Order of Reason Review
I picked up the highly anticipated Order of Reason at Gen Con. Here is my review.
Physicality
The book is standard for a Sorcerer's Crusade supplement. A decent piece by Chris Shy serves as the cover art. What strikes the reader is the sheer amount of wasted space. In the opening fiction, all four margins are over one inch. Throughout the rest of the book, the bottom margin takes up between one eighth to one fifth of the page. I usually don't care about layout or margin size unless it is pretty glaring, as it is in this case. Order of Reason is 160 pages long and with all the wasted space, there is only about 128 pages of actual material.
Art
The Art is generally on the mediocre side, running from silly (the little old man and his battle armor) to passable (most of the other art). Anthony Hightower is the only artist whose name I recognized.
Prelude: A Venetian Intrigue
This is standard White-Wolf fare, focusing on an Venetian noblewoman. Like most opening fiction, it really didn't do much except take up space and theoreticaly set the tone for the book. The font is a bit hard to read and is quite large.
Introduction: The Ascent of Daedalus
The government issue "How to Use This Book," including the ever so helpful chapter breakdown. There are a few things here that are worth mentioning. First is the introduction of the Labyrinths, both Outer and Inner, which form the heart of the Order. Another is a sidebar entitled "A Change in Perspective" which discusses the heresy (brace yourselves) that Daedaleans do not practise magick. While a helpful reminder, the sidebar also explains that Daedaleans must convince themselves that they are not performing magick. This contrary to the premises of the Order (they already KNOW they aren't doing magick, they're utilizing the tools of Reason that God has given unto man) and Mage in general (if you don't really believe in your paradigm you're screwed). Then we are reminded that magick, faith and science are all the same thing from a rules standpoint. Finally, the inclusion of the new rule, called the Casual Rule, governing Daedaleans and vain works (if their Arete is 3 or less, they can'tuse them) is included here.
Chapter One: The Outer Labyrinth
The metaphor of the Order of Reason being a complex labyrinth starts getting fleshed out in this chapter. It covers the Outer Labyrinth, Daedaleans who utilize the Outer Mysteries (meaning they have Arete 3 and are only able to perform casual works). The first half of the chapter discusses mundane affairs: Daedalean ranks, patronage within the Order, cabals, lodges and guilds. This bit is fairly useful though there are some things that questionable (such as portraying all resplendents as hotheaded show offs).
There is also a full page sidebar called the Guild Cheat Sheet. Its word count is 110 with a large font. Was it really necessary to make this a full page? (It could be argued this makes it easier to Xerox.)
The second half of the chapter discuss initiation into the Outer Labyrinth. There isn't anything too unexpected here. There's sections of brethren, Enlightenment, and education. The Razors get a few paragraphs explaining how they're different from the other Conventions. The chapter concludes with a short Q&A covering topics like "Is the Order continously at war with the Council?" and "Does the Order destroy everything supernatural it comes across?" This bit was highly appreciated.
Chapter Two: Enlightened Arts and Other Mysteries
This chapter covers the game mechanics for Daedalean works. First observation: they dropped the K. The first section, "By Any Other Name," spends two pages discussing how Daedalean works are different from magick from an in game perspective. Since it follows the premises that A) Daedalean works are a lot less flexible than sorcery and B) the Casual Rule (no vain works for Daedaleans) some things are different from what you expect. First off, the Daedaleans are portrayed as little more than Sleepers with an edge. The Spheres are relegated to gamespeak (ignoring the idea of the Nine Keystones of Creation from the rulebook and Artisan's Handbook). In fact Daedaleans aren't even supposed to know they can do things beyond the ken of normal men, they're just exceptionaly talented craftsmen.
The chapter continues with an overview of the Spheres, discussing each level (but only up to three) from a Daedalean perspective. One of the major problems with this section (and the whole book in general) is that is assumes that Daedaleans are scientists in the modern sense of the word. For example in the Fortune 2 description (Entropy is now referred to as Fortune), the concept of luck is frowned upon because its unscientific (actually with modern probability theory it is) and smacks of superstition. Those who use it too often may find the Gabrielites at their door to burn them for sorcery. (Since when did the Knights of Gabriel become arbiters of what is or isn't scientific for the Order? This book apparently.)
Continuing onward, there is a brief discussion of Perceptions, Hunches and using Spheres to aid mundane tasks. This is nothing new except that's ALL most Daedaleans can do. Notes on apparati (is this Guide to the Technocracy?), Convention specialties, required abilites (Medicine for Life, Craft for Matter, etc), fast casting and communal rotes round out the game mechanics section.
