Reviews

Burning Empires The Iron Empires Forged on the Burning Wheel Luke Crane & Chris Moeller 2006 isbn: 0-9758889-4-3
The Good	The Book
In general: The game is well written, and a decent value for money. All the art is Chris Moeller's, as befits an adaptation from his series of graphic novels.Lifepath based Character Generation builds several pools and which skills and traits can and must be purchased with the skill and trait pools. Very flexible. The Game: • Scene budget system drives intense play. • Burning Wheel Mechanics simplified slightly • Duel of Wits, Firefight, and Infection extended mechanics work well for the setting • Invasion mechanics drive the metaplot and thus the story • Guides players into creating the detailed subsetting as part of play. The book itself: • Very complete rules-set. • Well Indexed. • Edge Tabbed for easy in-play reference. • Visually gorgeous. • excellent choices of fonts for clarity and readability. World Burning • Very clear process • Lays out the conflicts the GROUP wants, and puts them into the game • increases player buy in. The Metaplot: • Drives play onward. • Tied into the setting well. • Woven through World Building.	656 pages Stitched Hardcover 5.8"x8.8"x1.4" inch Color glossy $45. No Forms Included
The PDF
$25. Exact text of the hardcover; some printing issues involving fonts, two book pages per landscape. Forms included at end of PDF. Eats ink like mad.
Availability
The PDF is available from Drive Through RPG or via the Burning Wheel HQ Web Store. The Book is available from many game stores, and from the Burning Wheel HQ Web Store.
Supplements
There are no formal supplements. There are a few new lifepaths on the Burning Empires Wiki, and the Wiki itself.
The Bad	The Burning Wheel
The Metaplot: • The metaplot is that of invasion of the body snatching Vaylen... Kind of like non-immortal Go'a'ould. Not for everyone. • The Invasion Mechanics are tied to scene budget system. • Scene Budget system ties in with experience rates, Artha cycle, downtime use, resource recovery, and trait gains; extracting the scene budget would be a major impact. • The invasion mechanics tie play pretty much to a single world at a time. The overall complexity • This is not a grab-n-go kind of game. Things interact in subtle ways, and the book is mostly mechanics. • Character generation is going to be an issue for those not familiar with Burning Wheel or Mouse Guard. Why? Skill levels and what they mean, and how that affects play, and the Artha Cycle.	The following work almost exactly like Burning Wheel: • Circles • Resources • Advancement • Steel • Duel of Wits • Artha • Traits. There is no shade, all tasks count 4+ as successes. The skill list is shorter, 121 skills plus an indefinite number of wises. About 100 traits, as well, and the ability to define more if needed. Tasks are a bit tighter; only two FoRKs, one skill and one wise; only 1d from forks.
The Iron Empires	The Scene Scene
The Races • The Vaylen - the worms who take over others. • The Kerrn - A valen Slave Race who escaped. • The Mukhaddish - A valen slave race that was neglected in enough places to have an outside presence. • Humans - default norm in most RPGs and Sci-Fi... The setting is a shattered empire with feudalism common, and lots of Age of Sail metaphors... Chris admits to Traveller having been an inspiration, and Nobles are important in the Iron Empires setting.You will not find a worlds list. It's not present. It's not needed, and it would get in the way of the strongly pro-players-as-coauthors motif of the mechanics. There is JUST enough setting material for one who has never read any of it to run a great game. Most of the setting is evoked by the lifepaths, skill and trait options, and the world building rules. What is explicit is presented in the explanations throughout the game, and the incredible illustrations.	The Scene Budget is the mechanic that sets this game truly apart from everything else. Every scene matters, and every player sets scenes to get what they want done into play. Each player gets 2 non-dice-rolling scenes, and one dice-rolling scene, with a 3 task limit for that dice-rolling scene. The GM gets the same per Figure of Note NPC. these limits are reset after each maneuver in the Invasion metaplot mechanic is resolved; hopefully, the players are pursuing scenes that will earn them advantage dice for the invasion resolution. It drives the game and the players, and puts tight constraints on extraneous actions. It drives on-task pointed roleplay very powerfully. It will drive some players off the deep end because it does so constrain play to essentially on-task actions.
Personal Reaction	Player Reactions
I love this game. As a GM, I get to focus on playing the NPC's, not writing adventures. The players use the scene budget system to enact what they ant to do, and the GM just sets difficulties and plays NPCs. It's great. It's *very different* from almost everything else on the market. Players are in authorial stance as much as the GM, sometimes more.	In general, my players liked it. One wants to use it with his own group, because it is so much players taking on the lead. It did take one player several sessions to get in the flow of actually narrating rather than just reacting to GM narratives.
The Bottom Line:
Excellent game for experienced gamers who want a sharp change of pace.

