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The previous Galactic Underground supplement left me feeling like it was a bit chaotic in its theme and lay out, however this second one clears all that up. I noticed that the second GU did not feel like The Rifter magazine from Palladium Books, this made me realize it was the chaotic lay out and spastic directions of the theme that made the first one feel that way. GU2 feels a lot more like an actual “official” supplement instead of a random “magazine” of articles. This situation ends up being one of the best examples I can think of to show someone how good lay out and natural flow of content can make a book much better. .
The Book Itself
Galactic Underground 2 is a 144 page black and white soft cover. It has quite bit more content than the previous GU in the series. This book is actually SSDC’s most recent (re)release and has been updated to the higher standards you see from SSDC, as opposed to ODS’s production. The cover depicts three Mercs flying the banner of SSDC. All three Mercs are new races in this supplement. If you flip the cover of the book over, it shows that the scene on the front appears to be a commercial in the making for SSDC and shows you behind the camera footage. .
Chapter Breakdown
Chapter One: The Exploration Times (Pages 3-7)
This chapter begins with a section talking about the Battlelords meta-plot. Which to be honest there really isn’t much other than little tidbits buried in the fluff of all the books combined. This being the most recently revised and released book, SSDC decided to use the first chapter as several written fluff pieces that read as if you are reading the local in-game newspaper or watching the local tri-vid news. Instead of cramming a canonical meta-plot in your face, these news clips end up being more like little tidbits for adventure ideas, not to mention being the first chapter it sets the mood for the rest of the book. These news clips cover stories ranging from warships disappearing in far away systems to the infamous Jaquassarious Phentari committing acts of terrorism. The longest news story is an interview with a Tza Zen Rigeln proclaiming the Tza to be misunderstood and the Zen to be the truly bad society, adding more depth to the Zen-Tza debate, and disputing the belief that all Tza are truly evil people. .
Chapter Two: Race Expansion (Pages 9-45)
If you have been keeping up with my reviews, it should be pretty obvious that the Race Expansion chapters are my favorite part of the books. Battlelords does such a good job with its races and interparty conflict that each new race adds a lot more depth to the game for me. And GU2 does not let me down with seven new playable races. I believe that brings us to 22 playable races so far in my reviews. The seven additional races in this book are:
- Andromeni- The Andromeni are the only species in Battlelords to be composed of pure energy. Their natural forms are that of a cloud of energy, and in this state they are virtually immortal. What makes the rest of the species wary of them is that they can posses corpses and use them as a host bodies. Most of the other species call them Energy Vampires and despise them for disgracing the dead.
- Ashanti- The Ashanti are a four-armed race of warriors who follow a set of rules simply known as the Sacred Rules. They are like the Eridani in they follow a set of rules to the tee, but are unlike the Eridani in that instead of being arrogant about it they are instead humble to a fault. A notable quote from the Ashanti is: “After you. No, no I insist …after you. Oh, please, you’re too kind, but I must really insist…”
- Fott- The Fott are mutant redneck humanoid rabbits. I am torn on the Fott, I personally would never play one and the redneck aspect is quite annoying, but I have known too many players that would love them, and actually add quite a bit to a game playing one. Still though Redneck Freaking Bunny Rabbits with guns and lots of taxidermy, it boggles my mind. It does help some that the in-game reason they exist is that they are a created species by a mad scientist who thought they were a good joke at life.
- Furbl- The Furbl are basically taking an Ewok and making them look more like a Yorkshire Terrier and giving them the personalities and borrowing of Kender from Dragonlance. Apparently the Orion kept them as pets for years before realizing they were sentient.
- Gemini- The Gemini are a species of living rock similar to a Rock Golem with sentience. They have Matrix Control over elemental powers. For the most part they are pacifists and are known as the Caretakers of the Universe, however being on the wrong end of a Gemini’s wrath is a quick way to end up in a grave.
- Ikrini- The Ikrini are a species who gave up technology when they destroyed their home world with their Matrix powers. They now strive to live in harmony with their environments and therefore have become the leaders in biotechnology and using symbiotic organisms to enhance themselves. The Ikrini’s matrices are based upon their surroundings and the kinetic energy it provides.
- Jezzadei- The Jezzadei are a species that resemble Minotaur or the Tauren from Warcraft. They are Matrix Controllers who have learned to put their spells within items. These powers and their overall beliefs and attitudes give them a Shaman feel. The Jezzadei are extremely religious and believe all races should learn “The Way” and its teachings of morals and kindness. .
The chapter finishes up with a complete write up for a character of each new race, including gear and background. These are great for new characters and one shot games. .
