The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The Reed Richards Guide to Everything (hence RRGtE) is a rules supplement to the Marvel Super Heroes SAGA role-playing game. It consists of a number of optional rules and clarifications to the original game, sandwiched between 'in the marvel world' segments consisting of a newspaper column called 'Dear Dr. Richards'. The idea is that kids write science questions to Dr. Richards, who writes up answers that they can understand, and then they get published in the Daily Bugle, and syndicated nation-wide.

This makes for some interesting reading. For those who may be unfamiliar with Marvel Comics, Dr. Reed Richards is 'Fantastic Man', the sometime-leader of the Fantastic Four super-hero group and a genius and expert in any number of scientific fields. Mr. Selinker writes him with a humorous, albeit logical frame of mind, and having read some FF comics in the past it strikes me that he's got him well-characterized.

The book is set up so that each time you turn the page you get a full-page article by Dr. Richards on the left, and then a one-page article about the game on the right. Usually the two have something in common, such as a discussion of the chemical nature of Spiderman's webbing on one page being faced by a discussion of how to handle various chemical types in the game on the other. (Some aren't so well matched, like the discussion of twins opposite the optional rule of giving people two natures.)

In the center is a number of full-color pages. On these you get ideas of how to use the events on the SAGA cards to influence play - something brought up in the main rules, but it's nice to get a detailed description of what the creators meant for each one or two word phrase. This is accompanied by a number of full-color pictures of the Fantastic Four that unfortunately took up most of each page. I have to wonder if the book wouldn't have been a few dollars cheaper without the fancy color and without the extra page space being taken up by the pictures.

They're nice pictures, but if I want pics of the FF, I'll go out and grab a comic collection or the roster book.

Summary

I liked the book, on the whole. Lots of interesting bits of information, like how to handle natural disasters, chemicals, radiation (and radiation accidents), Sidekicks, Terror, Bases, Astral Travel, and so forth. Especially nice, in my opinion, is the completely-random system for generating superheroes. It still uses the cards for the system, but there isn't any choices for the player. (Or narrator. I like it for generating quick and dirty villains.) Another thing that caught my fancy was the rules on drowning: Each turn, the narrator deals another card to the drowning super. Then the super tries to make a strength check against the difficulty of the card values added together. Once failed, 50 points of damage.

However, some people may be annoyed by how much of the book seems to be flavor text - basically, all of the bits by 'Dr. Richards'. I found them interesting, and sometimes very useful - one article discusses how come the Giant Man seems immune to the Square-Cube law, and another one (ghost-written by the Beast) discusses how The Angel is light enough to fly with wings. Most of them, however, are admittedly fluff.

I gave this a Style of 4 because the feel of reading what Dr. Richards had written really made the book fun to read through, and made me excited by the thought of playing a game in the Marvel Universe. Also, the rules-text pieces were clearly written and easy to find, even without an index. This was also a very well-edited book, with no grammar or spelling errors that interrupted my reading. I gave it a substance of 4 even though half of it is mostly flavor because it was _good_ flavor that I enjoyed. However, I put forth the caveat that people who don't want to read 'game non-fiction' won't like that, and may want to flip through the book before buying it.

PS: One part of the book makes reference to four promo cards given out when the game was released. They are not necessary, but people on the rec.games.frp.super-heroes usenet group have reported that you can write to TSR and have them send you the cards.

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

The Reed Richards Guide to Everything
Author: Mike Selinker Category: game Company/Publisher: TSR/Marvel Comics Line: Marvel SAGA Cost: 16.95 Page count: 128 ISBN: 0-1869-1340-1 SKU: TSR11340 Capsule Review by John Fiala on 11/08/99. Genre tags: Superhero	The Reed Richards Guide to Everything (hence RRGtE) is a rules supplement to the Marvel Super Heroes SAGA role-playing game. It consists of a number of optional rules and clarifications to the original game, sandwiched between 'in the marvel world' segments consisting of a newspaper column called 'Dear Dr. Richards'. The idea is that kids write science questions to Dr. Richards, who writes up answers that they can understand, and then they get published in the Daily Bugle, and syndicated nation-wide. This makes for some interesting reading. For those who may be unfamiliar with Marvel Comics, Dr. Reed Richards is 'Fantastic Man', the sometime-leader of the Fantastic Four super-hero group and a genius and expert in any number of scientific fields. Mr. Selinker writes him with a humorous, albeit logical frame of mind, and having read some FF comics in the past it strikes me that he's got him well-characterized. The book is set up so that each time you turn the page you get a full-page article by Dr. Richards on the left, and then a one-page article about the game on the right. Usually the two have something in common, such as a discussion of the chemical nature of Spiderman's webbing on one page being faced by a discussion of how to handle various chemical types in the game on the other. (Some aren't so well matched, like the discussion of twins opposite the optional rule of giving people two natures.) In the center is a number of full-color pages. On these you get ideas of how to use the events on the SAGA cards to influence play - something brought up in the main rules, but it's nice to get a detailed description of what the creators meant for each one or two word phrase. This is accompanied by a number of full-color pictures of the Fantastic Four that unfortunately took up most of each page. I have to wonder if the book wouldn't have been a few dollars cheaper without the fancy color and without the extra page space being taken up by the pictures. They're nice pictures, but if I want pics of the FF, I'll go out and grab a comic collection or the roster book. Summary I liked the book, on the whole. Lots of interesting bits of information, like how to handle natural disasters, chemicals, radiation (and radiation accidents), Sidekicks, Terror, Bases, Astral Travel, and so forth. Especially nice, in my opinion, is the completely-random system for generating superheroes. It still uses the cards for the system, but there isn't any choices for the player. (Or narrator. I like it for generating quick and dirty villains.) Another thing that caught my fancy was the rules on drowning: Each turn, the narrator deals another card to the drowning super. Then the super tries to make a strength check against the difficulty of the card values added together. Once failed, 50 points of damage. However, some people may be annoyed by how much of the book seems to be flavor text - basically, all of the bits by 'Dr. Richards'. I found them interesting, and sometimes very useful - one article discusses how come the Giant Man seems immune to the Square-Cube law, and another one (ghost-written by the Beast) discusses how The Angel is light enough to fly with wings. Most of them, however, are admittedly fluff. I gave this a Style of 4 because the feel of reading what Dr. Richards had written really made the book fun to read through, and made me excited by the thought of playing a game in the Marvel Universe. Also, the rules-text pieces were clearly written and easy to find, even without an index. This was also a very well-edited book, with no grammar or spelling errors that interrupted my reading. I gave it a substance of 4 even though half of it is mostly flavor because it was _good_ flavor that I enjoyed. However, I put forth the caveat that people who don't want to read 'game non-fiction' won't like that, and may want to flip through the book before buying it. PS: One part of the book makes reference to four promo cards given out when the game was released. They are not necessary, but people on the rec.games.frp.super-heroes usenet group have reported that you can write to TSR and have them send you the cards. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)