The Crediton Killings by Michael Jecks

While going through Half-Price books a while ago, I came across several volumes in the Knights Templar Mystery series. The one I did not however, was the Crediton Killings. Bad news as I'd just finished volume three and was eager to start the next one.

Amazon to the rescue. For whatever reason, it's 99 cents right now in Kindle format. So for less then the price of a cup of coffee, I was entertained for a few hours.

Michael Jecks characters, Simon and Sir Baldwin, are becoming old friends. Much like watching an enjoyable series coming back for another season, reading another novel in the Knights Templar series is an nice diversion. 

One of the interesting things that Michael Jecks brings to the forefront of the reader, is how important food is. I've mentioned the themes of famine before, but Michael felt it so important he did a little video over it on Youtube.

I notice that much like the Dresden Files series, that time tends to pass between the novels. As these novels are now numbering past ten, I think maybe twenty in total, I'll be curious to see if that trend continues. It's a good trend though, both in Dresden and here, because otherwise the main characters would be running from place to place and murder to murder. 

In this novel, a street beggar has no one looking after him. A potential care taker doesn't want the child around because of the extra costs of feeding the child. While there are still problems with hunger today, even in America, where numbers range from one in five children suffering 'food securities', it's a real problem.

In addition, there are mercenaries involved in the novel. The mercenaries have numerous leadership issues and motivations run the gambit of who could be committing murders in the town of Crediton.

The author does a solid job of laying down the groundwork for how Simon and Sir Baldwin go about their business of trying to find the murderer and it flows smoothly.

In terms of gaming, it's brought to mind several different things.

Motivations: What was it Ultron said in the trailer for the Avengers? You're all covered in strings or something? People are bound to one another in many ways. Here, the mercenary captain is suspected of murdering three women for different reasons ranging from rage, shame, and even pettiness. All three were 'known' to the captain and his motivations different for each as his own personality is revealed to the reader layer by layer.

Having said that though, there are other characters, like Wat, a fellow mercenary who wouldn't mind being captain, have their own motivations that cause their own appearance of innocence or guilt shine to the forefront.

Having characters that the player's interact with on a regular basis, have their own cache of secrets and motivations is a good way to give the player's an inside look as to how their minds work. Filling in the details of how the character's get along ahead of time and seeing how a husband may be perhaps too doting on a wife, or a child may be looking sickly and frail in one scene and not seen again.... these things lend continuity to the game.

Mind you, in standard dungeon crawls, it might not be necessarily to know the inn keeper's name and what he does when food or ale or running low, but if the player's are involved in small towns and are frequent guests, they may make conversation to find out rumours about locals, either people or local legends. Use those elements to your advantage and lay the groundwork for future sessions there.

The Crediton Killings brings mercenaries and murder to the forefront of the historical novel and does so in an entertaining and quick read.

Kingmaker: An End To The Stag King

The fourth session of Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition finds a heavy focus on finishing off the first book, Stolen Land. This is the first part of the Kingmaker Adventure Path by Paizo. I've done very little actual conversion work, mainly flipping some hit points to a higher total and cutting way back on the experience points that the villains are worth.

For the most part, it's worked out and the players are relatively happy so that's the good news.

There will be some specific spoilers for this volume so if you'd rather not hear those, read no further but know that this adventure took four sessions to finish. There were numerous random encounters thanks to the chart included with the adventure.

Outside of the adventure proper, it includes several new monsters. Two of them, the elk and thylacine, a strange dog-rat animal, were great for background and flavor of the region but others were not encountered yet.

There are also details on the country of Brevoy, a kingdom to the north of the Stolen Lands and some fiction by James L. Sutter. I've read the whole section of fiction that follows the adventurers of Ollix Kaddar through all six volumes and their entertaining but not a lot of depth to them. Good stuff to give you some flavor for the River Kingdoms and to show how chaotic a region it is.

In terms of the group, all six players were in presence tonight. In order to try and get the Inspiration in use, I borrowed the idea of Initiative Cards that I'd seen the Game Mechanics use in the past. I had players fill out index cards with name, armor class, hit points, perception, trait, ideal, bond, and flaw with the hope that having it right in front of me would provide some reminders to give up the goods on those. Worked a little better as two players earned some inspiration but it actually happened at the tail end outside of combat.

