23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Farscape Role Playing Game, more than just rules, September 27, 2002
This review is from: Farscape Role-Playing Game (Hardcover)
I am a die-hard Farscape fan. I purchased this book and I don't even play role playing games. This book is valuable for any Farscape fan, RPG-er or not. It is full of in depth information, from Scarran history, to Sheyang culture, to Peacekeeper ranks. Other sections include a chapter on many planets of the Uncharted Territories and another on alien lifeforms (creatures). The section on ships is a little lacking with no pictures, but this is definitley worth the purchase. Long Live Farcape!!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great way to keep Farscape alive, January 9, 2003
This review is from: Farscape Role-Playing Game (Hardcover)
This is a superb interpretation of the television series, useful for both Farscape fans and gamers alike. The book is divided into two sections, the first concentrating on storytelling and character elements, while the second is chock full of statistics and gaming information. Throughout, the layout, artwork, and photos are all first rate. In my opinion, AEG has captured the feel of this remarkable series with far more skill than Wizards of the Coast did with its own Star Wars game. For that reason, if you're looking for space opera, you won't go wrong choosing this product.
I have just one complaint. I'm sure it's an inevitable one, but I wonder what they were smoking when they decided on the statistics for the main characters. Scorpius, the guy who tossed around Crais like a rag doll, with a Strength of 9? Astronaut John Crichton, who's just about mastered wormhole theory and was repairing ultra-high tech less than a cycle after he entered the Uncharted Territories, with a lower intelligence than Aeryn?!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good starting point, needs refinement, February 17, 2008
This review is from: Farscape Role-Playing Game (Hardcover)
Built using the ubiquitous d20 system, anyone familiar with the base system is going to be able to pick this game up and run with it immediately. All of the basic rules are there, from feats to hitpoints (renamed "Wound Points" for some reason) to skillchecks. It needs to be pointed out that aside from races and classes, this book is designed as a suppliment to turn the Dungeons and Dragons 3.x d20 system into a Farscape game. As such, it does not have detailed instructions on how to initially generate a character. You will either need working knowledge of d20, or a copy of the Player's Handbook to make any use of this book. In this day and age though, if you are roleplaying, and don't have experience with the d20 system, you must have been living under a rock in the back of a cave.
In the beginning, this book seems to be confused about it's target audience. It starts with an episode recap of the first two seasons of Farscape. Odds are, if you are interested enough in Farscape to be considering this, you will have already seen these episodes, and won't need the paragraph long retelling. In all honesty, it appears that these were added simply for the purposes of being filler.
After the episode recap is a character bio for each main character, each covering one or more pages. Again, while these are fun to read, anyone wanting to run this system will already be intimately familiar with these characters, and will not need to be told that Chiana is promiscuous.
From here on, it actually gets into recap material that will be useful for gaming, particularly several pages of bio for each major race in the series. Unlike the specific characters, these are the races you will have to select from to play as, so these histories come in useful.
The second half of the book are the actual mechanics. Honestly, the mechanics are fairly weak. Some classes are taken straight from the D&D Player's Handbook, like the Rogue, while others are brand new. The only problem is that the new classes are very light on abilities. Where the Rogue is still getting full Sneak Attack progression, the Scientist is getting the equivolant of Skill Focus/Skill Mastery. Warriors get bonus feats like a D&D Fighter, and the Tech gets to repair things faster. While its true that hand to hand combat will not play as large of a part in a Farscape game as it does in a D&D game, it would have been nice to actually see some more effort put into the classes.
And while the first half of the book, with it's detailed bios and story recaps would make you think the authors have done their homework and are fans of the show, the way in which they apply the game mechanics seem to show the exact opposite, that they do not actually know the characters they are creating. Scorpious is weak, despite repeated feats of strength in the series. John is literally a rocket scientist that designed the Farscape-1 module, and yet the peacekeeper grunt Aeyrn is listed as being more intelligent.
The system is playable as presented, but it is not without it's problems. The knowledge of both the series and the d20 system as a whole seem to be lacking. It looks good on the surface, but when you really dig into it, you find many amature mistakes.
Considering that it is literally the only game in town, you don't have any real choice. Its either this, or make your own system. If you have the time and the drive, this would be an excellent starting place for fleshing out your own system, and for a casual gamer its still perfectly valid as is. For those that are experienced d20 gamers, you won't find much here aside from flavor and ideas, as the system itself is fairly bare bones.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192250339_.gif){kind=small}
