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Several months ago, I submitted a review of the Systems Failure RPG by Palladium Books after conducting a playtest of it. Just recently, I volunteered to write a module for a local RPG convention, and decided to write a Systems Failure session. This meant going back to the rulebook and poring over it, creating characters myself and fleshing NPCs, Bugs and locations out with statistics. I discovered several more things about the game (most of them bad, unfortunately) that I believe deserve airing, so I've gone back to my original review and revised it. Note that most of the material from my original review is still present.

The Basics

Systems Failure is Palladium's latest RPG, and focuses on a world gone wrong nine years from now. On January 1, 2000, the Y2K event caused most of the planet's computers went off-line and threw the entire planet into chaos. This event, known as the Meltdown, turns out to be only indirectly related to the Y2K issue; alien invaders - the Bugs - came to our world on January 1, 2000 and promptly subverted the globe's high technology.

The Bugs appear to be inspired by the prevalent theme of the "Y2K Bug"; these insectoid creatures can transmute into an energy form, allowing them to travel down "hardlines" - power, fibre-optic, cable and phone lines - and enter and take control of computer-controlled machinery. Not only that, but their bio-energy cannons can render any item of computer-controlled high technology inert. When you think about how many modern vehicles and appliances have some computer control within them, this is a very scary thought. Thanks to the Bugs, computers, high technology and power grids cannot be trusted; the world has gone back at least forty years technologically (can you say, Mad Max?).

In the nine years since the Meltdown, major population centres have become "Bugtowns" as the Bugs killed or enslaved the human population. It's taken these nine years for the American people to rally and take the war back to the Bugs, and many of the warriors are what used to be Western society's underclass: The survivalists who stocked up on guns and built bunkers "just in case", the village idiots and those who are on the knife-edge of sanity, and the punks, homeboys and criminals who suddenly find themselves fighting alongside those who would otherwise be their victims in order to survive. The focus is on these unlikely heroes of this new world; the every day people who have become participants in the conflict against the Bugs.

The game's emphasis, as its back cover claims, is "non-stop, blood-and-guts action"; players can stock up on guns and take the war to the bugs as Exterminators, Splatterpunks and Survivalists. However, you don't necessarily have to play a combat-oriented character; Grease Monkeys support the post-apocalypse tech level, whilst Sawbones make sure the people keep going and Freebooters ply their bartering trade between the isolated post-apocalypse towns.

If playing an everyday Joe with a gun and a grudge doesn't satisfy and you want to play something more science-fiction flavoured, Systems Failure accommodates by including the SF staple of the modified and/or evolved human, thanks to the last true military authority in America, NORAD. Players have the choice of the NORAD Psychic OCC, a human trained by the military to use their psychic potential (although the option is given for independent psykers), and the NORAD Splicer OCC (Bugboy), volunteer subjects of a secret military project who have been hybridised with Bug DNA, giving them superhuman Bug-busting abilities at the cost of their human appearance. NORAD-affiliated characters also have access to Organitech hardware; organic energy-guns and battlesuits also grown from Bug DNA.

First Impressions

The Bad:

There are a few issues I have with most Palladium product. One is the layout and presentation. Systems Failure's presentation follows in the exact same steps as all its predecessors, using the same, two-column layout with mostly the same font throughout (they have used some comic-book-esque fonts for a few chapter titles). Admittedly, this layout looks okay for the post-apocalyptic Systems Failure, and Palladium fans will find it familiar and easy to use, but these days, other game lines have much livelier, eye-catching presentation.

Systems Failure is poorly organised, as illustrated when making a character up. The character creation steps, including information on characteristics, are on page 14, right after the scene-setting stories at the beginning of the book. However, Occupational Character Classes, the templates of the Palladium system, are found on page eighty, after the skill lists, the rules on combat, the information on the Bugs (which makes ensuring the players know as little as possible about the Bugs that much more tricky) and the basic summary of the Human Resistance. Equipment is right at the back, after everything else (including the section on using Systems Failure with other Palladium RPGs). As my players and I discovered during character creation, this results in a lot of flipping pages back and forth, which gets annoying quickly. Separating the information on the Bugs, timeline and other "GM's call on whether the players should see it" info into a GM's Section at the back of the book would have been a good idea.

