https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/308470/Wolves-of-God-Adventures-in-Dark-Ages-England

I think it is pretty cool and I saw some interest in it earlier on here.

Nice, I backed it and ordered my print copy.
Will take a while to arrive in Australia.

Yeah, the deluxe print copies are still more than a month out. It'll be a couple days before I can dive into the PDF but just skimming the file looks promising. It's a new layout compared to SWN and the writing style is totally different from any of the previous Sine Nomine material I've read before.

Tempting, but I'd never get my local crew to play it.  I'd love to see Crawford's take on a domain management system.  It would be fun to run a campaign to unite the tribes into a powerful kingdom.

I backed the Kickstarter and am happily anticipating the deluxe version: It's taken a lot less time than the Kickstarter said it would, but then Crawford was planning on that anyway.

Quote from: Vidgrip;1127546Tempting, but I'd never get my local crew to play it.  I'd love to see Crawford's take on a domain management system.  It would be fun to run a campaign to unite the tribes into a powerful kingdom.

As requested: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/99063/An-Echo-Resounding-A-Sourcebook-for-Lordship-and-War

Quote from: Brand55;1127518the writing style is totally different from any of the previous Sine Nomine material I've read before.

Yes, I really enjoy the writing style in Wolves of God.  It's not entirely practical, and could be a hurdle for newcomers who aren't already familiar with RPGs, but it's still fun and extremely flavorful.

Quote from: Vidgrip;1127546I'd love to see Crawford's take on a domain management system.

Pretty much every one of his games has a domain/faction system included in the core rules, with several different basic systems across them:

• An Echo, Resounding is based primarily on control of cities and resource sites, and managing troops and ambassadors to handle the concerns of kingdoms.
• Stars Without Number, Silent Legions, and the upcoming Worlds Without Number use a slightly more abstract system, but still have specific faction "assets" that you move around and bring into conflict with each other, but the outcomes tend to be based more on the characteristics of the faction as a whole rather than the specific assets involved, and it's scaled for factions which operate within a kingdom (or whatever size government-controlled area) rather than running the kingdom itself.
• Other Dust, Spears of the Dawn, and Godbound use an even more abstract system which balances each faction's attributes against its troubles without ever addressing specific in-game entities such as how many troops a faction controls or how many temples are in its cities.  Godbound is substantially more abstract than the other two versions of this system.
• Darkness Visible has a system designed for intelligence agencies which tracks what types of capabilities each agency has developed and allows agencies to disrupt or destroy those capabilities.  Particularly notable here is that each capability developed by the agency has defined effects on the PCs in play.  e.g., The higher the agency's Armory rating, the more gear PCs can requisition for assignments, higher Legitimacy allows the PC agents' crimes to be swept under the rug, or better Training facilities allow new characters to start with more skills and existing ones to develop their skills more easily.
• Starvation Cheap isn't really domain management, but rather war management.  Each side has a certain number of troops, divided up into multiple units, which are then assigned to attack or defend various objectives.  Like Darkness Visible, PCs can get defined benefits from other units assigned to the same objective where their mission is taking place, such as calling in air/artillery strikes or support from infantry or armor units.
• Suns of Gold doesn't do faction conflict itself (you would presumably use Stars Without Number for that), but it includes a system for founding and developing colonies on new worlds, which would also fall under the broader area of domain management play.
• Finally, Wolves of God has what appears to be yet another new system, which tracks your domain solely in terms of how much land you hold, how much wealth is in your coffers, and what vassals you have/what monks and nuns you are supporting.  Conflict is focused on raiding your neighbors for lands or wealth, while staying within the constraints of how long you can keep your fyrd away from their lands.

Personally, I'd really like to see Crawford come up with an uber-system for faction/domain play which functions across all scales and can telescope into different levels on the org chart (so, e.g., the corner police station and the national government are both represented without either treating them as two completely separate, but allied, factions or essentially making it so that the police station can't act without taking up the full attention of the national government) but I highly doubt that will happen, since he's more into tailoring the faction rules for each game to that game's particular scope and concerns rather than doing something universal.

What are the titular "wolves of God"?

