RPGnet : The Inside Scoop on Gaming

INTRO:

Once again, I'll start this review by appologizing for my bad spelling and grammer. Since this is a Palladium product, I feel it's also important for me to say, I'm NOT a fanboy. I've purchased a few of their products and played RIFTS a couple times. Personally, I don't really care for about 80% of the game systems out there, so to me, the Palladium system isn't much worse (or better) than most. I'm going to try to give a review of the game, section by section, reserving "my opinion" for the end. That way, you have a review of the game, seperated from my opinion of it.

LAYOUT AND ART:

The layout and art is standard for Palladium. The cover is full color, and the interior is black and white, double collumn. There are 4 different font sizes (I'm pretty sure. 5 if you include bold face type.). Artwork is pretty frequent, and overall, the book is pleasing to look at, and easy to read.

My Opinion: I really love most of the artwork in this book. I like the cover, but for some strange reason, find the mutant horse disturbing!! Perhaps because it isn't as dramatic as the lion and elephant, or something, who knows. Again, most the interior artwork is really cool, and really gives you the idea of the mood of the game. However, there seem to be a number of illustrations that don't belong. I'm talking about the pictures of humans!! I know there are still humans in the world, but the pictures on pages, 33,39,44,46,49,51,58,142, and 145 are SO obviously not done for this game (they are eiter reprints from another game, or just something that was lying around unused). But not to worry, there are a TON more cool mutant animal illustrations throughout the book, and this is a minor complaint.

THE TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Complete, with all sections included. It also contains a "quick find" section, for rules that you might want to use more often.

My Opinion: Index, index, index!! That's how we really like to find stuff we need! Every moron who can't remember their own phone number, like me, needs an index! There is none, and the quick find is a poor replacement. This book especially needs an index, since things are located in the wierdest spots, and isn't devided into easy to refference "sections".

THE INTRO (After the Bomb):

A brief intro to the game, role-playing, and role-playing terms.

My Opinion: This is a bit more interesting than the standard, "how to role-play". I'm not saying it would be super informative for the new gamer, but for the vetran, who has read it a million times, this is a more entertaining way to do it. Erick describes a typical scene in the game, and how the player would fit it. It's fun to read, and really gives you a feel for what AtB is about.

CREATION OF MUTANT ANIMALS:

This is the bulk of the book. Since the book isn't devided into Chapters, it's kinda hard to tell where one section ends, and another starts. I'm assuming "combat" is the next "section", so everything from page 11 to 140 details character creation.

The first thing you will be doing is rolling up your ability scores for 8 typical stats. You roll 3d6 for each (nothing new there). If you roll 16-18 you are concidered "exceptional" and can roll another d6 and add it to the score, if that's 6 you can roll another d6 and add it! Ability score bonuses don't start unless you have a 16 plus in a stat.

My Opinion: Well, this works ok, I don't really understand the whole adding a d6 thing, if your score is already "exceptional". This leaves 90% of your characters out of the bonus loop (if they roll honestly). I think a bonus (penalty) chart a little closer to D&D's would be more fun (since we are using the 3d6 bell curve here).

Next, we determine the characters animal type. You can choose on your own, or roll randomly (the recomended method). The charts include a huge amount of animals, and even more if you have the supplemental books (from the old game, but still compatable)! The animal types are mostly from North America (unless you are using the supplemental books) with a few "zoo" animals thrown in. There are also some critters called Trowbacks, resembeling extinct animals (cool), and Chimeras, mixed gene animals (very cool!! especially for creating your own crossbreads for NPCs). It should be noted that bugs (insects, whatever) aren't included. I guess they really aren't animals, after all. They are covered briefly later, where it states that most didn't mutate that much (except some, that got REALLY big and nasty!!). This is good, since it gives you some room (as a GM for using them as "monsters".

My Opinion: This section rocks! I think the random animal charts are great. This will give you a chance to play something unexpected. It'll be a change for people who play the same type of character all the time, and will show power gamers just how much fun it can be to play, say, a mouse! The main strength is the number of animals included. This isn't some half assed attempt (like Gamma World 4th) to give you a few examples. This game will have you playing totally different PCs for a LLOOONNNGGG time.

Next you determine your background, education (and the skills that go with it). Don't confuse this with Apprenticeship, which is more like a "class". Some people have Apprenticeships, and some don't, it depends on your background. Again, you can either choose, or roll randomly (the recomended way). Backgrounds include Feral, raised in the frontier, Villagers, border area, Elite militia, guerrilla Warrior, raised by bandits, freed slave, or academic underground (all pretty self explanitary). Each gives you a bunch of skills, bonuses, equipment, and money to spend. Some also give you optional Aprenticeships you can choose.

