Secrets of the Phoenix

[Psion]

Secrets of the Phoenix

Secrets of the Phoenix is a book in the "Secrets of" series of books for the Legends of the Five Rings setting by AEG that deals with specific clans in the setting (in this case, the Phoenix clan).

As with prior books in the series, Secrets of the Phoenix is a "dual-statted" providing game rules in both terms of the d20 System and the Legends of the Five Rings 2nd edition system. This review only attempts to cover d20 System material and non-system specific material.

A First Look

Secrets of the Phoenix is a 96 page perfect-bound softcover book priced at $24.95. This is expensive for a d20 System book of this size.

The cover of the book follows suit after the rest of the books in the series, with a half-face of a figure from the clan against a dark backdrop. The man depicted on the cover is wearing a stylized Phoenix-crested kabuto and has glowing eyes. The cover art is by Matthew S. Armstrong.

The interior of the book is black and white, with some header text and game details set off in blue text. The interior art is by Chris Dornaus, and is generally of good quality, albeit having a rather sketchy penciled appearance.

Typical of AEG books nowadays, Secrets of the Phoenix has dense body text and closely spaced paragraphs, somewhat making up for the high price per page exhibited by the book.

A Deeper Look
(Spoiler warning: This section discusses some of the GM only material introduced in the chapter.)

The arrangement of Secrets of the Phoenix is somewhat similar to prior volumes in the series in that it has an introduction with a general cultural and historical details and a rules summary, chapters devoted to major families in the clan, and a chapter detailing secrets of the clan.

The introductory chapter touches lightly on some traditions and some important historical events as well as a few mechanical details. Five new feats are introduced (mostly void related), as well as new courtier abilities and a Phoenix technique reference lists.

The most significant new feat is Greater Depths of the Void. Similar to the Depths of the Void feat, the feat simply gives you extra void points. However, the amount of void points thus gained is significantly higher. The feat grants four void points plus one additional void point per additional time the feat is taken. This feat will be a much sought out feat for those who wish to maximize their void related abilities.

The first through fourth chapter covers the major families of the Phoenix clan, the Agasha family (formerly of the Dragon clan), the Asako, the Isawa, and the Shiba. Each of the family chapters contains a similar arrangement, with details on the provinces of the clan (with adventure seed for each holding), major NPCs and vassal families, and a few mechanical tidbits like feats, magic items, and katas (introduced in Way of the Samurai.)

The Agasha are a former Dragon clan granted lands in Phoenix territory after their exodus from the Dragon clan after some repellent actions by the Dragon clan champion. The Agasha clan holdings are small, but significant.

New mechanics in this chapter include a new ancestor feat, new spells, and a new prestige class, the Agasha Ikakeya. The class is a magic-based one, with continued spellcasting progression and class abilities that heighten their ability to craft items.

The Asako family is a secluded family ruled by ascetic monks, which is an unusual state of affairs for Rokugan. New prestige classes include the Henshin Master, which is a monk related class and improves monk or inkyo abilities. As the henshin master advances, they gain riddles and mysteries, which translate as specific selectable class abilities. The chapter also includes 2 new ancestor feats.

The Isawa are a wealthy and well established family in the Phoenix clan. New mechanics include new ancestor feats, new spells, and a new prestige class, the Isawa Tensai. The Isawa Tensai is a shugenja oriented class. The class abilities improve the character's abilities with the element which the character focuses on.

The Shiba are the most warlike of the Phoenix clan families, and the only Phoenix family to carry two swords. The Shiba are also known for their academy of artisans. The Shiba also currently control the Last Wish (see below).

New Shiba mechanics include new ancestor feats and a new prestige class, the Order of Chikai. The Order of Chikai is a bushi-oriented class. The Order is charged with protecting elemental masters and act as yojimbo (bodyguards). Class abilities of the order make them formidable in combat when protecting their charge.

The fifth chapter discusses Gesei Toshi, the "City of Sacrifice". Gesei Toshi is an ancient city created before the time of the Kami's fall. Most of the city was destroyed, but it was secretly rebuilt, and knowledge of it's continued existence is a carefully guarded secret of the Isawa. The chapter includes details on the seven temples that dominate the city, adventure hooks using the city, as well as a map of the city.

The sixth chapter, Behind the Veil, discusses secrets of the Phoenix clan. Secrets discussed include a strange and dangerous artifact called the last wish. The last wish was fashioned as an intelligent matrix of energy capable of understanding both kami and humans. The last wish takes different forms depending upon the intent of those trying to use it. Historically, the results of using the last wish have been very destructive unless the intent of the user has been selfless. Other secrets discussed include (another) secret village, this one a secret trading post used to trade with the Yobanjin clans, the henshin mystics, and a powerful oni known as the Nightmare of the Phoenix.

Conclusion

As with previous volumes in the series, Secrets of the Phoenix is well written, but spends a lot of time on flavor text as well as minor details of the clan holdings. This may be useful if you run a campaign that spends a lot of time in the Phoenix lands, but otherwise only adds a few little morsels value for actual gaming.

