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Minireview: Earth Book One : Colonial Expeditionary Force - Modern Conquerors (Heavy Gear)

With the expansion of the Heavy Gear universe into space and other solar systems, some extra detail on the setting antagonists is sorely needed. The CEF Sourcebook is the first of a few supplement books intended to remedy that.

While the CEF has always been a major background antagonist in the game, up to now we haven’t been given all that much detail on why Earth and the CEF became what they are. Here we get some history, and some things start to make more sense. In a sense, what crawled out of the wreckage of a global war and eco-disaster was a military coalition with a strong Russian and Asian background. For a war-torn planet, an entity which offered a hope of peace (even if under semi-totalitarian rule) may not have seemed as all that bad of a deal. And of course, when a new empire stabilizes, it needs to expand – both to get much-needed resources, and to give the populance something to focus on. Those greedy, ungrateful colonists out there, stealing our resources… yes, that’s the ticket.

So Earth begins a huge push towards building a military force capable of interstellar conquest (a daunting task), and the Colonial Expeditionary Force is born. It’s an army of conquest and built on blitzkrieg tactics. It conquers very well… but as always, it’s the peacekeeping afterwards which becomes the problem factor. At least on Caprice, which surrendered at once (leaving thousands of soldiers with nothing to do, which in turns has led to severe morale problems).

In addition to the history lesson, the book contains details on CEF structure, tactics and technology – including the clone soldier (GREL / SLEDGE) army and the doctrines used with them. As usual for a Heavy Gear book, we also get some vehicle data, NPC information, some campaign ideas, etc.

While this book would be most useful in a campaign where the PCs face off with the CEF in a space-based (or at least non-Terra Nova) environment, the background given here is interesting in almost any Heavy Gear context. It’s makes the important point that the CEF isn’t a group of one-dimensional villains; while they are very clearly in the antagonist role, the attitudes of individual soldiers vary greatly, and there are also important historical details involved in understanding their worldview. Most of them don’t view themselves as imperialist conquerors. They are just taking back resources which the colonies owe them, and bringing civilization and stability to the fractured reaches out there. Of course, the colonists tend to have a very different view on things…

Battlestar Stargate Voyager

I’ve long liked the Stargate TV series (both incarnations, though SG-1 kicked Atlantis’ ass). Not a rabid fan, but I have enjoyed it… and damn, the original series ran for an incredible length of time. As someone noted, it’s sort of the U.S. “Doctor Who” in that regard. It never took itself too seriously, but neither did it go all slapstick… and I think that worked pretty well.

Stargate Universe, as noted previously, is the new series in the Stargate universe. The pilot 3-parter left me with a really positive impression. It’s darker than the previous series, and I get a definite Battlestar Galactica vibe from it at times. It’s not quite that grim, but it’s a lot more moody than the predecessors. It’s also a bit slower paced and focuses a lot on the characters. I personally love that. The basic setup is of course close to the old Star Trek Voyager… but thankfully that’s the only similarity to that piece of crap. This series has those “actor” things, and something called “plot”.

Well, last night I watched the latest episode, “Light”, and… wow. Ok, now I’m officially impressed. That was good. Very good. So far, I think this is my favorite Stargate series – though that is only based on five episodes. We’ll see how it develops.

It’s a different show from the earlier ones, with a very different feel. I hope it keeps that up.

Minireview: Horror Recognition Guide (Hunter)

The Horror Recognition Guide is a weird book. In a very good way. It’s a combination of short story collection, an idea source for Hunter: the Vigil GMs, and (possibly) an in-game prop – assuming you print out / photocopy pages from it as handouts. Basically, it’s a collection of 16 short stories, each detailing an encounter with… something, by various hunter groups.

The stories are generally quite good, with the best of them being very creepy. Some work better than others (the weird and intricate Gnosopharm is probably the best of the lot), but that’s normal for a short story compilation. These aren’t quite traditional stories as such, being told via in-game journal entries, email clips and such. You could say that this is a book-size collection of the type of fiction that the old Hunter game was full of. If you liked that, you’ll like this. Likewise, if you can’t stand in-game fiction, you probably won’t like this too much. I’d say that the quality here it higher than your normal rpg book intro fiction, though.

