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I purchased the print only form of this product.
This is the GM's guide for Wonderland and requires that product to make any sense at all. It covers the big secrets and the important beings who live on the lower alternate realities.
As a GM book, it fullfills its purpose. As a companion to Wonderland, it is all but required if the GM wants the answers.
I enjoyed reading it and, though I will not be using all of it, it provides plenty of interesting characters and concepts for horror settings.
Like Wonderland some of the pictures are grainy, but not so bad that the content can't be understood.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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There is a lot of info crammed into this PDF. This is a new campaign world where the war between the Orcs and man is over. On this world the Orcs won. The Orcs and their allies are the dominant races on this world, the Humans and their allies are relegated to outlawed tribes scratching out an existence far from civilization. The world is strongly linked to the related product Psihammer (review coming soon).
A brief history of the world is given, including the war that lead to the dominance of the Orcs. The civilization of the world has shifted. Orcs (called Daeorcs in the setting) have taken the northern part of the world, pushing the Humans and their allies into the barren desert at the equator. Gnolls (called Yaena) have similarly pushed the Humans form the south.
he races come next detailed in two sections. First come the pure blood races. Orcs (Daeorc), Gnolls(Yaena), Humans, Halflings, and the Kirene. The second group of races includes the half-orc, half-human with the new aliens visitors.
Character classes follow the races. Barbarians, Clerics, Fighters, and Paladins are unchanged from the stock rules. Bards, Druids, Rangers, Rogues, and Sorcerers have all been modified to fit the world. Two new Monk classes were added to the setting. Wizards are unheard of on the world of Hael. Psionics are also strongly liked to the world, but the psionic rules are not class based rules.
A short bestiary of new creatures is included. The creatures included are well designed and in the case of the Varibeast seems to be the defining monster of the setting. Also included is a list of creatures from the SRD that would also be found on the world of Hael.
The last thing included is a single page map of the world. I really dislike the map. It did however list all the areas discussed in the book, which is a plus. The only thing not marked on the map is the location of the two alien craft.
Intermixed with the text are comments attributed to "Professor Grumin Tarsh" an Orcish scholar. I found the comments to be well placed and added an excellent bit of "color" to the rules.
You should buy this because...
You are looking for a new setting that is not the standard elves and Humans dominated world. Or you are looking for a world where magic and psionics are intermixed.
Final Thoughts
I am looking forward to playing a game in this world where the players are all Humans. They would suddenly find themselves the underdogs in a way I don't think they would expect at all.
My full review is available here: http://churchofthegame.blogspot.com/2006/01/welcome-to-hael.
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LIKED: The aliens. I really did not like that aliens added to the setting. I also did not like the quality or quantity of the maps. Another run through for editing would also have made this a much better product (although it is still pretty good).
edit: I have since gone through the PDF again and this is an unfair criticism. The editing is really quite good, I found a total of three spelling or typos in a 50 page document.
DISLIKED: It is a well thought out setting that changes the expected society norms you see in 'classic' fantasy world. The races and classes are well thought out to fit a world where Orcs are the dominant race.
QUALITY: Acceptable
VALUE: Satisfied
[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]
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In its 17 pages the Starcluster 2nd edition Biotech Guide provides an overview of the biotech available in the Starcluster universe at various tech levels/eras, and specific rules for individual biotechnologies. These individual technologies include Augmentation, Androids & (Uplifted) Animals, Modifications (Implants & Replacements), Matter Transmission & Mind Transfers, Cold Sleep (and other suspended animation technologies), and Food (Technologies including Hydroponics, genetically engineered foods, & stasis based ?Food Mats?).
The book opens up with a couple of pages of overview of the specific technological areas, mores regarding their use among different cultures and users, and a general timeline of their use, introduction, and refinement. The individual sections then follow. Areas of most interest to players are Augmentation, Modification & Replacement, Androids & (uplifted) Animals, & Matter Transmission & Mind Transfer.