My Opinion: This is a great way to give the PCs a background starting point, without a lot of work, and a good reason to explain why characters have certain skills. It's also a good springboard for a GM to start his adventures with. Of course, if he has a group of PCs with vastly different backgrounds, he/she might want to run them through solo adventures before introducing them to the group (I usually do this in all my games anyway).

Next, you build your mutant with BIO-E! All mutant animal characters start as normal animals (well, not in play, but before you change them for play!). Each has a certain amount of BIO-E points to mutate them. There are 3 basic uses for BIO-E, getting more humanlike appearance, gaining psionics, and gaining animal abilities . Most animals don't start with thier natural abilities, you have to "buy" them. This is explained as the fact that as inteligent creatures, it isn't instinct that teaches them, but education. It's also worth noteing that you must spend your BIO-E wisely. You have important things to buy, like speech, unless you want to spend the whole session barking like a dog! and hands, unless you don't want to use all those cool guns! This section also includes some optional randon tables for determining color and spot and stripe patterns, if you want them. I should also add, that you can't just buy ANY animal special abilities. They have to be abilities that your species would have. These sections are described more fully later in the book, and in this review.

My Opinion: This is great fun! This is where you can truely individualize your character. You could have many wolf characters that would look totally different. One might just look like a hairy human, one might look like the wolf man, another might look like a huge wolf that walks upright with hands, another might look just like a regular wolf, but have human speech and psionics. The possibilities are endless. At first, I was hopeing for more of the goofy mutations of Gamma World, but after reading this section, I find this game much more satisfying. The PCs make a lot more sence, and are more fun to develope. There was talk of imbalance in M.B.s review of the game, but I don't really see it. If you have a Mutant elephant, sure, he could be huge and powerfull, but what is he going to do when the rest of his group are in all those human sized buildings? He'll have to spend points to reduce his size, and have to sacrifice in other areas (ala...game balance).

Next we determine Hit point's and S.D.C. (structural damage capacity). HPs are equil to the characters P.E. (physical Endurance, one of the 8 attributes) plus 1d6. You also get 1d6 hit points per level. characters also have S.D.C. based on size and a few other possible bonuses (mostly from natural armor). S.D.C. represents superficial damage while HPs represent critical damage. Damage comes off of S.D.C. first, and then goes to Hit Points.

My Opinion: AAARRRGG!!! This is the stupidest thing I ever heard! If this system was used like the vitality points of Star Wars, it would be cool, but it doesn't, and isn't! It's like they are just MORE hit points! THERE IS NO PURPOSE to S.D.C. and characters! For inanimate objects, and armor, sure, but not PCs. Just give the PCs hit point bonuses, and get rid of the S.D.C. thing!

Next you choose your alignment. There are 10 to choose from, that pretty much describe all types of personalities.

My Opinion: What can I say, I don't care much for alignments. Good role players develope personalities for their characters, and usually stick to it, with or without alignments. As in real life, we all slip up and make mistakes, or do something evil or good on occasion. A GM saying, "you wouldn't do that because..." is just a pain in the butt!! If you like alignments, cool, this is a very nice selection. If you don't (like me) it's easy enough to just drop this section.

I should mention at this point, that above and beyond the stuff I've described so far, there are little game rules thrown into all these sections, like S.D.C. and inanimate objects, healing wounds and comas, and at the end of alignments, the experience points system. This is what everyone is talking about when they say how disorganized Palladiums books are. Sure, these sections apply slightly to what is being discussed, but they really don't belong there. If the book was orginized into the typical, Players section, GMs section, World description, type format, it would be much more organized. As it is, several topics are discussed multiple times and repeated (I think S.D.C. is described about 4 times!!). I think about 10 pages could have been saved, with better orginization. These guys have been doing this long enough, they should know by now!

Experience points are awarded for using skills in dramatic situations, good role playing (multiple definitons), and destroying foes. This is a level based system, so experience points translate into greater levels. As levels go up, you gain Hit points, and all your skills go up (including combat skills).

My Opinion: This system works just fine. I have to say though, I was a little turned off at this point, by the arrogant attitude of Kevin Siembieda. On a tangent, I've noticed this in other parts of the book, and on his website. He makes it sound like his Experience point system is so brilliant and revolutionary, just like on his website, where he claims to be the first to have done so many things. It's just not true! As I stated in my last review, of Monsters! Monsters! from 1976, this game was giving out XPs for good role playing! I don't want to sound pety or mean here, and I think your games are fine, your system is fine, and you have some great ideas, but I haven't found anything in your games that is truely brilliant, or unique. Even this game (which, in forshadowing, I LOVE) came out long after Gamma World. I wouldn't even have to mention this exept for the arrogant attitude in some of the writing, you ain't all that!

sorry about the tangent!

