Mail Room: HARP SF

Another from the mail room is HARP SF and the Extreme expansion, which came today. The Extreme book's first half contains the starship and vehicle rules, so it is pretty much essential. The other half of this book is dedicated to cyber-ware, AI characters, and robots.

The books are hard-cover, but like their HARP counterparts, the paper quality feels a little light to me. I would have liked a heavier grade paper for all of these books to be honest. This isn't going to get in the way of me enjoying these, but it is worth noting.

Why HARP SF?

I am still looking for that answer in the books. I assume this is because Spacemaster existed, but I found no real good explanation for the game in the introduction. We loved Spacemaster back in the day, so I assume this is here because of that, but the focus of this game feels slightly nebulous to me.

HARP SF also seems tied to a pre-made campaign setting referenced throughout the rules. It seems an odd choice, I would have rather liked this to be a more generic sci-fi game like HARP Fantasy, but the setting is easily replaceable.

Monsters and Mysteries Wanted

If that is the case...I want some space monsters. I know, I am harping on HARP for not delivering the goods when it comes to monsters in both versions of the game. I like the strange and inventive space bugs, odd lifeforms, and other mysterious lifeforms to be out there. Otherwise, why do we need scientists? Similarly for technical and engineering challenges, I think the last sci-fi game to get a lot of this right was the classic Star Frontiers game, which had cool and varied space creatures, and lots of things for the non-combat classes to do.

Without space aliens, the game becomes a lot more interpersonal, and the science professions suffer. When it comes to sci-fi, I like a balanced approach and a lot of unexplained phenomena. Otherwise this becomes, "modern genre...in space!" Like westerns in space, swashbucklers in space, corporate greed in space, or gangsters in space. Without the unknown and unexplained, all this could be done in other games and genres without the sci-fi chrome, and truer to the source.

What Would I Do With This?

This is a good question. I can't think of a world or a game I would like to play with this, in all honesty. I would likely need to pull in additional resources to pull a game together. From the looks of the art and the read of the setting, it feels really The Fifth Element to me, minus the Moebius art. Everything from the evil space lizardmen, to the fluid notion of what a character is, to the grav cars and constant backstabbing of the factions just feels like that movie. Plus you have entertainer as a class profession. Any sci-fi game with entertainer in there, yeah, you are doing Fifth Element or something Cyberpunk.

There are a couple video-game influences here as well, such as Halo or Gears of War. The game and the setting is an odd one, like here is a huge city in space, now figure out what to do with it. I honestly felt the same way about Spacefinder and could not really find a compelling theme for that setting either, other than, what happened to our memories? Why did the game designers do this to us? At least here everyone has their minds about them, but I feel I need more to be compelling.

The "so what" test is useful in essays and writing where you are presenting a compelling argument, and I don't see this setting passing that test. Space Opera, GURPS Space, Star Frontiers, Traveller, FFG Star Wars, and many other sci-fi games do "big city in space" well - plus a whole lot more.

The setting feels a bit all encompassing, like a springboard for any idea taken from a movie. I either wish this was more focused on a single conflict and planet, or the entire setting removed entirely and this more presented as a generic handle-anything sci-fi game like a Traveller. To me, the legendary Star Frontiers did a good job in limited space laying out a sandbox universe that wasn't generic, wasn't "fill in the movie here," and that had conflicts and factions built-in and meshed well with the game.

GURPS Space, Traveller, and even Cepheus Engine do generic sci-fi well enough too . Especially GURPS Space, since that can do hard sci-fi to science fantasy really well, and allows a variety of balanced character builds that mesh with any potential setting well.

HARP Hard Sci-Fi

If they continue the line, I would love to see a book more devoted to hard sci-fi. To me, the notion of a Rolemaster like system where interesting combat crits and deadly weapons are the name of the game begs for a more realistic setting and take on the rules for space travel and technology.

Science Fantasy is easy, because you can always come up with a new psionic power or new alien species to get interest. This is what Star Trek did for years, there was always something unexplained and never before seen the "space humans" had to figure out for the benefit of the galaxy. I know, put that way Star Trek does seem rather "human saviors" coming in and solving the universe's problems, but that was that show, even up to modern times. In a sense, there is not much you can do about it because...well...humans are still the audience for this planet's escapist fantasy.

