The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Let me begin this review by saying I am a fan of Babylon 5 and have seen every episode of the series to date. I've spent many hours on the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, and only a few more than that reading the Babylon 5 newsgroups. I think I am as familiar with the world as any good fan. Add to that the fact that I have played Traveller v1, Star Frontiers, Star Trek, Star Wars, 2300AD and even a bit of Space Opera and maybe you can get an idea of what I bring to this review.

THE BABYLON PROJECT (TBP hereafter) is a 200 page, full colour production. My own copy had a decent (and industry-standard) soft- cover, and the ink inside did not smudge. As it says boldly on the front cover, this is "The Roleplaying Game Based on BABYLON 5: The Warner Bros. Television Series Created by J. Michael Straczynski". A mouthful, indeed. In this review, I will be approaching the game on two levels. First, as a Roleplayer, and secondly, as a fan of Babylon 5.

The appearance of the book is going to be contraversial. For one thing, it is full colour, right down to the background of each page. The text is presented in a two column format, and is not too small or too big. The outside margin on each page is fairly wide and has a 'metal' pattern, while the actual text is presented on a very light purple. In fact, the entire book seems to stick to the 'blue' end of the spectrum, with a lot of purple and blue used. This matches the color scheme on the outside of the Babylon 5 station, and is a nice nod.

Some people reports smudging, cheap paper and thin cover stock. As Chameleon Eclectic has said, this should be a rare problem and they have offered to replace any such books for free. My own book did not have these problems (and neither did the other copy I saw at the local store). Check for this situation before you buy. I've been carrying the book around for the last few days in my backpack in the middle of the rainstorm that hit the Northwest, and see only a little bit of spine scuffing. I've even rolled the book up a couple times, and it has returned to flat. Defective stock aside, this seems like a book that will take a bit of a beating.

There is art throughout, and while it's not great (for the most part) its also not as bad as some stuff I've seen. It tends towards the 'eh' side of the spectrum though. The technical diagrams, star map, and other game related graphics are top notch, however. If you're buying the book for the art, you will be disappointed. If your buying it for the rules ... read on.

TBP is divided into four chapters of unequal size, plus an Introduction and Appendix. No index, which is a shame, since the table of contents is not very detailed. On the other hand, the Chapter divisions are logical and rules are not scattered willy-nilly throughout the text, so the missing index is not as much of a pain as it could have been.

The Introduction covers the typical 'What is Roleplaying', mood fiction, and background overview stuff fairly well. We don't have pages and pages of fiction text to embarass the authors, which is a blessing. Instead, we get a bare bones description of roleplaying and the Babylon 5 Universe. This is nothing new to long time fans of the show, but to anyone coming into the show this season, it can help fill in some of the backstory we assume. The intro to roleplaying is noteable in that it avoids a reference to 'Cops and Robbers' or 'Cowboys and Indians'.

Character Creation is the province of the first Chapter, and fills just under 50 pages. To build a character, the player undergoes a fairly detailed process. However, the detail is not in the math or the rolling of dice. Rather, it is in the construction of a past and motivation for the character, and doesn't involve dice at all. This is clearly a game for Develop at Start people (though, to be fair, in the GM section it mentions how the characters can grow through play).

To summarize the process, the player must: decide on a character concept (an identity, archetype, and basic history), assign Attributes, detail your history, choose skills, and choose Characteristics. If allowed by the GM, you can also have Psionics. It looks simple when summarized, but in practice, it involves a great deal of thought (more than work).

There are 12 Attributes (plus a Psionic Attribute) divided into Cultural, Mental, and Physical groups. Your attributes are determined by your race and limited manipulation (+/- 2) from the norm. At the end, everyone's Attributes will add up to 57. Toughness and Initiative are derived stats. As expected, Humans get along well with others, Narn are strong, Centauri are tricky, and Minbari wise. It is expected the players will deviate a bit from the norm.

