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StarCluster 2 Biotechnology Guide
Publisher: Better Mousetrap Games
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/31/2005 00:00:00

In its 17 pages the Starcluster 2nd edition Biotech Guide provides an overview of the biotech available in the Starcluster universe at various tech levels/eras, and specific rules for individual biotechnologies. These individual technologies include Augmentation, Androids & (Uplifted) Animals, Modifications (Implants & Replacements), Matter Transmission & Mind Transfers, Cold Sleep (and other suspended animation technologies), and Food (Technologies including Hydroponics, genetically engineered foods, & stasis based ?Food Mats?).

The book opens up with a couple of pages of overview of the specific technological areas, mores regarding their use among different cultures and users, and a general timeline of their use, introduction, and refinement. The individual sections then follow. Areas of most interest to players are Augmentation, Modification & Replacement, Androids & (uplifted) Animals, & Matter Transmission & Mind Transfer.

Augmentation is distinct from Modification & Replacement as it is performed by genetic engineering of the subject before birth, and thus is only available during initial character creation. The availability of Augmentation is dependent on the character having a high (social) Rank, or in this case the assumed Rank of his parents. These augmentations occur either as bonuses to the character attributes, and at higher levels, the availability of special abilities such as enhanced senses, innate weaponry, fast healing, enhanced balance, burst of strength, and all manner of exotic appearances (fur, fangs, feathers, fantastically colored skin, tails, etc.). Also notable for the GM?s & Players is the discussion of views of the augmented in society, which are generally well tolerated within the SaVaHuTa (which you may recall is made up of genengineered human races, the Sastra (prehensile tailed monkey people), Vantor (?mer? people), and Tagris (tiger people)), and met with wide-spread discrimination and outright hate among the Diasporan Community.

The Androids & (uplifted) Animals sections details the rules for Androids, which in this case refers to non-robotic synthetic humans, created from custom engineered DNA on up, think Replicants from Blade Runner, only with the option for larger animal-based non-sentient ?bio-roids? and such as well. There are no hard and fast rules provided for ?Android? characters due to this variation and thus the player must negotiation with the GM when deciding the exact abilities and attributes of his character. Rules are provided for players wanting to play uplifted animals. The uplifted animals present within the setting include uplifted dolphins (who are given a set of prosthetic hands to allow tool-use), chimps, dogs, bears, cougars, and raccoons.

The Modifications section includes rules for implants (such as computer ?jacks?, dermal armors, and interestingly integral A-grav rigs), and replacements (All your ?We can rebuild him, stronger, faster, we have the technology? fun, such as robotic arms, and cyber-eyes). All of these have price-tags associated, often hefty, time for implantation and adaptation & training, and minimum tech level requirements. Also, most all of these bits of cool gear have various drawbacks and hazards associated with their use, so it?s not all chrome and coolness.

The Matter Transmission and Mind Transfer rules are interesting. They are an offshoot of the settings Jump Drive, which works by a combination of a Jump Field and a Psionic Navigator, the field isolates the ship from the ?real universe? after which the navigator can cause it to change position (traveling without movement.) Well, this same technology base, via a sequence of ?Cells?, is used for matter transmission; however it is not as nice and neat as the jump drive and nowhere as efficient and safe as ?transporters? in Star Trek, as there are pretty much always ?transporter accidents? involved. This is due to limitations in the technology, thus it is only used in emergencies, or for military purposes. Characters using Matter Transfer are subject to effects ranging from Skill & Attribute loss to outright death, so don?t expect Scotty to beam you up.

The Mind transfer tech works on a similar principle and is subject to similar problems. The individual applications of the mind transfer process are pretty varied, ranging from transfers from old or damaged bodies to clones, young to old bodies, mind transfers between bodies, multiple minds in single bodies, humanoid minds to animal bodies, etc. Thus mind transfer provides the GM with lots of amusing and interesting plot opportunities for adventures.

The Cloning section provides an interesting discussion of the technology. In which the important distinction is made that a clone is a genetically identical twin of a different age than the genetic donor, the cloning process does not clone a persons mind or memories. Clones can be used as the targets of Mind Transfers, but suffer from the limitations of mind transfer, as described above. This section points out that primary use of Clones is for the production of ?vanity? children. Clones made of a single parent. Then there is of course cloning for spare parts, though usually only individual parts are grown rather than an entire body. Another interesting topic discussed is ?downshifting? humans, in many ways the opposite of the uplifting process used on animals. Instead the human clones are made non-sentient and used for labor and other purposes. Also discussed is the use of ?Super Splat? clones, a clone of a subject that has been developed to be a ?super soldier? or athlete, etc. Then the process of religious cults of clones made from the cult leader/prophet/divine messenger is discussed. Finally, the mention of people cloning celebrities so they can raise their role models themselves. (Who wouldn?t want to raise their own Shatner?)

There is also discussion of the use hydroponics & food grown on starships and their psychological effects for the crew, as well as cold sleep & other suspended animation techniques used on STL starships. Overall there is a lot of fascinating and fun technologies discussed, both as ways to make your character cool, as well as fodder for social Science fiction plots involving the use of clones, uplifted animals, mind transfers, etc. All kinds of cool what-if stuff that are at the heart of Science Fiction, providing the GM with the opportunity for all kinds of adventures beyond just cruising around in your starship getting into space battles.

The PDF itself is laid out in two columns, with a nice readable body text, and a ?NASA? style futuristic text used for section titles. There are only two bits of art, the cover piece, of a ?h4wt chixxor? in the shower sporting some kind of implant wire thing falling down her shapely back, done in the ?trademark? Starcluster water-colorized art style, which looks pretty good. The only piece of artwork in the body of the PDF is of an uplifted chimp, in a blue hoody, on a hover-board, seriously, which is also done in the ?trademark? Starcluster water-colorized art style, which also looks pretty good, particularly the landscape background.

Overall, this is a very meaty product, providing the GM and players with tons of cool tech goodness, not only in character goodies, but also fascinating technology based setting details & options for punchy, thematic Sci-Fi storytelling. I recommend it for most all Starcluster players as way to add a big bio-technologically boosted shot of hard SF musing into their campaign. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The discussion of the social ramifications of cloning, augmentation, modification, and uplifted animals & slave class biologicals.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No Bookmarks? Nano-Tech not addressed, perhaps in another supplement. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
StarCluster 2 Biotechnology Guide
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StarCluster 2 Weapon Design Guide
Publisher: Better Mousetrap Games
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/31/2005 00:00:00

This 14 page PDF provides a weapon ?design? system for the Starcluster 2nd edition RPG. Design is in quotes because the system doesn?t let you design weapons whole cloth, instead the system lets you modify the parameters of the generic weapon entries in the Starcluster rules. These modifications can be either improvements, such as greater range, or detriments, such as an increased cost. All such improvements must be balanced out by detriments, in the weapons other parameters. The parameters features follow a linear or stepped scale for each change.