Players in presence today:

Erdan: A monk elf. I remembered to bring the Stonehaven miniature this time. Huzzah!

Damai: A tielfling warlock.

Amun Ramas: Druid from the Egypt style portion of the setting.

Gerak: His halfling manservant (rogue)

Naronel: Elf wizard.

Kontos: Dragonborn fighter.

The players wanted to finish off one of the side quests, that of finding the taztzlwyrms. It was an interesting bit as I actually converted those over earlier. Many more hit dice and changing the poison con damage to 10 points damage on a failed constitution save. On the way to find them though, they did have a random encounter of six bandits that were no match for the group, despite the fact I threw in a bandit leader.

Afterwards they made their plans to snake into the Stag Lords fortress. In one of their earlier encounters, they discovered the secret password to get into the fortress as well as captured the special delivery of alcohol that the stag lord is fond of.

They had some good planning and it paid off. One of the lieutenants, Auchs, was quickly befriended by the halfling who played with the brute and earned his trust. Another lieutenant, Donovan, who I took to calling 'Bowie' because his miniature and illustration seems very 'glam' despite you know, being a bandit in a place where you have your own pots, was caught in a distraction that involved freeing 'beaky', an enraged owlbear.

There weren't necessarily any do or die moments for the party in the encounter as their careful preperation paid off. The Stag Lord, noted as an alcoholic in the book, was completely out as the players waited to see if the camp broke out in celebration at the bringing in of the good liquor and goods.

For the adventure, I bought numerous bandits. Some of these were from the Reaper line, some from Games Workshop (Empire Freebooters), and a few I had from various years of playing. I bought Donovan and the Stag Lord. Ugh on both of them. There are so many tiny little details and bits that it's maddening. I did Donovan up super quick with a few different shades of brown to try and match the illustration and a few washes and layers. That may sound like a lot but by keeping the colors to one tone it went much faster than it otherwise would have.

In addition I finally painted up my Pathfinder Bones Goblins that I had from the Kickstarter as well as some Kobolds. I also wound up buying some prepainted Pathfinder miniatures to try and get some mites as well as buying some Reaper mites. All in all I think I've painted over twenty miniatures for this adventure alone. Many of which will never see use again.

Who knows, maybe one day 3-D printers will allow you to print and recycle the material into another figure. That day however, was not involved in the last few weeks.

I did manage to find my old Savage Worlds blank Game Master screen. I've seen the one that Gale Force 9 has come out with and it is very nice looking and very sturdy. However is it massively reliant on you running the two official hardcover adventurers as opposed to being a general all purpose Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition screen.

So if you know of any landscape rules for 5th edition that would make for good reference, pass 'em on down!

We touched on what the players can do next in Rivers Run Red. They've decided to build the kingdom and have started the process of filling out positions, making kingdom alignment decisions, etc... I then checked out Pathfinder's Ultimate Campaign which has an updated version of that system so I might just swap into that system since we haven't delved too much into it yet.

I also have Adventurer Conqueror King but never dove too deep into those rules, instead getting it more as a nod to fond memories of OSR play.

If anyone's done any extensive kingdom building in the game with any of those rules, please leave a comment and let me know how it went for you.

I suspect that the next few adventurers will go well as the players enjoy a lot of the roaming around and exploring but a few are very intrigued by the whole king ruling process. On one hand I'm a little curious to see how it all plays out but on the other, well, four weeks of game play that's almost uninterrupted (except for the Halloween break) is a good run for us as almost all of us are working more than full time and a few have a lot of personal responsibilities. If we stopped playing sometime soon in the future it wouldn't surprise me.

For me as the Game Master, 5th edition leaves me a little cold. Again, I'm so used to the horde of material for 3.5, 4th, and Pathfinder, that I keep wondering, "why am I running this again?" but the players asked me to and I've agreed and it's not bad to GM. The numbers are generally much lower than they were in 3rd and 4th so the match is much easier. The hit points are higher for a lot of the monsters and the game doesn't care that the monsters don't follow the rules that the player's do. That was a strength of 4th edition too.

