First Impressions

[Gallowglacht]

Rules light, but surprisingly complete.

OK, OK more detail.

I ordered if with some more RPGs from Games Lore in England. It arrived quickly and in good packaging. So if the Trolls are looking for feedback on their distributors; keep dealing with Game Lore in confidence, they are very good.

Now the box itself. There was something cool about buying an RPG in a boxed set again. My first RPG can in a boxed set (Mentzer basic D&D), and the last boxed set game I remember getting was Traveller; New Era and I loved them both. Still do. [There may be more comparisons with TNE. Both Sci-Fi, both use d20's, both boxed sets, both have flexible design systems.]

The box is colourfull, there was some bubbling on the cover and the frontpage wasn't glued on enough on the inside, leaving an overlap that made a ripping sound when I took a book out. That gave me a start, but there was no damage done. I might backtrack and delete this bit as it is a very minor complaint. Geuss I'm just mentioning it for full disclosure.

The cover art I'm not to keen on and I'm afraid I have to say the intro paragraph on the back...erm..really wasn't my thing. The simple covers on the books themselves I found myself liking.

So my first impression of the presentation was OK. The cool of a boxed set, strong sturdy box with some very minor issues balenced with some OKish art and a poorly written intro spiel on the back (all IMHO). I don't want that to sound harsher than I mean. I have bought some Mongoose stuff that wouldn't open properly, had colour, computer art copied into the book in black and white that looked aweful and was full of reprinted, typoed stuff. I also have some RPG hardbacks that look absolutely fantastic. StarSiege is a happy medium.

[As an aside, I think this is a good call by Troll Lords. Sci-Fi games are not as popular as fantasy. Releasing one is probably a significant financial risk. Spending a fortune on art and presentaion might have pushed this into the not economically viable realm. I'd much rather have a game than not have one. The effort here seems to have gone into the actual game, not the eye candy.]

The books themselves. The writing here seems better. The passage I mentioned earlier comes of as a kinda vague marketing spiel. In the books themselves it seems friendly, explains itself well and makes it clear that this is a game that is meant to be played. The style encourages the players and GM to not sweat the little stuff, and get on with the game. Spend a Nova point, roll some dice, just do something cool dammit. Good.

The system itself is quick to learn and flexible, and not in the cop out, "we didn't make a rule for this so you can do whatever you want kinda flexible". I don't need a game to do that. I'm afraid it's time for another quick asside here;

[There are flexible, detailed systems out there that are cool for designing a wide variety of interesting characters. They take effort and time, but I don't really have a problem with that. What I do have a problem with are the "noob traps" that sometimes result. I recently played a GURPS Delta Green game. My character was grounded for firing a missile at a Stealth aircraft that was being tested while still secret, convinced the intermittent lock he had achieved was a UFO. He was given the job of telling people that what they had just seen was a weather baloon and answering any weird questions the press had.

Well I spent ages with the character generation tool on the GMs computer. Picking all the skills a fighter pilot would need, all the pre-requisits and logical extensions, cover writing reports, research, the various savoir-fairs, he played guitar and jogged as hobbies and on and on. First game, he has to kick in a door. No problem. He's in good physical shape. GM asks what's your forced entry skill? Wait, my what? There is a skill for kicking in doors? Stuff like this happened a lot. You think you have taken the skills to represent your character and something else popped up. Spacemaster has a basic maths skill as a pre-req for advanced maths and other stuff. A skill you count up ranks in add modifiers and will never, ever use!

The option to go, "I'm good at this type of thing because I'm a trained Marine" is so much simpler and frankly, no less realistic. Lets you concentrate on the game, not accounting.]

So making a character is quick and painless. It is flexible enough to satisfy the archetype a player had in mind and encourages you to try stuff you are not specialised in anyway. I personally like the say yes or roll dice approach in games, so this is all good.

A Sci-fi game has to cover certain ground. Like characters there are quick and easy coverage for special abilities, aliens, psychics, mutations, cybernetics and technology. The rules are simple, but they are there and in each case thay seem like enough detail to play, not enough to bog down.

