The Compendium of Weapons Armour and Castles

Palladium Megaverse

by Matthew Balent

For use with all role-playing games.

Over 700 weapons, 40 types of armour, 40 castles and floor plans. 224 pages!

An ideal source book for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, TMNT, Heroes Unlimited or any role-playing game

Genres: History, Role Playing Games, Games, Gaming, Dungeons and Dragons, Nonfiction, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1989

Reviews

[A.L. Butcher]

Although it is designed for use with the Paladium system of games it is a valuable resource and the information can be used elsewhere, including fantasy and historical fiction. The diagrams are hand drawn but reasonably accurate and cover a very wide variety of armours, weapons of all types, castles and forts in Europe including rough floor plans and even seige weapons.

[Little Timmy]

Even though this is for a role playing game it's a fantastic quick reference book. Highly recommended

[Isman]

Matthew Balent wrote this compendium for RPG (role-playing game) designers and dungeon masters. However, it also offers great information for historical/fantasy writers and artists.

We can learn various weapons from normal smallswords to exotic arms (which is open for argument since I don't think Javanese Kris is THAT exotic). Most of them have hand-drawn illustrations, with emphasis on their business ends (so we know which side we use to whack our enemies).

The highest level of details still cover only European weapons, though. Rapier, for instance, has eight different parts named on the book. And that's only the hilt! While parang is only illustrated as a weapon with a "handle" and a "blade".

Armors aren't any better. While the Castle section gives up entirely on the Eastern hemisphere.

Still, it's a good reference book. Balent uses real castle floor plans, armor designs, and weapon descriptions. And that's huge.