The 2nd edition of the Solar Echoes Player’s Guide brings a nice range of improvements to the game’s core rule book. The artwork is better refined and more consistent with the game’s styling, and there’s more of it, allowing readers to see the fictional world in detail. Formatting has also been enhanced, with better page layouts and improved readability. Finally, some rule tweaks and clarifications in response to situations encountered in games have been added, making the game easier to run and play. If you haven’t played Solar Echoes yet, or just want a more up to date copy of the game with excellent artwork, I would highly recommend this edition of the Player’s Guide.

An excellent tie-in to the Star Legation visual novel video game! I particularly appreciate the in-world feel of this product, such as how the game and information in this booklet is presented as a historical simulation for educational purposes within the Solar Echoes universe. The extra details in Trey's character bio, such as the redacted sections where he must have been working covert ops, were also a nice touch.

A useful addition to the Solar Echoes universe, this adds a pair of pre-generated, low-level characters for use in various missions, including the one advertised in the module. While not a large or complex product, it provides exactly what you'd expect for a character pack, and the production values (particularly on the character sheets and cover art) are quite nice.

Disclaimer: I am a friend of the designer and watched this game evolve from its earliest phases. That said, this product was created based on the input from a variety of RPG gamers, so a wide range of people were involved. The end result came about from years of playtesting and demoing the game in an effort to understand how to teach a new RPG system to gamers while still keeping it interesting and fun. It is not an easy task. People learn through different methods, and it is a challenge to strike a balance between properly explaining the game's rules while at the same time not burying the new players under new words, rules, and even lore all at once.

In the end, I'm very impressed with this product. The mission is straightforward in a good way, the rules are clearly explained, and all the extra touches, from pre-gen characters to color maps, really add to the experience. This demo kit has been used "in the field" to demo the game to RPG players at various conventions and local events, and the response has been universally positive. In short, I'd highly recommend Operation: Flash Strike as an intro to Solar Echoes. You'll enjoy it and be able to more easily explore the rest of the Solar Echoes universe after running through it.

This is a fun one! It is basically a summary of the key lore new players in the Solar Echoes universe would need to understand wrapped up in the guise of a handbook given to new Union Guard recruits. Production quality is excellent - full color artwork, border art, and even links for miniatures for your game are included. There is also a bit of subtle humor woven into the information provided - effort was put into making the product have a bit of that "formal government document" feel; this adds to the experience and should get a few laughs. Well worth it for anyone interested in the Solar Echoes universe.

An interesting and dangerous mission that will keep the players on their toes! This mission is a stellar example of crafting the culture of a local world to give it depth and make it relatable to the players. It's a seedy world of big game hunters, gambling, and nasty wildlife, but that's all in a day's work for a member of the Union Guard! The mission is well-written, keeps the action moving, and gives players a chance to interact with the locals in various ways. Production quality is very good, with added color maps and inserts, and extra artwork. Just try not to get eaten by the local flora and fauna... they are hungry!

Who doesn't like more characters for their RPG games? The Solar Echoes Character Pack delivers on exactly what it promises - more completely constructed characters of various races for your game. The example characters cover a mix of skills and talents, and each of them includes some lore to fill out their backgrounds. These characters are handy as pre-gens for new players (since they can be leveled up or down to fill a campaign need relatively easily), or you could tweak them a bit to make them interesting villains. We'll all eventually get to the point where we don't have time to come up with an NPC on the fly - products like this fill that gap nicely.

A stand-out mission for its roleplaying scope, complexity, and unusual challenges. Players will need to run thier characters undercover into the lair of the enemy to achieve their goals; this can lead to all sorts of interesting roleplaying opportunities. The settings itself provides more background to the Solar Echo universe with a focus on the shadows vs. the larger empires and nation-states of each alien race. The starship construction rules are a fun addition and worth using outside this mission in similar situations. Highly recommended!

A solid, low-level mission with some interesting twists and turns that reminds players to keep their wits about them. Space is vast, and not every opponent is obvious! A good quality product and a mission worth running.

Disclaimer I’m a friend of the author, but my only contribution was to suggest a B&W version of the character sheet. Regardless, I will try to make this review as objective as possible.

