Review of The Last Days of Constantinople


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This product is in some respects one of the best D20 supplements out there and in other respects the absolutely worst supplement I've seen published by any company.

While billed as an adventure booklet it is much more a setting book with some adventure hooks than an adventure. Judged as a setting book it does a superb job of presenting a more or less historically accurate Constantinople just before it falls to the Turks. While greatly limited by the small page count it manages to give enough detail to bring the setting to life. Various characters and locations are presented in enough detail to add substantial flavour to any campaign set at this time and location.

If you're planning on running a historical or relatively low magic campaign in Constantinople at this time I unreservedly recommend this product. It doesn't matter what system or type of campaign you're planning on running this will be $10 well invested.

On the other hand, when judged as an adventure there are significant problems. The adventure is very sketchy with the GM having to do a lot of work to fill in the details. If you're happy with an adventure framework that you flesh out then this product is fine. But if you're looking for something to run with minimal changes then I'd look further.

The biggest problem is all the D20 rules stuff. I have no idea what game system the authors thought they were writing for but it certainly bears very little resemblance to D20. At first I thought it might be an earlier version of D&D but it doesn't match that either. In fact, even internally there is little or no consistency. Two characters who should have about the same AC have widely different ACs. The errors include skills not having levels, to hit rolls being too high or too low, damage numbers seeming to have been made up, stats ranging up to ridiculous levels (Eg, a CHA of 32!) stats being figured into numbers in an arbitrary, incorrect and inconsistent fashion, etc.

All of the game stats can, at best, serve as inspiration for the GM writing his own stats. None of them can be at all trusted. I didn't see a single character without at least 1 glaring error.

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RPGnet Reviews2001-01-01 Paul Jackson's Summary: Go to the full review for more information.

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