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White Lies
Publisher: DwD Studios
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/15/2019 17:24:33

Roughly coinciding with the release of the Bond movie SPECTRE, DWD Studios brings us "White Lies" with an appropriate gun-logo. Based on "white box" old-school rules, the rules system of classes and levels will be inherently familiar to the majority of gamers brought up on D&D. Combat rules can use either old-style Armor Class (AC; lower is better) or Ascending Armor Class (AAC; higher is better).

The familiarity is a powerful strength of the game. If people have the energy to explore a different rules basis, they could try DWD's game COVERT OPS, which also has an espionage setting.

The rules are written in a breezy, easy-to-follow digest size. Five character-classes are presented, suitable to the espionage setting, with progression up to Level 10. However, adding a Hit Die to your Hit Points when reaching a new level only succeeds if you have rolled greater than your last Hit Die advancement. There is a basic list of weapons, vehicles and other gear, more like distinctive classes of weapons, as the game says it will not detail fire-arms down to each model of revolver or hand-gun. Weapons and vehicles have various upgrades to enhance and distinguish a character's gear.

Not to be overlooked are several pages devoted to world-building. Akin to "random dungeon generation" but with a spy slant, this harkens back to several past DWD products and can be useful aids to players who are stepping over from the fantasy genre. The rules invite the Admin (GM) to roll on some random tables for the type of Enemy Organization, its location, descriptors, and its overall agenda. The Master Villain in the game can be rolled for Type, Motivation, resources, henchmen and minions, and a big d100 table of Quirks ("Here, kitty, kitty...") Missions have random tables as to the number of "scenes" or "maps" and what type of mission objective each scene involves, a random table for the descriptions of the location, and a dual d100 table to give your mission a snazzy (or totally meaningless) code-name! Of course, these tables should be used more to review the tropes of the spy genre, and the Admin should make some judicious picks of what should make the most sense, rather than a totally random determination.

A few stats for opponents and a few choice animals ("Snakes! Why did it have to be snakes?") are given, including a few stats for alien opponents in a setting where nations are in fact controlled by aliens from an alien conspiracy! A suggested organization for the player-characters, Bureau 19, is given, and a short sample adventure.

Overall, an excellent product with the aim of drawing old-school rules-players into the espionage genre.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
White Lies
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Maelstrom Rome
Publisher: Arion Games
by Pierre S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/09/2019 19:52:02

MAELSTROM ROME is derived from Maelstrom, a RPG from England which came out in the 1980s in paperback form covering nasty and brutish role-playing in tumultuous Elizabethan England. The game combined authentic historical outlooks with mysterious supernatural manifestations called the Maelstrom. The game has been re-adapted for the Ancient Roman period and set in the year 50 CE.

Characters are generated with characteristics and with skills called Abilities, by going through a series of careers or occupations called Livings, one by one from the age of 13. Total freedom of choice in your Living is not guaranteed due to limited social mobility. It matters on the Livings roll charts whether you are of the Patrician class, a common Freeman, or a Slave. Characters also roll for random incidents because of their Living, which can sometimes be debilitating. For accurate historical reasons, female characters are barred from certain Livings and all branches of the military. Surprisingly, women could be Gladiators, but were extended no special favours, nor would they fight only other women! Sometimes a change in class, or enslavement, may occur.

Each Living grants certain benefits and new Ability Ranks, marked by the Roman numerals I to VI. The game involves percentile rolls but an increase in Ability is not always a straight increase in percentage chance, but sometimes other benefits or new capabilities, so the Ranks must be carefully noted down and their benefits tracked. Combat is rolls for the character and the opposition, to determine which has the greater degree of success, and the outcome is determined on a table. If both characters have hit the same degree of success, the HIGHER percentage roll wins. A more skillful character will have a broader range of higher numbers which are successful in the same success band than a less skilled character, so this makes some sense. The better character may win most "ties", but not always.

The rules are somewhat old-school and may take some preparation for more modern RPGers. The great strength of the game is the coverage of the attitudes of Roman society and of each character type: they were very conscious of relative social status, routinely looked down on non-Romans (except for Greeks, which was a prestige culture of trade and learning), and were family-oriented. The structure and ranks in the Roman army were also extensively covered. This suggests fabulous role-playing possibilities as players encounter a wide cross-section of Roman society. Additional sections covered period weapons and armour, the geography of the Empire and short notes on the various regions and foreigners, a year-by-year history of the Roman Empire up to the present year (note that the Coliseum or Flavian Amphitheater was not begun yet!), a section on herbalism, and diseases common at the time for which the herbs may help.

