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First the bad news: This is NOT a scary setting. It is light and even goofy. Players play monsters, but they are not creepy. I sort of wanted dark, evil creatures like Demon City had, but with a little tweaking I suppose I can get my wish. I was kind of suprised as well that this was a detailed campaign world book and not a standard genre book. I guess I just would have liked to have known that before hand. Also, there are some glaring typos and a missing comic page that should have been caught in production. That's why it gets a 4 and not a 5 for style. Oops.
Now the good news: It's crammed with gothy goodness. Really. It sounds like a cheesy, cliche setting, but the quirkiness sort of works in this case. Like I said, I wasn't expecting what this book was, but I ended up liking the book in spite of myself. It has some fantastic characters in the adventure and it not only contains a great introductory adventure, but an entire campaign outline! I was blown away by the inventive ways common gothic horror rpg cliches were consistently turned upside down. This is the first game that makes me want to play a vampire. I love the cool oriental-sounding names of the monster types. They even spell Zombie Zombi, just to infuriate me. Like I said, it's quirky. The art is cool. It is fun and anime and does the job. It is sort of jagged in some areas. By "jagged", I mean the art has sharp, stylized lines. But it is cool, more influenced by graffitti art in some areas than anime, but it works. I think the artist and the writer are the one in the same and it appears all the art was done by the same artist. The credits are not as clear as I would like, looking a little washed out. I am writing a lot about the art because it is so important for this book to work. The art really sets the tone of the book and tells the story of the setting. That's why missing the comic page miffed me big time.
All in all, it is a fine addition to the BESM line and gives me hope for the system. We need more books like this more often. I can use this book in many campaigns, unlike the Centari Knights or the Big Ears, Small Mouse books which were very campaign specific (what the hell happened to them anyway?).This book, crammed as it is, should really have been two or more books. How about an adventure book for CHDH, or a CHDH bestiary? No support = dead game. I need the books to run an on-going campaign and keep things fresh. This book screams support! More of the same please.
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