There is much to love about this RPG. First, it extends the already interesting Gumshoe game system used for such games as Ashen Stars, Trail of Cthulhu, Esoterrorists and Mutant City Blues. I've been itching to try out the investigation mechanics for Gumshoe, and this recent incarnation and extension of the ruleset affords me such additional rules the combat and cinematic chase rules to support the espionage/thriller genre.

Next, it also provides rule options to help emulate and support various subgenres of the spy thriller. There are rules for the interestingly-named subgenres: Burn ("psychological damage and the cost of heroism"), Dust ("gritty, lo-fi espionage"), Mirror ("hidden agendas and shifting alliances"), and Stakes ("higher purposes than mere survival or 'getting the job done'"). In addition to the Drives and Sources of Stability that we've seen in other flavors of Gumshoe, the Trust / Betrayal mechanics are particularly interesting and volatile in a espionage game (reminds me of Cold City / Hot War)!

Gunplay and cinematic chase rules look good from the emulation space, though I'd be remiss if I didn't say that proper playtesting should be done on my part before I can say if it's to my taste.

As for the vampire aspect -- great latitude is given to the GM and the players is choosing the type of vampires they're fighting (which is good to keep the surprises coming in a thriller), and the organization creation rules married with the classic genre pattern of starting at the bottom of the conspiracy pyramid and moving up through the ranks until dealing with the Big Bad (to borrow some Buffy terminology here) has really ratcheted up my desire to play this game as soon as possible! That's made easier by the sample vampires and their various minions also included in the book.

Well done, Pelgrane Press -- I look forward to future releases in this line!

Any time I talk about Fading Suns, I tend to rattle off many, many, many things. There's just something about the setting that fires the imagination and resonates with my inner GM. So, I'm going to try to keep this short for once:

1. if you've ever wanted to game in a science fantasy setting that is the Dark Ages in space by way of Dune and Hyperion, this is the RPG for you;

2. if you're a follower of the Fading Suns brand from a prior edition, this is the confusingly named Fading Suns Player's Guide (Revised Edition), which is different from the prior edition of this RPG -- Fading Suns Revised Second Edition.

3. if you're an owner of the aforementioned Fading Suns Revised Second Edition, here are the new things that you can expect to see:

   • Timeline advanced to 5002 -- some interesting tidbits for longtime followers
   • Incorporates information on Minor Noble Houses -- some interesting stuff for longtime followers
   • Victory Point System tuned for simpler calculation of VPs -- good
   • Removed high fail/fumble factor from previous edition -- great
   • Spirit characteristics replace opposed Passion traits -- must playtest before deciding
   • Lifepath System streamlined and more flexible -- liked it before, seems improved
   • Number of Skills reduced -- good
   • Traits updated and Fighting Styles added -- must playtest before deciding
   • Psi and Theurgy refined for Spirit characteristic changes -- good
   • Combat system overhauled for faster play -- good
   • Cybernetics updated -- good
   • Expanded Technology and Transport chapters -- great
   • More weapon and armor options in the Armory -- good
   • Guidelines for player activity on Starships -- good
   • More sample Starships -- good
   • Lots of optional rules and sidebars -- good
   • Comprehensive Contents and Index -- great
   • (PDF) Fully bookmarked and hyperlinked throughout -- fantastic if you've got a digital copy
4. Surprisingly, the list above doesn't highlight a lot of the moderate changes to the Theurgical rules that really make the feel of Theurgy more plausible and 'lived in' for a very religious culture in the future. This will probably be the focus of a future blog post on http://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying's Event Supplement, titled Civil War - Fifty State Initiative, is a pretty good expansion of the Civil War event, allowing players to sort of round out the corners of their own version of the Marvel Universe.

OVERVIEW

This book hold two main sections: The Event Supplement and the Datafiles.

In the EVENT SUPPLEMENT, we get some idea of other elements of Marvel's Civil War that can be played out, including:

The Initiative

This tackles the drive to get a sanctioned super-hero team in every state, with details on Camp Hammond: where newbie heroes go to train two action scenes geared toward the Initiative several sanctioned teams: The Great Lakes Champions, the Liberteens, Omega Flight, The Order, Psionex, The Rangers, and the Shadow Initiative.

