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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN num: 9781932442380
ISBN number: 1932442383
Label: Green Ronin Publishing
Manufacturer: Green Ronin Publishing
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 320
Printing Date: November 15, 2004
Publishing house: Green Ronin Publishing
Sale Popularity Level: 333073
Studio: Green Ronin Publishing
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Product Description:
Since 1984, readers the world over have followed the exploits of Glen Cook's grey Company. Croaker, Lady, Murgen, One-Eye, Goblin, and a cast of thousands have lived and died as the fierce mercenaries of the Black Compnay have fought, tricked, and - when necessary, fled from - vast armies, powerful wizards, and twisted creatures from other worlds. The Black Company have toppled nations and dynasties, battled the horrific Dominator and his Ten Who Were Taken, faced the insidious Shadowmasters, and more. all this as they traversed the world, searching inexorably for their point of origin: Khatovar, the mysterious birthplace of all the Free Companies. Now, for the very first time, the world of the Black Company is yours to explore. The Black Company Campaign Setting provides everything you need to walk in the Black Company's footsteps, detailing the world, characters, threats, and all the d20 game mechanics needed to bring it to life! Inside this massive time you'll find: A complete overview of the novels, detailing the Black Company's history under the leadership of the Captain, Lieutenant, Croaker, Lady, Murgen, Sleepy and Suvrin. A geographical overview, highlighting and detailing vital setting information. All new rules for defining character backgrounds from priests to harlots. New classes like the Academician, Scout, and Zealot, with adapted classes from the d20 system like the berserker, thief, and wizard, modified to take advantage of the special rules presented in this book and fully supporting the epic level rules. Brand new Skills like Command, Magic Use, and Research. Dozens of new Feats, such as Bushwhack, Vicious, and the Ritual of Taking. Complete combat systems for fights at the characters scale, mass combat between units, and quick resolution army-scale combat. An all-new freeform magic system to recreate the world-shaking spells used by the Ten Who Were Taken or the more modest arcane efforts of the Black Company wizards. New Prestige Classes, like the Oracle, Topkick and Great General. Variant rules for building and maintaining your own mercenary companies, sanity, and magic. Tons of campaign models and campaign sparks to build your own Black Company stories. a complete bestiary of the monsters from the books, including the awe-inspiring windwhales, the horrific shadows from the Plain of Glittering Stone, and the guardian dragon sleeping before the Barrowlands. Game stats for all of you favorite characters, covering everyone from Wheezer and Pawnbroker to Soulcatcher and the Dominator! A complete index of the Black Company members mentioned in the books. Whether you're a fan of the novels or a gamer hungry for a real taste of blood and guts in your d20 games, The Black Company Campaign Setting gives you everything you need to kick start a unique and exciting saga - one unlike anything you've experienced before. You better get ready, 'cause the Black Compnay's recruiting - and they're looking for YOU! Requires the use of the Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook, published by Wizards of the Coast, Ltd. This product utilizes updated material from the v. 3.5 revision.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
The Black Company... the last of the Free Companies of Khatovar. Overall this is an excellent (and obviously essential) sourcebook for someone looking to run a campaign set in this world.
The sourcebook does a very good job of outlining the overall world, as well as laying out changes to the core D&D rules that are necessary to maintain the feel and flavour of The Black Company books.
That said, while thick and full of good information, in my opinion the authors would have benefited by giving the reader a few more examples on how the new systems/rules work, where there is a significant deviation from standard D&D norms. Spell use and magic in general come to mind, as does rules for simulating group combat.
The rules for critical hits are interesting, and, while in keeping with the D&D approach, my opinion is that they are inferior to those rules used in the RoleMaster system.
DMs and players looking for a high magic game will want to avoid this campaign setting... magic truly is something rare in TBC, and while what there is of it can be potent, for the most part there are only minor effects.
All things considered, this is a worthy addition to your D&D library, especially if you're a fan of Glen Cook's The Black Company series of novels. A solid 4/5.
Rated by buyers -
Dark fantasy and gritty realism merge to form a world where you can almost smell the battle fields and seige engines. The classes are unique and the magic system is flexible but deep beyond very first blush. I spent hours just figuring out the basic spells and was amazed at the effects possible and prices the mage would pay to create them. Fans of the Conan novels or Grey Mouser will find this a good fit where magic is terrible and great but not slick and quick like classic D&D. Glen Cook's novels are well studied and the detail is amazing.
Rated by buyers -
Having hated the regular D&D magic system since I very first learned about it, this book offers a wonderful alternative. Wizards don't just forget their spells when they use them once, and none of the magic relies on the basic assumption that your mythology is correct.
Better yet - noone can abuse the system to have a completely broken character before even taking their class levels, and dragons aren't colour coded for your convienence. No elves, no orcs, no dragonkin, no easily available flaming swords.
It even contains a feat to break that spiked chain strategy.
Sadly, as everyone else has mentioned, the editing could definately have been improved. However, that can be overlooked since it really does capture the low-magic grit of the setting in the series.
Gotta love it.
Rated by buyers -
I would have bought this book even if I weren't a D&D geek, because I am a rabid fan of the Black Company books. I read it cover to cover with the compulsive, sweaty-palmed fervor of a devotee, but I can see some problems for most normal people:
The rules make some radical departures from standard 3.5 games, totally eliminating some staples of D&D (clerics, for instance). This has an effect of many other aspects of the game (no clerics? no quick healing...no quick healing, much higher body count). I would not recommend this for the average Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms player. Personally, that's what attracted me to the books in the very first place: no elves, no unpronounceable names, and a sword in the guts will kill even the most beloved characters.
The editing is ugly in places but that's a quibble.
Recommeded for Black Company fans and / or very open-minded d20 players in search of some gritty and grim action.
Rated by buyers -
Clearly a lot of time and effort went into this product, however it could have used one more pass through a independent proofreader. The backgrounds, classes, prestige classes, new combat mechanics, mass land combat system, new magic system, and new masterwork item system are all well thought out and fairly well balanced internally. The power scale of the characters compared to base classes are slightly higher, but this will probably be offset by the lack of significant magic items. Some of the feats and class features will prove problematic, but are significanly in the exception and can easily be house ruled back to balance. After the editing my biggest complaint with this setting book is that it overdoes the epic thing. Many of the characters in the books were clearly epic, but 30 and 50 levels of epic seems wrong to me.
Overall it is a pretty good product that most gaming fans of the Black Company would enjoy.
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