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(Reposted from Free Edition)
Absolutely fantastic. It's hard to think that Kevin Crawford would do a game like this coming off of Silent Legions but here it is. Godbound is a game where the players are normal people in a fantasy setting who gain powers of fallen "Made Gods" who almost destroyed the world years prior. The key concept is that mortals entered heaven and found god gone and fight and took control of heaven and the great machines that run their world from the angels guarding them. Then ideological differences drove them to create their own fashioned artificial gods which then began to war amongst themselves, rival factions, and the remnants of heaven's angels. They broke the world, themselves, and almost drove all of the world into darkness. Now years later mortals are gaining these stolen slivers of divine power and becoming demigods of great power who hold the potential to become full fledged gods in this broken world.
The setting has a mix of technology levels, from urban citiscapes that are barely holding on to their technology, steampunk autocratic nationstates living in fear of their robotic masters, to basted wastes where the fabric of reality lays torn and bleeding monsters and other reality horrors into the landscape. Also scattered around the world are shards of heaven itself that the players can enter, conquer, and hopefully convert into eventual paradises or bases of operation.
The system is an OSR hybrid that uses d20's for most rolls, standard combat actions, but lacks predefined classes. Instead characters are based around facts that detail their backstory which grants them access to powers and skills appropriate to that background. The real power of characters comes from the 3 beginning WORDS which define their purview of divine power, allows them to buy GIFTS which are more discreet powers, and defines how they can spend EFFORT or DOMINION on miracles and larger more lasting changes to the world. I haven't seen such a friendly free form power system since the early MAGE days. If anything I'd say unlike White Wolfs bookkeeping nightmare of a power system Godbounds miracles are quick and easy to rule on.
The game assumes the players will be facing powerful foes and reshaping the world from level 1. To illustrate this it uses a modified damage system where lesser foes do hit points of damage while the players can do full hit dice to anyone not considered on their tier of power. That is not to say there is a lack of powerful foes to face. The game present guidelines to build a wide range of horrible monsters, powerful casters, and still living Made Gods that will challenge the players growing dominion.
Not since I read the original work of Sine Nomine's Stars Without Number have I seen such a well written and developed product. It directly rivals Exalted, Cypher System's Gods of the Fall, and other similar work while still being it's own unique setting and rules. Play is fast, and exciting. Game tables will be filled with stories of armies falling, nations warping to players wills, and eventually massive universe/nay-multiverse spanning wars of conquest and heroic deeds.
It's well worth the price at free for the core game, and the Deluxe Edition includes loads of fun optional rules like magical martial arts, alternative Godbound types, and expanded artifact rules.
Please, enjoy!
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Absolutely fantastic. It's hard to think that Kevin Crawford would do a game like this coming off of Silent Legions but here it is. Godbound is a game where the players are normal people in a fantasy setting who gain powers of fallen "Made Gods" who almost destroyed the world years prior. The key concept is that mortals entered heaven and found god gone and fight and took control of heaven and the great machines that run their world from the angels guarding them. Then ideological differences drove them to create their own fashioned artificial gods which then began to war amongst themselves, rival factions, and the remnants of heaven's angels. They broke the world, themselves, and almost drove all of the world into darkness. Now years later mortals are gaining these stolen slivers of divine power and becoming demigods of great power who hold the potential to become full fledged gods in this broken world.
The setting has a mix of technology levels, from urban citiscapes that are barely holding on to their technology, steampunk autocratic nationstates living in fear of their robotic masters, to basted wastes where the fabric of reality lays torn and bleeding monsters and other reality horrors into the landscape. Also scattered around the world are shards of heaven itself that the players can enter, conquer, and hopefully convert into eventual paradises or bases of operation.
The system is an OSR hybrid that uses d20's for most rolls, standard combat actions, but lacks predefined classes. Instead characters are based around facts that detail their backstory which grants them access to powers and skills appropriate to that background. The real power of characters comes from the 3 beginning WORDS which define their purview of divine power, allows them to buy GIFTS which are more discreet powers, and defines how they can spend EFFORT or DOMINION on miracles and larger more lasting changes to the world. I haven't seen such a friendly free form power system since the early MAGE days. If anything I'd say unlike White Wolfs bookkeeping nightmare of a power system Godbounds miracles are quick and easy to rule on.
The game assumes the players will be facing powerful foes and reshaping the world from level 1. To illustrate this it uses a modified damage system where lesser foes do hit points of damage while the players can do full hit dice to anyone not considered on their tier of power. That is not to say there is a lack of powerful foes to face. The game present guidelines to build a wide range of horrible monsters, powerful casters, and still living Made Gods that will challenge the players growing dominion.
