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This is the book that should be grafted to the skin of every "Whispering Vault" player or GM who ever wondered just what to do with the wonderful setting. WV is a great concept, but the main book does leave a little bit of puzzlement on what to do, and that's something this book answers-- six times, in six fascinatingly different ways.

As a compendium of adventures, this spans the gamut from traditional psycho clown through elegant political conspiracy. As a whole, they finally provide the meat that WV needed. Stylistically, it's all across the board, though ultimately it's really a six-pack of adventures and delivers what it promises. The adventures hop across time and space, something that was implicit in WV but made manifest here. The best way to really review it is to cover each adventure separately.

"Crossroads" lays in a bit heavy with jargon, but casts a wonderfully Elric-like mood. It's a subversive piece, which fits WV's exotic horror nicely.

"Let's All Be Frank" takes a nice political turn by focusing on one of the less overanalyzed US presidents, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt. In fact, it's the first FDR compulsion I've read about, and probably the nicest advenure I've seen yet as far as showing what WV is about. Indeed, it is well suited for any conspiracy campaign (if you're twisted enough, run it with Delta Green.)

"Bumpy Toad" was not my favorite, I confess A bit cliched, a bit Gaimen-esque, and frankly, a bit longish. It's a good thing they stuck it in the middle.

"A Thousand Pounds of Flesh" is a nice Weird West piece (yes, you could use it in Deadlands or Werewolf:WW.) It has a strong emotional hook, an excellent Call for the characters, and very strong Focus. This one really captures how to motivate the players, and provides an nice alternate setting to the typical "yet another modern times" experience. Quite good, and required reading before writing your own WV adventure.

"The Sword of Allah" is a future run, and despite invoking one of my personal biases (not yet another black hole story! Argh, okay, so I'm an astronomer), is quite solid. It does have a bit of a power scale problem, running the players from the mundane through the cosmic, but perhaps that's a good thing. It is the only one with a "to be continued".

The book ends with "Playground of the Damned", a corrupted circus tale that promises "many stops have been pulled." *yawn* Cliched, self indulgent, and a very linear adventure. Perhaps I just feel the theme has been overdone, but this one is far less cutting edge than the five that proceeded it. It's worth noting that I give this book a top review for substance despite this one merely adequate item. It's not that it's bad, it's simply not good.

I liked WV as a game system, and now there's finally something to run with it. As the 1st support product from Ronin, this is definitely a must-buy for any interested in the Whispering Vault.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

The Book of Hunts
Author: (many) Category: game Company/Publisher: Ronin Publishing Capsule Review by Sandy Antunes on 08/15/97. Genre tags: none	This is the book that should be grafted to the skin of every "Whispering Vault" player or GM who ever wondered just what to do with the wonderful setting. WV is a great concept, but the main book does leave a little bit of puzzlement on what to do, and that's something this book answers-- six times, in six fascinatingly different ways. As a compendium of adventures, this spans the gamut from traditional psycho clown through elegant political conspiracy. As a whole, they finally provide the meat that WV needed. Stylistically, it's all across the board, though ultimately it's really a six-pack of adventures and delivers what it promises. The adventures hop across time and space, something that was implicit in WV but made manifest here. The best way to really review it is to cover each adventure separately. "Crossroads" lays in a bit heavy with jargon, but casts a wonderfully Elric-like mood. It's a subversive piece, which fits WV's exotic horror nicely. "Let's All Be Frank" takes a nice political turn by focusing on one of the less overanalyzed US presidents, Franklin Delanor Roosevelt. In fact, it's the first FDR compulsion I've read about, and probably the nicest advenure I've seen yet as far as showing what WV is about. Indeed, it is well suited for any conspiracy campaign (if you're twisted enough, run it with Delta Green.) "Bumpy Toad" was not my favorite, I confess A bit cliched, a bit Gaimen-esque, and frankly, a bit longish. It's a good thing they stuck it in the middle. "A Thousand Pounds of Flesh" is a nice Weird West piece (yes, you could use it in Deadlands or Werewolf:WW.) It has a strong emotional hook, an excellent Call for the characters, and very strong Focus. This one really captures how to motivate the players, and provides an nice alternate setting to the typical "yet another modern times" experience. Quite good, and required reading before writing your own WV adventure. "The Sword of Allah" is a future run, and despite invoking one of my personal biases (not yet another black hole story! Argh, okay, so I'm an astronomer), is quite solid. It does have a bit of a power scale problem, running the players from the mundane through the cosmic, but perhaps that's a good thing. It is the only one with a "to be continued". The book ends with "Playground of the Damned", a corrupted circus tale that promises "many stops have been pulled." yawn Cliched, self indulgent, and a very linear adventure. Perhaps I just feel the theme has been overdone, but this one is far less cutting edge than the five that proceeded it. It's worth noting that I give this book a top review for substance despite this one merely adequate item. It's not that it's bad, it's simply not good. I liked WV as a game system, and now there's finally something to run with it. As the 1st support product from Ronin, this is definitely a must-buy for any interested in the Whispering Vault. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

The Book of Hunts