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Kaiser's Gate Field Manual: Mounts
by David P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/30/2013 10:36:12

This review is for the digest sized physical copy. I'll break the review into two parts: the book and its layout, and the content.

I received the book as a Kickstarter backer and chose to read the print version instead of the PDF. It may be that these comments do not apply to the PDF. First, i thought the type was a bit small; readable, but I would have liked it larger. Second, one of the tables had small type combined with a crinkled paper background that made it unreadable. I was disappointed with that and do not understand the decision to use that background for the table.

The main reason I backed the Kickstarter was to see the Savage Worlds rules for flying mounts. But after reading the book, those rules are not what I like best. In fact, I consider the rules a minor part of what makes this a good book. I most enjoyed the historical details and how the world of Kaiser's Gate differs from our own. A lot of good information is contained in a compact space. I never found the historical information boring or tedious, and wish there had been more. In particular, I liked the references to Serbia, which often seems forgotten in discussions of WWI. Even better, the historical information is presented in a way that naturally suggests adventures to the GM; a number of adventure hooks are included after each section.

In summary, a well done supplement with good historical and rules information. The print version could use better graphic design.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Kaiser's Gate Field Manual: Mounts
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Gaslight Victorian Fantasy 2nd Edition (Savage Worlds Edition)
by Keith (. T. A. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/17/2013 19:43:20

As a fan of the Victorian Era, I like this 2nd edition of Gaslight for Savage Worlds. It fits in the traditional SF/Fantasy Victorian mold of Vampires, Beastmen, Wildlings, magic, and the technology that excites Vernians. It works best as a reference as it's thoroughness covers a huge range of topics within it's 80+ pages. My favorite parts were the Important Organizations & Secret Societies and the Reliquaries sections. I would love to see a Victorian "Warehouse 13" plot point campaign inspired by the previously mentioned sections. The DTRPG product description says it's a Player's Handbook, which is fair but in truth its a good bit more. The inside title page claims "A Victorian Era Fantasy Setting.." which isn't quite true at least in its current layout. I believe with some editing it could be very much closer to a true setting book. Instead of burying the "Making Heroes" on page 31, I'd suggest having a basic setting intro followed quickly by the Making Heroes section, then Worldly Goods, Setting Rules, & Magic, then....have a GM section with all the fun secret organizations, societies, reliquaries, and some basic adventures. Voila! It's a real setting. It's almost all there. There is a reference to a Campaign guide in the description of the Wildlings. I'd love to see that and revised into a(3rd?) new edition and I'd give it that 5th star. As is, it's a good fun basis for a Holmsian, Vernian, or Wellsian adventure! dmb



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Gaslight Victorian Fantasy 2nd Edition (Savage Worlds Edition)
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Creator Reply:
Thank you so much for your candid review. I appreciate your suggestions and I believe most of them can be worked into a newer version of the book. I think the reference to the "Campaign Guide" is erroneous, and left over from a previous edition and failed to be edited out. A revised version wont come out right away, but thanks to the suggestions you made it has made the "to do" list and it should be soon. Thank you again.
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Eldritch Skies
by Brian P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/08/2013 23:23:09

Back when Lovecraft was writing his stories, there wasn't the neat distinction between horror, fantasy, and science fiction that currently exists. It was all kind of shoved together under the label of Weird Fiction, so you get stories like John Carter of Mars psychically transporting himself to Mars, or magic-wielding aliens, or--more topically--Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness, which has this quote when referring to the Old Ones:

"Radiates, vegetables, monstrosities, star-spawn - whatever they had been, they were men!"

That's the approach that Eldritch Skies takes, and right from looking at the human/mi-go trade mission on the front cover, you know that this isn't going to be like Call Of Cthulhu, or as I often call it, "The Dunwich Horror: the RPG." Aliens are alien, but they're not innately inimical to humanity, and while you'll never have a human and a mi-go drinking together in a bar after work and complaining about their bosses, it is possible for them to interact and get beneficial results for both parties.

