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I'll admit to loving every second I read this. The art, the writing, and the setting all reminded me of the old Shadowrun, my first tabletop game, and it was pure gamer bliss.
However, I have to be objective here. For me, this book was pure awesome and amazing, but how likely am I to really use it in play? Very. The only problem with it is that I already used everything it included in my campaigns; I just homebrewed it. While it's nice to have a book that does it all, it's really not necessary for me to go back from something I lived by for a long time and still run a campaign for with an additional book, and the book primarily targets those players.
That said, the production values are top-notch, which I have to give Catalyst props for. As I mentioned, the entire book was perfect, and with Shadowrun Returns coming out soon with its accompanying Fluff and Smoke webseries I've spent most of this week with most of my free time being immersed into Shadowrun.
So I'll end this review with recommendations: If you're one of the people who hopped onto Shadowrun in Fourth Edition, this could be the book for you if you want to play a more classic cyberpunk feel. If you love the new system, want a standard conversion of old gear, and pretty much just want a book to bring stuff from the old books into the Fourth Edition ruleset while getting a blast from the past, this is also a good book for you. If you're still an older-edition player, you may want to just stick to the classics, though, since while it's a more than satisfactory conversion, there's nothing new or particularly exciting other than the fact that it brings proper-name gear into the Fourth Edition package. If you want a primer for the old setting, it's also a good catch; even to the relatively veteran Shadowrun fan I am the content didn't get boring or repetitive, despite the fact that I've had issues staying awake through some other attempts to recap on the setting's evolutions through the years. It's all a question of whether or not you can shoulder the price tag.
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SteamCraft is a wonderful game for its purpose, though it is not entirely without its flaws.
It manages to create a great framework for adventures. The rules are relatively simple and easy to grasp, plus they're not so incredibly boring or predictable you may as well skip rolling for stuff. It's well-written and laced with flavor and other things, though it doesn't get too heavy with this to the point of bogging things down.
On the other hand, there are some major issues. Maybe it's just on my end, but text that has a picture bumping into it (even the transparent areas around it) winds up turning out incredibly pixelated. I'm not sure what causes these issues-all the other PDF's I've tested work fine, even things I've thrown together explicitly to test this seem to have no result, so I'm thinking it's an error with the software on their end; it's not a gamebreaker but it's a little annoying. There's several typos littered throughout the document, which could be a turn-off for some.
Ultimately, my largest gripe with this game is its price-its system is pretty simple and it'd be none too difficult to create a homebrew system that could do everything contained within (though to be totally honest, percentile-based systems have very little room to stand out without becoming gimmicky; which means you could say this about a lot of things) and it could stand a couple more layers of polish and revisions to really command a $20 price.
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Creator Reply: |
My pdf looks fine, but you are having problems so I want to make sure it gets resolved. Could you please email me more detail explaining the text pixelating issue around pictures so I can look into it? steamcraft@perilousjourneys.com |
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The pixelation issue should now be fixed and an updated file is now available for download. |
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Only War does a good job at being a WH40k game of great quality, even in its beta state; there are a lot of people who gripe about something or other in terms of how the beta is being handled, but as a product, I've seen full games less polished than this, and the high-quality rating and what art is already in here is of absolutely top-notch quality.
Just as a game, Only War is pretty spectacular, using FFG's polished percentile-based rules, with pretty much all the rules you would need to play through military campaigns and the like. It's got simple rules when simple rules are required and there is an obvious eye to detail when it comes to the mechanics; covering everything from ascending cliff faces to requisitioning supplies without becoming needlessly bloated.
Basically, if you're on the edge of the fence when it comes to getting this game, hop on over; the Imperial Guardsman setting is absolutely awesome when it comes to playing within the 40k Universe, especially if you follow some of the novels.
I'd say that if you're at all skeptical, don't worry about the $20 cost; you get the game as-is early, plus a coupon for $20 off the final edition.
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Posthuman Studios' translation of Degenesis is as stunning and stellar as one would expect from the makers of Eclipse Phase. The book is beautiful and presents a wonderful and insightful look at a post-apocalyptic setting, with a richness of character and setting that is often missing in many games.
The mechanics are very solid, with a two-fold difficulty and skill rating that creates an interesting curve that allows a lot of possibilities.
The game itself isn't one for the kiddies-it's violent, there's some swearing, and there's at least a couple images with things you wouldn't necessarily want a young kid seeing, but it's not terribly crude like some games get when they're taking license with a more mature audience.