Augmentation is distinct from Modification & Replacement as it is performed by genetic engineering of the subject before birth, and thus is only available during initial character creation. The availability of Augmentation is dependent on the character having a high (social) Rank, or in this case the assumed Rank of his parents. These augmentations occur either as bonuses to the character attributes, and at higher levels, the availability of special abilities such as enhanced senses, innate weaponry, fast healing, enhanced balance, burst of strength, and all manner of exotic appearances (fur, fangs, feathers, fantastically colored skin, tails, etc.). Also notable for the GM?s & Players is the discussion of views of the augmented in society, which are generally well tolerated within the SaVaHuTa (which you may recall is made up of genengineered human races, the Sastra (prehensile tailed monkey people), Vantor (?mer? people), and Tagris (tiger people)), and met with wide-spread discrimination and outright hate among the Diasporan Community.
The Androids & (uplifted) Animals sections details the rules for Androids, which in this case refers to non-robotic synthetic humans, created from custom engineered DNA on up, think Replicants from Blade Runner, only with the option for larger animal-based non-sentient ?bio-roids? and such as well. There are no hard and fast rules provided for ?Android? characters due to this variation and thus the player must negotiation with the GM when deciding the exact abilities and attributes of his character. Rules are provided for players wanting to play uplifted animals. The uplifted animals present within the setting include uplifted dolphins (who are given a set of prosthetic hands to allow tool-use), chimps, dogs, bears, cougars, and raccoons.
The Modifications section includes rules for implants (such as computer ?jacks?, dermal armors, and interestingly integral A-grav rigs), and replacements (All your ?We can rebuild him, stronger, faster, we have the technology? fun, such as robotic arms, and cyber-eyes). All of these have price-tags associated, often hefty, time for implantation and adaptation & training, and minimum tech level requirements. Also, most all of these bits of cool gear have various drawbacks and hazards associated with their use, so it?s not all chrome and coolness.
The Matter Transmission and Mind Transfer rules are interesting. They are an offshoot of the settings Jump Drive, which works by a combination of a Jump Field and a Psionic Navigator, the field isolates the ship from the ?real universe? after which the navigator can cause it to change position (traveling without movement.) Well, this same technology base, via a sequence of ?Cells?, is used for matter transmission; however it is not as nice and neat as the jump drive and nowhere as efficient and safe as ?transporters? in Star Trek, as there are pretty much always ?transporter accidents? involved. This is due to limitations in the technology, thus it is only used in emergencies, or for military purposes. Characters using Matter Transfer are subject to effects ranging from Skill & Attribute loss to outright death, so don?t expect Scotty to beam you up.
The Mind transfer tech works on a similar principle and is subject to similar problems. The individual applications of the mind transfer process are pretty varied, ranging from transfers from old or damaged bodies to clones, young to old bodies, mind transfers between bodies, multiple minds in single bodies, humanoid minds to animal bodies, etc. Thus mind transfer provides the GM with lots of amusing and interesting plot opportunities for adventures.
The Cloning section provides an interesting discussion of the technology. In which the important distinction is made that a clone is a genetically identical twin of a different age than the genetic donor, the cloning process does not clone a persons mind or memories. Clones can be used as the targets of Mind Transfers, but suffer from the limitations of mind transfer, as described above. This section points out that primary use of Clones is for the production of ?vanity? children. Clones made of a single parent. Then there is of course cloning for spare parts, though usually only individual parts are grown rather than an entire body. Another interesting topic discussed is ?downshifting? humans, in many ways the opposite of the uplifting process used on animals. Instead the human clones are made non-sentient and used for labor and other purposes. Also discussed is the use of ?Super Splat? clones, a clone of a subject that has been developed to be a ?super soldier? or athlete, etc. Then the process of religious cults of clones made from the cult leader/prophet/divine messenger is discussed. Finally, the mention of people cloning celebrities so they can raise their role models themselves. (Who wouldn?t want to raise their own Shatner?)
There is also discussion of the use hydroponics & food grown on starships and their psychological effects for the crew, as well as cold sleep & other suspended animation techniques used on STL starships. Overall there is a lot of fascinating and fun technologies discussed, both as ways to make your character cool, as well as fodder for social Science fiction plots involving the use of clones, uplifted animals, mind transfers, etc. All kinds of cool what-if stuff that are at the heart of Science Fiction, providing the GM with the opportunity for all kinds of adventures beyond just cruising around in your starship getting into space battles.