The aspect of the Maelstrom seemed to me less developed, although it begins with tables of random supernatural occurrences that happen to the player-characters, to add a sort of "X-Files" overlay to the game plots. Some characters can use lesser or greater magic forces and Curses, so this ties in to the Maelstrom. Overall, the game is strong on historical detail but with a somewhat complex game mechanic and an average, career-oriented character generation. NPCs can be popped out quickly because each character occupation was given a typical set of Abilities and gear in their description.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Maelstrom Rome
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Diaspora
Publisher: VSCA Publishing
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/05/2019 17:02:19

DIASPORA came out in 2010 and is based on the FATE v.3 rule set (before Fate Core). [If someone had the oldest printing of the book or .pdf, there is an errata file from vsca.ca] Fate itself is quite a departure from the number/rolling RPG systems of the past, but by careful description of elements which matter to a hard science-fiction story, DIASPORA offers a satisfying framework. Like all FATE-derived games, it dispenses with the uninteresting minutiae of a game.

The rules are well-organized, but those unfamiliar with FATE may want to pick up the FATE Core System because there the rules were EXTREMELY well-organized with side-bar reminders and page-number references throughout, to help people understand the new FATE concepts. Then you can work back to the slightly older version of DIASPORA.

Diaspora incorporates rules to handle Social interactions and Platoon-level engagements (cough ALIENS cough) as mini-games within the overall structure. The star-systems are generated in a "cluster" system postulating that it is more difficult to get to the next cluster of stars than to travel between the home-cluster. Obviously this will not work with the warp-anywhere fiction settings like Star Wars.

The artwork is a little sparse, though, and could have been integrated to be relevant to the rules examples.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Diaspora
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Evocraft Space
Publisher: Evocraft RPG
by Pierre S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/30/2019 15:27:33

Evocraft Space is an 83-page book which carries over some of the same systems from the Evocraft game. Evocraft is an extensive 400+ -page text principally concerned with world-creation and development of a society through any or all of five eras (Primitive, Medieval, Renaissance, Modern and Post-Apocalypse). It also has game rules so that characters generated (in any era) could be played using a dice-pool system. What it did not have was any provision for spacefaring outside the home world, so that's what the current book addresses.

Evocraft Space has a similar rules system. Players' characters have a small list of main skills, utility skills and derived stats which define their character. Characters also have a defined science-fiction Trade which allows them to do specific functions with specific Tools (only major pieces of equipment are defined, and each adds more dice to the pool depending on character level in the Trade). For any action, determine the pertinent skill of the character which will translate into a dice-pool of d6 dice. Having a set of 36 miniature d6's is recommended.

Then when all the bonus dice to the dice-pool are figured out, roll them all and count each "5" or "6" as a "success". The more successes are accumulated, the more the successful action has achieved. Sometimes there is an opposing roll from a passive object being acted upon, or an NPC, in which case you count only the number of successes you had more than the opposition's number ("passing successes"). An Epic Fail can occur if you have no successes, or rolled more 1's than successes.

The artwork is simple, with a cover in colored pencil or possibly pastel, and black-and-white art inside.

The game has two distinct phases: world creation and then character play. World creation uses charts and random rolls to fill Word-Fill blanks in descriptive phrases about a planet. Each blank refers to a chart where you pick a word or make a d100 roll to pick. Worksheets are in the back of the book which can be copied to fill in the results. Quick planet generation or full planet generation is offered, but there are large spaces on the sheets for Interpretation of the results. You are given some guiding questions to help you write up what the world is like based on the word-fills.

Overall, because of limited room, this is a much shorter system of charts than what was used to generate a setting in Evocraft. Evocraft had an extensive system to generate bands of latitude on the home setting and what the climate in each band would be like; an Earthlike world with breathable atmosphere was intended. Evocraft Space is more free-form to be able to generate airless or exotic environments.

Charts provided include word-lists for configuration of a planet (number of stars, number of moons, atmosphere, a word-fill paragraph about the people, about cities, current events, conflicts and mysteries and quests), one chart each. There is enough here to generate adventure seeds, but shorter than the multi-era world development in original Evocraft. There are also word-fills to create creatures (monsters and their abilities), plants (with details about any medicinal uses) and playable humanoids inhabiting the planet.

Character generation has a distribution of points to determine the main skills of Fight, Tech (each player must also pick from a list of SF Trades), Persuade (with a choice of persuasion methods such as Charm, Reason, Deceive or Seduce and more), and Mystic ("the force"). Players also distribute points for secondary utility skills: Strength, Agility, Breaking Barriers, Searching, Sense, Tracking, Foraging and People Observation. There are a few derived Stats based on Skill formulas. There are rules for Combat and rules for what each Trade can do. There are no extensive equipment lists, but instead a system to design Tools which are like major, critical pieces of equipment for a character (characters start with one primary and one secondary Tool). If a character is in the right trade, their Tool gives them a bonus number of dice into the dice-pool. If someone is unskilled, they might still use the Tool but very badly (Tech skill in dice but with no added dice). There is also a mention of Droids, a mature technology of robots defined very simply in terms of level of function.

