No comments about Operation: Rapidstrike! (Top Secret RPG Module TS002).

3 comments about Freeport: Crisis in Freeport.

1. This is a nice wrap-up to the current Freeport Setting (Season Two begins later this year) with a political adventure (don't worry there are dungeons and fights too!) in which our brave bucaneers have to settle the succession crisis.
   
   It's nicely put together with great art and my group had fun with it.



2. This adventure is a must have for all you DM's out there looking for a good way to wrap up your Freeport Trilogy campaign. The encounters are well balanced, the writing is entertaining and the plot works well. There were a few instances where my players deviated from what the author expected, but it was pretty easy to get them back on track. If you have never heard of Freeport before, you should not start with this book, it requires a lot of previous knowledge to fully "get it". But I do recommend finding Death in Freeport and Freeport: City of Adventure or just wait until the new re-release of the Freeport products comes along soon.



3. I run a Living Arcanis campaign, which also contains Freeport. With a wealth of material at my disposal, I decided to pick up Crisis in Freeport (CIF) to see how I could fit it into my campaign. I should point out that this is a long playtest review that contains spoilers galore. To help clarify what I did differently in my campaign, I will use a PLAYTEST tag.
   
   CIF begins with the announcement that the Captain's Council, the ruling body that governs Freeport, has declared the Rule of Succession for the Sea Lord's throne null and void. Since the Sea Lord title is hereditary, that means the throne is up for grabs by anyone, including the other councilors. The news incites rioting in the streets, which leads to the city newspaper being burned to the ground, the murder of the Commissioner of the Sea Lord's Guard, women in need of saving, and a monster on the loose.
   
   [PLAYTEST: I combined this adventure with the final chapter of Black Sails Over Freeport. By having Drak, an orc, declare his lineage to the Sea Lord's throne, it was further incentive for the Captain's Council to invalidate the Rule of Succession. I ran the riots straight out of the adventure, with a few tweaks to the NPCs' names. I replaced the bulette with a two-headed dragon of my own creation that ended up killing our dwarf fighter. The gang who attacks the Sea God's Shrine was changed to a gang that attacks the God of Pirates shrine. I also inserted the orc riots from BSOF into the mix.]
   
   And this is where we start to get some bizarre content that skirts the "decency" rule in the Open Game License. It's repeatedly mentioned that the bad guys (all elves and half-elves) have been molested as children, that the pirates rape people before (and sometimes after!) they kill them, and that there's more than one opportunity to catch pirates "in the act." While most of this is easy to drop, it's certainly not in the fun spirit of the other Freeport adventures, none of which emphasized (over and over and OVER) that pirates "have a bit of fun" with their victims. I agree that Freeport needs to get a little more focused and a little more serious, but I felt that the way it was handled in this book was over-the-top. One of my players, my wife, found it to be simply offensive.
   
   The other thing is that elves in my campaign wouldn't think of sullying themselves in such a fashion. And since this particular form of violence is motivated by racial hatred (elves vs. humans), the whole thing seems forced. It's all a bit squicky, in my opinion.
   
   During the riots, Arias Soderheim, the only half-elf on the Council, has hired the elven Captain Allethra Sharpe to kidnap Lady Elise Grossette. Grosette is one of the good guys on the Council and a rival for the Sea Lord's throne. The PCs eventually follow the trail to an island during a thunderstorm, whereupon they face off against sahuagin led by an oddly named female villain (rhymes with witch, but I won't include it here as some filters will reject the review outright).
   
   [PLAYTEST: I changed the identity of the kidnapped NPC to a candidate the PCs were backing, Emric Ossan-Drac from a previous Living Arcanis adventure. Likewise, the attack by the sahuagin still happened but were led by Camring, also from a previous adventure, and his traitorous mother, Black Jenny Ramsey, AKA Sycorax.]
   
   Upon arriving on the island, the PCs sneak onto Sharpe's ship, The Knife, and find a pirate doing naughty things with a cabin boy. It turns out said cabin boy is a succubus. With clues from the ship's hold as to who hired Sharpe, the PCs land on the island, face off against serpent people ghouls, and finally to Felix's, a resort turned into the last stand for Sharpe and his pirates.
   
   [PLAYTEST: I kept the squicky pirate/boy encounter because it fit a decidedly squicky NPC named Talathiel that I took from another adventure. I did make a point of having the boy reveal himself to be a succubus. My PCs were suitably disgusted and dispatched Talathiel promptly.]
   
