Wraeththu: From Enchantment to Fulfilment [Paperback]

Anticipation of the role playing game has been very high. As a long time fan and supporter of the Constantine franchise I have feverishly consumed each new book and never been let down until now. As an avid role player I became very excited to hear that Storm was releasing a Wraeththu role playing game and waited with bated breath for some fan reviews of the game. Then a friend of mine got her copy in the mail (after a very long wait) and I dug in....

This game reminded me of FATAL and (laughing pan's) Deliria mixed with early Vampire Masquerade. It's very inflated and full of it's self. It seems like its trying to fill up a lot more space then it needs to.

The cover art is very very plain. Its depiction of an Egyptian dagger over a symbolic Ouanalim (Wraeththu sex organ) was at first thought some inside joke, a bad choice for a cover, poorly excited and just plain bad for the design. Why wasn't a full color image of a hara used on the cover and why with all the issues Wraeththu already has, make it so inaccessible to people?

The opening story isn't bad. Penned by Christopher Coyle, it takes us into the life of a nerd named Mikey. Then into how he is incepted into the Wraeththu. It takes place in the past, before the fall of man and uprising of the Wraeththu. It also has no relevance to the rest of the game book and seems very out of place. I was surprised that something like "Paragenisis" by Storm Constantine wasnt dusted off and used here since it would have been more in tune with the setting and mood.

The artwork is of the highest quality in some areas, while in others it seems very crude an rushed out. Which is how the overall mechanics, rules and "Storm system" also seem. I know from various message boards that this was originally supposed to be a settings and background book for fans to write fanficton from and to fill in some of the gray areas the books have. At the last minute it was decided to turn it into a rpg, complete with rules and tables. However this seems to have been a very bad choice. In its 430 some pages this tome is for the most part useless as a game. On almost every other page you are encouraged to just throw the rules away if you like so I don't understand why they even bothered to make the rules in the first place. The background information on the Tribes is good, but wading through all the filler material, bad graphic design and margin quotes isn't.

If you have the extra money and want to get this just for the pretty pictures, short story and background info (most of which you can find online anyway) then go for it. However understand that you'll provably just flip through this volume a few times then retire it to your book shelf.

As a long standing fan of Wraeththu (and Storm Constantine's work) I'm very disappointed in this effort and hope that a new writing staff will be selected for future volumes. I think there is hope for this as a rpg, but its not being executed properly at the moment.

If you like Storm Constantine, this is a great book. I have read it several times.

This "game" is completely pricey & completely awful in ways no sane person should be aware of. Don't buy it. It was penned by a madman who should be banned from sane society - forever. The Wraeththus (the main "characters") are absolutely unplayable, & for that matter, so are the humans (the other characters). It's a waste of dead tree pulp. I repeat: DO NOT BUY THIS; do yourself (& your sanity, a favour).

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