On stat bears discussion: Xenorelations. This represents your character's ability to get along with aliens, and replaces his or her normal interaction attributes when dealing with other beings. I rather liked seeing this Attribute, as it seems to emphasize the differences between races (rather than making everyone a human in funny makeup).

Skills are typical, with a heavy emphasis on the scientific and informational, rather than combat. For a future game, this strikes me as appropriate. Leave is also give to develop any obscure skills your players may desire (which is assumed, right?). Characteristics are roleplaying hooks for the characters, and are used to determine Fortune point rewards (more on those later). There's a fairly good spread of these, with flavor text that looks like quotes from the show ("There's a thought-eater on the station? I'll be in my room." being one of my favorites).

The last half of the chapter consists of very broad descriptions of the four main alien races (Human, Centauri, Narn, Minbari), skills and Characteristics. Also, there is a short discussion of being a telepath included with each race.

The goal is clearly to allow the players to make up fairly competent but not super-heroic characters. No one is going to deviate too far from the average, or will be too extreme (without GM intervention, at least). This seems consistent with the goal of TBP, which seems to be humano- centric and group based. I don't think you could quite make up any of the characters in the show, using the rules as written, as they appear. However, it would be possible to craft them near the beginning of their various careers.

The first part of Chapter Two is for the GM, and contains about 20 pages just on how to structure an epic campaign. This follows a fairly cinematic structure (and mythic structure -- see Deja News and rec.games.frp.advocacy for my discussion of Vogler's "Mythic Journey"), with a Beginning, Middle and End, plus sub-phases. While of more use to a beginning GM, this had interesting things to say about structuring adventures into more than just episodic serials.

The rest of Chapter Two covers the Game System, which is based around a Positive D6/Negative D6 mechanic. My first skim of the rules misled me into thinking it was using a Nexus/Feng Shui mechanic. Closer reading has revealed this is not the case. Tasks are resolved through a fairly familiar process; Player describes what they want to do, GM assignes difficulty number, Player generates random number and adds result to Attribute + Skill to get an outcome, GM describes outcome. The generation of the random number is handled by rolling a Positive and a Negative D6. The lower of the two is the result.

Confused? I was for a moment. Basically, you roll the two dice. If the Positive is a 4 and the Negative a 2, the result is -2. If the Positive is a 5 and the Negative a 6, the result is +5. If the two dice are the same, the result is 0. It's not quite as intuitive as the FENG SHUI method; however, it also won't lead to the extremes of the FENG SHUI method. A special case exists for double-1s (bad thing) and double-6s (good thing).

One special note: if the difficulty of the task a character is attempting will require a +4 result or better on the dice, the GM is encouraged to let the Player know that his chance is really slim, and they might want to try another method. This is a nice touch, since it allows for competent people to realize that maybe using tinfoil and bubblegum to re-route the fusion core *isn't* a good idea.

Combat also follows a fairly familiar course: Character with initiative acts first (or waits), and so on down the initatives. Each round is 2 seconds, and allows for 1 action. There are wrinkles in the system, however. In close combat, a character who hasn't acted can always use there action to attempt a defense (block, parry, dodge). If successful, they could steal the initiative from the attack in the next round. This option is *not* available to characters in range combat. A fast person with a PPG can shoot you before you can react.

The result is to make initiative vital in a gunfight (as you would expect) and to make things like cover, armor, and surprise also vital. It also (given the deadliness of PPGs) makes a gunfight bloody deadly! I was reminded of the Narn charge into the guns of the Earth Force marines...

Damage during combat is handled by keeping track of each wound (damage, type, location) and checking for instant unconciousness (stun) and impairment from the wounds. As an area takes more damage, the likelihood of both, or death, increases. Damage done is based on STR (Close Combat), or weapon (Ranged), minus armor and Toughness.

