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I had read about this game in Pyramid magazine, and came across some nice reviews of it on rpg.net. Needless to say I was somewhat cynical as to whether or not this game could match up to its hype. The new Star Trek game seems hyped beyond all manner of reason, even given its fairly clean mechanics...this game does not seem hyped beyond all reason, even given its fairly dense and confusing mechanics. This game is the real deal! It will truly take you to another world.

Most games give us an entire universe, or section of the galaxy, but by settling down upon one planet we are able to truly appreciate a truly alien, and somewhat disturbing world. Our journey begins with the cover, which is truly spectacular, and it continues throughout the book with Blair Reynold's (a regular in Pagan Publishing's projects) truly wonderful illustrations!

As the book is opened we learn of the history of Earth, the discovery of a worm hole, and the subsequent colonization of an earthlike water-world. Disaster strikes, the colonists are left on their own, and years later Earth forces come back to the planet. Setting up tensions between the colonists, the Earth government, the corporations, who are looking for an anagathic (anti-aging) drug in the depths, and the original alien inhabitants of this world. All of it is wonderfully put together, some of it is disturbing, but the package just enlivens the mind with adventure possibilities! This is one of the finest hard science fiction games since Traveller: 2300.

One funny thing that comes to mind though is how closely some of TSR's new Star Drive campaign is modeled like this one. Both backgrounds feature areas that have been abandoned for a time by a government, and now the colonists and the old governments are facing off again. TSR even has a water world in the Verge that has just reeestablished some mysterious new contact with an alien race under the waves. This means that this book could be used to mine ideas for a Star Drive campaign, which would also mean a better set of rules than what we have been given in Blue Planet. It could also mean that there are certain story elements which occur across all lines of company...meaning Waterworld, Blue Planet, and Star Drive are just using the same old tropes in somewhat new, or unoriginal ways...or this could mean that TSR copied part of Blue Planet's originality. Who knows?

This is a wonderful package...but it falls down when it comes to the rules. I am glad that the rules only took up a small portion of the game book, because they seem like wasted space. I would advise using the same percentile skill defaults for the characters, and just convert everything to a simpler system like Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, or Basic Roleplaying. Heck, use GURPS or Alternity, both of these games give better bang for the buck than the default system! Under any ordinary circumstance I would downgrade for the rules, but this is an extraordinary game, with a well thought out background. This book comes highly recommended, and for its price it is a bargain! I give this book an "A."

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Blue Planet
Author: Jeffrey Barber Category: game Company/Publisher: Biohazard Games Cost: 27.95 Page count: 352 Capsule Review by Scott Shafer on 10/16/98. Genre tags: Science_fiction Horror Far_Future Space Conspiracy Post-apocalypse	I had read about this game in Pyramid magazine, and came across some nice reviews of it on rpg.net. Needless to say I was somewhat cynical as to whether or not this game could match up to its hype. The new Star Trek game seems hyped beyond all manner of reason, even given its fairly clean mechanics...this game does not seem hyped beyond all reason, even given its fairly dense and confusing mechanics. This game is the real deal! It will truly take you to another world. Most games give us an entire universe, or section of the galaxy, but by settling down upon one planet we are able to truly appreciate a truly alien, and somewhat disturbing world. Our journey begins with the cover, which is truly spectacular, and it continues throughout the book with Blair Reynold's (a regular in Pagan Publishing's projects) truly wonderful illustrations! As the book is opened we learn of the history of Earth, the discovery of a worm hole, and the subsequent colonization of an earthlike water-world. Disaster strikes, the colonists are left on their own, and years later Earth forces come back to the planet. Setting up tensions between the colonists, the Earth government, the corporations, who are looking for an anagathic (anti-aging) drug in the depths, and the original alien inhabitants of this world. All of it is wonderfully put together, some of it is disturbing, but the package just enlivens the mind with adventure possibilities! This is one of the finest hard science fiction games since Traveller: 2300. One funny thing that comes to mind though is how closely some of TSR's new Star Drive campaign is modeled like this one. Both backgrounds feature areas that have been abandoned for a time by a government, and now the colonists and the old governments are facing off again. TSR even has a water world in the Verge that has just reeestablished some mysterious new contact with an alien race under the waves. This means that this book could be used to mine ideas for a Star Drive campaign, which would also mean a better set of rules than what we have been given in Blue Planet. It could also mean that there are certain story elements which occur across all lines of company...meaning Waterworld, Blue Planet, and Star Drive are just using the same old tropes in somewhat new, or unoriginal ways...or this could mean that TSR copied part of Blue Planet's originality. Who knows? This is a wonderful package...but it falls down when it comes to the rules. I am glad that the rules only took up a small portion of the game book, because they seem like wasted space. I would advise using the same percentile skill defaults for the characters, and just convert everything to a simpler system like Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu, or Basic Roleplaying. Heck, use GURPS or Alternity, both of these games give better bang for the buck than the default system! Under any ordinary circumstance I would downgrade for the rules, but this is an extraordinary game, with a well thought out background. This book comes highly recommended, and for its price it is a bargain! I give this book an "A." Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)