Mystic powers are covered by combining a Power Base (type of mystic action) with an Element (a type of target or material the power acts on.) Using Mystic powers has consequences; the character accumulates positive or negative Fate Seals depending on whether they used their power for good or ill, and these may create an in-game consequence.

Finally, there is a 3-page section on spaceships (and by extension lesser vehicles). Ships can come in various sizes and this determines the number of rooms and hallways they have, from a single-cockpit fighter to a whole stellar city. Big ships are less maneuverable but may be able to move faster in hyperspace than smaller ships. Interstellar travel is VERY fast and measured as anywhere from 50-100 light-years per SECOND, so expect a Star-Wars-like environment of fast travel. No trip in the galaxy takes longer than a few hours!

The last quarter of the book has most of the various word-tables (a few were in-text) and sheets to photocopy for characters, ships and planet-generation worksheets, as well as hexagon map paper (arranged in 8x10 grids reminiscent of Traveller except it is 8 down and 10 across.)

Overall, the book is fairly short and simple and has a relatively abbreviated world generation compared to original Evocraft. Some of the details about producing a Tool are a little off: some combinations of Tool Bases and Tool Types didn't seem to make sense. One Tool Type: "Turf" (operating on ground, walls, barricades, and natural features) was not actually assigned to any of the Tool Bases as a possible thing for the Tool to work on.

But the game overall is a simple, low-crunch game encouraging a collaborative effort to design a set of worlds and put simple characters with a short-list of key Tools inside adventure SF situations. For those who want more, there may be supplements sent down the pipe later.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Evocraft Space
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CT-ST-Starter Traveller
Publisher: Far Future Enterprises - Traveller
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/30/2019 15:19:16

The classic edition of Traveller is a great game, and no game has yet touched its fame for science fiction tabletop RPGs. Traveller covered all the "space" things in a detailed setting called the Third Imperium, a unified star community ruled by an Emperor. Traveller spawned an extensive series of supplements, which you can take or leave as needed for the emphasis of your particular game, whether star merchants or space mercenaries or explorer scouts.

Star sector maps are laid down in hexagons, each is a parsec (3.26 light-years), and starships have Jump Drives which depending on the engine rating of the ship can Jump from 1 to 6 of those parsecs but each Jump takes a week. There is no faster way to get news or goods across the stars, so the political feel resembles 18th-century sailing. The Imperium is held together but its size is causing strain. The Imperium also borders on alien empires which range from coldly neutral to hostile.

The Traveller Starter edition (1982) did some reorganization of the original LBBs (Little Black Books) of 1977 and presents all the tables of the game in the second booklet, cross-referenced to the pages of the rulebook. A third booklet presents two short adventures.

Traveller is "old school" and the best way to learn it is to take its systems one at a time. Randomly generating star-maps is particularly fun, a kind of mini-game within the game, with the main world in each system defined as to size, atmosphere, population, and government with rolls of six-sided dice (only). Nowadays the fans offer web-based computer utilities to instantly generate vast tracts of space, or use the huge, defined Imperium map already available online at travellermap.com.

Characters are generated by taking an unformed 18-year-old and choosing one of six military or other careers which are determined in 4-year Terms that you must survive. First you roll 2d6 six times to establish Characteristics by the names of Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social Standing. High or low values of these traits may give you a Dice Modifier on Skill Rolls (in the most basic dice-rolling rules, you must roll 8 or more, "8+" by rolling 2d6+ a Skill Level). Characters without a Skill in something are penalized at -3, so even 0-Level Skills are useful to avoid this Unskilled penalty. Gain Skill levels and promotions each Term, but also run a chance of character death or dropping out of the career. Physical Characteristics have a chance to decline each Term starting at age 34, and even mental Characteristics may decline for seniors, an incentive to voluntarily "muster out" instead of collecting yet more skill-levels by being as old as you can be. Once your old career is done, you roll randomly for Mustering Out (cash or final benefits based on number of Terms). This leaves you with an older, more seasoned character ready to adventure. However, you can never directly pick your skills! You can place yourself in the desired career, and choose to roll on one of several skill tables but at the end of a term one or more d6 rolls determines what skill is granted! Again, as a game-within-a-game this activity can be fun for some. Characters who are failed or not-quite-right spacers can populate your universe as NPCs!

The personal combat system, in basic Traveller, is NOT on a grid-map but more abstractly defined with "bands" similar to a football field! There are also rules for trade (buy low, sell high of course), which is easy to do as you note the characteristics of the world you're going to (Trade Codes like INdustrial or Non-Industrial, Agricultural, etc.) which give bonuses or penalties to the negotiated price of cargo when it is bought at the source or sold at destination. Nothing is a sure thing, however, providing yet another system that is a fun economic mini-game within the larger RPG story! Use profits to fuel up (ships have fusion engines that will run on ANY source of water or hydrogen such as from a planet or gas giant, preferably refined to keep out impurities), maintain your ship, for life-support, for crew salaries (we love R&R) and pay off the expensive monthly mortgage on your ship. The starship combat, in the original version, is not gridded either, but takes note of what you have for weapon turrets and rolls the damage to the other ship and what sub-system was damaged.

