Got the 'Wars

[Blue]

Just thought I'd let you know Alien Wars is actually arriving in stores. Haven't read it yet (I've only had it a half hour).

[Monolith]

You must live in a city/town with a 5d6 of Luck!

[Blue]

A really good gamestore is worth the 10pt contact cost.

[The Horror]

First impressions?

 

I have to wait at least 2 more weeks for mine (long distance to Australia).

 

 

The Horror

[Blue]

Sorry, I got Monsters, Mutants and Marauders at the same time, and I spent my time in there last night. All I did with Alien Wars was admire the full-bleed pages, grunt, and occasionally say things like "purty". Maybe when I get home from work tonight.

[BobGreenwade]

You will be expected to write a book report of no less than 250 words. Consider it a homework assignment.

[Blue]

So far:

There are a lot of small discussions of things I might overlook when writing a campaign. I mean, in an "Alien Wars" campaign I probably wouldn't have even thought about a criminal underworld until it came up in play. Inclusion of a "Day in the Life" for each military branch gives me some good color for what folks should be doing when all hell breaks loose. Combat drugs. Some military vehicles ( ). The difference between Xenovore & United Earth Forces technologies. A PRICE LIST(!) for equipment. A little Xenovore Etemology. And it's always good to have some Alien Package deals, though I haven't analyzed them very much yet to decide what kind of character I'd play.

 

If I wind up running a Star Hero campaign some day, so far it's going to be in this setting.

 

 

Footnote: I like that Psi's don't have to purchase the "Alien" class of minds; That's how I'm running my Champions campaign and it keeps me from having to adapte

[Rick]

Can anyone say HALO? :-)

 

JUst make the aliens religious zealots W/a static caste system and the good guys 200-250pts powered armor badasses...I can't wait!!!!!

[Rick]

I bought it today along W/the Spacer's Tool kit....here I come HALO hero.

[zakueins]

Personal opinion? It's...okay.

 

Not good, not great, okay.

 

My biggest problem is the weapons-at the technology you need to build fusion reactors, gauss/railguns are easy to make (since you use magnetic fields to contain a fusion reaction), and having "cased" weapons would be more trouble than it's worth. (Maybe I'll post some weapons here, if people are interested).

 

Also...I have to be able to suspend disbelief to really get into a game, and it's hard with this one-the whole "trench warfare meets space" aspect of the game is hard. It would have been nice if there were books that are a good "inspriation" for the campaign, as well as some other items.

 

It's good, and I don't mind buying it, but it could have been better.

[specks]

You should have been a playtester. I just signed on to a Digital Hero subscription and am looking foward to doing some playtesting. I think Steve would have welcomed you're comments and might have some 'tweaking' here and there to get it up to you're liking. I think that 'Wars' is really based on Starship Troopers (the book and the movie). The did have to face the bugs in a sort of "trench warfare" type setting.

 

Suspend disbelief?!

 

Well, after all, aren't you playing a game where people fly around in spandex and shoot energy blast from their eyes.

[zakueins]

If they used "Starship Troopers" the movie as their basis for the game, they might as well have chewed off their own feet. (Unless you have a Doogie Howzer/Nazi fetish...). I'm signing up for Digital Hero, mostly to get into the playtests-by the time I'd found out that there WAS a playtest for Alien Wars, it was Too Late .

 

And, I can suspend my disbelief in Superhero games pretty easily-it's supposed to be over the top/wild/crazy ("How come nobody recognizes him just because he brushes his hair and puts on glasses?" "Don't knock it, it works.").

 

Originally posted by specks

You should have been a playtester. I just signed on to a Digital Hero subscription and am looking foward to doing some playtesting. I think Steve would have welcomed you're comments and might have some 'tweaking' here and there to get it up to you're liking. I think that 'Wars' is really based on Starship Troopers (the book and the movie). The did have to face the bugs in a sort of "trench warfare" type setting.

 

Suspend disbelief?!

 

Well, after all, aren't you playing a game where people fly around in spandex and shoot energy blast from their eyes.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by zakueins

Also...I have to be able to suspend disbelief to really get into a game, and it's hard with this one-the whole "trench warfare meets space" aspect of the game is hard. It would have been nice if there were books that are a good "inspriation" for the campaign, as well as some other items.

Some books which Steve Long used for inspiration include:

Haldeman, Joe. The Forever War.

Heinlein, Robert. Starship Troopers.

Modesitt, L.E. The Parafaith War.

Niven, Larry, et al. The Man-Kzin Wars

Steakley, John. Armor.

All of those deal heavily with "trench warfare meets space" and are all quite good. There was also the television series Space: Above and Beyond, which is where I would draw most of my inspiration from if I were doing an AW game.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Monolith

Some books which Steve Long used for inspiration include:

That's not really helpful, since Steve didn't write this tome -- Allen did.

 

Also, being on the playtest team wouldn't have helped much with the glitches being cited here. By the time a book is put into playtest, it's also been put into layout, so it's too late for any major rewriting -- or, really, any additions other than maybe a sentence or two. Most of the useful playtest/testread comments are corrections in spelling, grammar, punctuation, and math. (I am hoping, however, that DOJ can get to the point that manuscripts can complete the playtest/testread process before it goes to layout so these things can be addressed.

