Weapons and Assassins is another all game system sourcebook. This one covers weapons and assassins. The book provides the reader with some brief break downs on different assassin cults as well as the weapons that were common to them.
The different organizations covered include The Order of Assassins, the Thugs, and the Ninja. Each section provides historical background information and discusses their history, background, training and techniques. These sections aren’t going to make the reader an expert ninja but will allow the GM to appreciate the training the ninja receives and augment his own ability to describe such actions.
The illustrated costumes provide the GM a quick visual reference as to what such individuals might wear, but it doesn’t define them. For example, a North Indian Rajah, while looking much different than the Hindur or Moslem in Pakistan Garb, has no clothing names to tell people what the individuals are wearing, so you’ll wind up showing the pictures to the players anyway.
In terms of weapons, the common weapons used by each cult are visually illustrated but the section providing information on what the definitions mean is missing. In addition, there is some overlap with the other books in the series as we not only see different types of spears and armors used, but also notes on castles and armor. Not a lot of information mind you but in a book this size, even a little is more than enough. One of the good things though, is because there are so few weapons overall, the impact of not knowing what the terms mean does little to impact the usefulness of the product. Of course, the background information is also stat free and can be used for any system.
One of the more useful aspects is the section on poisons. It’s always good to read about how toxic different plants are and how to use them to finish a target off. The dictionary of assassin terms is useful for picking up some exotic words to augment your game but the old layout style makes it difficult to give it a straight reading as its very crowded together and the reader should have a ruler on hand to do so.
I bought this book almost twenty years ago. Like the other books in the series, this isn’t a rework and needs updating in terms of graphics and layout badly. The text is a little difficult to read in some instances and the layout is bland. The new cover is a great improvement over the old cover and its too bad that the interior doesn’t get the same treatment.
If you need some brief information on the background of real world assassins and the weapons they wielded, then Weapons and Assassins is for you but if you need some detailed examples with tiers and hierarchies done out, you might want to skip over this book.
