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by sdonohue

Path of Shadows (Storypaths) is a 2017 release from Nocturnal Media. It is intended for use with any rpg system. It was designed by Roderick Robertson and illustrated by Jennifer Wieck and Richard Thomas (I). It's part of the Storypaths.

Presentation
This is available as both a pdf and a tarot-sized deck. The deck comes in a tuckbox with 54 cards and a folded sheet of instructions. The cards are black & white on good quality stock for cards; they feel like a normal tarot deck. This deck is larger than the others in the series which are typically 32 cards.

Content
The deck consists of 54 cards. Each card has a title, a brief description, an illustration and a number. The numbers range from 1 to 7 and cards are played sequentially, so once a 2 hits the table, only 2 and higher can be played. The 1s are themes and are reserved for the GM. They set the plan for the adventure. The rest of the cards are shuffled and each player gets 2 or 3 of them at the GM's discretion. They can then play them when they feel like they might help move the game in a new or exciting direction.

The general idea is that the GM reveals a theme to start the adventure, then players add "tone" by playing the cards in the 2s and 3s. The cards in the 4-7 range are considered climax cards and may end the use of cards at the GM's discretion. Once a card is played, the GM has the option to accept it, veto it, or edit it. Veto means the card is outright rejected, hopefully because it's not going advance the story but maybe because the GM just finds it annoying or doesn't like the direction it will go. Edit means the player & the GM (and possibly the rest of the table) discuss the card and arrive at a different interpretation of the text which will better suit the story.

Players who play cards can draw new ones, but there's not a clear mechanic explained in the rules.

The themes in the Shadows deck are:
XX Marks the Spot: some sort of double-cross is in effect.
More Than You Know: People assume you know more than you do.
Just a Go-Between: You're role in the adventure is errand-boy.
Corruption in High Places: You don't understand why things are happening but the outcome seems to favor the rich and powerful.
The Agency Must Hear of This: You learn a secret and must get it back to your masters.
Extreme Sanction: An enemy must be eliminated, either openly or through an "accident".

The composition of the deck is
1 - 6 cards
2 - 12 cards
3 - 11 cards
4 - 9 cards
5 - 7 cards
6 - 6 cards
7 - 3 cards

Evaluation
The cards are interesting and they do a good job of creating adventures that feel shadowy and focused on espionage. The cards are an interesting tool to try and get more input from the players during the adventure. I'm not convinced how well they'd work in play -- giving the gm the ability to veto means GMs who don't welcome player input could just ignore it all and make things even more frustrating. And GM's who welcome player input may not need them.

There's an alternate use where the GM uses several cards for adventure prep to create novel ideas. This seems like it would work for most GMs and may help make the cards a more worthwhile purchase.

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