With all the reviews I've read for Aberrant, it wouldn't suprise me if this little gem for the Marvel Superheroes Adventure Game has gotten little attention since it's release. But, being a big fan of the Marvel SAGA game, I snatched this item up as soon as I saw it.( And then I bought Aberrant..)
The RRGTE is a rules expansion for Marvel SAGA, in the same vein as the Saga Companion for Dragonlance. It covers, amongst other items, how to let heroes construct bases, build superhero gadgets and magical items, as well as expanded combat rules and rules for extreme enviroments such as ocean depths or the depths of outer space. All this presented as part of a book composed of past columns of "Ask Dr. Richards", which appears in the Daily Bugle in the Marvel Universe.
Now, I liked Marvel SAGA rules out of the box, no question there, but something of the Champions player in me still yearned for a little more detail. Well. now I've got it. Not only are there plenty of new combat manuevers for your heroes to try, there are also rules for things like knockback, character death, character aging , falling, plus a whole mess of suggested intensities for things like earthquakes, tidal waves and chemical spills. There are also rules for creating alien heroes, like the Skrulls or the Kree, and a new random hero generating system, even though I think most players will ignore these and continue to assign powers and attributes as they wish, subject to the narrator's approval.
One of the best things in the book, from a narrator's view, would be the examples of the random events that can occur in the game when drawn from the fate deck. How many times have you had a dramatic battle in which the event "Trancendence" is drawn? Instead of going "Whaa?" and redrawing, you can use the examples given here as an idea of where to go with that event, allowing for a lot of different situations to occur that you might have missed out on before.
And did I mention new hindrances and combination callings to give characters even more options for background and personality? This book is just darned handy to have and will make you wonder how the heck you were running your game before you had it. If you've just gotten into Marvel SAGA, I would make this the next supplement you buy. Now if that darned Spiderman supplement would ever get released....
Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
