A Solid Component of an Excellent New RPG System, December 18, 2000

Sections in The Lejendary Rules include an introduction to the Lejendary Adventures system; "The Avatar," a guide to character creation; "Avatar Abilities," what characters can do and how; "Equipment Lists," including starting equipment tailored to characters' backgrounds and skills; "Extraordinary Abilities," such as spells and paranormal powers; and "The Journey," the basic rules of play. Other elements include reproducible character sheets and "Forlorn Corners," a short introductory adventure. Creation of Lejendary Adventures characters is described in a clear, step-by-step manner, and is intended to allow players to design exactly the characters they want by allocating points for characteristics and selecting an appropriate mix of abilities.

Lejendary Adventures characters have three basic characteristics, or "base ratings," Health, Precision, and Speed. An optional characteristic, Intellect, also exists, but is more applicable to nonplayer characters. These base ratings, along with race, are used to determine a character's level of proficiency in more than three dozen Abilities (e.g., Commerce, Divination, Weapons), which form the basis for character development in Lejendary Adventures.

Races available to players in The Lejendary Rules include familiar ones, like Human, Dwarf, Elf (Wylf) and Gnome; some traditionally not open to characters, such as Kobold and Orc (three varieties); and others that are fairly unique to the game, such as Ilf, Oaf (three types), Trollkin, and Veshoge.

Lejendary Adventures characters have the option of either joining various orders (reminiscent of the character classes that form the basis of systems like Dungeons & Dragons) or of remaining "unordered." Either course has its advantages, increased proficiency in various abilities for the members of orders, and greater flexibility for unordered characters. Characters with the prerequisite abilities can select from the Demonurge, Desperado, Ecclesiastic, Elementalist, Forester, Jongleur, Mage, Mariner, Noble, Outlaw, Rogue, Soldier, and Warlock orders.

One especially interesting aspect of The Lejendary Rules are the various lists that players use to select initial weapons and equipment for characters based on their abilities. For example, Minstrelsy allows a selection from the Low list, Hunt from the Middle list, Learning from the High list, Enchantment from the Magical list, Weapons from the Military list, and Alchemia from the Special list.

Incidentally, this softback, perfect-bound book is durable and certain to last a long time, something inadvertently brought to our attention after a cat knocked our copy into the toilet one night. The next day we fished it out and let it dry, after which it was a bit warped but completely intact and usable.

If this book has a palpable weakness, it lies in its artwork, which includes a full-color illustration on the cover (depicting a traditional adventuring party) and hundreds of black-and- white illustrations inside. Unfortunately, quality of the latter are somewhat uneven, and many are coarsely rendered or poorly scanned. Many of these are reminiscent of the cruder illustrations in the old AD&D Monster Manual, and generous souls may allow that this similarity is deliberate.

Aesthetic flaws aside, this system has no substantive deficiencies to speak of. Like the Lejendary Adventures system as a whole, it is a solid, enjoyable, easy-to-use gaming component that is sure to provide years of entertainment to a great many gamers.

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Excellent Possibilities for the Alternity Game, December 14, 2000

This 256-page book describes a 26th century world of faster-than-light speed travel, frontier exploration, alien-human commerce, war, and interstellar nations. The comparison with Star Trek is obvious but not an over-riding factor; Star*Drive has its own flavor and plenty of room for your own additions, whatever your TV, movie, or literary favorites might be.

Mutants, psionics, and cybertech-enhanced beings (all optional in the basic rules) are included in this campaign. Also given are statistics and descriptions for 26th century technology (ships, military, medicine, robots, and much more), the 13 stellar nations of Old Space, and 18 solar systems of the Verge (the edge of Star*Drive's frontier). Brief histories of campaign technology, alien contact, and wars are also covered. The five alien player character species will be familiar from the Alternity Player's Handbook (Fraal, Mechalus, Sesheyan, T'sa, and Weren), as are the five basic professions; however, Star*Drive offers several subcategories under each profession (49 total) as models for your character.

Accessories for the Star*Drive campaign include Alien Compendium: Creatures of the Verge, Planet of Darkness, Outbound: An Explorer's Guidebook, Arms & Equipment Guide, and Threats from Beyond.