The next subection is Education and Skills. Most skills are percentile based, going up when new levels of experience are gained. Some skills are one time bonuses. There are a ton of skills, and most are usefull. The fact that a character gets SO many skills, is nice, since it will give you a chance to use at least a few in every adventure. The skills are described nicely, but a pretty dry read (but aren't all skills sections!?). Also covered in this section are the Apprenticeships some characters may have (remember those?). These are Armorer, Artisan, Electritian, farrier master, Healer, Mariner, Mechanic, Teamster, and Weaponsmith. They give characters who can have them a pre-adventurer occupation, and a list of more skills. This is a little unfair, since characters who get an aprenticeship seem to get more skills than those who don't, of course some of these skills are kind of lame anyway (basic mathematics comes to mind!).

My Opinion: A comprehensive section. Personally I like anything percentile based (although I know a lot of people don't). I think a clear cut sucsess or failure is easy for both the GM and player. Of course there are bonuses and penalties, and you could easity add your own system of variable success rates, if you wanted to.

The next thing covered, as part of the skill section, or it's own section, I'm not sure, is Psionics! These are some special abilities you can buy your mutant with BIO-E. The section is rather brief (33 psionic abilities), but complete. A mutant can use his psionics as often as desired (once per melee, 15 seconds). "victims" get a saving roll (greater than on a d20), to avoid the effects where aplicable.

My Opinion: I like this section. I like the fact that there aren't so many abilities, that, as GM, I can't keep them straight! Of course if you want more, you can expand on the list with Heroes Unlimited, or Beyond the Supernatural (or any Palladium game, I believe), it says that the PCs of this game (mutant animals) can't use these abilities, though. This just gives the PCs something else fun to play with, and I think every player should try to get at least one psionic ability (it says that typically 2-6 powers are aquired per PC). These abilities aren't as wild and crazy as Gamma World, but are fun and usefull.

Next, mutant animal powers are described. These are "natural" abilities, such as claws, tunneling, flight, ect. PCs don't utomaticly get these (as I stated before) and must buy them with BIO-E. These are nicely described.

Next is a HUGE section of animal descriptions!! This describes all the animals that are availiable on the random generator chart. This is the bulk of the rule book going from page 76 to 140! Each one has a description, and gives the BIO-E cost of mutations for that animal.

My Opinion: This part is great, and loaded with illustrations, although not of every animal type (there are just to many). This is what I like to see, a huge section covering the "fun stuff" not huge sections of "rules". This section alone makes you want to sit there for hours rolling up different characters, and mutating them! Murahhahaha!!

COMBAT:

As far as I can tell, Combat is the next "official" section of the book. The basics of combat are pretty simple, roll a d20 for initiative order to start the round. Each character has a certain number of actions per round (usually starting at 4), that can be used to parry, dodge (spin, thrust, sorry, couldn't resist!), attack, or variations of these basic movements. You have to roll a 5 or better on a d20 to hit! If the opponent has armor, you have to roll higher than the A.R. (Armor Rating) to hit the person (and take damage off the hit points), or the armor takes the damage from it's S.D.C. (there it is again! of course, this is one of the times where S.D.C. makes sence, on an inanimate object!). If an attack is sucessfull, the deffender can attempt to parry or dodge, by rolling another d20, and getting equil to or greater than the attack roll. Of course you can't parry missles, and the dodge attempt is seriously penalized, so firefights will be pretty exciting (what player doesn't like to hit with every shot!?).

After the basics of combat are described it goes into more advanced attacks and defences, including a lot of martial arts stuff. Also covered AGAIN is S.D.C along with a chart of typical S.D.C. of some objects (sick of S.D.C. yet!!??). The Hand to Hand skills are also described here, instead of with the other skills (don't ask me.). And finally ranged combat in detail.

Included at the end of the combat section, is the equipment section. This includes generic equipment and armor (described briefly), and a pretty good section on ancient wepons and firearms. It should be noted that lasers and such cool advanced tech, isn't availiable to PCs (only the Empire of Humanity has this cool stuff!). The descriptions of weapons also includes the damage they do.

My Opinion: To be honest, I'm a role player! Combat can be fun, but I don't like to include to much of it, or have them last to long. The basic combat system is fine, it works, and is relitively fast. It is easy enough to ignore all the more detailed rules (as I will). It's nice that they are there if your combat anal. Personally, I don't want to cunsult a chart every time I throw a punch to determine if it's a Bare hand punch, backhand, karate punch, elbow, barefoot kick, ect, ect. (there are 11 seperate unarmed attacks), but if your into that kind of stuff, it's here. There are also all kinds of optional deffences like entangle and disarm, that I won't bother with much. The only real problem I have with this section is there isn't a Weapons Chart, for easy refference. You have to dig through the weapon descriptions for damage, comparing costs, and such.

