One thing I would like to say is that a lot of this review is the same as my previous review only because the first three chapters and the last three chapters are the exact same as the Book of the Unliving. That said here goes the review of The Book of the Light.
The first thing you come across is the introduction, a collection of short stories describing the setting in brief detail. All of the stories are combined forming an almost complete story. If you own The Book of the Unliving the stories are continued from that book.
Book One: Orientation has three chapters and is, you guessed it all about the setting, rules, and the character creation process
Chapter one: Entering the Secret World details the various aspects of the setting. Here is where you will find history, definitions, and a brief list of what you will need to play.
Chapter two: Protagonist Creation explains everything you need to know about creating your character. Character creation can be a nine step process if all of the optional material is used. Characters can be created four different ways, first is point buy followed by card draws, next is dice rolls, and last is freeform (which is only recommended for experienced roleplayers). The first step is choosing your Race or Gentes as it is called here. Following that come Concept creation, Ethos choice, Persona choice, Aspects (Stats), Aptitudes and Skills, Distinctions, Preternaturae and Magick, and last the Final details. Also included are brief descriptions of the various angelic races you can play. Following all this are sections on Destiny points, Backlash points and experience. Choosing your race will be a tough decision as there are numerous choices. To get all the information on a race you will have to turn to different chapters, but that is not that hard since they did a good job of putting them in there own sections. Concept creation is a simple process for some but the author included a list of 20 questions to help you out. Choosing your Ethos (which defines the role of your character) is an optional step in the creation process. Here you will find 19 different ethoses’s to choose from, ranging from the gloryseeker to the prophet. Following Ethos is Persona choice (your characters personality) which is also optional step. Next comes Aspects (Stats) are broken down into three categories; Mental, Physical, and Spiritual. Each category breaks down into three individual stats. Under mental the stats are Instincts, Intellect, and Perception. The physical stats are Dexterity, Resilience, and Strength and the Spiritual stats are Inspiration, Presence, and Spirit. The next step is Aptitudes and Skills. Aptitudes are a category of skills while skills are the individual skills in that category. Distinctions are next and are broken up into two different sections, Benefits and Drawbacks Distinctions are a way to add a little more to your character. They range from biographies to servants. The section and magick and supernatural abilities are rather small but that is because the majority of the abilities are located in the other chapters. The last three sections are about Destiny points, Backlash points, and Experience. Destiny points are points that the character has that allow him to change effects and outcomes of certain events. Backlash points are the exact opposite of destiny points; they are given to the character for going against his nature and can be used by Npc’s to affect outcomes against the characters. Last are experience points. There are two charts here one is for determining levels and the second is for determining how much it will cost to raise a stat or skill, etc. Raping it all up is an example of character creation.
Chapter three: Basic guidelines, is where you will find all you need to know about the game mechanics. In this chapter you will find out about combat, hit points, skill checks, and healing. The basics are you roll a number of dice or draw a number of cards equal to your stat. You get one success for each die or card equal to or grater than a difficulty number. Base difficulty number is nine with modifiers for various situations. This is the way all actions are decided. These rules are a little confusing at first but once you read them a few times you will get them.
Book two: The Lightbringers is broken up into three chapters and concentrates on the three races of light Angels, Daevas, and Questers.
Chapter four is all about the Angels. This chapter goes into detail about the nine types (Seraphim, Cherubim, Merkabah, Kyriotetes, Dynameis, Exusial, Archal, Archangels, and Aeons), there life, histories, and specialized magick also called celestial engineering. All of the material about the Angels from chapter two is reprinted here for easy reference.
Chapter five is all about the Daevas. This chapter goes into detail about the life, histories, and other aspects of becoming a daeva including the twelve households there are. All of the material about the Daevas from chapter two is reprinted here for easy reference.
Chapter six is all about the Questers. This chapter goes into detail about the quester’s life, histories, and certain stereotypes there are. One of the stranger things is the quester’s ability to call on miracles. This ability is not to be used lightly and is not recommended for use to often, but in dire times it offers the character one last ditch effort to change the outcome of some situation. All of the material about the questers from chapter two is reprinted here for easy reference.
