Fields of Blood has a split focus. The first part is creating and managing realms. The second part is war. There are little bits here and there that you can customize, and sections here and there on how to integrate the book into your campaign. This has been a highly anticipated book with discussion already happening on the boards.
Board Comments and
Comparison Review
How does it do?
It does a good job of providing a quick and manageable system for realm maintenance and a good job of providing combat options for those who want war.
Realms are broken up into hexes. Each hex is 12 miles. Each hex generates resources. Resources can be added to with good old gold as well. Resources are spent on various things like upkeep, raising armies, creating guilds, and other good stuff. A lot of this is customizable. For example, you can start a thieves guild as a gang and work them up to a cartel. You can have mines and fishing fleets, and you can have castles and citadels. In many ways, it reminds me of Warlords or older turn based games as there are seasons which allow you to take actions and to endure random events.
This is all rules material and thankfully, the author has realized that one of the best ways to illustrate how the rules work is through example. He uses Elbion, a rather small, at least as far as some settings like Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms and Scarred Lands go, to illustrated how to hex out an area, what resources are gained from which provinces, how to note the terrain, how to get total production numbers, and how to keep track of upkeep. These sheets are already available as a download on the Eden site, so they're doing good work.
Just like a good turn based game, you can issue orders. These orders are doled out once a week for thirteen weeks, constituting a season. Certain weeks, one and thirteen, have special things that can be done, but most of them can be done on any week. For example, martial actions and roleplaying are done each week. Each season has a potential random event to spice things up.
There are numerous variables that the regent can control. For instance, how much tax will he inflict on his people? What size army will he keep in his lands? What type of governing style does he use? What type of people does he rule over? These questions allow the regent and GM to quickly customize the lands so that no two rulers have to be alike.
The different types of actions are broken up into regent, realm, martial, each one either a full-season, standard or free, each one with it's own cost, and each one with a separate effect on the game. For example, a regent can assign generals, a free type of action, with no cost, with the effect of a 'high-powered NPC' being assigned to the army. On the other hand, you can improve a guild, and increase it's potency for your setting. I like this option as it makes places more magical and lends them more of an air than, “Yeah, it's the White City. What about it?” One aspect of this that went beyond standards if Realm Blessings. Based on sacrifice and the domains in the Player's Handbook, the realm gains special benefits. For example, with Healing, the regent gets a bonus when recovering units after a battle and all healing spells gain one caster level. Good stuff eh?
Now that you've got a realm, you need something to hold it with. That's where the units come in. These units are large, roughly one hundred individuals. More powerful entities require less numbers to make up a unit, and some powerful creatures like elder dragons or solars, can be a unit of one. Now one of the things that may discourage all high level characters from that is how units are handled.
See, it's not individual combat so popular heroes aren't killed when a unit falls. If you're the only thing in that unit though, it's a different story.
The units fall into two types, martial and special. Special units are those weird things that aren't normal troops. Orcs and ogres? They're martial. Mind Flayers and Beholders? Yup, special. There is a conversion process written out for them, and there are numerous examples in the appendix for all the special units, but I'd like to see all of the standard PHB races done up at various level increments since there is some effect on the unit itself. These units have general arm and armor, and if the book ever gets expanded, I'd love to see an optional table for specific weapons.
Many factors are taken into account for units like wound levels, generally two, morale, which can be effected based on race and combat events, how eaisly they take orders, saving throws, movement, and of one of the most important factors, cost. These troops can benefit from training, going from irregulars to regulars to elite, and then be modified by type, for example, light, medium or heavy. Almost like the sourcebook Warriors, they can be further customized with subtypes ranging from arhcers and mercenaries, to slayers and workers. For those not satisfied, they can give their units feats for resource points. Want a group of slayers that's incredibly brave and will not leave one another? Give them unbreakable and brave benefits.
The book allows a lot of customization. Perhaps too much. For example, in my campaign, most of the forces are smaller than 100 troops to a side, usually 40-80. I for example, would never need formations to group units together but for those that do, the information is here.
I said that the game reminds me of a turn based strategy game. In other ways, it reminds me of those old console role playing games where you wander through a field and when you encounter something, it's up close and personal. In this case, when units encounter each other in a hex, that hex is broken up into seven hexes with placement being determined at first by the better commander and then in turns. This allows you to be in a primary mountainous terrain and still have hills or even a river flowing through it.
