Dark Millennium (EABA) From: Blacksburg Tactical Research Center Reviewed by:  Ron McClung

Dark Millennium (EABA) is a new EABA Setting PDF from Blacksburg Tactical Research Center. You can find my review on the EABA system and other EABA settings on Gaming Report. Greg Porter is a very imaginative and gritty game writer.  Dark Millennium is another example of Greg's unique vision and passion for gaming.

From page # 1.3: “The ones behind. The ones behind, they ate Father Olsaf. They are dead yet they walk. ”

Setting:  Dark Millenium takes a dark world and makes it darker. It is the classic "what-if" scenario merging two not-so-original settings into one dark world. The concept - What if the apocalypse started during the Dark Ages, one millennia after the death of Christ (1033 AD). What if the events as described in Revelations started just after the collapse of the greatest empire and barbarians were ravaging the land. This is the setting for this EABA sourcebook PDF. It is a gritty and dark world where human hope is at its dimmest. The world around the humans of western Europe has collapsed around them with the fall of the greatest empire the world had seen. However, they have no idea how bad it has gotten. The first seal on the scroll of seven has been broken in Heaven and events are in motion to bring the world to its final destruction. With the Heavens wrangled in a war with themselves, man is left with only faith and steel to fight off the dead arising again, hungry for the flesh of the living.  

And this is only the first seal...

The setting's history is our own up until 1033. That is when things change and everything is different from there on out. It is not the quaint and honorable fairy-tale world of classic fantasy or the feudal world of late middle ages. It is a world left behind by the great Roman empire, striving to recover. Kings and other nobles have only just begun their reigns. With the apocalypse coming, the world from 1033 onward is going to be a much different one than the one we know from the history books. In this setting, the author starts out by explaining an intriguing concept - playing two characters. Of course, it is not original to play more than one character, but in this setting, he encourages to play two types of characters who are on totally separate campaigns or adventures. The first (and traditionally the primary character) you play is a regular adventurer from somewhere in Dark Age Europe. The other is something else entirely.  

The second character is optional, if the player and the GM agree. It is called a Lesser Fallen - a demon with great power that seeks to redeem himself. While the player plays the adventurer seeking to gain power, the demon works to lose power the sins have granted him and return to Earth forgiven and atoned. The two characters do not have to meet or be in the same party, and in fact the author encourages two separate adventure paths. They may meet occasionally, but they both are usually on separate journeys.

This kind of thing makes a regular old setting book something more. It adds more to the game than NPC and monster stats. I like this approach simply because of the story possibilities.  

Content: After the obligatory introductory short story and general informational introduction (Chapter 1), Chapter 2 covers the above and everything else you would want to know about characters in Dark Millennium (DM). It provides more traits specific to the DM setting which includes an extensive explanation of Status, which is very important in the world of DM. From Nobility and Clergy, the adventurer's position in life usually is key. Also the character's gender has an effect on the type of character they can play. I like social realism, and this contains a satisfying amount. Also included are new and expanded skills for the DM setting, as well as a section of goods and money. Because EABA is a generic system, it uses the metric system for measure as well as the generic credit for money.   The last third of chapter 2 covers the Second Adventurer a player can role-play if he and the GM so chooses. It explains the power that a Lesser Fallen would have in game terms as well as its motivations and destinies. It is safe to say that they are considerably more powerful than your regular adventurer and until the Lesser Fallen has come to grips with his destiny, the two should not meet.

From page # 1.6: “This island, this place, is no longer a place for a village, for women, or for children.”

The other major thing this setting books brings to EABA is its rules on Supernatural. Chapter 3 delves deep into the supernatural of Armageddon, which primarily involves the living dead and divine or faith based magic - the enemy and the ways to fight it.  In general, the undead in DM are zombies, vampires and ghouls, but they are not your standard "text-book" or "Monster Manual" creatures by the same name. They are weaker in some aspects and stronger in others. Using clever Latin derivations of their names, the author takes you into his own interpretation of the undead. The originality is in the subtle nuances and how inspiring they are. Of course, the dead crave human flesh or blood, and the author goes into detail on what happens when they do not get it, how much they need, and what else they must feed on.

The powers of undead vary from creature to creature except the one primary ability which is they are all hard to take down. Each is detailed with strengths and weaknesses. Following this are the powers of good, which includes blessings (like Laying of Hands, Communion, Consecration), which are simple powers that just happen but require a certain amount of faith to maintain, and rituals like Last Rites, Baptism and Marriage. It also includes other supernatural items like dark rituals, relics, and finally magic (white and pagan).

This marks the halfway point of the PDF. The remainder of the PDF contains background to the game world, equipment, and general advice on adventures in the dark millennium. This is where Greg's unique sense of history and imagination comes out. He provides small nuggets of knowledge about society, geopolitics, and history of the time period the game is set in. It gives an abridged version of important subjects like surnames and naming conventions in 11th century Europe, important people of the time period as well as the nations and kingdoms. One thing I found interesting is his section on games of the period. A very valuable section is the one about professions of the time, giving an accurate perspective on what people can play rather than using the standard D&D templates. There are also sections on commerce, mining, warfare, and ways things were constructed back then.

The Campaigning section really delves into the concept of DM - the coming end. Portions of this draw from the Book of Revelations as well as Judeo-Christian apocalypse mythology. It provides you an outline of the events that occur during the dark millennium and how to deal with them. They are basically events that are prophesied, and the characters will either know of them or learn of them during the campaign. All of these events are collectively called the Secret Revelations. There are several series of Revelations to choose from, and in fact the author recommends not using certain ones because they are simply too devastating. They are simple included to give the reader some perspective on the End of Days. These Secret Revelations include the Seven Seals, The Great Battles, and the Seven Trumpets.  Logically following the Campaigning section are three short adventures to help the reader get started in this campaign world. These adventures show that not only is the game about taking our walking dead, but also it is about the human condition, human failing, sin, and faith. Because of the Judeo-Christian inspirations of the game world, there is a fairly strong spiritual side of things.

The book ends with a fairly comprehensive Gear chapter and an index.

System: This setting book does not bring a lot to the system, but it does bring a little. For one, setting specific traits and other traits re-interpreted for the setting are included. Also, the rules surrounding the undead and the powers of good are new approaches to powers and the supernatural in EABA, using the same system of powers and traits as the core system. The powers include blessing and rituals for believers in the Creator as well as Pagan rituals. The Magic system is framed just like powers in the core system and include spells like Loaves and Fishes, Heal the Sick, Walk on Water, and many others inspired by Biblical miracles.

Layout: The art is fantastic, as it usually is with BTRC's stuff. Ever since I bought Guns, Guns, Guns way back when, I have liked his taste in art. The layout itself is very similar to other EABA PDFs and easy to follow. Greg is a master PDFer. The clickable Table of Contents (which not everyone includes) is very handy and makes things easy to navigate through.

In conclusion, Greg Porter has done it again with a powerfully original and different setting. The two I have reviewed - this one and Age of Ruin - although dealing with similar concepts - the end of the world - actually are markedly different. The originality is subtle and those amount of a subtleties effect the game world significantly, making every EABA experience different. This is a game that combines the hack-n-slash of a zombie game with the deep and heavy subjects of spirituality and sin in the Dark Ages. It is an interesting trip into two very key facets of gaming in general.