Shadow Service Volume One - Review

 

Shadow Service Volume One. 

Available on DrivethruComics. 

Available on Amazon.

Or check your local comic shop. 

When you need a private investigator who is better than what they should be then apparently you should be calling Gina Meyers. A young witch who has a natural born ability to do her magic and is used to the dirtier side of the job. But she thought she was mostly alone in the world, now she finds out just how wrong that is.

This trade collects the first five issues of the series and is a great way to dive into the story. Meeting one of Gina's shadier employers known as Gideon Quill and one of her few friends the talking rat known as Edwin. Things are going normal until she runs into the supernatural organization known as Section 26 officially but as MI666 on the street.

Meeting others with high end dark powers that reveal to her a much larger darker secret demonic underground residing in London. She has to chose sides and alliances as more information comes to light about Gideon and the MI666 itself. One thing is for sure, she's in way more over her head than she's ever been before.

The art style of Corin Howell matches up perfectly for the task at hand. Sleek and clean without to much attention to detail to things that aren't important. But just the right amount for what you need to see. There are no wasted lines or overworked panels. With Triona Farrell doing the colors behind him it all clicks together very nicely. Very easy on the eyes and adding that perfect amount of depth to the art.

All the cover designs for the individual issues are at the end of the book. Every one of them an amazing work in themselves. Mixing some great horror design elements and lots of creepy vibes.

As for the writing Cavan Scott takes us on the journey at a brisk pace. Mixing in the current present day story line with flashbacks to backgrounds of the various characters involved. They keep it moving and there are no pages where you're just hoping for something to happen as information is just poured forth in a dull formula.

I can't wait to read the second volume to see where the story goes. So I'm giving this one five stars. A very pleasant surprise and enjoyable read.

For the gamer types (like me) this story also oozes with plenty of ideas to steal for games like UnknownArmies, Kult, Call of Cthulhu and pretty much any modern day horror game. Also being a comic it does give you the necessary visuals to show your players what they are up against.

Unknown Armies 2nd ed vs 3rd ed

Been a while since I've talked about Unknown Armies. Especially after I was unhappy with the high buy in cost for third edition by splitting it into three books. So I didn't back the kickstarter and didn't look around for the books.

Eventually a collection of the three main books fell into my lap via a good trade deal. Really it was one I couldn't pass up. So I finally had the new version of Unknown Armies in my hands and I gave it a read through. After that I never mentioned it. Why? Because it was kind of a let down really. It didn't click at all with me, not the way the previous two edition did and it just felt like a whole lot of 'meh' to me.

Well over on rpgdotnet a conversation popped up where a person is reading the second edition of the game. A couple of us said we preferred it over 3rd and one person in particular (Comrade Pointdexter) hit the nail right on the head as to why. Saying it much better than I ever could have.

There are things I'll ransack from UA 3E (such as The Naked Goddess archetype, the schism in her cult, and Ordo Corpulentis), but I stick with 2E. Not only because I like that system better, but the overall tone of 3E strikes me as merely bizarro and kooky than uncanny, dark, and noirish. I recall one reviewer of third edition wrote that he wouldn't have guessed it was a horror rpg if the rule books hadn't said so. If 2E was Tim Powers, Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, James Ellroy, and Nick Cave then 3E is The Adventures of Pete and Pete and Ween (and, Christ, what they did to The Sleepers is a joke. Literally, a setting meta-joke. No 12-Step Sleepers in my UA, thanks). Take the 1st edition supplement Postmodern Magick and compare two of the individuals/cabals within - The Bad Man and Team Salvation. Second edition was all about characters like The Bad Man; third edition is totally Team Salvation. And I never could stand Team Salvation.

 I have to agree completely with this. It's not a horror game in the way it's been rewritten. The updates to the power groups in the game aren't all that well thought out. It just doesn't work or compare to the previous edition. For the record 2nd edition took everything that was good about the original version, and several of the supplements, combined and refined them in probably the best follow up edition to a game that I have ever seen. It kept the tone and feel while making it all work together.

If you're looking for the 3rd edition you can find it on the Atlas Games page on DrivethruRPG and on Amazon of course or even Ebay. Don't forget to check your FLGS first though.

For 2nd edition you are going to have to hunt around on Ebay, on Amazon, or through second hand sellers. Or you may get lucky and find it at a FLGS also, be sure to check the used games section if they have one. UPDATE: You can now pick up first edition and second edition over on DrivethruRPG.