Pegasus Digital
Umschauen
bis €











Zurück
pixel_trans.gif
Andere Kommentare dieses Kunden:
Du musst angemeldet sein um zu Bewerten
pixel_trans.gif
Warmonger's Guide: Boot Camp (Kickstarter/7th Edition)
Verlag: 23rd Century Productions, LLC
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 07/17/2022 16:54:11

Battlelords of the 23rd century, now by 23rd century productions, is determined to show it's still in the positive hitpoints zone by releasing new products as quick as they can. Given the vast amount of earlier edition stuff waiting to be updated to the new 7e rules this isn't much of a problem.

“Warmonger's guide: Bootcamp” is an effort to keep a stream of releases coming. It's about 48 pages of fairly dense material for the new edition. Oddly enough, for a game that has a reputation of being mostly based on combat, there is a lot of RPG material here meant to make your characters more detailed in roleplaying terms.

We start with a look at the current year in the BL universe with a notable event that happened in each of the 10 months of it. (The galactic alliance uses a 10 month calendar.) The GM could start his campaign at the beginning and work his way thru whatever events he chooses of make the aftermaths of these events campaign settings.

Then we get to malachi's primer for homebodies, which has brief notes on how each species tends to act in various situations, this is pretty much all RPG material, not a lot of it will be directly useful in combat. It just gives a few general tips, like why Chatilians don't like talking to most people, it's actually not rudeness, why you might want to run if an Eradani's face turns blue and why you should be concerned when a Mutzachan suddenly stops his near constant talk. Just little notes useful for making alien behavior kind of alien.

Then we get some more detailed info on each races culture and biology. Including reproductive biology. Some of it is interesting, some of it we didn't need to know. But again, it fleshes out the alien races. There are also notes on law, government and customs. Nice stuff and again, meant to encourage roleplay.

Now we come to the racial “I was just growing up” tables. The main book has general set of these, bootcamp adds one for each race. Like most of the character development and history tables in BL, these are optional and for good reason. A low roll will usually buff you character a bit and a high one will nerf him severely. If you feel lucky you can roll on the, but beware that if you roll much over 60 you will likely get a bad result, and if you roll a 90+ you should probably just get you character killed and start a new one. The bad results on these tables can really make your character something you don't want to play. That's why they're optional.

There are the quirks tables that you really have to ask yourself “Do I feel lucky?” Well, do, ya, punk? Because this table is generally not good if you roll over 50.

There are a very few new items in the book. A handful of new weapons, 2 disintegrators, a pulse weapon, an affordable omega weapon that does little damage and two arc throwers. There are some examples of 'bargain basement armor” that would likely not be taken by any player but make good armor for things like cultists and street punks recruited as cannon fodder and giving armor that may make them feel safe but really aren't, I.E. good characters for starting PCs to take on. We have some generic equipment like a hostile identification computer built into a set of sunglasses, spray on healing serum for surface wounds and a 'parasite removal tool” I won't describe.

Lastly there are plot hooks, some quite intriguing and nicely suited to BLs space opera setting.

There are a few typos, the weapons sample isn't on the page it's listed on, but its less than 50 pages, you'll find it.

All in all if you like the new edition of BL it's a nice to have, especially if you want to do some roleplaying between combats. At 10 USD it might be just a little overpriced but not badly, and worth it for a little bit to keep you interested until more major releases come. If you just play for combat, this won;t do you a lot of good but buy it anyway to support the company.



Wertung:
[4 von 5 Sternen!]
Warmonger's Guide: Boot Camp (Kickstarter/7th Edition)
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
Battlelords of the 23rd Century Rulebook (Kickstarter/7th Edition)
Verlag: 23rd Century Productions, LLC
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 05/22/2022 01:44:59

Batttlelords of the 23rd century is clearly a labor of love, by old school gamers for old school gamers. The games history goes back to 1990 when the first edition of it was written by a Lawrence Sims, an American military vet.

The game was focused on the fighting men in war, the front line soldiers which is what Lawrence Sims was. It's set in a very much space opera themed setting where the science is fairly soft. Some reviewers have likened it to Star Frontiers and I can't say that's wrong.

