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A fun Traveller setting. Absolutely anarchic, but loads of options and a good interior layout that prints well. It's almost like a Feng Shui game on steroids - but with a sci-fi/spaghetti western feel. There are notable rules for mutations and sorcery here too.
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Good qualiity cards which are well set out so that players of Battlefield Evolution World at War have all the necessary stats for their units at their fingertips.
Recommended for all players of this system for time saving; speeding up gameplay and just generally giving all the information required so that players do not have to keep leaving through the rulebook.
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These cards are incredibly useful items fior anyone playing Battlefield Evolution World at War.
They save paperwork, set up time and allow players to avoid contant leaving through the rulebook to get the stats for their units.
Because they are downloadable the player can also print out the required number of cards as they need them.
Highly recommended.
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I have barely started to work through this book - and I'm supposed to be getting my campaign underway in 5 weeks :O ! But now I'm confident that I have enough material. Can't tell you yet how it plays out.
As for the format - I took the watermarked PDF to a print shop and had it printed on decent paper and bound it myself. It cost, at the end of the day, about as much as it would cost to buy a book like this bound. Works well, and much quicker than ordering from the states.
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Great resource for both Eternal Champion settings and the Young Kingdoms. Unique and creative summoning system.
Most games have detailed rules for spells, but really lack on enchanting and bindings.
That is the core of this and it captures Michael Moorcock's style perfectly.
Although newer rule systems have replaced it, this one is a classic.
Making it either a standalone RPG worth checking out or a great resource for adding style to a bland magic system.
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These are nice looking 28mm miniature skirmish rules set in the Judge Dredd universe. The rules are relatively simple to pick up, and are layed out in a nice logical format. Along with the skirmish rules is a bunch of scenarios, plus a decently imagined campaign system which is often the attraction of games like this. There are plenty of gangs to choose from and plenty of options to customise your Judges or villians so you should be able to build a force to your liking. People familiar with Necromunda or Mordheim should have little trouble coming to grips with this system. The gang progression system should also appeal to D&D 4E and Bloodbowl players too I'd guess.
The rules do still seem to be a bit of a work in progress. Some basic things are still missing, like how characters move up or down levels, and some of the mechanics of building a force weren't very clear to me. All in all though, this looks like a winner. One and 3/4 thumbs up for me.
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Judge Dredd is an RPG System that is fairly straight forward. It has only a couple modifications to the Traveller system. It does assume that you know how to play Traveller. What you get in this 274 page book? An in depth look at Mega City One followed by a very extensive character creation system. This book focuses on Judges giving you a complete package; everything from training to gear to the justice system. So is it worth your nickel? Yes, if you are interested in Judge Dredd. If you play Traveller and are looking for an alternate world this would be an easy conversion.
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Legend is a fun, general, high-fantasy system with a lot of versatility in character creation, though (IMHO) it also has a few weaknesses. I started gaming on D&D 3e and play mostly 3.5 and Pathfinder now, but we're getting tired of the edition wars and are branching out to new systems. I never played Runequest, and it looks like most of the reviews are from old runequest fans, so I'll try to make a few points that might be useful to someone considering trying Legend after a DnD game. As a substitute for the d20 fantasy system, Legend has a lot to offer. Most of the attributes are familiar, with Power replacing Wisdom (rather nicely) and Size being (thankfully) put on par with other stats. I like the fact that size and strength both contribute to a weapon damage modifier, and that size determines more than just what kind of weapon/armor you use. The skill system is awesome, basing most skills off of two abilities (dance off of charisma and dexterity, for example). The basic mechanic takes some getting used to in that usually a low roll is good, unless it's an opposed roll, in which case the higher the better. Calculating target percentages and numbers seems to take longer than finding a DC in DnD, but that may just be our lack of experience. Other than that, the system seems like it plays pretty well. The are no character levels, so character advancement is more customizable, but also requires more planning. While I like the magic system and using points to cast spells rather than having spell slots (3.5 players who are familiar with Unearthed Arcana variant casting rules should easily adjust to this...UA might have even borrowed that variant from the original Runequest for all I know), I'm not a huge fan of the "every character has magic" build. Even Pathfinder, with its "cantrips and orisons never run out," has classes ("professions" in Legend) with no magic. Legend seems to be little bit higher high fantasy in that magic is more pervasive, but if you like that idea for a world, give it a shot.
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Really good rules for a game that's for one of the best comic books ever made. Can only hope I get to play judges.
