Citing the author : "Our goal with 'Weapons of the Ancient World' is to place pre-industrial weapons into an historically based functional context. Though many weapon compendiums have been written for various RPGs, the real functional differences of ancient weapons have never been accurately differentiated – leading to a variety of clichés such as the ludicrous idea that a twelve inch dagger is a nuisance weapon that can barely hurt you. Weapons are different not just in how they look, but how they work. ..."

This book is by far more serious than a RPG's compendium could let think of it at first. It is built on real historical point of view (illustrations and documentations), from which, you will learn a lot on 'real weapons' (not the usual description of RPG's weapons). Nevertheless, the content is practical and can be used in any RPG (or at least transposed to any).

I gave it 5 stars for the content (I really do not miss my 10 dollars). If you are interested in this book, look at its twin : Codex Martialis Weapons of the Ancient World Part II: Armor and Missile Weapons.

Pierre-Olivier Bourge (french mother language, so please excuse my poor english)

An incredibly detailed and thorough document on historical weaponry for the OGL 3.5 rules. While this book may not have the fancy design and layout of many other RPG books, it makes up for this in content - a glossary of weapon terms, historical context, a brief history of metallurgy, new weapon rules (shield hooking, slashing the weapon hand, etc.), with color and black and white illustrations and photos on practically every page.

Not many gamers desire this level of detail in their RPGs, but if you're looking to fact-check your historical OGL game, this is the book to have. I don't often give five stars to a product, but this book perfectly accomplishes its goal, and has well earned it.

Author: Jean Henri Chandler. Contents: 120 portable document format black and white pages, 1 title and credit page, 5 contents pages, 19 pages of introduction, 82 pages of weapon statistics, 7 appendices pages, 4 bibliography and recommended media pages, and 2 open game license pages. Publisher: Ire Games Product Code: Not Applicable Retail Price: $10.00

Overview

This is an expansion for the Codex Martialis combat system for D20/3e, and the first of two parts, dealing as it does with mêlée weapons, whilst the second part encompasses missile weapons and armour. More than one hundred types of weapon are presented in this supplement, almost all of which have an accompanying example image of the weapon they are describing, either being an extant historical weapon or as accurate a reproduction as has been managed. Although many of the images are freely available elsewhere, a number are much more difficult to find, and to see them all assembled in a single document with descriptions and statistics is impressive and useful indeed. Unlike many previous adventure game supplements of this sort, which have chiefly relied on books published many decades ago, incorporated inaccurate information from popular culture, or otherwise suffered from efforts to fit into an already established structure for the game they seek to augment, Weapons of the Ancient World makes excellent use of the many resources available, including modern historical research and practical experience on the part of the author and contributors. As such, it is decidedly free of the errors that are frequently repeated by adventure games.

As with the Codex Martialis rulebook, Weapons of the Ancient World incorporates a good number of public domain illustrations and interesting period anecdotes, which are wholly appropriate here. Moreover, the authorial voice is frank about its aims, clear in the information it seeks to impart, and pleasant to read. The glossary is useful and informative, as is the brief history of metallurgy, especially for anybody wishing to differentiate between various time periods or cultures in their campaign. By the same token, the weapon quality rules distinguishing between bronze, iron, steel, tempered steel, pattern welded steel, and wootz steel are well handled and should prove useful to anybody wishing to do so in their D20/3e game. The weapon list itself is extensive, and the numerous images, in many cases several for a single entry, spur the imagination and make it much easier for the reader to comprehend what is being described. Each entry is concise and to the point, and the author is clear when he is giving his own impressions of a weapon, as opposed to restating more academic opinions. The information in this book is not limited to the D20/3e system; the statistics are adaptable to just about any swords & sorcery type adventure game.

Criticism

Very few editing errors are apparent for a work of this scale, and it would seem that there are no spelling or grammatical errors to speak of. Since this work was originally released prior to the latest version of the Codex Martialis it contains several rules that were originally supplemental, but have since been incorporated into the main work; this extraneous information ought to be excised. The illustrations are a mixture of colour and black and white, and almost certainly will have to be rendered the latter in a cost effective printing, which may obscure some of the detail. In an ideal world, each image would be exactingly redrawn for a professional release, but that is likely wishful thinking! Although Weapons of the Ancient World is free of the inexactitudes that plague other such volumes, it might be said that it introduces its own prejudices when selectively reassigning the nomenclature. Certainly, Dungeons & Dragons owes more to Fritz Leiber in its use of "shortsword" and "longsword" than to a misunderstanding of medieval weapon designations. It should also be noted that there is some disagreement between the individual entries, the tables in the appendix and the Codex Martialis with regard to weapon characteristics.

Conclusion

Simply by virtue of its accuracy Weapons of the Ancient World stands head and shoulders above the vast majority of previous efforts for adventure games, including relatively modern efforts such as the Castellan’s Guide to Arms & Armour, whilst in scale and statistical utility it rivals the Palladium Book of Arms & Armour, but the huge number of authentic images that accompany this supplement gives it a really unique appeal to any gamer interested in ancient and medieval weapons. With a resource like this on hand, it will be a rare occasion when a game master is unable to visually answer the ubiquitous question "what sort of weapon is a such-and-such?" Indeed, aside from the layout, the chief way in which the utility of this work might be improved is through the addition of more illustrations and entries. A great deal of effort and knowledge has gone into the production of this work, and it is surely something to be proud of. Furthermore, as a "living" work any shortcomings it does display are likely to be fixed in subsequent updates for the immediate future. Given the impressive content, inexpensive price and availability of Weapons of the Ancient World there really is no reason not to own a copy.

Codex Martialis is a giant pack of weapon goodness.

The one downside: Not much that isn't easily available. However, since it's all statted out, this can be forgiven, since I've never seen such a large collection of weapons all statted out for the same rules, and most medieval weaponry is pretty easy to find, but not easy to actually know much about other than general function.

All in all, it's good, has lots of diagrams, and all that jazz. However, it just feels like it's missing something, so I feel that I can't give it a five. If you need a ton of weapons quick, this may be your best bet.

This is one of those magnificent must-have books. I'm really pleased with Ire Games care about customers and the way they update the content. This is the living prove that there's no need to rely always on a "big publisher" (attending to its size).

Very well done. Kind of reminds me of Palladium's old weapons and armor books...except better! I'm looking forward to the upcoming books on missile weapons and armor. These guys only have two products so far, but they are quickly becoming one of my favorites.