With hard sci-fi, things aren't so easy. You get a lot of character motivations coming into play, like the backstabbing in Aliens or the drug-pushers of Outland. You do slip a lot into the Wild West stereotypes and plots, since those were also plots and situations driven by people with motivations - good and bad - and the conflicts that ultimately resolve them.

Stick with Science Fantasy?

In a sense, keeping this more science fantasy probably works better for a game like this, but I would like to see a more generic, space-roaming Guardians of the Galaxy or Firefly type feel to this that is starship-centered and mission and planet of the week. Something that goes with the mirror universe of fantasy adventures nicely. Give me a random chart that kicks me off...

An ice world...a remote colony...space pirates...a distress call...a mining team that found a strange temple and didn't report back...

...and giant evil space hamsters.

Mail Room: HARP Hardcovers

 

My set of hardcovers for HARP came yesterday and I am looking forward to diving into this one. I can see the market for this game, those who like Rolemaster's detail, but those of us who don't have the time for its endless complexity and multiple layers of detail.

I feel the critical tables in Martial Law go a long way to restoring some of the detail loss when moving from Rolemaster to HARP, and there seems to be a lot of fans of the magic system here over Rolemaster as well, so I need to check that out.

The books normal quality, not professionally bound but they seem sturdy enough and the paper quality is a bit on the thin side for my taste. I would like a heavier stock, and maybe some of the nicer bindings are spoiling me. They are hardcovers as well, which is a huge plus since it saves me clear Contact paper to cover them. I have softcover books covered in clear Contact paper that have lasted 40 years, so if you want to keep your soft-covers nice, look into this and learn how to cover them nicely.

The Books

I have the base rules, plus the four expansion books: Folkways, College of Magics, Loot, and Martial Law. Martial Law seems the most important, followed by the magic book. Folkways seems more relevant for campaign support, which loot feels the least needed out of the three, and both of these last two books feel optional to me.

The main rule book is, of course, everything you need to play, but without those expanded crit charts I feel combat could get slightly repetitive unless GM leeway is used to avoid duplicate crit results. Then again, GM leeway could be needed even with the expanded charts if the same result happens twice in the same fight. I would modify a result like that, either bump it up or down one, or make up a similar result.

Monsters?

And if I have a request...a cleaned up Monsters book is sorely needed! If some work can be done with the layout of that one, or even an entirely new one created off the existing Rolemaster monster guides, that would go a long way to making this game complete. Either that or I will start creating a conversion system from Rolemaster to HARP for monsters and do this myself. And it would be great if some of the OGR standard monsters could be added to the mix, just to show people this game can do dungeoning well too.

I can play a monster-light game where the focus is just on kingdoms, factions, and people - but a big draw of the fantasy RPG genre is the fantastical beasts and diabolical villains. I don't like it when Rolemaster Classic feels like the more complete game, and I want this game to be able to stand on its own merits and be fully supported.

GM Book?

While I am at it, I would like to see a version of the Gamemaster Law book for HARP. I know, the RMFRP version of this book is pretty generic, but until we have a POD version for this, both, or the Rolemaster series games in general I feel this needs to be said.

Rolemaster Light

Overall? I am happy with these. If I end up putting Rolemaster Classic aside I will always have this system to fill that niche and give me those play experiences. At the end of the day, having played and experiencing the game is more important than the complexity level of the rules you learn. Yes, I am still going for learning and playing Rolemaster Classic, but having this as an option will keep me busy until then.

Old School Essentials

If you remember my reviews of B/X Essentials, Old School Essentials (OSE) is the same game, only they have taken things to another level with some very high quality books with stitched bindings. It is fun to see the move towards quality bindings and books that last in the indie RPG scene, this and Zweihander have me literally drooling over the lay flat, high quality bindings, and bookmark ribbons.

POD print quality is good and I will take what I can get for out-of-print titles, but to see some real love of the book-making process with these games means we will have books that can be passed down and used heavily without fear of losing them. Shout out to the companies doing this and I will support you.

