spells with a variety of effects (many with some approximate translations from the individual scale effects). Again, there is an oddity when it comes to scaling, as unit scale does not factor into the damage or effect. Individual captains versus commanders in even more odd, since you divide damage by the multiplier from unit quality, which means that the unit quality hit point multiplier is applied twice, another mechanic that makes little sense to me.
Sample army forces are included for major forces in the area.
Overall, the combat system has a nice basis, but unit scaling and damage scaling throws a bit of a monkey wrench in the works. If you stick with one scale and one unit size, most of these issues are not a problem, otherwise it seems as if it can create some unusual and inconsistent results.
The chapter on religion and piety has three major components: the Greek pantheon, religious observances, and the piety system.
The pantheon section presents many major figures of the pantheon, with a general description, portfolio, domains, holy symbol, favored weapon, and religious details of each. As core domains are included, these should be perfectly usable with a standard campaign.
The observances section and the piety system go hand-in-hand. Observances such as libations (offering the first drink of wine to a deity or deities) are covered in some detail.
Each character under the piety system has a piety total. Characters start with zero points (unless they are divine offspring), and can never have a total piety over their level plus wisdom modifier, plus a modifier according to rank.
Characters gain (and lose) piety points by actions they take. A number of different actions are enumerated. Even fairly minor actions (like daily libations) grant piety points. Considering the scale of the piety limit, it seems like any character played with any degree of rigor will quickly run up to their piety limit. The text suggest that all such observances be role-played rigorously. While initially it seems as if this would be a boon to roleplaying, it seems as if it would soon get repetitive. Further, tracking some of these minor events seems like it would be a hassle in play.
Characters with positive peity can request boons, some of which cost piety points and may or may not be granted. This is determined by a GM roll modified by the deity's mood and the scale of the requested boon. The roll can result in annoying the deity (and resulting penalties), or the deity may be pleased and grant the boon with reduced or no cost. The possible results include divination, healing, or bonuses to attacks, saves, or skill checks. This aspect of the piety system works well, as it represents the fickle nature of Greek deities.
The remaining chapters are primarily GM related material.
Supporting background material includes a brief description of Achaea and Troy (with a region map and a very small map of Troy) and an extended description of the events of the war.
This background information is backed up by an enumeration of major figures in the war. Most major figures represented here are from 10th to 20th level, which for the most part seems appropriate. In accordance with the magic suggestions later in the book, these figures generally only have +1 items at best, so those considering the possibility of adapting the figures for a more general game may need to brush up their items to fit the norm.
A section on monsters espouses two approaches. One is to identify which creatures from the MM are appropriate for use in a Homeric campaigns, or how they can be changed or adapted to fit the role they play in such a game. For example, cyclops can be represented by the statistics of a stone giant, and the Harpies are unique creatures, requiring the addition of 6 or more levels of ranger to represent properly.
There are also a few new unique creatures and statistics blocks. The legendary animal template allows the GM to create various animals of exceptional ability, and the mares of diomedes are presented as an example. Other new creatures presented include the Nemean lion and Cerberus.
The section of treasure advises that magic items are, in general, much rarer that in a standard campaign. Though some items (like certain rare herbs) might be found widely, most powerful items of magic are only created by the will of the gods. There are a number of magic items, minor and major artifacts presented here; minor artifacts tend to be items wielded by great heroes and major artifacts tend to be items of deities. The magic items have standard items costs that allow them to be used in normal campaigns. Some minor and major items could have been statted out as epic (or non-epic) magic items.
A chapter entitled "Running the Game" provides general advice for a GM of a Homeric campaign. In addition to a discussion of the tone and flow appropriate to such a game, there are rules for divine favor and displeasure, guidelines for divine omens, and advice and ideas for adventures in the setting.
Conclusions
Trojan War is up to the usual high standards of Green Ronin with regards to editing and presentation. Further, the book provides a nice basis for running characters in a Trojan War specific game, some details of which are portable to other games. The divine boon aspect of the peity system is well done and fitting the system, and the book takes better care to ensure that spells used from the core rules match the setting.
The two aspects of the game that I felt were a bit weak were the piety tracking system and the scaling rules of the mass combat system. The piety tracking system seems to dwell on minor events that would be cumbersome to track but almost trivial for PCs to do, and the scaling system's effect on damage and character interface can create some disquieting inconsistences.
One mechanic that was not borrowed from testament that perhaps could have been is the weakness system. Human (and for that matter, divine) frailty seems as much of a motivating influence on Greek legends as it was in the time of ancient Israel.
