The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Hide John Wick! It's Vikings and Knights (a bit of a reference to Monty Python, and you know how he... ah, forget about it)!

Okay, it's not that bad. The Ashen Knight & Wolves of the Sea manage to present their subjects (Knights and Vikings) in a very straight faced manner, but not boring.

After all, Knights and Vikings are two of the cooler player character types in a Dark Ages game. They're two staples of any mediaeval type role playing game (I refer you to Unearthed Arcana, the Cavalier and the Barbarian. Now snap out of it, you're getting that far off nostalgic gaze).

Wolves of the Sea does a great job of putting across the world of the Norse Raiders. I approached this book mostly as an ignoramus. I mean, you don't learn a lot about Vikings in my curriculum, and my interest was pretty low. To be deadly honest, I learned pretty much all I know about them from BugsBunny cartoons and The Mighty Thor comic books. And the Newfoundland Bureau of Tourism.

Wolves of the Sea did a pretty good job of filling me in on the lifestyle of the Norsemen. No horned helmets, for one thing (except, apparently, on the cover. Ah, well, RKF can be forgiven any sin). The Vikings were rapacious capitalists, for another. The book spreads a lot of info through its pages about the Viking lifestyle, including one rather disappointing tidbit that it had pretty much come to an end 150 years before the time Vampire: The Dark Ages is set.

The info of historical utility is good, but the game data is what we've really come for. There's a lot of info on running a vampiric Vikings. Which makes a lot of sense; who else would still be pillaging the seas than an immortal who can't quite get over it. It also gives you a way to handle the fact the Viking vampire's habitat is, several months of the year, a place with 20-hour days.

Mechanically, we're gifted with a pair of new paths for Viking vampires to follow (the Road of the Einherjar, which basically means "you are a dead Viking", and the Road of the Aesirgard, which means "you are a dead Viking who talks to Odin a lot".

Wolves of the Sea bears a wonderful array of artwork, sporting illustrations by Richard Kane Ferguson, Brian LeBlanc, and Ron Spencer among others. I really like Ron Spencer's stuff, but there's not a bad piece in the book.

Wolves does a great job doing the same thing that Legend of the Five Rings did; giving us a society that we, as people living in the western world on the cusp of the 21st century, find morally reprehensible and making us want to play there. It actually does a better job of it for me than L5R did.

Ashen Knights covers the world of knights. It does a good job of giving us the setting as it really was (or at least as it should have been), and how it would be in a world with the undead lurking around. They do note that the Road of Chivalry presented in the main rules doesn't quite jibe with the way Knighthood and chivalry were, and present an alternate Via Equitum.

The book covers the life of a knight, including some interesting stuff on various knightly orders (including the oh so doomed & stylish Templars) and a breakdown of the knightly virtues. There's also info on how to run knights who are vampires.

It's really as tough as you might think. I mean, these guys had to work during the day a lot, right? You can't do a lot of jousting and stuff at night. You can't watch your peasants working the fields if you'll burst into flame.

The authors do give you a few ways to work around the problems; they do come out and say the vampire knight will want to come up with an excuse (and it better be a good one) why he's never up during the day. Suggestions include courtly vows to maidens fair never to see the sun until you've proven yourself worthy of their hand, or a curse of some kind.

Once you're past that point, there's lots of neat stuff your characters can do. I got ethnic issues with the whole 'Crusades are fun' thingy, but you can crusade. You can also join a knightly order. Aside from the analogues to the real world groups such as Templars & Hospitalers, there's also an order wholly composed of vampires.

The Order of the Bitter Ashes is an interesting bunch of the undead. They claim, for example, to have the Holy Grail. When a worthy vampire drinks from this cup (let me tell you, you have to be worthy. Or you'll explode), you get a holy vampire. They don't have to drink blood (well, not as much as they did before), and most of the things that hurt vampires don't hurt as much.

The Order is constructed very well for a game setting; their goals are to protect relics, help vampires to redeem themselves (or kill themselves), and to kill monsters. There's a lot of fun stuff there, and it practically screams "adventure, adventure, adventure". There are suggestions for character composition while playing Bitter Ashes campaigns (cause all Knights is just a problem waiting to happen).

The Character Creation chapter once again includes fun toys, and let me tell you I love toys. There's even a flaw for playing a knight who's a woman in disguise, as well as one for playing a knight who's a woman, undisguised. I can see how this can cause some brain twitching on the parts of the developers.

Even I, a notoriously bad role-player who'll take points for everything (but I'm not the worst; I will, if you ask nicely, tell you about the time I played in a vampire game where one of my co-players' character actually was a blind paraplegic) found the idea of giving points for what is essentially a good character concept kind of annoying.

That small quibble aside, I do enjoy TAK. Artwise, it does have a number of good pieces, but once again I suffer from Guy Davis overload. He's good, and I believe he may be one of the signature artists for the Dark Ages line, but his style is not to my taste.