I have a near complete collection of the original paperback B/X Essentials books (missing treasure), and these are some of the best laid out books in the indie genre, and many people have made this game their go-to system. These are so easy to reference with a lot of effort put into:

• Bullet pointing lists.
• Creating numbered lists to follow
• Keeping concepts to one or two facing pages.
• Consistent use of styles and bold section titles for clarity.
• A logical progression of game concepts.

If you want a master class in how to lay out a RPG so it is clear and easy you really can't do much better than this. Not that every game has to copy this format, since being unique is cool, but a couple nods towards organization and clarity go a long way. I am reminded of the monster descriptions in the HARP monsters book where they would start halfway down a page and end halfway down the next page in the book, on the back side of the paper. Why? Why did you do that? Page breaks are your friends! Put some art in there to fill!

This game is the complete opposite. Information placed on pages or facing pages, and everything is clear and easy to find. I love this attention to detail and clarity.

...vs. Labyrinth Lord?

One thing I love about the OSR world is you can switch back and forth between games and you are not really participating in system wars. Everything is similar, and system preference is just to taste and what you like. Both of these games are very cool (and I will give a nod to Dungeon Crawl Classics and Basic Fantasy too for being some of the beloved fan favs), and there is no real versus here with any of them.

There are differences. This is more original B/X inspired with optional add-ons for advanced features, where Labyrinth Lord is like a B/X and AD&D mashup. Now, Labyrinth Lord is how my original D&D game went, with all sorts of silly stuff getting pulled into my original campaign, so I have a huge love and soft spot for that game since it mimics "how we played" back in the day.

I do like Labyrinth Lord's inclusion of monsters inspired by the AD&D Monster Manual. That for me is a key point to have the classic demons and devils present, because those are invaluable bad guys, boss monsters, and a sign that when they show up - something is seriously wrong and the high level characters are needed desperately because the end of the world is at stake here.

Like a Lego Set

OSE is very cool as a bin full of building blocks that you can play as-is, add onto, or generally do what you want with it. I love it too, and there is room for every type of game at the table. This is a more focused rules set with a tighter core of rules, and I appreciate an experience like that since the game gets to be like a classic Heroquest or Monopoly type experience. I love games where everything works together well, is clear, and you can play it from your head.

This? This I can play from my head. If I need to reference something it is a one or two page glance and I am back playing. This is very much like an iPhone experience in RPG form, while it is nice to have tons of features and extra functions - what is the core of what I need to have fun? But unlike the iPhone analogy, this is very much like Android in its ultimate expand-ability. But the design theory is there, keep it simple, clear, and on one or two pages.

This game is also easily expandable, though the community support versus Labyrinth Lord feels somewhat less due to this game being newer. That said, with a little work almost everything B/X is easily usable with a few tweaks here and there. You could base an entirely new game, science fantasy, modern, whatever, off the core rules and everything just works.

Building Tomorrow

It is great to see this game flourishing. The B/X Community is building a tomorrow based on the past that will always be around, work together, and support the creation of ideas and games that were only dreams from the players and game master of the world. I can't wait for my printed copy, and I have the PDF to pour over until that comes. an excellent set of rules and my highest recommendation.

When my printed copy comes we will do a full flip through and review. Until then, this is one I eagerly await.

d20 to Yuma

Wow, some of the ideas to come out of the B/X community are just pure fun. Let's do a game where the Wild West meets anime meets traditional B/X fantasy gaming? One where all sorts of silly Old West stereotypes bump shoulders with dragon men, elves intermixed with native tribes, furries, cowboys, and silly costumes and manners of speaking straight out of a Mel Brooks movie? I could have a hog-man named Oinker as the camp-chef for my wagon train, a wolf-girl school teacher, a wise lizardperson tribal shaman, a cowboy that talks like Slim Pickens, alongside a cast of crazy people ripped from anime and given cowboy hats and boots and told to ham it up?

Yes. One-thousand times yes.

This game is just fun.

Anime and Anthro Art? Love it!

The art is just too fun. It has this silly, anime quality to it that goes over the top in all sorts of hilarious and cool ways. Am I triggered by a sexy native style dress? No, because this is fantasy and it riffs on pop-culture, movies, and Wild West stereotypes in a way we can laugh at how silly they all are. We know in real life what is wrong and what is not, but in a game where we are making fun of pop-culture and skewering what we see in TV and in movies? As an anime where everything is so hilariously over the top we laugh at how wrong it all is?