Further, as far as the flavor and campaign additions went, I did not find this volume as intriguing as the Mantis book.

Overall Grade: C

-Alan D. Kohler

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Dual statted sourcebook detailing the families, holdings, secrets, and mechanics of the Phoenix clan.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By Joe G Kushner, Staff Editor and Reviewer, d20 Magazine Rack

Secrets of the Phoenix
Edited by D. J. Trindle
Published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG)
96 b&w pages, $24.95

Sizing Up the Target
Secrets of the Phoenix is the third ‘splatbook’ that details the various clans of the Legend of the Five Rings setting with dual mechanics for the 2nd edition Legend of the Five Rings system and the d20 system.

First Blood
If you’re familiar with this style of book, you have a good idea of what to expect. Some fiction between each chapter, in this case, “Too Close to the Flame”, some background, NPCs, magic items, feats and other goodies that all relate to the Phoenix Clan. It uses the same two-column layout with the same blue ink for the L5R 2nd edition rules and black ink for standard d20 rules. It uses one page for the OGL and the same page for the Open Game Content. It uses another page for the table of contents and another page for the credits. In short, it’s almost exactly like every other “Secrets” book currently on the market. If you like those books, you’ll like this one. If you don’t, then this one isn’t going to change your mind.

But what if you’ve never looked at one of these books before?

Critical Hits
The book starts off with some of the minute details of the Phoenix clan. How are births celebrated? What events take place at the Gempukku? How is Courtship and Marriage handled? How do the Phoenix march to war and what happens when soldiers retire or die? All covered in a few brief paragraphs. The history of the Phoenix section takes up four pages and does a nice breakdown of all the important events ranging from ancient history to more ‘modern’ issues like the War of Spirits and Oblivion’s Gate.

Of great reference use is the Complete Phoenix Techique Feat List. It has the Feat name, Prerequisite and Location. Very useful for those wishing to craft Greater Daisho or utilize Way of the Phoenix or Invincible Sword of the Void. That last one and several other feats are introduced in the general section, providing new options for Phoenix characters like Void Smite where you get a Void bonus to your attack rolls equal to your left over Void Points with a damage bonus equal to your level.

The real meat of the book comes from the different families and the new concept of vassal families that serve the main families. The first four chapters hit the Isawa, Shiba, Agasha and Asako families. Each family is detailed with major and minor holdings, which list important people with abbreviated stats (name, profession, class and level), followed by adventure hooks for that location. Important NPCs of each family are fully listed with detailed background and full game stats for both L5R 2nd edition and d20. The Vassals are listed by name with background, game stats like favored class, starting honor, class skills and starting family, in addition to game mechanics like new feats, ancestors, and PrCs.

In addition to getting all sorts of new PrCs, feats, and other cool crunchy abilities, you get a secret, hidden place to use them. That’s right, for those who know the Phoenix, they’ll know I’m talking about Gisei Toshi, the oldest city of Rogukan. Those who don’t know this clan should realize this. A long time ago, the city was thought destroyed and the Phoenix saw fit to spread that misinformation, allowing themselves a stronghold from which to research all manners of magic without the worry of the Empire interfering with their studies. It’s mapped out and provides many brief gems that can keep the GM busy for a long time. Due to its secretive nature, it may be difficult to incorporate any characters but those from the Phoenix clan into it, but ah, the challenges one could think of in testing a party to get to this city.

The last section ties together a lot of lose ends. What are the stats and abilities of the Last Wish, a major artifact of the campaign? How powerful are the Children of the Last Wish, beings created to guard it? How about information on how the Kolat have used secrets from the Path of Man? What about playing Yobanjin, raiders into Phoenix territories? A wide brush covers all this and more, ending with a full page map of the Phoenix Providence.

Critical Misses
It’s hard to note obvious problems with this book because it has a specific focus and does its job there well. For instance, if you’re looking for information on the Dragon’s point of view of the defection of one of their orders, you’ll get a brief taste of that information, but not from the Dragon’s point of view. Remember, this is secrets of the Phoenix.

The book, while more pricey than others of its size, is on heavy stock paper so perhaps while it’s overpriced, it’s not vastly overpriced. The problem comes when comparing it to other hard cover books which after careful review, don’t have the same sturdy structure found here so it’s a give and take. Higher quality paper, more expensive price.

About the only thing that I wish the book had more of are maps. The major and minor holdings are well described, but I’ve always loved maps as they help bridge the worded description and the visual world.

Coup de Grace
Like other books in the series, the Secrets of the Phoenix takes a crucial look at some elements of the Phoenix while trying to gloss over information that’s already been in the market. I believe the book describes the differences between this and Way of the Phoenix as having “finer detail to the different families, their organization, holdings, vassal families and lesser-known schools”.

If you’re looking for more Prestige Classes and other crunchy bits for your Phoenix character or a GM looking for more mystic information to add to your campaign, Secrets of the Phoenix is meant for you.

To see the graded evaluation of this product and to leave comments that the reviewer will respond to, go to The Critic's Corner at www.d20zines.com.