Burning Empires
The Iron Empires Forged on the Burning Wheel
Luke Crane & Chris Moeller
2006
isbn: 0-9758889-4-3

The Good

The Book

In general: The game is well written, and a decent value for money. All the art is Chris Moeller's, as befits an adaptation from his series of graphic novels.Lifepath based Character Generation builds several pools and which skills and traits can and must be purchased with the skill and trait pools. Very flexible.

The Game:
• Scene budget system drives intense play.
• Burning Wheel Mechanics simplified slightly
• Duel of Wits, Firefight, and Infection extended mechanics work well for the setting
• Invasion mechanics drive the metaplot and thus the story
• Guides players into creating the detailed subsetting as part of play.

The book itself:

• Very complete rules-set.
• Well Indexed.
• Edge Tabbed for easy in-play reference.
• Visually gorgeous.
• excellent choices of fonts for clarity and readability.

World Burning
• Very clear process
• Lays out the conflicts the GROUP wants, and puts them into the game
• increases player buy in.

The Metaplot:
• Drives play onward.
• Tied into the setting well.
• Woven through World Building.

656 pages
Stitched Hardcover 5.8"x8.8"x1.4" inch
Color glossy
$45.
No Forms Included

The PDF

$25. Exact text of the hardcover; some printing issues involving fonts, two book pages per landscape. Forms included at end of PDF.
Eats ink like mad.

Availability

The PDF is available from Drive Through RPG or via the Burning Wheel HQ Web Store. The Book is available from many game stores, and from the Burning Wheel HQ Web Store.

Supplements

There are no formal supplements.

There are a few new lifepaths on the Burning Empires Wiki, and the Wiki itself.

The Bad

The Burning Wheel

The Metaplot:
• The metaplot is that of invasion of the body snatching Vaylen... Kind of like non-immortal Go'a'ould. Not for everyone.
• The Invasion Mechanics are tied to scene budget system.
• Scene Budget system ties in with experience rates, Artha cycle, downtime use, resource recovery, and trait gains; extracting the scene budget would be a major impact.
• The invasion mechanics tie play pretty much to a single world at a time.

The overall complexity
• This is not a grab-n-go kind of game. Things interact in subtle ways, and the book is mostly mechanics.
• Character generation is going to be an issue for those not familiar with Burning Wheel or Mouse Guard. Why? Skill levels and what they mean, and how that affects play, and the Artha Cycle.

The following work almost exactly like Burning Wheel:
• Circles
• Resources
• Advancement
• Steel
• Duel of Wits
• Artha
• Traits.

There is no shade, all tasks count 4+ as successes.

The skill list is shorter, 121 skills plus an indefinite number of wises. About 100 traits, as well, and the ability to define more if needed.

Tasks are a bit tighter; only two FoRKs, one skill and one wise; only 1d from forks.

The Iron Empires

The Scene Scene

The Races
• The Vaylen - the worms who take over others.
• The Kerrn - A valen Slave Race who escaped.
• The Mukhaddish - A valen slave race that was neglected in enough places to have an outside presence.
• Humans - default norm in most RPGs and Sci-Fi...

The setting is a shattered empire with feudalism common, and lots of Age of Sail metaphors... Chris admits to Traveller having been an inspiration, and Nobles are important in the Iron Empires setting.You will not find a worlds list. It's not present. It's not needed, and it would get in the way of the strongly pro-players-as-coauthors motif of the mechanics.

There is JUST enough setting material for one who has never read any of it to run a great game. Most of the setting is evoked by the lifepaths, skill and trait options, and the world building rules. What is explicit is presented in the explanations throughout the game, and the incredible illustrations.