The rest of the chapter is labeled Orthodoxy and covers Daemons (whose sole purpose is now apparantly to tempt Daedaleans with offers of sorcery, a far cry from the inspirational dreams or angelic guardians Daedaleans keep diaries about), Scourge (which shouldn't really be a concern given the Casual Rule), meditation and Quintessence (Daedaleans do not have a "scientific" view on Quintessence. Those that have Prime suspect it's magical energy but keep their mouths shut just in case there is a Gabrielite hiding around the corner. They don't use notions of Platonic forms and Aristotelian elemental schemes to explain it, according to this book, they don't even bother trying).
Chapter Three: Daedalean Effects
The "Kewl Powerz" section is thirty pages of single Sphere and conjunctional effects. None of them really stand out as exceptional or really innovative however. Some examples: using Connection 1 to help aim cannon easier, using Mind 2 to influence emotions or add umph to a speech, using Spirit 3 to step sideways and using Time 3/Mind 2 to hypercram (since Dream is inappropriate in Sorcerer's Crusade). What makes this chapter useful is the fact that each effect is linked to a specific Convention and types of foci. This shows what sorts of effect are common the Conventions and describes what Daedalean works look like (which is something that most SC GMs I've met have trouble doing).
Chapter Four: The Inner Labyrinth
The Inner Labyrinth is the section of the Order that has access to the Inner Mysteries. This is not just Sphere levels 4 and 5, but also vain acts at lower levels. The great mystery that Daedalean Adepts and Masters try to hide from the Outer Labyrinth is that their works are actually a form of magick. Thus the Inner Labyrinth works to convince the lesser Daedaleans and themselves that this is not the case.
This Chapter starts off with a section on conspiracy and moves into a Q&A covering things like "Why doesn't the Order make a play to conquer Europe?" and "What do we do about the supernatural?" A short section on Honori, Maximi, Daedalean justice and each Convention's spheres of (geographic) influence follows.
The rest of the Chapter discusses the Inner Mysteries, IE high level Daedalean effects. Aside from the dodgy view of vain works being considered sorcerous and grounds for blackmail, inquisition or worse, there isn't much out of the ordinary here. A section called the Theses of Languedoc discusses what sort of vain effects are considered to be acceptable (read: not being grounds for burning). Among these are flying Skyriggers (Connection 5), Designing a Building to alter light, heat or sound inside of it (Forces 4) and entering the Void with a Voidship (Spirit 5). Each of the Honori is free to make addition or restrictions to the Theses but if they start allowing too much freedom, the Gabrielites and Ksirafai may come for a visit.
Rounding out the Chapter is a listing of some common effects of the Inner Mysteries and notes on firearms, casual vs vain workings and. Some of the works are proscribed (including O'Doul's Ingeniae, which creates matter from pure Quintessence), meaning that if a Daedalean is caught using them, it may be time to go rogue.
Chapter Five: The Hero Revealed
The character generation chapter beings with a redefining of the various backgrounds for Order of Reason. Nothing really stands out in this section and the changes could be seen a league away (Magickal Treasure has been renamed Device, which should have been Machinae; Covenent is now Lodge).
There is a little sidebar called the "Sacred 27" which basically is the Aberrant/Adventure method of buying abilities (just allocate 27 points however you see fit).
The meat of the chapter is given over to a very brief description of each of the various guilds that populate the order. Each guilds is given about a paragraph. This is one part of the book that really pulled it weight, aside from the guilds that make up the Grand Financiers, we really don't know much about any of them. One guild has been omitted, the Cosian Phylaxoi; considering the size of the margins, it is unlikely it was cut for space.
A section on Devices somes next, accompanyied by some of the worst game book art I've ever seen. The example Devices are interesting (Ixos Acid reminded me of a scene in the film La Femme Nikita). One quibble: no sane Daedalean would name Machinae after Icarus. Especially a set of wings.
The chapter concludes with a set of rather uninspired Daedalean charcter concepts and notable Daedaleans. Given the nature of the new rules, all of them are at Arete 1 or 2. In the notables section, we treated to yet another write up of Jacob von Reisman. Leave the man alone. The other notables aren't really that inspired.
Appendix
"Hokey religions and ancient magic are no match for a Craftmason's pistol at your side."
----- H. Solo, Seeker Smuggler
That quote opens the Appendix, which covers Storytelling an Order of Reason chronicle. It starts out with session ideas & advice then moves into discussions of various topics, such limited Arete, troupe play and why Storyteller's should avoid a troupe with great diversity.