Definitely a solid science fiction experience.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CT-ST-Starter Traveller
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Baroque Space Opera
Publisher: Mark Kowaliszyn
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/30/2019 15:13:13

Baroque Space Opera (BSO) is a worthy setting for the Fate Core rules-system, for those who wish to portray far-future but hidebound cultures weighed down by traditions, and a high technology used to oppress the people, such as in movies like Dune, Lexx or the Chronicles of Riddick. At over 400 pages, it can do much more than a typical Fate World book of specific focus.

The galaxy has been ruled over by The Tyrant for the last 149,000 years. He died or was killed four times, but each time the establishment reconstituted him to preserve the status quo. There is an extensive history which generated a bewildering variety of factions, military forces and power-groups. Some groups are outcast but still exist on the periphery of the Dominion. The oppressive, crushing weight of history will strain your memory, but that's just perfect for this setting and characters even have to consult historian-NPCs just to keep it all straight.

The Tyrant has set up the 13 ruling Houses of the Pharistos, who are considered divine beings, enactors of the Tyrant's will, and controlling one aspect of commerce or industry through their Syndicates. Many use the symbology or trappings of ancient Egyptian, Sumerian or Mesoamerican cultures (is there a link?) The Pharistos in turn promote Elevated humans, humans indoctrinated by ritual to serve as intermediaries between the Pharistos and human workers. Technology (called Technosophy) is so advanced it becomes indistinguishable from magic, and in fact ordinary humans are taught that it is all run by the divine power of the Tyrant, if the right rituals are followed (pray before flipping the switch). However, the GM will not have to be technically minded to invoke the descriptions of genetic manipulation, nanotechnology (the Dust), resurrections to make Revenants, prana (psionic powers), faster-than-light travel with Voidships, and the cyberspatial domain called the Pattern.

The Fate Core rules are significantly modified. Notice becomes an Action that can be made with a Skill, rather than a separate single Skill. The Stress boxes often stack more points so that instead of the typical human Stress boxes of 1-2 or 1-2-3, you might have 2-3-4 or 3-4-5 or 3-3-3. Various spaceships exist with their own character-like skills and stats. Many superhuman Stunts abound and are listed as you pick a character Archetype. There is talk of revolt and overthrowing the Tyrant, and even many Pharistos are open to it, but a revolution from below with ordinary humans is not likely to succeed given the extensive physical and mental improvements of the ruling factions. A fight between regular humans and some Chimeras or Dominars or a Kundalini mentalist will toss the humans around like popcorn. Most fighting between groups will use the proxies of the Pharistos, as the Tyrant forbids direct conflict...

An extensive description of planets and other locations is included, and a map, and possibly you can fit the descriptions for these high-tech worlds into another science fiction campaign. The author thoughtfully adds a list of fiction for inspiration at the end, and a full index. So what are you waiting for? Will you join the Rebels, or will you defend the Order of Things? Whatever you do, expect heavily-robed people of the future (?) to talk about you behind your back and intrigue about you.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Baroque Space Opera
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Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. The Second Edition, Version 2.01
Publisher: R. Talsorian Games Inc.
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/30/2019 14:42:44

Way back in 1982 or so I was moved by the film BLADE RUNNER (which you could call film noir as much as cyberpunk) and the book Neuromancer by William Gibson. The cyberpunk genre is edgy and gripping and can be summed up as, "high-tech, low morals," where heroism is relative and good people may be forced into bad situations.

R. Talsorian Games' first edition CYBERPUNK game (released in 1988) was set in 2013 (!), but the pumped-up second edition set in 2020 (and also alluding to version 2.0) is spelled CYBERPUNK 2.0.2.0. In this .pdf (version 2.01), a lot of errata are corrected, but some of the artwork is from European artists which differs from the first print release.

The basic game mechanic is to roll as high as you can with what we now call an "exploding" or "cascading" d10 roll. For a given task a Difficulty Level is decided upon. Then you take a basic character Stat, add the Skill level in a skill related to that stat, and add a single d10 to see if the total equals or beats that Difficulty. If you roll a 10 on the d10, add 10 to the Stat and Skill but roll again and add that. If you roll another 10, add it to the total and roll yet again until you have anything but a 10. So there's always one chance in 10 of improved rolls, one chance in 100 of much-improved rolls, etc. This adds an appropriate amount of "critical hit" thrills. But getting a roll of 1 (on the first throw) is a failure, with a check to be made on the Fumble Table to see if there are further ill-effects.

Generate characters according to 9 futuristic character types called Roles. You not only roll stats but spend a number of points on skills appropriate to the Role, and also follow the Lifepath tables which bring out events which happened to a character -- their back-story, in other words.