That said, even though it's not exactly a family-friendly game, Degenesis provides a great mechanical backdrop for an in-depth setting, and it's definitely worth a look; it's a great price for the amount of content you get, and you support indie gaming.
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Hazard Pay is a wonderful supplement for Shadowrun 4th Edition, with a ton of text that will prove invaluable for anyone trying to run a Shadowrun game in an extreme environment while staying within the boundaries of strict canon.
It is very well written, but the editing is a bit of a disappointment; I've always looked to Catalyst Game Labs for every high quality products, but whoever was doing editing on this reminded me of what happens when I keep my laptop's trackpad on when I'm typing- there are a ton of typos and there are often places where it becomes clear that a sentence was being edited, then whoever was editing skipped to the wrong place. This doesn't detract from a reader's ability to understand the work for the most part, and I'd still recommend the book, but I get the feeling there was a little lack of the usual polish.
The art used to punctuate the writing is all great by any standards and serves to increase the immersion; some of it comes at a different point in the book than where I would have put it, but I'm not an expert designer and it still contributes to the work while providing awesome illustrations and examples.
The book also comes punctuated with short stories of varying length-these are all pretty well written, and introduce us to the characters who are narrating each section.
There's not a whole lot of crunch in the book, in terms of new rules, but there's plenty of new spells and a small bit of new gear, plus vehicles for most of the situations out there.
I really thought the Arctic section was the best, and part of this is due to the fact that it's the least touched on by other material, at least as far as I can tell. That said, the fact that a lot of creatures, say, mentioned in the Desert section, are available from only Parazoology means that in order for the reader to actually find the creatures is somewhat frustrating especially considering that no reference to the sourcebook is made. For instance, the Mongolian Death Worm is found in Parazoology, but without a reference to that book my primary resource for a critter would be Running Wild, rather than the substantially shorter Parazoology. In addition, while gear is duplicated in the Game Information section, critters are not, meaning I have to guess at where in the Arctic section I'll be grabbing that Spirit Bear to ambush my runners, which is far from impossible but is still a pain. A good index at the end of the PDF would help this a good deal, but to the best of my knowledge such an item is missing, and the PDF's built in bookmarks, which usually would do for such a task, have this on a third layer, making it near impossible for someone unfamiliar with the book to find this quickly without resorting to the PDF search function. In short, it feels like someone got lazy and didn't want to do a full table of contents (I've been guilty of doing the same), but when you're referencing between books it is really important to have such a thing. At the very least, a index for critters, magic, and gear of interest in other books could have been appended to the end of each section to point out where things are.
Ultimately, if you feel the need to take your campaign somewhere outside of traditional sprawls and want to give them the full Shadowrun hurt I'd suggest this to anyone, but be forewarned that it's not of CGL's usual quality.
Quick Summary:
Content: 5/5 (I'm content that the amount of content provided could make any group totally sick and tired of the settings within, and since there's a lot of stuff here it's pretty good.)
Art/Typesetting: 5/5 (Catalyst Game Labs remains as good as always about providing a book that doesn't make your eyes bleed but has plenty of stuff to focus on. I'm not a giant fan of the short-story font, but it's pretty good all around)
Writing: 4/5 (Very well written in terms of content, but there's some typos that could have been caught by giving it to a second editor or giving it another run through on the editing end)
Awesome Factor: 5/5 (Shadowrun in Space! Shadowrun in Antarctica! Shadowrun at sea! There's plenty of stuff to be had here for some really crazy and awesome scenarios.)
Interest: 5/5 (It's made exclusively for people who want an out-of-the-usual feel, and it provides that very well, at least if you're looking for the places that kill you quicker than the bad guys you're after thing)
Maturity: 16+ (Not terribly violent, but includes a good chunk of swearing)
Value: 3/5 (For $25, it tends to leave out a ton of content that I feel could be easily duplicated within, and it just isn't up to the usual standards of quality I expect from Catalyst)
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Free Taiwan was my first time actually using a pre-written mission for Fourth Edition Shadowrun, because my group wanted a game and it looked like it would work with them pretty well. It did.
It's great, and my players absolutely loved it! The hand-to-hand combat specialist felt a little left out, but in a party where everyone else is packing an automatic or longarm and all you do is whip things that's a pretty frequent complaint.
The mission itself is fairly short to mid-length in a good way-it took about a hour and a half for my group to complete it (partly because they were getting distracted by internet videos on the background-my main gripe with going digital) and setting up took only about fifteen minutes. It did, however, achieve its goals handsomely and the group enjoyed it.