Overall Grade: C+
-Alan D. Kohler
Trojan War is a book in Green Ronin's Mythic Vistas line of setting related books. Trojan War, in particular, is a d20 adaptation modeling Greek legend, in particular the events and personages depicted in The Iliad. The book is written by Aaron Rosenberg with contributions (some from prior books in the series) by Scott Bennie and Robert J. Schwalb.
A First Look
Trojan War is a 160-page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $27.95.
The cover of the book is decorated by a wrap-around painting by James Ryman depicting a mass battle involving bronze age charioteers and foot soldiers.
The interior is black-and-white. Interior artists include Caleb Cleveland, Kent Burles, Joe Wigfield, Lisa Wood, Jonathan Kirtz, Britt Martin, Drew Baker, and Beth Trott, with cartography by Shawn Brown. There is no simple line art herein; all pieces in the book are professionally shaded pencil or pen-and-ink drawings.
A Deeper Look
Trojan War is primarily concerned with the events of Homer's Iliad. As such, it leads off with a nice, succinct retelling of the Trojan War to introduce (or re-introduce) the reader to the major events. In short, the Iliad describes a heroic era, but one which was driven by the weaknesses of men and gods alike.
Trojan War does not make the same sort of deep changes that some d20 adaptations do. It does, however, entertain some changes to the available core classes and to a lesser extent, some shifts in the magic system.
The most apparent change in a Trojan War game would be available races. Both Achaens and Trojans are humans, and the system does not redefine the race to assign specific attributes to different human cultures. Other than humans, the only other race available per Trojan War is the divine offspring, which are beings born of humans and gods. Divine offspring come in three varieties. The weakest is the minor divine offspring, which has a level adjustment of zero. Medium and major divine offspring have +1 and +2 LAs, respectively. Most of the advantages of divine offspring are physical in nature (the stronger the offspring, the higher the modifier), but all suffer a minor hit to intelligence, owing to the fact that they rely more exclusively on their physique.
Humans and divine offspring both have a list of allowed classes. Notably absent core classes include the paladin, monk, (probably not a great surprise), cleric, and wizard (both of which have more setting appropriate replacements in this book).
There are four new core classes. The charioteer and the dedicated warrior are more specific fighter types. They are probably too specific for adaptation to general d20 system fantasy games, but may be strong enough archetypes that they are appropriate in the Trojan War setting. The focus of the charioteer should be obvious. The dedicated warrior is a warrior dedicated to a given Greek deity, drawn to the Trojan War by their dedication. The dedicated warrior's class abilities are combat boons derived from their deity's favor.
The magician, the default arcane spellcaster for the Trojan War setting, is fundamentally similar to the wizard with a few exceptions. The class prepares its spells much like a wizard, but only has a limited number of known spells. However, magicians focus their magical power through a wand. Further, they lack the traditional bonus feats of a wizard, instead receiving a small suite of specific class abilities. Most of these abilities are enhancements to their wand, or abilities that allow them to incur penalties to saves against their spells in certain situations (such as if they have some blood of the target.)
The priest is a bit more of an extreme alteration. The priest does not use the traditional spell slot method at all. Instead, they are granted a number of "petitions" they can tender to their patron deity per day. These petitions require a caster level check against a DC of 20+the spell level (though the maximum spell level you can petition for is limited by your priest level). If the roll succeeds, they spell effect requested is granted. This method will resonate with some gamers who feel that divine favors and miracles are not well represented by spells. However, mechanically, I can see a few issues. The most immediately apparent is that the difficulty of casting spells only goes up half as fast as the characters gains access to spells. As a result, at low levels, the character has great difficulty with the best spells they can petition, but at higher levels, a character has a very easy time petitioning the best spells they can muster.
Similar to clerics, priests have access to domains according to their deity and have additional "domain petitions". However, deities as presented here have spheres that are said to limit what the priest can petition. Unlike domains, there is no list delineating which spells are appropriate to which sphere of influence; GMs are left to their own judgement in deciding what is appropriate.
Regarding magic itself, the magic chapter has an introductory chapter that discusses the hows and whys of including roleplaying game style magic in the game. It analyzes a number of perspectives and alternatives, ranging to the notion that what we read in Homer is all there is and magic is relatively rare, to the notion that magic is common but not mentioned as the source behind various effects. The treatment of magic and the magic classes assume that you want to include mortal-wielded magic in the game.
