Post originally by CR at 2004-07-12 13:58:01
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Nice Rant- you even got a decent review hidden in there.
*The Curse of Growth-
Yes. There are a lot of rules across the Spycraft supplements, but that does not mean a gm is expected to use them all or a majority of them.
frex: The crime scene investigation rules. Unless I am running a CSI-type campeign, then I am not likely to look at them.
In other words, I would rather have the tools to do something in my game and never use them.. then not have the tools when I want them. I don't feel "overloaded" because I just decide I am not going to use whatever rule set at this time.
You later go on to fret that the products are of limited use for a non-spycraft d20 player. That is why the product is clearly labeled a spycraft product- so as not too confuse people.
*The Curse of Sales-
Um.. rules do sell much better then scenarios, and often better then settings. It is not something AEG (or the other rpg companies) "seem to feel".
* Supplements building off Supplements
I would rather have the books build off each other then was space reprinting rules or ignore useful tools in other books.
However, I can understand the frustration others might feel who have not bought previous books.
Post originally by Jason at 2004-07-12 18:15:33
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Incompatability with d20 Modern is not a curse, by any stretch of the imagination. As you point out in the review, the Spycraft rules are creative, well-balanced, and just plain better than your run-of-the-mill d20. How can that be considered a curse?
Post originally by Chris Gunning at 2004-07-12 18:57:56
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I particularly liked all the rules. It helped clairify and condense some of the rules in the SFA books and introduced some nice new mechanics for building the badguys. Plus, the random mission generator built for different levels of campaigns is absolutely gorgeous.
The key to remember, is that Mastermind (along with its sister book "Agency") is a toolbox- lots of rules for the GM to decide which are appropriate and which need to be dropped. As such, it does its job admirably.
...and a "2" for style? C'mon, it is at least average and certainly has better layout and less white space than most D20 books.
Post originally by Clayton A. Oliver at 2004-07-13 07:22:22
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You beat me to the punch, Chris. Yes, Mastermind is a toolbox. As a matter of fact, darn near every silver book AEG has published is a toolbox. The point of the incessant rules expansions is to give players and GMs the tools they want to customize their campaigns. The next two Spycraft releases are going to be U.S. Militaries and World Militaries, which have precious little to do with espionage - but they take the core Spycraft engine in a new direction, allowing it to display a little bit of versatility that its critics have been arguing it lacks.
As for the issue of d20 non-compatibility - we've never made a secret of the fact that we consider Spycraft to be a direct competitor of d20 Modern, nor that we consider our rules set to be a more finely-tuned evolution of d20. I really can't think of much that d20M does that we don't do better, aside from functioning as a "generic" system with its fast/strong/uber hero classes - and we've long since released the class balance formulas to allow our fans to create whatever base classes they want for their own games' genres.
Post originally by Gary at 2004-07-13 13:42:12
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I'm inclined to agree. I mean aren't rules and all those crunchy bits why we play d20 in the first place? If you want to spend more time playing the game than reading the rules, why use d20? There are plenty of simpler systems out there:
GURPS . . . (ok, bad example
FUDGE
D6
etc.
The fact is, people *like* rules. That's why those types of books seel so well. Players love 'em.
Post originally by Adam Coleman at 2004-07-14 07:05:09
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I consider all d20 rules sets to be toolboxes to use to build the setting I want to run. My only gripe is the budget point system, but that's just me so I don't whinge about it ...much.
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