This product is well done and easy to add into the game it added a lot to my last game.

Comprehensive. As a DM, this is the type of tool I need. There comes a time when, as a DM, you require more out of your game engine. This is where all the homebrew content for all our beloved RPG systems comes from, falling anywhere inbetween moderately balanced to completely out of place.

Using this system, it provides you not only a deep dice pool based resolution mechanic, but all the tools (and more) that you need to make your own content without the fear of it being totally out of place or imbalanced.

-On first impression the book seems very well laid out, and it is fairly easy to see where everything is. As you flick through it for the first time you see it covers a lot of ground. However, there are some issues too. The rule writers have throughout the book failed to give examples. In one or two rare places they do give an example, but you have to read and re-read some sections to try and fugure out what you are supposed to do, and I found in several places you had to make a decision on rule interpretation that simples example would have clarified in a second. There are also some ommissions too.

The first section of the book deals with character creation and then equipping him or her. There are several races to choice from that are failry standard RPG types. Dwarves, Elves, Orcs, androids, all thinly disguised are to be found! I would say that this game aims to provide a mechanism to play games in the Star Trek / Star Wars genres, and it is flexible enough to cover most settings from low tech near future to highly advanced ones.

The second section of the rules deals with the game mechanics. Tests are based on the core mechanism of dice pools being thrown to beat a difficulty target number, or beating an opponents dice pool score for an opposed test. All dice are D6. Attributes skills and equipment all provive dice pool additions. The level of the character acts as a dice pool cap, giving a less experienced character a smaller dice pool to play with. One really nice idea in the rules is a count down dice pool. This is a dice pool that is thrown at intervals, determined by the situation, and dice are removed from the pool on a 6 or f a quicker dice pool is required on either a 5 or 6. When the dice are gone the reason for the count down happens, the bomb goes off, the character bleeds to death etc.

Combat and space ship combat use grids, or what the game calls "Theatre of the Mind," which means no grid, and people have to calculate ranges from the grid based figures in the weapon tables. Combat also has some strange ideas added into it. A grid represents 5'. For me, this is where first major issue in the rules crops up. A ranged weapon gets a penalty for each grid over the first. So if you fire at a target 4 grids away you get a -3D6 penalty! This is the future, you are not firing inaccurate black powder smooth bore muskets or pistols! Add to the fact that from the dice pool you have to buy extra damage or effects I feel this creates a real problem. The rules do say that without buying extra effects and damage character will take a long time to take a foe down. As you have to spend two hit dice to get a dice of extra damage, you have to juggle between actually hitting the enemy at all, and whether to do serious damage or death by a thousand cuts! Death and wounding is dealt with not by one mechanism but two! It is not terribly clear whether the two methods effect eachother, producing yet another example of the lack of examples causing problems. hen damage takes a characters health to zero they fall unconscious and if it is below zero they form a dice pool and start a count down to die. The other system uses tracks which are start at mild and go up as more damage is accumulated. When you reach the end of the track you die. The concept is good, it provides a more graphic description for players of what their character is experiencing. I feel however extra clarity is needed. For instance critical hits move you aong the track for that weapon, but it is left to the GM to guess whether damage is also added as well as tack movement. I assume it is, but I can't be sure this is what the designers intended.

The final section of the books deals with world building, travel, and the the GM. It provides rules for travel, space combat and encounters.

Starship combat is a cross between a roleplay game and a miniatures game. It is time consuming to play and as this is a RPG and not a Wargame it seems a little out of place. It is not detailed enough to please a wargamer, and will soak up too much time in a RPG.

Space travel and journey times form another area of the rules where examples would make a huge difference to rule clarity. Add the rather clunky system of jump increments, to drive type, and an odd medical test, and whole series of tests you are supposed to make and space travel using ships becomes a nimber crunching chore. Crew always have a chance of suffering some penalty the longer they are in space. This seems a little strange, unless it is part of a characters makeup like sea sickness, but that is something that the rules don't provide. I feel a huge number of GMs will probably rework, tweak or ignore a lot of these rules.

