All in all, an alright game. Not a lot of meat on the bones; but a lot of content under the hood nonetheless. Also quite usable as a supplement otherwise with the complete guide to English herbology included in the book itself.

Gotta say, I love this game! You can tell a lot of love, interest and effort was put into this version of Maelstrom. From the extensive history, day to day life, culture, etc. to the traditional bestiary that doesn't seem out of place, this game showed that the makers cared about the subject matter.

The game itself uses a D100 system, which if you're familiar and like Call of Cthulhu (which I am looking into introducing monsters and such from it into my Domesday game), all the concepts are there and easy to follow. Whether you are a proponent of D100 or not, the lifepath character generation is a fun game in itself. Taking the random journey through your character's life before your adventures is such a great time. No joke! The magic system also harkens to Ars Magica, with me being never a fan of Vancian magic, I love it! There's more creativity involved, which with low magic I appreciate.

Only critique I have is I wish there was more products to add to it. And in products, I mean supplemental tools to add more monsters, other parts of the world during this time period or things to add more fantastical elements to the game. I know these things would take away from the purpose of the game, but I could see this ruleset as the quintessential Warhammer Fantasy successor, especially with that lifepath system being expanded to even more gritty occupations and such.

Highly recommend this game!

I purchased this as part of a bundle of holding as I used to play maelstrom. This version is even better than the original all the career's are believable and I like the way abilities increase through 6 ranks, although needing 3 ranks to be competent at literacy makes it hard to develop characters that can read & write, which I suppose is what you would excpect in the dark ages or early medieval. There is a mass of background and details on loads of herbs, this came with a variety of supporting materiel the beast of ledsham and north yourkshire moors for example.

Maelstrom Domesday is a great RPG set 20 years after the Norman Conquest of England. Your characters have all witnessed a supernatural event and have therefore become shunned by the society they once knew. Forced on to the road or into exile, they have then been given a task by a wealthy Norman patron to uncover the secrets behind certain goings on within their holdings.

Domesday uses a Lifepath Character Generation system which is very involved but very satisfying. You start at age 13 in a random career and progress from there until Career End when a Supernatural Event happens that causes your character to go on the road and be hired by the Patron.

Mechanically it uses percentile (d100) dice for most things, and then dice such as d3 or d6 for damage etc. The system is pretty simple but very effective and easy enough to pick up and learn.

One thing that I really like about Domesday is the section on the villages and hamlets in the York area. Each entry has a description of the village, its notable buildings or areas (Abbey and 300 acres of woodland etc) but also a small passage on local gossip/tales and also a 'Plot Hook'. I think this is awesome as you have a wealth of game ideas right there and with at least two ideas per village that's a good 60 plot ideas at your fingertips! Most RPGs have plot hooks but they are hidden within a mass of text, whereas these are right there and very easy to find and read.

Well worth buying and playing!