The rules-mechanics are supported by a richly-detailed social setting. Society is in decay: gleaming corporate enclaves are next to squalid poverty, although the homeless may be quite well-off, their needs taken care of with technical gear, street-food and rent-a-coffins for sleep. There are extensive listings for technical gear of the near-future, but sometimes they guessed at the future wrong (cellphones are still flip-phones, newspapers are constantly updated and printed in a fax style from the newsbox, and the Soviet Union is still a thing!) The Netrunner character can hack in the Virtual Reality Internet of the future, which is represented on a two-dimensional map-grid as opposed to the "lines and nodes" system of the original edition. The hacker's attempts to break-in to steal data are shown as physical movements, but are opposed by security programs called ICE which resemble horrible fiends online. See if you can get in and out with your brain-cells intact. The players of Netrunner characters (and the GM) should know the Netrunning rules cold, so as not to keep the other players waiting too long to do something. This is crucial as in other "cyberpunk" RPGs.

A sample adventure and "screamsheets" (10 newsfax articles from the future with short adventure outlines) are also included. This is a massive 250+ page rulebook that solidly covers what you will need for the genre.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Cyberpunk 2.0.2.0. The Second Edition, Version 2.01
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Elysium Flare
Publisher: VSCA Publishing
by Pierre S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/30/2019 14:38:13

ELYSIUM FLARE is a RPG based on a mix of Fate Core rules and an earlier Fate version, set in an advanced cosmopolitan setting of several alien species including Manichae (Humans). Each arm of a galaxy is the home arm of a different alien species, but many other species exist in a cosmopolitan way in the Hub of each arm. Things are more rustic on the Rim, and in the Gulf between arms things are the least developed where stars exist, not to mention that Horrors spawn in the Gulf areas. Sometimes a star empire wants to try to harness a Horror for its ambitions, but that always ends...badly.

A discussion of Fate Core rules follows but it's a little cursory. The rules have certain adaptations. There are a total of seven PC alien species, rules for creating Associations as characters, Starships designed as characters (Weapons and Armour are set up as very limited characters too), and Things (special devices). There are 3 "Physics" in this universe: Natural, Mystical or Psychic. An alien species might excel more in one type than in another. Your spaceship could jump across space using any one of these Physics but you have to maintain it appropriately with the same technology.

Star-systems are generated with tables of Aspects on a point-buy system. A default Aspect for a typical world costs zero points, but more bizarre Aspects cost more, up to 4 points. Aspect tables are grouped according to Trouble, Culture, Environment, History, and Proximity (how many star-systems are close by). It costs more to have a very isolated star-system than one with neighbours. The outcome of this table also determines how you sketch out the sector of space. There are tables for Hub, Rim and Gulf worlds and tables for worlds in each of the species Arms of the galaxy.

Rules for character combat and spaceship combat round out the end. One difference from Fate Core is that a Zone has a "clutter" value which costs effort (shifts on an Athletics roll) to move into. On the other hand, more "clutter" benefits you if you are trying to hide from gunfire. Clutter is not a rule in Fate Core, but it was found in the earlier FATE 3.0 as a "pass value". Spaceship combat uses a player-character centered system where their ship has a "reticle" showing what other ships are right in front of you (center circle), then what is to the side of you (middle rings) and finally what is directly behind you (outer ring). Combat maneuvers decide if enemy ships are favourably or unfavourably placed. A few ship-types are mentioned and an Index rounds out the 132-page book. The book is written in a breezy style so it's not that much larger than a typical Fate World Book of 50 pages, but there are many star-system Aspect tables in the page-count. The setting is kept pretty open, the only details are in the traits of the alien species and the star-systems that are likely to result, but you have to make up your own setting details with Associations as a starting-point.

All in all, a good Fate Core-type game although the rules might not be so understandable to a beginner.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Elysium Flare
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Stellar Adventures
Publisher: Arion Games
by Pierre S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/11/2018 22:55:12

This is a 128-page .pdf in full-sized pages, and may not mean much to most people, except to those who had read the FIGHTING FANTASY pick-a-paragraph adventure-books, initiated by (the British) Steve Jackson in the 1980s and 1990s. There were a few books with science-fiction settings, such as "Starship Traveller", and so STELLAR ADVENTURES has expanded rules resembling the ADVANCED FIGHTING FANTASY RPG already released. The game uses only six-sided dice.

Characters have the 3 characteristics resembling the character stats of the books: SKILL, STAMINA and LUCK. But psionic characters also get PSIONICS, and Robot characters get a TECH characteristic. In addition there is a list of 37 Special Skills: science-fiction abilities which add to your base SKILL stat. Players add SKILL to Special Skill, and any modifiers, and roll at or under that amount with 2d6 (double 1's is automatic success, double 6's automatic fumble). Combat is an exception, however: there is a roll-over mechanic for Combat where you must beat the total assets of the opposition. Optionally, the combat rules can be harmonized with the roll-under mechanism of skill-use. Weapon damage is figured with a 1d6 roll and look-up tables to convert the roll into an actual damage amount for that weapon (you can boost the roll to a "7+" under certain conditions).