Hopefully everyone else's gaming is going well!

A Moorland Hanging by Michael Jecks

Book Three in the Knights Templar Mystery series, A Moorland Hanging, written by Michael Jecks, brings the reader  back to medieval times with Simon Puttock and Sir Baldwin Furnshill as they investigate a murder on the moors.

Michael Jecks is able to bring the reader into a situation that has two solid factions, the landowning nobles and the tin miners. Each with their own goals and motivations and each a thorn in the other's side, but forced to deal with one another as both serve the king.

Jecks does a solid job of providing information on the importance of the tin mining. The need the king had of vast wealth allows the tin miners many rights that superseded even those of the noble landowners This puts the landowners in a weak position when the tin miners come around and threaten to claim various parts of the land in order to find tin.

And yet at the same time, much like in Japan and their own falling caste of Samurai, the nobles here are arrogant and militant. They have a great deal of power thanks to their own ability to fight and while wars may not necessarily wage without end in the moors, there are always wars where some type of glory may be won.

The mystery itself has some parts that are stronger than others. This could be a deliberate choice. One of the big 'reveals' should be obvious to anyone who's paying attention, but I'll admit to having the completely wrong idea on the killer until nearly the end as vital pieces of information are brought into visibility.

A Moorland Hanging follows the strength of The Merchant's Partner and is a solid mystery novel for those looking for some background on how things might have been in this far away time.

Below I'll be hitting spoilers specific to the novel and discussing how I'll try to keep it in mind when running my ongoing Dungeons and Dragons campaign using the King Maker adventure path by Paizo.

1. Outsiders: While the tin miners have been present for years, there are those who've dwelt on the moor for much longer, generations. To those old inhabitants, the tin miners are a blight on the land. To those who've been here not as long as the old inhabitants, any new inhabitants, like those seeking to make a new life for himself, are another brand of outsider.

2. Isolation: There are old beliefs on the Moors. When you're cut for from civilization and don't travel, the old beliefs have no reason to die out. They've encountered no resistance. This is still true today. In areas that aren't major hubs or on water ways, the people do as they've always done, believe as they've always believed. This can be jarring for people who visit as first off, they're automatically labeled outsiders, and now their outsiders that don't share the same beliefs.

This isolation can take other forms too though. THere are several instances in the novel where the characters feel isolated and cut off from civilization. That they've entered another time and place and that they are gone from the standard realms of men.

3. Bandits: In all the novels thus far, the fall of knight hood as a way of earning a living is reflected on again and again. Those seeking to earn their way may have to travel afar to places such as Italy. Again there are parallels with the Samurai who become ronin, masterless men. The other bit though, that dovetails nicely into the River Kingdoms, is that people may come from other parts of the world to 'get away' from their past. Without an easy way to quickly check the background and history of someone new to the area, wolves may assume the guise of sheep.

4. Protected Interest: While the moors are isolated, the value of the tin miners is obvious to the king. Because of that, they have numerous rights. While this isn't necessarily anything like that in the River Kingdoms, the River Kingdoms does have it's own laws, it's own Six River Freedoms as they are known. Bring in reasons that the players can't just run roughshod over everything and everyone.

5. Visibility: This is one I've always had a problem with. There are numerous mentions that thanks to the even level of the ground and the lack of forests or hills, that people can spot each other for miles around. This can add a bit of suspense if the players know they are being hunted and can see the opposing party rushing and wearing them down. However, given the extreme range of some spells and missile weapons, this could easily backfire!

6. Depth: One of the things that's enjoyable about the series, is that many of the characters have aspects to their past that they would rather not come up. If anyone's seen the movie Snowpiercer, will know what I'm talking about. Having each major NPC have such a secret, have such a past, is something that can put the characters in a completely different frame of mind when they see that person again.

A Moorland Hanging brings the isolation to life and is a solid piece that should be able to inspire many a role playing session.

Kingmaker: Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Week Three

There was no game on Halloween. It's one of my girlfriend's favorite times of the year so I stayed home and watched horrible horror movies. There are worse ways to spend one's night.


