Earthdawn LiveJournal

(AUCKLAND, New Zealand) 8 July, 2008—RedBrick Limited confirmed today that the Age of Legend™ campaign setting for Wizards of the Coast's DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® 4th Edition roleplaying game is currently in development. Age of Legend™ is based on FASA Corporation’s popular Earthdawn® fantasy roleplaying game.

James Flowers, RedBrick’s Managing Director, said "FASA Corporation brought us fantasy roleplaying in the Age of Legend with their Earthdawn® game in 1993. Now, fifteen years later, RedBrick Limited is excited to be bringing the Age of Legend™ to DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® 4th Edition players."

RedBrick Limited look forward to announcing their first Age of Legend™ products in the near future. In the meantime, your Age of Legend™ adventure begins now by visiting the Age of Legend 4e™ web site at http://www.ageoflegend4e.com. Register on our Forums for discussion about gaming with DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® 4th Edition in the Earthdawn® milieu, chat with other Forum and RedBrick's 4e development team members, learn about the Age of Legend™ campaign setting—Barsaive® province—and much more!

RedBrick Limited is headquartered in New Zealand, and also publish the Earthdawn®, Fading Suns™, and Blue Planet™ roleplaying games under license from FASA Corporation, Holistic Design Inc., and Biohazard Games, respectively. RedBrick's company web site is http://www.redbrick.co.nz. Age of Legend™ and Age of Legend 4e™ are trademarks of RedBrick Limited. Earthdawn® and Barsaive® are trademarks of FASA Corporation. Used under license. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast in the U.S.A. and other countries.

(AUCKLAND, New Zealand) June 20, 2008—RedBrick Limited are pleased to announce they have successfully concluded the signing and acceptance of the first Game System License for Wizards of the Coast’s DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® 4th Edition Roleplaying Game.

James Flowers, RedBrick’s Managing Director, said "This is an exciting opportunity for us. We have been looking forward to working with Wizards of the Coast for some time. Now that Wizards have accepted RedBrick’s application for a Game System License, we can move forward with our plans for publishing DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® 4th Edition compatible products. Once details of our forthcoming product releases have been finalized, we will make a separate announcement."

RedBrick Limited are headquartered in New Zealand, and also publish the popular Earthdawn®, Fading Suns™, and Blue Planet™ roleplaying games under license from FASA Corporation, Holistic Design Inc., and Biohazard Games, respectively. RedBrick's company web site is http://www.redbrick.co.nz. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast in the U.S.A. and other countries.

Keep in mind that this is NOT an abandonment of the current RedBrick Limited's Earthdawn product line, and is instead a concurrent path of development.

Daylen Jagaro was never a very good merchant. A failure in his homeland of Barsaive, when he hears that the Golden Empire of Cathay opened its doors to the West, he sets out on a quest for riches and glory and to explore an ancient and exotic culture filled with opportunity.

RedBrick Limited is pleased to announce that Dark Shadows of Yesterday is now available. This novel, written by Hank Woon, is a new and original story about the merchant Daylen Jagaro and his adventures in faraway Cathay.

Available Now! Click here for more information.

Time to start learning about Cathay people!

I watched the anime movie and some old cartoons from the Iron Man 90s cartoon before watching the live-action Iron Man movie which basically follows the same early storyline progression as the anime movie. Tony Stark gets caught by bad guys, they try to make him make weapons, he makes an Iron Man suit instead and escapes from the bad guys using the suit and is later forced to face the truth about his company selling weapons for profit without regard for human life. What is cool about this plot device is resetting the old story in a modern context of the War against Terror in Afganistan and Iraq. The casting is good, Robert Downey Jr. is Tony Stark, no question about it. Gwyneth Paltrow does her best Kirstin Dunst impression from Spiderman, but makes a decent Virginia "Pepper" Potts. Leslie Bibb from Crossing Jordan makes an appearance as smoking hot reporter Christine Everhart, trying to get the scoop on Tony with all means at her disposal. The interaction between Tony and Pepper really drives this movie forward near the end. There is also a lot of humor in the movie, taking a page out of the last Fantastic Four film. The suit animations are awesome and there are some good tunes. The villain is basically a rival board member from Tony Stark's company Stark Enterprises, and the traitorous board member creates a rival iron suit and becomes the Ironmonger and fights Tony in his original Iron Man suit. A lot of elements are put in place for future sequels, everything from S.H.I.E.L.D. to Nick Fury to the Avengers to War Machine is referenced by the end. I highly recommend this movie and I can't wait for the sequel.

The next movie I really want to see is Hell Boy 2. So much so that I want to rewatch Hell Boy again.

This trilogy of prequels is really cool. The story is of an Old Empire that falls to a group of Twenty Titans who use a computer AI network to take over the Empire world's robots and declare a Time of the Titans, with them acting as dictators over planets. They all eventually remove their brains from their bodies to live in an electrafluid mix and attach them to mechanical bodies becoming cyborgs known as cymeks. The AI network, Omnius becomes self-aware and takes over the Titan's worlds, transforming them into the Synchronized Worlds. Due to Barbarossa's programming Omnius is unable to kill the Titans directly, so they become his unwilling puppets. Some humans resist Omnius and form a League of Humans, with some worlds unaligned in the conflict. The humans mostly defend against Omnius until the martyring of Serena Butler's son, Manion, sets off the Butlerian Jihad, and the humans go on the offensive. The machines counter back in the Machine Crusade, and the trilogy concludes with the final Battle of Corrin to eliminate Omnius and the cymeks forever.

The cool thing is that we get to read how the Dune universe really came together. We learn about Arrakis and the spice, and how it became important to the war effort for the humans in many different ways. We learn about Norma Cenva and VenKee enterprises as Norma creates the spacefolder ships, and turns herself into the first Navigator through the spice gas, and the ships built by VenKee Enterprise and the navigators created by Norma become the Spacing Guild. We learn about the Sorceresses of Rossak and how they slowly changed into the Bene Gesserits. We watch as the machine Erasmus raises Gilbertus to be the first Mentat and sacrifices everything to ensure he survives. Finally, we learn about the fateful moment that led to the feud between House Atreides and House Harkonnen.

Next I plan on reading the second set of prequels, House Harkonnen, House Atreides, and House Corrino.

Earthdawn is a roleplaying game set in a world of high adventure, high magic, and terrible danger. Shards are a series of unrelated adventures and encounters for the Earthdawn game, intended as an inexpensive resource for Earthdawn gamemasters.

This volume contains the adventure Westhrall's Passage, designed for Novice characters of any Discipline. In this adventure, the characters are taken on a journey into the depths of the Kingdom of Throal, where the Pale Ones dwell and survival is always uncertain... Requires use of the Player’s and Gamemaster’s Compendiums.

Available now! Click here for more information!

Westhrall's Passage is a revision of the First Edition Earthdawn adventure The Way Out from Throal Adventures.

Medal of Honor: Frontline is like a Playstation 2 continuation of everything that was great about the first two Playstation games. Seriously, land at Normandy and kick ass all the way to a secret German factory for their new jet bomber. This game rocks.

