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Thousand Suns: Rulebook
Publisher: Grognardia Games
by Ron H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/26/2015 15:39:46

There is no 3.5 rating, and since the good outweighed the awkward, in my opinion, I weighted the review at "4". The system is a great homage to various others of the 70s and 80s, most notably Traveller.

The basic mechanics are streamlined and forthright. The game is written intelligently, and it seems the author has a good feel for what is important in the Golden Age Imperial science fiction genre. The rules are reasonably well laid out in the table of contents, and, while they are not indexed, do have references of the "see p. x" variety that almost always point to the correct spot. They are hyperlinked in the PDF version.

However: the rules set (in fact all the books) are desperately in need of decent proofreading. Many sentences and paragraphs look as though partial changes were made to different galleys and then not reconciled. There are errors in grammar, syntax and, quite simply, bit that read like two different sentences were spliced together. This detracts from the whole.

The rules also make much of being generic enough that one may graft them onto any system, a plus. There is a fine line between that and insufficient information, however.

For example, when one has price lists of items, and costs for starships, this suggests that these would be relative to some sort of economy, and none is given. Costs of travel, lifestyle, ship maintenance and so forth are entirely up to the users. Of course, our group again made them up and I referenced some other games for inspiration and suggestions, but while we are following the rules example of keeping things functional and not too granular, the setting does suffer form a complete lack of "what goes on in ordinary life and how do people live"?

Nonetheless, we will use this system, rather than others, because it allows one to get on with the adventuring rather than bogging down in granularity and, if more sourcebooks are forthcoming for the author's own setting, these may address some of the shortcomings.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Thousand Suns: Rulebook
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Thousand Suns Character Sheet
Publisher: Grognardia Games
by Ron H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/26/2015 15:28:36

The character sheet is acceptable. Our group found it more useful during generation than in play. We found insufficient space for the Hooks, and the Vitality break points for penalties do not match up to the rules suggestions, especially since different characters will have different totals and the penalties come at percentages of the total. We made our own sheets, which had most of the "tactical" information on one page, and the "background information" on another.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Thousand Suns Character Sheet
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Archeologists of Shadows Volume #1
Publisher: Septagon Studios Inc
by Ron H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/14/2012 09:33:58

The collage-like nature of the artwork in this handsome product both suits and enhances the atmosphere and thematic elements of the story.

While individual panels may vary somewhat in quality, overall the presentation and the initial glimpse of the overall plot are both enticing. There are many familiar elements in the parts of the plot that have been revealed to date. Campbell would approve.

Appropriately, it remains to be seen whether the story itself becomes rather mechanised and formulaic, or whether the author has some hidden layers of plot, theme and nuance to uncover, as his "archaeologists" proceed.

Certainly worth picking up, and looks to be worth following, as it is a refreshing change from the mass produced, bathing-suit slugfests which still seem to dominate the medium.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Archeologists of Shadows Volume #1
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