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Review of Metalface
"With the ability to gain any information desired from the grid, anyone has the capacity to
duplicate any type of technology or experiment ever concieved. This has spawned unimaginable
dangers from profiles employing bio-chemical weapons to children creating destructive robots in
their own bedrooms."
MetalMan's Review of "Metalface" by Richard Garner
The Premise:
Mankind has driven itself almost to extinction with the last world war. A period of peace has decended over
Earth and rapid strides are made in technology. Corporations have been granted governing power by Earth Council.
Christianity has become the dominant religion on Earth and a technology for transferring human souls into robotic
bodies has been achieved. This technology ran rampant until it could be stopped but not until a rogue group of
former military robots has laid claim to Earth and vowed to free everyone from war and corporate control in return
for absolute obedience.
PERSONAL NOTE: Metalface is a evolving game system. This is a review of version 4.5 of the game.
The newest version can always be obtained from http://www.eternaltempest.com/metalface/mffiles.html. Also
available from the website are character sheets, "Gunship Navahoe" sample mission, basic mission generation
tables, and sample characters. As of the posting of this review, "Gunship Navahoe" and the Redline and
Scrapheap sample characters were broken links.
What Ya Get:
Metalface 4.5 is available as a 34 page PDF file. You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader software installed
on your computer to read it.
Cost:
Nada. Nothing. Zip. Zilch. Gratis. Free.
Appearance:
The appearance of Metalface is minimal. Text is all full-page instead of arranged in columns and a large font
size is used (it appears to be fourteen point type to my untrained eye). This might be annoying to some people
as it seems like a waste of space but might not bother others because it is easy to read. There is a single graphic
of a simulated metal plate with the game logo on it in the table of contents and three iconic symbols for the various
types of Metalfaces. Other than this, Metalface is bare of any illustrations. There are several tables and a snapshot
of a character sheet included.
The Game:
Metalface begins with a two page introduction to the Metalface universe that gives a general overview of historical
events and a glimpse into the technology and capabilites of the Metalfaces. This is followed by a timeline that details
in much more detail the events from 2097 to 2157 when the Vectoron Strike Command claims control of Earth. This information
did not make me interested in playing in the Metalface universe. Players are assumed to be working for profiles (a corporation/government by another name). Now, looking back on the history, its the profiles that are warring with each other and the Earth Council seems to be one of the few benevolent ones. Admittedly the previous governments of the world couldn't prevent the war, but you would think that they could come up with a better solution to governance rather than a corporation. Still I guess they needed the money to rebuild after the war. Earth Council just seems like an even more powerless version of the UN. This just smells far too much like Shadowrun for my likings and encourages a mercenary style of play as well as making characters who operate for different profiles near impossible to organize into a group. The addition of the Metalfaces are just pilotless mechs (even if they can be player characters) and don't really add anything to the setting. Certainly not enough to warrant calling the game after anyway. The slaphazard addition of the Strike Command at the end from out of nowhere just seems like an excuse to give the game a "big enemy" rather than rely on the dynamics of the setting for conflicts and plots. This is my read on it. Your opinion and/or milage out of the setting may vary wildly so don't be discouraged because of my assessment of them. There may be information here that really intrigues you. Also bear in mind that Metalface is a game in a period of evolution so things may change.
Character generation is a bit odd in comparison to most other games you may have encountered and could potentially be one of Metalface's big distinguishing factors. First players must distribute ten points among three orders: Active, Passive and Neutral. Each must have at least two points in each. Then you must allot another ten points into three traits: Body, Mind and Soul. Again, each must have at least two points. These values allow you to calculate your actual game stats based on the personality and attributes that you established earlier. The stats used are: Strength, Communication, Psyactive, Endurance, Intelligence, Faith, Agility, Perception and Blessing. If a player chooses to play a Metalface, they must then choose their model and class. This determines their duties as a robotic entity under their controlling profile. Players now have 20,000 credits to purchase equipment and twenty points to buy skills with (this is modified somewhat by the corporation that you work for). Character creation wraps up with a description of the character values and how they operate within the mechanics system. There are several glaring flaws here. These values are said to be broken down into categories of General, Status, Body, Mind and Soul. There is no information given about any General values at all and the description for Access seems rather arbitary to the GM and seems to have little meaning as far as the player is concerned as they have no say on its value to them.
Two pages follow in which the various types of Metalface are described briefly as well as their classes and the class attribute values that are standard for each type. It also seems that the Tekker type of Metalface is referenced several times in the text as Tekner. Each type of Metalface also has standard equipment that comes with each right off the assembly line. This should be kept in mind as the next four pages deal with human characters and their equipment. Which seems to be a problem with the game. It seems to want to concentrate on the Metalface yet a large portion of the information is on human characters. Anyway, the human section covers the various "types" of humans such as the altered, the enhanced, the spacebreed, and the psyactives. This section also covers the three major types of human technology that defines them within the game. The BioSuit which is essentially a Metalface body but with a live pilot, Robots which no Metalface is legally allowed to own due to the belief that Metalfaces are unstable, and PODs which are like supercharged PDAs or a tricorder from Star Trek but with an AI.
The various profiles are covered next and it gives a pretty decent rundown on each including their goals and operating methods and philosophies. This is where you will find information on Earth Council, Patrol Force, COMBAX United, Strike Command and the Cybernetic Technologies Alliance. Of these, Patrol Force and the CyTech Alliance seem to be the two most apt for player groups but this will vary from each GMs take on the setting.
The mechanics of Metalface are pretty simplistic. Attribute plus Skill versus a Difficulty Class established by the GM. If the player rolls over their value, they fail otherwise it is a success. Each DC has a different number of d6s associated with it. For example, "Hard" is considered 3d6. So, if the player has to pick a lock, their Intelligence is 12 and they have Lockpick at 3 - they must roll less than a 15 on 3d6 if the GM calls the lockpicking a "Hard" difficulty.
Combat is handled in order of decreasing Agility scores. Characters can perform actions by expending Combat Points (a derivitive of your Energy or Agility score). Detailed explainations of Move, Charging Weapons, Repairing, Body Attacks, Weapon Attacks, Dodge and Activate Device are covered with their point expenditure and how they operate in a combat situation. Combat essentially breaks down into a session of points management which can good or bad depending on your take on such things. Some people like to think of it as strategic planning others will wish for a more fluid system for battles. Your mileage will vary.
Metalface wraps up with both skill and equipment lists. Nothing groundbreaking but powergamers take note - most of the skills tend to be linked to Agility and Intelligence. Psyactive powers are considered skills and there isn't many of them. I would have liked to see more powers for them but it may be the nature of the Metalface universe that psychic powers are of a limited scope. Equipment, however, are where the Metalfaces shine. They have access to technology and weapons that human characters cannot due to size and/or availability. A Metalface is the sum of its parts quite literally. Finally, Metalface ends with a single page quick reference chart that puts most of all the necessary mechanics in front of you at a quick glance.
Overall Impression:
Metalface is a game desperately in search of a direction. The inclination of the author seems to be heavily towards the Metalfaces but information is relatively scant and the human characters seem much more interesting. More development needs to be done on the characters of the Metalfaces not just their technical makeup and I suspect that this will be the problem facing the author - how to give a machine a soul. I'm not thrilled with the sometimes overbearing christianity inclusions that really do nothing for the setting or the mechanics system. Also a lot of integration work needs to be done to really make the Metalfaces a part of the setting. Right now they are presented as the ultimate in technology yet seperated away from everything else. Maybe this is the theme of isolationism that the author is trying to convey. Either way, much revamping needs to be done to the setting to make it mesh better together.
MetalMan signing off.
