Author Topic: review: Splicers  (Read 1256 times)

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review: Splicers
« on: January 13, 2005, 01:52:55 PM »
reference: http://www.timewastersguide.com/view.php?id=951

Sounds neat. Cross it with Cthulupunk and you have some excellent cross-genre going there.

However, I'm mostly interested in the mechanics with expansions like this. How does everything balance? Does the lack of non Military OCCs hurt it?

Fellfrosch

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Re: review: Splicers
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2005, 02:32:00 PM »
The balance between OCCs is definitely a problem, similar to Shadowrun--they're just too specialized. The majority are pure fighters, but then there's the Skinjob who's a master infiltrator with very little combat skill, and the Saint who's too valuable to go into direct combat at all, and the Scarecrow who's more of a local policeman than a soldier.

They could have really used a handful of civilian classes, though I suppose that the nature of the resistance means that very few people are civilians. You could give each character a role in the society (a cook, a schoolteacher, an officer, etc.) and then switch back and forth between home and the battlefield to show them trying to fight the Machine and build their community at the same time--kind of like the Fremen in Dune.

As far as mechanics, this is the typical Palladium stuff. I remember writing a very brief synopsis of it for a previous review, so I need to look that up and add it as an addendum to this one.
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Entsuropi

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« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2005, 01:55:06 PM »
Coolies. I'll have to add it to my 'buy on sight' list. I'll put the book next to my nid codex and see if it starts genomorphing. Sounds like a one shot could be run where the PCs have to investigate one of those mannequin towns you mentioned. And the idea of bio-genetic suits of power armour is very enthralling for some reason. Plus my group includes players who have done rifts and heros unlimited before.

Might have some trouble heading off the tentacle sex jokes though.
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Re: review: Splicers
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2005, 06:42:52 PM »
Yeah, the mannequin towns (called Ghost Towns) have a lot of potential. So do naughty tentacle jokes.
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Entsuropi

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Re: review: Splicers
« Reply #4 on: January 15, 2005, 07:16:54 PM »
Hrm. Will... weakening... price, low.

I'm just thinking that I could use a mini-campaign to run on days when players are absent from my WFRP campaign... so they don't miss important things. (Like a battleaxe to the head.) Or, potentially, as a forum game. I was thinking that for forum games its probably better to say that if a combat arises, just have the players tell you their overall strategy, ie 'move forward cautiously while pinning enemy troops', then you can skip over the often frustrating 3 weeks for a single combat problem.
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Re: review: Splicers
« Reply #5 on: January 17, 2005, 01:31:11 AM »
I should note that I gave the mechanics a closer read yesterday, having largely ignored them due to the fact that I've played Palladium games for over a decade, and I noticed that there's a few interesting differences in this one. The skill list is new(er) and geared toward the unique environment, and uses a very good system of skill programs to help round out characters. The combat rules have been altered as well, though very slightly, to make them a little more cinematic. I like the changes.

In a forum game, though, you're probably right--just do your best to skip combat altogether.
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die." --Mel Brooks

My author website: http://www.fearfulsymmetry.net