Heroes & Villains of the Old World from Ole Arnesen (@OleArnesen) & Nikolas Totief (@4d6_drop_lowest on instagram)

“From the dawn of humanity, every culture has had its own myths and folklore. Starting as oral traditions passed down through centuries, if not millennia, these tales and myths speak to us about these cultures: What traits do its people value? What is taboo? What behaviour do these myths praise and encourage? What does it really mean to be a member of this culture? And why, exactly, should you stay away from that dark forest over there?”

The first thing we have to mention is the unbearably gorgeously beautiful cover art by Eduardo Comettant (https://www.artstation.com/ecomettant) of King Arthur and Morgan Le Fay screaming at each other (or playing a terrifying cannibalistic game of Hungry, Hungry Hippos), while battle of all size and shapes is waged under a storing purple sky! Frankly, it’s one of the most instantly arresting and freaking awesome front covers I’ve ever seen! I’m absolutely blown away!

The ‘...of the Old World’ team are back with a third instalment to the series, Monsters and Artifacts preceding it, and the quality and attention to detail has only improved with each work, and they were phenomenal to begin with. It truly fills me with joy to see these large-scale projects with a whole slew of incredible creators who already have terrific works on DMs Guild, DriveThruRPG and Itch coming together to pool their talents. These are not cooks, though their work makes me salivate, they are dab hands coming together to make dancing lights work. What I’m saying is that this is a bloody brilliant bunch of writers, editors, artists, layout, etc and it’s truly wonderful to see them coming together to produce something of truly top quality that will enhance any game, regardless of theme, because the creativity contained with cannot but enthral and inspire!

This masterwork of epic proportions covers a great breadth of Heroes and Villains of the Old World, history, folklore and myth entwined to create an incredible array of top-quality NPCs from the ‘Old World’ of Arthurian & British, Dutch & German, Greek & Roman, Irish, Italian, Nordic and Slavic stories and histories. It is very important to make it clear that this is far more than a collection of quality NPCs, there is just so much more here! Each NPC comes with a quote from an original source, a lengthy background and biography almost certainly expanding on the information and elements most commonly known including their origin or origins, their personality traits, statblock and statblocks for the creatures closely associated with them, magic items, both familiarly associated with the figure and that reflect and transfer some of their abilities to the wielder (more on that later), and many come with their own Lair Actions and Regional Effects, such as Jenny Green-Teeth's grasping vines and pond water that actively tries to drown creatures, as well as creepy ponds appearing in the area around her lair or trees riddled with arrows, tales of wealth distribution and all manner of merry traps actions that would make an ewok artificer blush for Robin Hood.

From Herne the Hunter, leader of a spectral hunt with warhorse, shadow mastiffs and rattling chain, Jack, the Giant-Killer and eventual Knight of the Round Table with pickaxe of giant killing and Jenny Green-Teeth, the truly terrifying ruler of Pondemonium who will make you deathly afraid of duckweed and puddles, and the roguish Robin Hood, to the too often overlooked, Guinevere, the white fey queen of Camelot and truly the first influencer with a passion for passion, her husband had rather fancy sword bestowed upon him by Nimue, foremost of the Ladies of the Lake with a history and mystique that eclipse that of the storied King. Still, Arthur, his closest friends and enemies with their wondrous and legendary toys are included. The wealth of beautifully written lore, items and characters here alone are worth the cover price and enough populate an Arthurian or Fey campaign!

From Dutch and Germanic legend give us Emmeken, an orphan on the streets raised to be a powerful Warlock by her patron and pater, a pit fiend, who has not forgotten the plight of the needy, a flirty, foxy silver-tongued rebel with a convenient confusing cottage, king and queen paladins with a very different approach to hour and righteousness and wealth of legendary items, and the original name with fifth edition flavour Schneewittchen (Snow White) and the Wicked Queen, animal friendship, glass coffin, magic mirror and all.