The magic chapter is quite a bit more detailed than Testament in defining which existing magic is appropriate, to it's benefit. For example, ressurecting characters and creating undead is not something that is part of the setting, nor are fireballs or the like, but enchantments and illusions are perfectly appropriate. There are two spell lists, one divine and one arcane, defining appropriate spells from the existing spells in the PHB and adding new spells.
New spells introduced for Trojan War are a bit more subtle and indirect than the existing spells, helping to fit spellcasters to the feel of the setting a bit better. Spells let the spellcaster summon angry seas, buff or protect creatures, send false omens, or create useful auras.
In addition to the new core classes, there are three new prestige classes, the orator, the seer, and the runner, helping represent particular character archetypes. All of the classes strictly stick with handing out their own abilities vice extending the abilities of other classes, and none of these classes presume you are using the spellcasting system in the book or not. Accordingly, such classes should be fairly portable outside of the setting. The orator seems a particularly strong candidate for this, for those seeking a leaderly orator without resorting to the slightly over-specialized bard class.
New feats and skills round out the list of options that help make up Trojan War characters. A new use of appraise allows a character to determine the station of a person they meet. New skills include boat, decipher omen, drive, and knowledge (tactics). Appropriate tasks and modifiers are provided for each, and a reference list is included that shows which existing and new classes should have these skills as class skills. (Missing such an entry is an all too common pratfall in d20 system products that I was glad not to see repeated.)
Of the new feats, many interface with the new chariot combat rules. For example, chariot attack allows the character to trample with the chariot without needing a roll to retain control. Other feats relate to other new rulesets, like favored, which allows a character to gain boons as if their piety were much higher, or like a number of battlefield oriented feats to be used in mass combat. Finally, many of the feats relate to the bearing or appearance of the character, like distinctive, or that must feat for Helen-of-Troy wannabes, stunning (which actually allows you to stun onlookers, which may be a little over-the-top, if appropriate for the setting.) This last category of feats is interesting if you would like to make feats that are an important part of your character's description.
The equipment section of the book is something I normally only mention is passing. There are a few things worth highlighting here, though.
First off is currency. There is a discussion of standards as they existed at the time. On the low end of the scale, there are few known standards, though nobility used talents. That said precious metals were used in exchanges. Trojan War suggests that you use the d20 system standard system as an abstraction to simplify play, though it does provide simple and reasonable barter mechanic to liven things up a bit.
Armor is a major point of difference from d20 system fantasy games. A peicemeal system is provided that lets a character slowly collect more powerful armor. Unlike the standard, simplified system of D&D, the Trojan War system allows modifiers from individual pieces to stack, and even factors in layers. Arcane spell failure is not used as a standard (though a possible system for those who do is suggested), but AC, weight, penalties to maximum dexterity modifier, and armor check penalties all accrue. Movement is not as rigorously penalized, making cost and weight the primary balancing factors for these armors.
Trojan War features a mass combat system, the Homeric Battlefield Resolution System. The system takes some cues from the Testament battle system, and they are both appropriate for large scale battles.
Like most combat systems in d20 system games on the market, the system works by representing units as one attacker under the d20 system. The Homeric system requires the GM to choose a scale for combat: realistic, heroic, or mythic. Hit points represent how large the unit is. For realistic scale, each hit point represents 1 person, while heroic and mythic scale units have a base of 50 or 1000 people respectively. These basic "hit points" are multiplied by a factor given by troop quality, which also affects their base attack bonus, morale, damage, and the number of "battlefield feats" the unit receives.
The damage a unit deals is the same on the battlefield scale as an individual soldier would deal in the normal combat rules. The first thing that strikes me as odd here is that damage is modified for troop quality, but it is not modified for troop size. This may not be a big issue if you use consistent troop sizes (as the example units in the back do), but it becomes rather odd if you use units 2 or 3 times the size of another unit; the side with smaller units invariably has more damage per round output to it for the same quality of troops.
As with Testament, the units are distinguished from one another in terms of training and style by battlefield feats, an analog of character feats. These feats may affect combat statistics directly (such as deft attack, which applies to damage), or provide bonuses in certain situations.
Individual characters can contribute to combat in a variety of ways. While in the role of captaining a unit, a character may contribute to the efforts of the units under command, attack an enemy unit or captain. Spellcasters can cast spells with a variety of effects (many with some approximate translations from the individual scale effects). Again, there is an oddity when it comes to scaling, as unit scale does not factor into the damage or effect. Individual captains versus commanders in even more odd, since you divide damage by the multiplier from unit quality, which means that the unit quality hit point multiplier is applied twice, another mechanic that makes little sense to me.
