These are the stakes, then, for the Ghosts of Albion roleplaying game. Players take the role of one of the secret Protectors or one of their cronies and goons. It is also possible to play a class traitor – a ghost or a vampire, for example, which has turned its coat and now seeks to hunt down to extinction other members of the supernatural, presumably for money or the baubles of power and influence. No one comes out of this very well. The premise for the action apparently comes from a BBC television production, which does not appear to have made it to Thailand and about which I knew nothing before receiving this game. Fans of the program will be more able to identify with the protagonist siblings Tamara and William and the various aids and assistants, including the revived Queen Boudicca (or Bodicea as she is for some reason spelt here) and the poet Byron (described, on p.70, thus: “… the archetypal Regency buck. Born with a club foot and weak constitution, Byron inherited his title at age ten.” Obviously some new use of the term ‘archetype’ is in use at Eden Studios. I will have something to say about the language later).

Review by John Walsh

Calliope Reaper-Jones is a fashionista living in New York who has all but forgotten about her family. Purposefully. She’s distanced herself from her strange family — who just happens to run Death, Incorporated. When her memory charm breaks, her heritage comes rushing back to her and she learns her father and the Board of Directors has been kidnapped. Grudgingly, she agrees to take on the job of Death but quickly finds out she has to complete three tasks first to prove her worth.

Even though Death’s Daughter fits squarely in the genre of urban fantasy, I felt that the book had a lot of elements of dark comedy to it.

The previous Ghosts of Albion preview introduced readers to the mysterious world of Albion and touched on the cosmology of the setting.

Today’s preview will dig into some of the Cinematic Unisystem mechanics that make the game work. Specifically we are going to take a look at the Qualities and Drawbacks for supernatural characters.

Visit the Ghosts of Albion page at Eden Studios for free downloads and news. You can also get the Ghosts of Albion eBook now from the Flames Rising RPGNow shop.

Ghosts of Albion: Accursed is the first full length novel in the Ghosts of Albion series by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden. Ghosts of Albion had been a wildly successful animation series appearing on the BBC Cult website, with Benson and Golden writing and Benson directing. While the animations set up the story at large, one does not need to be familiar with them to enjoy this story. The authors take great care to make sure that new readers are clued into the backstory. What one might miss out on is the internal voices you give the characters from the tale; it is difficult to imagine anyone else as the voice of Horatio Nelson other than Anthony Daniels (C-3P0 of Star Wars).

Review by Timothy S. Brannan

Not only did she play Tara on the Buffy: the Vampire Slayer series, she has also directed, written and created a variety of other products that range from comic books to role-playing games.