Author: Steve Hough, w/ D.J. Trindle and John Wick
Category: game
Company/Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group
Cost: $4.95 (US)
Page count: 64 pages
ISBN: None
Playtest Review by Bradford C. Walker on 09/04/98. Genre tags: none

It's been a long time since designers paid any attention to products that are cheap, simple and easy to carry. Pinnacle's Deadlands has its Dime Novels, and there are those Pulp Dungeons booklets, but those are adventure modules. This needs to expand to other products.

AEG did just that.

The L5R Character Travelogue is a gigantic character sheet that doubles as a mini-journal. It doesn't seem like a worthwhile purchase; it seems like a lot to spend on something that gets as much abuse as a character sheet. My group and I talked about this one night, and we arrived as a conclusion.

You don't use this during play. During a session, you use a standard sheet. That takes all of the abuse, usually in the form of keeping track of wounds and resources, and spares the travelogue of all that stuff. Instead, you use the travelogue between sessions to record what occurred. (If the PC is wounded, that gets noted. If spells cast aren't recovered, that gets recorded. If an ally dies, etc.)

How valueable this thing is depends greatly on who you play, how you play him and what game you play within. (The utility of this product is inverse to the mortality rate of your campaign.) However, most L5R games have death rates low enough to make this useful. (Those who use the Develop In Play approach may find this just to their liking.)

Do you need it? Hell no! Is it bloody useful? You betcha! I've got two, and I can't wait to bring back the characters they hold. If that isn't a recommendation, then nothing is.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)