Star*Drive offers excellent possibilities for your Alternity game.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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A Decent Collection of Sci-fi Creatures, December 7, 2000

This full-color, 128-page volume details 57 organisms from the 18 solar systems of the Verge (an area just beyond the borders of Star*Drive's "civilized" sectors), six sentient species and one laboratory creature of "Old Space" (right, the civilized areas), and six sentient "External" species (from outside the bounds of Galactic society). Five of the entries from "Old Space" will be familiar to any Alternity gamer from the basic books (it would have been nice to pad out the roster beyond two new entries: the laboratory Warbeasts and the insane Cykotek cultists). Plenty of good concepts here and high-quality art. There are a few irritating glitches in the book, such as the authors' unnecessary straining for pseudo-scientific description (sorry guys, arachnids don't have six legs), and a few stinkers, such as the alien koala bears and a picture of an egistron that doesn't match the text. Still in all a nice collection.

Good for Star*Drive and for general Alternity use; a decent idea mine.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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Solid Adventure Hooks Weakened by Strained Prose, December 7, 2000

Threats from Beyond centers on the politics and intrigue occuring on the Verge, the edge of explored space in Star*Drive. The material presented is narrowly focused at the Star*Drive universe and its history, with little that could be adapted for general Alternity campaigns. The adventure hooks are pretty solid, but could have benefited from a different, shorter, and less cliched background. Author Bill Slavicsek frames the "history" for the hooks as the desperate transmissions of an undercover reporter hiding out in the Verge, unearthing conspiracies and threats against civilization. The strained prose resembles chunks of a novel and a future history text interspersed with junior journalism, not very smooth reading. Another annoyance is a "security precaution" against sneaky players: decisions about which part of the background is true are left to the Gamemaster--less than helpful and a lot of extra work, considering how much of the entire book is given this treatment.

Could have been better; get it for the adventure hooks and ideas, not the fake news reports.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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A Choice Collection of Adventures, Tricks, and Traps, November 1, 2000

The books in this series are a great buy, presenting 13 well-written and potentially expandable adventures in a single accessory. In this volume we are offered quite a variety of creatures, some tied more or less to Ravenloft and its special creatures or cities, others from an "anywhere" background or originally from one of the other AD&D campaign worlds and dragged into the Mists of the Ravenloft Domain of Dread by evil circumstances. In either case, these adventures are readily adaptable to fit the flavor of any campaign, though the style of this first of the "Children of the Night" series seems to assume a greater familiarity with Ravenloft than the other volumes do.

Don't think that becauses vampires are so popular a subject that the possibilities are burnt out: In these adventures we are offered a scarred and wretched man divinely cursed to wander the desert in thirst, only able to briefly quench his thirst through fluid from his victims; a druidic vampiress whose thirsty habits run to tree sap; and a "penanggalan," a horrid female creature whose head flies free from her body and zooms around at night dangling a long black tail, looking for folk to drain. Demihumans and nonhumans are not exempt from the vampire scourge: Here we meet an elf originally from the Forgotten Realms who loathes all vampires--his problem being he himself has become one; an elven vampiress from Dragonlance's Krynn, whose terrible twisted face can stun or kill on sight; a greater vampiric Ixitxachitl; and a dwarven scholar, a "Vampire Sage" with unusual powers who once served the lich Azalin. In the entries specifically tied to Ravenloft are a vampiric slave who was once a Ravenloft Vistana, or gypsy; a sea vampire and his crew of undead pirates; a sadistic, permanently invisible vampire trickster; the scheming vampire niece of Ravenloft's powerful Count Strahd; a "vorlog," a vampiric monster who stopped just short of becoming undead; and a crime boss vampire with sewer alligators for friends. The cover art is good and so are the interior maps, though in general the interior art is not quite up to usual Ravenloft quality. All in all, a choice collection of adventures, tricks, and traps.

Highly recommended for vampire fans running any AD&D 2nd Edition campaign.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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A Wonderful Collection Of Bloodthirsty Beast-Folk, October 31, 2000

"Children of the Night" series accessories are a great value, each offering 13 detailed, expandable adventures in a single book. Additional rules are included from the "Van Richten's" volumes: types of lycanthrope (true/born, maledictive/cursed, pathologic/infected), shapechange triggers (symbolic, physical, and other), consequences of change (healing, damage to armor, and more), bloodlust frenzies, and cures.