While I'm okay with a lot of the content for rounding out knowledge of the event, the only elements that really grabbed me for play opportunities were the Action Scenes and the The Order. The former really sets up a good sort of mini-scenario, while The Order comes the closest to detailing -- much as the comic book did -- how a State-sanctioned team might be set up. And this is really what I was expecting from the book, perhaps unfairly: a way for the event to allow a group of player characters to become the de facto go-to government team for a state, and how it might be supported and monitored.

On the other hand, the book is better maximized (in my opinion) if the gaming group plays a rebel team and encounters one or more of these superteams in the course of their rebellion.

The Thunderbolts

As a change of pace mini-campaign, this has a pretty good setup. Villains get recruited into serving the government as sanctioned heroes (and with some nasty, some might say fatal, ways of being controlled by their handlers), and quickly learn that there are some villains already in charge.

It also plays well in an existing campaign as a set of tough opponents for a rebel superteam.

Heroes for Hire

If your players choose to play ball with the government, but retain some kind of autonomy, they can go the mercenary -- er, government contractor route of Heroes for Hire. Some nice datafiles and a rationale that puts the PCs in a sort of rivalry/conflict with superteams on both sides of the Civil War fence (essentially being tasked to actively hunt down and capture Anti-Registration supers.

DATAFILES

These are always welcome (and you get a fair number of them in the prior section already), and in this case the standouts are the core membership of NextWave, the Thunderbolts, and Heroes for Hire.

All in all, I think that it wasn't as stellar in my mind as the other Event book. It comes across as a supplement to a supplement, and not a superstar in its own right, if that makes any sense. However, it does have some interesting counter-campaign options for a change of pace or different point of view for this mega-event, and is still a must-have for the die-hard Marvel enthusiast.

Yggdrasill is a fantastic combination of sourcebook and RPG. While it does choose to portray a view of Scandia that is more inclined toward a setting fitting for fantasy heroics, it does so in such a way to remain true to the history, culture, and source material.

As a sourcebook, Yggdrasill is a treasure trove of material:

• The chapter titled In the Shadow of Yggrdasill gives us a stunningly concise, yet evocative understanding of the Norse cosmology and its cults and rituals.
• The chapter titled Scandia gives us a rundown of the setting's kingdoms, rulers, geography & environment, settlements, organization, and major players.
• The chapter titled Daily Life gives a welcome idea about what the settlements and social hierarchy would be like in these kingdoms, driving home how the landscape, the environment, and the beliefs all play in shaping the people and its heroes and villains.
• The chapter titled Archetypes, while ostensibly part of the game system, further gives us an insight into the type of people that would go out and involve themselves in adventures and heroics, and shares with us a different view on magic that the people of Scandia have.
• The chapter of Magic is another eye-opener that builds on the Archetypes, explaining the three different types of magic (trance magic, incantation magic, and sacred writings) and how humans and the spirits and gods themselves use them.

Along the way, it also torpedoes several myths and misconceptions about: the term 'viking', horned helmets, drinking from human skulls, and the term 'drakkar'.

As an RPG, Yggdrasil provides not only rules on character creation, task resolution, combat, magic, and dealing with the runes of your fate, it also provides a mini-campaign that establishes the kind of epic adventure stories that the game is geared toward telling: dangers of travel, dangers of the wild, the price of fulfilling (or trying to escape) one's fate, magic and the gods, politics, and infighting among the jarls of Scandia.

I highly recommend this RPG if you've a penchant for a different type of fantasy role-playing in mind, or have always wanted a stab at adventuring in heroic Norse waters.

(this review also appears on my blog, http://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/)

I like this RPG, though the succeeding paragraph may not seem to make that point -- trust that the rest of the paragraphs do.

First the negative: this book is not really laid out (or organized) to my tastes. It's done in a competent manner, but there are certain slips that, in my opinion should be addressed to make the book stronger and easier not only to read, but also to use a as a reference book. In general, I do agree with the ordering of the material, but I feel strongly about trimming the 'game fiction for flavor', a more refined layout from the two column approach, and a more detailed table of contents.

Next, the positive: this is, surprisingly, a different take on the Lovecraftian mythology. It goes purist in that it ignores a lot of the post-Lovecraft additions to the Mythos, but allows for both the pessimistic and optimistic Lovecraftian play. And it takes the characters into space, allows characters to play with sorcery, forces characters to deal with the various races on Earth and beyond, and exposes characters to Hyperspatial radiation.

