[Review] Spacer's Toolkit

[ghost-angel]

The Upside:

 

Spacers Toolkit is a collection of equipment, ground vehicles and space ships. It's designed to be used in conjunction with the Terran Empire Space Opera setting, but is easily adaptable to any Space Opera campaign.

 

In each section the book provides both Human (Terran Empire) and Alien version of weapons. Not every alien empire in the Terran Empire setting gets examples in each section. But enough do to add a great deal of diversity to your campaign.

 

Chapter One - Personal Equipment. Jumping right in the book starts with weapons of all sorts. Five tech-based human hand weapons are detailed, from the non-lethal shock baton to the power sword. Several low tech alien weapons are described as well to add some low tech flavor to the non-human species. After that a number of ranged weapons of the future are described. Laser, Plasma, Ion and Gamma weapons are all described. The varied types and tech levels allows for some differences in various parts of the galaxy, or even within the Terran Empire itself. Grenade Launchers, EMP Weapons and a few miscellaneous firearms finish out this section.

 

Once you've picked out your weapon of choice it's time to get some armor on. Only three species (Human, Fassai and Mon'Dabi) are given full descriptions for their standard battle armor, but notes on how to adapt armor to other species are provided. There is also a short section on personal force fields, or rather on how the tech described in the Terran Empire setting book progresses through advancements.

 

Sensors And Communications are an important part of any space campaign. We get a number of devices to detect things, atmosphere analyzers, bio-scanners, and the like. There are a few communications devices provided, a holographic communicator, Se'ecra translator (an insect species that communicates with wing flutters) and a stealth communicator device.

 

Medical Tech is next, with a few healing devices, some combat enhancement chemicals and psionic devices.

 

Survival Equipment gives us an EVA Suit, and several add on parts, and a good number of environmental gear for when your players leave the ship and travel to unknown planets.

 

Nanotech is next, with some notes on how Nanotech is treated in the Terran Empire setting. With some write-ups for Nano-military Tech, Medical tech and Enhancement tech.

 

Computers, Bots And Androids is next. A Data Extractor computer and a Learning Computer are provided. Several robots are written up, from mundane house robots to military androids.

 

Personal Enhancement covers cyberware and bioware of the Terran Empire setting, from useful to military.

 

Miscellaneous Items provides less useful tech, but more flavorful items you might find in a Space Opera setting. The most interesting is a few paragraphs dedicated to Mon'Dabi liquors, and Fex Sculpted Stones. Neither of which are tech so much as some cool flavor items to use in a campaign.

 

Chapter Two - Ground Vehicles. Most Space Opera games take place in space almost exclusively. But every now and then you have to go down to a planet, whether for recreation, war or exploration. And this chapter provides a number of vehicle from around the galaxy to do all that in.

 

Civilian vehicles start out the chapter. Going through wheeled vehicles, hover vehicles, and some miscellaneous vehicles. The neat feature here is that many descriptions are written up as an advertisement for the vehicle itself as well as the normal bit on how and where it's used. It includes personal transports, public transportation and utility vehicles of both Human and Non-human origin.

 

Military Vehicles covers the second half of this chapter. Two wheeled vehicles are presented, a military jeep and a troop transport. There are three treaded vehicles, another troop transport, an anti-infantry tank and a battle tank. The cross section provides most types of vehicles a military, or police, force needs. The two other Terran vehicles are hover vehicles. The first is a weapons platform and the second a hover tank.

 

After that the chapter provides alien military vehicles. Unfortunately there are only two. An Akalakian tank and a Thorgon warstrider, which is a rather interesting tank on legged vehicles.

 

Chapter Three - Starships. Chapter three takes up almost half the book, and provides the meat of any Space Opera campaign.

