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It's hard to sweep a problem under the carpet when it slides between the bristles of your brush.
This atmospheric supplement for SLA Industries provides yet another challenge to those who would keep the world safe for the ordinary consumers who dwell therein - monsters spawned from very dreams, and a plague that 'greys-out' people until they fade away like an old black and white photograph. Worse, these monsters do not die when you fire bullets at them, at best they fade away only to return a day or two later!
In a fascinating delve into the history and politics of SLA Industries itself (the company, not the game, I mean) we hear how they have long known about this problem and attempted to keep it away from public notice. If you and your group delight in the politics and intrigue underlying the World of Progress, this supplement is definitely for you. Even if your players are content picking up the next BPN and dealing with whatever problem it contains, here you will find fertile ground to develop new and ever more challenging things for them to do.
There's a lot to take aboard, but it repays careful study. Much is background and ideas, rather than actual threats, although there are quite a few new 'monsters' - the Shadow entities - to throw into your game. There's also new equipment and skills to aid in the fight against them. One interesting point is that most of the book is intended for in-character use, at least once the characters begin to dig into forbidden knowledge, with just a couple of pages as suggestions for the GM.
You'll have to put in a fair bit of work to incorporate this material into your game, but it will repay the effort, bringing a new and horrific edge to the next few BPNs...
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I nice little set of images to use in your games, your website or fan resource. Really good for adding a little splash and giving a visual source for your writings. Personally I hope to see more image packs released in the future with the same 'non-commercial' use guidelines.
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Shame the file isn't encoded properly to display the artwork properly on the iPad. The game is fantastic it's just the file that let's it down.
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Shame the file isn't encoded properly to display the artwork properly on the iPad. The game is fantastic it's just the file that let's it down.
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| Karma |
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by jamie i. [Verified Purchaser]
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Date Added: 10/07/2011 14:41:41 |
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Shame the file isn't encoded properly to display the artwork properly on the iPad. The game is fantastic it's just the file that let's it down.
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A very gritty RPG, the black and white inked artwork ranging from line-art to photorealistic and the book being sprayed with 'excerpts' of 'in-world media-reports' and mini-stories help immerge in the 'Mort'-atmosphere. This does substract a little from the accessibility to the rules, as one has to skim trough a mass of background to find them. There is a "quick-start to the game" however, ironicly located on the very last page of the book (page 299), which is probably very easy to stumble upon in the physical version but less in digital format.
The rules are quite clear once you get them and the background is a can of opportunity to ugly fun, but the mention "for mature gamers" on the back-cover is not uncalled for; psychological investment and imagination required. If you want a game to distract you from a nine-to-five office job and push aside the paperwork to "roll some dice" this may not be your thing. If you're not unfond of a bit of micromanagement and love detailed character-backgrounds (first game I know that actually has stats for 'getting out of bed on time in the morning') however, this game is heartily recommended.
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The Roots Dogs conflict aliens have been a spectre in the backstory of SLA industries since the late 1990s. Now they exist on paper to terrify your PCs with and they don't disappoint. The other threats are cool too, both of which seem to elude to future published material, all very exciting.
Simply put: get this, you can't fault the price for 16 pages of professionally written source material and the awesome and often chilling Dave Allsop artwork.
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Superb book. Well written, captures the atmosphere of the Cannibal Sector, good new rules for Shivers and gangs and a good bestiary.
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Wow. The usual suspects -- art, design, flavour, and so on -- are all great of course. But the stuff in here absolutely blew my socks off. Apart from one section I'll explain below, everything in here was written by Dave Allsop, and it really shows. The material is tight, broadly scoped, and shot through with rich veins of 'bloody disturbing'. I haven't seen this much Truth packed into something in decades. When you have Intruder warning Slayer that Cloak Division has effectively become obsolete, and Integration 20 is about to be found...
The first thing you'll encounted in this release is an eyes-only release from Intruder to Slayer. It made me shudder, and not just because of the rape bombs. If you have any interest at all in the secrets behind SLA Industries, it'll make your eyes bug out.
After that, there's a commentary on the reasoning behind the rise of Hunter Sheets, some information about SLA death squads -- as opposed to the Death Squad Op package -- and some other material which contextualises the state of Mort at the moment.
Next there are the Hunter Sheets. Each includes detailed info about the target and his (they're both male this time out) pertinent history, along with some intel on where to find the target and what their capabilities may be. Hunter Sheets take up exactly two sides, so they can be easily printed for handing out to players.
Now, a confession. I wrote one of the Hunter Sheets in this release. My chap, poor old Socko, is a Mort-based serial killer; Dave illustrated him beautifully. And before you ask, no, I'm not on any sort of royalty deal, so it doesn't make any financial difference to me if you buy it or not. I just hope he's entertaining.
The other target is a demented Wraithen general who's set himself up with a Banana Republic -- with the backing of White Earth. It's an interesting character, in a setting that's going to be very unfamiliar to most Ops. Play style will probably be more like Apocalypse Now than like standard SLA, and Sidi Gejkta himself is a tough opponent, so it'll make for a fun trip.
