[RPG]: Midway City, reviewed by Sean Posey (4/5)

2nd Level RPGnetter · #1 10-10-2005, 07:00 AM

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11632.phtml

Sean Posey's Summary:

Cyberpunk goes back to its roots: pulp novels from the earliest part of the 20th Century. Simple gameplay, excellent art and layout, easy character generation and a rich game environment makes Midway City well worth the price of admission.

Go to the full review for more information.

StephenO · #2 10-10-2005, 08:07 AM

I liked your review as a basic overview of Midway City, but I felt that it needs a lot more detailed information before it's a really useful review.

EddyFate · #3 10-10-2005, 08:46 AM

Thank you for the review!

For those who are interested, you can find more details on Midway City at http://www.spectrum-games.com/midwaycity

Gary Thomas · #4 10-10-2005, 12:41 PM

I didn't learn much from this review other than the reviewer liked it. :rolleyes:

"....use of what is known as Sugar, a concept I’ve not run across before in any other game."

Uh, just about every rpg out there has something similar, usually just allowing a reroll, but house ruled into something more substantial for those with a taste for the dramatic. "Sugar" is hardly an original concept, but it is a good one and I'm glad they included it.

Cynthia Celeste Miller · #5 10-11-2005, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddyFate

Thank you for the review!

For those who are interested, you can find more details on Midway City at http://www.spectrum-games.com/midwaycity

We've even added a "Quick Start" PDF that gives you enough rules to take the game for a spin, and a ready-to-run adventure too.

Dan Davenport · #6 10-11-2005, 06:07 AM

It certainly sounds like the basic system's come a long way from the "bulletproof baby" phenomenon I discovered in Cartoon Action Hour.

Cynthia/Eddy: How does the system rate on the "Brutality Scale" as compared to the version of the system used in Tomorrow Knights?

EddyFate · #7 10-11-2005, 06:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Davenport

It certainly sounds like the basic system's come a long way from the "bulletproof baby" phenomenon I discovered in Cartoon Action Hour.

"Bulletproof baby"?

Quote:

Cynthia/Eddy: How does the system rate on the "Brutality Scale" as compared to the version of the system used in Tomorrow Knights?

About the same. There's not as much access to armor and the like, which makes it a little more brutal, but Sugar is more robust in regards to clearing Wound gauges, so it balances out a bit (with the side-note that NPCs do fall a bit faster, but that's intentional).

Dan Davenport · #8 10-11-2005, 07:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddyFate

"Bulletproof baby"?

Heh. I'm referencing this bit from my CAH review:

Quote:

On a less esoteric note, characters can take a huge amount of damage -- so much so that even the weakest characters could only be killed -- or "OFF'd", rather -- in a single blow by an unusually powerful weapon.

For example, the jaguars had slightly above-average Hurt Points scores -- 35. The guestimated handguns the PCs used against them had DRs of 4. That means that the best possible damage the guns could do was 16 Hurt Points, not counting the PCs' Oomph scores. But even if the jaguars had had Body Traits of -4, they'd still have base Hurt Points of 17. In other words, if you want to take out an infant in one shot in this game, you'd better be packing some serious heat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EddyFate

About the same. There's not as much access to armor and the like, which makes it a little more brutal, but Sugar is more robust in regards to clearing Wound gauges, so it balances out a bit (with the side-note that NPCs do fall a bit faster, but that's intentional).

Ah. Cool.

EddyFate · #9 10-11-2005, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan Davenport

Heh. I'm referencing this bit from my CAH review

Oh, right. (Been a while since I've read it.) Yes, the only stat that impacts damage now is Toughness, which subtracts from the damage total. This means that the toughest guy shot by an average pistol with a basic success will still take a Wound, and there's only 20 Wounds. From my recollection of the playtest, successful attacks tended to do 3-4 Wounds per hit, so on average a character without Sugar will go to "dying" in 4-5 successful hits, and likely will fall to shock in 2-3.