Product Review

This sourcebook covers the miss-understood heroes known as Templars. A group of post-apocalypse paladins, who only help people who are deserving. This is another good sourcebook from the people at Pinnacle, with a good mix of humor, background and new rules/powers. It is written in the usual Pinnacle style with an opening chapter written by a H.O.E character in this case Jo (the narrator from The Wasted West sourcebook). Then a chapter on new rules for creating Templars plus other lower members of Templar Order. We then get a chapter on powers, a chapter on The Martyrs (The spirits of warriors who have fallen in the fight against the Reckoners), and finally some chapters for the Marshals eyes only.

In the first chapter Jo tells us how Simon Mercer, leader of the Templars, gained his powers and created the order. But first of all we get a brief history lesson on the real Knights Templar, an order who protected pilgrims on their way to the holy lands in the twelfth century. We are then told how Simon wandered the Wasted West after judgment day. Until he witnessed the death of Jenny Hise, a Law Dog (Protector's of Weak) who tried to protect a town from raiders, but was then betrayed by the townsfolk who left her to die. After this Simon returned to this hometown of Boise, but on the way suffered many trials and visions sent by the Martyrs, who then granted him the powers all Templars now use. We then learn how Simon taught the first of his new order and the events these new Templars took part in. Plus we get a review of the Templars relations with certain groups in the Wasted West. Then we learn about the Dark Side of the Templars... the Anti Templars. A group of Templars who have stopped following the path of the True Templars, and who use different methods. The two groups have a blood oath to kill each other whenever they meet, so as you can imagine things are never very friendly between them. Finally we are told the stories of several Martyrs and how each grants its powers to the Templar. Some of these Martyrs are very funny, for example:

Wyatt Earp, the saint of Composure.
Eliot Ness, the saint of Morality. (Who spent much of his life fighting Mob Families, many of whom were the evil servants of the Reckoners.
John Wayne, the saint of Grit (who gives us one of the best quotes, from the squire archetype "Sorry, I know sarcasm isn't 'becoming,' but I'm starting to feel faint. Huh? No, I don't think the Duke's gonna bless me for sitting here bleeding. 'Not if I keep whining.' That's funny. Really funny. Thanks."

That finishes the opening chapter, so next we go onto the new rules. Here we are given the options for creating Templars, Squires (Templars in training), Anti-Templars and Companions (Recognized heroes who work with the Templars but don't want to be Templars.) We then have some expanded rules for sword fighting, such as wonderful moves like sword throw, reverse thrust (stabbing some behind who without turning) and feint. Don't worry if you don’t know what they all are because you get some funky pictures to keep things simple.

Next we have the important part. The powers of the Templar, which are called Rewards. These rewards are nowhere near as powerful as the ones used by Sykers or Doomsayers, but both of these groups need to pay strain to use powers, which means they can only do so much a day. The Templar's Rewards can be used all day for no cost; this fact makes them very much harder when aTemplar has picked up several rewards. The nature of the rewards is enhancement of ability, over alteration of the environment (so no Nuke's or Brainbombs', just increased strength, accuracy and fortitude.) Some of the best rewards are:

Armor of the Saints- Gives the Templar a natural armor, which at it's best, is almost as good as Kevlar.

Deflection- Deflect magic aimed at Templar. (Good if you get in a fight with the group's Doomsayer.)

Guardian Angel- Pure good luck helping to keep your Templar safe.

We then slip into the No Mans Land and Marshals section, both of which are off limits so I won't discuss them. But in here we have the game effects for Martyrs, anti-Templars and some Relics. Plus all the dirt behind the clean cover story. I must point out to any Marshals who plan to run the Adventure from the back of the book, firstly: make sure the party really have a chance (something which is very hard to do if you check it's powers.) and secondly: make sure you put in lots of extra encounters to keep it interesting. Other than this the adventure is very good. The book is well worth buying, even if I am biased by the fact that Templars are my favorite Arcane Background.

Reviewed By Martin Dye