The design parameters are Range, Concealability, Damage, Cost, Mode (single shot/Burst/Full auto), Skills Required (complexity & number of skills required for use & maintenance of weapon), Ammo Cost, & Accuracy. Each parameter and its associated step costs and improvement/detriment definitions are explained in order, followed by a long list of design examples & flavorful weapon write-ups based on the weapon mod described. For instance the Auto Pistol definition is modified to produce the Kearny and Southern?s Model 1510 Target Pistol.

Kearny and Southern?s Model 1510 Target Pistol:

?Kearny and Southern are a well known design house on Mickey?s Birthday, and their designs are well respected throughout Mickey?s Birthday?s area of influence. Their Model 1510 is a popular product, light, accurate, and long ranged. The trademark extra long 9mm barrel and cannon breach mechanism make it very recognizable, if a bit bulky, and the flip up telescopic sight is a welcome addition. These pistols, of local manufacture from Kearny and Southern plans, are available throughout Guaru space.? Which is much more flavorful and interesting, than ?Auto Pistol?. A number of custom & fairly exotic melee weapons design examples & write-ups, such as the ?Magma Industries Cerablade 4000? are included as well.

Even though it is not a ?true? design system, such as say BTRC?s Guns, Guns, Guns it is still an excellent product as it allows you to adapt the full generic weapon list from Starcluster 2nd, provided at the end of the PDF, into a suite of customized, flavorful weapons reflecting the nature of the worlds & cultures that produced them.

The PDF is laid out as a single column in readable type. My copy didn?t have bookmarks for some reason, which would make for easier navigation of the document. It includes a couple of illustrations of the custom design write-ups, and the cover has an illustration of some kind of female trooper with a very large gun in a vest & helmet, in the ?trademark? watercolorized Starcluster style, I didn?t find it particularly appealing.

Overall I think this system is excellent and adds some important flavor & interest to Starcluster?s boring generic weapons list, and it allows the GM and players to unleash their inner gun-nut. I recommend it for players who want to add some zest to starcluster?s weapon list. With the Weapon design guide, instead of carrying a laser pistol - fully automatic, they can carry a Sister Waffenwerk (SWW) Model 21A Ganglaser, which sounds much cooler.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Streamlined, well-explained system, flavorful example write-ups.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: No bookmarks? Could have used more weapons illos, as there is no such thing as too much gun-porn!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
StarCluster 2 Weapon Design Guide
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Cold Space Vehicle Design Guide
Publisher: Better Mousetrap Games
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/28/2005 00:00:00

This 11 page PDF provides a vehicle ?design? system for the Cold Space RPG. Design is in quotes because the system doesn?t let you design vehicles whole cloth, instead the system lets you modify the parameters of stock vehicles. All such improvements must be balanced out by detriments, in the vehicles other parameters, so you could take increased speed, an improvement, at the cost of increased mass, a detriment, for instance (these changes might not make all that much sense at first glance, as in the previous case.) Each parameter has a different cost structure to these changes, Range (operating range) requires a progressively greater changes to implement a 10% improvement, while mass provides a progressively greater gain in other parameters for each 10% detriment. The other parameters features follow a linear or stepped scale.

The design parameters are Range (operating range), Mass, Mounted Weaponry, Mounted Weaponry Accuracy, Armor, Speed, Carrying Capacity, Maneuverability, Simplicity (how complex the vehicle is and what kind of support & maintenance it therefore requires), Terrain Rating (types of terrains the vehicle can traverse without penalty), and Cost (the favored dumping ground for offsetting improvements.).

Each parameter and its associated step costs and improvement/detriment definitions are explained in order, followed by a number of examples and a fair sized list of stock vehicles at a variety of tech levels/periods from the Cold Space setting. Included in the stock vehicles are a jeep, tank, older jet, and then more exotic fun such as contra-grav gunships and an aerospace interceptor that is able to achieve orbit via contra-grav tech.

Overall the system seems workable and reasonable, however, as stated it is not a true design system along the lines of GURPS Vehicles, or CORPS VDS, or even HERO system vehicle design, but more a tweak/customization system for vehicles in the setting. In order for this to be effective, there should be a large list of vehicles from the setting, preferably from various eras of the games timeline, for the players to tweak, which isn?t included in this product.

The PDF is laid out as a single column in readable type with bookmarks to each section. It includes a few small vehicle illustrations, and the cover has a nice illustration of an F-108A Rapier delta wing style aerospace fighter, circa 1964.

Overall I think this system is pretty workable and can be used to unleash the GM & players inner gear-head in tweaking various vehicles, whether their personal ride, or as part of a plot involving a prototype or some such. So I recommend it for people who are looking for a bit of gear-head focus in the arms race for their Cold Space campaign.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Streamlined, well-explained system.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Not a full-on design system, thus needs more stock vehicles to be more useful.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Cold Space Vehicle Design Guide
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Marksman Subclass ($1.00)
Publisher: Alea Publishing Group
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/27/2005 00:00:00

This 6 page PDF details the Marksman Subclass. The subclass is, as its name implies, a character class that doesn?t provide the abilities of a full class. Rather, they provide a specific set of abilities that in themselves don?t qualify as a full class, and aren?t specific enough to count as a Prestige Class. Think of them as specific character shticks a character can develop.

You obtain a Subclass by leveling; however, those levels don?t add to the character?s level or add a Hit Die. Instead, they are paid for via an experience penalty similar to Multi-classing. Subclass levels appear to be counted as 1/4th of a normal character class level. A character?s Subclass level can never exceed his normal class levels. Because the experience point penalties for sub-classing and Multi-Classing stack, for a whopping 40%, it is not recommended a character both take on a sub-class and multi-class. Additionally, a character can only choose one sub-class, there is no ?multi sub-classing?.

The Marksman subclass is pretty interesting, providing the sub-classed character with various abilities and bonuses with non-thrown ranged weapons such as slings, bows, crossbows, and firearms. The class provides the character with a ranged attack bonus when using the previously mentioned non-thrown ranged weapons. He also gains the Precision Shot feat, which works like a Rogues sneak attack, but only with non-thrown ranged weapons. At 6th level he gains the Sharpshooter feat, which allows him to double the range increment with his approved weapons, which allows him to use his Precision Shot feat at up to 60 feet. At 15th level he gains the Deadly Aim feat which doubles the threat range of all ranged attacks, it does not stack with Improved Critical or similar feats. Finally at 20th level he gains the Deadly Shot feat which increases the critical multiplier with all of his ranged attacks by one.

The PDF also includes the description of a new feat, Speed Loader, which allows the character to reload firearms faster than normal. This feat can be stacked to allow the character to reload a firearm without provoking an attack of opportunity. In addition to the speed loader feat, two firearms are also described, a black powder pistol and musket, along with rules for Black Powder, and the cost of ammo.

The PDF is nicely laid out in a two-column format with an ornate parchment like border and a wax-seal like decoration for the page number. There are two pieces of artwork, a picture of a musketeer type character, and a picture of a repeating crossbow, both are of good quality. A printer friendly version of the document is provided as well, omitting the colored border to save on ink.