Medal of Honor: Rising Sun is a good game, that feels incomplete. There are like 9 missions, and the first two are very short. Instead of fighting germans, you are fighting the japanese, which makes melee combat a lot more dangerous because of their banzai charges, bayonets, and katanas. And those chefs do not mess around tossing cleavers at you. The ending of the game feels like there should be more missions coming as well. Still not a bad game.

Medal of Honor: European Assault has you leading a squad of three allies with a suicidal AI that you can attempt to control and heal to keep alive, but mostly exist as cannon fodder to draw the heat off of you. Some new improvements include being able to store medkits and revives so that you can use them later, and an adrenaline system that makes you temporarily invincible. There are enemy leaders with tons of Health this time too. There are only like 10 missions, and there is not even much of a story this time. The series is getting worse.

Medal of Honor: Vanguard is even shorter European Assault and Rising Sun. The game has you in the Airborne this time, and you fight through several paratroop missions leading up to the Allies' fiasco at Market Garden. The health system is bizarre, featuring a red splotch on the screen when you get hit that grows in intensity as you keep taking fire. Just surviving requires you to take cover and allow yourself time to recover from enemy fire, as there are no medkits or revives or adrenaline anymore. The big bad Nazis are gone too. The last battle is you defending a factory against several waves of German troops. Not even a final boss like in the the other Playstation 2 games. It is a huge step backward, even from European Assault. As far as I am concerned, Vanguard is the last Medal of Honor I am going to play. Series end.

Defender for Playstation 2 attempts to recreate a classic Atari 2600 shooter game. When I first started playing, I was having a blast as it does significantly upgrade the original Defender with mission-based progression. There are six ships and multiple power-ups per ship that can be bought with credits earned by successfully completing missions. The game has decent graphics, sound, music, controls, and action. Unfortunately, the game has a serious difficulty problem. This problem actually has nothing to do with the fighting, it has to do with the missions. You are somehow expected to save colonists from the landers and prevent the landers from turning into mutants, save vital facilities, destroy enemy spawning zones, and reposition other defensive units such as tanks and AA, while fighting the enemy 24/7. So I have to be in four places at once? Impossible. On top of that, the dumbest autosave in the world saves even your failures, so eventually you end up with zero credits and one life in an extremely difficult game. The farthest I got was Earth, I could probably go back to the beginning and try again, but when you have to be perfect and fast in order to maximize credits and preserve your extra lives, it makes things way more difficult than it has to be. So I was like bring on the cheat codes, and could not find any even on gamefaqs. I had high hopes for this shooter too, as Midway made Colony Wars III, which was fun and easy. It really is like an Atari game, unbeatable and uncheatable!

FFVII: Dirge of Cerberus for the Playstation 2 continues the story of Final Fantasy VII after the events of both FFVII and the movie, FFVII: Advent Children, revealing the tale of Vincent, Hojo, and Lucretia in great detail. Unlike FFVII, a RPG game, Dirge of Cerberus is an action game with RPG elements. Much like Medal of Honor, you'll find yourself running around trying to not get shot and try and use the L3 button to zoom in and snipe buttons while Vincent is in his normal form. Using the Limit Breaker item, he can change to his nearly invincible beast form for a short time and maul opponents. Attack Materia of Fire/Ice/Lightning can be attached to your three main weapons, a machine gun, pistol, and rifle for added punch to bullets. The characters, story, graphics, and FMVs are awesome, but the game controls are awkward and leave a lot to be desired. The music and sound are about average, a couple of tracks are good and the sound effects adequate, but I did not feel that the music lived up to FFVII's music. I also do not like Auto-save. I like being able to control my own saving. There is a New Game + option, where you can carry over your gear, but not your experience, and also some extra missions. Another quest is getting all the secret items in the game by shooting them in the stages. The fact that this is an action game at all is dumbfounding since FFVII was a RPG game, and most RPG players are not renown for their mad action skills. A must for FFVII fans, everyone else should ignore this game.

Dot.hack Volumes 1-4 is an interesting take on the MMORPGs for the Playstation 2, as a single player RPG. Yeah, I have had a Playstation 2, since about October 2007. The basic concept is that you are playing a MMORPG called The World that has been infected with a virus. The gameplay occurs in two stages, one you play as a 14 year old boy going through his e-mail and news on his Operating System (OS) menu and the other as the 14 year old boy's character "Kite". He is introduced to the game by his friend who plays "Orca", a legend in the game, who takes him to an easy dungeon where they encounter a mysterious lady and a boss who should not have been there. Orca is attacked by the boss and the Kite's friend goes into a coma, and he is bequeathed an item called "The Bracelet" by the mysterious lady that gives him unique powers and abilities. He quickly garners a group of friends in the online world with real life counterparts, but not all of them are available at all times, as they may or may not be logged into The World at that moment. The World slowly decays as a result of the virus, resulting in various on-screen graphic flaws and white noise effects, all of which give me a headache and make me nauseous, one of the reasons I will not be getting the sequel series, dot.hack GNU. The fights are Action-RPG style with you able to use "Chat" commands to give instructions to your NPC allies. The AI is pretty stupid, so you need to constantly give your companions new instructions, and it gets annoying. The virus manifests itself in corrupted monsters that are invincible as well, which require Kite to use The Bracelet to rewrite their code into monsters that can be beaten. This action though causes the virus to spread, and if the virus level gets high enough, a System Failure results in a game over. As the game progresses we learn more about The World and its creation. At the end of each Volume, you can keep your progress everything from levels to items saved for transfer to the next volume. Overall, the story is solid, and the voices are adequate, but I never enjoyed the graphics and sound. Another problem I have was the shoving of the anime dot.hack series characters at me during the dot.hack game, almost like they want me to buy the anime too and using the game for advertisement. In some ways I guess that is smart, but I don't have to like it.

Yeah I know, I said I wouldn’t buy the Shadowmoor Fat Pack, but they added two more boosters! Card Crack!

The Shadowmoor Anthology does not even continue the Shadowmoor story, it is instead a bunch of short stories. The one word I’d use to describe this book is depressing. Very few of the stories end well for the main character. The best story is probably “Ode to Mistmeadow Jack” which at least has the returning characters of Maralen, Brigid, Rosheen, and Sygg in it. “Five Brothers” is essentially a fable, told to scare little kithkin children into never traveling alone. “Paths” and “Sootstoke” both tell the story of a Sootstoke cinder trying to relight the flame of the flamekin. “Mark of the Raven” and “The Cloudbreaker” are tales about the elves trying to protect the remaining beauty of the darkened world, and how the world of Shadowmoor even taints these protectors. “Meme’s Tale” gives us an insight into the new boggarts and how their culture has been changed to experiencing new things to experiencing new things to eat. “Pawn of the Banshee” gives us a tale about one of the new dark forces in the world of Shadowmoor, the Banshee. Finally, “Expedition” shows the paranoia of the kithkin in full light.

The book is kind of like the movie 28 Weeks Later in that you hop from protagonist to protagonist wondering if this character is going to make it. They usually do not in Shadowmoor.