Thanks for the free greatness.
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I don't know about your players, but mine scamper around the known universe seeking out if not actively causing trouble. The sort of folk who land on a planet, ask where the roughest part of town is, tool up and head down there ready to rumble. Yet the Traveller universe is not a lawless place. Those characters who break the law persistently will eventually get their collars felt, be hauled in front of a judge and sent down for a term in jail!
This need not be the end of the game or a time to roll up new characters. The number of courtroom and prison dramas on TV suggests that there is plenty of scope for playing out characters' brushes with the law. A prison break adventure is an obvious one, but those characters who settle down and 'do their time' can also get involved in prison politics, make contacts or learn new skills ready for when they get out... and of course, there is much adventure to be had in wrongful accusations, where characters have to negotiate and survive incarceration whilst proving their innocence.
The Prison Planet of the title is called Keanou in the Lanth subsector of the Spinward Marches, but can be set on a desert planet wherever is convenient for your purposes. The material provided begins with some game mechanics for modelling the justice process, in particular that which applies after sentencing: parole hearings and appeals. We then move on to details of the in-processing and adventure material entitled 'The First Week' which serves to introduce the characters to their new home. This includes notes on prison routine and layout, it is an interesting place converted from an old mining facility, and prisoners labour in the mines if not cunning or lucky enough to wangle a more favourable work detail. There's plenty of scope here for running adventures involving a lengthy stay, and certainly enough and more resources if you intend for the characters to be incarcerated briefly prior to escape or release by other means.
The next section provides details (and full stat blocks) for prison staff and convicts. Each one has notes on personality and interests to help you make them come alive as they interact with the characters. Their details also include work assignment and which prison rumours they know. These may or may not be accurate, of course, but prisons run on rumours and the characters should be encouraged to find out as many as they can. The good thing is that there are a lot of prisoners for the characters to get to know, so it is easy to build up the atmosphere of a lot of people held here... there are even a few intended to arrive after the characters, so that they will not be the New Guys for ever! There's lots of detail on the guards and other staff, including how easily they bribe (and what works best), how they treat the convicts in general, and how they are likely to respond to someone trying to be friendly. Lastly there are a few visitors, mostly lawyers touting for trade and the like.
Next comes Running the Adventure, which provides the Referee with all the tools to play out the dragging miserable existence that is the convicts' (and so the characters') lot. Mechanics cover encounters with other prisoners, the work routine, the gaining of 'reputation' in the prison and the operation of the various gangs and power blocs that have developed here. There are also notes on security, bribing guards, and getting into brawls. There are a comprehensive series of 'events' which can take place, chosen by die roll or Referee whim as suits. This section covers all the day-to-day operations of the prison.
Then comes a section of Rumours, where you can look up the various rumours different NPC convicts know, as well as details on how true they are... there's plenty of scope for the Referee to spice them up, embellish them, as he sees fit.
This is followed by a selection of Incidents, set-piece events designed to teach the characters something about the prison and its assorted dangers. There are also some overarcing adventure ideas which have longer-term consequences. The Referee may choose any of them, or a combination, to run in parallel with the more everyday events from Running the Adventure and the discrete Incidents - the beauty of this is that repeat visits for those characters who prove recidivists are quite possible, just pick different background adventure arcs to run each time they are convicted!
And if all this is not enough to keep everyone occupied, there are several fullblown adventures to run once the characters have settled in. Each has its own timescale and a whole series of events, and they can be stirred in around everything else that is going on... and of course, at least one offers the possibility for escape! For those who do get out, somehow, the final few pages cover the planet Keanou and its main settlement of Circle City.
For those players who want a spell of jail time in their history, the rules for a term as a prisoner is included for use during character generation. But the real thrust of this book is to enable you to play out incarceration when the law catches up with the characters!
This is an impressive collection of resources and adventures to make a spell of imprisonment a real part of your campaign. Or, if you prefer, an idea's just occurred to me, it could be quite interesting if characters for some reason got jobs running the prison and had to cope with all the events and adventures herein from the other side! Overall, it could prove for some interesting games whichever side of the bars the characters end up...
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Are you good at coming up with instant NPCs out of thin air? Even if you are, this book contains a wealth of characters all ready to populate every world, every ship, any location you care to name in your universe...