There is a really short section of foes near the end of the rule book. These are humaniod enemies for the characters to have encounters with, like street thugs etc. Once you finish this section you realise there are no animals detailed in the system at all. There is a small reference to creatures in a section on size and characteristics, which actually tells you that creatures have their own stats are not covered by this, then it does cover them briefly!

The games good features are : A comprehensive character creation system, that allows well rounded starting characters, and allows characters to improve as part of a career, or as individual skill/attribute training. It has an interesting trait system that can make characters more than just stats. There is a good selection of equipment.

The bad points are : An almost total lack of examples. A few places where the target numbers for well described tests seem to be missing. A few failures to clarify how rules impact on eachother. Space travel calculations are a chore, they are poorly explained, and lack of examples, forcing the GM to read the section several times carefully. Space combat is not really quick enough for many groups, and is not detailed enough to satisfy wargame inclined players. Ranged combat penalties seem odd in the future. Also the idea of tying ranges to grids and forcing players to convert these to feet is inconvenient, when both figures could have been given in the tables. The lack of any real rules and guidence on animals is a shame. The GM has more work to do initially than is normal making decisions on rules targets, and interpretations.

In conclusion the game system has a lot of potential, but, a failure to provide examples, some odd penalties and tests, and the omission of rules for animals let the game down. All GMs tweak add or ignore rules to some extent, this game however will require more work before play to get the system sorted out, depending on what the GM intends to include. Combat will probably be the one area where everyone has to accept or tweak the rules. This can be a fun game, and many players will enjoy it a lot. It is not an original rules set, with nothing that I have not seen used in other game systems. As the rules stand they fail to live up to the promise of what might have been.

I very much like systems that are a toolbox and this is one of them. This has most of what I need, it certainly ticks most of the boxes, creature design, alien design, weapon/armour, worlds and star systems etc. It also let you run scifi at various levels, from hard, opera and space fantasy. Alas no ship design, but I can live with that and I have the seperate book. It's certainly an adaptable and well rounded book, with the vaguest hints of it's own setting, so it's easy to plugin and create one for yourself.

Great layout and good art. Being an artist I appreciate good art. Certainly a fine book and a pleasure to read, some fiction too, that I always like.

The core mechanic is easy to understand and is very flexiable. You can certainly use or chuck out bits you don't like and add your own easily enough.

On top of this it has additional content and support via EON a Digital Magazine on patreon, certainly a good thing in my book.

I highly recomend this book.

Where to begin. N.E.W. is not what I was expecting and I was very disapointed in the game.

In the world of RPGs, you can have what I call "life simulators" that try to mimic a world logically, in detail. The other end are the story based games where the goal is not to simulate "reality" but tell a good story with PCs becoming part of the story. Life simulators tend to be more data driven or "crunchy" while story games have little focus on the numbers and stats but on methods to move the plot into interesting areas. I favor the simulator games, BRP, MERP, Rolemaster, Runequest, these games all have great detail and logical design. N.E.W. is presented as being crunchy game, a life in the future simulator, but unfortunately it has "crunch" but not logic. Too many things in the game make it hard to "suspend disbelief" as the logic behind the design failed to work in my head. It fails to be a life simulator, and it is waaay too dice intensive to be story based.

Another issue, and this is with many SciFi games, is that they fail to predict the future. What they do instead is take the world of 2016, add spaceships, aliens and blasters and WALLAH the future. Eclipse Phase does an outstanding job of bucking this trend and that setting does a fantastic jobs of giving gamers a believable future in which to roleplay. It is not just 2016 with window dressing. N.E.W. on the other hand sadly seems to stick to the former trend. The aliens take a page from the Star Trek rule book of alien creation, just add make up and funny ears and there you have it, alien. In N.E.W. they just happen to be future orcs, dwarves, elves and Tieflings/Klingons/Nietzscheans. N.E.W. is more about the future according to Hollywood and DnD than actually giving us something different and well thought out.

