Synopsis

This is a review of Precis Intermedia Games’ EarthAD.2 role-playing game written by Brett M. Bernstein & Peter C. Spahn. The PDF is 89 pages weighing in at 3.8MB for downloading. It is currently available for $4.95 for the PDF or add $11.52 more for print & binding.

Initial Impressions

The cover is a bit bland ( a depiction of a cavern with cave drawings). I thought that a nice depiction of a crumbling city would have got my juices flowing. Artwork throughout the book is sparse but what little is there are very good. In my opinion I am buying a role-playing game not a picture book anyway.

There are 8 chapters (introduction; characters; transports; basic tasks; advanced tasks; the setting; expanding the game; & scenarios), 3 reference sheets; a character sheet; NPC character sheet; a transport sheet; 5 pages of pre-designed characters; and one sheet of disposable dice. There is a small table of contents, no index, but the PDF is nicely book-marked.

Summary

EarthAD.2 is a roleplaying game designed to be both easy to learn and fast-paced. The versatile genreDiversion i 2d6 rules make it perfect for one-shot games, extended campaigns, or as a framework for your own ideas. I like to think of the GDi as rules lite: GDi rules are easy to learn, do not "get in the way" of the action allowing the story to come first, all the GDi books and rules allow the GM and players to get going very quickly, and the GDi books are straight forward and easy to read instead of beating around the bush for pages and pages. The basic rules require very little study, and the advanced rules are optional and does not increase the difficulty too much. All GDi games are meant to get you up and adventuring quickly.

System Mechanics: Using 2 six-sided dice, roll under or equal to your character's ability skill levels for success. Bonus/penalty dice are used to alter probabilities with the basic rules. If you have a bonus dice then you roll 3d6 and pick the lowest two (making it easier to roll under) and if you have a penalty dice you roll 3d6 and pick the highest two.

If you are using the advanced rules then you do not use bonus dice at all and move on to a more precise difficulty rating system. Difficulty levels let you adjust the odds on any given task. Difficulty values mean that the margin between your roll and skill total needs to be a certain value for success. This is just a bare bones assessment of the advanced rules which have more to offer like: untrained tasks; contested tasks; composure tasks; automatic tasks; prostrated tasks; scavenging tasks; advanced personal and transport combat; other sources of personal damage; & reloading weapons.

Character Creation: You do not have to spend all day creating characters. You can either create custom characters for the game or dive right in with any of the included templates.

Chapter one gives an explanation of Abilities, Skills, Character Stock, Gimmicks (special traits that give your character an edge), and optional character roles. There are five primary Abilities- Fitness, Awareness, Creativity, Reasoning, Influence- ranked from 1 to 5. Character Health breaks down into Fatigue and Injury, which are rated similarly to Abilities. The skills list is pretty typical and thorough (I have not found a need to add a new skill yet).

Character Stock is essentially race. Choose either Pure Strain Humans; Mutated Humans; Radio Operated Mutant; Rejected Human Carrier; Robotic-Implanted Human; Evolved Animal; & Offworlder.

You create your character by choosing a stock, allocating points among your 5 abilities, divide points among your skills, purchase a few gimmicks, and negotiate your gear.

Equipment: There is a nice selection of armor and weapons to choose from. Most everything is represented from skin to blasting suits and from fists to firecannons are listed. If something is not there that you are seeking it is very easy to add it into the game.

Transports are a big part of this game. They are vehicles and are based upon the same concepts utilized by characters. They have abilities and gimmicks, as well as health (integrity). Their abilities interact and adjust a character’s own. I have read and played lots of other RPG’s vehicle systems. I love the easy and simple concept that GDi uses to run chases and combat with vehicles.

Setting: The setting is very open, taking place on a devastated Earth. It is also so diverse that you can customize it to your own needs. It is pretty generic in that you can make each region your own as you use them, but the included scenarios give plenty of insight into how the regions can be utilized.

Adventures take you to places such as desolate or radioactive wastelands, the roads where no man treads and vehicles reign dominant, the Wild Islands were giant insects and dinosaurs roam, metal cities with sentient machines, icy wastelands, Undervalley lost world, the wilds with sentient animals, remnant corporations fight in the Swaying Cities, and Rejects and plague-bearers are sentenced to Lazar Pits.

