The Inside Scoop on Gaming

"A Saga Companion", the first boxless supplement to the stellar DRAGONLANCE: FIFTH AGE game bills itself as "A Guide to Telling Tales of the Fifth Age." To a certain extent this is true. The book contains pages and pages of information on using the Fate Deck (the heart of the FIFTH AGE game, instead of dice) to generate story elements, from a character background to random encounters. Also included are a few suggestions on telling "Better Tales" and designing creatures, weapons, spell accessories (like spellbooks), roles, and races.

When I list it in front of me it sounds like the book covers a lot of ground. In fact, the book does touch on a lot of key points a SAGA Narrator would be interested in, but it merely skims the surface. Let's take a look at the facets of "A Saga Companion" one at a time to give you a better feel for the product.

First off, the book has the benefit of being written by the original author of the SAGA Game Rules, William W. Connors. His voice is a comfortable presence throughout the text. He knows everything there is to know about the SAGA system and sounds like it. The only drawback of this is that sometimes, just after he's reminded you how fluid the game mechanic is (he's right) he gives you a definitive rule in a definitive voice. This comes across as too authoritative for a game like FIFTH AGE, but he is entitled.

The problem with his angle in writing this book is defining his audience. The text seems to present information that Narrators familiar with the game will want, in a voice catering to newcomers. It's a touch confusing but, honestly, I'm nitpicking here.

The graphic presentation of this book is up to the standards of earlier books. Clear, easy-to-see text and art, unimposing tables. The cover leaves something to be desired, and I much prefer the brown borders of some SAGA products to the green, but these don't get in the way of the book's usefulness.

Nine pages of suit-specific random encounters are included to support a Narrator in surprise situations. These are wonderful benefits in an emergency and a good guideline to new Narrators. I, of course, don't necessarily agree with the author's notion of what an ideal Eight of Helms encounter would be, but that's me nitpicking again.

A system of tables, not unlike R. Talsorian's "Lifepath," is presented for character background creation using the Fate Deck. It deals out the same wide range of low-key or wildly-exaggerated characters the Lifepath can, and is fun to play with. I feel it would've been better presented in a slightly less-specific fashion, since Krynn is a big place, but I tend to pick nits.

From this point on the book is full of clarifications and rules suggestions which seem to run the gaunlet from obvious to confining. Sidebars contain questions asked by people on the listserve and through Dragon magazine. Several of these questions are from traditional AD&D gamers trying to learn a new game. Most answers seem to mirror the information in the original FIFTH AGE rulebook and could be gleaned through careful reading of that source.

Most of the rules suggestions deal with the creation of new roles, monsters, weapons, and the like. In some cases (such as the worksheets) this information is helpful, but often it seems to straightjacket the beautiful freedom of the SAGA rules. For example, I recently developed flintlock weapons for a game I plan to use the SAGA rules for. According to A Saga Companion, they are not statistically acceptable. Of course, the book wasn't written for a setting using flintlock weaponry, so I just ignored it.

This is one of the early concerns I had with this product: it's very DRAGONLANCE-specific. "Well, of course it is, stupid," you'll say, "it's a DRAGONLANCE book." I simply think, since the FATE DECK boxed product suggests using the SAGA system for other settings, too, that "A Saga Companion" should have been more about the SAGA Game Rules than the DRAGONLANCE setting. But I digress.

My final assessment of "A Saga Companion" is that it suffers from two major problems. One, it is not compatible with what I wanted it to be (nitpick, nitpick, nitpick). Two, it is too late for the book to take the approach it did. Anyone who's been playing the FIFTH AGE game for a few sessions will have learned most of the information contained herein on their own. New Narrators would do well to paruse the book before beginning a big DRAGONLANCE campaign, but if you're clever enough, and have creative players, you shouldn't need to.