The Scene Budget is the mechanic that sets this game truly apart from everything else. Every scene matters, and every player sets scenes to get what they want done into play.

Each player gets 2 non-dice-rolling scenes, and one dice-rolling scene, with a 3 task limit for that dice-rolling scene. The GM gets the same per Figure of Note NPC.

these limits are reset after each maneuver in the Invasion metaplot mechanic is resolved; hopefully, the players are pursuing scenes that will earn them advantage dice for the invasion resolution.

It drives the game and the players, and puts tight constraints on extraneous actions. It drives on-task pointed roleplay very powerfully. It will drive some players off the deep end because it does so constrain play to essentially on-task actions.

Personal Reaction

Player Reactions

I love this game. As a GM, I get to focus on playing the NPC's, not writing adventures. The players use the scene budget system to enact what they ant to do, and the GM just sets difficulties and plays NPCs.

It's great. It's very different from almost everything else on the market. Players are in authorial stance as much as the GM, sometimes more.

In general, my players liked it. One wants to use it with his own group, because it is so much players taking on the lead. It did take one player several sessions to get in the flow of actually narrating rather than just reacting to GM narratives.

The Bottom Line:

Excellent game for experienced gamers who want a sharp change of pace.

Mouse Guard RPG

Luke Crane and David Petersen
Archaia Studio Press
2008

Contents:

Preorder of Hardcover
PDF of Rulebook
Character Sheets
- blank
- Sadie
- Saxon
- Liam
- Kenzie
JPEG of the Map of the Territories
GM sheet for tracking PC's

Format
$35.00 Pre-order of Hardcover with PDF version as zipfile
Purchased from IndiePressRevolution.com

The Good:

David Petersen's Mouse Guard Comics setting sourcebook
Mission based play
nothing but d6's
Simple enough to run for children
adventure construction system replicates feel of the comics and streamlines play
Introductory level game using the core Burning Wheel engine concepts
Simplified and unified conflict resolution system
Character Sheet has all the player-needed charts and tables on it between the front and back sides
Instructions on differences for single player with GM play
Excellent use of color typography
Can be used as a toolkit for swapping subsystems with other Burning Wheel games.

The Mouse Guard:
Players play mice who are members of the Mouse Guard, a group that protects mice from the threats outside the mice's towns. The Guard is kind of a law enforcement and military arm of Mouse Society, but the Territories are a loose confederation of City-States, not a strong central government. There are no humans in the book; mice are the only player species, and only mice and weasels are presented with full stats. Character Generation is directly focussed upon generating members of the Mouse Guard, and does not include other mice types.

Rulebook Notes:
The rulebook also serves as a sourcebook of information for the world portrayed in David Petersen's Mouse Guard Comics, also released by Archaia Studio Press.

You don't need to be familiar with the comics to play the game. There is enough background to do so.

The game

The Bad:

8x8 inch format is unusual size.
Only Mice in the Mouse Guard as PC's
PDF does not work well on the Sony Ebook reader
1" margins on all sides, filled with art on two
a few vague rules
conflict resolution can feel bland if players do not narrate what their character does after rolling.
Character Sheet is a near-absolute necessity.
Character Sheet has a lot of small text.
No page numbers in rules cross references. (But at least no page XX references, either.)
Mission oriented mechanics for trait advancement make it harder to

The Burning Wheel:

Standard BW count successes method
Failing the Roll isn't always failing the task
- It can be a failure
- It can cause a plot twist to a new obstacle
- it can impose a condition (damage)
- it can be a partial success
Help Dice from your friends
Only Wises FoRK, so it's called I Am Wise
3 action scripting for conflicts
1 Belief
1 Goal
1 Instinct (which is really a belief in disguise for BWR/BE players)
Tracking experience for all skills and stats individually

Personal Reaction:
It runs really well in the short term. I've had the PDF for just over a week, so it's not been long term played by me yet. Smooth play, easy scripting, and even plays well with GM and 1 Player.

There is a significant warning to be had, though: This isn't the open ended kind of game that Burning Wheel is; it's a fairly narrowly construed setting and role, and is very mission oriented. It can be used for more open ended play, but some elements will need adjustments to do so.

