The Inside Scoop on Gaming

**Review**
Anderia by Andrew Cowley.
published by Britannia Games
UKP9.95	USD15.95

[DISCLAIMER - I did some preview work on this work and have a consultancy credit, unpaid of course]

Long ago, in the mists of RPG legend, there was a company called Judges Guild who churned out many supplements and adventures for all sorts of systems, from D&D to Superhero 2044. It was easier in those days, the only truly litigious company was TSR and they formed some sort of peace with JG.

The production quality was rudimentary, newspaper like paper quality and that included the covers whose artwork was crude, but they were fun, relatively cheap and useful. Why have I waffled on about this? Because the hobby could use a J.G. today.

Now Brittannia Games are no Judges Guild, but they seem to be doing their bit to try and produce an easily convertible Generic Fantasy Feudal World, though it is written with Chivalry and Sorcery 3rd edition very much in mind.

The Anderia of the title is a Kingdom from the previously published "Dragon Realms of Marakush" being to the North-west of the Eastern half of that continent, a land where the feudal forces backed by the Church have built a kingdom, though with one, conquered section, they have established an uneasy rule on the heathen peasants much as the Saxons were ruled by the Normans, or potentially how the Pruthenian (Prussian) Slavs were treated by the Teutonic Knights (Hint, there haven't been Pruthenian Slavs around for a while). As if the suppression of the natives wasn't enough the ruling class is split into two factions, an aggressive expansionist one and a relatively peaceful, protective one, (the Red and the White Scarves). This last gives you the nature of the Kingdom as the authors obviously intend intrigue and politics to be a major part of the game that can be played in the Kingdom.

Ok, the book. It is a cardstock covered 62 page centre-stapled book of about US Letter sized paper. The book, like its predecessor, opens with a scene setting story, in this case the resolution of the conflict between Anderian Lords of the two factions.

What you then get thereafter is an overview of the Kingdom and its History, information about the two peoples inhabiting Anderia, a section on the Religion of the nation, the fact that the population is almost entirely Human, how Magic is viewed and used, Trade, Society, Government and Politics, a Gazetteer of the towns and villages, Timeline, Major NPC stats, Creatures, Magical Items, statistics on the various settlements, an areas in greater depth to use as a campaign start and a note of religious holidays. Whew!.

Oh, and a map. Well, you get a few interior maps but the main map is a full colour job about four times the size of the normal page size. However it is stapled to the centre of the book and will have to be carefully removed prior to use. As I noted in the previous product this might be better placed fixed to the inside back cover where it could be folded out from. The map is scaled at 3cm = 50 miles and contains details only of Anderia, though it shows the outlines of its neighbours, and includes habitations, major vegetation types, contours (both at land and at sea) and roads. The map is also decorated by a few conceits, like the Gilliamesque human faced lions climbing up the map key) and is surrounded by heraldic devices of the major families. I hope Mr. Cowley has cleared the use of Heraldry with the relevant Kings at Arms, they take a dim view of Heraldic misuse.

The cover and some of the interior art is done by the same artist, Andrew Hepworth of Edinburgh. The cover is a scene at court and is very good, the only, very minor, complaint being an overuse of shadows to delineate faces. That aside, the look is authentic to (as far as I can tell) early 12th Century Northern Europe.

As stated previously Anderia is a good, solid, old-fashioned sort of Medieval-style fantasy Kingdom. The majority of its inhabitants are Teutonic, blond, fairskinned standards who are living in a world of religious obsession , being whipped up by a succession of charismatic Churchmen. Mages are outlawed and have to live apart in secret. The Knights have the power to dispense the "Low Justice" to his serfs but Knights, Nobles and Clergy have their own, separate legal systems. To maintain their power the Knights keep to Chivalric laws concerning ownership of weapons, especially over the conquered barbarians of the County of Sagrem, who are swarthy, taller, and darker than their conquerors who are denied all weapons and armour, leading these Clan based, rather than Feudal based, people to develop their own system of Martial Arts.

The State Religion is part of a Pantheon but is effectively Monotheistic, centred on Beleryn the Lawgiver, and its Church as being analogous to a Catholic/Anglican model, the Kingdom even having three Patron Saints. This model, with Fighting Orders, monastics and a politicised church even extends to the names given to the various ranks. The ranks of the Laity and Monastics are straight out of our own history so I fail to see why the ranks of the clergy should have been given ludicrous names that are mainly derived from Anglican usage, e.g. Rectovar instead of Rector, Curatant instead of Curate etc when either the appropriate Earth historical names or a complete set of unrelated terms could have been used. However if it is any particular bother to the GM then s/he could always change it.

The sections of Magic, giving the history and the aims of Anderian mages, describes an order, almost religious, dedicated to a spiritual improvement over many lives aided by the Magical Guilds. These Guilds are ruled by circles of what amount to secret cells so that the overall guiding individuals are protected from the Anderian antipathy to mages.

The next sections on Trade, Social classes and Knighthood help give shape to the more exceptional elements of Anderian Society. It has a burgeoning merchant class and thus is developing a need for its own currency, however the merchants themselves oppose this as a standardised currency may undermine the values of those things they measure wealth in. As befits a Fantasy nation there are a number of thieves' guild, each defending territory and seeking to expand them. Pictured are samples of the Guild's secret hand signals and apparently they have their own secret set of signs too. I presume "Deer Crossing" isn't one of them. One thing Chivalry and Sorcery was always famous for and which has been lacking from the 3rd edition so far was the information on the rituals and rules of Knighthood. Well, as Anderia is a Feudal Kingdom there are details on the various stages leading to Knighthood, the types of Knight and also some of their traditions, notable the annual Hunt, used as an affirmation of the knight's loyalty to his lord.

