'Vlad the Impaler' comes as a 64-page perfect bound softcover. The cover shows a vaguely effeminate Vlad III Tepes absent-mindedly stroking a cat, while in the background, against a blood red sky, we can see the bodies of impaled victims writhing in torment. These details may be lost on you as your eyes are invariably drawn to the lower left corner, where Avalanche Press's signature character is trying to conceal a slim dagger.

Interior art is either reproduced from historical material (woodcuts, maps and paintings) for the background section, or original art for the fantasy elements. Of the new material I think the Sperlonga cover is best. The pictures of the Moroi (new critter type) look sketchy but serve their purpose. The historical images are well chosen and placed, although I found the reproductions of the maps barely readable. At the back of the book is a more useful area map of Transylvania. The face on the cover doesn't match the historical images of Vlad Dracula (the other face, dammit!). The parts of the supplement that are OGL are either marked by an illustrated border or placed in a separate chapter.

The text is formatted in two columns in readable but not too large fonts. The writing is to the point without reading like a textbook and isn't shy of the occasional joke. After the chapter on Wallachia and the Prince's hobbies I felt like taking a mental bath to wash the blood and mud from my mind. I did notice some minor typos. I was only slightly annoyed by the lack of distinctive section headers and some inconsequent highlighting in the rules section and Part Five starts at the middle of a page. The credits are put into a small box near the back of the book and there seems to be some confusion on how to spell Sperlunga/Sperlonga.

Spoiler Warning: Parts of this review contain information that should be kept secret from people who wish to play in the scenario.

'Vlad the Impaler' is a historical supplement for the D20 system, and can be used as a sequel to 'Last Days of Constantinople'. It describes the 15^th century Balkans and focuses on the infamous Vlad Dracula. The title character, Vlad III is called Tepes (the impaler) and sometimes referred to as Dracula because of his father who was inducted into the Order of the Dragon (Dracul). While checking some of the historical information I noticed that different sources refer to Vlad Dracula as either Vlad III or Vlad VI but found no conclusive answer as to which is right.

The book opens with a description of Vlad III Tepes, his family, his history and his habits. This guy is one sick puppy. The historical detail on Vlad's bloodthirst will be not to everybody's taste, but I think that without these details this module would miss its mark. Without the impaling and mutilating ‘Vlad the Impaler’ would just be another fantasy vampire scenario.

The next chapter gives an exhaustive overview of Wallachia, Transylvania and the Carpathians. Imagine a very dark and gritty version of medieval Europe, where famine, poverty and death don't lurk around the corner but parade across the land in full regalia. Avalanche uses a third of this supplement to describe the land and the people. The economic and military systems are explained and we learn about a special class of noble: the boyar or low aristocracy. Government (Vlad is Boss), religion (Vlad is God), economy (Vlad doesn't give a damn as long as he can impale people) and the Easter Bunny are then discussed. The rest of this section explains the relations of Wallachia with the neighbouring people: German settlers, Turkish invaders and the Roma (Gypsies).

A nice touch proves the guys at Avalanche are aware of the criticism on their cover illustrations and on top of that have a sense of humour. In the clothing section we learn that peasants wore no underwear but "for an example of the underwear worn by the noble women, please refer to the cover illustration". There! No more talking of gratuitous cleavage! This is all historically correct and contextually justified.

(You may want to take my comments in this section with a grain of salt; I am not a D20 expert. I tried to check the validity of this module's stats but if you spot some glaring errors on my part, feel free to correct me.)

For the D20 system there are 2 new Prestige classes (Boyar and Hussar) and two NPC classes (Herbalist and Lautar). There are also a number of new skills and feats. The system for firearms is copied from the Black Flags supplement but adapted to the more primitive firearms of this period. This part also has optional rules for gangrene and amputations.

The Boyar has two new class abilities: Income and Overtax. Income gives an amount of gold pieces a boyar can collect each month. Overtax gives the amount of extra money a noble can squeeze out the population on top of normal taxes. I think this prestige class is more suited for NPC's. It is also unclear to me if the amount of gold in income and overtax are expressed as D&D gold pieces or as Wallachian gold ducats.

The Hussar specialises in horse riding and can get the new Behead feat, which allows the user of a slashing weapon to kill an opponent in one stroke, regardless of current hit points. As most of the prerequisites and benefits of the Hussar are related to Mounted Combat this prestige class would work fine for open country campaigns but is less useful for dungeoneering.

Herbalists are just that. They specialise in plant lore for medicinal purposes. With the poultices they brew they can emulate the effects of some clerical spells (cure, curse, protection from evil, repel undead).

