Customer Reviews

Dataware (Alternity Sci-Fi Roleplaying, #2811)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of all the books in the Alternity, I would have to say that this is one of the better-written supplements. The strongest portion is the section on the Grid and its mechanics. It is so chock full of good information that anyone who plays a PL5/6 and/or cyberpunk-like campaign will find something useful here. I will admit that the section on Robots is a little weaker but that is only in the area of the quantity of material (the quality is still quite good). Definitely worth the money.

Dataware is one of those supplements that isn't made for good reading, it's made for making your game better. A bit dry, but chocked full of wonderful information for tech-oriented heroes.

The actual dataware portion of the book is splendid, if you are playing a PL6/Cyberpunk campaign, filled with oodles of new software and devices that just screams "Gibson", but I have found these rules difficult to integrate into a PL7 or PL8 campaign.

On the other hand, the robots section of the supplement did wonders for my Star*Drive campaign. With Episode One just hot off the presses in town, my players really wanted to go bashing droids right and left. This supplement really pulled through in that respect. I was able to design several droids to throw at my players in just an hour or so.

Check it out, it'll add a lot of new tech to your campaign.

Good supplements for hacker and cyborg characters and fairly easy to integrate into an existing campaign.

Note: The book is not harcover, it is paperback.

Okay, I am sorry if I haven't read the book. I am, however, familiar with the Alternity rules and so I would like to answer the screams of another reviewer here, to clarify a few things. Probably he/she is not exactly expecting this, so I guess I'm speaking to those others reading these reviews.

Alternity *is* an infinitely adpatable game. Simply, the sourcebooks are meant to be **optional supplements**. You don't *have* to integrate them, but this is simply a manual of rules for clarification on stuff you don't necessarily want to work out yourself. Just because there is an adventure module on the shelves doesn't mean that you have to use the module, it simply means that you can. This book is obviously meant to alleviate the souls and minds of the gamers from unnecessary work.

Dataware is heresy.

There's not much to kvetch about as far as new rules and add-ons go; the only bungled part was the chapter on robots, which needs severe revamping if it's ever to be used by mentally healthy people. In fact, a lot of its contents - the awe-inspiring new stuff on AIs, for instance, or the ultimate power of the Stronghold program, and the fun career of shadowboxing - are pretty cool. No, it's not what Dataware gives you that's the problem. It's how it dishes the stuff out.

It seems negligible, but look closely. There's dozens of lines of detail on what the planetary Grids are like at PL 6 or 7 - and, since it's written in a sourcebook on the topic, it's an ultimatum. Was "NO LIMITS" in Alternity's ads just as a catch phrase? Apparently so, since this gives out details on what campaigns' Grids are like without giving squat about what YOUR campaign is like. WHO IS THE COMMITEE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS TO DICTATE TO YOU THE DIGITAL REALM OF YOUR SETTING? Moreover, WHO ARE THE COMMITEE MEMBERS TO TELL YOU THAT YOUR REALITY'S GRID IS ANYTHING LIKE THE STANDARD AT ALL? If this was published by Writer's Digest, Dataware would be in violation of the First Amendment.

Dataware, if you notice these details, leaves you royally pissed. But it's still worth two stars; it's got plenty of brains in it. Dataware merely lacks a soul.