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I've always loved L5R, having purchased the last two editions; I purchased this out of curiosity with a negative 'Another edition comment' at the fore of my mind. I hadn't really like third editions look and feel, and was expecting similar.
However, I was amazed at the quality of both the layout beauty of the book, it is easily one of the best looking rpgs I've ever had the joy to read. If anything it is perhaps a little too pretty as it is slightly distracting reading through the rules.
Having brought the pdf I was so impressed, I went on to purchase the dead tree version, and the subsequent rule books.
Be warned the approach to building characters has changed, the books acting as more of a toolkit than a blow by blow instruction list, which both allows for more character variation and better development.
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I purchased the Dead tree version from ebay, I was more than a little disappointed by the quality compared to the 4th rules books which I rate highly.
The Adventure is ok, a little short but ok.
The screen on the other hand is very thin card, the Art work is ok and the table/info is useful, but when compared to the Screens for Dark heresy it is forced to hold its head in shame.
And the moral of this story is stick with the PDF.
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I can't help feeling disappointed by this product.
The first edition books where great (though the borders and art were a little poor) breething life into an old forgotten setting.
This book seems to have basically done a very poor job of recycling them and converting them to MRQ2. It feels a bit of a half hearted attempt at that - it may have been the MRQ2 rules were still in the flux of design at the time it was put together and things changed after its release.
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Quite a fun and addictive game.
Play is remarkably varied with thee varying fifth element.
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I purchased this after the disapointing Necromantic Arts, expecting it too be just a poor re-write of the first three Glorantha Race books.
I am glad to say I was wrong, admittedly alot of the material is basically the same, but the thought has gone into the both the cults and the background cultures for generating PCs.
Basically everything you need to play a Duck, Dragnewt or Uz/Troll.
Only one niggle, some of the spells already exist in Cults of Glorantha with differing description - which could lead to arguments around the gaming table.
In particular one of the versions of Face Chaos has nasty possibilities.
Another outstanding product from mongoose
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An excellent overview of Glorantha and its cultures brought upto date with the new rule set.
There is enough information (aside cults) to build a respectable campaign up within the book.
The art workand layout is also much improved, we are even presented with a reasonable set of maps.
The only negative point, and it is a real trivial one, the background Skill listings for each culture are little confusing to read at a glance, you end up using a ruler. If they where alterantely highlighted in light grey it would have been good.
Other than that can't really fault this book and hope all the books that follow retain its quality.
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After the advent of the new rule set I was looking forward to getting hold of this suppliment, Iwas greatly impressed by the new MRQ2 rules, however...
Although the Necromantic Arts had some promising ideas, it was both badly executed and edited.
The suppliment claims to MRQ2 but is really a half hearted gloss over of the older MRQ ruleset.
The spells are imbalanced for the new rule set and unusable.
The Cult write-ups are bad, making reference to no existing spells or spells from the wrong order, ie Divine rather than Common or Spirit.
Vivamort and the East isle god are just confused and unusable.
The undead creature section isn't too bad, and if your running a game in the 3rd age and you want things to populate a certain Upland Marsh, there are some nice things here.
The adventure section also shows promise.
If you've got time and patients you may find some nice bits and pieces between its covers, its a shame this could have been a really good product, I'm glad I didn't purchase a hard copy
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This is a massive collection of Glorantha Goodness, it revises the cults from the previous edition and brings them in line with new MRQII rule set.
It goes into further depth into the cult and pantheon mythos giving a bit more meat to help you portray your character.
It really goes to town on the Draconic, Storm, Solar, and Malkion Pantheons - all are excellently detailed and give a good feel for the culture.
I would have prefered it if the Nomad, Pentian/horse Nomad, Pamaltelan, and beast cults had been seperated out into distinct Pantheon/Traditions rather than lumping them together... still its only a minor point of preference.
Not all the cults from the previous editions made it to the book... and some of the cults/paths mentioned in the Glorantha Core Book don't get a mentioned inside so the cultures remain unplayable unless your predispossed to make some cults up yourself until they fill the gaps, inparticular Teshnos, East Isle, Pamaltelan and the Chaos Pantheon.