 

Like Terran Empire, this section starts out with component parts that make up a Space Ship. Propulsion, Weapons and Defenses are presented. Since Terran Empire introduced most of the settings major devices this has little to add. The propulsion adds a few more variations on the engines in the setting, giving even more variety. The new weapons are more Plasma cannons and missiles. The good part is the other weapons types, a Hyperspace weapon, an Armor Depletion Beam and a Force Field Sponger. The last two are alien technology that add some flavor to non-Human space ships. The Defenses section provides more variations on the basic Defensive Systems provided in the Terran Empire source book.

 

The rest of the book is dedicated to write-ups of Spaceships. Starting with Terran ships, there are fourteen military ships provided. Five civilian or other government ships are also provided. They cover the wide range of ships from space fighters to super-dreadnoughts, exploration ships, and merchant ships. Really, the only thing missing are luxury ships.

 

The Alien Spaceships has fourteen more write-ups of ships, two each of other seven major governments in the Terran Empire setting. The write-ups themselves aren't very different from the Terran empire, a bit of tweaking on either side could easily mean that write-ups can be used universally for any size ship of any alien race. The nice part of the alien ships section is that is takes some space to describe the design philosophy and elements of alien races, setting them apart descriptively from each other.

 

The Downside:

 

If there's one complaint I have about this book it's that it is too short. At 128 pages it's one of the shortest published Fifth Edition books to date.

 

It really could have used more future gadgets, alien and human, more vehicles and especially more spaceships. On the spaceships portion it really could have used some more on civilian ships, some text of descriptions at least.

 

The Otherside:

 

Being mostly Hero write-ups of various equipment for a Space Opera game the book has limited use to non-Hero Gamers, unless you want to do conversions. Still, the ideas alone are good enough to have appeal to anyone running a Space Opera game.

 

Overall, even taking into account the brevity of the book, it's an awesome addition to a Space Opera game. Even if you're not using the Terran Empire setting the write-ups are highly useful. At that very least you can use the book as a starting point for your own setting.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Wow.

 

This is the first one I read through and disagreed with. But you know, hey.

[tkdguy]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Interesting, but hard science fiction suits me better these days. Would I be able to modify a lot of the gadgets here, and how much work would I have to do?

[Sgt_Pedro]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Wow.

 

This is the first one I read through and disagreed with. But you know, hey.

 

Disagree how? I just purchased the package with SH, TE, STk, and AW. I was going to get TE/STK/AW, and getting a second SH book proved cheaper, go figure.

 

Anyhow, I am curious to hear what points you didn't agree with.

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Interesting' date=' but hard science fiction suits me better these days. Would I be able to modify a lot of the gadgets here, and how much work would I have to do?[/quote']

 

Not very much really. Mostly you'd have to rewrite some SFX, possibly add some "Real Equipment" Limitations if you felt that was needed.

 

Terran Empire engines, for example, are written using Teleport with "Extra Time For Journey" Limitations and the SFX of "entering warp space." Very little would need be done to shift that towards hard science.

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Wow.

 

This is the first one I read through and disagreed with. But you know, hey.

 

I'm not too surprised. Any specific reason or points of disagreement?

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

To answer both your questions, what really bothered me about Spacer's Toolkit was its heavy ship-side section and the feeling that the rest of the book was shockingly light. Thin, yes, but also the feeling of it being highly anorexic. There are a ton of races presented across the setting of Terran Empire, but almost none of that is well represented in this text.

 

I would have liked to see some things that I never see in HERO, such as a dedicated ship design system (i.e., I want a rewrite of Robot Warriors updated to 5th Ed.) and I certainly felt there was a distinct lack of decent flavor to the gear. It all came off as generic, bland and "Oo... thassa big ship righ' there." So for me it really missed the mark.

 

I agree, in general, that Star HERO is a fantastic resource. But then I run Dark Champions IN SPAAAAAACE so I'm going to think that sort of thing. But the world & setting of Alien Wars didn't really do it for me either, so this may be a long chain of products that didn't really connect with me.

 

By contrast, I find DC, Hudson City and such invaluable.

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

I didn't think you liked the Terran Empire/Alien Wars settings, which is why I wasn't surprised you didn't like this book.