Not since I read the original work of Sine Nomine's Stars Without Number have I seen such a well written and developed product. It directly rivals Exalted, Cypher System's Gods of the Fall, and other similar work while still being it's own unique setting and rules. Play is fast, and exciting. Game tables will be filled with stories of armies falling, nations warping to players wills, and eventually massive universe/nay-multiverse spanning wars of conquest and heroic deeds.
It's well worth the price at free for the core game, and the Deluxe Edition includes loads of fun optional rules like magical martial arts, alternative Godbound types, and expanded artifact rules.
Please, enjoy!
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Shadow of the Demon Lord is nothing new...and yet a breath of fresh air. How do I handle those contradictions?
At it's core it's a fantasy heartbreaker with dark themes. However for a heartbreaker it's got an impressive pedigree with Robert J. Schwalb working on it. You see Schwalb gets Warhammer, D&D horror done right, and has the chops to write up a functional and very impressive product.
So what makes this old idea in new clothing stand out? Let me bullet point it for you:
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A TIGHT resolution mechanic that borrows from 5E's advantage/disadvantage mechanic. It's called Banes and Boons. But instead of rerolling dice you add or subtract d6's to your baseline d20 roll. Banes and boons cancel each other out and you are trying to beat a target number of 10. Really, REALLY, easy.
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Starting Ancestries give you 0th level bonus with a mix of professions and language skills. Just enough to start game as a 0th level newbie! The the mix is nice. I love the Changelings and Clockworks, but it's got most the classic orc, dwarf, etc there. All with nice darker twists. Big play up on fae lords of old and ancient curses. Personally love the Goblins are their quirks are hilarious and disgusting. There is a noticeable lack of elves...because they are really more NPCs.
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Random character generation tables IF you want to use them...and they are varied enough to be interesting. I just wish there was a online tool to punch out a dozen or so random characters whole cloth using this.
- Actual class levels add more flexibility and some mild power bumps but are NOT restricted by race or prior class. It's all additive. As you move into novice, expert, and master class levels you can mix and match as ongoing play and actions dictate. Keep using your smarts to solve issues, maybe you are a budding Fighter/Warlock who steals magic from foes using it against them in combat. Eventually becoming an Inquisitor using your magic thieving talents against corrupt casters.
The downside to this advancement is you don't unlock spells, class tricks, etc until you level into them and some players wish to be awesome out of the gate. This game isn't geared for that style of play.
Also keep in mind that there are only 10 levels to the game. Leveling up happens when an 'adventure' is done. Think of it as chapters in the game. And this is driven by the GM. So if an adventure runs long, there might be lulls between level ups and path unlocks. But when advancement does happen it's varied and fun!
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There is an insanity and corruption mechanic. Insanity is rough, but manageable. Hints at Warhammer and Call of Cthulu and it works here. Corruption is useful but hit or miss. One, gaining corruption is more based on actions of the PC. Think of it in Ravenloft terms. They do evil X, gain corruption Y. The only things that are guaranteed to hit you with Corruption are learning evil magic, using evil artifacts, and doing evil deeds. (murder, demon pacts, etc.) So in the end a lot falls to GM call on this sort of thing, so warn players that actions bring consequences and establish god table protocols on this kinda stuff is all I'll say.
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Combat is deadly and fast. Early on PC's have very few options to heal or revive fallen allies. And some foes and attacks, well they don't leave much behind to fix. So players will have to be careful early on in the game. Armor only does so much and walking into something like a Dragon's Breath, or Gorgon's gaze is a quick way to end your character. They even have a guideline to give new characters replacing dead ones a potion of healing as a 'sorry'. So death is cheap, happens frequently, and is something to be careful of. I LOVE THIS!
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Technology is not feared or repressed in the setting, technomancers, gears, guns! They are all there but are not more impressive against demons than conventional sword and magic. It's just another valid option. If you wish to NOT use these in your version of the setting or game they can just as easily be ignored.
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Magic is a huge grab bag of styles and effects. However they are short lists of themed spells. Air, Earth, Fire, rub shoulders with Runes, Necromancy, Technomancy, Divination, and darker art. Each 'type' of magic has a Master class path associated with it. There is on average 8-10 spells for each path. Enough to specialize, but it does force PC's to mix in some other paths of magic if they focus on being a caster exclusively. There is a robust mix of utility and combat magic. And the spells are short and non flowery in description. None of them feel like they would dimish a non-caster as they gain skills and gimmicks of their own with each class level. The only difference being in the weird creative solutions that magic offer. (Like using gusts of air to steal something, or illusions to win over a noble, etc.) So the magic system doesn't overshadow practical skill use.
