The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I'm a big fan of urban fantasy. I suppose it just brightens my day to think about all kinds of supernatural shenanigans going on around the fringes of my otherwise painfully mundane existence. Luckily, there's no shortage of urban fantasy roleplaying games. Unluckily, most of those found in the average game shop wear the White Wolf logo, making them largely unpalatable to me. Few of those remaining fare much better.

Well, here's another game trying its hand at urban fantasy. Ironically, both this review and my previous one are of games claiming to be for "legendmaking". The last one, called (appropriately enough) Legendmaker, is an attempt at "AD&D Done Right" and is only moderately successful at this goal. This one, Everlasting: Book of the Light, by White Wolf alumnus Steven Brown, seems to be an audacious shot at "World of Darkness Done Right". This time, we have a winner! Aside from some residual White Wolfish rules packaging, this is pretty much what an urban fantasy RPG should be. Or any fantasy RPG, for that matter.

THE SETTING

At first glance, it's World of Darkness meets In Nomine. Characters play members of the Eldritch -- supernatural immortals romping about right under the collective nose of modern humanity. This book -- the second of four "Foundation Books" in the Everlasting series -- focuses on angels, daevas (humans who've become demigods) and questers (humans who've become immortal through dedication to a Divine cause), with demons and werewolves detailed as antagonists. These beings share their world, and several others, with the whole gamut of usual suspects from fantasy and horror fiction: dragons, elves, faeries, ghosts, vampires, and so on.

The resemblance is less than skin deep, however.

For one thing, The Everlasting eschews the wishy-washy consensual reality of the World of Darkness in favor of one definite reality perceived differently and imperfectly by its inhabitants - a subtle difference, but an important one. That part of reality to which mundanes are blind is called the Reverie, a magical place overlaying the "Real World" and becoming more strange and otherworldly the deeper into it one travels. On the fringes of the Reverie, that nondescript house next door might just seem a bit spooky; but travel deeply enough, and an ancient haunted castle might replace it.

The objectivity of the setting extends to its morality as well - the theme of the game is a struggle against evil rather than a festival of nihilistic angst. (But fear not, all you angst fans out there - each race comes complete with its own Torment, or internal struggle.) Certainly, there are shades of gray, but they lay between extremes of absolute Good and Evil. In fact, the author demands that players not play demonic characters, going so far as to insist that they never purchase another of his products should they wish to do so.

The Everlasting takes a much more traditional spin on its supernaturals than is currently in fashion, and with a refreshing lack of Political Correctness. Werewolves, for example, aren't shaggy hippies, shamans, and eco-terrorists living in harmony with Mother Earth; rather, they're nasty, hairy, brutish monsters that will eat you, possibly raping and/or sacrificing you beforehand. Angels, meanwhile, are thoroughly otherworldly beings working for THE Creator, and the book even makes passing mention of their attendance at -- gasp! -- the birth of Christ! And, thankfully, the races aren't shoehorned into analogous pseudo-classes; i.e., "These are the sneaky angels, these are the sneaky werewolves, these are the tough angels, these are the tough werewolves". Rather, each race is organized along traditional and logical lines - the angels in medieval angelic hierarchies, the daevas in pantheon-like houses, and the questers only marginally organized at all, with the Knights of the Holy Grail being a notable exception.

Another strength of the setting is its variety and flexibility. Aside from the Real World and its hidden counterpart, the Reverie, there are the Dreamworlds, the Astra, Faeryland, the realms of the Dead, multiple alternate Earths with various levels of magical and technological advancement, and more. In addition, adventures can take place in any time period, or even in several time periods in the same adventure a la Highlander. The characters are immortal, after all.

Overall, I find the mood to be the setting's most compelling aspect. Combine the heroically optimistic Christian fantasy of Tolkien and Lewis with the neo-pagan sense of hidden wonder found in the works of Charles de Lint and Tim Powers, throw in a liberal amount of Nancy Collins and Anne Rice for some deliciously dark spice, and you have The Everlasting. It's a delightful mix indeed.