 

As for a rewrite of the vehicle systems - that would be outside the scope of this book. This is the Terran Empire equivalent of the USPD books - just the write-ups. Terran Empire actually does present the ship design write-up system, it is one of the options used in Star Hero; a complete rewrite would be the domain of Star Hero Genre Book - not a Setting Book or Powers Book (TE and ST respectively).

 

So I think expecting those out of this work is both off the mark and unfair to the books - they weren't never intended to do any such thing; It'd be like being unhappy that USPD1 didn't present alternate rules options for Metamorphs.

 

As for the book being short - that was my major complaint. It should have been twice the size.

 

 

In short - if you don't like the Terran Empire setting (which is a pretty standard type Space Opera setting) then you won't like Spacer's Toolkit because it is essentially "Hero Powers For Terran Empire."

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

But I felt that it didn't do that well, that's my beef. My gripes aside, I never thought it succeeded at doing that.

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

But I felt that it didn't do that well' date=' that's my beef. My gripes aside, I never thought it succeeded at doing that.[/quote']

 

It did fall a little short of the mark, mostly due to brevity.

[Nolgroth]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

I agree with the brevity complaint and I agree with the "mostly spaceships" complaint. It seemed to me that most of the spaceships were big military ships. There should have been at least five or six different merchant ships.

 

While I get the idea of vehicle write-ups, I think something like the Spacers Toolkit would have benefited me a whole lot more if deckplans were included. I understand that the big military ships would be prohibitively complex, but a couple of merchant ships would have been nice. Ultimately, the small press aspect of HERO is what limits that kind of thing. Still, it would have been nice.

 

As to the review.

[Karmakaze]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Overall' date=' even taking into account the brevity of the book, it's an awesome addition to a Space Opera game. Even if you're not using the Terran Empire setting the write-ups are highly useful. At that very least you can use the book as a starting point for your own setting.[/quote']

 

I have to disagree. I read this book through once after I bought it and never opened it again because most of the write-ups seemed useless if you weren't using the published setting. (I almost never use published settings, so I was a little disappointed.)

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

I have to disagree. I read this book through once after I bought it and never opened it again because most of the write-ups seemed useless if you weren't using the published setting. (I almost never use published settings' date=' so I was a little disappointed.)[/quote']

 

This one I don't get at all.

 

Weapons - Change some names and descriptions, and you have new weapons.

 

Other tech - for the most part the same, change some SFX and descriptors and you're done.

 

Vehicles - seem pretty standard non-specific to me. Maybe you'd have to alter DEF and/or Damage to fit your style.

 

Ships - this is probably the area with the biggest conversion to match your campaigns idea of how fast you can traverse the galaxy, weapons and defenses.

 

But all of that would be true for ANY book of write-ups.

There aren't any Setting specific Limitations or Advantages, it's all right out of the rulebook.

[Karmakaze]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

This one I don't get at all.

 

Weapons - Change some names and descriptions, and you have new weapons.

 

Other tech - for the most part the same, change some SFX and descriptors and you're done.

 

Vehicles - seem pretty standard non-specific to me. Maybe you'd have to alter DEF and/or Damage to fit your style.

 

Ships - this is probably the area with the biggest conversion to match your campaigns idea of how fast you can traverse the galaxy, weapons and defenses.

 

But all of that would be true for ANY book of write-ups.

There aren't any Setting specific Limitations or Advantages, it's all right out of the rulebook.

 

I don't have the book on me to compare, but at the time my impression was that "filing off the serial numbers" still requires your setting to be stock Space Opera, with the human-centric empire surrounded by multiple bumpy-forehead alien races with their own territory. I didn't see a lot of options to take the tech level up or down from "Generic Space Opera". By the time you file off enough to make it fit in any of the Space settings I had it mind, it would have been easier to build from scratch.

 

For example, all of the ships (and I could be wrong, it's been a while) seemed set around internal FTL, so if you want a setting with a wormhole network, they don't work so well. It was base assumptions like that I was tripping over.

