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As far as style goes, Tri-Stat dX is below average. The art is limited to the colour ads, which are quite nice and would be appreciated more if they weren't placed in the middle of various sections. At the beginning or end would have been the better. I didn't dock any marks because of the lack of art or the ads, it is free afterall. The Magnum Opus ads would have also been appreciated more if they were after the index.
There are 2 rather annoying layout problems. The first is the entire PDF reads like a run-on sentence - the grammar is fine it's just there aren't any chapters. Considering there is 96 pages of actual content having separate chapters for Introduction, Character Creation, Game Mechanics and Game Mastering is reasonable to expect. The table of contents actually distinguishes between these sections but in the text one section runs into the next. The introduction to game mastering is on the same page where the mechanics end. It would have added an extra 2 pages at most to split it up into chapters more clearly, and it would have helped the layout quite a bit. The other major problem is the "sidebars". They're not really sidebars per se, they serve the same purpose but they are actually chunks of text on a darker background that appear right in the middle of the rest of the text. Sometimes they are placed right in the middle of a sentence. Considering that it is designed for 8.5" X 11" dimensions real sidebars would have been quite feasible and would have been much more useful. Breaking up a sentence because it is the end of a page is ok, that's the nature of paper (and PDF documents), breaking it up for a sidebar isn't. What's even more annoying is that Big Eyes Small Mouth Revised Second Edition, which was published before Tri-Stat dX handled the sidebars really well. They were smaller, at the end of a paragraph and integrated into the rest of the text very nicely. This makes Tri-Stat dX seem like a rush job. Guardians of Order already demonstrated they could do a much better job with a rulebook. The final complaint is relatively minor, the lack of examples. They aren't a big deal and won't be missed once the system becomes familiar, but it does make the learning process a bit more tedious. As it is, this you'll have to read through it a couple times before everything makes sense. As far as appearance goes, it's cleanly laid out, but is rather bland. It reads like a manual more than a game. The 4 sets of 2 full page colour ads will help remind you of the fact that what you're reading about is a game. The fact that Tri-Stat dX is truly generic means that there isn't a theme to help it along either.
The Table of Contents is clearly laid out. Everything is on one page and it isn't crammed into that space so a quick glance will tell you which page number to go to. There is a slight error as there is a section called "Why is Tri-Stat dX only $10?" when the download version was free. The page it refers to is correct and talks about why it is free. The other problem is that while the page number references are accurate within the document, attempting to go straight to the page listed using acrobat won't work. The pages get offset because of the cover which is considered page 1 by acrobat, and after page 6 (7 in acrobat) the ads offset the pages by another 2. It gets worse further into text. So you'll end up scrolling a few pages, up to 9 (!) more because of the ads. It's understandable as it is free (it would be completely unacceptable for a pay product) but it wouldn't have taken more than a few hours to renumber the pages and make a new table of contents. The softcover version does not suffer from this problem. The bookmarks tab on the side also circumvents this problem, so some thought has been given to it. If you can get used to using the bookmarks tab instead of the jump to page function it will work fine, and is quite handy if you don't want to keep going back to the table of contents if you want to skip somewhere else. Too bad a similar feature couldn't be introduced into real books.
Not only is the style unimpressive, it has a few serious and a few more minor flaws that detract from it. For this reason it gets a 2.
Tri-Stat dX does much better in the content department. All the flaws are limited to the style and layout. I see this as a good thing (as far as making the best of the situation goes). The rules system is easy to understand and quite comprehensive, before long consulting the manual will rarely be necessary. The Tri-Stat dX rulesystem is better than the Tri-Stat dX product, and fortunately for it, the rulesystem is the most important part of a role-playing system. (Layout becomes important in rules heavy systems, but Tri-Stat dX isn't a rules heavy system).
The Character Creation section is fairly easy (except for the lack of examples) to undertand. The beginning of the section outlines all 8 steps, GM Discussion, Outline, Assign Stats, Select Attributes, Select Skills, Select Defects, Calculate Derived Values and Earn Background Points. Each section is fairly straight forward.
The stat system is based on three stats, Body, Mind and Soul, you have a certain amount of character points to start out with and you use some of them to pick your stats. Some people don't like this system as they think it's unrealistic. I think the opposite, it's unlikely to have someone who is both strong and unhealthy or clumsy at the same time. In the event that you really want to play a character like that you can select a low Body score and pick the super strength attribute or pick a high body score and take the clumsy and not so tough defects.