Quote from: BoxCrayonTales;1127635What are the titular "wolves of God"?

The English, whom God used to punish the decadent Britons for their wickedness.

Yep, the PCs are meant to be English adventurers. It's basically a take on that part of history as if all the myths and stories were true, so in addition to the religious aspects there are real monsters and magic in the setting. The interesting part is that the game is presented as if it were an actual RPG written by a monk in AD 710 with occasional notes by Kevin Crawford. So, for example, here's the introductory text:

QuoteListen! We are the English, the sons of conquerors and the fathers of kings, who came over the whale-roads to whelm the Wealh and take from them the land they had lost by their weakness. We are a great people, in sin and strength alike, and God has used us for His ends. Once we were His wolves upon the wicked, to wound the faithless and condemn their crimes, and now we are His children in the true faith. But our sins hang heavy on our hearts yet, and a shadow falls upon us from the deeds we have done.

I write this book so that the gamesmen of other lands may know of us and our ways, and may play at our mighty deeds as they do their own. The dicers of the Franks may add English heroes to their tale-makings, the Greeks may smile at our customs from the carved halls of Constantinople, and even the distant men of Tang may make curious stories of our far-off isle in that land of silks and strangeness. We are a poor people before the riches of Rome and the splendors of the Persians, but we are conquerors still, and our tales are worthy of telling.

Few are the gamesmen who can bear to be told ten thousand things before the dice rattle on the board, so I spare for now the many things I might say, and tell you only what you must know to fashion a hero of your own, and what grave perils await the work of your thoughts.

The actual system is Stars Without Numbers at its core with a number of alterations to make it fit the setting, and as usual for a Sine Nomine product there's a ton of useful GM stuff. Even if someone isn't into the whole "Christian adventurer" schtick, there's still a lot of good stuff to be mined.

I was going to back this, but decided to wait until it hit retail. Can anyone post a review when they get the chance?

Quote from: Brad;1127669I was going to back this, but decided to wait until it hit retail. Can anyone post a review when they get the chance?

Did you like Spears of the Dawn? Would you like mythological historical Dark Ages English version of that? Kevin seems to only be getting better at this with practice.

Of note, I saw rules for Wyrds, scars, domains, and mass combat. I haven't read through it yet because I am busy and I didn't read the betas (I realized that I really don't like confusing beta RPG rules and the actual rules).

It's styled like an older manuscript and most of the writing is in-character as though a monk from this time actually wrote an RPG and the author translated and finished it for the reader. It's kind of a wild way to go about this, but man does it get me way more into the mindset and I personally appreciate anything that makes me excited about the dark ages and Christianity in-general.

Quote from: Brad;1127669Can anyone post a review when they get the chance?

Kevin wrote it.
You should buy it*

I've never regretted any Sine Nomine purchase.
Every one of them has been highly useful as a GM resource, or an actual game.
If you haven't read his stuff yet, he's got plenty of kewl freebies on DriveThruRPG.

*the caveat is does Dark Ages Faux Historical RPGing sound cool to you?

I wouldn't be averse to getting a review copy of this. I'd be interested to see how dark-ages-authentic it is.

I really hope that it works with the Black Streams Solo Heroes rules. Do any of you think it does?

Quote from: Brand55;1127643Yep, the PCs are meant to be English adventurers. It's basically a take on that part of history as if all the myths and stories were true, so in addition to the religious aspects there are real monsters and magic in the setting. The interesting part is that the game is presented as if it were an actual RPG written by a monk in AD 710 with occasional notes by Kevin Crawford. So, for example, here's the introductory text:

The actual system is Stars Without Numbers at its core with a number of alterations to make it fit the setting, and as usual for a Sine Nomine product there's a ton of useful GM stuff. Even if someone isn't into the whole "Christian adventurer" schtick, there's still a lot of good stuff to be mined.

LOL.  The intro text is a pretty close paraphrase of the opening of Beowulf: "Hwaet we Gardena ingear dagum, theod cyninga thrim gefrunon" or "Listen!  We the spear-Danes, in days past, whose mighty kings you have heard of..." Clever.