Customer Reviews

Land of Giants: Scandinavia & the Beowulf Saga in the Time of King Arthur (Pendragon Role Playing Game Series)

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This supplement gives background on scandinavia, and for a Beowulf setting, in my opinion it made for a nice cross over on legends. Characters can intergrate the adventures & setting in the book with a quest for the Holy grail, a foreign land to explore, or simply for a variation of setting for a campaign. It also work greats if you want to play a dark ages campaign, since britain was considered to be more in the scandinvian sphere of influences at that time. For example, if you play saxon characters(or other scandinavians),it provides a nice setting for your homeland...or a starting point for a campaign, with your saxon characters trying to settle in britain(you can combine it with information from the Saxons! book)..or just simply a saxons/northmen campaign (it can also work well if you want to have a somewhat viking campaign). The book is not arthurian, and does not work well for everyone, yet I have found it to be very helpful for a little bit of campaign or adventure variation (especially if you really like the pendragon rules! but want other settings!)

I like Beowulf. Its a world classic. And i LOVE sir Thomas Malorys "Le Morte D`Arthur".
The problem is, they are completely different.
Now, a Pendragon story where the king of the geats makes a cameo apperance, or, even better, a whole role - playing game devoted just to him, would be great. A supplement to a game that just isn`t suited to him is not. Especially when it is obvious that the designers are mostly just trying to see how they can get more of that popular sword & sorcery stuff forced into Pendragon, so it can earn them as much as all those other fantasy games.
Medival scandinavia is full of great stories, even if you just stick to "real" history: but even though the designers have obviously researched the area carefully, they have not let this affect their lack of taste.
I liked the "forgotten" celtic culture though - its the kind of daft things that Pendragon turns into something good. But it was not enough.