Out of the couple dozen superlink products I have bought this one is among the best. I love how the characters are laid out and built. I enjoy the format chosen by the publisher and writer. I am, most importantly, willing to buy more products from this publisher whereas others on the superlink list of publishers (Who will remain nameless) I am much less likely to buy something unless I know they greatly improved their layout, design, and overall product quality. So I am giving this product a 5 out of 5 as I want to see more of this quality of superlink. Nuff said.

This book is one of the best superlink books I???ve read. The book is well written and not just a dry collection of info. Plenty of stats and background, to be used in any serious supers game.

I???m looking forward to Powers & Perils #2, mentioned in the book. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: See above<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: I liked pretty much everything.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Well thought out and dynamic. It is not just of a collection of dry stats that anyone could pull out of a manual. It is intricate and makes a twisted reality out of the corporate world.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The fine tuned interlacing of plots and agendas within the structure of the book.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Wow! I'm just so impressed by this book. The writing is excellent; it's engaging and imaginative. I love the layout and the whole retro feel to it (the fonts are quite nice). And the art is superb.

Most superlink products I've bought were good, but often I've wondered how I could incorporate them into my game. That's fine, as I usually draw inspiration from such sources, even if I don't use them as presented. But I can see so many ways of using this product, either as is or integrated within my game (since I use Freedom City, I could easily see applying this material to Grant Conglomerates). <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The overall quality was far above the typical superlink product. Many of the ideas presented could easily be used in my game.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Nothing really drew attention as something bad about this product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Orwell Industries is a global corporation perfectly suited for use as an antagonist in a typical four-color comic book supers game. This product, the first in Reality Blurs? Powers & Perils line of M&M Superlink books is written for Green Ronin?s Mutants & Masterminds game.

The book is very good-looking, with a nice layout and a pleasing, comic inspired color scheme. The art is genre appropriate and, while no one piece stands out as particularly inspiring, it?s pretty good quality overall. Art is especially important in a gaming genre inspired by comic books, so I was happy to see an illustration of most of the major NPCs.

There is a tremendous amount of detail crammed into Orwell Industries? 84 pages. We learn about the origins of the company, its goals and projects, and the personalities and motivations of the people running the show. In addition to the various CEOs, the book gives stats for different types of security forces, special agents, and other Orwell employees that the players may have to deal with over the course of a campaign. I didn?t crunch the numbers on the NPC stats, but no glaring errors stood out on my numerous readings.

Orwell Industries has elements straight out of comic-book reality: a machine that can peer into the future, advanced technology, a mad scientist obsessed with unlocking the secrets of immortality?but it hides these things behind a fairly mundane (if powerful) corporation. This allows the GM to insert Orwell Industries into a supers campaign of nearly any power level, changing the ?truth? about Orwell as needed. Plus, Orwell?s ability to get their hands on future technology provides a built-in rational for why, in the world of comic books, some heroes and villains wield super technology in a setting that is otherwise very similar to 21st Century Earth.

The designers did a really good job creating a villainous organization with ultimately pure motives. Super-hero bad guys are far too often insane megalomaniacs, bent on world domination for no particular reason. While this can be great in moderation, it?s nice to see an enemy that is trying to do good. GT Orwell is ultimately out to save humanity?and anyone that objects to his methods must be dealt with accordingly. To Orwell, the ends always justify the means.

There are, of course, lots of subplots going on within Orwell Industries. There is a secret project that GT Orwell doesn?t know about, an executive with borderline paranoid-schizophrenia, and the resident mad scientist Dr. Zero. The book has an entire chapter devoted to using Orwell in a campaign, with a number of fleshed-out examples, and there is plenty to keep characters interested over the course of a long campaign.

New rules are included to track the struggle of the PCs vs the evil Orwell corporation. These rules basically boil down to a chart to track whether the heroes are winning or losing the war against Orwell. They?re simple, but they look as though they?d work pretty well in actual play.