The games you play here could easily echo a Twilight Zone episode or Bradbury's Mars tales, your games can inject a sense of exploring the unknown, pushing the limits, and taking mankind beyond its cradle into a dangerous universe that could easily kill him or, strangely enough, king him. Not all endings need to result in the deaths of the protagonists -- some might survive, or even thrive as Randolph Carter did in the Dreamlands.

The juxtaposition of the open secret of hyperdimensional travel with the strange dangers of the mythos-filled universe is interesting for me. The actions of world governments and individuals in the timeline feel plausible and interesting to me, and the opportunities for a different type of space adventure / horror / exploration campaign are very appealing.

I also like (though I've not playtested) the unfolding of the cinematic Unisystem ruleset to allow for fast play. The character templates give a broad spectrum of recognizable archetypes, the character creation rules and gear give enough twists to optimize and ready your character for adventure.

This is a densely detailed, finely crafted setting. It provides standard kits for different types of military and scientific teams. It details a wide variety of realms and worlds that humanity has gone to or can go to. It provides a ready kit of well-known (and lesser known) creatures and dangers to threaten the PCs with. And it manages to maintain a Science Fiction feel despite the presence of the Lovecraftian elements. You don't get that overwhelming 'small band of heroes against a government conspiracy' feel that you do in Delta Green (which I love); in Eldritch Skies you get a 'humanity with all its strengths and foibles against the sea of unknowable terror and wonder that is the universe' vibe.

There's potential here to celebrate exploration of the universe, to celebrate the human spirit that seeks to push farther and delve further into cosmic mysteries than it has any right to, to celebrate cooperation and conflict and courage. There's also potential to expose all the ugly sides of the human condition -- greed, pride, and a lust for personal power at the cost of other peoples' lives and loves.

It reminds me of the potential of shows like the early season(s) of X-files and Earth: Final Conflict, and of (as mentioned above) the Twilight Zone episodes about space exploration and the Bradbury Mars Chronicles -- a wonderfully dark merging of science and weirdness that somehow avoids becoming science fantasy (which it technically is) and somehow avoids being merely horror in space.

If this is your kind of thing, give Eldritch Skies a shot.

(this review also appears on my blog: http://armchairgamer.blogspot.com. I originally posted a shorter version of the review, realized I had more to say to fully represent my opinion; so I deleted the old one and posted this new one.)

This is the 6th Edition of RuneQuest, and it is something special -- a real thing of value. It's one of the few RPG books that have come out this year that I think should be enshrined as an example of good RPG writing.

This book will turn you into an expert on the game of RuneQuest, and I don't say that lightly. It talks not only about the system, but also about the history of RuneQuest -- its prior editions, its importance in the early industry, and its many twists and turns. But that's only a few pages. The bulk of this 456 page book is constructed with solid gaming goodness -- a complete Fantasy RPG to realize your favorite setting.

ON THE WRITING

The meat of the book (the rules, character creation, magic, and so on) is written with succinctness and systematic clarity. For example, the section on Characteristics and Attributes follows the following pattern in its paragraphs:

-- differentiation of Characteristics (basic stats) and Attributes (figured Stats) -- name of Characteristic / Attribute -- short explanation of what the Characteristic / Attribute represents -- general rationale for the stat -- what characters with high values in this stat are like (roleplaying-wise and mechanics-wise) -- what characters with low values in this stat are like (roleplaying-wise and mechanics-wise) -- what happens when the value is reduced to zero

This approach is emblematic of the writing style of the game: in only 5 short pages, you're presented the rules for Characteristics & Attributes, the general game design rationale for them, their implication in terms of story and mechanics -- which includes tables for the calculated values of Attributes and the formulas for the basic skills whose starting values come from these Characteristics and Attributes!

Added to these pages is a nice one-page excerpt of the character sheet with various callouts that display tables explaining how the information for each field is to be calculated or filled in.

Added to that is Anathaym's saga -- an example of a character (and, later on in the book, her adventuring party) and how the rules in game system shape her life.