Eldritch Skies actually reminds me a lot of Eclipse Phase. Not because of the specific details--the kind of society Eclipse Phase demonstrates is probably intrinsically destructive and dehumanizing in the world of Eldritch Skies--but because of the overall structure. The PCs are assumed to be part of an organization that's tasked with solving various problems that pop up as humanity expands out into the cosmos, the threat of total extinction is hanging over humanity's head, a lot of offworld colonies are based on exploring alien ruins, and so on. This is a good thing, because Eclipse Phase is excellent.

Anyway, what makes Eldritch Skies a sci-fi Lovecraft take other than that the players can talk to the horrible monsters as well as be eaten by them? Part of it is the approach to world-building it takes. When discussing the structure of the universe, the book (albeit obliquely) refers to the Great Filter in the discussion of the fate of every space-faring species. The vast majority of species either go extinct or transcend, though some species find a stable equilibrium and stagnate as their psychology prevents them from making any new technological discoveries unless they experiment with alien technology, and some species try to transcend and screw up or only partially transcend, leading to creatures like the flying polyps or the star-spawn of Cthulhu.

Hyperspace mentioned above is how a lot of the Lovecraftian metaphysics and background is all tied together. Humans who gain "hyperspace exposure" can become psychic, and psychic powers or sorcery can cause hyperspacial exposure, as can alien artifacts based on hyperspacial principles, or even simply traveling through hyperspace (which makes the colonies perhaps more dangerous than they otherwise might be...). Humans exposed too much develop an increasingly inhuman mindset, and eventually transform into hideous monsters. This is the source of ghouls and deep ones.

Similarly, hyperspace is where the servitors of the Outer Gods and the Great Old Ones live. In Eldritch Skies, Great Old Ones might be natural, or they might be the result of certain individuals transcending, or possibly the amalgamation of an entire species transcending. Servitors and Great Old Ones typically don't have much contact with the physical world unless they are summoned or something catches their interest, and one of the ways to attract their notice is...high levels of hyperspacial exposure. This is one of the reasons why extinction is so common: a species begins experimenting with hyperspace, an experiment goes hideously wrong, Cthulhu or the alien equivalent takes notice, and millennia later some other species exploring its local surroundings finds a world with its atmosphere blasted away, or evenly-spaced craters covering the entire planet's surface, or perfectly preserved ruins with no trace that anyone ever lived there, and so on.

This is another point I think connects it to Eclipse Phase--humanity's exploration of the cosmos is probably the only thing that will ensure its survival as a species, but at the same time, it makes it far more likely that humanity will attract unwanted attention leading to its total extinction.

There are a few planets listed here that humanity has discovered, including Firefly, where almost all life is part of vast communal organisms called "metas"; or Colossus, which experiments indicate is actually a Dyson sphere built around a gas giant and has a surface area 300x that of Earth; or Eridanos, where some old catastrophe boiled off the oceans and rent the planet with giant rifts into which life had to descend to survive; or Galatea, where humans used sorcery to travel there millennia ago and the planet is a series of city-states ruled by sorcerer-kings like something out of The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. If some of these sound similar to some of the planets in Gatecrashing, that's because they are, but the similarity is pretty superficial, and anyway Galatea is way more similar to Stargate. And frankly, that's fine to me, because Lovecraftian Stargate is great tastes that taste great together.

I haven't been talking about the mechanics at all, but that's mainly because I don't really like Unisystem. It's a perfectly fine system, it's just not for me, so reading the system parts of the book mostly either put me to sleep or made my eyes glaze over. I bought Eldritch Skies for the fluff anyway so I don't mind, but you might have another opinion.

This gets four stars only because there are huge portions of the book I can't use and that actively resisted my reading them. Taken solely on the fluff and ability of the book to inspire, it's five stars all the way. If you're tired of reading interpretations of Lovecraft that read more like Gnosticism, where the universe is intrinsically inimical to humanity specifically and every non-human species has it out for humanity and the only possible fate is madness and death, Eldritch Skies is an excellent antidode.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Eldritch Skies
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City of Clocks
by Tore N. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 05/17/2013 02:51:45

City of Clocks Review

City of Clocks (CoC in the following) is a systemless industrial fantasy setting. I am reviewing the .pdf version.

