Dark Albion Cult of Chaos and the Rose War reviews

I have published a quick review of Dark Albion: Cult of Chaos on Amazon.it (here: Dark Albion: Cult of Chaos) 

da Fabio Milito Pagliara il 28 giugno 2017  A masterful tool for sandbox gaming I have bough this game even already having a complementary review copy. The book is thought first and foremost for the Dark Albion setting, a full setting for any OSR game or original game. But it can be used for every campaign, it shines specially in sandbox campaign where you want to create chaotic cults on the fly.  The resulting cults will feel strange and hateful and "cultish". Your player will have their hands full fighting cults popping out everywhere in the campaign.  Maybe there is some deeper source or force corrupting the land. A really good gaming book.

What I can add? The book is really really good. You will really get strange and "uncomfortable" cults and cultist. More than this you will get endless hook for instant mini-campaign, never more dull and boring villages. Your players will constantly be on guard asking themselves if the jolly innkeeper is just a jolly innkeeper of some deranged cultist of the demon tainted Bacchus cult.


I had just reread "The name of the rose" when I got the complementary copy and that stopped me... this review is indeed late, but the point is that this book feel medieval, I had the same feeling that I got from reading the heresies in "The name of the rose".

So a very interesting and useful rpg book by the Rpgpundit and Domenic Crouzet (of Fantastic Heroes & Witchery fame).

A must buy for OSR sandbox gaming.

Furthermore the price is a steal (14,04€ on prime), and while the book can be used with or without Dark Albion the rose war this is another book that is a good buy at 20,53€ on prime.

Also of this book I did a review on Amazon.it (here: Dark Albion the Rose War: Grim Fantasy England In The 15th Century)

da Fabio Milito Pagliara il 4 novembre 2015  A medieval setting for Old School Roleplaying game This gaming book present the fantasy setting of Dark Albion for old school Roleplaying games. This alternate world is presented in rich detail with all the necessary info to adapt normal character classes to the setting.... we have an Unconquered Sun religion that thake the place of christianity, cleric can be only lawful, and social class is really important for characters. The book focus on the island kingdom of England but we have a presentation of the ex Arcadian empire (the romans of this world), this means europe from Spain to Russia and the north coast of africa. There is history and detailed geographical information. There are specification on races (only human admitted with man from cormyr that have elf ability and scots that have dwarves abilities), and a lot of other things to discover in this nice book. The book is enriched by a very interesting appendix is the one from Dominique Crouzet that detail rules for using Fantastic Heroes & Witchery with Dark Albion (variant classes, variant rules and so on).

The book is worth every cent, you will have a lot of useful material for a grim medieval fantasy and a lot of insight on how to use the old game for playing such kind of campaign.

PS: here (https://d20d12.blogspot.it/2017/07/dark-albion-fantastic-heroes-witchery.html)  another article on Dark Albion in which I go at an In-Depth review of Appendix 3 of the book, the appendix is about using Fantastic Heroes & Witchery, the retro-game of one of the authors, as the mani rule system for adventuring in Dark Albion

So what are you waiting for? Go and buy this two fine books!

Enchanted Torch a less flashy Light spell

Enchanted Torch

Arcane 
Enchantment/Charm
Level: Mage 1st

Range: touch

Duration: 3h
Area of effect: one torch

Components: V, S, M (an unused torch)

Casting time: 1 round

Saving Throw: None

Effect: When the mage cast this spell the torch will light up and it will burn for 3h (2h more than a normal torch) and will resist gust of wind or being dropped (it will be doused, ending the spell only if totally submerged in water). Furthermore the torch will be brighter giving off a 60' radius of light.

Greater Enchanted Torch

Arcane 
Enchantment/Charm
Level: Mage 3rd

Range: touch

Duration: 24h
Area of effect: one torch

Components: V, S, M (an unused torch)

Casting time: 1 round

Saving Throw: None

Effect: As enchanted torch except for duration.

Note: this substitutes Continual Light, the idea is no continuous spells without some great price.


As pointed out in the first article of the "inconspicuous magic" series, Enchanted Dagger a less flashy magic missile, spells that use existing materials are more in tune with magic as presented in classic fantasy stories.

Enchanted Dagger a less flashy Magic Missile

Enchanted Dagger

Arcane 
Enchantment/Charm
Level: Mage 1st

Range:180'

Duration: isntantaneous
Area of effect: one dagger +1 each 2 level

Components: V, S, F (a special dagger)

Casting time: 1 segment

Saving Throw: None

The mage take her dagger(s) and throw it(them) at one, or more, enemy with perfect aim. Each dagger will hit for 1d4+1 points of damage. The dagger will lose any other bonus or property (cannot be poisoned or have other spell or magical effect active) while used as Focus of this spell. A dagger to be used as focus of this spell must be normally usable by the mage.

ACKS numbers
1d4+1 (25 point), max 1d damage (x0.1), 1 creature +1 each 2 levels (x3), range 150' (x1), duration instantaneous (x1), No saving throw (x1), need focus (x0.8) = 6

Arcane x1 = 6 point (1st level spell)
Eldritch x1.5 = 9 point (1st level spell)

WHY THIS?
The idea is to have spell that need a focus of some sort (daggers for magic missile, torchs for fireball and so on). It fit better in heroic fantasy to have less flashy magic (see the upcoming Heroic Fantasy book by the Autarch: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/autarch/heroic-fantasy-and-barbarian-conquerors-collection and also here https://d20d12.blogspot.it/2017/03/heroic-fantasy-and-barbarian-conquerors.html)

What is a Focus?
A focus is a material component that is not expended in the casting of the spell. In this case the Focus is just a dagger that must then be retrieved to be used again (just as if the mage had thrown it).