This volume includes: an assassin who is the evil spawn of a human woman and an elder serpent; a wizard whose "primal serum" creates lycanthropy of any animal species on demand; a dashing nobleman whose "other life" involves drinking blood as a horrific bat creature; a half-elven maiden whose singing career masks a fox's face; an entire ship's crew infected with lycanthropy by their captain, a man under a curse; a hunter with tigerish tastes in human prey; the master of a travelling roadshow who has been cursed by the Vistani of Ravenloft; an outcast werejackal priest; a woman with a scarred throat who is gradually turning an entire village into were-stingrays; a black cat who became a catwere from werepanther wounds; a huge man upon whom religion has bestowed the alternate form of a crocodile; a mad artist whose lycanthropy aids him in his use of a magical relic; and a wild woman, head of an extreme monastic order, who shapechanges into a dire wolf. Excellent and dramatic cover art combines with interior black and white portraits of the usual Ravenloft high quality to add to the general creepiness.

A wonderful collection of bloodthirsty beast-folk, excellent for making your players jumpy and suspicious of anyone they meet. Highly recommended for any AD&D 2nd Edition campaign.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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An Excellent, Worthwhile Game System, October 30, 2000

Open this book and you're immediately surprised: while they were bending game rules, the guys at Basement Games went ahead and broke the usual table-of-contents-etc. order of book creation. Mythology of the world's beginnings fills the first few pages, explaining how the first god Enigwa shaped the sun, the world, the other gods, and finally, humankind. How the squabbling younger gods warped the basic shape of human life into other races and also created monsters, disease, and undead horrors sets the scene for the whole World of Juravia campaign.

There are eleven races for players to pick from, including humans--for me, this and the point-based skill system are among the strongest arguments for trying this system.

Humans are the base from which the other racial statistics vary--but the nonhuman choices are rich indeed. For the combat-lovers, there are the many races created by the fallen god of war: the tall Berserkers, with ridged foreheads (very Klingon in appearence) and extraordinary combat bonuses; the Higmoni, with boar-like features, rapid healing, and infrared vision; and the one-eyed, hairy Ghantu, over seven feet tall with massive combat damage. There are also Dwarves, children of the god of justice and honorable combat: their sturdy physique grants them many bonuses.

For the wizard fanciers, there are the lizard-like Kithsara, children of the god of the elements, with naturally enhanced magic talents and a powerful biting attack; the light-shunning Dunnar, created by the goddess of enchantment, with weird, almost undead appearances, exceptional night vision, and innate abilities to detect magic & shield against mind magic; and your basic, magical Elves.

More unusual character choices are the Merikii, the territorial feathered, flightless children of the goddess of beasts, Sprites (courtesy of the goddess of the harvest), and the shrew-like bipeds called Jher-ems--excellent trackers and natural empaths. Curiously enough, we are not given the mythological origins of either Elves or the Jher-ems--perhaps this is deliberate on Basement Games' part. I'd like to see a module or online rules addition covering that eventually. Basement Games has made its new rules public and free, rather than issuing scads of expensive new editions.

This multi-racial world flows naturally through the World of Juravia modules offered by Basement Games, such as The Vemora, Tales That Dead Men Tell, and The Temple of Nanghetti.

Characters are built by purchasing skills (or acquiring them through opportunities during adventures) and building them through use. If you don't use it, you don't advance in it--a much more logical approach to "experience points" to my mind. Magic itself is treated as a skill, making the profession of mage a result of learned skills (more below on mages). Resulting characters are much richer in abilities than the straightforward "I'm a fighter, I can't do that" model of some systems in which advancement is quick but capabilities are rigidly limited.

Ability to advance in skills in Forge has some built-in brakes, preventing some of these super-monster deity characters that are typical in long AD&D campaigns: in Forge, advancement is not automatic. For "experience points" the player receives chances to dice for skill advances. Also, a skill has a base score which is calculated differently for a high-level character than for a low one, changing the mechanics of advancement when base scores pass 100%. This keeps even a long campaign from acquiring the yawning "easy victory" boredom disease.