Now that you've read all that, remember that this review in particular is heavily based on my own opinion and should be taken with a bag of salt. I like the SAGA system. A lot. I like DRAGONLANCE. A lot. I expect an awful lot from them. I just wasn't the target audience for this book. It's something I'll have to live with.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

A Saga Companion
Author: William W. Connors Category: game Company/Publisher: TSR Cost: $13.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 0-7869-1197-2 Playtest Review by Will Hindmarch on 07/17/98. Genre tags: none	"A Saga Companion", the first boxless supplement to the stellar DRAGONLANCE: FIFTH AGE game bills itself as "A Guide to Telling Tales of the Fifth Age." To a certain extent this is true. The book contains pages and pages of information on using the Fate Deck (the heart of the FIFTH AGE game, instead of dice) to generate story elements, from a character background to random encounters. Also included are a few suggestions on telling "Better Tales" and designing creatures, weapons, spell accessories (like spellbooks), roles, and races. When I list it in front of me it sounds like the book covers a lot of ground. In fact, the book does touch on a lot of key points a SAGA Narrator would be interested in, but it merely skims the surface. Let's take a look at the facets of "A Saga Companion" one at a time to give you a better feel for the product. First off, the book has the benefit of being written by the original author of the SAGA Game Rules, William W. Connors. His voice is a comfortable presence throughout the text. He knows everything there is to know about the SAGA system and sounds like it. The only drawback of this is that sometimes, just after he's reminded you how fluid the game mechanic is (he's right) he gives you a definitive rule in a definitive voice. This comes across as too authoritative for a game like FIFTH AGE, but he is entitled. The problem with his angle in writing this book is defining his audience. The text seems to present information that Narrators familiar with the game will want, in a voice catering to newcomers. It's a touch confusing but, honestly, I'm nitpicking here. The graphic presentation of this book is up to the standards of earlier books. Clear, easy-to-see text and art, unimposing tables. The cover leaves something to be desired, and I much prefer the brown borders of some SAGA products to the green, but these don't get in the way of the book's usefulness. Nine pages of suit-specific random encounters are included to support a Narrator in surprise situations. These are wonderful benefits in an emergency and a good guideline to new Narrators. I, of course, don't necessarily agree with the author's notion of what an ideal Eight of Helms encounter would be, but that's me nitpicking again. A system of tables, not unlike R. Talsorian's "Lifepath," is presented for character background creation using the Fate Deck. It deals out the same wide range of low-key or wildly-exaggerated characters the Lifepath can, and is fun to play with. I feel it would've been better presented in a slightly less-specific fashion, since Krynn is a big place, but I tend to pick nits. From this point on the book is full of clarifications and rules suggestions which seem to run the gaunlet from obvious to confining. Sidebars contain questions asked by people on the listserve and through Dragon magazine. Several of these questions are from traditional AD&D gamers trying to learn a new game. Most answers seem to mirror the information in the original FIFTH AGE rulebook and could be gleaned through careful reading of that source. Most of the rules suggestions deal with the creation of new roles, monsters, weapons, and the like. In some cases (such as the worksheets) this information is helpful, but often it seems to straightjacket the beautiful freedom of the SAGA rules. For example, I recently developed flintlock weapons for a game I plan to use the SAGA rules for. According to A Saga Companion, they are not statistically acceptable. Of course, the book wasn't written for a setting using flintlock weaponry, so I just ignored it. This is one of the early concerns I had with this product: it's very DRAGONLANCE-specific. "Well, of course it is, stupid," you'll say, "it's a DRAGONLANCE book." I simply think, since the FATE DECK boxed product suggests using the SAGA system for other settings, too, that "A Saga Companion" should have been more about the SAGA Game Rules than the DRAGONLANCE setting. But I digress. My final assessment of "A Saga Companion" is that it suffers from two major problems. One, it is not compatible with what I wanted it to be (nitpick, nitpick, nitpick). Two, it is too late for the book to take the approach it did. Anyone who's been playing the FIFTH AGE game for a few sessions will have learned most of the information contained herein on their own. New Narrators would do well to paruse the book before beginning a big DRAGONLANCE campaign, but if you're clever enough, and have creative players, you shouldn't need to. Now that you've read all that, remember that this review in particular is heavily based on my own opinion and should be taken with a bag of salt. I like the SAGA system. A lot. I like DRAGONLANCE. A lot. I expect an awful lot from them. I just wasn't the target audience for this book. It's something I'll have to live with. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)