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Battlelords, as said before, is a science fiction game and is set in the year 2279. The Milky Way and surrounding galaxies are now under the control of the Galactic Alliance, a sort of figurehead government created by the Mega-Corporations of Battlelords to create a united front amongst the races to fight off the Arachnid Threat from another galaxy. Battlelords has a lot of similarities to Hackmaster 4th in the respect that both use a lot of in and out of game humor. This also like Hackmaster causes many gamers to ignore or overlook the very detailed, crunchy and awesome rules system underneath it all, the d100 system. For those of you who like humor in their games, Battlelords makes a wonderful read. And if you like crunchy rules sets with lots of tables and subsystems with non-unified mechanics, Battlelords system is a dream come true. I happen to be one of those that loves Battlelords’ and Hackmaster’s humor and really enjoys crunchy non-unified systems.
The Book Itself
Battlelords of the 23rd Century is a 288 paged black and white soft cover. One of the first things I noticed picking up the book and flipping through is that SSDC has organized and upped the production values tremendously since the 3rd edition I last saw. The artwork ranges from the average to some truly great black and white pieces. And while all of the art might not be to my liking it definitely has a unique style that adds a “Battlelords” feeling to the book. Some of this might be nostalgia from previous play and editions. The cover art is a nice piece and is an eye grabber for me. Each chapter also begins with a full page black and white piece. Also I like the “alien” looking font along the side of the book that tells it is the main rulebook, at first glance I did not recognize it as English.
Chapter Breakdown
Pre-Chapter Info
Battlelords doesn’t waste much time before jumping into its content. It has a title page, credits and acknowledgments page and a one page table of contents and goes to chapter one.
Chapter One: Showtime (Pages 5-9)
Showtime is the opening fiction for Battlelords and does a wonderful job of setting the mood for the game. The fiction is about a Mercenary group employed by a Mega-Corp to infiltrate a rival company’s labs and steal some contraband. The fiction shows what Battlelords truly shines at, which is PC interaction. All of the races in Battlelords are well developed and all have different feelings about each other. The Galactic Alliance has brought them all together for the greater good of their respective species. This, however, does not mean that they all get along. If you learn only one thing about Battlelords from this review it should be that the game is the master of developed races and their feelings, interactions, customs and all other dealings amongst each other.
Some other reviewers and players have stated that Battlelords has a few races that seem stereotypical or clichés, but it is in the opinion of this reviewer that they took those species out of context of the setting, which makes all the difference.
Chapter Two: Introduction (Pages 11-17)
Chapter two starts with a small summary of the Battlelords setting giving new players a quick rundown of the basics. It becomes obvious rather quickly that Battlelords expects the PCs to be part of a Mercenary group that works for one or more of the Mega-Corps while still waving the banner of the Galactic Alliance. A few paragraphs contain the “What is Battlelords?” and “What is an RPG?” sections and then jumps into a description of what the life of a corporate mercenary is like. This Mercenary life section lists some of the most known corps that hire mercenary teams; this includes Space Systems Development Corp. (SSDC) I am not certain if SSDC was in the game before SSDC (the real company) required it or not, perhaps it is the reason they are named that? Most Mercenaries start as freelancers known as Lancers. Often taking the most dangerous and lethal missions to try to prove themselves and gain fame to maybe one day become a celebrity in the Alliance.
After a couple of pages talking about the structure of the Mega-Corps the last of the chapter gives a quick summary of the system and a list of important terms to the game. The system will be explained in more detail later, but this section mentions the dice needed such as d100 rolls for the base mechanic and the rest of the polyhedral set for damage and other odd rolls. It mentions the game has 8 vital stats with 4 secondary stats and explains Survival Matrix Rolls (normal gamers know them as Saving Throws.)
Armor gets the largest section in the summary in explaining that Battlelords uses a three stat system for Armor in the game. I will explain armor later when it is fully described in the book, but it is one of my favorite aspects of the rules. The chapter ends with an important terms list that include such things as Matrix (the magic equivalent) and Arachnids (the big bad guys of the setting.)