The physical thing

The document is 176 pages of text and black & white illustrations. It loads and reads well off my small off-brand e-reader (with e-paper), as well as off my clanking old laptop. It feels as though it is made with the reader in mind. The editing seems to be pretty good, and I've not found any errors worth noting. There is no index, but the table of contents is very good and thorough.

The art is mostly characters, with very few representations of the city itself. It would have been nice to have examples of buildings, streets and shops, but it is really a very minor complaint. The character art is very good in that it feels like representations of actual people. The characters have character I guess you might say.

Chapter 1 The setting starts with a history chapter, or to be more specific a mythology chapter gradually becoming history. The mythology, or creation story is quickly done away with, and mostly consists of generations of god-like beings betraying their creators/parents. This happens three times by my count, and when we came to the humans and other species overthrowing the Luminaries (self-made demigods) I was smiling a bit. The Luminaries created the original city of clocks, and their legacy is many undiscovered or ill-understood secrets, among which are the Incarnae, humans with great powers. The rest of the mytpothological bits seem to be of little import to the setting. The human history on the other hand is full of neat tidbits and conflicts. Clashes between religions and between patricians and plebs gradually turn a democracy into an oligarchy and a police state. Along the way we are introduced to merchants, nobles and even an economist, all of whom have shaped the city through good and bad times. The writing is a bit dry, but I see that as a good thing. It never becomes self-indulgent and overly florid, but gives the reader a ton of well-sketched ideas to build on. It comes across as potential and not a straitjacket.

Chapter 2 The second chapter is a primer of sorts. 'What every citizen should know', you might say. The chapter is short but sweet. It tells you abut the species: constructs (sapient androids built long ago by and ancient species), Geks (a man-sized ant with four legs and two arms, centaur-style) and Sentenni (long-lived near-humans with and alien culture). There is a section on technology, describing firearms, walkers and airships powered by 'ice', which is primordial chaos in frozen form. It is thus neither steam-driven nor clockwork, and the aesthetic does not seem to be terribly 'steampunk' either. There are articles on law enforcement, class, family, timekeeping and architecture. The information is ample, yet kept fairly brief. There is a modular feel too it as well. It's there if it is needed, but it's not the sort of thing a GM or player will need to memorize.

Chapter 3 Chapter three contains maps of the city, as well as a neighborhood-by-neighborhood guide to the city. It is clearly written and easy to reference via the table of contents and the maps. Here's where I'm reminded by Over The Edge and its setting Al Amaja. It feels like a densely populated and bustling place where interesting things are happening in every corner. Here's a patrician's mansion full of mysteries, a run-down clockwork amusement park where nightmares emerge from the ground, Sentenni ghettos (and there is an amusing reason for why that word is used in-setting), crime-ridden tenements and pubs where the resistance buy their guns. There are many story-seeds in the City of Clocks.

Chapter 4 The City is full of power groups, city-wide institutions and conspiracies, and they're the topic of this chapter. Each group has its own potted history, a description of their power base, as well as people of importance within the group. There are some very evocative 'head shot' illustrations of these people (and constructs, ant-people etc). In this chapter one finds the low-down on the Clergy (the powerful church), the Cabal (a mysterious secret society going through an internal conflict), the Emotes (artists and sybarites, reminiscent of Planescape's Sensates), the Soldat (a fraternity of law men and soldiers), as well as farmers, librarians and capitalists. This chapter is chockful of intrigue, mystery and conflict. There's enough here for a bunch of long campaigns of action and politics. Chapter 5 Chapter five deals with the nine noble houses who influence much in the City. This chapter is structured in the same way as the previous one, but it makes sense to to have the Houses in a seperate chapter, since their power is so pervasive and well-consolidated. The Houses are (with one exception) families, each with their eligible bachelors, senile patriarchs and black sheep. Chapter 6 A very short chapter dealing with the Incarnae, humans who have been endowed with the ability to manipulate reality. Some are servants of the City's parliament, while many others have shrugged off their conditioning and rebelled. Incarnae have powers based in an archetypal or ideal version of themselves. A soldier wil thus be THE soldier and so forth. The Incarnae and their powers are not fully understood, as the process of creating them is invented bu the Luminaries. Chapter 7 The final chapter deals with the secrets of the Luminaries (the species of City-building demigods described in chapter 1), their influence, the threat they pose, and how to use them in a game. They ARE an ancient evil, but there is nothing Lovecraftian about them. That may be a comfort to some.

