The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Introduction

Blue Planet V2 is a Hard Science Fiction role playing game. In the near future, mankind discovers a wormhole on the edge of the solar system that leads to Lambda Serpentis. Much to their surprise, they discover a planet (which they named Poseidon) that is perfectly suited for human life. On that planet, scientists discover an ore that unlocks the secret to immortality. An unprecedented gold rush gets underway as EVERYONE from the large corporate nations to small independent prospectors wants in on the piece of the action.

Blue Planet V2 is about a futuristic gold rush and how it will shape the future of humanity. It combines elements of the Old West with cyberpunk. It offers a fascinating world that was created with real science.

Who am I

I'll admit up front that I am a long time Blue Planet fan. I enjoyed first edition, I am active on the Blue Planet mailing list, and I was a playtester for Blue Planet V2. I am also a big fan of Fantasty Flight Games (the new publishers of Blue Planet). That said, I am honest in my opinion of this game and have not sugar coated it at all. Hopefully I have presented enough factual information about the game that you can form your own opinion so that any bias that might have slipped in can be ignored.

What the review will cover

This review will cover the Blue Planet V2 Player's Guide. As most of the background of the game has been discussed in reviews of the first edition of Blue Planet, it will not be discussed here in detail.

History of Blue Planet V2

In 1997, Blue Planet (first edition) was released by Biohazard Games. Since then Biohazard games had managed to put only one new support product on the market per year. This was due to the fact that Biohazard was a very small company and most people had "real" jobs. Also, the business end of running a game company was eating up the time that they could spend working on new Blue Planet stuff. In late 1999, Biohazard entered into an agreement with Fantasy Flight Games. FFG would handle the business end and Biohazard would write the game. As part of the deal, FFG wanted a new edition of the game. Given this opportunity, Biohazard corrected many of the common complaints. 1) They replaced the rule system with the Synergy game system. 2) Adjusted the left leaning text to be more neutral. 3) Added many more pictures.

Separation of materials

Biohazard took all the material from Blue Planet and its first supplement (Archipelago) and separated it between two books: The Player's Guide and the Moderator's Guide. Additional new material was also added to each book. Character creation, rule system, basic background, and equipment are all in the Player's Guide. The Moderator's Guide contains the descriptions and maps for the various settlements on Poseidon, descriptions of the Flora and Fauna, detailed descriptions of the Solar System (Earth, Moon, Mars, etc...), the Incorporates, and GEO. The Moderator's Guide also contains many of the secrets of the planet.

The Player's Guide does contain everything needed to play the game. It also contains far more background material than most other games' main books + first 2 supplements. The Moderator's guide is entirely optional and is not needed to play Blue Planet.

Physical description and layout

BP2 PG is a hard covered solidly built book. On the outside, it sports an attractive color cover. Inside, the text is organized in a two column layout that is easy on the eyes. Each page has a techno border that adds to the SF feel of the game. B&W line art is used sparingly with an average of 1 picture every 3-5 pages. The artwork is slightly above average for the industry. Nothing really jumps out as good or bad.

The only complaint about the layout is the placement of the fiction text. When a piece of fiction is used, it generally occupies 1 of the 2 columns on the page. The column is shaded slightly difficulty and had a little bar running across the top to let the reader know that it is a "sidebar" and not part of the main text. Unfortunately, the shading is so light that it is difficult to see under some lighting conditions.

The Player's Guild sports both a Table of Contents and an Index.

A general complaint

There is one problem that is prevalent throughout the book. While all the information is in the book, it is not always easy to find. Sometimes a page reference is wrong, an item was left off a table, or an assumption was made but not clearly spelled out. It is a minor nit, but it detracts from the overall quality of the game.

The Game system

The Synergy Game system is the biggest change in the new edition. It is an attribute + skill + modifier system with a twist that incorporates natural talent but favors education in the long run. It uses at most 3d10 dice.

Basic mechanics

Attributes

At the core of the system are 12 attributes (8 primary and 4 derived). Attributes span the entire number line with 0 being human average. Without biotech enhancements, attributes can not vary by more than +/- 3 from the species norm.

