Psion
Adventurer
Secrets of theShadowlands
Secrets of the Shadowlands is a sourcebook for AEG's Rokugan setting adding additional details of characters (primarily NPCs) and organizations that hail from or dwell in the tainted realm knowns as the Shadowlands. As with all of the Legend of the Five Rings products since Way of the Samurai, the book has statistics for both AEG's Legend of the Five Rings 2nd edition system as well as the d20 system using Wizard's Oriental Adventures as a baseline. This review deals primarily with the utility of the book as a d20 system product.
The book is written Rich Wulf, Shawn Carman, Seth Mason, Aaron Medwin, Chris Hand, Fred Wan, Jed Carleton, Kim Hosmer, and Brian Yoon.
A First Look
Secrets of the Shadowlands is a 96-page perfect bound softcover book priced at $24.95. Even now that prices are trending upwards, this is still somewhat pricey for the format; typically a monochrome book of 128 pages can be had for this price. AEG's own Stargate SG-1: Fantastic Frontiers, Stargate Season One is 2 dollars more, but is 176 pages and full color.
The cover follows the format of the prior "secrets" books. The art by Matthew S. Armstrong depicts the face of a malformed humanoid creature with a dark red background. The picture is a wrap around, with the part of his face on the front cover and a minor part on the back.
The interior is black-and-white, with some blue lettering and margin tabs. The interior art is by Chris Dornaus, whose sketch-like pencil style you should be familiar with if you are familiar with the L5R product line.
A Deeper Look
(Warning: this section includes spoilers to secrets revealed in the book)
When I saw this book, I was a bit surprised. All the clans being done, I thought that AEG had exhausted this formula. However, it seems that the L5R authors weren't content to stop with the great clans of Rokugan, and decided to add details to the infernal realm known as the Shadowlands. It gives me pause to wonder if were are going to see books like Secrets of the Naga and Secrets of the Nezumi. (Actually, a Secrets of the Naga books sounds pretty cool. But I digress.)
Similar to the prior clan secrets books, Secrets of the Shadowlands is split into eight numbered chapters plus a significant introductory chapter with rules and other important notes of its own, effectively giving the book nine chapters. As with all Rokugan books, flavor text is considered important, and a story is woven through the beginning sections of all but the last chapter.
The introduction chapter is, unlike many such sections of gaming books, somewhat significant and provides a few mechanics. It follows the secrets book formula to a certain extent, discussing history of the Shadowlands. However, some of the background material here is seen for the first time in a d20 Rokugan resource. For the first time we learn about the "families" that have evolved in the Shadowlands as a mockery of those that exist in Rokugan, and their customs. Perhaps most interesting is the Shadowlands take on Bushido, which would also be perceived as a mockery by most untainted samurai.
The first, second, and fourth chapters describe the three "clans" that the lost (tainted humans outcast from Rokugan) have formed. Similar to earlier clan secrets book, these chapters detail major families of the Shadowlands clan: the Daigotsu, the Chuda, and the Goju. The Daigotsu are followers of the Dark Lord of the same name, the result of a bloodspeaker experiment combining a child of royal lineage with an oni spirit. The Chuda are bloodspeaker cultists loyal to Iuchiban. The Goju were former servants of the Lying darkness. As you can see, this sets up these three shadowlands clans as parallel to three major Rokugan classes: (tainted) samurai, shugenja (or rather, maho tsukai), and ninja.
The "clan" chapters fundamentally follow the previously established formula for the line, providing locations (complete with adventure hooks), major NPCs, and new mechanics. The new mechaincs include anscestor feats, items and materials, dojos (training schools with mechanical benefits), shugenja schools, spells, maho feats, and (for the Goju) a new mechanic provided by a being called the Nothing, shadow points, which somewhat parallel void points.
The third chapter concerns Tsuno, the horned Oni sorcerers. The chapter format fundamentally follows the format of the clan chapters with holdings, adventure hooks, and NPCs. The new rules include Tsuno as a starting race vice a monster, as well as rules for Tsuno equipment and magic. I found the Tsuno race rules a little barren compared to those provided for the naga. Further, as with the naga, I am not too fond of the idea of shifting them to a character race that can be started at first level. I think a much more productive approach would have been to keep their racial HD as is, but award them Shugenja levels in a manner similar to the way that Rakshasa in the core rules receive sorcerer levels.