It seems that the writing, organization, and layout of the game was really done with an eye to reducing page-flipping back and forth between sections (though there are really useful sidebars that identify other pages with related rules, an organized and surprisingly detailed 1 page Table of Contents in the front, and a lovely 9 page Index in the back to help you if you can't find something).

THE CONTENTS

RuneQuest is one of the earliest skill-based systems -- it's built around a character concept and random or limited resources to build that character concept. You can have a cantrip-casting warrior, a sword-swinging spirit talker, a martial artist wizard, and so on if you build it properly. This edition is no different, and in fact both streamlines and expands the options for character.

Chapter 1 breaks down the basics of Character Creation, tackling Characteristics, Attributes, and Basic Skills

Chapter 2 talks about Culture and Community, identifies different generic fantasy cultures lists the Standard Skills, Professional Skills, Combat Styles, and Cultural Passions associated with each. It also has a table for unique background experiences in a character's life, a table for generating Allies and Enemies, and an explanation of what Passions are (an optional rule that gives bonuses and penalties to the characer based on their drives, their loves and hates, etc.).

Chapter 3 tackles Careers and Development, hitting you first with 70 example (!) professions and their related skills, with a nice table showing how they're grouped by cultural background. It then talks about the impact of Age, gives a broad view of Equipment and Magic (which have their own chapters) for finishing off your character.

Chapter 4 talks, again in a very organized and succinct fashion about the nitty-gritty of Skills in terms of the types of skills, the different types of skill rolls in the game including reattempted skill rolls, augmenting skills, and opposed skill rolls.

Chapter 5 goes through not just Equipment, but Economics as well. It covers not just things that adventurers might buy, but also income and social class, bargaining and bartering, food, clothing, and accommodations, vehicles, and siege weapons.

Chapter 6 is the Game Mechanics section and, for me, shows that the game philosophy for RuneQuest is broader than mere combat (which gets its own Chapter, thank you very much), because it tackles a lot of things here beyond the typical character improvement rules, suggesting rulings for things like Asphyxiation, Blood Loss, and Falling, tackling the use of game resources like Luck Points, and a very important discussion of Action, Time, and Movement.

Chapter 7 is about Combat, is grouped into headings and sub-headings tackling the various combat topics, including: Components of Combat, Combat Styles, Weapon Size and Reach, combat ranges, hit locations, and special effects.

Chapter 8 talks about Magic in general, which you should not skim through lightly. It talks about what magic is, how they're tied to runes, and sets the basis for understanding the various magical traditions available in RuneQuest 6, such as: Folk Magic (Chapter 9), Animism (Chapter 10), Mysticism (Chapter 11), Sorcery (Chapter 12), and Theism (Chapter 13). Each of these establishes these various magical traditions, describes the 'spells' of each, and explains the various additional rules that really differentiate them from one another in terms of philosophy and game mechanics and game options.

Chapter 14 tackles the Cults and Brotherhoods that explain the organizations and movements that can provide formalized instruction in the the magical disciplines tackled in other chapters. It really gives you a lot to create your own factions, old dinosaurs, movers and shakers, and up-and-comers in your own setting -- and what these mean for your players and their characters.

Chaper 15 tackles Creatures and Spirits in terms of story and mechanics. There are rules here designing your own creatures, and rules on being able to have Player Character Creatures as well.

Chapter 16 is focused on the GM and Games Mastery, including the "Petersen Rules of Good Gaming" (from Sandy Petersen, of course) and lots of advice on running games, sticky situations for GMs, and different styles of play using the system.

Finally, we have a collection of Game Aids, including the character sheets, a series of tables for non-human hit locations, and a combat tracking sheet.

THE TECHNOLOGY

Just one last thing here: I purchased the PDF and was so intrigued by the system and the writing that I began to highlight and annotate my PDF using the default Acrobat Reader. I was surprised when I was asked to save the file -- and it asked me if I wanted to save it under another file name. When I did so, it began saving a lighter version of the file (optimzed for web browsing it said) that weighed in at around 40 MB, much reduced from the 104 MB filesize. I get to have a pristine version of my PDF & a highlighted / annotated version! Sorry, geek moment.

Also, the hyperlinking is very useful in the PDF, and makes the whole thing easier to navigate through and read.

I heartily recommend this book for Fantasy RPG enthusiasts looking for a detailed, but customizable system to help your create and realize your own setting!

There are two versions of this event, so be careful which one you pick up.