As a final note, kudos to the designers for the various literary "easter eggs" sprinkled throughout the book. I particularly enjoyed the references to Alice in Wonderland...and of course, the name Orwell, which conjures images of totalitarian futures and technology gone wrong.<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: This book gives you everything you need to introduce Orwell Industries as a major or minor antagonist in your M&M game. There is a lot of detail, plenty of game stats, and well written advice. The art is good, the layout is well done, and the writing is top notch. What more can I say?<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: As with any rpg book, there were things I didn?t like. A few of the super-powered villains didn?t really fit the feel of my campaign, and some of the background information doesn?t completely jibe with my established group. These are minor flavor points, and can be adjusted without significantly altering the book?s usability.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

Overview: Powers & Perils #1: Orwell Industries conspires corporate intrigue, comprehensive story-telling and intricate characters within its 84 pages in its extensive biography of a corrupt corporation for your Mutants and Masterminds game.

Orwell Industries is the first entry in Reality Blurs Powers and Perils city, which, from this first entry, has promise to become and informative line of books that will aid your Mutants and Masterminds Campaign. With all of its high-tech devices and covert operations, Orwell Industries is very reminiscent of the Lexcorp and Wayne Enterprises mega-companies from the DC universe.

Orwell Industries Is broken down into six chapters: Background- background of the founder and company Company- internal operations Employees- the cast Places- labs, experiments and projects ,
Tech- equipment it replaces and uses Campaign- instructions on how to use it in your campaign.

As A Game Master:

To say this book is very well written is like saying Picasso was a finger painter. Orwell Industries emphasis on Hemmingway length descriptions for all of its characters, products and internal locations is ambrosia for those who crave fluff. Mutants and Masterminds is a game for those whom like flare over three dimensional tactics, which fits the writing of this book nicely. You can place Orwell Industries into any timeline or genre with minor tweaking. It is skillfully written so that you get a lot of detail, but you do not get enough that the company is unusable if it did not match a certain genre. I can see this book used settings from Pulp to Golden Age. Even if you don?t use the company, you can easily pluck out any of the characters or equipment.

But you will WANT to use the Corporation.

Usually when dealing with supplements as such, there is an extreme amount of effort focused on the head of the corporation. Orwell Industries, however, reverts the focus back onto the corporation, making it the major villain and all within pawns to it. Its founder, G. Thomas Orwell is a well-purposed scientist whom found a looking glass into the future. Since his discovery, he has used his knowledge to build an empire of stolen technology from the future. If you enjoy supervillians with a purpose, you will enjoy this character. Sure he uses his son as a battery for his time-machine, but he needs to build this empire to fend off the threat of a future in which he saw evil meta-humans wipe out of the human race. There is a ton of allusions to the author George Orwell?s Citizen Kane and the fact that his Time Machine reached its full capacity in 1984 is another nice reference. The meta-humans take over of the future is also described in a very big brother type way.

Other colorful people litter the book as well. There is his quietly suspicious assistant Dr. Zeroster, the embezzling Chief Financial Officer Arthur Spivak, and a dozen other characters with their own motivations. If you don?t like major henchmen to wet the palette such as a rogue supervillian team seeking revenge and zombie soldiers from the future. And do not worry about stats, just about every character in this book is fully statted and the author makes great use of Break-Out boxes with advice for campaign integration. Though the backstories and stats are great, the lack of creativity within the archetypes for the characters is a let down. A lot of these characters feel as if they were taken right out of Batman Beyond?s rogue gallery. I was hoping for some different types of villains given the setting.

The equipment used in the book is pretty typical with its assortment of different types of guns. I could not see myself using any of them with the exception of the Foam gun, used to freeze villains in there tracks.

The campaign section is possibly the weakest link within the book. It felt like such a let down to get to the end and only receive a handful of adventure seeds and a couple of encounters. Whereas the writing is top notch, I find some portions a bit too lengthy and unusable in a campaign. This print space would have been better suited for a mini-adventure at the least. The adventure seeds just are not enough for the amount of material provided. I would have liked to have seen a 4 or 5 page adventure and then briefer adventure seeds posted afterwards.

As a Player This book is primarily a Game master?s supplement. It does include equipment and tech, but nothing better than other sources.

The Iron Word

Orwell Industries is a fresh idea that can provide any Mutants and Mastermind campaign a new villain in the form of a corporation instead of the usual flesh. I plan on using them as one of the major villains in my campaign. Though I would have liked to have see an adventure or two, there is enough here for the creative gamemaster to work with. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: I loved the detail in the setting and characters. There's nothing like a villian with a purpose to make morally charged adventures. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The lack of adventures was a let down once I reached the end of the book.I was also not impressed with the equipment selection and and character archetypes. <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>