Future Broken is, as one might guess from its title, a science fiction game set in a ruined world. It uses the Versus: Monsters core rules which can be downloaded for free from this very site, so don?t let that put you off too much. DO let it put you off if you aren?t a fan of rules-lite games, since VsM is an extremely rules-lite game, having been designed as part of the 24-hour RPG challenge. I won?t go into too much detail about those rules now, better to seek out a dedicated review or just download ?em yourself since they?re free. Suffice to say that it?s an extremely simple card-based system that uses a standard deck of playing cards. No skills, very few specific rules, quick and dirty.

Future Broken is 26 pages in length. This includes one page of license information and the credits page, but not the front cover. The remaining 24 pages are all content. The pages are Letter size (8.5? x 11?) and the font looks to be about 9 point so there?s plenty of information here for your money.

Presentation

The first thing that sprang to mind when I opened the document file was ?owch my eyes!? The page border that has been used in the art-heavy version of the game is rendered in glaring primary colours at a very low resolution. Bright blues, yellows and greens all coexist in a total riot of colour that I found extremely distracting, especially when coupled with the big chunky pixels evident in the art. After a quick flick through in order to ring any changes, I quickly switched to the thankfully border-free printer friendly version that is also included in the zip file. Ahhh, crisis averted! As one might expect, the printer-friendly version is entirely in black and white, but since the only use of colour lies in the border and in occasional box-offs there is very little difference between the two.

With the shock of that horrible border disposed of, the rest of the layout of the product is quite professional. Text is broken up effectively with box-offs, illustrations and clear section headings that make it a joy to navigate through. There are occasional points where text blocks break uncomfortably and needlessly across columns or pages, but these are forgivable. Tables are a little chunky, and in some cases stat blocks are presented in straight line making them look a touch ugly, but again this is not a major stumbling block. The main thing is that it is easy to read, and grammatical and spelling errors are minimal and forgivable. Artwork is sparse and in most cases very simple (mostly in the form of character portraits) but of an acceptable quality.

Content

The product begins by explaining the history of the setting. By and large this history is fairly believable, dealing mostly with the politics between major power blocs that develop from various corporations. For a post-apocalyptic scenario, it?s not actually very apocalyptic in tone and certainly doesn?t approach the levels of primitiveness seen in films like Mad Max. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing. Only US history is covered though, and there appears to be no intervention with the US by any of the other countries of the world. This is a pity, since the rest of the preamble is quite believable. It is followed by a brief synopsis of the three major regions that remain after the various wars, these being two corporation-controlled megastates and an area of wasteland. Though extremely brief at only four pages long, this background section nevertheless provides a fair few interesting ideas that could easily be developed by a competent GM. A little more in-depth coverage would have been nice, but the quality of what is provided is respectable.

Game rules information follows. For the actual rules of the game you will need a copy of Versus: Monsters (free) and this product does not waste much space going over the information available in that PDF. It does introduce a few new things to the mix however, including a new attribute and more ?stuff?, which is comparable to advantages and disadvantages or even D20?s feats. There is also a new initiative system for combat (something severely lacking in the original VsM rules), and an expanded table of modifiers for combat. The bulk of the new material however is in equipment and equipment-related rules. Most of these seem fairly well-balanced and all are well-described enough to be understood, but several of them left me thinking ?why?? Why, for instance, should a bottled brain (with which the owner can communicate) be sacrificed in order to heal a downed team mate? The rule is very clear in stating that this is necessary, but doesn?t take the time to explain the reason that the rule exists. Why do brains die when they revive somebody? They just do. Reminds me a lot of video games, where it really doesn?t matter how a particular power-up does what it does so long as it does it. Having said that, what Future Broken lacks in reality it makes up for in quantity. There?s plenty of stuff here to spark the imagination, even if you do have to make up the science as you go along.

The product ends with a whole slew of NPC?s, GM-only items and adventure seeds for the use of the GM. Again, these are briefly but clearly described in the text and there are some pretty neat ideas in there. The adventure seeds are a bit of a disappointment though. Rather than providing any solid ideas for plotlines, they merely provide examples of what the PC?s might do for a living, such as being part of a police force or salvagers looking for recyclable equipment. It?s useful in the respect that it illustrates (again, briefly) what the average citizens of the future might do to make ends meet, but as starting points for an actual plot they have little value.