Chapter Three: Player Races & Getting Started (Pages 19-69)
Ah and now we have the classic “Roleplaying Something Besides Elves” section of Battlelords fame. I remember this in previous editions and it seems to have made it this far. The author has basically stated that the mission with these player races was to break the usual races of fantasy RPGs and to create unique and viable science fiction races for the game. This section heavily hints at the idea I mentioned before that Battlelords truly defines the ultimate in PC interaction and it was all on purpose.
There is a two page timeline next that starts with the Mutzachans in 21550 BC and runs to the modern times of Battlelords in the 2270’s. In 2011 Earth gets into a “minor” nuclear war and by 2051 first contact with the Mutzachans has happened. The timeline, like most of the rulebook is full of little tidbits that add up to really create the setting of Battlelords.
The rest of the chapter is the write ups of the different races the players can play. There are 12 races in the core each with a stat description, a small fiction paragraph to grasp their “feel”, a general knowledge section about the race and goes into great detail of their culture and history. Each race has a section showing their views on life, war, the alliance and other staples of the setting and ends with a section describing some of the weird mechanics that apply to the race called “Everybody Is A Little Bit Freaky.”
The twelve races of the core book are:
- Chatilian-The Chatilian are a short race who uses Matrices that are of the mind. They are known as Empaths and are known to constantly whine about their situations and underestimated abilities. They are often called “Asparagus heads” in a derogatory way for an obvious reason.
- Cizerack-The Cizerack are a race of large cats. They live in a female dominated society where males are slaves. Cizerack often come across as truly arrogant and they believe only females should hold places of respect. This of course causes problems with most the other races.
- Eridani-The Eridani Swordsaints are arguably the best melee fighters in the entire universe. Too bad they let it go to their methane breathing heads.
- Gen-Humans-Genetic humans were originally created as a means of instant servants and scientific discovery. It led to the Earth government, and now the Alliance, being mostly controlled by Gen-Humans in seats of power. However, most Gen-Humans feel as if they are not good enough and that they are fake humans.
- Humans-We are still around and number near 300 billion. Humans haven’t changed much over time.
- Mazian-The Mazian are what would happen if you decided sentient silly putty would make a great race. Being able to shape shift makes them excellent spies, but most of them have pacifist tendencies.
- Mutzachan-The Mutzachan are considered the strongest Matrix Controllers. They learn mathematical matrices that allow them to control the energy of the universe. This still doesn’t stop others from making fun of their height or their melon shaped heads.
- Orion-The Orion are your fun loving thief, gambler, jack of all trade types. They look a lot like humans except for their pointy ears and seven fingers on each hand.
- Phentari-The Phentari are a race that looks like a combination of a squid and the Predator. Instead of arms they have four tentacles. They are known for their warlike and uncouth ways and consider the other races food, human being an exception delicacy. Most races don’t know why they were allowed in the Alliance.
- Python Lizard-There are two Python races, this is the first. They are large bi-pedal lizards that are used to living in water. They have fought three civil wars with the other Python race, losing twice. They don’t like that they are often seen as being dumb.
- Ram Python-The second Python race are even bigger, and unlike the Python Lizards, Rams actually are dumb. Of course no one would say this to their face otherwise their arms would be ripped off. Rams worship volcanoes and believe their farts are communications from the god.
- Zen Rigeln-The Zen are a race that resembles zombies in appearance. They are Matrix Controllers that control the art of healing and life. They are pacifists often to an extreme.
- Tza Zen Rigeln-Tza means perverse in Rigeln. These are the Zen who have abandoned the teachings of their home world and have learned to use their powers to cause death and pain.
