Tagline: Another excellent, if not so cheap, Cheapass Game.

Cheapass Games has created quite a reputation for itself. Producing games from the cheapest materials possible, they create highly affordable games with highly original premises. Almost all of their games have catchy titles and/or taglines, and their concepts are usually intriguing and amusing enough in their own right so that, even if the gameplay doesn’t catch your fancy, the product is still well worth the cost of entry.

And I say that as if their gameplay is usually poor. Quite the opposite is true – Cheapass Games doesn’t just have a reputation for their cheapness, they have a reputation for the high quality and playability of their game concepts. In short, Cheapass has ushered in a breath of fresh air to game design. Because they can produce games with such a low overhead they can experiment in many different directions very quickly, and with comparatively low risk. As a result you can see Cheapass play with and discard innovative game mechanics that other companies would be forced to milk for years, if they ever tried them in the first place.

Which brings us to Falling, an innovative and relatively unique card game. As with all of Cheapass Games’ products the first thing I heard about it was the tagline: “Everyone is falling, and the object is to hit the ground first. It’s not much of a goal, but it’s all you could think of on the way down.”

Instantly intrigued I surfed over to the Cheapass Games website and went digging around for more information. I came across an article written by James Ernest, the game’s designer and the driving force behind Cheapass Games, discussing some advanced tactics he had recently discovered… long after releasing the game.

I knew right then and there that I had to possess a copy of Falling. Most games, you understand, are like Sorry or Candyland — what little strategy and tactics there are in such games was known by the designers before the first playtest. It is the games which take on a life of their own, which have hidden complexities and dynamic interactions between their components which result in strategies and tactics which the designer never dreamed of, which are the very best games. Games like Chess and Diplomacy. If Falling was truly that type of game, and it contained the same type of powerful innovation found in other Cheapass Games, it was definitely packed with potential.

Unfortunately I couldn’t find Falling anywhere. I scanned the Cheapass racks (with their distinctive white envelopes) in, literally, half a dozen stores without any luck.

Why not? Because Falling is sold as a card pack, in one of those little cardboard boxes, on playing-card stock, for a price of $9.95. From Cheapass Games? What the heck?

Well, after playing the game it has become quickly apparent why this is the case. The cards simply have to be of a higher stock than your typical Cheapass game because, as the box says, Falling is a “frenetic” card game. Without the durability of an actual playing card, anyone owning Falling would quickly find themselves in need of a new deck.

So is this Cheapass Game worth a not-so-cheap price tag?

Hell, yeah.

THE RULES

Falling reminds me of another favorite game of mine, Twitch (from Wizards of the Coast and reviewed elsewhere on RPGNet). They’re both copyrighted for 1998 and therefore I won’t engage in pointless speculation as to which came first – it is far more likely a case of simultaneous inspiration (or drawing from some primal source with which I am wholly not familiar).

I say they remind me of each other, because both of them are “turn-less cardgames” – instead of following a set play order, like your typical card game, both Twitch and Falling feature simultaneous play by all the players at the table. No lazy downtime from these games (I actually managed to work up a hefty sweat while dealing for Falling).

In Twitch, simultaneity is accomplished because the basic mechanic of the game is determining the play order – the card one person plays determines who goes next, and if anyone else can play before that person can, then that person has to pick up the discard stack.

Falling, on the other hand, does it in a completely different fashion. One player is the dealer. Throughout the game all that the dealer does is deal cards, he doesn’t play at all. In fact, the dealer is dealing cards continuously throughout the game, proceeding sequentially from one player to the next. While the dealer deals, the players are all playing cards on themselves and against each other all at the same time.

Cool, huh?

In an unmodified situation (such as the very beginning of the game), each player starts with a single “stack” of cards. The dealer will deal one card to each player’s stack, and then move onto the next player (remember, once he starts dealing, he deals continuously). As the players receive cards, they can pick up one card at a time (and only the card on the top of a stack), which they can play on themselves or on another player.

As cards are played, however, things will change very quickly. The main mechanic in Falling are cards known as “riders”. Essentially, a rider informs the dealer how to deal to a player. There are three types of riders:

Split. A split card tells the dealer to start a new stack for the player (so he would deal one card to the existing stack, and then deal a second card to start a second stack). On subsequent turns, the dealer will deal one card to each stack (however, a player can get rid of a stack if he can play through all the cards in that stack before the dealer returns to him – a dealer only has to deal to stacks he can “see”, unless there are no stacks present in which case he automatically creates one).

Hit. A hit card tells the dealer to deal an additional card to each of the player’s stacks.

Skip. A skip card tells the dealer not to deal to that player this time around.

A player can only have one rider on them at a time. The dealer picks up the rider when he finishes its instruction (so a rider is only in effect for one turn).

In addition to the riders there are also “action” cards, which can be used to manipulate the riders in various ways:

Stop. A stop card destroys the rider. Put the rider in the discard pile, along with the stop pile.

Push. A push card takes a rider which has been played on you, and “pushes” it onto another player.

Grab. A grab card takes a rider which has been played on someone else, and “grabs” it – applying the rider to yourself.

Finally there are the Ground cards, which are placed at the bottom of the deck before the deal begins. If you are dealt a ground card you have hit the ground and are out of the game. The only way to avoid this is to “Stop” the ground card as soon as it is played (in which case it is placed back in the deck by the dealer). Because the ground cards are all grouped together once they start coming out it is generally useful to “Skip” your turn and to “Hit” other people (since having them dealt more cards makes it less likely that they can avoid the ground cards or stop them effectively).

There are a couple of extras (including, ironically, the “Extra” cards) – but that’s the core of the game.

DOES IT WORK?

Yes. Absolutely, positively. We had a rough start-up, since we had several neophytes who couldn’t quite get their heads around the “simultaneous play” portions of the game, but after a few trial runs (during which the dealer dealt very slowly and stopped often so that people could ponder how the game worked) we were able to quickly vamp things up to speed.

And at that point the game rocked. Just like Twitch people became speed demons around that table.

One thing we found of particular interest, though, was the differences in gameplay based on the speed of the dealer. We had a couple of very methodical dealers, who would deal at a steady, even pace. This allowed a bit more of personal reserve and tactical consideration. On the other hand, the speed demon dealers – who would race around the table as quickly as possible – inspired a rapid-response style of play in which you did your best to disadvantage the other players while keeping your disadvantage as limited as possible.

IS IT FUN?

You’re kidding, right?

I have a very large shelf of games (which, coincidentally, is coming to be dominated more and more by Cheapass Games). However, there is a small, select handful which get played time and time again. After one short evening of play, Falling has joined that select list. It is fun, it is engaging, and it is captivating. We were playing at a sizeable family gathering, and our initially small group had soon maxed out my deck many times over. Falling was drawing people to it from across the room.

So get out there. Scour your store for it (it may very well be in the last place you look, as it was for me). Buy it. You won’t regret it.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: James Ernest
Company/Publisher: Cheapass Games
Cost: $9.95
Page Count: n/a
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 1999/08/16

I absolutely adore real-time card games. They are so much fun! Unfortunately, most of the people in my immediate circle of gamers are completely disinterested and I almost never get to play them any more. They also seem to have fallen out of fashion. It makes me all frowny-faced.

It should be noted that Paizo reissued this game. I don’t own the new version, but my understanding is that the rules have not been changed and the only difference is that the game has been re-themed to feature Paizo’s crazy goblins.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: This is the stuff disappointment is made of.

Some quick background: In July 1999, I wrote a review of the Sovereign Stone: Quickstart Rules. I thought it was fantastic and wrote the review specifically to highlight the game’s upcoming release. One month later, the game had been released; I had read it; and this review appeared. Then the drama started…

This is the stuff disappointment is made of.

Let me start by saying that I’d like to issue an apology to anyone who bought this game based on my recommendation in a review of the Quickstart Rules a couple weeks back. Having obtained and read the core rulebook for Elmore’s Sovereign Stone I can now see that the potential I saw in the Quickstart Rules is completely unrealized. This is coupled with pathetic shortsightedness, poor conception, and an appalling sloppiness in execution.

INITIAL IMPRESSION

When I first saw Sovereign Stone on the store rack I was incredibly excited. I instantly recognized the elegant stonework framing an Elmore painting from the Quickstart Rules (although the painting is different). I picked it up and turned it over…

And began to get nervous. The back cover, in complete and utter contrast to the front, was black text on a plain white background (with a pale, blue pencil sketch design centered in the middle). You’ve probably seen books like this before – fronts and spines done in dark shades, and the back cover (for reasons beyond comprehension) done in an extremely light shade of an entirely different color. It screams “Amateur Land”.

No big worry, though. It wasn’t that bad. Right? Right. So I started flipping through it…

And my heart sunk. For reasons, once again beyond comprehension, the entire interior is printed in a grayish-brown ink – including the artwork. It was probably meant to set a mood. It succeeds brilliantly at being drab as hell. There were a few specific textual details which made things even worse, but we’ll cover those below.

So why do I own the book? Well, I was still hopeful. After all, the Quickstart Rules had really excited me. And it was Elmore, Weis, and Hickman, right? How could they go wrong?

All too easily.

A GROWING HORROR

Getting home I started reading it within the hour – I had been anticipating Sovereign Stone for quite some time, and I was anxious to get down to it. As I pushed farther and farther into the book, though, things got worse and worse.

Things started off well. The book begins with a table of contents and a two page map of the world, and then we move onto Chapter 1. Like Dream Pod 9’s Heavy Gear line of books, each chapter starts off with one page of flavor text – in this case a first person viewpoint of the world from each of the races (Chapter 1 is a dwarf; Chapter 2 is an ork; and so on).

It was when I hit the actual writing that I realized something was horribly wrong. First off, the writing style is stilted and amateurish – apparently aiming at a 4th grade reading level or lower most of the time.