At first glance it appears that many of the attributes duplicate each other, but there are subtle differences. These differences allow GMs and Players to model many different real world characteristics. For example: Build, Fitness, and Strength at first glance seem to be the same thing. (Strength is a derived attribute. It is the average of Build and Fitness). A big person that didn't workout would have a Build of 2, Fitness of 0, and a Strength of 1. A big person that did work out might have Build of 2, Fitness of 2, and a Strength of 2. A big fat person would have Build of 2, Fitness of -2, and a Strength of 0. A normal person that worked out would have Build of 0, Fitness of 2, and a Strength of 1.

Skills

Skill values range from 0 (unskilled) to 10 (Grandmaster). BP2 boasts some 91 skills covering a wide range of activities. Some skills are of dubious value to PCs such Farming, but it depends on the kind of campaign that the GM runs. Each skill is also assigned an aptitude that controls it.

Aptitudes

Aptitudes represent areas in which a character is naturally good at. Aptitudes come in 3 levels and they control the number of dice the player rolls when attempting an action. An Average aptitude gets 1 die, a strong aptitude rolls 2 dice, and a superior aptitude rolls 3 dice. Unlike attributes and skills, aptitudes can not be changed or improved once the game begins.

Basic task check

Basic task resolution involves adding together an attribute, a skill, and any modifiers. This gives a target number that the player has to roll under. The player rolls a number of dice determine by the skill's aptitude and takes the best result. The die roll is closed, so tasks with a target number less than 1 are impossible and tasks with a target number greater than 9 are fool proof. The difference between the best die roll and the target number is known as the action value. Most of the time this value is not used, but creative GMs will find uses for it.

Overall, the system favors high skill over aptitude. For example a person with an superior aptitude(3 dice) and a skill of 4 has the same base odds of success as a person with an average aptitude (1 die) and a skill of 8. Both have about a 80% chance of success with average tasks. However, as penalties begin to add up, the superior education takes over. By the time the difficulty level reaches Challenging (-3), the Superior aptitude player only has a 27% chance of success, while the better educated player still has a 50% chance of success.

For rolls that involve just attributes, it is treated as a skill level 5 task with a strong (2 die) aptitude.

Combat

Combat is a straight forward usage of the basic system. Combat is very deadly. A highly skilled marksman can take out the largest known predator on Poseidon with a light pistol. The odds are 5000:1 against him, but it is possible.

Initiative

Players who enjoyed the initiative system for first edition will be very disappointed by the new system. The new initiative system suffers from the designer's desire to have the basic mechanic used for everything. It is clunky and difficult for GMs to use.

Initiative is determined by a Reflexes attribute test. For every +3 action value that a character scores, they get an additional action, up to a total of 3 actions. Each round is played out beginning at +10 and counts down to the lowest action value that was rolled (usually a negative number) with the characters acting on their action value. For characters who scored more than 1 action, they get to act again 3 counts later unless the count goes below zero. For example, a character that scores +6 on his roll will act at 6,3, and 0. If he holds his action until 4, he acts on 4 and 1.

Problem arise for the GM when he has to determine the action values for all of his NPCs in a combat. The calculation of 5 + reflexes - wound modifiers - MIN(2d10) (act every 3 count) gets to be a little tedious. A much simpler initiative system is reflexes - wound modifiers + MAX(2d10) (act every 5 count).

Damage

Like Blue Planet first edition, BP2 does not use hit points. Each wound taken by a character gives that character a 1 to 3 point penalty. A character can take an unlimited number of wounds. It is possible to accumulate so many minor (-1) wounds that the character can not do anything besides stumble around.

Each weapon in the game has a damage rating from 1 to infinity. The victim's toughness and armor are subtracted from this number to give a damage target number. 3 dice are then rolled. If 1 die is rolled under the target number, the victim suffers a minor wound (-1 penalty). If 2 dice are rolled under the target number, the victim suffers a serious would and checks to see if they remain conscious. If all three dice are rolled under the target number, the victim suffers a critical wound and must check to see if they die and/or fall unconscious.

Healing damage can take a very long time. Serious wounds take an average of 10 weeks to heal and Critical wounds take an average of 10 months to heal. This time can be halved with the proper drugs.

Character Creation

Character creation is a rather simple process. Like first edition, V2 does not make any attempt to created balanced characters. Instead it offers 3 broad ranges of ability: Everyday, Exceptional, and Elite. GMs can control the power level of their game by selecting one of the three power levels. After the power level is selected, players choose their species, adjust their attributes, select biomods, pick 6-9 skill packages, and allocate a small number of skill points.