I really liked this book, and it highlights one of the strengths of the new WoD: instead of easily identifiable groups of supernaturals like the old WoD, here we have a lot of just plain weird shit, creatures that defy easy categorization. That also makes these stories work so well, since you’re usually never quite sure (as a reader) of what exactly is going on. Well, sometimes you are, some of the tales are clearer than others (assuming you know something of the new WoD)…. but some are just plain strange and creepy.

There are no stats of any sort in this book, and I think that is a very good thing. It lets you read this as “just” a book of modern horror short stories without stumbling across game crunch, and it also lets you use ideas here without potential over-inquisitive players getting much info about what they are facing. I’m sure that some people will find this book worthless because of that lack of crunch, but I think it’s a strong plus point here.

White Wolf does realize that some people would like game stats for this stuff, so there is a PDF supplement available called Collection of Horrors which contains stats for some of these, and some additional critters. I haven’t read that one yet, but I’ve heard praise about it. You can also buy just the PDF for the one specific creature you want, which is very nice.

As I said, I really liked this book, and wish White Wolf would do more of this sort of thing. Of course, I’m one of those weird people who actually like rpg fiction (as long as it’s decently written), so your mileage may well vary.

Minireview: Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley

Brave New World is another entry in the long list of “classics” that I hadn’t previously read. It was both surprisingly good and surprisingly modern… for a book written in 1931, that is. In fact, it contains so many modern concepts and social dilemmas that it must have been way ahead of its time when it was originally written. Sure, there are lots of retro touches here and there – the people revere Ford (of Model-T fame) as a near-deity hero, and there are (naturally enough) no traces of computers yet in what is supposed to be a far-future society. The social engineering methods used do not include genetic engineering, since DNA was still an unknown mystery when the book was written. In addition, the language used is of course a bit old-fashioned in places. But those are details. What is amazing is how relevant this book still is… or maybe this book is more relevant today than it ever was. Partly this is due to the compulsory comparison to another classic “dystopia” book, 1984.

As Neil Postman writes:

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. … In short, Orwell feared that what we fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that what we desire will ruin us.”

Orwell’s 1984 is the more familiar book to most people, since it presents a direct, oppressive “jackboot stamping on the face of humanity” dystopia, in Stalinist totalitarism style. There are direct historical reference points for that, and many exist even today: North Korea, and many others. Thankfully, that’s a future that most of the planet seems to have avoided. At least for now.

Brave New World is more subtle. It’s written more as a parody of certain visions of utopia, and manages to show that the difference between “utopia” and “dystopia” can be in the eye of the beholder. At first glance, the future shown in the book is near-utopia. Everyone is happy, free sex (with everyone) is near-compulsory for everyone wanting to seem polite, massive amounts of entertainment and sports are easily available everywhere, and people eat drugs on a continual basis to fight off any possible hints of unhappiness. A bright and shiny future….

…except that it has been bought at the expense of individualism and (to a large extent) freedom. History has been rewritten, books are nowhere to be found (and nobody misses them), people are grown via test tubes to conform to social castes (“workers” are grown and conditioned to be truly happy only while doing certain jobs), and nonconformity is heavily frowned upon. Entertainment is everywhere, truth and facts about “serious” things are more elusive.

Looking at the world today, Brave New World is perhaps now more than ever a warning of possible trends. It shows a future where people are happy slaves to conformity and easy contentment. Where entertainment overrules most “real” issues, and where people have exchanged most personal freedoms for snug, drug-supported safety.

It’s a satire, but it’s scary in places because it hits a bit too close to home.

I don’t wonder at all that this book has been heavily banned in various parts of the world, even fairly recently (in some less enlightened U.S. schools, for instance).

Minireview: War On [Insert Noun Here] (Paranoia)

[War On [Insert Noun Here]](amazon:1905850603) is a short campaign for Paranoia, parodying the U.S. “War On Terror/Drugs/Whatever”. In fact, the book is dedicated to George W. Bush, for “advancing the cause of paranoia worldwide”.

The basic plot goes like this: there is a glitch, and the Computer decides that it’s under attack. Since it’s not quite sure who or what is actually attacking, it quickly forms a brand-new entity (Department of Complex Operational Defense) to combat this brand-new deadly threat. Guess who gets to head this department? That’s right, the PCs! Unlike most Paranoia adventures, this one sees the PCs actually get promoted… way above their abilities or means. No, this is not a good thing for the PCs, but this is Paranoia. “Good things for the PCs” is not on the menu.