It also can easily have the guts ripped out and used with the characters from the other Burning Wheel Games. Luke himself has commented on this.

The Bottom Line: Excellent Setting and Excellent Game, using the essential elements of the Burning Wheel Line simplified and streamlined.

Tunnels and Trolls 7.5
Ken St. Andre and Fiery Dragon Publications
2008

Format
$35.00 Boxed set (9x6x1.25 inch) with spiral bound and saddle bound booklets, poster map, and die cut counter sheets.

Contents:

T&T 7.5 Rulebook
7x5" spiral bound, 174pp B&W
Core Rules
Codex Incantorum
7.75x5", spiral bound 50pp B&W
Spell Guide levels 1-5, overlaps with core rules spell list
Monsters & Magic Book
6.75x4.75" saddle stapled 22pp B&W
Decolorized version otherwise identical to 7.0, has overlaps with core book and monstrum codex
Monstrum Codex
7.75x5" Spiral Bound 45pp
Monster book - different content from the M&MB, but the same rules material in the first couple pages
Strange Destinies (Solo Adventure)
7.75x5" saddle stapled 24pp B&W
Supposedly for levels 1-3
Hot Pursuit GM Adventure
8.5x5.5" saddle-stapled 16pp B&W
4 Character Sheets
3 sheets of 28 (total 84) 1" tactical markers
die-cut 1.5mm card
Map of Trollworld
11x17 glossy color.
4x 10mm d6.

The Good:
Rules are still T&T7 at the core. 8 attributes, the latest incarnation of the Peters-McAllister Chart, all the equipment now in the core rules, the random treasure tables are back, and in the core rules. Adventure Points requirements to raise attributes are lowered to 10x current attribute. Still has the Talent system. Point build option added.

The Bad:

The duplication of booklets. The two monster books should be consolidated. All the magic should have been in one book.
Multiple sizes of books.
Two different character sheets shown in rulebook: 1 photocopyable blackline master in the rulebook, and one examplar of a different sheet type in the rules within the rulebook; the included sheets are all matching the blackline master in the back.
It appears that Talents no longer grow, or alternately, grow only with AP expenditures, while starting much lower than stats, and it's unclear which. Talents now recorded as "DX+3" or "IQ+5" type notation, rather than the total asset used in 7.0.
Still can't cast magic on someone with more magic points than you, even if they are not magic users, unless they let you. It's not clear

The T&T

TARO: Tripples Are Roll Over (and add) open ending on stats
DARO: Doubes Are Roll Over (and add) open ending on saving rolls
Saving Rolls (SR): roll (5*DiffLevel)+15-(Stat or Talent+Stat) or more on
2d6 DARO; if stat is one of your level stats, and you fail, you may add your level to the dice. Natural 5+ still required (After DARO, so it's 4/36 or 1/9 chance of failure no matter what).
Classes: Citizen, Rogue (Rogue Wizard), Warrior, Wizard, Specialist (Sp. Mage, Ranger, Leader), Paragon (aka Warrior-Wizard), Monster - all the same as 7.0.
Still uses the old Dice + Adds combat mechanics, but now has examples so you can see that, in GM'd play, you should be letting players have their characters pull stupid PC tricks using SRs.

Personal Reaction:
I'm not impressed, but I'm also not unhappy. The changes to move all the equipment into the core was a good choice. Not taking the time to actually make all the books the same sizes wasn't. Generally, Ken's writing is clear, as usual, but as with 7.0, the organization hand of Liz Danforth is sorely missing; Ken tends slightly towards a rambling authorial style.

There is not much discussion of TrollWorld; the 5.0 rules had as much. There is no CD, so there is no inclusion of the old computer game nor its manual, which provided a lot of good info on the setting.

I like T&T for solo-play. I've a bunch of older stuff, and if you go by the total adds method, the new characters work just fine. (You do need to add Kremm; set it equal to ST for Wizards and you'll do just fine.)

The included solo is lethal. Very lethal. Possibly too lethal. It also doesn't have consecutively numbered paragraphs, which I find mildly annoying.

This is a far better starter than 7.0 was. If you're converting D&Ders, 5.5 is closer to what they know; for others, 7.5 is a decent edition. After all, it's still using the same core mechanics 33 years later...