Overall I think the Marksman subclass is pretty interesting, and the subclass option provides a good in-between step between a feat tree and a full on-class. Of course, a fighter character that focuses on bows as well as taking this subclass could potentially be unbalancing due to multiple attacks with bonus damage, so the GM may wish to limit this, or limit the class to firearms. I think the PDF offers an interesting option for characters and the subclass seems like an interesting idea.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Speed-loader feat and Firearms<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Potential for abuse with bow specialization and multiple attacks.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Marksman Subclass ($1.00)
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A Dozen Documents and Papers
Publisher: Ronin Arts
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/22/2005 00:00:00

This 7 page PDF provides a list of various documents and papers, mostly official documents granting the bearer certain rights or property, etc., as well as a few historical treasures and pieces of artwork, which a GM can use as treasure found by players. Many of the documents make for interesting adventure hooks involving various merchant or political organizations, providing the GM a means to involve the players with the larger world around them, instead of a new toy to bash monsters with.

The documents include a painting by a famous artist, a certificate of cremation, a Decree of Election, Guild Membership Papers, a Letter of Credit, a Letter of Transit, a Mercenary Payment Voucher, Papers of Ownership, a copy of a famous historical document, the signature of a famous artist, and a copy of a legal statute. Included as a freebie is short write-up of ?Smithfield?s Chocolate House", a merchant establishment a GM can introduce into his game world.

Each item write-up includes a short description, rules for identifying its value, its value, and any special related rules. Also included in text boxes are additional rules for use of the Forgery skill, as well as a new Profession skill, Stock-Jobber, and a write-up of a merchant?s guild, the Roshanta Trading Guild.

The PDF is a nicely laid out product done in two column format with a nice colored graphic border on the left side. Unfortunately that graphic element might waste a bit of ink when you print the PDF. However, the PDF is short enough that you can easily read it on screen, and simply cut and paste the parts you need to print out. There is no artwork.

Overall, this is a pretty good product. It provides the GM ideas for ?treasure? that isn?t just more ?phat lewt?, but normal items that would exist in a living world. They give the GM a means to involve the players in the fantasy element of the old fantasy role playing game shtick. So if you are GM looking for ideas for involving your players in something besides the usual monster bashing and level grind, consider adding some of these treasures to your game.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Documents make good ?setting immersion? fodder for GM<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The sidebar graphic is likely to waste some ink. Could have used some info on how-to use similar items from organizations GM already has in his game world.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
A Dozen Documents and Papers
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A Dozen Dungeon Hazards
Publisher: Ronin Arts
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/09/2005 00:00:00

This 9 page PDF provides GM?s and players with an assortment of dungeon hazards, noxious and noisome substances and environmental features that can be found among the damp, fetid rooms and caverns of dungeons. In this case you get 2 types of fogs, Crimson & Necromantic, 3 types of Fungi, Blood Lichen, Desertbloom, and Harmonic Mushrooms , 3 types of Mold, Scarlet, Coffin, & Wilting, and 4 types of slimes, Arcane, Ochre, Star-Fallen, and Winter, with which to coat the walls and floors of your latest dungeon.

Each hazard is listed by name, including it?s CR, then given a brief description followed by rules on the danger it poses to adventurers, the damage it causes, and whether or not it?s dangers can be avoided, and if so how. Typically the hazard can be avoided by a Reflex save if it can avoided by quick action, or by a Fortitude save if it can be resisted by an adventurer subjected to it. Last how it can be destroyed or neutralized is described. In addition to the hazard descriptions, there are two textboxes, one with a description of the Red Slimy Doom disease associated with Crimson Fog, and one with detailed rules on destroying slimes.

Some of the hazards are pretty neat, such as the Necromantic Fog, a negatively charged fog that arises around graveyards and similar haunts, Harmonic Mushrooms, which unleash bursts of high powered sound, and Star-Fallen Slime, which is associated with meteors (good for a little Lovecraftian Color Out of Space action.)

In addition to the hazards, the book also includes two 25mm tiles, one featuring a Scarlet Mold and one featuring a Winter Slime, from Skeleton Key Games? E-Adventure Tiles series. Both are in full color.

The PDF itself is nicely readable two column format, with a couple of text boxes including the special rules, there is no art, other than the bonus tiles included. It is 9 pages, 6 pages of hazards, 1 page of OGC info, and the two tile pages.

For the price, A Dozen Dungeon Hazards provides a solid collection of fogs, slimes, molds, and fungi with which to coat and infest your dungeon. Encounters with slimes, and molds, and such are good for some old school fun if you players actually find their characters trudging through a real-live dank, fetid dungeon. Sliming your players is a GMing tradition that is no doubt due in part to ?80s kid?s TV, but really, ?I don?t know?. Just remember you need fire, not water, to kill those pesky slimes.

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
A Dozen Dungeon Hazards
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Dead Inside: the Roleplaying Game of Loss & Redemption
Publisher: Atomic Sock Monkey Press
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 12/07/2005 00:00:00

OVERVIEW

Dead inside is an ?Modern/Urban Fantasy? RPG that puts players in the roles of the ?Dead Inside?, humans that have lost their souls, by trickery, by theft, by their own corruption and decay, by a soul crushing failure, by accidentally misplacing it, or the most unfair of all, never having had a whole soul to being with. Faced with this fact, the characters must strive for their soul, whether taking back what was lost or stolen, re-growing what they have, or stealing or consuming another. They do this by finding their way from the cold, spiritless Real World into the Spirit World, where the energy of the spirit is alive.

GAME WORLD

The Real World is host to many creatures, from the mostly spiritually unseeing and unreachable ?Ensouled (Average People), to the Sensitives, gifted with brighter souls and the second sight (I see dead people!), to the Dead Inside, aware of the world of the spirit by the loss of the soul which kept them content, to Ghosts, spirits whose bodies have died but whose spirits remain. Then there are Zombis, Dead Inside whose lives ended, but not their existence, and the Magi, whose great spiritual energy allows them powers and the chance for True Immortality. Many of these creatures can be found in the Spirit World as well, along with Tulpas, beings of thought given life by their creators to whom they are enslaved, Free Spirits, Tulpas who have gained free will, mysterious Imagos, spiritual beings that guide and direct others, and dreaded Qlippoth, beings who have lost all their souls, yet not passed on, feeding on the souls of others to fill the emptiness that consumes them. The cosmology of the setting is fairly existential (i.e. all we know is that we exist and this is what the universe is like) and sidesteps any annoying dogma or message by the author.

SOUL POINTS & THE FOCUS OF THE GAME

Players take on the role of Dead Inside, or Sensitives and Magi, following their particular path within the dream-like environment of the Spirit World, at the center of which lies the ever-changing City. Most of play involves the character?s quests to regain their soul, for the dead inside, gaining greater knowledge for the Sensitives, and attain immortality for the Magi, depending on the type of campaign being played. This spiritual journey is tracked by the character?s gain and loss of Spirit points. Which can be acquired nobly by hewing to their Virtues and resisting their Vices (the exact nature of which can be chosen by the players and GM?s), referred to as soul cultivation, or stolen by preying upon other dead inside or consuming ghosts. Though stealing soul points this way is quick (easier, quicker the dark side is.), it can have diminishing returns as doing so causes soul decay for the character.

