Slaine is a d20 setting from Mongoose Publishing. It's almost
more a d20 game than just a setting, though it still requires the
Player's Handbook (PHB). In a sense, it's D&D 3rd Edition
with completely different classes and a completely different
magic system (and no alignment). It's a hardcover, 192 page, full
color book priced at $34.95, which is a bit steep (I traded for
it, and didn't notice the price tag until now).
Slaine is based on a comic of the same name, apparently from the
company that puts out Judge Dredd, apparently. I had never heard
of it, but the background of it sounded very interesting.
Basically, Slaine is based on Celtic pre-history. By pre-history,
I mean, well before recorded history, history that we only have
echoes of. Right after the last ice age ended.
It's not 100% Celtic mythology, there's some other stuff grafted
on, like the norse legends, and even a bit of King Arthur (though
that was also originally part of Celtic myths, sort of), and in
this, the Celts are refugees from Atlantis. There's also a touch
of the Cthulhu mythos - in Slaine, the Fomorians of Celtic legend
are like Deep Ones - creepy, evil, aquatic critters who worship
the evil god Dagon.
As mentioned, while it's essentially D&D, it has completely
different classes that replace the standard PC classes. There are
5 new base or core classes (the ones that start at first level
and go to level 20) used in Slaine, and while none are from
D&D, some are similar to D&D classes. The classes are the
Noble Warrior (sort of like a Fighter - get a lot of bonus
feats), Tribal Warrior (sort of like a Barbarian - they 'rage' in
combat), Thief (sort of like a Rogue - they get lots of skill
points and are sneaky), Witch (unlike any other d20 witches,
someone fairly skilled in magic use but also good in combat), and
the Druid (not really like the Druid in the PHB, someone who is
an expert in magic, also something of a priest and scholar).
No multi-classing is allowed, and this seems to be factored into
how the new core classes are built. Some of them are "front
loaded", that is, they get a couple real nice abilities
early on. For instance, the Thief gets the "Jack of All
Trades" ability, which gives him 1 skill rank in every
skill. This works fairly well for the concept of the Thief class
in Slaine, but could be misused by multiclassing (someone could
just take a level of Thief to get that). Similarly, the Druid has
an ability at first level called "Druidic Awe". This is
quite powerful, as requires anyone attacking the Druid to make a
will save against a fairly decent DC to see if they can actually
attack the Druid or not (this is mooted if the Druid attacks).
This ability was apparently meant to make up for the Druid's lack
of skill in combat, but again, fits the Druid concept well.
To mitigate the low number of core classes and lack of
multiclassing somewhat, there are several prestige classes. The
Bard, The Battle Smiter (sort of like a bodyguard), the
Charioteer, the Fool, the Red Branch Warrior (an elite bezerker
type that specializing in warp spasms), and the War-Witch.
There are only 3 player character races. The human (which is
pretty standard), the dwarf (slightly different than the typical
fantasy dwarf), and the "Warped One". The latter is
quite odd. Basically, it's someone that is more or less human,
but are of a special bloodline, descended from Beast Lords. The
reason they are called "Warped Ones" is that one
certain occasions, they have a 'warp spasm', in which they freak
out and get bigger/stronger. Sort of like when Popeye eats
Spinach, complete with steam cloud (no little song, though).
The specifics of the 'warp spasm' (which was quickly called a
'wargasm' in my group) seem to be unique to Slaine, but it's
based on Celtic myths - I've read some of the myths and if I
remember correctly, some of the celtic heroes did sort of go
nuts. It's possibly unbalacing in terms of combat prowess, but
it's balanced overall by warped characters suffering from a major
'geas', which is essentially a restriction - something fairly
common a character can't do.
Because of the fairly primitive setting, the range of equipment
available is fairly small. Especially when it comes to armor.
There are only a couple of types of metal armor, and they are
likely out of the price range for PCs. So this definitely favors
characters with high dexterities. Also as a nice touch, there are
rules to simulate the generally lousiness of iron weapons - they
lose their sharpness fairly quickly.
Also as mentioned, Slaine has it's own magic system. It's
something of a fairly simple spell point system. Each character
(except Dwarves) have Earth Points, which represent how much
Earth energy they have in them. It's essentially a spell point
system - you spend them to cast a spell, and they regenerate over
time. You can also gain more Earth Points by sacrificing things
(this is often necessary for bigger spells). There are also some
fairly length rules involving stone monuments (things like
Stonehenge). Learning spells is done using skill points. There is
a skill named 'Sorcery'. When a rank in that is taken, the
character learns a spell (2 spells for a Witch or Druid). I
thought this was pretty clever, as it allows anyone to learn some
spells.