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

I don't have the book on me to compare, but at the time my impression was that "filing off the serial numbers" still requires your setting to be stock Space Opera, with the human-centric empire surrounded by multiple bumpy-forehead alien races with their own territory. I didn't see a lot of options to take the tech level up or down from "Generic Space Opera". By the time you file off enough to make it fit in any of the Space settings I had it mind, it would have been easier to build from scratch.

 

For example, all of the ships (and I could be wrong, it's been a while) seemed set around internal FTL, so if you want a setting with a wormhole network, they don't work so well. It was base assumptions like that I was tripping over.

 

Scaling tech up/down is often a simply matter of lowering damage and/or adding/removing Limitations.

 

Say, you want Zero-Point Energy Batteries powering rifles; switch Charges to 0-END. Minor fix.

 

Or it's early Ion Rifle technology; add Activation/Burnout.

 

Spacer's Toolkit does actually provide some early and later versions of weapons ("first reliable model" and "improved model" type examples). For a specific exmaple the M27 Plasma Rifle is billed as the first reliable Plasma Weapon of Terran space, the M88 is much reliable, more accurate and bigger, a later improvement on the weapon. Some alien versions are outright better.

 

Moving from Internal to External FTL is dirt easy. Terran Empire set things up in a very component like manner. FTL and Chemical Engines are separate parts. Removing FTL is merely a matter of taking it off the Ships character sheet. Then you make your gateway and voila. Or some add a Limitation "Must have available Warpgate to activate FTL Drive"

 

 

If you're game is drastically different from Terran Empire (a pretty stock Space Opera game) then not only is Spacer's Toolkit not aimed at you I wouldn't even recommend Terran Empire at that point. For instance Thia Hamaldes likes a much darker game - for him using elements from Star Hero in a Dark Champions setting is more appropriate, the SH setting books aren't going to be useful for him.

[Thia Halmades]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Normally we don't disagree. Let this be the exception to that rule.

 

It is a tremendous pain in the @$$ to design new material on that scale, and certainly to redesign that material. It took me... what, three months to puzzle through how to design a Slip-Space Drive?! These aren't minor fixes; I can't even tell from the ridiculous amount of equipment thrown on those ships how you'd deal with one being hulled -- I don't know if you'd ever dish out enough damage to do it.

 

Certainly, I put together some absurdly powerful spinal mount rail guns for HERO:CE (16d6 is gonna ring some bells) but the idea when I wrote 'em was that they do punch straight through ships; the missile bays, by contrast, are downright meager. And again, compared to Covie tech, are supposed to be.

 

When you look up a spell in a grimoire, you aren't eyeballing it to see what changes you can make; you expect to pick it up & use it whole-cloth because that was the intent of buying the book, n'est pas? I'm not going to switch a shock baton to a "fire baton" just by changing the SFX; I'm going to want to design a Fire Baton (which, thinking on it, could be really cool).

 

Point being.

 

I appreciate your stance that this is HERO, and with (comparatively) minimal effort we can put together whatever we please, and that for some gamers, a resource such as Spacer's Toolkit will be invaluable for that reason alone. I'm not one of those cats -- if I've gone to the trouble to buy the book, then I want the book to carry the look & feel of the setting, with an appropriate depth of gear and tech.

 

I didn't feel this book delivered. Gadgets & Gear, by contrast, absolutely does. ST does not.

[ghost-angel]

Re: [Review] Spacer's Toolkit

 

Normally we don't disagree. Let this be the exception to that rule.

 

You don't worship me as a God and hang on every word I type?! I feel cheated

 

 

My thoughts on the Grimoire's are they as Turakian Age Specific as Spacer's Toolkit is Terran Empire Specific - meaning I don't see much difference in the universal application of either.

 

Space Opera is one of my favorite genre's to game in, ever. And I wouldn't use stock Spacer's (some ships should have higher SPD for one thing).

 

For me adapting the write-ups is second nature though. We can leave it at agree to disagree, in the long run it's not a big deal.