This week one of my regulars, the youngest of our group, who plays a dragon born fighter, had a new assignment at work and was unable to make it.


On the other hand, one of my other amigos, a peer in age if not a lot of personal preferences, showed up for the first time.


I started him off at half experience. It's something that I allowed the group to decide on in terms of "Hey, if someone misses a session what do you want to do about xp?"


There was some back and forth about giving them no experience points and giving them the full quantity. I myself didn't vote as I just wanted to hear what the players wanted to do. Mind you, those that miss are already missing out on gold and magic items which I may have to tweak depending on how heavy that effects the game down the road.


This week we had the following:


Naronel: A elf wizard. He's already summoned a familiar, a hawk I believe? I made him name it as it refused to obey any of his commands until he addressed it by it's name. The player was not amused but everyone else at the table was.


Gerak: A Halfling rogue.


Amun: Human druid.


Eran: Elf Monk. I forgot his miniature from Stonehaven miniatures. As I've mentioned before, Stonehaven makes like one of the two elf monk miniatures out there and I forgot it. Ugh.


Damaia: Tielfling Warlock. She has missed one session and with the player running the elf wizard missing two session, and now one player missing this session, I now have an Excel Spreadsheet tracking the different experience point totals of the players. Sigh. One of the drawbacks to not just giving everyone the same experience points.


The players were deciding what they were going to do next. While I did throws parts of the starter set adventure, The Mines into this game, they've been pretty happy to stick with the King Maker saga despite not actually being under charter. They're pretty happy to "take the money and run" for all the numerous side quests and missions that this adventure offers them.


This week, it was find out why the kobolds are acting up. Good deal as I have a ton of Reaper Miniature's Bones kobolds already painted up. Some of them brown, some of them red. The players spoke with the purple shaman kobold leader and agreed to bring back the statue of their people if the kobolds would cease their violent activities.


Turns out the kobolds are at war with mites, more small low level enemies but of a fey nature. Because 5th edition doesn't have stats for the mites, I took used the kobold stat block as a template and tinkered with it. For example, I gave them damage resistance to weapons unless those weapons were cold iron or magic.


Add in that I noted how small the mite lair was and gave any Medium sized creature disadvantage for any melee combat. Made the fights last a little longer and made them a bit more challenging.


Knowing that sooner or later the players would probably fight the mites, I had bought two packs of metal mites that Reaper miniatures makes as well as some blister packs of the prepainted plastic ones for Pathfinder from the Shattered Star set. I managed to get more than a base coat down on the metal ones but I'm probably going to wind up popping them off their bases. They come with medium sized bases and are smaller then most of the halflings that Reaper makes.


This is why I actually like the prepainted plastic ones. They are larger and have a little more detail to them. But in a standard 'brick' of eight packs, I had no duplicates and only had one prepainted mite and one prepainted mite riding a giant spider. It wasn't a giant tick like the guy in the adventure rides, as seen here from Paizo's, but I'll take it.In some instances I needed like twelve mites.


It did make me hate the organization of the Monster Manual thought.


In practice, it makes sense I suppose to have animals and giant insects in one section of the book. Those monsters wouldn't be encountered that often.


I tell you thought, in my three weeks, because it's low level, the players have fought wolves, bears, giant spiders, giant centipedes and who knows what else that's from that section. I think it would have been better off just being in the main body of the work.


Anyway, after the players fought the mites and returned the statue, because the players dealt with the 'shaman', whose actually a reincarnated gnome sorcerer who hates life, the kobold sorcerer demanded the death of the players. The kobold cheiftan turned on the sorcerer and many kobolds were fighting the players.


Cantrips in the new edition are nice and deadly. It's a good way to give the old 'fire and forget' characters some staying power in the game. Of course those nifty tricks now become less and less useful as the players gain in power and ability but start off nice and powerful.


I fudged around with the xp values for some of the encounters as Pathfinder, especially at low levels, uses a much higher experience point base for many of the enemies than Dungeons and Dragons does. Despite that, all of the players are now third level.


