Secrets of theUnicorn
Secrets of the Unicorn is a sourcebook for AEG's Rokugan setting detailing various families and personalities of the Unicorn clan. 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.
A First Look
Secrets of the Unicorn 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 warrior (in this case, a Mongol-looking Unicorn clansman) with a black 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 style you should be familiar with if you are familiar with the line.
A Deeper Look
(Warning: this section includes spoilers to secrets revealed in the book)
Secrets of the Unicorn 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. The chapter provides a variety of details applicable to the clan as a whole, including background information and mechanics. The background information includes a history of the Unicorn clan and customs among the Unicorn clan. To summarize, the Unicorn were originally the Ki-rin clan, and left Rokugan proper to explore the lands, and met many foreign peoples, and struggled with and learned from them. When Shinjo was destroyed by the lying darkness, the clan renamed itself the clan Unicorn. The clan eventually returned to Rokugan, and were grudgingly reaccepted into the clans; the other clans often regard their foreign ways as somewhat "impure." They are still a largely nomadic people with a Mongol flavor and a reputation for ruthlessness.
The mechanics for the d20 System include new feats, a feat list appropriate for Unicorns with cited sources, and new courtier abilities.
The first through sixth chapters detail various major families of the Unicorn clan: the Moto, the Ide, the Iuchi, the Utaku, the Shinjo and the Horiuchi. This is more clan chapters than the prior clan secret books, so some chapters are necessarily shorter. As a minimum, each of these chapters details provinces and holdings (along with adventure hooks for each location), important NPCs, and new ancestor feats associated with the family. Some also have dojos, shugenja schools, shugenja variants that do not use elemental magic, and prestige classes such as the Moto's Junghar Defender, Khol Raider, and Baraunghar Shugenja. Some also have adventure hooks; it was to my dismay that not all families had them, as I consider this one of the more practical features of the clan secrets books.
As with the prior books, the Behind the Veil chapter presents GM-only details for secrets of the unicorn clan. A good part of this is a collection of brief outlines of nations outside Rokugan and their relation to the Unicorn clan. More sensitive secrets includes the sorcerers known as the Lords of Death and the great oni known as the nightmare of the Unicorn.
The feature locale is actually located last this time (though the introduction makes the mistake of switching the descriptions last two chapters, as they were in the prior books.) Outsider Keep is an exotic outpost beyond the bounds of Rokugan. The chapter includes background, NPCs, and a nicely done map with a key.
Conclusions
Again, I feel as if the clan secrets books are more for enthusiast than casual gamers. A great degree of social detail is included here. More casual gamers may actually find this supplement a bit less useful than many that went before it because the selection of adventure seeds is lighter in this book and absent from some families.
Perhaps the most intriguing inclusions are the variant Shugenja and the list of other countries in the world of Rokugan.
Overall Grade: C
-Alan D. Kohler
