Customer Reviews

Heavy Metal: Power Armor Sourcebook (Living Steel/ Phoenix Command)

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Today review is of a little known supplement written years ago (1991) for a little known role-playing game called "Living Steel" published by the now defunct Leading Edge Games company. The Heavy Metal of the title are the various types of Powered Armor worn and used throughout history by the warring factions of the game: the Starguild (Terran) empire, the Seven Worlds republic and the alien Dragoncrest Empire.
The book is only 64 pages, b&w, softbound booklet of standard size for a RPG. The illustrations are pretty good but not outstanding, the text is sufficiently clear but the layout is not one of the best but still done in full compliance with the publisher's standard for the period.
For the contents, I've got mixed feelings. I bought this book to integrate power armors with a campaign of mine using the Phoenix Command game system in a very near future setting of my own. In fact the book appealed to me as it was published with the double heading "for use with Living Steel/Phoenix Command"; it was, however, more or less a rewriting of the Living Steel rules in the more complex Phoenix Command standard, replicating, with a little of addenda, the data and the armors found in the Living Steel Core book. The more disappointing point of all is the lack of a system to create powered armors for different milieu from scraps. All the armor/equipment/weapons presented are more or less the same and strongly bound to the Living Steel background.
On the other side, the new light and medium Living Steel armors and the Neemis and Dragoncrest models were a welcome addition.
It's true I was expecting something more from this book, but all in all it was an interesting buy, especially if you're a fan of Living Steel. It adds more option and flavor to an existing campaign. As for Phoenix Command, well, it requires a little work to make the armors more adequate to a non-far future science fiction setting, but it can be made with a little efforts, particularly if you're veteran of the role-playing game trade.