Mages, or characters who have acquired the magic skill, are of two types: practitioners of Divine Magic or of Pagan Magic. Mages of Divine Magic are of two types, requiring a bond to one's deity and adherence to particular principles: Berethenu Knights follow the god of justice and must live according to rules of Poverty, Self-sacrifice, and Honor, while Grom Warriors follow the god of war imprisoned in the underworld, and live through Personal Glory, Selfishness, and Pride. Failure to adher to the divine principles causes the Knight or Warrior to lose his magical ability, permanently in the Warrior's case. Pagan magics require spell components to activate spells and may specialize in Beast Magic, Elemental Magic, Enchantment, or Necromancy. Interesting game mechanics add variable destruction/preservation of spell components and the ability to "pump" a spell several levels in strength.

Physcial combat involves two defensive values instead of one, allowing for you AND your armor to be damaged or destroyed. Monsters run a huge gamut from various mythologies to originals from Basement Games. Minotaurs, phoenixes, and dragons share the world with various demons, scaly Mul-Hounds, Rhino Lizards, and elemental creatures such as Frost Heaves.

At Basement Games itself, you will find many additional free campaign materials and may also try the World of Juravia membership program, in which you'll receive Empire packets, ready-to-play mini-adventures, floor plans for temples and dungeons, new monsters, and much, much more.

An excellent game system--well worth it.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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A Must For Any Saga Game Narrator, October 30, 2000

A Saga Companion offers a variety of rules simplifications, options, and additions for the Saga game's Narrator, many rules being written by players themselves rather than the TSR staff, who gathered these, their own ideas, and many of the Dragon Magazine's "Sage Advice" columns on the Saga game into one volume. The book, though compact, is concise and extremely easy to use, for the most part merely needing the Fate Deck to perform any action; very occasionally the reader is referred to the Book of the Fifth Age, Heroes of Hope, Heroes of Sorcery, or Heroes of Steel.

Adventure and story design tips (derived in part from Joseph Campbell's works on myth and folklore) are included. This book also offers creation guides for the Narrator to build new hero roles, hero races, monsters, spells, weapons, and armor. Design sheets for personal photocopying are provided for all of these save the weapons and armor.

A Saga Companion, while not perfect, is a must for any Saga game Narrator.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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A Great Experience!, October 23, 2000

Cthulhu Live is the first officially licensed live-action role-playing system for Call of Cthulhu. The book contains a tremendous amount of information, ranging from the game mechanics of character creation, skill use, and combat, to the more challenging tasks of make-up, costuming, monster building, prop construction, and running a live-action game.

Although it took 16 years for an official live-action Cthulhu to appear, it seems to have been well worth the wait. The basic rules structure is top-notch, streamlining the Call of Cthulhu rules into a simple, fast-playing system that is quickly mastered. I would rate the combat system as fair. It is one of the better non-contact systems I've seen for live-action gaming, but it's certainly the hardest element of the game for a new player to learn. We tried running a couple "practice battles" with all the players before starting the actual game, which seemed to help everyone later in the adventure.

The greatest challenge gamers might face is assembling a large enough group to run many of the adventures proposed in the rules. Eight to 10 players seem to be about the absolute minimum for Cthulhu Live, and some scripts call for 12 to 20 players. Obviously, such games lend themselves well to a convention setting, but some gamers may find a challenge recruiting that many players outside of a larger city or a college environment. Some challenges may also arise finding a suitable area to play the game, but the book includes tips on finding game locations and preparing houses and apartments for game play. Quite a bit of preparation is required for the games, and the game master, or "Keeper," needs to have not only a good imagination and narrative skills, but some leadership and organizational abilities as well. This said, a well run session with a good Keeper and NPCs is a great experience.

Fantasy Flight Games has published a second edition of Cthulhu Live that has rules updates and additions, an optional new combat system, and several new adventures. Several other projects are also in the works, to include a game support website and players' network. A lot of gamers will be looking forward to the continuing development of the Cthulhu Live system. I know that I am one of them.

--Bob Apelt for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

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