Like many, I'm one of those Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition players and Dungeon Masters that is eagerly awaiting the release of the Dungeon Master's Guide. I'm hoping that it can bring a lot to the table because having to guess what magic items do for example? Not a good feeling. From previews and the current free version though, it's annoying that there are no prices for magic items already.


Looking up things like Boots of Elvenkind? The magic items in the free download are anemic enough to not have one of those traditional magic items that stretches back to 1st edition. Ugh. Not a big deal yet as the player's haven't had the chance to use them, but they will next week so I'm sure I'll have thought of something by then.
So three weeks in and we're still messing around with a few things.
1. The five foot step: We've all played a lot of 3rd and 4th edition so we can looking that one up.
2. Rogue flanking.
3. Surprise and Advantage in the attack!
Overall the game runs fairly well but feels very limited by the amount of material out for it. This isn't necessarily a bad thing as a consumer, but I'm 'itchy' in that I'm used to the support 3.5, 4th edition, and Pathfinder offer. With no Dungeon magazine and no Dragon magazine, the game feels very 'tight' or 'restricted'. But I know I can 'convert' stuff if I have to, but I have no desire to do that with things like the races which seem to have these weird subrace types and other bits. Heck, there's no Dungeon Master's Guide out yet so how would you even convert magic item with little to compare them to.


Oh well, the Kingmaker adventure path has given us three sessions so far from just the first adventure and I think we'll squeeze two more out of it before it's done the way the player's tend to plan so we'll see how it goes from there.

The Merchants Partner by Michael Jecks

Michael Jecks, website here, does a series of medieval murder mysteries that feature one of the knights Templar. I'd finally gotten around to reading the first in the series, The Last Templar, and to be honest, wasn't that impressed.


It wasn't bad mind you, it just didn't jump up and say, Appendix N me bitch!" as some books are wont to do.


The second book in the series, The Merchant's Partner, read much better. Mind you, I can't tell you if that's because I was in a different frame of mind when I read it or if it's just better written or if it has a better cast of characters and plot. Regardless of the reasons, it resonated with me more.


The characters are continuing to know each other. The cast is growing. The background is coming more into focus. The murder mysteries themselves are involving more people in more direct fashions that provide the reader with more things to become involved with.


The intricacies of the historical period are more in play. Events that happened long ago still echo in the current time line. Things that people think are secret and hidden are in fact, known.

If you're looking for a taste of murder in a dark era, The Merchant's Partner is a solid book and convinced me to move onto the third book.

Below I'll be hitting some specifics and spoilers of the books so if you care not about such things, read on, otherwise read no further.

Now there are some similarities in the books. For one, life is tough in these dark times. When the crops fail, people die of starvation. I'm no fan of starvation rules that micro-manage the amount of effort it takes to keep track of characters in games like Dungeons and Dragons, but having such information be a known thing, having the characters know that people are dying of starvation, can be a campaign bit in and of itself.


Some settings, like Warhammer, have gods like Nurgle, a god of disease and rot. Other enemies, like Skaven, can sabotage the fields. Protecting your food source can be a vital part of any campaign or a brief adventurer's mission. In some famous movies, like, oh, Seven Samurai, the bandits are coming for the food! They need someone to stop them.

Another point of interest, was banditry. While I'm running the Kingmarker series from Paizo for Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition now, the setting their in, the Stolen Kingdoms, is rifle with bandits. History, or at least this part of it, is also heavy with such issues.

When knights have no wars to fight in, they face the threat of starvation. Turning to banditry is one way to avoid such a fate. In many ways, this echoes what happened in Japan when the era of the Samurai was coming to an end and samurai found themselves as ronin. When you have a sword and you're good with it, continuing to use it, even against those they once fought for.

Another theme hitting the book again, and most murder mysteries, is red herrings and coincidence. Strangers appear and then things happen. Surely the arrival of these new characters is directly tied into these horrible happenings?

In some cases, it's directly true. In others, it's that the characters have some reason to be there and may have information tied to the happenings going on, but aren't directly responsible. In most forms of media, there is limited time to introduce slice of life bits to readers and viewers. In role playing games though, that's not necessarily true.