Conclusions

If you like the Versus: Monsters rules, then Future Broken brings plenty of new material to the fold that would be of value when running a science fiction / post-apocalyptic game thereof. At $4 it?s definitely a worthwhile purchase for fans of the system and good value for money. However, like VsM itself, it is quite brief in its descriptions and explanations obliging the GM to do a fair amount of work fleshing things out. I would gladly recommend this product to anyone seeking to take their VsM games into the future, but if you are considering buying it as a generic background for adaptation to some other set of rules then it probably will not serve the purpose well. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Plenty of good ideas, solidly built additional rules for the VsM system, and a fairly believable apocalypse for a change!<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: A little too sparing on the background detail, some of the rules are not justified with thematic explanations and that horrible garish low-res page border!<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Ave'Molech - Journal 1 is the first in a series of twelve short story / game resource combinations that are designed for the Ave'molech campaign setting but suitable, according to the authors, for use in other worlds as well. This is true enough. Although the product does make some mention of buzz words that aren't fully explained, it's generally possible to work out what is meant by them from their context.

The first thing that you ought to know about Ave'Molech Journals (Vol. 1) is that it's a fair bit shorter than it would appear. Although the PDF does indeed sport 12 pages, this count includes the front and back cover, a contents page, two pages of legal information and one page which contains only a very simplistic sketching of what look like shrunken heads hanging in rope that really doesn't justify a full page to display. The actual useful content runs to six pages, literally half of the product. Now in its defence the price is pretty cheap, but even so it's annoying that such a narrow percentage of the content actually contains any... well... content!

The first two pages of that content consist of a short story, or more accurately a piece of flash fiction. I can't say that I was very enamoured with the writer's style much, which felt very rushed. It seems (to me at least) as if the author wanted to squeeze a much longer tale into a very small space so that what might once have taken a page or even two to tell is now recounted in a brief paragraph. This makes the prose infuriatingly vague in places and the reader is left wondering what on earth is meant by certain turns of phrase. Nor did I find the plot, which concerns two men going hunting for legendary devices in a ruined city, either engaging or original. The inspiration of the piece seems to be vaguely Lovecraftian, especially given the antiquated style of the writing. Unfortunately, the quality does not approach that of the great H.P. The author particularly seems to have difficulty with words that sound the same but are spelt differently, for example using 'sale' instead of 'sail', 'here' instead of 'hear', and even 'unassailable' (which means 'unable to be attempted / attacked') used in a context that suggested to me that the author thought it meant 'not seaworthy'.

The next three pages are game content, consisting of a very brief adventure, a few new monsters and a new vehicle. These are provided with full statistic blocks (compatible with D20 Modern) which seem solid enough. Sadly the grammar has not improved since the short story, and one particularly awful sentence contains no less than three mistakes. As for the adventure, it is an extremely simple affair that nevertheless is not described in anywhere near enough detail to satisfy my own tastes and isn't really suitable for novice GMs. For example, while there is a brief (very brief) description of the laboratory that the main adventure takes place in, there is no map of this facility. There IS a map of the world, but since very little seems to happen even in the area surrounding the ruins this serves little useful purpose other than to show the most appropriate route to the site. Incidentally, this route takes up a small rectangle in the southwest corner of the map and doesn't even cover one eighth of its surface. The rest of the map has no relevance at all.

The book makes some use of artwork which, while sketchy and occasionally plain amateurish, is certainly not the worst I have ever seen. Most of it is small, less than a quarter page, except for the one full-page illustration which doesn't seem to have anything at all to do with the rest of the book. On the other hand a very attractive texture has been applied behind the text, giving the page an old, weathered look. Unfortunately there is no printer friendly version, so expect to use up far more ink and time printing this document out than you might need or want to.

The overall impression I got from reading this product was of an unedited magazine article. It felt lost and alone without other articles to keep it company, and even at the low price of $2 I couldn't help thinking that there wasn't really enough here. Some serious editorial work needs to be done to bring the language up to scratch, and the details need to be thoroughly expanded. Maybe it will have more merit when all twelve supplements are ready and printed side by side, but as it stands, I cannot recommend this product. The only reason that I didn't mark it down further for value is that it is indeed quite cheap.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The attractive page texture, the clear stat blocks, the concept of a short story being used to illustrate an adventure.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Poor grammar, pointless art and misleadingly short length. A decent idea that is crippled by poor execution.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Poor<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Everybody loves a good alien, be they the disturbing creations of H. R. Giger, the enigmatic Greys so beloved of Ufologists the world over, or the embarrassing rubbery blobs of 1970?s TV science fiction. This neat little product from Arion Games has representatives from pretty much every budget, all lovingly rendered and ready to paste onto cardstock.

