Midnight: Star and Shadow

In the Midnight campaign setting, the Sarcosan people are considered to be the most influential of human cultures. They were the last race to come to Eredane and brought with them refined steel, astrology, horses, and more. They united the humans of the continent. And yet, it was from their culture and courts, rife with intrigue as it was, that was the most fertile of grounds for the Shadow to sow his seeds of dissent. Star and Shadow is a sourcebook about these people and their lands. As most other Midnight supplements, Star and Shadow is a 64-page, black and white, soft-cover. The front cover of the book is a beautiful full color drawing of a Sarcosan man astride his horse, the full moon is barely visible through a cloud of smoke with some strange creatures flying over head. Is he an insurgent or one of the many mercenaries? You can't be sure, as he is well equipped and has some well equipped fellows behind him. And that, for me, is really capturing the feel of the Sarcosans as they are described in the Midnight setting: cunning before brawn. The interior art is good, even though I did not like some of the drawings and one of the drawings was used twice. On the maps that dot the book I'll comment later. The book has five chapters which I will discuss bellow: Chapter 1 tells the history of the Sarcosans from the time they sent their first expedition to Eredane at the start of the Second Age to the betrayals that heralded the end of the Third Age. Wars and peace (but mostly wars) are described here, along with the relationship between the Sarcosans and the various races of Eredane, and suspicions by some people of where the Shadow's hand might have stirred the Sarcosans in the "right" direction. Reading through this short history of the Sarcosans, the reader may gain a better understand of the Sarcosans as a culture and what drives them, even before delving into the next chapter. It is a pity that the maps are ugly. Three maps are spread throughout this chapter detailing the colonization, the war with the elves, and the war with the Dorns. These are basically a blown-up image of the map from the Midnight 2nd edition book on which arrows and movements were drown along with dates and icons depicting a battle, a siege, a sacking, or something to that account. Perhaps also it is a problem of the book being black and white and me having a PDF copy (which I printed in very high quality at the printing shop), but I can't say that I cared much for these maps. Chapter 2 describes the way of life of the Sarcosans. The caste system is discussed in much more detail than before, and it is shown how this system holds these people together for better or worse; their intrigue-culture is discussed, a culture that applaud the clever above the strong; their attitude towards religion, their own and that Izrador, and the various crafts and trades they deal in. All this is discussed in detail and, along with the first chapter, provides a very comprehensive and

Midnight is one of the most innovative and enjoyable RPG supplement lines I've ever read. For one thing, they make compelling reading... much better plotted than the average RPG adventure, and with more compelling characters. The setting - a world where the Dark Lord triumphed, and has ruled virtually unchallenged for a generation - is almost relentlessly grim, yet flashes of hope come in surprising places. STAR AND SHADOW carries on this tradition of excellence, though I admit the premise didn't originally grab me. My one complaint: I wish all the titles didn't sound the same!