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Other comments left by this customer: |
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I appreciate this light weight approach to 5e. I also like that it’s readable on a phone. These days I tend to game with a nine year old who doesn’t have the attention span for the complexity of standard D&D. I can see using these rules straight from the phone, so to speak. I followup with additional classes and ancestries would be nice, maybe some naval rules?
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The content itself is excellent. The scan is extremely poor.
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I don't usually buy print copies of games anymore, but I bought the print of this immediately. This edition is by far the best edition of Gamma World, and arguably the best version of d20, a pre-OGL lighter version. i will be buying the prints of Treasures of the Ancients and others in the series as they are released.
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I have been gaming and collecting a variety of games since '87. Here's my take. The really positive aspect of the game is that the resolution system appears to be less combersome than some of the games that have clearly influenced it. The not so good: the game system is a little too wed to OGL, Palladium and GURPS design to accomplish what it claims in the page count it currently has. Seperate systems for spells, psionics and powers could be unified, for example, but really, the book needs another 75 solid pages to be the complete game it claims. Content is heavily scewed towards fantasy, and few achetypes are listed for scifi, other than racial ones. There are no superhero achetypes listed. Build system would
make the game complete, e.g. a toolbox for creating races, achetypes, monsters, vehicles, mechs, including those more than meets the eye, and starships. Until this is added, it isn't worth $15; $7 maybe, but not $15. Elemental is not a complete universal system, though it is a solid system.
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks for the review, Curt! As an addendum, I would encourage anyone who's interested to check out the free ELEMENTAL Discovery Guide. On pages 50-58 there is a list of all the skills, flaws, archetypes, spells, powers, weapons, vehicles, creatures and characters found right here in the core book. Our experience suggests that it's enough to get started and gives people a good foundation to build from without needing to buy any extra books. |
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The scan of this book is excellent. The missing star is because a good deal of the book is filled with character sheets. To be fair, most of this material is probably stuff that didn't make the page count of the first book, and Palladium probably had no idea how much of a hit the Robotech RPG would be, their most popular until Rifts.
The heavy hit here is the expanded timeline. My late 80s group used it as a kind of "plot point" campaign. The aircraft carrier stats and floorplans are nice, as are the writeups for main characters not included in the first book, like Claudia Grant, Roy Folker and Capt. Gloval. Descriptions of the "Reconstruction Blues" Earth are expanded, including the indroduction of Palladium's version of the Eastern Block, EBSIS. Although the core book and this one encourage playing in the post Zendradi armada destruction period through to the begining of the Southern Cross, with the material in this book and the Zentradi sourcebook, groups can easily play the three year SDF-1 in space period.
The book also contains missle logs and hit locations for mecha. I can't really speak to these because that's a little too close to war gaming for me.
The most disappointing aspect of the book is the discussion of military rank, which could have been clearer. It doesn't explain why some characters had naval rank and others had air force rank.
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I am bias in favor of this game and this line because this book introduced me to roleplaying back in 1987. This system here is what has become known as the Palladium Megaversal System, dirived from first edition AD&D with precentage skill rolls reminecent of RuneQuest and other inovations, like a roll over d20 mechanic, that it would take TSR-Wizards over a decade to innovate on their own.
The best thing about this system is that though it has changed some since 1983, those changes are relatively minute. You can essentially port material from one game or setting into another with little work. My group used to play Robotech with martial arts from Ninjas and Superspises added in.
The scan is excellent, and presents an archival look at scifi-anime gaming and English language anime source material in 1986. One might ask how playable the game is today. My response would be that it depends entirely on the group and the game master. I have yet to play any rpg rules verbatium, and it's doubtful that the founders of the hobby ever intended rules as anything other than a bridge to entertainment. I have never used hit locations or M.D.C. other than Main Body to speed up the game, for instsance.
What makes the 80s-90s line of Robotech RPG books interesting is the degree of latitude Harmony Gold gave Palladium with the licence . In effect, in the 80s and 90s, there were four versions of Robotech that didn't always mesh: Carl Mecek's production for TV and notes for the Sentinels, the novelizations by Jack McKinney, the comics by the Waltrup brothers and Palladium's, which was very much a Cold War version of Robotech influenced by the geo-politcs of the 80s [see the RDF Manual]. This was great! it meant more Robotech. Harmony Gold's current lisencing allows for only the presentation of Tommy Yune's version of Robotech, which, while not at all bad, arguablly restricts the creativity of the RPG authors.
Buy it. Read it. Make it your own.
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To my knowledge, this is the only issue of the Rifter to contain substantial Robotech RPG content, which makes it interesting to aging folks like me who were introduced to roleplaying through the game in the '80s.
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This issue has a bit of everything, but of particular interest is the Atorian Empire article, because the book it previews The Guide to Imperial Space has yet to be published over a decade later. The Ninjas and Superspies adventure is also particularly good.