Finally, and this is NOT the games fault but my own bias. I really do not like D6 systems. Sometimes I will buy a D6 source book to glenn ideas. This book failed to give me anything original or useful in the idea department - stale. The good news is that with so many cool RPGs out there, this one is at no risk of becoming a time suck in my life.

The good, it is organized, the art is okay (better than some worse than others) and if you like D6 and want something that you could play out that soft SciFi Hollywood hit, you should give this game a try.

Two Thumbs Up! This expansion to WOIN SciFi Core is full of ideas on how to create highly detailed starships for the WOIN SciFi core rules. Adding over 40+ pages to complement the starship rules in the Core book, this supplement allows the GM to make just about any type of starship one could come up with.

I am a little short on time so this will be a quick review.

I just picked this up a couple days ago and I have to say it is chock full of 'CRUNCH,' just the way I like my SciFi games! Like many of the reviews below, I can say this book is loaded with excellent ideas on how to run just about any sci-fi game you can come up with! It has extremely detailed character creation and the concept of using exploits to handle any kind of special training, psionic and special abilities makes for a simple, yet detailed way to present these types of character/NPC characteristics.

Two thumbs up!

The 'Whats Old Is New' game system holds alot of promise. From the Kickstarter campaign:

"These are crunchy games! You can spend hours tinkering with them, or just throw yourself straight in! Play itself is designed to be fast, but both games allow you to spend as long or little as you like on the "back end". So if you enjoy optimizing characters, or building starships, or designing planets, spells, magic items, settings, races, and careers, you can - and it all funnels down into easy rules in-game."

The author states that these products are the result of years of tinkering and development.

The Good: The prose and short fiction that accompanies the rules is excellent, evoking a fantastic world and the endless possiblities spread out before the reader. Both short story and examples of play are liberally scattered throughout the text. The core mechanic is pretty simple to grok, and game play can be smooth and enjoyable. Players have alot of options available to them courtesy of a mechanic where you trade attack dice for activating abilities. I expect that the adventures that will be published will be of high quality and entertaining.

The Bad: You need to get at least the Core book, Carreer book, and the Magic book in order to run the game. In many cases, you will need to reference between the books, and often different locations within the individual books, to find all the relevant rules. Additional content and rules can be added either through the supplements or signing up with Patreon, rapidly expanding the content but also expanding the 'where do I find that rule' quandry. The feel of the mechanics is very similar to early editions of DnD, with various fiddly bits and minimum enforcement of 'balance'. There are options that are clearly 'better' than others. Your starting characters are mostly competant and need to grow into being heroes. Generalization is encouraged through the use of an artifical dice cap.

Combat. The 'Fantasy Bestiary' has yet to be published, I beleive this is in part because the dynamics of combat are a bit fuzzy still and the current guidence on monster creation is very close to 'just wing it'. The effectiveness gap between Grades {levels} of characters is exponetial, which means the lower Grade usually gets curb-stomped. The player options that exist are effectively eliminated due to the combat math aiming for a standard 50% to hit rate. Dropping attack dice for a special ability often means a miss.

A brief, concise and very useful product mapping the actual stars around Sol. Based on up-to-date real-world information, it provides the Game Master/Referee or publisher with an excellent basis on which to build a near-Sol setting.

It includes a short but clear explanation of teh astronomical information contained in thsi product, followed by a hex-map of the stars around Sol (with their actual colors), and a list of stars with their astronomical data. It also mentions a few relevant WOIN rules regarding interstellar travel.

Highly recommended for the WOIN sci-fi gamer.

I am really sinking my teeth into this system. I really took a shine to the character creation and progression, since it makes it easy to build a very nuanced concept of whatever kind of character you would want. Can't wait to get my players on board, and looking forward to the Fantasy rulebook.

