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Legend of the Five Rings: Core Rulebook
Publisher: EDGE Studio
by Christopher S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/05/2018 10:51:48

The first thing I noticed about this pdf is that the file performance is downright dreamy compared with the enormous and sluggish AEG pdfs. Pages load quickly, the main text font is a lot more readable even at small sizes, and it manages this without compromising the visual quality of the document. While I do somewhat miss the varied backgrounds of the 4th edition books, many of those went unread because it took anywhere from 3-5 seconds to turn a page. This book is a vast improvement in that regard.

(edit: OK, it's not entirely perfect in that regard. On pages with a large number of tables, such as the school curriculae, there seems to be some sort of incompatibility with Windows 10's native pdf rendering engine, making it display improperly or crash in Edge and other apps that use the same engine. It works fine with other readers, so this is more likely to be a Windows issue, thus I'm not taking points off for it).

I have mixed opinions on custom narrative dice systems, due to the learning curve involved in memorizing what the symbols are and what they do (and also partly due to the difficulty in convincing other people to use them), but compared with FFG's other offerings in that regard, the L5R dice are relatively simple, with only two types of dice and four symbols. The fact that they finally make the Roll&Keep mechanic relevant rather than just being a time-consuming extra step (as our group increasingly found to be the case in 3rd and 4th edition) is a major point in their favor. A lot of the mechanics of previous editions were ones our group simply forgot to use or used incorrectly for years, so the opportunity for a fresh start is welcome. Though personally it would be nice if Void points had been replaced with some sort of success-at-cost mechanic to further reduce the amount of resource management (since my group always forgets to use point-spending mechanics no matter what game they play), but this is not likely to be a problem for most groups.

I particularly approve of the encouragement for players to narrate both their own successes and failures, something that I try to promote but which many other games seem to actively discourage. As an improvisational GM, anything that takes some of the pressure of running the game off me is a benefit, and being freed from the responsibility of describing how characters fail is a major plus.

Overall, this ruleset should make running games in Rokugan a lot easier for me. I'll still continue to use my old books for setting information and inspiration (although I plan on moving over to the rebooted continuity, as I like most of the changes that have been made to the major characters), but having one with fewer specialty rules to remember and that doesn't take three times as long as it should just to turn the pages makes me very happy with this product.

I also recommend the dice app - it's very good quality and supports standard dice too, so it can still be used for 4th edition games (or anything else) if you want.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Legend of the Five Rings: Core Rulebook
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Amethyst: Apotheosis (13th Age Compatible)
Publisher: Dias Ex Machina Games
by Christopher S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/15/2015 17:15:30

Please take this review with a grain of salt, as I'm listed as the editor and one of the authors of this book :)

This version of the book provides something essential that has been sorely lacking from every other version of the book to date, including (I regret to say) the one that I was the lead developer of: clear-cut statements of where in the real world each fantasy location is equivalent to. This may not seem like a great deal to the first-time buyer, but as someone who followed the setting from its OGL debut and its first 4e incarnation before getting involved in its development, not having to rely on vague and often-misleading maps to determine where everything is (I discovered during editing that I had been dead wrong about where quite a few places were for years) is a great boon. Additionally, the developer commentary is a great feature that I wish could be found in more RPGs, and would certainly be of value even to people who have experienced the setting in its other manifestations before (it was certainly fun to write my bits, but even more so to read the others).

13th Age is not my favorite system by any means - I find it a bit of an awkward kludge between 3e and 4e, with a few interesting unique mechanics, and unfortunately, this version doesn't engage as much with those mechanics as I would like (but I promised to stop completely rewriting the mechanics during editing after 'Neurospasta,' so I'm as much to blame as the developer is). It does, however, polish a lot of the mechanics from the 4e version and is far less mechanically bloated by comparison. It also introduces some interesting new mechanics, all of which are optional (something that I personally find very welcome, as having variant mechanics forced on me by the game's design parameters is something that greatly annoys me as a player and a GM). Given a choice between playing this version and 4e, I would choose this version even though I prefer the 4e system.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Amethyst: Apotheosis (13th Age Compatible)
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Amethyst: Hearts of Chaos
Publisher: Goodman Games
by Christopher S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/23/2009 11:52:23

This module is something of a mixed bag. As an adventure set within the inventive world of Amethyst, it's decent (if hardly an original idea, though the parallels to Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now are called out pretty clearly in the title). As an introduction to said world, however, it's a bit lacking. Someone already familiar with the setting (through the OGL release) will have no trouble getting into the swing of events, but someone who isn't aware of the basic conceits of the world may have issues.

The adventure itself is very straightforward, following a highly linear path towards a defined goal and with only two real possible outcomes. Due to the establishment of the party as a mercenary group on a mission, it's OK to railroad, although some of the 'scripted' encounters may have problems depending on the personalities assigned to the pregenerated characters.

The pregens are actually one of the weakest parts of the module. First, their equipment loadouts are not always the best choices (if nothing else, everyone should have a backup melee weapon for those fights where the GM rolls critical equipment failure three rounds in a row, and the players of supposedly 'heavy weapons' characters chafed at not having more impressive guns). Additionally, since the group dynamic of the characters is left vague, the interactions at the table become somewhat messy as players try to figure out their place in the group and the surrounding world (the adventure's outcome is strongly predicated on the entire group being inclined to either obey or disobey their orders, and in a mixed group could easily turn into PvP without strong GM control). Since this issue will be entirely resolved once the Amethyst corebook is released, I don't count it against the module too much.

The other weak point, which I have to fault it for, are the maps. The default battlemaps for the module are appallingly dull, lacking anything in the way of interesting terrain. For characters who are, by default, inclined to find some cover and hunker down, this is a crippling weakness. When I ran the module, I completely disregarded the included maps in favor of my own, to the adventure's greater benefit (especially during the final battle).

While the encounters in this module provide for some good variety (particularly if the optional encounters from the web enhancement are used), there are some niggling issues with each of them that prevent them from being excellent. First and most problematic, the players automatically assume that because their vehicle breaks down right before an enormous monster appears on the horizon, that they are supposed to fight the monster. This is a problem when the encounter is scripted as a skill challenge and the monster is 25th level. Second, in the final battle, the dragon is too small - a Large just doesn't cut it for really emphasizing the 'oh crap' moment. Third, the talky scenes are both too vaguely defined (my group asked none of the questions that had scripted responses) and too long, with the result that tic-tac-toe and dice jenga might take over those scenes if they fail to keep everyone's interest. In general, the module is too wordy and occasionally suffers from dodgy grammar (though having read the OGL version of the setting, I am aware that this is a stylistic concern of the writer). Lastly, because the adventure is so spread out over time, there is plenty of time to take extended rests between encounters, so there is very little resource attrition (beyond the expenditure of ammunition).

With all that out of the way, the overall pacing is quite good, and the adventure itself was entertaining for the group. In spite of having minimal knowledge of the setting, they did their best to get into it, and will hopefully be amenable to a full campaign in the future (and given how hard to please my group is, this is a heady accomplishment). I would have personally preferred a longer module which makes full use of the psychological impact of the source material, but understandably this offering had to be short to be able to be run at an event. In conclusion - while I would not recommend this module as a person's first introduction to the Amethyst setting, as a one-shot for already familiar players or as the prelude to a larger campaign I would definitely do so.

I would also endorse the lively and exciting sport of pugg-punting, invented by my group during the first encounter when their vehicle was swarmed by a small legion of goblinoids.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Amethyst: Hearts of Chaos
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