Disclaimer II: The majority of this review is opinion; your actual enjoyment of this product should vary accordingly.

Shades of Gray is the third book in the Orpheus game line. Opening from a tragic event in pigment subculture, the book goes on to address the numerous players on the field–mostly enemy forces, and a surprise or two.

With the downfall of Orpheus Group in Crusade of Ashes, the players have been living hand-to-mouth for a period of time, and adjusting slowly. With their heads down, some crucibles have managed to avoid the media circus and the Feds long enough to develop some hope.

Then the metaplot flexes its muscles again, taking the overarching story down a different road. Some storytellers may have thought that with the downfall of Orpheus in Crusade of Ashes that chronicles were destined to fight the long, tired fight of putting lives back into place and trying to keep a ray of hope alive until the outside pressures (the FBI, media, death merchants, etc.) elevated.

Shades of Gray reveals some more of the actions of the ghostly world around the crucible–Spectres are gathering souls, and something wicked is guiding them. The plot device of pigment is revealed to be just one of the Spectres plans in breaching the veil between the living and dead.

It seems that the forces of wickedness have discovered that but using Spectre ichor in hallucinogenic plants, that some side effects (like seeing the dead) occur, and that the taker of the drug has their Vitality diminished and they will become a Hue when they die, making it easier to havest their souls once they die.

Joining the fight against the Spectres is a new Shade, the Phantasm. Using dream-based Horrors, this Shade takes the fight into the dream realms and creates new illusions for others to be weary of. This book also introduces new Horrors (the so-called ‘third-tier horrors,’ or the third extension of the character’s base Horror), new roles and more backgrounds. This book reveals the nature of Radio Free Death, his background and abilities, as well as the identity of one of the attackers in the Orpheus raids (the second wave’s operatives).

Overall, this book is hard to gauge. It may strike some as a middle book in a series, one that strengthens some of the plot, but dragging out others. The book invests some in the characters, giving more scenarios that reveal some of the Spectres’ plan, but not all. It covers the origin of pigment as well as some of the history of Orpheus that continues to unravel in the company’s wake. The book makes a solid source for Storytellers looking for more information to ratchet the plot down in certain areas, like why the death merchants are after the crucible and which agency is footing the bill.