THE SYSTEM

Well, actually, I should say "systems" - Everlasting presents several related systems from which to choose. The basic system streamlines White Wolf's clunky fistful o' dice house system with concepts from Dream Pod 9's Silhouette and Ronin Publication's Whispering Vault. Attributes determine the size of a character's pool of 12-sided dice (or, optionally, playing cards or Tarot cards), while skills reduce the target number of the roll (or card draw). This allows for a much broader attribute scale than those of pure dice pool games like Vampire: The Masquerade - after all, there are only so many dice one can roll at a time as a practical matter. As in White Wolf's system, more successes on a given roll (or draw) equal greater levels of achievement. Ones (or Aces) negate one success, and a roll or draw with a majority of ones spells disaster.

The strongest complaint I've heard about "attribute + skill" systems is the advantage they give to characters with high attributes over those with high levels of skill. This is why I'm particularly fond of this game's concept of "double or nothing": upon rolling a 12 (or drawing a Queen), a player can choose to roll one more die; a success doubles the current number of successes, while a failure loses them all. Because a skilled character will have a lower target number for this one roll, he has the advantage over a less skillful character relying on more dice from a high attribute.

On the other hand, I find the system's lack of a true open-ending roll mechanic a bit troublesome. Success is always possible, since characters can spend "Destiny Points" to buy free successes or to bump up a roll by a point in hopes of getting bonus successes from a "Mystic Thirteen". The problem is that after a modified target number exceeds 13, the difficulty of a task becomes a moot point - a character can just as easily buy successes or roll Mystic Thirteens against target numbers of 14 or 24.

The game also offers diceless and percentile dice variants, both quite serviceable. I'd have preferred to see the rules spell out how to use the double-or-nothing and Mystic Thirteen features with the percentile variant, thereby allowing a mixed group of percentile and dice pool players; still, a workaround shouldn't be hard to find. The important thing is that the game wisely extends a friendly hand to players who despise dice pool mechanics.

One unusual feature of The Everlasting that I haven't seen since West End's Torg and Masterbook games is the ability of players to directly affect the plot of the adventure. This can be done through the use of Destiny Points and the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. In the former case, players simply spend the required amount of points to bring about the degree of plot variation they want. In the latter, they must justify the plot twist based upon an interpretation of the card they wish to use. (A handy list of possible interpretations of the Major Arcana is included in the book.) It's a nice way help players feel more involved in the story, even if it means that GMs may have to think on their feet even more often than usual.

Speaking of Destiny Points, I'm ambivalent about the suggested guidelines for awarding them. The author makes the point several times that players should not "cross over" and act out of character, yet we are told that Destiny Points should be awarded to characters for helpful actions taken by their players -- buying pizza, hosting game sessions, etc. Sure, it's nice to help out the GM, but picking up a six-pack of brewskies to pump up your character for a tough adventure strikes me as a bit silly. (Conversely, "Backlash Points", the negative version of Destiny Points, are dealt out primarily for evil actions taken by the characters. They can be used to punish boorish players, but I doubt such players would accept such judgments against them in the first place.)

I very much like the game's magic system, which resembles a streamlined version of that found in Ars Magica. The system allows for spontaneous magic, spells, and rituals, with the magic point ("Animus") cost and difficulty of the effect determined by the object, intent, and magnitude of the casting. The path of magic the character follows - hermetic, voodoo, shamanism, etc. - determines the trappings required, the affects the magic has on the caster, and any additional restrictions on casting and learning spells. The only sticking point I could find is the fact that the magnitude of a spell is directly related to the obviousness of the magic, begging the question of why dramatic offensive spells like "Call the Lightning" would have been created in lieu of "Cause Heart Attack".

Character creation looks intimidating at first glance; however, both required time and min-maxing potential are reduced by the fact that each step in the process uses its own pool of points, which can be either assigned or randomly generated. In other words, a character has X amount of points to spend on attributes, Y amount to spend on skills, Z amount to spend on powers, etc. Even advantages and disadvantages are self-contained -- no more hours spent deciding how many points you'd get for "Bad Breath" and "Manic-Depressive" in order to boost your character's Strength or to get that certain spell you've been eyeing.

