I've been playing in or running Kill Sector for a couple of years now. I think it's a fantastic sandbox system which emphasises tactics and unpredictable, very deadly combat. It fits one-shots best, but longer stories with character growth over time is also feasible. Creating a first character can seem overwhelming as it's a point-buy system with over 1000 options, but that's also what's cool about it. Although some setting info and modules exist, it's really more of a universal platform for character creation. I'm using it as a basis for developing fandom and genre games; I simply cut away the parts that I don't need, and everything that remains works. Tyson and Noah have been amazing about in how they frequently rebalance functions, add new features, and support the community -- all this for the whopping price of free.

REMOTE CONTROL by MATEUSZ WIŚNIEWSKI is a nifty tool for gamemasters and cyberpunk genre authors. It’s really a collection of tables for quickly generating descriptions of autonomous or remotely controlled robots. The 38 page long book is very system-neutral, so none of these drones get any stats like hit points or even speed; that’s both good and bad. Some random drones turn out weird. These tables are all based upon entirely random rolls on ten-sided dice, so sometimes things line up in unexpected ways. It’s very possible to roll up a fist-sized taxi cab or a skyscraper-sized baby monitor. Unexpected combinations can sometimes be a good thing for priming the creative juices, but more often then not, a bad combination is just bad. When I make random tables, I try to go to great lengths to avoid nonsensical outcomes being possible, but the general thought process here is that goofy drones should justt be rerolled or better options should be manually chosen – not big deal. What I particularly liked was the extensive list of possible primary applications. These range from brick laying to battle-parasites which attack and take control of other droids. There’s also a collection of ten specific drones towards the end of the book which are named and given a backstory. They’re fun. There’s an incense burning droid in here which can secretly kill you if it wants. The only part of this book which really disappointed me was the general lack of illustrations. The pictures are all limited to a few lack and white photos. I can roll up a spider-robot, but I’ll still need to go to Deviant Art in order to find a visual representation of what my players might be seeing. For the very slight price I paid, that really isn’t much for me to complain about.

402 must be my favorite Breachworld character. I find him to be a fascinating twist on the standard trope of the remorseless killer. He can work as a PC due to how he is a dynamic character whose goal is learning and upgrading his software continuously. He's best suited, however, as an NPC villain.

In game balance, 402 is a little highly specialized for combat. As a PC, he might be a tad overpowered compared to other starting PCs. His sniper rifle is straight out of the standard equipment list, but at 7D damage, it's the most powerful standard firearm in the Equipment section. To keep 402 from dominating combat easily, the GM needs simply to track his ammo usage, because bullets are valuable and in limited supply in Breachworld.

The PDF is 9 pages long, not including two pages of contract legalese at the end. It's crisp and easy to read. The text is copyable which is important to some of us. Included is an extensive description of the character and his background, 4 different versions of his character sheet representing the same character at four stages of experience (the only changes being stats and one skill specialization that he picks up over time), and four brief adventure hooks. I really like how Jason provides the four character sheets, going out of his way to do the book keeping for us.

If there is any weakness in this folio, I would point towards the adventure hooks. They aren't bad. They are just meh. Only the last hook, "Fritzing Out," uses the character in a way which is not obvious.

Bianca Flynn expects her Sweet Sixteen to be a quiet celebration with her stepmother who she doesn't much like, but when strange things start happening, Bianca realizes this birthday will be anything but ordinary. So begins a magical journey between two worlds with a lead character who is not only strong, but also very likable. The fantasy world created in this novel is vivid and beautiful. With a fast pace, the author moves us seamlessly between two worlds putting a new spin on an old fairy tale, which is at times charming and at times chilling. The story moves at such a good pace, you won't want to stop reading. Truly enjoyable with twists that keep you guessing all the way through.

This catchy track is all instrumental. It's a little techno and a lot space opera. It would fit in very well in the background of a retro-1980s video game. I liked it. I would like to use it in a possible upcoming audio book project, so is Galaxy Forgotten released under any specific license?

Bits of Darkness: Dungeons is a very good idea and well executed. The concept is to provide a dungeon designer with little interesting characteristics of each room of the dungeon. Some of these details are more thorough with plot hooks, treasure, & traps; some are just a couple of lines of description. It's all terribly useful stuff, especially for groups which make heavy use of random elements. There are also several small pieces of good black & white artwork.

Liked: Variety of well written characteristics, all of them excellently organized

Disliked: The authors relied rather heavily upon the concept of finding the body of a previous adventurer. If I were to use all of these in a large dungeon, my players would be angry with me about all of these bodies laying around for no reason. It's also a completely incompatible concept with many themed dungeons. Really, why do so many people keep going into this dungeon if no one ever comes back out?

This is a great, but little known book of Palladium's history. The game itself is very much a sandbox, basically a modern world with monsters, psychics, and magic spells thrown on top. It can be run for horror, high adventure, or laughs.

That doesn't mean the book leaves a game master with too many options and no direction. Erick Wujcik wrote an excellent little section on how to run a horror game. Four short adventures in back run the gambit of silly introductory games to deadly monster invasions. Experienced players of other Palladium games will like it because there are huge sections (over twenty pages each) on ley lines and equipment.

The "megaversal rules system" is typical of Palladium in the early nineties, much like the rules in Palladium Fantasy 2nd edition or Rifts 1st edition. The megaversal rules tend to garner very strong opinions in a love them or leave them sort of way. Actually, it's some rather standard stuff that most any player will find familiar -- roll 3D6 for attributes, roll a twenty-sider to hit something, etc. The downside is that there is a fair amount of jargon here that might intimidate new players. For example, Potential Psychic Energy which is a power source for magic and Inner Strength Points which is a power source for psionics. It should be the other way around.

I enjoyed this book on paper because it was the most flexible incarnation of the Palladium system (except arguably for Heroes Unlimited). Some of the monsters are fun and unique.

The ebook version leaves out nothing. The black & white artwork is very clear. The print is just a little on the hazy side for people who like to blow up their views to 200% or 300% of the norm for easy reading.