note: this review originally appeared on the Games Unplugged website.
Barsaive at War is a very ambitious volume, telling the story of how the scattered nations of Barsaive united to drive the slaving Theran Empire from their lands. Starting off with the characters delivering a Declaration of War to be signed by various Barsaivan powers and ending with a final, climactic battle on a grand scale, the adventure anthology tries to encompass a great deal of material. To a certain extent, it succeeds, but not entirely as all of the adventures are ultimately optimistic as far as the war itself is concerned. The backwater and nascent nations of Barsaive effectively steam-roll over the better-equipped and better-trained Theran forces. There is sacrifice on a personal scale, but the nations of Barsaive themselves come out of this war remarkably unscathed. Some major setbacks, mistakes or tragedies would have gone a long way completing the epic cycle that the authors were trying for.
The book contains seven adventures that focus on the war to one extent or another. Each is designed to allow the player characters to be part of history, even if they are not in the lead. Trying to balance player importance against an epic plot is an exceedingly difficult challenge, but the adventures manage it reasonably well. However, while it is perfectly fitting with the genre, more plot hooks beyond “crack team of adventurers are called upon to do heroic deeds” would have added a great deal to the stories.
The adventures themselves run a reasonable gamut of concepts, from political intrigue to espionage and sabotage to straight-up military engagements. Similarly, the NPCs provided for each adventure are complete and reasonably detailed, as one would expect from Living Room Games. Unfortunately, it seems that space concerns prevented the same degree of detailed game advice or intricate character motivations as was found in Path of Deception, but with some work on the part of the game master, the book will prove to be quite a powerful toolbox indeed.
Some of that work, however, involves adding some balancing elements to the story. As I mentioned above, Barsaive at War chronicles the war between frontier nations and their imperial oppressor. The only problem is that the few battles that comprise the war all go entirely in favor of those frontier nations. Through the secret manipulations of powerful beings and the righteous spirit of the free people of Barsaive, the Theran Empire is swept from their land with relative ease, leaving them looking more like incompetent and bloated aristocrats than a fearsome military empire. The only other major flaw was that it may not have been epic enough for some campaigns. The characters are often in the thick of things, but that is always either as secretive operatives or crack assault teams. This is likely to fill the needs of most campaigns, but some groups may want their characters to be the real powers behind the war effort - leading troops, planning strategies and going down in history. This can be relatively easy to accomplish with a little effort into adding elements to the chronicle, but it would have been a nice issue to address with some game master advice and pointers.
All in all, it is likely space that is the book’s greatest weakness. It contains the heart of a good campaign, but lacks some pieces that could have made it a truly great one. With some work on the part of the game master, it can be relatively easily crafted into the legend of how Barsaive won its freedom, and how the characters were in the middle of it all. And legends are what Earthdawn is all about.
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