?Aliens? is a set of 17 cardstock figures in the traditional mould. Each figure is set onto a simple card flat that can be folded into either the good ol? ?T? frame configuration or a triangular prism depending on the player?s preference. I have to say that the base shown is a little bit small to make a ?T? frame stable, but that?s a minor criticism since you could easily modify the design to make them bigger. Each alien is pictured from the front and back on the ?T? frame version, and all three sides of the prism from the front, the rear/left and the rear/right. This is of course the beauty of using 3D computer-rendered images for such a product. It allows you to precisely depict different angle shots of the same model with 100% accuracy.

The rendered models used in the product are mostly of a high quality. There are one or two images in here that aren?t so great; the plant alien looks like a predatory cucumber for instance, and the Exterminatus has the most ridiculously oversized and unwieldy appendages that you?re ever likely to see. There is also a definite bias towards combat aliens, with only the humble Grey really being suitable to represent an intelligent non-aggressive race. Mostly though the quality is good, the product is in full colour and the resolution is nice and high making for a good quality of print ? if you?ve got a good enough printer of course! I would have liked to see a larger set of images as well as although the resolution is quite high, the pictures are quite small and it would have been nice to get a closer look. As it is only the Alien Queen and the Beast (both meant to illustrate particularly large beasties) are of a significant size. That said, the scale is comparable with that of most cardstock figures and so their size is suitable to the product?s purpose.

The aliens presented clearly fall into various genres of space-nasty and will be easily recognisable as such to most people. There?s the typical Giger ?bug? alien, the vaguely sexual ?Species? type alien, the ?Quake/Doom? demonic alien and so on. In fact some of the aliens are uncomfortably close to well-known critters from the media with only a few minor differences to stave off the copyright lawyers. The arachnid for instance is almost identical to the staple soldier bug from Starship Troopers, with just a slight modification to the head. The alien queen is near identical to the one created by Giger. The Hydralisk is a blatant copy of the snakelike alien from Blizzard?s StarCraft series of computer games. This is just a little bit cheeky to my mind. Fortunately most of the rest, while clearly based on established science fiction stereotypes, are distinct and original in design if not entirely original in concept. At least this does mean that there is likely to be an alien in the PDF suitable for representing famous aliens if you?re running a game based on a movie though. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Consistent high quality full-colour artwork. Two different formats of stand for every alien.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Several aliens obviously copied from famous aliens of movie and computer game fame. Assembly instructions (though hardly necessary) must be downloaded separately as a free PDF from the product?s website. Obvious bias towards dangerous violent aliens.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

A Little Background

Rehendi Prison ? The Grave is a supplement for HinterWelt?s space opera RPG ?Nebuleon?. For those who are unfamiliar with the system, it?s not dissimilar to D20 involving as it does those old friends ?character classes? and of course ?character level? although in a much simpler manner. It is peculiar in that while the player uses a D20 for making attack rolls in combat, all non-combat orientated skill rolls are made using a combination of percentile dice and tables. Copious amounts of tables. Hit locations are involved. No, it?s definitely not a system that will appeal to those who prefer a quick-and-easy resolution, but it does make a refreshing change for a simulationist who has grown tired of D20 and the background information is original and absorbing.

Back on Track

So that?s Nebuleon, but what of this supplement? The PDF weighs in at a petite 32 pages for the core of the information, with a four-page map of the eponymous prison complex and a likewise four-page PDF of the world that it orbits in separate files for a total of 40 pages. Let?s start with the maps. The first thing you?ll notice about them is that although they are (for the most part) quite competently drawn, the detail is very small and their resolution is very low. This makes them rather difficult to read. I also found that in some cases they were inadequately labelled. Certain of the maps are cluttered up with all manner of hi-tech set dressing with no clear function and there is no key beyond scale markings. Likewise I have no idea as to how the two maps of Mine 212 connect up and can only presume that one represents the surface portion and the other is underground. There are several areas of the underground section that could correspond to the ?mine entrance? on the above ground section, but since none of the underground is labelled at all I can?t tell which it really is.

