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Mechamorphosis, like the other books in the Horizon line, is a 64 page softcover. The amazing cover art depicting two mechamorphs engaged in combat is done by none other than Joe Ng and Chil Cheung, both professional artists who have worked on Transformers comic books in the past. Kudos to FFG for getting these two. Interior artwork is done by Matt Kuphaldt, Chris Pickrell, Hian Rodriguez and Franz Vohwinkel. Like the other Horizon line, the artwork is very evocative of the genre and professionally done. The book is written by Rob Vaughn and Lysle Kapp.
The books is divided into eight chapters. Chapter 1 briefly covers what Mechamorphosis is about (giant transforming robots battling for freedom and Nexus energy on Earth) before diving into character creation.
Mechamorphs are the only "race" available, but they are given a full racial write-up, complete with level adjustment. The game is in giant-robot scale, which means that a Strength score of 10 in this game is the equivalent of a 20 in other d20 games; it also means that the game’s scale is larger, with the default map scale being 1" = 10'. There is some good advice on how this affects importing things in from other d20 games.
Mechamorphosis characters are designed using a kind of point-buy system called "priorities". There are five categories of abilities – Form, Feats, Ability Scores, Special Powers and Gear; each mechamorph assigns priorities one to five in each area, which in turn tells them how strong they are in that category. Ability Scores are done via standard point-buy, with the number of points you get being dependant on the priority you assign to them.
Chapter 2 covers the alternate forms, or alt forms, your mechamorph can take. Each mechmorph has one alt form by default, but can acquire another by taking the right Special Power. Three kinds of alt forms are available – animal alt forms, vehicle alt forms, and object alt forms. Object alt forms are divided into structure, weapon, and device alt forms. A list of 29 vehicles is provided for vehicle alt forms. Each form type is covered in some detail with advice on how to handle the alt form in combat. This section is very well written and interesting, as it should be, as the meat of a game of mechamorphosis is what your characters can transform into.
Chapter 3 covers the four core classes. Controllers are mechamorphs that are linked to several smaller mechamorphs – like Soundwave from the Tranformers, or even Optimus with his transforming trailer. The remaining classes are Scouts, Scientists and Soldiers, which are reasonably self-evident. The classes are set up like d20 modern classes, with level benefits being alternating Bonus feats and cherry-picked Class abilities. The class abilities seem well tailored to this type of game. I am impressed with Rob Vaughn's ability to yoke the d20 system to his game's needs, just as Robert J. Shwalb did superlatively with another Horizon minigame, Grimm. Mechamorphosis uses a class/level based Defense Bonus.
Chapter 4 covers skills and feats. Like the other Horizon games, the skill list has been compressed, and new genre-specific feats have been introduced. Want a mechamorph that can transform from a robot to a jet-plane, but also to a hybrid "walker" form? There's a feat for that.
Chapter 5 covers Special Powers. Some special powers mimic spell abilities from the PhB, only renamed. For example, ghost sound is renamed to Audiogram. About 25 examples are given, with advice on rolling your own. There is also a section of mechamorph specific special powers, including "Links", which gives you a size-small mechamorph which is part of your character in one form, but separate in the other form, and acts like a familiar. Here too are the rules for Mechamerges – a giant mechamorph formed by merging five separate mechamorphs. The rules for mechamerges seem clear and easy to use.
Chapter 6 is Gear, which means weapons, primarily, although several pages are devoted to non-weapon Gear. Mechamorphs can use archaic weapons or firearms. Archaic weapons are based on weapons in the PhB, but with damage commensurate with their greater size. There is a table of firearms; a novel mechanism is that while each firearm has a base damage, the damage rating increases with the level of the mechamorph using the firearm.
Chapter 7 covers all the new rules required to play a mechamorph. Combat between mechamorphs in vehicle form is done using "Vehicle scale" (1" = 50') as opposed to character scale. There is even an "aircraft scale" (1"=500'). Rules are given for moving between scales. Rules for piloting maneuvers are given.
Then, chapter 7 discusses further special rules, starting with "Nexus energy", which mechamorphs can expend for special effects, and critical hits, which affect mechamorphs different than normally, causing rolls to be made on a Critical Hit table to see which system was affected in addition to doubling (or tripling) damage.
And finally, Chapter 8 gets to the good stuff – the seven page history of the mechamorphs. I won’t spoil this chapter, as it was my favorite, but I enjoyed the writing quite a bit. I'm not an expert in Transformers lore, but I could easily imagine the written history being a history of the Transformers universe.
The penultimate page of the book is given to an ad for Dragon and Dungeon/Polyhedron, which is woefully out of date, as, if I recall correctly, Poly is no longer bundled with Dungeon. The final page has the OGL. The inside front cover is an add for Grimm, and the inside back cover for Redline, the second and first games, respectively, in the Horizon line.
Impressions
First, it seems like the Horizon line is doing well for FFG, because I seemed to note a marked improvement in Horizon's already high level of quality in this release. The graphic design was excellent, the art high quality to superb, the writing tight and excellent. I hope FFG continues with the Horizon line of books, as they have become my most anticipated new releases.
There is one thing I was disappointed with, however. I wanted to see write-ups for the mechamorphs that are mentioned in the text; these mechamorphs were given personality just by the convention of quoting them in section headers. I’d love to see the stats for Wheelwell, Rally, or Vorpal, the evil Tyrant mechamorph.
At the time of this writing, I have not decided whether to use Mechamorphosis or another system for my upcoming Transformers game, but Mechamorphosis is one of the top two contenders, as it seems to get the Tranformers feel exactly right. Rob Vaughn, Lysle Kapp and the artists all seem to love the Transformers milieu, and that comes through strongly.