The Bottom Line: Incremental improvement on Tunnels and Trolls 7.0, but still not quite where it should be.

New Traveller, Part 2

Having bought the new core, well, it's not "Awesome"... merely, workable and not-bad.

The nicest parts of the playtest draft got cut, because the task system had a significant flaw. A fixable flaw, at that.

The initial couple print runs have bad starship data. As in, really bad. As in, "not done with the final draft of the rules" bad. As in 20 weeks endurance on one ship.

The errata load is impressive... on par with MT. Per the rules AS RELEASED, one can get J3 at TL9... (you could under CT, get J4 at TL 10...)... An oversight left the TL's off the software chart. (Which implies the software is software plus dongles, since all the other requisite equipment is lower TL.)

Overall, it's workmanlike. Easy to reference. Black on white, matte finish paper, nice weight. Book is a bit thin.

It covers Character Generation, Skills and Tasks, Combat, Ship Design (not compatible with HG, MT, TNE, T4, T20, GT, HT; it is vaguely compatible with CT Bk2 and T5 ACS), ship combat, encounters, animal encounters, world generation, travel, cybernetics, and gear.

SRD is out, too. Things I've found 'missing': stat effects on tasks, the actual careers, weapon damages and data.

Mongoose Traveller: Workmanlike, not inspiring.
SRD: Useful, but not playable as is.

–Арамис

*Mouse Guard RPG*
Luke Crane and David Petersen Archaia Studio Press 2008	Contents: Preorder of Hardcover PDF of Rulebook Character Sheets blank Sadie Saxon Liam Kenzie JPEG of the Map of the Territories GM sheet for tracking PC's
Format $35.00 Pre-order of Hardcover with PDF version as zipfile Purchased from IndiePressRevolution.com
The Good: David Petersen's Mouse Guard Comics setting sourcebook Mission based play nothing but d6's Simple enough to run for children adventure construction system replicates feel of the comics and streamlines play Introductory level game using the core Burning Wheel engine concepts Simplified and unified conflict resolution system Character Sheet has all the player-needed charts and tables on it between the front and back sides Instructions on differences for single player with GM play Excellent use of color typography Can be used as a toolkit for swapping subsystems with other Burning Wheel games.	The Mouse Guard: Players play mice who are members of the Mouse Guard, a group that protects mice from the threats outside the mice's towns. The Guard is kind of a law enforcement and military arm of Mouse Society, but the Territories are a loose confederation of City-States, not a strong central government. There are no humans in the book; mice are the only player species, and only mice and weasels are presented with full stats. Character Generation is directly focussed upon generating members of the Mouse Guard, and does not include other mice types.
	Rulebook Notes: The rulebook also serves as a sourcebook of information for the world portrayed in David Petersen's Mouse Guard Comics, also released by Archaia Studio Press. You don't need to be familiar with the comics to play the game. There is enough background to do so. The game
The Bad: 8x8 inch format is unusual size. Only Mice in the Mouse Guard as PC's PDF does not work well on the Sony Ebook reader 1" margins on all sides, filled with art on two a few vague rules conflict resolution can feel bland if players do not narrate what their character does after rolling. Character Sheet is a near-absolute necessity. Character Sheet has a lot of small text. No page numbers in rules cross references. (But at least no page XX references, either.) Mission oriented mechanics for trait advancement make it harder to	The Burning Wheel: Standard BW count successes method Failing the Roll isn't always failing the task It can be a failure It can cause a plot twist to a new obstacle it can impose a condition (damage) it can be a partial success Help Dice from your friends Only Wises FoRK, so it's called I Am Wise 3 action scripting for conflicts 1 Belief 1 Goal 1 Instinct (which is really a belief in disguise for BWR/BE players) Tracking experience for all skills and stats individually
Personal Reaction: It runs really well in the short term. I've had the PDF for just over a week, so it's not been long term played by me yet. Smooth play, easy scripting, and even plays well with GM and 1 Player. There is a significant warning to be had, though: This isn't the open ended kind of game that Burning Wheel is; it's a fairly narrowly construed setting and role, and is very mission oriented. It can be used for more open ended play, but some elements will need adjustments to do so. It also can easily have the guts ripped out and used with the characters from the other Burning Wheel Games. Luke himself has commented on this.
The Bottom Line: Excellent Setting and Excellent Game, using the essential elements of the Burning Wheel Line simplified and streamlined.

