Very good, detailed descriptions of guns, lasers, etc...

If you like "Fire, Fusion, and Steel" type books, this is the book for you.

Basically, if you like the other expansions and telling god-awful jokes all night long is your forte, then pick up this freebie. It's small, but filled with choice phrases that will make your cheeks blush. It's great for what it is . . . an excuse to be vile.

I waited (not so) patiently for Code: Black and I was not disappointed. If you like modern horror or dark RPGs in general, then Code:Black is for you.

If you haven't figured it out from the product blurb, you're playing an operative of the Brotherhood of Gilgamesh and taking on Evil with a capital "E". And, to make things interesting, you're just a tiny bit Evil yourself. Oh yeah, there's sorcery, too, but it can totally corrupt you if you give in to using it at your full potential. And that Evil? Well, it's everywhere: vampires, werewolves, aliens, Elder Gods, you name it. And the worts part is, the general public can't even see it. Even what they might see they won't believe. All you can do is try to eliminate the small fries and keep the incomprehensible big guns in the Prison as long as you can. Yeah, it's a hopeless struggle. But, you don't have to play the shining knight in this game. You're a little Evil, yourself, so if some innocents get in the way now and again, or some stuff blows up and makes a big mess, well, at least you put down that cannibalistic cult headquartered at the biker bar just outside of town.

This book is loaded with tons of GMing stuff, a very well thought-out backstory, and just drips atmosphere. Even though it's for EABA, GMs will have no problems using Code:Black with other game systems.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: It's fully loaded. Tons of material at a bargain price. Great atmosphere, very well-designed, excellent GM tools. The PDF is fully hyperlinked and laid-out in BTRC's trademark style: clean and well organized. My POD copy is awesome, and a hefty book for such a good price.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It didn't come with silver bullets.

Aside from that, I can't fault this book in any way. As with all BTRC books, it's sparse on art. However, the content is what counts, and if you can't visualize a modern horror game after reading this book, why are you playing RPGs in the first place?<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

As noted, it is a setting, not a scenario, although it does have one minor scenario start included.

Between this and the demo version of CB, you can get a very good feel for Code Black very cheaply. I've decided not to get Code Black, but I was pleased that I could find this out for a couple bucks.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Decent writing. Well laid out.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing major, although the core concept is a bit clunky.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Acceptable<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

An excellent introductory product which also makes a good handout to give to new players so they can figure out how the system works and how to make characters.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Short and concise. Covers the main aspects of the system without any fuss.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing. It does what it is intended to do.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

While Brecken Ridge isn't a ready-to-play campaign as such, it features a very nice seed for a really epic one, and the location and its background are a good prospect for all kinds of ideas.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: The usual BTRC quality and consistency. Never seen two bucks have this much value...<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing. Really.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

Some good ideas, but a bit plotless. They do tell you that up front, though.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

Well organized and to the point. Each new idea has one or two examples to help illustrate the rules. The system has a little bit of clutter but it all makes sense once you get the basics down. This is FANTASTIC if you have a setting in mind but don't like the current systems that support it.

Well done modern horror setting that manages to include the possibility of a very wide range of horror, covering just about anything you would like to include in your campaign. The mechanics support many horror tropes quite well, and a lot of effort is spent explaining why things are the way they are. It makes it easy to extrapolate to situations not explicitly covered by the rules. Although the background and setting is detailed and thorough, it's still easy to modify it if you don't like it...or even just mine it for ideas for whatever game you are running.

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

The sales info against this item nicely sums up the overall feel for this game, which presents something of a "kitchen sink" setup for the modern horror genre. Although the ability to use pretty much every trope is nicely woven into the background, Greg Porter has also made it easy to chop out the sections that don't appeal. Want an Ultraviolet (the TV series, not the film) style fight against sinister vampires and this will do it. If you care to shift to dealing with unspeakable horrors from beyond time, we've go that covered too. Demon hunting? It's done. In theory, I don't even think it would be much of a stretch to kick out the core conceit of the primeval Good vs. Evil battle and still leave the rest of the setting standing.

The default feel appears to be closest to the Call of Cthulhu "fighting the unwinnable fight against overwhelming odds to gain humanity a few extra years" style, however in keeping with the ability to pare down the antagonists this feel also seems to be easily modified into something more positive or, dare I say it, even gung-ho. There is plenty of information for GMs to support both the default flavour and modified versions, plus a host of useful adventure seeds.

The book details a broad range of genre-appropriate magic and equipment. The spells portion includes the "workings" for the item in question to help the GM create more suitable material drawing on the core EABA rules and those presented in Stuff! There's also a good list of modern firearms with EABA stats which will help any modern-era gamer using the EABA rules.