   Sharpe and his men are engaged in various acts of debauchery, but they are not without their firepower. Kyl, an elven evoker, and Dirty Malone, who is exactly like he sounds, join Sharpe in fighting to the bitter end. Then it's back to Freeport with Elise in tow for an emergency Council session: what to do about Soderheim?
   
   [PLAYTEST: I replaced all the NPCs with villains the PCs had encountered in the past. Sharpe's last stand was suitably climactic. I dropped all the other stuff involving pirates violating corpses.]
   
   The Captain's Council decides to have a meeting in the town square, only to suffer an assassination attempt. Assuming the PCs survive, they discover that Soderheim is holed up in a brothel. There, they face down Soderheim and his lieutenant in another climactic battle...when suddenly one of Freeport's massive cannons is pointed at the brothel and blows the building to smithereens!
   
   [PLAYTEST: I have to admit, I loved this idea. I further complicated Soderheim as a villain by having him protect elven interests, and holding hostage an elven PC. But when he realizes that the cannon is pointed at the brothel, Soderheim had a change of heart and dimension doored out with his hostage in the nick of time. Even though he released her, he later fell to his death and was ripped apart by angry Freeport citizens. Of all the parts of the adventure, this is the most exciting. One PC survived by diving out a window with a potion of fly. The other cast a sphere of force around himself at the last minute. Good stuff!]
   
   It seems someone paid the guardsmen who control the cannon to point it at the brothel in an effort to keep Soderheim from talking. That Continental spy shows up in the middle of the night to personally destroy the PCs, summoning a Zelekhut inevitable to join in the attack. This is perhaps the weakest part of the adventure: it makes little sense that a spy would engage PCs in an all out attack -- spies run away to fight again another day, not wage one-man wars against heavily armed PCs. In addition, the spy "convinces the zelekhut that the PCs have denied justice..." and "it's eager to destroy the PCs, almost as eager as the conspirator."
   
   Seriously? Shall we pit the zelekhut's Sense Motive (+12) against the spy's Bluff (uh...he doesn't even have any points in the skill)? It defies belief and seems like the zelekhut was included for the sole purpose of utilizing its locate creature ability to find the PCs. And why is this lawful neutral spy lying to a creature of law? More importantly, why is the spy lawful neutral at all?
   
   [PLAYTEST: I changed the spy's identity (turns out we already had a Continental spy in the campaign named Cunegunda), changed the attack to actually be an accident, and changed the zelekhut to another monster entirely. The effect was still the same: an ambush in the middle of the night on the PCs can be extremely deadly. But it at least made a little more sense, and my PCs did indeed fight for their very lives.]
   
   At the conclusion, a not very convincing case is made for Marilise Morgan to be named Sea Lord. Apparently "the aggressiveness during the hunt for Soderheim endeared her not only to the other council members but also to the populace." -- which is hard to believe, since what amounts to aggressiveness on Morgan's part is that she "proposes not only arresting and trying Soderheim, but seizing his estates and banishing any of his blood relatives from Freeport." I'm sure such a bloodthirsty ruling suitably impressed all of Freeport's pirates!
   
   [PLAYTEST: I would have preferred the adventure making a case for each of the Council members, allowing the DM to choose from one of them, as opposed to the lame argument that Marilise (who took over for her corrupt brother) is somehow a shoo in for the position. In fact, during the assassination attempt in the square the DM is told to specifically spare Marilise so she can win the succession later. A little too heavy-handed for my tastes. In the end, Emric, an NPC the heroes had been struggling to protect for years, took the throne,. Or to put it another way, while Arias was built up as a villain throughout the Freeport supplements, Marilise is a nobody that comes out of nowhere to take the throne. It doesn't feel like she deserves it.]
   
   Overall, CIF is a deadly serious action adventure with a plot that moves briskly. From a riot to a hostage crisis, an assassination attempt to a crime boss raid, a midnight retaliation to plenty of politics, CIF provides enough fodder to wrap up a Freeport game. It's probably impossible to please every DM with the conclusion, but CIF does an adequate job of providing a definitive ending to a story arc. I just wish it were a little less squicky.

3 comments about Scars.

1. Awsome book... realy cool story line, and an interesting veiw of what goes on in someones head as they take the little steps that lead them to the moral point of no return. I actualy cared about the characters and loved the setting. Only two things keep the book from being a 5 (if the rating thing had a 4.5 i'd give it that) The first is the length. The book is kinda short...,but what can you expect from a small publishing company? (still well worth it though) The second is that the text has gaps in it in odd places. This sometimes had me going back trying to figure out if i'd missed something.

   Kudos to the author for the great story, and to the artist for the awsome cover.