Then we move onto the standard “What is a roleplaying game?” shtick. I don’t mind this, but the complete incompetence with which it is done is alarming — considering how many times its been done successfully, there are plenty of examples to draw from. For an example of the idiocy demonstrated here consider for a moment that the Sovereign Stone system uses the complete range of polyhedral dice. Not once – not here, nor anywhere else in the manual – is dice notation explained for the targeted neophyte.

This is also the section where we get the first inkling of a much larger problem. Here’s a little game for you. What header would you use to describe this paragraph:

The goal of the Sovereign Stone game is to give the players and the Game Master an interesting and exciting world in which to adventure, and an easy-to-play set of rules to enhance the adventure.

I’m willing to bet solid money that “Remember, This Is a Game!” was not the header you chose. I’ll bet it wasn’t even on the list. This is a persistent problem, with sections of text being labeled apparently at random.

And the lay-out problems don’t end there. The book simply isn’t constructed in a logical fashion. We jump from “What is Roleplaying?” straight to “Current Affairs in Loerem”. This doesn’t make any sense at all, I thought, we haven’t even been introduced to the world yet – none of this is going to make any sense. I was right.

Another little game for you: What’s the difference between “Nimra”, “Nimora”, and “Nimorea”?

Well, “Nimra” and “Nimora” are two of the eight kingdoms of the world of Loerem (where Sovereign Stone is set). Unless, of course, “Nimora” is actually supposed to be “Nimorea”. It appears as the latter on the map, the former in the text (sometimes), and its people are “Nimoreans”.

Where to begin? First off, having only one (or two) letter differences between two of your kingdoms is just plain stupid. It only leads to unnecessary confusion. Second, if you simply must do this thing, then there is absolutely no excuse for this shoddy excuse for copyediting.

A similar problem crops up when we get to languages: One of the languages is named “Karna”, spoken by Karnuans and Dunkargans. Which is fine, except for one thing: Karnu is a country which was formed after Dunkarga broke into two pieces in a civil war. So the language spoken mutually (and originating with the earlier people) is named after the latter group of people?

“Current Events” and “Languages”, however, are separated by the section on “Money” – which is pretty much like AD&D, except funny names have been given to all the coins and they’ve attempted to convince you that coins weighing the exact same amount but made in different times are worth radically different amounts (on an order of ten times as much for the older coins), but only for the silver ones.

One last generalized problem with the book as a whole, and then we’ll move onto Character Creation:

This is an RPG based on a world created by Larry Elmore, the famed fantasy artist, right? Larry Elmore is intimately involved in the production of the book, right? It is Elmore’s Sovereign Stone, right?

Right.

So can someone explain to me why this RPG is art poor in the extreme? Excluding the twenty-five pages of monsters (each of which has its own illustration), there are only forty illustrations in the entire book (a count which includes multiple instances of the same piece) – averaging only one piece of art every 3-4 pages. Many of these are small, and not helped in the least by the grayish-brown ink in which they are reproduced. Worst yet, they are almost all “people shots”. Between the skimpy text and the lack of illustrations, I have absolutely no idea what this world looks or feels like.

Not to mention the glaring inaccuracies. For example, we are told that the male clan dwarves “grow mustaches, though they do not grow beards”. Apparently someone forgot to inform Elmore of this tidbit (wait, isn’t it his world?) because every male dwarf depicted in the book (including the one accompanying the description of the clan dwarves) is shown with a beard. This type of error is repeated again and again and again.

CHARACTER CREATION

First off, the character sheet is reproduced twice – once on page 15 and once on page 16. Why? Apparently to balance the lay-out so that all of the two-page racial write-ups would be on facing pages.

Second, what do you think of this passage:

Additional Skills may be added to the character to make him more rounded. Refer to the Choose More Skills section to add Skills to your character.

How about this one?

A character possesses a pool of Life Points equal to his Vitality plus Willpower die maximums.

I hope you like ‘em a lot (plus about six others), because you’ll be reading them nine times.

This is because, after giving a two page write-up covering the general character creation process, the authors have then decided to include the basic character creation rules nine times – once in each of the racial write-ups (choosing a race is your first task). So you get a summary once, then you get it nine more times, and then you get the actual rules necessary for creating characters.

Allow me to express, as calmly as possible, my absolute fury about this: You could have produced these summaries and handful of actual rules (which take up almost an entire page) in the space you allotted to that extra, pointless character sheet. Then you could have used the space you saved nine times over there to give us more valuable information about each of the nine races (which, by the way, include five different nationalities of human) instead of the generalized cliches you have.

Why does this infuriate me? A brief digression is called for.

THE WORLD OF LOEREM, A BRIEF DIGRESSION

In my review of the Quickstart Rules I mentioned that one of the things I was really looking forward to was the potential in Sovereign Stone to do something really original and different with the standardized Tolkienesque fantasy tropes.

Well, it’s possible that the world of Loerem will live up to my every expectation. I won’t be one to know it, however. First, because I’m not buying anything else in this product line without a lot of evidence that things have improved. Second, because aside from a longish section giving one-page write-ups to all the monsters (ala Monstrous Manual), I’ve already discussed all the world information you get in the book. That’s right – a section on “Current Events”, the write-ups of the various races in the character creation chapter, a section on monsters, and that’s it.

Pathetic.

This is a 168 page book with more wasted space than a sub-lunar orbit. There is simply no excuse for the setting to not be covered in this volume.

BACK TO CHARACTER CREATION

Did you notice the number “nine” above? This makes sense, at first, because there are nine cultural groups shown on the map – Vinnengaelean, Nimra, Nimor(e)a, Dunkarga, Karnu, the Elves, the Clan Dwarves, the Unhorsed Dwarves, and the Orks. However, there are also the Trevenici – a nomadic race of humans spread throughout the world who don’t appear on the map.

Wait a minute, you say, doesn’t that equal ten? Why, yes. Yes it does.

So why are there only nine racial types you can select? Because this game sucks.

What’s missing? The Dunkargans. You know they’re supposed to be there, because the beginning of the Karnuan text reads: “The Kingdom of Karnu emerged as the victor in the debilitating civil war.” The civil war? What civil war? The civil war that would have been mentioned in the Dunkargan section, except that the Dunkargan section no longer exists.

What this means is that, somewhere along the line, the Dunkargan section got deleted from the text. And nobody noticed. Talk about half-assed. If it was done deliberately, then the Karnuan text should have been changed to reflect that. If it was done by accident, they’re just dumb as bricks.

I’m going to attempt to calm my rage long enough to explain the basics of the character creation system to you in a rational manner. It is essentially a seven step process (which, as noted before, is gone through more than nine times):

1. Generate Attributes
2. Calculate Life Points
3. Choose Traits
4. Choose Racial Skills
5. Choose More Skills
6. Starting Money & Gear
7. Name the Character

Generate Attributes. There are eight Attributes, which are measured by die types (so you might have a d4 in Strength and a d12 in Psyche). They are generated semi-randomly in two groups (four Physical Attributes and four Mental Attributes). First you roll 8d6, pairing the dice four groups of two. You then add those pairs together and consult a chart to determine the resultant die type (so pairing a 4 and a 2 would give you a score of 6, which, according to the chart, gives you a d6 die type). You assign each score to one of the four Physical Attributes. Repeat for the Mental Attributes. (The chart can be summarized as “if the score is equal to or less than the die type, while exceeding the previous die type, then it is that die type” – hence 2-4 results in a d4; 5-6 results in a d6; and so on.)

An alternate method is given, by which the GM gives each character 56 points to spread around the various attributes. If the GM wants a slightly more powerful campaign he can increase this number of points, “not to exceed 60” – a seasoned character would get 57; a veteran would get 58; and a hero character would get 60 (they don’t say what a character with 59 points would be called).

At first glance the system looks incredibly silly – a spread of four points? Wow! What flexibility! However, if you run the numbers through you’ll see that those four points can make a large difference – each additional point you give the characters essentially means they can get, in most circumstances, an additional attribute level. Since the system boils down, in the end, to five discrete levels (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12) those four levels mean a lot.

Calculate Life Points. The character’s pool of Life Points is equal to their Vitality die maximum plus their Willpower die maximum.

Choose Traits. Sovereign Stone uses a system of Advantages and Disadvantages. All Advantages and Disadvantages have a Minor level; several of them have a Major level as well (with slightly more serious consequences).

Each Race has a package of three advantages and disadvantages, except humans whose “package” consists of any advantage and any disadvantage. In the first step of choosing traits each character selects one advantage and one disadvantage from this package.

In the second step of choosing traits each character may then take an additional two Minor Advantages (or one Major Advantage), with a corresponding number of Disadvantages.

The system has three major drawbacks in my opinion: First, ad/disad systems are most useful for balancing out other parts of the character creation system. When they are allowed to do so, the ad/disad system helps break out the symmetry of character creation – attributes no longer have to line up along a bell curve, skills do not always total exactly the same number of skill points, and so on. As it stands, every part of Sovereign Stone is a perfectly balanced microcosm, which is generally inflexible.

But that’s mostly a personal taste (your mileage may vary, of course). The other two problems are far more serious. First, the racial packages encourage stereotypes and limit your options (particularly since you are forced to select one advantage and one disadvantage of them). Why must all elves be either honest, have a special enemy, or be possessed of a distinctive look? Why must all dwarves have a phobia, a special enemy, or battle lust? Why must orks either be infamous, indecisive, or greedy (i.e., they’re either a criminal, greedy, or wishy-washy)?

Second, there simply aren’t that many options. There are only eighteen advantages, three of which are variations of Animal Empathy, and one of which is limited to Orks only. There are only sixteen disadvantages (which balances with the advantages once you eliminate the Animal Empathy variations). Not only are clear opposites ignored (so you can, for example, negatively effect your wealth, but not positively effect it), but many options are left completely unexplored. “Lack of space”, as noted before, simply isn’t palatable in a book of this length – if something is left out it’s because you chose to leave it out. If you found yourself without inspiration crack open a GURPS book.

