Worriment on the War Road

Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is something a little bit different. It a supplement—the first supplement—for a roleplaying game from Osprey Games. Over the past couple of years or so, the publisher has diversified into the roleplaying hobby to publish a number of well-presented titles, including Paleomythic: A Stone and Sorcery Roleplaying Game, Ruthless Blood, Ruthless Blades – Wuxia Roleplaying, and Those Dark Places: Industrial Science Fiction Roleplaying, as well as Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, but none them, however, have received supplements. That is, until now. Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is not just a supplement for Jackals, but a whole campaign. In Jackals, the Player Characters take the eponymous roles of mercenaries, accepted ‘outcasts’ who undertake tasks and missions up and down the War Road which connects the various towns, cities, and city-states of the Zaharets, the Land of Risings where four kingdoms and cultures meet. The Zaharets is only recently free of the yoke of the monstrous bestial folk known as the Takan and their great kingdom of Barak Barad, and there remain ruins to be explored and cleansed of Takan influence, secrets of the past to be uncovered, merchants to be protected, alliances to be forged, and more. Yet no good community would have truck with the Jackals. For who knows what evil, what chaos they might bring back with them? Nevertheless, Jackals face the dangers that the community cannot, Jackals keep the community safe when it cannot, and from amongst the Jackals come some of the mightiest heroes of the Zaharets, and perhaps in time, the community’s greatest leaders when the Jackals decide it is time to retire and let other Jackals face the dangers beyond the walls of the towns and cities of the Land of Risings.

Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze provides a grand campaign for Jackals, encompassing some fourteen adventures across nine years. These fourteen adventures will take the Jackals up and down the War Road from Ameena Noani in the north to Sentem in the south, and back again, time and time again. They will search for new sources of tin—a vital resource in the manufacture of bronze, hunt for the rare ingredients needed in a ritual to save a potential patron, face the corruption creeping into the towns and the hearts of men and women across the Zaharets, discover histories and pacts made long before man’s subjugation at the claws of the Takan, reclaim lands long lost, strike at the heart of the Takan presence in the Zaharets, and even as they stand between Law and Chaos, become involved in the growing conflict along the War Road. It grows to become an epic campaign that not every Jackal will see to the end. Some will die. Others will find it too much and retire.

As is made clear, Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is not a traditional campaign in the sense that it is formed of a singular interconnected story a la an adventure path. Rather, it is formed of multiple stories that lead up to a more singular series of events. There is also much more going on around the Jackals, so the nature of the campaign is episodic, almost part of the hustle and bustle of their lives from one season to the next. For the first five years, the campaign consists of two adventures per year, essentially one in the dry season and one in the rainy season. There is scope here for the Jackals to undertake a couple of adventures at each end of the War Road at a time, one at the end of each season, and one at the beginning of the next, but more likely, the players and their Jackals could simply focus on missions at either end of the War Road and ignore the other. That though, would not be without its consequences, if the Jackals undertake more than one mission, they will be forced to choose sides as the campaign comes to a close. Either way, this leaves plenty of room for the Loremaster to add encounters and adventures of her own.

By the time that Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze focuses on just the one scenario per year, the Jackals will have become ‘Regarded’ up and down the War Road for their deeds, some of their number may have retired or died—their replacement Jackals will gain several benefits, which vary depending upon how long it is into the campaign, upon joining such a well-known Pack, and they will have participated in a great raid upon the Takan which if successful, will undermine their activities in the Zaharets. This will see the Jackals in turn capturing and clearing out a strategically located fortress, undertaking a ritual which may lead to the mighty of a large number of Takan, and finally, participating in the battle which will bring about the end of the Wars of Unification.

Every chapter of the campaign is organised in the same fashion, with an introduction and explanation of that year’s theme—this varies from year to year, a list of the important NPCs, a list of events in both the North and the South, and retirement benefits if a Jackal decides to retire. Most adventures run to three acts, and offer a good mix of roleplaying, investigation, combat, and exploration, with the start of individual locations listing the sights, smells, and sounds that the Jackals will encounter there, all nicely placed for the Loremaster’s reference. Each chapter ends with a list of hooks and other events going on up and down the War Road. For the most part, the individual scenarios should provide between two and three sessions’ worth of solid play, with the final four adventures lasting longer each.

Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze will need some effort upon the part of the Loremaster to prepare. She should least have a ready supply of monsters and NPCs—especially Takan who often menace the Jackals and she should apprise herself of the War Road’s geography, both sections on the Northern and Southern Reaches to be found in Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying. Essentially this is to familiarise herself with the various NPCs and places that the Jackals will be visiting. Although the campaign is a sequel to the three adventures in Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying, the Loremaster needs to supply her players and their Jackals with a Hook to pull them into the campaign. There is a table of these provided, such as ‘Terrors from the Night’ in which each night an Ukuku, one of the grey, horned owls who serve the lord of the dead, visits the Jackal in his dreams and attempts to deliver a message from beyond. Which is a harrowing experience, and throughout the campaign, events and encounters are tied into these hooks. In addition, the Loremaster may need to design other encounters and scenarios depending upon the outcome of the Jackals’ actions. There is a little advice to that end in the aftermath of every adventure.

Physically, Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is well presented, in the now standard, full colour format for all of the roleplaying titles from Osprey Games. The artwork is scarce, but excellent where it does occur and the maps in general are decent, all arguably many of the numbers implicating position on the map could have been moved off the actual maps in some cases as they obscure details. If the book has an issue, it is that its font size is not all that large and there is quite a lot of cramped text, meaning that it may not be easy to read for some of its target audience.

Unfortunately, the episodic nature of the campaign in Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze does not make it easy to run as a campaign and thus build the links between the epsiodes. It does not really focus on anything until the last four adventures in the campaign, and whilst the hooks do serve to draw the Jackals further into the campaign, they feel underused. None of this is really helped by the lack of a strong overview of the campaign and its events, which leaves the Loremaster to often make the connections herself for her own benefit, let alone the players and their Jackals in play. Overall, Jackals: The Fall of the Children of Bronze is a solid campaign for Jackals – Bronze Age Fantasy Roleplaying—and exactly the support it needed. However the Loremaster will need to work hard to lift it above being simply solid and make it good.