The Vorox have been due a book for a long time now. The Obun and Ukar got the wonderfully done Children of the Gods and every alien that in some way exactly resembles an animal was detailed in the player’s guide. This on top of the fact that the Vorox are one of only 3 races with stats given in the corebook makes their lacking a book all the more confusing. All the same, the wait is over. Was it worth it? Sadly, even though I can't answer in the affirmative, the book does have its merits.
Alustro’s Journal
I really like the Alustro’s at the start of every book and this book is no exception. It is centered of course on the character of Ong from Alusto’s party and was enough to get me excited about the book when I read it on the Holistic Design Web page two months ago.
Introduction
This is pretty standard stuff with a little Alustro parable and some adventure hooks. It felt like the beginning of a White Wolf Changing Breed Book, but that’s not really a bad thing. This section also has a few paragraphs encouraging players to push the boundaries with their Vorox characters, laundry listing ideas like engineers and priests. Unfortunately, this is the first and last point in which the book attempts to really flesh out the ideas behind the Vorox.
Where We Came From (History)
This section was acceptable if not well below the standards set by Children of the Gods. It lacks the essential creation myth and wastes an entire page on the farewell speech of the guy that found the Vorox and lived tarzan-style with them for 7 years. Too bad the speech is useless in understanding the Vorox as it makes no reference to them. To make things a little more contrived, we get a second tarzan-style story about a young Li-Halan noble girl raised by the Vorox. The Vorox are fittingly set up as savages, however in this section they don’t make it anywhere beyond that point.
Who We Live With (Ungavorox)
The first portion of this section is a very detailed description of the planet in the style of the fief books. It includes one of those planet maps and has some interesting locations fleshed out. However, the next 30 pages (exactly 30) are nothing but a monster manual for Ungavorox. That’s a lot of pages taken out of the book’s total 85. I’ll admit that the denizens in general were well done though their art was very bland and they are more or less useless for anything but running feral Vorox on their home planet. I will refrain from elaborating on how ridiculous some elements of the ecology are; if you have ever read any early sci-fi from the last century, try and think of the jungle planet where everything ate everything and everything wanted to eat you. The surface of Venus from Kuttner’s Fury strikes me as a good example. What really killed me what the page layout for the flora section (aka plants that want to eat you). They each take up about half a page and leave the rest of the page to glaring white space. If all that white space were summed up, it would have given the writer a sorely needed extra page or two. If this section was maybe ½, even 1/3 its size I could have accepted its inclusion much more.
Who We Are (Culture)
This section more or less reiterates everything we know about Vorox and gives them a very poorly defined religion. The only thing that is added in great depth is the angerak, or social unit of their culture. Other things like language, medicine and cuisine all help flesh them out without directly addressing the ideas that govern them. The section contains little “what do they do?” sections for civilized and feral Vorox. The feral section is much longer and more informative, which is a real shame as I would wager most people out there that are going to play Vorox plan to play civilized ones. Each sections is capped with a very juvenile like/dislikes blurb that was not only useless but cheapened the writing of the entire book. The section sends with two stories. The first one is about a Li-Halan that goes among the Vorox to hunt what seems like the only herbivore on the planet. The story is interesting but ultimately pointless and wasted space. The next is a folk tale, which tells how the Vorox came to have 6 legs and stresses ingenuity and cooperation. This is very fitting as the tale is being told to young Vorox in its frame and is a nice addition.
What We Do (Traits)
The final section expands the martial arts for Vorox and gives fencing rules for whatever those Klingon things they fight with are called. The Bolorang alluded to in other works is given a set of rules and the whole lot is grouped onto a very nice a clear table of all the weapons and techniques for the Vorox, even going to far as to include previously printed items. The entire book ends with Civilized and Feral character creation paths like those found in the 2nd Edt corebook.
On a whole the writing for the book is about average and the art perhaps a little below average. I am a big fan of Ron Spencer and was disappointed to see that he only has 2 pictures in the entire book, the cover and a picture of the main predator on Ungavorox. Of course we continue to have about a million different interpretations of what Vorox look like, most represented in a very uninspiring manner. Luckily, white space aside, the format is comfortable and tasteful as we have come to expect from Holistic Design. The content would be exceptional if you wanted to run feral Vorox on Ungavorox or anyone else that found themselves in the Ungavorox jungles. However this book does little for the civilized Vorox. I can only assume that they gave their own culture and outlooks that would have come from living among humanity. The introduction encouraged people to explore the possibilities for Vorox but this book does nothing except promote the idea of the 4-armed hairy fighting monster. If you are new to Fading Suns I would skip this and go straight for the masterful Children of the Gods. If you are a Fading Suns vet this book is going to be as useless as half the “Player’s Guide” and I would call it a waste of money unless you plan to go to Ungavorox or just love Vorox as much as I used to.
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