Also, unlike previous games where an OCC provides a basic set of skills listed right there in the OCC description, characters instead have the option of choosing one or more "skill programs", groups of five or so skills focused in a specific topic (Gambler & Hustler, Military Demolitions, Journalist/Investigation, Professional Thief, etc.). The list of skills each program provides are listed in the Skill section, making for yet more page-flipping while you choose which program(s) you want your character to have, then note what skills the programs provide (some also allow you to pick a few skills, making creation even longer) and then get each skills base percentage and/or bonuses. Choice is a nice thing, but being spoiled for choice isn't.

Making this process further unwieldy is the Background process; in addition to OCC skills, your character gains skills based on its age and/or occupation before the Meltdown. Because your character's life has been radically changed in the past nine years, these skills are "locked" - cannot be increased when you go up a level - unless you "unlock" them by spending OCC Related or Secondary skill selections. The idea is nice, but the execution seems an additional complexity to an already long character creation process.

Although most of the OCCs seem to shape out okay, there is one exception: the Wacko. The rulebook emphasises that the Wacko is driven to destroy or undermine the Bugs. The problem is that the Wacko does not have any real bonuses to make the OCC more attractive amongst the more powerful Bug-busting types like the Exterminator or Peacekeeper - even the Splatterpunk is better than the Wacko. The Wacko only gets one OCC skill program, eight related skills and one secondary skill at commencement. The Wacko's starting equipment is not spectacular. The Wacko doesn't even get a special ability where most other characters have a minimum of one. Only two of the seventeen personal obsessions, "New Age metaphysicist" and "Gun nut", give any kind of bonus, and these are a +1 bonus versus possession/magic (unlikely in this setting, as most psychics are controlled by NORAD) or two extra skills respectively - and that's if you choose them or roll them on a random table (I can see a lot of players making "Gun Nut" Wackos who will simply be easier-to-kill Exterminators). There is a write-up of the Wacko's Wacky Luck, a "lucky item" and/or a ritual the character undergoes before entering combat; but no description or game mechanics are given as to how this Wacky Luck actually affects the Wacko. I feel as if this Wacky Luck was meant to be the Wacko's special ability, but the rules for it were either forgotten about or cut from the book, probably by accident.

Another issue I have is with the arrangement of the skills. Palladium gamers are probably used to it, but after a few years away from Palladium RPGs I found it frustrating having to search for a skill by category, and then by alphabetical order within that category, in order to get its starting value. Sure, most other RPGs do present their skill descriptions in this format, but most other RPGs don't have the same percentile system, nor do they assign each skill a different starting value (and a different experience-level-increase bonus). Also, other game usually have an easy-to-read summary that tells you all you need to know in order to assign a character a skill. Systems Failure has a skill list, but it doesn't include the base skill or increases per level. This means the average player still has to do a lot of page-flipping to find the correct percentile value for a skill.

This would be forgivable if you only have to do it once, but the Palladium system works on Experience Levels: when you earn enough experience points to take you to the next level, ALL skills increase in value (unless they're locked background skills), and each skill increases by a different percentage amount per level. Unless you had the foresight to note down the per level bonus to each and every skill during creation (and some skills give you several sub-abilities rated by percentile with experience increases) on your character sheet, you'll be page-flipping through the rules once again in order to determine how your character's skills have increased.

Not only that, but nowhere is it explained how the skill test mechanic actually works. A cluey person can figure out that a percentile roll (explained in the glossary at the beginning, thank God) is necessary, but the fact that it isn't explained in the Skills section or anywhere else is a horrid omission.

Also, the bonuses provided by hand-to-hand skills and modern weapon proficiencies are listed in their respective combat rules sections. Again, this may make some sense (especially when you want to look a strike bonus up during a combat), but I believe they should be in with the rest of the skills as it means more page-flipping during character creation.

Looking over the combat section, I noticed that in the hand-to-hand combat summary, it doesn't actually tell you how parries, dodges and entangles are determined. I pulled out my old, battered copy of the Robotech RPG and compared the combat rules there with the Systems Failure rules. Neither combat summary explains how parries, dodges or entangles work, but Robotech features dodges, parries and entangles in the Combat Terms section. Systems Failure features the entangle dice mechanic in the Combat Terms section, and the dodge one under "Dodging missile attacks" (So you only roll to dodge when being shot at? And why is "Dodging missile attacks" found in the hand-to-hand summary rather than in the ranged weapon combat section?), but not parrying. Having experience with the Palladium system, this wasn't too much of a problem for me, but I still found the omission of one of the basic rules of the Palladium system glaring. I can imagine players and GMs unfamiliar with that system experiencing some frustration because of it.