Angels appear to be the most powerful race in this book, if for no other reason than the fact that they can't truly die; a character can simply accept a stack of Backlash points in order to create a new physical form. Daevas are almost as tough; while they can die, they can survive anything up to and including total dismemberment so long as they aren't killed by their secret individual weaknesses. Questers are the most human of the bunch, but only they can invoke miracles in times of great need that trump any other force in the game. Werewolves are arguably even tougher than their White Wolf kindred, but they'd be a bit dicey as player characters -- their religion stresses the importance of such things as cannibalism, rape, and incest. However, such a character could be possible; demons, as mentioned previously, are a definite no-no.

One problem: at the end of each section, costs are given for unique powers falling under such categories as fire, dream, weather, etc. Why is this a problem? Because the rules for creating these themed powers aren't in this book, and are, indeed, several books down the road from seeing print. For quester characters, this is merely an annoyance… but the ability to buy powers from specific categories at reduced cost is a major distinguishing characteristic of the various breeds of angels, and it is absolutely vital to the natures of individual daevas. Daevas are supposed to be the demigods of various aspects of reality, but with the currently available rules they lack the power of their stations. I can just hear it now:

"I'm the Daevan Lord of Plants."

"How do you know?"

"Well... because I have wooden fingernails?"

Another problem: what if you want to play something else? Well, the good news is that you're not in as much trouble as someone wanting to create, say, a werewolf using the rules presented in Vampire: the Masquerade. Book of the Light actually spends a couple of pages each on Dragons, Elves, Faeries, Gargoyles, Ghuls, Manitous (humans merged with animal totems), Osirians (immortal wizards), the Possessed, Revenants, and Vampires. The bad news is that the rules gaps for some of these creatures leave them only marginally usable. Dragons, for example, are only described in their human forms. One would assume that information on the dragon form of dragons, along with their associated breath weapons, might be useful, but we're told we must wait for Book of the Fantastic for that. (Of course, this will mean paying for the rules that are presented in Book of the Light all over again.)

This White Wolfish piecemeal treatment of the rules may be good marketing, but it's an irritant in game design. Now, to be fair, Steven has been wonderfully helpful in divulging unpublished information to my players to help them create races not detailed in the two published books - he obviously believes in this game of his and is willing to go the extra mile to keep his customers happy. But is Book of the Light a complete game on its own, as the back cover text proclaims? Well, yes-- if you can be satisfied with rules that cover only a portion of this fascinating world, leaving the rest up to your own improvisational skills.

Still, the rules are well designed on the whole, incorporating some of the best ideas in game mechanics from the past twenty years. And besides, even if we'll have to wait a few books to get the race-specific rules we crave, White Wolf fans still will be blown away - by World of Darkness standards, Book of the Light is at least five volumes' worth of hard information.

THE BOOK

Above all, this is a beautiful book, with an intriguing cover illustration and a rock-solid binding. The artwork is top-notch, much of it consisting of what appear to be actual medieval illustrations. The only drawback - and it's a minor one - is the scarcity of depictions of the supernatural in modern settings. Take out about 1/8 of the art, and you could be reading Pendragon. Still, the art maintains a consistent, dreamlike mood throughout the book, and production values easily surpass the work of most of the heavy hitters in the roleplaying industry.

The layout seemed dense to me, making the book appear even more daunting than its size would suggest. I suspect his may be a problem with the choice of font - it tended to give me eyestrain after surprisingly short reads. Sidebars containing useful bits of information run along both pages, consisting of chapter-specific glossaries in the main setting chapters. This is definitely a good thing, since the jargon in Book of the Light flies thick and fast, although I'd have preferred to have one unified glossary at the back of the book. And speaking of the back of the book, that is where you'll find a top-notch comprehensive index. (Hooray!)

The writing is generally quite literate, although this very literacy may be what made the occasional grammar and punctuation errors sprinkled throughout the book seem more jarring. The introductory tale - part 2 of a story begun in The Everlasting: Book of the Unliving - didn't quite get me in the right mood for the book; it starts off promisingly enough, but soon devolves into a can of supernatural whoop-ass. And, sadly, while many of the book's themes are courageously non-PC, the PC demon does rear its ugly head: the book universally uses "she" as the default pronoun. This doesn't matter to me in the slightest until it becomes blatantly ridiculous… like, say, when it's used to refer to a tommygun-toting 1930s Treasury agent. Despite all this, the book is a good read - the author's love of his subject clearly shines through, and his enthusiasm is contagious. I'm particularly fond of the delightfully appropriate color quotes drawn from amazingly eclectic sources he uses to introduce the major sections.

