I am a fan of the Hellboy comic and of the d20 RPG that was inspired by it (and pulp action in general). And I was excited about the the fact that there are going to be published adventures written for it. But I was disappointed by what I bought. I find this product short and lack luster. I bought the PDF for $5 and found out that it is 12 pages...including the cover, the page with legal boilerplate, and one page with a brief introduction that explains that Cannister 7 is meant to be part of a series of adventuers. This adventure (or the outline of this adventure) is covered over the other 9 pages.

In very broad strokes: The heroes are sent to collect a dangerous McGuffin in Berlin. And one or two groups intervene to try and steal the McGuffin from the heroes by force.

Things Canister 7 does well:The layout & graphics are proffesionally done and have actual Hellboy art inside from the comics. Good and good. Though the mission is very simple, the authors think about the likely choices/responses the heroes are going to make. And provides outlines for how the adversaries will react to those choices. The heroes won't necessarily be railroaded into specific situations. Good.

Things that are missing: There are zero maps provided. Yuck. Where the action takes place will varry by PC choices, but maps of a sasfehouse, a warehouse and a roadside would all be very useful. Can a GM figure this out on their own? Sure. But if I'm buying an adventure I expect to be able to prep and run it with minimal elaboration on my part. There is also zero boxed text or sample dialogue offered for the adversaries. (?!?) Double yuck. The villians might as well come as 2 dimensional cut outs from cental casting. The only potentially interesting people for the PCs to talk with are the 5 NPCs provided for the "hand off" of the McGuffin. And it says that their "face" would love to exchange two or three sentences and then vamoose. Many PCs won't interact with the only NPCs who have anything resembling a personality. Finally there are no stats. You are sent to the Hellboy book to access stats there for the generic opposition.

What I think this really is: a useful outline to prompt a GM to create their own 1-3 hour adventure from.

I pay $5 for PCI's Arcanis adventures which make for an interesting comparison. Arcanis adventures run around 30 pages, run over 4-8 hours, have maps, colorful indivual NPCs (with box text or bullet points for info and how they share it) and stats for unique enemies. They don't have the groovy graphic design and layout...but as a GM I find them an excellent value. For $5 I don't think this is a good value despite recycled Hellboy art. I hope Nightfall Games puts more meat on the bones of the next instalment.

Disapointing.

I am a fan of the Hellboy comic. And I thought that Mantic Games did a good job with thier Hellboy RPG main book. So I had hopes for this product. But this line of adventures continues to underperform. I am not sure if I will purchase the third or other future parts.

For the price of a $5 pdf you get 7 1/2 pages of adventure plus a title page and some legal boiler plate. Anyway you slice it, I do not consider this a great (or even a good) value. There are no encounter maps. Only one NPC (and not even the central one) gets a last name. Some obvious NPCs don't appear at all - for example the PCs are almost certainly going to investigate at a hospital and liason with local law enforcement. No names or characters given. The PCs are told to avoid the tabloids. No reporters or tabloids given. Which I guess explains why there is no complications for them actually geting involved. I guess the writers want to do a "sandbox" style adventure, but its hard to do on 7 and a half pages. And some of those pages are filled with art...which while lovely don't help flesh this out beyond a basic outline.

I want to like this but am frustrated by everything that should be in here but is missing. In college I had all day to prep stuff to run as a gamemaster. As a working adult I don't. I'm looking for more than what's on offer.

I give this three stars rather two or one because there are some improvements from Canister VII. The NPCs want to talk to the players in this one! And the plot, threadbare as it is in its 7 pages, captures some of the goofier energy the Hellboy comic sometimes has. A fairly standard argument between neighbors results in a botched summoning that spirals out of control without quite killing anyone ... if the heroes can contain the chaos. A lighter adventure its potentially a fun palate cleanse between more serious campaign beats.

It's exactly what I was looking for, but I found Devil's Run looking for an SWADE game. Instead, I found a 2d20 game with conversion notes scattered throughout the book. Now I'm posed with the challenge of convincing my group to learn a new system or struggle with the added challenge of constant conversion when the publisher could have easily formatted a separate SWADE edition.

Wonderful. Truly captures the feel of Dracula but expands the world and ratchets up the horror. The Victorian era rpg I personally have been waiting for. The book looks great with moody artwork and inteteresting graphic design. The writing is excellent and every page is exploding with great ideas. Would recommend unreservedly.