Chapter Four: Creating A Character (Pages 71-83)
Battlelords characters have eight main stats that range from 1-150, with each race having different bonuses, minimums and maximums and are randomly generated. There are three methods of figuring your stats, all random rolled, the difference in them being the number of rolls and whether you can place them. The eight stats are Strength, Manual Dexterity, I.Q., Agility, Constitution, Aggression, Intuition and Charisma. All of the stats come with charts that give bonuses and statistics for your level in the ability, with the exception of Aggression. Aggression seems to only deal with the possibility of a character going berserk or crapping themselves in fear. Aggression seems a little odd as a vital stat, but it is a Random Roll system so it’s not really cutting into any resources.
There are four secondary stats that are generated with a different die roll or formula that uses the vitals. These four stats are Terrestrial Knowledge, Military Leadership, Persuasion, and Bargaining. The next parts of character creation deals with choosing a race, which you’ve probably done by now, naming him, figuring his height and weight which figures his size class, occupations figured from purchasing skills explained next chapter and social status. You also figure you Survival Matrix Rolls and Rank in the Mercenary or Military group you are within.
This chapter ends with one of the most fun aspects of Battlelords; the “I was just growing up”, “Fickle finger of fate”, and “Fortune” tables. These are percentile charts that each player can roll on a certain amount of times. The growing up charts are random events that happened to the character as he was becoming an adult, the results on it can range from being a chain smoker with 5% chance to contract lung cancer (apparently there is still no cure in the 23rd century) to “Being the Coolest” which means you get +10 to your Charisma. The fickle finger of fate table covers more recent random events and can range from receiving a large inheritance to having a terminal illness with two weeks to live. The fortune tables are more specific towards the role your PC has in the group and offers events more specific to that area such as Matrix Controllers or Spies.
These charts add a sort of life path creation feel to the game, similar to Traveller but without it actually being the method of character creation. It makes each character unique and adds a randomness emulating real life experiences.
Chapter Five: Skills (Pages 85-101)
Skills get their own chapter and as well they should. There are over 100 skills in Battlelords and it makes up the largest part of the game, I am hard pressed to think of many games that come close to having such an exhaustive skill list, maybe Palladium? To some this may be a boon to some a bane. I feel with this system it is a boon. Each race gets a certain amount of proficiency points to spend on skills and each skill costs a different amount of those points per level. All of the skills are split into groups and if a PC has enough points in one category it can become their primary occupation in which they can be hired as and receive a salary. After getting a primary occupation a player can also gain a secondary occupation for a smaller amount of points in another field. This ends up working well to simulate military MOSs, and gives a PC a reason to specialize in specific fields, instead of like some games where skills are all over the place for a character and do not always make so much sense.
Non-combat skills start at a base of 50%, every level of skill adds +10%, and the GM decides the level of difficulty for the action, each level of difficulty subtracts -10%, add in any Stat modifiers and you have the chance to succeed. The player then rolls a d100 and tries to roll under the chance. A 1 always succeeds and a 100 always fails, no matter what the chance.
It is worth noting that some skills can affect stats or give bonuses to mechanics outside the scope of the skill’s mechanics such as Body Points (basic hit points) or Body Equilibrium which can allow a PC to stop blood loss.
Chapter Six: Armor (Pages 103-115)
Armor also gets its own chapter and as I said before is one of my favorite aspects of the rules. This system while not being optimal for fantasy games, is perfect for science fiction, it emulates the genre well. Battlelords uses a system that gives each type of armor three stats. These stats are:
- Armor Integrity-This is the stat that tells you when your armor has become useless. Each time Armor Threshold is exceeded the weapon reduces Integrity. Different types of weapons reduce the integrity by different amounts such as bullets reduce Integrity by 1 while pulse weapons reduce it by 8.
- Armor Threshold-Threshold is the amount of damage the armor stops. If a weapon does less than the threshold rating it simply bounces off doing no damage at all.
- Armor Absorption-Anytime integrity is exceeded the damage is absorbed by this layer. Once the absorption rating is reduced to 0, any leftover damage hits the user. Lasers ignore this layer and flames are weaker against it. It is perfectly possible for armor to have no absorption rating left, but the threshold and integrity still be useful.