So, what can you do with all this? Well, the setting does not assume that players take on specific roles. It's easy to come up with pitches for a campaign or scenario.

Legal advocates fighting for truth in a system which favors the powerful and well-connected (something like the BBC series Garrow's Law). Uses a version of Gumshoe. Incarnae as flawed supers in league with the underground resistance. Uses ICONS (or whichever supers-system you like). Brutal slice-of-life drama in a bustling fantasy City (using the rules of In A Wicked Age, but you have to create an Oracle for that). Gritty crime drama where Civil Enforcement officers must navigate between cutthroat crooks and entitled patricians. (Uses the free MiniSix, 'cos I like it).

The fact that the setting is systemless gives a great deal of freedom to play around with the various groups in the setting and the various systems on your shelves.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
City of Clocks
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Kaiser's Gate Setting Soundtrack
by Norbert D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 12/06/2012 15:07:09

The worst soundtrack I heard for a long time. In my opinion, the music is bad, the performing is bad and those synthetic sounds fit absolutely not in world war I. I regret having bought that soundtrack. Listen to the work of "Erdenstern" and you know how great RPG Music can be.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
Kaiser's Gate  Setting Soundtrack
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Eldritch Skies (Kindle Edition)
by Nenad R. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 09/03/2012 07:44:30

Unisystem is one of my favourite RP systems, due to its simplicity and robustness. The basic premise is simple: Roll a d10, add attribute ability, and try to beat 10. This version uses the cinematic unisystem, as seen in the Buffy RPG. It is pretty much the same system as used in the other cinematic games.

The setting is interesting, based on the original writings of Lovercraft, but extending them into the future, resulting in a Lovercraftian Space Opera setting. The emphasis of the game is more on exploration and discovery, rather than getting driven insane by gibbering monstrosities (although there are plenty of those, should you be more inclined that way).

While I really like the game, the presentation is far from perfect, with the kindle format making the tables hard to read. The system is not table-intensive, but there are several of them, and they could have been optimised for the kindle screen.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Eldritch Skies (Kindle Edition)
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Creator Reply:
Thank you so much for your review, and I appreciate your honesty. We will see what we can do about fixing those tables as soon as we can. I very much appreciate the feedback. It helps make this game better.
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Eldritch Skies
by Robert G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/16/2012 18:03:43

when I tried to open the file I got and error (109) please help



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
Eldritch Skies
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Creator Reply:
I tried to contact you privately, but for some reason I can not locate an email address for you in the sales reports. Try to download the game again, as it might have been being updated at the time you downloaded it originally. If you are still having problems, please contact me directly and I will personally send you the PDF. Thank you so much for your patronage.
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Kaiser's Gate
by Thomas B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 08/05/2012 22:42:46

WHAT WORKS: I don't really like Power Points, so an alternate magic system is always welcome. I like the wide range of material covered in the timeline, from the beginning of magical crime through the end of World War I. The new Edges (mostly aimed at dogfighting) feel particularly appropriate, given the setting.

WHAT DOESN'T WORK: Setting-wise, it feels almost like TOO much has been crammed into one book...but I could also see how one could prefer that to a more limited book. Enterprising GMs can certainly expand from the material given, and if demand is there, Battlefield Press can always expand the setting with supplements. Minor quibble: A lot of earlier Savage Settings had the problem of multiple shared elements, namely zombies and Atlantis, so linking the events of Kaiser's Gate to the Tunguska event immediately took me back to Necessary Evil, which does the same (albeit with a completely different result).