I suppose I'll pick up the Eventide Fat Pack too when it comes out...damn you 8 boosters!

Spectrum is an Invasion Preconstructed Deck that uses green to gain access to the other four colors to abuse the Invasion “Domain” spells and by having mostly green permanents, keeps the Djinn from losing power with their drawback. I picked it up for $4.00 USD on e-bay, well worth it at that cost.

Lands (22)
14 Forest, 2 Plains, 2 Islands, 2 Mountains, 2 Swamps. This deck needs 2 more lands. The Djinn are 6 mana apiece, Wandering Wayfarer and Sabertooth Nishoba are 6 mana, Serpentine Kavu is 6 mana with the kicker, Probe costs 5 if you use the kicker, and Global Ruin, Ordered Migration, and Kavu Climber also costs 5 mana. That is 11 spells that really need the 24 land count. In addition, although Harrow gets 2 basic land, you have to sacrifice a land in order to use it. Harrow is really effective at thinning your deck as a result of the low land count.

Creatures (22)
3 x Thornscape Apprentice. (see Barrage review for stats: http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_80285) This guy exists in your deck to either lock down opponent’s creatures for W or chump block. In a deck with little early defense, this creature is about all there is.
1 x Nomadic Elf. (see Barrage review for stats: http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_80285) Chaff. 1G = 1 colored mana of your choice is still awful, especially when a common land that taps for 1 colorless now does this. Another chump blocker.
2 x Yavimaya Barbarian. Cost: GR. Creature—Barbarian Elf. P/T: 2/2. Abilities: Protection from blue. An Invasion ‘bear’ with the allied colors hating on their mutual enemy color. This card, Nomadic Elf, and Thornscape Apprentice are the only 6 cards for less than 4 mana that summon creatures, a major curve problem. Thornscape Apprentice can actually make this card relevant in combat by giving it First Strike.
2 x Quirion Trailblazer. Cost: 3G. Creature—Elf. P/T: 1/2. Abilities: Card Name CIP, search your library for a basic land card and put it into play tapped, shuffle your library. This card is outdated now, but it is still very good. The Shadowmoor equivalent is Farhaven Elder, a 1/1 for 2G, same ability. The Trailblazer is great at getting one of the two basic lands of the other four colors, and getting a chump blocker.
1 x Serpentine Kavu. (see Barrage review for stats: http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_80285) . In the right deck, this is an awesome kavu and beater, but Spectrum is so slow that 6 mana for a 4/4 with Haste is just not a bargain.
2 x Kavu Climber. Cost: 3GG. Creature—Kavu. P/T: 3/3. Abilities: Card Name CIP, Draw a card. It is a 3/3 that replaces itself by drawing a card. Not much to complain about, especially when Coiling Oracle and Sakura-Tribe Elder are considered great cards that do the same things for 2 mana and draw a card for 1/1s.
1 x Sabertooth Nishoba. Cost: 4GW. Creature—Beast. P/T: 5/5. Abilities: Trample, Protection from red and blue. Rare. This guy was printed? Sure he is no Oversoul of Dusk with the additional and more useful Protection from Black, but Trample is nothing to sneeze at. For this deck, a big beater with a relevant reach ability (Trample gets damage to players) is a great card. As a collector of beasts, I was really glad to get this card.
2 x Voracious Cobra. Cost: 2GR. Creature—Snake. P/T: 2/2. Abilities: First Strike, Combat Damage Deathtouch. Uncommon. This card is the first one that is a chump blocker that can probably eliminate the threat. Stops 2/2s cold, a huge portion of which are in Invasions, especially kavu and the “bears”. As a snake collector, awesome card.

The last 4 creatures are the interesting “domain” creatures.
1 x Wayfaring Giant. Cost: 5W. Creature—Giant. P/T: 1/3. Abilities: Card Name gets +1/+1 for each basic land type among lands you control. Uncommon. The card seems awful at first glance, 6 mana for a 1/3? Rip off! But if you have all five basic lands in play, this creature is a 6/8, which seems like a bargain for 6 mana. Still, on average, you are probably going to end up with a 4/6, which assumes you have 3 of the 5 basic lands, which probably is not all that great for 6 mana, since the card is vanilla otherwise. The Zanam Djinn and Halam Djinn are very weird domain creatures. Play a lot of green permanents and keep these colors from dominating the table to strengthen these creatures.
Zanam Djinn. Cost 5U. Creature—Djinn. P/T: 5/6. Abilities: Flying. Card Name gets –2/-2 if blue has the most or is tied for the most permanents in play. Uncommon. A poor man’s Mahamoti Djinn. Still the Evasion is very relevant here.
Halam Djinn. Cost 5R. Creature—Djinn. P/T: 6/5. Abilities: Haste. Card Name gets –2/-2 if red has the most or is tied for the most permanents in play. Uncommon. Haste is still not great in this deck.

Spells (20)
3 x Fertile Ground (see Barrage for stats http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_80285).
This spell is very necessary to keep the number of green permanents up, and helps you cast other color spells without getting the lands you need, but it does not synergize with Harrow well.

3 x Harrow. Cost 2G. Instant. Sacrifice a land, search your library for 2 basic land cards and put them into play, shuffle your library. What is really good about this card is that it activates your domain abilities, thins your deck out, and sickly allows you to keep mana back to counter creature spells with Exclude. Cost 2U. Instant. Counter target creature spell, draw a card.

2 x Tribal Flames. 1R. Sorcery. Card Name deals X damage to target creature or player, where X is the number for basic land types among lands you control. If you have all 5 basic lands, this deals 5 damage for 2 mana. This is pretty bad if you only have 1 or 2 basic land types in play, but on average you probably will have 3, for 3 damage, about right for a 2 mana cost burn spell.

1 x Global Ruin. 4W. Sorcery. Each player chooses from the lands he or she controls of each basic land type, then sacrifices the rest. Rare. Armageddon that just kills the other decks.

1 x Ordered Migration 3WU. Sorcery. Put a 1/1 blue Bird creature token into play for each basic and type among lands you control. On average you’ll get 3 1/1s, but 5 1/1s is awesome for 5 mana. Uncommon. The Evasion makes this a good finishing card.

2 x Wax//Wane Mana Cost: G//W. Instant. Wax gives target creature +2/+2. Wane destroys target enchantment. Uncommon. Wax is good for your weak creatures, Wane gives the card a versatility against enchantments (enemy Fires) that Giant Growth lacks.

2 x Assault//Battery (see Barrage for stats http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_80285). Terrible Shock + Elephant Token. The 3/3 blocker is usually the best option, unless Assault can combine with Tribal Flames to kill a creature or player.

1 x Fires of Yavimaya (see Barrage for stats http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_80285). Haste is still not getting it done, but the +2/+2 for sacrificing Card Name can really help your weak creatures.

2 x Probe (see Dismissal for stats http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_78541). I still don’t like this card, but in this deck, it is really good for sifting through your deck to get the cards you need, especially lands to improve your domain spells.

1 x Spite//Malice ( see Dismissal for stats
http://slayride27.livejournal.com/?skip=20#entry_78541). This card still has a huge black creature hole.

