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Brancalonia - Spaghetti Fantasy Setting Book
BRANCALONIA SETTING BOOK - ENGLISH VERSION
Based on Italian tradition, folklore, history, landscapes, literature, and pop culture, Brancalonia is a Campaign Setting for the 5th Edition of the most famous role-playing game ever.
Enter the Kingdom of Brancalonia, a land full of pitfalls and money-making opportunities. Create your own band of Knaves, enlist in a free company, get yourself some well-paid jobs, deliver a fist-and-knife buffet to those who have it coming.
Once you have collected a tidy sum and somewhat climbed the ranks of your company, you’ll be ready to try your luck in that final job that could enable you to go out in a blaze of glory...
After all, what could possibly go wrong?"
________________
In this book you can find:
- A general description of the Kingdom, its history, and its main regions.
- 5 new playable races, in addition to the human, taken from Italian tradition and folklore.
- 12 new subclasses, one for each of the basic classes, like the benandante and the superstician; the sword-player and the brigand; the miraculist and the friar.
- New Backgrounds, Talents, Equipment, and Magic Items typical of Brancalonian Knaves.
- Secrets, threats, curiosities, places of interest, rumors, and game hints for the Condottiero, including random tables generator for Dives, Memorabilia, and Roads to nowhere!
- New Setting Rules: Dive Games, Brawls, Shoddy Equipment, Misdeeds, Notoriety, Bounties, Den management, Revels, and Prophecies.
- In Search of Quatrins: a collection of 6 adventures set in different parts of the Kingdom.
- 24 new monsters and antagonists, inspired by Italian history, tradition, and folklore.
- And so much more...
FOR THE BOUNTY!
PLEASE NOTE: Brancalonia is a low fantasy setting that also uses game mechanics inspired by the "Epic Six" house rule, enhancing it to provide specific and fun rules allowing a conventional character's advancement beyond 6th level. A distinctive and original character progression characterizes the game at higher levels, keeping it coherent with Brancalonia's Setting!
Based on Italian tradition, folklore, history, landscapes, literature, and pop culture, Brancalonia is a Campaign Setting for the 5th Edition of the most famous role-playing game ever.
Enter the Kingdom of Brancalonia, a land full of pitfalls and money-making opportunities. Create your own band of Knaves, enlist in a free company, get yourself some well-paid jobs, deliver a fist-and-knife buffet to those who have it coming.
Once you have collected a tidy sum and somewhat climbed the ranks of your company, you’ll be ready to try your luck in that final job that could enable you to go out in a blaze of glory...
After all, what could possibly go wrong?"
________________
In this book you can find:
- A general description of the Kingdom, its history, and its main regions.
- 5 new playable races, in addition to the human, taken from Italian tradition and folklore.
- 12 new subclasses, one for each of the basic classes, like the benandante and the superstician; the sword-player and the brigand; the miraculist and the friar.
- New Backgrounds, Talents, Equipment, and Magic Items typical of Brancalonian Knaves.
- Secrets, threats, curiosities, places of interest, rumors, and game hints for the Condottiero, including random tables generator for Dives, Memorabilia, and Roads to nowhere!
- New Setting Rules: Dive Games, Brawls, Shoddy Equipment, Misdeeds, Notoriety, Bounties, Den management, Revels, and Prophecies.
- In Search of Quatrins: a collection of 6 adventures set in different parts of the Kingdom.
- 24 new monsters and antagonists, inspired by Italian history, tradition, and folklore.
- And so much more...
FOR THE BOUNTY!
PLEASE NOTE: Brancalonia is a low fantasy setting that also uses game mechanics inspired by the "Epic Six" house rule, enhancing it to provide specific and fun rules allowing a conventional character's advancement beyond 6th level. A distinctive and original character progression characterizes the game at higher levels, keeping it coherent with Brancalonia's Setting!
190 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 2021
4 people are currently reading
11 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 1, 2021
An interesting setting for 5E mixing fairy tale elements with low-level grittier play. The player characters are all "Bounty Brothers" with bounties on their heads for deeds they may or may not have done. This tends to cause them to join companies of other bounty brothers to find work and shelter. Each company has a "Dive" or hangout where they can relax and unwind after a job.
Changes to the system include six races and a new sub-class for each class. Four of the races are essentially humans and human variants, with Pinocchio like Marionettes and former devils known as Malebranche rounding out the list. Starting money is in silver instead of gold, requiring the rules on shoddy equipment for the characters to be able to equip themselves. The short/long rest system is changed. Level progression caps at 6 with further experience resulting in some additional abilities, but no further level increases. There's also a completely new sub-system for non-lethal tavern brawls
The rest of the book has equipment lists, a gazetteer of the setting, some sample adventures, and some new monsters.
It all looks interesting, but I do have a few concerns and problems. The changes to resting would seem to nerf spell casters more than martial classes. Careful adventure design is necessary in the setting in order to prevent this from becoming an issue, but there's no discussion of this in the book.
There are numerous references to three other races that are not described in this book, with no context or description of what they are. They appear in the first supplement, but should have had at least a short paragraph here explaining what they are.
I don't ever expect to run this, but was interested in a fantasy setting based on medieval/renaissance Italy, and I'm not disappointed.
