The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The fourth book from the "Year of the Hunter" series. The Quick and the Dead carries the torch on, even if it is so much dimmer. After three strong books, this book doesn't seem to hit the mark.

PHYSICAL BOOK

The Quick and the Dead is a soft cover "perfect bound" supplement. Its dimensions are the standard size of the gaming industry. The page count tops out at 103 pages including the character sheet. This is slightly less that the average for the previous three. The style is the familiar White Wolf. Two columns of text, peppered with line art, all framed in a signature boarder (for this book the wraith boarder). Now this brings me to a comparison of statistics. I noticed that there seemed to be more art in this book than the others. So the average page count of the first three supplements hovers close to 110 pages, The Quick and the Dead has 103, that's fine the reader won't get premade characters. Now looking at the amount of art (full and half pages) the first three books have an average of about 21 full pages dedicated to art, The Quick and the Dead had 27 full pages. So you are getting approximately 13 pages (of text) less than the previous supplements. In a supplement this size, that could be a chapter. This is a rocky start for the book.

SETTING

Now the reason that White Wolf would do a cross over for all of their World of Darkness lines would be to see how a theme carries through each game. From the previous games there was a great deal of cross pollination between the groups. In the Quick and the Dead, the reader gets no mention of the other games, everything in this book is related to wraiths, spirits, ghosts and the shadowlands. Each group given has some sort of ties to the spirit worlds, some hostile and some friendly.

CONTENT

Prelude: Visiting Rights - An introductory story about a man "in the know" about the shadowlands and his fight to save his son.

Chapter 1: Introduction - A brief but familiar "How to use this book" section and a section on playing ghost hunters.

Chapter 2: The Hunters - Here the reader is given an overview of the bigger ghost hunters and scholars. No more than a page of information is given on any one group.

Chapter 3: Character Creation - This is the standard World of Darkness Mortal creation. Extra skills and backgrounds are given as well as the remainder of the Numina for the series.

Chapter 4: Chronicles - This chapter gives an overview of the themes and common driving forces of ghost hunters. Many provide excellent motives for any type of hunter character.

Chapter 5: Organization Creation - this gives a very specific cost break down and steps for building an organization from a set pool of points. I don't see this being strictly used by a storyteller but it does help provide guidelines of what an organization could have.

Appendix - The end of the book gives a few pages of High tech, low tech and magical ghost hunting equipment.

SYSTEM

The Quick and the Dead was written under the second edition World of Darkness. Systemwise, little is added except a handful of skills, backgrounds, merits and flaws. The Numina presented here also completes the list of Mortal powers for the Year of the Hunter books.

SPRINGER-ESQUE FINAL THOUGHTS

This book failed to be a good cross over for three good reasons. Firstly, it does not mix with the rest of the world of darkness. No mention of anything besides the wraith setting material is ever given. Secondly all of the information in the book is insubstantial. Every group is quickly run through, half of the Numina is reprinted from Hunters Hunted and the final chapter seems unneeded. And thirdly, the book itself is crammed full of poor art for the sole purpose of padding the page count.

Part of the problem is that Wraith is a good game by itself. It doesn't mesh well with the rest of the World of Darkness because its focus is so different (since every other game is based on the physical living world).

This book provides little help or information for a Hunter type game. All the Numina in this book can be found elsewhere. The Hedge magic can be found in WoD: Sorcerer, the Psychic abilities in Hunters Hunted and True Faith in the first Year of the Hunter book, The Inquisition.

If there ever was a sourcebook to be called an unneeded splat, this would be one of them.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

The Quick and the Dead
Author: Elizabeth Fischi Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Wraith Cost: 12.00 US Page count: 103 ISBN: 1-56504-613-7 SKU: WW6008 Capsule Review by Malcontent on 04/17/00. Genre tags: Modern_day Horror Gothic	The fourth book from the "Year of the Hunter" series. The Quick and the Dead carries the torch on, even if it is so much dimmer. After three strong books, this book doesn't seem to hit the mark. PHYSICAL BOOK The Quick and the Dead is a soft cover "perfect bound" supplement. Its dimensions are the standard size of the gaming industry. The page count tops out at 103 pages including the character sheet. This is slightly less that the average for the previous three. The style is the familiar White Wolf. Two columns of text, peppered with line art, all framed in a signature boarder (for this book the wraith boarder). Now this brings me to a comparison of statistics. I noticed that there seemed to be more art in this book than the others. So the average page count of the first three supplements hovers close to 110 pages, The Quick and the Dead has 103, that's fine the reader won't get premade characters. Now looking at the amount of art (full and half pages) the first three books have an average of about 21 full pages dedicated to art, The Quick and the Dead had 27 full pages. So you are getting approximately 13 pages (of text) less than the previous supplements. In a supplement this size, that could be a chapter. This is a rocky start for the book. SETTING Now the reason that White Wolf would do a cross over for all of their World of Darkness lines would be to see how a theme carries through each game. From the previous games there was a great deal of cross pollination between the groups. In the Quick and the Dead, the reader gets no mention of the other games, everything in this book is related to wraiths, spirits, ghosts and the shadowlands. Each group given has some sort of ties to the spirit worlds, some hostile and some friendly. CONTENT Prelude: Visiting Rights - An introductory story about a man "in the know" about the shadowlands and his fight to save his son. Chapter 1: Introduction - A brief but familiar "How to use this book" section and a section on playing ghost hunters. Chapter 2: The Hunters - Here the reader is given an overview of the bigger ghost hunters and scholars. No more than a page of information is given on any one group. Chapter 3: Character Creation - This is the standard World of Darkness Mortal creation. Extra skills and backgrounds are given as well as the remainder of the Numina for the series. Chapter 4: Chronicles - This chapter gives an overview of the themes and common driving forces of ghost hunters. Many provide excellent motives for any type of hunter character. Chapter 5: Organization Creation - this gives a very specific cost break down and steps for building an organization from a set pool of points. I don't see this being strictly used by a storyteller but it does help provide guidelines of what an organization could have. Appendix - The end of the book gives a few pages of High tech, low tech and magical ghost hunting equipment. SYSTEM The Quick and the Dead was written under the second edition World of Darkness. Systemwise, little is added except a handful of skills, backgrounds, merits and flaws. The Numina presented here also completes the list of Mortal powers for the Year of the Hunter books. SPRINGER-ESQUE FINAL THOUGHTS This book failed to be a good cross over for three good reasons. Firstly, it does not mix with the rest of the world of darkness. No mention of anything besides the wraith setting material is ever given. Secondly all of the information in the book is insubstantial. Every group is quickly run through, half of the Numina is reprinted from Hunters Hunted and the final chapter seems unneeded. And thirdly, the book itself is crammed full of poor art for the sole purpose of padding the page count. Part of the problem is that Wraith is a good game by itself. It doesn't mesh well with the rest of the World of Darkness because its focus is so different (since every other game is based on the physical living world). This book provides little help or information for a Hunter type game. All the Numina in this book can be found elsewhere. The Hedge magic can be found in WoD: Sorcerer, the Psychic abilities in Hunters Hunted and True Faith in the first Year of the Hunter book, The Inquisition. If there ever was a sourcebook to be called an unneeded splat, this would be one of them. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 2 (Sparse)