It went thru a flurry of editions from 1990-2000, ending with a fairly well done 6E. For the next 20 years little was done with it, tho there were a trickle of products that supported the game.

In 2019 the 7e kickstarter was announced and the 7e was born under a new company and missing the original designer who has retired.

BL23c is somewhat odd in that it has a very space opera style setting put on a very detailed and crunchy rules set that might be better for a more hardcore setting like traveller. However BL's setting is so open that you can run traveller/starmerc style games in it, and it would be perfect for a mass effect RPG.

BL uses a system called the 150 system, which is a percentile roll under system that caps all stats and chances to succeed at 150, with a 01 always succeeding and a 00 (Double Zodds, in game terms) always failing. (For thing with some states that might be beyond 150, the game uses multipliers to the stats effects, a creature might have a high strength and a modifier of x2 or more to its ability to lift and carry, or it's melee damage bonus.)

At heart it's a pretty normal system. You roll to succeed at actions or attacks by taking half your base stat and adding your skill plus some fairly typical modifiers, like range, cover, movement, equipment quality, difficulty level, etc. Nothing really unusual here.

Where BL catches a lot of flak is how many mods there can be and how complex basic tactical combat can get. Combat is a main feature of BL and yes, it can get detailed. The best example is how the standard armor works in the game.

Basic armor has 4 stats. Threshold, which is the actual external armor layer, its rating stops most damage on a point basic. The next stat is absorption, with is a layer of polymers that absorb most incoming damage and ablate away. Armor integrity is the last stat and when an armor section loses all its integrity, the armor is destroyed for that area. Amos also has spaces to put one of more of a vast list of options and modules into;

Armor is heavily affected by the size class of the wearer. A suit of Bear Armor made for a tiny Mutzachen (Think little grey big headed alien ) will have a few things in common with a suit of bear armor made for a hulking Ram Pythonian (Basically think huge lizard/ogre, or a very large and not too bright Krogan from mass effect) but will in general have a lot of differences. Both will have the same threshold and special rules for the armor, but the size class 7 armor will have more absorption, integrity and spaces than a size class 1 armor, but also cost and weigh a hell of a lot more.

Some weapons ignore some or all aspects or armor. Laser weapons flash right thru your absorption, thudd guns are unaffected by threshold. Each weapon has a damage type that defines how it interacts with armor, and there are like 9 of these types leading to some 'figuring' when some shots hit armor.

Combat also covers a lot of other situations, and goes into things like electronic warfare, with electronic counter measures to defeat advanced targeting and electronic counter counter measures (Yes, this is a real thing) designed to compensate for ECM.

Again, this might make a great system for traveller.

The basic game comes with hundreds of different weapons of different types, from modern-day guns knows as 'archaic powder weapons, to lasers, plasma pulse weapons, 'thudd guns' that deliver a massive impact via a projected kinetic forcefield to gravitational shears which use polarized gravity beams to pull targets apart all along the beam's path. Missiles and drones are available, as are autonomous weapons.

The list of armor options would put Iron Man to shame, with things like auto medics, missile launchers, antigravity systems, forcefield generators, sensors, ECM/ECCM systems....the list goes on for ages.

All this can make the game run a little slower until players remember what they have and what it does., Then things speed up.

The skill system is pretty standard, with 15 skill levels divided into 3 levels that have a rising cost per level. The highest skill mod you can get is +75%.

Star wars has the force for it's surrogate magic in a nominal SF setting, BL has matrix powers available mostly to 3 races, tho members of other races can learn some of these at a cost. They are generally not unbalancing at basic levels.

The setting of the game is basically a somewhat corrupt galactic alliance composed of over a dozen races, nothing like the federation in star trek, it's a union created by the oldest and most powerful race in the known universe to fight against a couple major menaces that threaten most people, but mostly the founders of the alliance.

Many races dislike each other and there are rules for what races each race likes, is neutral towards or dislikes. (Yes, the Fott don't even like their own race.) Of course each member of the race can choose how he reacts to others as an individual, and all are expected to get along in the face of a common enemy. Some modern gamers may be offended by the fact the game acknowledges racial animosity as a real thing. So be it. This is not the game for them and it is not made to accommodate them.

