This V&V adventure was originally written around 1986 (near the end of the heyday of releases for the game) but didn't see publication until 2010. For me the main draws were the authors and illustrator. Stewart and Stephan Wieck wrote several V&V adventures but are much better for their output at White Wolf, which was very much their baby early on. Jeff Dee hardly needs an introduction, having been a very big name in the gaming industry throughout the 80s and having helped write V&V itself in the first place.

Sadly, this is a very poor showcase of their respective talents. The adventure is a linear railroad of combat set pieces, the plot behind everything makes little sense, and the villains and their various henchmen are mostly quite uninspired (with a couple being downright goofy). Even more disappointing, this was apparently the last product Jeff Dee provided art for, and I suspect it may explain the long delay in publication. Simply put, this is the worst illustration work I've ever seen from Dee, worse than even the very start of his professional career, and far below par for his V&V work. It's simply unfinished, barely more than pencil sketches in some cases. Very, very disappointing from someone I know can do better. The adventure's cartography (uncredited, but probably - hopefully? - not Dee) is even more crude, even by the lower standards of the mid-Eighties.

This avoids a Very Poor rating only by virtue of having an interesting concept (regardless of dreadful execution) and the fact that even in its fairly raw state, the illustration of the monster Graulokk appeals to me. You can just see the edge of Dee's real potential there - and then you see things like Earthworm and Mole. Ugh. This should never have been published in its current state.

A fairly typical V&V villain catalog, this one focused on baddies who operate in Japan, all with marked anime influence. Compared to earlier villain books in the series there are fewer whimsical entries (some of the older V&V villains could be downright goofy) but a bit less originality and variety. Out of twenty villains, quite a few are obviously lifted from anime - most of which was older even when this came out, 1990s and early Oughts - including a Knight Saber expy from Bubblegum Crisis, an evil Astro Boy, a Guyver, and a child Pokemon trainer who's wanted for animal cruelty. There are also some stereotypes including a vampire, ninja, catgirl, and no less than three different female cyborgs/gynoids with various memory and socialization problems. Villain levels range from 1 to 6, with a strong bias toward the 1-3 part of that scale. This gets a rating bump from me for the very strong B&W artwork, which is nicely evocative and has a distinctive style. It's a shame that the artist, Brian Delandro Hardison, doesn't appear to have done much other work in the gaming industry and none at all for V&V. He's arguably the best illustrator the game has had outside of Dee and Willingham, and he's giving Jeff a run for his money here.

An excellent sourcebook for this and Any Space game

This has always been one my favorite modules. Great comic story and excellent art throughout. My original copy did not make past the 90s and was glad to find it here!

Good classic game. Really sets players as part of society rather than just Murder Hobos.

Happy to recommend

This is a very nice old school SF roleplaying game. I fondly remember it from the 80's. It is really to have an electronic copy. My only big issue with this product is that I think that the scan could have been done better. Even better still- a complete remastering (but don't change anything!).

I have chosen to give this a 3 star solely on the quality of the scanning. More effort and this could have been 5 stars.

Excellent guide to the Blarad and extra background on the history and relationship with the Ranian and MekPurr.

I first purchased Wild West when it was first released by FGU. I have found it to be totally unique from all ‘other’ games that have been published because of the way it handles Character Creation, Skills, Horses and Combat.

Character Creation: Each Character has Primary and Secondary Characteristics. There are nine Primary Characteristics and eight Secondary Characteristics. The Primary Characteristic Values (CV) are determined normally by rolling 3d6 for a CV of 3-18. The Secondary Characteristic Values (CV) are determined by using various math formulas using the Primary CVs. For Example: Height-in-inches: Add the Physique (CV) to 54 + 1d6. The result will be your height in inches. So if your Physique CV was 12, then 12+54+1d6 (3) would equal 69 inches, or 5’9”. The Character’s “Damage Factor” (Total Hit Points) is one of the Secondary CVs. This is obtained by adding the Weight, Physique and Constitution rounded up to the next 10. For example: The Character weighs 202 lbs. You add Physique (12) and Constitution (12) to get 226, which is rounded up to 230. This 230 is then apportioned to the various parts of the body. The Head, each arm and Leg gets 10% (23 points) each. The Chest is 30% (69 points) and the Abdomen is 20% (46 points). This comes in later in Combat or injuries.

