The Black Company Campaign Setting (d20)

[Cynical Cat]

1. It's big. 318 pages of material.

2. The game includes a summary of the books, a history of the world, information on the relevant places, a map, a frequent sprinkling of quotes. The art, which is plentiful, is of varying quality but it is all consistent with the Black Company universe.

3. The game is a modified version of D20. All classes are modified to fit into the humancentric, godless, gritty world of the book. There are several optional rules to enhance deadliness (and particularily ambushes) to make it more like the world where Old Man Fish can take down Raven or Raven and Croaker can ambush two powerful wizards. The D&D hitpoint system isn't such a bad fit to the Black Company universe given the obscene vitality of beings like the Taken, Toadkiller Dog, and the forvalaka.

4. Sane silver based economy instead of D&D's crazy one.

5. Enhanced mastercraft rules to compensate for the rarity of magic goodies in the Black Company universe.

6. New magic system to reflect how magic works in the Black Company. The system seems pretty good and is similar to the Epic Spellcasting system. Wizards learn Talents, which are like spell seeds, like feats and can get feats which give bonuses to use certain Talents. Create Fire, Shadow Mastery, and Shape Shifting are three Talents.

7. Stats for many characters and critters.

8. Mass combat rules. Feats, class abilities, and skills can give bonuses.

9. Prestige classes: Deciever, Great General, Top Kick, and Veteran to name a few. They all fit.

Problems: Armor Class. Black Company players will have smaller attack bonuses and there are mastercraft defensive bonuses and defensive feats, but ACs may be too low. It works for low to mid level. No experience with high level yet.

Overall Impression: It is really, really good.
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