The PDF itself is laid out in two columns, with a nice readable body text, and a ?NASA? style futuristic text used for section titles. There are only two bits of art, the cover piece, of a ?h4wt chixxor? in the shower sporting some kind of implant wire thing falling down her shapely back, done in the ?trademark? Starcluster water-colorized art style, which looks pretty good. The only piece of artwork in the body of the PDF is of an uplifted chimp, in a blue hoody, on a hover-board, seriously, which is also done in the ?trademark? Starcluster water-colorized art style, which also looks pretty good, particularly the landscape background.
Overall, this is a very meaty product, providing the GM and players with tons of cool tech goodness, not only in character goodies, but also fascinating technology based setting details & options for punchy, thematic Sci-Fi storytelling. I recommend it for most all Starcluster players as way to add a big bio-technologically boosted shot of hard SF musing into their campaign.
LIKED: The discussion of the social ramifications of cloning, augmentation, modification, and uplifted animals & slave class biologicals.
DISLIKED: No Bookmarks? Nano-Tech not addressed, perhaps in another supplement.
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Satisfied
[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]
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This 14 page PDF provides a weapon ?design? system for the Starcluster 2nd edition RPG. Design is in quotes because the system doesn?t let you design weapons whole cloth, instead the system lets you modify the parameters of the generic weapon entries in the Starcluster rules. These modifications can be either improvements, such as greater range, or detriments, such as an increased cost. All such improvements must be balanced out by detriments, in the weapons other parameters. The parameters features follow a linear or stepped scale for each change.
The design parameters are Range, Concealability, Damage, Cost, Mode (single shot/Burst/Full auto), Skills Required (complexity & number of skills required for use & maintenance of weapon), Ammo Cost, & Accuracy. Each parameter and its associated step costs and improvement/detriment definitions are explained in order, followed by a long list of design examples & flavorful weapon write-ups based on the weapon mod described. For instance the Auto Pistol definition is modified to produce the Kearny and Southern?s Model 1510 Target Pistol.
Kearny and Southern?s Model 1510 Target Pistol:
?Kearny and Southern are a well known design house on Mickey?s Birthday, and their designs are well respected throughout Mickey?s Birthday?s area of influence. Their Model 1510 is a popular product, light, accurate, and long ranged. The trademark extra long 9mm barrel and cannon breach mechanism make it very recognizable, if a bit bulky, and the flip up telescopic sight is a welcome addition. These pistols, of local manufacture from Kearny and Southern plans, are available throughout Guaru space.?
Which is much more flavorful and interesting, than ?Auto Pistol?. A number of custom & fairly exotic melee weapons design examples & write-ups, such as the ?Magma Industries Cerablade 4000? are included as well.
Even though it is not a ?true? design system, such as say BTRC?s Guns, Guns, Guns it is still an excellent product as it allows you to adapt the full generic weapon list from Starcluster 2nd, provided at the end of the PDF, into a suite of customized, flavorful weapons reflecting the nature of the worlds & cultures that produced them.
The PDF is laid out as a single column in readable type. My copy didn?t have bookmarks for some reason, which would make for easier navigation of the document. It includes a couple of illustrations of the custom design write-ups, and the cover has an illustration of some kind of female trooper with a very large gun in a vest & helmet, in the ?trademark? watercolorized Starcluster style, I didn?t find it particularly appealing.
Overall I think this system is excellent and adds some important flavor & interest to Starcluster?s boring generic weapons list, and it allows the GM and players to unleash their inner gun-nut. I recommend it for players who want to add some zest to starcluster?s weapon list. With the Weapon design guide, instead of carrying a laser pistol - fully automatic, they can carry a Sister Waffenwerk (SWW) Model 21A Ganglaser, which sounds much cooler.
LIKED: Streamlined, well-explained system, flavorful example write-ups.
DISLIKED: No bookmarks? Could have used more weapons illos, as there is no such thing as too much gun-porn!
