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I bought Brainburners almost a year ago, but it wasn't until a week ago that I ran the adventure; I've learned to wait on commenting on a book until I've run any included adventures, after an incident where I read through a Cthulhu module, sent off a letter of praise, then actually tried to run a scenario from the book and found there was no way for the investigators to get to an area 1/4 of the adventure was devoted to. At any rate this is a a review of Brainburners, so let me give you my thoughts on it.

I give it a B+.

The first 33 pages were perfect, the only flaw that picture with Mulder and Scully on page six (I HATE the X-Files). I'm actually looking forward to Lost Colony after reading the section on Banshee. The sections on syker power and character creation were great, my only complaint on them being the inclusion of syker templates; does anyone actually use the pregenerated characters? I'd rather see more space devoted to story and rules than mook characters.

Before I forget, let me say Brainburners has the best cover of any HOE book I've seen. Carl Frank should be brought back to do another cover.

The No Man's Land section of Brainburners was pretty good, though I must complain about the list of power flaws for each and every syker power. Years ago I submitted a similar list for pulp powers in the Torg game. The editor of the magazine I submitted it to responded by telling me "GM's don't want a list of obvious ways to punish players' poor rolls, they can do that themselves." He was right, and I hope Pinnacle take that lesson to heart in the future.

Then there was the adventure.

Spoiler Space

Almost perfect. The only flaws were the Brain Eater (whose both description and illustration bore an uncanny resemblance to the Brain Devourer found in D&D module X2 Castle Amber) and the idea that Jessica McCullock's voice could awaken her husband. I hate sappy romantic elements in RPG scenarios, a feeling shared by my gaming group. Oh, and the -6/-12 modifier to Persuade Jessica not to get violent made that roll pretty much impossible for any Deadlands character I've ever seen. When I ran this adventure my posse ended up killing Jessica and left Belknap to fall at the hands of gangs and/or the Combine.

Well, those are my thoughts. Brainburners is one of my top three HOE books, and I hope future books live up to the standard it set.

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

Brainburners
Author: Steve Long, with Shane Hensley Category: game Company/Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group Line: Deadlands: Hell on Earth Cost: 20.00 Page count: 128 ISBN: 1-889546-36-4 SKU: 6002 Capsule Review by Ralph Dula on 03/09/00. Genre tags: Horror Post-apocalypse	I bought Brainburners almost a year ago, but it wasn't until a week ago that I ran the adventure; I've learned to wait on commenting on a book until I've run any included adventures, after an incident where I read through a Cthulhu module, sent off a letter of praise, then actually tried to run a scenario from the book and found there was no way for the investigators to get to an area 1/4 of the adventure was devoted to. At any rate this is a a review of Brainburners, so let me give you my thoughts on it. I give it a B+. The first 33 pages were perfect, the only flaw that picture with Mulder and Scully on page six (I HATE the X-Files). I'm actually looking forward to Lost Colony after reading the section on Banshee. The sections on syker power and character creation were great, my only complaint on them being the inclusion of syker templates; does anyone actually use the pregenerated characters? I'd rather see more space devoted to story and rules than mook characters. Before I forget, let me say Brainburners has the best cover of any HOE book I've seen. Carl Frank should be brought back to do another cover. The No Man's Land section of Brainburners was pretty good, though I must complain about the list of power flaws for each and every syker power. Years ago I submitted a similar list for pulp powers in the Torg game. The editor of the magazine I submitted it to responded by telling me "GM's don't want a list of obvious ways to punish players' poor rolls, they can do that themselves." He was right, and I hope Pinnacle take that lesson to heart in the future. Then there was the adventure. Spoiler Space Almost perfect. The only flaws were the Brain Eater (whose both description and illustration bore an uncanny resemblance to the Brain Devourer found in D&D module X2 Castle Amber) and the idea that Jessica McCullock's voice could awaken her husband. I hate sappy romantic elements in RPG scenarios, a feeling shared by my gaming group. Oh, and the -6/-12 modifier to Persuade Jessica not to get violent made that roll pretty much impossible for any Deadlands character I've ever seen. When I ran this adventure my posse ended up killing Jessica and left Belknap to fall at the hands of gangs and/or the Combine. Well, those are my thoughts. Brainburners is one of my top three HOE books, and I hope future books live up to the standard it set. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)