You can introduce individuals and characters that may not be seen or met again for many sessions. One of the nice things about having all six volumes of King Marker ahead of time, as opposed to the monthly fix, is that you can read the whole thing and set up different elements of the campaign ahead of time so that when players finally do get to see the whole thing at it's apex, they can go, "Man, I never would have thought three months ago this guy would be here!"

A third element that hits again this time around, is the search for motivation. One of my friends likes to quote the old movie All The President's Men, "Follow the money." While that's not always true, especially in a campaign setting where religious fever may provide real magical augmentation and the ability to summon demons and devils to enact your will, for the majority of people, money, power, and of course sex, are all common motivations and having a motivation that the players can find and work into the campaign, is a useful tool to have as a Game Master.

One part that the 'Templar Mysteries' really diverge from role playing games standard though, is that the investigative parts don't necessarily mean that there will be combat of a appropriate nature. There may be no grand melee in the capital of the city while the gods watch. Rather in these books, much like courtroom drama in bygone eras, the 'gotcha' is the reveal, the breakdown of the how and why, the final questioning of the murderers.

Be aware of those elements when you're working them into your campaign. Even in games like Call of Cthulhu where the focus is on investigation, there are often times where if the players get it, they may still have to blow up a mine shaft or perform some action that pits them against the mythos directly. In Dungeons and Dragons, while I can easily imagine a scenario where a paladin pulls a mask off of a noble and we discover that it's a drow, I can also see that scenario where the wizard casts dispel magic, the drow is revealed, and then the big fight happens. Not all elements work with all games.

When looking to get some inspiration for your campaigns, don't be afraid to look at 'historical' books as well as the standard fantasy fare. The writing might be different enough to force you to evaluate what you're doing in your campaign and more importantly, why you're doing it that way. If nothing else, you'll come away with a few genre appropriate names in most cases.

Kickstarters: Current and Ongoing and Those I've passed

There are so many Kickstarters out there these days, that I'm pretty comfortable missing months at a time and not looking into the various things going on because I figure at any time, there will be more that are ongoing.


Another problem is lateness. The Tome of Horrors miniatures, officially licensed from +Frog God Games , is late and the communication has been bad. Others like Alien Assimilation are late but communication has been good and you get to see the work as it's coming.


Another problem is cash. With a new car, the funds have been tight. Anything that has too high a buy in is pretty much dead in the water to me. For example, Basius 2 looks awesome but man, the shipping and handling, and the fact that it's in British pounds? Nope.


I was fortunate in that a few of the Kickstarters I backed were awesome enough to give me a refund. Needed it too for things like down payment on the new car and various other assorted bills that tend to just pile up.


The last problem I'll mention, is stuff I know is coming. While who knows when Center Stage is going to be done, I'm pretty sure +Reaper Miniatures is going to be delivering Bones II real soon. I'm a backer of that and well, I haven't finished everything in the fist Kickstarter so I imagine I'll be buried in that strange Bones material soon.


On the other hand, I did put in  for a book on miniature painting that comes with a few figures from Figone, the Figopedia.The guy doing it is a fantastic painter and if he can get some of that information into my small brain? That would be awesome. Even if not though, a few miniatures and some awesomely painted miniatures to peruse? Win!


Red Box Games by has done several Kickstarters. I had a bad experience, as everyone did, with the first one, but the second one was great. Picked up a lot of monsters. I skipped the others as they're character driven and his scale is more 'realistic' which means they look fantastic, but generally don't fit even with his other work by Reaper. However, his latest one may get bandits and as I've mentioned before, I'm not impressed with the current crop of bandit miniatures out there.


Dungeonmorph Dice? Awesome. Not too bad price wise either. I've got my eye on it.


Ancient Ruins II is a series of bases but man, between CoolMiniOrNot's recent bases and my old Happy Seppuku bases, I don't know. Prices aren't bad and I do like helping the 'little guy' so I'm going to try to get some money together for him. I've ordered from him in the past so I'm pretty sure it's going to be another quick turn around.




Strangely enough, I haven't backed a lot of role playing products lately. Between Pathfinder and 5th edition, I'm pretty set in terms of campaign setting and adventurers.


