OSR Commentary & Review On Zozer Games 43AD - Roleplaying in Roman Occupied Britain

  "43AD is a gritty military-style game with a slice of dark horror running through it. Life is grim and the world of the native Britons is painted in dark and horrific colours. Britain is a place of fear and death, terrors and torments, and the Iron-Age tribes live with these horrors. Celtic priests, the druids, contain them in lakes and pits and forests. When the legions step onto British soil, they step onto a land of ancient horrors of which they (as yet) know nothing. Life, honour and warfare amongst the tribes is explained for players and GMs alike.  

Characters are Roman soldiers, fighting for the emperor in a hostile land against the battle-hardened warriors of the tribes. This is the visible enemy, but beyond, should the Game Master wish to go there, lay the dark secrets of Britain, the night terrors, the death-bringing spirits of the wild, the night crawlers, the face eaters, the skinchangers and the rest of the monsters and wild things that infest Britain. "

Let me tell you a little story, ages ago when I was little and sitting taking in the sights of a history book on Roman Britian bigger then I was. There was a picture of Hydrian's Wall.  And I vowed that someday I would not only visit it but understand it as well as the reasons behind it. In 2006 we did just that & connected with several family members. The thing that struck me on the English side of the wall was the weight of how much history there is there. Reading through Zozer Games 43 A.D. is full on like coming home for me. The familiar history  mixed with the wyrd in 152 pages & this  is a passion project for the author/designer. The amount of detail here is incredible from skill set ups for Cepheus Engine style ancient PC's to the details in weapons, civilization, to monsters the details are bold. Highlights for me include: 

• Spells
• Monsters
• Cultural information on Romans and Britons
• Character write-ups that fit on a single index card
• 10 minute character creation

So without delay I approached Zozer Games & was promptly sent a copy of  43 A.D.  & this book is on another level. Sure there are copies of other horror themed historical rpg's sitting on my shelf.  But is on another level without a doubt. This isn't to say that  43 A.D. 

is completely overwhelming on its history or game details. Far from it, the game reads like a combination of deadly campaign, detailed rpg, & action movie waiting to happen. The combat is bloody, the system sings along in a bloody way, & this game screams to be played. The game feels like Zenobia another Paul Elliot creation where the legions of Roman meet the forces of the desert.

But  43 A.D. has the look & feel of Roman occupied  Britain with a horror film twist or two thrown in. And this is a deadly little affair of a game. The PC's are strangers in a strange land & they are far from home. And this is a cold, dangerous, lonely little world to have a PC die in. And no its not depressing but its incredibly dangerous. 

But is   43 A.D.  worth getting?! In a word yes! This is a complete unto it's game & while other books are going smaller & smaller with Cepheus Engine rpg rules.   43 A.D.  takes this notion & kicks its teeth in to give the DM & his players a complete package for six dollars! And its up to Zozer Games quality unto itself. So in a word yes   43 A.D.  is very much worth getting for three reasons, one this is a game about Roman occupied Britain done by a historian who writes history & technical books for a living. Two the maps & cartography are gorgeous! And three the setting is not one that I'd ever want to actually live in & I say this with all due respect! The idea of being in the middle of no place squared surrounded with no modern medicine, no real way home, & surrounded by people who will take your head off? No thanks but to role play in this world from the safety of your table with 2d6 system done by Zozer games absolutely! 

OSR Commentary & Review On Zozer Games 43AD - Roleplaying in Roman Occupied Britain Part II

 

When it comes to the supernatural  43AD - Roleplaying in Roman Occupied Britain doesn't skimp. But instead presents a very different world to our own. This is a world where history & magick collide on three fronts. The Celtic, the Roman Empire, & the day to day lives of the Britanians who lived with both both of these powers. And also lived with the power of magick. And die by it! We have a full array of the dark forces on both the Roman & the Celtic sides Black Druids, Skinchangers, the Flayed Man, the Headless Killer, Fomorians, the undead Cauldron-Born, Face Feeders, and individuals such as Longinus (the Undead Centurion, the one who was present at Jesus' crucifixion), Scathach the Witch, and the Old Crone of Aberros all make their presence known. These entities filter through a 2d6  system that on the surface resembles the traditional Cepheus Engine & its deriatives is unique because of its legacy through the Zenobia rpg.. 