2. I received this book as a participation prize for playing in an Ironclaw game at a convention.
   
   The storyline was good once you worked around confusing character introductions in the first few chapters of the book. Combat was described realistically without getting either technical or boring. Due to the author's confusing over which version of English he was using, as well as some glaring - but non insurmountable - editting errors, I had to knock off a star. In the few uses of magic in the book, the spells were described in detail rather than with just a spell name.
   
   Even if you haven't played the game, this book is a good introduction to the Ironclaw world.



3. Welcome to the world of Ironclaw! I guess. I'd never heard of the Ironclaw RPG on which "Scars" is based until happening upon this book by chance. The Ironclaw realm revolves around four rival 'Houses', each lording over a share of an island- the Equine Avoirdupois, the Boars of the Doloreaux, the Bisclavet Wolves and the main focus of this novel, the Foxes known as the Rinaldi.
   
   The plot centers around Danica, a bounty hunter just 'doing her job'. When the Don of House Rinaldi is murdered, along with (seemingly) both of his sons, the prosperous port city of Triskellian is thrown under a shadow of suspicion and paranoia. Rumors abound that one of the Don's sons, Fabrizio di Rinaldi, has survived, somehow...and then a mysterious party hoping to restore Fabrizio to his rightful throne hires Danica to apprehend a pretender to the line of Rinaldi succession. Thus begins a twisted tale of politics, duty vs. honor, and dealing with 'scars' in more ways than one...
   
   As a hardened, cynical hunter, unopposed to doing what she has to to 'finish the job', Danica is somewhat of an antihero. This is contrasted with her unsolicited accomplice for much of the novel, would-be paramour Tucker, who is a refreshing deviation from a typical thief stereotype- cheerful, outgoing...and painfully naive. Both are dynamic characters and as the novel progresses, the plot almost becomes more about the changes the perilous bounty hunt has wrought on Danica and Tucker than about the pretender, culminating in a near-tragic ending, as both are forced to reexamine themselves and all they held dear. Do you really know someone? Friendship, honor and even their own convictions regarding right and wrong are put to the test. "Scars" is an appropriate title, as it applies in multiple meanings, for multiple characters...I won't elaborate, because I don't want to spoil the plot; this is definitely a book worth reading.
   
   "Scars" is very well-written, albeit with some errors. Mackinnon uses the right balance of action and description, and adds 'flavor' to some characters through use of accents, such as the Gaelic-tinged English employed Innkeeper Delaney and the Bisclavret wolves. I really liked the 'introspective' style from the viewpoints of multiple characters. Mackinnon allows the reader to know what goes on in the minds of his characters, lending them a depth that serves to enhance the plot, as well as make the reader genuinely care about them. As the main character, it's no surprise that the best example of this is Danica, whose unfortunate past is fed to the reader in appetizing tidbits that engage, rather than confuse the reader, in understanding why Danica is the way she is.
   
   Of course, "Scars" is not without a few minor detractions. First, typos abound throughout; the publisher should have run this manuscript through a spell-checker before publication, because it's a shame to see spelling errors and inexplicable white spaces in paragraphs in a book with an otherwise stellar script and professional cover. Second would be the use of RPG terms. While it is done sparingly and in most cases, the context is apparent, there are 1-2 places that did not make sense.
   
   At an all-too-short 128 pages, "Scars" packs the punch of an epic, but won't take you a month to read. Well worth the money, and here's hoping there's a sequel to tie up the few loose ends from the conclusion of "Scars"!

4 comments about Creatures of Barsaive: An Earthdawn Sourcebook.

1. A great sourcebook, one of the best I have read, the book shines in the descriptions of the creatures as well as side comments by a great dragon and his dwarf counterpart.



2. The story of how Barsaive is described through the mind of a dragon retold and 'published' by a dwarf is amazing. I think it's a great book, and very creative. The true story behind the unicorn is startling. I am glad I read this book.



3. When i recieved this book i read it all that night. I am usually not much of a reader, but with this book i could not put it down. The best aspect of the book was the conversation that took place between the dwarf scribe and the great dragon Vasjendous. These converations gave you a wonderful insight on how dragons think and act. It was a very useful tool in implementing a dragon into my game.



4. "Creatures of Barsaive" is a very entertaining book with a lot of small storyhooks told from the point of view of a dragon. But the information inside is not that essential because of the rules for creature - generation system presented in the Earthdawn Compendium. Nevertheless the creatures are well balanced and an inventive gamemaster can use them for high suspense and some entertainig hours.

1 comments about Way of the Daimyo.