The Asken Knight and Wolves of the Sea are two very good books for the Dark Ages line. If you've any interest on using Vikings or knights in your Dark Ages games as PCs or antagonists, they'll do you well.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Wolves of the Sea & The Ashen Knight
Author: Geoffrey C. Grabowski, Jason Langlois, and Roman A. Ranieri (WotS) and Robert Barrett, Bruce Bough, Richard E. Dansky and Wendy L. Gash (TAK) Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Vampire: The Dark Ages Cost: $14.95 & 17.95 ISBN: 1-56504-298-0 1-56504-241-7 Capsule Review by Justin Mohareb on 06/12/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Historical Horror Vampire Gothic	Hide John Wick! It's Vikings and Knights (a bit of a reference to Monty Python, and you know how he... ah, forget about it)! Okay, it's not that bad. The Ashen Knight & Wolves of the Sea manage to present their subjects (Knights and Vikings) in a very straight faced manner, but not boring. After all, Knights and Vikings are two of the cooler player character types in a Dark Ages game. They're two staples of any mediaeval type role playing game (I refer you to Unearthed Arcana, the Cavalier and the Barbarian. Now snap out of it, you're getting that far off nostalgic gaze). Wolves of the Sea does a great job of putting across the world of the Norse Raiders. I approached this book mostly as an ignoramus. I mean, you don't learn a lot about Vikings in my curriculum, and my interest was pretty low. To be deadly honest, I learned pretty much all I know about them from BugsBunny cartoons and The Mighty Thor comic books. And the Newfoundland Bureau of Tourism. Wolves of the Sea did a pretty good job of filling me in on the lifestyle of the Norsemen. No horned helmets, for one thing (except, apparently, on the cover. Ah, well, RKF can be forgiven any sin). The Vikings were rapacious capitalists, for another. The book spreads a lot of info through its pages about the Viking lifestyle, including one rather disappointing tidbit that it had pretty much come to an end 150 years before the time Vampire: The Dark Ages is set. The info of historical utility is good, but the game data is what we've really come for. There's a lot of info on running a vampiric Vikings. Which makes a lot of sense; who else would still be pillaging the seas than an immortal who can't quite get over it. It also gives you a way to handle the fact the Viking vampire's habitat is, several months of the year, a place with 20-hour days. Mechanically, we're gifted with a pair of new paths for Viking vampires to follow (the Road of the Einherjar, which basically means "you are a dead Viking", and the Road of the Aesirgard, which means "you are a dead Viking who talks to Odin a lot". Wolves of the Sea bears a wonderful array of artwork, sporting illustrations by Richard Kane Ferguson, Brian LeBlanc, and Ron Spencer among others. I really like Ron Spencer's stuff, but there's not a bad piece in the book. Wolves does a great job doing the same thing that Legend of the Five Rings did; giving us a society that we, as people living in the western world on the cusp of the 21st century, find morally reprehensible and making us want to play there. It actually does a better job of it for me than L5R did. Ashen Knights covers the world of knights. It does a good job of giving us the setting as it really was (or at least as it should have been), and how it would be in a world with the undead lurking around. They do note that the Road of Chivalry presented in the main rules doesn't quite jibe with the way Knighthood and chivalry were, and present an alternate Via Equitum. The book covers the life of a knight, including some interesting stuff on various knightly orders (including the oh so doomed & stylish Templars) and a breakdown of the knightly virtues. There's also info on how to run knights who are vampires. It's really as tough as you might think. I mean, these guys had to work during the day a lot, right? You can't do a lot of jousting and stuff at night. You can't watch your peasants working the fields if you'll burst into flame. The authors do give you a few ways to work around the problems; they do come out and say the vampire knight will want to come up with an excuse (and it better be a good one) why he's never up during the day. Suggestions include courtly vows to maidens fair never to see the sun until you've proven yourself worthy of their hand, or a curse of some kind. Once you're past that point, there's lots of neat stuff your characters can do. I got ethnic issues with the whole 'Crusades are fun' thingy, but you can crusade. You can also join a knightly order. Aside from the analogues to the real world groups such as Templars & Hospitalers, there's also an order wholly composed of vampires. The Order of the Bitter Ashes is an interesting bunch of the undead. They claim, for example, to have the Holy Grail. When a worthy vampire drinks from this cup (let me tell you, you have to be worthy. Or you'll explode), you get a holy vampire. They don't have to drink blood (well, not as much as they did before), and most of the things that hurt vampires don't hurt as much. The Order is constructed very well for a game setting; their goals are to protect relics, help vampires to redeem themselves (or kill themselves), and to kill monsters. There's a lot of fun stuff there, and it practically screams "adventure, adventure, adventure". There are suggestions for character composition while playing Bitter Ashes campaigns (cause all Knights is just a problem waiting to happen). The Character Creation chapter once again includes fun toys, and let me tell you I love toys. There's even a flaw for playing a knight who's a woman in disguise, as well as one for playing a knight who's a woman, undisguised. I can see how this can cause some brain twitching on the parts of the developers. Even I, a notoriously bad role-player who'll take points for everything (but I'm not the worst; I will, if you ask nicely, tell you about the time I played in a vampire game where one of my co-players' character actually was a blind paraplegic) found the idea of giving points for what is essentially a good character concept kind of annoying. That small quibble aside, I do enjoy TAK. Artwise, it does have a number of good pieces, but once again I suffer from Guy Davis overload. He's good, and I believe he may be one of the signature artists for the Dark Ages line, but his style is not to my taste. The Asken Knight and Wolves of the Sea are two very good books for the Dark Ages line. If you've any interest on using Vikings or knights in your Dark Ages games as PCs or antagonists, they'll do you well. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Wolves of the Sea & The Ashen Knight