- The canned setting for the game is very functional. Rul is a fallen empire slowly coming apart at the edges as monster and corruption within eat at it. Add to that the Demon Lord (it which goes by many names) pushes against the world from the Void seeking to consume it and all the souls within.
This functions as a very sketchy backdrop but has enough fluff and story bits to build on. The empire used magic to turn jotuns into Orcs (a playable race), the devils below are actually dark fae?, some of the gods might be powerful fae creatures or worse, cults are everywhere, there a prior ruins of old civilizations that had fall ins with the Demon Lord or their own hubris and fell. Etc. The core idea is it's a dark fantasy setting sitting the looming shadow of the "END OF DAYS". The game doesn't say it's doomed, in fact PC's are one of the few factors that can turn the tide and save the world, or buy it more time.
What the setting does do however is give a GM a toybox to play with. Something to show the kinds of setting SotDL can be used to build/ Kul is patchwork but a solid one. It doesn't take much to redress elements of it, or expand on others to build your campaign.
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The rest of the book is solid plot building advice, setting agnostic advice I might add. And a good mix of how to handle insanity and the dark influence of the "Shadow of the Demon Lord". This little mechanic is a massive plot shift, an event or power acting over the world that is a horror filter adding drama and problems for the PCs to deal with. Imagine the SUN turned black but slowly burning the world to cinder! Stuff like that.
- The bestiary at the end of the book is tight! Lots of deadly, mean, and vicious critters. Enjoy it! Mechanically they are all functional but tend to eat unprepared PCs for breakfast. I'd LOVE an expanded bestiary, but it seems right now the author is focusing on setting specific material based around a theme that matches that location. (See the recent Desolation book.)
For the price it's a steal. A fast, aggressive, useful semi-tool kit that is very dark and moody while also having fantastic and weird mixed in. There is also a LOT of subtle and not so subtle jokes mixed in. (Look at the random 'interesting things' tables for examples.)
So, to say I was blown away by the book is to put it mildly. It's nothing new, but a total breath of fresh air in an era of similar titles.
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This supplement is fantastic! It introduces interesting but problematic elements that fill a much needed niche in the game.
First off the new Ancestries are tricky advanced things. But mechanically easy to use. The Revenant is a semi-ancestry that can be pluged into any moral human/dwarf one allowing them to turn into an undead soul bound to the living world. It allows players to enjoy an undead hero with out being harmful to the party (directly) and there are heroic and unheroic play options in your backstory explaining HOW you came back to life.
Salamanders are a dangerous bound elemental spirit but can still be heroic if destructive. Just don't try to grapple one.
Vampires are AWESOME...but have a few issues. They are Vampires. Sunlight hurts them, they gain a bane from their magical phobia, and well they need BLOOD to live. It's a very corrupt/insane path and if you are playing a Vampire PC you'll be inching your way into full corruption in short order. However if you want to play a Vampire looking for redemption or a cure it's viable and offered. Just keep in mind the whole group will have to adapt to you inhuman needs.
The new spells are useful and fun. Blood magic is corrupt but it's utility functions can be helpful even benign, but it's origin from Vampire casters and the majority of it being based around well KILLing, it has issues. The rest of the magic fits the theme nicely and hey Necromancy finally get the spell to turn yourself into a Lich! (or Liche)
Then the second chapter is a delightful grab bag of desolation/desert locals that can be adapted for any game. I know I want to send my players to the Vanishing City! The weather rules are harsh but I feel they are missing the bitter COLD of desert live. But the desolation is more in like with Muldor than a true desert so I guess it fits. Great atmospheric stuff to throw at players.
The adventure ideas are a good mix if light on details More adventure seeds. The 4 new relics a mix of vampire and undead.
Most of the monsters are awesome. Just keep in mind the majority are higher diffculity. More boss or massive group battle material. But all are delightfully dark and dangerous. I guess I just wish there was a Demon Lord Bestiary of nightmarish monsters and demons to play with.
Round the supplement out is the Into The Wastelands/The Harrower's Tomb wish reads like a classic fight the undead lord of the land adventure. It's a Master tier character one so ya.
The Desolation/Wasteland adventure seems geared for higher level play in mind but has enough crunch and fluff for lower tier characters to enjoy. Just keep in mind the setting is HARSH and should be killing PCs and NPCs like a Dark Sun convention.
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Numenera is something very new built using some very old ideas in a creative way. What I mean by this is at it's core you could argue it is a dungeon crawl game set 1 Billion Years in the future. That said, you'd be right and VERY, VERY wrong.