[I'm currently running a houseruled SpaceMaster game in the TNE universe. I've also run it in d20. In both currency was a pain in the ass. repairing the ship might cost 1.3 million credits. Buying ammo might cost 20. Cargo varied wildly and I frankly didn't care about the little stuff. For some reason the players did. A credit system is just so much easier. Again maybe even more realistic. It can take care all the little stuff in the background. Loans, repayments, upkeep, you character blowing money on stupid stuff he'd enjoy all that can be infered in a couple of little rolls.]

So like I said at the start, simple but surprisingly complete. The writing is better than normal too. But it gets even better. Just say you don't like how something is done, you can change it. But not in a way that breaks the game. And not in a "do it yourself" way, the author gives alternative rules. Instead of guessing and possible mucking up the game, the guy who made it and knows it best says, this works too. Fantastic.

Right. Whats next. Sci-Fi games tend to have lots of equipment too. The basics are covered here, but when you need more, you use the design system. Whats that like.

Simple but surprisingly complete. I know, broken record.

The design system is based around in game effects, given the simplicity of the system this doesn't take long. Count up the advantages and disadvantages and you have to extres the points into reliability, size, tech level and cost. You know the descriptive things you'd want to give equipment anyway. As there is a direct relation this gives nice side effects where if you want advanced techology at a lower tech level its have to be Bigger(like old computers), used expensive highly engineer components (cost) or simply be a prototype in testing (reliability).

Again reliability shows off the basic philosophy on concentrating on the big picture, the exciting bits and not the little things that don't matter. Guns still jam, or run out of ammo, Fushion drives can overheat, heck you computer can catch a virus or your tyre get a flat without rolling on tables at such and such a point, counting ammo, energy points whatever. And it will happen less to the high quality or high tech stuff.

All the flavour, none of the headache.

Did I mention that the same design system can make psychic powers, aliens and vehicles as well as other equipment. No I didn't. Coz it seems you could write out more pages of stuff you can do with the game than Josh takes to describe how.

Right, we need some context here. Lets compare it to some other games. OK big one. Traveller New Era. I had a flexible character generation system that covered all the concepts you need. Covered psychics, cyber a wide variety of tech levels and a design system that let you design a wide variety of stuff. Stats for planets and planets with a serious character being vital to the setting. In play you set a difficulty level, what skill it used and rolled a d20.

StarSiege covers that too. A bit quicker too. And adds rules for mutations. And lets you design psychic powers. And has mechanics for how planets interact with each other. The design system in TNE had more science behind it, real equations and cool real world theories to add a cool air of realism. It also took considerably longer to make stuff, modern tanks came out way too heavy, plasma weapons were much worse than a simple grenade launcher and you could make some weapons that broke the game without breaking the physics of the design system.

Everything in TNE was a touch more detailed but quite a lot more complex and time consuming. Double that for Spacemaster (although SPAM combat is so awesomly descriptive).

Hmm, I wanted a simplification of TNE so this looks pretty good. Another comparison. If a simplified TNE was what I wanted, why didn't I pick up Mongoose Traveller?

Mainly, 2d6 gives 11 options on a bell curve. Modifiers quickly break the system. If I want a couple of modifiers to reflect high tech equipment, or a bonus to a player for some aspect of his background or homeworld I can quickly break the system. This doesn't happen with a d20.

There is lots of little things, but mainly it just isn't flexible enough for me.

StarSiege just seems to have the right mix of simplicity and flexibility.

OK, this is still just a first impression. I might find problems when I go to design stuff, make characters, read it in more detail etc. And of course I can't make up my mind finally until I actually play with it. But what I see so far is a whole heap of potential. I know people who this design would drive nuts and no game will suit all people, but the design philosophy seems to closely match my game philosophy. Heres hoping.

Or to put it another way:

Rules light, but surprisingly complete.

[cheeplives]

I just wanted to thank you for this review... I'm glad you seem to enjoy what I've presented. Feel free to ask any questions that arise as you delve deeper.
_________________
discreteinfinity.com -- my little corner of the internet.

Author of StarSIEGE: Event Horizon -- Available now from Troll Lord Games!

[Sir Ironside]

I hear things like this all the time, and it really makes me excited about purchasing Starseige!