On top of these three stats, each type of armor also has spaces where armor “options” can be added. These can range anywhere from mounted weapons to lights and camouflage. The chapter ends with a rather large list of armor and their descriptions.
This is the first we really see of Battlelords love of equipment lists. The armor list already covers a lot more than most games have and Battlelords has 3 equipment supplements. If you love equipment lists and decking out your PC, Battlelords is definitely a game for you.
Chapter Seven: Weapons, Equipment, & Cybernetics (Pages 117-155)
Chapter seven starts with an exhaustive list of weapons and equipment. The descriptions of each item soon follow. There are several melee weapons and several types of ranged weapons such as lasers, omega cannons, mag guns, and pulse weapons. If the armor listing didn’t make your eyes bug out the weapons will. One will never run out of options for the PC when it comes to equipment.
After the more mundane equipment lists there are rules for computer systems which cover their capabilities and rules for using them and trying to hack into them. After computers are the rules for cybernetics. Cybernetics is done in a very “spell listy” sort of way. Each device has a description with their capabilities and bonuses. Each part takes up a certain amount of spaces and lowers the PC‘s Constitution score.
The last part of the chapter covers some basic implants, implanted “Rented Skills”, clone production, DNA masking, and plastic surgery.
Chapter Eight: Matrices (Pages 157-185)
Matrices are the Battlelords equivalent of spells. Instead of mystical languages and incantations, Matrices are described as scientific or mathematical formula that produce spell like effects. Matrices in the core are divided into three types one for Empaths, one for Energy Controllers, and one for Healers. Each type has 9 brackets of power, or levels if you will. Level one contains very basic everyday matrices for a controller and level nine usually contains world altering often outlawed abilities.
Matrices cost Power Points based on their level, so a first level spell costs a single power point. A beginning PC will often have around 2-5 power points.
It is worth noting that this section also gives rules for most other races to use matrices not native to their species. They are called latent controllers and will never be as powerful as a native user.
The Graffiti Wall (Pages 186-187)
While not a chapter itself every Battlelords book has a two page picture of a wall covered in graffiti. The graffiti often depicts some very humorous lines that make more and more sense as you learn the setting. Some of the more generic lines are “Frank Zappa lives!” and “Elvis is alive and living on Mulligans Planet.” This is all part of Battlelords humor and adds a little to the feel of the setting and often will make you chuckle.
Chapter Nine: Combat (Pages 189-201)
Combat in Battlelords consists of 3 second turns with each second being a segment. During a segment a PC can take two half actions or one full action. Half actions include such moves as single shots and bursts, drawing a weapon and aiming, while full actions include full auto fire, full move and most skill checks.
Combat skill rolls are handled slightly different than non-combat. Instead of a starting base of 50%, the starting base is different for each weapon and within the different range brackets. This goes to add even more depth to Battlelords equipment. After finding the base for the range you add 4% for each level you have in the weapons skill, stat bonus, size class modifier and any penalties such as called shots or moving target to get the chance to hit. As with non-combat this is handled by rolling a d100 and trying to roll under. In melee a defender can parry an attack which basically uses his parry bonus plus the weapons parrying rating to lower the attacker’s chance.
Battlelords also has a critical hit chart not unlike Rolemaster, except that one chart is for all hits. There is also a hit location chart for shots that are not called shots. It should be noted that armor has different ratings for each area.
Chapter Ten: Living In The Future (Pages 203-221)
In this section we get a much more detailed account of the Battlelords setting. We learn more about the galactic Alliance and its forces. We also get more learn more of the corporations and their lingo. After that we hear of Rebels. Hmmm apparently not everyone is so happy with the Alliance and we are even told that PCs can be rebels and don’t have to be a part of the alliance. We get a few paragraphs on the Arachnid Invasion and hidden in the words are some quick stats for a basic Arachnid soldier. It is a bit odd that this is all we get seeing as they are mentioned in the fluff repeatedly. (Word is that SSDC is working on an Arachnid supplement)
After some more fluff there is a listing of a few vehicles. As of this review, there is a supplement called Engines of War that gives vehicle rules and lots of vehicle stats; however the core just gives these few basic stats and has no real rules for vehicles.