GAME MASTER SECTION:

Included here is a brief section on Game mastering.

My Opinion: I consider myself an above average GM. This is usually one of my favorite sections of a rule book, because most games try to outdo everyone who came before, and I can usually take away something new. This section has no merit at all. It's lame for experienced GMs and offers nothing to the novice. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it's just my opinion.

AFTER THE BOMB:

Next comes 30 pages that describe the world of AtB. It starts by describing how mutant animals came into being (before "the bomb") through genetic engineering and experiments, done by scientists, and regular people (just for fun, it is the near future, and we humans bore easily!). Then it goes on to describe the crash, which is kinda cool and different from the typical "Nuke Em!" reason for a post Apocalyptic setting. It appears that, since all disease has been cured, it became the hobby of kids (high school) to try and create new diseases as pranks. The fad cought on. It was fun at first, but someone eventually came up with a super disease that wasn't cured in a few hours. In a month 74% of the human population was wiped off the planet. The disease didn't effect mutant animals nearly as bad (thus the premise of the game, where mutant animals dominate the earth). Some countries thought this was a biological attack, and launched thier nukes, destroying most of what was left. So now (years later, although I'm not sure how many. I might have missed that, but I'm guessing about 100?!) the world is inhabitited by mutataed animals at several levels of technology and a smaller number of humans. Some humans intermingle with the animals, and some have formed anti-mutant empires, like the primary nemisis of the setting, The Empire of Humanity (who have high tech weapons, armor, and equipment).

The section gives a brief overview of the world, and descriptions of some key NPCs. There are also some random encounter and equipment tables, and a section of mutant bugs.

My Opinion: I love this section, because it's brief, and answers all my basic questions. I've always been a sort of "generic game" lover. I like to develope my own settings and worlds. This game gives you what you need to know, and gives the creative GM a LOT of room to move. You have a good sence of the writers "vision" of the game, but also have the freadom to make it whatever you want. The Empire of Humanity is a great example of anti-mutant humans, and gives a good reason to include nifty high tech equipment, and make this cool stuff avaliable to PCs (why leave all those laser guns laying around after you kill some humies!?). GMs who need more crutches might find the section lacking. I'm glad the mutant insect section was included, this gives a good jumping point for creating your own killer bugs!

ADVENTURE SCENARIOS

The book wraps up with 6 adventure scenarios to get you started. According to M.B.s review, these are the same as in the original version of the TMNT supplement book. I haven't seen that book in years, so to be homest, I don't know, although I'm guessing this info is correct.

My Opinion: I'm not really impressed. I would have preffered one really good fleshed out adventure, to these briefly described ones. Of course, I've only run 4 adventures I didn't write, in 21 years of gaming. I just preffer my own stuff, and feel more comfortable with it. I'm guessing these will be helpfull, and even fun for some people. The writeups of all the NPCs should be usefull in any case.

MY OPINION OVERVIEW....

I like this game a lot! Most of it was a fun read, although the tone of the patchwork rule book often changes from lighthearted to serious. I will play it, and even start a campaign as soon as I can. It even has the potential to become my favorite game, as this is my favorite Genre. The fact that I know it won't be revised or out of print in a year (if it follows normal Palladium trends) is a big plus for me! The fact that there are already 5 sourcebooks is a big bonus, plus the fact that Palladium doesn't release so many books, that I won't be able to keep up, is nice too. I should lso say the price-tag on the books are SWEEEEEET. The fact that I can mix and match this with other game books in the "palladium megaverse" with little difficulty is also pretty cool, since I don't really play any of the other games, but some of the stuff looks fun (the Rifts Mechanoids book for example looks cool!).

The Palladium system is nothing special, and a bit clunky in some areas, but playable. The worse thing about the book is the poor orginization, but it's nothing an experienced gamer can't handle, and the fact that some things are described multiple times (which is mostly because of the poor orginization!).

This game isn't as wild as Gamma World, but I think any GW player will like it, and mabey even come to preffer it. I think, overall, it's a better game than any of the GW editions. Anyone who likes post- apocalyptic settings, but doesn't take it TO seriously should enjoy the game.

In a nutshell, if the thought of playing (or GMing) a mutant animal, in a post apocalyptic world SOUNDS like fun, you will enjoy this games, hands down. If it sounds stupid, you probably won't. In my humble opinion, this is the best oprion for this genra, and I should know, I've played all editions of Gamma World, have a copy of the rare Metamorphosis Alpha (and the amazing engine version also), and have played the old TMNT version of this game. Any problems with the system are excusable, due to the fun factor of the game!

Thanks, grubman