That sort of fun is laughter and good for the soul. It also helps us deal with things in real life by letting us laugh and recognize them in a safe setting. But it doesn't mean we can't have fun and parody what Hollywood sells to us - they market the tropes and stereotypes to earn billions of dollars and somehow they are off-limits for us to poke fun at? Not happenen' here pardner. You come 'round these parts and you can get made fun of like all the rest, just like you can do to everyone else here.

And if you can laugh at yourself then it shows your heart is in the right place.

Also, Anthro?

Hey, I love the anthropomorphic and furry-style art in this game. There isn't  too much of it, but you get the point. You can play with it or without it, but I like the mix. The game is open for everyone, and if you want to play a sly fox-man gambler in a purple top hat and four aces hidden up your sleeve go right ahead. The world sees you as normal, just another settler in the Wild West, and you can interact and bump shoulders with humans, elves, cowboy dwarf miners, natives, dragon people, and anything your heart desires. This is inclusiveness that isn't forced, but open to your interpretation. I feel it also creates a silly, wild, fun, and dynamic world pulled from a Pixar movie like Zootopia meets Blazing Saddles meets Red Dead Redemption and I just love it.

This game is every bit as wacky and gonzo as Gamma World but set in the Wild West with play actin', movie quotes, and western catch phrases galore. What is not to love?

The Monster List is Inspired

Cactus dragons should tell you everything. The monsters are a mix of Old West lore, genre-specific content, tropes, slang-as-monsters, and a whole host of imaginative ideas of Wild West adventuring and goodness. The monsters are far out there and silly, but they fit that sort of Pixar animated Wild West movie feeling mixed with anime, talking anthro animals, and all sorts of wacky and crazy ideas. This isn't some standard B/X monster list with cowboy hats and spurs attached, these are setting and genre supporting critters that enhance the experience and feeling of the setting.

Similarly the spells and gear have been gone over and have that genre-supporting feel. Few games do this, where instead of just copy-pasting the designers here went over every spell and item and made sure it fit the world and larger experience they were delivering. I wish more games did this. If you were making a "dark and gritty" B/X game and did this to the content you supplied with the game, like adding weapon breakage rules and all sorts of other supporting redesigns and rules? That is good stuff, and it shows you that you can take B/X and change it a little to help support your world and the larger feeling of your game and rules.

Is it not B/X? Sort of, but it is still compatible with a little work. Are the changes worth it? Definitely.

A lot of B/X games could take some pointers from this game on aligning flavor with content delivery.

Cute and Fun - Plus Attitude

Overall, a fun game with a lot of spirit and fun. I like this game, it has a cute factor to the art that makes me think of manga and anime. The world feels alive, and everything is just so well mixed and blended together. This is not "D&D monsters invade the Old West" but more of everything we love about B/X style fantasy blended with Old West myths and tropes and crafted into a fun, unique setting will all sorts of cool possibilities. Highly recommended.

Labyrinth Lord: The XXL Game

So...part of the fun behind playing a OSR game is playing it, but another part is collecting books you can use in the game. A 2XL game means Xpansions and Xtra stuff to me. I need a few more parts to make things happen and some of the characters I want to play. I have a preference for printed books, especially hardcovers, but I will make a few exceptions for some really helpful resources. Let's take the base game of Labyrinth Lord and expand the heck out of it until we can't recognize it anymore, and try to build an interesting setting and world.

Class Compendium

First up is the excellent Class Compendium, which gets me an interesting mix of B/X classes. I get a nice version of the bard, an acrobat, a barbarian, fortune tellers, pirates, bounty hunters, knights, and gladiators. Some of these classes don't really fit in or I would do another way, so this wouldn't be a "take everything" sort of book. Just the best parts of the classes I need and want for a couple characters. One thing I like about these really specific classes is I can create a unique NPC such as a Investigator or Rune-Master and have that be an NPC unique to the world.

I would probably make all of these classes "by GM permission only" to start, with some being easier calls to allow players to use, such as the bard. Some, like the angel, familiar, or death knight would be NPC only. And a couple like the shootist and automation would be more steampunk and likely disallowed for a more fantasy setting. Some are also more setting specific, such as the samurai and gladiator. I would be careful and make sure they match the flavor of my setting.

