Post originally by Teppo Holmqvist at 2003-10-20 09:14:42
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Actually, there is little mistake on the Orpheus rulebook relating stains. The official errata explains things like this:
"Your three Stains automatically appear when your Spite exceeds your Vitality by +2. You also gain new Stains for the difference in Spite and Vitality, thus manifesting at least five different Stains. These stay until your Spite is lowered. By that point, you're damn near a Spectre anyway"
Post originally by Jonathan at 2003-10-20 10:40:20
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Thanks for such a good review.
You were extremely thorough, did a good job of contextualizing the stuff you didn't like (explaining why it didn't appeal to you instead of just saying "it's obviously crap"), and providing a critical look at the product as a whole.
I was rather unsure about Orpheus and hadn't decided whether to pick it up yet, but your review (and your explanation of where you were coming from, which, I think, is similar to my own situation) made that decision much clearer.
Now to re-check eBay for old copies of Wraith 2nd Ed...
Post originally by Thunder_God at 2003-10-20 11:27:31
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Vitality does have permanent and temporary ratings but somehow this isn't mentioned and is omitted from sheet(I think I read it on WW's forums for Orpheus, if I'm wrong, someone PLEASE correct me). Vitality is capped at 7 for Hues and 9 for none Hues as beginning characters.
Post originally by Michael Gentry at 2003-10-20 12:06:37
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Good review, and a pretty honest assessment of Orpheus' strengths & weaknesses.
It does devolve a bit at the end, though. While Orpheus is in many ways the "successor" to Wraith, and is therefore of interest to Wraith fans, I do think that the game can be reviewed on its own merits. "I liked Wraith better" isn't very helpful to those of us who didn't.
"The beginning Arcanoi are feeble … <b>the way a beginning character should begin</b>," (emphasis mine) is, moreover very much a value judgement based on individual play style. It may be that Orpheus would have benefitted from making its approach to this aspect of play more explicit -- but the efficacy of starting characters hardly qualifies as a broken rule.
Post originally by Jürgen Hubert at 2003-10-20 12:46:33
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And there is nothing wrong with that approach.
All reviews are biased to some extent. But the reviewer explained at length precisely _what_ he didn't like about the game. And this makes this review interesting even to people who don't share his opinion.
Post originally by inscrutable at 2003-10-20 12:50:48
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You know, it seems to me that Orpheus doesn't so much present a metaplot as a chronicle. You know, like back in the day when you'd buy 5 adventures and form a campaign out of em. Somehow I don't see the bad thing in this.
Post originally by Conan McKegg at 2003-10-20 13:37:07
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Firstly - this was a book report mixed with a review. I didn't like the whole chapter-by-chapter approach. Book reviews are not meant to be written that way. However this is beside the point.
The Reviewer has clearly missed the point of the product. He has reviewed this as "why it isn't Wraith."
That is <i>not</i> what a reviewer is meant to do. You are meant to look at the book as its own thing first. Orpheus is quite clearly <i>not</i> Wraith - nor is it meant to be like Wraith. It is meant to be inspired by Ghost MOVIES - which Wraith did not do well, being more related to ghost literature and its own esoterica...
Sure - at the end of a review the reviewer can then talk about Wraith and Orpheus etc...
All in all, not a particularly good review - primarily for being more of a review of Wraith than of Orpheus.
Post originally by Wattsian at 2003-10-20 14:48:04
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I thought the review was interesting because of its subjectivity. The reviewer made it clear his biases about what the game SHOULD do and what he thinks White Wolf is trying to do with it.
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