As to the races, well, if you liked the races in Mass Effect, you should be ok with these. In fact some of the races in ME remind me of the races in BL. I'm not saying ME had people who played BL on the design team, I'm saying it would not surprise me a'tall of they did.

The default game setting, the alliance, is a pretty typical dysfunctional corporate ran dystopia, with unchecked capitalism basically ruining what could be a great world for most people. Again, it ain't star trek. One thing the setting does not really embrace is the 'transhumanist' field. There are massive cybernetics, bionics and even genetic engineering, but the game does not get into transhumanism to any real degree.

Some people might be offended that huge corporations and uncontrolled capitalism are portrayed fairly negatively in the setting. Again, this may not be the game for them.

BL mostly remains a tactical combat game, tho other things are possible to a good RPG group. The somewhat amorphous setting lends itself to a variety of popular SF themes. This setting would work with novel series like David Drake's Hammer's Slammers (And his Forlorn hope novel), the traveller starmerc setting, the mass effect universe and the like.

A full vehicle and spacecraft combat system rounds out this massive 550 page tome. This book is a complete game with everything.

There are flaws, the layout isn't always clear. You'll see a term like “bumps” mentioned several times early on but not get it defined for a few dozen more pages. The PDF is not hyperlinked so you can't click on a term to go to it's source page. Sometimes rules are laid out in overly complex terms, but mostly a set of handy examples come with each rule to clarify them. A good editing could make the pdf better.

All in all BL is a fairly well done 90's style RPG writ large, very, very large. The stock book comes with enough stuff to make gun bunnies, treadheads, missile monkeys and other gearheads think they've died and gone to the good place.



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
Battlelords of the 23rd Century Rulebook (Kickstarter/7th Edition)
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
Battlelords of the 23rd Century Interior Preview (Kickstarter/7th Edition)
Verlag: 23rd Century Productions, LLC
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 05/21/2022 14:29:26

Batttlelords of the 23rd century is clearly a labor of love, by old school gamers for old school gamers. The games history goes back to 1990 when the first edition of it was written by a Lawrence Sims, an American military vet.

The game was focused on the fighting men in war, the front line soldiers which is what Lawrence Sims was. It's set in a very much space opera themed setting where the science is fairly soft. Some reviewers have likened it to Star Frontiers and I can't say that's wrong.

It went thru a flurry of editions from 1990-2000, ending with a fairly well done 6E. For the next 20 years little was done with it, tho there were a trickle of products that supported the game.

In 2019 the 7e kickstarter was announced and the 7e was born under a new company and missing the original designer who has retired.

BL23c is somewhat odd in that it has a very space opera style setting put on a very detailed and crunchy rules set that might be better for a more hardcore setting like traveller. However BL's setting is so open that you can run traveller/starmerc style games in it, and it would be perfect for a mass effect RPG.

BL uses a system called the 150 system, which is a percentile roll under system that caps all stats and chances to succeed at 150, with a 01 always succeeding and a 00 (Double Zodds, in game terms) always failing. (For thing with some states that might be beyond 150, the game uses multipliers to the stats effects, a creature might have a high strength and a modifier of x2 or more to its ability to lift and carry, or it's melee damage bonus.)

At heart it's a pretty normal system. You roll to succeed at actions or attacks by taking half your base stat and adding your skill plus some fairly typical modifiers, like range, cover, movement, equipment quality, difficulty level, etc. Nothing really unusual here.

Where BL catches a lot of flak is how many mods there can be and how complex basic tactical combat can get. Combat is a main feature of BL and yes, it can get detailed. The best example is how the standard armor works in the game.

Basic armor has 4 stats. Threshold, which is the actual external armor layer, its rating stops most damage on a point basic. The next stat is absorption, with is a layer of polymers that absorb most incoming damage and ablate away. Armor integrity is the last stat and when an armor section loses all its integrity, the armor is destroyed for that area. Amos also has spaces to put one of more of a vast list of options and modules into;

Armor is heavily affected by the size class of the wearer. A suit of Bear Armor made for a tiny Mutzachen (Think little grey big headed alien ) will have a few things in common with a suit of bear armor made for a hulking Ram Pythonian (Basically think huge lizard/ogre, or a very large and not too bright Krogan from mass effect) but will in general have a lot of differences. Both will have the same threshold and special rules for the armor, but the size class 7 armor will have more absorption, integrity and spaces than a size class 1 armor, but also cost and weigh a hell of a lot more.