Choose Racial Skills. Each racial package has a short list of “racial skills” from which they must select four. All of the non-human races, except Unhorsed Dwarves, have one mandatory skill which they are required to select.

Choose More Skills. Total your attribute die levels to determine your initial Skill Points, which are spent progressively on buying die types in the skills you desire. This creates an interesting dynamic, in that you will almost certainly end up with more skill points than attribute points (since even with the semi-random system you’re going to choose pairs which result in the lowest possible total for the desired attribute). I don’t know whether this was intentional or not.

The only serious drawback here is that, for unknown reasons, no complete list of skills is provided for easy reference. You have to go wandering through the skill descriptions to find what you’re looking for.

Starting Money and Gear. To determine your starting money you roll Willpower + Dickering (or just Willpower if you didn’t take the Dickering skill) and multiply by four and add 80 – this gives you a total in silver coins. You then use this to purchase equipment (which is detailed in its own chapter).

One very nice part of the equipment system is the location system. The designers have taken the time to specify in what types of towns adventurers are likely to find each type of equipment – simplifying the GM’s job and discouraging the common practice of beginners to have every village shopkeeper possessing every item in known creation.

Name the Character. This is actually handled quite well. Each racial type is given a couple of paragraphs in which their naming conventions are briefly discussed.

Overall, the character creation is solid. I would have liked to see non-random options introduced for all the default randomness, but that’s no big deal.

However, character creation, like everything else in this book, suffers greatly not because of what it is, but because of how it was presented. The system itself is admirable, but it is presented in a way which is repetitious and under-detailed. Did I need to read the same text several times over? And if you could afford the space to do that, why are there other things which you don’t give enough of?

RESOLUTION MECHANIC

The basic resolution mechanic is simple: Roll your applicable Attribute die type and your applicable Skill die type, add them together, and compare to an assigned Difficulty number. Unskilled actions are resolved by rolling only an attribute die. An opposed action is successful for whoever has the higher die total.

In addition, you can choose to “exert” on any particular action – by taking stun damage (representative of the amount of exhausting yourself by over-exerting) you can add an additional die to your resolution. The more stun damage you take, the higher the die type you can use. (Wait a minute, you say, stun damage? I thought damage in the system was handled through a Life Point pool? Yup. If you’re confused by this review, you’d be no less confused by Sovereign Stone which routinely pulls this “using the rules before explaining them” routine. Sometimes there’s no way to avoid this, but at the very least reference should be made.)

COMBAT

Speaking of damage, let’s take a look at the combat system.

As I mentioned in my review of the Quickstart Rules, it was here that I started getting excited about Sovereign Stone. The rules were clean, being a nice, clear extension of the basic mechanic. They felt very much to me alike an “AD&D done right”.

This hasn’t changed… mostly. There’s a couple of places where the rules have been altered from the Quickstart Rules. Usually for the worse. I’ll discuss this as it comes up.

First, the designers seem to have found a nice compromise between the easy bookkeeping of traditional Hit Points and the slight edge in verisimilitude of Wound systems. Your character has a pool of Life Points (which is shown as a strip of boxes on the character sheet) and can take two types of damage: Stun and Wound. If you take Stun damage you mark off from top down; if you take Wound damage you mark off from the bottom up (with Wounds superseding Stun if the two meet). If all of your Life Point boxes are marked off you fall unconscious. If all your Life Point boxes are marked off as wounds you die. Nice and simple.

[ That’s the way it’s described in the rulebook. If you want a more mathematical, rather than visual, approach to this record-keeping: You have a pool of Life Points. You can take Stun Damage and you can take Wound Damage. If your Stun Damage + Wound Damage total is higher than your Life Point pool you fall unconscious. If your Wound Damage total is higher than your Life Point pool you die. ]

Battles are divided into turns (lasting approximately six seconds) in which each character gets to take one action (which is declared at the beginning of the turn). Before anything is resolved everyone rolls the dice for their declared action (this is important) – the highest resulting roll goes first, the second highest next, and so on down to the lowest roll.

Now, if you are attacked before taking your action for that turn you have two options: You can attempt to defend or you can “tough it out”. If you decide to defend you roll your dice again. If your new total is higher than the attacker’s then the attack is unsuccessful. If it is lower then the attack is successful and damage is determined by Attacker’s Total – Defender’s Total + Weapon Damage Bonus – Armor; which is then divided evenly between Stun and Wound damage (round in favor of stun) unless the bonus states otherwise.

“Tough it out” replaces “take the attack” from the Quickstart Rules. With “take the attack” you weren’t actively defending, but would still attempt to dodge the blow, rolling your Agility Attribute only. Damage was determined the same way. “Tough it out” is handled exactly the same way, except that when you take damage it raises the Difficulty of whatever action you are attempting to take.

This change was badly thought out. The version found in the Quickstart Rules provided a nice dynamic. Before showing you how that dynamic has been ruined, let me explain one last catch: If you’ve already taken your attack (i.e., you went first in the turn) and someone attacks you, then you can actively defend without losing your attack for that turn.

Example. Using the Quickstart Rules you and a taan both want to beat on each other with swords for awhile. You both declare your intention (“I wanna beat up on the other guy”) and then roll your initial dice (Strength Attribute + Sword Skill). You get 14 and the taan gets 11, therefore you get to go first (since you have the higher total). The taan decides to take the attack, so he rolls his Agility Attribute and gets a 7. You subtract 7 from 14, add your sword’s damage bonus (let’s say it’s 3). The total damage would therefore be 10, making for five points of Stun damage and five points of Wound damage (evenly divided).

Because the taan took the attack, the taan now gets to attack back – using his original total of 11 (because this was his declared action). You still get to defend, because you went first – roll your Strength Attribute + Sword Skill and get 12. Because your total was higher than his, his attack is unsuccessful.

Under the new system, however, the taan has his difficulty raised by the damage which was inflicted. So let’s take a slightly different look at this example:

Example 2. Because the taan took the attack, the taan now gets to attack back – using his original total of 11. You still defend, but let’s postulate that you got a Strength Attribute + Sword Skill total of 10 this time. Under the Quickstart Rules you would have been unsuccessful and the taan would have hit you, but under the new rules you defend just fine – because the taan gets a -10 modifier and his effective total is reduced to 1.

Do you see what happens? Before you could decide to make yourself easier to hit in order to still get off an attack, but under the new system you make yourself easier to hit and the fact that you get hit means you are unlikely to have a successful attack (especially since the other guy still gets to defend). “Tough it out” ceases to be tactically useful.

I say all this, but let me now modify it by saying that I have no idea if what I just told you is correct. Why? Because the rules are presented in a muddy, incompetent manner. First, in the Quickstart Rules it is laid out quite plainly that if you attack first you can still defend against later attacks. In this rulebook, however, that is not plainly stated – although it is stated that a defensive action cancels your declared action. So it’s possible that this entire dynamic has simply been removed, which is even worse. (Plus, how does it all interact with the new mechanic which states that each additional defense costs a point a Stun? Does that apply to defenses taken after a declared action? And if you can’t defend if you’ve already taken your declared action, why not?)

Second, the rules state: “Of course, any Wound damage suffered in this attack will still modify the dice roll for the target’s declared action, changing the order of his action as well as affecting its success.” This is odd. “Of course”? “Still”? This rule is not mentioned anywhere else in the text. Is it an artifact from an earlier edition of the rules? If I ignore it the rules certainly improve. Does this apply to other attack situations or not? If I fail to defend against your attack, does the penalty apply to all future defense actions I take in that turn?

The rules are simply put together badly and explained worse. They’ve ruined what was presented as an elegant, simple system in the Quickstart Rules.

They make things even worse. In my review of the Quickstart Rules I mentioned specifically how happy I was that they had trimmed away the “needless and contradictory fat” of the AD&D combat system. I spoke too hastily. The fat is back with avengeance – special modifiers plague the system throughout, along with reference charts and special case options.

Another odd thing: The rules for determining what happens when two characters tie for initiative have mysteriously disappeared. In the Quickstart Rules the decision of defense type was left in the hands of the PC. Given that the decision is no longer palatable (you can either not attack at all or have a good chance of giving an ineffective attack) it is unsurprising that some other compromise should be found. Unfortunately, this compromise is never detailed.

MAGIC

I mentioned in my review of the Quickstart Rules that I thought they had a solid foundation laid down for their magic system – with a couple of additions and extrapolations (magical item creation, for example), they could easily be a contender for one of the best magic systems in the biz.

Well, the solid foundation remains. And that’s it. None of the extra material or extrapolation which should be present in a full-sized game are present here.

Basically it works like this: Magical spells have difficulty numbers. He rolls his Psyche Attribute + Magic Skill and totals the dice – if the total is higher than the difficulty number he succeeds immediately; if not he may try again on the next turn, adding the new total to the old total until he gets a total higher than the difficulty number. The more complex the spell the higher the difficulty number, the higher the difficulty number the more turns it will take before the mage is successful.

Unlike combat they haven’t weighed the system down with inconsistency, gaping holes, or needless complication. Across the board the system is clean and nicely handled.

The cosmology behind spell-casting is relatively simple: Each race is advantaged in one of the four elements (earth, fire, water, air). It is easier for a spellcaster to learn spells dealing with the element which his race is advantaged in, and more difficult in spells opposed or unrelated to his advantaged element. In addition there is a fifth element, the Void, which is opposed to all of the elements – but which any spellcaster can pick up. (There’s some nice “Taint of the Void” mechanics which I won’t take the time to get into here.)

SYSTEM SUMMARY

If there’s any reason to pick up Sovereign Stone at all it would be to cannibalize and fix-up the system, which is excellent. Basic Resolution, Combat, and Magic are all clean, simple systems which get the job done in an elegant and easy-to-learn manner. Even Character Creation is decent, although it needs the most work.

