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

Arcana Unearthed is a d20 system-styled book. Built from parts of the [d20] System Reference Document and some oustanding original material, Arcana Unearthed wants to be your campaign's alternative Player's Handbook. Can it be, though? That depends on your campaign.

In striving to escape the clutches of Tolkien, Cook creates a compelling fantasy set. Races set beyond the standard, seen as tried-and-true, dwarves, elves and smaller-folk (gnomes and "halflings"). Cook also creates outstanding culture roles (character classes, folks). Cook tries so hard to make this change in the fantasy set fully concrete by changing the role of magic and how each character interacts with it (spell slots, new spells by types instead of by class).

Arcana Unearthed begins by defining what it is not and what it is. Though it's touted as stand alone, it is not, requiring the player (and referee) look at the other d20 system books for further explanations (like damage reduction). It also point to other books in the Sword & Sorcery Studios fold for more monsters and variety.

Don't expect this book to carry a new player for their first few sessions, as it's not designed for brand-new players, though those who have gamed for several sessions shouldn't be intimidated by the book's "difficulties" or it being an "advanced" rulebook.

Arcana Unearthed does features new races, character classes plus the third-party publisher standards of new feats, skills, spells and weapons. What Cook does change is how to approach the design of the character. By having several races with "racial levels," Cook makes character choice more intriguing. Though by not having all the races with the three level advancement, Cook sets-up a great premise that falls flat when it could have made this book more outstanding than it is.

Also, while on the topic of races, the book fails to deliver a fair amount reasoning why certain races appear in the "player's book" as opposed to making them available for referee fiat in support material. The spryte and runechildren, in my opinion weaken the "player's" aspect about the book, though Cook does claim that this book is more for referees. Both of these races are not available at first character level, runechild being an option at 5th level, and sprytes available at 4th level. Character classes are treated to the same workbench feeling that the new races present. The standard archetypes are broken into usage of weapon versus magic, with a range of "betweeners." On the magic-users side, we have the magister (a very Gandalf-sque wizard that stores their spells in their staff), the greenbond (a nature-based spellcaster, has the feel of paganism and Wicca), the runethane (a rune-based spellcaster) and the witch (a revised sorcerer or psion, whose power is innate). The weapon-users (er, fighters, if you will) present the warmain (sturdy, armored warriors), the unfettered (a swashbuckling, daring-do), and the champion (a person that gains strength from their cause). The "betweener" character classes are the akashic (the skill-based character that is tied to the collective unconscious), the mage blade (a mix of warmain and magister that uses their bladed weapon as the foci of their spells), the oathsworn (an unarmed, but not weaponless monk-like character that forgoes tools in pursuit of their goals, they eventually break free of the limitations of their body following their goal) and the totem warrior (a native warrior that communicates with the spirits and takes their power and form).

Arcana Unearthed showcases new types of feats (those being ceremonial and talent) for characters to select from. Talents are 1st level only feats that represent how a character is different via "inborn gifts" that indicate "a character from the outset." Ceremonial feats require that a character have a truename, and these feats require ceremonies or rituals for the character to participate in. Arcana Unearthed characters begin play with one ceremonial feat and either a talent or regular feat, unless they are Unbound (characters without truenames), then they may take a regular feat or talent feat plus an additional talent feat.

"Blessed Mage (Ceremonial Feat): After a ritual involving a daylong invocation to angelic spirits, you gain special benefits with blessed magic. Prerequisite: Truename. Benefit: A character with this feat may apply the blessed template to her spells as described in Chapter Eight: Magic. Further, she casts any spell that cures hit points at +1 caster level."

"Night Owl (Talent Feat): You are more active at night. Prerequisite: Character level 1st only. Benefit: The character gains a +1 competence bonus to attack rolls, saving throws, and checks made after the sun goes down. (This ability only takes effect above ground, and when the character can verify that it is indeed night.)"