Casual gamers may find much of the text to be on the pretentious side. We are, the book tells us, to use the game to create our personal mythology and explore deeper meaning in our lives through storytelling and legendmaking. I couldn't shake the feeling that playing the game just for fun might be considered a mild sacrilege. Indeed, a couple of my players expressed dismay at the author's almost religious approach to roleplaying. Personally, I wasn't all that bothered, although I must admit that I found the opening and closing ceremonies the author has devised for game sessions to be a little-- well-- spooky.

For the most part, I let the author's zealotry slide; after all, he really does have a vision for taking roleplaying to a higher level, and more power to him. However, the amount of space used to espouse the spiritual benefits of legendmaking adversely affects the amount of solid game-world information in the book. For example, valuable pages are taken up with methods for "solitary legendmaking" -- basically story writing -- and for lucid dreaming. These are interesting subjects, to be sure, but either can be done without the use of a game world as a framework. This space could have been used to partially fill many of the rules gaps previously mentioned, at least offering workarounds until the final rules see print. The company's website contains extensive information on the game setting, some of it more detailed than what is presented in the game books themselves; I'd rather see that information moved to the books and the author's essays on legendmaking moved to the website.

Of course, all of these gripes just mean that I obviously want to see more of this game.

SUMMARY

The company certainly lives up to its name - this is, indeed, roleplaying with a vision. Overall, it's a beautiful vision, even if the author becomes a bit overzealous in sharing it at times. I couldn't quite bring myself to give a substance rating of five to a main rulebook that references other books for important rules, but I came darn close. Probably the best evidence as to how much I enjoyed this book are the facts that Book of the Unliving shot right to the top of my Christmas list and that I'm currently using the game for a massive PBeM.

If you want a game that gives you multiple effective systems for playing in a compelling, multi-layered world of modern fantasy - and if you don't mind some occasional rules improvisation until the rest of the Foundation Books see print - pick up The Everlasting: Book of the Light.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