After combat, a more detailed results phase is conducted. It is here where things like bleeding to death, broken bones, mortal wounding and long-term effects are dealt with. Moving the detailed phase out of combat is an interesting choice. Based on various biographical descriptions of combat, during a fight people are capable of amazing feats ... only to discover afterwards that they had been shot 4 or 5 times, and should have passed out. TBP combat seems to allow for that possibility (though, in honesty, it is more likely that a bad wound will put you down).

The last important mechanics are Fortune points and Experience. Character start with 5 FPs, and gain them for roleplaying their Characteristics. Fortune can be used in three ways. You may spend 2 FPs to add a die to your Outcome. If, when you roll this added die, you don't like the result, you can continue to spend 2 FPs to roll again ... but you can only choose one of the results to keep. Secondly, you can spend 2 FPs to reduce your total damage to an area to 13 (just under what is needed for instant death). You must, however, come up with an explanation. And lastly, you can spend 1 FP to attempt a complex task for which you don't have the skill (piloting a starship, rewiring a Fusion reactor, etc).

Experience is given out at a rate of 1 per session, and 1-3 between adventures. To increase Attributes costs 7 xps, to improve skills 4 xps. However, you can't just spend the points and get the benefits. Instead, you spend the points and then roleplay how you're improving the Attribute or Skill in question. When it seems reasonable, the GM awards the increase. This seems suited to preventing miraculous developments of starship piloting skills during crises.

Chapter Three is basically the Background info. I was hoping this would be larger, and have more of JMS's secrets ... but unfortunately, it wasn't and doesn't. What it does have is a good amount of detail on Humans in the time period covered, and a little bit more detail on the other alien races. There isn't enough here to do a very good job roleplaying a Centauri, Narn, etc. but there is enough for a GM to do a credible NPC. It seems clear that the alien races will be covered in supplements (where they can recieve the treatment they deserve).

There is also a discussion of space travel, the Babylon Station, and equipment listings. Space combat is clearly not expected to be frequent or something the PCs engage in (another supplement) since nothing is said of it. Similarly, no rules or costs for travel are given. The Babylon Station is described mostly in a sidebar (another supplement). The equipment list is very basic, covering a few weapons and communication gear (another supplememt). What is presented is enough for a skilled GM to wing it, but for a novice, it may be rough.

The last Chapter presents a campaign structured around the construction and destruction of the Babylon stations (2 & 3). Surprisingly, this contains what is apparently canon information about how the stations were destroyed. This is the 'secret' stuff I was looking for, but not enough of it. The campaign, as presented, seems reasonable -- I didn't notice too much of the railroading or linear development that plague introductory scenarios. It does provide a good example of what a game of TBP can be.

In conclusion (boy, aren't you glad I have one?) I found The Babylon Project to be a decent read. It struck me as being geared towards newer entrants into the hobby, rather than hardened and cynical ones like myself. The emphasis of the game was clearly on character and story over mechanics and body counts. It is also grounded in a sense of reality, rather than superheroism. This is definitely in line with the source material, and gains my approval. However, the game is also clearly just the core for a collection of supplements. This does not gain my approval.

Things I would have liked to have seen included in this book would have been: more discussion of the alien races, better colony descriptions, a better sense of the differences between racial technology, and more guidelines covering space travel and operations. With another 100 pages (and probably $10 or $15 added to the price) the rule book would have been complete. As it stands now, it is good but not great.

