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With Fluid Mechanics, Fantasy Flight has shown how a tech supplement should be done. In addition to giving you a lot of tech for running Blue Planet, Fluid Mechanics tells you who makes the tech, where it is made, and how the tech is used on Poseidon. All told, Fluid Mechanics is a great introduction to Blue Planet. It looks pretty great too.

As with the other Blue Planet v.2 supplements, Fluid Mechanics is a 126 p. hardback. The cover shows a miner in an orange hard suit descending through a school of luminescent jellyfish-analogs. Quiet the eye-catcher. Each chapter begins with a page or two on how each type of tech is designed, manufactured, and used in the late 22d Century. These introductions are perfect for giving a GM a context for the tech and for inspiring ideas on how to feature the tech in the game. Each item is then described with a one to four paragraph description usually followed by a stat block. Most of the items are illustrated, and much of the art is evocative of the setting.

Chapter 1 (40 p.) deals with hardware - everything from power supplies to sensors to life support to body armor to computers and communications to espionage tech to medical tech to robots and remotes. Chapter 2 (17 p.) is weapons - melee weapons, firearms, explosive weapons, and guided weapons. There is plenty here to keep the gun-bunnies happy. Chapter 3 (18 p.) is biotech - cybernetic modifications, genetic modifications, surgical modifications, and cetacean biotech. Chapter 4 (35 p.) is vehicles - ground vehicles, jumpcraft, VTOL aircraft, ground-effect planes, surface vessels, submersibles, spacecraft, and rules for using them. The vehicle rules (10 p.) provide an abstract system for resolving chases and dogfights. This is basically the v.1 system updated for the Synergy rules system used in v.2. I hadn’t even noticed that the vehicle rules were missing from v.2 until I saw them here. Fluid Mechanics finishes with a two-page master table of weapons and a two-page index. As with the other Blue Planet supplements, there are cross-references to where persons, locations, or rules may be found in the other books.

Fluid Mechanics
Fluid Mechanics Playtest Review by Jeb Boyt on 23/05/01 Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) A great tech supplement and an excellent introduction to Blue Planet Product: Fluid Mechanics Author: Jeffrey Barber, Greg Benage, Greg Porter, Brian Schoner, & Jason Werner Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games Line: Blue Planet Cost: $24 US Page count: 126 p. Year published: 2000 ISBN: 1-887911-11-1 SKU: BP03 Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by Jeb Boyt on 23/05/01 Genre tags: Science Fiction Space Espionage	With Fluid Mechanics, Fantasy Flight has shown how a tech supplement should be done. In addition to giving you a lot of tech for running Blue Planet, Fluid Mechanics tells you who makes the tech, where it is made, and how the tech is used on Poseidon. All told, Fluid Mechanics is a great introduction to Blue Planet. It looks pretty great too. As with the other Blue Planet v.2 supplements, Fluid Mechanics is a 126 p. hardback. The cover shows a miner in an orange hard suit descending through a school of luminescent jellyfish-analogs. Quiet the eye-catcher. Each chapter begins with a page or two on how each type of tech is designed, manufactured, and used in the late 22d Century. These introductions are perfect for giving a GM a context for the tech and for inspiring ideas on how to feature the tech in the game. Each item is then described with a one to four paragraph description usually followed by a stat block. Most of the items are illustrated, and much of the art is evocative of the setting. Chapter 1 (40 p.) deals with hardware - everything from power supplies to sensors to life support to body armor to computers and communications to espionage tech to medical tech to robots and remotes. Chapter 2 (17 p.) is weapons - melee weapons, firearms, explosive weapons, and guided weapons. There is plenty here to keep the gun-bunnies happy. Chapter 3 (18 p.) is biotech - cybernetic modifications, genetic modifications, surgical modifications, and cetacean biotech. Chapter 4 (35 p.) is vehicles - ground vehicles, jumpcraft, VTOL aircraft, ground-effect planes, surface vessels, submersibles, spacecraft, and rules for using them. The vehicle rules (10 p.) provide an abstract system for resolving chases and dogfights. This is basically the v.1 system updated for the Synergy rules system used in v.2. I hadn’t even noticed that the vehicle rules were missing from v.2 until I saw them here. Fluid Mechanics finishes with a two-page master table of weapons and a two-page index. As with the other Blue Planet supplements, there are cross-references to where persons, locations, or rules may be found in the other books.