This's actually part playtest and part capsule, but since not a whole
lot of actually *playing* got done, let's call it a capsule, shall we?
Armageddon is yet another take on the semi-Biblical Apocalypse
genre, and fits in relatively nicely alongside many of these games.
Written by C. J. Carella, the obvious focus is on setting rather than
rules. I'm more of a "toss the rules, let's have some fun" GM so this
normally wouldn't bother me too much. Most of the rules aren't
particularly good, but also weren't bad enough to catch in the game's
throat.
The setting works pretty nicely, seems damn cool, and doesn't lionize
one religion over the others. The inheritors and avatars of non-Judeo
-Christian/Islamic gods are playable, as are the standard angels,
Divine and Infernal, and humans with varying degrees of magical gifts.
The art is dominated by Tim Bradstreet, giving it the look and feel of
a White Wolf game, even though they have other artists on the book of
the caliber of Berni Wrightson and James O'Barr.
The most telling part of the cover page is that no editor is listed.
This hurt the game so badly, in my eyes, that I almost chucked it in
the middle of character creation with my group. Instead, we had great
fun MSTing it. (Note to any of my players who read this: part of it
was my fault for missing one sentence in one paragraph that screwed
us.) There are constant references to "p. 00," completely simple
errors that even the most incompetent proofreader could have handled
(Contacts are a *drawback*?) and the character creation chapter is
such a hash that certain things are listed under "Qualities and
Drawbacks," then you're later told that they should have been bough
with "Metaphysics" points.
In all, not a bad game, with some decent rules, it'd be a great game,
and I beseech C.J. Carella to hire an editor for any future releases.
If you don't mind paying $25 for a nice background, pick it up,
there's definitely some fun stuff in here.
Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
