The Inside Scoop on Gaming

As Revland says, John Tynes was contacted in January of 1998 to write Stargate SG-1 into a role-playing game for West End Games. Unfortunately for Tynes, West End went under. Fortunately for us, Tynes decided to put his 30,000 of already completed work up on the net for all to see. While he didn't manage to finish the book, the first five chapters and the introduction are up.

The Stargate SG-1 information that is up is almost entirely rules-focused, being an adaptation of the d6 system that West End used for Star Wars and some of its other games. Sadly, he never got into what I think would have been the really interesting part of Stargate SG-1, the different worlds. Tynes could have made a slew of truly memorable and amazing worlds (like he did with the Zone), turning the Stargate intellectual property from a somewhat entertaining movie and series into a brilliant role-playing game. Then again, I've become convinced that Tynes has nearly the Midas Touch of the RPG industry.

The system works out well enough, I suppose, although it's not entirely to my tastes. It is not my favorite, but it works, and works a lot better than many other systems I could think of. The most entertaining and informative parts of the Stargate SG-1 material lies in Chapter Three: How to be a Supervisor where Tynes gives advice on how to run an RPG. He's is even kind enough to use a simple example (in this case the old joke about Superman being a really mean drunk, amusingly enough) something that many other games often miss. Furthermore, Tynes wrote the entire book as an in-character training manual for Stargate team members, and it reads surprisingly well, even in the discussion of the rules and game master advice. It keeps the text from getting bland and dry.

On the whole, the Stargate SG-1 looks like it could have been a really nice role-playing game, despite the follies of its source material, but sadly John Tynes never got to finish it. Although he says that he has no intention of writing anything for the Stargate SG-1 ever again, I'll be hoping that he gets around to writing up several worlds, just because I'd love to see what he does with it.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Stargate SG-1
Author: John Tynes Category: game Company/Publisher: John Tynes Line: Stargate SG-1 Cost: free Page count: a fair amount, perhaps 50 or 60 printed out Capsule Review by Derek Guder on 11/15/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Historical	As Revland says, John Tynes was contacted in January of 1998 to write Stargate SG-1 into a role-playing game for West End Games. Unfortunately for Tynes, West End went under. Fortunately for us, Tynes decided to put his 30,000 of already completed work up on the net for all to see. While he didn't manage to finish the book, the first five chapters and the introduction are up. The Stargate SG-1 information that is up is almost entirely rules-focused, being an adaptation of the d6 system that West End used for Star Wars and some of its other games. Sadly, he never got into what I think would have been the really interesting part of Stargate SG-1, the different worlds. Tynes could have made a slew of truly memorable and amazing worlds (like he did with the Zone), turning the Stargate intellectual property from a somewhat entertaining movie and series into a brilliant role-playing game. Then again, I've become convinced that Tynes has nearly the Midas Touch of the RPG industry. The system works out well enough, I suppose, although it's not entirely to my tastes. It is not my favorite, but it works, and works a lot better than many other systems I could think of. The most entertaining and informative parts of the Stargate SG-1 material lies in Chapter Three: How to be a Supervisor where Tynes gives advice on how to run an RPG. He's is even kind enough to use a simple example (in this case the old joke about Superman being a really mean drunk, amusingly enough) something that many other games often miss. Furthermore, Tynes wrote the entire book as an in-character training manual for Stargate team members, and it reads surprisingly well, even in the discussion of the rules and game master advice. It keeps the text from getting bland and dry. On the whole, the Stargate SG-1 looks like it could have been a really nice role-playing game, despite the follies of its source material, but sadly John Tynes never got to finish it. Although he says that he has no intention of writing anything for the Stargate SG-1 ever again, I'll be hoping that he gets around to writing up several worlds, just because I'd love to see what he does with it. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)