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Summary

Dark Albion is an incredibly detailed resource for pseudo-historical fantasy England. The writing is solid and thorough. The artwork, while all public domain, was very well chosen and used. The maps were excellent and lovely. The layout, typography and readability were excellent.

While it is mostly suited to OSR games like Labyrinth Lord, Fantastic Heroes & Witchery and Lamentations of the Flame Princess, it is extremely system-agnostic. I plan on using it with Beyond the Wall or even with the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons.

Dark Albion is a beautiful and professional product. I recommend it even if you do not agree with the RPG Pundit's ideology or stance on politics and gaming.

This is a review is of the 277-page, hard cover book. It has a colour exterior and black and white interior art. The book is written by the RPG Pundit with additional texts by Dominique Crouzet. Dominique did the artwork and layout. http://www.lulu.com/shop/dominique-crouzet-and-rpgpundit/dark-albion-the-rose-war/hardcover/product-22249379.html" target="_blank">Mine was printed at Lulu.com.

What's in the book

The Introduction

The introductory chapter outlines what the book is about (obviously). It would make a great quickstart edition of Dark Albion because it cuts to the chase. We get the author's explanation of the basic premise, what kinds of adventures that can be had, and most importantly how the setting mirrors our own real world (also how it differs). Just like the Song of Ice and Fire series, it focuses heavily on the historical conflict known as the War of the Roses. So the reader will see some familiar themes if they're a fan of George Martin's series or if they're history buffs.

There's a great section on the roles of women. The gist of it is that while the societies of Dark Albion share similar prejudices against women as those from real 15th-Century England, there are no limitations on what character classes are available or roles that can be attained by player characters. Basically, female PCs of any kind are entirely plausible in the setting (and many roles that women are explicitly allowed to be, contrary to historical precedence). There are even a few potential story hooks for women as heroes as they defy certain conventions. I appreciated the inclusion of this information: while I assume that many gaming groups can easily handwave away historical sexism, the author went out of his way to specifically talk about it.

At this point I was already hooked.

Gazeteer of Albion

This section covers the country itself: the politics, the cities, forests and places rife for perilous exploration or courtly intrigue.

Much of it mirrors actual locations in the United Kingdom but with enough tweaks to keep it pseudo-historical. All-in-all a very dense and rich resource for a Game Masters. There is so much in this section that it's almost overwhelming. At least, it would be if it hadn't been so well laid-out and structured. Sure there's a great deal of information in here but it's easy to browse.

Another great feature are the regional maps with accompanying notes about each town. These brief notes include essential information such as taverns, inns, population, special locations and even maximum values of purchases or sales made there. This is a great addition and very handy.

For the purpose of completing this review, I read about 1/3 of this section and skimmed the rest. There's a LOT of content. What I've managed to actually absorb was full of rich history and potential adventure hooks. I want to run a campaign in medieval England Albion and encourage the party to explore these wonderful places.

Law & Justice in Albion

This was a lot more interesting than I expected. I tend to gloss over this type of material in RPGs (I never cared how crimes were punished in Middenheim back in the day), but I enjoyed reading this. While it is a pseudo-historical setting, I was very curious about how much of it was based on actual history.

Regardless, what is in here is very usable for a campaign in case the party gets into legal trouble (secular or ecclesiastical). A nice addition to the book.

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History of Albion

What is interesting about this section (and about the Gazeteer) is that we are provided with timelines of events that can take place during the campaign. Things like invasions, changes of rulers and other socio-political shifts that could provide engaging campaign twists. Of special note is the part called "the Future History of Albion" which are events that can take place after your campaign has started. Alternatively, some of these dates could be used to kick start a campaign.

Like the rest of Dark Albion, this part of the book is densely packed with content. I tend to only quickly scan over timelines but all of the bits that I read were interesting enough for me. Basically, a Game Master can refer to this chapter to provide even more adventure hooks or campaign-changing events to affect the lives of the PCs. For example, what would it mean if their home village was sacked by invaders? Or their noble patron dies? Or if the suddenly King decides to hire adventurers to assassinate a troublesome figure out of myth like Morgaine or Vlad Dracula?

Great stuff, but like any history timeline out of any book that I've ever read, a little dry to read through in one go. I see its value as another Game Mastering reference for managing the campaign's flow.

Characters in Albion

This chapter may seem deceptively short (10 pages). But, like the rest of the book, it is densely packed with useful material.

One of the core assumptions about this setting is that it tends to be humans-only, or at least, fudging it so that the rules for other races such as dwarves and elves are used for other human nations, such as the Eirish, Scots or Cymri (Welsh). That makes sense, and it is not jarring to me because I'm quite a fan of using pseudo-historical settings for Dungeons and Dragons—anyone else love those old "green books" from AD&D?