Species

There are numerous species in Blue Planet. Dolphins, Orca, and Humans are the 3 broad categories. Through genetic manipulation, the human species has splitered into many different branches. Each species has its own set of default attribute values that a player can later modify.

Attribute adjustment

Players can adjust their character's attributes by +/- 3 from the species default value by 1 of 2 methods : point based or random.

If they use the point based system they get a fixed number of points based on their power level to raise their attributes. To get more points they can lower some attributes.

The random system is a bit harder to explain. Each player starts off with a number of advantage points determined by the character's power level. These points are assigned to the various attributes. Additional points can be gained by assigning disadvantage points to attributes. After assigning the points, 3 dice are rolled vs. the number of points assigned to an attribute. For each die that rolls equal to or under the number of points assigned to an attribute that attribute's level is changed by 1. If the attribute had advantage points assigned to it, it raised. If it had disadvantage points assigned to it, it is lowered.

Skill packages

A skill package is a set of related skills. Skill packages are similar to careers used in games such as Traveler and most other GDW games. There are three type of skill packages : Origin, Background, and Professional. Origin and Background skill packages represent the skills that the character learned while growing up. All characters get 1 Origin and 2 Background skill packages. Professional packages represent career choices of the character. Professional packages come in 3 levels: Novice, Specialist, and Expert. Characters get 3-5 levels of professional packages based on their power level. Skills gained in skill packages are cumulative, so if a character gains level 2 handguns in one package and level 1 handguns in another, he will have a handgun skill of 3.

Most of the skills that a character acquires during character creation come from skill packages

Custom Skill points

Character's also receive a number of skill points based on power level that can be used to further enhance the skills they picked up with their skill packages or to acquire new skills.

Chapter by Chapter Breakdown

Chapter 1

Chapter one starts off with a brief summery of the games background. It then delves into the usual introduction to role playing. It also gives a brief overview of the Synergy game system. The real meat of the chapter though is the 15 page narrative that describes the game's setting. This narrative is given in the form of an underground Poseidon survival guide. The narrator bad mouths just about everyone, esp. GEO. It is the perfect introduction for new players to read before making their first character.

Chapter 2

Chapter 2 contains all of the rules for character creation (as described above) and advancement rules. The chapter includes 9 archetypes that can be used as PC or NPCs. A word of warning, some of the archetypes have incorrect derived stats.

Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is a strange chapter. Chapter 3 can best be seen as optional character creation rules. It covers such items as goals, motivations, and attitudes. It also contain several dozen roles that can be used to jump start character creation or used by the GM to help quickly make up NPCs. It is useful in that it describes the type of people found on the frontier world

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 contains the Synergy game system (as described above). This chapter also contain about a 1/2 page explaining just how deadly the combat system is and why. It is a good piece to read for GMs and Players who are used to characters surviving multiple gunshot wounds in other game systems.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 is the equipment chapter. From guns to vehicles to computers, this chapter has a wide variety of equipment. Most of the equipment is not combat related, but survival related. The chapter is not merely an equipment list, it also takes the time to explain how the technology works so that GMs have a basis to create new gadgets on their own.

Chapter 6

This chapter is similar to chapter 5, except that it deals with Biotech. Biotech is the catch all term for cybernetic and genetic enhancements. As in chapter 5, most of the items are survival and not combat related.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7 goes over the history of the future.

Chapter 8

Chapter 8 examines each of the power groups on the planet : Natives, Creteans, Newcomers, GEO, and the Incorporates. It examines their known motives, lifestyles, cultures, etc...

Chapter 9

The famous timeline has been move to the last chapter in the book. Oddly enough, the years 1997 though 2010 were removed from it.