I mean, it's a free mission. It's also of good quality-the typesetting and included art were great, and there wasn't any time where I was scratching my head having run into a dead end, the players went along with it without having to be coerced, and it was memorable.
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Street Legends: Home Edition is a little taste of Shadowrun goodness that presents "Street Legends" that most long-time Shadowrunners are familiar with; the characters that really shouldn't exist but yet they do.
My favorite thing about it is its blunt honesty-Street Legends: Home Edition isn't the big budget presentation by Catalyst Game Labs but rather a collection of the things you see around the table and cry yourself to sleep after (namely, when your player pulls out a character sheet with one of these characters on it). Mind you, not all these characters are outright "bad", but they all highlight the things that players run amok do.
It's not the most serious product, but it is free, and if you can get past the somewhat mature content in some areas you'll recognize characters straight from "that one player" in your group.
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A Time of War is, in my opinion, one of those "genre-definitional" games that people should get if they are at all interested in a certain genre of game; science-fiction giant combat machine action being the genre of choice.
It's made by Catalyst Game Labs, which vouches for its quality even before you begin reading it. I'd say that it's got among the highest production values of tabletop games out there; the art is all impeccable, the typesetting works well, and it's got a lot of content for $15.
If you've ever played BattleTech, you know how much fun it can be to suit up in a giant 'Mech and blow away some enemies of your favorite choice, and A Time of War does a good job at letting you catch the "downtime" of 'MechWarriors and their compatriots, focusing on both fighting and more peaceful agendas outside the cockpit.
Quick Summary:
Content: 5/5 (Battletech has an incredibly rich universe, and A Time of War brings it through both in fluffy and crunchy ways)
Art/Typesetting: 5/5 (High quality, very pretty, and plentiful without feeling like padding)
Writing: 5/5 (No unusually obnoxious ambiguities or glaringly bad typos, plus it was technically excellent)
Awesome Factor: 5/5 (What's better than a setting where you can get back at the guy who just snubbed you by walking your 95-ton war machine through his house?)
Interest: 5/5 (The joy of my childhood still keeps on going strong)
Maturity: 14+ (Scantily clad women in the art and some more violent focuses earn it a slight cautionary rating)
Value: 5/5 ($15 isn't exactly the cheapest you can get a game, but A Time of War has a lot of stuff for that $15).
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Black Bag Jobs is a collection of adventures for The Laundry RPG by Cubicle 7 Entertainment (which, people may have noticed, makes really high-quality games).
The adventures are each relatively long, with each liable to run for a decently long session (especially if the players wind up chasing dead ends. The PDF is of high quality, though I do wish that the bookmarks were in the PDF file; there is a quick and easy table of contents, but it's off compared to how the page numbers are registered in the PDF, which bothers me ever so slightly especially given the otherwise high quality.
The art is good, the typesetting is decent, and the writing is phenomenal. This is what a collection of adventures should be like.
I can say that CASE LAMBENT WITCH looks really good. It doesn't have so much a Lovecraft feel as a spy feel to most of it, but when the Lovecraft begins to arrive it comes on thick, almost too thick since it leads to potentially a very combat-heavy scenario. On the other hand, you do get a couple squads of grunts to keep player character turnover low. Failure can be very bad, so I don't recommend this right off the bat.
Lost and Found is traditional spycraft and framing, with a twinge of the Lovecraftian. Of all the adventures it feels the least like Lovecraft's works, but it's still very well done. I'd recommend it as the sort of session you run when you're low on players; it's still awesome but it's not as incredibly dangerous as some others. It feels more petty than the other adventures, and consequences for failure are minimal.
I've also finished The Shadow over Kafirstan, and it's pretty awesome (in a sense that it sort of touches lesser-seen elements of the Lovecraft mythos, and is, in my opinion, more mind-screwy). It seems better for a starter character, and while it isn't as Dunwichy as some of the others it is really cool in its own ways; it's an approach to Lovecraft that seems almost to have sprung from Coleridge's Kubla Khan.
The Wild Hunt is really good too, bonus points for it working in traditional myth with the Lovecraft Mythos. It's a little contrived and there's a lot of ways for a smaller party to get overpowered, but it's still well done. It's a little thick at times, but it's got the Innsmouth vibe to it.
Secret Agendas is okay, but is more spycraft than Lovecraft-it's really good but the mixture of the two means either that your party will discover the secrets too soon or too late to do anything about it, and failure pretty much mandates shifting to an apocalyptic campaign. I don't recommend it for novice players.