There are some minor error- missing spells, but hat said, this is a remarkable book, it makes the cults of Prax feel a bit lightweight.
Paul
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Cool....
Canibals, Scavs, and Manchines what more could you ask for;
The writing and content is good, especially the detail and background on the Scavs is good.
Art work is excellent and moody.
Hopefully this will open up a flood gate to more SLA products.
Paul
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A solid back drop/source book low in mechanic (nearly non-existant in fact) high in setting and flavour, damn useful for Heroquest, RQ2, RQ3 or the obligatory Mongooses edition.
Very little to be negative about, writing and layout is good, the maps are excellent.
Some of the cover illustration and internal art works is bit poor (but well above that of he infamous Elder Secrets and Troll Gods), but even then the art is generally in keeping with the setting.
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Excellent rule system, reasonably detailed and interesting character generation.
An occult rpg, with overtones of conspiracy, and a liberal dose of Lovecraft thrown in for good measure.
I suppose a comparisson has to be drawn with WOD Mage:
The general game system has the edge over WOD(and hte New WOD), it feels far more robust and integrates with the other 'undead and Shapechanger suppliements' in a far less hap-hazzard way than say Were wolf or Vampire do.
However, Witchcrafts magic although varied is not as free-form as the new WOD Mage - still its enjoyable if a little formulaic.
So If your players prefer the security of a hard and fast magic system then Witchcraft is probably a good option.
Layout and art work are quite good, and writing is easy to follow, though the double -- become a little irritating.
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The setting of this game is excellent, one of the most interesting I've run or played in.
The last bastion of humanity set upon and surrounded by the hordes of hell, which have been directly caused by the sins of man.
Its gritty, dark future with bags of ideas, full of juicy campaign ideas waiting to be exploited; Evil kultist bent on the dominance or destruction of mankind, using soul powered magic to bend reality to their ends.
The game system is ok, a little clunky but workable.
With some nice ideas for experience and motivation.
Where the book falls down is in its assembly/editing, its difficult to find anything- still its worth the effort as this is one over looked gem of a game.
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A must have for ref's of A|state
The product details ten 'villains'with varied character, backgrounds,
and motivations which really bring the characters to life.
Each character is illustrated with the usual A|state rendered images, all are of excellent quality.
Most could be sloted easily into a game session and adventure seed/nugets are given for this purpose. However, the likes of Brooke Fegelein and Johnny Two hammers could easily spell the end for the characters if they're incautious.
The character background draws and extends published material which is quite cool, excellent stuff.
The only negative point I can think of is the re-usabilty of the characters.
LIKED: Adds to the feel of the setting
DISLIKED: Nothing
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Satisfied
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks for you comments Paul, much appreciated.
Cheers
Malcolm |
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Good all round product for fleshing out your Ghostfighter characters.
Lots of nice touches, tattoos, and scaring come to mind.
Some excellent and atmospheric artwork, the weapons are particualrly well rendered.
The focus is squarely on the Ghost-fighter (as you'ld expect) so its only flaw is that if you've no Ghost-Fighters amongst the players its of limited use, though there are some excellent NPC Ghostfighters included - Jane Card being one of them.
LIKED: More or less everything.
DISLIKED: Not overly struck on the hand drawn images - they're ok, its just the style differs from the usual polished A|State illustrations.
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Satisfied
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks Paul. Yep, the supplement is fairly focussed on one character type, but we will be bringing out further supplements to give focus to other types of character in the game. Hopefully these will prove as useful to you.
Cheers
Malcolm |
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If you've never played Cyberpunk 2020 and you can see past the Barbie & Ken photos' there is possibly a good game here if you can leave your preconceptions behind. Unfortunately I loved 2020 and have been unable too.
From my own perspective the games lost its way, as well as its dark gritty edge. Its trying to do to much and its lost much of its balance, giant robots and bio altered-fishmen etal, cyberware and nanotech with no real draw backs - its become a game of big guns and sadly lacking in street savy.
On the upside their are bits and piece which could prove useful, the modified decking rules for one.
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