What a wonderful, unfairly forgotten gem Iron Crown Enterprise’s Robin Hood (1987) is. And despite the name, it contains two campaigns of distinct character. One, obviously, centers on Robin Hood and his adventures in Nottingham and hits the expected beats (influenced more by the British TV show of the time than other interpretations of Mr. Hood). The other, pure fiction, is an outlaw sandbox set in the Forest of Dean amid a Welsh civil war, where characters can, without the guidance of legend, forge their own destiny.

Both campaign are presented in the same fashion, with a timeline of events, a gazetteer of interesting places and five scenarios. Coupled with the rest of the book, there is plenty of material for a GM to put together their own scenarios. A number of folktales are included to spur that process along (including the one Mike Mignola drew on for the birth of Hellboy, funny enough) and all you’d need is to open one of the billion books on English legends to come up with more. The book aims to be semi-historic (like Pendragon, magic is intended to reside in the hands of NPCs and the GM, not the players) and is set during the period beginning with the Norman Conquest in 1066 and ending with the end of King John’s reign in 1216. A good amount of space is given over to detailing life during that period and seems like a clear forerunner to the green D&D historical sourcebooks.  

There are notes on running the campaigns using ICE’s fantasy-geared systems – Rolemaster, Fantasy Hero and MERP – I am not conversant in the former two, but the MERP rules seem to have been modified quite a bit. It would be just as easy to use Pendragon or even D&D to run the material in the book, though.

Oh, and the art! Angus McBride delivers a wonderful cover and Denis Loubet does all the interiors – I love his line work.

It all just comes together so well. I think this might be my favorite ICE publication.