Dark Albion's system of social classes is a very important part in the setting. The idea is that PCs are assigned a social class either randomly (just like character creation in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay in which each PC gets a random starting career) or by choosing one for the entire party to better suit the campaign style (e.g.: courtly intrigue, downtrodden mercenaries, merchant sailors etc...). I like the way that this is handled, especially because the descriptions of each class provides one or more reasons that might kickstart an individual onto the path of adventure. Also, besides differences in starting wealth and prestige, none of them "feel" restrictive. At least from a first reading, I believe that a party of mixed social classes could work just fine.

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This idea is reinforced by the "Prior Event Table" which randomly determines a background event for each character. All of them seem to be beneficial, in the sense that even the darker or sordid ones may provide a mechanical bonus depending on relevant circumstances, or at the very least great plot hooks. Some of these were wonderfully gritty, reminding me of a few characters in the Sharpe novels by Bernard Cornwell (e.g.: miraculously surviving execution; those who know of this reputation firmly believe that the character is considered destined for greatness by God and is a bit more lucky than other characters).

So far my mind is swirling with campaign ideas:

   
• a band of heroic mercenaries, perhaps long-bowmen, finding fame and fortune despite the horrors of war

   
• a group of students at a Wizard's college in Oxford, uncovering a sinister Chaos plot by the professors

   
• a pack of holy Clerics solving murder mysteries throughout the land

   
• a travelling band of performers who get embroiled into a a sinister plot at their latest venue.

Sure these ideas of mine are a bit iconic (or, to be cynical, cliché) but I feel that Dark Albion simply fits a gritty medieval campaign like a glove. If you're a fan of historical fiction in this style (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Name_of_the_Rose" target="_blank">the Name of the Rose, http://www.bernardcornwell.net/books/azincourt-2/" target="_blank">Azincourt or http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258816/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_26" target="_blank">the Reckoning, to name a few), you'll be very pleased.

Lastly we get some nice name generators. They all sound sufficiently authentic. In particular I'm a fan of the Last Names for the Upper Gentry. There are some really dapper-sounding stuff in there that I've never read before; they're as fanciful sounding as any name from an Arthurian tale, Brother Cadfael mystery or Harry Potter novel (I'm not from the U.K., just a boring Canadian, so that might be why I'm so impressed).

My overall impression is positive: this chapter provides some handy and interesting add-ons for character creation no matter which game system your table chooses.

Currency and Coinage

This chapter is pretty self-explanatory. The listings of weapons and armour are without any values other than cost, based on the assumption that they would match those in whichever game system that is being used. All in all very useful to get an idea of what is available and plausible within Albion.

We get explanations of starting equipment based on social class, simple rules for maintaining armour and factors to consider when using firearms. There's material covering wages, costs of living and taxation (great info to fuel campaigns about noble outlaws). Again, all of this chapter is interesting because of all the historical information.

Useful, concise and easy to use. A good chapter.
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Noble-houses of Albion

These are optional rules for managing a household (for noble characters).

There's a nice, simple mechanic to track a house's "ability scores" using three values to gauge their Military, Financial and Political Power. These can be determined in the same way as character generation: by rolling dice. These score are modified by the noble's title (the greater, the better bonus), region of origin and allegiance (to either the white or red Rose).

Included is a table of random, annual events that can increase or decrease these abilities. For example, an army crosses through the house's land; depending on their allegiance (to either Rose) and the army's, their Financial and Political powers can rise or fall. An awful scandal can reduce Political Power. Strangely, I couldn't spot a yearly event that increases Military Power.

Now there are some things that characters can voluntarily do in order to increase an attribute (such as Military). Things like adventuring, political risk-taking or investing. This is all rather well thought out and structured for domain management or political campaigns.

Lastly there are rules for large-scale warfare. I'm not too good with grasping this sort of thing, but it seems solid enough. It all comes down to an opposed percentile roll adjusted with modifiers (off of the Military Power ability score). Again, it seems rather straightforward.

Very interesting and simple system here. I would like to use this, even in other games, to decide the outcome of battles "off-screen", letting the characters deal with the fallout, good or ill.

People of Interest

This rather meaty section outlines special NPCs from the past, present and future of Albion. Whether these characters are actually met in-game or just heard about second- or third-hand, they are all interesting.

Each house is accompanied by a heraldic shield. These are very nicely done, but I wish that I could've seen them in color, or at least had a short description of what they represent. Some are rather elaborate (for major houses) and some are strikingly and charmingly iconic in their simplicity (fans of a Song of Ice and Fire will feel a familiarity with a few of them).

My friend, an amateur student of medieval heraldry, was quite fascinated by the attention to detail. He came across a symbol or two that he wasn't familiar with. We had fun looking them up.

I like having this sort of information on hand instead of hand waving the traits about a local lord in a campaign: even if a group's adventuring scope is narrowed down to one little region. It goes without saying that it can add a great deal of depth to a series of adventures when there's important stuff happening in the background. Sudden changes in rulers, political upheaval or new, controversial laws can really affect the characters' perceptions of their world.

There's an impressive amount of detail and research in this chapter. The only extra thing that I would have liked would have been a few charts to make up new heraldry for noble PCs. Something for a future supplement, perhaps?

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Sorcery and Secrets

A chapter covering magic and miracles, demons and summoning rituals. The "feel" of it makes me think of the Ars Goetia: sorcerous lore from the Lesser Key of Solomon that describes the evocations of a list of 72 demons.

Even the most pure-hearted Lawful Clerics and Magisters can summon and make pacts with demons for good reasons. Doing things for selfish or evil reasons has repercussions, both in the "real" world and in the spiritual sense. Some of the more sinister aspects of summoning magic are handled very tastefully here, unlike some other OSR books that go into extremely disturbing detail (this ain't no Carcosa!). Also, it is very clear that things such as human sacrifice are explicitly awful and aligned with Chaos. On that note, the only supernatural effect that requires human sacrifice is the one that produces bountiful crops: this is a familiar trope found in fiction and myth (the Wicker Man, for example). To summarize, there's nothing in here that is distasteful or upsetting, despite the big, bold headings (eg.: "Principles of Demonology") and medieval woodcuts of animal-faced devils. As an aside, I had fun reading this chapter on the bus the other morning, wondering what the people next to me were thinking as they took a peek...

There are great lists of demonic powers that can be used upon a successful binding. These are all fun and very thematic: stuff like "Spoil Harvest" or causing a Lord to make a sudden, terrible mistake. These are far more subtle than other standard fantasy "big magic" but have far more potential to create hugely important campaign-changing events. War campaigns or sieges can be easily won or lost, marriages can be created or shattered, important naval convoys can be wiped out or arrive early. It's all very epic to me; the stuff of myth and legend.

The only thing I didn't find were lists of proposed mutations for Chaos-aligned magic users. I've got plenty of other books to mine for ideas, of course (WFRP's Slaves to Darkness, for example), but I think that it would've been a nice inclusion, especially if inspired by historical precedence as the rest of the book.

There are recommended spell lists for Clerics and Magicians. Flashy, vulgar attack spells (e.g.: Fireball, Lightning Bolt, etc.) are omitted, and the spell lists of each class do not ever overlap. Thus, Clerics and Magicians have clearly distinct roles and uses. So far so good, it makes sense.

Lastly we get a section about magic items, potions and poisons. Also, information on how to create them (a difficult, time consuming and potentially expense task). As expected from a low-magic setting, magic items are very rare, extremely valuable and unique. There are no magic shops and trading or gifting enchanted items can have a huge impact on relationships and alliances.

There are some great lists of example magic items, all very thematic adventure fodder, especially the Spear of Longinus Mithras, which is in several pieces and scattered throughout the world: now that's a backbone for a solid campaign if I ever saw one!

The lists of alchemical potions and poisons are all really fun and engrossing. No standard fantasy fare in here; all of them are potent and inspired from real world (occult) herbalism and alchemy. As stated earlier, I'm more of a fan of mythology and occultism from our world than made-up stuff from places from fantasy media, so I'm a huge fan already.

Adventuring in Albion

This chapter is packed with resources for a Game Master. It covers travelling (on roads or rougher areas), encounters (in the wild or in settlements), adventure locations (dungeons and interesting places), creating memorable scenes at special locations or events (such as at courtly, at a fair or tourney) and some decent floor-plans and descriptions of forts at Hadrian's wall (much more impressive and huge in this setting than in real history: not quite as huge and imposing as in the Song of Ice and Fire series, but similar).

Travelling across Albion

Dark Albion uses a nicely simple system for travel encounters: they're split up whether the party is on a main road (Royal Highways) or on secondary paths (or simply across rough wilderness). The chance of getting an encounter increases or decreases depending on the terrain. All of this is nicely summed up in a simple table that's very easy to use.

The encounters themselves are wonderfully rife with role-playing opportunities and potential plot hooks. None of them mean automatic combat either: everything depends on context and how the part members act or conduct themselves. This is a very re-usable resource for other games, which is another huge bonus of owning this book.

Lastly we get a similar but more brief set of obstacle encounters, such as fallen trees/rocks, rivers or cross roads. Again, these are presented not just as physical challenges for the party to overcome, but also as seeds for other encounters (bridges and fallen trees are great spots for ambushes, wink wink). They're also great for map-generation (in the case of encountering minor rivers).

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Villages, towns and cities

Settlements have been abstracted into three sizes: villages, towns and cities. The accompanying table randomizes the "Current, prevalent situation" based on which type of settlement. This means that some events that would be a big deal in a small town are quite commonplace and unremarkable in a large city. On the other hand, the building of a massive Gothic cathedral is not likely going to happen in a small hamlet.

These situations are varied and useful as adventure seeds. Each one seemed rich and provocative to me but most of all interesting (with the exception of the entry for "Nothing Special"). Even the more brief encounter descriptions provide plenty of fuel for Game Masters to engage the players.

Lastly there is an encounter table which re-uses some of the entries from the earlier one in Travelling across Albion. In addition are a few more urban-themed events. My previous comments apply here (good stuff).

Unwanted Attention

As a bit of an addition to this part is a table that indicates the chances of the party attracting "unwanted attention". This gets triggered after some time passed inside of a settlement and the odds of such an encounter are increased depending on how flashy, vulgar or obvious the PCs are in their daily affairs. This is never good, as per the title suggests. Seedier folk are always on the lookout for a scapegoat and bloody, magic-wielding strangers will likely fit the bill.

Adventure locations

This section contains seven adventure locations for use an a campaign. Four are more traditional dungeons and the rest are more for social interaction and political intrigue. Each type provides some general information and a sample specific place (usually accompanied by a floor plan with numbered references).

I loved these. They're open-ended enough to inspire the Game Master for multiple game sessions, whether the party is hiking in the wilderness looking for potential places to explore and loot or if they wish to stick with cities and society.

All of them flesh out the lore, history and society of Albion. From the trapped and tricky elvish tomb to the Roman Arcadian catacombs lined with skulls on every wall or even the goblin hideout: all were inspirational and great settings for creating dungeons. There's a reason for everything: a history to these places which make them feel more rich and captivating than a bog-standard generic fantasy dungeon trek. The Barrow Mounds in particular triggered my imagination. These sinister, haunted places could be anywhere in the wilderness.

The quality of the floor-plans were good, although the one for the Goblin Warrens felt a bit rough. Still very serviceable, however.

For more social encounter locations we get a military encampment, court and a fair/tourney, each provided with sample encounters, events and possible interactions. Lots of adventure fodder here.

Another wonderful chapter that I can see using outside of Dark Albion.

Appendices

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The final chapter of Dark Albion are three appendices. I admit that I glossed over these rather quickly, but they seem decent enough.

The first is about a specific order of knights. It covers notable figures (and their allegiances to the Roses) and some history.

The second contains some of the author's house rules for OSR game play. I only scanned these rather quickly, but there are some good ideas in here. I'm not familiar with many retro-clones other than Lamentations of the Flame Princess and Labyrinth Lord so I'm always mildly interested in how people have hacked old school D&D to better suit individual play-styles. In particular I was interested in the idea of randomizing benefits gained from levelling up. There are tables for each class that include some familiar things, like increasing hit-points to more unique entries like boosts to unique saving throws.

The last appendix contains extra rules for a particular OSR game called Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. I don't own nor play this game, so I wasn't all that interested. However I enjoyed reading the fluff behind some of the new character classes here (especially the Demonurgist, a class that I'd draw ideas from to adjust magic users in other games to better fit Dark Albion's mythos).

Conclusion

I think that this is an incredibly rich and well-made gaming product. I'm very, very glad that I got a copy. It's a compelling setting that I want to use someday, it contains great material that I can use in other games and it is a pleasure to casually browse on account of it being to pretty to look at (exquisite layout, choice of artwork and readability).

I recommend this book to anyone who likes pseudo-historical game settings or dark medieval campaigns full of history, bloodshed, political intrigue and grim, haunted countrysides. Or if you're simply a George R.R. Martin fan and want to play in a similar setting using your favourite OSR game instead of a licensed product set in Westeros.

An aside

Maybe it's just because I'm listening to a lot of Doom metal music right now, but I have the urge to run Dark Albion as straight-up Europe, with God and the Devil instead of the stand-ins (the Unconquered Sun and Chaos), but that will depend on my players' tastes. Chaos is such an unambiguously evil force to fight against in this setting that no-one except for folks still clinging the 80s satanic panic craze should raise the slightest eyebrow.