The Introduction sets out the scope and purpose of the book. Each character comes with game statistics of UPP, main skills and the gear he will likely have with him when encountered... but more importantly there's a name and some background: what he looks like, the sort of things he's doing, perhaps even a goal or ambition - and a phrase that sums him up. Many of the characters are human, but other races are included - Aslan, Droyne, Hiver, K'kree, Vargr and the Zhodani - to maintain the diversity of the universe.
The first thousand characters are arranged in six chapters, to make it easy to find suitable ones for your purposes. The chapters are Corporate, Government, Military, Criminal, Independent and one with a motley collection of 'Aliens, Outcasts and Fringe' characters. Some are organised in six-person teams, designed to work as a group - naturally, if just one of them is what you need, the others do not have to be around. Whilst it is suggested that a bit of time be spent rounding them out and developing them further, any character will do as a player-character should the need arise. All have been created using the standard character generation rules, so are compatible with a party created the conventional way.
Within each chapter, the characters are further subdivided, so if you have a sudden need for an accountant, say, or an insider trader you can lay your hands on one at once. Reading through, many of them spawn plot ideas as well, so if you need a distraction, a filler adventure or a side quest, drop one or more of these characters in and let matters develop.
The 1001st character is a bit different. Given a whole page to himself, he's a Duke with a long backstory and twisted psyche, ripe for use in the convoluted intrigues that Traveller nobility indulge themselves in, as evidenced by the way that he's clawed his way up from second son of a mere Baron to his current title. He could prove a dangerous enemy, or an even more dangerous employer or patron!
Generally well-presented, there's a slightly annoying quirk in layout that has nearly all of the text underlined, and I've spotted the odd 'over-reliance on spelling checker' error - a rogue selling 'vacations' instead of 'vaccinations' to mild diseases he infiltrates into air handling systems on space stations, for example.
Overall, this is a useful resource for any Referee, particularly if your players get inquisitive about everyone that they meet... potentially less embarassing than using your students' names!
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This is an incredibly useful Referee resource. It's usually billed as something to grab when you have players badgering for a game and haven't had time to plan an adventure for them, but it's just as useful as a planning tool, a jumping-off point for inspiring your own adventures by looking over the suggestions under the type of adventure or location that you have in mind. The ideas herein are also ideal as 'filler' adventures between elements of a plot arc in a longer campaign. Or indeed, you can run them as one-off quick adventures, provided you are happy winging it from a bare-bones idea.
The core idea is that in each instance, the characters are approached by someone who wants them to do something, usually for some kind of reward. They have been organised by type - some classified by the job that is to be done, some by the location in which the characters are when they get offered it. It's not something to read through cover-to-cover, it is a book to dip into for inspiration or for something ready-made, pick and mix as you please.
A common layout is used. First, the patron is described, and there is a section giving the information as given to the characters. There's more information for the Referee, especially about what can go wrong! Finally there is a table on which you can roll 2d6 to determine the outcome... or of course if one of the outcomes listed catches your eye, go ahead and use it!
There is a wide variety of tasks to be done, from the trivial to the arduous. Many will make a whole adventure, even a series of adventures, if you want; others just an amusing side-trip between other events. You will find yourself returning to it again and again, it's worth consulting even when you have some idea of what you want to do... and if you are bereft of inspiration, you won't be for long after flipping through a few of the patron encounters!
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What can I say, this is Judge Dredd. I am a huge fan. Skimming through the game mechanics I could see similarity to other miniatures systems that I know work well and provide enjoyable table top combat. I cannot wait to have a go at this. I can also see how easily it would blend into RPG rules. I just need to locate some miniatures to get started. So happy to have found this. The layout and art within the product are amazing and compliment 2000 AD magazine's best known character. I give this top rating and cannot believe that even watermarked it is available for FREE!
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This is a whole lot more than an 'adventure' - as well as a complete campaign, there's a wealth of information about asteroid belts, those hazardous and chaotic assemblies of loose rocks that are a feature of many star systems. There are notes on generating Belter characters, on mining operations in space, the ships and equipment you need and more.
First up, Asteroid Belts covers their astronomical and astrophysical nature - and it's a pretty accurate account. In the far future, planet-dwellers regard them as the dumping ground of their solar system whilst others regard them as treasure-troves, ripe for mining for resources. Oh, and despite all the stories, they are nowhere the hazard to astrogation that most people think, in fact it can take careful and precise navigation to intersect with one you actually want to visit! This section goes on to discuss the various types of asteroids, and what resources they have to offer those intrepid enough to attempt to mine them.
