Taking Wushu, and adding in interesting rules for Horror-themed gaming, makes this a worthwhile addition to anyone's rpg collection.

The setting info, while sparse, is more than enough to get a game going. And the seeds for what happens to Roanoke are great fodder for games.

Ran Roanoke last night (the same day I bought it) with about a half-hour of prep. Went super-smoothly and was a blast overall. This is a great concept with great execution and that certainly comes out both in the product itself and in play.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The different types of antagonists are presented in a very helpful way, with a fully stated "boss," an occasional "mini-boss," suggestions for "minions" (these aren't quite the terms the game uses), and then interesting hooks for introducing that brand of antagonist into play. Even though I didn't use any of the suggestions directly, they were great starting points to work from. Extremely helpful.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I'm uncertain about how well the Doom mechanics are incorperated into the rest of the system. Also, the GM and Players are placed rather oppositionally when it comes to Doom, which seems against the cooperative spirit of Wushu. We tweaked this pretty easily to work better for us in play, but that's the only thing that didn't work as well, I thought. Also, the example characters have this "Fatal Flaw" thing, but I couldn't find any explanation of that in the rules.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

First, I have not played this scenario as yet. I had hoped to run it as a Halloween game, but my schedule did not permit.

Second, I will not be using the included game system material, so my review will not include it.

This product captures the mood of the movie "The Village", but can have actual supernatural components. Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" with all of its grey-mood is also appropriate. In some ways, the senario and setting seem dependent on you already being familiar with these movies. It is not so much a slasher film or gorefest as it is a horror/mystery suspense story with something of a fatalistic outlook (but then it has to be,right?). The writing seems clear and well managed. The adventure establishes the setting nicely and provides minimal background for play. The bibliography is a great resource for added depth (and you may need this if you wish to extend the usefulness of the seeting). This does require somework on the GM's part as specific NPCs (other than master villains) are not presented (although templates are provided if you are using the game mechanics within the product).

Here's what's inside: 1 color cover (White Wolf style); 1 credits page; 2 page table of contents; 1 forward page; 1 introduction page; 5 pages of setting and premise; 15 pages on character creation and running the mechanics (I won't use these except as a guide);15 pages of plot; 1 bibliography page; 1 about the author page; and 2 pages of ads. 44 pages all together, which gives me about 20 pages that are really useful (setting, premise, and plot).

There are not fancy borders here, just black text. Also there is no artwork of any kind beyond the cover.

I like this product and have but one complaint. Every setting book should have one requirement,... A MAP! Since, this is not a fictional setting, one should have been located and inserted (or a URL given for where to find one). Of course you can find one online yourself, but I believe that a generalized map of the area, hand-drawn and styled to fit the mood, would have rounded out this product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

The instant I stumbled across this product I knew I was going to buy it. Without reading more than the description I selected the "Print + PDF" option and paid my cash. As a fan of historical settings and horror, I'm glad that I did!

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Evocative. Captured my imagination. Made me curse that I never had enough sense to take advantage of the Roanoke mystery.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>