-- If you already have the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Book, then pick up the Essentials Edition. It contains only the additional rules for the Event and the Event material itself. -- If you don't have the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Book, then pick up the Premium Edition. It contains the Rules Event-specific rules Event material itself.

ADDITIONS TO THE OPERATIONS MANUAL

If you already have the Basic RPG, this is mostly the same material (allegedly with minor modifications and typo fixes -- stuff I haven't actually seen yet). However, there is a random character generation option included in this version. I've heard online that the generator is also available on the publisher's site, though I haven't confirmed it yet.

NEW RULES

The most interesting rules for this event for me are: Resolving Hero vs. Hero conflicts and Troupe Play.

Hero vs. Hero: interesting because the Civil War event does pit heroes against one another (and villains too), and while some of the rules can be chalked up to extrapolations of the framework already established, it's nice to see it stated outright -- particularly for touchy issues like having one player inflict a crippling complication on another player's character.

Troupe Play: interesting because it allows players to play more than one Hero in the course of this epic event -- important if a character is imprisoned or sidelined by injury. It also posits the option of pooling XP (wherein a player earns XP for the event instead of that player's Heroes), so that key elements of the scenes, storylines, and heroes might be unlocked regardless of the status of any one Hero.

THE EVENT PROPER

The book gives a good overview of the Civil War conflict, as well as detail on the factions involved, the key players, and locations and battlefronts that the conflict unfolds on.

In three Acts, the Civil War event is detailed with the recommended sequence of scenes and information on the recommended action and transition scenes for each. There is enough information to run each scene, though I do find myself wanting to pick up the comic books (given the immense amount of backhistory for a lot of the characters) to determine possible reactions of each one in a given scene. There is also space or leeway given to really spin the Event down different paths other than the ones in the official Marvel Universe timeline -- and I'll avoid spoilers here for those who never bothered to pick up all the comics in this mega-crossover event. There's a lovely bibliography in the back if you're interested.

HERO DATAFILES

32 hero datafiles in the Civil War sourcebook, with an Index that indicates where all the datafiles for the movers and shakers in the Event can be found in either the Basic Book or the Event Sourcebook -- with some of them (like Clint Barton) reflecting the various character changes and roles they played in the entire war.

Excellent material for this widescreen, multi-location, multi-front event.

SUMMARY

Overall, the book really does make me want to get a group together to play out different factions simultaneously to put our own stamp on the Marvel Universe -- perhaps with our own characters or with key players in the event acting the way we feel they should have acted. And that's big praise from someone who really dismissed the entire event when it unfolded in comics as flawed (at best). This tome makes it engaging enough for me to want to be in the event proper and make things turn out differently, hopefully better.

(this review also appears on my blog -- armchairgamer.blogspot.com)

There are two versions of this event, so be careful which one you pick up.

-- If you already have the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Book, then pick up the Essentials Edition. It contains only the additional rules for the Event and the Event material itself. -- If you don't have the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Book, then pick up the Premium Edition. It contains the Rules Event-specific rules Event material itself.

NEW RULES

The most interesting rules for this event for me are: Resolving Hero vs. Hero conflicts and Troupe Play.

Hero vs. Hero: interesting because the Civil War event does pit heroes against one another (and villains too), and while some of the rules can be chalked up to extrapolations of the framework already established, it's nice to see it stated outright -- particularly for touchy issues like having one player inflict a crippling complication on another player's character.

Troupe Play: interesting because it allows players to play more than one Hero in the course of this epic event -- important if a character is imprisoned or sidelined by injury. It also posits the option of pooling XP (wherein a player earns XP for the event instead of that player's Heroes), so that key elements of the scenes, storylines, and heroes might be unlocked regardless of the status of any one Hero.

THE EVENT PROPER

The book gives a good overview of the Civil War conflict, as well as detail on the factions involved, the key players, and locations and battlefronts that the conflict unfolds on.

In three Acts, the Civil War event is detailed with the recommended sequence of scenes and information on the recommended action and transition scenes for each. There is enough information to run each scene, though I do find myself wanting to pick up the comic books (given the immense amount of backhistory for a lot of the characters) to determine possible reactions of each one in a given scene. There is also space or leeway given to really spin the Event down different paths other than the ones in the official Marvel Universe timeline -- and I'll avoid spoilers here for those who never bothered to pick up all the comics in this mega-crossover event. There's a lovely bibliography in the back if you're interested.

