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I have to admit when i first picked up this book and began reading it I thought to myself, oh no, not another White Wolf storytelling game! But then I continued on through the rules and was surprised by the differences. The game itself is based on role playing in a fuedal Japan setting, however the author makes it very clear in the beginning that the world is NOT Japan, but similiar in nature.

The book gives a complete background on societies little quirks and customs without becoming a bogged down system of rules for every single social interaction. The rule system while simple keeps to what role playing should be, use of the imagination, not a bunch of numbers on a character sheet. The complete system is based on a d10 in which a player adds his trait, or attribute if you will, and his skill ranking together to determine how many dice he rolls to meet his target number. Then the player can only keep his highest number of dice equal to his trait ranking. Dice rolls are also open ended meaning roll a 10 and your rolling that dice again and adding it to your score.

The clans have variety to them however I felt that a type of character solely available to each clan could have helped. The book does mention the addition of this to each clan's sourcebook, but who really wants to wait to play a member of a particular clan until their sourcebook comes out?

The thing that I would have to say that i liked the best about the game is its Golden Rule of if the rules get in the way of having fun, don't use them.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)