EQUIPMENT GUIDE, OVERVIEW
The "Equipment Guide" by Lester W. Smith, is an equipment guide published for GDW's "2300AD" (aka "Traveller 2300"), a 'hard' SF sequel to "Twilight 2000". It is the companion volume to the "Ground Vehicle Guide" (See review at http://www.rpg.net/news reviews/reviews/rev_5482.html for more information.) and was designed to provide an equipment list that could be used by both the GM and the players.
The equipment listed covers everything from locks to small satellites, with the exception of weapons & vehicles. At the back of the book are various items created by two of "2300AD"'s alien races, the biotech wizards known as the Pentapods and the Kafers, the enemy of mankind throughout the "2300AD" timeline. Interestingly in light of the later decision by GDW to convert the setting from space adventure to cyberpunk, there are only three items of cybertech in the book, an implant communicator and two implant computers.
EQUIPMENT GUIDE VERDICT
The one minus of the "Equipment Guide" is that there is no weapons listing, however I would assume that GDW planned to release a weapons guide but did not do so owing the dropping of the "2300AD" line by GDW prior to its collapse.
However, this is compensated for by the fact that the equipment descriptions are virtually statless, which means that the book can be easily used with non-GDW adventures/settings.
In conclusion, the "Equipment Guide" is a solid but unspectacular work that does exactly what it sets out to do, provide the GM and players with a single equipment list for use during a game session.