The Everlasting: Book of the Light
Author: Steven Brown Category: game Company/Publisher: Visionary Entertainment Studio Cost: 29.95 Page count: 320 ISBN: 1-887385-01-3 Playtest Review by Dan Davenport on 01/15/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Historical Horror Conspiracy Vampire Gothic Diceless	I'm a big fan of urban fantasy. I suppose it just brightens my day to think about all kinds of supernatural shenanigans going on around the fringes of my otherwise painfully mundane existence. Luckily, there's no shortage of urban fantasy roleplaying games. Unluckily, most of those found in the average game shop wear the White Wolf logo, making them largely unpalatable to me. Few of those remaining fare much better. Well, here's another game trying its hand at urban fantasy. Ironically, both this review and my previous one are of games claiming to be for "legendmaking". The last one, called (appropriately enough) Legendmaker, is an attempt at "AD&D Done Right" and is only moderately successful at this goal. This one, Everlasting: Book of the Light, by White Wolf alumnus Steven Brown, seems to be an audacious shot at "World of Darkness Done Right". This time, we have a winner! Aside from some residual White Wolfish rules packaging, this is pretty much what an urban fantasy RPG should be. Or any fantasy RPG, for that matter. THE SETTING At first glance, it's World of Darkness meets In Nomine. Characters play members of the Eldritch -- supernatural immortals romping about right under the collective nose of modern humanity. This book -- the second of four "Foundation Books" in the Everlasting series -- focuses on angels, daevas (humans who've become demigods) and questers (humans who've become immortal through dedication to a Divine cause), with demons and werewolves detailed as antagonists. These beings share their world, and several others, with the whole gamut of usual suspects from fantasy and horror fiction: dragons, elves, faeries, ghosts, vampires, and so on. The resemblance is less than skin deep, however. For one thing, The Everlasting eschews the wishy-washy consensual reality of the World of Darkness in favor of one definite reality perceived differently and imperfectly by its inhabitants - a subtle difference, but an important one. That part of reality to which mundanes are blind is called the Reverie, a magical place overlaying the "Real World" and becoming more strange and otherworldly the deeper into it one travels. On the fringes of the Reverie, that nondescript house next door might just seem a bit spooky; but travel deeply enough, and an ancient haunted castle might replace it. The objectivity of the setting extends to its morality as well - the theme of the game is a struggle against evil rather than a festival of nihilistic angst. (But fear not, all you angst fans out there - each race comes complete with its own Torment, or internal struggle.) Certainly, there are shades of gray, but they lay between extremes of absolute Good and Evil. In fact, the author demands that players not play demonic characters, going so far as to insist that they never purchase another of his products should they wish to do so. The Everlasting takes a much more traditional spin on its supernaturals than is currently in fashion, and with a refreshing lack of Political Correctness. Werewolves, for example, aren't shaggy hippies, shamans, and eco-terrorists living in harmony with Mother Earth; rather, they're nasty, hairy, brutish monsters that will eat you, possibly raping and/or sacrificing you beforehand. Angels, meanwhile, are thoroughly otherworldly beings working for THE Creator, and the book even makes passing mention of their attendance at -- gasp! -- the birth of Christ! And, thankfully, the races aren't shoehorned into analogous pseudo-classes; i.e., "These are the sneaky angels, these are the sneaky werewolves, these are the tough angels, these are the tough werewolves". Rather, each race is organized along traditional and logical lines - the angels in medieval angelic hierarchies, the daevas in pantheon-like houses, and the questers only marginally organized at all, with the Knights of the Holy Grail being a notable exception. Another strength of the setting is its variety and flexibility. Aside from the Real World and its hidden counterpart, the Reverie, there are the Dreamworlds, the Astra, Faeryland, the realms of the Dead, multiple alternate Earths with various levels of magical and technological advancement, and more. In addition, adventures can take place in any time period, or even in several time periods in the same adventure a la Highlander. The characters are immortal, after all. Overall, I find the mood to be the setting's most compelling aspect. Combine the heroically optimistic Christian fantasy of Tolkien and Lewis with the neo-pagan sense of hidden wonder found in the works of Charles de Lint and Tim Powers, throw in a liberal amount of Nancy Collins and Anne Rice for some deliciously dark spice, and you have The Everlasting. It's a delightful mix indeed. THE SYSTEM Well, actually, I should say "systems" - Everlasting presents several related systems from which to choose. The basic system streamlines White Wolf's clunky fistful o' dice house system with concepts from Dream Pod 9's Silhouette and Ronin Publication's Whispering Vault. Attributes determine the size of a character's pool of 12-sided dice (or, optionally, playing cards or Tarot cards), while skills reduce the target number of the roll (or card draw). This allows for a much broader attribute scale than those of pure dice pool games like Vampire: The Masquerade - after all, there are only so many dice one can roll at a time as a practical matter. As in White Wolf's system, more successes on a given roll (or draw) equal greater levels of achievement. Ones (or Aces) negate one success, and a roll or draw with a majority of ones spells disaster. The strongest complaint I've heard about "attribute + skill" systems is the advantage they give to characters with high attributes over those with high levels of skill. This is why I'm particularly fond of this game's concept of "double or nothing": upon rolling a 12 (or drawing a Queen), a player can choose to roll one more die; a