Absolutely amazing. The long awaited sourcebook for the second edition, finally bringing not just the details about enemies and life on Mort, but also gives insights to the Metaplot, finally fleshing out and adding onto what was established in the original Data Files.

I’ve been playing the original Corporation RPG continuously for over six years, mostly as a GM. I love the game and the Brutal Engine game system. Corporation is my all-time favourite RPG. That’s my background for writing this review.

The quick-start is a 40 page (not counting front & back cover) document that breaks down as follows: a one-page introduction, 5 pages of introductory background to the Corporation setting, 16 pages of rules for the S5S system, 5 pages covering four pre-generated characters and their abilities, and 13 pages for an introductory scenario. There are no maps (they’re not needed) and little artwork, all of which is unrelated to the content.

The introduction has a bit of waffle about what cyberpunk is. I’ve never thought of Corporation as cyberpunk, so didn’t think this added anything. There is also a paragraph on what gear you need to use the product (dice, 3-4 players, etc).

The background section is very bare bones (as you’d expect from a quick-start) but is adequate and does introduce the UIG and the big five corporations that are central to the setting. These blurbs are brief but OK as far as they go. There is also two pages on spires, underswells and old cities, which are there to set the scene for the introductory scenario, which is set in a spire. Overall, this section achieves what is needed, but nothing more.

The rules section covers the basics of Nightfall Games’ in-house S5S system. This gives you enough to play the introductory scenario and nothing more. I found it gave an adequate explanation of the rules but still left a few ambiguities. So it required some GM interpretation when I ran the game. This could have been fixed with more detailed examples, especially a full combat play through going through the full hit and damage process with options. One point of concern for me was that a character’s PSI rating provides a small pool of points that act as both Fate Points (for everyone) as well as being used to power psychic powers for those with that ability. On the face of it, this doesn’t make taking psychic powers very attractive. Be interested to see how this works in the full rules.

The pre-generated characters are intentionally left bland so that players can freely personalise them. This makes sense and is a good idea. There is no indication as to what “level” these agents are or how many XP they have, but I assume they are starting level characters. Their stats and skills certainly suggest this. While it doesn’t state which corporation the agents work for, reading the character sheets indicates they all have the languages (E.I.) skill. This would imply that they are E.I. agents and therefore the setting is an E.I. spire. The character sheets themselves are very functional, being easy to read and follow.

The scenario is very generic and basic, being designed to take players through the rudiments of the S5S rules system. This is just as it should be and it does this reasonably well. However, don’t expect detailed plots or roleplaying opportunities (it’s a quick-start scenario!). Basically, you’re an agent team in a generic unnamed (E.I.) spire that has to deal with a riot from the underswells.

So how does it play?

Well first up, I took one of the pre-generated agents (agent Cole) out to the range for some old fashioned target practice. His/her marksmanship ability is the lowest in the team (and the same as agent Butcher’s). The target was stationary, had no armour, and only 12 HP (the stats of the weakest foe given in the booklet). So what did we learn?

Agent Cole is a very bad shot and should not have graduated from agent training. Even firing at good range at such an easy target he/she had only a 30% chance of hitting (as per the rules system). Furthermore, the standard Black Cougar pistol is a garbage weapon that doesn’t really hurt people. Our weak, unarmoured target required an average of 4 hits to bring down. That is garbage!!

The first run through took 24 combat rounds to fire the 15 round magazine of the Black Cougar (yes, you count rounds). Of these combat rounds, 8 rounds resulted in misses + jams, meaning another 8 rounds were spent on the Recovery action to un-jam the weapon. The remaining 8 rounds resulted in 4 misses, 3 hits, and a weapon reload (Recovery action). This produced a total of 9 damage against our 12 HP, unarmoured, stationary target. Pathetic!

For the second run through we decided agent Cole would use the Prepare action to aim before firing. This reduced the DV to 7, resulting in a 40% chance to hit but only firing every second round. In this instance, it only took 12 combat rounds and 6 bullets to eventually bring the same target down. That’s not great either. Fortunately, there were no jams to recover from. How can an agent, and an iconic weapon, be so utterly useless. They really need to fix the lethality of the Black Cougar; enemies should be scared of the weapon, not laughing at it.