As players gain these soul points they can use them to evolve from Dead Inside to Sensitives, and from Sensitives to Magi, whose ultimate goal is to achieve True Immortality. To make matters more complicated, the players must deal with their own psyche within the spirit world, in the form of their parasitic shadow. Soul Points lost to soul decay go the character?s shadow, a part of the character intent on indulging their base desires, at once enemy and ally, inextricably linked to the character. A character?s powers are fueled by the use of soul points and, in some cases, his basic spiritual abilities. Abilities and Powers are less effective and require more soul points to use in the cold, hard Real World. Finally, soul points are used as a form of money for commerce in the spirit world. Thus, soul points, and the acquiring, loss, and spending thereof, form the main crux of play.

The GM?s chapter provides ample advice on how to setup a campaign based on the various player types, and decide upon the focus of their adventures, as well as handle the tone and style of the game. It can be New-agey hippy self-improvement, or a harsh struggle to eat or be eaten, or more likely somewhere in between, depending on the type of play in which the GM and players are interested.

GAME SYSTEM

Dead Inside uses the Prose Descriptive Qualities (PDQ) system for resolution. This rules-light system rates players abilities as poor [-2], Average [0], Good [+2], Expert [+4], and Master [+6]. Which is the rating added to a 2D6 roll and compared against a Difficulty to determine success, with a Difficulty of 7 being average. Qualities are freeform in his game, and are chosen by the players, with examples given for various categories. Any ability not described for a character is assumed to be Average [0]. The system uses multi-step conflict resolution, resolving the results of the actual conflict, rather than individual tasks. As part of this conflict resolution process, characters can suffer Failure, or Damage Ranks, which are then used to reduce their listed abilities.

When all of their listed abilities have been reduced in this manner, they are out of the conflict, and have lost. A character that loses a combat conflict isn?t automatically dead however, as a player must specifically state that he is going to kill a character on the losing side of a conflict. After an appropriate time after a conflict, a character?s abilities return to normal, depending on the nature of the conflict. This system can be pretty random, and players can quickly be wiped out, and lose a conflict, by a lucky die roll. Certain abilities, however, can be used to provide ?armor?, thereby allowing you to ignore damage from a conflict, at the cost of temporarily reducing that quality. As you can see, the system is rather abstract and there is not much crunch and little detail involved in its application. It favors a narrative approach, indeed there is a ?Being Badass? rule that rewards players who come up with compelling action description.

ARTWORK & PRESENTATION

The PDF itself is a 128 page document, done in a 2 column format with a non-descript and functional layout. Section headings are in a large bold font, text in an fairly easy to read serif font, fiction and mood material is in different font and indented. Important notes and are block quoted in italics, and there textboxes with explanations, examples, and additional rules as well. Overall it is readable and functional, with no fancy borders or excess white space to waste your ink. The artwork is acceptable, if rather amateurish in spots, many pieces of which are done in a ?pen-doodles-on-a-high-school-notebook? style. My favorite piece is the Qlippoth(?) on page 36.

SUMMARY

Dead Inside presents a unique and interesting game experience to its players, as noted by designer Chad Underkoffer in his forward, one meant to turn the ?Kill Things and Take Their Stuff? meme of most games on its head. With the choices of Dead Inside, Sensitive, and Magi characters, as well as Free Spirits, and Ghosts, it provides many different options for play and depending on what elements the players stress it can offer an introspective, surreal, heroic, or horrific tone. The rules-light nature of the system and the narrative emphasis of the mechanics can well serve the dreamlike nature of the Spirit World and support the thrust of the game well. So if you are looking for something a bit different than say Wraith, or your typical horror game, or just something besides the old KTaTTS grind, I recommend you give Dead Inside a look.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Qlippoth are neat, and Eyes of the Dead God, and I like the dichotomy of being able to prey on others to gain spirit points or to be virtuous and self-less.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: the PDQ system can be pretty random in conflicts, the artwork was pretty weak. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Dead Inside: the Roleplaying Game of Loss & Redemption
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(Collection) Variant Rules Pack 01
Publisher: Creative Mountain Games
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/28/2005 00:00:00

The Variant Rules Pack is made up of 3 PDF files, a 42 page Background, Contacts, Honor & Reputation PDF, a 16 Page Horror: Cults & Conspiracy PDF, and a 20 page Weather PDF. The BCH&R PDF contains rules for choosing the class, skills, feats, and equipment for a character, by level, based on his adventuring ?background?, it also includes a set of rules establishing contacts, NPC?s the character has relationships with, an Honor system, and rules for a character?s reputation among various groups or the public. The Cults & Conspiracy PDF provides rules for creating stats for cults, conspiracy groups, organizations and such. Finally, the weather PDF provides detailed rules on the effects of various weather types on characters, as well as rule for generating that weather within a climactic zone.

The BCH&R rules are solid. They can be used to flesh out the background and history of an NPC, or to generate details for PCs if the characters are being started out at a higher level. In the background rules, you choose the adventuring or background activity a character followed during a level, say Academic Magic, or Military Background. You are then provided with a table from which you can choose the specific focus of that time?s adventuring or other activities, and from that determine the class level gained, and attendant feats, skills, and equipment gained from that level. It also provides results for the Contact rules included in the PDF, as well the Reputation rules.

The Contact Rules are solid and reasonable, providing character?s with one of three types of contacts, ?information?, ?influence?, and ?skill? contacts, which are unnamed until the player chooses to ?activate? them, with that NPC then able to provide that type of help or aid. This is good system, allowing the players to integrate their characters into the campaign world, alleviating the vacuum that often exists between a character as generated from the rules and the GM?s campaign world. Using this system can make it seem as if the character actually existed in the campaign world.

The Honor rules provide a mechanical Honor rating assignable to characters, which then fluctuates based on the character?s action. Depending on your character?s current Honor score, he receives various bonus or penalties on Social skill use and saves where his honor is at stake. A variety of example codes of honor are provided, providing a set of rules by which to judge a character with that code of honor. These rules seem usable, however, there are some problems reconciling them with the alignment rules, particularly for chaotic or evil characters.

The Reputation rules assign players a reputation modifier. When dealing with an intelligent NPC or creature, a reputation check is made to see if the character is recognized. If the character is recognized, he receives a bonus to various social skills against the NPC who recognized him, if the reputation is favorable or a penalty if it is unfavorable. This system can be useful in integrating the character?s into the campaign world as well. As now it is possible for people to actually know who your mighty hero is and deal with him appropriately.

The Horror: Cults & Conspiracies provides a system to ?stat up? an organization or group. They are given ability scores, feats, and hit-points. The ability scores are Force (physical and martial might), Response (ability to react quickly or like FEMA), Resources (financial strength and backing, Information (scientific knowledge or research capability organization has), Occult (knowledge of magic and mysticism), and Influence (pull and influence among other organizations and people.) Hit points are based on number of members, leaders, and bases or headquarters. Organizations suffer damage by losing members and having their plans thwarted, an organization that suffers major damaged is disrupted or forced to dissolve. Organizations can be called upon to provide members with various services or help. Organizations may also allow members access to a prestige class unique to that organization. The PDF is rounded out with descriptions of a number of sample organizations. Overall these rules are pretty solid, and can provide a good basis for skullduggery and conspiracy action within a campaign. However, they are drawn from OGL Horror, so some accommodations would have to be made to use them in D&D game.

