Genetically enhanced Geo Marshals, computer hackers in the twenty-first century, the Mafia in space. Its all here as Blue planet steps past the basic background info in Fluid mechanics and First colony and into what the shadowy realm of high tech crime.
THE BASICS.
So how does this latest offering rate you ask? Well lets take a look. Now one thing some reveiwers have complained about with the V2 books is their presentation, to be honest the cover art on the core books was a bit of a let down compared to the first edition. Frontier justice does away with the cartoony feel of the first few books, its cover art is sufficiently dark and atmospheric to represent its content. The internal art is good, but not quite excellant. Its somewhat sparse as well, but considering the amount of quality material contained here im not going to complain. As with the other supplements this one is hardback too, some of you may complain over cost issues but personaly i prefer harbacks they stand up to wear and being carted around a lot better.
Inside one of my big problems is with the contents, which gives only chapter headings. It would have been noce to have an itemised contents. Fortunatly the index is more comprehensive.
CRIME ON POSEIDON.
The first section of the book gives the prospective moderator (Blue planet talk for GM.) an overveiw of crime on the waterworld. This is a relativly short section going through various types of crime and how they relate to Poseidon and modern tech. On the up side this section does a great job of putting crime into perspective with modern technology in the Blue Planet universe, especially computer crime and the ever popular bank job. Your party thinks they can just walk in and pick up the scrip for their new jumpcraft? Think again. One point it does tend to miss is how cetaceans fit in with Poseidons criminal scene, apart from a brief note on dolphins hauling drugs. Its hard to believe that on a world covered in water there are no opportunities for dolphin or orca gangsters? The section finishes with a short slang dictionary which is for the most part unnecessary, and a short fiction of a GEO patrol interveiwing a suspect. This final piece seems intended to demonstrate the terminology described earlier and is rather pointless.
ORGANIZED CRIME.
This section describes the two largest crimainal organizations on Poseidon, and is surprisingly short. The first half concerns the Gorchoff family, which is pretty much Mafia in space. We've got a complete rundown of the families history, from its beginings in Yarberev's 'Cleaners' to his sons flight from Earth and the establishment of the Family on Poseidon.
There is enough background for any decent GM to get started with the Family on Poseidon, how its organized and such but the section lacks a little in more demonstrative material. A few npc's and example setups and crews would have been good.
The NRM (New rastafarian movement) gets a similar treatment. History, from its founder in the original Athena colonists to present day status, is here and its pretty comprehensive. Again the groups current activities are summarised in a single column with little backup facts. I found parts of this great, for example the final paragraph tells us the Posse's (As NRM gangs are known) each have their own set of hand signals and styles of dress and street art. Each also specialises in one area of 'biz'. I love this it starts all sorts of ideas, but there is no follow up. Fantasy Flight really should have gone the distance, a decent write up of a posse or two and their set up would have been invaluable.
THE LAW ON POSEIDON.
The flaws of the previous chapters are shown up by the treatment recieved by this section. Where the various criminal groups are glossed over the law is given the full treatment. Every law enforcement group is reveiwed in detail, history, organization, names for all the Marshals. We have sections for Marshals, the GEO patrol, native patrol, Wardens, and un rangers who were'nt even mentioned in the basic books (The Rangers are a touch of genius though, completely legal but hostile to the GEO. I plan to use these guys in a campaign soon.). Added to all of this are comprehensive sections on lawman resources from dna banks to new toys, a full section on procedure for various crimes from arson to robbery, and a few samples NPC's.
Its pretty obvious who Fantasy flight would rather have you play. However for those of you who want to play the law then this is heaven, even the sidebars in this section are excellant giving you notes on how to interpret blood splatters and bullet wounds. After reading this section the Gm should feel he may have too much info rather than too little. A lot of it could be reversed and used in a criminal campiagn, especially the final section on procedure but i still feel that this section shines only because the previous one was neglected. This acknowledged i have to admit that if you were to start a campaign with the characters as the law then this section contains every conceivable resource.
CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY.
The final section is a short adventure. The rear cover advertises it as 'Three interlinking adventure scenarios'. This is partly true, but only if your adventures are REALLY short.The premise here is a criminal group steals a formula for artificial long john, attempts to sell it only to find out it doesent work yet. The three sections are the initial theft, the escape and hideout, and the sale. The various scenes are well thought out and give players a lot of options on how they want to handle the job, with enough maps and stats to accomodate most choices. The scenario also gives the players the choice of playing either the criminals or the GEO, with notes on the actions of the NPC side. One thing to note based on my problems with coverage of the criminal organizations is that the criminals here are a group of independants, neither the Gorchoff family or the NRM are mentioned in the scenario. In fact im almost tempted to call the criminals Shadowrunners...
Flaws aside the adventure does show how the various law enforcement resources can be used by players, which is usefull.
FINAL VERDICT.
The book sets out to describe the various law enforcement groups and criminal organizations on Poseidon, which it accomplishes with varying degrees of sucess.
Both the Gorchoff family and the NRM are covered, but it is sparse coverage indeed. There could have been a lot more here, from NPC's and example Posse's and crew's, to lists of criminal resources.
Also considering the emphasis the book places on teams of proffesionals (The fiction preceeding the various chapters and scenario.) im surprised there was no section covering independants save for the brief overveiw of crime in the first chapter.
The law chapter, on the other hand, is quite spectacular. Its got everything you could want and almost makes up for the lack in the previous section.
So all things considered i have to say i rather like the book, ideas for NRM Posse's and the possibilities for a UN Rangers campaign simmer happily in my head. On the whole the book is well worth the £15 i spent on it ($24 for those of you across the Atlantic.) and i recommend it highly for anyone whose Blue planet campaign touches upon law enforcement in any way.
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