CONCLUSION: First off, it's nice to see something focused on World War I instead of World War II. Second of all, they showed a lot of restraint with the new material added, especially Edges, focusing on expanding aerial dogfighting. The races are included with a caveat of "Humans are the default, the rest must be approved by the GM", and I vastly prefer options to turn on and off over omission in just about every case. There are some d20isms still present, including the racial selection, some of the new spells and the magic item selection. I always like a good bestiary, but a lot of what you need for this is already going to be in Savage Worlds. Lastly, in an odd note, it refers you to the Explorer's Edition over the Deluxe Edition. Very good work here and a great time to jump on, with the Kickstarter still in effect, because of all the bonus material that has already been unlocked.

For my full review, please visit: http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2012/04/tommys-take-on-kaisers-gate.html



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Kaiser's Gate
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Creator Reply:
The reference to the Explorer's Edition over the Deluxe Edition is and editing error that we missed, thank you for pointing it out. We will get that fixed as quickly as we can, and should be fixed before we release the print version of the game.
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Eldritch Skies
by Alexander O. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 07/19/2012 19:14:00

I like this RPG, though the succeeding paragraph may not seem to make that point -- trust that the rest of the paragraphs do.

First the negative: this book is not really laid out (or organized) to my tastes. It's done in a competent manner, but there are certain slips that, in my opinion should be addressed to make the book stronger and easier not only to read, but also to use a as a reference book. In general, I do agree with the ordering of the material, but I feel strongly about trimming the 'game fiction for flavor', a more refined layout from the two column approach, and a more detailed table of contents.

Next, the positive: this is, surprisingly, a different take on the Lovecraftian mythology. It goes purist in that it ignores a lot of the post-Lovecraft additions to the Mythos, but allows for both the pessimistic and optimistic Lovecraftian play. And it takes the characters into space, allows characters to play with sorcery, forces characters to deal with the various races on Earth and beyond, and exposes characters to Hyperspatial radiation.

The games you play here could easily echo a Twilight Zone episode or Bradbury's Mars tales, your games can inject a sense of exploring the unknown, pushing the limits, and taking mankind beyond its cradle into a dangerous universe that could easily kill him or, strangely enough, king him. Not all endings need to result in the deaths of the protagonists -- some might survive, or even thrive as Randolph Carter did in the Dreamlands.

The juxtaposition of the open secret of hyperdimensional travel with the strange dangers of the mythos-filled universe is interesting for me. The actions of world governments and individuals in the timeline feel plausible and interesting to me, and the opportunities for a different type of space adventure / horror / exploration campaign are very appealing.

I also like (though I've not playtested) the unfolding of the cinematic Unisystem ruleset to allow for fast play. The character templates give a broad spectrum of recognizable archetypes, the character creation rules and gear give enough twists to optimize and ready your character for adventure.

This is a densely detailed, finely crafted setting. It provides standard kits for different types of military and scientific teams. It details a wide variety of realms and worlds that humanity has gone to or can go to. It provides a ready kit of well-known (and lesser known) creatures and dangers to threaten the PCs with. And it manages to maintain a Science Fiction feel despite the presence of the Lovecraftian elements. You don't get that overwhelming 'small band of heroes against a government conspiracy' feel that you do in Delta Green (which I love); in Eldritch Skies you get a 'humanity with all its strengths and foibles against the sea of unknowable terror and wonder that is the universe' vibe.

There's potential here to celebrate exploration of the universe, to celebrate the human spirit that seeks to push farther and delve further into cosmic mysteries than it has any right to, to celebrate cooperation and conflict and courage. There's also potential to expose all the ugly sides of the human condition -- greed, pride, and a lust for personal power at the cost of other peoples' lives and loves.