The Weather PDF contains rules for various weather conditions, presenting them as hazards to characters, as well as rules for generating weather based on climactic conditions. They seem to be solid and workable, if somewhat boring. But for wilderness adventures or disaster scenarios could prove useful. The extreme weather effects are interesting, acid rain or meteor showers can liven up a trip through strange territory.

Overall these sets of rules are pretty useful. The Background rules are solid and can be a real help for a GM in generating characters for his game world. Additionally, the Contacts and Reputation rules can help immerse character?s in the game setting, and perhaps add a measure of realism with regards to who and what the characters put the ?doo-too? on, as doing the old ?Kill them and take their stuff? on the wrong group can cause them problems down the line. Their bad acts could come back to haunt them, or their good acts could single them out for the ?no good deed goes unpunished? truism. The weather rules are serviceable if a little boring. So, I recommend these rules to a GM or players who are looking for ways to more fully integrate the characters into the world background and fill in the vacuum that exists between the character and the world. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Contacts and reputation rules help immerse characters in settings. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Text contained numerous missing words and words that were either mis-typed or OCR errors. ?advent toes? for adventures being the worst. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
(Collection) Variant Rules Pack 01
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Cold Space RPG
Publisher: Better Mousetrap Games
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/19/2005 00:00:00

OVERVIEW

Cold Space is a science fiction RPG set against an alternate history that pits American and Soviet super-powers struggling against each other on earth and in a hyper-accelerated space race thanks to the game?s Solothurn drive. The Solothurn Drive adds contra-gravity and ?warp field? FTL capabilities to the timeline?s tech tree. Against this backdrop the player?s take on the roles of soldiers, spies, spacers, scientists, and settlers among the familiar conflicts of cold war history as well as among the stations, moons, planets, and faraway stars opened up by the presence of the Solothurn drive. It runs on the StarCluster 2nd Edition game engine, a set of solid percentile mechanics that utilize a detailed year by year education/career system to define characters.

COLD SPACE

The PDF opens up with a chapter on the Cold Space setting. Herein you find the retro-history of the cold space setting, where the major eras in the timeline are described, Initial Cold Space: 1954, Early Cold Space: 1955 ? 1964, Middle Cold Space: 1965-1975, and Late Cold Space: 1976-1989. Within each era, major campaign types are outlined along with the character?s most appropriate for each. A close reading of this chapter and discussion with his players will give the GM the means to outline the campaign setup he has envisioned. Military campaigns, both Earth-side and among the colonies are likely, with Korea, and Vietnam looming large, as well as several additional colonial conflicts, is outlined. Espionage campaigns are of course likely everywhere, with all kinds of Cold War skullduggery likely, indeed, for the edification of younger gamers, the cold war gave rise to the ?Spy Game? as we know it, particularly during the late ?70s early 80?s among East/West Germany and the Warsaw Pact countries. Then of course there is space exploration and colonization campaigns, as well as merchant trading, piracy, and Rocket Corps campaigns.

PLAYING THE GAME

This chapter describes the play style associated with Cold Space, the Task resolution rules, as well as pretty much all of the combat rules, which would have been better saved for a separate combat chapter. Knowing the basic task resolution system and play style makes understanding the character creation system, the next chapter, easier. However, also included in this section are detailed nitty-gritty combat rules, such as automatic and burst fire, something which the player isn?t likely to want to know, nor remember at this point in his learning of the game, especially before he has created his character.

As mentioned earlier, Cold Space uses the Starcluster 2nd Edition game engine. StarCluster is based on a ?survival? model, that is, your main goal is assumed to be your character surviving to gain more skill & ability. The default campaign is assumed to a linked series of adventures, each presumed to take place over a period of years, spanning the character?s career. Thus you first adventure or two might involve a military character fresh from the academy, then a few years later in his first campaign, and years later as grizzled NCO leading a troop in a campaign.

The task resolution system is a roll under percentile setup. Your character has a level in skill, from +1 for rudimentary skill, +10 for highly skilled, on up to +15 to +20 or more at the very high end. You base chance of success, the number which you must roll equal to or under on the percentile dice, is 40%+ 5xSkill Level. Thus if I had a skill level of +3, my chance of success would 55%. Thus I would need to roll a 55 or less on the percentile dice to succeed. Attributes affect this as well, adding 5% to the chance of success for every 2 points over 7. (The Attributes, which are rated from 2 to 12 or more, with the average being seven, are Strength (STR), Coordination (COOR), Agility (AGY), Endurance (END), Charisma (CHA), Luck (LUCK) and IQ. IQ, for reasons I do not understand, uses the ?real world? scale where an IQ score of 100 is average, so while you might have an STR of 8 and END of 8, your IQ is 125.) IQ is an exception of course, in which case the modifier is equal to +1% for every point of IQ over 120.

Mixed in with this chapter, rather haphazardly I would say are the basic combat rules, including detailed rules for grenades, burst fire, etc.

CHARACTER GENERATION

Characters are defined by two important sets of stats in Cold Space, Attributes, and Skills. The attributes represent a character?s basic abilities, while the skills represent his learned abilities and training. The culture and social class that a character grew up under is the major determiner of what skills a character can learn. The culture determines a character?s ?Mother?s Milk? skills, those skills he learned during his childhood. A character?s social class, as represented by the cash he has available to him, determines what education and professions he will be able to take up, and thus the skills he can learn. Your character?s skills are built year by year as he spends years in school or at a job.

This system is fairly unique in that there is no ?experience? system; Character?s only advance in abilities by the year by year system. A character?s adventures are assumed to happen within a year, and do not add to the skills or abilities he gains. Thus you can play a character at any arbitrary point in his career, by advancing his abilities appropriately.

EQUIPMENT & COLD SPACE STARSHIPS,

These two chapters, Weapons & personal equipment provide information on the equipment available to character?s in the setting. Though you might expect some ray-guns to show up among the brave men of the US Rocket Corps, they are all ?real world? type slug thrower fire arms. The weapon stats are fairly generic, with not detail being provided with regards to weapons becoming more accurate or such over campaign period (Such as the M16 becoming more reliable, and with the newer ammo, more accurate and damaging towards late 80s. ) However, the bulk of spacesuits and such are addressed, as they become more compact during period. Unfortunately there are few illustrations in the equipment chapter, and relatively few in the Starships chapter. More illustrations would have helped bring across the peculiarities of the retro-tech feel of the starships and space-technology in the game. (The very fist ships used to land on the moon in the Cold Space timeline were converted submarines using the contra-gravity abilities of the Solothurn drive! Additionally, the ideas of rocket powered ships that can reach trans-luminal speed thanks to the ?Corkscrew? drive beg for some cool retro-tech illustrations. The two ships that are illustrated are basically ?blunt cone? type rocket landers, very interesting. Additionally, a bit of propaganda style illustrations would have help reinforced feel of game. I mean, they call the space navy in the game the Rocket Corps!)