Final thoughts

This is a true player's guide. It contains all the information that a player needs to begin the game. As all of the information in the book in common knowledge in the game world, GMs needn't worry about players reading GM only secrets. The Synergy game system is a "realistic" game system that remains simple to use with the exception of its initiative system (but that is easily fixed) though some groups might be a bit uncomfortable with its lethality. All in all, it is a damn fine book.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Blue Planet V2 Player's Guide
Author: Jeff Barber, Greg Benage, Allan Grohe, John Snead, Jason Werner Category: game Company/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Line: Blue Planet Cost: $27.95 Page count: 256 SKU: BP02 Playtest Review by Mike Zebrowski on 08/16/00. Genre tags: Science fiction	Introduction Blue Planet V2 is a Hard Science Fiction role playing game. In the near future, mankind discovers a wormhole on the edge of the solar system that leads to Lambda Serpentis. Much to their surprise, they discover a planet (which they named Poseidon) that is perfectly suited for human life. On that planet, scientists discover an ore that unlocks the secret to immortality. An unprecedented gold rush gets underway as EVERYONE from the large corporate nations to small independent prospectors wants in on the piece of the action. Blue Planet V2 is about a futuristic gold rush and how it will shape the future of humanity. It combines elements of the Old West with cyberpunk. It offers a fascinating world that was created with real science. Who am I I'll admit up front that I am a long time Blue Planet fan. I enjoyed first edition, I am active on the Blue Planet mailing list, and I was a playtester for Blue Planet V2. I am also a big fan of Fantasty Flight Games (the new publishers of Blue Planet). That said, I am honest in my opinion of this game and have not sugar coated it at all. Hopefully I have presented enough factual information about the game that you can form your own opinion so that any bias that might have slipped in can be ignored. What the review will cover This review will cover the Blue Planet V2 Player's Guide. As most of the background of the game has been discussed in reviews of the first edition of Blue Planet, it will not be discussed here in detail. History of Blue Planet V2 In 1997, Blue Planet (first edition) was released by Biohazard Games. Since then Biohazard games had managed to put only one new support product on the market per year. This was due to the fact that Biohazard was a very small company and most people had "real" jobs. Also, the business end of running a game company was eating up the time that they could spend working on new Blue Planet stuff. In late 1999, Biohazard entered into an agreement with Fantasy Flight Games. FFG would handle the business end and Biohazard would write the game. As part of the deal, FFG wanted a new edition of the game. Given this opportunity, Biohazard corrected many of the common complaints. 1) They replaced the rule system with the Synergy game system. 2) Adjusted the left leaning text to be more neutral. 3) Added many more pictures. Separation of materials Biohazard took all the material from Blue Planet and its first supplement (Archipelago) and separated it between two books: The Player's Guide and the Moderator's Guide. Additional new material was also added to each book. Character creation, rule system, basic background, and equipment are all in the Player's Guide. The Moderator's Guide contains the descriptions and maps for the various settlements on Poseidon, descriptions of the Flora and Fauna, detailed descriptions of the Solar System (Earth, Moon, Mars, etc...), the Incorporates, and GEO. The Moderator's Guide also contains many of the secrets of the planet. The Player's Guide does contain everything needed to play the game. It also contains far more background material than most other games' main books + first 2 supplements. The Moderator's guide is entirely optional and is not needed to play Blue Planet. Physical description and layout BP2 PG is a hard covered solidly built book. On the outside, it sports an attractive color cover. Inside, the text is organized in a two column layout that is easy on the eyes. Each page has a techno border that adds to the SF feel of the game. B&W line art is used sparingly with an average of 1 picture every 3-5 pages. The artwork is slightly above average for the industry. Nothing really jumps out as good or bad. The only complaint about the layout is the placement of the fiction text. When a piece of fiction is used, it generally occupies 1 of the 2 columns on the page. The column is shaded slightly difficulty and had a little bar running across the top to let the reader know that it is a "sidebar" and not part of the main text. Unfortunately, the shading is so light that it is difficult to see under some lighting conditions. The Player's Guild sports both a Table of Contents and an Index. A general complaint There is one problem that is prevalent throughout the book. While all the information is in the book, it is not always easy to find. Sometimes a page reference is wrong, an item was left off a table, or an assumption was made but not clearly spelled out. It is a minor nit, but it detracts from the overall quality of the game. The Game system The Synergy Game system is the biggest change in the new edition. It is an attribute + skill + modifier system with a twist that incorporates natural talent but favors education in the long run. It uses at most 3d10 