Unarmed combat didn’t go much better, with both agent Cole and Butcher getting their lights punched out by starving civilians. It’s a sad day when supposedly highly trained and augmented agents can’t win a fist fight against malnourished civilians. Even agent Cooper, the best melee fighter of the team, didn’t seem to do that well. Actually, the fist fights became a bit of a pain, as it took many, many combat rounds to finally land enough blows to deal enough damage to knock out a target. Although, funnily enough, fists have a higher minimum damage (2) than the Black Cougar pistol (1)!!

Going into the scenario, we found the agents were failing more than they were succeeding at what they attempted, and the players began to find this somewhat frustrating. Our experience was that your character needed a skill bonus (i.e. stat + skill) of 5 for the required skill check to have a reasonable chance of succeeding. Also, skill points seem vastly more valuable than stat points, as they are what provide the Skill dice for the roll. These are the dice that give you bonuses and prevent a failed roll becoming a debacle. So having stat 0 & skill 5 would appear to be much better than having stat 3 & skill 2. The full rules system will hopefully balance this more.

The player who took the psychic character (agent Butcher) didn’t find him/her very effective or find much use the power he/she had. The player wound up expending PSI points to try and pass rolls, leaving little left to activate powers. Recovery of PSI points wasn’t covered in the quick start. To be fair, I don’t think the quick start really gives you enough to properly evaluate the game’s psychic powers. Best to wait for the full rules.

Overall, the agents presented in this booklet were pretty underwhelming and struggled to achieve anything. The rules system seems weighted against success, at least as far as the given characters are concerned. There’s also a bit of book keeping in that you’re tracking rounds fired, armour ablation, PSI points expended, etc. I don’t see this as a big problem, but others might. Combat also seems to take a long time to resolve.

Now this review is based on our first play through, so take that as a caveat. Our group are all experienced Corporation players, but are new to the S5S system, so we likely made more than a few mistakes. Also, as I recall, the dice were not particularly kind to the players. So I’d encourage others to give it a go and provide their experience.

Local Nutter Wets Himself Crying With Laughter

The Slasher is a deranged look in to the wonderful world of SLA Industries resident celebrity superstars and Downtown menace, the Serial Killer; costumed psychpaths (no, they're different to Ops or Contract Killers, those guys are on SLA's payroll) who terrorise the locals of Mort's Downtown Districts.

Packed to the brim with hilarious articles from the POV of the Serial Killers and fantastic art by Dave Allsop, this parody/homage to The Digger (a Scottish tabloid about Glasgow gangs) will give fans of Nightfall's SLA Industries setting a wonderful insight to the most deranged people in the World of Progress with it's darkly comedic take on what happens when celebrity obsession runs headlong into vioent crimes caused by social iniquity.

Can't wait for Issue 2.

A messy start to a flawed revival of a 90's cult classic. Sample characters have wildly varying amount of gear, from a few having 2x the starting cash of a character in the final edition (which didn't change the economy all that much from the 90's) to one having barely any equipment. The intro adventure isn't anything to write home about either, and contains some gems like "If the characters turn left at the intersection, they eventually hit a dead end" and a couple other "you can interact with this but it's a waste of time if you do moments.

edit: What a coincidence those reviews showed up right after I posted mine. edit2: docked it a point 2 to 1 because the devs were too obvious about soliciting positive reviews to counter this one.

Great Sourcebook for anyone wanting to run a SLA game with additional options for players that are familiar with the deep lore. Massive amount of insight on 1 category of threats in the World of Progress, ambitiously completed.

Can't wait to see what's next.

A superb book! The art work is absolutely top notch, this supplement really he with fleshing out more of the denizens of Mort!

Fantastic source book that adds even more threats, even more weapons, and crucially, even more of that juicy lore about what's REALLY going on in the World of Progress.

The book is laid out in a really simple and easy to follow way, allowing GMs to jump to the bits they're more interested in with ease. Each section beefs up what we already know about types of enemies like Gangs, Dream Entities etc, adding new profiles for GMs who want a pre-generated threat to throw at their squad, as well as many rules for randomly or specifically generating new monsters, gangs etc. This is exactly what I want from a source book as a GM.

