sidkfjjteidlkkf
Mongoose
Just ordered it from FRPGAMES, what is the word on it? COOL as I hope it will be?
Anyone got SLAINE YET?
- Thread starter sidkfjjteidlkkf
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sidkfjjteidlkkf
Mongoose
Can you elaborate? Is the magic in the Companion, Core book, and other books compatible?
Any more combat rules?
CANNOT WAITE!!!
Any more combat rules?
CANNOT WAITE!!!
toothill man
Mongoose
it is very cool and their has been lots of stuff on it on the 2000AD board of this forum see you their 8)
No the magic in the other books are not compatable if you mean can you use specific spells within different system presented in Slaine earth magic nor vice versa. If you want to use the magic as a whole from other books to represent different magic traditions - that should be do able.Koski said:
I haven't read the whole book but other than new skills and legendary abillities I didn't notice any new combat rules. I'll check though and get back to you. Anything else?
Is it out, yet? I haven't been into Waylands Forge for a few weeks. Still, payday on Tuesday, so I might have a look on Friday.
I'm in two minds about whether to buy Slaine, to be honest. Part of me says I'm not interested in a futuristic comic book/graphic novel writeup (I'm not at all familiar with the Slaine background, I am assuming it was based on a comic book/graphic novel, if not then sorry). However, part of me hopes that it is compatible with ancient Eire and can be used in a Dark Ages/Roman Britain campaign with the tribes of Ireland.
Anyone got any ideas of which way it swings?
I've got very limited funds at the moment, so I'm having to pick very carefully what I'm going to buy and Glorantha seems a better bet.
I'm in two minds about whether to buy Slaine, to be honest. Part of me says I'm not interested in a futuristic comic book/graphic novel writeup (I'm not at all familiar with the Slaine background, I am assuming it was based on a comic book/graphic novel, if not then sorry). However, part of me hopes that it is compatible with ancient Eire and can be used in a Dark Ages/Roman Britain campaign with the tribes of Ireland.
Anyone got any ideas of which way it swings?
I've got very limited funds at the moment, so I'm having to pick very carefully what I'm going to buy and Glorantha seems a better bet.
sidkfjjteidlkkf
Mongoose
soltakss said:
Yeppers, sure is!!! Frpgames.com
It claims it is based on the Celts, so I am assuming it will be a supplement you can use in a roman campaign. I know I will adapt some of it (if not all of it) to a Conan Campaign...
But I may just play it like it is...
Big post here with various info for those intersted in the game. Most posted before in the 2000AD forum...
Slaine is a fantasy / Celtic game. The comic it is from (the stories are still continuing from time to time - I hope they will continue further as I hope to pinch the oh so cool art for more books) has futuristic, ancient, modern and horror stories set all over the place. Many of these are truly excellent, others less so. The best Slaine stuff is pretty awesome. The art in the last few stories has been magnificent.
The brief was originally to convert the old Slaine D20 game (which has the background stuff already written) into a new RuneQuest Slaine book - it was originally going to be a 96 pager but I got a little carried away
As such I took as many of the good bits as possible and then changed them to work as well as I could in a RuneQuest setting. As such a lot of the old feats and spells have been converted into new skills, legendary abilities and spells for RQ, plus the monsters of course, with the odd new bit thrown in (a few critters, some background bits here and there, a short, intro scenario).
I plan on expanding the range significantly, but this will take quite some time. I have started working on the next two supplements (one VERY tentatively) already, but it will be some months before they see th elight of day.
Slaine (the comic and game) is loosely based on Celtic mythology, with the various gods, fomorians, tribes, abilities, weapons and the like largely drawn from The Book of Invasion, Cucuhlain, Malbignon (sorry if I messed up the spelling - I am working from memory), Atlantean and even the odd titbit from the Arthurian myths (Merlin (Myrddin) makes an appearance). This is really way before the Romans, before the flooding of Lyonesse - but with some work it could be made to work in a fantasy Romano-Celt setting.