STARSHIP COMBAT & SPACE TRAVEL

These two chapters provide the starship combat rules, which work similar to the character combat system, however, each crewmember takes on specific tasks during a combat around, coordinating communications, identifying targets, firing weapons, etc. The space travel rules provide rules for determining travel times among interplanetary and interstellar destinations. An interesting tidbit is that, even with the ?warp drive? elements of the Solothurn drive, the ships still follow real world space travel dynamics. They have a brief period of acceleration upon leaving for their destination, followed by a freefall coast at that speed towards their destination. And once approaching their destination there is a braking period as they slow so they don?t overshoot their destination.

COLD SPACE: THE WORLDS

This chapter is a gazetteer of all the worlds colonized by the two super-powers and the UN sponsored states, starting from Mars and The Moon in the Sol system on to Omicron Eridani IV and V. These are done as nice solar system maps, plus global maps, along with details and stats for each world/system. Also included in this section is a running travelogue written by a writer commissioned by TIME magazine to travel to all the off-earth colonies. It gives a nice feel for each of the different worlds and some adventure hints for many of the planets. A table listing details of each of the worlds and their associated colonies is included in Appendix B.

PRESENTATION & ARTWORK

The PDF makes use of a 2 column layout, and is fairly compact, with no extraneous whitespace. The PDF makes use of a large fancy serif font for several of the chapter headings; the font was fairly ornate and made me think of a fantasy setting rather than retro-tech future of the product. A more futurist/military/NASA style font would have added to the feel of the game, the ornate serif font used tended to jar me from the SF feel of the piece. The fonts used in the faux news-clippings looked authentic. The artwork is primarily limited to one large piece at the beginning of each chapter; it is passable for the most part, with the cover piece being the only standout, though there are numerous well-done solar system and world maps in the worlds section.

SUMMARY

Cold Space presents an interesting alternate history SF universe for players to explore, taking an interesting period of history and ratcheting it up a notch to include a retro-future space race. The Starcluster 2nd Edition mechanics provide a serviceable set of mechanics, though they could have been presented better, such as splitting up the basic task resolution information and combat rules into their own chapters. GM?s will want to read the fiction pieces, which are pretty good, running throughout each chapter to better immerse themselves in the Cold Space universe. This game also could have benefited from more targeted GM advice or a sample adventure, to help GM?s, and players get onto the same page as to the feel of the game, and the specifics of a particular campaign focus. Expansions detailing particular periods and campaign types would of course be helpful, and are hopefully forthcoming.

Overall, however, Cold Space provides a unique combination of retro-future Space Opera and alternate history gaming to engage players, the details of which can be easily adapted to another system. (Or expanded upon by enterprising GM?s, I of course, would like to see a Post-Armageddon Cold Space, where the big NATO vs. Warsaw Pact tank, or in this case contra-grav gunship, battles took place in Europe, followed by some nuclear exchanges on earth, with the various aligned colonies left to carry on the fight, or pick up the pieces.) So, for players looking for some sci-fi action that isn?t just another far-future space empire, I heartily recommend taking a look at Cold Space.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Funky retro-tech alternate history Cold War commie bashing.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Could have used more GM/Campaign advice, more illustrations of tech stuff, more propaganda style illustrations of rocket corps and soviet counterpart would have been fun.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Cold Space RPG
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for an excellent and thorough review, Rob. Most of your points were actually considered during the lengthy process of writing and playtesting this game, and we'd like to explain our reasoning. The exclusion of combat specific modifiers from the Playing the Game chapter was considered and rejected, when we saw we would have what amounted to less than two pages of combat-only modifiers. Burst and Automatic Fire, Grenades, Ranges, and Cover don't add up to much. Supressive fire is not combat specific, as it can be used by extension in any situation where one group is harrassing and distracting another, combat or not. Also, we felt that adding a combat chapter would be in effect stating that combat was fundamentally different from any other skills use, when it is not. In short, we thought that a combat specific chapter would be misleading, and just to small to be justified. The "fantasy font" is an art deco font from the thirties and early forties. We felt a more futuristic typeface - like the one we used in StarCluster 2 - would detract from the period feel. Ironic, no? :D We initially worked out changes in equipment effectiveness over time - as well as changes in pricing due to inflation - but feedback from our playtesters was uniformly negative - "too confusing" was what it boiled down to, so that was dumped. The lack of "blasters" and lasers was purely intentional, as the only differences between our Cold War and theirs was due to the singular invention of the Solothurn Drive. As a result, we have the usual slug throwers with machetes and combat knives for close combat. This is also why the spaceship mechanics (boost-drift-brake) are like what we have now. All of the tech in the game besides the Solothurn was appropriate to the time period. We advanced the perfection of the Orion and Nerva drives by half a decade or so due to more money being spent on their development. Both projects were technical successes on a comparative shoestring in the real world, which were scuttled by political considerations which would be meaningless in Cold Space terms. In effect, Cold Space is very "hard" SF - taking one single technological advance, the Solothurn Drive, and exploring its ramifications. You'll note I didn't disagree with any of your criticisms. :D -clash
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Arcane Publishers Edtn 8
Publisher: V Shane
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/08/2005 00:00:00

V Shane?s Arcane Publisher?s Edition 8 ? Monsters provides a collection of 32 monster illustrations, they all look to good label them ?clip art?. Each is done in a crisp line art style, mostly featuring solid shading, with minor stippling or cross-hatching to illuminate details. None of the illustrations includes a background, making it relatively easy to place the creature against a custom background. As is mentioned in the PDF included with the files, each is provided as 300dpi B&W Tiff files, the pictures can be colored rather easily in a good bitmap painting program. A coloring example is provided in the PDF as well.

There are 20 traditional fantasy monsters included, as well as 12 original monsters, so unique that they haven?t yet been named, referred to simply by a number. The traditional fantasy monsters are: Basilisk Bugbear (a more humanoid looking interpretation) Gargoyle Gnoll Goblin Hobgoblin Kobold Lizardman Ogre (Hard to tell if he is giantish, or maybe it is just the ridiculously large club he has) Orc (A very burly one with a huge axe) Rustmonster Skeleton Snake Spider (a large seeming one) Troll (a taller, thinner looking version, you expect it to speak with a Jamaican accent.) Vampire Werewolf Worg (a rather fearsome looking one) Wraith Zombie (a rather decrepit looking one)

The 12 unique monsters are evenly split between ones that would look more at home in an SF setting and those that might pop up in a fantasy setting. The one snake torsoed, claw-handed female one with the burning skull would make a believable demon or malevolent spirit. There are 2 rock-like creatures, a humanoid one, and a 4 legged splayed rock beast. There are a couple of ?aberration? type creatures that would make exotic aliens or chaos beasties. Overall all of these creatures should spark your imagination as you come up with a 1000 words to fit each picture.

