The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The first Dragonball Z RPG published by R. Talsorian games was an extremely playable and generally well-balanced system. Although it didn't let players create the kind of super-characters they had seen in the DBZ series to that point, it did allow them to have fun, interesting characters and use them in creative ways. The first supplement for this system concerns the Frieza(or Furiza, or Freeza, or however you want to spell it) Saga, which takes place largely on Namek. And, while it doesn't maintain balance as well as the core rulebook, it does clarify some major problems with the core system as well as providing more opportunities for players to make the characters they want.

New Powers

Besides encouraging the player to develop their own special techniques, the book provides descriptions and rules for every major power used by any character in the Frieza Saga. With sufficient energy and skill, you could do Frieza's Eyebeams (an attack that does little damage, but requires no powering up beforehand), Recoome's Eraser Gun, or even Guldo's Time Stop, not to mention being able to use telepathy (a la King Kai or Chiaotzu), sense and read power levels, hide your own power level, and even, with GM authorization, use Dende's Healing Power or have a character with multiple forms like Frieza. Heck, there's even rules for performing the kind of merging that Piccolo and Nail do. They didn't miss much in this department.

New Rules

One thing that confused many people, including this reviewer, was how some of the characters in the first book got to have such insanely high Move stats (and why they did, since they could fly anyway and Move wasn't used for much of anything). Goku's, for example, was well over 100, in a system where 6-7 is an athletic human! Compounding this problem further was that there was no visible way set forth to raise the four primary ability scores, namely Physical, Mental, Combat, and Move, and yet here were characters with scores exponentially higher than what was possible for the normal player. This has been explained and rectified, partially, in this book. Explained in that a sidenote is dedicated to the discrepancy, and rectified in that another sidenote implies a system for raising ability scores. Perhaps I simply missed the section in the first book on this, but I know that I did read it extremely carefully several times and found nothing on the subject. In any case, players have rules for changing these scores now, should their GM permit it. Another thing that rankled alot of players was that a roll was necessary to become a Saiyan or Namekkian. While I can understand this, and even sympathize with the game designer's decision to make this so, considering the abilities that Saiyans and Namekkians display later in the series, it added a random element to character generation that seemed to take a lot of the fun out of it. In this supplement, players are free to design their own alien races, and are even provided a list of powers that their race might have (they can choose two). So, while you still might not be able to be a Saiyan (which required rolling a 1 on a d6), there's no reason you couldn't create a race with similar powers (a bonus to ability scores and Monster Form would do nicely). New Locales

A very big element in this book is space travel, at least compared to the previous one. Rules and tables are given for building spaceships and the various gadgetry that they come with (can anyone say "Gravity Chamber?") and for creating planets and civilizations. Handy when you're getting a little to big for your britches on Earth.

Miscellaneous other New Stuff

Rules for Super Saiyan Transformations, Saiyan Rage, Extreme Training, weighted clothing, and much more are included as well. There's a lot of information in this book. More than enough to keep players busy until the next edition comes out, at least.

If you have played the DBZ RPG before and liked it, this book could be a very good choice. If you're currently running a game and need something to give it a shot in the arm, this book could be a very good choice. If you just want to blow up some planets, turn into a Super Saiyan, and merge with your fellow PCs, this book could be a very good choice. If, however, you are a GM that is immensely concerned with balance, this book could be the thing that sends you on a trip with the men in white coats.

Dragonball Z Book 2: The Frieza Saga
Dragonball Z Book 2: The Frieza Saga Capsule Review by Dave Dembinski on 27/09/01 Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty) Rules for tons of new powers, races, spaceships, etc. . .but game balance is lacking. Product: Dragonball Z Book 2: The Frieza Saga Author: Mike Pondsmith Category: RPG Company/Publisher: Animechanix, R. Talsorian Games Line: Dragonball Z Cost: Page count: 104 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 1-891933-04-3 SKU: AM 09002 Comp copy?: no Capsule Review by Dave Dembinski on 27/09/01 Genre tags: Science Fiction Space Asian/Far East Other	The first Dragonball Z RPG published by R. Talsorian games was an extremely playable and generally well-balanced system. Although it didn't let players create the kind of super-characters they had seen in the DBZ series to that point, it did allow them to have fun, interesting characters and use them in creative ways. The first supplement for this system concerns the Frieza(or Furiza, or Freeza, or however you want to spell it) Saga, which takes place largely on Namek. And, while it doesn't maintain balance as well as the core rulebook, it does clarify some major problems with the core system as well as providing more opportunities for players to make the characters they want. New Powers Besides encouraging the player to develop their own special techniques, the book provides descriptions and rules for every major power used by any character in the Frieza Saga. With sufficient energy and skill, you could do Frieza's Eyebeams (an attack that does little damage, but requires no powering up beforehand), Recoome's Eraser Gun, or even Guldo's Time Stop, not to mention being able to use telepathy (a la King Kai or Chiaotzu), sense and read power levels, hide your own power level, and even, with GM authorization, use Dende's Healing Power or have a character with multiple forms like Frieza. Heck, there's even rules for performing the kind of merging that Piccolo and Nail do. They didn't miss much in this department. New Rules One thing that confused many people, including this reviewer, was how some of the characters in the first book got to have such insanely high Move stats (and why they did, since they could fly anyway and Move wasn't used for much of anything). Goku's, for example, was well over 100, in a system where 6-7 is an athletic human! Compounding this problem further was that there was no visible way set forth to raise the four primary ability scores, namely Physical, Mental, Combat, and Move, and yet here were characters with scores exponentially higher than what was possible for the normal player. This has been explained and rectified, partially, in this book. Explained in that a sidenote is dedicated to the discrepancy, and rectified in that another sidenote implies a system for raising ability scores. Perhaps I simply missed the section in the first book on this, but I know that I did read it extremely carefully several times and found nothing on the subject. In any case, players have rules for changing these scores now, should their GM permit it. Another thing that rankled alot of players was that a roll was necessary to become a Saiyan or Namekkian. While I can understand this, and even sympathize with the game designer's decision to make this so, considering the abilities that Saiyans and Namekkians display later in the series, it added a random element to character generation that seemed to take a lot of the fun out of it. In this supplement, players are free to design their own alien races, and are even provided a list of powers that their race might have (they can choose two). So, while you still might not be able to be a Saiyan (which required rolling a 1 on a d6), there's no reason you couldn't create a race with similar powers (a bonus to ability scores and Monster Form would do nicely). New Locales A very big element in this book is space travel, at least compared to the previous one. Rules and tables are given for building spaceships and the various gadgetry that they come with (can anyone say "Gravity Chamber?") and for creating planets and civilizations. Handy when you're getting a little to big for your britches on Earth. Miscellaneous other New Stuff Rules for Super Saiyan Transformations, Saiyan Rage, Extreme Training, weighted clothing, and much more are included as well. There's a lot of information in this book. More than enough to keep players busy until the next edition comes out, at least. If you have played the DBZ RPG before and liked it, this book could be a very good choice. If you're currently running a game and need something to give it a shot in the arm, this book could be a very good choice. If you just want to blow up some planets, turn into a Super Saiyan, and merge with your fellow PCs, this book could be a very good choice. If, however, you are a GM that is immensely concerned with balance, this book could be the thing that sends you on a trip with the men in white coats.

Dragonball Z Book 2: The Frieza Saga