Where Herbalists are this settings poor cousin of the Cleric and the Druid, the Lautar is as close as you can get to a Bard (with some clerical powers). They are the Romanian storytellers who can use songs of power to invoke spell like effects.

This supplement also presents a new type of undead: the Moroi. These are a different, more historical representation of the folkloric undead and vampire. The toughest type of moroi is the Strigoi. This is the Romanian bloodsucker and its template has enough differences to the standard Vampire template to give your players some nasty surprises. But to compensate for some extra special abilities the strigoi (and all moroi) also has weaknesses that, once known, can help overcome these foes. Strigoi can summon and command some animals.

A second type of moroi is the Obru. These vile humanoid creatures eat dung and spread disease. Maybe they are at the source of zombie stories. Obru aren't that powerful undead but they operate independent from strigoi and can be used as a nuisance.

The Vukodlak are a form of dire undead raven. While they too have all the benefits and restrictions of the undead they pose only a minor challenge to an experienced party. To stay within the genre I think I will use these birds to blind the character's horses.

With all the information contained in the first part of this sourcebook it's time for some adventure.

This scenario is written for a party of 8^th to 10^th level characters. It takes place 3 years after the events in 'Last Days of Constantinople' and 2 years after the adventure described in 'Greenland Saga' (both also by Avalanche Press) and can be used as a sequel to these adventures. Some of the NPC's from these adventures reappear here (although the stats and attributes for Vlad and Elisabeth contain lots of continuity errors; this may be corrections of the D20 rules errors for which LDoC was infamous).

While the scenario is structured as a series of timed events it remains pretty freeform without too much railroading. There are no maps of locations or buildings to explore and the events can be adapted to your player's gaming style or power focus. As with 'Last Days of Constantinople' Avalanche offers different outcomes to this scenario. The party has three tasks to perform that are all linked to Vlad Dracula. They must find out the fate of a papal emissary, check on the well-being of a merchant princess and investigate if Vlad Dracula is more useful to the West as an ally against the Turks or dead (and remedy the situation accordingly). A nice touch to the scenario is that for almost every combat situation a non-violent solution is provided.

My main criticism of the scenario is that it assumes that the players know some of the NPC's in advance and will simply accept the mission. There is some work left to do for the GM but this is mainly determining the level of gore and selecting which 'version' of Dracula you will use. There is plenty of material in the Setting section to make this a colourful (albeit dark) experience.

I am also unsure, if you want to use this in a regular D&D campaign, what the power level of the characters should be. The scenario proposes 8^th to 10^th level but I think if you use standard D&D fantasy characters this may be too powerful, especially if the PC's have too much magic. The scenario may lose some of its bite and the setting some of its colour if too many exotic character classes are used.

I somehow feel the historical aspect clashes with the fantasy D&D system, unless players and GM agree on a lower magic level for their campaigns. Maybe my reservations about the new prestige classes stem from this feeling. In a 'historical' setting the Hussar would be a formidable opponent, but in a fantasy environment I think he would lose much of his advantages. I am not criticising D&D or the use of the D20 system for this supplement; I just think that the pure D&D rules are not the ideal choice for this setting. Maybe one day Avalanche will create a D20 supplement that covers all of Europe and the Middle East and has complete and consistent character classes and rules for historical settings.

Vlad III is famous for his bloody reign and this module does not pull any punches. The different ways Vlad has his victims chosen, tortured, mutilated and eventually killed are integral part of the setting and the scenario, to the point it may upset some players. I suggest this module only to a group of mature gamers who are willing to explore the depths of human depravity (this does not mean this module can't be appreciated by immature gamers who can add some authenticity to their F.A.T.A.L. campaign).

Toning down the excessive gore, I will probably use the material presented here to fill the Crescent Empire gap in my 7^th Sea campaign (although according to AEG a 'Crescent Empire' supplement is scheduled for the second half of this year). With a little work 'Vlad the Impaler' could also be used as a new domain for Ravenloft. I haven't finished reading my 'Call of Cthulhu D20' yet, but if you want to run a CoC in the 15^th century I can see a lot of potential for this sourcebook.

Don't be deceived by the cheesecake cover. 'Vlad the Impaler' is a very good and versatile supplement for a very dark historical campaign. Even without the D20 content it’s a valuable source on medieval Transylvania.

I gave Substance a 4 (meaty) because of the clear and good contents.

I gave Style only a 3 (average) because the presentation, while actually very good, does not really exceed the current high standards I encounter in most D20 products.