They also generally require a magic attack roll. Each class gets
a magic attack bonus, just like the regular base attack bonus.
The witch is the best, with Druid second and the other 3 pretty
low. Works basically like physical combat. The spells that aren't
combat/person orientated require a skill roll (there are 2 magic
skills, Bless and Divination)
Slaine spells are somewhat like regular D&D/d20 spells, in
that they sometimes have material components or XP cost. There's
not a huge number of spells in the book, maybe 65 or so.
Including perhaps the most painful spell ever,
"Ligature". Other than that, most spells aren't too
powerful, even the ones with high point costs (and those are
likely out of the reach of PCs). These high point costs spells
can be cast by sacrificing things, most notably animals
(including people), and torturing them first gives you even more
points. So this game is perhaps not for the sqeamish. The spells
tend to be fairly subtle, not flashy like D&D spells, though
there are a couple like that ("Lightning", for
instance, is somewhat like the D&D spell "Call
Lightning"). (There are a couple of editing gaffes in this
section, with notes on artwork placement left in).
Also to fit the genre, there are rules for mass combat,
charioteering, and skyships. The rules for mass combat
essentially scale regular d20 combat up. Individuals are grouped
into units, and the hit points are totaled. Everything else
basically works the same, though it's a bit more abstract when it
comes to positioning. It's also very basic when it comes to unit
types, there's no support for archers (just slingers) or true
cavalry (with lances, they're just treated as fast infantry), but
then, this fits the setting.
The chariot rules seem quite comprehensive, the skyship rules a
bit basic. The latter are mostly for NPCs, anyway, as they
require constant magical energy, usually by sacrificing
animals/people.
There's also a small selection of critters, ranging from normal
animals to supernatural beasties to new races. About 25 pages or
so worth. One notable thing about this is that Slaine gets rid of
Challenge Rating (CR) for reasons I don't quite get (the reason
is explained, but I don't get it).
The production value of this book is very high. It's in color,
with glossy paper. There's a lot of artwork, though it seems
mostly (solely?) from the comics. To me, the title Character,
Slaine, looks a lot more like a professional wrestler than I
thought a celtic warrior would, (there's also this woman with
really odd lips, rectangular isntead of round) but the art is
pretty nice. There's a nice table of contents and index. The
outer margins have the name of the chapter, which makes it easier
to find things (though it's not numbered, and some of the chapter
names are odd, so not much easier)
All in all, this is a great book, but not perfect.
My main trouble is it doesn't give a good feel of how life is
like. For instance, the economic system is explained fairly well,
but I'm confused how it works in practice. Things cost chickens.
But does that mean people walk around with chickens in their
pockets? (Perhaps giving rise to the ancient phrase "Are you
happy to see me, or is there..." and the nickname for man's
favorite organ). And are the richest people chicken farmers? In
my experience living in a rural area, chickens are incredibly
easy to come by. The biggest obstacle to owning lots of chickens
is feeding and housing them. (They're also really really
annoying)
Another aspect left vague is slavery (probably because of it's
awfulness). It's mentioned that as part of the economic system is
the 'crumal', or female slave. But just how common is it? Can
anyone be made a slave? Does the average free person have one?
Just what is the average family structure life? I get the idea
that a person's family is important, but it's sort of skimmed
over. And what is the average home like?
For instance, the game "Pendragon", originally from Chaosium, had a
somewhat similar background as Slaine. It was set in the same
region (British Isles), also fairly celtic, but around the time
of the Arthur and the introduction of Christianity. It provided a
lot of info on the nature of a character's family, life in the
offseason, etc, which are things that it seems that Slaine really
needs too. Slaine does introduce "Enech" which is a way of
tracking a characters honor or more accurately, "Face".
I also really have to wonder - did they really fight naked? I
mean, there is a reason that male athletes wear protective cups,
and they also wear clothing. I can't imagine fighting naked is
plausible. Volleyball, maybe (with perhaps a different way of
serving). But combat? My experiences being naked outdoors have
invariably proven to be both awkward and painful. (Though it is true that back then people were smaller...)
The only other real downside to the lack of detail about everyday
life, is the price. While it's not outlandishly expensive in
terms of the value you get, it's high price for it's page count.
Ultimately, this is a very interesting setting/game, and in my
experience, does have a different feel than regular D&D. Not
a huge difference, but this feels almost Conan-ish or even
Elric-ish (well, maybe more Corum than Elric, particularly the
2nd Corum series). Mongoose did a great job. Very much worth
picking up if you're looking for a grittier style of game.
Review Summary