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The Quintessential Aristocrat
Collector Series
Review by C. Demetrius Morgan
Synopsis
This review is for the 99-page PDF of Mongoose Publishing’s non-player character sourcebook for creating, running, and role-playing Aristocrats. Written by Martin R. Thomas, published by Mongoose Publishing, the Quintessential Aristocrat is currently available from RPGnow for $10.00.
Rating: 5 out of 10 golden apples. However take note of how this rating was arrived at and judge based upon your own campaign level: Useful in High Fantasy campaigns: 1. Usefulness for fleshing out medieval settings: 10. Overall score: 5.
Initial Impressions top
At a glance this PDF looks very well laid out. However the PDF has no bookmarks. That poses a slight problem since the font choice on the contents page looks like a snapshot taken by a soft focus lens. But at least there is a contents page. Sadly there is no index, though there are two pages of “Designer’s Notes”. The document search is functional, which is always good, and you can copy to clipboard. Then again the document isn’t exactly locked against saving it out as a text file, but who wants such a headache? I do have a few complaints about the illustrations, which I outline in the next section, but otherwise this document looks pretty well put together at a glance. top
Summary top
Nice to see Wikipedia is deemed good enough a source reference to be referenced in a commercial product, though it would have been nice to see some cross referencing with established print encyclopedias. I’ve contributed the odd correction to Wikipedia, only to see someone else come along and alter the entry with even more erroneous information. But one can hope. (And, yes, I am aware the Writer’s Complete Fantasy Reference could technically be called a cyclopedia type reference.
However I also have a copy and can attest to the fact the information provided, while good enough for the unknowledgeable beginning fantasy writer, is a bit on the wishy washy side at times.) The illustrations, however, are not so good as slight digital artifacting makes some of the drawings look more like chicken scratch sketches. This is never more apparent than in the illustration on page 21, which is a side view of what is supposed to be an beautiful female elf, but the edges of her nose and face are blocky, thus making her look more like a warty old witch. And I wont even mention the diabolical and devilishly satanic looking Captain Picard on page 27. Oops, I just did! All I can say is: 300 DPI, minimum, TIFFs. That said I would say, overall, this is a nice collection of articles about how to run various types of aristocrats. But there are a few minor issues. How so? Glad you asked. . . top
System: D20. top
Setting: Fantasy. top
Characters: Standard fantasy archetypes. Includes 9 additional prestige classes. top
Additional/Expanded Rules: Provides rules for Status, Building a Manor, various Affiliations, in addition to numerous feats, skills, and related class abilities. top
Introduction - Three pages explaining what Aristocrats are and outlining how to use the Quintessential Aristocrat as a supplement sourcebook in your fantasy game.
Character Concepts - Here are outlined a number of rather mundane and boring aristocrat archetypes such as the Deacon, Industrialist, Diplomat, Merchant Magnate, Military Commander, Academic, Court Spy, and Magistrate. Nine pages. Nine pages of nothing very spectacular or interesting! Granted that is from a DMs perspective, but still. . . Where are the Vampire Counts? Lich Lords? Hierophants? Sorcerer-Priests? Black Knights? Witch Barons? Blood Countesses? Barbarian Kings? Innovative aristocrat archetypes such as these, or templates for them, would have proven more useful to me as a Game Master. Not even a Death Knight? C’mon!
Leadership Among the Classes - Another 6 pages dealing with aristocrat character types and defining them in concise game terms. Essentially this section provides templates of skills and feats to be overlaid on core character classes. Joy.
The Prestige Aristocrat - 16-pages of prestige classes. What you get: Ambassador, Dwarf Clan Leader, Elf Councillor (sic), Gnome Representative, Halfling Sheriff, Imperial Senator, Orc War Chief, Priest-King, and the Sovereign. Did you notice the total lack of Knights? I did. Knights are lower caste nobles, but they are still within the hierarchy of nobles. Where are they? I mean this would have been the perfect opportunity to play up stereotypes and present a Knight in Shining Armor, Black Knight, Green Knight, or even a Knightess. Yet nothing. Zilch. Zippo. Was ist das?
Tricks of the Trade - 15-pages of class abilities and skills. To be perfectly honest by the time I got to this chapter I was experiencing that: “Who cares?” funk that often sets in when reviewing a product that you know could have been so much more than it is. I mean you have to make players care about the character archetypes presented so they don’t feel that reading about negotiation tactics or bribery is a bother.
Feats - 8-pages of feats in the following categories: Aristocrat, General, and Bloodline (Dragon, Infernal, Divine, et al). It’s all fairly medieval.
Tools of the Trade - 6-pages of items (mostly) mundane and magical. I’d say it’s a bit of a let down but by the time I got to this chapter I had resolved myself to the fact this was just a medieval sourcebook and not the full ranged low to high fantasy resource I had assumed it was going to be. So, yeah, this section mostly talks about jewelry, weapons, mounts, games, and other minutia. The items of interest included here: Sash of Command, Mask of Fearsome Visage, and. . . That was it? Yeah, I feel like I had the carpet pulled out from under me too.
Aristocratic Affiliations - 11-pages of class affiliations in four categories: Noble Family, Religious Institution, Guild, and Academy. Did you notice what is missing? That’s right there is NOTHING HERE ABOUT MAGIC-USERS! Any of them. The “Guild” is just the mundane trade and industry type of guild from the Middle Ages. Yes, there are Wizards guilds in most campaigns, but the write up here pretty much associates Guilds with the merchant class. Or rather Wealth is the key factor in Guild membership here. I know what you are thinking, “But that leaves the Academy for Wizard types, right?” Not really.