Sample army forces are included for major forces in the area.
Overall, the combat system has a nice basis, but unit scaling and damage scaling throws a bit of a monkey wrench in the works. If you stick with one scale and one unit size, most of these issues are not a problem, otherwise it seems as if it can create some unusual and inconsistent results.
The chapter on religion and piety has three major components: the Greek pantheon, religious observances, and the piety system.
The pantheon section presents many major figures of the pantheon, with a general description, portfolio, domains, holy symbol, favored weapon, and religious details of each. As core domains are included, these should be perfectly usable with a standard campaign.
The observances section and the piety system go hand-in-hand. Observances such as libations (offering the first drink of wine to a deity or deities) are covered in some detail.
Each character under the piety system has a piety total. Characters start with zero points (unless they are divine offspring), and can never have a total piety over their level plus wisdom modifier, plus a modifier according to rank.
Characters gain (and lose) piety points by actions they take. A number of different actions are enumerated. Even fairly minor actions (like daily libations) grant piety points. Considering the scale of the piety limit, it seems like any character played with any degree of rigor will quickly run up to their piety limit. The text suggest that all such observances be role-played rigorously. While initially it seems as if this would be a boon to roleplaying, it seems as if it would soon get repetitive. Further, tracking some of these minor events seems like it would be a hassle in play.
Characters with positive peity can request boons, some of which cost piety points and may or may not be granted. This is determined by a GM roll modified by the deity's mood and the scale of the requested boon. The roll can result in annoying the deity (and resulting penalties), or the deity may be pleased and grant the boon with reduced or no cost. The possible results include divination, healing, or bonuses to attacks, saves, or skill checks. This aspect of the piety system works well, as it represents the fickle nature of Greek deities.
The remaining chapters are primarily GM related material.
Supporting background material includes a brief description of Achaea and Troy (with a region map and a very small map of Troy) and an extended description of the events of the war.
This background information is backed up by an enumeration of major figures in the war. Most major figures represented here are from 10th to 20th level, which for the most part seems appropriate. In accordance with the magic suggestions later in the book, these figures generally only have +1 items at best, so those considering the possibility of adapting the figures for a more general game may need to brush up their items to fit the norm.
A section on monsters espouses two approaches. One is to identify which creatures from the MM are appropriate for use in a Homeric campaigns, or how they can be changed or adapted to fit the role they play in such a game. For example, cyclops can be represented by the statistics of a stone giant, and the Harpies are unique creatures, requiring the addition of 6 or more levels of ranger to represent properly.
There are also a few new unique creatures and statistics blocks. The legendary animal template allows the GM to create various animals of exceptional ability, and the mares of diomedes are presented as an example. Other new creatures presented include the Nemean lion and Cerberus.
The section of treasure advises that magic items are, in general, much rarer that in a standard campaign. Though some items (like certain rare herbs) might be found widely, most powerful items of magic are only created by the will of the gods. There are a number of magic items, minor and major artifacts presented here; minor artifacts tend to be items wielded by great heroes and major artifacts tend to be items of deities. The magic items have standard items costs that allow them to be used in normal campaigns. Some minor and major items could have been statted out as epic (or non-epic) magic items.
A chapter entitled "Running the Game" provides general advice for a GM of a Homeric campaign. In addition to a discussion of the tone and flow appropriate to such a game, there are rules for divine favor and displeasure, guidelines for divine omens, and advice and ideas for adventures in the setting.
Conclusions
Trojan War is up to the usual high standards of Green Ronin with regards to editing and presentation. Further, the book provides a nice basis for running characters in a Trojan War specific game, some details of which are portable to other games. The divine boon aspect of the peity system is well done and fitting the system, and the book takes better care to ensure that spells used from the core rules match the setting.
The two aspects of the game that I felt were a bit weak were the piety tracking system and the scaling rules of the mass combat system. The piety tracking system seems to dwell on minor events that would be cumbersome to track but almost trivial for PCs to do, and the scaling system's effect on damage and character interface can create some disquieting inconsistences.
One mechanic that was not borrowed from testament that perhaps could have been is the weakness system. Human (and for that matter, divine) frailty seems as much of a motivating influence on Greek legends as it was in the time of ancient Israel.
Overall Grade: C+
-Alan D. Kohler
