The Inside Scoop on Gaming

"Over the Edge" is built around tension, espionage, and weirdness. Cloaks, the fourth source book for "Over the Edge," serves to expand the role of Al Amarja's secret agents, or cloaks. Rather than letting this book slip into mediocrity, Cloaks carries on the edgy intelligence and psychosexual surrealism that worked so well up until now. The fever-dream continues.

Cloaks is not for players. What I had hoped would be a tool for allowing players to realize their own Hunter S. Thompson-inspired secret agents, is off limits to them entirely. There is a bizarre location, a gaggle of characters, some adventure seeds, a fleshed out plot, info on the cloak's business, and some toys to empower or decimate player characters. A nice mix.

The first chapter covers the basics of running a cloaks campaign in addition to some threads with which to weave adventures tailored to the party's affiliation. There are paragraphs devoted to reasons for running a cloaked game. It serves as a checklist for GMs in the process of adding ingredients to a game. Past that are a few sections about making such a campaign fun and how to pull it all together.

Chapter Two is an odd little adventure featuring the return of someone whom the players didn't know was missing. Rather than presenting it as a series of scenes for the characters to walk through, "Yesterday's Hero" simply lists the key players, their motivations, and the results of not only their actions, but those which the player characters might take. Beginning GMs might not feel comfortable with this approach to scenario design. Then again, it should be mentioned that I've never met a GM who cut his or her teeth on "Over The Edge."

Following the adventure, are chapters covering agents of Al Amarja, their lackeys or "frills," toys, talents, and a location with more secrets than the Pentagon. Each section is interesting and amusing in a sick, "Trouble With Harry" way. The talents, or "shivs," are a collection of fringe powers and quirks to ensure that the player characters are the life of any party. Toys Al Amarjan-style aren't the typical fare. Some might be a bit too odd or powerful to confront PCs with, or worse, to give to the PCs. Of course, there's no reason why a GM can't baffle the players with descriptions of other people being affected by the weird weapons. A few of the goodies that are listed aren't present. They were left in another source book. Groan. The end of the book is taken up with agent dossiers for use as props. A nice feature.

Some of the artwork annoyed me. Several pieces are of overmuscled men and top heavy women, a theme that contrasted awkwardly with the material. Within a comic book, the style is unnoticeably appropriate. Here, the pictures were just campy. The portraits in the dossiers were more professional, though also done by Ovi Hondru, who did the rest of the interior art. C. Brent Ferguson's cover was well done and appealed much more than the garish cover of the second edition rulebook.

Cloaks is definitely a worthwhile source book. The adventure ideas mixed with the source material provide ideas to last through numerous cloaked campaigns.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Cloaks
Author: Jonathan Tweet Category: game Company/Publisher: Atlas Games Cost: $17.95 Page count: 88 ISBN: 1-8887801-61-8 Capsule Review by C.H. Gallant on 07/12/98. Genre tags: none	"Over the Edge" is built around tension, espionage, and weirdness. Cloaks, the fourth source book for "Over the Edge," serves to expand the role of Al Amarja's secret agents, or cloaks. Rather than letting this book slip into mediocrity, Cloaks carries on the edgy intelligence and psychosexual surrealism that worked so well up until now. The fever-dream continues. Cloaks is not for players. What I had hoped would be a tool for allowing players to realize their own Hunter S. Thompson-inspired secret agents, is off limits to them entirely. There is a bizarre location, a gaggle of characters, some adventure seeds, a fleshed out plot, info on the cloak's business, and some toys to empower or decimate player characters. A nice mix. The first chapter covers the basics of running a cloaks campaign in addition to some threads with which to weave adventures tailored to the party's affiliation. There are paragraphs devoted to reasons for running a cloaked game. It serves as a checklist for GMs in the process of adding ingredients to a game. Past that are a few sections about making such a campaign fun and how to pull it all together. Chapter Two is an odd little adventure featuring the return of someone whom the players didn't know was missing. Rather than presenting it as a series of scenes for the characters to walk through, "Yesterday's Hero" simply lists the key players, their motivations, and the results of not only their actions, but those which the player characters might take. Beginning GMs might not feel comfortable with this approach to scenario design. Then again, it should be mentioned that I've never met a GM who cut his or her teeth on "Over The Edge." Following the adventure, are chapters covering agents of Al Amarja, their lackeys or "frills," toys, talents, and a location with more secrets than the Pentagon. Each section is interesting and amusing in a sick, "Trouble With Harry" way. The talents, or "shivs," are a collection of fringe powers and quirks to ensure that the player characters are the life of any party. Toys Al Amarjan-style aren't the typical fare. Some might be a bit too odd or powerful to confront PCs with, or worse, to give to the PCs. Of course, there's no reason why a GM can't baffle the players with descriptions of other people being affected by the weird weapons. A few of the goodies that are listed aren't present. They were left in another source book. Groan. The end of the book is taken up with agent dossiers for use as props. A nice feature. Some of the artwork annoyed me. Several pieces are of overmuscled men and top heavy women, a theme that contrasted awkwardly with the material. Within a comic book, the style is unnoticeably appropriate. Here, the pictures were just campy. The portraits in the dossiers were more professional, though also done by Ovi Hondru, who did the rest of the interior art. C. Brent Ferguson's cover was well done and appealed much more than the garish cover of the second edition rulebook. Cloaks is definitely a worthwhile source book. The adventure ideas mixed with the source material provide ideas to last through numerous cloaked campaigns. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)