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Thursday 25 June 2015

First Look at the "Dark Albion: The Rose War" Book

I woke up yesterday morning to the VERY pleasant surprise of my mailman dropping off the print proof copy of Dark Albion. Ordinarily, because of living in South America, I'm usually the last person to get copies of my own games or games I worked on.  But Dominique Crouzet's meticulous attention to detail meant sending me a proof copy to make a final check that everything was alright.  So now, I get the book first, and I get to show it to all of you.

Now, the cover is NOT the final cover; the final version of the book will be available in hardcover and softcover formats and will have two different covers, but this cover is not exactly either of the two (though the central "Choosing the Roses" image will be featured on one of the two covers):




The back cover will be pretty much this:



The book is 278 pages. Here it is side-by side compared to the 5e PHB (Albion is the one on the left):


The cat was carefully judging the precise difference, and concluded that Albion is slightly larger.

The interior of the book will be (barring any found and corrected typos) EXACTLY like what you'll get in the final product, so here's the preview:








So, I have some more but I think that's enough for today.  It gives you a good idea of how it looks, anyways.  I have to say it exceeds my expectations!


As soon as I'm done the proof-checking, Dark Albion: the Rose War will be available for general purchase.

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking:  Castello 4K  Collection Canadian + Image Latakia
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24 comments:

  1. jvines25 June 2015 at 15:40

    Now it's a must buy, in hardback no less!

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  2. jvines25 June 2015 at 15:40

    Now it's a must buy, in hardback no less!

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  3. Werekoala25 June 2015 at 16:11

    I will likely never get a second of use out of it, but I'm damned tempted to buy it anyway. Nice work all!

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  4. StevenWarble25 June 2015 at 16:22

    Impressive. I cannot wait to buy this!

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  5. duncan25 June 2015 at 16:26

    So - WHERE will we go to purchase this Magnum Opus? I mean, it's not up on Amazon or anything. Will there be a PDF version?

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    1. RPGPundit25 June 2015 at 22:51

      It will be available on pdf and print (hardcover and soft); the print will be available from Lulu and Createspace/Amazon. I'm fairly sure the PDF will be on drivethru, yes.

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  6. Unknown25 June 2015 at 17:13

    Looks good. Will it be available through Drivethru?

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    1. RPGPundit25 June 2015 at 22:52

      Don't quote me on it, but the PDF I think. The print editions on Lulu and Amazon.

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  7. Doc Savage25 June 2015 at 18:30

    Looks nice. Good layout Good art. Good maps. What's not to like?

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  8. Gordon Cooper25 June 2015 at 18:36

    Beautiful! Well above average.

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  9. RF Victor25 June 2015 at 22:30

    Looks wonderful! :D

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  10. RPGPundit25 June 2015 at 22:52

    Thanks to all of you for your positive comments!

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  11. Dmitry Gerasimov26 June 2015 at 00:06

    Sir, this is awesome!

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  12. Unknown26 June 2015 at 06:43

    Looks great. Just wondering, how easy would it be to replace the Church of the Unconquered Sun with the Catholic Church (well, a fantasy version)? Just because that would be more to my taste.

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    1. RPGPundit26 June 2015 at 13:04

      It would be stupidly easy, as long as you kept the Clerical order thing as-is.

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    2. RPGPundit26 June 2015 at 13:06

      The biographies of the various Pontifexes are based on the historical biographies of the popes of the same era, for example. And I left it largely vague in the book just what the more specific rules of the church are beyond "Law" and "fight chaos". So a GM could make church of the Unconquered Sun look a lot more or a lot less like the Catholic Church, within reason.

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    3. Doc Savage26 June 2015 at 13:09

      Isn't fantasy Catholic Church redundant?

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    4. Unknown27 June 2015 at 10:00

      Thanks Pundit, good to know! Matt Celis: I don't think it's redundant. Other RPGs have incorporated the Catholic Church in their assumed setting. Good examples would be Ars Magica and Pendragon; Dragon Warriors had a 'True Faith' which was basically Christianity with the serial numbers filed off. If I ever ran Dark Albion I'd make the main religion something close to the historical Church, because 1) I like the flavour of medieval Christianity, and 2) it enables authentic legends and folktales to be incorporated with minimal fuss.

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  13. Bill the Elf26 June 2015 at 06:53

    Did you add Smiley to some list of NPCs?

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    1. RPGPundit26 June 2015 at 13:03

      Heh, actually no. Of all the dozens and dozens of PCs and NPCs from the two Albion campaigns I ran, the only one that gets a named cameo in the book is the "three-color knight". But he was from the Yorkist campaign, so you don't know him I think.

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  14. Timothy S. Brannan26 June 2015 at 08:49

    I am looking forward to this one.
    Personally I want to see if it has anything I can use for my own Ghosts of Albion game.

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    1. RPGPundit28 June 2015 at 05:19

      I don't know. It's set like 400 years earlier, apparently. But then, the gazeteer section has quite a lot of references in the various regions of Albion to stuff that is drawn from actual local folk tales and legends, so that might be useful.

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  15. Needles28 June 2015 at 10:54

    I've been watching this book for a very long time and yes I want it.
    The layout looks very good, the demonology rules are easy on the eyes, they seem to be a pretty straight forward affair for FH&W. Now that may seem to be a flippant answer but its a really nice layout for the book. FH&W has a similar layout and use of the public domain artwork but this takes it up a notch. For the setting this book seems to draw you in. I'm very excited by what I see and the book doesn't take any major departures from the FH&W rules on demonology which is something I'm actually relieved to see. Once a DM get's into a certain rules mind set for the occult elements of a game it can be a bit problematic. But from the brief preview I've seen all of the original rule book's elements have been keep consistent and the Dark Albion's additions are just that additions. Layers added onto the main rules that actually add something to the game. Do I want to play in the setting? Hell yes and I'd love to own the rules.

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  16. Selek24 September 2015 at 12:23

    Very good book!
    Whether will be detailed cards of all regions?

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