This is because the occult & supernatural existed side by side with the gods for both the Romans & Celtic. But these powers didn't play favorites!  The  Black Druids, Skinchangers, the Flayed Man, the Headless Killer, Fomorians, & many others will take any PC they can for sacifice or worse. History reflects the source & times, the history is bloody & high handed with PC's getting the worst of it. Glorious!  If you want to check out what we're talking about here?! Go to Zozer games & download Zenobia's free materials today! 

Note that A.D. 43 takes a vastly different take on the Cepheus Engine & does so with its own brand of style. Yes the systems are similar. But their different in two areas, application & principal. A.D. We're  talking about the way armour work in this game, plus the  the system for advancement, the easy  way that  the game handles the importance of advantages, & how magic is powered within it. All in All I think 43AD - Roleplaying in Roman Occupied Britain  is a solid game in the Zozer Games line & a fine addition to any DM used to both the Cepheus Engine rpg & its lines. Paul Elliot does an incredible job with this game! Highly recommended! 

OSR Commentary & Review On Zozer Games 43AD rpg - Roleplaying in Roman Occupied Britain's Warband rpg Supplement By Paul Elliott

" At that insult Leir gave the command. The carnyxes blew, and the two armies fell upon each other. Then there was hacking and smiting; heads were broken and limbs hewn off, there was neighing and trampling of horses, and the bitter cries of men meeting violent death."

                                                                            The High Kings, Joy Chant

And so begins the seventy three pages of Warband rpg an add on book for Zozer Game's Paul Elliot whose work on Roman Britain's 43 AD rpg speaks for itself. This book covers everything about Britain's Celtics & its not pretty. This is a brutal warrior & druid affair of a game with systems covering the other side of the story;" The Roman invasion of Britain as described in 43AD is of course only one-half of the story. It is quite possible to play the game from the perspective of the tribes using all of the resources found in the main rulebook. What is needed is a revised character creation system enabling players to build tribal heroes. This book provides that."  And this isn't history its something a bit more weird & wooly but its still history from a different perspective. The occupied  perspective but it does it in terrifying  & mature tones with all of the gore intact. And there's plenty of Roman & Britain blood splatter to go along in its 2d6 world of the Roman Empire. 
There is plenty of development & while the Cepheus Quantum & other engines go smaller. This book revels in its history explaining clan, family status, honor, & much more. This is an exotic  world on the edge that we living in 2021 can scarily imagine;" Information of tribal life is not duplicated from 43AD, instead other resources are included here. You will find a detailed history of the Roman invasion, allowing the Game Master to select a particular campaign or era in which to set the struggle of the tribal resistance. Also included is a mass battle system. With a few rolls of the dice the great battles of history, or of your own games, battles involving tens of thousands of warriors and legionaries, can be resolved easily. If the heroes are involved then the rules tell us what happened to them, too." 
Skills, life events, etc are all here to flesh out the lives of your PC's and Warband does it in such an easy to understand & well laid out fashion that we find the world not as we want it. But it finds us asking the hard questions of our characters in quick & easy to follow succession. Paul Elliot has been designing games since the 90's and no where is this fact clearer then in Warband. Names, tribes, culture, is all here in lavish detail. Warband reads part game & part action film waiting to be sprung on players with sprawling wars with casts of hundreds. All of this comes in 2d6 action with the flick of a wrist to create your warrior or champion of your tribe. These are the warriors who challenged the legions of  the Vallum Hadriani. 
You can also decide what era you wish to play in & what type of guerilla warfare you want to spring on your players. The information is all here for campaign play. 
Do you want a druid capable of shape shifting, magickal mayhem, or subject to the whims of the Fey or the Wryd then that's here as well. Magick is as real as the blood around these men & women. The old gods should be respected & no where is this more evident then in Warband. The world shapes the druid to be a tool of powers beyond the ken of men. These are druids that you actually want to play that have meaning beyond their magicks. 
The world of 43 AD  is described, clans are defined, the honor of these clans is outlined. This is a wild world, a warrior's world, & the world of Warband in detail. The author defines, shapes, and highlights his works easily in terms, conditions, & common sense rules. This is the same approach that we see in the  Zenobia rpg  that we  here in Warband. Casual writing that makes the history work & the fantasy elements however horrifying ( believe me they are) easy to deal with. 43 AD is a world that we want to game in. 

