As I mentioned in my
Mystery Codex review, one factor distinguishing the Covenants of
WitchCraft from the various factions in the
World of Darkness is the fact that Covenants are based around shared ideas, ideals, and/or goals, not stereotypes and powers. Take the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross (a.k.a. the Rosicrucians, a.k.a. the Rosies to their friends), for example: They specialize in using magic, yet they are hardly the only magic-using Covenant. It's their
attitude toward magic -- and toward everything else -- that makes them stand out.
With that in mind, Eden apparently decided in Power and Privilege: The Rosicrucian Covenant Book -- their first "splatbook" -- to focus not on new powers, but rather on new setting details. They also seem to have wanted a book that players could use without stumbling across spoilers. The result is a setting-heavy, rules-light guidebook that is almost entirely safe for use by players as well as GMs.
CONTENT
Chapter One: Recruitment
Despite the name, this chapter is simply Eden's standard book introduction, describing what's covered and how it's covered.
The only really noteworthy -- and somewhat disappointing -- item is the fact that the contents of the book are to be taken as subjective, with a distinct Rosie bias. Furthermore, we're told that no Covenant book may contain the truth behind contradictory claims. Given WitchCraft's record of providing the straight scoop rather than the WoD's endless morass of subjective worldviews, I really hated to see them go down this road.
Granted, this subjectivity means that players can read more of the book without coming across definitive spoilers, although the trade-off is a lingering worry that any selected truth may be proven false as the line develops. And granted, this chapter does emphasize three facts about the Rosies that are objectively true, although placing these facts in this chapter means that most players are likely to see them.
Chapter Two: Covenant
This chapter starts out with a mystical bent, describing the theology of the Rosicrucians. Since a society of predominantly Christian mages is something of a novelty in roleplaying settings, I was eager to delve more deeply into the Rosies' mythos. Happily, I wasn't disappointed.
According to the Rosies, humanity was made in God's image to rule all of Creation, and the ability to use magic is a manifestation of this lordship. The book then touches on the various ways in which the Rosies reconcile the existence of Taint and the Mad Gods with this worldview. Some believe that Taint part of Creation, and therefore part of mankind's dominion. Others believe that Taint is from beyond Creation, and therefore beyond humanity's ability to defeat. And still others believe that the Creator is simply another Mad God, and that Essence this reality's version of Taint. Interesting thoughts.
From there, it's literally down to business: the nitty-gritty details of how the Rosies operate. Topics include the recruitment and initiation of new members, the hierarchy of leadership and promotion within it, the geographical organization of the Covenant and its Shrines, and justice within the Covenant.
The organization of the Rosicrucian leadership makes the Covenant ideal for adventuring characters. Leaders rarely issue orders, because they're a big deal -- members are expected to drop everything in order to carry them out. So, Rosie PCs usually have plenty of freedom, but GMs have great way of hauling their butts into an adventure.
Shrines are areas of responsibility -- in theory, any sort of area, but in practice, only geographical areas. The Shrines in Europe and North America nicely reflect a conservative organization led by individuals many centuries old: the divisions of the European Shrines date back to the Middle Ages, while those of the more progressive North American Shrines show a comparatively modern, but still antiquated, 19th century mindset. The Empire Shrine, for example, covers all of Germany, the Low Countries, part of France, the Alps, northern Italy, and parts of Eastern Europe, and the American Southwest -- sparsely populated in the 1800s -- has no Shrine at all.
Justice is a major concern for the Rosies due to past problems with corruption -- specifically, members dealing with demons or Mad Gods. The instrument of weeding out such corruption is the Rosicrucian Inquisition, and like so much in WitchCraft, it defies the obvious stereotype. The Inquisition is actually fair-minded and thorough, completely exonerating those found innocent of wrongdoing. On the other hand, the penalty for the guilty is death and unraveling. So, the GM has a potential internal threat that Rosie PCs must take seriously, but it isn't the sort of threat that will dog them forever once they've proven their innocence. (Unless, of course, they aren't innocent, in which case they probably deserve what they get.)
