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Uncle Ernie's Minions of Doom

Uncle Ernie's Minions of Doom Capsule Review by Alex Hanna on 30/09/02
Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
A bunch of critters to make your PC's weep.
Product: Uncle Ernie's Minions of Doom
Author: Lawrence R. Sims, Ben Pierce, Doug Nelson, Geoff Wheeler, Nick Vasi
Category: RPG
Company/Publisher: SSDC Inc.
Line: Battlelords
Cost: $11.95 US
Page count: 95
Year published: 1994
ISBN:
SKU: ODS 501A
Comp copy?: no
Capsule Review by Alex Hanna on 30/09/02
Genre tags: Science Fiction
Uncle Ernie’s Minions of Doom, is the “guide to Pain” for the Battlelords of 23rd Century sci fi RPG published by SSDC Inc.

It’s a soft cover book, has a 95 page count, and has black and white art of fairly good quality on almost every page. The pieces are inevitably a depiction of a creature being discussed in the adjoining text.

UEMD, for short, is a collection of monsters and critters that a GM can throw at his players during a Battlelords game. Uncle Ernie is one of the most dangerous villains in the game setting. He is a brilliant bio-genetic/cybernetics scientist with access to fantastic amounts of money. He also holds a wicked grudge against the government of the Galactic Alliance and has decided to bring them down. Enter ARM, the Anarchist Rebellion Movement. A grouping of the most violent, disgruntled, disillusioned people from across the Alliance, many of whom were already criminals. ARM builds, discovers, hunts, trades, and researches dangerous lifeforms from around the universe and uses them to spread fear and death throughout the Alliance in an attempt to destabilize it. Thus this book.

Each creature entry follows the same basic format: Origin. Danger rating. ARM distribution, essentially the frequency of ARM seeding. Sale price. Classification, a general reference to the type of life form it is. Occurrence, the frequency that a beast is found in it’s native environment. # hanging out, how many one might expect to run across at any given time. Size. Body points. Movement. Initiative modifier. Defensive modifier. Threshold, essentially it’s natural armor. Vision, hearing and smell. # of attacks. Damage per attack. Attack number, the percentage chance the critter has to gut ya. Special attacks. Special defense. IQ. Matrix use, any psychic powers it may have. Power points, the energy that powers matrixes. Background. Nature of the encounter, tactics and other gaming notes. Habitat. Mind of thebeast, an indication of the monster’s mindset. Through the eyes of the victim, gives a better understanding of the creature.

Before the book gets to the monster listing, it spends a few pages discussing the Arachnids, the mysterious alien threat that poses the greatest danger to the Galactic Alliance. It touches on the history of conflict the Alliance has had with the Arachnids since day one, and how to this day, they still know very little. A good read for the GM who intends on using the Arachnid threat to any degree in his game.

UEMD describes roughly 70 creatures of a decidedly unpleasant nature. Each in it’s own way can make the life of a PC battlelord quite uncomfortable. From the parasitic Blood Worms, to the predatory Molack, to the deadly Arachnid Warrior. UEMD is certainly a book that every Battlelords GM should consider getting. It helps to add some variety to the foes the PC’s come across. It also helps to have an “instant alien” book at one’s disposal.

Overall, a book worth having.

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