Customer Reviews

Mythic Vistas: The Black Company Campaign Setting

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Clearly a lot of time and effort went into this product, however it could have used one more pass through a independent proofreader. The backgrounds, classes, prestige classes, new combat mechanics, mass land combat system, new magic system, and new masterwork item system are all well thought out and fairly well balanced internally. The power scale of the characters compared to base classes are slightly higher, but this will probably be offset by the lack of significant magic items. Some of the feats and class features will prove problematic, but are significanly in the exception and can easily be house ruled back to balance. After the editing my biggest complaint with this setting book is that it overdoes the epic thing. Many of the characters in the books were clearly epic, but 30 and 50 levels of epic seems wrong to me.

Overall it is a pretty good product that most gaming fans of the Black Company would enjoy.

I would have bought this book even if I weren't a D&D geek, because I am a rabid fan of the Black Company books. I read it cover to cover with the compulsive, sweaty-palmed fervor of a devotee, but I can see some problems for most normal people:
The rules make some radical departures from standard 3.5 games, totally eliminating some staples of D&D (clerics, for instance). This has an effect of many other aspects of the game (no clerics? no quick healing...no quick healing, much higher body count). I would not recommend this for the average Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms player. Personally, that's what attracted me to the books in the first place: no elves, no unpronounceable names, and a sword in the guts will kill even the most beloved characters.
The editing is ugly in places but that's a quibble.
Recommeded for Black Company fans and / or very open-minded d20 players in search of some gritty and grim action.

I know nothing of the Black Company books, but as a D&D gamer this book is easily one of my favorites. There are so many great rules, and the magic system is simply brilliant that any DM considering a 'gritty' or 'low magic' game MUST read this book. The best part is how simple it is to pick and choose which rules will suit your game. Think the Advantage system is too complex? Don't include it. Love how it deals with wounds? Just drop it right in. Having read this cover to cover there was just so much for me to love that I must recommend it.

Like the novels, the game world is gritty, rich in history and well developed. It offers great character creation rules, mass scale combat and a well developed and versatile magic system which fills me with sadness that D&D did not always have this magic system in place.

Before I share various details .... Let me start with the downsides of this because it's a shorter list.

Typos in the book and inconsistencies, you'll find them, the book needs an updated printing after a regular editor and a copy editor goes through it.
Some sections are too short and therefore lack a well developed explanation, such as the Magical Talent of Shadow Mastery... no where does it explain how a caster can actually get a hold of the shadow like terrors from the books of the south if they aren't playing in that area/period of the world.

An additionial race other than giants are mentioned in the actual novels (dwarves are mentioned in 'Water Sleeps' by the character Willow Swan).

Undead do obviously exist/have existed, and not just ghosts or spirits of the barrowlands, but there is an actual area of the world called the "Canyons of Undead".

NPC spell casters should have well developed reasons in a game to have their various spells prepped. The open ended mechanics with guidelines are great, but does a commander in charge of an army who is also a wizard really need to prep one of their spells to put everyone around them in a 500' area asleep? A GM had this happen in a game I played. I pointed out that this affected that NPCs forces more so than the players.

And even though the magic system is versatile, and award winning, spell casters shouldn't be common.

And now onto the positive elements:

Character backgrounds, offer game mechanic effects and help define characters.

No alignments, instead this game uses well thought out allegiances.

Speak language is now a skill with implications on literacy, if a character speaks the language at a poor or a master level and all the levels in between.

The command skill is also well thought out and developed and helps combat outside of the personal scale (such as company scale and army scale).

Command Feats.

Massive damage and critical rules, so a powerful character can be killed by a lucky hit from a 1st level character.

New core character classes and prestige classes.

Rules and guidelines for incorporating other classes and other monsters from other D20 gaming supplements.

A magic system where characters get a spell talent which has some basic presets to it, and a low DC. To add things such as duration, range, damage, area of effect, etc. etc. one would take the appropriate modifiers from the charts/tables and apply them. Spell use is draining and applies hit point damage in the form of drain. Drain is resisted by spell energy points, with a minimum of 1 drain per spell. The base drain is 1D8 + (1 pt per every 5 points of the spell's DC), so the more powerful a spell, the more drain it does.

An actual map of the Black Company world that makes sense. Trying to map it from the novels was maddening. Green Ronin did an awesome job.

New siege equipment, and prestige classes which support larger scale combat.

The Black Company... the last of the Free Companies of Khatovar. Overall this is an excellent (and obviously essential) sourcebook for someone looking to run a campaign set in this world.

The sourcebook does a very good job of outlining the overall world, as well as laying out changes to the core D&D rules that are necessary to maintain the feel and flavour of The Black Company books.

That said, while thick and full of good information, in my opinion the authors would have benefited by giving the reader a few more examples on how the new systems/rules work, where there is a significant deviation from standard D&D norms. Spell use and magic in general come to mind, as does rules for simulating group combat.

The rules for critical hits are interesting, and, while in keeping with the D&D approach, my opinion is that they are inferior to those rules used in the RoleMaster system.

DMs and players looking for a high magic game will want to avoid this campaign setting... magic truly is something rare in TBC, and while what there is of it can be potent, for the most part there are only minor effects.

All things considered, this is a worthy addition to your D&D library, especially if you're a fan of Glen Cook's The Black Company series of novels. A solid 4/5.

Dark fantasy and gritty realism merge to form a world where you can almost smell the battle fields and seige engines. The classes are unique and the magic system is flexible but deep beyond first blush. I spent hours just figuring out the basic spells and was amazed at the effects possible and prices the mage would pay to create them. Fans of the Conan novels or Grey Mouser will find this a good fit where magic is terrible and great but not slick and quick like classic D&D. Glen Cook's novels are well studied and the detail is amazing.

Having hated the regular D&D magic system since I first learned about it, this book offers a wonderful alternative. Wizards don't just forget their spells when they use them once, and none of the magic relies on the basic assumption that your mythology is correct.
Better yet - noone can abuse the system to have a completely broken character before even taking their class levels, and dragons aren't color coded for your convienence. No elves, no orcs, no dragonkin, no easily available flaming swords.
It even contains a feat to break that spiked chain strategy.
Sadly, as everyone else has mentioned, the editing could definately have been improved. However, that can be overlooked since it really does capture the low-magic grit of the setting in the series.
Gotta love it.