Customer Reviews

The Crusades: Campaign Sourcebook, Historical Reference, 2nd Edition (Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, No. 9469)

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I just finished reading this reference last night. Wow! For one, the Crusades were a empty spot in my knowledge of the Middle Ages, and this book filled that in nicely. I knew that there were several Crusades, and that King Richard and Saladin played a part, but that was about it.

This work, without being burdensome, acts as a great primer to those events, and the players. When finished, you'll be ready to run an AD&D campaign in Outremer... the Crusader States in the Middle East. The guide details 3 levels of camapigns: Historical, Legendary, and Fantasy. You decide how realistic, or how cinematic to run your campaign.

The Crusades are a fine background for FRPG play, with medieval cultures mixing, trading, and fighting. Are you a Frank, fresh off the boat? Are you a second generation European living in Antioch, gone native? Are you a Saracen, trying to get these foreigners expelled from Muslim lands?

The guide doesn't flinch from the realities of brutal medieval warfare, and helps the DM deal with these issues. Both Frankish and Muslim culture and perspectives are addressed, as well as the situation for women. Several adventures and campaign seeds are introduced to get you started.

The best (and last) of the historical campaign sourcebooks for 2nd Edition AD&D. This settings allows you to be a psionicist. This book also allows you to import many of the Al-Qadim material. WIth this book you have TWO sides to choose from: the Europeans and the Muslims. Add to it a decent snapshot of the world at this time, and you are all set EXCEPT for updating this book to be made d20.

The backgroud information this gives about the crusades is not only no better (for a DMs use) than any history book from your local library, it is slanted in favor of a pro-muslim, pro feminist point of view.As far as actual game mechanics go there are no character/monster write-ups, no maps (none that you couldn't get from a history book), no (complete) scenarios, and worst of all, the author completely sidesteps the issue of opposing clerics in a monotheistic campaign. Clerics are treated in the most generic form possible.What a waste.