Some weapons ignore some or all aspects or armor. Laser weapons flash right thru your absorption, thudd guns are unaffected by threshold. Each weapon has a damage type that defines how it interacts with armor, and there are like 9 of these types leading to some 'figuring' when some shots hit armor.

Combat also covers a lot of other situations, and goes into things like electronic warfare, with electronic counter measures to defeat advanced targeting and electronic counter counter measures (Yes, this is a real thing) designed to compensate for ECM.

Again, this might make a great system for traveller.

The basic game comes with hundreds of different weapons of different types, from modern-day guns knows as 'archaic powder weapons, to lasers, plasma pulse weapons, 'thudd guns' that deliver a massive impact via a projected kinetic forcefield to gravitational shears which use polarized gravity beams to pull targets apart all along the beam's path. Missiles and drones are available, as are autonomous weapons.

The list of armor options would put Iron Man to shame, with things like auto medics, missile launchers, antigravity systems, forcefield generators, sensors, ECM/ECCM systems....the list goes on for ages.

All this can make the game run a little slower until players remember what they have and what it does., Then things speed up.

The skill system is pretty standard, with 15 skill levels divided into 3 levels that have a rising cost per level. The highest skill mod you can get is +75%.

Star wars has the force for it's surrogate magic in a nominal SF setting, BL has matrix powers available mostly to 3 races, tho members of other races can learn some of these at a cost. They are generally not unbalancing at basic levels.

The setting of the game is basically a somewhat corrupt galactic alliance composed of over a dozen races, nothing like the federation in star trek, it's a union created by the oldest and most powerful race in the known universe to fight against a couple major menaces that threaten most people, but mostly the founders of the alliance.

Many races dislike each other and there are rules for what races each race likes, is neutral towards or dislikes. (Yes, the Fott don't even like their own race.) Of course each member of the race can choose how he reacts to others as an individual, and all are expected to get along in the face of a common enemy. Some modern gamers may be offended by the fact the game acknowledges racial animosity as a real thing. So be it. This is not the game for them and it is not made to accommodate them.

As to the races, well, if you liked the races in Mass Effect, you should be ok with these. In fact some of the races in ME remind me of the races in BL. I'm not saying ME had people who played BL on the design team, I'm saying it would not surprise me a'tall of they did.

The default game setting, the alliance, is a pretty typical dysfunctional corporate ran dystopia, with unchecked capitalism basically ruining what could be a great world for most people. Again, it ain't star trek. One thing the setting does not really embrace is the 'transhumanist' field. There are massive cybernetics, bionics and even genetic engineering, but the game does not get into transhumanism to any real degree.

Some people might be offended that huge corporations and uncontrolled capitalism are portrayed fairly negatively in the setting. Again, this may not be the game for them.

BL mostly remains a tactical combat game, tho other things are possible to a good RPG group. The somewhat amorphous setting lends itself to a variety of popular SF themes. This setting would work with novel series like David Drake's Hammer's Slammers (And his Forlorn hope novel), the traveller starmerc setting, the mass effect universe and the like.

A full vehicle and spacecraft combat system rounds out this massive 550 page tome. This book is a complete game with everything.

There are flaws, the layout isn't always clear. You'll see a term like “bumps” mentioned several times early on but not get it defined for a few dozen more pages. The PDF is not hyperlinked so you can't click on a term to go to it's source page. Sometimes rules are laid out in overly complex terms, but mostly a set of handy examples come with each rule to clarify them. A good editing could make the pdf better.

All in all BL is a fairly well done 90's style RPG writ large, very, very large. The stock book comes with enough stuff to make gun bunnies, treadheads, missile monkeys and other gearheads think they've died and gone to the good place.



