Oblivion is the Wraith supplement for White Wolf's much heralded Mind's Eye Theater line of live action games. The premise, of course, is that you're dead, a wraith, but life goes on, as they say. Fighting against the forces of oblivion, the ultimate force of Entropy and destruction, wraiths also have factions among themselves searching for the true meaning of existence and just plain control over their own plasm. Each wraith comes stocked with his/her own dark half, a Shadow, that nagging voice in the back of our heads that tells us to go for it, to just take the plunge, the plunge into Oblivion that is. Oblivion comes with all the elements Wraith: The Oblivion players have come to expect: Shadows, Harrowings, Arcanoi, et cetera. At about 250 pages, Oblivion pretty much covers the gamut -- background, how to set up the playing area, crossover stuff, how not to scare your neighbors, skills and powers, how not to run into walls, all the neat stuff a game should offer.

I have to admit that I do not care for White Wolf's Live Action Systems for simply one reason: it all relies on rock, paper, scissors to resolve actions, or tests as they're called. If you like this kind of thing, then I can recommend Oblivion wholeheartedly. It seems scary to me that a whole line of games can be founded on 'porting' over another game's background, stripping out the dice system and replacing it with rock-paper-scissors. Sure the book looks pretty enough, but how hard can that be? Most of the stuff in here, except of course the systems for figuring out who does what when you're done shaking your hands at each other, has already been published in previous Wraith supplements. There's Risen and Spectre and Guild stuff in here as well as the majority of the Wraith rulebook background. Again, if you're looking to start your own Wraith cult, here's your handbook.

Game Reviews Fantasy Role Playing

Mage: The Ascension Tarot
Chicago Chronicles: Volume 3
Oblivion
Constantinople By Night
The Shadow Court
A World of Darkness 2nd Edition
Trolls, Masquers, Silent Striders, and Shadow Lords
Rage: Warriors of the Apocalypse
Axis Mundi: The Book of Spirits
Book of the Kindred
The Risen