Not only that, but for whatever reason, the RPG ones tend to be just as bad if not often worse then the miniature ones in terms of dropping communication or just failing to deliver. Not saying they're all like that but man, when I look over the list of stuff I haven't backed and check on it to see if it's available now because it sounded interesting?


Throne of Night is way behind on some of it's deliveries, but it's had some stuff out?


The Reliquary looked to be a book of magic items. Looked pretty cool. Looked like something I could pick up when it was done. Wow. Still not done. Ugly stuff.


The Grand Temple of Jin: It sounded awesome but I had enough of mega-dungeons at that time. Still ongoing. Argh!


Southlands, now this one I'm 99.9% sure it's going to be out relatively on time. It hit when the funds were at an ultra low point though so as much as I wanted to, it had to go to the wayside. Their only behind one of the stretch goals for the previous KS I backed from them.


Anyone else backing anything awesome that the world needs to know about?

Rat Queens: Volume One: Sass and Sorcery

When it comes to comics, the field is dominated by super hero titles. At least in America. The good news though, is that there are a lot of independent publishers, well, how about the non-BIG TWO (Marvel and DC) that dip their toe into other waters quite often.


Among those publications, I've heard good things about a fantasy comic called Rat Queens. Seeing that Amazon had the first volume, Sass and Sorcery that collects issues 1-5 with some bonus material for $6.38 (almost 40% off!). Looking over my edition, it must be doing okay because this is a second printing. Good for Image.  I added that to a recent order of some Pathfinder gaming material.


It does not disappoint. It's like the authors are long term Dungeons and Dragons players.


We have the following characters:


Betty: A smidgen (Halfling/hobbit) rogue
Dee: Cleric of a giant flying squid.
Hannah: Elf magic user.
Violet: Dwarf fighter.


The action takes place in a city that houses a fair number of mercenary groups that don't necessarily get along. The story starts with a bar brawl that's broken out into the streets of the city Palisade, getting the five 'gangs' arrested: Rat Queens, Peaches, Four Daves, Brother Ponies, and Obsidian Darkness. Their penance is various low key missions that the city doesn't want to expend its own forces on ranging from clearing out goblins to 'clean the shitters at the winding pass barracks.'


Oh, and there's swearing. Adult language! For the most part it comes off as adults speaking which is well done. There's also a lot of 'slice of life' bits that fit into the overall story but I suspect in more standard comics would've been cut.


The story includes a few 'random' battles and an overarching theme that's to be continued as the readers are introduced to various individuals from the different groups. By not having the book focus entirely on the heroes, the Rat Queens, the author allows the setting to be large enough to throw multiple plot hooks into the air that can be continued one at a time until they become the main stories.


For anyone who role plays games like Pathfinder or Dungeons and Dragons, it's almost like a quick how to manual.


Kurtis J. Wiebe is the author here and he does a nice job of handling the characters like you'd suspect such characters would act. The interesting thing to me, is if you changed all of the female characters to men, you wouldn't have to change that much dialog or well, anything else.


That's great because to me, it means the author focused on making the characters interesting as opposed to making them 'women' if you will. Maybe that didn't come out right, this being the internet and all, but I'll take strong characters over characters put up in a specific gender role any day of the week.


Roc Upchurch, whose Deviant Art page is here, does the art including the covers and since there is no colorist listed, I have to think he does that as well. Great job all around. If you like the cover for example, you'll enjoy the interior art. The interesting thing to me, is that Roc isn't afraid of showing the characters taking a beating. There is horrific violence inflicted on them, but he doesn't flinch from showing it.


Mind you the long term ramifications of such violence are minimized as there is magical healing about but to show it in the first place? Usually violence against women is minimized despite all of the 'women in the refrigerator' we see in super hero comics.


I hope that after the graphic novel collection for volume two comes out the price will go down a little. Compared to volume one's low price it's almost double. Ah, the internet spoils me with its variety in shopping terms.


If there are any Pathfinder gurus out there, you should try to license this comic out. The art is already there and a quick book of NPC's and quick maps is always a welcome addition to the game.


For fantasy comic fans and comic fans, this is a solid volume and very affordable with some great art and a story that wraps up the main plot while continuing to advance the story of the characters.