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Legends: The Orion Project Review

Posted By Flames On October 14, 2004 @ 3:56 pm In Fiction,RPGs | No Comments


Available at Noble Knight Games

The Orion Corporation had only good intentions. However, when it sent the relays into the wastelands to explore and record the hostile territories, unspeakable horrors were uncovered and legendary secrets revealed…

Legends: the Orion Project is a supplement fiction to Obsidian: Age of Judgment. It introduces several new characters, as well as showing ways to have characters be multiple Ethos. Further then character information, they also have several new Daemon types, abilities, and convocations, new Mystic Rituals, and Kultist Convokations and weapons. The story itself is the first of a promised series of supplements about the Orion Corporation and of Callarius Montague, a Spiritual Essence Kultist.

Some minor problems with this book are the very obvious editorial errors, which is easy to overlook when looking at the big picture. They are not too bad, just annoying to those of us picky people.

A gaming aspect that they touched on in the book is multi-Ethos. They presented the multi-Ethos character, Marcus Orion, as one that basically had some aspect of every Ethos. While this was a good idea to present multi-Ethos, I feel that stronger background could have been given to make Marcus’s history and life flow into one lifestyle. While his history could possibly take place in the other books, right now feels a bit choppy.

Aside from those minor details the novelette is a great resource, showing how everyone is pulled between succeeding in missions and aiding humanity in the bleak days this takes place in. Marcus Orion, the Archbishop of the Orion Corporation is torn when he try’s to help humanity, by sending once human relays into the Wastelands and portals of Hell to collect information which the Zone may find useful. His personal fall is amazing to watch develop, and is a great diagram of how characters can develop in readers games.

Another amazing feature of this book is the Appendix located after the story. It outlines all of the new weaponry, abilities, convocations, and rituals introduced in the story. This is very unique to Apophis Consortium. Not many companies really give information on every weapon, power, and ability used in their stories. This makes it much easier to integrate these into your own chronicles.

Another aspect that sets this book apart from other RPG fiction is its story layout. It doesn’t focus on one character for very long, instead offering many different viewpoints on certain areas. This is great to get a feel for how different people see the same thing. I my eyes, I see it as someone actually playing out this storyline in a game and going around to each of the players to see how they view their world.

The art, done by Jim Pavelec, Arnie Swekel, Lars Grant-West, Jason Gunn, and Samuel Araya is really well done, and fits the chapter breaks. It gives a nice visual, to accompany the story, making it much easier to follow. Many of the scenes are very dark, and offer a taste of what hell could really be like. The style of art fits the genre very well.

Overall, this supplement offers a great view on the world of Obsidian. The story is very captivating, and has a very climatic ending. The well thought out story is great for those looking for a taste of what the world is really like. The alternative powers are always a good supplement for the gamers who wish to use the information in their chronicles. This book would be a great buy for anyone interested in the Obsidian setting, or involved in a game. I would recommend this supplement to anyone interested in Obsidian. It’s a great introduction, captivating read, and stunning visual.

Reviewer: Crystal Mazur

Look for Obsidian: the Age of Judgement eBooks at RPGNow.com [1].


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URLs in this post:

[1] RPGNow.com: http://flamesrising.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=55

[2] Countdown Fiction Review: https://www.flamesrising.com/countdown-review/

[3] Kitty and the Midnight Hour Review: https://www.flamesrising.com/kitty-and-the-midnight-hour-review/

[4] Inside the Zone Supplement Review: https://www.flamesrising.com/inside-the-zone-review/

[5] Obsidian: the Age of Judgement Review: https://www.flamesrising.com/obsidian-the-age-of-judgement-review/

[6] Interview with Micah Skaritka: https://www.flamesrising.com/interview-with-micah-skaritka/

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