It reminds me of the potential of shows like the early season(s) of X-files and Earth: Final Conflict, and of (as mentioned above) the Twilight Zone episodes about space exploration and the Bradbury Mars Chronicles -- a wonderfully dark merging of science and weirdness that somehow avoids becoming science fantasy (which it technically is) and somehow avoids being merely horror in space.

If this is your kind of thing, give Eldritch Skies a shot.

(this review also appears on my blog: http://armchairgamer.blogspot.com. I originally posted a shorter version of the review, realized I had more to say to fully represent my opinion; so I deleted the old one and posted this new one.)



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Eldritch Skies
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Eldritch Skies
by Paul D. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 06/15/2012 17:15:20

Eldritch Skies is quite a fascinating product. It takes the Cthulhu mythos and translates into a sci-fi setting with a logical alternate history of the 20th century. It presents a space game where there is both wonder and terror to be encountered among the stars.

Shortly before purchasing this I was thinking of having a homebrew setting with aliens that were both much more powerful than humanity (rare in my experience) as well as less advanced (quite common). There is a reason for finding other planets with human populations built into the setting as well as interpretations of the Mi-Go, Deep Ones and Ghouls that work well and will keep adventurers on their toes.

If you like sci-fi, cosmic horror and/or Sorcerors and Starships this product is worth your while.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Eldritch Skies
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 05/17/2012 16:08:41

So what can I say about Eldritch Skies?

Let's go basic. Certainly there is the feel of Aliens here more than say Avatar. One thing though for certain, this is not Star Trek, Star Wars or anything like that. Though to be fair, Trek did have a story by Robert Bloch and it was very Lovecraftian in tone. Also if that is what you want (SW or ST) then the rules will support that. This book is Lovecraft as SciFi (dark SciFi to be sure), but not so much as horror.

Chapter 1 deals with the recent history and the present day, 2030. The history of the world here is slightly different. Think of it as if all those Lovecraft stories were true and humanity found a way to start using some of that alien tech/magic to get to the stars. There is a history and the changes start out subtle till we get to the 90s. We get to the present day and now we are stepping out into the reaches of space and we find wonders and horrors.

Chapter 2 is Character Creation and Chapter 3 is Game Rules. The game system is Cinematic Unisystem. The same system that powers my own Ghosts of Albion and other games like Army of Darkness, Buffy and Angel. So if you are familiar with those games then you will be familiar how this one works too. Like other CineUnisystem games there are three "levels" of characters, Civilians, Operatives and Veterans. Unlike other CineUnisystem this game uses the Secondary Attribute Speed, from Classic Unisystem. For Qualities and Drawbacks there are all the expected ones, Fast Reaction Time, Nerves of Steel, etc. But there are also a lot of "Ab-Human" abilities, such as Deep One Hybrid and Sorcery (it is not the same as Buffy's) and some augmentations. The rules are same as other Cine Unisystem games with some additions to support the game, ie lots of gear.

Chapter 4 is Arcane Secrets including the secrets of hyperspace. Not just how to travel, but the biggest issue of the hyperspace madness. This is the keystone of the game. What separates this from other Unisystem games and it from other Mythos games.

Chapter 5 deals with the Realms of the Mythos. These are the worlds known to humankind. This also includes the psychic Dream Realms. This is a very cool chapter that had to be a lot of fun to write. Tons of new worlds ready for you to use and have adventures on.

Chapter Six: Eldritch Threats and Wonders: The monsters and creatures of the settings. Includes the mythos creatures, humans and ab-humans. If you have any passing interest in mythos monsters or expanding your CineUnisystem games with more creatures, then this chapter is worth the price of the book alone. Yes, you can play it as is. Or use it in your Buffy, Army of Darkness or Ghosts of Albion games.

Chapter Seven is the Director's section on how to run a game. This includes setting the tone and what to do.

The Appendix has rules for using the Classic Unisystem and a bunch of tables for your ease. No character sheet though.

