XWF is the second of White Wolf's cheapo mini-supplements for Aberrant. It details, the XWF or "eXtreme Warfare Federation," a WWF- like organization which stages highly profitable bouts between nova (and non-nova) combatants. Pretty trivial in a geopolitics-heavy game like Aberrant, but it is only five bucks. Let's see what your Extra Value Meal gets you.
The first 11 pages are that collection of articles, interviews, and overheard conversations that we've come to expect from Aberrant books. These are very well done, and demonstrate the wide range of views held by the ordinary citizens of 2008 about the XWF. The lead story could have come from any modern newspaper (in fact, I think I read one just like it about the WWF last week in the paper, and none other than John Wick wrote a somewhat similar article at gamingoutpost.com not three days ago). You know the one: world-weary intellectual compares wrestling to soap operas or greek tragedy and then admits to being a fan. Very plausible.
Pages 12-23 detail the history of the XWF, along with its personalities, business operations, rules, slang, and what goes on at a typical XWF event. The XWF is kind of a seedy organization; people (usually mitoids) are often seriously injured and sometimes killed in its events.The XWF is inspired by two separate trends: the circus atmosphere of modern professional wrestling and the increasing demand of the viewing public for "real" television (or OpNet, or whatever). Thus, XWF main events are not staged, although the dramatic scenes leading up to them certainly are.
Rules-wise, this is all pretty light. Stats are provided for a few well-known XWF Novas (so your characters can beat them up, presumably...), and a few new Brawl special maneuvers are introduced. Two of the characters have unique Nova powers, which are not terribly well detailed. There is no game-world intrusion apart from this, by which I mean that there are no adventure hooks dealing with the XWF, no indication of what an XWF series might be like, no advice on integrating the XWF into your games. In all fairness, this would be pretty difficult: while a single character might come from an XWF background, it would be almost impossible to integrate the normal player group of 3-6 characters into such a game. In fact, the whole book could exist in-game if you took out the stats, with the first half merely being the publicly available part.
As usual for Aberrant, the book looks good. It's physically a bit flimsy, like a somewhat buffed-up comic book, but that's a five-dollar supplement for you. The artwork is by Steve Prescott throughout. I'm one of those people who love Prescott's work, and even his detractors ought to admit that his somewhat comical, somewhat gritty style is perfect for absurd, violent subject matter like this.
To recap: if you want a PC or an NPC with an XWF background, this book is a painless way of sounding like you kow what you're talking about. It also provides some interesting perspectives on public perceptions of Novas. Lastly, its engaging, humorous tone provides a few good laughs. Worth your five bucks, but definitely a non-essential purchase.
Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)