Creature Compendium

Another must-have is the Creature Compendium, we need more monsters, and this book is densely packed in the same way the original AD&D Monster Manual was - and the creatures are terrifying, different, and at times just plain strange. Which is what you want in a Monster Manual, players wondering...um, I haven't seen that in a previous edition, should we be running?

Realms of Crawling Chaos

How much Cthulhu do you want in your game? If none, skip this book. If you like the idea of monsters from the Eldritch Realm showing up and causing terror, dive right in. If anything, you can pick and choose here and avoid the overly Lovecraft style bits and still have serpent people, lamias, cave beasts, other monsters you can rename, and a psionic system you can use without summoning an old god.

Opening the door to Cthulhu does flip a huge "campaign bad guy" switch, and I can see entire groups of villains sighing and saying, "Not more Lovecraft please!" Demons throw up their hands and say, "Why be afraid of us?" Evil gods shrug their shoulders and ask, "Our cults are evil too!" Evil dragons let out long, disappointed growls and say, "Not more aliens, geeze, there isn't even a societal progress as evil force narrative going on here that is so early industrial era, they don't even make sense in fantasy since no one is afraid of magic!"

Evil GMs nod their head, make every faction a TPK force players should be afraid of, toss the Cthulhus on top like a side dish at a buffet, and smile.

Barrowmaze & FC of Archia

Every time I pick these books up they becomes harder not to use. While these aren't stuff books, either are a compelling start for an XXL version of Labyrinth Lord. They are region-based campaign settings, and you don't have to use the mega-dungeons within 100%. Little parts could be home bases for villain groups, plots, and stories. Wait, what? Don't use it all? Yes, please.

One doesn't need to clean the book, room-by-room, and and vacuum up every last copper piece off the floor, kill every monster, bleach every surface, put up warning signs on all hazards, and disarm every trap. Part of the problem of mega-dungeons are that "completest" mentality going into them, and what I find is a better approach is to use parts of them during the campaign as stories are told, and to weave them into the campaign's narrative.

Plus I would rather have the freedom to venture out to a bandit fort or lost temple every so often, something of my creation, rather than feel obligated to go to the last bookmark and check off some more rooms. Then why use a mega-dungeon? Well, hundreds or pre-created locations can be re-used in millions of ways, especially if they are easily accessible.

Petty Gods

A strange entry to this list would be the quirky choice of Petty Gods, a compendium of minor, oddball, strange, and forgotten deities in the world. I know, this begs the question, who are the main gods of the world you are building? We will get to that, but the wonderful thing this book adds to the mix is a whole catalog of gods once worshiped, but now forgotten. Ruined shrines and lost temples now can have meaning, strange puzzles on who may have been worshiped there, and the entire world's backstory takes on a different and interesting tone.

Who knows, perhaps one of these long-dormant gods could be reawakened? For trouble, or perhaps service giving our heroes missions in exchange for secrets and valuable knowledge of old.

d30 DM and Sandbox Companions

Downsides? There are no printed books, and you need a d30 for these. Otherwise, these are a solid set of tables for just about anything you would need, and especially when you do solo play. These are purely for filling in things you may not think of, and to add some color and spice to the game.

I am working on house-rules for this project as well. More on those as I get them done.

A Table Full of Options

Labyrinth Lord makes this easy. A lot of cool adventures and supplements are designed to use with the game, and while other games may have simple implementations or other unique mechanics, Labyrinth Lord brings a lot of third party support to the table. Over time this will likely change, but some of what is already out there are classic books with some really fun options and choices.

And a Setting...

So is OSR better with or without a setting? I would say start your sandbox small and worry about the larger world later. I want to stay away from traditional D&D settings or anything linked to a system. Maybe I will cover OSR settings in another post, since a deeper dive will be needed to examine the possibilities.

It is a needed choice, since setting will determine many things, such as gods, factions, and many other aspects. One problem of a lot of settings is that they throw too much at you, and all of a sudden all those gods, factions, conflicts, and other things going on in the world players should know about become the only things they worry about and they feel like world ambassadors having to take it all in and solve the load of it. Starting small, on a local level, puts blinders on you and keeps the players the most important force in the game.

