Kaidan—whose very name means "ghost story" in Japanese—is a mist-shrouded realm of exotic races, oni demons, and yurei ghosts, ruled by an undying imperial court enforced by ruthless samurai with all social castes bound to an endless cycle of twisted reincarnation. The empire of Kaidan is, by definition, haunted. Included in this tome are 30 haunts and several unique and horrifying undead variants, all inspired by classic Japanese ghost stories.
This volume is organized in nine creepy storylines to help you envision the horrors that await your adventuring party in the dark realm of Kaidan. Brought to you by T.H. Gulliver, the same designer that brought you the award-winning #30 Haunts for Objects (DieHard GameFan's best supplement for 2011). This product brings something to the game it has never had before, haunts that are embeded in the very nature of the realm.
This installment of RiP's #30-series takes us to Kaidan. It's a whopping 28 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 4 pages advertisement, 1 page back cover and 1 page SRD, leaving 19 pages of content for the new haunts, so let's check out whether T.H. Gulliver can maintain the extremely high standard set by the predecessors.
Indeed, the introduction of the supplement is awesome - an IC-narration including a new magic items to find haunts (and the way to Kaidan!) is an awesome, efficient way to immediately captivate the reader's attention and the one-page legend "The Paths of Destruction" adds to this sense of immersion, providing a great narrative framing for the haunts. Different kinds of haunts and their respective, special rules are explained to GMs who have, as of yet no experience with the #30-haunt-books.
There is a definite sense of otherness, of the Kaidanese exotic karmic morality gone wrong inherent in the haunts and in contrast to other haunt-books, we also get stats for variant wights, an unique undead, ghost monks, a multi-classed tengu-vampire, a raven herald of madness, carrionstorms and even the dread wide-grinning women. The pdf provides plenty of stats to accompany haunts. While haunts are somewhat like traps with stories, this is even more true in this supplement - the haunts come with a vast amount of background information, a darkest legend that, like a blood-red thread, runs through this whole supplement. More importantly, these haunts are CREEPY, well-thought out and yet distinctly Kaidanese.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. the pdf adheres to the bamboo-lined, beautiful Kaidan-layout and the artworks are neat for the low price. The pdf comes with extensive bookmarks. I'm starting to sound like a broken record that heaps superlative over superlative of praise on T.H.Gulliver's haunts and even though it seems hardly possible, this installment even surpasses the previous offerings of the #30-series. The added stats, legends etc. make me crave a full-blown horror-adventure, be it in Kaidan or another setting - in fact, with some work, you might craft an organic adventure from this supplement. My final verdict will be 5 stars and the Endzeitgeist seal of approval - be sure to check this out!
I enthusiastically agree with everything Endzeitgeist said in his review. The whole Haunts series is very well done, but this is the very best of the lot with its story thread of creeping horror running through it all. It also serves as a nice reminder of how even the weakest fiends can be used to cause a ton of trouble. And it just feels so 'Kaidan'.