Greece and Rome have the nigh-invulnerable Achiles and mighty Ajax who ran the show at Troy for a time, while the man who would be remembered as the greatest champion of all time sat it out for “personal reasons”, also known as pouting over Agamemnon taking one of the women Achiles had enslaved for himself and letting countless of his allies die while he sulked like a petulant child... The Zephyr-fast Atlanta, one with the first and bow, who races and speared each suitor who couldn’t beat in her in a race, which was all of them, and the powerful witch queen with a penchant polymorphing men into pigs, Circe, who might just have the best quote in the book, “Go now, and roll in the mud with the rest of your shipmates”. We also have two of Zeus’ many, many children in the master monster slayers Heracles and Perseus (through a blending of mythology) and their heroic arsenal, including the mirrored shield and Medusa’s head. Also, here can be found the mighty queen of the amazons, Penthesilea, gold-cursed King Midas, the huge, fire-breathing bronze guardian, Talos and the twins shapechangers raised by wolves and founders of Rome, Romolo and Remus, amongst others. I absolutely cannot wait to add these folx to my Theros campaign!

From Ireland, Abhartaigh is a terrifying dwarven vampire, who like Killer Mike and El-P threatens folx to run the jewels or lose their fingers, kept in check by being kept upside down with a rock on him and a tree on top of that, though they are still surprisingly spry and influential on those in the area (which would make for an awesome adventure campaign arc), oh and they were a huge part of Bram Stoker's basis for Dracula. Also included are, Cathbad, the apotheosis of the druid as sage and advisory to the Celtic courts with their knowledge of prognostication, Cú Chullain, the ultimate Irish barbarian badarse with his artifact spear, legendary shield and stylish torc of defence, Finn mac Cumhaill, the “Hibernian Hercules” who gains insights from sucking his thumb because the he accidentally burnt while frying up the Salmon of Knowledge, Queen Méabh, the legendary warrior and ruler who proved herself equal and greater than most all sexes and genders, and The Morrígan, Battle Goddess or Shadow Queen, a tremendously powerful fey shapechanger with mastery over animals and their forms.

Italy gives us Orlando (and France gives us Roland) a powerful and pious paladin prone to bouts of furious jealousy pertaining to the battlefield healer princess, Angelica. Orlando’s tale mentions various allies of his that could inspire your own legendary NPCs and Angelica has a fabulous ring that aids her safety among the fighting.

From the Nordic we have some really interesting deeper cuts than the usual Norse characters with Dovregubben, the wise and magical legendary mountain king of the trolls and figuratively in the very bedrock of Norway with his perpetually-rimed greataxe and truly terrifying new Modify Perception spell, Espen Askeladd, a rags to adventurer to king, people person and owner of an incredible array of magic items including, an animated axe that talks, tells bawdy jokes and stories about tress it chopped down, a walnut of ever flowing water that also converses and is terrified of squirrels, and an animated hoe that digs a mean hole – yes this can hold a conversation too! Who needs sidekicks?! There’s also a full flying ship statblock and gorgeous map, Old-Erik a folklore fiend who might just be the devil himself disguised as an older gentleman on an eternal quest for a legendary hand-mill that con produce anything its wielder desires, and Utgards-Loke, master jotun sorcerer of troll magic, legendary deceiver of Thor ad owner of sweet fort full of loyal frost giant warriors, and an undrainable drinking horn! Lots of great stuff for Storm King’s Thunder, Rime of the Frost Maiden or even Descent into Avernus, as well as your own Norse games.

From the Portuguese we have Brites, “a burly and capable woman who didn’t like taking orders”, a retired adventurer and happy baker...who will kick arse when necessary and Viriato the “shepherd-king”, leader of guerrilla forces facing down the overwhelming numbers of Romans

From the Slavic we get the original hag archetype in Baba Yaga, but presented more sympathetically than we often see, being one with nature, from the orignal folklore being a sage representing “the wisdom of highly respected elders who always had advice for those in need.” She does have fences made of human bones, have the chicken-leg hut we all love that breathes fire from the oven with a beautiful battlemap of the insides, as well as her flying mortar and magic greatclub pestle. Dzevianna is the disputed goddess of the hunt and nature whose prowess and power as presented is undisputed, a Guard Mermaid of Warsaw depicted with coral breastplate and shield and a very cool pearly blade. King Popiel and the Poison Queen a deplorable royal couple with a poison chalice and an aversion to mice, and finally, Master Twardowski, a Warlock who tricked the devil into only being able to take his soul if he stepped on a boat or possibly Rome...so instead he pootles about on a magic rooster depicted sumptuously by Comettant!