The only problem the system information has is that it is presented in such a shoddy manner. Besides the general problems discussed above, you end up with idiocies such as describing what attributes are at the beginning of the “Basic Rules” chapter – despite the fact that this chapter comes after the “Character Creation” chapter and therefore there is no need to explain what attributes are (particularly since you discussed them about a dozen times). (If I had to guess, I would say that they were initially going for a White Wolf-style lay-out where the basic rules would be explained before character creation. When they changed their mind they simply cut-‘n-pasted the section without thinking to rewrite it.) This problem is not the exception to the rule (if you’ll pardon the pun), but representative of a generalized fault.

THE WORLD OF LOEREM

Essentially the world of Loerem suffers from three things in this book: First, a lack of information (discussed above to some degree). Second, they try too hard at times to distinguish the world from other Tolkienesque worlds. And, third, they don’t try hard enough to distinguish the world. Here’s what we know of the world:

General History. A long time ago the Kingdom of Vinnengael ruled the continent under a golden age. Actually, I’m not sure it was that long ago – since no dates are given and one of the quoted human characters specifically references this earlier time period as if he had lived in it (I’m willing to chalk the latter up to one more instance of sloppy writing, though). At that time the Gods blessed certain humans with holy power. These humans became known as the Dominion Lords. The King of Vinnengael requested that he be given the power to make Dominion Lords for the other races, and he was given the Sovereign Stone in order to make that happen. At some point the Sovereign Stone was broken.

General Current Events. Dagnarus, Lord of the Void, was thought killed long ago (in circumstances so mysterious they’ve decided not to tell us about them), but he wasn’t (whoa!). He’s actually some form of undead and he craves the Sovereign Stone (for reasons so mysterious they’ve decided not to tell us about them). He has returned to this world with a massive army of Taan (“fierce creatures from another part of the world”… so mysterious that they’ve decided not to tell us where), led by his undead knights known as the Vrykyl.

Humans. There are five human kingdoms: Vinnengael, Dunkarga, Karnu, Nimra, and Nimor(e)a. Vinnengael is an empire which is in steep decline (they don’t even mind that they’re being invaded); Karnu split off from Dunkarga in a civil war which was comparatively recent (but at a time so conspicuously recent that they’ve decided not to give us any dates… oh wait, I don’t even know what the current year is), but not so recent that Karnuans don’t have an entirely different culture than Dunkarga; Nimor(e)a is a northern settlement of the Nimran people (settled so long ago that they’ve decided not to… oh nevermind). Vinnengael is the decadent one; Dunkarga is the timid one; Karnu is the aggressive one; Nimrans are the traders; Nimoreans are the hardy barbarians living in a harsh land.

Not Enough Information: Almost everything we are told about the human cultures is ancient – mainly how their modern borders and politics were defined by the Fall of Old Vinnengael.

Trying Too Hard: “And here’s a completely different culture….” Historically you end up with a lot of different nations, all very similar to one another, grouped together. You get “Asian Countries” and “European Countries” and “African Countries” – you don’t get “An Asian Country” and “A European Country” and “An African Country”.

Not Trying Hard Enough: You have probably already noticed that all these cultures can be broken down into traditional fantasy roles. There is, of course, a great deal of variation which could be done within any one of these roles – but we simply aren’t given enough information about any of them. As a result, everything defaults to a cliché.

Elves. Elves are the Asians of the setting (cunningly located to the north to throw you off the scent). They have elaborate customs, an ornate system social order, and so on.

Not Enough Information: Every elf in the book is shown with a face paint or tatooed design around their eyes. What does this design indicate? I dunno. It’s never explained.

Trying Too Hard: Elves don’t like magic. Why? Because elves do like magic in any other Tolkienesque fantasy setting.

Not Trying Hard Enough: Well, they have an elaborate set of customs. And they are…? They have an ornate social order. And it is…? Once again, we are given cliches where hard information would have been preferred.

Dwarves. Dwarves are Mongols who believe they will inherit the planet someday. They are members of large clans which travel through the eastern steppes on their horses. However, some dwarves are cast out of this clan and become known as the Unhorsed.

Not Enough Information: Nothing specific, although the dwarves are as poorly described as everything else in the book.

Trying Too Hard: Dwarves like magic. Why? Because dwarves don’t like magic in any other Tolkienesque fantasy setting.

Not Trying Hard Enough: You’ve heard this complaint before. We’re given the cliché, but nothing to back it up with.

Orks. Orks are largely a seafaring race, with a complex social system based on this fact and their life as traders.

Not Enough Information: Orks believe themselves to be the first race on Loerem, tracing their ancestry back to the sea monsters known as “orca”, from which they derive their name. Why aren’t the “orca” described in the book? Are they supposed to be whales, as their name might indicate?

Trying Too Hard: Actually I don’t have any problems here. The Orks have been differentiated to a large degree from your standard orcish fare, but they have been done so in an intelligent manner across the board.

Not Trying Hard Enough: Once more, Sovereign Stone proves itself to be King of the Cliché.

You might be thinking to yourself: “Wow, nice summary.” Afraid not. If you buy this book you won’t be getting much more information than I’ve imparted to you here. Personally I still think Loerem has a lot of potential, but it remains no more realized here than it was in the Quickstart Rules. Indeed, it is worse. With the Quickstart Rules you were given practically nothing in the way of world background – which was acceptable, since what was hinted at was promising. Here, however, you are given just enough so that everything strikes you as clichéd and nothing strikes you as original.

Very disappointing.

OTHER STUFF TO HATE

If you’ve read my review of the Quickstart Rules you probably remember me mentioning the foolishness of describing your magical Portals in terms which in no way distinguish them from the Waygates of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Let me say here and now that despite my complaints of the method used in the Quickstart Rules, that method is vastly superior to the method selected for this core rulebook.

To whit: The Portals aren’t discussed anywhere in this book. They are mentioned many times (and apparently there’s a major military action involving one of them, but it’s very vague), but never explained. This is symptomatic of the entire game – things simply are not discussed when they should be.

Did I mention that they don’t appear in the Index, either? They share this trait with many other things, and the things which are mentioned usually aren’t comprehensively referenced. The index is a piece of crap.

To give you a total understanding of just how shoddy this thing is, let me draw your attention to something else: The game is called Sovereign Stone. Why? Because there is a major artifact of some sort known as the Sovereign Stone. It’s of fairly significant importance even beyond the implications of its titular role – it leads to the fall of Old Vinnengael, the separation of Nimra from Nimor(e)a, Dagnarus’ invasion, and is what allows for the creation of the Dominion Lords. What is it, though?

How the hell should I know? Although it is mentioned a couple of times it is not discussed in any detail. This is like the core Dragonlance manual not discussing the dragonlances.

WRAPPING THINGS UP

Why am I so furious? Why is this review filled with invective I have never before unleashed?

Because this game is so damn disappointing.

Sovereign Stone is a travesty. It has a world brimming with potential. It has a rock solid set of rules. It has a creative team with a proven track record any other start-up in this industry would die for.

And it sucks.

Unreservedly. Without qualification. With utter conviction. Sovereign Stone sucks. It is a waste of paper. It is in serious competition for the worst roleplaying game I have ever owned. The World of Synnibar was done better.

I wish I could say, “Go out and buy this game. If nothing else, it’s got some great ideas.”

In all good conscience I can’t say that. There are some good ideas in there, but they are not only presented in an ugly, debilitating fashion – their potential is completely unrealized and is hidden away at every possible opportunity.

Sovereign Stone is not worth your money or your time. Stay as far away from it as you can.

Style: 1
Substance: 1

Author: Don Perrin and Lester Smith (Larry Elmore)
Company/Publisher: Corsair Publishing, LLC and Sovereign Press, Inc.
Cost: $25.00
Page Count: 168
ISBN: 0-9658422-3-1

Originally Posted: 1999/08/16

This review caused an uproar. First, there were the people who were incredulous that my opinion of the Quickstart Rules and the core rulebook could be so diametrically opposed. Second, there were the authors and publishers who were absolutely furious. Third, there were the people who had also bought the rulebook and were generally confirming every negative thing I had to say about the game.

The publishers would later admit that they had sent the wrong file to the printers: Instead of the final draft of the book, they sent a much earlier draft that had not been fully proofread.

Which explained some of the horrible editorial problems the book had and possibly even some of the design issues, but didn’t explain the massively underdeveloped (to the point of being unusable) setting.

One incident that stands out in particular for me happened at Gencon: Despite the crushing disappointment of the core rulebook, my interest in Sovereign Stone had not abated. So I stopped by the Corsair Publishing booth and was looking over the product line. Someone associated with the company came over and started chatting with me. Then I very distinctly remember them looking down at my name badge, reading my name, and then looking up into my face. “Oh,” they said. And then turned and walked away.

So I put the book back down and walked away.

For years now, I had placed this memory at Gencon 1999: That I had written the review, there had been an uproar, and then I had gone to Gencon and in the heat of that uproar the fellow from Corsair had simply wanted nothing to do with me.

But in prepping this review for reposting here at the Alexandrian, I’ve realized that this timeline doesn’t work: My review didn’t appear at RPGNet until a couple weeks after the convention. So the incident in the Corsair booth actually happened at Gencon 2000. This actually makes sense, because this definitely happened at the same convention that Orkworld was released at (which I remember because of the “feud” John Wick and I supposedly had going on, which neither John Wick or I actually considered a feud… but that’s a story for another time), and Orkworld was definitely released in 2000.

Memory is a tricky thing. On the other hand, that actually makes it a sadder story. I was in the booth because I was genuinely interested in seeing how the Sovereign Stone product line had developed, but the fellow from Corsair apparently thought I was there to do some sort of “hit” on their new books. As a result, I’ve never actually picked up another book related to Sovereign Stone and they didn’t get the positive reviews I might have written (assuming the books had actually improved, of course).

C’est la vie.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: If you haven’t read Dragon Magazine in years you should definitely think about picking up a copy. If you’ve never read it at all, come on in and join the party.