This leads naturally into prospecting operations, beginning with the rules for surveying asteroids and determining what they have to offer. Once a prospector has decided an asteroid is worth his attention, he needs to stake a claim to it before mining can commence. This is followed by details of mining operations, both in terms of what goes on and in terms of game mechanics. There's a wealth of detail here, easily enough to run asteroid mining operations in their entirety if that is what you want to do. There's even an expansion on the core rulebook rules for zero-G, given that most asteroid mining operations are coducted in micro-gravity conditions.
Next comes a section all about Belter characters, those who were born or who work in asteroid belts and space habitats. Those born there have certain starting characteristics and abilities - for example they tend to be less strong but with greater dexterity than the planet-born, and their vacc suit and zero-G skills are well-developed from an early age. Those who work there soon learn such skills if they want to survive, and there is a full Belter career path given for those who would like to have this in their background. To round this out, there is considerable detail on the 'belter lifestyle' to help you understand what your character has been doing and so incorporate typical Belter attitudes and habits into your role-playing.
This is followed by a section on expeditions, equipment and ships which covers both the organising of trips into an asteriod belt (for mining, for research or whatever purpose) and the gear necessary to undertake them. There are even full details and plans for both a solo prospector's ship and a full-blown mining platform.
The rest of the book contains a detailed account of an asteriod belt, the Shaeffer Belt, and a campaign and individual adventure ideas based there. You can use the Shaeffer Belt as is, or mine it for ideas to create your own wherever in the universe you want to locate it. Even if you run your game in the official Traveller universe (OTU), you can slot it in to an undeveloped hex - several possible subsectors are suggested - as it is supposed to be a bit of a backwater, little known outside of the few who call it home (or at least, the place where they work). It's to be found in the Sonares system - which is fully described - a place where the indigenous inhabitants have not yet discovered Jump, and so have been limited to travel around their own system. Most of the asteroid belt is open to independent prospectors, plenty of scope for intrepid adventurers. Plenty of background and history for the system is provided, complete with a colonised world, a recent massive conflict, space habitats and a charismatic military dictator, so it is not just somewhere to put the asteroid belt but an interesting place in its own right with things to get involved in other than asteroid mining.
Characters coming from the Sonares system are catered for, with notes informing the character generation process. The various space habitats - both space station and hollowed-out asteroid - are well-described, enabling them to serve as someone's 'homeworld' or as a place to visit.
As if this wealth of information does not provide enough material to empower your game, this is followed by several adventures, beginning with The Factory, the first scenario in the Beltstrike Campaign. It involves the Lothrain Free Company, a prospecting and mining outfit, that the characters can work for - there are even some fully-developed NPCs which can be used as characters if you want to jump straight in. They are asked to check out a mining platform that the company is intending to purchase... this is followed by several short scenarios to 'fill in' time before the purchase is made and the characters get involved in refitting the mining platform and getting it operational, and then onwards to making money... and perhaps getting involved in an all-out war!
What is interesting about this campaign is that it presents the Traveller universe (be it the OTU or one of your own devising) as a place where ordinary people live and work... yes, adventures happen, but adventure is not the reason for its existance as an alternate reality. We, as players, know that of course it's only there for us to have games in, but for our characters it is their reality... and this setting and campaign really bring that to life. Not that these scenarios are boring, by any means. Adventure and excitement - and gun play - are to be had here, but within a setting that does not stretch imagination too far (once you've accepted a universe in which interstellar space travel is commonplace, at any rate). Here are adventures in which people are important, their plots and ambitions, their lives and careers... technology is but the backdrop for the human drama.
If this kind of 'realism' appeals, this campaign could make a valuable contribution to your gaming pleasure.
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If you don't care for so much of the hopeless atmosphere of the World of Darkness games, and you are tired of playing what seems to be a dark "super-hero," and you'd like to play the good guys for a change, Deus Vult might be right up your alley. In Deus Vult, you play a monk or a nun 12th Century Europe, a member of a secret Order that goes out into the world to destroy evil that lurk seeking the destruction of souls. You chase down the errant heretic, the evil sorcerer, the vile satanists, werewolves, goblins, and vampires, employing every means at your disposal to destroy these threats to humanity. Utilizing the RuneQuest II/Legend game engine, Deus Vult presents a gritty and fair alternative to the World of Darkness. The PDF was quite well done, and I was able to download it to my iPad with no problem.
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