The Covenant handles less serious crimes via trial by peers, the procedure for which this chapter also details. This leaves plenty of room for courtroom drama as a nice break from Covenant politics and ghostbusting.
The chapter next addresses subdivisions within the Covenant: interest groups known as Colleges. (Some of these are, in fact, the remnants of the Covenants that merged to form the Rosicrucians.) With their more specific interests, the Colleges could approach the WoD-style clan framework that the Covenant itself avoids; however, mitigating this are the facts that Colleges convey no special powers, are not mandatory, and allow members to join more than one College.
The Colleges:
- The Archaic Alliance, united remnants of the minority of pagan Covenants that joined with their Christian brethren to form the Rosicrucians.
- The Eclectics, who seek to expand the Covenant's focus to include other Metaphysics beyond magic.
- The Exoterics, who believe the Covenant should make themselves known to the Mundanes, and perhaps even rule them.
- The House of St. John of Jerusalem, who seek to alleviate the suffering of Mundanes wherever possible.
- The Marchers, dedicated to defending the Covenant and humanity from supernatural threats.
- The Parmenideans, who seek a link between Science and Magic.
- The Wards of Heaven, masters of Seraph-summoning.
Next comes the requisite descriptions of the Rosies' views of and relationships with their fellow Covenants. Since not all WitchCraft Covenants are equally well-known, the list is limited to those Covenants of which the Rosies would have reason to be aware. This includes the Wicce, the Twilight Order, the Storm Dragons, the Templars, the Sentinels, and the Lodge of the Undying. The Rosies' relationships with these groups all have more depth than simple friendships and enmities, although their dealings with the Twilight Order comes pretty close to the former. The details about these relationships are summarized here; where that summary is insufficient -- as it is in the case of the Wicce/Rosicrucian relationship, for example -- more detail is provided in the history section.
The Sere Rose, a sinister splinter group of demon-dealing Rosicrucians dedicated to the destruction of the Mad Gods and the Rosicrucians alike, here gets a large sidebar as well. Oddly, the Cabal of the Psyche gets no mention here at all -- a very odd omission, given the extremely important revelations regarding Rosicrucian beliefs about the Cabal detailed elsewhere in the book. (Basically, they believe that the Cabal is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Combine.)
Finally, the chapter offers up a respectable list of notable NPCs -- mostly Rosicrucians, naturally, although a few of the Covenant's enemies are thrown in for spice. Most of these are statless, with the explanation that stats are provided only for those NPCs whom the PCs are likely to encounter in contexts in which stats would be useful. The others, we're told, are either "powerful shadowy figures" or people whose capabilities are unknown. I have two problems there. First, the fact that people in the setting are ignorant of an NPC's capabilities doesn't mean that the GM should be. Second, one of these shadowy figures with unknown abilities is the suggested target of a climactic confrontation in one of the campaign outlines later on in the book. On the other hand, statting out all of the listed NPCs would have meant fewer or smaller entries or a larger and more expensive book, so I think the trade-off is reasonably acceptable.
At any rate, it's a good selection, including a persistent (as in centuries) Wiccan spy, a determined anti-Rosie Sentinel, a couple of Vampyres (one Rosie, one Sere Rose), and a Rosicrucian Bast.
Chapter Three: Roles
This chapter begins by presenting knowledge common to all Rosicrucians in the form of in-character documents. Subjects include magic, invocations, summoning, and politics.
The character creation section that follows offers loads of valuable advice on the attributes, skills, advantages, flaws, and Invocations that Rosicrucians are likely to possess, along with exceptions to the stereotypes and how the Brotherhood will probably view them. For example, most Rosicrucians frown on the Spirit Patron advantage, believing that humans should master spirits and not the other way around; however, members of the Archaic Alliance often have the Old Gods they worship as patrons, and Householders of St. John and Marchers sometimes do likewise with Seraphim. (On a related note, the chapter gives information on taking the Egyptian god Thoth as a Spirit Patron.)