Changes to the system include six races and a new sub-class for each class. Four of the races are essentially humans and human variants, with Pinocchio like Marionettes and former devils known as Malebranche rounding out the list. Starting money is in silver instead of gold, requiring the rules on shoddy equipment for the characters to be able to equip themselves. The short/long rest system is changed. Level progression caps at 6 with further experience resulting in some additional abilities, but no further level increases. There's also a completely new sub-system for non-lethal tavern brawls
The rest of the book has equipment lists, a gazetteer of the setting, some sample adventures, and some new monsters.
It all looks interesting, but I do have a few concerns and problems. The changes to resting would seem to nerf spell casters more than martial classes. Careful adventure design is necessary in the setting in order to prevent this from becoming an issue, but there's no discussion of this in the book.
There are numerous references to three other races that are not described in this book, with no context or description of what they are. They appear in the first supplement, but should have had at least a short paragraph here explaining what they are.
I don't ever expect to run this, but was interested in a fantasy setting based on medieval/renaissance Italy, and I'm not disappointed.
August 13, 2024
Really well done. Using the 5E D&D system (with some additions), the creators captured the feel of late medieval/early renaissance Italy, without being an actual alternate history version. It's a fantasy world, but heavily influenced by Italian history and folklore (the "pop culture" influences are more sly nods or humorous names used rather than any sort of modern feel), including a fallen sort-of Roman Empire and sort-of Catholic Church. This is also intended to be a low-power game, with characters capped at 6th Level (although they can continue to gain skills/powers, but more slowly). Also, characters are not intended to be glorious heroes, but, as stated in the introduction "...you are the ones who step in when things go wrong: lazy swindlers, low-life scoundrels, listless dabblers, and greedy knaves... You're the dregs of the adventuring world." To this end, the book includes rules for shoddy and counterfeit equipment, hideouts ("dens"), misdeeds, bounties, notoriety, and the criminal justice system (an excellent system, by the way, for reigning in murder hobos worse impulses), job hazards, (nonlethal) brawling, dives, tavern games. Like many other licensed 5E adaptions, this one includes subclasses, backgrounds and feats specific to this setting. The world does not have dwarves, elves, and the like. Most races in the Kingdom are similar to humans (gifted, morgants, sylvans) with the exception of marionettes (think Pinocchio) and Malebranche ("escaped" former devils). A weakness in this book is the periodic tendency to use terms and not explain them. In most cases, the reader can work them out from context, but in others... 4 stars.
August 18, 2024
Premier livre de la gamme de jdr Brancalonia.
Je cite ce qui est écrit dans ce livre:
'Vous, vous êtes les feignants de service, les crapules de métier, les fumistes professionnels. Si une corvée vous tombait dessus, vous feriez un jet de sauvegarde pour l'esquiver à la hâte.'
Utilisant les règles de Donjons et Dragons 5, nous sommes ici dans un univers un poil décalé.
Les sorts fonctionnent mais leur apparence claque moins, les PJs ne peuvent pas dépasser le niveau 6, car iels ne peuvent exceller comme les héros des grandes histoires.
Ici, ce sont plus des boulets qui peuvent échouer une grande parties de leurs missions que des héros.
Ce livre vient avec quelques Corvées, des quêtes si vous préférez, avec un ton plus ou moins humoristique sur le fond. Ton que l'on retrouve dans les règles additionnelles pour la création de personnages, de tripots. Règles de baston de taverne et autres jeux d'argents dans ces dernières sont décrites, et elles sont toutes plus débiles les unes que les autres pour nôtre plus grand bonheur.
Seul bémol, la description des différentes régions qui ne colle pas forcément à ce ton.
Cet univers reste sympathique et change des quêtes héroïques que la cinquième édition de Donjons et Dragons nous a habitué à voir.
Je cite ce qui est écrit dans ce livre:
'Vous, vous êtes les feignants de service, les crapules de métier, les fumistes professionnels. Si une corvée vous tombait dessus, vous feriez un jet de sauvegarde pour l'esquiver à la hâte.'
Utilisant les règles de Donjons et Dragons 5, nous sommes ici dans un univers un poil décalé.
Les sorts fonctionnent mais leur apparence claque moins, les PJs ne peuvent pas dépasser le niveau 6, car iels ne peuvent exceller comme les héros des grandes histoires.
Ici, ce sont plus des boulets qui peuvent échouer une grande parties de leurs missions que des héros.
Ce livre vient avec quelques Corvées, des quêtes si vous préférez, avec un ton plus ou moins humoristique sur le fond. Ton que l'on retrouve dans les règles additionnelles pour la création de personnages, de tripots. Règles de baston de taverne et autres jeux d'argents dans ces dernières sont décrites, et elles sont toutes plus débiles les unes que les autres pour nôtre plus grand bonheur.
Seul bémol, la description des différentes régions qui ne colle pas forcément à ce ton.
Cet univers reste sympathique et change des quêtes héroïques que la cinquième édition de Donjons et Dragons nous a habitué à voir.
March 2, 2026
5 stelle come sourcebook, 4 come opera in sé (è pur sempre una sorta di aggiornamento ancora più scanzonato di KataKumbas), testo comunque molto importante nella costruzione di una via italiana contemporanea al fantasy.
September 10, 2021
Really interesting approach to Dnd with more grounded rules. Thinking of implementing in time. Though may need to re-read aspects if i were to run a proper campaign
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews