Review - Judge Dredd Judge's Handbook (MGP)

Judges Handbook (Mongoose Publishing)
System: Traveller
Campaign Setting: Judge Dredd

120page perfect bound softcover. Color cover, B&W interior, with thick paper.

Description:
Uncover the secrets of the Justice Department in Mega-City One. Within this book, you will find all the methods, technologies and procedures the judges use to track down criminals. From the forensics of Tek-Div to the Manta Prowl Tank, there is a tool to solve every crime, and your judges have access to them all.

The Justice Department provides new rules and options for judges as they patrol the streets of Mega-City One, and allows them access to the more elite divisions and promotions, allowing them to become Exorcist Judges, join the holocaust Squad, or even Acc-Div! If that is not enough to complete an investigation, then the judges will be happy to try out the latest weapons and equipment, straight from the workshops of Tek-Div.

This is one of those products you almost need if you're playing Judge Dredd games, and I'd say it's must have for a prolonged campaign. Within this handbook lies the secrets of all the divisions of Mega-City One.

Chapter 1: 17...SEVENTEEN character creation 'templates' for creating seasoned judges attached to one of the many specialty divisions, from advanced training of seasoned judges, to common specialties like Heavy Weapons Judge, Riot Squad Judge, Wally Squad (undercover) and COE (covert operations) Judge; to the mostly NPC roles of Harbor Squad, Sector Chief, and SJS Squad (Special Judicial Service (aka Internal Affairs). This one section greatly expands the entire universe of Dredd. Each specialty is just like a standard character creation table, Survival, Training, Requirements, Mishap and events tables. Training in a Specialty Judge role represents 1 year of training. Allowing characters to expand their characters in a quick and easy way, taking them off-camera for a year.

With the way I plan on Running Judge Dredd, ala FATE style, letting the players call their own shots, I was thinking of letting the players roll up the additional characters, so when they call in back-up, they're not calling in NPCs, they're calling in their own secondary characters, with their own back stories, personalities, and skills. This also lets players take more control of Mega-City One. Hell I'd probably occasionally let them bring Dredd in and run him once or twice just for the experience of running Dredd. Of course, they'll also be called in to back-up Dredd occasionally.

Chapter 2: the Equipment chapter, what can I say that I haven't said before, I'm a softy for Gear, junk, weapons, etc. So this chapter is right up my alley. This chapter incudes EVERYTHING from Holocaust Suits, Blast Shield, Riot Shields, and Armor; up to Special Issue Equipment like Cling-Nets, Com-scan, EpiStrip, Modular Repair Kit, and Space Boots. Weapons? Drokk yeah! 35 weapons, from the lowly sawed off stub gun, to the Blockbuster cannon present on the walls of Mega-City One, and the Omni Tank. This adds in most of the rest of the stuff missing from the main rulebook.

Chapter 3: Vehicles & Robots Chapter. 18 vehicles, this encompass the aforementioned Omni Tank, A-, S- and HH-Wagons, and other specialty vehicles of the Justice Department. Three spacehips, the Hubble attack Ship, Justice Pod, and Titan Shuttle make up the rest of the vehicles. Then come the Robots, always the Robots, do you have your Robot Insurance? 8 robots, Large Warbot Droid,

Chapter 4: More details on the Justice Department, Atlantic Division, COE, Immigration, Personel, Space Corps, Street Division, Undercover Divisions, all expanded. A Bunch of Backup units are described, stuff every Judge would know about. Gunbirds, Manta Prowl Tanks, K-unit, Long Gunner (aka sniper), Pursuit Squads, etc. Finally, A Bunch of Sample NPCs are given stat blocks, always useful for a Game Master.

Chapter 5: This flshes out Sector 13, the sample sector given to players to run as their sector, away from Dredd's sector. It gives descriptions, simple maps of most of the Sector House. Everything a growing Judge needs. Including Iso Cubes for those Perps that need putting away. Then, to make the Sector come alive, Dock 13, contacts, perps, and establishments round out the book.

Overall Rating: 18/20 Excellent proof-reading, lots of content, useful for advanced players and any game master running a Judge Dredd campaign.

Value: $29.99 for hard-copy, a bit pricey for a soft-bound at 120 pages, but as it's a supplement that is less used, it's going to cost a bit more. However, the PDF is currently available at Drivethru for $16.79.

Edit: Sorry, the formatting was jacked!