I'm one of those people that are never satisfied 100% with an RPG. I read them, tweak them, house rule them, generate tons of characters, and unless they are really very good, I end up putting them on my virtual shelf. N.E.W. is NOT going to sit on that shelf. Sci-Fi games are hard to pull off, and even harder to do very well, and E.N. Publishing has set a new bar for content, dice mechanics, and playability. I especially like the CountDown mechanic; very unusual and it can be quite a suspenseful tool for a game. The art is great, the non-human races (one place many Sci-Fi games fall flat) are well done, the character generation procedure with the careers is reminiscent of Traveller without all the dying during generation, and the broad range of all the great Sci-Fi tropes in equipment is well represented. Overall, I'd put N.E.W. up there on the top of the list of best Sci-Fi games; the same list that has all the classic great games like Traveller, Star Frontiers, Alternity, Space Opera, and Star Ace. If you're on the fence about purchasing this game, then climb on down and do it. You won't be disappointed at all.

Very versatile game with lots of tools to promote a Sci-Fi game from Opera types to Gritty. We've started some "Firefly"-esque characters and hope to continue with the campaign.

I and my players like the depth and development of characters during creation. It gives variety but control to the players. Love the Career Development that promotes player contributions and character strengths.

Combat works well and does not bog down. One can use Tactical Maps or Theater of the Mind. The non-combat was also well done and not just a series of skill rolls. There was some challenge and tension in some of the scenario.

In summary: a customizalbe and nicely done sci-fi game. Also, you could probably do a Fantasy Sci-fi cross-over (ie He-Man, Thundar, etc) with the tools contained.

An Endzeitgeist.com review

The 11th module of the groundbreaking Zeitgeist AP clocks in at a massive 90 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with a massive 85 pages of content, so let's take a look!

This is an adventure-review and as such, it contains SPOILERS. Potential players should definitely jump to the conclusion. You do NOT want to SPOIL this saga for yourself.

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All right, only prospective GMs around? Sure? All right! The sun and stars are gone and the dread conspiracy of the Obscurati control the world, with the nation of Risur being the sole bastion against the powers that redefined a world's very fundamental rules. In the last adventure, Godmind, the PCs not only will have duked it out with creatures far beyond what most APs deliver as final bosses; they also saved Cherage, capital of Danor, from a fate most horrific and undermined the conspiracy's influence in global politics...and if Danor thus drags its feet, Risur will have at least some time...but ultimately, it is but a matter of time before the nation falls under the combined military force of the obscurati.

Unbeknown to the nations of Ber, Drakr and Crissillyr, there are not in for easy pickings and the calamities that befell Danor would only be heralds of the dread things to come. Now here, the module branches a bit in playstyles: If you want to go full-blown Justice League, swooping in via an airship will have you covered - and yes, including travel distances handily collected in a table. If you prefer (more likely, imho) more deliberate planning and smarter moves as a modus operandi after a whole campaign of intrigue and espionage, then the module supports that playstyle as well.

I was talking about apocalyptic calamities, right? Well, turns out breaking the Axis Seal did open the world to interlopers: The dread Gidim have taken root within the nation of ber, feeding on the psychic forces of the populace; via infiltration and invisible eye-like oculi patrolling the streets - the PCs are contacted by the executores dola liberta, an elite cadre of Berian lawkeeping women - which will bring them, quite probably, to Berian Ursaliña - a land, whose ruler Bruce Shantus may well have been saved by the adventurers in module #6. Glaucia, a gnoll and one of the executores, has detected that something is amiss and offers an alliance if the PCs look into the whole matter - and as they discuss matters, the first assassination attempt is sprung, as high-level Ob killers attack-