Chapter Three: Discussion of Races (Pages 47-83)
This chapter begins with the history of the Phentari and the legend of their most feared General Jaquassarious Phentari. After the fluff in the first Galactic Underground, this seems to be a bit much. The authors of Battlelords really seem to want to make sure that its players understand that the Phentari are a misunderstood race with a developed culture and are not just “bad guys” on the side of “good”. That being said, this fiction piece on the Phentari helped me to understand the Phentari much more than the piece in Galactic Underground. The fiction also leads you to believe there are some extreme voices at play in the Battlelords setting that have not yet been brought to light. Jaq has come back from death and has been alive for over 2000 years now, his re-birthed form has some truly remarkable powers and one wonders where they came from. I’ll need to watch for more clues to this in the other supplements, if there are any. .
The rest of the chapter has sections for each race and a typical response on how they feel for each of the other races in the Battlelords setting, including all supplements except Beyond the Rift. For those of you who have played the World of Darkness, these types of lists should be familiar. I personally really enjoy them, they add even more depth to the interparty relations you will see between the player characters. .
Chapter Four: Matrices Expansion (Pages 85-113)
The beginning of this chapter is several interviews with a user of each type of matrix. In these interviews they are giving their beliefs on how their powers work. These range from the Chatilian Empaths and their confusion as to how their powers manifest to the religious sources of the Jezzadei or the mathematical formula of the Muztachan. There is also a section describing the scientific reasoning and how the average Alliance citizen views Matrix Controllers and their gifts. .
The next section adds more rules to mentors for Matrix Controllers. These have rules for changing mentors and how many powers a mentor has to teach. The most interesting part of these rules to me is the charts to describe what training under the mentor is like, these can add events to the characters background such as a fellow student becomes a rival or the Mentor turns out to be an agent for the Rebellion. .
The rest of the chapter gives all of the Matrices for the new races available in this book. These are the elemental matrices for the Gemini, the kinetic matrices for the Ikrini, and the imprinting matrices of the Jezzadei. The Ikrini seem to have the most unusual powers of the new races. Their matrices’ power levels are based on their environment and the amount of kinetic and thermal energy around. Therefore the GM has to come up with the Kinetic levels of the area when an Ikrini uses a power. This level is on a grade scale of 0, being deep space to 5 for active volcanoes and tornadoes. .
Chapter Five: Player Rules Expansions (Pages 115-140)
The final chapter is lots of optional rules and finishes with a bit of humor. The beginning and largest part of the chapter is about Badges and Military awards. In Battlelords being awarded with medals, badges and awards can alter a person’s Charisma score and add Prestige to them. This seems really interesting and a nice addition to the game. There is however one problem. The book tells you to look in the Condemned sourcebook for the rules on Prestige. As far as I know the Condemned sourcebook has been out of print for some time now and I am not even sure if SSDC has any intentions of revising and reprinting it. I would assume they would seeing as this book is the most recent release and still refers you to the other book, that they would plan to have that book available at some time. With that gripe aside the book provides a pretty exhaustive list of medals and awards for every race and the Alliance and the bonuses they give. .
The next section covers new rules for land mines and rules for “tweaking” the use of the Aggression stat. There are rules for Battlemasters to help them with how long adventures should be, the amount of experience to dole out and how to handle the characters pay. Another interesting and nice section is over NPCs their loyalty and how to handle a PC’s entourage and crew. The crew section includes a nice table with each job an NPC might cover as a crew member on a ship. This includes their cost/salary, their skills of note and a loyalty base to see how loyal they will be to the characters. .
The rest of the chapter is dedicated to a bit of humor and has racial write ups for Rules Lawyers and Munchkinoids. The Rules Lawyer is physically weak, but has the ability of Loophole Generation and a weakness for when unusual situations happen. The Munchkinoid is just an racial write up with stats in epic proportions and four to five times the amount of skills, the ability to shape change and all SMRs (saving throws) at 100. .
Appendix (Pages 141-144)
The appendix covers detailed rules on the Ikrini’s symbiotes and how they are used. In a nutshell they are biological equivalents to cybernetics in the core book. The appendix also has some useful charts such as a reaction table that includes all the basic setting’s races and tables for the different races stats and their minimums and maximums. The last page is an index that in my experience had everything I needed listed. .
Overall
As I stated before GU2 in my opinion is a much better book than the first one. Its theme and flow is much more coherent and the book has lot more useful information. A lot of the first one’s optional rules probably would not make it to one of my games, whereas this book’s would. The book seems more efficient in bringing out aspects of the setting compared to the first one. The new cover art is a bazillion times better than the earlier editions. .
One thing I noticed is this is the first Battlelords book that does not have a graffiti wall. This makes me sad as I actually enjoy that part of the books and their humor. .
Ratings
Style is getting a 3 again. It is average to the industry but unique to Battlelords. .
Substance is getting a 4. Whereas the first GU got a 3 because of its odd flow and questionable usability on a lot of the content, this one flows smoothly, has more info and has more usable content. The seven new races and the sections on how races view each other are the best aspects of this book. .
Note: The next review in the series will finish up the GU trilogy with Galactic Underground 3. .
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