In character creation, a list of Talents exists, and optionally, a list of Mutations. The game then covers the SF bases with lists for Weapons, Armour (British spellings, don'tcha know!), Cyberware, Equipment, then sections on Robots and Vehicles and different Modules available to customize them. Starships, starship Modules and starship combat are covered, and also the various psionic powers called Traditions. Aliens and alien Talents get their chapter. In the chapter on Director's Advice, star-system generation is covered (six-sided dice are dropped on a sheet of paper to give the position of stars in a star-sector, and the basic number of planets around them! The rules then elaborate for other, more unusual star-systems and drill down to planetary placement as well.) Some tables, character and vehicle sheets are at the end of the book.

The skills and talents are beautifully described to evoke tense SF action moments. I loved that, that got me going with some ideas. But one weakness is that most of the Weapons, Armour, Equipment and Module lists are out of alphabetical order (except for the ordered list of Alien Talents). It may make for a mad scramble if players have to look up information in a pinch. Maybe you have to set up electronic index-cards for this stuff for a quicker look-up.

Some supplements have also been released, such as the ample Starship Catalogue adding many more starships, some .pdfs of printable stand-up Minis (figures), and a lengthy campaign called The Kaladarian Response.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Stellar Adventures
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Aliens & Asteroids
Publisher: Gallant Knight Games
by Pierre S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/10/2018 16:27:40

Aliens & Asteroids is a great, not over-large game focusing on combat-mission SF similar to movies such as ALIENS or STARSHIP TROOPERS. The game-system is named Inverse20, where you roll a d20 to get a number equal to or less than a Target Number (TN). Rolling a 1 (or the exact Target Number) is a Critical Success, rolling a 20 is a Critical Fail. Actions are sometimes taken with an Advantage, in which case you roll 2 d20s and take the most advantageous roll, or at a Disadvantage (roll 2 d20s and take the least advantageous roll). There can be only one Advantage or Disadvantage situation and, if you are somehow receiving both, they cancel out. This kind of scheme is familiar to players of D&D 5th-ed.

Characters are defined as belonging to the Dominion Space Forces. They have 7 basic physical and mental Attributes, determined by rolling 2d3 and adding 8. There are a few Secondary Attributes which are derived from the first ones. Characters also accumulate certain Traits, based on their planet of origin or career path. There are military soldier-type characters but also specialists in other careers who are essential to pulling off a successful mission. Soldiers get to go hog-wild with an assault-rifle, others get a handgun, but all may add special gear. Traits and gear may add to an Attribute-based roll or confer an Advantage. Not having the right gear, not having the right skill Trait, or situational problems might confer a Disadvantage to the roll. Damage is always figured in d3 or d6 rolls with modifiers, and some weapons have special effects. Armor resists damage, but if the Armor Resistance rating is overcome, Armor Points absorb the excess damage until the armor is worn away.

The Dominion setting and alien races are covered, and your characters are encouraged to read massive tomes on the Dominion's history and political structure, as they ride through a B.A.N.C.E. Gate to jump to the adventure. Okay, just kidding! Maybe all the characters care about is to be pointed to the right opposition and to fight it! Technology, drones (assorted robots), weapons and gear are covered, there is a chapter on Refereeing and guidelines to set up and run a set of missions, finishing missions, and levelling up. A few alien and creature stats are given with guidelines and tables on designing your own. There is finally a sample-adventure, "Graduation Day", where the graduation of a squad of fresh recruits graduating on Luna is interrupted, and they are asked to investigate strange goings-on nearby.

This is an effective, digest-sized 111-page book which does what it sets out to do. I managed to join an introductory teleconferenced game run by the main author, reconning a dead asteroid-base that stopped broadcasting, and our characters had a nervous exploration and restoration of the floors to find out the cause. Diverse character types meshed well, each playing their part. You get a lot of SF mileage from what the players put in, all the great stuff like gear and squad-banter from movies and TV shows.

So what are you waiting for, grunt? Crack open the airlock, drop the ramp, and let's have a Bug Hunt!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Aliens & Asteroids
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How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss
Publisher: Kortthalis Publishing
by Pierre S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/10/2018 15:51:42

Every once in a while, a non-game-company book on how to game-master will appear, and it is useful for game-masters to take stock of what they are doing and see if they can learn new tricks. But be warned: this book has mature black-and-white artwork that extends beyond that of the original AD&D First-Edition art, and also Venger Satanis is presenting his own personal ideas on game-mastering, and "Venger will be Venger".

