The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Disclaimer: I'm going to go ahead and admit up front that I love David's work. IMO, he's one of the really, really good authors that are in roleplaying these day and that may (or may not) have influenced my opinions about Technomancer. So, take what you read with a grain of salt, but keep in mind that I'm pretty damn hard to please usually.

Organization, Layout and Art

SJGames continues their reputation for a well-organized book with a hefty index. Powerful DTP programs have allowed them to spruce up their layouts without driving up costs, though the interior is still black and white. The art ranges from very mediocre to evocative (my favorite is the zombie chain gang... life plus hard labor, indeed!)

The Setting

In 1945 the first nuclear bomb test rips a hole between universes and releases a flood of magic into our world, causing mutations and giving some people the ability to cast spells. Feverish research makes magic usuable, reproducible and an integral part of the world economy.

The sheer genius of this setup is that the world mostly conforms to our own. The allies win WWII, most major personalities are still there, and talentless pop bands still crowd the video music chart... it's OUR world, but with enough differences to make it fun. Half-animal human mutants, chimera, are (mostly) accepted, flying carpets waft serenely above traffic, and most minor ailments can be cured with a quick visit to your local Doc Hermes healing shop.

This familiarity lets players jump right in without the usual problems that completely unique role-playing environments cause ("Do they have high schools?" "What's a thringle-bopper?" "How come everyone moons the statue of the king on the holiday of Urgung?").

The next bit of genius is how well the unfamiliar is blended. The US spent billions researching magic (the money that, in our world, went toward nukes and missile systems) and have turned it into a science. Though only a small percentage are gifted with the ability to do magic, enough are able so that techno-magic industries can form. Chimera are born to normal parents, but they are gradually accepted and marched with negroes in the civil rights movement. Vampires exist, so the CDC have developed special teams to deal with them. After reading through the book you get this eerie feeling that the world portray could have happened had things only gone differently 50-odd years ago . . .

There's a lot of weird and funky organizations wandering around, some of them screaming for their own supplements. The mantra the GM should remember is "This is OUR world with magic..." From there you can come up with any number of reasonable situations. In fact, it would be startlingly easy to take nearly any genre set in the 'real world' and come up with your own flavor of campaign. X-files agents looking into seelie abductions? Black Ops trying to take down foreign enemy mages? Chimera eco-warriors wandering around the borders of society? No problem!

The Mechanics

The book requires Basic Edition, Compendium I and Magic (and Grimoire is suggested for the GM). SJGames' move toward having an additional 'core' book (Compendium I) freed up a lot of space and, I predict, will make a lot of future products better values. Is this too much to ask? Well, my copies of the 3 necessary books cost around $60... not too shabby considering their immense reusability. Rather than require a fourth book, about twenty pages of spells are reprinted (and sometimes modified) from Grimoire.

A quick aside: I love this trend in GURPS. The best thing for a generic system like this one is to have some solid and complete core books so that supplements can be chock full of fun ideas and interesting settings rather than seeing advantage X for the umpteenth time. This also makes it easier for writers; they can pick what they need out of the books rather than reinventing the wheel again.

Technomancer makes good use of the mechanistic GURPS magic system. Spells are predictable (except for the odd critical failure) and therefore are useful to industry. The sections on Industrial Magic and Industrial Alchemy are a bit dry reading, but they underscore how well grounded the rules are in economic reality. If you like to tinker with the numbers and make your own version of Technomancer, the components are laid out for you. Amusingly, many of the most popular and unbalancing spells are only known to government agencies or are part of secret research programs.

Character templates (which were first introduced in Wizards) are a prominent section. Very useful to novices and at least of passing interest to experienced players, they provide a quick jumping-off point to character creation. In addition, you can glean valuable information about the world through the writeups. For example, an alchemist can run their own shop (common in ethnic communities), work for big business or even be employed by organized crime. Three interesting, but very different ideas laid out in one template. Just laying them out like that can generate character or campaign ideas (e.g. local gangsters are 'organizing' the neighborhood mom-and-pop alchemy shops to produce illegal elixers... the PCs, of course, stumble onto this plan.).

Several alternative PC character races are given. Both the fallout from the bomb and, apparently, the presence of magic itself has caused the birth of human/animal chimera races to be born worldwide. The psychology of these new races is entirely human, even though the biology differs. Coyote, Cat, Spider, Hawk and Snake are available, plus the half-chimera/half-human crossbreeds that have occured. In addition, the same section has stats on a wide variety of critters, ranging from the undead to dragons, elementals and demons.

Support and Misc

One of the major complaints people have had about SJGames is that they put out interesting game worlds and then just drop them on GMs with no additional support (this is not entirely true, but is still fairly close to the mark). This trend has reversed itself with the amazingly strong and expanding line of GURPS:Traveller and In Nomine supplements. In addition, and more to the point, they are actively seeking authors to help build on the Technomancer world. Unfortunately for Technomancer fans (but probably fortunate for him), David has given up the uncertain life as a freelance game writer and has taken up the uncertain life of a full-time game writer for Guardians of Order. On the plus side, he has enough pride in his craft that I'm sure he'll comment during the playtests of any new supplements to come out in the TM universe.