 

I'd also like to say that it's really kind of nice to see a tepid review for a Hero book. I was starting to think that most of us were becoming "yes-men," but an honest review like this just makes all the rest more meaningful.

[Monolith]

Originally posted by BobGreenwade

That's not really helpful, since Steve didn't write this tome -- Allen did.

Yeah, but that does not change the fact that zakueins stated that he did not know of any material to use as inspiration. I was just giving him the list which Steve Long provided prior to AW being written.

 

I'd also like to say that it's really kind of nice to see a tepid review for a Hero book. I was starting to think that most of us were becoming "yes-men," but an honest review like this just makes all the rest more meaningful.

And I really do not consider his "review" to be negative. What I see him saying are two things: "He thinks the technology should be more advanced", and "He cannot suspend disbelieve because he has no point of reference for that style of scifi genre."

 

The books and the television series I mentioned takes care of the second part. As far as the tech level goes, that is all to taste. The tech used in Space: Above and Beyond was also no more sophisticated than what we see in AW. But the tech level in AW does fall in line correctly with the future tech of Terran Empire. Since Alien Wars, Terran Empire, and Galactic Federation are all designed to be modular pieces of the same extended timeline they really only need to be consistant with each other, not any other "real world" or other scifi genre standards.

 

I have not received AW yet, and I did nothing more than scan the playtest document, so I don't really know how good or bad the book is yet. Since military scifi is not a genre I am that interested in, for me AW becomes nothing more than a reference book for new races for our TE game.

 

And I don't think most of us are "yes-men." I think many of us just prefer to either not dwell on the negative, or we do not see the negative others do (like the tech issue above), or we prefer to send our comments expressing displeasure directly to DOJ rather than posting them on the message boards.

[BobGreenwade]

Originally posted by Monolith

Yeah, but that does not change the fact that zakueins stated that he did not know of any material to use as inspiration. I was just giving him the list which Steve Long provided prior to AW being written.

Ah, OK. I stand corrected, then.

And I really do not consider his "review" to be negative. What I see him saying are two things: "He thinks the technology should be more advanced", and "He cannot suspend disbelieve because he has no point of reference for that style of scifi genre."

Hence my use of the word "tepid" (meaning lukewarm; in other words, positive on the balance but less than glowing).

And I don't think most of us are "yes-men." I think many of us just prefer to either not dwell on the negative, or we do not see the negative others do (like the tech issue above), or we prefer to send our comments expressing displeasure directly to DOJ rather than posting them on the message boards.

Oh, yes, certainly. It just kinda starts to look a tad sycophantic when all we can say is how wonderful it is. When we have something less than glowing to say about one product, then all of that other excitement looks that much more believable.

 

And I did, by the way, look pretty cleanly through the AW playtest document, as a testreader -- and I, too, am a TE GM (albeit an aspiring one). I think you'll find much more useful stuff in there than just a half-dozen more species -- the history makes great background and can inspire a few ideas for the TE period, for instance, and the information on Xenovores really brings them to life.

[Talon]

I haven't seen the finished book yet, but I commented extensively on the playtest version. I thought the book had a lot of failings -- and a lot of good stuff, but overall my opinion was that I'd rather come up with my own version of the Xenovore Wars than use the one presented in the book. However, the explanation that a separate military SF book was in the works did help somewhat, as one part of my criticisms centered around the lack of that stuff in AW.

 

In particular, the descriptions of the military branches were excellent: ranks, "day in the life" training, all the way down to standard equipment load with point writeup. The Xenovore stuff was IMO not as good.

 

Again, don't know what they changed in the final manuscript so take this with a grain of salt.

 

I do agree with what Bob said though -- substantive changes are not what they're looking for in playtest and are rarely acted upon unless the situation clearly demands it.

[Rick]

I'm using it as a flavor text if you would. Looking for help writing and running a Military SciFi game. THen I'm dumping the Xenovoresand writing up the Covenant.

[The Horror]

Originally posted by Monolith

I think many of us just prefer to either not dwell on the negative, or we do not see the negative others do (like the tech issue above), or we prefer to send our comments expressing displeasure directly to DOJ rather than posting them on the message boards.

 

I for one really enjoy and appreciate comments on books, both positive and negative. I would like to encourage rather than discourage all comments to be posted on these boards.

 

 

The Horror

[KawangaKid]

Originally posted by zakueins

If they used "Starship Troopers" the movie as their basis for the game, they might as well have chewed off their own feet. (Unless you have a Doogie Howzer/Nazi fetish...). I'm signing up for Digital Hero, mostly to get into the playtests-by the time I'd found out that there WAS a playtest for Alien Wars, it was Too Late .

 

True - the Starship Troopers book was far superior, IMHO. Still, I'm looking forward to the book because all my fave SciFi RPG experiences have been with military-esqe campaigns.

[zakueins]

Mine as well. Which is why I want this genre to be done right.

 

 

Originally posted by KawangaKid

True - the Starship Troopers book was far superior, IMHO. Still, I'm looking forward to the book because all my fave SciFi RPG experiences have been with military-esqe campaigns.