The book is about 2/3rds game-mastering tips, and you will find many pieces of useful advice. There are things even another GM has not thought of before, such as meditating on your campaign for half an hour in-between games. Meditating? Yes! This is in the sense of sitting and concentrating only on your campaign and how it is going, to the exclusion of mundane real-world concerns. That way, you can think more clearly on how it is going and how to steer it better. He also warns not to lose sight of balancing an encounter so it is meaningful: it must have a reason to entice the players into it, a risk, and a reward. If any of these weaken, the players will not bite or lose interest. He made a tip about drawing up a diagram of the names of your players, if you are doing a demo for example and have not met them before. I would have expanded on this tip and said you should take a full-size sheet of paper and draw an outline of the table you are using, write on the outside of the table each player's name in relation to where you are sitting, PLUS on the inside write the name of their character and important stats or information about them, to make an invaluable memory-aid. Unlike social situations, in RPGs we have TWO names to track for people we meet instead of one.

The remaining 1/3 of the book is a grab-bag of random and sometimes whimsical generation tables to add spice and ideas for your game, plus an imaginary language of his own creation, Viridian, with Viridian-English and English-Viridian mini-dictionaries. Want to come up with the name of a Cult quickly, how they look, and what their motivation is? Venger has a table for you!

But his tips were not organized in any thematic way. I would have liked to see chapters classified in chronological order based on the steps of the campaign: world-design, adventure-creation (he actually now sells another book entitled Adventure Writing Something Something Swear-Word Something), character generation and introducing a campaign (often called Session Zero), running the game, presenting the game in an effective way, the age-old discussion of risk-level and character death (in his games with many players, he says he averages a character death every 3 sessions), and he had a tip on concluding a campaign with a satisfying close, whether it's merely the end of a "TV season" or meant to be the finale episode as the group moves on to some other game. The book could have greatly benefited by classifying tips into some such chronological or thematic scheme. Sometimes there will be tips that don't fit in any particular phase of a campaign (like the tip about dressing neatly and being well-groomed as a salesperson would, as if you are presenting something worthwhile and important, which you should definitely consider your campaign to be!)

So I think it's a great book of fresh tips AND tips that bear restating, broadcast on the inimitable frequency of Venger Satanis's persona.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
How to Game Master like a Fucking Boss
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Evocraft RPG
Publisher: Evocraft RPG
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/26/2018 15:51:34

Evocraft is a game with a comprehensive framework for world creation, with explanations to construct a world in detail. You can create a world map and distribute temperatures and rainfalls to create different geographical climes. Then tables are given to generate plants and animals, each with features both mundane and exotic. Cultures can be developed on the roll tables in five Eras: from primitive through medieval and Renaissance, modern and then post-apocalytic. There are extensive notes on blending aspects of an old Era into your new Era. A few layers of spirit-worlds are detailed as well with Nature Spirits, Farlanders, and even more powerful Great Ones on the furthest plane, resembling gods. The "illustrations" are charcoal or ink drawings and patterns evocative of initial, simple cultures, sometimes of a playful nature.

There is a rules system but it is on the simple side involving a dice-pool system. The more six-sided dice, the more chances to be successful (count 5 or 6 as one success), and varying factors and modifiers give you more or fewer dice (roll up to 36 d6's, they say!). This is a little better compared to world-creation games like MICROSCOPE: the fun is derived not only in world and history creation but in actually playing out something in the world setting with fully numerically defined characters. Microscope will play short scenes with described characters but returns to large-scale world creation as soon as the scene's "question" is resolved. Evocraft has fully-rendered characters with skills and numbers for continuous RPG play.

The main book is over 200 pages, and there are 3 Era books 50, 100 and 100 pages each, with a sheet collection for character sheets (3 kinds for different eras) and worksheets. This is extensive material which is heavy on the world-building aspects. The StoryTeller (GM) may opt to use discretion in all the random tables and make judicious choices rather than totally random rolls, to ensure the world makes sense. The StoryTeller may even "subcontract" the design of the world and involve players in the designs.

Evocraft is not as detailed in the rules aspects. If your style of play involves a lot of "crunch" and preoccupation with attack-styles, armor and hit locations, this may not be for you. However, if you want a lighter, story-based rules treatment with your characters confidently placed in a detailed setting with geography, flora, fauna, history, culture and even gradual mutation to a whole different era, Evocraft will satisfy groups who want to collectively create.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Evocraft RPG
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FARFLUNG: Sci-Fi Role-Play After Dark
Publisher: Sanguine Productions
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/03/2017 17:02:31

Farflung RPG is a solid addition to the games using the Powered by the Apocalypse rules system. The setting is a generic madcap far-future with a long list of inspirational material given at the back such as The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Guardians of the Galaxy, Barbarella, and many more. Choose from 24 character types representing professions or very oddball entities of the Universe: archivists, career soldiers, energy-beings, shape-shifters, former dark "despicable" commanders of thousands of minions who have fallen on hard times, sentient spaceships and so on. All characters have standard Moves, and each character type has an additional playbook of special Moves befitting its type. If a character type has a mad power, it is balanced by limiting shortfalls in something else. There would be a lot of fun in seeing how character types will complement each other and work together, and even...fall in love? Yes, there are Moves for seduction activity, not to be blatantly sexual but possibly for the SF amusement of having a hard-bitten PC alien fall in love with a NPC gas-cloud and such. The author is getting at something like this with the game's subtitle "Sci-Fi Role-Play After Dark".