dice. Basic mechanics Attributes At the core of the system are 12 attributes (8 primary and 4 derived). Attributes span the entire number line with 0 being human average. Without biotech enhancements, attributes can not vary by more than +/- 3 from the species norm. At first glance it appears that many of the attributes duplicate each other, but there are subtle differences. These differences allow GMs and Players to model many different real world characteristics. For example: Build, Fitness, and Strength at first glance seem to be the same thing. (Strength is a derived attribute. It is the average of Build and Fitness). A big person that didn't workout would have a Build of 2, Fitness of 0, and a Strength of 1. A big person that did work out might have Build of 2, Fitness of 2, and a Strength of 2. A big fat person would have Build of 2, Fitness of -2, and a Strength of 0. A normal person that worked out would have Build of 0, Fitness of 2, and a Strength of 1. Skills Skill values range from 0 (unskilled) to 10 (Grandmaster). BP2 boasts some 91 skills covering a wide range of activities. Some skills are of dubious value to PCs such Farming, but it depends on the kind of campaign that the GM runs. Each skill is also assigned an aptitude that controls it. Aptitudes Aptitudes represent areas in which a character is naturally good at. Aptitudes come in 3 levels and they control the number of dice the player rolls when attempting an action. An Average aptitude gets 1 die, a strong aptitude rolls 2 dice, and a superior aptitude rolls 3 dice. Unlike attributes and skills, aptitudes can not be changed or improved once the game begins. Basic task check Basic task resolution involves adding together an attribute, a skill, and any modifiers. This gives a target number that the player has to roll under. The player rolls a number of dice determine by the skill's aptitude and takes the best result. The die roll is closed, so tasks with a target number less than 1 are impossible and tasks with a target number greater than 9 are fool proof. The difference between the best die roll and the target number is known as the action value. Most of the time this value is not used, but creative GMs will find uses for it. Overall, the system favors high skill over aptitude. For example a person with an superior aptitude(3 dice) and a skill of 4 has the same base odds of success as a person with an average aptitude (1 die) and a skill of 8. Both have about a 80% chance of success with average tasks. However, as penalties begin to add up, the superior education takes over. By the time the difficulty level reaches Challenging (-3), the Superior aptitude player only has a 27% chance of success, while the better educated player still has a 50% chance of success. For rolls that involve just attributes, it is treated as a skill level 5 task with a strong (2 die) aptitude. Combat Combat is a straight forward usage of the basic system. Combat is very deadly. A highly skilled marksman can take out the largest known predator on Poseidon with a light pistol. The odds are 5000:1 against him, but it is possible. Initiative Players who enjoyed the initiative system for first edition will be very disappointed by the new system. The new initiative system suffers from the designer's desire to have the basic mechanic used for everything. It is clunky and difficult for GMs to use. Initiative is determined by a Reflexes attribute test. For every +3 action value that a character scores, they get an additional action, up to a total of 3 actions. Each round is played out beginning at +10 and counts down to the lowest action value that was rolled (usually a negative number) with the characters acting on their action value. For characters who scored more than 1 action, they get to act again 3 counts later unless the count goes below zero. For example, a character that scores +6 on his roll will act at 6,3, and 0. If he holds his action until 4, he acts on 4 and 1. Problem arise for the GM when he has to determine the action values for all of his NPCs in a combat. The calculation of 5 + reflexes - wound modifiers - MIN(2d10) (act every 3 count) gets to be a little tedious. A much simpler initiative system is reflexes - wound modifiers + MAX(2d10) (act every 5 count). Damage Like Blue Planet first edition, BP2 does not use hit points. Each wound taken by a character gives that character a 1 to 3 point penalty. A character can take an unlimited number of wounds. It is possible to accumulate so many minor (-1) wounds that the character can not do anything besides stumble around. Each weapon in the game has a damage rating from 1 to infinity. The victim's toughness and armor are subtracted from this number to give a damage target number. 3 dice are then rolled. If 1 die is rolled under the target number, the victim suffers a minor wound (-1 penalty). If 2 dice are rolled under the target number, the victim suffers a serious would and checks to see if they remain conscious. If all three dice are rolled under the target number, the victim suffers a critical wound and must check to see if they die and/or fall unconscious. Healing damage can take a very long time. Serious wounds take an average of 10 weeks to heal and Critical wounds take an average of 10 months to heal. This time can be halved with the proper drugs. Character Creation Character creation is a rather simple process. Like first edition, V2 does not make any attempt to created balanced characters. Instead it offers 3 broad ranges of ability: Everyday, Exceptional, and Elite. GMs can control the power level of their game