For now, this is a good base set of sources and  tools I will need to get started.

Advanced Labyrinth Lord

 

So I heard about Advanced Labyrinth Lord, which is basically a "all the books in one" edition of the game. I love this game because it replicates my first encounter with D&D. Starting with the basic D&D set, adding the Expert set, mixing in AD&D parts as needed, and generally loving the dangerous mess until AD&D 2nd edition came along and sanitized the game for the mainstream market.

And I will call the game AL&L in this discussion, since I am getting a laugh out of saying Advanced Labyrinth and Lord out loud.

Yes, I picked up the Flossing Orcus cover for AL&L, since that is the coolest. The notion of Hell should always be hovering over an old-school game since in those days your parents forced you to go to church on Sunday, but the night before you and your friends were just in Hell fighting the forces of Satan. There is also the notion of "why Satan isn't listed as a monster" in these games, because honestly, that is the character the Dungeon Master plays.

That was a joke. But the metaphor fits perfectly.

That Cover Though

Yeah, that Orcus cover on AL&L is pure metal. You have sex, violence, and an elf who doesn't know what they are doing and firing off the page. There is also a sharp object pointed at Orcus' private parts. Seriously, since the fighter and the elf are looking away from Orcus, I get the feeling the wizard is summoning Orcus to help with this fight. Boss fight or summoning a greater demon to deal with a TPK, your choice, and just as metal each way.

There is another cover with a dragon head, but that to me looked like a party fighting a giant hand puppet so I opted for Orcus. A party fighting a giant hand puppet is also an apt metaphor for the game as well. The Orcus cover has that "evil" feel and also a mystery and open question hovering over it. It invites you in to see why, who, and how. The dragon head is a nice cover too, it just did not sing to me as much as this illustration of Orcus, which I feel is one of the iconic images for AL&L and Labyrinth Lord in general.

This is honestly a piece of art that elevates the game, even if the rules inside are 100% the same as the two-book edition. I love the two-tone tan and blue shading on the Orcus cover, along with the PCs who pop against that unholy blue fire. Excellent job here.

No Learning, More Room to Grow

Compared to some of the rules I have been working through, most notably Rolemaster Classic and Zweihander, there is nothing to learn here. There are no articles to write to decipher rules, no real way of getting a combat wrong, very little ways to create a character incorrectly, no complicated combat action system, no conditions, no crit charts, no complicated armor systems, no arcane magic systems, no game terms that leave me scratching my head, and interrupt based play is limited to holding actions after winning initiative.

The game is also free to grow with plenty of B/X supplements, and the rules framework simple enough I could write my own. If I wanted a sanity or corruption system for a dark fantasy game, write one myself or bolt it on from another game. I could take GURPS Horror's fear and sanity system and port that over with minimal effort, or even Call of Cthulhu's sanity system and add that as a d100 score and be all good to go. To explain that to players would be something like, "B/X with Call of Cthulhu's sanity system, let's play." 

Nothing to pour over, and nothing to learn.

I have add-on books with classes such as bards and hundreds of others made for this game. I have dungeons. I have books of monsters. I am ready now and let's just play.

Now, I do like reading and playing new things, and the B/X style of combat can feel a little dry at times. But there is a huge red line between dry and gets the job done, and complicated and you will rarely play it right. A lot of games are like that, I just have no hope of ever feeling I am playing it competently. There is too much to learn. They drag and drone on forever. At least in a simple game, I have the room to expand in the places I feel the game lacks detail. In a complicated game, you need to take everything or leave it.

Labyrinth Lord = Core B/X

I keep returning to Labyrinth Lord as the essence of the B/X experience. I have other games, such as the great Dungeon Crawl Classics, but again that game feels heavy with charts and add-on concepts (which I know people love), when all I want for B/X is the core experience. I need to get into DCC more to understand it, since that game has a huge amount of love in the community and I respect that. I kind of get the feeling DCC is the "most popular mod" to B/X that has captured the hearts of millions and enhances the core experience.

More on DCC soon as I have recently found my copy that was lying around here.