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Satisfied
[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]
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This 11 page PDF provides 4 unique spaceships, along with full stats, back-story, and costs, which a group of players might acquire, wrapped in the flavor text of one used space ship dealer, Smilin? Jack. It also provides a short section on financing, and how acquiring the ship or dealing with finances can form part of an ongoing campaign or sub-plot.
The ships are The Split Hare, The Mohegan, The Dorylina, and the Felicia Miller. The Split Hare is a lightly armed, saucer shaped, 85 ton, Jump Capable ?Yacht? with a few technical problems that can inconvenience the characters. The Mohegan is an unarmed, saucer shaped, Jump Capable, 100 Ton ?Cruise? Ship, i.e. a commercial passenger craft, capable of accommodating 12 passengers, which was the site of a nasty bit of business which lead to its being for sale. The Dorylina is a winged, Jump Capable, well armed, 50 Ton ?Courier? ship, capable of carrying a small amount of cargo and presumably capable of atmospheric flight. The Felicia Miller is a large, modular, 250 ton, Jump Capable Cargo Hauler incapable of atmospheric landing. It includes a 50 ton lighter that can be used to ferry cargo too and from the surface.
The ships are varied and interesting and could serve as a flavorful focus for a starship crew-based campaign, as the ship is an important character in space-based series. The story of how a crew came together and acquired their ship is an important back-story element, or can make for a good initial, or ?flash-back? adventure. The flavor text is ok, though no stats are provided for Smilin? Jack should the players find him utterly annoying and decided to kill him. Prices are included for each ship, and the discussion of finances and how it can shape the flavor of the campaign are good.
The PDF itself is laid out in a single column with a simple readable font for body text, and NASA style futuristic text used for section headings and stats. Unfortunately the ship diagrams are kind of hard to read, the text for the Split Hare being unreadable, and thus useless, on the others and a hollow outlined font is used and it also makes for hard reading. Luckily the stat block and other texts are easy to read. There is no other interior art, the cover art are a couple of character pieces and ship illos in the ?trademark? water-colorized Starcluster style.
This is a decent supplement with some flavorful ship write-ups for a GM to use as a central character in a crew-based game, or as encounters in a space based game as well. So, for GM?s looking for ideas for some ships to use, it is a worthwhile buy.
LIKED: Nice variety of ships with flavorful back-story, campaign advice.
DISLIKED: Ship diagrams range from unreadable to hard to read, no stats for Smilin jack, and flavor text could annoy some people.
QUALITY: Acceptable
VALUE: Satisfied
[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]
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StarCluster2 (from here on "SC2")is a Sci-Fi RPG with a great concept and setting. The book though is heavily flawed in it's layout and explanation of rules.
The basic concept of SC2 is that the people of Earth find out that the world will be destroyed in 300 years.Then the mad rush to get everyone out begins by transporting people in sublight ships to the cluster. The problem is that the ships are so slow that they actually have less than 300 years to evacuate and get out to the area of destruction. They then begin to send on the younger people because the elderly will die of old age long bfore they can get to the cluster.
Once they arrive in the cluster and begin to settle the area they come in contact with other humanoid races. It turns out that these "aleins" are actually humans that were taken form earth and moved to the cluster by a highly advanced alien race so long ago that they have evolved. while they resemble human they have mutation that have helped them adapt to their new home.
The cluster also has true aliens that pose threats and others like the Guaru who are allies to humankind.
While i like the setting and the basic premise of SC2, I should also comment on it's short fallings.
First the layout is not good. The section on character creation that contains all the tables with the education paths and careers wastes space. If the tables were mroe tightly formated and empty spaces not left on the lower parts of the page, the book would have a lower page count or contain more setting info (SC2s strenght). Overall could be more space efficient and leave less "open" spaces.
Second the while the system is playable(if you like the BRP system for CoC you will like this) it is not very well explained. Even and a player who has played a lot of RPGs might have some dificulties understanding the rules as written. The biggest problem is the fact that there is no place in the book that actually tells you in plain english how to resolve an attack or how armor is used.