All in all, Spectrum is a fun Preconstructed Deck, since it is essentially try to get one land that produces each color and then try to put some huge finishers out there to win. It also shows you how to make a cheap common multi-color land base. The card quality of the deck is very good. I like the two rares, an Armageddon and a huge Beast. I think the uncommon quality is exceptional, one Fires, two Assault//Battery, two Wax/Wanes, and two Voracious Cobras are some good cards, and the common quality is good too, as Harrow and Fertile Ground are great mana thinning and acceleration respectively, and Tribal Flames is insane in the right deck.

Arcane Tech is a Fading Suns sourcebook that contains a decent mix of flavor text and game information. The flavor text mostly describes the view of the church of the technology that the current chapter is revealing. There are various levels of proscribed (basically banned with exceptions) technology, with the possession and use of the highest levels of technology banned for use by anyone except the church. The basic equivalent of this book is Arsenal in Shatterzone, another gear book. The gear here ranges from new communication gear, a slew of golems for use, cybernetics, technology for communicating with the dead and attempting to prolong life, new weapons and shields, medical technicals, artifacts, alien technology, technology for psychics, etc. There are also some other chapters detailing a couple of space stations that can be useful for campaign hubs, a chapter on church law and definitions, and a chapter about the Preceptors, or teaching priests.

The most useful chapter IMO is probably the Corrupting Tech chapter. This chapter describes the serf level of technology, and features a lot of descriptions about serf life. This chapter is just generally useful to use for descriptions of villages in Fading Suns, and even in a game like Earthdawn. The three paragraphs under Shelter on pg 16-17 give you a description of a typical serfs home, just a good reference for any gamemaster.

Church Fiefs is essentially a book filled with flavor text written from the perspective of a questing knight reviewing the five major church held worlds in the Fading Suns universe. What is neat about this Fading Suns product is that beyond Holy Terra, a.k.a. Urth a.k.a. the Sol System, there are three new world maps of inhabited worlds and solar system maps that could easily be dropped into just about any space game. Artemis is a world with a full night at one pole and full day at the other, with one continent on the light side with mostly daylight and the other continent on the dark side with mostly nighttime. Pyre is a desert world featuring both hot and cold deserts and a small fresh water sea where most of the life remains. De Moley is a mountainous planet with a history of war. Running Shatterzone? Buy this product, drop Artemis, Pyre, or De Moley into your campaign, and remove some guesswork and busywork from your campaign.

The product has its uses, but for Fading Suns gamemasters, it probably is a little less satisfying due to the lack of Game Information. Even the major NPCs are given as personalities with no stats, and there are no creature stats for unique creatures on the world. Still, the world map and solar system maps are very helpful, so this product might be worth it no matter what space game you run.

Hopefully, I will review Arcane Tech tomorrow , but it really comes down to how much time I have before work tomorrow. The worst case scenario is the review coming next Saturday.

Fading Suns is a lot like another game of mine, Shatterzone, in that it employs an awesome game setting, but the game mechanics leave a lot to be desired. Then again, this is my problem with just about every sci-fi game, the closest I've seen to a workable future system is Shadowrun Fourth Edition (And they haven't even left the planet yet...) and sadly D20 Modern.

The quick setting of Fading Suns is that Urth was unified under one world government under the First Republic and colonized the Sol system due to population pressure on Urth. When an artifact of the Annunaki (Where have I heard that name before..), the jumpgate is found near Pluto, once the scientists figured out how it worked enough to use it (But not reengineer it, unfortunately), a Diaspora occurred and humanity began colonizing other solar systems in droves with zaibatsu or corporation backing. The Sathra effect became known as pilots first began jumping, causing psychic abilities to first show in humanity, although this was stopped by an integral buffer on ships by the First Republic. The fall of the First Republic on Urth occurred as the home system of humanity lost importance as just another solar system among many during the Diaspora. The Universal Church was established during the Diaspora, as mankind needed a new monotheistic religion that was adapted to encountering alien life and exploring the stars. Much alien life that was encountered met the same fate as the American Indians, their world terraformed and the aliens forced to live on reservations after conflict with the humans such as the fate of the aliens on Shantor. Until the humans found the G’nesh on New Monaco (Apshai) and attempted to do the same and the Vau made its presence felt by wiping out all human colonists on the world it protected. The non-expansionist Vau’s technology put the Diaspora’s to shame and the Vau were mostly left alone. When the expansionist Ukari were encountered they attacked the capital at Criticorum and used their psychic powers to incite the Shantor to revolt, causing the further deaths of 25% of that race. When the cause was revealed to be psychic powers used by the Ukari, the Universal Church sent its Fleet to defeat the Ukari menace. After a time, the Second Republic was formed of the collective solar systems, causing many leaps in technology. The Second Republic crumbled during The Fall. The Fall was caused by social upheavals caused by unemployment caused by technology, nobles centralizing their power on many of the worlds through the Divesture, and the Fading Suns effect. Many stars dimmed, and the Universal Church preached that it was caused by Second Republic technosophy or love of technology over all else. This led angry mobs to destroy technology, causing the loss of much of humanity’s technical know-how. The deathblow was when Rogue Worlds and aliens attacked the Second Republic capital at Byzantium Secondus and took the capital. The ten major Noble Houses sent their fleets to take the capital back. After The Fall, a New Dark Age comes into being with the ten Noble Houses, the Merchant League, and the Universal Church as the only forces keeping wealth, power, and technology. When the barbarian invasions occurred, humanity needed a united front, and Vladimir Alecto united the ten Houses and sent the barbarians back. With the barbarians defeated, Vladimir turned the struggle internal, causing a civil war, which saw the elimination of half of the ten before Vladimir was assassinated on the day of his coronation as Emperor. The five remaining houses created a regent position to rule in the stead of the emperor. The Symbionts, a race of alien parasites that had infected humans, were the next to attack, when they used a combination of living technology, psi, and theurgy powers to fight humanity at Daishan. The war at Daishan only ended after the Fleets orbitally bombarded the world to rock and ash. Standard military attacks were useless against the guerilla war using Symbionts. Only when humanity brought its own occult powers to bear were they able to force a stalemate at Stigmata. The Emperor Wars occurred and the office of regent finally displaced by Emperor Alexius of House Hawkwood. The five remaining Major Noble Houses are House Hawkwood, House Li Halan, House Decados, House Hazat, and House Al-Malik as well as several minor Noble Houses. The six major sects of the Universal Church are the Urth Orthodox, Brother Battle (militant monks), Eskatonic Order (psychics), Temple Avesti (Avestites, inquisitors), the Sanctuary Aeon (Amaltheans, healers), and the Mendicant Monks. The five major Merchant League guilds are the Reeves (lawyers), the Scravers (scavengers), the Musters (slavers), the Charioteers (pilots), and the Supreme Order of the Engineers. The internal strife in each house or sect, the strife between the five houses or sects, and the strife between the Church, the League, and the Nobles create much of the internal conflict and tension for humanity in Fading Suns and the external conflict is mostly caused by the Fading Suns effect, the Vau, the barbarians, Rogue or Closed Worlds, and the Symbionts. The New Dark Ages are set up much like the old Dark Ages for the general populace, most people are serfs or slaves serving the nobles and praying to the Universal Church for salvation from the Fading Suns. The setting gives brief detail of the planetary systems, provides a system starmap (really cool on p. 278 for anybody running a sci-fi game), and goes in depth with the Pandemonium world including a couple of sample starter adventures. Yes, that was the quick setting, why do you ask?

