By Duane Nutley, Staff Reviewer

Available from RPGEdge

Initiative Round
Gallia is one of the recent pdf sourcebooks focusing on one part of Earth's history/mythology/legends, published by Dog Soul Publishing. Written by Alana Abbott, Gallia is a 83 page pdf, available from RPGEdge for $9.95.

Gallia: Land of Chivalry, Intrigue, and Romance is the full title of the sourcebook as given on the credits page of the sourcebook and this aptly describes the sourcebook. Gallia is one of the Folkloric series of sourcebook that takes one part of our world's history/mythology/legend and expands it into d20 game mechanics that DMs can introduce into their own campaigns. None of the Folkloric books are meant to be a complete campaign setting, but each can be dropped into an existing campaign setting to detail one part of the setting.

This sourcebook uses France as its backdrop, but the chivalric France as portrayed in the Arthurian legends, Age of Romance and other stories. The archetypical knight in shining armor is common to Gallia, as are personages like Puss in Boots, Tom Thumb, Sleeping Beauty and dumb giants. Chivalry plays a large part of the sourcebook, and information for the DM as well as rules for tourney games (jousting, tilting, archery) are provided. Courtly Love is another topic that can play a focus in a campaign about Gallia if the DM and players are willing. Thus any of the stories/legends about medieval times, chivalry and courtly love would be recommended reading for players and DM before they use Gallia as part of the campaign. Note a partial Bibliography is given at the end of the sourcebook for further reading,

Gallia has no chapters, but is broken down into a number of sections for ease of reading. Like other Folkloric sourcebooks, it is heavy on "fluff"and light on "crunch", but there is definitely more game mechanic information than in other sourcebooks. However this is needed to take full advantage of the material in the sourcebook. Gallia starts with the Region of Gallia that looks at the recent history of the area, the concepts of courtly love and the life of a knight, game mechanic rules for tournaments as well as a feat for peasant characters. For roleplayers who have not been exposed to the concepts of "medieval Europe" and courtly love, I would recommend reading this section thoroughly to understand how these concepts will take a plcae in your campaign. The next section details the Goliard, Jongleur and Mousqetaire prestige classes and the Trouvere core class. This would be the bulk of the game mechanic information for the sourcebook. Medieval Europe is dominated by stories of humans, fairies and giants, but what of the demihumans? Guidelines are provided for DMs if they wish to allow demihumans and what they might be in Gallia.

Places of Gallia first looks at the neighbours of Gallia, but then briefly details each "kingdom" or area of the campaign area. Not a lot of detail is given, just the bare minimum for a DM to know what to expect in the area. The main heroes and villains (mainly drawn from medieval literature) are then looked, but no stats are given at this time, just where the personage can be found and a bit about their history. While most of the NPCs are drawn from literature, I should mention that mythology has also been used quite creatively for some of the NPCs. Eg, Belenus is the king of Lyon, and Auberon (Oberon) is a wandering sorcerer, meant to have fairy blood. Complimenting this section is what monsters players may come across in their travels around Gallia. As expected giants and fairies top the list, but also Gallic dragons (seen more as magical beasts, than the Dragon type), talking beasts, and a couple of specific monsters. Once again no stats are given in this section. Lastly in this main section is detailed equipment and magic items/artifacts that are available in Gallia. Of note is Durandal, Roland's sword, and gifts that lords of talking beasts can bestow on players.

The last main section of Gallia is the stats for NPCs and monsters. This follows the trend in sourcebooks and modules nowadays to have all the NPC and monster stats in the one area for ease of reference. While it is useful having this all in the one area, I would have liked to have seen briefly when the NPC is mentioned what race, class and level then and there. So similar to the way TSR/WotC used to do 2e sourcebooks. Eg. Joe Bloggs (Human male, CG, Cmr 1). Following the monster stats are some possible plot hooks and three appendices, detailing a glossary/pronounciation guide, naming convention, and bibliography.

Gallia comes in a zip file just under 6 MB in size, that contains just the one file. The sourcebook is portrait-oriented with black and white, and colour artwork. The page border is of red rose petals only across the top of each page. Unlike other Folkloric sourcebooks that utilise a three columns page, Gallia uses the more common two columns, which I find easier to read that the three columns. However there is a small gap between the two columns, which to means seems to be to squeeze more text on the pages. The Table of Contents is quite extensive, but does not contain links to the appropriate information. The bookmarking is also extensive and should be used for online reading.

Critical Hit
Once again Dog Soul Publishing has brought out a quality product detailing an area from Earth full of history and literature. Alana Abbott has done a great job in providing a region full of player opportunity, while giving DMs the bare bones so that they can flesh Gallia out as they wish. Some might say that there is not enough meat to the sourcebook, but that is the quandry of finding the balance between not enough and enough.

The prestige classes and core class are useful as alternatives to the bard for sources of entertainers with different abilities.

Critical Fumble
I have a bit of an issue with the layout of the sourcebook. The gap between the columns is too narrow for me, while the top and bottom margins could have been decreased to accommodate a larger gap between the columns. The tables used for the core and prestige classes are too tight. You can see this in the BAB when there are multiple attacks and the second attack is underneath the first, not beside the first number. Lastly the page numbers of the sourcebook are not the same as the pdf page numbering. This could have easily been fixed up using Acrobat's page numbering.

The Goliard's spell progression is hard to understand. If they were a cleric beforehand, do they still get to cast cleric spells, as well as Goliard spells, or do they now only cast Goliard spells? Because if they had access to their previous spellcasting abilities as well as the Goliard's this would be very unbalancing. The Goliard has 10 levels, but can cast 0 through to 9th level spells in that 10 levels. About the only other thing I would have liked to have seen, is what types of creatures/monsters would be found in different areas of Gallia, so that DMs can utilize these monsters without wondering if they are going against the "flavor" of the setting. Also sample stats for Saracen and Albion warriors if players decide to visit these lands.

Coup de Grace
Gallia is a great resource for DMs or players wishing to play in a more medieval setting. DMs who have read the literature of the age will have a library of options available to them when using Gallia as a setting.

It would be interesting to see all of the sourcebooks from the Folkloric range made into a campaign setting resembling Earth, but an alternate Earth, when a number more have been done and all of Europe/Asia/Africa can be created.

Review Scores:
Game Mechanics Rating: 14 (93%)
OGL Open Content Rating: 13 (81%)
Originality Rating: 20 (87%)
Playability Rating: 20 (91%)
Presentation Rating: 27 (84%)
Value Rating: 20 (83%)
Reviewer Opinion: 8 (80%)

Overall Total (Does not include OGL Rating): 109 (87%)
Final Grade: B+