The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Game Company's core book in Game Line has been out for quite a while, and I think that it deserved a look. While many may have something personally against Designer's Name, I'll try to keep this review as unbiased as possible. As in keeping with the standard for rpg.net reviews I'll provide a chapter by chapter synopsis and critique.

Introduction

There isn't much actually to the introduction. Designer's Name throws some purple prose set in what is ostensibly the campaign world. This prose manages to convey the details of the setting if not the actual feel quite well. Its eight pages that could have better been spent descibing the world or explaining the rules. The art is fairly decent, but Artist Name's work doesn't quite mesh with the feel that Designer's Name was trying to go for. It sure is pretty though but not quite on par with others in the field such as Name of Artist Who Illustrated Planescape. Following the prose piece, which is entirely in italics for some unknown reason, we have a couple of pages dedicated to explaining what a role playing game is (Designer's Name compares it to cops and robbers but with rules to avoid the "I hit you!" "Did not!" "Did too!" problems) and using a new word to replace the classic term GameMaster.

Chapter One: Creating a character

Character creation rules are mixed with a little bit of setting detail, not enough to run the game but enough that if you are reading straight through and creating a character before reading the setting rules you can have some idea of where your character fits in society. The rules are point based and quite simple. To start with you choose a character class (although the term "character class" is scrupulously avoided throughout the entire book, that's essentially what it is) and that determines what sort of abnormal powers your character can purchase and what stats and skills she gets a bonus to.

Brief digression to bring up a minor quibble: There is NO reason for the characters to have these abnormal powers other than to make them cooler. The powers don't necessarily fit the genre (though some do) and it feels as though some powers were thrown on so that every "never refered to as character class" would have some twisted ability. End digression.

After picking your "we do not call this a character class" you are then given points to spend on your traits, skills, and bizzare powers. Once you have spent all the points there are other stats which are derived from your traits, skills, and powers like hit points (although these are never refered to as hit points, rather, as something like wound points or body levels). Character generation has a few loopholes to get power that that can be exploited by the twink if the GM who is not called GM doesn't stop them.

Chapter Two: The Setting

The setting chapter is richly detailed. It does a decent job of explaining who does what in the setting and how society is organized, although details about everyday life in the setting are skimped on. The only real problem is that the genre is of one that hasn't been done well before and Designer's Name makes the same mistake that previous designers did by modifying things to make it more suitable for the standard adventuring party setup, and the game feels a bit weaker because of it.

Chapter Three: Mechanics

The core mechanic use a simple trait+skill vs target number roll with a built in mechanic for determining levels of success. The simplicity of this system is apparent, although it does tend to unbalance traits vs. skills by making traits more powerful by virtue that the relatively few traits get included in more rolls than any of the large number of skills. In practice this has caused most of the players to focus on improving their traits while only getting one point in various skills to avoid penalties for unskilled use. The consequence is that the party is composed of a bunch of ubermenschen who don't need to train in any given area of expertise because of their all-around superiority. I've seen this problem before in games put out by Other Game Company and thought that they wouldn't be repeated because the mistakes were obvious, but apparently their success with Other Game Line has led designers to mimic all aspects of their games. Closing off the chapter is a throwaway comment on how to use the rules for live action play and a stern warning not to use any sort of weapons, real or prop, when live action gaming.

Chapter Four: Combat

This chapter is prefaced by a statement that role-playing is superiour to roll-playing and that combat shouldn't be at the heart of your games though it can be used for dramatic effect.

It then goes on to explain how to whoop ass and take names. A few modifiers for attack actions are given in a little table in the sidebar (more on sidebars in the conclusion). Combat is semi-lethal. Although the characters can take a few hits before going down the penalties for being damaged ensure a fairly steep death spiral making first round initiative the most important roll in the entire combat. Miss that one and you've pretty much screwed the pooch. The chart filled with weapons seems to be pretty useless, even with the pretty pictures of the weapons, since it has a lot of white space in it, as does much of the book.