Those who have been into RPGs for a long time now can look back and remember a time when Dragon Magazine was not only king of the hill, but rightfully deserved to be. It was a time when you felt like the articles you were reading were actually contributing significantly to your roleplaying experience (instead of just being a list of new treasures and magical spells). It was a time when Dragonmirth was funny, and classic strips like SnarfQuest, Phil and Dixie, and (of course) Wormy were all in the midst of their runs. It was a time when, thanks to the Forum and the letters column you felt like part of a community.

Dragon Magazine rocked.

I, on the other hand, pretty much missed all that. I entered the hobby in 1989, right along with the second edition of AD&D, and Dragon (while still a great magazine) was on a declining slope. The classic comic strips were all gone, the big names had picked up their bags and moved on, and things were beginning to slip. But I came in at such a time that I could appreciate what I had missed through discussions with others (plus I’ve read quite a bit of that older material in various forms over the years). There was a significantly long period of time in which the only reason I wasn’t cancelling my subscription to Dragon was, first, because I had always had a subscription to Dragon; second, Yamara was still worth reading; and, third, I was too lazy to send in the cancellation card.

Recently, however, a couple of things cropped up:

1. Because I was involved in a lot of other commitments, a stack of recent Dragons stacked up – from #257 to #262. When I finally sat down to read them, therefore, I was able to devour a total of six issues over the course of a couple of days. While doing so a fact which had been tickling my subconscious for well over a year now suddenly sprang into my conscious mind: Dragon was good again. Actually, Dragon was great.

2. Issue #262 was my 100th issue. My first was #162 way back in 1990.

Put those two little factoids together and I decided it was time to write a review.

IN THE BEGINNING

Issue #162 is still one of my favorite issues of Dragon — a fact which, I have no doubt, is inspired largely by nostalgia. Still, when it first arrived in the mail and I looked down at the skeletal rider upon a living steed done in tones of brown (it was the October issue), I knew I had something special in my hands. Issue #162 is one of only a handful of Dragons which I can honestly say I read cover to cover (the double-sized issue #200 was the last one which sticks out in my memory) – I remember the tome which contained unspeakable spells of undead magic; the article on how to manipulate a game so that your players feel horror and not just their characters; the short story of an undead monster haunting a fantasy village; the peals of laughter from Dragonmirth; and so much else.

That was a lot of fun.

About a dozen issues later things began to taper off for me though. It’s possible my excitement was merely dying (or that overexposure to the same old formulas had finally worn thin), but given not only my feelings but the expressed feelings of many others regarding the magazine I think a serious dip in quality was taking place (along with the rest of TSR’s product line).

THE HERE AND NOW

There was a long span in the early 200’s of Dragon where I was barely even flipping through the issues. The majority of the articles were based on tired formulas (and here’s the monsters of the month, the items of the month, and the spells of the month); I hadn’t read a short story in over fifty issues; and even Dragonmirth had lost its edge.

Then things started to turn up slightly, shortly after Dave Gross took the helm as editor. I still wasn’t reading it a lot (and an impulse to simply cancel my subscription kept cropping up from time to time), but things weren’t as bad as they could be. (Now there’s sterling praise for you.)

Then TSR went belly-up and Wizards of the Coast bought the company.

Which leads me to an interesting digression. It is a testament not only to how little attention I was paying to Dragon, but also my total lack of involvement in the greater RPG community of the time, that it took me three or four months to realize that my issues of Dragon weren’t showing up. Then one day an issue of the Comic Buyer’s Guide showed up with news that TSR had gone bankrupt and been bought out by WotC. Huh. Whaddya know?

Long story short: Curiosity brought me back online to find out the hoary details, which lead me to Heavy Gear and Feng Shui, the former of which (and the latter to a certain extent as well) revitalized my passion in roleplaying games, which, in turn, is why you’re reading this review.

End of digression.

In any case, when Dragon came back things started getting better at a very rapid pace. Indeed, in my opinion, TSR started improving as a whole. But it took awhile for the fact to catch up to my brain (for those of you old enough to have been around then, you’ll remember that for several years prior to the buy-out, TSR was pretty much at the bottom of the barrel in terms of product quality).

Which brings me to the here and now. You already know what I think (because I mentioned it above): Dragon rocks. Let’s take a look at the last ten issues and find out why.

THE GOOD STUFF

ART

Let’s start on the outside. For the longest time Dragon Magazine was cursed with covers depicting nothing but dragons. While at first this seems appropriate, in truth it was just repetitious. And while I like dragons, a steady diet of them is like a steady diet of anything else: Boring.

I bring that up because the cover art of the last ten issues hasn’t only been of fantastic quality – it’s been creative, original, and (at times) cunning. Ten issues ago, on the cover of #253, we have Brom offering us up the seemingly serene image of a young beauty dipping her feet in a river while playing on the harp. It is only after admiring the picture for a few moments that you realize that her eyes are mysteriously filled with an unexpected sadness. Then you see that the riverbed is composed of skulls. Finally a shocking truth reveals itself to you: The young woman is chained to the rock upon which she sits. The initially tranquil, peaceful vista gives away to a frightening scene, made all the more horrific by the subtle, hidden nature of it all.

Issue #254 has the incomparable Jeff Easley (famed for his dragons) exercising his comedic talent, with the picture of a hill giant who has obviously been knocked unceremoniously onto his rear by the fighter who, although he and his mount are clenched in the giant’s palm, still struggles to slay the poor fellow. (And for those of you disappointed that Jeff wasn’t depicting a dragon, you might notice the silhouette swooping across the sky in the background.)

We’ll skip ahead now (noting that there “be no dragons here”) to issue #258.

Oh. My. God.

It is, quite simply, gorgeous. So gorgeous you just sit there staring at it for a few moments, and then you open up to the interior page where they reproduce the cover art full-size and uncluttered with text (a very nice feature, I might add) to stare at it some more. Todd Lockwood, the artist, deserves every piece of kudos possible for this stunning, haunting image of a young female mage, clenching a green-glowing staff, after slaying some sort of mechanical monster. Inside you discover that the image was an office favorite; so much so that it inspired Bruce Cordell to write an article based on the cover.

(Coincidentally, I mentioned above that issue #200 was the last issue I read all the way through. That is, up until this issue; and I’ve been reading all of them since then the same way (except for any game-based fiction, I have a weak stomach).)

Skip up to #260, where Jeff Easley returns with a stunningly rendered dragon steed (complete with rider) – excellent stuff – and then onto issue #261.

Oh. My. God.

Did I say that already? Well, it bears repeating. Fred Fields’ dark interpretation of Boticelli’s “Birth of Venus” is every bit as stunning and evocative as Lockwood’s cover for #258. You should track down these two issues just so you can see these covers, if for no other reason. They’re that good.

We’ll wrap up our tour of the recent covers with the most recent: Tony DiTerlizzi’s painting for #262 (of a halfing holding a lantern while walking under a fallen tree as fairies dance in the shadows) is simply heartwarming.

Since I’ve waxed on and on (and on) about the covers, I will simply say of the interior art that it matches the exterior step for step. Undoubtedly this is the finest Dragon has ever looked.

LAYOUT

And speaking of that, let us move onto the sterling interior lay-out. Let me keep it brief and sum up: Clear presentation. Easy to read. Finding information is a simple task. Graphically rich (complementing without overpowering the text). Best looking magazine I subscribe to – in or out of the industry (and I subscribe to, literally, dozens).

GENERAL CONTENT

Keeping it general: The overall quality of the articles, columns, and features has improved tremendously over the past couple years — I’ve already mentioned that I’m reading the issues cover-to-cover again. Some specific features I’ve taken note of are discussed below.

THE SPINE

Another quickie: In the past couple years Dragon has adopted a squared-off spine. This, in itself, was a good idea. It makes storing and stacking the magazines a lot easier. Then they made it even better by printing the number and the theme of the issue on the spine – which means you can find the issues you’re looking for very quickly and very easily. Kudos.

THEME BALANCE

And speaking of themes, let me say that the balance between theme related and non-theme related material in each issue is balanced very nicely. When the theme idea became particularly prominent in the 190’s and early 200’s there was a tendency to put far too much themed material in each issue – so that if, for example, the theme was “Dark Sun” and you didn’t run a Dark Sun campaign there would be next to nothing in the issue of value to you. In response to complaints regarding this Dragon then entered a stage where, although the issues still had themes, there was almost no theme-related material in the issues. This defeated the purpose. They seem to have found an appropriate balance now where you can pick up an issue just for its theme and get enough material to make it worthwhile; while subscribers who don’t have any use for the theme won’t feel jilted.

My one problem with this, however, is that I used to like the fact that the April issue was all comedy and the October issue was all horror. The “balance” here is actually, in my opinion, out of balance: I encourage them to return to a practice of having those two issues “overburdened” with themed material.

D-MAIL/FORUM

Properly handled letter columns are the life-blood of a magazine – particularly in fan-oriented publications. In the 1960s Marvel Comics had a multiple page letter column for each of their comics, in which Stan Lee (and, later, the other editors) engaged in active dialogues with the readers (and allowed the readers to engage in active dialogues with one another). Since then Marvel has continuously shrunk the size of the letter columns in synch with limiting their content – reading a letters page today you get 2-3 letters of congratulation and little else. It is a noticeable loss. (You can chart a similar decline, and disappearance, of the letter columns in F/SF magazines.)

Similarly, during its early days, and at its height, Dragon’s letters pages were one of the focal points for gaming fandom. Reading them (and perhaps participating in them) you really felt like you belonged to a community of people. During Dragon’s darkest days, on the other hand, the letter columns declined into a self-congratulatory mess (with the occasional exception). It was sickening watching people fall all over themselves congratulating a magazine of such poor quality through pure ignorance of their other options (except, of course, when they were congratulating other crappy TSR products through sheer ignorance of their other options).