Another reviewer went into detail about the game mechanics. I will mention the organization of the book. The hardcopy is a well-manufactured hardcover. One key thing is the introduction which explains the game in 3 perspectives: if you never played an RPG, if you played a computer RPG, or if you have played other tabletop RPGs. This is good to ease beginners into this tabletop game. The Powered by the Apocalypse system gives players a lot of essential information up-front on the character sheet (and in 4 pages of "playbook" for each character type) to try to slot any conceivable action into one of their Moves, which is handled easily with a 2d6 die-roll. A good GM will still be needed to explain things to new players. I'm sure any lapses in rules procedure will be forgivable as long as players have fun with the zany, gonzo nature of the world.

Next are descriptions of the basic characteristics of the character (the 6 "quantum particle" attributes), health, points in time (History-x and Future-x points which are spent back and forth to power certain Moves) and general procedures and dice-rollings of the game. It then lists general Moves common to all players, and then an exposition of the 24 character types and their Moves. Characters can suffer "damage" in 3 types: Doing (physical), Thinking (mental) and Feeling (emotional). Depending on their character type, they have the ability to divert damage of one kind into each of the two other kinds (indicated by filling in an arrow on the health circle which is divided into 3 parts for these 3 types). Then the back half of the book gives a sampling of several types of "opponents", some notes on conducting the game, various optional rules, and the bibliography of sources of inspiration. Optional rules include the X-Card system first proposed by John Stavropoulous, which can veto GM or player actions or plot elements if a player is uncomfortable with something. I personally don't agree with this since it smacks of "snowflakeism" which clashes with RPGs where you might adventurously be called on to storm the beaches at Normandy or something.

All in all, Farflung is a PbtA system tweaked for goofy, zany far-future characters for a light-hearted time, with possibly some elements of romance if desired (which I would tend to X-Card until these are annihilated at the molecular level.)



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
FARFLUNG: Sci-Fi Role-Play After Dark
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Icar
Publisher: Rob Lang Games
by Pierre S [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/17/2017 15:35:16

A solid far-future SF RPG! Humans live in a galactic arm that has for the most part been taken over by Droids, descended from automatons of the humans' own creation. The Droids almost extinguished the humans but are now preoccupied with in-fighting. The game mechanic is smooth and ready, but the main thing is the exotic details about the Droids and the far-future human civilization. Illustrations cleanly support this vision with ample descriptions of settlements, megacities, vehicles and gear. There are 2 game supplements so far.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Icar
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Post-Apocalyptic Genre
Publisher: Monte Cook Games
by Pierre S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/18/2016 15:39:22

This supplement for the Cypher System offers information to apply the rules to a post-apocalyptic genre, where modern-day civilization has fallen and characters must scrounge and fight their way through living in a wrecked world ("He is Max, and he is quite mad.") For the Cypher System there is some need to define things that fall outside the modern, horror or SF rules to suit postapocalyptic tropes, and this 32-page supplement works well.

Apart from the cover photo there is no artwork or pictures. It begins with notes on setting up your campaign and choosing why civilization fell (zombies are an option, and you must decide if mutations and other things will exist as a result of the fall.) Ten character roles are suggested, giving the corresponding character Type and Flavor to choose from the Cypher system. Are you a Leader or Warlord? A brawny Bodyguard or Gladiator besting most others in violence? Do you have knowledge and skills passed down from the ancestors to be a Cobbler or Healer? The Technology Flavor is disallowed, as ready knowledge of tech devices is GONE. Each Role has modifications to the Tier system given in detail. New or replacement Foci and Descriptors are given as well.

A revised Crafting system is given. Scrounge for units of raw material classified into names like parts, junk, chems and circuits. When deciding what guns, vehicles or equipment to build, required amounts of materials and difficulty are set down to suit the ambience of a difficult environment with no hardware stores left!

Mutants and mutated animal characters are possible, which gives tables and lists of mutations and defects. Mutations can develop in characters in good old 1950s movie-style from exposure to (more) units of radiation (not true in reality, you just sicken or die; but conventions of the genre must be followed as best exemplified in the old Gamma World RPG, so the mutation system will be quite familiar to people). The supplement ends with a description of damage effects, a system for infection by the aforementioned zombies, weather effects and other rules. 3 pages of equipment lists with Cypher stats bring up the end.

Overall, just the kind of tailored Cypher System game you could want for PA settings.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Post-Apocalyptic Genre
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