In terms of layout, this is your typical concise and clear BTRC fare. Everything is indexed and hyperlinked, and when you get the PDF you get greyscale and colour copies to ensure best quality printing on your device of choice. Another nice touch is that various sections which have clear links to a particular piece of media such as a film or TV series actually have a footnote added on the page stating the show in question and its release date.

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Good old BTRC layout, setting flexibility, source media references.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I personally don't buy for art, but some may care to note that the artwork is quite weak. I'd like to see Stuff! workings for the magic items.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>

I've never been much of a fan for RPG horror settings but this was such a unique take on the genre that I had to take a peek. I was not disappointed!

Code:Black presents a totally customizable horror setting where the GM can bring in almost anything they have ever heard of. Call of Cthulthu? Fits right in. Undead Horrors? Not a problem. And if that wasn't enough, the PCs are evil as well.

In true BTRC fashion, the rulebook has been written with the player in mind: everything is indexed and hyperlinked, making it easy to find the answers to your questions. Adding a grayscale copy to the PDF purchase makes it easy on those of us with limited access to color printers. And you get an alternate cover as well (which I preferred over the first).

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Very clear and concise writing, easy to follow<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

I bought this because I own a copy of TimeLords 2nd Edition and I thought it would simplify the game. Upon reading it, I was pleasantly surprised.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Simplifies my existing TimeLords RPG.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>

This 230 page PDF contains a set of design sequences for creating weapons, vehicles, gadgets, creatures, and civilizations. It is based on BTRC?s EABA system, however items designed using the system provide design details in real world measures such as meters, kilograms, liters and watts. Thus it is fairly easy to convert items designed with it to another system, and it includes damage conversion for several game systems including BTRC?s own 3G3 and CORPS system, SJG?s GURPS, HERO Games? HERO System, GRG?s Action system, DP9?s Silhouette Core rules, Pinnacle?s Savage Worlds, PIG?s Impresa system, Marco Chacon?s JAGS, and Sanguine Production?s Albedo game systems. It also includes dynamic PDF spreadsheet forms which you can use to quickly and easily design weapons, vehicles, gadgets, creatures and civilizations using drop down boxes that calculate values for you automatically.

The Stuff design systems use ?design for effect? concepts with no need for nitty-gritty design details (such as the grain weight of gunpowder in your bullet, or the volume of your combustion cylinders) and equation-based derivation as did 3G3 (BTRC?s Guns Guns Guns weapon design product), the CORPS Vehicle Design System, or GURPS Vehicles and similar system. Instead it relies on applying on Effects based modifiers. For weapons, it is to a Size, usually expressed in Hexagons, or 1 meter across or about .75 cubic meters, or Millihexes, 1/1000th of the aforementioned hexes. These modifiers are based on key performance values for the item (Damage for a weapon, Power plant strength/speed for a Vehicle) based on the tech level of the technology used to create it. Theses key performance values per tech level are based on some heavy research and distillation done by the game?s author, Greg Porter, one of the finest gear-head game designers on the planet!

Further these details, being done as design for effect, are handled fairly abstractly with the ?special effects? being realized and applied by the players based on the game world and the tech used to create it. So the fine details of the difference between a soul-fueled burn chamber and a science fiction zero point energy module are layered over this by the player?s and the RPG rules. In terms of the design system, they both produce so much effect for such a size. This makes the system, like all design for effect systems, very flexible, if a bit abstract, all in all perfect for a universal system like EABA.

The second ?brilliant idea? on which the system is based is the use of EABA?s universal scale. The Universal scale is a exponential/log based system that provides a scale of exponentially increasing measures of speed, distance, weight, volume etc, which can be handled via the use of their corresponding linearly increasing scores with just addition and subtraction. The combination of this with the design for effect approach provides a system that can build anything from humming-bird pulled fairy sleds to colossal interstellar dreadnaughts without breaking down.

Thus the actual design process is just adding up plus or minus modifiers based on the parameters chosen for the item being designed. Thus Stuff! makes for a powerful, consistent system that is still easy to use.

WEAPONS Weapons are designed by providing a base damage effect of so much for a 1 hex of size at each tech level. By default the basic weapon operates much like a basic firearm under the rules, this can of course be modified. The extensive list of modifiers affects the size of the weapon first, then various operational parameters. Thus you can only get a handheld weapon capable of so much damage at a certain tech level based on the best tech available, and yes this is most relative to the design of traditional chemical propellant slug-throwing firearms. However, the exact details aren?t specified, so the special effects are nailed down by the particulars of the game world and the players.