Skills: The Character starts with six Primary and four Secondary Skills. Each Skill has a CV and starting Experience Points. Some skills can only be taken in the first six Primary Skills (Doctor/Medical, Dentist or Veterinarian). This can pose problems for the Gamemaster, since many Players will choose Medical as one of the first six, and you will have a party of doctors running around in your campaign. This is highly unrealistic, since doctors were very few and far between in the Old West. You may want to limit your party to one, maximum. Or, you could state no one can learn it to make it more exciting, so if anyone gets hurt, they have to find a doctor. (Basic first aid can always be applied to stop bleeding, etc.) The last four skills can then be chosen. Lastly, there are a few Skills that can only be learned AFTER the characters are in-game. Each skill’s CV is determined by a formula. As an Example, “Quick Draw” is determined by adding Agility + Perception, then dividing the sum by 2 to get the CV. Thus, let’s say the Character’s Agility is 15 and the Perception is 13; 15+13=28. 28 divided by 2 = 14. This Character’s Quick Draw CV = 14.

Experience Points: Experience is also treated differently than on ‘other’ games. Each skill has its own experience points, so your skills are very important. Each successful use of a skill raises the Experience Points in that skill according to the difficulty (See below). So if the Character practices Quick-draw (which you see in many westerns), his experience will go up.

Horses: Horses were highly-prized possessions in the Old West. Horse thieves were normally strung-up on the spot if caught in the act (or once they were caught). To indicate this importance, horses are also created similar to characters. They have their own CVs and will also have Experience Points for Skills they have learned.

Combat: Combat in Wild West is DEADLY. One well-placed shot can kill the character! In this area, Wild West is very realistic. Remember apportioning the Hit Points earlier? If the person above gets shot in the right arm (23 points total), the rules explain the results according to the damage taken. As an example, if the person has taken 50% but less than 75% damage, the person has a 50% chance that the use of the limb is lost! So don’t think that your Character will be taking lead and shrugging off the damage. Combat is divided-up in 6-2 second segments. So each Combat ‘round’ will have 6 segments. Each Character will ‘plot-out’ his/her round. After each round, the Characters then do it again, until the end of the combat. Each Action takes up so many segments. As an example, Black Bart does not have Quick-Draw, but wants to shoot another person. Drawing a pistol without Quick-Draw takes between 1-5 segments! This is covered in the rules. Let’s say it takes him 4 segments. He lines-out the first 4 segments. This leaves him 2 segments left. Bart then decides to Aim (1 segment), and Fire (1 Segment). So, in the first Combat round, he draws his pistol and then aims & fires (in the last segment). However, the Character has Quick-Draw and is quite experienced. He only takes 2 Segments to draw his pistol, then he decides to aim, fire, aim, fire (each one segment). So, the Character is able to get off one shot while Bart is still drawing, hitting him in the chest. Due to damage, Bart has lost 50% of his damage points in the chest and has a 75% chance of losing consciousness for 1-20 minutes. Bart rolls the percentile dice and rolls a 71. Oh so close! He clutches his chest and falls in the street just as his gun was clearing the holster. He did not even get to aim and fire. Combat is now over. However, since this happened in town there is a good chance there is a doctor, and Bart can recover. Once again, Combat is Deadly!!!

The Role-playing Probability Chart (RPC): This chart is the meat of the game and makes Wild West different than all of the ‘other’ games. All chances of hitting a target or doing anything in the game relies on this one chart! Each point of experience and digit/point of CV makes a difference in the successful outcome, as well as the difference in the difficulty of the task performed. There are three scales of difficulty; A-Hard/Complex, B-Difficult/Medium and C-Easy/Normal, but not so simple as an automatic success. An example of this would be firing a pistol at a target at short range. It will be on Line C; since it will not be an automatic hit.

Looking at the Combat above, since the Character was successful in his quick draw and Pistol marksmanship, he will gain experience in each.

There are further modifiers for cover, running, distance, etc.

Wild West also has rules for wound recovery, damage taken while traveling wounded, TNT damage, Brawling (good Saloon fights, anyone?) etc.

Equipment: Wild West has a good list of equipment, guns (by year introduced), and such, plus how much money a particular job/profession made in a month. A normal run-of-the-mill Cowboy made $15 - $35 a month, while a full time Town Sheriff made $30 - $40 a month.

Overall, I have loved this game. It makes the characters role-play rather than shooting everything in sight. However, if you like “A-Team” type play (lots of shooting, yelling, running around with nobody getting shot), then you may want to play another game for combat.

I'm GMing a play by post (PBP) Bushido game on the Unseen Servant forum. I'm also a feudal Japan history otaku who lived in Japan and studied Japanese for five years. I can say that this game is not only a lot of fun, but it manages to capture a samurai-era Japan feel. That aside, the game mechanics themselves make for really interesting games. Combat is detailed and has a lot of tactical options. It feels like a miniatures wargame in the form of an RPG. The rules on characters' social standing are interesting and they can create interesting situations. A character with a greatly higher social can essentially force another character to do something or not do something. (We lost one player because of that-- he didn't like the idea of his PC not having complete autonomy.

