Erebus, City of Shadows

Erebus, City of Shadows is a 94-page supplement for the Wushu role-playing game that can be purchased from RPGnow for $5.00.

Target Audience: Fans of gaslight fantasy, pulp noir, and Hong Kong style action.

System: Wushu

Complexity: 7. (Lot's of background to digest.)

Quality: 6 ½

Originality: 7. The game premise and character goals combine to form a unique game environment not entirely like that presented in any other game.

Grade: A-

Product Rating: 6 out of 10 golden apples.

There's a lot of information here covering everything from the background for various races like the Naga, Mer, and Guar to information detailing various power groups and political entities that might either directly or indirectly influence aspects of the game world. But it's not that simple. I've been pondering how to best summarize Erebus and, I am loathe to admit, it's the sort of work that you have to experience first hand because the scope of it makes it difficult to objectively appraise. As a supplement I think it's very interesting, however the difficulties I find myself faced with when trying to distill what I've read down into short and simple sentences tells me that the supplement may need a bit more polish. It's not that the material is unfocused so much as it covers too much and, somewhere along the way, I've totally lost track of what the central theme is supposed to be. Yet, despite that, I still come away liking the supplement. Go figure.

Game/Setting: It's not easy to summarize Erebus. The devil's in the details. On the one hand it could be reduced to descriptors like "slipstream fantasy", "a acid trip of magical kung-fu fantasy wrapped around the silken fist of an gun moll vamp", or "darkly gothic fantasy pulp-noir" yet none of those truly capture the scope and breadth of Erebus's genre straddling approach.

In short this is a supplement for the City of Erebus intended for use with the Wushu RPG, though which was written as a generic supplement. I can't say I understand or approve of that approach. If this is supposed to be for Wushu then don't pull your punches. As I was reading this I have to admit it feels more like a generic supplement that has designs to be more than it is, but never quite manages it. Which means, as a Wushu supplement, a heavy burden is placed on the GM to integrate this material into that rule set.

System Mechanics: While there are magics hinted at as possibly existing in the wild and savage areas of the world that have yet to be explored. The available "Kewl Powers" within Erebus cover three basic forms. These are 1) Magic, which is more or less equal parts of three skills: Legerdemain, Mesmerism, and Augury; 2) Psionetics, which is a melding of concepts ranging from Astral Projection to Telekinesis; and 3) Natural Philosophy, which involves the "Philosopher's Stone".

Character Creation: I'm going to interject a brief rant here: I really, really, really hate it when character creation is included near the end of supplements. Whenever I see this I can't help but think this means character creation was something appended to the text as an afterthought. End of rant.

That said the character creation section sucks. It's more of a guide to the people of the realm in "character template" form than it is a helpful section outlining the steps for creation of player characters. I mean what do I need to do? Seriously if this is for Wushu this is the section you would expect to see Wushu related rules detailed. Conversely, as a generic supplement, this section is where information on how to integrate this setting into existing rule sets should be. It does not provide either.

Oh, sure, you learn about Rage Mages and other silly sounding character templates but what are these really?

Read for yourself: "The templates below can be used as sources of inspiration…" I got that far and just about lost it. Why? Because, as a veteran GM, I have reams of gaming material. I don't need inspiration what I need are fully functional, ready to go, works out of the box, characters that require me to do as little work as possible.

How important do I think the above is? I subtracted two points from the rating because of it. I can't tell you how many "games" I've read that take this approach and I'm starting to get miffed. Seriously ideas are dirt cheap. What I want from a product is a fully functional game out of the box, not inspiration or ideas for how to maybe make the material work if I dedicate the time to working at it. That's not a game in my book it's a manual of game ideas.

Negatives: There is really only one problem, besides those mentioned above, albeit one that can (and perhaps has been) be easily resolved in future editions. This PDF really needs bookmarks and a table of contents. Otherwise the content is interesting and very substantial. However the document is not very well illustrated and has a poverty row vibe going for it that many used to high concept, glossy, big bang for their buck product may find difficult to get around. True, many of those glossy products are low on content by comparison, but it's hard to get a person to believe that filling a book with a lot of pointless art isn't really giving the purchaser more bang for their buck.

Positives: Erebus is that ever present "free city" found in most fantasy settings. You know what I'm talking about. However, as with it's cousins, there's always that certain something that sets it apart. So no need to worry about this being a clone of Grey Hawk, Lankhmar, or Sanctuary. While this supplement might lack polish and gloss what it has in substance should more than make up for it's deficits. Which are really just eye candy fluffy bunny padding anyway.

It's material like this that makes the long thankless hours of mulling over page after page of role-playing games with differences amounting to little more than minutia worthwhile. Especially when, after reading a deadpan serious back story about how in the "primordial past" humanity first arose out of the muck the text suddenly piqued this otherwise jaded reviewer's curiosity with passing mention of a "philosopher's stone" then, without further explanation, launched into a cursory overview of the three different civilizations that evolved during those long eons. The presentation really draws the reader into the material by making you want to read more to find out what's going on.

Too, I especially liked the section titled "Kewl Powers". It's that sort of near self-mocking tip of the hat to thick skinned grognard's that really endeared this world book to me. I know what I said above but Erebus just strikes a chord with me. I don't know why, but I really like the concept, even in it's unpolished state.

Best of all it's only five bucks. You can't get many things for five bucks these days. Even bargain bin DVDs usually run around $6.99 now. You may be able to get a hamburger from a fast food chain restaurant, but if want more than just oily fries and a reheated burger you'll have to spend more. Heck five bucks wont even buy you a gyro, what are you waiting for?

Happy gaming!