Warband takes place in a very alien world of the Roman empire where you are the resistance & from the ground up we are presented a game that is at odds with both itself & its surroundings. Warband is an rpg supplement is as much a love letter to it's subject as it as a game that you want to play. The details here are top notch. The works very well done.  The layout is solid & well done. The cartography is well done & maintained. 

The subsystem for creating war with both the Roman forces & the clans is well done plus it hits the high notes in spades. This is a system that can handle itself & come back for more. The history is well thought out with the system providing the DM with the tools to handle everything from one end to the bloody other. This is a book for both players & DM's who want PC's that are 'just so' for raiding cattle, taking heads, & gaining honor for the clan! Top notch & highly recommended. 

OSR Commentary & Review On Zozer Games 43AD - Roleplaying in Roman Occupied Britain Part I

 "43AD is a gritty military-style game with a slice of dark horror running through it. Life is grim and the world of the native Britons is painted in dark and horrific colours. Britain is a place of fear and death, terrors and torments, and the Iron-Age tribes live with these horrors. Celtic priests, the druids, contain them in lakes and pits and forests. When the legions step onto British soil, they step onto a land of ancient horrors of which they (as yet) know nothing. Life, honour and warfare amongst the tribes is explained for players and GMs alike.  

Characters are Roman soldiers, fighting for the emperor in a hostile land against the battle-hardened warriors of the tribes. This is the visible enemy, but beyond, should the Game Master wish to go there, lay the dark secrets of Britain, the night terrors, the death-bringing spirits of the wild, the night crawlers, the face eaters, the skinchangers and the rest of the monsters and wild things that infest Britain. "

Let me tell you a little story, ages ago when I was little and sitting taking in the sights of a history book on Roman Britian bigger then I was. There was a picture of Hydrian's Wall.  And I vowed that someday I would not only visit it but understand it as well as the reasons behind it. In 2006 we did just that & connected with several family members. The thing that struck me on the English side of the wall was the weight of how much history there is there. Reading through Zozer Games 43 A.D. is full on like coming home for me. The familiar history  mixed with the wyrd in 152 pages & this  is a passion project for the author/designer. The amount of detail here is incredible from skill set ups for Cepheus Engine style ancient PC's to the details in weapons, civilization, to monsters the details are bold. Highlights for me include: 

• Spells
• Monsters
• Cultural information on Romans and Britons
• Character write-ups that fit on a single index card
• 10 minute character creation

So without heistation I approached Zozer Games & we promptly sent a copy of  43 A.D.  & this book is on another level. Sure there are copies of other horror themed historical rpg's sitting on my shelf.  But is on another level without a doubt. This isn't to say that  43 A.D. 

is completely overwhelming on its hisory or game details. Far from it, the game reads like a combination of deadly campaign, detailed rpg, & action movie waiting to happen. The combat is bloody, the system sings along in a bloody way, & this game screams to be played. The game feels like Zenobia another Paul Elliot creation where the legions of Roman meet the forces of the desert.

But  43 A.D. has the look & feel of Roman occupied  Britian with a horror film twist or two thrown in. And this is a deadly little affair of a game. The PC's are strangers in a strange land & they are far from home. And this is a cold, dangerous, lonely little world to have a PC die in. And no its not depressing but its incredibly dangerous. 

But is   43 A.D.  worth getting?! In a word yes! This is a complete unto it's game & while other books are going smaller & smaller with Cepheus Engine rpg rules.   43 A.D.  takes this notion & kicks its teeth in to give the DM & his players a complete package for ten dollars! And its up to Zozer Games quality unto itself. So in a word yes   43 A.D.  is very much worth getting for three reasons, one this is a game about Roman occupied Britian done by a historian who writes history & techinical books for a living. Two the maps & cartography are gorgeous! And three the setting is not one that I'd ever want to actually live in & I say this with all due respect! The idea of being in the middle of no place squared surrounded with no modern medicine, no real way home, & surrounded by people who will take your head off? No thanks but to role play in this world from the safety of your table with 2d6 system done by Zozer games absolutely!