Pyramid Pick
The Book of the Shadowlands
Published by Alderac Entertainment
Written by Cris Dornaus and Rob Vaux
$24.95For those not in the know, the Legend of the Five Rings RPG is set in the Empire of Rokugan, a place bearing much similarity to feudal Japan, but with lots of magical twiddly bits. One of these twiddly bits is the Shadowlands, a place of death and corruption where the evil god Fu Leng has his abode. Imagine a cross between Mordor and a post-atomic wasteland, and you can't go wrong. The Shadowlands are full of unpleasant creatures and it's the job of the Crab Clan to keep them there. The Book of the Shadowlands purports to be the journal of Kuni Mokuna, a Crab Clan shugenja (wizard-priest), who traveled extensively in the Shadowlands, documenting its many repulsive features. It's been helpfully "translated" by Cris Dornaus and Rob Vaux, who've managed a fine job of getting across the personality of this self-justifying lunatic, a man who spends his time dissecting trolls and visiting goblins, much to his Clan's disgust. The layout is cleverly done, with Mokuna's text "handwritten" on parchment, and game statistics and rules in sidebars when needed. There are also excellent illustrations on almost every page, which give a suitably brooding air to the book even before you start reading it.
The Shadowlands really are unpleasant. The opening chapter deals with the history and landscape of this dreadful region, from the . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: July 3, 1998
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