The setting of Fading Suns has a lot of parallels with other sci-fi series. For example, the First Republic and Second Republic brought to mind the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov almost immediately. In Foundation, the fall of the First Republic is predicted by psychohistorian, Hari Seldon, who developed a way of using and analyzing history through mathematics to predict the result of the flow of time, and his teachings guide a group of the best and brightest of the First Republic to form the Foundation and shorten the time of barbarism from 30,000 to 1,000 years. As the First Republic spun into anarchy, the Foundation came into its own and became the Second Republic. Unfortunately for the humans in Fading Suns, there is no Hari Seldon, so who knows if the New Dark Age for humanity will end in 1000 years, 30,000 years, or ever. A campaign based upon Foundation is certainly a possibility, as the Foundation could be a planet in a Closed System with a jumpgate that is offline as the best and brightest of the Second Republic attempt to consolidate their solar system of Rogue elements, return the jumpgate to functionality, and have its first encounters with the barbarians of the New Dark Age (To them, everybody else).

The Sathra effect and the Charioteer guild’s jumpkeys remind me of Super Wing Commander with their pilgrims, who all have mysterious, almost psychic-like abilities to plan and control jumps and all carry a pilgrim pendant.

The jumpgates themselves are hardly a new concept; everything from Babylon 5 to Stargate uses them after all. Of course, Stargate is the one closest to the concept here, as they were artifacts left by an ancient race on many worlds by a mysterious alien race that disappeared similar to the Annunaki here.

The noble Houses remind me somewhat of Frank Herbert’s Dune, especially the Hawkwoods who remind me of House Atreides and the Decados who remind me of House Harkonnen. The Hawkwoods treat their serf subjects with respect, and the Decados treat them with disdain. The Hawkwoods are loyal; the Decados are backstabbing. The Hawkwoods are honorable; the Decados are cheaters. If you wanted to recreate some of the Dune politics, all of the pieces are here, especially once you include the Emperor and the Merchant’s Guild. One campaign which could be awesome is a new jumpgate found that leads to a world like Arrakis, where the mélange or spice is discovered that leads most humans to further develop psychic powers if they have psi or theurgy near the Hawkwood and Decados border and both move in to establish control. The dangerous substance is eventually found to be able to induce the Sathra effect in Charioteers; however, and the Emperor is left with a quandary. The war with the Symbionts has started to shift humanity’s way due to more powerful psi and theurgy powers, but Rogue Sathraists are becoming a problem...And Campaign!

The game mechanics uses the Victory Point System, where you accumulate Victory Points to determine your success or failure. It uses a D20 as the main dice to determine this, where low rolls under the Victory Number are good and getting it exactly is a critical success and doubles victory points and high rolls are bad (19 is a failure, 20 is a critical failure). And you consult the Victory Chart to determine how many Victory Points achieved, mirroring Shatterzone/TORG’s strange 2D10 system in some ways such as Victory Points earned directly translating into more Damage dice. In Fading Suns, Damage is rolled versus Armor in reverse Shadowrun style where 1-4 is a success and 5-6 is a failure. I have never been a fan of low-medium roll models, ever since the debacle that was AD&D Second Edition medium roll Attribute and Saving Throw mechanics which seems to be this game’s style. The game also uses a ton of Attributes, including 6 different spirit attributes, each in pairs of 2 that are keyed to each other to determine the character’s emotions. I have never seen a system where the character’s emotions were quantified, but this system does it. Still this leads to 12 Attributes to keep track of, and many rolls are Attribute + Attribute = roll. Well at least they aren’t derived Attributes. Another Attribute is Wyrd, which is kind of like Earthdawn Karma and allows you to do things like Accent rolls and activate occult powers. The martial arts system and fencing system go into great detail, a positive since most sci-fi games devolve into shoot-em ups, and allows classic archetypes to have more fun (unlike D20 Modern :( ). Players will find everything they need to make their characters here.

Gamemasters need some more love though, as the Gamemastering chapter and the two sample adventures on Pandemonium are the few places to find pregenerated NPCs and a few alien creatures, zombies, demons, cybers, changed Symbionts, and golems. There are a couple of ships in the Technology chapter too, a Ship Design system, and some quick and dirty ships on a table, if you want to have space combat.

All in all the system is at least playable. I just would not want to gamemaster it since I’m not a fan of every roll = look up a table, much the same reason I don’t gamemaster Shatterzone or TORG even though they have awesome settings too. Still my brother seems to want to run a space game. He keeps talking about Trinity, but I have Fading Suns now...

Tomorrow, I’ll review Church Fiefs.

Earthdawn is a roleplaying game set in a world of high adventure, high magic, and terrible danger. Shards are a series of unrelated adventures and encounters for the Earthdawn game, intended as an inexpensive resource for Earthdawn gamemasters.

This volume contains the adventure Betrayal’s Sting, designed for Journeymen characters of any Discipline. In this adventure, the characters will get a good impression of how the vile work of the Horrors affects Barsaive’s common man even today, a century after the kaers re-opened... Requires use of the Player’s and Gamemaster’s Compendiums.

Available now! Click here for more information!

Domino is by far the best movie I have seen this year. As you all know by now, I am a huge Keira Knightley fan, and she plays Domino Harvey, a real life bounty hunter and mercenary whose life has been adapted [sort of as the titles scroll states] to the silver screen. This movie is amazing for its style, acting, and plot. Much like Sin City, the movie has a visual style that is unique, often having unseemly acid-washed colors show up in scenes. Which is cool since this story is all being told by Domino as an extended flashback sequence, so her memory is bound to be a bit spotty at certain points. What really makes the movie awesome is the characterizations, as each of the characters have their own motives, acting on them throughout the movie, and the combination of all these actions makes for a plot-filled movie with a lot of twists and turns. After the original scenes which tell the tale of how Domino grew up, became a bounty hunter, and got teamed up with her three partners, the story centers on a bounty hunt gone terribly wrong, with the team after ten million dollars and a bounty of $300,000 dollars to collect for both the retrieval of the money and the four criminals who stole the ten million. The team has signed on to do a reality TV show called Bounty Squad, so the TV camera crews follow them whereever they go. And they all get caught up in the trouble that naturally happens when ten million dollars is at stake. Great movie.

General deck idea: U Aggro/Control. Play creatures and attack with them and then replace them with ninjas for cool effects. Cost $10.00 USD on e-bay with shipping.

Lands (24): Island 24.