Overall well worth a look for the setting info and overall good concept. If layout issues bug you or if you are new to RPGs you may want to look elsewhere.
LIKED: New and different sci-fi setting. Well supported product line.
DISLIKED: bad layout and does not explain the rules well.
QUALITY: Acceptable
VALUE: Satisfied
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This 11 page PDF provides a vehicle ?design? system for the Cold Space RPG. Design is in quotes because the system doesn?t let you design vehicles whole cloth, instead the system lets you modify the parameters of stock vehicles. All such improvements must be balanced out by detriments, in the vehicles other parameters, so you could take increased speed, an improvement, at the cost of increased mass, a detriment, for instance (these changes might not make all that much sense at first glance, as in the previous case.) Each parameter has a different cost structure to these changes, Range (operating range) requires a progressively greater changes to implement a 10% improvement, while mass provides a progressively greater gain in other parameters for each 10% detriment. The other parameters features follow a linear or stepped scale.
The design parameters are Range (operating range), Mass, Mounted Weaponry, Mounted Weaponry Accuracy, Armor, Speed, Carrying Capacity, Maneuverability, Simplicity (how complex the vehicle is and what kind of support & maintenance it therefore requires), Terrain Rating (types of terrains the vehicle can traverse without penalty), and Cost (the favored dumping ground for offsetting improvements.).
Each parameter and its associated step costs and improvement/detriment definitions are explained in order, followed by a number of examples and a fair sized list of stock vehicles at a variety of tech levels/periods from the Cold Space setting. Included in the stock vehicles are a jeep, tank, older jet, and then more exotic fun such as contra-grav gunships and an aerospace interceptor that is able to achieve orbit via contra-grav tech.
Overall the system seems workable and reasonable, however, as stated it is not a true design system along the lines of GURPS Vehicles, or CORPS VDS, or even HERO system vehicle design, but more a tweak/customization system for vehicles in the setting. In order for this to be effective, there should be a large list of vehicles from the setting, preferably from various eras of the games timeline, for the players to tweak, which isn?t included in this product.
The PDF is laid out as a single column in readable type with bookmarks to each section. It includes a few small vehicle illustrations, and the cover has a nice illustration of an F-108A Rapier delta wing style aerospace fighter, circa 1964.
Overall I think this system is pretty workable and can be used to unleash the GM & players inner gear-head in tweaking various vehicles, whether their personal ride, or as part of a plot involving a prototype or some such. So I recommend it for people who are looking for a bit of gear-head focus in the arms race for their Cold Space campaign.
LIKED: Streamlined, well-explained system.
DISLIKED: Not a full-on design system, thus needs more stock vehicles to be more useful.
QUALITY: Acceptable
VALUE: Satisfied
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The StarCluster 2 Weapon Design Guide is a great tool for making custom weapons for your SC games.
Rules are given for modifing damage,accuracy,price, and concealability. The system basically works by raising or lowering a stat and balancing it out by lowering or raising another. It is more expensive to modifier some things that it is others.
The rules are written to use a weapon for the list in the core book as a template and then modify if from there by either raising or lowering stats.
LIKED: you have total control over the modifications.
DISLIKED: nothing. Itis very good.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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A beautiful product for a beautiful setting. Science fantasy (in the Arthur C. Clarke sense) meets Cold War intrigue. Who wouldn't want to run a campaign inspired by a fusion of your favorite Tom Clancy novels and Bablyon 5 episodes?
LIKED: There was a great deal of thought given to capturing the feel of the setting. I could immediately start thinking of campaigns I'd like to run.
DISLIKED: As was mentioned by other reviewers, more spaceship art would have been nice. :)
QUALITY: Excellent
VALUE: Very Satisfied
[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]
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The Design Guide is very helpful for figuring out how to add new vehicles to the Cold Space setting. The writeup for the F-108 is a special treat.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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This PDF is a list of several of the Aliens that inhabit the Cluster. It gives a brief description of each Alien along with, demographics, nicknames, descriptions of thier anatomy, and an illistration.
LIKED: The pictures were nice for describing what hty elook like to players. The nicknames were cool for in game dialog purposes. some real interesting new aliens.
