The Inside Scoop on Gaming

As a GM, I'm frustrated by the relatively recent trend going through the industry that requires gamemasters using published adventures to hold the players' hands in order to finish the adventure in a way that won't leave everyone frustrated. Holistic Design's announcement of their first adventure-geared book for Fading Suns made me a bit nervous. Would they ruin a creepy, intelligent, original game with monster bashes, or would they offer up scenarios that were little more than scripts that the players had to follow to the letter in order to finish?

By the time my local shop got a copy, I was ready to buy another book so that I had something new to read. As soon as Greg (the store employee and local gaming guru) set Weird Places on the counter, I knew we had a winner. John Bridges' colorful cover sparked musings of futuristic Indiana Jones types picking through alien temples filled with mysterious creatures and technology.

Five odd places and two markets are covered in Weird Places. Along with description and NPCs are adventure hooks and mysteries to investigate. Black margins look classy and keep greasy fingers from marring the book as it gets thumbed through. Several pictures by Darryl Elliot were attractive and interesting. The multiple hooks for each setting make the Weird Places sites for many adventures without exhausting the potential or eliciting the cry, "this again?"

The first two places are planets with ancient mysteries and lost technology. Kurga, the barbarian's world, is the third and least interesting place. Bannockburn, the fourth site, has high potential for combat, and few of the adventure hooks don't seem very well tied into the setting. The fifth weird place is a haunted chapel and the closest any of the places come to being an adventure rather than a potential-filled location. A pair of bazaars take up last section of the book. One is mapped and the other is in dire need of mapping. My only real gripe about the book was that it needed more. There should have been more maps and more text. The GM is left with no small amount of work required to put the settings to use. More information would have made the book more user friendly. Since it's likely that GMs will reuse several of the settings, a thicker book certainly wouldn't be considered overkill.

If you're a Fading Suns GM, this book will undoubtedly be very useful. If you're considering GMing Fading Suns, borrow or buy it to get an idea of what Fading Suns is about.

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

Weird Places
Author: Bill Bridges, Jackie Cassada, Sam Chupp, James Estes, Ross Isaacs, Rustin Quaide, Nicky Rea Category: game Company/Publisher: Holistic Design, Inc Cost: $12.95 Page count: 80 ISBN: 1-888906-05-7 Capsule Review by C.H. Gallant on 02/20/98. Genre tags: none	As a GM, I'm frustrated by the relatively recent trend going through the industry that requires gamemasters using published adventures to hold the players' hands in order to finish the adventure in a way that won't leave everyone frustrated. Holistic Design's announcement of their first adventure-geared book for Fading Suns made me a bit nervous. Would they ruin a creepy, intelligent, original game with monster bashes, or would they offer up scenarios that were little more than scripts that the players had to follow to the letter in order to finish? By the time my local shop got a copy, I was ready to buy another book so that I had something new to read. As soon as Greg (the store employee and local gaming guru) set Weird Places on the counter, I knew we had a winner. John Bridges' colorful cover sparked musings of futuristic Indiana Jones types picking through alien temples filled with mysterious creatures and technology. Five odd places and two markets are covered in Weird Places. Along with description and NPCs are adventure hooks and mysteries to investigate. Black margins look classy and keep greasy fingers from marring the book as it gets thumbed through. Several pictures by Darryl Elliot were attractive and interesting. The multiple hooks for each setting make the Weird Places sites for many adventures without exhausting the potential or eliciting the cry, "this again?" The first two places are planets with ancient mysteries and lost technology. Kurga, the barbarian's world, is the third and least interesting place. Bannockburn, the fourth site, has high potential for combat, and few of the adventure hooks don't seem very well tied into the setting. The fifth weird place is a haunted chapel and the closest any of the places come to being an adventure rather than a potential-filled location. A pair of bazaars take up last section of the book. One is mapped and the other is in dire need of mapping. My only real gripe about the book was that it needed more. There should have been more maps and more text. The GM is left with no small amount of work required to put the settings to use. More information would have made the book more user friendly. Since it's likely that GMs will reuse several of the settings, a thicker book certainly wouldn't be considered overkill. If you're a Fading Suns GM, this book will undoubtedly be very useful. If you're considering GMing Fading Suns, borrow or buy it to get an idea of what Fading Suns is about. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)