HERO DATAFILES

32 hero datafiles in the Civil War sourcebook, with an Index that indicates where all the datafiles for the movers and shakers in the Event can be found in either the Basic Book or the Event Sourcebook -- with some of them (like Clint Barton) reflecting the various character changes and roles they played in the entire war.

Excellent material for this widescreen, multi-location, multi-front event.

SUMMARY

Overall, the book really does make me want to get a group together to play out different factions simultaneously to put our own stamp on the Marvel Universe -- perhaps with our own characters or with key players in the event acting the way we feel they should have acted. And that's big praise from someone who really dismissed the entire event when it unfolded in comics as flawed (at best). This tome makes it engaging enough for me to want to be in the event proper and make things turn out differently, hopefully better.

(this review also appears on my blog -- armchairgamer.blogspot.com)

The Book of the Empress is a sourcebook that tackles a cosmic level antagonist in the Champions Universe: Istvatha V'han.

What's intriguing about it is how the book not only adds layers to the character of Istvatha V'han, but also how she relates to two other well-known cosmic level antagonists in the Champions Universe, and just how complicated invading dimensions and conquering them can be.

The history of her rise to power is not entirely one-note, but the complexities really arise when she begins to encounter other expansionist players in the multiverse with designs on what she claims as her territory (Champions Earth). There are enough interesting wrinkles to that history and the workings of the multiverse to overcome one of the problems of many super-heroic settings not based on ongoing comics series: insufficient twists and turns and a stunningly small amount of major players. In the Book of the Empress, the field that she plays on is complex, peopled with many varied types of opposition, and the history has the feel of a rich comic book universe.

The Empress of a Billion Dimensions is statted out, but has variant versions for other genres, should you choose to limit her magnificence.

Her minions are statted out as well, and a rich mix they are: general forces, several select races, an elite force, and the equivalent of an Imperial Battalion populated with heroes and villains from alternate universes that will be familiar to the heroes of your campaign.

There's also a good explanation of the Champions Multiverse (which is based on the Sephirothic Tree of Life), notes on Imperial Technology, Vehicles, and a guided tour of the Empress's Empire -- government, domains, and how all them are gearing up for the invasion of Earth.

Most useful: the in-depth look into the personality and plans of Istvatha V'han. A must for GMs trying portray a fiercely competent, accomplished, and powerful individual who may, at some point, interact with the PCs.

For someone looking to do an ultra-mega-crossover in a super-heroic campaign, this is the book for you.

(review also appears on http://armchairgamer.blogspot.com/)

Devil's Gulch does double-duty as both a setting book and a genre sourcebook, and given a page count of only 92 pages, that's a tall order.

It delivers both, sufficient to kick off a short Western campaign set in Devil's Gulch for a while.

On the genre sourcebook end, it provides an all important one-page listing of various aspects of the 'Code of the West' in the Old West -- measure a man by what he is today, not by his past; never try on another man's hat; give your enemy a fighting chance, etc. It's great at evoking a real sense of the times and climes of that almost mythic era.

It also gives various character professions that add on to the other more normal (time-period appropriate) professions for the era -- with a particular 'weird west' bent to them. I particularly like the snake oil hustler and the hexmaster, though the medicine man is also a welcome inclusion as well.

As a setting sourcebook, it gives a respectable number of locations in Devil's Gulch that are easily extractable to your own setting if you wish. Each location has a map, a statted-out NPC or two if appropriate, and a short but detailed description of what if found within, along with telling details that reinforce the western feel of the setting. I enjoyed little things like the lists of supplies that can be found in the general store, and how easy fires can be started in the dry, almost-entirely-made-from-wood buildings of Devil's Gulch.

The NPCs are also memorable, worthy of stealing from when looking for a random NPC walking the streets to liven up the session.

That interior art is consistent and distinctive. It's not really a photorealistic approach, but a moody, evocative, slightly cartoony feel -- kind of like the art in the Weird Western comic book The Sixth Gun and the art in Alan Moore's League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen -- that captures and evokes the weird western feel quite well.

If you're looking for something to expand your Weird West collection of materials, or have been hankering to run a Weird West campaign using the BRP system, this would be a fine addition to your sourcebooks.

