Secrets

There's really no better way to lure in a roleplayer than to smack the word "secrets" somewhere in the title of the book. Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) knows this better than just about anybody (with the possible exception of White Wolf). Best known for their asian fantasy themed Legend of the Five Rings (L5R) collectible card game and roleplaying game, AEG put out an entire line of splatbooks called "Secrets of the [insert samurai clan here]" several years back and, living up to expectations as a good consumer, I bought every single one.

In 2001 AEG was trying something different. Partnering up with Wizards of the Coast (WotC), innovators behind the extremely successful d20 System (also known as Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition), they released L5R in a dual-system format. That is to say each book contained two sets of rules: the first for players of the original L5R system and the second for players of the extremely successful d20 System. The idea was to cater to both audiences, but it ultimately failed as players on both sides of the aisle felt as if they were paying for a whole book and only getting half of one. Regardless of whether the experiment failed or not, it did get AEG in the business of producing a lot of third-party products for the d20 System and one of the very best is Secrets.

There was no shortage of d20 books in 2004. In fact, the market was veritably glutted with them. It got to the point that there were only so many books one could afford and many of them slipped through the cracks. Secrets is one of those books. I only got around to purchasing it a couple of months ago and I'm really glad I did. This book does something rather unique in the world of D&D, providing the reader with alternate explanations for the various mysteries within a traditional fantasy setting. It does this by setting up a premise behind the tome's origin and presenting the material as if it came from various chronicles of sages and scholars.

The brief introduction sets all of this in order by including a letter of an adventurer who has spent a good chunk of his life tracking down the chapters contained within the book. He's done this not for his own curiosity or amusement, but at the behest of his master, all the while trying to keep one step ahead of someone he refers to only as "The Adversary". Fearing for his life, he's bundled up the scrolls and notes he's managed to collect, hastily written his letter and sent them to his lord. There's also some brief business about each chapter and what was necessary to win the works away from their guardians. All in all, it's a very stirring introduction and makes you really want to dive in right away.

The organization of the book is intentionally (and sometimes unintentionally) slipshod with some chapters missing and others out of order. In truth, each chapter is a short work unto itself and so there is no reason to read the book in any particular order. It's all done to make the book feel more like a real tome and less like a long list of rules or bland descriptions. AEG has always had a bit of a problem with editing, however, and so you'll find some fairly amusing sentences at times: "...[they] wear the finest silken blood silken red robes to signal they are followers of the god of retribution." Oh, really? If you're the sort who finds this sort of thing infuriating, then you'd probably be better off avoiding most of AEG's books. I personally think the quality of the ideas and the presentation more than makes up for some minor proofing errors.

There are seven main chapters, each with an evocative title like "Veritas Majere" or "The Mad Ravings of Gilibran the Old." They're all set up in generally the same way, a bit of fiction that speaks to the origin of the work or the fictional author thereof followed by the new concept or secret in question and, finally, rules for including this new knowledge in the game itself. The information may take the form of something vaguely familiar, such as a new race, class, spell or feat or it might be something entirely unheard of in the tradtional setting before.

I'm reluctant to give away too much of what the book offers because, hey, it's called Secrets for a reason! This is definitely a book for the Dungeon Master (DM) to keep away from the players because much of the information loses its appeal once the cat is out of the bag. However, this wouldn't be much of a review if I didn't reveal a few details, so here's some of what you'll find within:

*The Secret of Dwarf Children: In this tale, one Fazzil ibn Kardun discovers why he's never seen a dwarven child or a female dwarf for that matter (obviously this is using a very Tolkienesque approach to dwarves, because there are plenty of female dwarves in D&D art these days). While visiting a dwarven city under siege his hosts reluctantly evacuate him through a strange underground chamber filled with dwarf shaped rocks and statues. Indeed, he realizes then that dwarves are not born at all, but form out of the earth itself and when the time comes, emerge from the stone cocoon as fully grown dwarves! There's some follow-up information on certain dwarven priests whose entire duty lies in seeking out these dwarven stones and bringing them back to hidden grottos beneath dwarven cities so that the dwarves within might emerge in safety.

*Another chapter offers up the philosophical concept that the world we percieve is but an illusion and, by knowing this ultimate truth, great power can be attained by dedicated students. Included are eight levels of awareness called The High Aethyrs that represent various dimensions of "reality" and how one can transcend them. There's even a class called the Soldier of Truth who can perform the most amazing stunts based on his/her understanding of reality as illusion. Some pretty deep stuff for D&D!

*There's also a group of dedicated (and perhaps mad) paladins and clerics who believe they have discovered the source of all evil and seek to eridicate it entirely. While this might sound like something every good soul would be in favor of, the ramifications are astounding. Destroying evil entirely would end the delicate balance of the material world and likely be end of everything. Whether the order is aware of this and actively seeks to usher in the apocalypse or if they are simply ignorant in their fanaticism is difficult to say. They would make an interesting twist for the villians of a campaign in that they are, essentially, good men dedicated to a cause.

Those are but a taste of the new ideas presented in Secrets. For those of you more interested in "crunch," you won't find this book lacking, either. The book contains about a dozen classes, most of them variations on the core classes. The Seasonal Druid, whose power waxes with their chosen season and wanes during it's opposite, and the Chaplain, a Cleric variant for a setting where the gods do not exist, are among my favorites. Scores of feats are available, including an entirely new kind of feat called Past Life feats. These allow a character to gain various abilities based on the knowledge of previous incarnations or ancestors. If, for example, a character was a barbarian in a past life, he/she might have their ability to rage in this life, even though he/she is now of a different class.

There's plenty more I haven't even touched on here...from 10th level spells (traditionally in D&D the most powerful spells are 9th level) to ley lines and from the dragons of the nine rings of hell to the real truth about immortality, Secrets is brimming with new ideas and ways to shake up those players who've seen it all before. What the book offers is quite inspiring and it goes a long way in reintroducing mystique to fantasy settings where things can become fairly bland after a player has killed his/her hundredth orc. Even if you go through all of the ideas in the main chapters, there are a couple of handy tables in the appendix offering 100 more secrets and those who keep them.

The interior artwork, mostly by the amazing Amandine Labarre, is splendid; the cover by Matt Cavotta is one of his best and particularly fitting for a book of this kind. Despite the niggling detail of some poor proofreading and editing, Secrets is a success. It uses the same approach that fills almost every World of Darkness book, that of combining gaming ideas with fiction, but it benefits from being completely self-contained and not heavy-handed in it's approach. This is a book every d20 System (or Pathfinder) DM should own and every player should leave on the shelf. Trust me...you'll thank me later.

4 Dusty Tomes (out of 5)