Introduction
Dark Ages Europe is billed as the major setting book for White Wolf’s new Dark Ages line. Unlike the original line –
Vampire: The Dark Ages – this new line shares more with Exalted’s format of providing a series of games using a core rulebook. As of writing
Dark Ages: Mage has just been released as a supplement providing the necessary Mage rules required.
This book is meant to be a kind of multi-purpose overview of the Dark Ages setting, as well as a springboard for the “metaplot” of the War of the Princes. Being part of a larger line one would assume that the book remains fairly broad in its approach to the setting. Unfortunately there is an exclusive bias to Dark Ages: Vampire within this supplement – most references to Mages, Lupines or Fae are cursory and brief.
Visuals and Layout
Graphically speaking the new Dark Ages line is definitely attractive. The layout and text is attractive and easy to read – barring a couple of font issues with subheadings. There were a few cases where the gothic font made capitals difficult to decipher; however this is a minor issue.
Unfortunately the artwork is somewhat mixed in quality – while most of it is very good and evocative, there are some that are of poor quality. One particular example is the full-page picture for the British Isles chapter. A case of poor perspective and scale – the pictures within this chapter look more like fan art.
The general layout is both effective and uniform. Each chapter has the cleaner look of the new Dark Ages line – as opposed to V:TDA’s often over detailed chapter headings. Sidebars tend to be a black background with white text. These are liberally spread throughout the book, but never in a way that interferes with the main text – they also tend to refer to secondary details and usually add to the main text rather than refer from it.
Contents
Europe is a big place to cover – and with only one hundred and eighty pages to fill, the authors have quite a challenge. Rather than handle Europe as a complete location, White Wolf have opted to cover nine key areas: The British Isles, France, The Holy Roman Empire (Germany and parts of Italy), Iberia (Spain and Portugal), Italy, Hungary and the Slavic East, Scandinavia and the Baltics, The Byzantine Successor States and finally Outremer (Jerusalem and nearby areas.)
Firstly the book has an obligatory introduction that gives a short overview of the situation in Dark Ages Europe from a Vampire perspective. Then there is a discussion of the design philosophy behind this book – providing storytellers with ideas while leaving them free to do whatever they desire with the contents. This is followed by a summary of the chapters and a list of useful sources for those who wish to do further research.
The following nine chapters follow a uniform structure. Firstly there is a history of the area, then a discussion of the politics followed by regional summaries. Each chapter ends with a write up of notable Cainites. It is interesting to note that none of these characters are given stats. I quite liked this as it helps make the book accessible for both players and storytellers.
Each chapter also contains two sidebars that detail key mortals and Cainites in the area – although while I didn’t mind the mortals being handled this way, after all a short research trip to the library can fill in any gaps on these, not all the Cainites listed are actually discussed in detail within the book.
Another addition would be the maps in each chapter. These range in quality – the Iberia map is impressive in its comprehensive nature, while the Holy Roman Empire map borders on being useless. It should also be noted that the final chapter – Outremer – has no map at all, which is somewhat remiss considering the area it details.
The quality of the chapters is fairly standard. Each chapter is written in a direct formal manner – much like a history textbook. Rather than having a fictionalised character’s monologue throughout the book, the entire book is written directly towards the reader. Although this uniformity of writing is great considering that a different writer authors each chapter – it is also uniformly dry. There is a distinct lack of character to the writing, which leads it to become uninspiring at times. It is too much like reading a historical textbook rather than reading a game resource.
Long time fans of the Vampire: The Dark Ages series will be please to know that this book does not make any previous products redundant. Each chapter refers the reader to previous publications for more details regarding their contents. Rather the actual material is kind of a whirlwind tour of Europe. Briefly touching on places of interest, the main focus is on the historical progression from V: TDA to Dark Ages: Vampire.
While there is some discussion on life and politics within each country and region, most of the material is history and politics. This means that once a storyteller has chosen a location that they would like to use, they will either need to refer to another storyteller product or do some research of their own. Plot wise, the book covers all the major politics – from Mithras’ Britain to Byzantium following Constantiople’s fall. (Which has a nice summary of the details in Constantinople by Night.)
The Bad
Two chapters spring to mind when I think of what lets
Dark Ages Europe down. Firstly, the Holy Roman Empire; this chapter fixates mostly on historical information and barely on actual setting or location. While it details the background of a lot of the key powers within the region, I felt that it didn’t provide a lot of practical information for using the area.
Next is Outremer. This chapter isn’t as lacking as the Holy Roman Empire, but I couldn’t help but feel that it had been tacked on. The material is fine – especially the information in the sidebars, some of which has some inspirational information – but the layout seems to almost be abandoned here, and the lack of a map is disappointing considering the previous chapters.
Most of all, this book doesn’t feel like a game book. There is very little actual advice on how to use the information in a game. I think the only exceptions to this were in the France and Hungary chapters, which contained some tips for basing stories in their respective areas. The rest of this book is simply an extended alternate history.
The Good
On the other hand, there is a lot of information provided for the storyteller who’s willing to do a little research. Remembering that Europe is a massive place, I feel that
Dark Ages Europe does do an admirable job at giving a brief overview. The British Isles, France, Italy and Scandinavia all stand out as the best chapters in the book. They contain a lot of detail about their areas while not becoming too bogged down in transcribing history.
Even though there are some chapters that didn’t feel comprehensive enough, there is a clear link between each chapter – the politics of each area is shown to have an effect on the others. Also, the attempt to keep previous publications relevant was also a good move in my opinion.
Summary
If you think of
Dark Ages Europe as a springboard for ideas, then it is unlikely that you’ll be disappointed. It covers a lot of information in a tidy formal manner, while providing a lot of inspirational details as well. Although it is a little lacking in all the details – I would have liked to of seen more about the general look and feel of each location as well as more information about non Cainite groups – considering that this would mean a massive hardcover book, especially when there are other books in the line available, I found that it works as a good introduction to the setting.
In the end I chose to give “4” for substance, namely because there is a lot of material to use in this book. It has even gotten me wanting to roleplay Dark Ages again, which to me is a sign of a good book. However I did find it hard going at times due to the dry text, for which I have to assign a style of “3.” Maybe I have been spoiled by such games as Nobilis and Buffy but I felt that the writing needed more character.
For those who are new to the Dark Ages line, I would recommend this book as well because it has enough information to start playing straight away while also helping to show which other Dark Ages books you may want to purchase. Do be aware that to get the most out of this book you will need to do some actual research of your own – it simply doesn’t detail locations that well.
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