There is a treasure trove of Magic Items reflecting both the magical items they are ubiquitous with these historic figures to use in your games, but also items that explain or reflect abilities of these figures, such as Robin Hood’s Bow of Merry-Thieves, which in addition to being a powerful weapons has an ability that can disarm enemies and give the wielder’s allies the ability to catch the disarmed weapon. Items like this both allow for DMs to show that the wielder or Mr Hood himself, is clearly no slouch with a bow and is more about disarming and embarrassing than going right in for the kill, and give players the chance to play out epic moments from the associated media, such as the good, the bad and definitive of Robin Hood films, the Disney one, although the Maid Marian BBC show comes a close second. Getting to be heroes and adventurers and getting to do all this cool stuff is part of what we play for in the first place, and many of the items will definitely scratch that itch, as well as having DMs putting on their Cap of Knowledge.

A pronunciation and translation guide, as well as indexes of the characters by name, CR, origin, and them are provided for to improve referencing and accessibility.

Whether you are running an adventure or campaign in a setting similar or inspired by these areas and legends or not, these characters, their deeds and tales, archetypes, items and awesomeness will add phenomenal amounts of flavour to your game! Just a sprinkle of these could inspire all manner or quests, NPCs, BBEFs (big bad evil folx), but with this toolkit and some mixing and matching you have potentially infinite possibilities for ways to implement them in and create games around these mythic figures. This is a top-quality supplement bound bring wonder and joy, sparking all manner of creative figures endeavours, as well as being a spectacular collection of NPCs and items, worth more than the asking price however you make use of it!

The absolutely fabulous layout by Sven Trucknebrodt (@SvenWrites) is true gorgeousness with the unifying motif that subtly morphs from one group to the next and the liberal, but wonderfully blended artwork, which in itself is a masterclass in historic royalty-free art and some truly marvelous pieces from the artists of the project! This supplement looks fresh, clean and professional. You love to see it!

Credits

This book was created by a multi-national team of writers, artists, and editors, originating from nearly a dozen different European countries. With this project, they hope to share a bit of their country’s history, lore, and mythology with you for use in the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

Project Leaders Ole Arnesen, Nikolas Totief

Layout Sven Truckenbrodt

Writers Andrea Maffia, Beatriz T Dias, Catherine Evans, Ciarán O’Halloran, George Komis, Matthew Whitby, Miłosz Gawęcki, Nikolas Totief, Ole Arnesen, Simone Rossi Tisbeni, Steffie de Vaan, Sven Truckenbrodt

Editors Ciarán O’Halloran, ELF Vesala, George Komis, Kai Linder, Nikolas Totief, Ole Arnesen, Sven Truckenbrodt

Cover Art Eduardo Comettant

Interior Illustrations: Original Art Dana Braga, Eduardo Comettant, Giulia Valentini, Lessie Nieves-Paugh, Rosemarie Müller, Saga Mackenzie, Wouter Florusse

Interior Illustrations: Cartography Miłosz Gawęcki, Ole Arnesen

Interior Illustrations: Public Domain Andrea Vaccaro, Andrew Lang, Arthur Rackham, Carl Of f terdinger, Charles Ernest Butler, David Ring, Edmund Blair Leighton, Evelyn De Morgan, George Cruikshank, Heinrich Leutemann, Helen Stratton, Henri Auguste César Serrur, Herbert James Draper, John William Waterhouse, Joseph Christian Leyendecker, Leo von Klenze, Louis Read, Luca Giordano, Morris & Co, Pompeo Batoni, Richard Doyle, Stephen Reid, William Morris

Interior Illustrations: Stock Art Arttower, Bob Greyvenstein, Dean Spencer, Dejan Krivokapic, Fat Goblin Games, pendleburyannette, Rachelmarie, DMs Guild Creator Resources