success doubles the current number of successes, while a failure loses them all. Because a skilled character will have a lower target number for this one roll, he has the advantage over a less skillful character relying on more dice from a high attribute. On the other hand, I find the system's lack of a true open-ending roll mechanic a bit troublesome. Success is always possible, since characters can spend "Destiny Points" to buy free successes or to bump up a roll by a point in hopes of getting bonus successes from a "Mystic Thirteen". The problem is that after a modified target number exceeds 13, the difficulty of a task becomes a moot point - a character can just as easily buy successes or roll Mystic Thirteens against target numbers of 14 or 24. The game also offers diceless and percentile dice variants, both quite serviceable. I'd have preferred to see the rules spell out how to use the double-or-nothing and Mystic Thirteen features with the percentile variant, thereby allowing a mixed group of percentile and dice pool players; still, a workaround shouldn't be hard to find. The important thing is that the game wisely extends a friendly hand to players who despise dice pool mechanics. One unusual feature of The Everlasting that I haven't seen since West End's Torg and Masterbook games is the ability of players to directly affect the plot of the adventure. This can be done through the use of Destiny Points and the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck. In the former case, players simply spend the required amount of points to bring about the degree of plot variation they want. In the latter, they must justify the plot twist based upon an interpretation of the card they wish to use. (A handy list of possible interpretations of the Major Arcana is included in the book.) It's a nice way help players feel more involved in the story, even if it means that GMs may have to think on their feet even more often than usual. Speaking of Destiny Points, I'm ambivalent about the suggested guidelines for awarding them. The author makes the point several times that players should not "cross over" and act out of character, yet we are told that Destiny Points should be awarded to characters for helpful actions taken by their players -- buying pizza, hosting game sessions, etc. Sure, it's nice to help out the GM, but picking up a six-pack of brewskies to pump up your character for a tough adventure strikes me as a bit silly. (Conversely, "Backlash Points", the negative version of Destiny Points, are dealt out primarily for evil actions taken by the characters. They can be used to punish boorish players, but I doubt such players would accept such judgments against them in the first place.) I very much like the game's magic system, which resembles a streamlined version of that found in Ars Magica. The system allows for spontaneous magic, spells, and rituals, with the magic point ("Animus") cost and difficulty of the effect determined by the object, intent, and magnitude of the casting. The path of magic the character follows - hermetic, voodoo, shamanism, etc. - determines the trappings required, the affects the magic has on the caster, and any additional restrictions on casting and learning spells. The only sticking point I could find is the fact that the magnitude of a spell is directly related to the obviousness of the magic, begging the question of why dramatic offensive spells like "Call the Lightning" would have been created in lieu of "Cause Heart Attack". Character creation looks intimidating at first glance; however, both required time and min-maxing potential are reduced by the fact that each step in the process uses its own pool of points, which can be either assigned or randomly generated. In other words, a character has X amount of points to spend on attributes, Y amount to spend on skills, Z amount to spend on powers, etc. Even advantages and disadvantages are self-contained -- no more hours spent deciding how many points you'd get for "Bad Breath" and "Manic-Depressive" in order to boost your character's Strength or to get that certain spell you've been eyeing. Angels appear to be the most powerful race in this book, if for no other reason than the fact that they can't truly die; a character can simply accept a stack of Backlash points in order to create a new physical form. Daevas are almost as tough; while they can die, they can survive anything up to and including total dismemberment so long as they aren't killed by their secret individual weaknesses. Questers are the most human of the bunch, but only they can invoke miracles in times of great need that trump any other force in the game. Werewolves are arguably even tougher than their White Wolf kindred, but they'd be a bit dicey as player characters -- their religion stresses the importance of such things as cannibalism, rape, and incest. However, such a character could be possible; demons, as mentioned previously, are a definite no-no. One problem: at the end of each section, costs are given for unique powers falling under such categories as fire, dream, weather, etc. Why is this a problem? Because the rules for creating these themed powers aren't in this book, and are, indeed, several books down the road from seeing print. For quester characters, this is merely an annoyance… but the ability to buy powers from specific categories at reduced cost is a major distinguishing characteristic of the various breeds of angels, and it is absolutely vital to the natures of individual daevas. Daevas are supposed to be the demigods of various aspects of reality, but with the currently available rules they lack the power of their stations. I can just hear it now: "I'm the Daevan Lord of Plants." "How do you know?" "Well... because I have wooden fingernails?" Another problem: what if you want to play something else? Well, the good news is that you're not in as much trouble as someone wanting to create, say, a werewolf using the rules presented in Vampire: the Masquerade. Book of the Light actually spends a couple of pages each on Dragons, Elves, Faeries, Gargoyles, Ghuls, Manitous (humans merged with animal totems), Osirians (immortal wizards), the Possessed, Revenants, and Vampires. The bad news is that