The section on damage effects (typically found in the combat section in most games so you can determine what effect a wound has on a character during a combat) and healing/dying (usually put right after the combat section in most games so you can immediately jump to it after a combat is finished), is placed in the character creation section. Once again, this seems to be bad organisation; it guarantees page-flipping during combat as the GM skips between sections of the book to find out what effect losing hit points has on a character.

This brings me to another omission: the Save vs. Coma & Death. There are several references to it elsewhere in the text (the PE characteristic provides a bonus to it), but the actual rules on comas and dying don't include it, nor are its game mechanics explained anywhere else. Unfortunately, this problem appears to be a carry-over from other Palladium product; the Macross II RPG also suffers from it.

And yet another omission: All Bugs have a "PPE" statistic which Systems Failure neglects to explain. No OCC has the statistic and no other reference is made to it anywhere else in the book. I know it has appeared in other Palladium product, but I couldn't remember what it is or what it is used for. It seems a rather gross error that the Bugs are given an extra statistic which then goes entirely unexplained.

(Note: A friend told me later on that PPE stands for Potential Psychic Energy, and is used to determine magical capability. As magic is not a part of Systems Failure, I don't see why the Bugs' PPE scores couldn't have been simply put in a table in the "Palladium RPG Plug Ins" section at the back of the book. It would have saved me poring through the book, trying to find out what the hell PPE meant, did and how the Bugs used it.)

It's interesting to note that while the Systems Failure combat procedure outline in takes about one page and a quarter; in Robotech, a product into its eighth printing by April '91, the combat procedure outline takes up just under two-thirds of a page. Admittedly, most of Systems Failure's outline is explanations and rules clarifications, but some of it is overblown and redundant, like spending a paragraph and a half on how a player character attempting to dodge a ranged attack is judging the timing of his dodge based on the attacking gunman's body language (while, as noted above, the procedure for dodging isn't even explained).

The villains of the game, the Bugs, seem to be rather tough; even the basic Army Ants, the soldiers that players should be able to mop up with ease (at least, that's my impression, as they usually come in squads of six to ten), have 100 SDC and an AR of 12.

For a game whose emphasis seems to be Bug-stomping, there are very few Heavy Weapons. Admittedly, Organitech hardware - NORAD bio-weapons grown from modified Bug DNA - can do the job well, but the only true conventional heavy weapon is a flame-thrower, which is disappointing for Exterminator PCs as the Exterminator automatically gets one heavy weapon. As I didn't want my PCs starting off with Organitech hardware, I wound up going back to my Robotech RPG again for grenade launchers, machine-guns and and other heavy weapons so an Exterminator character could have a little more variety.

As shotguns seem to be a staple for this genre (How many times have you seen cops or hillbillies whip out shotguns to fill the alien thing full of lead in B-grade SF movies?), I thought several types would be included, as there were for pistols and SMGs. However, Systems Failure simply provides a paragraph-length summary which states all shotguns have the same range and do the same damage (unless they're sawn off or have solid slug rounds), which is rather disappointing considering the detail they went to for other individual guns (see below). The earlier rules also make reference to single-shot and semi-automatic shotguns, but the summary equipment list doesn't specify any difference, nor are costs provided.

Systems Failure goes into a gross amount of mostly unnecessary detail for most contemporary firearms (country of origin, caliber, weight, barrel length, muzzle velocity, price, etc.), but the only game info you can glean from this is ammo capacity, maximum range and damage. Rate of fire is not provided, either in rounds per minute or in game terms. You're left to assume that, because a particular rifle doesn't have "automatic" in its name, it's only capable of single shot fire. This problem is another carry-over from other Palladium product; Robotech also suffers from it.

In contrast, the fictional Organitech weapons are laid out in game format, listing weight, rate of fire, damage, range and ammo, which is all a player or GM needs. (Do we even really need weight?) The only people who want to this much detail about firearms are gun freaks, and there are more dedicated, detailed publications available to keep them satisfied. Palladium, can you stick to game stats when it comes to guns and gear, please?