1. I had high hopes for this book. The court and mass warfare are very important to the L5R CCG but haven't tended to feature prominently in the RPG. I was looking forward to a book that would tell me how to integrate them into campaigns without turning them into solely court-based or warfare-based campaigns.
   
   Well, I got that - sort of. First off, WotD has a lot to say about the Glory system. Many of you may have found Glory was a bit unworkable in D10 as presented - you could go up far too fast, and the fact that Glory was supposed to be constrained by your social rank didn't work out.
   
   This has been changed. Not only has Glory been redone, there's a new mechanic, Status, that measures your character's official rank within Rokugan. The Emperor, for instance, has a Status of 10 but may only have a Glory of 3 or 4, if he's never participated in that many heroic deeds. (I'd argue that Toturi III had a Glory of 7, but that's ironically mostly from his days before being the Emperor. Glory 10 is reserved for Shinsei and the Thunders). Conversely, a famous Ronin such as Dairya might have a Glory of 6 or 7 but no Status. My only problem with this is that it seems a fair bit of book-keeping, but it might turn out to be worth it.
   
   However, it goes downhill from here. The rest of the book is concerned with the five 'stations' that high Status characters can acquire - the Warlord, the Ambassador, the Keeper of the Temple, the Provincial Governor and the Master Sensei.
   
   The problem with these classes is the all-or-nothing effect. They provide advantages that are of very little use in a campaign that isn't focused on, say, running a city, and that are overwhelming if it is.
   
   Consider, for example, your general L5R campaign - say the PCs are magistrates, or servants of a Clan Champion. One PC decides 'I want to take the City Governor Prestige Class/Path'! The DM is immediately torn. He either has to shift the campaign to the city, giving that PC a huge advantage over all the others, or continue as he's done, which means that the City Governor PC has a city somewhere in the background and is burning a lot of points/XP on something he never uses.
   
   This is the biggest problem with the game and it's hard to get over it. I guess this sort of thing would mostly be useful for NPCs - but a GM/DM can give an NPC City Governor or Warlord whatever he wants, he doesn't need to bother spending points or taking levels in it.
   
   The book is further detracted from by a generally low level of editing. There are lots of spelling mistakes, incomplete clauses and sentences that don't make sense. Luckily none of them are in rules-critical points, but it's still frustrating.
   
   High points are not confined to the Glory/Status system. The book also has a more detailed mass combat section which is usable and simple. It offers more detail than that presented in L5R D10 2E and doesn't have much scope for PC involvement, but it presents a more tactical battle experience where different troop types have more effect. Again, it's more complicated than the basic, but the payoff is sufficient, IMHO. Then again, to me, the clash of mass armies has always been an important part of the L5R mystique. There are a few weird bits - entire units spontaneously becoming tainted as part of the random battle events mechanic - but easy enough to tweak.
   
   Overall I give WotD 4/10. It's a little hard to review a book with such a specific purpose, but as the DM of a campaign where PCs are starting to obtain high rank and I wanted to give them a chance to become more involved in the government of Rokugan, I found it disappointing. If I am the target audience - and I think I am - the book fails to meet expectations. If I'm not, the book is poorly marketed and narrowly focused, and still deserves bad marks. Overall, you might find it useful for background and further fleshing out Rokugan, but this is a long way from a must-have.

2 comments about Van Richten's Monster Hunter's Compendium, Vol Two (AD&D 2nd Ed Fantasy Roleplaying, Ravenloft).

1. k.. If you don't posses the Van Richten's Guide books this is it! , but, if you are one of the freaks who mannage to get their hands on the original books, don't bother!



2. Essentially this book is a collection of 3 Van Richten's guides, his guide to ghost, ancient dead (mummies) and the Lich. If you already own those books definately skip over this one. But if you don't its definately worth picking up. Included in each section is detailed information about the creature to which the section belongs, everything from game statistics, special abilities (more then what you'll find in the monstrous manual), variations, stories of noteable examples plaguing the Ravenloft world. The thing I liked most about the guides was they can be read by player and DM alike (although certain parts should be reserved for the DM). Personally I photocopied a large section appropriate to the adventure, (taking care not to copy the sections I didnt want my players to see) and in the adventure previous to the one I wanted it used it the players stumbled across a copy of one of Van Richtens many works. It gave the players many ideas on how to combat the undead, short of just running in and batteling away.

5 comments about GURPS Traveller: Science Fiction Adventure in the Far Future (GURPS Traveller).

