Quote:
Originally Posted by Jocelyn Robitaille
I don't think so. The book is organised in a logical way, and the setting bits are written in a font and size different enough that you see right away which it is. It's pretty cleanly executed.
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I'd disagree there. I got my copy the other day. It's organised so that the setting information on each nation is scattered in amongst the rules chapters. They're seperate chapters, sure, but they're not exactly a logical order. It goes something like:
System Basics (how to roll, definitions of jargon and so forth)
Character Creation
Uldholm: The First Nation (background chapter)
Rules for Specific Skills
Character Development
Esoteric Disciplines (like, non-combat feats I suppose)
How Money Works (but not the equipment chapter - that's much later)
Truil Tribes: The Second Nation (more background)
Companies (the much-vaunted - and quite nifty - rules for companies)
Dindavara: the Third Nation (background)
Combat and Advanced Combat (yep, we're back to the rules again)
Combat Secrets (a bit like combat Feats etc)
The Empire: the Final Nation (yet more background)
Magic Schools (spells et al, work in a similar way to the other feat equivalents)
The Entire World (Another background chapter - and finally we get an overview!)
Dreadful Things Happen (nasty things to do to the players, including a bestiary)
Splendid Things Occur (nice things to do to the players)
Appendix (including the equipment list, which is literally a bunch of tables)
Now, if there's logic in there I don't see it. The background is spread throughout the book and you get the overview last of all. The rules are spread out pretty widely too, and the three types of special abilities are likewise interspersed rather than kept together in the same place. It's like someone took three decks of cards, Background, Rules and Cool Powers, then shuffled them together so you got a bit of one, a bit of the next, a bit of a third.
It's not the worst book I've ever had to refer to, but it's below average for ease of reference. I mean, it's got three seperate contents lists
and an index, which should make things easier in theory but in practice I find myself looking for an index to tell me which index I need to look in. Like, what the hell is the Heluso Confederacy? It's mentioned in passing many, many, many times in the text but I have no idea as to what it refers to, other than it's some kind of nation and it makes up a very large part of the second continent.
I don't want it to sound like I'm bashing on the book though, because really the illogical order it is presented in (oh, and the poor quality of the printing, and the occasionally dubious layout) is my only major complaint. Everything else is great, and easily makes up for the book's failings. In fact I think mention should be made that supplements are already being 'ransomed' (once enough people have donated money, the whole thing is free on the net). One of the big problems with the less mainstream games is support, and I think it's great that Stolze is going to the trouble of producing these, albeit in a rather unconventional way.
Ash