I was of two minds over the art. Most wasn't bad, but wasn't particularly impressive either. Scott Johnson's art varied from the passable, like most of the OCC art, to the rather poor, like the rifle-packing hillbilly on page 116. Palladium seems to have a high art staff turnover; the only artist name I could recognise was John Zeleznik, the cover artist, whose art I am also rather ambivalent about. I found myself missing Vince Martin's clean, dynamic art (the main reason I bought RIFTS Coalition War Campaign), and even Wayne Breaux, the man whose art bears some resemblance to Kevin Long's.

The history and capabilities of the Bugs is left intentionally vague. Suggestions are made in the Bugs section about more types of Bugs that humanity hasn't seen yet. These are perhaps fair enough, but there is little detail given to what exactly the Bugs do with occupied areas aside from capture power generation areas and enslave/zombify humans in order to run them; Bugged areas are typically passed off as "ghost towns". More information on what the Bugged areas look like, Bug breeding capacities (How quickly can bugs recover from losses?) and even Bug architecture and towns (Do they build their own hives/buildings? If so, what do they look like and how are they built? How do the Bugs corral their slaves? If the Bugs are quasi-photosynthetic, do they like to lounge in large open areas during the day or in Summer?). Also, there is virtually no information on the status of the rest of the world; there are notes on Canada, Alaska, Mexico and South America, but nothing on Europe, Asia, Russia or anywhere else.

It's possible Palladium weren't sure that Systems Failure would sell enough to support with supplemental product, and kept the details vague either because they want to hook us into buying supplements, or to give us plot hooks so that we could make up our own details if Systems Failure became a one-book line. Even if Palladium does decide to support Systems Failure, it may be a while before we see anything for it, when you consider:

that Systems Failure will be a minor line compared to major product lines such as RIFTS or the Palladium RPG,
the notoriety of Palladium's release schedule. Can you say Mechanoid Space?

Finally, Systems Failure tries to reinforce a very melodramatic patriot-heroism theme more often than necessary, sometimes several times on the one page (79 is a good example). I like to think I'm a cluey person, and can figure out that Systems Failure features a can-do, never-say-die attitude without the book telling me ten or so times.

The Good:

Many gamers are rather allergic to the Palladium rules system, and I must admit, I suffer from this as well (don't mention MDC - atchoo! - to me). But on first impressions it appears to work well for Systems Failure; players are square-jawed-if-grimy-and-rough action movie heroes who can shrug off bullet wounds like Arnie (thanks to SDC) until things get really bad.

Unlike older Palladium product which usually launches into the character creation rules after a brief explanation of how roleplaying works, Systems Failure starts off with five vignette-style stories intended to draw the reader into its invaded, post-apocalyptic world. They do the job rather well, covering the initial invasion, the state of the post-apocalyptic world, the can-do attitude of the survivors who are fighting the Bugs and hinting at the capabilities of the Bugs themselves without giving too much away.

Although I did have complaints about the art earlier, there are some good pieces of art. Michael Wilson sets the standard by sketching dynamic illustrations of the vicious Bugs, the hard-fighting Exterminators, the cool-looking Organitech hardware and other pieces which pop up elsewhere. He has a very clean, pleasing line style.

Systems Failure knows its premise and make sure its PCs stick to it. The OCCs are focused on the theme of the undesirable or everyman become hero; combat-oriented PCs are grunts, survivalists, weirdoes and criminals forced into heroic roles in order to survive and/or protect humanity. Even the non-combatant roles follow the undesirable theme; other character options are Eggheads, reclusive and/or nerdy scientists/computer programmers; Freebooters, traveling salesmen on whom the survival of many post-Meltdown towns depend; and Grease Monkeys, the backyard tinkerers whom everyone comes to to get stuff fixed. Even the superheroic OCCs are likely to be viewed by the average Joe as freaks, especially the half-man, half-Bug Splicer. The emphasis that nobody is perfect is furthered by each OCC having notes on its "upside" and "downside".

Most of the OCCs seem to shape out okay when it comes to game capabilities; each has their own special "power" (the Peacekeeper's Staredown ability, the Exterminator's paired ranged weapons, etc.) and those with more or more powerful special abilities (like the NORAD OCCs) get fewer skills.

Also, although the war against the Bugs may be black-and-white, but Systems Failure likes to emphasize the bad guy who finds himself doing good in order to ensure his - and perhaps the race's - survival. This is the primary focus of the Splatterpunk OCC. There's definite potential for the morally-challenged character in Systems Failure, whether you want to indulge in a little mayhem by playing an out-and-out villain, or going for character development by having your cold-hearted bad guy slowly turn good over the length of a campaign.