Attributes are the abilities which your character has. With the selection of attributes, you can make almost any ability you can imagine, with the correct selection and modification. The system is quite intuitive and is consistent throughout the book. The only area that is missing is the Own a Big Mecha attribute. In Big Eyes, Small Mouth it could be used to make anything, from a sailing ship to a Gundam Mobile Suit. In this incarnation the rules aren't clear on how to make anything but a power suit. This seems a bit backwards to me as Tri-Stat dX is generic and a power suit isn't very common outside of anime. It's not a big deal, and they have a vehicles attribute with a bunch of cars as examples. If you know your cars you can make any car you wish. If you don't you won't care because there's enough examples to make you happy for a modern day campaign.
Skills are pretty straight forward, and work the same way as any other RPG that has skills. While the attributes are more general and are designed to be customized to your liking, the skills section is a lot more specific. The truly innovative part about the skills system is how the cost is determined. It isn't based on difficulty, but on relevance to the campaign. For example, Acrobatics isn't a very important skill in a conspiracy campaign, and only costs 2 points/level in that situation. An action adventure campaign makes much more use of acrobatics and it costs 5 points/level instead. This serves two purposes; one, game balance is maintained as it becomes hard to munchkin with skills, and two players can very easily tell what kinds of skills will be useful in the campaign. It is a pity more RPGs don't use this system instead of basing the skill cost on difficulty to learn it.
Defects are also self explanatory, they are minor problems the character has, such as not so tough (less health) or isms (the character is discriminated against based on age, race, sex etc). The defects provide interesting challenges in both role-playing and game mechanics (depending on the defect), and they also provide your character with bonus points to spend on more attributes (or to pay for attributes that weren't covered by the initial point pool awarded).
Derived Values are the combat value and health score. Combat value is based on all three stats as well as any relevant attributes and defects, health is based on body and soul and any relevant attributes and defects.
Finally, with background points, the character is awarded a couple points for developing a brief background for the character, the GM awards the points (1-3) depending on how good the background is. It is a minor "perk" for players who like to give their character history.
The Game Mechanics are fairly simple. All actions are determined either arbitrarily (it's so easy to do no check is necessary) or are determined by the roll of two of the same dice, either 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 or 20 sided. The type of dice used depends on the type of game being played, and the same die type will be used throughout a specific game. It is also perfectly possible to use the same die (say a d6) for any type of game by applying modifiers to the roll.
The Game Mechanics section covers basic combat, including melee and ranged combat, it also covers both armed and unarmed combat including wrestling. Tri-Stat dX along with Big Eyes, Small Mouth presents the best and most realistic grappling system I have come across in any role-playing game. People who aren't familiar with grappling won't care, but it's nice for me not to have to change the rules to make something realistic if I want to run a realistic campaign. I would imagine that the other sections (baring supernatural powers) are just as realistic, but I'm not too familiar with armed combat with guns to be able to say for sure :). The Combat Flowchart is very handy for determining the order that anything happens in. A quick glance at the flowchart will tell you more than reading over a step by step description of combat following a series of if/then/else statements as is common in most RPG books. Mind combat (for psionics) and dammage is covered. Alternative combat options are offered for people who don't quite like the feel of the default system as it is presented.
The Game Mastering section is fairly short. It has some useful tips but it seems more useful for intermediate or experienced GMs who just want a quick refresher on certain points. The section on running games at conventions is quite unusual and a nice bonus. A novice game master will be able to figure out what to do, but understanding players will be an asset (as they are with a novice GM for any system). Speaking about players, the section on dealing with players is also useful, if sparse.
The Magnum Opus section is of use to people looking at getting their own RPG products published, which just adds to the impression that Tri-Stat dX was targetted at experienced gamers.
The system will be of use to anyone, and is quite easy to understand, but several features make it seem like it would work best as an accessory for Silver Age Sentinels or Big Eyes, Small Mouth. Neither is required to use Tri-Stat dX but I would certainly recomend Big Eyes, Small Mouth over this, simply because they layout and style is superb, and the content is more robust, if slightly directed at anime. Despite having an Anime bent, Big Eyes, Small Mouth will work just as well as Tri-Stat dX for any genre.
Tri-Stat dX gets a 4 on substance. The content is good even though it's a little sparse (not much more could be expected for 96 pages).
Overall, considering Tri-Stat dX is available for free, there isn't a good reason not to get it, even if you already have Big Eyes, Small Mouth. It works well as a standalone system, and also serves as an excellent supplement to other Tri-Stat games. It is also of use for GMs who are using a Tri-Stat system but whose players don't want to pay to buy it (or it isn't available in stores anymore).
I'm not sure if I would recomend buying it, I guess it would depend on printing costs, but the printing costs look to be lower than purchasing costs $10USD/$13CDN and a 1" 3 ring binder is much more durable than the soft cover. Printing costs aren't that much lower however, so buying it isn't a bad deal if you want to support Guardians of Order and/or your friendly local gaming shop.
Tri-Stat dX can be downloaded from http://www.guardiansorder.com/downloads or from the free stuff section of http://www.rpgnow.com which the Guardians of Order website links to.