*Tunnels and Trolls 7.5* Ken St. Andre and Fiery Dragon Publications 2008
Format $35.00 Boxed set (9x6x1.25 inch) with spiral bound and saddle bound booklets, poster map, and die cut counter sheets.	Contents: T&T 7.5 Rulebook 7x5" spiral bound, 174pp B&W Core Rules Codex Incantorum 7.75x5", spiral bound 50pp B&W Spell Guide levels 1-5, overlaps with core rules spell list Monsters & Magic Book 6.75x4.75" saddle stapled 22pp B&W Decolorized version otherwise identical to 7.0, has overlaps with core book and monstrum codex Monstrum Codex 7.75x5" Spiral Bound 45pp Monster book - different content from the M&MB, but the same rules material in the first couple pages Strange Destinies (Solo Adventure) 7.75x5" saddle stapled 24pp B&W Supposedly for levels 1-3 Hot Pursuit GM Adventure 8.5x5.5" saddle-stapled 16pp B&W 4 Character Sheets 3 sheets of 28 (total 84) 1" tactical markers die-cut 1.5mm card Map of Trollworld 11x17 glossy color. 4x 10mm d6.
The Good: Rules are still T&T7 at the core. 8 attributes, the latest incarnation of the Peters-McAllister Chart, all the equipment now in the core rules, the random treasure tables are back, and in the core rules. Adventure Points requirements to raise attributes are lowered to 10x current attribute. Still has the Talent system. Point build option added.
The Bad: The duplication of booklets. The two monster books should be consolidated. All the magic should have been in one book. Multiple sizes of books. Two different character sheets shown in rulebook: 1 photocopyable blackline master in the rulebook, and one examplar of a different sheet type in the rules within the rulebook; the included sheets are all matching the blackline master in the back. It appears that Talents no longer grow, or alternately, grow only with AP expenditures, while starting much lower than stats, and it's unclear which. Talents now recorded as "DX+3" or "IQ+5" type notation, rather than the total asset used in 7.0. Still can't cast magic on someone with more magic points than you, even if they are not magic users, unless they let you. It's not clear
The T&T TARO: Tripples Are Roll Over (and add) open ending on stats DARO: Doubes Are Roll Over (and add) open ending on saving rolls Saving Rolls (SR): roll (5*DiffLevel)+15-(Stat or Talent+Stat) or more on 2d6 DARO; if stat is one of your level stats, and you fail, you may add your level to the dice. Natural 5+ still required (After DARO, so it's 4/36 or 1/9 chance of failure no matter what). Classes: Citizen, Rogue (Rogue Wizard), Warrior, Wizard, Specialist (Sp. Mage, Ranger, Leader), Paragon (aka Warrior-Wizard), Monster - all the same as 7.0. Still uses the old Dice + Adds combat mechanics, but now has examples so you can see that, in GM'd play, you should be letting players have their characters pull stupid PC tricks using SRs.
Personal Reaction: I'm not impressed, but I'm also not unhappy. The changes to move all the equipment into the core was a good choice. Not taking the time to actually make all the books the same sizes wasn't. Generally, Ken's writing is clear, as usual, but as with 7.0, the organization hand of Liz Danforth is sorely missing; Ken tends slightly towards a rambling authorial style. There is not much discussion of TrollWorld; the 5.0 rules had as much. There is no CD, so there is no inclusion of the old computer game nor its manual, which provided a lot of good info on the setting. I like T&T for solo-play. I've a bunch of older stuff, and if you go by the total adds method, the new characters work just fine. (You do need to add Kremm; set it equal to ST for Wizards and you'll do just fine.) The included solo is lethal. Very lethal. Possibly too lethal. It also doesn't have consecutively numbered paragraphs, which I find mildly annoying. This is a far better starter than 7.0 was. If you're converting D&Ders, 5.5 is closer to what they know; for others, 7.5 is a decent edition. After all, it's still using the same core mechanics 33 years later...
The Bottom Line: Incremental improvement on Tunnels and Trolls 7.0, but still not quite where it should be.