The scope of Systems Failure gives the prospective gamemaster the choice of several science-fiction genres, including bug war ala Aliens and Starship Troopers, albeit less high-tech (the primary theme); monster horror ala Alien ("Dang it, Lester! That cooter got Jed and Billy-Bob, and now it's after us!"); post-apocalypse anarchy (thanks to the Meltdown and the loss of most advanced technology); superheroic action (thanks to the Psychics and Splicers); exploration and mystery (Why is Nevada a no go zone for Bugs and humans alike?); the definition of humanity (Are the NORAD Splicers still human? What does the advent of Psychics mean for the rest of the human race?) and even the paranoia-laden Invasion of the Body Snatchers theme (thanks to a Bug that enters a human's brain and takes control, compete with physical stigma). It might be resuscitating old clichés (what doesn't these days), but it's still fun.

Although no NPCs or specific locales are provided, the game is based on America ten years in the future. The Land of the Free section summarises the state of the nation nine years after the Meltdown in large regions consisting of around four states each. Each zone is fairly well detailed in terms of concentrations of Bugs, Warlords, survivalists, Bughunters and/or the Military, and notes are provided on the "feel" of the area. With a little research, a GM can easily take existing American towns and cities and fold, spindle and mutilate them to suit the game.

Although the world info may be a tad sparse, and the villains somewhat two-dimensional, the focus is on gearing up and kicking ass in a fashion largely unique to American action movies, although this probably wouldn't translate well to a campaign situated in another country. (Unless it involved American PCs... Kicking Bug Ass Across The Globe! Yeee-Haw!) Moral worries or catharsis aren't what this game is about; this game is about pumping them dang cooters so full of shot that if they don't die of the wounds, they'll drop within seconds from lead poisoning. Systems Failure gives you more than enough to accomplish this noble goal. Except for the heavy weapons and shotguns...

...And speaking of guns, the Organitech energy guns are named after action movie heroes! Take, for example, the "Eastwood" heavy energy pistol ("Go ahead, Bug - make my day...") or the "Schwarzie" (Couldn't they have just called the "Arnie"?) light energy cannon ("If it bleeds, ve can kill it."). Sure signs that this game don't take itself seriously.

Due to good sales, it appears Palladium may well be supporting Systems Failure after all. Their Rifter quarterly magazine has featured stuff on Systems Failure, including a new OCC.

Finally, Systems Failure is a cheap buy at US$13 (A$24) for 144 pages.

Post Playtest

One comment my players had was all the complexity due to the abilities some Physical skills gave you, like the Knockout ability from Boxing. The skill description details how the knockout works, including how armour affects it. My thought is, rules like this will quickly get forgotten one the players are in combat, and aren't strictly necessary. Also, the characteristic and skill bonuses from the various physical skills are also somewhat hard to keep track of when making a character.

The playtest scenario went rather well, although I must admit I could have put some more work into it. I felt a little uncomfortable running combats, but I think that's more one of my foibles than an actual gripe with the game. It turned out the Bugs weren't as tough as I thought; characters toting autofire rifles were able to nail Army Ants in a burst or two. I didn't put them up against anything heavier, like a Killer Bee. Yet...

Regarding the issue of detail on the Bugs, some of my players wanted to know how Bugs tasted. But I don't think that's a necessary game detail...

Summary

The basic premise of Systems Failure is good, and likely to be familiar enough to science fiction fans to help generate some good ideas. A lot of fun can be had with Systems Failure and a little bit of ingenuity. It sticks to its guns whilst allowing for quite a broad scope of gaming possibilities.

The presentation of the game's rules, however, is a big let-down. Experienced roleplayers will be disappointed with its shoddy rules presentation, with some details omitted or obscured. New or novice roleplayers will have to figure out how some of the basic mechanics (parry, dodge and entangle, skill rolls) work, often from hints in the rules rather than the combat "summary". The book could also be much better organised.

Overall, Systems Failure is disappointing. Although it doesn't hit the hip pocket as much as some other core rulebooks, I would have preferred to pay a little more for a complete game. I'd recommend waiting for a revised edition - but frankly, I don't see one of those coming for quite a while.

Note: I've posted some of my own ideas for fixing the issue of the Wacko's luck and a Word-format Systems Failure character sheet on my Home of Miscellany page.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)