Creatures (22)

1 x Teardrop Kami U 1/1 Creature—Spirit. Sacrifice Teardrop Kami: Tap or Untap Target Creature. This deck should have 4 of this card. Most Ninjutsu costs are U or 1U, Drop this and follow it up with a Ninja for best results, although out of block cards like Manta Riders or the superior Flying Men are even better. Yeah only a single 1-drop, not good.

Fortunately there are quite a few 2 drops.

2 x Kaijin of the Vanishing Touch 1U 0/3 Creature—Spirit. Uncommon. Defender. Whenever a Creature is Blocked by Kami of the Vanishing Touch Return it to Owner’s Hand at End of Combat. Chaff. This is an aggressive deck, and this is a defensive bounce/control creature that is an okay blocker but does not help the ninja deck. These should have been Teardrop Kami instead.

2 x Minamo Sightbender 1U.1/2 Creature—Human Wizard. Uncommon. X, Tap: Target creature with Power X or less is Unblockable until EoT. A great card for making creatures Unblockable and getting ninjas into play. A great card for Wizard tribes.

2 x Soratami Cloudskater 1U 1/1 Creature—Moonfolk Rogue. Flying. 2 Colorless, Return a land you control to owner’s hand: Draw and Discard a Card. This is a phenomenal card, allowing for Ninjas to get into play easily, and the best Merfolk Looter effect I have ever seen. Remove a land in play, and discard it for a valuable card. And it does not even require a Tap activation! A superb creature for a Rogue tribal deck.

2 x Student of Elements 1U 1/1 Creature—Human Wizard. Uncommon When Student of Elements has Flying, flip it// Tobita, Master of Winds Flip. 3/3 Legendary Creature—Human Wizard. Creatures you control have Flying. An unreal card for a Wizard tribal deck, allowing for mass evasion. It is extremely easy to flip this card as long as you have the right spells. In this deck there are two effects that can do so:

2 x Phantom Wings 1U Enchant Creature—Aura. Enchanted creature has Flying. Sacrifice Phantom Wings, Return enchanted creature to owner’s hand. This gives the Student of Elements Flying, and you can bounce it back to your hand in response to an opponent’s removal.

1 x Lifted by Clouds 2U Instant—Arcane. Splice onto Arcane 1U. Target creature gains Flying until EoT. This one is brutal since it can give a creature evasion and allow you to Ninjutsu a creature in, and makes Student of Elements suddenly a 3/3 as an Instant.

Obviously with 2 Student of Elements, you’d prefer if you had more Lifted by Clouds and Phantom Wings effects to flip him, as otherwise he is a Vanilla 1/1.

There are a few 3-drops, including our first ninjas.

3 x Mistblade Shinobi 2U 1/1 Creature—Human Ninja. Ninjutsu U; Return an unblocked attacker you control to your hand, put this card into play tapped and attacking. When Mistblade Shinobi deals combat damage to a player, return target creature they control to owner’s hand. Sigil of Sleep in creature form although less effective. This ninja is brutal since it can devastate an opponent’s board, especially if this card has Flying or Unblockability. Note that his ability like Sigil of Sleep is not a may ability.

3 x River Kaijin 2U 1/4 Creature—Spirit. Vanilla. An effective blocker that can attack to trigger Ninjutsu, much preferred by me to the Kaijin wall.

1 x Walker of Secret Ways 2U 1/2 Creature—Human Ninja. Uncommon. Ninjutsu 1U; Return an unblocked attacker you control to your hand, put this card into play tapped and attacking. Whenever Walker of Secret Ways deals combat damage to a player, look at that player’s hand. 1U: Return target Ninja you control to owner’s hand. Play this ability only during your turn. This card has a cool spy effect, and can also return ninjas to reuse Ninjutsu later.

There are a couple of 4-drops.

3 x Ninja of the Deep Hours 3U 2/2 Creature—Human Ninja. Ninjutsu 1U; Return an unblocked attacker you control to your hand, put this card into play tapped and attacking. Whenever Ninja of the Deep Hours deals combat damage to a player, you may draw a card. Curiosity in Creature Form. Note that this ability like Curiosity is a may ability. This creature is phenomenal, as card drawing can be devastating in a blue deck like this.

1 x Soratami Mirror Guard 3U 3/1 Creature—Moonfolk Wizard. Flying. 2 Colorless, Return a land you control to owner’s hand: Target creature with power 2 or less is Unblockable this turn. Unfortunate that he cannot use his ability on himself, but pared with the ninjas, this is a tough ability. A 3/1 Flying creature also helps bring in ninjas easily.

The only 5 drop is the ninja “Lord.” leaves play, so this should not be too bad. Still, 2BB for a 5/5 has always been a good deal.

1 x Higure, the Still Wind 3UU 3/4 Legendary Creature—Human Ninja. Rare. Ninjutsu 2UU; Return an unblocked attacker you control to your hand, put this card into play tapped and attacking. Whenever Higure deals combat damage to a player, you may Search your Library for a Ninja card, reveal it and put it into your hand, If you do, shuffle your library. 2 colorless: Target Ninja is Unblockable this turn. Higure can bring more ninjas to your hand for even more Ninjutsu and make them Unblockable. Awesome card!

The only 6 drop would be more at home in a dedicated control deck.

1 x Tomorrow, Azami’s Familiar 5U 1/5 Legendary Creature—Spirit. Rare. If you would draw a card, Impulse for 3 instead. In other words, Draw three cards, Choose one and place the other two on the bottom of your library in any order. This card is far too expensive for this deck. With Ninja of the Deep Hours effectively costing 1U, the mana gap of 4 with this card that can use this effect is prohibitive.

Thankfully there are no 7 or higher drops.

Ninja count: 8. Anyone see a problem with that in a Ninja deck?

Spells (14). For Lifted by Clouds and Phantom Wings see above.

2 x Genju of the Falls U Enchant Island—Aura. Uncommon. 2 colorless: Enchanted island becomes a 3/2 Flying Spirit creature until EoT. If the island enchanted by Genju of the Falls goes to the graveyard, return Genju of the Falls to owner’s hand. This is a great card for a monoblue deck. It turns your islands into 3/2 Flying creatures. In a pinch you can return the Island to your hand for a Ninjutsu effect, but you’ll lose Genju of the Falls. Still, if the Ninja card is a backbreaker like Mistblade Shinobi, it might be worth it.

1 x Shuriken 1 Colorless Artifact—Equipment. Uncommon. Equip: 2 Colorless. Equipped creature has Tap, Unattach Shuriken: Shuriken deals 2 damage to Target Creature. That creature’s controller gains control of Shuriken, unless it was unattached from a Ninja. This is a flavorful item, that gives this deck some direct damage to creatures, but it is hardly as good as say, Viridian Longbow or Moonglove Extract. The bonus is that it is reusable, and the Equip cost is manageable, but if you want this effect and are playing blue you could just use Tim or Pirate Ship instead. Tap and no mana cost to reuse.

2 x Ronin Warclub 3 colorless Artifact—Equipment. Uncommon. Equip: 5 colorless. Whenever a creature CIP under your control, attach Ronin Warclub to that creature. Equipped creature gains +2/+1. Flavor value negligible (Ronin= Samurai!), Play value extreme. Whenever a Ninja CIP after Ninjutsu, it gains 2 power from the Ronin Warclub, pretty good.