A timeline for the Ursaliña-investigation is provided and the PCs better don't drag their feet, as the gidim 's cerebreal mesh is draining the spirits of the locals, slowly building towards a massive cataclysm for the country and perhaps even the world - think of the whole investigation here, with numerous social scenes, as a combination of "reap what you have sown" meeting a dystopian, spirit-draining surveillance state engendered by a grey eminence. The strangely apathetic and sad populace, the requirement for high-level tricks to avoid get past the forces of the gidim - the whole section has a very unique flavor I haven't seen done before in PFRPG, where high-level modules tend to become either sandboxes, epic crawls or combinations thereof due to the system-inherent limitations. While the section cannot possibly account for all player capabilities at this level, it does a neat job - and yes, dealing with gidim bases and meeting up with old aquaintances who may have switched sides in the Obscurati's new world render this section a rewarding experience indeed.

Ultimately, though, the PCs will have to find the massive gidim leviathan hidden in the nation - a collossal ship of flesh and steel - think of it as a disturbing, quasi-cthulhoid THING. Now, obviously it will take off and attack and ship-to-ship combat is a very real chance...unfortunately using teh rather bad naval combat rules employed by the AP - I'd strongly suggest using Frog God Games' Fire as She Bears instead...or go for the imho more interesting route: You see, the authors seem to have understood that not everyone enjoys the rules employed and thus, the interior of the leviathan is actually mapped like a living dungeon. So yes, infiltrating the thing, an appropriately epic undertaking, may thwart the imminent feeding of the gidim homeworld...provided the PCs can prevail against the powerful gidim commander.

So that would be the first threat of apocalpytic proportions. Well, guess what? Drakr has seen better days as well: Grandis Komanov's army of doomsday eschatologists besiege Bhad Ryzhavdut, bolstered by not 4, but 5 legendary riders, this world's 4-horsemen analogue if you will, to reclaim the eye of the dread fey titan Voice of Rot. Oh, and the riders? Well, they're now undead titans. Granted, one may well betry the others out of spite...but still. The issue is not simply stopping the exceedingly powerful messiah of the end-times...it is about stopping the very idea that has infected the minds of eschatologists - and so, while confrontation, warfare and the like may well be possible takes on the issue, actually managing to destroy the eschatologist hivemind, their endzeitgeist, if you will (that was weird to write!) may be the smartest and most prudent thing to do.

This is not the end, stopping an army of doomsday cultists is not the high point of this module - Morgan Cippiano asks for assistance on behalf of the ecclesiastical monarchy Crisillyir: The sacrament of apotheosis, which may have been in the hands of the dread eschatologist mastermind, but it most definitely has found its way into the hands of former Godhand Vitus Sigismund - and he is holding public trials for the deities of the world, sentencing them to death for their crimes...and actually KILLS THE GODS. Every two days, a god falls - and with the deity, a lot of the followers fall as well. Stakes high enough for you? Once again, there are quite a few means to handle Vitus Sigismund and actually find the ritual of the axis seal, which may be the only hope for the world...but how to go about everything? Consulting with the powerful Dons, the PCs will have to establish a strategy and while multiple courses of actions are possible, the most rewarding would pertain the journal of Triegenes, held within the dread Crypta Hereticarum - so there is a good chance that this is where the PCs will go. Oh, have I mentioned that the heavenly host, bound by powerful vows, is actually on the side of Vitus? Arrival at the tainted place may not only allow the PCs to reconnect with a powerful demon, Ashima-Shimtu, and free her...it also well may pit the PCs against a whole host of angels, as the breaking of the Axis Seal brings millennia of prayers down upon the place to eradicate everything inside...including, potentially, the journal they need to save the deities. Oh, and even if the PCs succeed here, they still have to actually win the trial - for, like before, the true fight is not about slaying foes, it's about establishing the supremacy of ideas over one another. Unfortunately, Vitus does not take kindly to being defeated...and conjures forth a nice little 300-feet lava dragon. Oh, and the PCs don't have the power of Risur's rulership to back them up...but they do have an airship and hopefully the avatar of Triegenes...but still: Cr 25, if you're interested...the thing is a genocide machine and defeating it will take serious creativity...oh, and aforementioned demon...she may make for an alternate boss as well.