Again, I applaud this approach. Instead of making the Rosies distinctive in their power, they do it with their perspectives. In fact, aside from the Thoth information, the closest this chapter comes to a new game mechanic is a new Rosie-appropriate Character Concept -- the Aristocrat -- for which the writer is almost apologetic.
Five new archetypes round out the chapter: the Aristocrat, the Born Rosicrucian, the Marcher, the Parmenidean, and the Spirit Master. These are detailed and interesting enough to slap a name on and use as-is but easy to personalize by stripping away or modifying the background.
Chapter Four: Past, Present, and Future
Here the book presents a fairly comprehensive timeline of the Brotherhood of the Rose Cross, starting with its foundation in 1203 -- including descriptions of the seven Covenants that merged to form it -- and moving forward to the Covenant's status as of the events of Armageddon in 2017. Along the way, the timeline shows not only the events themselves, but also their effect on the current state of Rosicrucian beliefs, practices, and attitudes.
Chapter Five: Stories
This chapter shows how best to put the information in the book to good use. It includes valuable suggestions for using the Rosicrucians as antagonists as well for running all- or part-Rosicrucian PC groups. The latter are especially valuable, since the leadership of the Covenant may frown on members dealing with certain groups -- the Cabal of the Psyche, in particular. The most detail, however, goes to Rosicrucian-only campaigns, including outlines of campaigns involving the Sere Rose, the Cabal of the Psyche, the Combine, the Wicce, the Reckoning, the PCs as new recruits, the secrets of a hero of the Covenant, a schism within the Covenant, the Exoterics, the Parmenidians, and the House of St. John.
Also featured are outlines of three adventures, all of which are heavy on interaction and (with the possible exception of the last one) extremely light on combat. The first is a hunt for a legendary creation of the famous Rosicrucian Roger Bacon that almost certainly won't be what the players expect; the second involves the PCs campaigning for or against candidates for promotion in the Covenant's hierarchy, and the third -- best suited to Householders of St. John -- deals with efforts to improve an inner-city neighborhood. All of these avoid the cliché of the climactic fight with the "Boss Monster" -- indeed, the third may have no clear-cut ending at all. I'm not sure any of these would appeal to my group, but I do find the approach refreshing.
Ending both the chapter and the book are three adventure hooks involving a Rosicrucian ghost killing people who may or may not be members of a Mad God cult, a group fraudulently claiming to be Rosicrucians, and a disguised demon tempting and/or tricking the PCs into nefarious deeds.
STYLE
The cover maintains the enigmatic style of the Mystery and Abomination Codices. In this case, the image looks like the attractively surreal result of staring at a medieval tapestry while dropping acid. Unfortunately, the majority of the interior art isn't quite so good. The character portraits a great, but most of the illustrations have a kind of comic book style that just doesn't feel right for the subject matter. It's not bad, by any means -- it just didn't capture the mood for me.
The writing is a little dry and businesslike, which, I suppose, does suit the subject matter. However, it's not without its humorous touches. Typos are few and inconsequential. If there's any problem with it, it's that getting the full story on certain subjects takes a bit of flipping back and forth. This is especially true regarding the relationship between the Rosies and the Cabal of the Psyche, which (as previously mentioned) does not appear where the other inter-Covenant relationships are detailed.
Somewhat surprisingly for a book this size, Power and Privilege includes an index. Even more surprising is the fact that this index is divided into a general index and indices for individuals and groups.
CONCLUSION
Eden's goal with their WitchCraft line seems to be to produce a line of truly supplemental supplements, as opposed to extensions of the core rulebook. In that regard, Power and Privilege shines. Unless you are the player of a Rosicrucian, a GM focussing your campaign on Rosicrucians, or a WitchCraft completist, there really is no reason to buy this book. But if you do want more information about the Rosicrucians -- setting information, and not game mechanics -- you'll get your money's worth.
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