Thus, with 32 well drawn, professional quality, ready to use pieces this collection would serve anyone needing some monster or creature illustrations, either a publisher wanting to add quality illustrations to his product, or a GM wanting to engage players imaginations.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: High quality of illustrations, unique interpretations of classic fantasy creatures.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Many of the original creatures are more sci-fi than fantasy in feel. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Arcane Publishers Edtn 8
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Arcane Publishers Edtn. 7
Publisher: V Shane
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/08/2005 00:00:00

V. Shane?s Arcane Publishers Edition 7 provides e-book publishers and others looking for quality fantasy themed clipart and layout design elements with an excellent cross-section of fantasy illustrations and fantasy themed borders, section pieces, and an interesting decorative font, Wizard Kanji.

The collection includes 4 birds (3 hawk type birds and an owl, all of which are well done line art with cross-hatch shading), 9 buildings (Most half of which are actually large statue-like structures, including an obvious sphinx analogue, the artwork on these is simple line art with a bit of cross-hatch shading and ground cover and vegetation sketched in, the others are more detailed, with the illustration of a small castle-keep very well done with detailed stippling), 9 people/adventure types (most of which are rather well done, some are sketches, with details left unfinished, while others are detailed line art with shading, cross-hatching and stippling used to define details. The ?Winter Rider?, ?Dwarf?, ?(Thief) Behind?, and ?Assassin Guy? illustrations are quite good looking.) There are 9 dragon graphics, most of which are close-ups of features such as wing, or head. The ?Dragon Egg? illustration presents a nicely done image of an entire dragon, presumably just hatched from the above mentioned egg. There are 3 ?familiar? cat illustrations, presenting a cat suitable for use as a mage?s familiar; all of the illustrations are nicely done line art with cross-hatch shading to provide details. There are 2 ?gate? illustrations, which are wilderness scenes with stone pillars framing an entryway. There are 4 miscellaneous creatures? illustrations, a female centaur (this is one of the sketch type illustrations), male kobold (a well done piece of a tall, skinny, ?noble? looking kobold, well executed as line art with stippling, cross-hatching, and shading to provide details.), a female ghost headshot, and a female ?Vampyr? (another striking illustration, the ?Vampyr? is done with crisp line art and solid shading, with a stippled pillar and background providing contrast).

In addition to the illustrations a number of page design elements are included as well, An ?arcane border? border piece is provided in both line art and detailed shading, an arcane divider, again in clean line art and detailed shaded versions. The arcane pieces are wondering scrollwork, reminiscent of Celtic knot work, ensnaring a couple of crystal ball type objects. There is a ?Natural Border? piece featuring a vine and leaf & berries type motif. The selection of borders is rounded out with a ?Stone Border? border piece featuring a wrought stone look. Finally there is a ?Sorceress? divider, which features a female mystic type whose hair snakes out in whorls to form the body of the divider.

In addition to the border and divider pieces, there are two text block backgrounds provided, one is a light grey ?parchment? look, and the other a ?standing stone? background, both are sharp and good looking. Finally, there is the ?Wizard Kanji? decorative font, it provides an interesting font style featuring scratch-like font pieces similar to Japanese Kanji script, it makes for an interesting decoration or faux document.

So, as can be judged by the descriptions above, this collection provides a wide selection of illustrations ready for a publisher or GM looking for visuals for his game to insert into their documents. The artwork is all professional, with some done as sketches, and others fully realized detailed illustrations. Based on the variety of not only illustrations but page design elements provided in this collection, I recommend this product to anyone needing illustrations of the type included in this collection. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Some of the illustrations are outstanding, done with masterful shading, cross-hatching, and stippling to define details.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Building pieces were weak overall, mostly colossal statues ala the sphinx, rather than buildings proper. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Arcane Publishers Edtn. 7
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Creator Reply:
Wow, that was a detailed review, thank you for the input! I did want to point out that future Arcanes will have much more dynamic buildings as this is not the first report on the laxness on the building designs.
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Ape 9 : Dice!
Publisher: V Shane
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 11/07/2005 00:00:00

Arcane Publisher?s Edition 9: Dice provides e-book publishers and others in need of dice graphics with a solid collection of polyhedral images. Images are included for d4, d6 (horizontal, tilted, and with pips), d8, d12 (angled and top view), and d20.

The images are provided in both color and grayscale versions, each in a .tif file format. Using a good bitmap editing program, you can change the color of the dice using the hue/saturation controls as is mentioned in the product description, giving you the full range of basic colors to feature. Speckled, marbled and other outr? dice colors would require some heavy filter action on your part to achieve. You can also rotate the images, though the numbers are fixed right side up. The dice are flat 2d images, thus you can?t change the facing to a different number without erasing the numbers and redoing them yourself. Most of the dice feature the highest number on the die on the graphic; one with a 1 showing on each would have been useful as well. Still they are pretty good quality images.

Overall the dice collection provides a ready to use, moderately customizable set of good quality dice graphics to drop into your PDF, webpage, or other document needing some dice graphics. At the price of $0.44 an image, the collection provides a good value. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Images are crisp and adjusting color is easy.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: More image versions with different numbers showing would have been useful. Extra D12 images where D10 or D20 would have been more useful. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Ape 9 : Dice!
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(Aid) SRD 3.5 Revised (Full) Bundle
Publisher: Creative Mountain Games
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/27/2005 00:00:00

OVERVIEW

D&D 3.5 provides players with a vast assortment of classes, skills, feats, spells, magic items and monsters, such a multitude that finding the information on a particular feat, spell, or monster can require a tedious amount of book shuffling and page flipping, often followed by laborious hand copying of stats and other information. With Creative Mountain Games? SRD 3.5 Revised bundle players have easy access to all of the classes, skills, feats, spells, magic items, and monsters contained in the SRD. This information is easy to find via the capstone index PDF, which links to the individual PDFs, each of which has an extensive hyperlinked table of contents as well as precision bookmarks (The bookmarks actually take you to the section of the page where the text starts, not just the page it?s on.) Once you?ve clicked to the information you are looking for, you can cut and paste it to your own document for printing as needed. When you need to reference another text, you can use the bookmarks to jump to the cover page of the individual PDF and click on the CMG link there, which takes you back to the main index. From which you can navigate to the information as above. These features make this product a quite a timesaver for a GM preparing adventures, or a player needing to read up on a feat or skill, or write up his character?s spells.

The SRD 3.5 Revised bundle is comprised of 17 individual PDFs. The main index PDF, which has bookmarks too, and thumbnail links to, each individual PDF?s cover page. The individual PDFs are:

Core Rules: The SRD 3.5 Revised Basics, Spells, and Magic Items (475 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Psionics Rules (319 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Epic Rules (302 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Divine Rules (55 page PDF)

Monsters: The SRD 3.5 Revised Monsters (standard format - 578 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Creature Stat Blocks (569 page PDF)

Spells: The SRD 3.5 Revised Adept Spells (69 page PDF) NEW! The SRD 3.5 Revised Assassin Spells (30 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Blackguard Spells (22 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Bard Spells (137 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Cleric Spells (188 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Domain Spells (189 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Druid Spells (151 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Paladin Spells (40 page PDF) The SRD 3.5 Revised Ranger Spells (47 page PDF) SRD 3.5 Revised Sorcerer and Wizard Spells (332 page PDF)!