1 x Field of Reality 2U Enchant Creature—Aura. Enchanted creature cannot be blocked by Spirits. 1U, Return Field of Reality to Owner’s Hand. Chaff. It can give Unblockability, but this is unlikely outside of the Kamigawa block.

1 x Hinder 1UU Instant Uncommon. Counter target spell and put it at the bottom of the owner’s library. This is a great counter versus graveyard decks. You’d be crazy to want Cancel over this unless you are playing a search deck with Liliana Vess or something.

1 x Minamo’s Meddling 2UU Instant Counter target spell and then the spell’s controller discards all cards with the same name as a card spliced onto that spell. An awful counter that hoses Arcane splicing.

3 x Mystic Restraints 2UU Enchant Creature—Aura. Tap Enchanted Creature. It does not untap during its controller’s untap phase. This is a tap down/stasis effect. It is good at removing blockers for Ninjutsu, but it does not play nice with Mistblade Shinobi.

Overall, this is a decent monoblue deck that needs some work. The best thing to do is to add black so you get access to all the black ninjas, especially Ink Eyes, Servant of Oni. There are some Changelings that are really good in this deck too, especially Moonglove Changeling, since it is a Ninja and can be searched for by Higure and makes a good defender who can equip the Shuriken each turn for 2 colorless and holding back B gives it Deathtouch...

General deck idea: B/R Aggro. Play ogres and then play their demon oni masters. Smash face as ogres power up demons and demons power up ogres. The deck is not that great if you do not control at least 1 Ogre and 1 Demon though. Cost: $6.00 USD on e-bay with shipping.

Lands (24): Swamp 14; Mountain 10. The truth is that the deck seems low on Mountains, as Heartless Hidetsugu and Frost Ogre are both RR and the Splice cost of Torrent of Stone is Sacrifice 2 Mountains. I would have preferred an even split or Swamp 13/Mountain 11.

Creatures (25)

2 x Bile Urchin B 1/1 Creature—Spirit. Sacrifice Bile Urchin: Target player loses 1 life. This is a decent mana-curve creature, that combos well with Heartless Hidetsugu. An interesting synergy is that you can use Bile Urchin to target yourself to be at odd life or to put an opponent at even life for the Heartless Hidetsugu + Overblaze combo. I would have liked to have 3 of these and 1 less Hearth Kami though.

3 x Hearth Kami 1R 2/1 Creature—Spirit. X Colorless, Sacrifice Hearth Kami: Destroy target artifact with converted mana cost X. This is a decent mana-curve creature, an aggressive 2-drop for red, and an answer to Betrayer’s biggest question: Umezawa’s Jitte. Still, The curve would have been better with 3 Bile Urchins and 2 Hearth Kami, especially as Bile Urchin fits better in the deck.

The deck has an overload of 3 drops, which slows an aggressive deck like this down, especially since many have a drawback if you don’t control a demon. However, each of these 3-drops are highly aggressive and can win a game by themselves, which helps.

1 x Bloodthirsty Ogre 2B 3/1 Creature—Ogre Warrior Shaman. Uncommon. Tap: Put a Devotion Counter on Bloodthirsty Ogre. Tap: Target creature gets –X/-X until EoT where X is the number of Devotion Counters on Bloodthirsty Ogre. Play this ability only if you control a Demon. This would be an interesting Morningtide Creature, as a Warrior/Shaman it could find a home in an Elf or Treefolk Warrior/Shaman Deck with some supporting Changelings (Which are Demons) and exists as decent removal and aggression. The problem is the 1 Toughness, but a Bramblewood Paragon easily turns it into a 4/2 with Trample, and is good on the curve.

3 x Takenuma Bleeder 2B 3/3 Creature—Ogre Warrior. If you do not control a Demon, whenever Takenuma Bleeder attacks or blocks you lose 1 Life. This creature has a pretty big drawback, but it is fairly powerful since you will lose 1 Life, but your opponent will likely lose a creature or 3 Life.

3 x Villainous Ogre 2B 3/2 Creature—Ogre Warrior. Cannot Block. As long as you control a Demon, Villainous Ogre has B: Regenerate Villainous Ogre. The opposite of Takenuma Bleeder, this creature gains an advantage if you control a Demon, but has the drawback of being unable to block. The regeneration is less useful, since you cannot block, but it turns Villainous Ogre into a tough attacker. The lower Toughness sucks though.

1 x Shinka Gatekeeper 2R 3/2 Creature—Ogre Warrior. Whenever Shinka Gatekeeper is dealt damage, it deals that much damage to you. Chaff. This creature’s Drawback is not worth the 3/2 for 2R in this deck. It is a decent 3-drop for red, if you are playing a Mono-red Sligh deck, but has no business in a deck already strapped for Life.

When it comes to 4 drops, you finally have some Demons.

1 x Yukora, the Prisoner 2BB 5/5 Legendary Creature—Demon Spirit. Rare. When Yukora, the Prisoner leaves play sacrifice all non-Ogre creatures you control. So don’t play any other Demons if he is out. Your spirit Kami all have sacrifice abilities if he leaves play, so this should not be too bad. Still, 2BB for a 5/5 has always been a good deal.

2 x Scourge of Numai. 3B 4/4 Creature—Demon Spirit. Uncommon. If you don’t control an Ogre, you lose 2 Life on your upkeep. A 4/4 for 4 mana is a bargain for black, even with the drawback.

1 x Bloodspeaker Shaman 3B 2/2 Creature—Ogre Shaman. Uncommon. You may Sacrifice Bloodspeaker Shaman at the beginning of your upkeep: If you do search your deck for a Demon card, Reveal that Card and Put it into your Hand, and then Shuffle your Library. Whenever a Demon CIP under your control, if Bloodspeaker Shaman is in your graveyard, return it to your hand. So it searches for Demons and returns to your hand? Kind of an endless Tutor, as long as it does not get countered. Really cool with Morningtide since you can tutor up changelings and keep doing it.

1 x Initiate of Blood 3R 2/2 Creature—Ogre Shaman. Uncommon Tap: Initiate of Blood deals 1 damage to target creature that was dealt damage this turn. When that creature is put into a graveyard this turn, flip Initiate of Blood//Goka the Unjust Flip 4/4 Legendary Creature: Ogre Shaman. Tap: Goka the unjust deals 4 damage to target creature that was dealt damage this turn. Flavor: Why not have the Initiate of Blood deal 2 damage? Anyway, this card has no business in this deck, as mechanic-wise it was much more suited to say Spiritcraft (Although, flavor-wise, the Yamabushi and the Ogre are hated enemies.) If it was Kobo the Unjust, that would be cool flavor since he was Heartless Hidetsugu’s apprentice in the Kamigawa books. There is just not enough burn in this deck to Flip this card too often. And 2/2s for 4 mana kind of suck when most of your 2 and 3 drops are more efficient for power.

When it comes to 5 drops, you start seeing the real power of the deck.