Strictly speaking the only other book you need is the RuneQuest rulebook. BUT the Monsters book I would recommend. The Companion and Legendary Heroes can both be of use - however as Slaine has its own feel to it they are much less useful than the other books. If you have them you might use some of the material therein, however you may decide to use none of the material at all (down to the individual GM - I have used the Companion myself, but I can quite easily manage without it).
Now I must be off - I have to finish the Slaine article for this month's S&P.
Slaine is a fantasy / Celtic game. The comic it is from (the stories are still continuing from time to time - I hope they will continue further as I hope to pinch the oh so cool art for more books) has futuristic, ancient, modern and horror stories set all over the place. Many of these are truly excellent, others less so. The best Slaine stuff is pretty awesome. The art in the last few stories has been magnificent.
The brief was originally to convert the old Slaine D20 game (which has the background stuff already written) into a new RuneQuest Slaine book - it was originally going to be a 96 pager but I got a little carried away
As such I took as many of the good bits as possible and then changed them to work as well as I could in a RuneQuest setting. As such a lot of the old feats and spells have been converted into new skills, legendary abilities and spells for RQ, plus the monsters of course, with the odd new bit thrown in (a few critters, some background bits here and there, a short, intro scenario).I plan on expanding the range significantly, but this will take quite some time. I have started working on the next two supplements (one VERY tentatively) already, but it will be some months before they see th elight of day.
Slaine (the comic and game) is loosely based on Celtic mythology, with the various gods, fomorians, tribes, abilities, weapons and the like largely drawn from The Book of Invasion, Cucuhlain, Malbignon (sorry if I messed up the spelling - I am working from memory), Atlantean and even the odd titbit from the Arthurian myths (Merlin (Myrddin) makes an appearance). This is really way before the Romans, before the flooding of Lyonesse - but with some work it could be made to work in a fantasy Romano-Celt setting.
Strictly speaking the only other book you need is the RuneQuest rulebook. BUT the Monsters book I would recommend. The Companion and Legendary Heroes can both be of use - however as Slaine has its own feel to it they are much less useful than the other books. If you have them you might use some of the material therein, however you may decide to use none of the material at all (down to the individual GM - I have used the Companion myself, but I can quite easily manage without it).
Now I must be off - I have to finish the Slaine article for this month's S&P.
As others have said it is a fantasy Celtic feel to Rq Slaine. You can easily use it to develop a RQ Celtic game. I have thought of using RQ Slaine, the RQ III Vikings suplement and the Monograph for COC that detail Romans for a historical/semi historical campaign, however I like RQ Slaine enough to run it straight. I might add the others to it.
Mongoose Acolyte said:
I'm not that great a fan of comics, to tell the truth. My experience of 2000AD were when it first came out, pretty good, didn't it have a Celtic/Albion Captain Britain character as well as Judge Dread? But, I've not seen any for a long, long time, and haven't seen any Slaine, so I'll probably give the comic a miss.
Magistus said:Where is Simon, with his review?
Well, I went out and bought it yesterday, despite almost constant nagging from Mrs soltakss. It cost 25 pounds, which is a lot more than the equivalent dollar price, so transporting it across the Pond is clearly cheaper than transporting it to Birmingham.
Was I happy I bought it? I don't know, yet.
First of all, let me say that, as I know something about Celtic history/mythology and a little about pre-Celtic Europe, the Slaine world setting grated, for me at least. I don't know if I can get past the fact that Celtic mythology is 1600 - 3500 years old and doesn't stretch back to just post-Ice Age, nor did post-Ice Age cultures have large towns, chariots or ocean-going ships. So, this is a failing on my part, not necessarily on part of the Slaine supplement.
So, what's in it? Chapter by chapter again ....
The cover is colourful and effective, nice font for the title, nice butch Celt with a big chopper. Internal artwork is also very good, in my opinion, but I like dark looking pen-and-ink drawings. There are a couple of maps that cover the Land of the Young and Midgard, so that's always good.
The Land of the Young describes the tribes of the Land of the Young and has a map that gives the locations of the main places. Short and concise, this is a reasonable first chapter.
