Honestly... rather let down.

I am a faithful Wraith fan that purchased every single book that was released. I loved the feel, the connection, the tragedy and reasons that convinced these beings to continue to fight on. The story and history was superb, in my opinion. The writing was excellent. The systems needed clarity in a few areas (not many, but a few).

I had high hopes for Wraith - 20th. While the art, layout, writing etc are as impeccable as they always have been, some design decisions have completely turned me off this game. I find myself looking at a product that I purchased strictly for new art and a cleaner layout.

Why do I say this? Because I am shocked and unimpressed by the needless down-grading of many powers/arcanoi for no apparent reason. In some cases, some iconic level 5 powers are not even worth the action due to the ridiculous costs, difficulty and/or unimpressive effect. The wonder and awe at high level arcanoi and guild members can be safely thought of as mostly propaganda now.

This is as strange as it sounds... when we as players discussed hopes for Wr20, very few if any (I saw none) thought there was need to re-tune wraith powers or such. Instead - I can honestly say that this is the most significant change in this book. From Outrage 5 being now functionally less effective than a Stygian Steel blade, to Wraith's sudden inability to soak aggravated, to the near-uselessness of several other Level 5 powers.

My gaming group has decided to shelf this book as basically an art project - very sad indeed.