As was mentioned in another review, the rules are kind of hard to comprehend. Some concepts mentioned in earlier sections aren't explained until later sections. But all of the many pieces do fit together in the end in an elegant way. I'd recommend reading the entire player's book through, without trying to fully understand each section as you go. Once you get a grasp of the overall picture, the individual smaller parts will make sense.

Overall, a really brilliant game design and much fun to play.

Rules to play your own Hornblower, Aubrey or even start as a midshipman and work your way up through the ranks (Promotions and Prizes), aimed at British or US officers, although I guess you could play a privateer (or pirate even) from any nationality. There are also rules for a fully fledged minatures game (Heart of Oak booklet) and desgning your own ships (Tradition of Victory). There is a mass of background detail and a timeline from 1754 to 1827 and price lists for Britain and the US.

Excellent value for money.

This is a nice work. It has four adventures, the latter two of which tie together. But the second is a sequel to happen some years later after the first, when the PCs are more powerful and established in Nippon. Here's my subjective lists of positives and negatives. (I emphasize "subjective," because I've been a feudal Japan history otaku since... the last few decades of the 20th century). So my tastes are a little skewed.

Starting with the subjective negatives (which are few): -I had a little trouble figuring out the plots in the first two adventures. Who the NPCs were and what their goals and motivation were. It took second reads and some scrolling up and down to get it. -The names of NPCs and places were invented. When samples of actual Japanese names from the period can easily be searched. Japanese names have a logic, they're made of components. (E.g. Yamamoto, Ishiyama, Yamamori. Yama means 'mountain.') I thought that throwing in authentic names would subtly add to immersion into the world of Nippon. Which is a hard enough task already for any Bushido GM. (I warned you I was otaku) -I didn't know what level characters the encounters were designed for. They seemed very challenging for 1st Level characters. (We have to face it, everybody playing Bushido these days is probably starting out at -1 Level (character generation) and working up to Level 1.

The positives (which are many): -Well organized, with complete information and no holes left open. -Establishes the PCs a base and surrounding area, with excellent maps, include a town map, topo map, and various detailed interior/grounds maps to be used however needed. But samurai Nippon-style, doesn't really let the PCs become insiders, without much effort. -Early on introduces the social interaction, On and Rank considerations. Forces the GM and players to learn and think through this pretty unique Bushido system. Provides ample opportunities for using Skills such as Go, and opportunities for downtime training at temples, dojos and such. -Nonlinear adventures hint at "Honor Bound" being a setting for sandbox, as much as an adventures module. -Complicated thought-through explanations of many if/then situations, depending on whether a certain NPC survives, whether the party has a ninja or not, whether he/she is detected, etc., etc. GMs, don't read until you need to. You'll only do needless work that the author has already done for you. When it comes up, find your situation and apply it.
-Nice black and white ink-like illustrations of NPCs. -The author was kind enough to include recommendations for inspiration fiction reading for players and GMs. -Many

This module/adventure fighting encounters lean toward the fantasy/supernatural, FYI. But a GM can easily shift toward a more historical bushi vs. bushi (or other human) viewpoint. There's solid sandbox framework here. Also some rather hard to fully take in complete adventures, possibly way too hard for 1st Level characters. But many good ideas, and many aids for setting up a Bushido campaign.

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/

Space Opera has always been one of those games that I have wanted for years but never tried. Anytime I thought about the game it was usually out of print and the prices were a bit high. Then I'd forget about it again. Reading through all my old Dragons, especially in the 1980-1983 time frame, there was an ad for it every issue.

Since this is SciFi month I figure I should go back to this one. Thankfully for me, it is now available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG.

Space Opera (1982)

Space Opera, 1st Edition, was released in 1980 which makes it one of the first competitions to the Classic Traveller RPG. The 2nd Edition version, which is what DriveThruRPG has, was released in 1982. I can't really speak to the differences. According to a post over at Wayne Books, there are not really many differences between the 1st Ed "Blue" box vs. the 2nd Ed. "Black" box save for the art.

There also seems to be a slight difference between the two black box 2nd edition covers.

Space Opera was written by Edward E. Simbalist, A. Mark Ratner, and Phil McGregor and published by Fantasy Games Unlimited.

The PDF from DriveThruRPG is 200 pages split into to two volumes. There are two color pages of the box art and the rest is a very old-school style b/w text with some minimal art. While this sounds like a drawback the game is very much a sandbox-style game. So the "Art" that would be here is from whatever your favorite sci-fi property is. Space Opera tries to be all things to everyone and ... well we will see how well it does at this. The PDF is a scanned image, then OCR'ed. There is no bookmarking.

Out of the box we learn that Space Opera is exactly that. A game to emulate your favorite Space Opera fiction. This is not the hard science of Traveller or the weird science of Gamma World/Metamophasis Alpha. This is Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers. I have heard it described as "not drama, but melodrama."