the rules gaps for some of these creatures leave them only marginally usable. Dragons, for example, are only described in their human forms. One would assume that information on the dragon form of dragons, along with their associated breath weapons, might be useful, but we're told we must wait for Book of the Fantastic for that. (Of course, this will mean paying for the rules that are presented in Book of the Light all over again.) This White Wolfish piecemeal treatment of the rules may be good marketing, but it's an irritant in game design. Now, to be fair, Steven has been wonderfully helpful in divulging unpublished information to my players to help them create races not detailed in the two published books - he obviously believes in this game of his and is willing to go the extra mile to keep his customers happy. But is Book of the Light a complete game on its own, as the back cover text proclaims? Well, yes-- if you can be satisfied with rules that cover only a portion of this fascinating world, leaving the rest up to your own improvisational skills. Still, the rules are well designed on the whole, incorporating some of the best ideas in game mechanics from the past twenty years. And besides, even if we'll have to wait a few books to get the race-specific rules we crave, White Wolf fans still will be blown away - by World of Darkness standards, Book of the Light is at least five volumes' worth of hard information. THE BOOK Above all, this is a beautiful book, with an intriguing cover illustration and a rock-solid binding. The artwork is top-notch, much of it consisting of what appear to be actual medieval illustrations. The only drawback - and it's a minor one - is the scarcity of depictions of the supernatural in modern settings. Take out about 1/8 of the art, and you could be reading Pendragon. Still, the art maintains a consistent, dreamlike mood throughout the book, and production values easily surpass the work of most of the heavy hitters in the roleplaying industry. The layout seemed dense to me, making the book appear even more daunting than its size would suggest. I suspect his may be a problem with the choice of font - it tended to give me eyestrain after surprisingly short reads. Sidebars containing useful bits of information run along both pages, consisting of chapter-specific glossaries in the main setting chapters. This is definitely a good thing, since the jargon in Book of the Light flies thick and fast, although I'd have preferred to have one unified glossary at the back of the book. And speaking of the back of the book, that is where you'll find a top-notch comprehensive index. (Hooray!) The writing is generally quite literate, although this very literacy may be what made the occasional grammar and punctuation errors sprinkled throughout the book seem more jarring. The introductory tale - part 2 of a story begun in The Everlasting: Book of the Unliving - didn't quite get me in the right mood for the book; it starts off promisingly enough, but soon devolves into a can of supernatural whoop-ass. And, sadly, while many of the book's themes are courageously non-PC, the PC demon does rear its ugly head: the book universally uses "she" as the default pronoun. This doesn't matter to me in the slightest until it becomes blatantly ridiculous… like, say, when it's used to refer to a tommygun-toting 1930s Treasury agent. Despite all this, the book is a good read - the author's love of his subject clearly shines through, and his enthusiasm is contagious. I'm particularly fond of the delightfully appropriate color quotes drawn from amazingly eclectic sources he uses to introduce the major sections. Casual gamers may find much of the text to be on the pretentious side. We are, the book tells us, to use the game to create our personal mythology and explore deeper meaning in our lives through storytelling and legendmaking. I couldn't shake the feeling that playing the game just for fun might be considered a mild sacrilege. Indeed, a couple of my players expressed dismay at the author's almost religious approach to roleplaying. Personally, I wasn't all that bothered, although I must admit that I found the opening and closing ceremonies the author has devised for game sessions to be a little-- well-- spooky. For the most part, I let the author's zealotry slide; after all, he really does have a vision for taking roleplaying to a higher level, and more power to him. However, the amount of space used to espouse the spiritual benefits of legendmaking adversely affects the amount of solid game-world information in the book. For example, valuable pages are taken up with methods for "solitary legendmaking" -- basically story writing -- and for lucid dreaming. These are interesting subjects, to be sure, but either can be done without the use of a game world as a framework. This space could have been used to partially fill many of the rules gaps previously mentioned, at least offering workarounds until the final rules see print. The company's website contains extensive information on the game setting, some of it more detailed than what is presented in the game books themselves; I'd rather see that information moved to the books and the author's essays on legendmaking moved to the website. Of course, all of these gripes just mean that I obviously want to see more of this game. SUMMARY The company certainly lives up to its name - this is, indeed, roleplaying with a vision. Overall, it's a beautiful vision, even if the author becomes a bit overzealous in sharing it at times. I couldn't quite bring myself to give a substance rating of five to a main rulebook that references other books for important rules, but I came darn close. Probably the best evidence as to how much I enjoyed this book are the facts that Book of the Unliving shot right to the top of my Christmas list and that I'm currently using the game for a massive PBeM. If you want a game that gives you multiple effective systems for playing in a compelling, multi-layered world of modern fantasy - and if you don't mind some occasional rules improvisation until the rest of the Foundation Books see print - pick up The Everlasting: Book of the Light. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 4 (Meaty)