The Signal is a good adventure in a lot of ways, if you like post-apocalyptic Stargate/Lovecraft, so I'd recommend it, but it doesn't reward the characters, which makes sense in context but will probably tick them off to no end. Still, it's exciting, fun, and alien, but it's also somewhat difficult.
Do follow the advice the game gives about the players' standing, if only to keep them from getting murdered. It also looks like the scenarios (at least most of them) would be best played in order, or in a slightly modified order (LAMBENT WITCH has a lot of opportunities to mess up things for everyone, though if it didn't it wouldn't be very fun, now would it?); I'd say The Shadow over Kafirstan may be the best starting point just from my own guess, though this is somewhat irrelevant to the quality of the adventures.
Quick Summary:
Content: 5/5 (Six adventures that will last a whole session.)
Art/Typesetting: 5/5 (It's Cubicle 7, and it doesn't disappoint)
Writing: 5/5 (Sans for a couple of typos, everything was good)
Awesome Factor: 5/5 (Ia! Ia! Sorry.)
Interest: 5/5 (It's Lovecraft, so I geek out about it, but I think most people would enjoy it)
Maturity: 16+ (If played as gritty as possible, some of these adventures would be on the edgy side, there is harsh language throughout)
Value: 5/5 (At less than $3 per adventure for several good adventures, each of which has its own art and a coherent standalone storyline, you're getting a good deal).
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The One Ring lives up to its impressive source works; providing an epic amount of quality and more in a game that is built to work with the feel of Middle Earth.
Everything about this game feels right; the art, the writing, and the mechanics blend together into a marvelous product that feels very much like the original books by Tolkien. The game takes very few liberties with the setting, and feels very much like picking up one of the original stories in terms of how play and characters work; I personally saw a major relationship between The Children of Húrin and this work, at least in terms of how the adventuring bands work, though the same link goes for any of Tolkien's tales.
Anyway, I will say that this is one of the best fantasy games out there, and as a fan of Tolkien I'd throw my support behind it 100% as a top-notch and accurate game which sticks true to the feel of Tolkien's work.
The closest thing to a gripe I have with this is the gimmicky Feat Die, which has a potential to roll a Gandalf or Sauron rune, but it makes the game flow quicker and adds interest, so I'll concede that it's actually good (especially given that you can use a standard d12 and just modify the results slightly).
Quick Summary:
Content: 5/5 (A great look at Tolkien's world and making adventures within it; it's built well)
Art/Typesetting: 5/5 (I'd say that this is one of the highest quality games I've ever seen in terms of design)
Writing: 5/5 (I've never had a gripe with Cubicle 7's quality, so I see no reason to start now)
Awesome Factor: 5/5 (I'm biased because I'm a Tolkien fanboy, but this gets it right!)
Interest: 4/5 (Not perhaps the most interesting part of Tolkien's sagas, but a good one)
Maturity: 10+ (There's not really anything in here I see that warrants a content rating, other than heroic violence)
Value: 5/5 (You get a lot in this pack; the Loremaster's and Adventurer's Guides, and two maps [one for each], so the asking price is great)
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Azamar is an awesome fantasy setting. It's just plain grand on all levels-it takes a tried and true genre, spruces it up with new and innovative stuff, then combines it with a tried and true system, mixing it up enough to keep things interesting but still sticking to the important core tenets.
Basically, this is a fantasy game done well; nothing's terribly obtuse, everything's quick, there's detail, good art, typesetting, and more!
Azamar is an interesting game because of the conventions of the fantasy genre it observes and those it doesn't, and it has a very complex and well thought out world, and while it may be one of many in a popular genre it manages to have a distinct feel of its own. It's a little bit grim but doesn't revel in it like some games would, so it falls in an interesting space in terms of feel and the setting combines traditional conventions with some notable tweaks (though these are not always that far off from conventions).
Quick Summary:
Content: 5/5 (Covers the setting and players well, there's a lot of good stuff here, and it's rather original and deep)
Art/Typesetting: 5/5 (No complaints and very uniform, nothing to complain about)
Writing: 4,5/5 (Not always the clearest or smoothest, but well-done nonetheless)
Awesome Factor: 4.5/5 (It's a fantasy setting; it may be a bit creative, but there's still a lot of those)
Interest: 4/5 (Fun, but loses some points just due to the massive amount of similar stuff)
Maturity: 12+ (No real complaints, touches on racism and war [not losing points for it])
Value: 5/5 ($5 is truly a steal for a fully featured game like this, especially given its production values)
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Outbreak: Undead is in my opinion the best zombie game available, and Outbreak: Wild Kingdom is a suitably high-quality supplement for it.
