Dark Albion: OSR DnD Setting Review

Dark Albion is a setting book for old-school roleplaying games like DnD or Fantastic Heroes and Witchery. It describes a alternate England where priests are magical and demon frogs have invaded France.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This channel makes use of affiliate links, which help support me at no cost to you.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[fchrisb]

I'm surprised at this review. I found the Dark-Albion Setting to be pretty amazing.

[shinrafugitives]

Ironically, the gripes he had with this book were actually some of the things I've been looking for in a setting. I recently bought this book and am really enjoying its contents. I'm hoping to run something of an inquisitor campaign with this.

[jacobdavidlet]

"The material isn't better than what I could come up with on the fly".
I feel as if you missed the point on this one. The books is aiming to provide a mostly accurate medieval setting not something entirely new and fantastical.

Now that likely isn't going to be to a lot of peoples tastes, but it should be kept in mind.

[dane]

The Church of the Unconcured Sun = Sol Invictus, the Name used in the late Roman or Byzantine Empire for God/Jesus. It's a good version of Christianity for a Fantasy RPG.

[PyramKing]

I just picked this up, along with Lion and Dragon. I very much enjoy pulling content and ideas from it. I wanted something more grim dark and magical to fit along with Pendragon, which this does well.

It you are looking for content, low fantasy, grim dark, and more historical...rather than high fantasy, I would recommend.

This would fit with those who like; Ironsworn, Pendragon, Wolves of God, and Aquelarre.

If you like high fantasy or more straight forward OSR, you may not like it.

The one jarring thing I did not like is the French Frogs, but it is a small section.

[dracoblackstone]

Darn, I'm not sure how useful I would find that book but I might have to pick it up just because I absolutely love 15th century England and the Wars of the Roses.

[delegatent]

Although a bit dry, I found the book a great resource for fantastically-historical European world-building. "Frogland" was kinda lazy and tasteless, but I got over it pretty quick. I just wished instead of humanoid frogs, we'd actually get a unified France with humans instead, even if it's more (understandably, for cost) distilled than the British Isles - lore wise.

[destroso]

I don’t understand why no one seems to get the Frogland moniker. The common reference of France as Frogland from the period is why he made France Frogland.

[paulofrota]

I love the art and maps in this book '-'

[destroso]

The French as frogs plays on the huge rivalry between the English and the French, and the dehumanizing of your enemies

[dminard]

Knowing a bit about early modern England I dont know how much this would add but I do appreciate the honest criticism.

[rykard]

If the gm is making everything up on the fly then it wouldn’t be historically accurate which is the whole point of this book😊

[DoctorDoomsday]

Remind's me of the Lion and Dragon game some what.

[destroso]

I just ordered all his medieval themed books! They look amazing and I love all the real history, it’s not just some random lore. Also, I recommend anyone listen to rpgpundit’s advice on running campaigns, he’s super knowledgeable.

[joecoo]

Ordering this for Christmas along with Cults of Chaos
Looking forward to it.
The chaos frogs seem like a great idea I'm thinking why not add more mutant races for different regions?
Racial slurs purely tung in cheek I think some folks are taking themselves far to seriously.
Love Wharhammer Fantasy Roleplay & this has the vibe
Looking forward to both this & Cults of Chaos.


I love random tables. & the hex maps look great.

[paulofrota]

This review wasn't really fair. It seems like Ben missed the point of the book... EXACTLY why the book has so much information is the reason it's useful. If you get this book you want to play on a fairly medieval-authentic version of England, not on a "invented on the fly by the GM" game... and no, nothing the GM can come up with on the fly will be better than the craziness of what really happened in the Wars of the Roses. Also, Ben missed an important detail here... The part of the book with the setting history only briefly touches past history, but instead focus on what is going to happen in the FUTURE of the campaign. So, you have a list of years and events that give you enough ideas for a whole campaign.

I wish Ben reviewed Arrows of Indra or Lion & Dragon.

[crapphone]

France taken over by, ..frogs. took me a second 😂. That alone makes the book worth at least as much as it costs.

[willinnewhaven]

A friend is setting up campaign using Dark Albion for his setting. He has removed the demonic frogs but the player-characters and NPCs are going to sometimes refer to France as Frogland because such bigotry was not uncommon in the period.
He is not going to run it in OD&D or some other OSR rules set but is going to run it in the Glory Road system, so he is going to have to do more tweaking than usual.

[christamm]

You could run as a more pendragon game with info in here. I found a bit of a effort to read but the cults of chaos book is much more interesting and usable but a bit repetitive and could have been written in a way to avoid this. I want the hardcover now as it looks easier to read. Europe isnt meant to be visited more of a background or something to reference. I don't mind the Chaos Frogs. The cult of the sun dont mind as I find real religion in games can cause problems.

[BarryOLeary-the-king]

I think this is the first of your reviews that seems negative. Good to know you'll do reviews of things you don't necessarily like. I've had my eye on this for a while, and I might still get it, but I won't be moving it up my list based on your review (I ordered Whitehack after seeing your review of that).