After the Sheets themselves, the GM section details the target's stats, special circumstances, relevant allies, and details on running the sheet as a full-on scenario. There are no new skills or rules in this release, but you will meet an NPC who is quite famous amongst people who've spoken to Dave Allsop in person -- a loathesome and deadly being with some fascinating new equipment that no PC should ever get their hands on. If you're hoping to play these Sheets, obviously don't read the GM section (headlined as "Subject Data"), the last four pages.
As I said earlier, this Data Burst really knocked my socks off. The varied content, the dark lights it shines into different crannies of the World of Progress, the revelations and hints of dark times round the corner all combine with Dave's gorgeous artwork to come up with something really quite special. You owe it to yourself to get this release.
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First things first, Intruder got a haircut. That alone is worth the price of admission...
The two enemy's provided are a nice contrast between serous hell and SLA's version of light-hearted fun. The production values are easily up to Nightfall's usual high standards and the size represents solid value for money. All in all, a must buy for SLA fans
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The second SLA Industries Threat Analysis briefing is quite different fare to the first. Rather than detailing a new species (the Ursa Carrien), Klick's End goes into disturbing detail about a particularly degenerate sector of Downtown.
Klick's End has a claustrophobic, diseased feel to it, somewhat like the hideous forgotten towns that H. P. Lovecraft made such good use of. The inhabitants are clannish, hostile, casually violent, and always in need of a fun diversion -- torturing and then butchering a squad of hapless Operatives, for example. The briefing goes into detail about the sector: its physical state, the nature of the locals, what passes for entertainment, the various grudging retail outlets, assorted crime operations in the area, and The Quartet, the unsettling warlords who control the place. There are also a set of NPC profiles, details of new weapon and armour, and suggestions for four different ways that Klick's End could be brought into a game, including a detailed BPN.
For all that, perhaps the most unsettling aspect of the entire briefing is the revelation of a new addition to SLA's corporate structure -- the Moral Rights Division. SLA claims to be concerned with the rising tides of immorality on Mort... can that be the truth? Either way, a new repressive (and possibly even proto-fascist) SLA Department is sure to concern Operatives of all stripes.
The briefing is written and illustrated by Dave Allsop, so it doesn't get any more pure SLA than this. It's great stuff; absorbing text and gorgeously vivid art, all wrapped in the lavish Nightfall design and layout values that you'd expect. Klick's End comes across vivdly as an impressively horrible place, teeming with potential to really challenge and unnerve PCs. It's great value for money, but frankly it would be worth it just to get the inside scoop on the outrageously-named new Pigotry skill.
TL,DR: Top Notch. (sic).
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The first release from Nightfall Games since they regained full publishing independence in 2011, Ursa Carrien is a Threat Analysis file -- a self-contained briefing about one particular issue facing the World of Progress.
The eponymous Ursa Carrien are a new stable mutation thrown up by the ever-fluid Carrien DNA pool. They're a strong addition to the species, adding an extra niche -- and an interesting new challenge for the players, particularly ones that think they've seen all there is to see. The briefing is detailed and thorough, and peppered with the quotes and snippets that make SLA Industries so vivid. It includes information on the Ursa's environment, Cannibal Sector 2, along with full background, typical behaviour, origins, combat tactics and full stats. There's also a dangerous little BPN to introduce the Ursa to the PCs. The content, written by RPG veteran James 'Grim' Desborough, is engaging and useful throughout.
As you'd expect from a Nightfall product, the design is gorgeous, and the briefing is peppered with lovely bits of original Dave Allsop artwork. If there's a fault, it's simply that it leaves you wanting more SLA Industries. Still, for 92p you most certainly won't feel cheated -- and other Threat Analysis files are available, with more on the way.
TL,DR: A lovely addition to the SLA Industries canon.
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Nightfall are really spoiling the SLA fan base, new and old with this new material. Klik's End has a lovely, "Urban Deliverance," feel that is very engaging and brings some light to Downtown life in a serous slum sector. The BPN is more a framework than a fully finished adventure, but that just gives the GM plenty of room to put in his own touches and tie it to an existing campaign.
Overall, excellent work. More please.
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Initially I had put off buying this product because I had heard some negative things about it. I really should have known better, though.
The product is excellent and gives an expanded view of Mort and the Cannibal Sector. It really explains things that I feel are lacking from the main rules book (especially the size of Mort city and the Cannibal Sectors in general).
The adversaries in the book expand the universe greatly. The Scavs are awesome. The Manchines exist in a vacuum no longer. The cannibals remind me of very bad things from very bad nightmares.
The book really gives an excellent feel for the sector, as well as giving a feel for what the rest of the city is like. It gives a real purpose behind higher level SCs. There is information buried in the sector that many people should not know.
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This is an excellent product. It really gives an incredible feel for the setting, especially the "normal" civilians of Downtown. The description of people's attitude reminds me of what some darker neighborhoods in the real world will end up as.
These products are dragging me back into the World of Progress. Now I need to drag my players in, kicking and screaming if necessary.
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