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So I know my Palladium.
The Setting
This brings me to the game setting that is Splicers, which I believe is Palladium Books’ newest unique entry (not including 2nd editions of previous game settings, a la Beyond the Supernatural).
Splicers had been described to me as “Bio-Booster armor meets Terminator,” and that is a very quick – if somewhat inaccurate – way of describing the setting. The world of Splicers is actually somewhat more complicated than that.
It would seem somewhere in the more far-off future that humankind wanted to give control of its actions over to a machine – a supercomputer capable of handling all the minutia of humanity’s daily existence. However, owing to some amazingly poor decision-making, the “priorities” of the machine cause it to undergo a personality split – and it decides that humanity is really better off not existing. So, off to the robotic creations to destroy humanity. Humanity gets hurt bad and starts to fight back.
Seems like a concept that has been done over a few times, yes?
Well, here’s where it gets a bit different… The Machine (now with seven distinct personalities, each with their own agenda based on the original “priorities” from when it was started) realizes that humanity is utilizing the fallen robots as salvageable material to fight back, and it doesn’t like that one bit. Thus, the nanoplague is introduced.
The nanoplague can be summed up rather succinctly: nanites are introduced onto the planet everywhere, and any metal/flesh contact will cause a “hostile response” (of differing magnitude depending on the original function/size of the metal in question). So, if you were to grab a metal spoon, the nanites would activate and do differing things to the spoon, from causing it to twist and become useless to animating it to attack you.
The Solution
With humanity stuck between a rock and a hard place, a discovery is made (maybe – see my comments at the end regarding some of the odder logic that is made). By utilizing a combination of genetic manipulation of indigenous (at least by Earthen standards, because the planet is of undetermined origin) creatures and “alien” DNA, the “Splicers” are born – genetically modified men/women and their suits of Host Armor.
This is where Splicers really shines, because the adaptability/customizability of said Host Armor (or any bio-tech adaptations for that matter) are very well thought out. However, this does soak up a good chunk of the book (almost 40 pages of a 223 page book). The myriad of choices that are presented enable the PC’s to have significant say in what they want their individual character to be able to do, perceive, etc.
Usable Game Material
There is an abundance of material for the creation of both Host Armors/bio-adaptations, and the robot enemies are covered in some depth as well. The remainder of the material is where things begin to break down.
While the better part of Palladium Books’ titles contain a reasonable amount of setting specific locations, NPC ideas, etc., Splicers does not. The concept of the Great House (similar to those found in Dune, I imagine) is introduced, but only marginally described – making considerable work for the GM who doesn’t wish to use the Great House presented in the book.
Because the planet is of undetermined origin (is it Earth? An Earth-like colony somewhere?) and the terrain is being continually manipulated by The Machine, only varying terrain descriptors are given as opposed to a given map. While this does allow the GM considerable flexibility, it also creates quite a bit of work. Combine this with the previously mentioned lack of information on how society is now structured and you have given the GM a considerable challenge in coming up with material for his players.
Also, the selection of Occupational Character Classes (OCC’s) seems particularly…limited. Allow me to give a comparison. In the Splicers main book (currently the only one of its line – more on that to follow), there are ten OCC’s, of which only eight seem to be suited for PC’s (the other two – a non-combative healing class and a mind-controlled henchman – seem much better off as NPC concepts).
In the Dungeon & Dragons Player’s Handbook, 3rd edition (which I think would be hard to argue as a “complete” role-playing setting) there are eleven classes.
In the Rifts core book, there are in excess of twenty.
Additionally, there is mention of alien fauna made in the book – yet none are to be found (unless you count the various War Mounts). In both this and the last case, a note is made that other characters (particularly Rifts classes) would work well in the Splicers setting, and that non-magical creatures (again from Rifts) would work well.
This is all fine and good – but that assumes that you have said material to draw from. As a stand-alone setting, this should not be necessary. The other particularly vexing issue that there are numerous references to concepts that will be covered in future sourcebooks – which have yet to materialize.
Organization, Layout and Appearance
If there is one area that Splicers truly and deeply suffers, it is organization. Being familiar with the Palladium mechanics (which – let’s face it – you either like or you don’t), I didn’t find myself having too much issue with any of the descriptors. However, as a stand-alone game, the first mention of game mechanics and definition of terms should not start on PAGE 168. ESPECIALLY since the terms/mechanics have been bandied about starting on page 4. For someone who has played the Palladium system before, this could be seen as a minor nuisance; for someone unfamiliar with the system, it would be a deal breaker. It almost appears that the book was organized in reverse (where information that should realistically be reserved for the GM is presented before the descriptors of what the PC’s should expect to be using). But, there seems to be an explanation for this. Sort of.
Having read a small portion of Chaos Earth (which is a sort-of Rifts progenitor game with its own host of problems), it would appear that the concept behind the organization of CE was applied to Splicers – build momentum with the setup and story and concepts and THEN hit you with the mechanics. At least, this is my assumption. This was described at the beginning of CE; I would have never guessed this on my own. And this would probably have worked, if more story or descriptions or SOMETHING had been included other than promises for “more to follow soon!”
From an artwork perspective, this is somewhere else that Splicers is really set apart. While the standard B&W artwork is used (as is common to virtually all of Palladium Books’ publications other than the Rifts core books), it is all original to Splicers. It is somewhat bothersome to see some of that artwork recycled in the book (especially because the book is not overly long), but on the whole the art does mesh very well with the concepts that are being provided, and gives the reader a little bit more to visualize.
Conclusions
On the whole, Splicers seems to suffer in extremis from that which plagues many other Palladium Books’ titles, and that is the need to make houserules/GM fiats abound. There is a thread on the Palladium Books’ Forums (started by the author) that can be found here (which is about the closest that Palladium Books gets to an errata), but the responses tend to cover more of the editing problems that the book suffers from.
Additionally, there are multiple issues with the concept of the nanoplague/"Splicer" technology that bother me, however short of going into significantly further discourse as to how the Splicer world works, I will simply leave it at that.
On the other hand, I did enjoy the fact that there were still human factions, and that humanity’s divisiveness is what caused the issues to develop in the first place. The concept that even while driven to the end of extinction that humanity would still get in pissing contests with each other over territories and pride – not something that is usually addressed in more “futuristic” sci-fi, yet it is done very well here.
All in all, Splicers could stand to use some help – either from the company that released it in terms of more source material, or from the players/GM’s that have to cobble something useful.
Style: Realistically, this is easily one of the worst books I have seen laid out, but the artwork does provide some saving grace; since I can provide half-points here, it rates a 1.5.
Substance: Assuming that both players and GM can overcome several largish obstacles to play (like an agreeable locale and societal structure - and perhaps an extra class or two), the material does look quite engaging, thus rating a 2.5; it looks fun, but there is a lot of work to be done to make it playable.