I think one of the troubles about playing games like D&D and even to a degree Call of Cthulhu is we have tended to categorize the mythos creatures as well, Mythos Creatures. They often times are "Stated up" as gods or some other similar sort of being. We tend to forget that while humans may have worshiped them in cults most were not in fact gods at all. Powerful alien beings yes, but not so much gods. Looking at them again as aliens is a deft move and this change of the point of view makes this book less Buffy-doing-Aliens and more Armageddon/ConspiracyX-doing-Event-Horizon.

What I really, really like about this is it treats the Mythos Creatures as aliens and magic as advanced science. The Thing is a good example of Lovecraft as SciFi story.

Also this book remembers that Lovecraft's stories were also not all about tentacle monsters and evisceration. Sure we have the Mi-Go, but this more about the madness that lies between the stars. Honestly to get a better feel of what you can do here, take the Sam Rockwell movie Moon and assume there are outside alien influences on the whole thing. We never see the aliens, except for maybe when Sam's character sees a Mi-Go with a brain tube at the very end.

I mentioned the playtest files because I'll admit I was not initially a fan of this game when I first read it. But I was focusing on the crunch rather than the fluff. The Unisystem parts were (and are) fine. But since it's release I have grown to like it more for both the crunch and the fluff.

If you like SciFi, Lovecraft, the Mythos or Unisystem, or all the above, then this is a great game to get.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Open Anime
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/17/2012 12:33:52

Open Anime is based on the OGL but differs quite a bit from it. It is very, very similar to Open Core, but with more of an anime overlook. What does that mean? Well, for starters we start with the various Anime sub-genres and how these change how you view and how you play your character. If Open Core is the Marvel Universe then Open Anime is the Marvel Manga Universe.

It is designed to allow the GM to create his/her own game with the tools provided. It uses a basic roll system; 3d6 + Attribute + Skill. (or even 1d20 + Attribute + skill). The system is modular, so you can take or leave what you like.

Like a number of game, OA uses a point buy system for attributes and skills. The number of points granted is based on the game's power level. You have six attributes, three physical and three mental, that map nicely to d20 or even Unisystem. These abilities then can be used for derived abilities, like initiative or health or even variant ones like SAN.

Skills are covered and use the same point buy system. And there are a lot of skills, though given the modular nature of the game and maybe the your own games focus, you might need to use all of them.

There are also a number of effects-based abilities which look very similar to BESM d20/SAS d20 or other open Super's games. Though the "hows" of these effects may not be defined. For example a "Fire" effect could be magic (fireball), tech (flame thrower), advanced science (heat ray) or anything really. The aim is to describe what is happening and then GM/Players decide how it happened.

Also included are a list of Disabilities, things that can affect your character. This is very similar to other games, in particular GURPS. These grant a certain level of Character Points back to you. Finally we also get Action Points, which work like Drama Points in Unisystem.

The next part of the book are the rules of play, which is heavy on the combat and things like chases and mental battles. The rules are simple really, using the same basic rolls, just applied in different situations.

Open Anime is actually a game I have wanted to write. When BESM disappeared there was a vacuum for a good Anime RPG. With all the Open systems out there and the BESM-d20 system open, all the elements needed are out there. Open Anime combines all of these using Open Core as their guide. While I don't think it quite reaches the heights that BESM does/did, it is a rather good effort. Good enough that I don't have any desire to write my own Anime game anymore, I'll just tweak this one. There is a heavier emphasis on Magic and Magical Girls than say other types of Anime Genres. Which I think is a little disappointing.

What gets me the most about this one is there seems to be a lack of what makes an Anime RPG an Anime RPG. I think in the attempt to make this game more open and more flexible they lost a little of what makes Anime different than some other games.

This is a great game system wise, but lacks something in the Anime area.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Open Anime
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Open Core Role Playing System Classic
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/17/2012 12:15:21

Open Core is based on the OGL but differs quite a bit from it. It is designed to allow the GM to create his/her own game with the tools provided. It uses basic roll system; 3d6 + Attribute + Skill. (or even 1d20 + Attribute + skill). The system is modular, so you can take or leave what you like.