Under Dave Gross, this has all turned around. He restructured the mail columns (and renamed the primary column to D-Mail) and then added the “Question of the Month” to the Forum. The most noticeable demarcation point between the old school letter columns and the new ones came when the question was asked, “What would you want to see in a third edition of AD&D?” (paraphrased). Critiques of AD&D were suddenly allowed and, with them, serious critiques of the magazine re-entered the columns as well. Gross has allowed a feeling of community to ferment and grow once again in these pages, making them one of the strongest features in the magazine instead of one of the weakest.

DUNGEONCRAFT

Starting in issue #255 a new department started in Dragon: Dungeoncraft, written by Ray Winninger (an active freelancer in the industry and the creator of the defunct Underground game). Since then Dungeoncraft has been presenting a step-by-step procedure for creating a new campaign world for AD&D — starting with basic elements and slowly building up to a world of great complexity and depth. Although most of the stuff in the articles is going to be old hat to the old hands of the industry, Winninger has done an excellent job of packaging and presenting the material in an easy-to-use manner for newcomers.

Personally I’ve had a great time reading it for a couple of reasons: First, Winninger occasionally comes up with a new way of doing something that I hadn’t thought of before. Second, it’s a great nostalgia trip. Who can’t remember grabbing a pencil and graph paper for the first time and sketching out a crude dungeon and a home base for the PCs? Great times.

WYRMS OF THE NORTH

For years now Ed Greenwood (creator of the Forgotten Realms) has been writing the Wyrms of the North column for Dragon. The concept for the column is simple: Every couple of issues Greenwood dedicates an extensive discussion to one of the dragons which lives in the northern parts of the Forgotten Realms. I have to admit that I didn’t think this column would last anywhere near as long as it has (or, if it did, that Greenwood could keep it interesting for very long), but I was wrong. I have to admit that there have been quite a few clunkers that had me skimming after a couple of paragraphs, but there have been plenty of times when Greenwood’s ideas are original and creative – showcasing the great depth and breadth of possibilities which dragons have.

A couple of additional points. First: Whatever faults it may have, Wyrms of the North is ten times better than its preceding Greenwood column (in which Elminster and major mages from the Greyhawk and DragonLance worlds got together for a chat at Greenwood’s house while he hid in a suit of armor and listened in). That column was just painful.

Second: Wyrms of the North would probably benefit if it became simply Wyrms — opening the discussion up not only to other sections of the Realms, but also to other TSR worlds (including generic write-ups). Since Greenwood doesn’t fill up every issue, it might even be conceivable that other people could do some of the columns (while Greenwood remained focused on the Realms).

PC PORTRAITS

Unfortunately I can’t pinpoint the exact issue when this feature started (as several of my back issues are stored in boxes elsewhere), but it is comparatively recently. Essentially, in each issue of Dragon you get a page full of thumbnail sketches which can be used for PCs (or NPCs, for that matter). Photocopy the page, cut ‘em out and you’ve got a quick visual reference for your players (or your DM, if your the player). Personally I’m far more likely to use these as a DM, since when I’m a player I tend to have a very specific image of my character (which is one reason why miniatures are usually a tough buy for me).

ROLE MODELS

Speaking of miniatures: Dragon has a miniature column again! Role Models is a monthly column written by Jim Bishop and J.D. Wiker which started up in issue #256. Personally I thought the loss of Through the Looking Glass (the old miniatures column) was a major blow to Dragon (although, at the time, I also felt its quality had dipped to such a low point that the blow had been struck anyway). Bishop and Wiker are doing a great job as they introduce a new generation of fans to miniatures on their way to dealing with more advanced techniques.

PROFILES

The Profiles feature has been around for quite awhile now, but it’s something I like quite a bit. On the last page of every issue we get a mini-biography of one of the people “behind the scenes” at TSR. This has introduced me to several creative personalities who I otherwise wouldn’t have taken notice of, and given me new insights into others whose works I already followed.

DRAGONMIRTH

The comic pages of Dragon have always been a mainstay – the single panel jokes cemented themselves into the D&D tradition, in my mind, with their inclusion in the original AD&D PHB and DMG. Not only has the quality of the two page Dragonmirth feature picked up over the past few years (from a lull in the mid-‘90s), but Gross has decided to include (tastefully and appropriately) several jokes elsewhere in the magazine.

Besides Dragonmirth the regular comic strips and series have also left an impression on AD&D and its fandom. From Wormy to SnarfQuest to Yamara these have become well-known icons in fandom. Right now Dragon has two strips, one of which definitely deserves its place among the greats, and the other which is quickly earning it: Knights of the Dinner Table and Nodwick.

Knights of the Dinner Table, of course, started in the pages of SHADIS, then moved to Dragon, and is now ensconced in its own comic book/magazine. Jolly Blackburn, its creator, however, continues to produce a two page feature for every issue of Dragon. Excellent stuff, as you well know. (And if you don’t know, you’re sadly missing out. Read my dedicated review of the Knights elsewhere on RPGNet.)

Nodwick, by Aaron Williams, has been around for awhile – focusing on the title character, a henchman for a group of adventurers. Nodwick is much put upon by his employers (as every henchman is): A wizard with a dry wit; a hypocritical chivalric knight who can’t live without treasure; and a short, near-sighted priestess who uses duct tape to heal Nodwick whenever he is dismembered by the monsters (which is often, but always off-screen). It grew out of Williams’ single-panel work for Dragonmirth (the same way almost every other major Dragon comic has). It has always been funny, but only recently has it begun to sit comfortably in my mind alongside the other classics of the RPG comic legacy. Nodwick appears in every issue as a four panel strip on the letters page. In the most recent issues, however, Williams has been doing full page features (in addition to the four-panel strip) with his main characters going through the classic AD&D modules ((They Might be) Against the Giants, (Little) Tomb of Horrors, and so on). A tie-in with the Silver Anniversary products TSR is releasing this year, these are absolutely hilarious. Anyone who has played through those old classics will be rolling on the floor (and even if you haven’t, Williams’ talent still makes the strips enjoyable).

THE BAD STUFF

Dragon Magazine is good. Case closed. There are only a couple of things which are serious drawbacks at the moment:

ECOLOGY ARTICLES

I used to really like these – and I still do, when Johnathon M. Richards isn’t writing them. The “Ecology of…” articles focus on one particular monster or creature, expanding what we know of them from their Monstrous Manual entry. Instead of being in dry prose, however, they always have a “hook” – they’re excerpts from an adventurer’s journal; or from a traveller’s tale; or a military spy; and so on.

A couple years back, Johnathon M. Richards wrote an Ecology article which used a meeting of the “Monster Hunters Association” as its hook. These comedic bumblers were hilarious… the first time. Maybe twice. Since then they have grown into a sort of franchise in which their bumbling, punning, and comedic missteps (particularly with spell-casting and obviously poor assumptions regarding the monsters) overshadow the useful information concerning the monsters being discussed (although the footnotes are still quite good… usually). Richards took what used to be one of my favorite columns and rendered it into a perpetual April Fools’ version of itself.

ISOLATION

Dragon has never been an industry-wide magazine, but over the course of the last year or so it has cut itself off entirely from anything which isn’t related to TSR or Wizards of the Coast. First, their industry-wide news column became TSR News. Then they proceeded to abolish and abandon their review columns. Considering that Dragon is the last major print magazine with an RPG focus in the United States (with the exception of Dungeon, which approaches the field from an entirely different angle) this is a sad loss. It is even sadder when you consider that Dragon services the AD&D audience – an audience composed of newcomers to this industry, many of whom are ignorant of their options beyond AD&D. Effectively, by isolating itself from the rest of the industry, Dragon is losing an excellent opportunity to bring people deeper into the industry. If we want to keep the industry alive and vibrant, we need to make it so that people stay here longer than one or two years – and the best way to do that is to show them the diversity of products which are available, so that they can grow into new games as they grow into new tastes.

The first time I became really aware of the non-AD&D games available was when I read a review of the fourth edition of Champions in Dragon Magazine. It was a major revelation – first, that a superheroes game existed; but, second, that a generic engine was possible. It opened whole new vistas (although through a completely bizarre chain of events it would be years before I got Champions, after I had purchased nearly a dozen other games, including GURPS, first). It would’ve taken me years to get involved in other games without that single review; and, the shocking thing is, I probably wouldn’t have maintained an interest in RPGs solely through AD&D that long. If it hadn’t been for that review, drawing me deeper into the RPG field, I wouldn’t be writing this review today. Nor would I be buying Dragon Magazine and half a dozen other TSR and WotC products every year.

We’re talking about ten pages an issue – that would be all it would take to expand TSR News back to an industry-wide news sources and to include a reviews column with 2-3 major reviews and a handful of short insights. Several of these reviews, of course, would be of TSR-related material, but I want those reviews, too. There are many TSR products which I own, which I wouldn’t if I hadn’t read a review of them in the pages of Dragon (or, more recently, here on RPGNet).

CONCLUSION

The Dragon Magazine of yesteryear is back – providing an exciting experience not only for old-timers in the industry, but for newcomers as well. In fact, I’m going to go out on a controversial limb here and say that Dragon has never been as good as it is right now. The quality of writing, artwork, layout, and vision is at the finest level I’ve ever seen it (and between my own tenure with the magazine, and through back issues, I’ve seen a lot of it).

If you’ve let your subscription lapse (and have any interest in fantasy at all), pick it up again. If you’ve never had a subscription, get one.

(Okay, okay… you might want to pick up a couple of sample issues before taking me at my word and subscribing. I won’t complain. Really.)

In short, again: Dragon rocks.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Various
Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast / TSR, Inc.
Cost: $5.95
Page count: 112-128
ISBN: n/a

Originally Posted: 1999/08/06

The thing I remember most about this review is a pair of responses it received: First, there was the guy who was upset that I considered the “fattie” on the cover of Dragon #261 attractive. Whenever someone talks about the bad stereotypes that cling to gamers like the funk of a man who measures the span between showers in weeks instead of days that guy always pops to mind.

