The Inside Scoop on Gaming

It is the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the earth minbari war, well you know the rest, I'm sure if you are one of the legions of fans that Babylon 5 has garnered. And believe me I am amoung those ranks! However I must admit that the calibre of most of the B-5 merchandise, well, Stinks. The RPG, is a so so attempt at trying to mix a star wars/ white wolf system from what I saw, (yes this is my opinion and probably not shared by all!) the action figures, while decently detailed seemed cheap for the cost ($10 apiece?!?) and with the exception of a few of the novels, and books I have been generally diaspointed by most of the attempts to make csh off of the B-5 name.

The CCG is a bit of an exception, but still falls short of what could be done with a babylon-5 game. Firstly I'm one of those melodramatic fools wo still thinks of CCGs in the same field as most beer and pretzel games. kind of a quick fix gaming with the card being an impulse buy like say a candy bar on your way out of the grocery store! B-5 is no quick fix it is a full blown war game never intended to be in a situation where people say "hey the GM is going to be a half an hour late, I got my minbari deck who wants to play me?" while the cards are stunning (full color photos and rival the TNG and Starwar CCG in look) and I will concede that prescidence went to great lengths to make the game balanced, I have never seen a killer card combo that wins the game in any record time. and it does have a good grasp on the feel of the show, The downside is an excrucatingly long game that rivals Jyhad or even an Avalon hill title, the cards also suffer from being extremely "busy" as they are loaded down with icons and meanings that could overturn the game if you took the time to memorise them all. and also the concept of the tension chart while intrigueing tends to be a distraction to players who are not hard core gamers and B-5 fans, which is the only audience I could justify suggesting the game to. It's worth a play don't get me wrong but I wouldn't rush into it unless you have a gaming group who enjoys B-5 and doesn't mind putting in roughly 2+ hours on a single game, also this game works best with all four races filled so again, be forwarned this game is not for whim gaming!!Personally I prefered the board game!

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

Babylon-5
Author: unknown Category: CCG Company/Publisher: Prescidence publishing Line: Babylon-5 CCG Cost: $9.95 Page count: na Playtest Review by Jamie Herbert on 11/30/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Far_Future Space Espionage Conspiracy	It is the dawn of the third age of mankind, ten years after the earth minbari war, well you know the rest, I'm sure if you are one of the legions of fans that Babylon 5 has garnered. And believe me I am amoung those ranks! However I must admit that the calibre of most of the B-5 merchandise, well, Stinks. The RPG, is a so so attempt at trying to mix a star wars/ white wolf system from what I saw, (yes this is my opinion and probably not shared by all!) the action figures, while decently detailed seemed cheap for the cost ($10 apiece?!?) and with the exception of a few of the novels, and books I have been generally diaspointed by most of the attempts to make csh off of the B-5 name. The CCG is a bit of an exception, but still falls short of what could be done with a babylon-5 game. Firstly I'm one of those melodramatic fools wo still thinks of CCGs in the same field as most beer and pretzel games. kind of a quick fix gaming with the card being an impulse buy like say a candy bar on your way out of the grocery store! B-5 is no quick fix it is a full blown war game never intended to be in a situation where people say "hey the GM is going to be a half an hour late, I got my minbari deck who wants to play me?" while the cards are stunning (full color photos and rival the TNG and Starwar CCG in look) and I will concede that prescidence went to great lengths to make the game balanced, I have never seen a killer card combo that wins the game in any record time. and it does have a good grasp on the feel of the show, The downside is an excrucatingly long game that rivals Jyhad or even an Avalon hill title, the cards also suffer from being extremely "busy" as they are loaded down with icons and meanings that could overturn the game if you took the time to memorise them all. and also the concept of the tension chart while intrigueing tends to be a distraction to players who are not hard core gamers and B-5 fans, which is the only audience I could justify suggesting the game to. It's worth a play don't get me wrong but I wouldn't rush into it unless you have a gaming group who enjoys B-5 and doesn't mind putting in roughly 2+ hours on a single game, also this game works best with all four races filled so again, be forwarned this game is not for whim gaming!!Personally I prefered the board game! Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 3 (Average)

Babylon-5