Review of Mars & Venus At War

Every so often I get sent a product to review that really grabs my attention. A scenario that just screams to be played. The Collectors, Terror at Camp Waka' Naka, Barbie's Beachouse Murder Thriller...

Okay, so that last one doesn't exist - yet - but needless to say that I find that there are rare cases where pregenerated scenarios manage to grab my attention. After all I tend to be very demanding when it comes to pre-written adventures.

This? Well this isn't one of them.

Gaming by the Book

Now don't get me wrong, Mars & Venus at War is a good one-off adventure. Basically it has everything you need to run the game in one sitting - except of course the QAGS rulebook. But it just didn't grab me. This is very much a scenario-by-the-numbers game. You probably know the kind.

Scene one: The set-up; Scene Two: Something is revealed; Scene Three: Complications; Scene Four: Finale.

Now admittedly Terror at Camp Waka' Naka also had this structure - but managed to use the structure in a novel and flexible manner. Conversely Mars & Venus at War runs happily along a linear storyline, splitting into two possible courses near the middle and then meeting at a tidy ending.

What's It About?

Basically the set-up is 1939. The PCs work for a private detective agency and have been sent to invesigate an unusual murder at a local radio station. This eventually leads to a b-grade style science fiction tale through a series of explosions and predictable plot developments. While the cover lays the claim of being a noir style adventure, there is very little noir involved. This is strictly b-grade science fiction fare. Not that it's a bad thing, but it isn't very inspiring b-grade

Problems with Execution

Essentially I don't have many complaints about the game except the rather uninspiring storyline - it feels too contrived and lacks any real oomph. The story is supposed to be a play on the battle of the sexes, but never actually gets there. But the one thing I really didn't like was the reliance on the pre-generated PCs.

Now while pre-gens are great, especially if you want to play a game on the spot, the adventure relies heavily on the use of the Pregen PCs. A lot of the necessary plot devices will only work if certain characters are present - and even then, some of these connections do stretch credulity. My advice to the writers is that for future games they avoid pregens until they have written the entire scenario.

Conclusion

Basically for $2.99US this is not bad, it just isn't great. There is a little bit of potential and if you are a QAGS player you can definitely get some use out of the adventure. But I'd probably suggest completely overhauling the story and using the background only. Like I said before, this game just didn't really do anything for me. I'm still uncertain as to whether I'll actually run it or not. I suspect my group would have a lot of fun with it, but that would more come from their own character concepts than anything inherent in the adventure itself... Not bad, but very run of the mill.