by selecting one of the three power levels. After the power level is selected, players choose their species, adjust their attributes, select biomods, pick 6-9 skill packages, and allocate a small number of skill points. Species There are numerous species in Blue Planet. Dolphins, Orca, and Humans are the 3 broad categories. Through genetic manipulation, the human species has splitered into many different branches. Each species has its own set of default attribute values that a player can later modify. Attribute adjustment Players can adjust their character's attributes by +/- 3 from the species default value by 1 of 2 methods : point based or random. If they use the point based system they get a fixed number of points based on their power level to raise their attributes. To get more points they can lower some attributes. The random system is a bit harder to explain. Each player starts off with a number of advantage points determined by the character's power level. These points are assigned to the various attributes. Additional points can be gained by assigning disadvantage points to attributes. After assigning the points, 3 dice are rolled vs. the number of points assigned to an attribute. For each die that rolls equal to or under the number of points assigned to an attribute that attribute's level is changed by 1. If the attribute had advantage points assigned to it, it raised. If it had disadvantage points assigned to it, it is lowered. Skill packages A skill package is a set of related skills. Skill packages are similar to careers used in games such as Traveler and most other GDW games. There are three type of skill packages : Origin, Background, and Professional. Origin and Background skill packages represent the skills that the character learned while growing up. All characters get 1 Origin and 2 Background skill packages. Professional packages represent career choices of the character. Professional packages come in 3 levels: Novice, Specialist, and Expert. Characters get 3-5 levels of professional packages based on their power level. Skills gained in skill packages are cumulative, so if a character gains level 2 handguns in one package and level 1 handguns in another, he will have a handgun skill of 3. Most of the skills that a character acquires during character creation come from skill packages Custom Skill points Character's also receive a number of skill points based on power level that can be used to further enhance the skills they picked up with their skill packages or to acquire new skills. Chapter by Chapter Breakdown Chapter 1 Chapter one starts off with a brief summery of the games background. It then delves into the usual introduction to role playing. It also gives a brief overview of the Synergy game system. The real meat of the chapter though is the 15 page narrative that describes the game's setting. This narrative is given in the form of an underground Poseidon survival guide. The narrator bad mouths just about everyone, esp. GEO. It is the perfect introduction for new players to read before making their first character. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 contains all of the rules for character creation (as described above) and advancement rules. The chapter includes 9 archetypes that can be used as PC or NPCs. A word of warning, some of the archetypes have incorrect derived stats. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 is a strange chapter. Chapter 3 can best be seen as optional character creation rules. It covers such items as goals, motivations, and attitudes. It also contain several dozen roles that can be used to jump start character creation or used by the GM to help quickly make up NPCs. It is useful in that it describes the type of people found on the frontier world Chapter 4 Chapter 4 contains the Synergy game system (as described above). This chapter also contain about a 1/2 page explaining just how deadly the combat system is and why. It is a good piece to read for GMs and Players who are used to characters surviving multiple gunshot wounds in other game systems. Chapter 5 Chapter 5 is the equipment chapter. From guns to vehicles to computers, this chapter has a wide variety of equipment. Most of the equipment is not combat related, but survival related. The chapter is not merely an equipment list, it also takes the time to explain how the technology works so that GMs have a basis to create new gadgets on their own. Chapter 6 This chapter is similar to chapter 5, except that it deals with Biotech. Biotech is the catch all term for cybernetic and genetic enhancements. As in chapter 5, most of the items are survival and not combat related. Chapter 7 Chapter 7 goes over the history of the future. Chapter 8 Chapter 8 examines each of the power groups on the planet : Natives, Creteans, Newcomers, GEO, and the Incorporates. It examines their known motives, lifestyles, cultures, etc... Chapter 9 The famous timeline has been move to the last chapter in the book. Oddly enough, the years 1997 though 2010 were removed from it. Final thoughts This is a true player's guide. It contains all the information that a player needs to begin the game. As all of the information in the book in common knowledge in the game world, GMs needn't worry about players reading GM only secrets. The Synergy game system is a "realistic" game system that remains simple to use with the exception of its initiative system (but that is easily fixed) though some groups might be a bit uncomfortable with its lethality. All in all, it is a damn fine book. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)