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Mercenaries: Born of Blood

I heard about Mercenaries: Born of Blood well before its original release date, and as a fan of military fantasy like the Black Company and Malazan Books of the Fallen series, this book seemed aimed right at me. Then it was delayed, and delayed, and delayed... during which time I built up all kinds of expectations and also negative feelings (because of the delays).

For this reason, when I finally bought the book, I didn?t feel that I could write a fair review of it. However back in November, the author (Mike Tresca) asked me if I?d write up my thoughts on it, and I decided I?d be interested in doing so. I scrapped two previous versions of this review, so I hope the results are interesting to you.

The scope of the book, briefly, is mercenaries in history, fantasy, and the future, with mechanics for the d20 system - base and prestige classes, feats, new skills and new uses for old, equipment and spells. Unfortunately, due to when the manuscript was written, these are compatible with version 3.0 of the SRD, and not 3.5 or d20 Modern.

First inspection

Mercenaries: Born of Blood includes a history of mercenaries, talks about how companies are formed and organized (with rules that extend the Leadership table for larger numbers, and to cover company budget and headquarters), presents sample mercenary personnel, company codes of conduct, mercenary employers, duties and contracts, and famous mercenary companies.

For fantasy campaigns, the book outlines a simple but effective system to determine how likely races are to be found in mercenary companies, as well as which classes are inclined to sell their services in war. It also has some spells related to contracts and to magical company tattoos which serve as the focus of spells such as Company Contingency. There are also some magical horns and standards, which are welcome as these types of items are often overlooked.

Players of modern and sci-fi settings will find included a system for d20 gun combat and a reasonable variety of guns, grenades, rockets, blasters, and modern vehicles. Many of the feats in the book, such as Crack Shot and Hail of Bullets, are written for this gun combat system.

The book does close with a two-page bibliography (fiction and historical works), glossary, compiled tables, and a full index. Well done there.

In general, I liked most the chapters which dealt with common mercenary issues such as contracts and employers. I found problems with the other chapters, either in the execution of the content or in their utility.

Historical woes

For instance, the history chapter starts in 401 BC, when the rebellious Cyrus hired Greek mercenaries in an attempt to seize the throne of Persia. But Greek warriors had started hiring themselves out as mercenaries hundreds of years earlier. In 650 BC, for instance, king Gyges of Lydia lent Greek mercenaries to Egypt to fight against the Persians.

I also had problems with the included historical timeline. This timeline does extend into an alternate future (based in part on some recent historical events which were resolved differently from our timeline, that is). I can understand altering dates in the timeline to support this alternate future, which is more conducive to mercenary action than otherwise seems likely And there is a sidebar that states out front that events in the timeline have been altered from history for dramatic purposes. But I don?t think that excuses the fact that the dates given for Hannibal of Carthage are off by two entire centuries!

These problems with the historical timeline, and the statement about the alteration of history (which, for all I know, include the medieval events detailed as well) make it untrustworthy and thus not very useful to me for a historical campaign.

On that same note, I didn?t like the way the collection of famous mercenary companies and their leaders were written up. Again, there?s a sidebar about historical details being changed. Now, obviously the real White Company and its leader were not elven, and Hannibal didn?t have magic weapons, but I think it would have been better to present some historical mercenary companies with no fantasy elements whatsoever, followed by some unabashedly fantasy companies, which could still be based on some historical counterparts. This would have provided fantasy and historical campaigns with a few companies that could be used straight out of the book, rather than a larger number which all need work to adapt.

System specs

Moving on to the d20 ?crunchy bits? in the book, I found them a mixed bag. There are two base classes for modern and future gaming, based on the fighter. They seem good, but it?s pretty clear that what they give up (the soldier of fortune gives up medium and heavy armour proficiency) is much less than what they gain (in this case, a bonus to AC against ranged weapons which reaches +12 at level 20, plus 4 skill points per level and a huge list of class skills).

The prestige classes are mostly historical (seven of them) with some fantasy (5) and contemporary (4). Their concepts all seem pretty good, particularly the fantasy PrCs, which have a nice bent for campaigns focussing on warfare. The necrenary, for instance, is a military spellcaster type who specializes in controlling large forces of undead. The illusionary does the same with illusionary troops, which brings to mind the illusions of the Black Company?s mages. And the soul catcher is an obvious homage to one of that series? spookiest characters, presented here as an agent of darkness who attempts to bind mercenaries to her and doom their souls to hell.

However I again have some doubts about balance. For instance, a 10th level stradiot (vicious light cavalry that worked for Venice in the 16th century) gains the ability to automatically decapitate anyone with a successful critical hit with a slashing weapon. Without a saving throw. All I can say is, ?not in my game?!

One interesting aspect of the prestige classes is that sometimes their abilities are defined in terms of new bonus feats. That?s a good idea because it makes it possible for other characters to gain those abilities with a feat. However, they ought to be comparable in power with other feats. I?m not sure that reducing an enemy?s effective AC by 1 when shooting arrows at someone wearing heavy armour is worth a feat, or a bonus of +2 to Balance (only) if you take off one of your shoes! No, I am not making this up; the fact that many feats grant +2 to two skills - and sadly, quite a few of the feats included in the book are of just this nature - should have been a clue that such a feat is not powerful enough.