The included scenarios immerse you further into the setting. They have a lot of information, flavor and fluff to work with. The rules, and setting, are flexible enough to handle your own ideas. Have your favorite movie, television or novel? Earth AD.2 can handle them with ease.

My Opinion

The first version of EarthAD, was the least favorite choice of my PIG collection. I did use it with Hard][Nova as aliens which was not a waist. However, EarthAD.2 has new rules and options with so many possibilities of play that I did not know where to begin playing myself.

In EarthAD.2 are new character stocks and one of them allows for characters from other GDi games to be used. Plus there is an optional "Character Rolls" to suggest skills for your character. New skills are included. The older EarthAD did not use Gimmicks but the new one has Cultural, Cybernetic, Limiters, and newer Remnant Gimmicks. Loads more Beneficial & Detrimental Mutational. There are new rules, options, and examples for air, sea, and land transports and mounted weapons. Oh boy, more sweet weapons, armor, and equipment items are listed and explained than did the old EarthAD. New rules for Infections are included. Examples of 41 fleshed out Beasts are included along with new beast Gimmicks.

Unlike the first version EarthAD that had several catastrophes included, EarthAD.2 has left it vague as to how TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) came about. I think that is the best idea because you can slip EarthAD.2 into an already established post-apocalyptic campaign with ease or design your own TEOTWAWKI. The vagueness is not a penalty because the book abounds with ideas and reasons for its current state of affairs. The setting is not point-blank specific. I never liked the settings of other post-apocalyptic RPG systems much. They placed you out in the western part of the United States. I wanted to play in the area where I lived in reality. EarthAD.2 can be placed anywhere in the world you want, an alternate reality Earth, or another world altogether. Think about the setting possibilities from movies: Planet of the Apes; Damnation Alley; Escape from New York; The Day After; Land of the Lost; The Day After Tomorrow; The Land Time Forgot; Terminator; Jericho; The Stand; any Zombie movie; Water World; and the Mad Max series to name a few. There are 5 included scenarios ready to run which also contain more setting information.

I have several expensive post-apocalyptic RPG systems already. They are rules-heavy; hundreds of pages to thumb through for that one hiding rule you can never find; and setting specific. I got bogged down in trying to play them. For now on, they will be replaced by EarthAD.2 as they will be used only as supplements.

I believe this is the best PIG product to date with all the bells and whistles mentioned above plus more. As with all gDi books you can mix-n-match items and rules between them for more options. For example, Hard][Nova can provide aliens; Enhancement, Mechanical, and Psionic Gimmicks; robots; and possibly starships. Coyote Trail can provide Inherent, Virtuous, Detrimental, and Corruptive Gimmicks; wagons; horses; towns; un-mutated animals; and natives (primitive tribes). Ghost Stories can lend ESP; Sorcery and True Faith magic, plus use horror creature abilities to add more mutations. Oh, by gosh, let us not forget Vice Squad: Miami Nights. With VS:MN you have more Gimmicks; weapons & armor; and tons of transports. Something I am wanting to play with VS:MN & EarthAD.2 is a few games of TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). You could even use much of EarthAD.2 to transplant into Iron Gauntlets for a "Thundar the Barbarian:" fantasy setting.

$4.95 is not near enough compensation for this awesome and unlimited piece of entertainment. RUN, do not walk, and grab the best game system to play a TEOTWAWKI.

PS: PIG has a enhancement pack out now called “EarthAD.2 Enhancement Pack”. It contains new material including a new type of Reject, with related regions, infection, creatures, and weapons; new skills for use with the wielding gimmick; new character and transport gimmicks; random tables for cybernetics, mutations, and encounters; new creatures; two connected scenarios, retooled from the original EarthAD; supplemental reference sheet; and new templates. You can find out more about both EarthAD.2 and the enhancement pack by going to link to PIG's EarthAD.2

In consulting DriveThruRPG we've come up with a number of products which we think might be related, but some might be inaccurate because the name, EarthAD.2, is so short. Nonetheless, take a look, as purchasing through the RPGnet Store helps to support RPGnet.