Hmmmm. I'm not usually one to go out and buy setting supplements such as
Paradise because they often end up being a bit of a let down. On the odd occasion you find such little nuggets like
Midnight Circus (One of the greatest pieces to come out of White Wolf) that can be used over and over and over again. In fact, I have managed to find a use for
Midnight Circus in almost every game I have run - even BESM! So how does
Paradise, a supplement that claims to provide a setting that can fit with any genre, stand as a product both for QAGS and general gaming?
"Look Ma! My Campaign is publishicated!"
The default genre for
Paradise is fantasy. This is a
BAD idea if you are wanting to go multi-genre. Namely because fantasy has certain requirements that are sometimes hard to remove.
Set in the town of Paradise, the game assumes that you will be playing a western meets fantasy
game along the lines of Deadlands. While it claims to be a multi-genre setting, this is only mentioned as an aside within the book with a few tips on how one might alter the setting to meet certain genre requirements. As I read through this book I couldn't shake the feeling that it was basically someone's personal campaign world that they had decided to publish as a 20-page supplement.
While it struggles to be a "Twin Peaks" meets "American Gothic" with a touch of "Deliverance" crossed into D&D,
Paradise tends to come across as a little lacking. With only 20 pages to detail a town along with its inhabitants and subplots, the book sort of only touches upon some issues. Furthermore, the lack of any maps makes it a confusing mess when reading the descriptions of locales.
"Exactly where is that mine?"
People you'd rather avoid...
The NPCs provided aren't really explored much, and often come across as two-dimensional or just plain boring. Add to this the rather odd fantasy element of the "dragon men" and the setting seems to feel a little confused. Rather than provide sufficient advice for roleplaying each character, the material relies heavily on the use of the Who Would Play Him/Her in the Movie trait to tell you how to roleplay the character. Compared to
Terror at Camp Waka' Naka's NPC advice, this comes across as quite lacking. Also, the art is so hodge-podge it is rather disappointing to look at, and fails to provide any "feel" for the setting - rather adding to the confusion about how to use it.
Conclusion
Considering the flexibility and ease with which QAGS can be used, this setting comes across as sketchy and incomplete. Furthermore, what is provided fails to be particularly inspirational. As a stand alone product, the setting is simply not flexible enough to be truly multi-genre, rather it makes an assumption about the game genre and hinges most of its subplots on this assumption.
Quite simply, there are better products out there. I'd suggest saving your money and buying
Terror at Camp Waka' Naka instead.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)