But for book-standard and simple B/X that runs like a well-oiled machine, I feel Labyrinth Lord captures the feel of those early days I experienced the best, and maintains compatibility with older material and is expandable in a million different ways. This game is like a metal part to a machine that fits well, works well, and never really breaks.

B/X Gangbusters

 Oh, here is a fun one. This one has a lot of heart to it. Read this intro:

This is the spirit of B/X. I love something and I want to make my own game. I am going to put the work in, despite the world working against me I am going to make this dream happen.

The "I can" is larger than the "I can't."

He even had to stop and wait. He went to conventions. He got feedback. And he has a game in print and for sale. And it happens to be a genre I love too. Hats off, amazing effort, and this to me goes beyond the simple dream of having a game, and using B/X to make a dream happen.

B/X? I Know This!

One of the beautiful things about a B/X rules set is you know how 90% of the game works before you open the book. There are probably one or two things unique to the implementation, but they are nothing that will take you months to read and figure out.

Yeah, I know, says the guy who is halfway through Rolemaster Classic and starting on Zweihander.

But B/X? I can take my gangster and have him fight a basilisk from another B/X game if I want. The AC works. The rules work. The damages are on the same scale. Things for the most part work together with very minimal effort. Needs some evil fish-people to walk out of the surf to attack a town in a moment inspired by Lovecraft? I am sure I got something in a B/X book around here that will work.

Campaign Choices

The game gives you the options of criminals, detectives, law enforcement, reporters, or strange mysteries as campaign types. It is suggested everyone play the same type of character at first, and not to have some characters play gangsters while others play beat cops. While we did that a lot in the original Gangbusters back in the day, it is easier for a group to have everyone working together and on the same team.

After a while our Gangbusters games became death-matches that rivaled Car Wars games in violence and complexity. Cops versus robbers with TNT, tommy-guns, and double-barreled gunfights leaving city blocks shattered and war zones behind them as the ultimate battle between good and evil manifested in a biblical Apocalypse of crime versus law and order.

Yeah, we were strange kids.

Class Choices

There are four classes in the B/X Gangbusters game: brutish, educated, connected, and street smart. Brutish are your tough guy "fighters" while educated are your specialist "egg heads" with skills like safecracking and accounting. We have "connected" that covers people who know people, and this seemed like a slightly odd class to me, since I feel this is more of a RP thing than a class thing. Finally "street smarts" are the rogues and thieves.

The hit dice are a little strange, I could see an educated having a d4 hit die and the street smarts having a d6. Yes, that breaks B/X and gives a thief a d6 hit points per level. I can see the argument against it, since you want "smarts" winning out over "combat," but for someone used to life on the streets I think a tougher cut is needed. Educated? Nah, they should fold like a house of cards.

Levels are limited to level 6, which is nice and caps the power level of the game and balances combat.

The choice of classes for Brutish and Street Smarts feel right, and I like Educated. I would have liked some more special powers from educated in those areas that level up, like a locksmith knowledge that levels up into safe cracking, key making and reproduction, and vault cracking. Similarly, accounting could start there, then graduate into cooking the books, check fraud, and other financial skills. Forgery could have a range of level-ups from documents to counterfeiting. Give me something to look forward to!

Connected seems like an odd choice for a class, but in a modern game I suppose having someone who knows someone is a huge advantage. They have some level-up bonuses and they can pull favors, which is cool. I would like some more level-up options here as well, instead of just giving a bonus, the levels mean you work your way up the influence ladder. At high levels, you are getting favors from the mayor and governor instead of the local ward alderman.

This system feels better than having dedicated "lawman", "reporter", and "criminal" classes, since the conflicts are between people who are essentially cut from the same cloth - just on different sides of the law.

Action!

Once you have a character, the rest of the book has specific rules for the campaign types, how to recruit a gang, run a business, be a lawman, handle an investigation, run combat, handle NPCs, and run adventures. We even have a section of B/X style "monsters" for the various NPCs in the world, and bonus points for including a certain type of close-minded and bigoted "hooded foe" in this list that can be used as the game's slow-witted orcs. Very brave choice and thank you for this bit of historical accuracy that would be endless fun to have them show up to be attacked and abused in so many ways. This is why we have TNT.