The pdf comes with several handouts - news, a primer on the horrible defensive situation of Risur, maps and letters - the supplemental material is, as we've come to expect, of high quality.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, no complaints in that department. Layout adheres to EN Publishing's two-column full-color standard and the module comes fully bookmarked for your convenience with nested bookmarks. The artworks range from awesome to solid and generally are full-color with few b/w-stock images thrown in. The pdf is layered and lets you eliminate the graphics on the borders etc. to make it less draining on the printer - kudos!

Liz Courts and Ryan Nock deliver basically 3 evocative campaign-ender modules in one; each of the chapters in this book features the epic depths and stakes one usually only sees in a campaign finisher...and there are 2 modules to come beyond this one! While Zeitgeist has always cheated a bit with the rules and precise modifications of how specific components work, with the breaking of the axis seal and the unfettering of magics, that has gone...and the module embraces the issues of high-level adventuring in a smart way: Instead of focusing on slogs, whittling down PCs in drawn-out battles and grinding everything down to a crawl, the book and the AP's focus on ideologies and ROLEplaying, the means to influence whole nations and ideologies, makes this module stand out. The minor weaknesses of the AP can still be found - when I see a DC 15 check at these levels, I shake my head and there are some minor deviations in the implicit conventions of what type of check a certain action would require to resist. This does take a massive backseat, though; this module's selling point (and that holds true for the whole AP, as far as I'm concerned) were not the mechanics.

It was always the story that dares to demand smart and engaged players and GMs, that dares to weave a yarn beyond the old structures, that focuses on roleplaying and consequences, on free will and the interactions of unique ideologies. In contrast to the old "then the world is doomed" scenarios, here, the stakes REALLY feel high; bereft of the tools that helped them defeat the forces of the fey titans, the PCs this time around are reduced to their wits and considerable, demigod-like powers - and not to slay another demon lord, prevent another meteor...this time, nations and all its inhabitants are at stake; people the PCs know...and their deaths would not even be the damn point of the whole thing! The world turns towards annihilation and it is up to the PCs to try to halt its inexorable spin towards calamity.

Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of opportunity for the PCs to flex their level 19 muscles against foes that are actually worth going up against - but the true achievement of this module is to one up the threats faced in the installment #10: There is, at least for the thinking woman/man (which I assume your group belongs to if this module interests you) more satisfaction in the awesome roleplaying this requires; there is simply more at stake than just fighting titanic beings - this module depicts the war on the very souls and minds of a world. How much more epic can you get? We'll see. Two modules to go.

Is this perfect? No. But it is one absolutely superb module and at this level-range, the only other module I'd consider on par with it, but with a completely different focus, would be the legendary Colliseum Morpheuon, which handles the challenges of highest level gameplay in a radically different way. In short: This is an excellent high level module that transcends in scope and stakes just about every module I know. 5 stars + seal of approval; this further fortifies Zeitgeist's status as the premium ROLEplayer's AP and with only 2 modules left to drop the ball, it is already a monument to smart storytelling.

Endzeitgeist out.

W.O.I.N. N.E.W. RPG is a solid and versatile roleplaying system. I would recommend this rpg and book for any science fiction fans and others who have an interest in running or playing a science fiction game.

For the gamemaster, the game is a tool kit that allows you to add elements and options to create a universe that is alive and dynamic. The game offers different styles of play from the hardcore science fiction to space opera. The book allows options for creating new species and careers, which I really enjoy with the ability to expand upon what is provided. The different play styles between tactical and theatre of the mind are excellent options to help the gamemaster to adapt the game to the gaming group's preference.

For the player, the options provided in the book allow the player to customize the character to fit their idea of what the player wants to play. The open skills system allows the players to be creative in the development of skills that can be useful within the game. As stated above for the gamemaster, the ability to create new races and careers allows players to expand the selection of species to use within a particular game.