Chapter Five: Bizzare Powers

This is where the descriptions of the powers your characters can get goes. It's pretty long and pretty flawed. Designer's Name loved his core dice mechanic so much that everything had to conform to it. While this worked well with combat the powers seem kludgy because they don't inherently work like skills. So instead of something nice, consistent and coherent we get a large shopping list of powers each with their own systeem for resolution that is shoehorned into the core mechanic. Yawn. A shopping list with no provisions for developing new powers or why THESE powers are the ones available. some are neat but most seemed to exist for the sake of balance with powers in other frameworks. And people claim that rpgs have advanced so much.

Chapter Six: GM Who We Shall Not Call GM's Section

This section gives the standard explanation of what your job is as GM who we shall not call GM and how to get the players to have fun while manipulating them. If you've read any edition of Call of Cthulhu you've read the essay that this is a paraphrase of. There's a description of some of the details of the meta-plot and rules for villains that the players aren't supposed to see. This chapter also contains an adventure written by someone other than Designer's Name who creates a scenario that goes against the entire feel of the setting established before and makes some hefty assumptions about what sort of character the players created. An essay about life the universe and everything by Designer's Name along with a brief bibliography caps off the book. The bage page has an ad for upcoming supplements.

In summary I got the feeling as I read through RPG Title that I've seen this all somewhere before. I also felt cheated by the need to pad the text with decent artwork while leaving important things undefined. The huge sidebars, which had pretty little border designs that were the same on every page, were often blank, and when there was text in them it only took at most twelve square centimeters.

I feel cheated by content altough I like the tone of the book and the author's voice. In conclusion, because no rpg.net review or posting is complete without a baseless ad hominiem attack on John Wick, let me say that Alderac has cemented itself in the ranks of top game companies by acception Wick's resignation. Thank you.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