(from my review at armchairgamer.blogspot.com)

The Mythos Dossiers is an interesting supplement / sourcebook. The presentation and content of the sourcebook to emulate actual files that would be found in the intelligence dossiers. Like the novel, these files are codenamed rather interestingly: BLUE HADES, ANNING BLACK, EQUUS STELLAR, PLUTO KOBOLD, etc. and are more or less consistently used throughout the sourcebook across all 'files', reinforcing the feel of working for a bureaucratic agency dealing with the supernatural.

The formats of the files found in the dossiers are many and varied: there are letters, handwritten and typewritten; there are transcripts of recorded interviews; there are photos that are vague yet suggestive; there are diagrams; there are situation reports and assessments; and so on.

Some of them are quite humorous, such as the BLUE HADES interview; others are terrifying in their implications. Even better, the more files that you read in each dossier, the more you learn about each topic -- players and GMs may end up drawing connections between things that they wouldn't have seen taking each file individually.

GMs can use this sourcebook as inspiration for scenarios and campaigns. They can also hand out entire dossiers grouped by codename to get PCs ready for a scenario tackling that dossier. They can also hand out files piecemeal, allowing the PCs to learn more and more as an adventure or scenario progresses.

I love this sourcebook -- it feels true to both inspirations: the classic Call of Cthulhu handouts and The Laundry novels.

(from my online review at armchairgamer.blogspot.com)

I kind of gave the Leverage RPG a pass when it came out because -- I didn't watch the show.

But after I finally encountered first the Smallville RPG, then the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying RPG, I decided to pick up Leverage to give it another try. Then I decided to take a look at the sourcebooks for it.

This book, Leverage: Hitters, Hackers, and Thieves, is an indispensable tool for both players and GMs (Fixers in this RPG) interested in rounding out and deepening the capabilities, backgrounds, rivals, and approaches for these types of roles in the game. While it does not (and cannot) give an encyclopedic account of all things Hitter/Hacker/Thief, it does bolster the treatment given in the rulebook with key points in the history and rationale of the role, very flavorful talents to broaden the cinematic treatment in the game, and some Master Class options to make the PCs and NPCs even more awesome than they already are.

There are also additional rules for Locations in this sourcebook to make things more interesting for the Thief (and everyone else) in your Crew. As a bonus, you get several technology-centric Jobs to take your Crew through.

In addition, the book is written clearly, while successfully providing both information and flavor to further reinforce the genre of the game.

If you're into Leverage, pick it up!

This edition of Starmada has all the strengths of prior editions:

(a) a sort of elegance in the ruleset that allows for deep tactical options, while retaining a clarity of statement and explanation. Plus, the guiding rule of simple, but not simplistic, rules is still very much evident;

(b) the ability to not only custom-build your own ships, but also the options to custom-build your ruleset with Advanced Rules and Alternate Movement Systems in order to reflect the type of starship combat reality you want to emulate

(c) really clean and functional ship displays to help you keep track of your ship capabilities and damage;

(d) my favorite -- the default movement rules that reflect the inertia rules in space without having to keep track of two or three Delta V values for each ship.

I like the improvement in the diagrams, particularly the firing arcs. They go a long way to clarifying rules without lengthy discussions. I like the retention of clear examples for each rule. And I like the amount of fleet lists available to get a game going right away!

Right off the bat, I have to warn you: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is a mashup of different RPG philosophies and may not be what you're expecting from a super-hero RPG. If you give it a chance, if you accept that not all of it may necessarily flow down traditional RPG design paths, I think that you'll find it's an excellent RPG.

It uses Cortex Plus, which -- as anyone whose even leafed through another Cortex Plus rulebook can tell you -- doesn't necessarily guarantee the exact same ruleset. This variant still creates dice pools, but the sources of these dice pools (Affiliations, Distinctions, Power Sets, and Specialities) are different enough from the Smallville version to claim that it's a different game altogether.

I do like the Affiliations (which differentiate character power levels when operating as part of a team, as a buddy, or solo) and the Distinctions (which give both bonuses and "penalties" based on character "tags" or "schticks") a lot because of the narrative / comic book feel they give the game.