Quite frankly, if you're going to do any real wilderness focus in your game, this is a great add-on. While not every campaign goes into the wilderness, there are even more city-applicable features like statistics for dogs, birds, and vermin swarms that would still be in play in a urban environment.
The Fair King Zoo scenario is both very interesting but also a little gory for my squeamish taste (it is a zombie game, after all). I'm not as easily scared as I used to be, so it didn't bother me terribly much, but it's not the sort of thing I'd run with just anyone (just like any zombie campaign). This should not be interpreted as a bad thing, however, given the setting and goal.
I cannot come up with anything bad about this book; some people may not care for the style, but I find the style to be incredibly cool (maybe on account of my nerdiness), and there's nothing I can gripe about.
My one warning to people would be that this is a zombie game, so not everyone will appreciate the art and content (it is rather gory), and it's not for children or the excessively squeamish.
For those wanting a quick summary:
Content: 4/5 (It has a lot, but it's very specific; if you are going into the wilderness specifically it'd be 5/5)
Art/Typesetting: 5/5 (It made my graphic design nerd happy inside)
Writing: 4/5 (Some typos detract from otherwise excellent writing, some places could be re-written)
Awesome Factor: 5/5 (ZOMBIES! Wilderness survival! Animals!)
Interest: 5/5 (Well thought out and deeper than just stating facts)
Maturity: 16+ (Clean language and sexual content, but violent and potentially disturbing)
Value: 4/5 (It's not the longest supplement around for $13, but it makes up for it with quality)
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For many, the fame and age of Vampire: The Masquerade speaks for itself, and for good reason.
This was my first real experience with Vampire: The Masquerade as a game (I'd heard people talk of it, but never actually read the rules), and I have to say that I see a lot of things in it that represent, to me, the perfect game. I can't speak for previous editions, since I lack any real knowledge of them, but the 20th Anniversary Edition seems to me as good a time as any to start.
It's not for all audiences-it's gritty and violent in the World of Darkness, but I think that it adds to stories a great deal. While I probably wouldn't play it (as is written, at least) with children, the setting is compelling and inviting for adventures and penance. Add in a lot of lore that satiates the book-learning side of my reading and it's great, especially given that it provides both a strong framework to work stories within and a lot of freedom for Storytellers to decide the details.
I probably don't have to say all the things I like about this book's art and typesetting, since it is from a prestigious publisher, but if there's any doubts about it, I'd say don't worry. The art is great in quality, and there's no gripes with the way the text flows and stands out against its background. Of course, not all of the art is for kids, but neither is the setting. My only gripe is that the art didn't all seem to be the same style, alternating between color and black-and-white and between photorealistic and illustrated styles, though its consistently high quality makes up for this.
All in all, I'm surprised by how much I'd been missing out on; I knew that a lot of people swore by V:tM, but I'd never seen for myself just why. For its price, you get a lot of content and a game that just seems to come together in a way that few other games can. If you have any friends interested in playing this with you, get it and I can guarantee you'll get your money's worth.
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Ashen Stars is a very well made game. It's very much a harkening back to older science-fiction from back before it was quite so serious (i.e. when there were aliens) with a modern touch. Ashen Stars is one of the better science-fiction games out there, and it's definitely one of the easier games, though it still manages to maintain sufficient complexity to be worth playing.
The art and typesetting are stellar (no pun intended), and the writing's flowing and well-done. The game immediately engaged me, and I found no issues with it. That said, at $25 it's not the cheapest, but it is professional grade.
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Corporation is one of those games that I had heard whispers of but never actually been told about. I was aware it existed, and I was somewhat aware of its focus, but that was the extent of my knowledge.
To put it quite simply, Corporation is awesome. It's top-grade, lengthy, has a lot of both nice mechanics and good setting, and it's awesome. I'd rank it up with SLA Industry, though it's a lot happier (which means about zilch, since saying Corporation has a happy setting would be libel).
Dark, cyberpunk, sci-fi (the two blend) action. Basically, it's Deus Ex in a tabletop game, plus a few years for the really shiny stuff. And that's way simplified, but since Deus Ex is one of my favorite video games, it means a lot.
Corporation may be fairly expensive compared to other digital editions, but it's worth every cent.
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