This book is the first in a series of four that comprise the main rule books in Steven Brown's "Secret World". The first book deals mainly with the unliving servents of darkness (okay...well...for the most part darkness) like Ghuls (crypt-dwellers), Revenenants (the dead who come back to life) and Vampires (a moderately traditional translation). Along with those there are a few other minor races. The other books in the series deal with Angels, Knights of the Round Table, Demons, Gargoyles, Dragons, Elves, Faeries...and many others that I won't list here.
All in all this looks like it will be a fairly broad universe (too broad?) with many races combined that you wouldn't normally find together. The challenge in a universe this broad is that the difficulty in pulling all the races together in a coherent mix will be that much more difficult.
Well...overall I like this book. I thought it had some interesting characer sets and the overall feel to this book is wonderful. Whenever I get a book and read it...and I get a feeling that is completely unique...that is when I believe it succeeds. This book did exactly that to me...it was a combination of dread, the unknown, and eternal power. The mood of the story reflects creativity and thoughtfulness to detail incorporating characters that are normally thought of as contrary or enemy, each with a realistically differentiated set of values or characteristics.
So...as I was reading through this book it overwhelmed me, as most books this detailed do, to the point where I couldn't clearly comprehend the overall relationships of elements. I think I like it when they do that...it makes it more important for me to understand the book itself and concentrate less on the letter of the law...which usually provides a better roleplaying experience.
I do have some things that I would rather see handled differently about the book. I believe that the text is a bit wordy, it could be edited a bit and still retain the qualities that I mentioned above. I also thought that the heirarchy of information was a little confusing and difficult to understand. The *start here* or logical organization to the book was a little difficult to find.
I had a hard time understanding the character creation proces. It's a tad bit confusing and difficult, although I find it very similar to the process in most White Wolf books. My characters had a hard time understanding the general way characters interacted in the world as described. This was not necessarily a bad thing...it allowed me to customize the world a lot and add in a lot of my own nuances.
I would suggest this book if you would like to have a serious customization job on your hands, but if you want to play it stock...I'd say you might have a difficult time.
Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)
