Valdron Inc's Multiverser game took a great concept, the imaginative idea of Scriff (a substance that once it infects a character grants them a sort of vagabond immortality, such that each time they die, they are transported to another "Verse") and, in a tragedy of errors, soiled it in the "requirement" that you play yourself, after having been infected with Scriff, bogged it down with an unwieldy set of percentile based mechanics, laced it with an annoying thread of the game designer's religious beliefs, and wrapped it up in a book with local print shop production quality and horribly amateur art, and insist on selling the basic rule book with their book of worlds for the extreme price of $50 USD. (Which this reviewer graciously paid out.)

First, the most interesting aspect of this game, Scriff and how it relates to the multiverse. The authors spend a scant nine pages, out of 500 or so, on the introduction where they introduce the idea of Scriff, Bias (which accounts for the the "natural laws" of various "verses") and the Multiverse, along with the complicated game mode of running several players in different universes simaltaneously. (One of the pages in the middle of the introduction is taken up by an annoying disclaimer where the authors felt it necessary to inform us of their particular religious views along with the standard anti-litigious statements.}

After this brief introduction the book takes us to attributes, which is to say, the character creation section is next. However, rather than providing a well layed out book, with important sections and ideas placed together, such as character creation, combat/adventuring, world design & game play, etc. you are given a 500 page mass that flows only semi-logically into each new topic. Also, in the Attributes section, the, best ignored, "requirement" that you play a version of yourself that has been infected with scriff is stated. Besides the fact that the majority of people will ignore this, it should have been stated as part of the introduction.

As for the game mechanics, besides the fact that you have to read through several different chapters to get a good feel for how they work they are inconsistent and cumbersome. Again, the authors didn't provide a concise overview of the basic mechanics.

Attributes and Skills are measured in a complicated Level@Intensity system, with each level having 10 intensities. It is mentioned that the attribute scale is not linear, but this only comes up in the rather confusing skill improvement system. (I didn't wade too far into the realm of double doubled or triple tripled skill improvement schemes).

The system, needlessly, uses a seperate system for Attribute checks and Skills. Attribute checks are of one of three types, Simple, where you try to roll less than your "decimalized attribute", which is 10 times the level plus the intensity, on 2d20. Difficult where you try to roll less than your attribute on a D30+d10!?, and Special, where the authors reccomend the GM make up a method by looking at appendix 3, Dicing curves, but reccomend rolling less than the characters decimalized attribute, plus situation modifiers, on a D%, or try using a 4d10 to make it hard. Now, I consider this rather weak, as the point of buying someone elses game rules is to not have to make up your own rules.

Now, in the Skills section, the authors seemed confident a d% roll for the mechanics. The player adds the relevant, decimalized attribute, to the relevant, decimalized, Skill rating, plus a "Bias" modifier, and tries to roll less than this on percentile dice.

Now, here, being a bit inclined to game mechanics, I don't see why they simply didn't unify the Attribute check mechanics with the Skill check mechanics by simply requiring a roll of less than the character's Decimalized attribute times a modifier based on the difficulty of the check, say a multiplier of three for easy, two for difficult, and one for Special attribute checks? Being a bit of a game designer, I dislike this inconsistency, FUDGE may prompt you to make things up, but it at least provide a consistent, elegant resolution mechanic.

The coverage of mechanics is uneven as well, there is very long combat chapter, yet the injury and healing rules get barely two paragraphs out of 50 pages or so.

Also I disliked the way the Damage categories scale weapon damage, ranging from annoying weapons doing only 1 pt of damage for 50 pts of success, to Annihilating doing 1 point of damage per success , to Obliterative,doing incalculable damage. For a Universal system, this is a bit coarse, as damage scales for anime style super powers and such should be handled better. Perhaps adding more consistency by rating weapon damages on the same Level@intensity scale, with scaling based on this factor.

Also, the rules for Bias(four areas, Bod,Tech,Magic,Psi, are rated with level@intensities depending on how advanced/powerful the Skill/effect is) seem a bit warped in areas to me especially the rules for adding to a character's success in an area based on Bias. I can see limiting his ability in worlds which have a lower or negative Bias in this area, but adding as a general factor, doesn't make sense.

Also the Tech Bias doesn't take into account alternate technology timelines, such as Steampunk realities, where Ether and other such ideas are scientific fact. In addition the tech bias should have been delineated by technological area, such as medicine, power, materials, weapons,communication, etc rather than a single timeline.

For instance, Fission Technologies are lumped in the same level as Computers, thus we have 20th century computer technology lumped into the same level as anti-matter power?

Now, in between the inconsistent, unevenly detailed, poorly presented mechanics,we have to suffer bouts of the authors' religous beliefs (where he denounces other religions as heretical, etc). I feel they have absolutely NO place in the game. Perhaps the author, who from his webpage has a degree in theology, could have confined such comments and how they inspired his game for designers notes.

Now, the production quality. My copy of Multiverser came as several hundred pages of text, with some few pictures, bound like a memo or office report, with a simple clear plastic cover. That in and of itself is not a problem, given that this is a small press publisher. However, given the extremely high price that it is sold for, $50 US, it is unacceptable. It should be noted, that this price includes two products, the main rulebook and the book of worlds. However, even at $25 each, this is still to expensive given the binding and quality of the books.

So, in summation, I can't currently reccomend this game to anyone but the most avid collector.

It is in major need of a revision. If the authors can improve the presentation, unify the mechanics,remove the offensive and out of place religious comments, remove the requirement to play yourself, retool the Bias rules to handle other technology tracks, sell the game rules and book of worlds seperately, and at a lower price, or with better production quality, and most importantly expand on the universe concepts of Scriff and the multi-verse and other introductory material, then I would be able to reccomend the game to others.

Perhaps the authors can develop an interesting mythos and story arc, the idea of Scriffer factions, and artifacts and other powers would give a metaarc to the individual adventures.

Until then, save your money, or get something good, like a Dream Pod Nine game.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)