A little girl clutches her teddy bear. Shadows creep out from the ruins around her as a red sun recedes below the horizon. Two towers defiantly resist the pull of the filthy waters of the Thames, but already one is leaning and the bridge that once joined them has long since collapsed. Something, something awful, crawls up the wall and the girl sings to her filthy teddy; "London Bridge Is falling down, Falling down, Falling down..."
My editor has failed me, and since that's me, I can only blame myself.
Under "Bonus Material" there should have been a separate paragraph for website material. As it reads now it might seem like the scenario and map is in the book. It's not. Also I forgot to add the url codes for the web address and somehow the simple phrase "a 1960s London map" has been garbled into "a 1960s London 2 London map". Although I'd like to blame this (and all the other errors I'm sure people will spot) on somebody else, I'm solely responsible. My apologies.
__________________ Radical Approach Trauma, a reference on wounds and treatments. Give your healers something to sink their teeth into and your warriors something to worry about. A supplement for any roleplaying system.
Well, I've been eyeing Hot War at IPR for some time now and your review has me convinced as something I'll be getting. Thanks for the rundown, very though.
Thanks for the review. Little bit of a "fan's review" in terms of high ratings, but it does look like a good product from the other comments.
If you want to sort out the text try emailing Shannon Applecline - might be best to do a thread in Trouble Tickets to see if they can do an update using admin privileges.
__________________
"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers." - Voltaire
"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through' narrow chinks of his cavern" - William Blake
It certainly is a "fan's review". I'm not paid, a professional reviewer or even a blogger. So the only motivation I had for writing the review is my enthusiasm for Hot War. That said, I genuinely think it deserves the 5/5 rating.
Thanks for the feedback (and I might indeed try and place a ticket as suggested) and thanks to the author for popping his head in and offering to answer questions.
__________________ Radical Approach Trauma, a reference on wounds and treatments. Give your healers something to sink their teeth into and your warriors something to worry about. A supplement for any roleplaying system.
I bought Hot War before reading this review (My FLGS got another load of Indie games.) and I have to agree with the review: It seems like a really, really good game.
What really surprised me was how the book is FULL of really solid advice and clear guidelines on how to run a Hot War game. At any point, the book is clear about what the various roles (GM, players...) purpose and responsability is, what they can and should do to make the game fun and what they shouldn't do and why. It's a game I wouldn't mind handing a newbie GM or group, confident that they would have a good game. That something few games could manage.
I had read Cold City and got a "Nice idea, but not really sold on it" reaction to setting and system, but it has evolved nicely into Hot War, which has really hit my buttons.
(Oh, and it's a gorgious book. Also, I'm a sucker for post-apocalyptic horror.)
M
__________________ Old Man of the Wushu Clan & Changeling Airship Captain of the Eberron Pack
I've been looking at "Hot War" for awhile now, thinking it would be a great resource for running a game that would be a weird mix between Torchwood and the Dalek Invasion of Earth. I'd only stalled because I thought I might also need "Cold City", which also looks lush, but money is money. Are the two games completely independent?
I'd only stalled because I thought I might also need "Cold City", which also looks lush, but money is money. Are the two games completely independent?
Yes, they are completely independent.
__________________ Radical Approach Trauma, a reference on wounds and treatments. Give your healers something to sink their teeth into and your warriors something to worry about. A supplement for any roleplaying system.
I've been looking at "Hot War" for awhile now, thinking it would be a great resource for running a game that would be a weird mix between Torchwood and the Dalek Invasion of Earth. I'd only stalled because I thought I might also need "Cold City", which also looks lush, but money is money. Are the two games completely independent?
As Claus quite correctly points out, the two books are totally independent, you certainly don't need one to play the other. They are linked thematically, but it's not necessary to have any knowledge of Cold City to play Hot War and vice versa.
Funny you should mention Dalek Invasion of Earth. It's one of the TV programmes listed in the mediography at the back of the book. I watch it for the first time while writing Hot War and was struck by the bleak sparseness of it. I'm not a huge Dr Who fan, but DIoE was certainly a DW story that I really enjoyed.
Re: [RPG]: Hot War, reviewed by Claus (5/5)
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