DISLIKED: I was disapointed with the lack of detail after reading the book on Guaru. I would have like to have less aliens in the book but cover each one left in more detail.
QUALITY: Acceptable
VALUE: Satisfied
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StarCluster-Guaru is a highly detailed guide to the Guaru. This PDF contains everything anyone would want to know about Guaru and then some.
It covers everything from their fairly disgusting reproductive ways, social interactions,anatomy,demographics, and game stats.
LIKED: The level of detail was good. The Guaru are quite intersting and different from most Sci-Fi species.
DISLIKED: Would have like some detail on how they would accomadate humanoids and what a typical home may look like/contain.
QUALITY: Acceptable
VALUE: Satisfied
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Cold Space is cool. No doubt about it. The idea of portraying the US-Soviet Cold War in space is a really good image. If you though the Cuban Missile crises was bad, imagine the arguements that would have erupted if the US had placed an orbital weapons barrery in geo-sync orbit over moscow.
The system seems simple to learn and teach which is very important in game like. A clunky system would really detract from the feel of the game.
However its not all super spies and technothrillers. The set also allows for games involving reporters, terror...er freedom fighters and the aold staple of space opera's, independent trading ships.
DISLIKED: I felt it needed more artwork in order to depict the setting in greater detail. Also a historical time-line would be nice addition.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee is your standard one trick pony, driven completely by one concept stretched so thin that it eventually snaps. So, what?s the one trick? Puerile humor that revolves around monkeys (e.g. intentionally bad monkey jokes). If you have some bizarre love for this particular brand of humor that borders on fetishism, then Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee is easily worth your money. If not, then you should spend your money elsewhere.
So, what exactly is a sponge monkey? Well... I don?t know. The game doesn?t once attempt to answer this question. It talks about them being born in pools of water and then evolving into creatures that act like regular monkeys (i.e., monkeys as they exist on modern Earth), but it never once tells the reader what they are or where they come from. Given that the entire game revolves around them, this is a fairly serious pitfall, even for an intentionally humourous game. I?d really like to know something about the origin and nature of my character?s species other than the following:
?Sponge monkeys are born in pools of water. Please, don?t call them spawning pools as you?ll offend the monkeys. For the first month or two, the sponge monkey swims around in their underwater paradise and then -THEY EVOLVE!?
Unfortunately, this kind of shortsightedness in design plagues the rest of the game, as well. A good indicator that something is amiss comes early on in the document - the game?s disclaimer which proclaims that Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee was designed with the understanding that younger teens will likely play it - specifically followed by a warning that there is some humorous content in the game that some parents may not find appropriate for younger teens to read. The disclaimer, *exactly* as it appears in the game, is presented here for your benefit:
"Parents: While this game was written all in good fun with the understanding that younger teens may play it, there are some suggestive and mature themes found in this game that you may feel are not appropriate for your teen. Please peruse this book to ensure that this game is safe for your teen to play. Remember, you are the final judge on what is good for your child!"
It might as well say ?We designed this game for a certain age group and then loaded it with stuff that parents of younger teens probably don?t want their kids reading!? - because that is exactly the confused message that it relays. When I read "While this game was written all in good fun with the understanding that younger teens may play it..." I assumed that whoever wrote that had written the game with the understanding that younger teens would be playing it. After all, that's what the disclaimer actually says.
Well... what?s the premise of the game, then? What is it that characters (i.e., sponge monkeys) do? The 1-page introduction briefly mentions that some rare sponge monkeys are chosen to man (or rather, monkey) harvester units, space patrol untis, or scavanger units because... well, I guess because they can. There are three short (2-3 sentence) paragraphs in the introduction that explain each of which explains one of the three previously mentioned occupations, but that is the extent of it. As I mentioned before, the focus of the game is squarely placed on the humor and as a result, a lot of fairly important (or what I consider to be fairly important) questions go completely unanswered or gets glossed over with a sentence or two and then waved aside in favor of another joke.