Reviews - Interface Zero Zeeks (Savage Worlds)

Zeeks! Psionics in 2088 (Interface Zero - Savage Worlds)
Published by GunMetalGames

Once more I'm reviewing a product from my favorite line of products for Savage Worlds. This one is a must have in reality, well must have if you want to run some psionics, and what Cyberpunk is complete without some mind magic?



WANNA PLAY SOME MIND GAMES?
When Hernando Vasquez walked into the North American Coalition embassy in Madrid and torched everything just by glaring at it, everybody knew: zeeks are among us. Some people hate 'em; some people love 'em. And make no mistake about it, tomo, that means most people either want to shoot them or use them to their own ends. But then I suppose that just makes life more interesting, ne?

HAVE YOU GOT WHAT IT TAKES?
Zeeks: Psionics In 2088 gives you an opportunity to explore the subculture of zeeks, either as a GM wanting to incorporate them into your game or a player wishing to play a psychic character. Whether you want to have a full-blown campaign focusing on the tumultuous world of psions, or just know what might be lurking back there in the shadows, we've got your back -everything from the Psi-Hunters who stalk zeeks to the fringe cults that worship them.
IN THIS BOOK YOU'LL FIND:

• Loads of information about psions and how they fit into the world of Interface Zero.
• Rules for creating psionic characters for Interface Zero, including new Edges, Hindrances and Powers.
• A new system for Savage Psionics, without the Power Points - and still Fast, Furious and Fun!
• More occupations for your characters, as well as new goodies from Malmart.
• Two complete Savage Tales and a half-dozen plot hooks to help bring zeeks into your game.
• Stats for new NPC friends and enemies, as well as stats for a few... other things.

This is an expansion for Savage Worlds Interface Zero, and not a stand-alone game.



Format: I'm reviewing the PDF format provided to Epic the RPG Blog for review purposes.

Page thru: Paging through this book you'll find it is full-color, and has lots of art, including several full page pieces. I right away notice new edges and hindrances. I also notice several pieces of gear, everyone needs a little bit of gear in a cyrberpunk game.

Main Review: OK we start out the book with some good story fluff. The very first piece of fiction covers what's going on in the picture on the cover. A picture is worth a thousand words, but then you get the words too. The introduction covers research and origins with a historical reference to the research both the US And USSR did during The Cold War. Love that GMG gets those details into IZ.

Chapter 1: 2088 Through the Eyes of a Zeek
This chapter is told from the perspective of a zeek talking about what it's like to live as a zeek in the world of 2088. What countries it pays to be known and what countries it pays to keep the the shadows. It then drops into a section on 'zeekisms', from psychic vampires to religious stigmas clouding the view of what a seek actually is. Every zeek pretty much believes in Shangri La, a place where zeeks are welcomed with open arms, just not too many can actually agree on where it is. (Leaving that up to the GM...I like it.) That section finishes with Psiders, thought eating monsters that love to prey on zeeks. Who's a zeek? Well typically only humans, sims, androids and AIs aren't psions (though there is a direct contradiction about sims, thinking that was an extra that got missed in editing.) What flavors do zeeks come in, well, there's zeeks, freeks, peeks and tweeks. Zeeks being the catch-all term for psions. Peeks are mind readers, psychometers, and clairvoyants. Tweeks have powers that generally cause destruction, like a pyromancer, or cryomancer or any other mancer you can think of. Freeks being the bastard child of psions, they're the ones who exhibit strange powers; teleportation for example. With all these psions running around, there's going to be those who hate them, those that worship them, and those that hunt them. The final sections of Chapter 1 covers Psi-Division, Cults and orders and Hate groups.

Chapter 2: Building a Better Psychic
Best part of this book, is the new Power (psionics) system, it's very familiar but tweaked enough to really change it without making it something you really have to learn. First power points are not used to fuel powers, but as a bonus modifier to cast them, failed rolls can now inflict Fatigue, so they provide an optional rule for adding another level of Fatigue, to make Zeeks a little more durable in that regard. To have a zeek you must choose the Arcane Background (Psionics) Edge, as well as an additional minor hindrance, which doesn't count as a choice, so you can still have additional hindrances as normal.

Five new Hindrances are presented: Debt (LOVE this one, minor nets you a single purchase of up to 15k, but a 500/month upkeep, while major doubles those numbers...fail to keep your upkeep and you might just be getting a house call from your loan shark.), Shakes (which are pretty brutal unless you pay the 500creds per month for your meds.), Stress Trigger (which can cause psychic powers to go off at the wrong time), Weak Zeek (weaker starting power of 1) and Latent Talent (which requires two advances to buy off and lets the GM select your powers, though any powers you haven't had manifest randomly can still be chosen when you buy it off).