A sidebar entitled "High Fantasy" discusses the blashphemy that a GM can ignore most of the book if they feel like it and run a more Fantastic game. I think I will. In this sidebar it is also made clear, for the first time in the entire book, that all the information presented is geared toward a Dark Conspiratorial chronicle. This really should have gone in the Introduction.
A rather perfunctorary bibliography follows, with the Crusade standards of "A World Lit Only By Fire", "Cathedral, Forge and Waterwheel" & "History of Civilization Book V: The Renaissance" listed. One of my players, having read the book and being far less kind to it than I, wondered if the bibliography was simply cut & pasted from another book. At least "Dangerous Beauty" isn't listed, but Sleepy Hollow (a good two centuries out of period) is quoted throughout the book and listed in the back.
Analysis
Order of Reason was written with a specific type of campaign in mind, Dark Conspiracy, though they never flat out say that until the appendix. This is evident in its depiction of Daedalean philosophy, organization and paradigm. (As well as the many instances of, "The Order of Reason, in this book at least, .") It tries to bring the conspiratorial elements of the modern Technocracy to Sorcerer's Crusade with mixed results. Making the Gabrielites into the Order's Gestapo and persecuting any Daedalean who practises "sorcery" is an example of this, as is portraying the Ksirafai as a bunch of murderous louts (there is a little anecdote in Chapter Four that starts out with "Three Ksirafai walk into a bar...").
The tone is slightly off; a less overtly Illuminated (Fnord) take on Daedalean conspiracy would have been appreciated. This could have been done by making the difference between the two Labyrinths knowledge of consensual reality, as opposed to being able to perform vain works. I suspect that a good many Crusade GMs aren't currently running the exact sort of campaign the book supports.
A major point of contention is the changes to Daedalean thought, such as the fact they must convince themselves they aren't performing sorcery. This seems to be strikingly out of period, contradicts the other SC books and reminds one of the First Edition Technocracy. (Although given the author this shouldn't be a surprise.) The rules restrictions, while making sense for the type of campaign presented, are rather inane otherwise. As Derek Burrow on the Sorcerer's Crusade mailing list mentioned, the new rules deny Daedalean PCs reliable firearms, clockwork devices or alchemy.
A history chapter (or even a section) would have been nice.
The last thing worth mentioning is the scope of the book. All of the other Sorcerer's Crusade books have aimed at providing source material for a wide variety of campaign types, letting GMs pick and choose as they like. Swashbuckler's Handbook goes so far as to offer multiple kinds of campaign types and how to fit the source material to each of them. In Order of Reason, the choices are already made (much like in MRev), so if the GM doesn't like or agree with those choices, they have their work cut out for them. A more general treatment would have been much more useful so that GMs don't have to hunt for useful ideas (of course we'd do that anyway :-D ).
Objective Grade: 4/10 (Mediocre: A few good ideas and concepts, with poor execution unless one plans on running a campaign exactly as depicted.)
Subjective Opinons
I could have waited another year. As it stands, I'll probably pillage it for ideas but execute them differently. And no, I'll never take it to a game for reference (like I do with most of the others).
I also take issue with the Order's enemies being generically lumped together as the supernatural (implying that the Order is a bastion of normalcy and mundanity). At this point it should be noted that in all the other SC books that the Order has never seen the supernatural in and of itself as a bad thing. They've had qualms with things being againt God's will, exploitive of the commoners or simply being the Devil's work. The notion that the Order considers all things supernatural to be a threat is grossly out of period and harkens back to the one dimensional view of Technocracy it took over five years to dispel.
About that quote: Ummm, yeah. George Lucas has enough problems (Episode II: Attack of the Clones?), he doesn't need his films savaged for gaming book quotes.
I thought the writing was a tad on the boring side. I really don't mind this usually (I read GURPS after all ;-D ) but most of the other SC books have been fun to read. Also, the use of the word Hero is rampant throughout the book. Couldn't the author have used Daedalean or Natural Philosopher instead? This isn't a D&D book.
I guess any book coming after Swashbuckler's Handbook would have a lot of expectations to live up to. I don't fault the new developer and am waiting for Witches & Pagans with great enthusiasm (which will only disappoint me if the authors go the Neo-Pagan/New Age Wicca route).
Where I'm coming from (personal opinions of prior works):
Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade 8/10, Crusade Lore 5/10, Castles & Covenents 7/10, Artisan's Handbook 9/10, Crusade Companion 8/10, Infernalism: Path of Screams 10/10, Swashbuckler's Handbook 10/10
This all just my opinion and I'm probably wrong.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)