Information on the Government is principally concerned on who fills what post. This is important when combined with the charts showing what each thinks of the others in his/her sphere of influence, as it allows Feudal Politics and Court intrigue to take of. e.g. The Astrologer reports to the Lord High Chamberlain, whom he considers a fading power, and he interacts with the Keeper of the Rolls, a "creep", and the Master of the Royal College of Arms, whom he considers nothing more than a glorified clerk. In turn he is viewed as someone who has influence with the King, a timewaster and someone who should be consulted on frivolities.

The Governance section continues later on in the Appendices with statistics on the populations and main resources of settlements, the rank of their Lords and forces available to them and the names of the provincial officials such as the Lord High Sherriffs of the Shires.

While these sections are good they do have two glaring flaws. First, they don't actually tell you the responsibilities of all these jobs and secondly there is a problem with the feel of the names being used. We are told early on that Anderia's names are typically French and the conquered Barbarians are Saxon or Nordic type names and we are also told that the author does not consider name conventions important. I think he is wrong. Whilst the GM (myself included) may get stuck with a spur of the moment name for a minor NPC and come up with almost anything, the major characters should have established names. It makes sense that names from the same nation will follow linguistic rules that make sense with the language, but Anderia has names from Central/Eastern Europe (Orlow, Fink and Gabrow). Italy (Riselli), Wales (Morgan) and StandardFantasyLand (Zethron Jor, Alba Vedlen). The name of the present King, Alladan, is again a Fantasy name and doesn't fit with the mainstream of Anderia . This may be my particular obssession but when it comes time to write a supplement for publication then surely it is time to rationalise the inconsistencies of a played campaign.

The 12 page Gazetteer list the settlements alphabetically with some bare statistics, some of it repeated later on in the Appendices, with a short description of the interesting features of that settlement. This is very useful giving as it does not only Campaign window dressing but supplying insipration for adventures and plots in the Kingdom. E.g. the village of Hunbert is a centre for copyists of maps. Perhaps a stolen map is to be recovered here or a book in which is secretly bound directions to the mythical lands of Faerie. Or what secrets might the mining town of Tenpeaks hold? Why does its lord maintain an overlarge force of Mercenaries and Guards.

This is followed by a chronology of the Kingdom, from its earliest days when it was invaded from the east, through the wars against the heathens and at other times Orcs to the newer days which seem to promise peace and prosperity. Entries are of the form shown below.

572 Phillepe takes first wife Katharine Arazor. Alladan is born in the same year. A year later the King's brother Charles is born.

Statistics are given for the King and Queen and also for two creatures. The second, the "Forest Truff", is a nature spirit but the first is a eel-like creature that hunts in packs by the fords and shallow places of rivers doing the job delegated to piranha's in our world., Again names become a problem as "Chaos Eel" seems too reminiscent of Games Workshop and not C&S at all.

The Appendices continue with regalia of the realm, sword and sceptre, given as magical items in three versions for Campaigns with High, Medium and Low strength magick. The Sceptre is regarded as a Holy Item. In Campaigns with much magick the Sceptre will have the power to stay that way, in a Low Power it will be treated with as much reverence as if it could and thus the wielder must be Holy else they would be dead.

The next 12 pages that we haven't already covered gives us the Introductory Campaign Area. Although it includes an adventure the author has stuck with describing places and people in enough detail to suggest campaign background and details for the GM. The area is a dying town (Boslon) in the conquered barbarian County of Sagrem. Eg the Hamlet of Krendel produces Good-luck charms to ward off Trolls, suggesting that there may actually be Trolls in the area, and there are areas of Pre-historic heathen mystery.

Summary

In looking at a product like this with a Chivalry and Sorcery "theme" one is drawn to consider how it compares with the classic "Arden". This was a kingdom for C&S 1 that came with 24 US Letter sheets building up into a detailed map of a land about the size of Great Britain. The map is nowhere near as detailed but is very serviceable and nicely detailed Arden had a political situation and a history which Anderia matches. Arden did not have the depth of religion which Anderia, along with Marakush, has. The military information is a dead heat. Arden had more detailed Manor by manor listings of troops and castles but Marakush has enough information to use.

I'd say that Marakush wins, the map aside there is much more information here to give a GM information to base a campaign on and though Brittannia states that the plan to expand on the Introductory campaign area there is enough to be getting on with. There is at least some information on most of the things a GM needs, save detailed street plans.

There are faults. Though the text is well printed on nice, clear white paper without horrendously huge margins there are a number of typos, which is unfortunate as there are no less than EIGHT proofreaders credited. For example in the Foreward (sic) there are at least two (orinal instead of original, verns instead of verbs) and there are others through the book but they are minor and it is easy to understand what the author meant. However with spellcheckers and 8 proofreaders you wouldn't have expected Foreward to get through. ( I now expect to be flamed for typos and incorrect grammar in this).

The artwork, exterior and interior is good and is not overused, with both Mr. Hepworth's and the clipart giving a nice feel.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)