10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Now you too can be part of the BPRD! *thumbs up*, November 26, 2002
This review is from: Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (Paperback)
The important thing to note about this sourcebook/rpg is that while it perfectly maintains the feel of the Hellboy comic, it is still a Steve Jackson game. So what's wrong with that? Nothing really, it's just that the game is a version of GURPSlite slightly modified to better represent characters present in Mignola's world. This isn't necessarilly a problem, but it makes the game feel a lot less original and more like a reframing of prior works. The book also frequently references other GURPS books--not as a corequisite just for suppliment, but none the less it makes the book feel somewhat incomplete as a 'stand-alone' game.
As earlier mentioned the feel of the book is PERFECT--the whole sourcebook feels like a BPRD report, and the Hellboy story and comic included in the 200 page sourcebook help give those unfamiliar with Mignola's work an idea of what Hellboy is like. Bios on almost every important character/villian/supernatural and a great timeline help to familiarize players with the Hellboy world. Also included is a section on how to run the game in the Hellboy fashion to help adventures more closely resemble those found in the comics. This book is really for hardcore fans of the series and not someone looking for a new innovative RPS, because as a system it is just a retelling of the GURPSLite rules. The book has a great dark sense of humor and feels as though it were a Hellboy comic, because of this it is a very enjoyable read and the loads of Hellboy information make it a great sourcebook for the Hellboy world.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
High Quality RPG Book--and Great Background Material, May 29, 2005
This review is from: Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (Paperback)
Man, you sure get a lot of bang for your buck with this product! By current RPG standards, this book is extremely affordable (the original hardcover version was over $50), and it is extremely well designed in terms of its layout and graphics contents.
Also, it comes with a short prose story as an introduction and a short illustrated tale as well.
Yes, it does present a lot of mandatory game mechanics materials (using the GURPS system) and the usual sections about generating characters and how to use magic, plus a pretty detailed sample adventure. But even a non-gamer might want to pick this up. It has a timeline of Hellboy/BPRD events, great background information on the lead characters (Hellboy, Abe Sapien, Liz Sherman, Kate Corrigan, Roger the Golem, Johann the psychic, plus a lot of supporting folks), and plenty of stuff on the villains.
One of the distinctive features of Hellboy's world is that the BPRD isn't just hunting monsters and demons from folklore and fairy tales. They're also regularly tussling with Nazis. Yeah, those crazy Nazis--a lot of your more eviller ones survived WWII by going into suspended animation, and now they've returned as crazed sado-surgeons creating robot zombies, she-wolves of the SS in search of their vampire lovers, and worse. Probably the most memorable of them is Professor Doctor Herman von Klempt, of whom this book succinctly says "He always had a plan for world conquest, usually involving cybernetically enhanced apes and robot tanks. He ws everything an insane Nazi mad scientist reduced to a head in a tank should be."
You really just can't improve on that prose.
There's also a pretty nifty bibliography that covered the Hellboy material through 2002. A nice added bonus if you're trying to get an idea of what other Hellboy books you'd like to explore.
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1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Read this before you buy, March 10, 2007
This review is from: Hellboy Sourcebook and Roleplaying Game (Paperback)
When purchasing the "Hellboy" roleplaying game core book, I did not know what system it was based from. I was hoping d20, but it turns out that this book is based off of gurps. I'm not a fan of this overly complex system, but it was still a well made book that any hellboy fan should consider since the material out there is so few are far between for this character. A collectable if nothing else,or another dollar in Mr. magnolia's pocket, which ever you are most comfortable with.
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