Reading through the book, every section gave me inspiration for a new BPN, hunter sheet, or mystery for my players to delve into. It fleshes out the history, sociology and psychology of these Collateral threats so well that you can't help but think up new and interesting ways to torture your players. Sorry players.

My main note of warning would be that if you're purely a player of SLA 2nd Edition, maybe don't read this book. It's a fantastic aide for GMs, but a lot of the wonder, mystery and horror for players is NOT knowing what's out there. Whilst I definitely think this book is necessary so that GMs can create full and well realised narratives within the World of Progress, a lot of it is stuff that as a GM I'd rather my players didn't know. But if you are a player who wants it for the shiny new player toys (we're talking guns and even the capability to have a playable Manchine, oh yes!) then I would recommend asking your GM which bits they don't want you to read. So that you can be surprised and terrified at the same time when your GM uses some of this stuff against you!

So, the Shaktar and Wraithen got some time in the spotlight and it went seemingly well. A common gripe I have with sci fi settings portraying aliens is that they often make them excessively "human", but for the most part, the Shaktar and especially Wraithen are sufficiently foreign while also being relatable enough to function in the setting. I also have to say the art was strong in this supplement and there's a particular couple Wraithen images that just perfectly encapsulate the vicious bravado of the species in all their glory. The corresponding homeworlds, cultures and some fauna of the Shaktar and Wraithen are also concisely but adequately detailed. Now, my biggest gripe is this: the Shaktar species is divided into a philosophical dualistic dichotomy much like the Ebonites. I understand the rationale, but feel it slightly unnecessary, or at least the way in which it was executed and imo, reduces the overall depth of the Shaktar. I can work around it, but I sincerely hope for some future portrayals of Shaktar that don't fall into 1 extreme or the other. Speaking of lack of depth....the Wraithen seem even more 1 dimensional and yet it just works because of how charismatic and amusing they are. That being said, there's still enough room for some complexity there. I also consider them to be far more intimidating than the larger and more imposing Shaktar. When you really start to understand what a Wraithen is, you come to the conclusion that you really wouldn't want one after you.

As it stands, this is my favorite game world. SLA combines a number of familiar themes, but into an identity that doesn't quite resemble anything else. The mood is both morose and absurd and the culture the universe generates is uniquely distinctive and reinforced by a healthy breadth and depth of lore. I enjoy all the characters, species, products and pop culture of SLA and find them fleshed out and unintentionally cool. Nightfall Games seem to have some talented artistic hands on deck and all the aforementioned things are deftly conveyed through adequate illustration. My biggest gripe, however, is that the World of Progress seems to be a bit scattershot in its architecture. The aesthetic gambit ranges from retro cyberpunk, (now) outdated modern and contemporary into a blend that feels neither cohesive or distinctive. A niche issue for sure, but this actually bugs me the most. It interferes with my immersion and feels like the single underdeveloped aspect of an otherwise well built world filled with distinction and detail. All in all, I think I would describe the world of SLA as Saturday morning cartoon meets ultraviolent capitalism. Yay.

Anyway, this is a good book and I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a good time with an edge. It's pretty broad and introductory, but certainly creates a desire to explore more of the World of Progress in future additions.

A scenario for any occassion. For those who want more time travel? No problem. Complained about lack of more stories and adventures during the 30 years future war? Hold on to my 40watt Plasma rifle! A good starting block. I am waiting for a game to come together on this at my local gaming shop. This is fertile ground and it follows a lot of the great stories done by Dark Horse, so if you read those greats from Burning Earth to Enemy Within and Secondary Objectives you are in luck. So break out that 80s soundtrack and lets get after it.

Highly recommended. I got this on Kickstarter so I have the benefit of both physical copy and PDF. But the PDF is an essential, especially for reference material.

How does a Table Top RPG get right what damn Hollywood failed to do? Had Hollywood taken a leaf from this adaption of the franchise, I think the Terminator series would have continued its epic march after T2. This follows the Dark Horse series, so seeing a lot of events and characters transcribed for table top and further expansion not only is a testament to good writing, it is proof fans can translate the material. The rules are a little different from what I am used to, but the game is easy to learn and the only set back I have is finding people who know about it. If anything this game has potential and the writing is good. Either time travel or future war, it caters to any players or GM (Director's).