Reading the entries one thing is woefully apparent, the magic using classes were not even thought of while putting this material together. Wherever they are mentioned it is as if they were inserted into text as an after thought. Nothing here feels like it was really consciously written about them. So where does that leave Witches or Sorcerers? **KNOCK KNOCK** Covens anyone? Those certainly are not Guilds and they sure are not Academies! Where do they fit in, eh? Nowhere!
I think we just bore witness to an entire core character class getting snubbed. I mean if you’re going to include Religious Institution then you are obligated to work with all the character classes. Speaking of which, where do Bards fit in to all this? So, there you have it, two character classes snubbed.
Status - 6-pages of the class ability score called, you guessed it, Status. Status, in game terms, is a modifier that affects various things from Charisma-related skill checks to providing a measure of standing amongst a characters immediate peer group. Very closely tied to social class.
Building a Manor - 11-pages of outlining all that a medieval aristocratic lord needs to know about building a manor. Pretty extensive article, if you are planning to run a campaign during the Middle Ages. If not then this section will be pointless to you.
Aristocratic Titles - 3-pages outlining typical aristocratic titles. Just what every player needs to know about the hierarchical structure of nobility. It’s not as if anyone can easily find a plethora of information on hierarchies and titles listed in any good encyclopedia. You’re not wowing me here.
Designer's Notes - 2-pages, mostly of bibliographical references appended to an author’s note. (Despite the tone above this is a well-put together first endeavor, by the way.) Interesting read.
License - That all-important D20 boilerplate. All hail the D20 boilerplate! top
Appraisal top
Those who remember playing 1st and 2nd ED AD&D will also probably remember that one DM they had who carried around that battered three ring binder full of Xeroxes of articles, optional character classes, and assorted rules expansions. Quintessential Aristocrat is on par with what an industrious DM might have cobbled together from articles collected from various issues of Dragon, and probably padded out with one or two articles from Fantasy Gamer or a comparable magazine dedicated to the hobby. But is Quintessential Aristocrat really worth wasting seven bucks for 90 some odd pages of articles about NPC nobles? The simple answer is that, for those who deem such books a waste site unseen, then yes. This is 90 pages of inanity that are ripe for the armchair industry analyst to piss and moan about while the rest of group sit waiting for the microwave popcorn to finish popping so you can begin the weekly game session of “Let‘s Put the Righteous Smack Down on Troll Evildoers” or whatever it is you crazy kids play these days. What’s that fad I heard about, Umpire the Catastrophe, you still playing that?
However, if you actually like the sort of articles that have appeared in Dragon magazine over the years offering character and rule expansions amidst suggestions and ideas for how to take your game to the next level, then what is found herein can be regarded as a slightly padded out Best of Dragon. Assuming there were enough articles about nobility and aristocrats to cobble together a tome dedicated just to them. Which there probably are. (And I’ve probably just given some intrepid marketing lad at WoTC the spark of an idea. Now go to it lad and don’t forget the royalties!) For the rest of you it’s the Quintessential Aristocrat or Xeroxes. Your choice. top
Negatives: While mundane aristocrats of noble heredity are treated in depth, as are their religious counterparts, there is very little about the sort of aristocrat one might expect to find in a high magic world. I am not expecting a write up for Melchizedek here, but then again that would have at least been something outside the box of medieval character types. Indeed it is very odd to find a Priest-King yet no mention at all of a Wizard-King. There isn’t even a Sorcerer-Priest! Thus, quintessential though this supplement may be for the standard medieval archetypes, it is far from complete for a high fantasy milieu. Which is precisely what the D20 rule set is designed for.
Besides which this is really attempting to present a NPC class for use with PC classes. And that poses a major problem because it creates odd pairing like Aristocrat/Barbarian or Aristocrat/Bard. Aristocrat is something that a character simply is based upon birthright, which would be part of their character background.
Viz. Vornak, Barbarian, Low Noble. In that statement Aristocrat is assumed, everyone knows this based upon their birthright; not that padding out the character sheet with new feats and skill because of it is a bad thing.
When left as an as a stand-alone NPC class the aristocrat does work. But I foresee some minor issues rearing their ugly head during play that may require DMs to adjust certain aspects of the Aristocrat rules, but then that’s rather subjective and problems will likely vary from DM to DM. But I don’t think they can be avoided altogether. top
Positives: Despite the sourcebook being inhibited by a limited historical range there is still a lot to work with here. The Medieval period is the basis of much of what is to be found within games like Palladium Fantasy, Ars Magica, and Dungeons & Dragons. There is included an attempt to sketch out leadership amongst the classes, granted the conclusions made here may not be to everyone‘s liking, but at least the effort was made. There are non-Western titles of nobility included, alas they appear near the end of the section on Aristocratic Titles and could just as easily have been left out, but they were included and that‘s always good. Too, there are gems hidden within the document. For instance the Occult Society Member is one of the Character Concepts, and the associated illustration does elicit a properly curious yet apprehensive response, as matters of the occult should! If you are running a low magic game set during the Middle Ages or any pseudo-Medieval period then this is probably just about perfect for you. top
"I am an aristocrat. I love liberty; I hate equality." -John Randolph
Copyright © 2004 C. Demetrius Morgan
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