Sold!

Technically on the 2nd, but it's in my cart. It all sounds fun to me.

Awesome review, thank you!

This really sounds terrific, and it comes just in time to let me ditch one of my fantasy heartbreaker projects, which has certain things in common with this book. Is this something you think is best played using FH&W, or does it not really matter what sort of D&D-ish rules set you use?

Quote from: Larsdangly;857629This really sounds terrific, and it comes just in time to let me ditch one of my fantasy heartbreaker projects, which has certain things in common with this book. Is this something you think is best played using FH&W, or does it not really matter what sort of D&D-ish rules set you use?

I think that with the mods expressed in the book, you could use any D&D-ish type game.  My preference is for more rules-light variants. The original Dark Albion campaign was run with LotFP.  The next Albion campaign I run is going to be done with the full Appendix P rules (some of which, but not all of which, I used in the original game).

Quote from: RPGPundit;857694I think that with the mods expressed in the book, you could use any D&D-ish type game.  My preference is for more rules-light variants. The original Dark Albion campaign was run with LotFP.  The next Albion campaign I run is going to be done with the full Appendix P rules (some of which, but not all of which, I used in the original game).

Thanks. My only consistent gripe about most canonical pre-3E D&D editions and variants is the super crap chances of success for thief actions. Do these get handled differently in LotFP or FH&W?

Quote from: Larsdangly;857705Thanks. My only consistent gripe about most canonical pre-3E D&D editions and variants is the super crap chances of success for thief actions. Do these get handled differently in LotFP or FH&W?

In LotFP you get a number of thief skills, and then points to put into them. Every skill has one point at first level, and then you get a few points each level to build those up.  The skills are rolled on a D6, so in theory you can end up being really good at one or two things if you don't get good at anything else.

In Appendix P, skills are rolled on a D20 against a DC.  Thieves get a +1 starting  bonus to all the thief skills, and then gain bonuses based on random rolls for benefits every time they go up in level (or they can choose a single bonus instead of rolling randomly).

Thanks. Is your condensed 'Appendix P' rules set included in the Dark Albion book, or do I need to go find it online somewhere?

Quote from: Larsdangly;857747Thanks. Is your condensed 'Appendix P' rules set included in the Dark Albion book, or do I need to go find it online somewhere?

It's the second appendix of the Dark Albion book.

Great! Already ordered, so I'll look forward to checking it out soon.

Quote from: Larsdangly;857629This really sounds terrific, and it comes just in time to let me ditch one of my fantasy heartbreaker projects, which has certain things in common with this book. Is this something you think is best played using FH&W, or does it not really matter what sort of D&D-ish rules set you use?

I'm a bit late in answering this, but yeah: because it's, like, 90% system-agnostic, I plan on using this with D&D 5e or Beyond the Wall. Someday! My players usually get to vote on which campaign setting that we do next.

Quote from: Necrozius;857879I'm a bit late in answering this, but yeah: because it's, like, 90% system-agnostic, I plan on using this with D&D 5e or Beyond the Wall. Someday! My players usually get to vote on which campaign setting that we do next.

Try to nudge them to Dark Albion.

Quote from: Larsdangly;857844Great! Already ordered, so I'll look forward to checking it out soon.

Awesome!

Quote from: RPGPundit;857732In LotFP you get a number of thief skills, and then points to put into them. Every skill has one point at first level, and then you get a few points each level to build those up.  The skills are rolled on a D6, so in theory you can end up being really good at one or two things if you don't get good at anything else.

In Appendix P, skills are rolled on a D20 against a DC.  Thieves get a +1 starting  bonus to all the thief skills, and then gain bonuses based on random rolls for benefits every time they go up in level (or they can choose a single bonus instead of rolling randomly).

Yeah, I really liked the Specialist Class in LotFP and how it's presented. I wouldn't mind seeing a system that allows more skills and uses the D6 mechanic for all skills...

Did you think of doing it this way Pundit? With the use of D6, rather than how you did it?

Quote from: J.L. Duncan;858758Yeah, I really liked the Specialist Class in LotFP and how it's presented. I wouldn't mind seeing a system that allows more skills and uses the D6 mechanic for all skills...

Did you think of doing it this way Pundit? With the use of D6, rather than how you did it?

Yes, I did. In any case, I think that you CAN do it this way.  It's pretty much par for the course.  If you prefer, when I say "+1 to skill x" you can think of it as "1/6 in skill x" and it will work pretty well the same.  The only major difference is that the d20 system adds your ability score modifier, and the other one doesn't.