BASICS, SPELLS & MAGIC ITEMS

This PDF covers the basics of D20 system, basic resolution, abilities, Races, Classes (including the entire standard, NPC, and prestige classes from the SRD), Skills, Feats, Combat, other adventuring rules (carrying, exploration & movement, wilderness, weather & environment, traps, & the Planes), Equipment, Treasure, Magic Items, and Magic. The TOC also includes a spell list index, by class, and an alphabetical index of spells, with hyperlinks to the individual class spell PDFs

EPIC, DIVINE, & PSIONICS

There are 3 PDFs covering the Epic, Divine and Psionics SRDs The Epic SRD provides rules for characters above level 21, the Divine SRD provides rules for creating gods, the Psionics SRD provides rules for psionic abilities, races, classes, feats, etc. (None of the material from the Psionics SRD has been integrated into the monster or basic PDFs, however.)

MONSTERS

The monsters PDFs include the standard monster info from the SRD, as well as the Creature Stat Block PDF. The CSB provides condensed stat blocks for every monster from the SRD readily available for you to cut and paste, making setting up encounters very easy for GM?s. Another nice feature in the CSB PDF is a TOC of creature types by Challenge Rating, a TOC of creatures by type, alphabetically, and a TOC of creature types by CR. Unfortunately a listing of monsters by Environment isn?t included.

SPELLS

There are 10 spell PDFs, one for Adepts, Assassins, Blackguards, Bards, Clerics (and another for domain spells. The extra domains included in the Divine PDF are not included however), Druids, Paladins, Rangers, and Sorcerers/Wizards. Each PDF includes a spell list by level and spell descriptions by level as well as an alphabetical listing of spell descriptions, all of which can be reached via the TOC.

LAYOUT & ARTWORK

The PDFs themselves are pretty plain, mostly done in single column, with some sections done in a double column layout. The fonts used seem readable enough on the screen, being that are over 3500 pages, I didn?t bother to print them out, but they should be readable enough. There is a lot of whitespace in the tables and spell listings, so for those who do print them out, they will be using up quite a bit of paper. Many of the sections could use a tighter more space saving layout. The only artwork included is on the cover pages of each PDF, they appear to be scans of old medieval artwork, and are nice enough to look at, though one appeared quite pixilated to me. No borders or backgrounds are used on any of the pages, so you won?t have to waste any ink on fluff. Overall the layout is serviceable, and you don?t buy a product like this for the artwork.

SUMMARY

For a GM putting together an adventure or creating NPCs, or a player putting together his spell book or browsing for new Feats, this is an excellent product. Creative Mountain Games? SRD 3.5 Revised bundle is guaranteed to save them time and effort putting together their game materials. If you happen to use a laptop or other PC while you game, it makes an excellent online reference as well, thanks to the very well done hyper linking and bookmarks in each PDF. With these PDFs on your computer, you can make sorting through the reams of game information, Races, Classes, Skills, Feats, Spells, Monsters, Treasures and Magic Items that make up D&D 3.5, to find the information you are looking for easy, and getting that information into your own gaming materials is a snap once you have found it. Thus I recommend this product to anyone who plays D&D 3.5, has need of a good rules reference, and prepares gaming materials for use in his game.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Excellent hyper linking and bookmarks, quick and easy cutting and pasting of information. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Too much whitespace in many tables and descriptions, link to main index PDF only on cover page of individual PDFs<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
(Aid) SRD 3.5 Revised (Full) Bundle
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Battlemaps Lairs: Ghoul's Mausoleum
Publisher: 0one Games
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/19/2005 00:00:00

Battlemap Lairs: Ghoul???s Mausoleum provides a nicely rendered map and 25 mm map tiles of the aforementioned ghoul???s lair. It also includes some history & rumours backstory and full D20 stats for the Ghoul Duke, Jhnthenn, in a 14 page PDF. The maps and map tiles are provided in both color and grayscale versions. Making use of the layer feature of PDFs, you can toggle the furnishings, objects, and other details on the map on or off, allowing for some customization by the GM, or the inclusion of hidden details.

The lair itself consists of 3 parts, a section of a graveyard with a walkway leading to the mausoleum, an outer balcony area, and the mausoleum interior proper. With a 1??? = 5??? map for use with 25mm miniatures provided for each section, as well as a ???mini-map??? of the area. The details of this map are taken from 3D renderings and are quite sharp and well-drawn, providing a gorgeous level of detail for your map, much prettier than dry erase markers on the old battlemat.

Jhnthenn, the Ghoul Duke makes for a rather tough opponent, CR8. He has the standard ghoul abilities of stench and paralysis, as well as Ghoul Fever, Command Undead, and Dark Sanctuary. Making him a very tough opponent to deal with on his home ground, due to his army of ghouls and the protection afforded him by the Dark Sanctuary.

Overall this is a solid product; the maps are gorgeous with sharp, well-rendered details and the option to toggle furnishings and other objects on or off. Jhnthenn makes for an interesting opponent with enough back-story to be more than just boss mob #7. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Gorgeous 3d rendered details.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Many spelling/grammar mistakes in monster description text. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Battlemaps Lairs: Ghoul's Mausoleum
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IPPS Castigation Class Penal Ship - Botany Bay
Publisher: UKG Publishing
by Rob M. [Featured Reviewer]
Date Added: 10/18/2005 00:00:00

IPPS Botany Bay ? Castigation Class Penal Ship provides a history, D20 future stats, deckplans, and 25mm map tiles for the Botany Bay, a penal ship (a prisoner transport in this case). An autorun executable is provided, which runs when the CD is inserted. The autorun program opens a webpage interface with links to the D20 Future stats and info, in PDF form, in color, as well as PDFs of the deckplans & map tiles, in both color and greyscale.

The ship is a long spinal type, featuring a front command section, a long middle section, to which are attached the two oblong transport pods, and the rear engine section. The transport pods can be of two types, the Cell pod, which features 20 cells and a common area able to accommodate 40 prisoners. Then there is the Stasis Pod, which carries 222 prisoners in stasis pods in an un-pressurized area.

The D20 Future stats for the starship are in a 7 page color PDF with a short history section, and stats for the ship and its weapons. The maps and 25mm map tiles are done as two PDFs, one color and one grayscale. The graphics used for the furnishings and textures of the ship map are sharp and vibrant and look quite good. The deck plans are numbered with short descriptions of each area of the ship.

This is a solid offering, providing a ready to use starship for use in a D20 Future game. Either a prison break or other scenario would be well served by using these deck plans. <br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Nice graphics and textures used in maps & 25mm tiles<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The side/front/top views are blurry and pixelated, and don?t look very good.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
IPPS Castigation Class Penal Ship - Botany Bay
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Creator Reply:
Rob - thanks for all the info sorry you thought a couple of the views were a little pixellated, we will try to find a way of upping the pixel density without increasing the file size too much. We are very much aware that image viewing and sending can be quite difficult in electronic media and we sometimes get it wrong. In the meantime if you read this could you please email me with details of what equipment programs and settings you were using to view the file. The reason I ask has somewhat to do with some of our majaor upcoming and future releases where you will get to use some of the ships and space stations we have to battle the dead future. We have a number of improvements to weave into future products as technology moves on and a year is a long time in the elecrtronic marketplace. Kev
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