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
Battlelords of the 23rd Century Interior Preview (Kickstarter/7th Edition)
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
CORPS v3.0 [augmented pdf]
Verlag: BTRC
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 10/22/2013 13:10:05

The original conspiracy RPG is back, and like wine and whiskey has improved with age.



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
CORPS v3.0 [augmented pdf]
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
EABA v2.01 [augmented pdf]
Verlag: BTRC
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 05/26/2013 06:32:11

A full and complete RPG construction kit that can construct damn near any genre, any characters, any powers, any equipment, etc. you can build whole world's with what's in this PDF. it has rules to create vehicles, weapons, superpowers, magic, etc. you can run any genre with a little effort.

there's a really revolutionary new turn system that's unlike anything I've even heard of. it combines faster play with gritty, detailed combat in a truly ingenious new way.

this book does what gurps and hero system claim to at a fraction of the cost.

get the quickstart to explore the new combat system, and if you like it get the whole thing



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
EABA v2.01 [augmented pdf]
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
Deep Space Rescue
Verlag: Hex Games
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 04/29/2012 17:41:16

This is a good little SF adventure for QAGS that is a tad more serious than most QAGS products, but is still fairly lighthearted and very much space opera. It does a decent job setting up a background for the adventure, and it's a shame that QAGS never followed up on it.

It also has the best cover art of any QAGS product by far.

The adventure itself, while again very much meant for fast and simple play, could be adapted to many SFRPGs, even traveller, if one were so inclined.



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
Deep Space Rescue
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
Multi-gun
Verlag: Finger and Toe Models
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 05/28/2011 03:35:55

Not bad for a dollar, but I could swear the pintel cutout circle on mine is off center.



Wertung:
[4 von 5 Sternen!]
Multi-gun
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
EABA Verne character creator v1.0
Verlag: BTRC
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 04/14/2011 21:24:07

An excellent little program, Greg Porter seems to be a real Renaissance man now that he programs too. Creates a beautiful, stylish, atmospheric character sheet with important bits marked in color for easy understanding.

I recommend using this program to run it as it's a free pdf viewer that lets you save characters made with this:

http://download.cnet.com/PDF-XChange-Viewer/3000-10743_4-10598377.html?tag=mncol;1



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
EABA Verne character creator v1.0
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
EABA Verne v1.0
Verlag: BTRC
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 03/06/2011 03:42:56

By itself, Verne is an excellent, well thought out and insightful product that creates a wonderful alternative world in the spirit of the steampunk genre. It reminds us that the real victorian age was nothing to long for, with it's institutional racism, classism, sexism and other unpleasant things like child labor, starvation, disease, etc. Then it creates the fantastic alternative to the reality of the Victorian era thru the lens of alternative technology and physics that allow steam, iron and brass to do things modern technology cannot.

You can recreate the worlds of Wells, Verne, Doyle, Burroughs and others. You could also create your own worlds if you want.



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
EABA Verne v1.0
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
Signs & Portents 89
Verlag: Mongoose
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 02/17/2011 22:37:32

I recommend this for the traveller scenario in it, which is based on one of the greatest, most intelligent and most underrated SF films ever made. I commend the writer for his writing and for his extremely refined taste in movies.



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
Signs & Portents 89
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
Eclipse Phase: Gatecrashing
Verlag: Posthuman Studios
von russ b. [Verifizierter Käufer]
Hinzugefügt am: 01/05/2011 20:59:16

Reading this product reminded me of reading a hard SF novel from a writer like Alastair Reynolds or Greg Bear. it was that good. it also maintains the wonderfully intense air of mystery, wonder and paranoia that saturpates the entire Eclipse Phase universe. Get this pdf, it's worth the 10$ easily.



Wertung:
[5 von 5 Sternen!]
Eclipse Phase: Gatecrashing
Klicke bitte hier, um die Produktbeschreibungen anzuzeigen

Zur Pegasus Digital Bestellung hinzufügen

pixel_trans.gif
Rezension 1 bis 11 (von 11 Rezensionen) werden angezeigt Suchergebnisse:  1 
pixel_trans.gif
pixel_trans.gif Zurück pixel_trans.gif
0 Einträge
Powered by OneBookShelf