Thanks for the review. It was fair and impartial, and you did an excellent job covering what you liked and disliked about the game.
I would like to respond to a few points that you raised:
The reason replicas were not included in the “threats” chapter is because they are absolutely identical to the originals they are copies of; therefore, the stats for these things are the same as originals. The game also strongly implies that the replicas are not dangerous in and of themselves (e.g. they won’t all “switch on” one day and attempt to takeover the world). However, this is not explicitly stated so that each GM can handle the replicas as they see fit. Leaving some of game’s questions unanswered was very much a conscious design decision. The intent was to keep things open to interpretation by different GMs yet provide them more than enough skeleton to work with. It’s a fine line, and whether ER successfully walks this line is open to debate, though I believe it does. That said, the core questions (in my opinion) are satisfactorily answered in the book.
Regarding appearance: The layout was chosen for aesthetic reasons. I respect that my choice might not work for some, but I wanted to clarify that it was done (for better or worse) for reasons other than padding page count. If anyone is curious to see the layout, the preview at
www.abstractnova.com shows off the border design, text, margin, white space, etc.
You’re absolutely correct that having the character sheet in the chargen chapter and the back of the book is a bit redundant, especially when it’s available online. I should have filled that last page in a different manner.
If anyone has any questions about the game, I’ll do my best to answer them.
Best,
Lee