Enough about conceptual short-comings, though... what about the mechanics? Well, surprisingly, there is a fairly serviceable system buried under the mountain of monkey jokes and flimsy premise of Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee (well, so long as you don?t mind making your own dice). A dice pool system somewhat reminiscent of WEG?s D6 System, the basic Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee system requires players to roll a number of six-sided dice, total the results, and compare them to a difficulty assigned by the Head Monkey (the GM). Oh... and I did mention making your own dice. Herein lies the rub...
In addition to regular six-sided dice in games of Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee, you use Monkey Dice. Monkey Dice don?t have numbers on the sides, but picturers (Note: I guess the designer wants you to cut them out and paste them to your own dice, as there is actually a template appended to the end of the document to assist you in doing just this) - one monkey (not two, despite what the text says), a skull, a kitty [sic], a coconut, a double coconut, and a banana. Monkey dice add a heavy meta-game element to Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee, allowing players to ?steal? dice from other players to improve their own rolls, robbing them of their own dice, or even inflicting random damage to the character ?just because?.
The designer himself jokingly (I think he?s joking anyhow - sometimes it?s hard to tell) says that he thinks the idea is stupid (Quote: ?I was told to add a Cheeky factor. If you ask me, I think it just adds a Stupid factor.?) - but I don?t agree. I think that the idea itself is sound, but that its implementation suffers from the same shortsightedness that many other elements of the game do. As it stands, the Moneky Dice system is pretty clunky (the pasting of pictures onto a normal six-sided die not being the least problematic issue), but I feel that with a wee bit of polish it could be something really fun.
In addition to the basic rules, Sponge Monkeys from outer space also sports a utilitarian, though not especially uniuqe, ship construction system (you buy ship components with credts); a ship combat system that works (for all intents and purposes) just like regular action resolution, but with some seriously pumped up damage and armor levels reminiscient of the Rifts Mega Damage system; a random roll world generator; a brief but detailed bestiary; and an introductory adventure wherein the protagonists must go kill a sentient salad (no, you did not read that wrong). Nothing here stands out as particularly good or bad, except for the adventure which tries awfully hard to be funny and generally just ends up being awful.
And that brings me to the final verdict.
Conceptually,. Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee is a nightmare. It lacks a detailed background or premise, but what?s worse, it overlooks these things in favor of slotting in yet some more monkey humor which was (by the author's own admission via the disclaimer) written with the understanding that a younger age group may read it, but is may be inappropriate for said age group. Finally - repetitive jokes tend to get old fast, and (again) unless you have a real love of monkey jokes, those in Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee are no exception. Sponge MOnkeys from Outer Spaaaacccee is a fine example of why other one-trick beer and pretzel games don?t get stretched out to 70 pages.
Mechanically, Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee isn?t anything special, but it is functional with the potential to be fun. Sadly, I think that due to the game?s other shortcomings, a lot of people might overlook this. The system works and works well, with the possible exception of the Monkey Dice rules (which, to be fair, aren?t an integral part of the game). I?ve seen a lot of other games that don?t boast a mechanically sound system, so Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee wins some points here. Here end the mechanics of note in Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee - while the rest of the game isn't mechanically redundant or broken, it just isn't particularly noteworthy.
All of that having been said, the decision of whether or not to purchase Sponge Monkeys from Outer Spaaaaccceee still comes down to the primary focus of the game. Puerile monkey jokes. If you like them, you?ll like the game. If you don?t, you won?t. And that?s the bottom line.
[NOTE: The author of the product being reviewed contacted me after this review was initially posted with a number of complaints. Without retracting any statements that I felt to be truthful, the contents of this review have been revised and expanded to address some of the author's valid complaints.]
LIKED: The basic resolution mechanic and the idea of a truly involved meta-game dice mechanic.
DISLIKED: The lack of thorough explanation where species origin and game premise are concerned. The extremely repetitive nature of the humor.
QUALITY: Disappointing
VALUE: Satisfied
[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]
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Publisher Reply: |
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Thanks for your review, James. Yep, you hit the nail right on the head, this game IS all about bad monkey humour and blowing things up with dice rolls. :D |
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Great background material. I've enjoyed what I've read.
QUALITY: Very Good
VALUE: Very Satisfied
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