The fifth chapter concerns the Bloodspeakers cult of maho (blood magic) wielding sorcerers. Unlike the Tsuno chapter, the bloodspeaker chapter does not follow the clan chapter formula except in minor ways (such as NPCs). Much of the chapter involves new rules for maho users, such as a new method for handling taint from maho spells and a bevy of new maho feats and spells.
The sixth chapter discusses the beast lands, lands controlled by ogres, oni, goblins, and other Shadowlands creatures. It returns to the clan chapter formula to a certain extent, discussing holdings, adventure hooks, and NPCs. New mechanics include new Shadowlands monsters and anscestor feats. I find one of the feats a little ambiguous. The "reckless assault" feat gives the character DR 5/jade while performing a full attack. It seems to me that is not too useful unless you let the DR persist until next turn, but this is not so stated.
The seventh chapter is a feature location chapter, The Wall of Bones. The city of the lost and the mock empire are not the only facets of Rokugan that Daigotsu mocks. He also has created the wall of bones, his own version of the Great Kaiu Wall, to deter incursions into the territory of the lost. The section provides a keyed map and describes forces and locations in a wall section and gate.
The Behind the Veil chapter perhaps doesn't stand out as much as in earlier secrets book. It's more than anything else, a collection of shadowlands material not directly linked to any of the bodies discussed in earlier chapters. This includes mechanics for the dark oracles of the elements, compiled and updated rules for Shadowlands Taint, and a unique oni lord called The Maw. My only quibble with this chapter is that the Dark Oracle section uses a feat to emulate the powers of the oracles, where a template would have been far more appropriate due to the singular nature of these beings.
Conclusions
As some of you may well know, I am a little down on the utility of the Secrets series of books for gamers who are somewhat short of L5R enthusiasts. This is the one book I might make an exception for. This book provides more fresh information and material that might, on the whole, be a good sourcebook to provide adventures regarding the Shadowlands.
It is still a bit expensive as noted, but I think I'll give a bit higher recommendation to this book.
Overall Grade: B-
-Alan D. Kohler
Secrets of the Shadowlands is a sourcebook for AEG's Rokugan setting adding additional details of characters (primarily NPCs) and organizations that hail from or dwell in the tainted realm knowns as the Shadowlands. As with all of the Legend of the Five Rings products since Way of the Samurai, the book has statistics for both AEG's Legend of the Five Rings 2nd edition system as well as the d20 system using Wizard's Oriental Adventures as a baseline. This review deals primarily with the utility of the book as a d20 system product.
The book is written Rich Wulf, Shawn Carman, Seth Mason, Aaron Medwin, Chris Hand, Fred Wan, Jed Carleton, Kim Hosmer, and Brian Yoon.
A First Look
Secrets of the Shadowlands is a 96-page perfect bound softcover book priced at $24.95. Even now that prices are trending upwards, this is still somewhat pricey for the format; typically a monochrome book of 128 pages can be had for this price. AEG's own Stargate SG-1: Fantastic Frontiers, Stargate Season One is 2 dollars more, but is 176 pages and full color.
The cover follows the format of the prior "secrets" books. The art by Matthew S. Armstrong depicts the face of a malformed humanoid creature with a dark red background. The picture is a wrap around, with the part of his face on the front cover and a minor part on the back.
The interior is black-and-white, with some blue lettering and margin tabs. The interior art is by Chris Dornaus, whose sketch-like pencil style you should be familiar with if you are familiar with the L5R product line.
A Deeper Look
(Warning: this section includes spoilers to secrets revealed in the book)
When I saw this book, I was a bit surprised. All the clans being done, I thought that AEG had exhausted this formula. However, it seems that the L5R authors weren't content to stop with the great clans of Rokugan, and decided to add details to the infernal realm known as the Shadowlands. It gives me pause to wonder if were are going to see books like Secrets of the Naga and Secrets of the Nezumi. (Actually, a Secrets of the Naga books sounds pretty cool. But I digress.)
Similar to the prior clan secrets books, Secrets of the Shadowlands is split into eight numbered chapters plus a significant introductory chapter with rules and other important notes of its own, effectively giving the book nine chapters. As with all Rokugan books, flavor text is considered important, and a story is woven through the beginning sections of all but the last chapter.