It’s a pretty amusing scenario, and firmly in the “Classic Paranoia” playstyle. There are lots of bad puns, parodies of real-life events, and unlikely events & antagonists (giant mutant flesh-eating slugs, anyone?). I liked the fact that it does something a bit nonstandard (promoting the PCs) and turns that event into a nightmare, in true Paranoia fashion.There are also some fun jabs made at corporate life and marketing, in general.

On the minus side, as (unfortunately) so usual for a Mongoose book, the proofreading is a bit lacking. Typos here and there, and more seriously there is at least one pre-gen PC writeup completely missing. The Paranoia forums have a fix, however, so don’t let that put you off buying the book – it is pretty good, despite minor faults.

Minireview: Dark Reflections - Spectres (Wraith)

Dark Reflections: Spectres is a sourcebook on Spectres for the old World of Darkness “Wraith” game. It’s on the now-defunct “Black Dog” label, which was White Wolf’s publishing venture into more “mature” material.

Spectres in Wraith (and Orpheus) are very nasty critters and as close to real “evil” as these games really get. The hollowed-out shells of people (and things) who have (often willingly) given themselves up to Oblivion, they inhabit the Labyrinth and wreak havoc in the Shadowlands in general. They are pure antagonists, in almost all cases, being cruel, vicious, nihilistic and sadistic in equal degrees.

…but not necessarily in all cases. This book gives you some insight into their “culture” (if you can call it that), and provides rules for creating Spectre player characters. As the book notes, this would probably be a short, self-destructive campaign, but it might be interesting. Hard to pull off successfully, in any case.

Most GMs (me included) would use this to flesh out Spectre NPCs, of course. “Evil” beings who are cartoon evil aren’t half as convincing as ones who have a motivation and at least some sort of back story. There are some neat ideas here, though not all that much really new – and the rules crunch is for the old WoD ruleset, which might not be all that useful nowadays. I might use some stuff from here if I even get around to running Orpheus, even though that game has a lot of self-contained material on these sorts of critters and doesn’t really need this.

Supernatural considered kick-ass

“You’re sorry you started Armageddon?”

Ok, I still have a metric crapton of tv episodes sitting on my server, waiting for me to grab enough time to watch them. I’ve watched some of them, some are still in the pipeline. Some observations follow.

Supernatural continues to kick ass. Seriously. Sure, the first season was a bit hit and miss, and based on a “monster of the week” idea… but the writers soon realized that they had something a lot cooler in their hands and started working on a bigger plot, using the (somewhat unexpected) talents of the lead actors. Last season (the 4th) was… pretty awesome, not to mince words. This new 5th season looks to be just as good.

Last season they had angels. And not some wimpy “play harps on clouds” versions. No, the “smite it from orbit with extreme prejudice” kind. The kind that’s not interested in justice, or anything “good” (necessarily). This season, they have… well, something worse. Much worse.

From a “sort of fun” show, this has risen to be one of my current favorites (from what’s currently active). Muchos recommended. Supernatural is the best “World of Darkness” version on TV, without being “WoD” in any licensed sense.

Apart from that, my “worth watching” list now includes Stargate Universe. I’ve always liked the Stargate series… it’s good entertainment, and does not take itself too seriously. This new series seems to be better than “Stargate Atlantis”, at least. The characters are interesting, and the setup is pretty cool… if not totally original. It’s a mishmash of Star Trek Voyager and Stargate… but unlike Voyager, the script is (at least so far) not written by drunk baboons and the acting is at least decent. The three-part series pilot was pretty cool, waiting to see where this one goes.

Suprisingly, Fringe has taken off and become quite fascinating. I almost gave up on it… sure, it had some nice moments, but it was just so corny and filled with pseudo-science and technobabble. The background “metaplot” was pretty cool, though, what little of it we saw. This second season, they seem to have dumped most of the crap and concentrated on the big plot. And it works. At best, it reaches the level of X-Files (before it turned into crap). Not sure where this one will go, but I’ll be watching. For now, at least.

A side “hooray” must also be given to Burn Notice. It (also) seems to have found its stride, and is damn funny and entertaining. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, which always helps.

Other that that, nothing has impressed much so far. On the other hand, I have lots of stuff still on the waiting list: Dexter seasons 3 and 4, Californication seasons 2 and 3, True Blood season 2. I expect most of those (at least) to rock.