Eight new edges are presented in the Edges section, and also points out the ones that do not fit Interface Zero. It overhauls the other Powers Edges to fit the system. Freek, Peek and Tweek give you bonuses when using related powers. If you don't want to be a full blown zeek, Wild Talent gives you a single minor power. Psychic Leech is particularly nasty, causing other people within range to suffer the fatigue when the Zeek uses their powers (it's a contested roll, not automatic). Enhanced Ability allows a zeek to take a power from a higher power level, so a seasoned zeek could take a legendary power, failure costs double fatigue however. Mind over Matter lets the zeek soak fatigue with a successful spirit roll, pretty handy in a drawn out combat. Finally, PSI-Hunter grants bonuses for locating zeeks.

Seven new occupations are presented, from the Fortune Teller to the Waitress. However unlike the occupations presented in the Core rulebook, these have a bit more info included, like suggested pre-reqs. Now I'll have to go back and create the same for the other occupations, however this gives me lots of ideas for my Savage Rifts conversion work.

Some good additional information in this chapter is the Fatigue Results chart and the Oops factor table. Eight additional powers are also presented in this chapter, including such classics as astral projection, and telepathic link. Filling in some needed gaps in powers to bring that classic psion feel to Savage Worlds.

Chapter 3: Malmart 2088 Fall Update
I do love gear, I'm really looking forward to the Malmart book when its coming out, so I enjoy every bit of gear I can read in these books. N-Vogue programmable clothes are pretty epic, and I actually wonder how many years it will be before these are reality. The Lone Rider .30cal rifle is good in either single shot or burst mode. The I-Spex and disposable I-Spex are perfect for those who don't have a TAP, allowing visual interface with the Hyper-reality of 2088. Kilner Specs, Kirilian Damper, Psi Enhancer and Psi-kick fill out the rest of the Malmart update.

Chapter 4: Savage Tales...Zeek Style
Two fleshed out tales are presented in this section as well as seven short plot hooks. Lots of quick to run adventure ideas in here, should help out any game master.

Chapter 5: Friends and Foes
A couple of major players are presented first, they could have used up some additional text space to expand them. Generic Zeek, Psi Division Analyst, Psi Division Soldier, Psider, Psychic Vampire, Zeek Ganger (urban), and Zeek Ganger (wastelander) round out the 'Other Threats' in this section. 



Artwork: GunMetal makes sure great artwork is used in their book, full color with lots of setting specific flavor. There are an awful lot of full page pieces for such a small book. There are 5 full color pages, which are gorgeous pieces, very good quality, but lots of realty space.

Rating: 

of 20


Cost: $8.99 for the PDF at Drive-thru RPG. You can also purchase the print/pdf bundle from Cubicle 7 for $14.99.

Value: If you're wanting to run Psions in Interface Zero, this is not a must have as you can use the normal Arcane Power for it, but it is well worth it for a well-crafted rule addition.

Zombie Plans and SPEW

YOUR ZOMBIE SURVIVAL PLAN WILL FAIL!

The tagline of Outbreak Undead, and probably truth. We're watching the Walking Dead TV Show right now, and man is it full of failed Zombie Survival Plan...

How would you do during the Zombie Apocalypse?

Play Outbreak Undead and find out...

Also, you can actually play yourself with stats generated from the SPEW-AI program on the website!

Outbreak Undead available in print at your FLGS or in PDF format from Drivethrurpg.com ($19.99 for PDF, $49.99 for print.)

You can peruse the Free Quickstart at Drivethru RPG as well. Free like Zero Dollars...then you'll know what those SPEW stats represent!!!

We got to play this at Gam3rCon last summer, and it was a blast...Sean had Zombie Kill of the Week! It was....EPIC!!

Looking forward to...Far West

If you aren't familiar with Far West watch the video I posted yesterday and read up on what's already written.

So I am really excited about this project. A Wildwest/Wuxia Mix-up. Remembering back to Deadlands, when the Maze supplement came out, it had the little grey book in it, with the Chinese Martial Arts in it. The Wild West as it could have been without all the racism.

As a Martial Artist who's studied 4 styles, including 2 styles of kung fu, and a steampunk fan, this is a setting that has everything I love in it. Can't wait to see it in print.