The Kingdom of Sartar:
Excellent. Here we have the tribes, cities, confederations and some
useful info on all of them. I don't want a complete list of clans,
even from a single tribe, since stuff on that scale can easily be
flexible. I want to be able to stick my clan in whichever tribe I
want, and make it sport the eccentricities I want. Nice tensions
between the tribes.
Player resources:
Some nice stuff here, to help narrators not wholly comfortable with
how a heortling clan operates. I like the clan/tribal ring
information, although it left me wondering how a tribe like the
Curtali, with their dozens of small clans works. I don't really like
the new Leader sheet - I really thought we'd be past dividing a NPC:s
usage of time into 10% blocks like this. NPCs are "tied down" to four
or six followers. The contest synopsis is an excellent idea, but I
would have preferred the values to be stated more clearly, with
helpers and augmentations seperated, so that the values can be
modified easily according to the situation. Domast Longear's CC with
+141 AP doesn't help me one bit if I have to quickly figure the values
when he's caught off guard and without e.g. his backboy. Oh, and typos
always cause probelms... (*cough* 3W2 *cough*)
Narrator resources:
A bunch of opponents, withs stats and descriptions to bring them
alive. Nice, although I'd have appreciated a few more special
individuals. I guess we'll meet them in OiD etc. There aren't really
any resources apart from character / group descriptions, though.
Clan Activities:
A lot of raw ideas thrown about - not bad, although nothing all that
original, and most of the stuff is just a single sentence description.
Some nice ones too, though, and the in-depth description on cattle
raiding is excellent! Nice basic info on the rebellion, too. I do find
the suggestion to run episodes over and over again a bit strange -
with one skill at 5W, default starting characters shouldn't have to
settle for helpign with nicking just a few sheep. Oh well.
A year of chaos:
Nice, shows how chaos attracts chaos, and how low heortlings can go. A
good design, although I'd have the events end with Gudalulf's death -
after the chaos magnet is gone, things should get back to normal...
Blood feud:
An important subject, but I was a bit surprised with the point of view
provided. We are given lots of info on how to keep a blood feud
raging, whereas I'd prefer to see player characters strive to end such
a thing - after all, that's just what the lunars would like, to see
all our able warriors kill each other... Loose ends here.
These women need help:
This is pretty good - the heroes get to see other clans and tribes,
plus the circumstances are good to get to know the healers. I'd have
prefered more info on departure and returning home - now the heroes
just get a job (no arguments) and get some praise when they return.
The women seem a bit thin, personality-wise, but I suppose that'll
make them easier to bring alive. Ages would have been nice, since
sexuality is given so much (deserved!) thought. And they're all
single! Imagine that... (ho hum)
ps. Is my book defective, or is everybody missing Arra's stats from Harernalda's leader sheet?
Come the hurricane:
Whee-ha. These will be wonderful to feed to unsuspecting heroes! This,
along with references to the battle of Iceland really wet my appetite!
Conclusion:
I love the pictures, and the map of the tribes is quite good enough.
Too much information set in stone is never good. There are quite a few
pictures from KoDP that I don't recognise - got to play some more, I
guess! using the insides of the cover for colour pics would indeed be
great.
Barbarian Adventures is a fitting name. This is a book to help get a campaign going, but doesn't really have much in the form of the big story. A few hints and notes are sprinkled around, and I imagine they'll turn quite intresting in the future, but that's for OiD and the rest of SR to tell. Probably quite useful as a game-aid for running a clan-based campaign, but lacks the charm of Thunder Rebels. Plus I loved the old paperback format.
-B
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