The Inside Scoop on Gaming

High Colonies is a role-playing game written in a near future where the earth has been made into a wasteland and humanity survives within a several hundred space stations scattered around the solar system. The game itself is relatively inexpensive (AU$16) and weighs in at about one hundred pages.

Given that the game is cheep to purchase compared to other offerings it is unfair to lay the boot into this product. So call me unfair. The problem with High Colonies is that it is either bland or entirely derivative. The history of the solar system is, at best, unexciting, and at worst unbelievable. The game sketches out a list of organisations, corporations and unions before providing a very basic set of rules and some scant source material and an introductory adventure. The material provided does not give a feel for the High Colonies game environment and in some cases the information provided is essentially worthless (as most gaming is likely to occur in the colonies, more detailed information about them would have been valuable), important information is either ignored (what exactly to people _do_ in space?) or given only cursory attention (station design is given less treatment than this review). Space combat and travel are given extremely cursory coverage (promised! in a future supplement). One must assume that the author is attempting to develop an Aliens (lots of gun pictures) / Blade Runner (replicants) / Outland (mining stations far from home) fusion with this product. However, while this could have been entirely satisfactory (an entirely in-system sci-fi RPG is what I would find interesting) the game does not present any of the feel for the genre that you want to inspire you to play. There are no descriptions of life among the colonies, no tales of mining the asteroids, or using minimum fuel orbits to nurse the wounded shuttle home.

Where High Colonies will really annoy the reader is in the poor reproduction of other works. Weapons and armour are from Traveller, but there are no rules for piloting your own vessel around the system. Bio-gens are replicants, but the question of how artificial life is accepted in the culture and the motivations of these people is basically ignored (More discussion is given to the robots than the replicants). There is a ³friendly² alien species, but they are given very little attention (how exactly they fit into the social / political / economic environment is a mystery). Theoretically you could play an alien character, but there really isn¹t enough there to go on.

The game system itself is the standard strength, constitution, intelligence, dexterity, charisma character creation process with a percentile system for resolving skill usage and an extended treatment of combat. Interestingly enough the effects of different gravity and in vacuum are virtually ignored (example: characters have a movement rate calculated for running, doubling, walking and crawling, but for what? In a one gravity environment?), although a very simple zero-gravity table is provided. Weapons are assumed to work in a vacuum (or at least is isn¹t specified which will not work is a vacuum). Overall the rules system is basic and sound, but uninspiring and overly weighted towards combat. The lack of any rules to handle the very specific High Colonies environment is surprising and disappointing.

Overall the game is a miss, even at the lower price. Had the game given a better feel for the environment it may have been worth the lack of rules and detail, however a serious referee will have to spend a long time with this product to make it work. Upside, the paper looks absorbent.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)

High Colonies
Author: Eric Hotz Category: game Company/Publisher: Waterford Publishing House Capsule Review by Peter Chen on 09/02/97. Genre tags: none	High Colonies is a role-playing game written in a near future where the earth has been made into a wasteland and humanity survives within a several hundred space stations scattered around the solar system. The game itself is relatively inexpensive (AU$16) and weighs in at about one hundred pages. Given that the game is cheep to purchase compared to other offerings it is unfair to lay the boot into this product. So call me unfair. The problem with High Colonies is that it is either bland or entirely derivative. The history of the solar system is, at best, unexciting, and at worst unbelievable. The game sketches out a list of organisations, corporations and unions before providing a very basic set of rules and some scant source material and an introductory adventure. The material provided does not give a feel for the High Colonies game environment and in some cases the information provided is essentially worthless (as most gaming is likely to occur in the colonies, more detailed information about them would have been valuable), important information is either ignored (what exactly to people _do_ in space?) or given only cursory attention (station design is given less treatment than this review). Space combat and travel are given extremely cursory coverage (promised! in a future supplement). One must assume that the author is attempting to develop an Aliens (lots of gun pictures) / Blade Runner (replicants) / Outland (mining stations far from home) fusion with this product. However, while this could have been entirely satisfactory (an entirely in-system sci-fi RPG is what I would find interesting) the game does not present any of the feel for the genre that you want to inspire you to play. There are no descriptions of life among the colonies, no tales of mining the asteroids, or using minimum fuel orbits to nurse the wounded shuttle home. Where High Colonies will really annoy the reader is in the poor reproduction of other works. Weapons and armour are from Traveller, but there are no rules for piloting your own vessel around the system. Bio-gens are replicants, but the question of how artificial life is accepted in the culture and the motivations of these people is basically ignored (More discussion is given to the robots than the replicants). There is a ³friendly² alien species, but they are given very little attention (how exactly they fit into the social / political / economic environment is a mystery). Theoretically you could play an alien character, but there really isn¹t enough there to go on. The game system itself is the standard strength, constitution, intelligence, dexterity, charisma character creation process with a percentile system for resolving skill usage and an extended treatment of combat. Interestingly enough the effects of different gravity and in vacuum are virtually ignored (example: characters have a movement rate calculated for running, doubling, walking and crawling, but for what? In a one gravity environment?), although a very simple zero-gravity table is provided. Weapons are assumed to work in a vacuum (or at least is isn¹t specified which will not work is a vacuum). Overall the rules system is basic and sound, but uninspiring and overly weighted towards combat. The lack of any rules to handle the very specific High Colonies environment is surprising and disappointing. Overall the game is a miss, even at the lower price. Had the game given a better feel for the environment it may have been worth the lack of rules and detail, however a serious referee will have to spend a long time with this product to make it work. Upside, the paper looks absorbent. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 1 (I Wasted My Money)