Character Generation covers Dwarves (not Dwarfs, interestingly enough), Atlanteans, Falian, Finian, Fir Bolg, Fir Domain, Midgard Norsemen, Sesair and Drune Lord Tribes. There is no Rune Magic, so a number of standard RQ professions are prohibited. Characters begin with Geases or Weirds, which shape their character and define what they may, may not or must do, which is interesting. Enech and Sarhaed are also covered, Enech being how much honour a character has and Sarhaed being honour-price. Several other races are then covered, but they aren't included in the character generation table, so it's a bit unclear what professions/skills they would have. Each is given general traits that set them apart from each other. Then Enech, Geases and Weirds are described in detail, which is odd, as it would have made sense to include them a little earlier. However, they are very interesting and would easily fit into a Gloranthan Orlanthi/Heortling campaign.
New Skills and Legendary Abilities contains, you guessed it, new skills and legendary abilities! I'd have made Salmon Leap a Legendary Ability rather than a skill, but the others come straight from Celtic/Scandinavian Mythology. The Legendary Abilities are good, but are a bit bland, in my opinion.
Goods and Weapons covers currency, whihc is Iron bars (sets), Gold Pieces, Female Slaves (Cumals), cows, pigs and chickens. It's interesting to have a game where the major unit of currency is a female slave! Prices are given in one of those cash units, which makes it difficult to work out relative costs without a bit of calculation. Many of the weapons are magical and have special powers, making the descriptions a bit long. Armour is briefly covered as many Celts disdain armour. It brings into mind the scene from the excellent Chelmsford 123 that talks about "Charging into battle with your tackle swaying majestically in the breeze". Clothes are also covered with some specialist items of clothing described. Some of the goods, services and property are useful, with prices for areas of land as well as buildings.
Earth Power covers Slaine magic. Most people start with some Earth Power (EP), which starts at their POW. Spells cost 1 or more EP and Earth Power can be regained or drained in various places. You can also gain more EP in special places, such as a temple or during a battle or through sacrifices. Weirdstones are stones that slowly extract Earth Power from the earth over a long period of time. Weirdstones can be combined into Dolmens and Dolmens can be found in stone circles, or Cromlechs. I found the rules for generating Dolmens and Cromlechs a bit confusing on the first reading. There are a number of spells here, all new as standard RQ magic is not applicable to Slaine. These have vastly differing scales of effect. Slaine magic is definitely in the Crackle-Zap camp. I counted 100 spells, more or less, so there's a good choice. This is quite a big chapter with sections on Ogham, Warp Spasms, which happen when certain people become heroic. Warp Spasms have a number of rolls and cross-references to tables, so are quite complicated. I can see someone attempting a Warp Spasm only for the quick-flowing game to stop for 5 minutes while he works out what has happened to him.
A Guide to Slaine's World covers each of the lands and the tribes contained within them in some detail. To tell the truth, I thought it contained too much detail, but the world of Slaine does not really interest me that much. But it covers Alba, Albion, Cambria, Eriu, The Inland Sea, Lands of the Drune Lords, Borderlands and so on. There's a good section on Tribal Culture, with laws and punishments that could be used in other games.
The Sessair covers the Sessair Tribe. There are 10 pages devoted to them, which is probably a couple of pages more then was needed. This covers culture, clans, traditions, war wives and their lands.
The Finians have 14 pages devoted to them, but I was skip-reading past 6 pages. This covers some of their history, culture and lands.
The Fir Domain have 16 pages and you begin to hope that the other don't have increasing page counts. This covers their origins, traditions, lands, the city of Gorias and the temple of Glastonbury with its associated magical lands. I found this incredibly confusing, to be honest.
The Falians have 13 pages, so at least it is coming down again. This one covers their origins, traditions, tribes and lands.
Lands of the Drune Lords has 19 pages, so the earlier hope has been dashed. It covers the different tribes, lands, cities and temples. The stone circle/city of Carnac has a good writeup.
The Borderlands have 12 pages and cover the Titans and the different lands and people of the Borderlands, those lands that lie between the Tuatha de Danaan and Drunes.