Some things that I like are that it winks at the D&D rules by not having a wounded unit suffer any penalties. It notes that characters to not have any issues until they are basically dead and since not all of the unit is engaged in battle at once, it's not unrealistic to expect that the flow of combat allows fresh individuals to move forward as wounded ones move back.
Now unit combat is good and all, but players generally want more than a place in a unit. That's why there are new skills like command, and new feats that help characters lay siege to a town or gain skills as class skills as opposed to cross class skills. The prestige classes here are meant for unit combat. Even the living legion, a 'unit of one' so to say, is only for use in unit combat.
This spot could've been increased a little with some other inclusions. For example, while the warcrier, a master of large scale communication, is a good choice for a bard, what about a master spy capable of inflicting random events on an enemy's land with a bonus to the roll based on level? What about a core class based on the fighter with more skill points and more general skills? What about a necromancer who raises who units from the dead and puts them into combat?
These are missing but for those who want their barbarians to become hordemasters, their forceful fighters to become warlords and their mages to become battlefield magus, the options are here. Each one is a five level PrC, and most seem well balanced in a game using these rules. Without them, the classes are still potent, as most of the martial classes gain bonus feats and the spellcasters still gain some caster levels for spells but other prcs who don't sacrifice for these specifics relating to war, will outshine them. With that in mind, I wouldn't mind seeing some general notes for those not planning on using the book as whole. People on the boards know I enjoy the anime/manga Berserk. The living legion PrC is perfect for those using units. For those note though, this hundred man slayer PrC is a fighter with some abilities that can't be used. More utility for all game play would be great. Other things players use, like spells and magic items, are also covered with notes on how they integrate with units and unit combat.
Ironically enough, one thing I thought this book did better than the Event Book by Malhavok is campaign integration. Through the whole book, there are notes on how to role play out different aspects of what's going on in general in the kingdom. Chapter Eight gives you a lot of options in how to use all of these details from converting a standard world in use for Fields of Blood play, to starting a new campaign from the ground up with the players going to outpost colonies as regents. Color me nostalgic, but I couldn't help but think of the old Isles of Dread.
Now for those wondering what battle and realm magic are, they are unit based magic spells that have many similarities to standard spells. They have schools, levels, components, casting times and other standard uses, but generally effect a much larger area and can only be used in unit combat. Want an example? How about Soldiers of Steel, a 9th level wizard spell in the transformation (is that supposed to be transmutation?) that provides bonus to armor class, Toughness and Melee Power. Bad news is that the units can't cross marsh terrain or they sink. Might be something to cast on a unit of 100 trolls as they get ready to move from their swamp eh?
For realm spells, it's much simplier. There is a name, school, level, realm, effect, and duration. These can effect provinces and have lengthy ranges. One thing that was odd to me is that they give arcane it's own realm, but split up divine and druid. Why not a wizard and sorcerer realm to showcase the differences in styles or even a bardic realm?
While the book does have pages meant for copying, if you're reading this review, go to the Eden site and download the material. Easier than folding the old pages and trying to copy the goods.
One thing that didn't scale too well for me are units. The base unit is 100 commoners who go through some upgrades. The bad news is that some other units are also 100 creatures like trolls and minotaurs. The good news is that there are lots of examples and the GM can customize his standard or martial units to his own ideas. Still, the size of a unit is pretty large and those wishing smaller battles may want to do something like Cry Havok which can have 10 individuals to a unit.
Art is done by Dan Oropallo and Matt Morrow which gives the book an consistent feel. Fortunately the art is high quality and lends the book a high energy atmosphere. The cover reminds me of the old Mayfair boxed set, Blood and Steel, and is frantic with movement. The layout is solid two column. Only some of the grayed out boxes like that found on page 111, have darker borders which makes some of the text difficult to read. When dealing with spells and monster unit write ups, it switches to a three column lay out.
Editing for the most part is clear, but there are a couple of sections I had to go back and reread to insure that I understood what was being said. Most of the book is a solid 3.5 in rules set with only a few 3.0 mistakes, which aren't necessarily repeated through the book. For example, when talking about magic, one references call lighting as taking 10 minutes to cast, but in the actual spell description of call lightning, it's got the correct casting time.
The book is an excellent resource for those looking for more than war rules and for those looking for more rules in their war rules. The book offers more than some other supplements I've seen. Tthe different types of spells here, both realm and battle magic, as well as numerous prestige classes, and the examples of standard d20 fantasy material (monsters, spells and magic items),broken down for you, are all useful tools in making the book work for you.
If you need a book to handle realm management and war, look no further than Fields of Blood.
