Avalanche Games Books

Having purchased a copy of "Ragnarok" from eBay, I was blown away by the amount of attention the authors put into their research on Norse mythology. While the current trend in d20 products is to throw together a jumble of numbers for some prestige classes, and a few dozen feats between some hastily inked covers, Avalanche took the time to think through their setting, and provide DM's and players alike with some actual meat for their campaign.
"All For One" is no different. In addition to some great coverage of both the works of Dumas and the actual historical period, we are given a rich tapestry of plots and intrigues that could easily find their way into any swashbuckling campaign.
Do yourself a favor. If you and your players enjoy Dumas, Sabatini, or the incredible Steven Brust's "Phoenix Guard" Series pick up a copy of this book.
You won't be sorry.

I ran this adventure for my friends up in Portland on December 28, 2004. Since I was running Constantinople as "90% true" to history I didn't use the D20 D&D rules embedded in the module. For greater realism, I used the GDW House Rules found in Twilight: 2000, version 2.2. and Traveller: The New Era. I've made some modifications, mostly simplifying for the sake of ease and to reflect the more primitive background. My source material for this was from my earlier work on La Conquista.

The author, Dr. Mike Bennighof, has done an outsanding job of the careful balancing act required in crafting an exciting historical adventure. Several of the NPCs are real people of the time, including the emperor himself. Detail is only added as it moves the story along. Though I didn't use them, more magic-rich backgrounds are offered. Optional adventure 'plug-ins' -- like the Trench Raid -- make it easy for the referee to control the pacing of the module. And finally, the main plot has three alternative goal scenarios to suit the referee, particularly useful if players have already read the book.

In preparation for this tournament with 8 players I created handouts and adventure art. A new idea I had was plastic stands with character portraits (borrowed from Osprey military books) and listing important notes about their background and abilities. I had the players choose their characters based on these stands, rather than the more detailed character sheets. The stands also helped as "name tags" for the other players during play.

Also new was giving each character a secret to keep, which would sometimes put players at cross-purposes. This was very successful, leading to many raised eyebrows and a few laughs. Less successful was the honor point system I adapted from the module rules, which was regarded with some apathy by the players.

In the end, we all had a great time. Play time was about 4 hours, my limit because it was a weeknight. It was a challenge keeping play under that time -- especially as any ref knows -- with 8 players. I basically dumped the optional plug-ins, and the players helped by being extra clever and efficient, which enabled them to leave with their mission objective before Constantinople fell.

Memorable moments include running the Turkish blockade, when the archers and arquebusiers of the party poured murderous fire on the Turkish corsair pursuing them. The enemy ship was left in their wake, sails on fire and its captain dead. Gina's House of Joy provided some laughs, when one party member decided to privately question a male prostitute, merely because he called himself "The Baron."

In all, a very satisfying adventure. I'm not surprised it was an Origins Award Nominee for Best RPG Adventure, 2001.

[Players & their characters: Jason (Thorsten of Danzig - German Teutonic Knight), Kelley (Bertrand De La Salle - French arquebusier), Sky (Daniil of Korela - Russian mercenary), Ross (Diego de Alvarado - Spanish Knight Hospitaller), Liz (Francesco di Vaccio - Genoese arquebusier), Cindy (Giovanni da Isola - Venetian archer), Victoria (Romina Sidi - Turkish-Italian merchant), Chris (Zoë Vatatzes - Byzantine actress)]

Wayne Gralian
Wayne's World of Books

This book has a great deal of detail on roleplaying in the Celtic age. Most of the game specific stuff is relegated to the later half of the book. The modifications made to standard D20 look well balanced, with several new core classes and prestige classes to give your games a Celtic feel. There is also details on Celtic gods (although it's suggested that Cleric not be used as a class) and Celtic monsters (although not enough for my taste).

The first half (or so) of the book gives a good background on Celtic history and society, such that no one should have trouble getting into character.

All-in-all a good introduction to Celtic roleplaying, although I could have used more Celtic specific monsters.

The book is basically divided into two sections, the first half is an historical introduction to Celtic life and the history of the Celts between 100 BC and 100 AD. This was one of the best written and most informative overviews of Celtic life that I have ever read. Using sources ranging from Greek and Roman records and memoires, Irish legends, and the archeological record, the book covers everthing from warfare, daily life, diet, and the role of women, to religion, class structure, and technology (pointing out for example that the Celts invented or brought to Europe soap, chainmail, horse shoes, wooden barrels, steel swords and etc.)
My only complaint about this first section is that a bibiography would have been nice. The author also celtic swords as being four feet long and nearly impossible to wield one handed. Every celtic sword I've seen from archeological finds were three feet or less and usually had small grips only suitible for one hand use. All in all though I learned several facts and fascinating anecdotes I hadn't known about, which I later verified from other sources. Anyone intersted in the celts should love this book.
The second half with the D20 material is equally fascinating, and introduces several new combat rules and rules on social aspects such as prestige which could be applicable to many other genres.

On the overall, Jade and Steel is not bad, but remains a deceiving d20 game supplement. The layout is mediocre, and most illustrations are photos which have got filter work with photoshop (or similar). There are some descriptions of ancient China, its religion and philosophy, etc., but you can get more of this with many a good history book. There are six new (more or less interesting) prestige classes, but if you have the Oriental Adventures book, you already have enough. Then, there is a scenario for 11th-14th level characters.
My opinion is, that if you intent to play an Oriental Adventure campaign set in a land more similar to ancient China rather than Rokugan, you may buy this supplement. However, you cannot base your setting on this booklet only.

Well, on the overall, this d20 game supplement isn't a bad product, but it's not what I would have liked to get. This Atlantis is described as to fit with the Classical Greek period (Plato was the first to speak about Atlantis). As such, you get an history of Atlantis, new character races, 4 new prestige classes, a few skills /feats /spells /etc. making this product an excellent supplement if you want to run a campaign set in ancient Greece, and/or Egypt. In such a setting, Dwarves, Elves, Gnomes, etc. would be ridiculous; so you would get a good alternative with the races given in this booklet, which fit well in that kind of mythology.
However, as far as I am concerned, I was deceived by Twilight of Atlantis. I would have liked to get something more futuristic (of the tech-magic kind; reminding of the last Disney movie), and not related to ancient Greeks. If this is what you would also like to get, this supplement won't be up to your expectations.