In conclusion, I highly recommend this game for roleplayers. I have run the game frequently with a group and the system is efficient and allows for fast and exciting action scenes without being over complicated. It is this fast learning curve and versatility that captures the essence of a true science fiction roleplaying game.

First I'll summarize my opinion on the game. It's great! You should get it. That being done here's a quick list of pros and cons followed by my, likely rambling, opinions on some of the highlights.

Pros Flexible character creation. Huge number of character options. Simple, flexible psionic rules. Variety of gear to cover many sci-fi universes. Fairly simple space travel. Star ship combat that involves multiple PCs on one ship. Guidelines for making a setting. Useful scale for technology levels. Rules for making star systems. Useful guidelines for making your own everything. Random tables for inspiration. Great Art.

Cons The options could be overwhelming for new gamers. There are only a few sample space ships.

This is the best sci-fi toolbox system I've ever used. You can build a very wide range of universes, or multiverses, with N.E.W. A GM can choose what technology advancement level everyone has access to, choose where on the scale of hard/soft sci-fi the game will be, decide if psionics or cybernetics are present, and set the PC species and careers to make whatever they want. You can really make the game your own.

Character creation is great in this game. You choose your species and then a series of career grades. Each grade increases your abilities and age. You build your character's history while you build your stats. I love the range of character options. There are several species to represent iconic alien types and a ton of careers, but better than that there are good guidelines for making more of your own. N.E.W. provides you with star knights (think Jedi), pilots, medics, star marines, drifters, smugglers, psi-cops, and many others. If you think of some other career your setting needs you have the tools to make it. Species and careers are made up of attribute increases, skill increases, and exploits (like feats and class abilities in D&D). All of those parts combine to define what your character can do. The guidelines in the Building A Universe chapter tell you how to put those parts together to create even more options. That chapter also has guidelines and tips for everything else you might need to make your universe as detailed as you want. There's a section that has guidelines and tables to build star systems and worlds. It gives you plenty of detail without being overwhelming. It seems quite a bit of homework was done for this section of the book. Different types of stars and planets are described, as well as various space phenomena to keep travel interesting.

Once you get done playing with all the building blocks and actually start playing the game it's really fun. All those various choices you can make to build the setting and your characters make them unique and make them feel different in play. Each PC will likely play quite differently, unless they tried to match up their abilities. The system uses a dice pool mechanic with six-sided dice. You add dice from attributes, skills, and high quality equipment. Then apply situational modifiers. That basic routine is the core of basically everything. It's easy to get a grip on and it's flexible. Combat includes a variety of tactical choices that apply modifiers to attacks and defenses. Position plays an important role in any combat. Holding still for long periods makes you an easier target. So moving and taking cover tend to be important. Of course, if you want to be a melee character there are character options that can make that very effective. I've seen an android marine with a titanium two-handed sword in play. It darted and wove between space pirates, laying them low while they tried to shoot blasters at it. The game includes these tactical elements, but surprisingly it doesn't bog down game play. Combats run quickly, and the tactical choices aren't just abstract game mechanics. They follow logic that's easy to grasp.

It's also worth mentioning that this book looks great. The art is fantastic. There are illustrations showing a wide range of characters, futuristic tech, space vistas, and more. It makes just looking through the book interesting. The overall presentation and layout are quite good as well. The presentation of this game is on par with the biggest RPGs.

All in all this is a great game. I highly recommend it, and the next time I have a cool sci-fi idea this'll be the game I run. The only downsides are that a multitude of options sometimes overwhelms newer RPG players and there aren't many star ships. These problems are pretty minor. The first is common in games with a lot of options and , I think, best handled by guidance from more experienced players. The lack of ships is understandable given that books typically have constraints on length. There are enough ships to get by for a little while and to make up some others by modifying those, but if you want detailed rules for building ships you need a companion piece to this, the Starship Construction Manual.