The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The final book in the Way of the Clans series should be the best. It's not. It's the worst since the first. Why? Because there are so many errors that you wonder if anyone did any editing whatsoever before the book went to print.

Shiba Tetsu, Shiba Tsukune and Shiba Ujimitsu are all illegal NPCs. The Element Masters wouldn't be so great if they were generalist shugenja, and the story behind the Nameless One doesn't shed much light on how he came to be what he was in the CCG. The Asako school in the book isn't much better than playing a True Ronin until you get to Rank Five. Then it's a blank check for acquiring all the power in the world- and your PC will need it, because he's not suppossed to exist.

But that's irrelavent, becasue the new rules make this book too good to pass. The elementalist schools make shugenja worth playing, save for the Void school. (Imagine playing a Jedi, except that you can't do anything worth doing. That's the Void school.) The information on the Shiba is quite good, even if the stats for the Shiba House Guard is illegal. The Heritage tables suck, but that's a given by now. The only other good thing is the new set of skills, ads/disads and the spell research system.

Get it, but do so under protest. This book came out way too early, as many of the books did- but especially "The Way of the Crane." This time I don't believe Ree's the cause, but she had a hand in this and so she bears her share of the blame.

Hire an ruthless, competant editor- yesterday.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

The Way of the Clans, Book Seven: The Way of the Phoenix
Author: Patrick Kapera and Ree Soesbee Category: game Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group Cost: $14.95 (US) Page count: 128 pages ISBN: n/a Playtest Review by Bradford C. Walker on 12/21/98. Genre tags: Fantasy Asian/Far_East	The final book in the Way of the Clans series should be the best. It's not. It's the worst since the first. Why? Because there are so many errors that you wonder if anyone did any editing whatsoever before the book went to print. Shiba Tetsu, Shiba Tsukune and Shiba Ujimitsu are all illegal NPCs. The Element Masters wouldn't be so great if they were generalist shugenja, and the story behind the Nameless One doesn't shed much light on how he came to be what he was in the CCG. The Asako school in the book isn't much better than playing a True Ronin until you get to Rank Five. Then it's a blank check for acquiring all the power in the world- and your PC will need it, because he's not suppossed to exist. But that's irrelavent, becasue the new rules make this book too good to pass. The elementalist schools make shugenja worth playing, save for the Void school. (Imagine playing a Jedi, except that you can't do anything worth doing. That's the Void school.) The information on the Shiba is quite good, even if the stats for the Shiba House Guard is illegal. The Heritage tables suck, but that's a given by now. The only other good thing is the new set of skills, ads/disads and the spell research system. Get it, but do so under protest. This book came out way too early, as many of the books did- but especially "The Way of the Crane." This time I don't believe Ree's the cause, but she had a hand in this and so she bears her share of the blame. Hire an ruthless, competant editor- yesterday. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)

The Way of the Clans, Book Seven: The Way of the Phoenix