Once again, the values used are based on Porter?s research, of which he had done an extensive amount in designing Guns! Guns! Guns!. All of that gear head detail has been boiled down for you convenience in Stuff. So you can use his values without worrying about the results being too off the wall.

The list of modifiers includes Auto-fire, burst fire, side effects, loading times, etc. Applying these modifiers you can design weapons simulating most any real-world weapon for the game. With game ready values for it?s Damage, range, size, mass, cost, accuracy, etc.

VEHICLES

The vehicles system produces stats answering the most important design questions for use in a RPG. ? How Fast will it go? ? How big is it? ? How Tough is it? ? How big of a gun can I put in it? ? How many gizmos are on it? ? How much does it cost? ? How Do I blow it up? Thus you start by determining the strength of the power-plant used in the vehicle based on its size and tech level, and modifiers based on its reliability. Again, the exact mechanism and details of the engine are specified, though lower tech levels are assumed to be animal or natural force powered, while higher tech assume some kind of engine, however esoteric and magical effects can be assumed and used as well. The exact details of the special effects are dependent on the particulars of the game world.

Having set a size and strength for the power plant, you then determine the vehicles top speed and related performance characteristics based on its loaded mass. This can cause you to have to refigure your design if you either can?t fit everything you want in the vehicle, or its performance isn?t up to snuff. (?I want all that in there.?)

From there you determine it?s armor, how much space the design takes up and how it is laid out, how many gadgets and related subsystems (communications, nagivation systems, etc.) it contains. You can then determine a cost in semi-generic credits based on the tech level and elements of the design so far. Finally, you determine how much damage it can take. The actual amount of hits any particular weapon can do to a vehicle is limited based on it?s size. This is done to account for the compressed damage scale used for vehicles. A human has 10 hits, while a battleship would have 44 in this system. Thus, the damage limit caps how much damage from any non-area effect explosion type the vehicle can suffer.

GADGETS

This section provides a simple system to create various types of gadgets and gear such as communications gear, tools, survival and related gear. All the cool stuff you browse through sporting goods and military/survival and electronics catalogs for. The system allows you to determine the size and cost of the gadget based on the tech level of the tech used to build it and its features, as well as its total possible effectiveness. You can create a full supplements worth of shopping experience for your game with the system.

CREATURES

This section provides a system for creating ?realistic? creatures/animals that can be found in a particular ecosystem/niche based on biological principles. Allowing you create reasonable size, mass, attributes and abilities for it. There are also guidelines on how to create unrealistic/fantasy creatures, and fantasy races.

CIVILIZATIONS

This section provides a system for creating civilizations, or more accurately settlements, based on considerations of climate/ecology, food production technology, and government type. It provides you with the means to develop reasonable populations based on the type of food production available. The system also lets you generate economic and population distribution data for a particular settlement in a number of general categories. This information provides the designer with a wealth of hard data with which to determine how many artisans, craftsmen, soldiers, nobles/rulers, a particular settlement could support. Its likely infrastructure and available amenities, all based on archeological and historical research and information.

LAYOUT

Stuff is laid out as two column document using a plain, readable serif font for it?s body, and simple graphical bars for headers and section headers. Extensive use of colored text is made to differentiate between general text, in black text, Important notes and explanations in red, examples in green, and advanced topics in blue text. Artwork is limited to chapter heads. Overall it is a serviceable document with extensive bookmarks and easy to follow text.

SUMMARY

Overall, Stuff! is one of the best, if not the best, generic capstone design system ever published. It provides an easy to use highly adaptable set of design sequences based on hard numbers and solid research allowing the GM or world designer to create all sorts of realistic gear and equipment appropriate to the technology and nature of the game world. Its usefulness is not just limited to EABA players either, thanks to its use of real world values and the inclusion of conversions for several systems. It could use a bit more explanatory text and a quick overview of the process for each sequence. As it stands, it requires a bit of re-reading and use to get the hang of how it works. However, despite this learning curve, I still highly recommend it to anyone looking for an easy to use but still rigorous and consistent design system with which to do some gear-head sub-creation and world design. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Design for effect and Universal Scale approach<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Could use more explanatory text and context to make it easier to use.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

This does to design systems what EABA did to rulesystems. Seems simple enough and is really fast to use, but under it all is well thought out, consistent and "realistic" system.

If you are not a "gearhead", but would like to design some of your own things (weapons, vehicles, civilisations (yes, those too!)) while keeping them consistent (this is important point for me), this is the design system to get. Pretty easy to convert the results for your favorite system too (should that not be EABA).

For gearheads, there are plenty of advanced rules :)

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Everything! And once again Greg Porter shows how to make an interactive document (other publishers, take note!). <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>