Midgard is the land of the east, and of the children of Voden, with a reasonable 7 pages, briefly covering the people, culture and lands.
Dinas Emrys and the Cambrian Mountains has 3 pages and covers the magical castle that sits on Mount Snowdon. This is quite interesting and hints at a good campaign, but it is only touched on.
Adventures in the Land of the Young covers travel, transport, including Sky Chariots and ships, wind and weather.
Gods and Goddesses of Tir Nan Og details various festivals, sacrifice and describes the various gods and goddesses of the lands. If you are expect RQ-style full writeups then you'll be disappointed as these only have the briefest of descriptions, due to lack of space. Perhaps if they'd have cut down the page count of the preceding sections they could have fleshed out the cults a bit more. 12 deities are covered here, but there are omissions. Epona, for instance, has a spell in her name but is not described here. This briefly touches on the El Worlds, underworlds that are briefly described.
Bestiary is, as expected, a listing of monsters. These are not your bears, lions and broos, but are really nasty critters. Undead wights, dragons, Fomorians, the Fey, Hags, Ghosts and Demons can be found here. They are nasty critters to scare your players with.
Campaigns in Tir Nan Ogcovers Seasonal Adventuring, Enech Revisited, Religion, Death and Campaikgn Types. Once again, this could have been expanded at the expense of the bloated description of the Tribes.
Finally, and will wonders never cease, there is a scenario! Yes, I'm sure you've heard of them, but they are so rare in Mongoose RQ supplements that it's a wonder to find them. This one has the PCs defending against a cattle raid and chasing the raiders, ho, hum. The NPC opponents are beginning characters with no Geases, Weirds, Spells or flavour of any kind. In fact they wouldn't look amiss in a generic RQ supplement or even as NPC raiders in Glorantha, if you added a cult or even made them Orlanth lay members.
So, all in all, what did I think? Ignoring the fact that I don't like the background, my opinions are mixed. There is a lot of dull background for the tribes, the mythology is poorly fleshed out, the scenario is so-so. The skills and spells are good, the Bestiary offers plenty of scope for scaring PCs, currency is funny, Warping is interesting but over-complicated, Enech and Sarhaerd is ecellent and well described.
Did it make me want to play in Slaine? Not at all. In fact, it actively made me NOT want to play in Slaine.
Could I use it in an Alternate Earth setting? Yes. with a lot of work. You'd have to use the skills and spells in a cult context with standard RQ magic. The Bestiary could be used as could some of the locations. The Glastonbury writeup is so bad as to be unusable. Earth Power is a nice idea and the rules for Dolmens and Cromlechs could well work in Alternate Earth.
What is it missing? Notable NPCs, with stats and descriptions. Proper writeups of Deities. Examples of how dolmens etc are used. Battle rules, bearing in mind that you can summon hordes of goblins etc for battle, you couldn't then run a battle.
Now, the crunch, would I recommend it? Not particularly, I am afraid. It's very pretty, the artwork is very good and reflects the setting, but artwork is something I don't really rate highly when purchasing a supplement. If you want to run a Slaine game using RQ, then obviously this is worth buying. If you want to run a Celtic Game using Slaine, then this is less worth buying, but would be useful. If you want to buy it and have lots of money to spend then go ahead. But, if you have a choice between buying this or something else, then I wouldn't bother.
I'd give it a C+, Slightly Better than Average, Buyability 55%.
Sorry.
Agentorange
Mongoose
Simon has touched on something that has really put me off buying the Runequest stuff, namely: the price. I find the books to be incredibly expensive. Considering that Mongoose are a British company I really can't see how it can that much more expensive to sell a gamebook in Britain than America. Does paper really cost that much more here ?
I realise I might be showing extreme naivity by saying that. But look at the dollar versus pound rate, then look at the respective prices of the product. I can't work it out.
Hell, I could drive to Mongoose HQ and pick it up myself !
I realise I might be showing extreme naivity by saying that. But look at the dollar versus pound rate, then look at the respective prices of the product. I can't work it out.
Hell, I could drive to Mongoose HQ and pick it up myself !
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