On the other hand, reading the book gave me a few ideas for campaigns set in the 'world' (helped a lot by my watching of the show), and sparked my interest like none of the other SF games I've played. Discussion with another friend of mine (who hates SF games) has led to him expressing an interest in the game, also. And as an introduction to the hobby, The Babylon Project presents an attractive and pleasant face. There isn't anything to be truly embarassed about in it, I think. Overall, its not bad. It just doesn't strike me as great -- and that's what I wanted from The Babylon Project.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

The Babylon Project
Author: Jospeh Cochran with Ronald Jarrell, Charles Ryan and Zeke Sparkes Category: game Company/Publisher: Chameleon Eclectic Reviewed by Jason Langlois on 03/22/97. Genre tags: none	Let me begin this review by saying I am a fan of Babylon 5 and have seen every episode of the series to date. I've spent many hours on the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, and only a few more than that reading the Babylon 5 newsgroups. I think I am as familiar with the world as any good fan. Add to that the fact that I have played Traveller v1, Star Frontiers, Star Trek, Star Wars, 2300AD and even a bit of Space Opera and maybe you can get an idea of what I bring to this review. THE BABYLON PROJECT (TBP hereafter) is a 200 page, full colour production. My own copy had a decent (and industry-standard) soft- cover, and the ink inside did not smudge. As it says boldly on the front cover, this is "The Roleplaying Game Based on BABYLON 5: The Warner Bros. Television Series Created by J. Michael Straczynski". A mouthful, indeed. In this review, I will be approaching the game on two levels. First, as a Roleplayer, and secondly, as a fan of Babylon 5. The appearance of the book is going to be contraversial. For one thing, it is full colour, right down to the background of each page. The text is presented in a two column format, and is not too small or too big. The outside margin on each page is fairly wide and has a 'metal' pattern, while the actual text is presented on a very light purple. In fact, the entire book seems to stick to the 'blue' end of the spectrum, with a lot of purple and blue used. This matches the color scheme on the outside of the Babylon 5 station, and is a nice nod. Some people reports smudging, cheap paper and thin cover stock. As Chameleon Eclectic has said, this should be a rare problem and they have offered to replace any such books for free. My own book did not have these problems (and neither did the other copy I saw at the local store). Check for this situation before you buy. I've been carrying the book around for the last few days in my backpack in the middle of the rainstorm that hit the Northwest, and see only a little bit of spine scuffing. I've even rolled the book up a couple times, and it has returned to flat. Defective stock aside, this seems like a book that will take a bit of a beating. There is art throughout, and while it's not great (for the most part) its also not as bad as some stuff I've seen. It tends towards the 'eh' side of the spectrum though. The technical diagrams, star map, and other game related graphics are top notch, however. If you're buying the book for the art, you will be disappointed. If your buying it for the rules ... read on. TBP is divided into four chapters of unequal size, plus an Introduction and Appendix. No index, which is a shame, since the table of contents is not very detailed. On the other hand, the Chapter divisions are logical and rules are not scattered willy-nilly throughout the text, so the missing index is not as much of a pain as it could have been. The Introduction covers the typical 'What is Roleplaying', mood fiction, and background overview stuff fairly well. We don't have pages and pages of fiction text to embarass the authors, which is a blessing. Instead, we get a bare bones description of roleplaying and the Babylon 5 Universe. This is nothing new to long time fans of the show, but to anyone coming into the show this season, it can help fill in some of the backstory we assume. The intro to roleplaying is noteable in that it avoids a reference to 'Cops and Robbers' or 'Cowboys and Indians'. Character Creation is the province of the first Chapter, and fills just under 50 pages. To build a character, the player undergoes a fairly detailed process. However, the detail is not in the math or the rolling of dice. Rather, it is in the construction of a past and motivation for the character, and doesn't involve dice at all. This is clearly a game for Develop at Start people (though, to be fair, in the GM section it mentions how the characters can grow through play). To summarize the process, the player must: decide on a character concept (an identity, archetype, and basic history), assign Attributes, detail your history, choose skills, and choose Characteristics. If allowed by the GM, you can also have Psionics. It looks simple when summarized, but in practice, it involves