Samurai and Slaine, reviews?

[Daithi O'an tSionnaigh]

I cannot believe some of the Slaine hate being tossed about. If your not a Slaine fan I can see this book not being for you. But if your a fan of the comic series and RQ then I would say pick it up and support the line.

The Samurai book is gold and a very good resource regardless what the whiners complain about it. It is a supplement book and those who didn't realize that well...you make the baby Jesus cry.

Both books have their own merits and I own both and they are excellent books. Ultimately you need to get your hands on both and look through them and figure it out if one or both are for you. Asking peoples opinions is one thing but it really means nothing in the long run. Make the choice based on your own personal flip through of the books if you can.

 

[The King]

Moveover Slaine art is probably better that the other books as most are extracted from the comics (at least it was the case with all the D20 books), with excellent pieces of old B/W drawings and great full page colour paints.

 

[soltakss]

I cannot believe some of the Slaine hate being tossed about. If your not a Slaine fan I can see this book not being for you. But if your a fan of the comic series and RQ then I would say pick it up and support the line.

Hate? Not at all. Someone asked for specific opinions comparing Slaine and Land of Samurai. I gave my opinion. No hate there at all. I simply would not recommend buying Slaine.

 

[Deleriad]

For what it's worth I got RQ Slaine cheap last year at Gencon UK. Scanned it once and was completely unimpressed. It was part of Mongoose's flirtation with self-printing and is falling apart already. The fluff was poorly written, the mechanics were dull, the art cheaply scanned in and grey-scaled with no sense of layout. All in all it managed to take an exciting, vibrant, colourful milieu and make it, frankly, dull. Nothing massively bad or wrong about the book, just feels like a hack job.

I also got Land of Samurai cheap, off ebay this time, because I'm a completist. Although it's not my bag, it's well-written, interesting and makes good, creative use of the RQ rules. I know the odd person got it expecting it to be a stand-alone due to a screw-up in Mongoose's early advertising and that's a shame. As a supplement to the RQ core though it's interesting and worthwhile.

 

[hal]

I own Slaine d20 and Slaine MRQ. FWIW the "turgid" fluff is pretty much cut and pasted from the D20 material. Slaine MRQ contains all of the rulebook, most of Tir Nan Og and the Tribe books.

I personally like the setting material, but it certainly helps if you have the comics on hand to supplement this. I think Ian Sturrock's writing is very good.

The only disappointment I had with Slaine MRQ is the product quality. Clint Langley's work is in B&W and printed very dark. It looses nearly all of its impact. The D20's use of the orginal Slaine B&W art was a better match IMO.

The MRQ rules are solid for the most part. There is some issues inherent in the adaption of RQ but overall it presents a version of Slaine that is probably a little more gritty and flexibile, but true to the comics nonetheless. I would happily use either the d20 or MRQ version based on what the players preferred.

 

[hal]

My gripes with this product were mainly rules based. Most of the new skills such as Salmon Leap introduced seemed like they should be Legendary Abilities rather than skills.

FWIW I don't agree with that. In D20 those abilities were feats, which IMO are the equivalent to Advanced Skills. Legendary Abilities are ore in line with Prestige Classes.

Salmon Leap is not an uncommon ability amongst the Tribes of the Young, at least not as presented in the comics.

 

[Utgardloki]

I don't think the Slaine comics are necessary to appreciate the setting. I never read any, but found the setting fascinating. Granted, if I ever ran it, it probably would diverge from the comics in significant respects, but that doesn't matter.

 

[hal]

I don't think the Slaine comics are necessary to appreciate the setting. I never read any, but found the setting fascinating. Granted, if I ever ran it, it probably would diverge from the comics in significant respects, but that doesn't matter.

I agree. However, I think that neither versions of the RPG properly give the sense of visual awe that the comics have, which IMO is a shame.

 

[The King]

The comics are good to give some ambience but you can't expect this from a rule books in such a dense setting or the rule book should have been thicker.
May be they should have given the chronological adventures of Slaine like it was done for Hawkmoon and Elric.