User blog:SensibleCenobite/Product Review: Shadow War.

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StrangerThings, Shadow War is a great supplement to use and I thought of some perfect hooks for Camille T'sien and Clive Cooper. This is probably the best source material for Year of the Dragon as you described it in your blog, An Exercise in Miscellany, and I'll be sure to follow up with hooks over the next few days.

Shadow War: Pg 2 says I can do a review, thank you very much White Wolf.

Minor Credits: His Majesty Mr. Russel Hammond for protecting my freedom of speech all the way from Brazil, IanWatson for creating the wiki, StrangerThings for the Year of the Dragon Chronicle, the top contributors for the week [Narm00], new contributors [Jthanlon, Rappy 4187, Atvelonis, TheTwinkleBeast, TuxedoQya, FictionRaider007], FANDOM, and lastly my Chantry for liking the chromatic orbs.

Major Credits: Written by: Edward MacGregor and Bryant Durrell, Development by: Richard E. Dansky, Additional Development by: Jess Heinig, Editing by: John Chambers, Art Direction by: RIch Thomas, Art by: Michael Gaydos and Vince Locke, Front Cover: Duncan Fegredo, Back Cover: Vince Locke, Layout and typesetting by: Ron Thompson

'''WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILER ALERT. IF YOU ARE NOT A STORY TELLER THIS COULD RUIN SOME IMPORTANT SECRETS FOR YOU.'''

TheBeardedDragon's overall opinion of Shadow War: A+, This book is perfect for any Wu or Coterie that has the age old problem of roll playing VS role playing. If you need a new creative way to test your Coterie or they have gone hog wild with bikini ninja stripper, then the Twilight War and the Midnight War are perfect for your Chronicle. Kuei-Jin are expected to obey much stricter guidelines in the East over the West when it comes to organized warfare, via the Twilight War and Midnight War. It's true that Licks are required to uphold the Masquerade as much as possible, but when it comes to the actual rules of engagement, once the fight is on, that's probably handled by the local authority figure and a stake, not a council of elders and spiritual practices.

Introduction: Welcome to Life After Midnight pg 4: A+, Introduces the reader to the product and gives us a nice glossary to work with, nuff said.

Chapter One: Twilight War pg 8: A+, The Twilight War wasn't needed in the first few ages since the Wan Xian were righteous and fought for the August Personage of Jade just because it was the honorable thing to do. As more Wan Xian started to get connected with one another, disputes cropped up which needed a legitimate solution, one of the most famous being a dispute between The Three Golden Egrets. The Twilight War has seen many evolution's into it's modern day form, which only loosely adheres to the ancient wisdom of it's founders, it's intent to progress each Kuei-Jin's dharma by the end of the war. There are many different ways to engage The Twilight War based on the region you're currently located, but common themes include poetry offs, one on one combat, mortals used as chess pieces in a game of Xiang-qi, finance competitions, luring targets to selected locations without their awareness, and many others. I like the formal nature of The Twilight War and how open ended any Story Teller could make an assignment in addition to it's spiritual and diplomatic overtones, with winners and losers expected to accept the final results at the victory celebration. Of course it's not Vampire utopia, and no not all problems are handled so elegantly, but at least there's a mechanism besides "go out and stake so and so because they offended me and I'm the Prince". When said mechanism doesn't work between Kuei-Jin, a cheat was caught, the judges did a poor job, your current actions could potentially disgrace your ancestors, or someone can proove you're an Akuma or work for Akuma, that my Chantry potentially leads to a Midnight War...

Chapter Two: Midnight War pg 28: A+, Just like the Twilight War the Midnight War has guidelines to declare the war, prepare for the war, engage the war, and finally end the war. This is no joke and Hommie won't even play this, as opponents go to war with their Red Screens, forts, and assets declared up front to the enemy. There are rules of engagement such as dragon's nests being off limits, the only legitimate target of strikes are the enemies forts and assests, keep the innocent out of the battle, and warn all parties that might be impacted about the war before it starts and when it's ended. Even with the rules of engagement, all weapons of war have been and will be used in the Midnight War, like tank divisions, bands of ninjas, squads of annoying cheerleaders to distract your enemy, hostile take overs, Yakuza hit squads, Tongs, muggers, buggers, thieves, bandits, guns, knives, fists, and finally China's nuclear missile program that has mysteriously been taken over by some shadowy figure from the jungles to the South [Ravana and his schemes since he figured out how to consume chi tainted by radioactivity :)].

Chapter Three: Underground War pg 50: A+, This chapter deals with the Bone Princes and their fight against ancient tradition and the effects it's had on Kuei-Jin society and Asia as a whole. Mostly the fight has been civil like suggestions on how to upgrade to newer infrastructure or political policies, but there are a few exceptions like hacked bank accounts, aggressive financial deals, or the construction of damns to affect dragon's and ley lines. The elders have experience, mysticism, and advanced Disciplines on their side, while the Bone Princes use high tech gadgets like UPS, the Internet, and cell phones to confound the older generation. With no long term solution(s) in sight, the Bone Princes have decided that more direct measures like violence could be acceptable to achieve their ends.

Chapter Four: Scarlet Screens pg 74: A+, Briefly goes over the Kuei-Jin's use of Mortal organizations like family, gangs, Yakuza, shops, villages, ninja clans, and so on. When the Wan Xian were righteous these relationships were based on mutual respect for each other and a desire to fulfill Heavens will, but eventually devolved into something that seems more like a Ghoul's relationship with it's master.

Chapter Five: Crimson War pg 82: A+, Discusses a potential outcome for the Jade Invasion, which doesn't seem to go well for anyone in my opinion. L.A. seems like a mess, half the Kin-Jin are dead, one third of the Kuei-Jin are dead, Australia has a cold war spurred on by covert ops work, Europe lulls the Kuei-Jin into a false sense of security, and South America is about to get bloody with a Lasombra/Toreador double wammie.

Appendix: Gods of War pg 96: A+, Offers the reader one Artifact of War, two new Rites, and a host of new NPCs to throw into your Chronicle.

Final Grades and Opinions: I bought the pdf version off of DiveThruRPG and I don't own the hard copy.

Reading [Was the book a fun read, clarity of text]: B+, The book started to pick up for me in chapter 2 and wasn't a let down, despite the fact that many pages were fuzzy and barely readable at times.

Writing [Spelling errors, typography, Cohesion]: A+, I didn't spot any obvious errors and everything flowed from chapter to chapter.

Characters [Amount, quality, context, immersion]: A+, Shadow War went out of it's way to incorporate a lot of different factions and personalities into the story in addition to some honorable mentions like Robert Pedder [Old Prince of Hong Kong] and Sun Tzu [The Art of War].

Locations [Amount, quality, context, immersion]: A+, Shadow War covered every continent in addition to every critical city connected to the Jade Invasion, enough to role play for months on end.

Artwork [Context immersion, quality, length spent staring at pictures]: A, I had to knock down the score a notch because the quality of the art work was just a little bland and I was tempted to drop Shadow War even further to a B+ before the final review. The pictures looked good mind you, but they seemed more like Shadowrun artwork [crime/goth/punk] VS creatures of the night [blood/goth/punk]. The amount of art work and the picture on pg 71, which made me laugh at his arrogant chess face [The face most people make after a decent bowl movement], bumped the score back to an A.

Circles are complete; Triangles are immutable. Hallelujah, Hail Cthulhu, Praise Evolution,

TheBeardedDragon