No One Can Hit a Sharp Dressed Man

There is an odd rule with the quality of clothes giving a higher AC. This felt a little artificial to me, almost like a cinematic rule where better and more expensive clothes give better AC? To be more B/X I feel just give normal clothes AC 9 and be done with it. Maybe AC 8 for heavy clothes and 7 for leather jackets - but that is pushing it and breaking the Noir narrative because this isn't the 1950's with biker gangs. Otherwise fine clothing, even a party dress, is going to be the game's plate mail. I get what they are going for, a more cinematic feel where a mafia don can walk through a hail of bullets unscathed, but it feels like it breaks B/X just a little.

If that is the case, then just give each level a +1 AC bonus and leave clothing as AC 9. Same cinematic effect, and it makes low level thugs more cannon fodder. Otherwise everyone is going to be wearing a suit and tails with a top hat, putting on the Ritz and blasting all the crooks.

This is B/X, and I can houserule. I get this feeling in more mainstream games if you houserule you somehow fall outside the mainstream. I paid a lot of money for this mainstream game! Please let's all play by the same rules! In B/X, the entire core of the game is built upon a houseruled framework and you can do anything you want - and it is encouraged since the changes we make introduce new rules and ideas (DNA) into the B/X system, and this sharing makes the game better and stronger in future iterations.

What Do I Want More Of?

I would like a few more weapons, with maybe pictures, such as bolt-action rifle, lever-action, and the like. I want pictures of the cars and vehicles, and maybe classify these on types for easier understanding, like a 2-door convertible sports coupe.

I want more of a description of that world and the eras and what may or may not be available in the 20's 30's and further on  till 1950 rolls around. Like when direct dialing started, police call boxes, one-way "calling all cars" vehicle radios versus two-way where the cars could call back, and when various laws and powers were available - like the crossing state lines thing to avoid being arrested and when that ended. Also the powers of the Prohibition Bureau and the Feds changed during this time dramatically, and those would be fun to cover.

Also some more flavor on transportation, when flights were common and how far they went, train and ship liner travel, and a table of typical travel times of major routes - like how long did it take to get from New York to London? London to Paris? San Francisco to Hong Kong? LA to New York? How much (roughly) did it cost? What were the options for passenger versus luxury travel?

What was nightlife like? Dining out? Clubs? What cities were hotspots and what was going on? How did the Great Depression affect things? What sorts of films, music, and entertainment were popular? Perhaps a simple timeline would be nice, but I know you can get that on the Internet and you risk bloating the game with too-much. But I could see this game going to a nicely-illustrated 120-page experience with more art and a lot to sink your teeth into easily. I love the era and the genre.

Oh, and add a bullwhip in the weapons lists and tell me when those certain "bad guys" start showing up. We need an endgame to this era, even though it is slightly out of scope. Perhaps not for investigation games where rival teams working for foreign powers start competing for the strange artifacts and phenomena the players find.

20's and 30's = Fantasy Genre

There is a part of me that feels the 1920s and 30s is moving into a realm where it can be considered a fantasy genre. We are so far removed from that world, it is so alien to us, and the culture and mannerisms are more of a mystery than something known by everyone. We get our information about this time from a few movies and some TV series long lost to the past.

So we have cars that rarely break 50 mph? No cell phones? The first car radios only go one way? Very little air travel? No jets? No Internet? You had to use an operator to make a phone call? There was no direct dial long distance? Police had call boxes? Criminals could flee over state, county, or international borders to avoid being arrested? The powers of the federal government in law enforcement were severely limited, and some agents were only allowed to carry guns for self defense? All radio programs were either live or someone playing a record, again, live and in a studio? No television? The newspaper is where you got the news? You could buy tommy-guns over the counter at hardware stores? Primitive fax machines existed? The telegraph was still a thing? You had to wait 6 months to get a divorce? Dinner clubs had nightly big bands that showed up to play live music?

You are kidding right? Who came up with this stuff?

Overall? B/X Gangster Time Fun

Overall I am happy with this one. There are some cinematic rules, but those are nothing that can't be easily houseruled. This is a cool sort of B/X game that creates an experience (and also has a nice list of source material) that is a labor of love to attempt to recreate that "gangster era" experience I loved. Very nicely done, and I would love to see this game continue on and expand.

B/X is cool.

It lets dreams come to life.