Babylon 5 RPG

Comments

• Bekenn Sinclair's Duck

  November 2003

  Keeping in mind that, although I have all of the books currently released, I haven't yet had the chance to play it -- I have to say that there are some ups and some downs.
  
  First, the ups:
  [list]
  [*]I absolutely love the focus on story arcs and plot hooks, and the integration of [i]Fiery Trial[/i] with season 1 is superb.
  [*]They're going out of their way to not invalidate all the information we got from B5 wars. [i]The Fiery Trial[/i] and [i]The Earth Alliance Fact Book[/i] were both written by Bruce Graw, AKA Agent-1 from Agents of Gaming.
  [*]The modifications that they've made to the D20 system look about as reasonable as they can be, given the system they're starting with.
  [/list]
  
  And now, the downs:
  [list]
  [*]Incredibly poor editing; I can't even begin to count all the English errors I've found, let alone things that should be dead obvious, like the collisions example in the main book, which clearly uses different rules from the rules that are given in the chapter.
  [*]The D20 system doesn't adapt well to the B5 universe, no matter how much you try to change it. They would have done better to use GURPS or come up with their own system (though I suspect that the latter would be far more trouble than it's worth).
  [*]Mongoose's interpretation of the B5 universe is often at odds with mine. This is reflected in ship stats and ship combat, as well as in the feats, skills, and character classes that are present.
  [/list]
  
  Even given the above problems (as I see them), I'll probably continue to purchase whatever books come out, particularly those from Bruce Graw, who has so far done the best job of any of them for fleshing out the B5 universe and making it an interesting place to play.
• croxis I am the walrus

  November 2003

  I too have been un able to play it.