I like the Power Sets with some reservations. While the Power Sets (with their related SFX, Stunts, and Limits) do allow for very broad, yet customizable abilities that can fit on one page, the absence of a coherent point-based approach really throws me off when trying to determine relative power levels. They also may pose problems for GMs and Players with less solid character concepts and more rules lawyer-oriented philosophies.

The Specialties are a nice way to cover skill groups quickly, in pretty much the same fast-and-loose way that comics tends to handle skills. I wish that there was a little bit more gradation in the skill levels though.

Of course, it does mean that Character Creation can be very fast, and can be tweaked as the game goes along.

As far as task resolution, GMing, and scene / adventure / campaign rules go -- it's very much got a narrativist / indie feel (game milestones that grant XP that you can spend to tweak the game, several mechanics that feel very much like Fate), but with just enough crunch to pencil in justifiable rankings on the abilities of a given character.

The art is fantastic, and -- since most of it was taken from comics in the past decade -- it has a very modern feel to it as well.

The mini-event that comes with the game, and the characters with ready stats, are all taken from the New Avengers storyline that preceded the whole Civil War, Dark Reign, and Siege storylines.

Overall, it's a fantastic RPG that somehow manages to grant that feeling of playing in a modern Marvel comic book, somehow gives mechanics to the somewhat elastic power levels found in their pages, and somehow allows the players to recreate the narrative ebb and flow of adventure and drama in the genre.

Most important -- it's an RPG that makes me want to play! Avengers Assemble!

Layout

The book / PDF document has a great feel to it, as the layout has the look of a dossier of material. While most of the fonts are the same, there are 'paper-clipped' photos and annotations in different paper types and fonts to reinforce that feeling.

Writing

The style of writing is clear and clean, with a mixture of exposition and explanation and just enough of the humor and informality to be The Laundry. It doesn't dip into Stross's tendency to throw sink-or-swim bits of espionage telling detail or mathematical esoterica that work so well in the fiction, but would leave gamers screaming bloody murder.

Updated Character Creation

It looks similar to the fast character creation rules in Call of Cthulhu, and it should -- The Laundry RPG uses the same Basic Role-Playing system. However, there are some modifications and additions to that process.

Characteristic Rolls -- back in the day, there were only Knowledge Rolls, Idea Rolls, and Luck rolls that were all percentile chances based on a STATx5 formula. Now there are Effort Rolls, Endurance Rolls, Agility Rolls and Influence Rolls, also based on the same formula. I like it, because it makes attributes faster than the old method of referring to the Resistance Table (which still exists, but only for instances with opposing difficulties).

Personality Types and Assignment & Training -- in COC, your Profession determined your primary skill set. Now you have Personality Types and Assignment & Training which do the same thing, but with different rationale. This fits in with the Laundry getting people from all walks of life and backgrounds, and then shoehorning them into the org because they know too damn much about the wrong things.

Possessions -- you get some default equipment based on your work in the Laundry and your various skillsets.

Great Setting Resources

Chapters Nine, Twelve, and Thirteen give great starting background material for folks unfamiliar with U.K. government intelligence institutions and their international counterparts, and the Laundry itself, of course.

Chapters Nineteen and Twenty-One define some pretty important code words in the Laundry setting: BLUE HADES, DEEP SEVEN, GORGONS, and of course, CODE NIGHTMARE GREEN.

Chapters Ten, Eleven, and Fifteen share some of the gear and flavor of working in an occult espionage agency plagued by modern views of bureaucratic best practice.

Chapter Fourteen is a welcome chapter, as it deals with magic. Devotees of the series know that magic isn't as per traditional Cthulhu spellcrafting goes -- there's a layer of mind-straining electromagnetic and mathematical theory on it. Here's where we get to differentiate between mathematical sorcery, traditional sorcery, and the enigmatically named true sorcery. Also, some spells that are mentioned in the books make an appearance here.

Chapter Eighteen has the statted-out characters that appear in the series, as is tradition for many IP-related sourcebooks. What is great is the inclusion of stats for generic support personnel (Plumbers, Cleaners, Baggers, and Toshers) -- unlike the more maverick and isolated cell-structures of the American-based Delta Green RPG / sourcebook, the Laundry is an organization that supports its personnel as much as it tortures them.

Overall, a great book! I just wish that the PDF had a better set of bookmarks.