There are some brief descriptions of space anomalies next; the most famed being the Motaran Rift. The Motaran Rifts is a rip in time and space located in the Ursa Major cluster. Mercenaries will often brave the Rift for large amounts of pay for scientific evidence and discoveries from the other side; many don’t survive or at least never return.
The rest of the chapter covers more fluff on the day to day life of the average citizen in an urban community. It talks of the average city life, watching Cyball tournaments and their rights as citizens and entrepreneurs.
Chapter Eleven: The Battle Master (Pages 223-243)
In Battlelords the GM is known as the Battle Master or BM. This chapter is the usual guide to GMing and the different types of games one may run while playing this game. There are random encounter tables and rules for hirelings. The critical failure charts are also here, and if your BM uses them, try your best not to roll badly. The chapter ends with rank charts for different branches of the Alliance and an example of play. The example of play being at the end of the BM’s section leads me to believe that the author expects the Battle Master to be just that, the master of the game. This is an attitude that I can understand, especially with more crunchy systems. The GM is the knowledgeable one of the game and creates a story for his players controlling much of the mechanics on the inside while players worry more over the story, their PC, and slowly learn the mechanics through play. In my personal experience games that have been ran this way often are more exciting for me. It is often forgotten amongst certain crowds, where everyone being extremely knowledgeable of a game is seen as a good thing or even a must.
Chapter Twelve: Hell’s Point Campaign Setting (Pages 245-262)
Hell’s Point is a cloud city in the atmosphere of Harper’s World in the Fornax galaxy. This chapter gives detailed stats for the city, its places, and the NPCs who call it home. It is a good starting point for a new BM and his players. It also includes a mini-adventure to get things started. It starts the PCs out as security for a corp. and leads them through several encounters. The adventure is very bare boned, but is written so as to allow a BM to add his own flairs and ideas.
Post-Chapters and Appendices (Pages 263-288)
The book finishes with several character archetypes, which are just full write ups for a character of each race. Then there are a few Star Maps of the galaxies and planets of the setting and several charts reprinted for ease of use. Last is a four page index which covered everything I needed and a blank character sheet.
Overall
Overall I am very impressed with the newest edition of Battlelords of the 23rd Century. SSDC truly did a good job of making the book look more impressive. One of the biggest things it did was really pull out the setting more. The third edition often felt like the setting got lost in the humor and equipment lists. This version balances it more nicely.
I feel must also say once again that I think Battlelords gets a bum rap by some who read it. The humor makes a lot of people dismiss it, but it has very good, if crunchy, system that works extremely well. While I understand crunchy non-unified systems aren’t for everyone, for those that it is this is one of the best. Also I have noticed other reviewers and posters that claim the game is geared only for combat and is nothing but a hack n slash game. I have to say I disagree. While Battlelords has a very detailed and large covering of combat and equipment lists, the skill system and its exhaustive list is a very usable and easy system for non-combat. The setting also sets up many non-combat situations.
Ratings
Style I am going to give a 3. I would like to give it higher seeing as it’s a much higher quality than previous editions. But the production quality still falls slightly above average when compared to our hobby today. The book is all black and white, and while I like a lot of the artwork and feel it adds to the setting there is not a lot of diversity, so if you dislike it, most the book will bother you.
Substance gets a 4. Battlelords is full of unique races, charts, a huge skill list, and a crunchy system that is wonderful in action. I love 3 stat armor rules so much that it almost makes me add an extra point just for it, don’t worry I didn’t. The 4 rating is sans armor love.
Note: My next SSDC review will be for Galactic Underground.
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