The introduction chapter is, unlike many such sections of gaming books, somewhat significant and provides a few mechanics. It follows the secrets book formula to a certain extent, discussing history of the Shadowlands. However, some of the background material here is seen for the first time in a d20 Rokugan resource. For the first time we learn about the "families" that have evolved in the Shadowlands as a mockery of those that exist in Rokugan, and their customs. Perhaps most interesting is the Shadowlands take on Bushido, which would also be perceived as a mockery by most untainted samurai.
The first, second, and fourth chapters describe the three "clans" that the lost (tainted humans outcast from Rokugan) have formed. Similar to earlier clan secrets book, these chapters detail major families of the Shadowlands clan: the Daigotsu, the Chuda, and the Goju. The Daigotsu are followers of the Dark Lord of the same name, the result of a bloodspeaker experiment combining a child of royal lineage with an oni spirit. The Chuda are bloodspeaker cultists loyal to Iuchiban. The Goju were former servants of the Lying darkness. As you can see, this sets up these three shadowlands clans as parallel to three major Rokugan classes: (tainted) samurai, shugenja (or rather, maho tsukai), and ninja.
The "clan" chapters fundamentally follow the previously established formula for the line, providing locations (complete with adventure hooks), major NPCs, and new mechanics. The new mechaincs include anscestor feats, items and materials, dojos (training schools with mechanical benefits), shugenja schools, spells, maho feats, and (for the Goju) a new mechanic provided by a being called the Nothing, shadow points, which somewhat parallel void points.
The third chapter concerns Tsuno, the horned Oni sorcerers. The chapter format fundamentally follows the format of the clan chapters with holdings, adventure hooks, and NPCs. The new rules include Tsuno as a starting race vice a monster, as well as rules for Tsuno equipment and magic. I found the Tsuno race rules a little barren compared to those provided for the naga. Further, as with the naga, I am not too fond of the idea of shifting them to a character race that can be started at first level. I think a much more productive approach would have been to keep their racial HD as is, but award them Shugenja levels in a manner similar to the way that Rakshasa in the core rules receive sorcerer levels.
The fifth chapter concerns the Bloodspeakers cult of maho (blood magic) wielding sorcerers. Unlike the Tsuno chapter, the bloodspeaker chapter does not follow the clan chapter formula except in minor ways (such as NPCs). Much of the chapter involves new rules for maho users, such as a new method for handling taint from maho spells and a bevy of new maho feats and spells.
The sixth chapter discusses the beast lands, lands controlled by ogres, oni, goblins, and other Shadowlands creatures. It returns to the clan chapter formula to a certain extent, discussing holdings, adventure hooks, and NPCs. New mechanics include new Shadowlands monsters and anscestor feats. I find one of the feats a little ambiguous. The "reckless assault" feat gives the character DR 5/jade while performing a full attack. It seems to me that is not too useful unless you let the DR persist until next turn, but this is not so stated.
The seventh chapter is a feature location chapter, The Wall of Bones. The city of the lost and the mock empire are not the only facets of Rokugan that Daigotsu mocks. He also has created the wall of bones, his own version of the Great Kaiu Wall, to deter incursions into the territory of the lost. The section provides a keyed map and describes forces and locations in a wall section and gate.
The Behind the Veil chapter perhaps doesn't stand out as much as in earlier secrets book. It's more than anything else, a collection of shadowlands material not directly linked to any of the bodies discussed in earlier chapters. This includes mechanics for the dark oracles of the elements, compiled and updated rules for Shadowlands Taint, and a unique oni lord called The Maw. My only quibble with this chapter is that the Dark Oracle section uses a feat to emulate the powers of the oracles, where a template would have been far more appropriate due to the singular nature of these beings.
Conclusions
As some of you may well know, I am a little down on the utility of the Secrets series of books for gamers who are somewhat short of L5R enthusiasts. This is the one book I might make an exception for. This book provides more fresh information and material that might, on the whole, be a good sourcebook to provide adventures regarding the Shadowlands.
It is still a bit expensive as noted, but I think I'll give a bit higher recommendation to this book.
Overall Grade: B-
-Alan D. Kohler
