Post originally by Wyvern at 2004-09-13 05:27:17
Converted from Phorums BB System

...The review that is, not the game. I know little more of concrete substance about this game after reading the review than I did before I read it. The important information I learned can be summed up as follows:

- It has a post-Earth frontier setting with a variety of tech levels.
- All the PC races are evolved humans.
- The rules are "apparently" percentile-based.
- The combat rules are complicated and confusing.
- You can choose random or point-based character creation.
- There are five key attributes (Strength, Coordination, Agility, Endurance, and Charisma) and three others (IQ, Psi and Rank).
- You choose from a selection of 'schools' which represent your background training.
- There are lots and lots of charts.

That's a disappointingly small amount of detail for a review of this length. Considering that this is an obscure system, some explanation of how the rules actually work would be helpful. The setting description is also pretty vague; the background information is fine, but that doesn't tell me much about the actual current state of affairs. The review raised more questions than it answered, and not in a good way (granted, some of these might be better directed at the author than the reviewer).

What makes the setting 'hard' sci-fi?

How is space travel accomplished?

Is combat supposed to be gritty or cinematic? How well does it actually meet this goal?

How are skills handled?

What are some of the 'schools' that characters can choose from? (The review doesnt' give any indication of what kind of characters you can actually play in this game, unless the Ex-Marine, Ex-Smuggler, Ex-Courier are examples -- in which case, why are they in the GM section?)

What effect does homeworld have on character creation?

If humans evolved so much on their way to the stars, why are there basically only three human variants to choose from?

Are there any sentient aliens in the setting?

Why is IQ measured on a different scale from the key attributes? (Incidentally, the fact the 4 of the 5 key attributes are physical does not sit well with me.)

What's the game effect of rank, and why does it merit being a specific attribute (as opposed to wealth, or education, or fame)? Is this a neo-feudal society?

What kinds of psi powers exist?

What kind of technology is available?

Why did you switch names (from C. Demetrius Morgan to Kester) in the middle of the review?

Does this statement: "Alas, after allowing time for those first initial impressions to fade so I could tackle the new PDF afresh, I am sad to say that many of the comments that follow stand much as they were originally written," mean that your initial impressions still hold true, or that you just didn't bother to revise them?

Most importantly, why did you give it 4/4? Especially if the rules are so vague and confusing that you can't even say for sure whether they're percentile-based. Your review is full of criticisms (ironically, even your list of "positives" consists mostly of explanations of why some of the "negatives" aren't so bad), whereas the only specific positive statement I could find was this:

"However, for those who are hardcore fans of the Space Opera genre, Starcluster offers just about all a fan boy could ever wish for. More than that it provides all you need to start playing, out of the box, and then some."

That's nice, but you don't substantiate any of those statements. "For more detail about the system see my review, and corresponding comments, for Sweet Chariot," doesn't cut it. This isn't a revised version of a major game system. I don't like reading a review for a game only to be told at the end, "To find out how the game is actually played, you need to read my review for this other game."

Oh, and do you realize that you mentioned three times (twice in the same paragraph, no less) that there are no bookmarks?

Wyvern


"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
- William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"