Second, there was a guy who was angry because I said that people should get a subscription to the magazine. Why? Because he didn’t like fantasy. Ergo, the magazine wasn’t for him, so where did I get off telling him to buy it? Let’s ignore for the moment that the review specifically talks about that limitation of the magazine and get down to the heart of the matter: Any review inherently assumes a basic level of competency on the part of the person reading it. If you need someone to tell you that you won’t like Dragon Magazine because you don’t like fantasy gaming, then what you need isn’t a review: It’s a psychiatric evaluation.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: Learning from their previous mistakes, Bruce Baugh and Richard E. Dansky deliver one of the finest adventures ever as they bring the Darkness Revealed trilogy to a conclusion.

[ Ascent into Light is the third book in the Darkness Revealed adventure trilogy for Trinity. Plot points and spoilers are discussed. Do not read this review if you have any intention of playing in this adventure. I also encourage you to read my reviews for the first two books in the trilogy, as I will be including and concluding thoughts and arguments from those earlier reviews. ]

This is how it is done.

With Ascent into Light the Darkness Revealed trilogy not only establishes itself as one of the finest adventures to ever be published for an RPG, it also becomes a textbook case of how designers who remain willing to learn from their previous mistakes are the best at what they do. It is also an excellent example of how to design and implement an adventure which gets the PCs involved in the highest echelons of a game world. Plus, Ascent into Light throws more shocking surprises into the Trinity universe than you typically expect from a year’s worth of White Wolf products.

High praise is deserved all around.

THE STORY

First, let’s recap the basic story as told in the first two volumes of Darkness Revealed: The PCs, working for Aeon Trinity, get assigned to investigate suspicious activity on Luna. They discover evidence of an illegal conspiracy within the Aesculapian psi order to conduct Aberrant-related experiments on human subjects – something called the Huang-Marr Project. They follow this trail to Mars and then back to Earth, where they uncover evidence that not only the Aesculapians, but also members of Orgotek are involved. The second volume, Passage Through Shadow, ends as they root out the last of Huang-Marr’s corrupting influences on an orbital station… but as they do so, the alien Chromatics appear in Earth orbit and assault the station! The PCs assist in the quick dispatch of these alien invaders.

Thus the stage is set for Ascent into Light: Humanity has learned the psions are not the pillars of virtue they have been portrayed as (raising old fears of “Aberrants among us”) and, as internal dissension begins to grow, we are suddenly threatened from the stars.

The first adventure in Ascent into Light, “Heaven Through Iron Gates”, starts just after the UN instigates a commission to investigate not only the implications of the Huang-Marr project, but also the possibility of more widespread corruption among the psi orders. Meanwhile, Aeon Trinity, in response to the Chromatic attack, dispatches the PCs with a strike force to Karroo (where humanity is in direct conflict with the Chromatics) in order to capture and interrogate Chromatics in an effort to find out where their homeworld is, how they found out where Earth was, and to figure out what they’re up to. (The hidden reason behind this is that Aeon Trinity wants the PCs, who are the key players in the revelation of Huang-Marr, out of the way until they can come up with a synchronized strategy for downplaying and spinning the anti-psion news.)

The PCs go to Karroo and succeed brilliantly in their mission, in the process making two startling revelations: First, that the Chromatics are preparing for a massive assault on Earth. Second, the true reasons behind the Upeo wa Macho’s disappearance (which ties into the Chromatic threat in a completely unexpected way – and, no, I’m not going to tell you; buy the book). Returning to Earth however, the PCs are told by their Aeon Trinity bosses that they shouldn’t warn the world of the Chromatics’ impending invasion – the Trinity wants time to prepare and take advantage of the situation.

“Heaven Through Iron Gates” ends as the PCs rebel against the Trinity and escape. Cliffhanger.

The second adventure, “Climbing to Tartarus”, picks up at the end of the cliffhanger. The PCs finally make their way to the UN headquarters on Luna, where they burst into the ongoing Huang-Marr inquiry and make their stunning announcements on interstellar holovid.

And that’s when the Chromatic invasion force shows up.

If the implications and pulse-pounding potential of this storyline doesn’t have you at, the very least, intrigued, then you might want to check your heart – it may have stopped pumping. And I’ve only covered the major, major stuff here; other major stuff (can you say “Doyen”?) I’ve left out entirely.

THE SETTING

A brief digression: In all my reviews of the Trinity product line I’ve never really mentioned how utterly stunning the setting is. By this I don’t mean just the detail and political intrigue (although they’re certainly there, and I’ve mentioned them before) – I mean that the imagination of Bates and his design team have cooked up some startling vistas which, when you capture them in the mind’s eye, take your breath away.

The Darkness Revealed trilogy has showcased some of the best – from orbital stations, to Luna bases, to the Summit Center which rotates around the top of Olympus Mons (until the PCs are involved in blowing it up), and much more.

One of the more startlingly original pieces is the mining colony Karroo – which, as mentioned above, appears in “Heaven Through Iron Gates”. Karroo is located in a “pocket” of the Crab Nebula. When the nebula, formed from the expanding remnants of a supernova, encountered a nearby planetary system the system broke apart into a massive asteroid field; but like a river hitting a rock, a “calm” was created behind the remnants of the system. This asteroid field is now known as “the Shield”, and Karroo is located in the (relatively) small, empty space on the far side of it. When you picture this small enclave of humanity, nestled among the “greatest aurora borealis in the galaxy”, it’s an awe-inspiring thing.

THE IMPLEMENTATION

Those of you who have read my previous reviews covering the first two volumes of the Darkness Revealed trilogy know that my estimation of the story underlying each of the products has always been high. On the other hand, you also remember that I felt each product was severely flawed in its implementation.

In particular I felt that Descent into Darkness was fatally flawed as an adventure – to take advantage of the outstanding story you would need to completely rework the adventures in order to make them playable. However, with Passage through Shadow I concluded that many of these problems had been fixed between one book and the next, leaving only two main concerns for me:

First, the color sections in the books (designed to be read by the players) actually succeeded at destroying the story (in one case by containing plenty of proof to arrest several of the characters the PCs were supposed to be investigating before the adventure had even begun; in another by giving the PCs information on a location they couldn’t possibly know they would be going to until midway through the adventure).

Second, that some of the transitions required specific conclusions to be made by the PCs – if those conclusions weren’t reached, you would be off course without a compass. (This was a fairly minor concern in Passage Through Shadow; noticeable only because the flaws in this area had been completely crippling in Descent into Darkness.)

Happily I can report that Ascent into Light solves both of these problems: The color sections not only have been stripped of their plot spoilers, but the second one actually serves as an intriguing plot point (as they are mysterious transmissions of information received from an unknown source throughout the adventure).

Besides the generalized excellence, there are a couple of features I want to point out in particular: First, the inclusion of insertion points; second, the in-built capability of alteration.

I have commented in my previous reviews on the great amount of effort put into making each and every adventure in the series accessible to any group of players – even if they haven’t played through the previous ones. These “insertion points” (as I call them) give the Storyteller multiple ways to bring his PCs into the story at any point during the Darkness Revealed trilogy. I was impressed by this before, I was flabbergasted when they managed to pull it off for Climbing to Tartarus.

If you noticed, above, Heaven Through Iron Gates ends as a cliffhanger, which Climbing to Tartarus picks up on. As I reached the end of Heaven I was convinced that the traditional insertion points would not be included for Climbing — this was not a bad thing: Climbing is the last adventure of a seven adventure series. Why would any Storyteller necessarily want to start there?

Unbelievably, however, an insertion point is introduced. And I’ll be damned if it doesn’t work just fine. Works incredibly well, actually. I can see exactly how Climbing could be played as a one-shot adventure.

I have also commented previously on how Baugh and Dansky have given extensive amounts of time to discussing how the basic structures of their adventures can be modified in various ways. Definite thumbs up on that. Once again, however, Climbing to Tartarus takes this to a new height – as the presented story is made accessible not only if the PCs betray Aeon Trinity at the end of Heaven Through Iron Gates, but also if the PCs decide to stay loyal to the Trinity.

Simply amazing. Based on a rock solid story, these adventures are flexible, dynamic, and enjoyable.

THE VERDICT

Ascent into Light, as the concluding volume of the Darkness Revealed trilogy, is one of the finest adventures you can buy for any roleplaying game. It possesses no weaknesses, only strengths. It only costs $15.95.

There’s absolutely no reason for you not to buy this book.

Style: 5
Substance: 5

Author: Bruce Baugh and Richard E. Dansky
Company/Publisher: White Wolf
Cost: $15.95
Page count: 120
ISBN: 1-56504-751-6
Originally Posted: 1999/08/06

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Tagline: A simple vehicle construction system. An oxymoron? Not so. Big Robots, Cool Starships succeeds at the impossible.

Big Robots, Cool Starships, the first supplement for the Big Eyes, Small Mouth roleplaying game, is perhaps the most surprising gaming product I have read all year.

Did I say surprising? I meant mind-blowing… as in “mind-blowingly good”.

Why is it surprising? you ask. (We’ll get to “mind-blowing” later.) Very simple: This book should not be anywhere near as good as it is.

First off, it is a vehicle construction system for a simple game. And when I say “vehicle construction system” I mean “vehicle construction system”. BRCS doesn’t cut corners and it doesn’t fudge (any more than BESM does). It is a concrete, dynamic, flexible system with precise definitions and seemingly limitless potential. This type of thing should not exist. And yet it does. BRCS not only succeeds at being a true system, it also manages to pull it off without becoming far too complex for the basic game. We’ll get back to how this is all possible in a couple seconds.