The sections are numbered like many old-school war games. 1.0 is "Space Opera" 1.1 is "Required Materials & Equipment" and so on. There are four major sections of Vol. 1, the player's book, 1. Space Opera, the introduction, 2. Character classes, 3. PC Career Experience and 4. PC Knowledge and Skills. Vol. 2 is the "Star Master's" section. Yes they are indeed called Star Masters. Here we have sections 5 to 18. 5. General Equipment Lists, 6. Personal Weapons, 7. Heavy Weapons, 8. Ground Combat, 9. StarShips, 10. StarShip Combat, 11 StarShip Economics & Interstellar Comerce, 12. World Creation, 13. Cultural Contacts (aka Aliens), 14. Directory Design of Planets, 15. Habitable Planets, 16. NPC Races, 17. Beasts, and finally 18. Personal Living Expenses.

If it looks like the game is heavy on weapons and combat then yes, it is. It is also so wonderful old school with bunches of different systems and sub systems.

Instead of completely reviewing a 40+ year old game let through out some caveats and some points.

First, while this game was certainly an attractive alternative to Traveller at the time, we have many more games out now that do this all better and with clearer rules.

Second, if you are a fan of older games or a fan of Sci-Fi games then really is a must have for your collection. The PDF is nice and cheap compare to the $100+ to $300 range I see copies go for online. For $10.00 it is worth your while if you are curious about the game, the history of RPGs or Sci-Fi games.

Now some points. Or how to get the most out of the 10 bucks I just asked you to spend.

Section 1.2 covers units of measurement, all metric focused. Many games do not have these, this is useful for anyone working in three-dimensions or needs a good idea what a cubic meter is.

Section 1.4 has good advice on dicing rolling in any game. Don't roll unless the outcome is in question or it serves the drama. There are lots of time to roll the dice, it doesn't need to be done all the time.

Section 2.0 covers classes. They boil down to Fighting, Tech, Science, Medical and Specialist. We will see these in one form or another time and time again in nearly every other Sci-Fi RPG from Stars Without Number, The Expanse, to Starfinder and even Star Wars and Star Trek.

Section 2.2 is a nice overview and random tables of Planet of Birth. They are all d20 rolls and should work with every other system out there. My back of the napkin math even tells me it would work great in such games like White Star.

Section 2.3 character races has great guidelines for just about every sci-fi race out there. Humans, future humans, evolved apes, cats, dogs, bears, birds, lizards. All here. Again guidelines so cut and paste into what other Sci-Fi game you have going on. No giant insects though.

Section 3.1 on covers some great guidelines on Mercenary service. I can't vouch that the economics will transfer from game to game though.

Section 4 has so many skills. I prefer a simpler skill system these days, but this would help you define some specialized ones.

Section 4.10 has a lot of Psionic skills as well. Might work with Stars Without Number. This is also how you get "The Force" without pissing off Lucasfilm/Disney.

Section 5. So. Much. Equipment!

Section 15. Great toolkit for habitable planets.

Section 16. NPCs and sample Alien races.

I said above it tries to be everything to everyone. It does this by taking every sci-fi trope there is and giving it a home here. Does it work? Well...it ends up being very long, very complicated and somewhat unattractive, but I can't tell if I am judging it by today's standards, my standards for game design or the standards of the time. This is a toolkit game with 1000s of options and you only need to choose the ones that work best for you.

This is not the Granddaddy of Sci-Fi RPGs. That would be Traveller. This is however the Great Uncle. He still has some good ideas and since he has no kids of his own he can spoil the grandkids as much as he likes.

I am sure that there are groups out there still today that would LOVE this game. Me I prefer something a little more streamlined. That all being said, I am glad I bought the PDF of this as opposed to spending $100s on eBay for it.

The art by Jeff Dee is fantastic. The setting is clearly laid out and the adventure is detailed and fun. Includes color counters. Thanks to the publisher for making this classic title available.

Complex system that's incredibly versitile, doesn't try to force its own flavour, and fits almost any modern setting. Books in the PDF are also very well structured and easy to read.

As people have pointed out, the scan is not the best, but that is the only reason I give it four stars. The rules themselves are amongst the best I've ever owned. While others say that the gunnery rules are an afterthought, I find them to be very accurate, as far as the decisions a ship's captain would make, and I like the fact that the gunnery rules leave those decisions that would be made by subordinates (type of shot to be used, etc.) out of the game. The continous broadside rule is a very accurate depiction of the way gunnery was handled at the time, and immediately called to mind Jack Aubrey's order, "Keep 'em spitting, Mr. Calamy!" If you have an interest in this time period, these rules are a must in my opinion.