The world map is one of those height elevation maps that anyone who has seen the Nebuleon core rulebook will be familiar with. Different shades of colour correspond to different heights of terrain with a handy little chart that gauges the precise height. It?s not particularly attractive but it gives you the information you need to know, which in this case boils down to being the location of the various mines on the planet?s surface. There is also a system map showing the other planets orbiting the same sun, although this map is of negligible use and takes up an entire page to itself, most of which is white space.

Layout Issues

Although two separate map PDF?s are provided for the convenience of printing, most of the maps are also featured in the 32-page main pdf. Since in places these maps bridge across the middle of a two page spread it?s easy to see why the clearer version was included, but I can?t help wondering why they weren?t simply given their own pages rather than being splashed across the centrefold as they are, forcing the text to be scrunched up into narrow bands around them. This lack of attention to text wrapping makes for pretty ugly and unreadable pages in places, particularly on page four where a tiny amount of text no more than three or four lines high appears directly underneath a large flow-chart diagram that dominates most of the page. It doesn?t help that the font used seems to be rather large, I?m guessing around 11 or 12 point. It seems a shame that these basic problems with layout weren?t addressed since otherwise the product is quite nicely arranged.

There are one or two pictures included in the PDF that aren?t maps, one in particular of which is very nice indeed but I can?t shake off the feeling that I?ve seen it in another Nebuleon book somewhere before. Mark Brooks has definitely done a sterling job on that front. The artwork does raise the question ?why is this PDF called ?RahendiB&W.pdf? when several pages are in full colour?? A printer-friendly version would have been a useful addition, but at least the pretty pictures are there in colour for those who want them in colour. Nevertheless what non-map art there is, is of a high quality and while it lacks a little in action it does at least illustrate the text adequately.

The Text

Spelling and grammar is scrappy in places, and quite a few sentences feel a little clumsily structured. The author doesn?t seem to have been able to make up his mind on how to spell Rahendi (Rehendi?) and both spellings are used in the product. The adventure included is also rather higgledy-piggledy and has a tendency to get ahead of itself and leave out important details. The actual adventure itself is mostly scattered through the sections that detail each area of the station and what players are likely to encounter when they arrive there. Once you sort out which parts go where it?s actually quite a nice little scenario, but it could have been organised so much better. Apart from the adventure the pdf also details a race of aliens, the Trigannitaroes (who are mercifully referred to as ?Trigs? for pretty much all of the document). There is a pleasant little discourse on this desert culture including a few notable characters, although these would have been greatly improved in value with a few more game statistics. It would have been nice if the Trigs had been presented as possible playable aliens rather than pure NPC fodder, especially since it would have taken very little to include a strip of statistic modifiers. Then again it wouldn?t take much for a fan of the system to convert the Trigs into a fully-blown PC race, so maybe this isn?t such a terrible omission. The book finishes off with a selection of NPC?s, and thankfully these are fully statted-up and ready to run with. A little more personal information would have been nice, but that is a minor niggle. The important thing is that the numbers are there.

A Prime Example of how PDF can make Reading Easier

As PDF?s go, the product has a comprehensive index that makes full use of the bookmarking capability of the format. Quick bookmarks are provided both in the text and in the bookmarks tab making it a breeze to find any little snippets of information that you might have lost. If a note says ?see comment X on page Y? you can be pretty certain that all you?ll need to do is click and Acrobat will take you straight to the appropriate page. This in particular is a feature I?d like to see more PDF authors making use of.

UPDATE

Since this review was written, HinterWelt have made some important changes to the document. First and foremost the maps are now fully labelled and 100% more useful. Some aesthetic changes have also been made to the system map which now looks a lot prettier. Certain layout issues have also been addressed, namely pictures that were in the middle of a two-page spread forcing text to wrap around uncomfortably are now on a single page making the document far easier to read all round. There is extended game information on the Trigs as well who are now fully statted out (a major boon for the GM in a hurry). I am leaving the original review in place for the reasons of comparison. It's nice to know that there are companies out there who are willing to make such drastic changes in the name of quality. All in all I think the alterations made fully warrant the extra star on the rating. Well done HinterWelt for not dropping the ball in the after-sales service department.<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Good use of NPC?s, background detail on the prison itself and the Trigs is interesting if brief, excellent use of PDF format, excellent incidental art, intelligently priced.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Still a few minor issues with layout but nothing sinfully bad any more, still not too fond of that big font but that's mostly my own personal preference I guess.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>