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

Orpheus takes the World of Darkness and shows us its ghosts. Yes, Wraith did that already, but seeing a decided lack of new Wraith products hitting the shelves, this book is a ghost lover's best friend. Or, a World of Darkness ghost lover's best friend. Orpheus presents a labyrinthine organization, called Orpheus Group, dealing with the world's ghosts and their latent problems (hauntings, manifestations, vacation time and member perks). Yes, this World of Darkness book's ghosts have day jobs, or at least, the ones you play do.

The character core of Orpheus has characters working for Orpheus. Orpheus Group makes money dealing with the mortals, via its ghost agents. People come to Orpheus to take care of a spook in the house, hire an agent to spy on their spouse, or even kill a rival. Orpheus doesn't advertise the seedier side of its business, but as an agent of the company, you're paid to keep your mouth shut.

Orpheus's agents take one of several types of ghosts-Laments to borrow a game term-and work along side others in a team-called a crucible. Laments are the ghost's "species" so to speak, whether the spook is or isn't dead, or uses mediation or drugs to help them interact with the spirit world. Skimmers and sleepers are both living agents that take spirit form. Skimmers mediate and leave their bodies via astral projections, while sleepers are given chemicals that effectively kill the body but keep it in a sort of cryogenic stasis for recovery. Spirits are vibrant dead agents, while the pigment-using hues are washed out ghosts that still have enough connection to the world to be used.

With a lament chosen, still more goes into defining an Orpheus ghost. A Shade is what type of ghost your lament becomes. Shades define most of the in-game statistics that Orpheus uses (Willpower, Spite, Vitality). Banshees (a vocal empowered ghost), Haunters (those ghosts that inhabit objects, like houses), Poltergeists (those whirl-things-around ghosts), Skinriders (these ghost possess human hosts) and Wisps (as in will-o-the-wisp, light embodied ghosts that have mystical alluring powers) are the base ghosts that this book introduces (while hinting at more in the rest of the series).

Orpheus takes a different approach to their setting than other World of Darkness books, as it is the first of a limited series that details the world of the restless dead (for a total of seven books, counting fiction). Several details that Storytellers may have their players investigate may be overwritten as the "metaplot" develops. Like the substance of pigment, a "black heroin" drug that, in addition to getting the subject high, allows the user to see ghosts. (Hues are created from pigment users that later die.) It's hinted at that while Orpheus created a drug similar to pigment, the ones to help sleepers project their souls into the spirit world, the recipe was lost when its created died. (The story hints that someone visited the creators ghost and harassed the recipe out of him, thus linking Orpheus to the street drug and a possible legal stumbling block as police investigate further into pigment's origins. Other story hints are that most ghosts encountered are not over three year old...)

Orpheus takes it's pacing from the cinematic realm, hoping to keep things running forward, the game can be taken as Sixth Sense kids founds the Ghostbusters company and then goes public. Orpheus wants to keep the action crisp, an appendix opens several cases that a crucible may explore during the first few opening sessions of the game before the other supplements start arriving and taking the game in other directions. An X-Files type number system is involved with Orpheus Groups' missions so that continuity may be maintained over the course of a chronicle.

The core game rules of Orpheus has a dice pool setup. One has a number of dots to add to the pool from an ability and a trait. (e.g.: Strength + Occult for moving the statue in proper alignment with the stars.) The Storyteller (the gamemaster) will assign a difficulty number for the roll, and let the player attempt to succeed (e.g.: it's a difficulty of 7 to move the statue in the proper place at the proper pacing). The dice used are d10s as opposed the d20 most people are familiar with.

A character's health rating looks like a checklist that one checks (slashes "/" or "x"s) as the character is wounded. Depending on your character's type (lament), the character may shunt temporary Spite points to their body as damage to heal once they get back. Actual ghosts don't worry about their health score, but should keep an eye on their Spite ratings. Spite is the negative emotional impact of being dead. With nothing else to keep it from you, as there's no boss to blame when your dead, every little bit of negativity builds inside the character until it appears as a Stain on their outward appearance. Once your Spite outnumbers your Vitality (healthy energy), your character begins a negative cycle to its place among the Spectres. Spectres are bitter, negative ghosts that hate everything living, dead, or in between.

While acting as a ghost, or a ghost, as the case may be, characters have access to innate powers called Horrors. Horrors grant spirit weaponry to fight other ghosts or spectres, also allow the character to interact with the physical world while manifested as ghost. Poltergeists use their horrors to move objects, while skinriders use their horrors to gain control over a human.

Those familiar with the rules from the revised Storyteller system may have some thinking this book is an update of Wraith; it's not. A rough comparison notes no Angst rating (though some will probably argue that Spite is it's logical equivalent) and no Shadow creations that have a character's negative aspect run by another player. Some reoccurring items do include spectres and hints at spirit world destruction several years ago (that hint plays out with the entity of Bishop, an older than three-year spook that hunts down Orpheus agents).

Orpheus bundles the good items of Wraith and shakes them up, human's acting as ghosts for one is a good thing. It keeps the ties to the world easier, instead of dragging into a shell game for ghosts to keep hacking at living. By having the focus on Orpheus Group, the book presents a tight vision of the World of Darkness without having any worries for new Storytellers to include vampires, werewolves or mages to their chronicles.

Orpheus's problems in its presentation, however, it is more geared for those Storytellers familiar with the World of Darkness, its themes and subtext. The character creation section is spread over three chapters, with some creation details appearing as a new story concept is just introduced, but before the core "creation" section occurs will alienate some that want a new roleplaying game to start-new gamers, that is. The illegible fonts will also put some off of those sections the text written in (is that a "c" or an "e"?).

Overall, Orpheus is a solid entry in the World of Darkness and may satisfy those hunger Wraith fans that want more on ghosts in their games. Though more designed for World of Darkness fans, more intermediate gamers wanting a "ground floor" World of Darkness game should give it a look.