Corax 'Tribebook' Review

Alright - you don't have to read this, but as someone who has been waiting with baited breath (and well chewed-on nails) for the book to come out, I think I deserve the chance to share my opinions with the populace of the world wide web (or at least with my keyboard. The rest of you are free to turn back at your whim, but my poor keyboard has to suffer through every stroke).

And what do I think of it? Well, I don't hate the book. In fact, it's pretty good in my opinion. Surprisingly good, considering how easy it is to offend someone who has already decided exactly what the tribe is, and how it should be, and what sorts of unpleasant deaths should befall those who might try to say otherwise. It's good enough that I would buy the writers a pizza if I should ever run across them (and if they liked pizza) - Definitely a preferable alternative to having your eyes plucked out and fed to the crows.

Eyes - that's one thing which really surprised me about the Corax book. The writers gave the Corax a special calling, to perform a sort of "Last Rites" on the dead by eating their eyes. That's something I wouldn't have considered personally, but having read through it, I must admit I approve - heart, soul, and eyeballs.

Major Kudos to the writers for the gold/silver thing. I've had plenty of Storytellers breathing down my throat for my habit (er, my characters' habit) of carrying or wearing silver - earrings, studs, rings, bracers, etc. I eventually wrote it all off as 'pewter' or 'silver-colored', but secretly wished that corax were exempt from the aggravated damage of silver like the Nuwisha were. After all, how many corax would be left in this world if a person could bait a corax-trap with a few silver coins? Gold, on the other hand, doesn't look nearly as cool as silver, so I hardly object to the trade-off. (And besides... I can't stand wearing gold.)

The tribe book did a very decent job of presenting information in a readable way, incorporating myths, legends, and facts into the Corax's background. In some places I found the book got a bit dull... the history lesson rambled on and on... but it certainly wasn't as bad as some tribe books I've read.

The artwork, in general, could have been better. The pictures were rough, the birds were usually drawn awkwardly, and the proportions were out. Not for everything, but most stuff. Perhaps I've been spoiled by seeing a lot of great raven artwork on the 'net? Or perhaps I'm just tired of seeing the same old artwork in all the White Wolf books...?

I think a lot more could have been done with the trickster side of raven. Admittedly, the Nuwisha book capitalized on the whole trickster mentality, and it wouldn't have done either justice to try to match or copy the excellent work done there.

Then again, the Corax book did an excellent job on the 'information' side. I'd been worried that it might lean too heavily towards the Bastet mentality of 'secret hoarding', but the writers blew that away. Corax love to talk. I find it rather amusing to read their take on the matter after having had several conversations with bastet-minded friends on the subject of secrets... we came to much the same conclusion. Both Bastet and Corax love secrets - but Bastet like keeping them, and Corax like sharing them.

One change from the player's handbook caught my eye: Corax can now fly in both corvid and crinos, rather than in corvid alone. I wasn't terribly upset with the lack of flight in crinos, but some of my other corvid minded friends were. In fact, one set of alternative rules for corax available on the web stated that the local larp had decided corax could fly in crinos. I'm glad their instincts were right.

Most of my own instincts and suspicions about the corax race were well-supported (or at least not dashed), and a few neat twists were put on the tribe. I'd been worried that, on a scale of 1 - 10, the book wouldn't rate more than a 4 or 5 in my mind, but after having read through most of it, I'd give it a comfortable 7.

Ooooh - or maybe an 8. Page 18, second column, first paragraph, second sentence... "Hug us and Squeeze us and call us George". Man - talk about the use of quotes in the corax language! I wonder how many people would recognize the origins of that? Or of some of the other quote & allusions tossed into the book, here and there?

Okay. An 8. The corax tribe book makes the grade, in my opinion. Now go out and buy it so that even the high-up muckymucks at WhiteWolf can tell that people like it. (They don't read stuff like this ever, do they? Oh, man, I hope not. But if they ever do, I'll buy them a pizza too, someday, for enduring my ramblings. Either that, or I will hug them and squeeze them, and call them George.)

May the wind be ever under your wings,