1. Well...as an avid Traveller player, I was very interested inseeing what SJG could do to Traveller. I approached buying the gamewith great apprehension. But, in the end I was throughly satisified.Sure, I beef with the GURPS mechanics, but there is more than enough background info which one can overcome that by possessing another rulebook. If you are a Traveller collector, which owns everything that GDW ever produced for the game...then this game is not for you (you will find too much repetition). But, if you are like most of us with a decent Traveller collection. You will find happy to see everything under one roof, so to speak. In the meantime, lets hope T5 is everything we want!



2. As a big fan of Traveller, I was eager to see how Loren Wiseman would adapt the game for GURPS. While I suppose GURPS Traveller is a necessary book to introduce Traveller to GURPS, the book certainly isn't very meaty and doesn't have much in it that you couldn't just glean from purchasing the GURPS main rulebook. The character archtypes are a must but beyond that, they could have distributed the material among GURPS other sourcebooks. I would have rather scene a more detailed history section, akin to those I've come to expect from my Traveller products.



3. to set up a new campaigne or universe. I've been away from gaming for about 15 years and have passed on all my old Traveller stuff. Never having used Gurps before, I thought that the Traveller book would be enough to get going again. I figured it would contain the basic info as found in the first three original Traveller books. Wrong! There's no real info on world creation or space combat or even charactar creation. That's all covered in other GURPS books. By the time I get all the books I think I'll need, I'll be in for $100 or more. The GURPS system takes the narrow yet deep info approach to gaming. Travellar is a good background book if you're already a GURPS player but you need other books if you're new to this. It looks like I'll be getting "Traveller Scouts: First In" for world building and "GURPS Space" for space combat as well as "GURPS Basic Set" and "Compendium II" (charactar creation) . The good thing is that SJGames (publisher of GURPS) has a free GURPS Lite pdf file you can download that gives the basics of GURPS roleplaying. This may let me put off picking up the Basic Set for a while.



4. I'm a twenty year traveller veteran - I cut my teeth on classic Traveller, played MegaTraveller so much I probably could have won the rebellion single-handedly ;-) - and enjoyed wandering around the ruins of the Third Imperium, in Traveller : The New Era.

   ...Let me say straight out that this is a *great* addition to that legacy. Loren Wiseman has done a fantastic job of presenting a background rich in detail that will be accessible to newbies and ancient grognards alike. Set in an "alternate universe" in 1120, where the Imperium never fell, the supplement lovingly brings the feel of classic traveller to the GURPS system.

   The book is packed with library data, essays on the Imperium and its worlds, character templates, weapons, equipment - and the second edition even includes a modular starship design system to ease the pain associated with the enormous detail in GURPS vehicles.

   So without further ado - I bequeath this supplement ...5 stars. Its well written, beautifully presented and just a joy to own. If you are inquistive about Traveller this is a great book to start with. If you are vaguely serious about Traveller this is a purhase that you just can't do without.




5. Wow! Finally got round to playing Traveller with the GURPS system last night and I was amazed at what a good fit they make. The attention to detail in GURPS (and in particular combat) really works well with Traveller. The weapons and armour are beautifully realized and the character generation system gives a level of detail and flexibility that sits well with the depth of the Traveller universe. My worry that we would get bogged down in details was groundless. Though the GURPS rules cover pretty much everything, they don't get in the way. And another thing, how nice, how Traveller, to only be using six sided dice!

No comments about Traveller Hero Book Two: Adventure in Charted Space: The Imperium, Gadgets, Vehicles, Robots and Starships.

2 comments about Mindwalking: A Guide to Psionics (Alternity Sci-Fi Roleplaying).

1. I almost wanted to give this product 3 stars, because the production value is very good, but the content is too lacking in material. Psionics are such a basic staple of science fiction, and this book treats it in an adequate, if uninspired manner. Apparantly the purpose of this book was to provide generic information to be used in any kind of campaign, but it comes across so generic that it has no flavor. Alternity is a noble attempt, but drops short of its goal of creating the definitive sci-fi game. The fact that the information in "Mindwalking" is in a separate supplement is proof that Alternity is lacking. Note to Wizard of the Coast: next time you do a sci-fi game, put a full treatment of psionics in the core rules books.



2. I like Alternity; a very nice rules system with a pleasant, if not terribly inspired space opera setting and an X-files style modern setting. This book is a psionics add-on to the base system that provides some interesting genre notes and a minor additions to the rules, but, to be honest, the core rules cover it in plenty of detail for most purposes (I disagree with Thomas Denmark over this, obviously). If you want to go into a lot of psionics related detail in a game, maybe think about this book. Otherwise, pass.

No comments about Savage Mountains (Pendragon).