Like a number of games, OC uses a point buy system for attributes and skills. The number of points granted is based on the game's power level. You have six attributes, three physical and three mental, that map nicely to d20 or even Unisystem. These abilities then can be used for derived abilities, like initiative or health or even variant ones like SAN.

Skills are covered and use the same point buy system. And there are a lot of skills, though given the modular nature of the game and maybe the your own games focus, you might need to use all of them.

There are also a number of effects-based abilities which look very similar to BESM d20/SAS d20 or other open Super's games. Though the "hows" of these effects may not be defined. For example a "Fire" effect could be magic (fireball), tech (flame thrower), advanced science (heat ray) or anything really. The aim is to describe what is happening and then GM/Players decide how it happened.

Also included are a list of Disabilities, things that can affect your character. This is very similar to other games, in particular GURPS. These grant a certain level of Character Points back to you. Finally we also get Action Points, which work like Drama Points in Unisystem.

The next part of the book are the rules of play, which is heavy on the combat and things like chases and mental battles. The rules are simple really, using the same basic rolls, just applied in different situations. There is a section on adventures and a quick overview of character creation.

The Appendices cover different play modes. So for example Sorcery which adds "D&D/d20 Arcana" like spells to your game. Another is an expanded wealth system.

The art is sparse, and most of it is other Open art, but it is appropriate to the sections so for me it works.

Overall a solid game system to play or to mine for ideas.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Open Core Role Playing System Classic
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Gaslight Victorian Fantasy (OGL Edition)
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/06/2012 17:09:55

If you enjoyed the old Masque of the Red Death game, or just Victorian Gothic games in general then this is a great choice. What is particularly nice about this nice about Gaslight is how much history is included in the book. While that might be your thing, this is quite important for a Victorian game. There is also a great overview of the whole world, not just England. For these alone Gaslight is a worth the price as resources for any other Victorian game. Gaslight does give you more than that. There are new races you can play, such as werewolf and vampire, which are found in many games. But also the more uncommon Beast Men (which I have only seen in one other game) and the unique (as far as I can tell) Wildlings; or unaging wild children. There are plenty of new options for all sorts characters, of any race or background. Not to mention new magic, groups, and plenty of foes to face. I compared this game to the old Masque of the Red Death. Well if MotRD is "Dracula" then Gaslight is "Varney the Vampire"; less familiar, but maybe a touch darker.

This OGL edition is a complete game, over 300 pages of everything you will need to run a Gaslight game including a complete section on classes.

They layout is simple and easy to read and the art is authentic Victorian illustrations and maps that give a real authentic flavor. Battlefield Press provides a lot of freebies and support for this game and that pushes up a bit in my opinion.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Gaslight Victorian Fantasy (OGL Edition)
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Gaslight Victorian Fantasy (Savage Worlds Edition)
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 04/06/2012 17:09:28

If you enjoyed the old Masque of the Red Death game, or just Victorian Gothic games in general then this is a great choice. What is particularly nice about this nice about Gaslight is how much history is included in the book. While that might be your thing, this is quite important for a Victorian game. There is also a great overview of the whole world, not just England. For these alone Gaslight is a worth the price as resources for any other Victorian game. Gaslight does give you more than that. There are new races you can play, such as werewolf and vampire, which are found in many games. But also the more uncommon Beast Men (which I have only seen in one other game) and the unique (as far as I can tell) Wildlings; or unaging wild children. There are plenty of new options for all sorts characters, of any race or background. Not to mention new magic, groups, and plenty of foes to face. I compared this game to the old Masque of the Red Death. Well if MotRD is "Dracula" then Gaslight is "Varney the Vampire"; less familiar, but maybe a touch darker.

This Savage Worlds edition requires a copy of the Savage Worlds rules.

They layout is simple and easy to read and the art is authentic Victorian illustrations and maps that give a real authentic flavor. Battlefield Press provides a lot of freebies and support for this game and that pushes up a bit in my opinion.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Gaslight Victorian Fantasy (Savage Worlds Edition)
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