RPG Title
Author: Designer's Name Category: game Company/Publisher: Company Name Line: Game Line Cost: $30 Page count: - Playtest Review by Reviewer's Name on 11/18/99. Genre tags: Generic	Game Company's core book in Game Line has been out for quite a while, and I think that it deserved a look. While many may have something personally against Designer's Name, I'll try to keep this review as unbiased as possible. As in keeping with the standard for rpg.net reviews I'll provide a chapter by chapter synopsis and critique. Introduction There isn't much actually to the introduction. Designer's Name throws some purple prose set in what is ostensibly the campaign world. This prose manages to convey the details of the setting if not the actual feel quite well. Its eight pages that could have better been spent descibing the world or explaining the rules. The art is fairly decent, but Artist Name's work doesn't quite mesh with the feel that Designer's Name was trying to go for. It sure is pretty though but not quite on par with others in the field such as Name of Artist Who Illustrated Planescape. Following the prose piece, which is entirely in italics for some unknown reason, we have a couple of pages dedicated to explaining what a role playing game is (Designer's Name compares it to cops and robbers but with rules to avoid the "I hit you!" "Did not!" "Did too!" problems) and using a new word to replace the classic term GameMaster. Chapter One: Creating a character Character creation rules are mixed with a little bit of setting detail, not enough to run the game but enough that if you are reading straight through and creating a character before reading the setting rules you can have some idea of where your character fits in society. The rules are point based and quite simple. To start with you choose a character class (although the term "character class" is scrupulously avoided throughout the entire book, that's essentially what it is) and that determines what sort of abnormal powers your character can purchase and what stats and skills she gets a bonus to. Brief digression to bring up a minor quibble: There is NO reason for the characters to have these abnormal powers other than to make them cooler. The powers don't necessarily fit the genre (though some do) and it feels as though some powers were thrown on so that every "never refered to as character class" would have some twisted ability. End digression. After picking your "we do not call this a character class" you are then given points to spend on your traits, skills, and bizzare powers. Once you have spent all the points there are other stats which are derived from your traits, skills, and powers like hit points (although these are never refered to as hit points, rather, as something like wound points or body levels). Character generation has a few loopholes to get power that that can be exploited by the twink if the GM who is not called GM doesn't stop them. Chapter Two: The Setting The setting chapter is richly detailed. It does a decent job of explaining who does what in the setting and how society is organized, although details about everyday life in the setting are skimped on. The only real problem is that the genre is of one that hasn't been done well before and Designer's Name makes the same mistake that previous designers did by modifying things to make it more suitable for the standard adventuring party setup, and the game feels a bit weaker because of it. Chapter Three: Mechanics The core mechanic use a simple trait+skill vs target number roll with a built in mechanic for determining levels of success. The simplicity of this system is apparent, although it does tend to unbalance traits vs. skills by making traits more powerful by virtue that the relatively few traits get included in more rolls than any of the large number of skills. In practice this has caused most of the players to focus on improving their traits while only getting one point in various skills to avoid penalties for unskilled use. The consequence is that the party is composed of a bunch of ubermenschen who don't need to train in any given area of expertise because of their all-around superiority. I've seen this problem before in games put out by Other Game Company and thought that they wouldn't be repeated because the mistakes were obvious, but apparently their success with Other Game Line has led designers to mimic all aspects of their games. Closing off the chapter is a throwaway comment on how to use the rules for live action play and a stern warning not to use any sort of weapons, real or prop, when live action gaming. Chapter Four: Combat This chapter is prefaced by a statement that role-playing is superiour to roll-playing and that combat shouldn't be at the heart of your games though it can be used for dramatic effect. It then goes on to explain how to whoop ass and take names. A few modifiers for attack actions are given in a little table in the sidebar (more on sidebars in the conclusion). Combat is semi-lethal. Although the characters can take a few hits before going down the penalties for being damaged ensure a fairly steep death spiral making first round initiative the most important roll in the entire combat. Miss that one and you've pretty much screwed the pooch. The chart filled with weapons seems to be pretty useless, even with the pretty pictures of the weapons, since it has a lot of white space in it, as does much of the book. Chapter Five: Bizzare Powers This is where the descriptions of the powers your characters can get goes. It's pretty long and pretty flawed. Designer's Name loved his core dice mechanic so much that everything had to conform to it. While this worked well with combat the powers seem kludgy because they don't inherently work like skills. So instead of something nice, consistent and coherent we get a large shopping list of powers each with their own systeem for resolution that is shoehorned into the core mechanic. Yawn. A shopping list with no provisions for developing new powers or why THESE powers are the ones available. some are neat but most seemed to exist for the sake of balance with powers in other frameworks. And people claim that rpgs have advanced so much. Chapter Six: GM Who We Shall Not Call GM's Section This section gives the standard explanation of what your job is as GM who we shall not call GM and how to get the players to have fun while manipulating them. If you've read any edition of Call of Cthulhu you've read the essay that this is a paraphrase of. There's a description of some of the details of the meta-plot and rules for villains that the players aren't supposed to see. This chapter also contains an adventure written by someone other than Designer's Name who creates a scenario that goes against the entire feel of the setting established before and makes some hefty assumptions about what sort of character the players created. An essay about life the universe and everything by Designer's Name along with a brief bibliography caps off the book. The bage page has an ad for upcoming supplements. In summary I got the feeling as I read through RPG Title that I've seen this all somewhere before. I also felt cheated by the need to pad the text with decent artwork while leaving important things undefined. The huge sidebars, which had pretty little border designs that were the same on every page, were often blank, and when there was text in them it only took at most twelve square centimeters. I feel cheated by content altough I like the tone of the book and the author's voice. In conclusion, because no rpg.net review or posting is complete without a baseless ad hominiem attack on John Wick, let me say that Alderac has cemented itself in the ranks of top game companies by acception Wick's resignation. Thank you. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)