Numenera is about emergent play using the tropes of dungeon crawling but wrapped in it is post-apocalyptic junk culture, cargo cult style Clark's 3rd Law cultures, and yet it also has this very Mobius zeerust aesthetic mixed with punk ultra tech deco. Did that make sense? No? Let me break it down.
The game pulls from a LOT of cool inspirations that sounds like a who/who's of Monte Cooks years of writing and inspiration:
- Mobius Comicbook Art Styling
- Gamma World random junk and gadgets
- Cyberpunk trans/post human ideas.
- Narrative effort mechanics
- Kitchen Sink D&D ala Plansecape meets Spelljammer
The list goes on, but what Monte does and does well here is mix it all together into a very convincing setting called the 9th World. It's a very much next age of man ala Thundarr The Barbarian if seen though the lens of David Lynch's Dune with bits of Heavy Metal (Both movie and comics) mixed in. And this is a VERY, VERY, GOOD thing!
Mechanically it uses a system where the GM doesn't roll but sets difficulty and sometimes steps in to dictate the play of a roll but this later option is tied to a benie mechanic to keep it nice for the players. GM Intrusions are basically Hero Points from M&M but with mechanical backdoors tied to how the dice roll. (Roll a 1 and trigger a NON benie based Intrusion.) Higher rolls result in small to larger benefits and everything runs off of a single d20. Damage id static, but can be boosted by spending your pools of points (basically stats represented by energy pools) to nudge difficulties and results in your favor. And the difficultity range is a 1-10 scale while the PC's operate at a 1-6 one. That keeps them from out leveling challenges and starting and higher level characters all have the rough chance to pull stuff off but higher tier (aka level) characters get more pool to spend and other mechanical benefits to offset costs and to lower difficulty with out taping their pools. It works really well but does have a slight meta feel to it...and that's okay!
Where the game both shines and confuses/frustrates players is the Cypher System (the core mechanic) character creation options. It's I'm the Adjective Noun Who Verbs. Which works out as I'm the (status bonus) (class) who (character focus/growth area). The adjective is your native starting bonus. It usually is a stat pool boost, skill, and unique intro gimmick all rolled into one. The Noun/Class element is 3 classes in the game. Glaive (warrior), Nano (wizard/priest), and Jack (rogue) and they have 1-6 tiers and powers and skill bonuses for each tier of play. You'll be spending most of your exp HERE to flesh out your character as they grow. Your Verb (focus) element of the character is where it is awesome and can suck.
When I say is awesome and can suck is because you can misunderstand why some options are there and pick them and then later discover they feel more limited in scope than others. This is working as intended actually. The various focuses are what I call character rounders. Each character has 3 areas they can make themselves unique. The class options, their focus, and finally their items. A player can pick up "Carries a Quiver" and go on and on about why this option is only so-so compared to something more flexible like "Controls Gravity" and I'll point out the option is there specifically to round out characters who are Speed Focused (one of the 3 stats) who want a fire and forget long range attack option that levels up as they do.
(for example) A Glaive who's spending most of their exp on picking up skill specialties, and combat options who really just wants a fire and forget skill in Bows so at least one area is focused and of appropriate tier to every thing else. Or a Nano who specializes in defense and information skills but wants to be combat effective with the party. Or finally a Jack who much like the skillful Glaive is so spread out in their esotaries and tricks they welcome a nice and easy option like Carries a Quiver.
If you are building a character and you want to make up for the lack of scope influence as a Glaive, or prehaps add a edge that most people wouldn't expect as a Jack, or even a Nano who wants to add even more semi-magical tricks to their skills...pick a focus more esoteric than the fire and forget options like "Carries a Quiver" or even "Wields Power with Precision" which is basically "I cast magic better". The uber limited focuses are there for a reason...but I can see why people will call them traps if they don't look at the bigger picture of character development.
I would ding Monte for not explaining this, but in a book as THICK as this and with so much setting information (and there is a TON), rules options (decent amount), and just well Gm advice and starter adventures (check). I'd say this omission was more oversight than malicious design.
The game offers a very polished setting (which is nicely fleshed out in the World Guide recently released), enough character options, and a mechanic that screams to be used in online games that I think it's pretty much worth every buck I spent on it.
Love the game so I went all in and got the print copies and GM screen...among other books.
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An amazing sci-fi product. I love the colorful art, was always a fan of Sanguine's system from IronClaw, and he overall playablity of the game is aces. The pdf copy I have seems to lack a reader friendly outline and the TOC doesn't have links soooo...ya that's an issue. But the content is well layed out and the rules presented in a very readable format. Also, love he easy on the eye font they used. Bravo.
