Pyramid Review
The Secret of Zir'An RPG
Published by Paragon Games & White Wolf, Inc.
Written by Jason Armenta, Martin Caplan, Marcus Flores, Aram Gutowski, & Chris Hockabout
Illustrated, designed by Cory Allameier, David Ryan Paul, Steve Ellis, Jess Hickman, Chris Hockabout, Erwin Madrid, Chris Martinez, Dennis Nguyen, Joshua Gabriel, Timbrook, UDON with Greg Boychuk, Eric Kim, Jim Zubkavich, Michael Withem, Nick Wynlock, Dean Yuen, & Michelle Prahler
294-page b&w hardcover; $39.99
Zir'An is a ravaged land where Fate tries to maintain a balance of good and evil despite the effect on those caught in the middle. This may be why things go in cycles in The Secret of Zir'An: the world gets destroyed (or darn close) like clockwork every few millennia. This time, the Endwar leveled most everything worth living in, then consolidation efforts smacked the recovering peasants around, and most recently the evil Fane took over several locations. The savior Kah wandered the land like a nomadic John Connor, riling people up to take the fight to the Fane. Now the Treaty Nations hold back Fane incursions (the bad guys still hold bits of dirt and citizens hostage here and there), but theirs is an unstable peace. The seven gods mystically communicated to all races their departure from this world, and "the Hegemony," continues to pose a threat, though this group gets mentioned seldom and doesn't rate a listing in the index.
The core gamebook introduces the Finesse System. . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: February 24, 2006
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