Review of Way of the Shadow

Way of the Shadow is quite a mixed bag of tricks. It's the Legend of the Five Rings supplement for the ninja, supposedly... but it isn't. But it is. Sort of. You see, Way of the Shadow is just that - Way of the Shadow, not Way of the Ninja - and it details the force behind the ninja. Unfortunately, the usefulness of this is questionable at best. It's like having a long supplement on a Hell that doesn't detail the demons within.

To further complicate things, the grand majority of the book is written as a narrative. While this would make a terrific handout to give to players during an adventure, seeing as it's a travel journal of a NPC, you really can't... it's so hard to reach ICly it makes the Al Azif seem positively accessible. It presents each journal entry as a possible adventure as well, but this has two difficulties: one, it makes the journal entries inaccurate and unusable for any sort of background, and they take place before most Legend of the Five Rings campaigns are set.

All of this wouldn't be too dissapointing if the book was a oversized coaster, but it isn't - it does have some interesting ideas and concepts you could use to crank up the horror of a Legend of the Five Rings to an almost Call of Cuthulu level. But they're few and far between. Most of the truly useful information (i.e., the GM section) takes up 15 pages of a 159 page, $24.95 book. The rest is fluff, unfortunately. Good, quality fluff, but fluff nonetheless for the most part. Sadly, there's no detail on playing or creating ninja. The book also mentions Shinobi, or Shadow Magic, but never expands on it.

It's worth buying if you're a hardcore Legend of the Five Rings gamemaster or fan with disposable income - it has secrets about the world you won't really find anywhere else, and it will undoubtedly tie into future supplements. However, if you're just a player or casual fan, it isn't really worth your time.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)