Book three: Cast into the Ageless and Eternal Struggle is broken down into four chapters as well with three chapters detailing the rest of the races for you to choose from. The fourth chapter is about the ordinary and the mystical places of the world.
Chapter seven: Demons is about the enemies of the forces of light. The demons have nine different orders just like the angels. The orders are Ahrimanes (Anti-Seraphim), Baphometi (Anti-Cherubim), Nesturi (Anti-Merkabah), Asmodeans (Anti-Kyriotetes), Nergal (Anti-Dynameis), Stygians (Anti-Exushia), Balli (Anti-Archai), Aeshema (Anti-Archangels), and Diaboli (Anti-Aeons). Also listed in this chapter are fourteen other types of demons including half-demons. This chapter gives a lot of information ranging from what will hurt demons to what will just hurt them. For all the information it is not recommended for demons to be allowed as player races.
Chapter eight: The Wer are creatures affected with lycanthropy. While the main focus of the chapter is on the classic werewolf there is a small section detailing the other various ware-creatures. Included in this chapter are the descriptions of the three stages of transformation and the associated increases to certain abilities for different times or phases of the moon.
Chapter nine: The other Everlasting give the ten or so other gentes to choose from. The races are Dragons (the most powerful of the everlasting and not recommended for characters), Elves, Faeries (not of the nice magical fantasy type, these are mean and cruel), Gargoyles (a race of creatures that eat the sins of mortals), Ghuls, Manitou (animal spirits the posses mortals), Osirians (a race of people that are constantly reborn into new bodies and keep all their memories), The Possessed (mortals possessed by entities from the dreamworlds), and Revenants. There should be at least one more the Vampire but it is missing. Each race has a description, vital statistics, what gives them backlash points, and what hurts and can kill them permanently.
Chapter ten: Mysterious Worlds would give details on the various realities that exist within or just outside of our own, but it seems to be missing. There are a number of pages from chapter eleven (pages 273-288) printed here instead.
Book four: Beyond the basics is where you will find extra information for running the game, it is also where you will find the section on magick.
Chapter eleven: Advanced guidelines is where you will find all the information fro those situations that will arise when you least expect it. Some of the things you will find are rules for fire damage, radiation damage, what protection armor will give you. This is also where the section on magick is located. Magick is simple to use but a little confusing at first. Basically you have points of Animus (which is the energy that powers supernatural and magical powers) and by spending these points you cast the spell. The part that may give you problems is you have to figure out that cost for each and every spell you cast. The way to do this is to figure out what kind of spell it is, if it affects you, if it affects your enemies, if it affects neutral people (bystanders), once you get this down it will be simple to do. The best part of the magic system is that you can make your spell do anything you want if you can pay the cost. The pages from the last section (pages 273-288) are reprinted in this chapter where they belong.
Chapter twelve: Storytelling gives advice for running a game, adventure creation and types of themes for your campaign. This chapter is useful because it helps you get and understanding of the system and the world setting.
Chapter thirteen: Legendmaking deals with really getting into the game. In this chapter you will find guidelines for using make believe ceremonies to help bring a sense of realism to the game. I didn’t find this chapter very useful but some people might.
Now that I got that out of the way there were some things I didn’t like about this book. First I thought there was just too much reprinted material throughout the book, as there was in the last book as well. The layout of this book is better than the last one but a big problem with this book is the missing chapter ten, while not being needed as a major part of the book it would have helped explain the places that the forces of light live and visit. Now for the things I liked first there were not that many typos that caught my eye which is not bad for a book of this size. The art was good and served to help define the book as being for the forces of light. This book also held up better than the last one. Another thing is it has a good index which makes it easy to find the things you are looking for. Overall this book is as good as the first one in the series and although it can be used separately it would be better off used in conjunction with the other books in the series. I wanted to add that I spoke with Chipp Dobbs President, Visionary Entertainment Studios about the missing chapter and he assured me that this problem is in a very small amount of the books.