a great deal of thought (more than work). There are 12 Attributes (plus a Psionic Attribute) divided into Cultural, Mental, and Physical groups. Your attributes are determined by your race and limited manipulation (+/- 2) from the norm. At the end, everyone's Attributes will add up to 57. Toughness and Initiative are derived stats. As expected, Humans get along well with others, Narn are strong, Centauri are tricky, and Minbari wise. It is expected the players will deviate a bit from the norm. On stat bears discussion: Xenorelations. This represents your character's ability to get along with aliens, and replaces his or her normal interaction attributes when dealing with other beings. I rather liked seeing this Attribute, as it seems to emphasize the differences between races (rather than making everyone a human in funny makeup). Skills are typical, with a heavy emphasis on the scientific and informational, rather than combat. For a future game, this strikes me as appropriate. Leave is also give to develop any obscure skills your players may desire (which is assumed, right?). Characteristics are roleplaying hooks for the characters, and are used to determine Fortune point rewards (more on those later). There's a fairly good spread of these, with flavor text that looks like quotes from the show ("There's a thought-eater on the station? I'll be in my room." being one of my favorites). The last half of the chapter consists of very broad descriptions of the four main alien races (Human, Centauri, Narn, Minbari), skills and Characteristics. Also, there is a short discussion of being a telepath included with each race. The goal is clearly to allow the players to make up fairly competent but not super-heroic characters. No one is going to deviate too far from the average, or will be too extreme (without GM intervention, at least). This seems consistent with the goal of TBP, which seems to be humano- centric and group based. I don't think you could quite make up any of the characters in the show, using the rules as written, as they appear. However, it would be possible to craft them near the beginning of their various careers. The first part of Chapter Two is for the GM, and contains about 20 pages just on how to structure an epic campaign. This follows a fairly cinematic structure (and mythic structure -- see Deja News and rec.games.frp.advocacy for my discussion of Vogler's "Mythic Journey"), with a Beginning, Middle and End, plus sub-phases. While of more use to a beginning GM, this had interesting things to say about structuring adventures into more than just episodic serials. The rest of Chapter Two covers the Game System, which is based around a Positive D6/Negative D6 mechanic. My first skim of the rules misled me into thinking it was using a Nexus/Feng Shui mechanic. Closer reading has revealed this is not the case. Tasks are resolved through a fairly familiar process; Player describes what they want to do, GM assignes difficulty number, Player generates random number and adds result to Attribute + Skill to get an outcome, GM describes outcome. The generation of the random number is handled by rolling a Positive and a Negative D6. The lower of the two is the result. Confused? I was for a moment. Basically, you roll the two dice. If the Positive is a 4 and the Negative a 2, the result is -2. If the Positive is a 5 and the Negative a 6, the result is +5. If the two dice are the same, the result is 0. It's not quite as intuitive as the FENG SHUI method; however, it also won't lead to the extremes of the FENG SHUI method. A special case exists for double-1s (bad thing) and double-6s (good thing). One special note: if the difficulty of the task a character is attempting will require a +4 result or better on the dice, the GM is encouraged to let the Player know that his chance is really slim, and they might want to try another method. This is a nice touch, since it allows for competent people to realize that maybe using tinfoil and bubblegum to re-route the fusion core isn't a good idea. Combat also follows a fairly familiar course: Character with initiative acts first (or waits), and so on down the initatives. Each round is 2 seconds, and allows for 1 action. There are wrinkles in the system, however. In close combat, a character who hasn't acted can always use there action to attempt a defense (block, parry, dodge). If successful, they could steal the initiative from the attack in the next round. This option is not available to characters in range combat. A fast person with a PPG can shoot you before you can react. The result is to make initiative vital in a gunfight (as you would expect) and to make things like cover, armor, and surprise also vital. It also (given the deadliness of PPGs) makes a gunfight bloody deadly! I was reminded of the Narn charge into the guns of the Earth Force marines... Damage during combat is handled by keeping track of each wound (damage, type, location) and checking for instant unconciousness (stun) and impairment from the wounds. As an area takes more damage, the