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Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game and Fact Book
Series: d20
Publisher: Mongoose Publishing
Type: Core Rules
Media: Hardback
Review: here
Review Intro:
Ooo! Shiny! Purple! I’m not describing some mythic twenty-sided die but airing my first impressions of the new Babylon 5 Roleplaying Game. Unlike the new d20 license from Mongoose Publishing this review does not have the luxury of a forward from J. Michael Straczynski. Straczynski admits his own roleplaying experience. He played Cthulhu, discovered that roleplayers aren’t like normal people and never roleplayed again. This means the B5 creator has not used any of the previous incarnations of the B5 RPGs. I wonder if this one will win him around.
This review isn’t a satisfying hardbound collection of 304 glossy pages either. The game is. The front cover depicts the B5 station at the classic angle, the title of the book is above the picture and "Signs and Portents" below. The covers are black but a border of purple tinted space surrounds the pages inside.
"Signs and Portents" is important. It’s whacked on the front cover for a reason (and not just because it’s the name of Mongoose’s newly launched magazine). Signs and Portents is the name of the first season of the B5 TV show. The full title of the book is worth stressing to, it’s the Babylon 5 "Roleplaying Game and Fact Book". The book concentrates entirely on the first season. Sinclair is in charge. Deleen has no hair. The B5 crew aren’t worried about Shadows. If you want stats, rules and observations for the plot twists and story arcs that come later then you’ll need to buy one of the promised sourcebooks. You can’t play a Ranger yet. Hmm. It would be impossible to do a Babylon 5 core rules book because those rules are already in a separate book. The third edition of the Player’s Handbook provides the core rules. Too much would need to be cut to from the book to summarise all five seasons in 400 pages or even 500 pages. The one book per season approach eliminates space concerns. I feel it also makes it easier to map your B5 campaign to the events in the series. If that’s what you want to do. There’s little danger that the subsequent sourcebooks won’t appear. Mongoose’s productivity has been described as machine-like.... [ more ]
Haven: City of Violence
Series: Haven
Publisher: Louis Porter Jr Design
Type: Core Rules
Media: Softback
Review: here
Review Intro:
Get on with the game already.
Actually, you’re probably not thinking that as you start to explore Haven: City of Violence. The chances are pretty good you’ll admire the front cover – which is nicely done, the "design" in Louis Porter, Jr. Design is evident from the outset. It looks nice. I wasn’t thinking "Get on with the game already" as I flicked through the 14-paged, full colour, comic strip that introduces the book. I was too distracted by yet more pretty pictures and by trying to work out who was after whom and how many assassins there are.
Then there’s the two page personal statement from Louis Porter, Jr. He tells us that he’s an educated man, he has a degree in Political Science, his girlfriend has a degree as well and his brother is seven years older than him. Mr Porter tells us what’s wrong with the world, or rather, what’s wrong with America. People can’t take responsibility for their own actions and too many people blame Dungeons and Dragons. An example is offered; if a kid commits suicide and plays D&D then it’s D&D’s fault, not the kids. The argument here is that it’s not D&D’s fault. I agree with that, I’d just hasten to add that it’s unlikely to be the kid’s fault either. This scapegoating of RPGs is clearly something Louis Porter, Jr feels strongly about since he uses capital letters all over the place to make his point. He regrets having to include this personal statement in the game. I regret it too; get on with the game already!
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Ultimate Games Designer's Companion
Series: d20
Publisher: Mongoose
Type: Supplement
Media: Hardback
Review: here
Review Intro:
The Ultimate Games Designer’s Companion - there, you’re curious already, it’s an "I want to buy this book" title. It’s a clever title; a psychological critical hit from Mongoose but it’s a title that follows perfectly innocently along in the Ultimate series.
It’s official, at the time of writing, the Ultimate series now out sells Mongoose’s Collector series. This is understandable, the Ultimate books are newer, they offer up the best of the best and although they might cost US$34.95 they’re also 250+ pages and a nice hardback frame. A real book for real gamers.
Yeah, the Ultimate Games Designer’s Companion is a real book – but what’s it about? ...
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Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns
Series: d20
Publisher: EN Publishing
Type: Fantasy Games
Media: Paperback
Review: here
Review Intro:
Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns is a roleplaying games supplement about games that includes a roleplaying games substitute which can be played in a tavern or perhaps at tournament or fair too. Just to repeat that without the confusion; Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns is full of games.
This is a great idea. It only takes two seconds for the GM to mention, as way of adding detail, two fellows playing some sort of game in the tavern and only two more seconds for a player to ask which game and that they’re trying to join in. The opposite side of the same coin would be a fair or tournament where it could be take the GM hours to plan the details for every stall or competition and still only two seconds for the players to decide they don’t want to enter that one. Do’h.
Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns is one of those extremely usable books. It’s the type of supplement that’ll see use in more than one campaign, more than one gaming world. It’s the type of supplement that can be grabbed and used by a GM working on a scene on the fly and can be used by a GM in the planning stages. Fortunately, T, F & T is good enough that you’ll want to use it in all these occasions. The other side of the coin is that T, F & T is highly specialised. If your high fantasy games involve missions into abandoned dwarf mines, trips to fiery volcanoes to destroy ancient evil weapons and battles against powerful wizards almost all of the time then its quite possible that you could care less about the rules for "Gin and Rabbits", "The Laughing Stones" or
...
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Heart of the Machine
Series: Dragonstar: d20
Publisher: Mystic Eye Games
Type: Sci-Fi / Dragonstar
Media: Paperback
Review: here
Review Intro:
This is a review of a pre-written scenario. If you don’t want spoilers then jump in your spaceship and buzz off. Heart of the Machine is a licensed Dragonstar game. As a licensed game it’s not written by Fantasy Flight Games but by Mystic Eye Games instead, that’s alright, Mystic Eye have already proven they can do this successfully enough with Raw Recruits.
The Heart of the Machine is nice and clean. The book has a nice feel to it, a crisp layout, a bold front cover, good quality paper and exceptionally sharp cartography. The 64-paged paperback adventure is split into three parts and designed for fourth level characters. GM tips presented in easy to spot "theme boxes" are on hand to make it easy to scale the adventure towards the nuances of the party. For example, a "Greater Than" note suggests adding an extra thug and warrior because the party’s combined levels is greater than the suggested default, in the same place a "Lesser Than" note suggests removing one warrior and a "Gunslingers" note comes into force if the group is blessed with several strong fighters places the thugs behind some parked vehicles and therefore in half cover. I’m going to wrinkle my nose at the "role-play heavy" group being catered for by the "Puzzles and Pits" theme box, but only a little wrinkle since the alterations are often role-playing twists and not actually a puzzle or a pit.....
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