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This game really is complete in 100 pages. That's the reason it was the standard edition of T&T for so long and is still prefered by many. The character stats fit on an index card, and the system is incredibly simple: each side rolls a number of dice based on weopons etc, with magic and ranged combat having slightly different procedures, the highest total wins the round. The difference in the totals is the damage to be spread over the combatants on the loosing side. Armor may soak some damage. Ranged combat, magic, just about everything else are handled through a saving roll system. The most inovative aspect of T&T is the Monster Rating. MR indicates the number of dice monsters roll and acts as their hit points. The book has benchmarks and suggestions for customizing monsters, but like all aspects of this game, it's up to the GM to narrate the details. This is pretty standard Tolkienesque fantasy but could aslo emulate Howard, Leiber, etc. There are four classes and fourty plus kindred, or race, options. The book gives a lot of space to weapon descriptions and includes sections on unarmed combat, breserker combat and firearms. Finding an easier frpg to play with new players would be difficult.
One only need look at the names of the spells to see that T&T does not take itself seriously. The original edition of D&D didn't either, but by '79 D&D was taking itself more and more seriously as it moved into Advanced territory. The art here is arguably better than that in the AD&D books of '78 and '79. By the late '80s systems like D&D, Palladium and Rolemaster got caught in the trap of having to stat everything. Even the new Deluxe Edition of T&T avoids that. If the rule's not in the book, talk it out, or house rule something.
What distinguishes 5th edition Tunnels & Trolls from the new Deluxe Edition, and some would argue makes it a closer representation of Sword & Scorcery and High Fantasy literature is fewer stats. All magic is psionic and costs strength to use. Take a look at how magic is handled in Lord of the Rings, etc, and you'll see that more or less reflected here. The default setting of Trollword is implied but not front and center, like in the Deluxe version.
What you will not find in T&T5 are detailed descriptions of monster races, etc. The assumption was in the '70s that roleplayers would be avid readers of myths, legends and fantasy fiction. This should not deter a new GM. There's always the magic of Google. If the game has one flaw, it's a flaw shared by FRPGs of the time. T&T5 is a bit Eurocentric, but even so, has more references to Asian monsters, etc than D&D did at the time.
I discovered T&T around '87, and it's still one of my favorite FRPGs. Tunnels & Trolls has always been for fans by fans. That shows in the longevity of this edition.
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My only real issue with this pdf is that it's listed as 189 pages and is actually 89 pages. The operative question is: what's not to love a about it. Though sent in a different continum and released by a different company, "Against the Axis" is a follow up-continuation-revision of the concepts Perin's earlier ICONS book "Homefront Heroes". "Axis" focuses on the theaters of war. Basically, if you want to tell a Golden Age story with ICONS, what you need is probably in here. Also, because the contributors are ICONS heavy hitters, like Houser and Tondro, esthetically and mechanically it should fit well with most published ICONS material. For those interested in Stark City, the book offers a Kirbyesque ancient aliens origin of superpowes.
If you like ICONS at all, you shouldn't be disappointed.
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Creator Reply: |
thanks for catching the typo regarding number of pages. We have fixed that. |
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Considering I paid $30 for the PDF alone on RPG now, I'd say the price point for the print is great. The Compendium does not include the expansions from Hengeokyi Studios, which is why I'm giving it 4, not 5, starts. But the system is functional and easy: 1D6 roll under a target of attribute plus skill. For most of us, gameplay is a rarity that often takes place over google hangouts, Skype or FaceTime with old friends sperated by distance. This type of gaming necessitates a rules-lite system. And let's face it, spending and hour or more designing a character was cool at 12 years old; over 40, it's not even worth it. You'll have your characters ready in 5 minutes or less. I won't say this is the best rules-lite system out there, but it's certainly worth a look at this price.
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I'm a sucker for Simon's games, and at $2.50, I didn't pass this up. The hack carries over the best aspects of BoL: careers, versitle non-Vancian magic, hero points, etc to a d20 roll over mechanic. The system here looks highly playable, but it lacks in one key area: monsters. There is a monsters section, but many Sword & Sorcery classics are missing. I would have liked to have seen either conversion guidelines from standard OSR, or random monster creation tables. And, and this is just my preference, I would like to see ship rules. I am a huge admirer of "Queen of the Black Coast".
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Creator Reply: |
You\'ll be pleased to note I\'ve updated the pdf with a few more pages of monsters |
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The original T&T came out the year I was born, and I first encountered the game in it's 5th edition when I was twelve, before I ever played D&D. I still find the Monster Rating system far easier than statted foes. This is the best edition of T&T since 5th [and I have all of the post 5th ones]. There are a lot more "clothes" on the rules, but at its heart, it's still the same easy to digest game. The book also contains probably the most comprehensive writeup of Ken St. Andre's Trollworld under one cover. Another fringe benefit to T&T is that the game has had one author at its helm for 40 years, and Ken St Andre and publisher Rick Loomis are still actively engaging us fans. I am looking forward to the hardcover. Now FBI needs to do a deluxe version of Mercenaries, Spies and Private Eyes.
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