1 x Heartless Hidetsugu 3RR 4/3 Legendary Creature—Ogre Shaman. Rare. Tap: Heartless Hidetsugu deals damage to each player equal to half their life rounded down. This combos with Overblaze.

1 x Overblaze 3R Instant—Arcane. Splice onto Arcane: 2RR. Uncommon. Each time target permanent would deal damage to a creature or player this turn, double that damage to creature or player instead.

So if you are odd life, say 19 and an opponent is at even life, say 20, you deal 9 damage to yourself and 10 to him. Overblaze would double this damage and leave you at 1 life and him at 0 life. So if these two cards come up, some multiplayer fun can result. Bile Urchin can even out an opponent’s life or makes yours odd. Very cool.

2 x Frost Ogre 3RR 5/3 Creature—Ogre Warrior. Vanilla creature that has good Power.

1 x Sokenzan Bruiser 4R 3/3 Creature—Ogre Warrior. Mountainwalk. Frost Ogre is probably better, but in this deck I would have preferred more Sokenzan Bruisers since they have only one R in their casting cost, easier to get with the low mountain ratio.

2 x Painwracker Oni 3BB 5/4 Creature—Demon Spirit. Fear. Uncommon. At the beginning of your upkeep, sacrifice a creature if you don’t control an Ogre. This Demon can win games single-handedly. 4 Swings and it is over, or 3 if you got in some punishment with your earlier drops.

Lastly, and forgettable: 1 x Deathcurse Ogre 5B 3/3 Creature—Ogre Warrior. When Deathcurse Ogre goes to the graveyard from play each player loses 3 Life. Chaff. I suppose it combos with Heartless Hidetsugu since it can make odd life totals even and even life totals odd, but a 3/3 for 6 mana and no in play ability is just sad.

Thankfully there are no 7 or higher drops.

Demon count: 5. Ogre count: 15. I see a problem with this 1: 4 ratio in an Ogre—Demon synergy deck. Anyone else?

Spells (11). For Overblaze see above.

1 x Mark of the Oni 2B Enchant Creature—Aura. Uncommon. You control enchanted creature. If you control no Demons, sacrifice Mark of the Oni. A steal effect that is very limited since there are only like 5 demons in this deck total. Chaff unless the Demon count is raised. The only thing you can do with this card if you do not control a Demon is a one turn steal, which can swing on your opponent and remove one of his blockers. But it is most effective if you control a Demon, since you will be able to keep the creature and use it for sacrifice effects like Oni Possession or Call for Blood.

2 x Oni Possession. 2B. Enchant Creature—Aura. Uncommon. Enchanted creature gains +3/+3 and Trample and is a Demon Spirit. Sacrifice a creature at the beginning of your upkeep. This allows you to turn ogres into demons, and is an effective creature pump, especially for some of you high-powered vanilla drops. Still sacrificing a creature is harsh for a deck that typically needs two to work effectively. Awesome though because it gives black trample. This is really good with black token generators.

1 x Kumano’s Blessing 2R. Enchant Creature—Aura. Flash. Whenever a creature is put into a graveyard from play that was damaged by the creature this enchants, RFG it instead. This is only good on Initiate of Blood//Goka the Unjust, and is Chaff otherwise. Super limited in this deck. I would have preferred another Mark of the Oni.

2 x Call for Blood 4B. Instant—Arcane. As an additional cost to play Call for Blood sacrifice a Creature. Target creature gets –X/-X where X is equal to the sacrificed Creature’s Power. In a deck starved of creatures striving to keep two creatures on the board, another effect that sacrifices your own creatures. The casting cost of this spell really is too expensive and it has a huge drawback. Compare this spell to later Instant –X/-X effects such as Last Gasp and Pack’s Disdain, and the mana/sacrifice cost makes this unplayable even as an Arcane spell.

2 x Swallowing Plague XBB. Sorcery—Arcane. Uncommon. Swallowing Plague deals X damage to Target Creature and you gain X Life. A terrible card compared to Drain Life, and especially Consume Spirit. You cannot deal damage to players, and it costs BB instead of 1B. The only saving graces are the fact that you can use red mana for the X, and that it in an Arcane spell that you can splice. Still does not help the key desire of this deck, direct damage to opponents. This can be devastating if you splice Torrent of Stone on it to an opponent’s board, but you have to be willing to Sacrifice 2 Mountains to do it. Swallowing Plague and Torrent of Stone are about the only ways of activating Initiate of Blood beyond an opponent blocking though.

2 x Torrent of Stone. 3R. Instant—Arcane. Splice onto Arcane: Sacrifice 2 Mountains. Torrent of Stone deals 4 damage to Target Creature. Another effect that only effects creatures, in a deck that should be more concerned about burning away an opponent’s Life.

Overall this deck is a lot of fun for its flavor, but leaves a lot to desire in playability.

I am going to attempt to review this as spoiler free as possible, so it is going to be a little general.

As a player, Anarya's Secret makes a fantastic first novel for an introduction to Barsaive. The main character, Kendik goes forth looking for adventure and finds it. Kendik goes through wilderness travel, Kaer diving, urban exploration, war, and political diplomacy throughout his adventures. This gives a player reading this a taste of what adventuring in Barsaive is like.

As a gamemaster, Anarya's Secret makes a great novel for beginning and expert gamemasters alike. For a beginning gamemaster, the novel sets up a scenario that could easily be used by a beginning gamemaster. All you have to do is set up a similar adventure path to the one Kendik takes. For expert gamemasters, the book offers a setting in the Bozrim area that brings in a great way to involve the nearby Iopos or the farther away Kratas sphere of influence on the town and especially shows a way to get House Ishkarat involved in a land campaign. A technique that can also be employed with the other t'skrang houses as well. Expert gamemasters can also get a lot of evil ideas based around the events towards the end of the novel. I know I have a couple new weapons in my arsenal now. Mua ha ha!

The most important thing is that the book's mood and theme mirror Barsaive's. The novel does not feel like a fantasy novel with Earthdawn elements. It is an Earthdawn novel. Which is the most important trait of all, and the highest praise.

Sure the price of Anarya's Secret is expensive. The quality of the book though is impressive. It spent a whole week in my work bookbag, conditions that have deteriorated the Magic books I have bought in either a creased cover or pages, but Anarya's Secret has come through with little but regular reading wear. A game group as a whole can come up with the money for the book, one person can read it, and then you can pass the novel along to all members of your game group in succession. I am passing the book to Jason next time I see him, who will surely pass it to his girlfriend and roommate Heather.

Next up on my reading list is our revised Fading Suns Rulebook.

Morningtide is a disappointing sequel to the promising Lorwyn book. The book does not even come close to resolving the issues from the end of the first book and just throws more mysteries and chaos at the reader. The last 100 pages are more of an advertisiment gimmick for Shadowmoor than anything else. Needless to say, I won't be getting Fat Packs for the other 2 sets in this block, as this story was a waste of my time.

On the plus side, I just started reading Anarya's Secret, and so far I am intrigued and entertained by the book. Look for a review soon when I finish the novel.