What it is Operation: Flash Strike is a short adventure designed to introduce new players to the Solar Echoes RPG. The goal is to showcase the different mechanics, such as skill checks, social tests, combat, chases, and hacking.

Physical The product is a 48 page PDF that shows very good production values for a small press indie product. I really like the cover, which shows the seven alien races in the game. I would describe the style of artwork throughout the product as “semi-anime,” which is not my favorite style, but nonetheless all of the art is quality work. The page layout, tables, and fonts are clean and crisp. The product includes character “flats” you can use in place of minis, which I thought was a nice touch. And I was pleasantly surprised to see the bookmarks, something I don’t always see in PDFs.

Content There’s a lot of content in these 48 pages, and at times the presentation seems dense, but never confusing. The adventure itself is simple: arrest the villains inside the warehouse and interrogate them (with a few optional agenda items.) This is the sort of adventure that is perfect for evaluating the system before purchasing. Do you need the full version of SE to play? I don’t think so—it looks like all the rules you need are present.

Final Verdict Rating a free product of this sort is tricky. It’s not a review of the game itself-- that would be a different review—and any rating of the art is subjective. So I will rate it primarily on one criteria: Does it effectively teach the game? I believe it meets that goal.

I just downloaded "Solar Echoes Demo, Operation: Flash Strike." This is an excellent introduction to the Solar Echoes universe and to the rules of the game. The content is interesting, engaging, and a quick read. The game is started almost immediately and the rules are explained as the players experience the game. About the only thing needed to play the game other than the demo is a six sided die. There are cutouts included with the demo that assist in playing the game. I have experience playing Dungeons and Dragons and other TSR games. This game has some interesting and new twists, including simultaneous actions between fighting parties, computer/network hacking in a virtual setting, and vehicle combat. Highly recommended!

An excellent addition to the Solar Echoes lineup, this supplement provides a detailed look at the environment and culture of a world known throughout the galaxy for its deadly lifeforms. Adventure hooks are provided, as are pre-generated NPC’s, so running missions on this world should be easily done. There’s also plenty of “fluff” – from sneaky merchants to food most people wouldn’t eat on a dare – to make the world feel real. A full mission is provided as well, one that will test the bravery of the team of characters, as well as their trust. Highly recommended!

I was about 10 when I started role playing, my first game being Dungeons and Dragons back in 1979, but I also discovered Traveller back then and after that always preferred science fiction role playing games.

I had taught my kids some games in the past, both D&D and a few RPGs designed specifically for children, such as Mermaid Tales and Camp Myth.

My 10 year old daughter and 12 year old son discovered Solar Echos at Balticon this last year (2016) and after playing a few sessions there encouraged me to buy them a copy of the game.

The rules are simple enough to allow playing with minimum set up time for the players and were easy for my children to read and understand. My ten year old has run a few adventures for us since buying the game. The real depth of the system thought, I discovered when my son started to try to create his own content. In order to understand the information provided for each of the alien races, he read up on astronomy and star types, and he noticed how the spectrum of the parent stars impacted the creatures' vision. I saw how much thought was put into the science in this science fiction game, things that can be left as just background if someone is looking for just a fast pasted game, but that are also inspiring my kids to research astronomy and biology as they try to follow the examples in the book and create both realistic and interesting aliens of their own. It is encouraging both creativity and learning and I'm glad my kids discovered the game.

The system is level-based as well as skill-based, with some skills requiring a prerequisite skill in order to acquire. Rules include race specific abilities, cybernetics, and a large variety of equipment. The experience system has player characters to grow in strength and skill as they adventure. Combat is lethal, with characters becoming weaker and having greater difficulties accomplishing tasks as they take damage. Vehicle rules are simple and sufficient for car chases and combat, and like character-combat, vehicles that are damaged have their performance degraded.

Overall a good game system adaptable for one-shot adventures or a long campaign.

With the new characters, the pack includes a nice mission, full of action and investigation, what else could you need ?

A very interesting mission to play, a lot of surprises along the way, but quite dangerous for the PCs, even the most prudent. Only a very close team or a very lucky one will come on top unharmed. Still, a good moment of gameplay.