likelihood of both, or death, increases. Damage done is based on STR (Close Combat), or weapon (Ranged), minus armor and Toughness. After combat, a more detailed results phase is conducted. It is here where things like bleeding to death, broken bones, mortal wounding and long-term effects are dealt with. Moving the detailed phase out of combat is an interesting choice. Based on various biographical descriptions of combat, during a fight people are capable of amazing feats ... only to discover afterwards that they had been shot 4 or 5 times, and should have passed out. TBP combat seems to allow for that possibility (though, in honesty, it is more likely that a bad wound will put you down). The last important mechanics are Fortune points and Experience. Character start with 5 FPs, and gain them for roleplaying their Characteristics. Fortune can be used in three ways. You may spend 2 FPs to add a die to your Outcome. If, when you roll this added die, you don't like the result, you can continue to spend 2 FPs to roll again ... but you can only choose one of the results to keep. Secondly, you can spend 2 FPs to reduce your total damage to an area to 13 (just under what is needed for instant death). You must, however, come up with an explanation. And lastly, you can spend 1 FP to attempt a complex task for which you don't have the skill (piloting a starship, rewiring a Fusion reactor, etc). Experience is given out at a rate of 1 per session, and 1-3 between adventures. To increase Attributes costs 7 xps, to improve skills 4 xps. However, you can't just spend the points and get the benefits. Instead, you spend the points and then roleplay how you're improving the Attribute or Skill in question. When it seems reasonable, the GM awards the increase. This seems suited to preventing miraculous developments of starship piloting skills during crises. Chapter Three is basically the Background info. I was hoping this would be larger, and have more of JMS's secrets ... but unfortunately, it wasn't and doesn't. What it does have is a good amount of detail on Humans in the time period covered, and a little bit more detail on the other alien races. There isn't enough here to do a very good job roleplaying a Centauri, Narn, etc. but there is enough for a GM to do a credible NPC. It seems clear that the alien races will be covered in supplements (where they can recieve the treatment they deserve). There is also a discussion of space travel, the Babylon Station, and equipment listings. Space combat is clearly not expected to be frequent or something the PCs engage in (another supplement) since nothing is said of it. Similarly, no rules or costs for travel are given. The Babylon Station is described mostly in a sidebar (another supplement). The equipment list is very basic, covering a few weapons and communication gear (another supplememt). What is presented is enough for a skilled GM to wing it, but for a novice, it may be rough. The last Chapter presents a campaign structured around the construction and destruction of the Babylon stations (2 & 3). Surprisingly, this contains what is apparently canon information about how the stations were destroyed. This is the 'secret' stuff I was looking for, but not enough of it. The campaign, as presented, seems reasonable -- I didn't notice too much of the railroading or linear development that plague introductory scenarios. It does provide a good example of what a game of TBP can be. In conclusion (boy, aren't you glad I have one?) I found The Babylon Project to be a decent read. It struck me as being geared towards newer entrants into the hobby, rather than hardened and cynical ones like myself. The emphasis of the game was clearly on character and story over mechanics and body counts. It is also grounded in a sense of reality, rather than superheroism. This is definitely in line with the source material, and gains my approval. However, the game is also clearly just the core for a collection of supplements. This does not gain my approval. Things I would have liked to have seen included in this book would have been: more discussion of the alien races, better colony descriptions, a better sense of the differences between racial technology, and more guidelines covering space travel and operations. With another 100 pages (and probably $10 or $15 added to the price) the rule book would have been complete. As it stands now, it is good but not great. On the other hand, reading the book gave me a few ideas for campaigns set in the 'world' (helped a lot by my watching of the show), and sparked my interest like none of the other SF games I've played. Discussion with another friend of mine (who hates SF games) has led to him expressing an interest in the game, also. And as an introduction to the hobby, The Babylon Project presents an attractive and pleasant face. There isn't anything to be truly embarassed about in it, I think. Overall, its not bad. It just doesn't strike me as great -- and that's what I wanted from The Babylon Project. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)