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This book should be your #2 buy after you get your hands on Stars Without Number. The sourcebook covers a wider range of ship building options, naval careers, and genreally plays up the space side of being in space.
this is a must if you wanted to play anything from a deep explorer with the latest upgrades in their craft, to inner-system freebooters loaded with contraband gear.
A tight and always useful book.
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I...love and hate this edition of Mage: The Asension. For years I would not, could not accept the Avatar Storm and the slap to the face of my prefered Mage playstyle. I think this was the straw that broke the camels back on my picking up every WW product they put out.
However that aside, some good things DID come out of this book:
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A revised technocrazy that honestly seemed interested in the betterment of mankind instead of a monolithic control mechnism.
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Nicely updated and revised paradox rules.
- Tighter options for what frankly is one of the best magic systems out there.
So, while I may hate the setting changes in the revised era of mage, I do appreicate the book for what remains.
Not bad, but I'm waiting for M20 with hope it is setting/timeline agnostic enough for my taste.
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I'm of a mixed opinion of this product. On one hand I love the art, the setting, and some of the rules. The characters feel like they have plenty of advancement options and various builds. The race as class builds are fine. However...well:
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The organization of the book frankly is horrible. Critical information like how Hit Points work is in the section on Armor? Stuff like advanced character generation terms are droped early in with no explination. It's like they took the rules notes of an early draft, slamed them together, and fancied it up. So many tables show up out of the blue. I was in seriousl TMI early on.
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Lack of a Lexicon early on HURTS. They need to have a nice one stop location to look up all the terms right there in the beginning.
- No pdf reader friendly outline. So while the book has a TOC, I can't pull up specific sections from the menus in my reader (ezpdf/android). That forces me to do a lot of back tracking to find specific information.
In the end it's an interesting product mared by questionable layout choices. If I had a physical copy it might be easier to use...but in the era of pdf online dominated play. These are cripling issues with my enjoyment of the product.
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This is a great intro adventure for Stars Without Number. It loot, the random star tomb generation rules, the fleshed out 'city' colony. It's perfect to get the player's feet wet. Just drop it into any existing SWN game and let the PC's go wild. Mind you, it's designed to restrict the PC movement early on (cost, lack of ship, etc.) So an existing group might find it confining if they are use to flying around unfettered.
Just keep that in mind!
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This was the book I was waiting for. It gives me the cyber rules I wanted to SWN and it's got a great dark setting included. I honestly think Sine Nomine could spin this out into it's own full seting book with larger random run generation, city creation tables, etc.
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Light, fast, punchy, and useful. It's Vampire 2.0 of the nWOD crowd and it shows. They cut away a lot of the fluff narration of the previous books to focus on a wider 'what is a vampire', here are the rules updates, and enjoy a wider selection of worldy venues. All good things. The Stryix are...interesting as foes and work as a great new problem for your PC blood suckers.
The book is stand alone. I miss that of the old WOD books so it's a nice touch. The big catch? A lot of the fluff that really fleshes out the clans is in the clanbooks which thankfull are still mostly viable buys. Consider picking up those down the line to really make this product sing.
I'd say this was an excellent revamp of the nWOD line. Now I can only hope these updates make their way to Mummy the last of the pre-Chronicle update books.
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This book is great! As a stand alone is a wondeful sandbox generation system for post apoc settings. I love the SWN variant of the OSR rules and characers while chrunchy early one do feel skillful. The rules are tight and allow for a range of characer options.
If you are a Stars Without Number fan consider this book the ultimate ruined world plug in! It gives you options for mutations, new psi powers, and survial options in destoryed/decaying worlds. The 4 new classes are servicable but might need some skill updates of space travel becomes an option.
Finally the book itself is up to Sine Nomine standards. Easy to read, nicely written, and expertly layed out.
Well worth the pdf at least.
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"Where does he get all these wonderful toys?" Well now you know. Short, punchy, loads of goodies to use. Works with Starts Without Number and Other Dust. Great buy for either game.
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The Good: Dayjobs are a fun way to link your character to the modern setting. Spell choices are useful and have colorful quirks. Skill system don't hobble characters growth. Clear writing and easy to follow guidelines.
The Bad: Meh to Meh art (a lot of it looks stock). Monsters feel tacked on setting, this may be a side effect of setting itself with magic returning to the world. But I sit there wondering...what is the implications of critter X in the setting and it only get's touched on. Setting could really do with a 'deeper secerets' book that fleshes out the world more...but it doesn't take much effort to take the tools given to cook up modern magic stories.
It's a fun book if you know what you are getting into. Great if you want to try something different with OSR.
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