Arcana Unearthed, being a Player's Handbook, also covers equipment and combat, most familiar with the way the d20 system combat unfolds, should have no surprises once the dice get rolling. The main changes from the core rules come when the character is wounded and hovering on death's door. The core system says you have until -10 hit points before the character is dead, Arcana Unearthed allows your character to bleed until they reach their negative Constitution score. Also, where the main rules say at zero hit points your character drops into unconsciousness, this book has characters fighting until their negative Constitution modifier (ex: a warmain with an 18 Con, bleeds until -18 hit points and is still fighting at -4 hit points).

Magic in the book is broken into simple, complex and exotic spell types. These types take the place of the standard rule's character class break down of spells, so there's no magister spell list or witch spell list-each character type has access to different types of spells (witches have simple spells, the magister has simple and complex spells). Exotic spells are the rarest of spells, a so-called signature spell for those spellcasters that create them.

Magic use in Arcana Unearthed comes in the form of spell slots, a mildly confusing section (after looking at the bonus spells chart and the spell slot chart for each character). A spellcaster has a number of slots which they use to ready a set number of spells, spells remain in those slots until the character studies and meditates to change them out. With spells in the slots, a character can use the spell a number of times, their spells slots that they can use per day. Personally, I got confused about this aspect of Arcana Unearthed. I stopped after reading the greenbond and flipped to Chapter Eight: Magic to clarify what I was confused on, but it still isn't clear.

Ex: a 1st level greenbond has a base of two 0-level and one 1st-level spell slots per day. The same character can have five 0-level and 3 1st-level spells readied at one time. Both of these charts are modified by the spellcasters key ability (greenbond's spell bonuses are based on their Wisdom score).

"All casters must ready spells before they can cast them. This simply means choosing the spells they will be able to access when the time comes to use their spell slots to cast them." (Readying spells, p. 164) "A spellcaster has a limited amount of spell energy at his disposal to power the spells he knows and has readied. This power is represented by spell slots. Each caster has a number of slots for each level of spells he can cast." (Using spell slots, p. 165)

Does this mean that a character has a barrage of spells that they have readied, but can use it only so much before their power fails (and they need to recover them by rest)? This is a great idea, but a little unclear in the text of the book. Added to the idea of spell slots is the idea of weaving and unthreading spell slots together to power a spell of another level. A spellcaster may use three slots to power a one-level higher spell. One higher-level spell slot may be unthreaded to fuel two one-level lower spells. I liked the idea of spell slot weaving, but put together with an unclear section on spell slots (probably a cognitive issue) slightly weakens the magical aspect of the game.

The chapter on magic ends with a listing of spell templates that characters can add to most their spells to change "their parameters or requirements." This is a neat idea for those wanting a more personalized vision on magic as opposed to the Big Named Spells (Bigby's Crushing Hand).

"Blessed (Spell Template): As a gift of angelic beings from the higher realms, characters learn to cast benevolent spells on their friends with greater ability. Tainted individuals (see 'Special Descriptor Rules,' page 171) cannot use this template. Characters can add this template to spells that have beneficial effects, such as healing spells, ability boost, and so on. A caster who knows the truename of the target can double the range of the spell. Further, the caster can use this template to affect allies (whose truename she knows) within 25 feet with touch-only spells. Spells with this template gain the positive energy descriptor. If the spell already has the positive energy descriptor, its range triples or it affects allies within 50 feet instead of 25 feet. Cost: Verbal component (specific beautiful and pleasant sounds, which cannot be modified). Gained: From the Blessed Mage feat."

Overall, I look forward to using aspects of Arcana Unearthed in my games. It has a different feel than my other Player's Handbook, which is a good thing. While I do have some issues over the spell slot thing, but I think, as I get deeper into the book, that it'll become more concrete in my mind. Right now, it's a bewildering item on a list of outstanding values. Arcana Unearthed is a lovely campaign option book, but I feel that maybe it shouldn't have been called a Player's Handbook, but rather a Referee's Campaign Toolkit.