Then there?s the Master Sniper feat, with a huge list of requirements but which allows for ranged coup de grace strikes against the unsuspecting. I guess that would be okay for a gritty modern-day campaign, but I wouldn?t like to see it used against my PC. There are a couple of feats for genetic and bionic replacements to lost body parts, which are exceedingly expensive. I also have a problem with these being implemented as feats; although a bionic limb which grants bonuses does blur the line between equipment and inherent ability, I see no reason for a character to have to use a feat to get a genetic replacement arm which provides no mechanical benefit.

The skills chapter is also a mixed bag. I?m not sure that close to a full page was needed to expand Intuit Direction (which in 3.5 was reduced to a couple of sentences); on the other hand, the material provided to use Decipher Script to decipher encoded messages is a great adaptation of the existing skill. However, there are some evident misunderstandings with the d20 system, such as referring to having ?five ranks? in a language.

The equipment chapter has a mixture of historical, modern, and futuristic equipment. I don?t really have a problem with the guns and vehicles although since d20 Modern exists, they seem somewhat irrelevant. However, the historical equipment is essentially a rundown of all the weapons, armour, and steeds available in the 15th century. The statistics for different types of armour are generally close to their standard d20 equivalents, and many weapons receive entries that seem just like filler. I didn?t really need to see writeups for light and heavy maces, or one for the arming sword, just to learn what to call such a weapon in the 15th century. I did however like the different versions of the long bow, which would make English archers appropriately deadly (a yew bow does d10 damage and has a range increment of 110 feet, which can be improved by using silk bowstrings) but I think it would have been appropriate - considering the intensive training that went into the creation of those archers - to define yew bows or even all longbows as exotic weapons.

Layout

Whoever did the layout for this book should be taken out back and given a good thrashing. The results are sadly mediocre.

Sometime between when Otherworld Creations released a large preview of the book, and its actual release, the company decided to change its look. The book sports a sort of ?faux manuscript? look with a few fake cracks and paper wear. Chapter titles are in scrolls, and tables look like they were written on extra bits of paper overlaid on the pages. This is fine and pretty unobtrusive.

The tables, however, often suffer from horrible layout. When a prestige class has abilities which improve with each level, for instance, the ability and its value is repeated at each level. That would be okay if it weren?t for the fact that all of the columns in the table are the same width - even ones for attack bonus and saving throws, which could have been quite small. The result is an abilities column which may need as many as 6 lines (for the necrenary at 10th level), when most of the rest of the table is whitespace.

Any time an equation is presented, such as how to total a company?s ?leadership pool?, the problem is the opposite - instead of each factor (such as leader?s level and rank) being listed on a separate line, they all run together, which makes it hard to refer to.

There are also some unhelpful omissions. A castle-like stronghold is detailed in one chapter - but no map is provided. According to the author, material for different time periods was so marked in his original manuscript - but these were taken out. The Polearm Combat feat is simply missing.

Art

There isn?t a great deal of interior art in the book, but I liked most of it. The exceptions I would single out seem to have been done by the same artist - line drawings which seem to have been cribbed from another project, like a woman and giant robot (which suggest a space opera setting not covered by the book) and an anime-inspired oriental warrior. They aren?t badly executed, but they seem out of place compared with the rest of the artwork.

One advantage the book does have on the art front is a fantastic cover. I presume the image itself is by Kieran Yanner; the downcast warriors and women portrayed on the front, as well as the choice of mostly dark tones, are perfect for setting a grim tone.

Fiction

Finally, I?ll note that most chapters in the book start and end with a piece of game fiction split in two. I liked this very much, actually, and thought that most of the fiction was quite well done. The pieces of fiction range from pulp (the first piece included, and in my opinion the worse) to the fantasy exploits of the elven Sir Hawkwood and a couple of secret history pieces featuring Hannibal of Carthage.

Mopping Up

Ultimately, I think that the author tried to provide too much support in the book for different periods of play. If he had focussed on mercenaries for themselves without paying so much attention to the 15th century, or modern gun combat, I think the book would be more generally useful. The cruel truth is that to most people, d20 means fantasy roleplaying, and in a fantasy context all the material included to support modern campaigns is not going to be useful - and if you wanted to play a modern campaign, the fantasy material would not be useful either.

Now, Mercenaries: Born of Blood is a part of Otherworld?s Vergo line, which their website says are supposed to be ?usable in any campaign, in any setting, in any D20 game?. I would encourage Otherworld to focus more on universals in the future, and less on a small selection of specific periods.

I can only give this book a guarded recommendation. If the idea of a mercenary campaign appeals to you greatly, give it a close look at your local gaming store, and see how much of the book is useful to you. Buy it if the price to page ratio of what you consider useful is low enough.

I think that is, after all, how a mercenary would behave.

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