Second, BRCS is written by David L. Pulver. I also discovered (by reading Mark C. MacKinnon’s Foreward to the book) that Pulver signed on as Associate Line Editor and Senior Staff Writer for Guardians of Order back in November of ’98. This would, of course, be the same acclaimed David L. Pulver who wrote GURPS Biotech, GURPS Mecha, GURPS Vehicles, and the forthcoming revision of GURPS Space. It isn’t surprising, therefore, that Pulver can turn out products of sterling quality. What is surprising is that Pulver is working on BESM. I can’t imagine a longer, or stranger, jump than the one taken from GURPS to Big Eyes, Small Mouth. What is even more surprising is that Pulver, one of the Founding Fathers of vehicle construction systems in my mind, could have turned out BRCS — which is unlike any VCS I’ve seen before.

Then again, maybe that isn’t so surprising either.

By this point I’ve either tantalized or bored you enough. What the heck is this Big Robots, Cool Starships thing, anyway?

THE SYSTEM

Big Robots, Cool Starships is – in its own words – “a mecha/SF supplement for Big Eyes, Small Mouth”. It expands the basic BESM system to allow for more dynamic mecha play – “mecha” being used in its more broad-based definition of “any mechanical device found in anime”. To sum up, therefore, BRCS is a vehicle construction system (plus some general campaign info) for big robots, combat cyborgs, really cool cars, cybernetic body armor, starships, fighters, tanks, and just about anything else you can think of with two gears to rub together.

Note the word “expand”, above. It’s there for a very good reason. When most games have a book described with the blurb “new rules for XXX!” what that really means is “the system in the core rulebook for XXX was so crappy that we’ve completely ripped it out and are starting over from scratch; plus we’re charging you extra for the privilege of having decent rules”.

BRCS isn’t like that at all. The system for “giant robots” and their ilk in the core BESM rulebook works just fine. BRCS is, literally, an expansion of that basic system. It doesn’t replace; it adds to.

“But wait,” you say, “If the basic system works just fine, why does it need expanding?” The answer is simple: It doesn’t need expanding. But some people might want it expanded. If you’re running mecha-oriented campaigns, then the rules in BRCS will provide you with more options, more detail, and more innate potential. Think of it like this: In first grade you learned about addition. It wasn’t until later on that they taught you multiplication. Was the system you had learned for addition incomplete because now you had this new thing called “multiplication”? Of course not. Multiplication was simply an expansion of your mathematical concepts – more useful for some things; less useful for others. Same thing applies here.

BRCS accomplishes this expansion in a five-step process: First it redefines the “Own a Big Robot” attribute from the basic BESM rulebook to include all sorts of mecha. (“Ah ha! They did change something!” Oh, calm down. Would you have preferred it if they added a whole new attribute which accomplished nothing at all? Sheesh.). Second, they made it so that both “Own a Big Robot” and “Cybernetic Body” give you a pool of “Mecha Points”. Third, they added the attribute “More Powerful Robot” to get you some additional Mecha Points. Fourth, they added the “Personal Gear” attribute to cover situations where a character has access to gear your average person probably wouldn’t (okay, this isn’t really all that important, but I wanted a “five-step” process not a “four-step” process — so sue me). Finally, they inserted a six-step mecha design process between Step Five and Step Six of character creation as described in BESM. These steps are conveniently numbered 5A through 5F.

Basic character creation in BESM is an eight-step process. Half of those had nothing to do with the system at all (they were entirely conceptual). Similarly, three of the six steps to mecha design as described in BRCS are conceptual in nature, not mechanical – Step 5A is “GM Discussion” (self-explanatory); Step 5B is “Mecha Outline” (get your concept); and Step 5F is “Mecha Background” (when all the numbers are hashed out, your write up the details to “personalize your creation”). Therefore it’s steps 5C, 5D, and 5E which are the meat of this system. Let’s take a closer look.

Step 5C: Mecha Sub-Attributes. The BRCS system for mecha creation is extremely similar to the basic BESM character creation system. Not only is BRCS an expansion to the BESM rules, it is a seamless one – the system naturally fits right into the existing character creation process, as if it had always been meant to be there. To avoid not only the “let’s replace everything” syndrome, but also the “tacked on rules” syndrome is, quite frankly, amazing (have I used that word and its synonyms often enough to make this review’s conclusion clear, yet?).

Character creation in BESM starts with the purchasing of Attributes (with five discrete levels). BRCS mecha creation starts with the purchasing of Sub-Attributes (with six discrete levels). These are things like “Super Strength”, “Space Flight”, “Artificial Intelligence”, and so on. Like BESM character creation, BRCS is very much an open-ended effects-based system – you purchase “Space Flight” in order to build intergalactic battlecruisers and 20th century spacesuits alike. The system is incredibly dynamic and resilient, although it tends to scale poorly: You can build BMW’s and intergalactic cruisers; but you can’t have them face off against each other very well. This isn’t a major issue, and can easily be worked around in the rare circumstance when it actually crops up (for example, by giving the intergalactic cruiser appropriate action resolution bonuses based on its size, etc.; or you could just GM fiat the situation out of the way, the necessary difference between the technology levels before the problem crops up being large enough that there is really only one logical conclusion in most of these situations).

Step 5D: Mecha Defects. The next step in BESM character creation is the selection of Defects – which give you Bonus Points to spend on additional Attributes. Similarly, Mecha Defects (“Exposed Occupants”, “Hanger Queen”, “Start-Up Time”) give you additional points to spend on Mecha Sub-Attributes.

Between purchasing additional levels of “Own a Big Robot” or “Cybernetic Body” (which give you big chunks of extra Mecha Points); purchasing “More Powerful Robot” (for smaller chunks of extra Mecha Points); and Mecha Defects (for very small, precise chunks of extra Mecha Points) you should be able to tweak things for your character in just the right way so that there is little or no slop in the number of Mecha Points you purchased versus the number of Mecha Points you need to build your mecha.

Step 5E: Mecha Derived Values. Finally you figure out the mecha’s “Armour”, “Health Points”, “Energy Points”, and “Combat Value” based on its attributes. Action resolution proceeds normally.

As I said with character creation in BESM: It don’t get much easier than this.

OTHER STUFF

So Big Robots, Cool Starships is a vehicle construction system, focusing on mecha. Right? Right.

But wait… there’s more! The book also contains:

1. A brief, two page overview of the history of mecha in Japanese anime. It is surprisingly detailed considering its short length (particularly considering the broad definition of “mecha” with which the supplement is working). Noticeable oversights (at least to me) included Bubblegum Crisis and Armored Trooper Votoms. Plus, Pulver tends to ignore manga entirely (even when the series he is talking about was manga before it was anime). I was also upset that he referred to Robotech as the English translation for Super Dimensional Fortress Macross — if you don’t have the space to detail the controversy regarding the relationship between those two pieces of animation, then please don’t mention them at all.

2. A chapter on “Mecha Combat and Other Actions”. You might be thinking “new rules”, but you’d be wrong. With the exception of a couple of charts on “Falling Damage” and “Crash Damage”, health points for buildings, and a list of suggested mecha-related resolution modifiers the section is pretty much ruleless. This is for the best: The basic BESM resolution mechanics are more than capable of handling mecha. This is a testament not only to the strength of BESM’s mechanics, but also the strength of Pulver’s design system (insofar as it remains completely compatible). So what is in this section? Guidelines. Stuff you might not think of, but which Pulver takes the time to mention and bring to your attention. Excellent stuff. With a system like BESM I don’t need a rule for every occasion, and by simply bringing the stuff to my attention Pulver has done more than enough. Kudos for this restraint, which leads to a far better product than if these twenty pages had been packed full of useless rules (which would have ruined the simple elegance of BESM).

3. And we’re still not done. Pulver includes a short section on potential mecha campaign settings (from Ancient Japan to High Fantasy to Modern Day to Far Future); a game seed for each of those campaign settings; and a sample adventure.

4. Finally, I just want to make note that with this product Guardians of Order has moved up my list from “company which produces interesting stuff” to “company whose stuff you should buy”. The minor quibbles I had with their production values in their first publication (the core BESM rules) have evaporated; their general art quality has improved tremendously (although I’m still spoiled by the folks over at Dream Pod 9, so I’ll say they could be even better); their writing remains spotless (particularly with Pulver at the helm); their product conception is elegant; and their future plans look bright (with Dominion Tank Police and Demon City Shinjuku RPGs in the future as well as additional supplements for BESM).

5. To end on a weird note: BRCS has a two-page index with an entry for just about every major concept in the book. This is great, right? Wrong. Every single entry has exactly one (and only one) referenced page number. According to this index, for example, “Big Eyes, Small Mouth” is referenced only once: On page six. Not only is this, of course, inaccurate, it’s actually mentioned on page five and page seven as well. This is completely bizarre. Out of curiosity I went back and checked the core BESM manual. It’s the same damn thing! I don’t get it. This is not how indexes work!

CONCLUSION

Big Robots, Cool Starships is, in my estimation, one of the best supplements of its type I have ever read. I’ve never seen a rules-based supplement mesh so seamlessly and effortlessly with its mother product. BRCS doesn’t leave you feeling as if you were ripped off by the mecha rules in BESM; yet at the same time once you own it you know you wouldn’t want to play without it. On top of it all, Pulver has thrown in campaign seeds and a fairly interesting adventure.

When I need a simple system which is, nonetheless, a solid game engine (so that I don’t have to fudge a lot of different things to make it work) BESM has become the game I look to. BESM is the best game of its type I have encountered. The same holds true, now, for BRCS — even if I’m not sure there is another product like BRCS out there.

In short, Big Robots, Cool Starships is not only an excellent product, it is a solid product. You won’t be disappointed.

Style: 4
Substance: 5

Author: David L. Pulver
Company/Publisher: Guardians of Order
Cost: $15.95
Page count: 110
ISBN: 0-9682431-3-4

Originally Posted: 1999/08/06

As I mentioned in my review of Big Eyes, Small Mouth, the second edition of the game remains a go-to system for me. And BRCS remains one of the best vehicle construction systems I’ve ever used (although it has been awhile since I had cause to actually pull it out and play around with it).

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.