-John Karakash-

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

GURPS: Technomancer
Author: David L. Pulver Category: game Company/Publisher: Steve Jackson Games Line: GURPS Cost: 19.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-55634-359-0 Capsule Review by John Karakash on 04/07/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Modern_day	Disclaimer: I'm going to go ahead and admit up front that I love David's work. IMO, he's one of the really, really good authors that are in roleplaying these day and that may (or may not) have influenced my opinions about Technomancer. So, take what you read with a grain of salt, but keep in mind that I'm pretty damn hard to please usually. Organization, Layout and Art SJGames continues their reputation for a well-organized book with a hefty index. Powerful DTP programs have allowed them to spruce up their layouts without driving up costs, though the interior is still black and white. The art ranges from very mediocre to evocative (my favorite is the zombie chain gang... life plus hard labor, indeed!) The Setting In 1945 the first nuclear bomb test rips a hole between universes and releases a flood of magic into our world, causing mutations and giving some people the ability to cast spells. Feverish research makes magic usuable, reproducible and an integral part of the world economy. The sheer genius of this setup is that the world mostly conforms to our own. The allies win WWII, most major personalities are still there, and talentless pop bands still crowd the video music chart... it's OUR world, but with enough differences to make it fun. Half-animal human mutants, chimera, are (mostly) accepted, flying carpets waft serenely above traffic, and most minor ailments can be cured with a quick visit to your local Doc Hermes healing shop. This familiarity lets players jump right in without the usual problems that completely unique role-playing environments cause ("Do they have high schools?" "What's a thringle-bopper?" "How come everyone moons the statue of the king on the holiday of Urgung?"). The next bit of genius is how well the unfamiliar is blended. The US spent billions researching magic (the money that, in our world, went toward nukes and missile systems) and have turned it into a science. Though only a small percentage are gifted with the ability to do magic, enough are able so that techno-magic industries can form. Chimera are born to normal parents, but they are gradually accepted and marched with negroes in the civil rights movement. Vampires exist, so the CDC have developed special teams to deal with them. After reading through the book you get this eerie feeling that the world portray could have happened had things only gone differently 50-odd years ago . . . There's a lot of weird and funky organizations wandering around, some of them screaming for their own supplements. The mantra the GM should remember is "This is OUR world with magic..." From there you can come up with any number of reasonable situations. In fact, it would be startlingly easy to take nearly any genre set in the 'real world' and come up with your own flavor of campaign. X-files agents looking into seelie abductions? Black Ops trying to take down foreign enemy mages? Chimera eco-warriors wandering around the borders of society? No problem! The Mechanics The book requires Basic Edition, Compendium I and Magic (and Grimoire is suggested for the GM). SJGames' move toward having an additional 'core' book (Compendium I) freed up a lot of space and, I predict, will make a lot of future products better values. Is this too much to ask? Well, my copies of the 3 necessary books cost around $60... not too shabby considering their immense reusability. Rather than require a fourth book, about twenty pages of spells are reprinted (and sometimes modified) from Grimoire. A quick aside: I love this trend in GURPS. The best thing for a generic system like this one is to have some solid and complete core books so that supplements can be chock full of fun ideas and interesting settings rather than seeing advantage X for the umpteenth time. This also makes it easier for writers; they can pick what they need out of the books rather than reinventing the wheel again. Technomancer makes good use of the mechanistic GURPS magic system. Spells are predictable (except for the odd critical failure) and therefore are useful to industry. The sections on Industrial Magic and Industrial Alchemy are a bit dry reading, but they underscore how well grounded the rules are in economic reality. If you like to tinker with the numbers and make your own version of Technomancer, the components are laid out for you. Amusingly, many of the most popular and unbalancing spells are only known to government agencies or are part of secret research programs. Character templates (which were first introduced in Wizards) are a prominent section. Very useful to novices and at least of passing interest to experienced players, they provide a quick jumping-off point to character creation. In addition, you can glean valuable information about the world through the writeups. For example, an alchemist can run their own shop (common in ethnic communities), work for big business or even be employed by organized crime. Three interesting, but very different ideas laid out in one template. Just laying them out like that can generate character or campaign ideas (e.g. local gangsters are 'organizing' the neighborhood mom-and-pop alchemy shops to produce illegal elixers... the PCs, of course, stumble onto this plan.). Several alternative PC character races are given. Both the fallout from the bomb and, apparently, the presence of magic itself has caused the birth of human/animal chimera races to be born worldwide. The psychology of these new races is entirely human, even though the biology differs. Coyote, Cat, Spider, Hawk and Snake are available, plus the half-chimera/half-human crossbreeds that have occured. In addition, the same section has stats on a wide variety of critters, ranging from the undead to dragons, elementals and demons. Support and Misc One of the major complaints people have had about SJGames is that they put out interesting game worlds and then just drop them on GMs with no additional support (this is not entirely true, but is still fairly close to the mark). This trend has reversed itself with the amazingly strong and expanding line of GURPS:Traveller and In Nomine supplements. In addition, and more to the point, they are actively seeking authors to help build on the Technomancer world. Unfortunately for Technomancer fans (but probably fortunate for him), David has given up the uncertain life as a freelance game writer and has taken up the uncertain life of a full-time game writer for Guardians of Order. On the plus side, he has enough pride in his craft that I'm sure he'll comment during the playtests of any new supplements to come out in the TM universe. -John Karakash- Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

GURPS: Technomancer

Organization, Layout and Art

The Setting

The Mechanics

Support and Misc