Nocturnals: A Midnight Companion

Rating:
Summary: Award winning - and rightly so
Review: the 'Midnight Companion' is pretty, it's a valuable gaming resource for gamers, but more importantly, its a lavishly illustrated insiders' view of the world created by author and NOCTURNALS creator Dan Brereton. Its clear Brereton opened up the vault of secrets, without sacrificing the ambiance that captivates fans of the trade paperbacks this companion guide serves. 'A Midnight Companion' won three ENnies last summer- the top gaming industry awards, for best art direction, best licensed gaming product and best interior art.

The Midnight Companion is also a gorgeous art book in its own right. Brereton and a hand-picked group of illustrator peers provided beautiful drawings and paintings to great effect. these never been a gaming sourcebook that looked like this; sketchbook selections, and art on every single page. simply a treat for the eyes.

in addition to all this, Brereton introduces a dozen new characters, a handful of which appear the book's high point, an 18-page comic story called 'Spectres', that finds the Nocturnals facing off with The Murder, a gang of evil spirits who've escaped Hell. Look out for new villian, "Rictus", easily the creepiest Nocturnals villian to date.

I love this book, and have bought several copies for friends desperate to borrow and thumb through my own.

Rating:
Summary: Ugh
Review: This is a very pretty book that reads like the worst gamer geek telling you about how cool his character/campaign is. It opens with blow by blow accounts of several Nocturnals books that show why some stories are better as comics than prose.
I'd like to give it the benefit of the doubt and say that Nocturnals fans (I've not ever read them) might enjoy it, but from a straight gaming perspective it was less than useful.

Rating:
Summary: Sink your teeth into Nocturnals
Review: Ths sourcebook is filled with great art, intriging settings and a plethora of information on everyone's favorite midnight defenders. The book includes an original story that leaves you with a cliff hanger to run with. Characters in the world of Nocturnals are designed to be a little less powerful than your typical Mutants and Masterminds heroes, which is good for the pulp-style that pervades the beloved comic book series.
Most of the text is statistic free, with the exception of the last section, which is filled with stats on every character in the book. I think the rational is if you are not a gamer you don't have to sift through the rules to get to the story. IN my opinion, the character generation portion was kind of weak (as I was looking forward to getting the skinny on some creepy powers). Unfortunatly that did not happen. Other than that weakness, the book is great for comic and game fans alike.