General Skill Prerequisites master in deception Requirement a target can see you and an ally and you are aware of the target
You make an enemy look at you and look away from a friend.. Attempt a Deception check against your target’s Perception DC and choose an ally the enemy can see.
Critical Success You force the foe to completely target you and not your ally. The ally you choose gains the hidden condition with respect to the enemy until the end of your next turn or until it makes an hostile act against the target. Success Your foe targets you and not your friend. gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the next attack that target makes against the chosen ally before the end of your next turn. Critical Failure Your attempt backfires. The enemy focuses on your ally and your ally is off-guard against all attacks the target attempts against them until the end of your next turn.
Basics– MECHS IN SPACE! ION Heart is a solo RPG where you play a random character exploring a random galaxy with a random mech. Let’s break this down and look over the basics and system itself.
Base Mechanics- This is a d6 RPG. It is VERY low crunch. You have some basic bonuses with a +1 and a -1 being the biggest changes to a roll you see in the quickstart guide. If you want to do a thing, roll a d6, add any modifiers you have, and see if you hit the target number, usually a 4. It’s quick and efficient.
Character building- RANDOM! This book has either 1 to 3 or 1 to 6 options at every choice. Build a pilot? There are six races and three backgrounds. You can choose or roll. Same for the mechs.
Adventures- When you go on an adventure, you roll to see the type of planet you land on, the type of settlement, and the type of adventure you will go on. For each adventure, you roll three times to have three different adventures of the five provided, sixth being choose one, and then have a final conclusion adventure. Each mini adventure mostly has you roll one time and see if you succeed or fail.
That’s the basics, let’s dig into my thoughts.
Mechanics or Crunch– I don’t hate games with small mechanics, and this one does well with what it is. It’s not very deep, but that’s not the experience of this game. I LOVE me some Shadowrun shenanigans with crazy levels of crunch, but this is a much more low key, Lo-Fi RPG. If you want 90 minutes of math for a roll, this isn’t the experience for you. But I’m interested. 5/5
Theme or Fluff– This, like many other solo RPGs, is almost more about what you bring to the game than what it brings to you. The mini adventures and places ask you to describe them. You take the time to write out what you think and see. This is almost more like a creative writing exercise than just a game. That’s not bad, but I feel the dependence on randomness for the tables is a bit too much and takes away a bit of the charm. The game is still full of story and an intriguing universe, but too much randomness spoils the product. 4.5/5
Execution– The product itself looks great and the things you can get are awesome, but it’s a bit pricey. To get a physical basic book, it’s 30 pounds. That feels a bit pricey. To get a book to write your adventures into you need to pledge 80 pounds. That’s again too much. The art is nice, and the write up is well done and easy to read. The layout is fantastic and I enjoy the minimalist art. Just the price keeps me away a bit. 4.5/5
Summary– This book backerkit leaves me interested. The game is a creative exercise with some math and fun randomness. The things I don’t like are too much randomness and too high a price. The digital only 15 pound option has me most intrigued. That feels like a fair option to get me into bettering myself as a writer, having space adventures, and seeing the full product. This is one to check out, but know exactly what you want out of this game. 93%
General Skill Prerequisites master in deception Requirement a target can see you and you are aware of the target
You’re lying with your movements making a foe target where you are not. Attempt a Deception check against your target’s Perception DC.
Critical Success You completely deceive your foe. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against all the attacks that target makes against you before the end of your next turn. Success Your foe can’t target you properly, but only slightly. You gain a +2 circumstance bonus to AC against the next attack that target makes against you before the end of your next turn. Critical Failure Your feint backfires. You are off-guard against all attacks the target attempts against you until the end of your next turn.
Time for a capstone! LOTS of crafting feats, so you dont need as many for this one!
Effective Crafter Feat 20
General Skill Prerequisites legendary in crafting
You know exactly what you need to do and the exact minimum to get it done. Reduce the cost of materials to craft items you re able to craft by 1/3 their normal cost, rounded down. You must still meet all other crafting criteria and time requirements.
TL; DR-A few issues don’t keep this from being a fun book. 93%
Basics– Game over man, GAME OVER! Colonial Marines Operation Manual expands on the world of Aliens, focusing on the military men and women who will defend the frontier from both men and monsters. This book features a few new careers, talents, and items for the players and for the GM it has a TON of story and a whole campaign.
Mechanics or Crunch– This is a classic example of what’s here is good, but there needs to be more. There are a TON of ships and tanks, so if you wanted to have more of that in the game, you are going to love this. But there is not much new for characters to directly build themselves. What’s here is good however. The new military careers are fantastic and will make your character feel more like they are more than just generic soldiers. I would just like more player specific options. For the GM, there is an impressive amount here to throw around with a guide on how to make a military campaign and a full military campaign in the book! 4.5/5
Theme or Fluff– Want to learn over 200 years of history and culture in a book? This is that book! This book goes deep into the lore of the universe, and it’s well done. You get small glimpses into individual soldiers’ lives and an overview of nearly two centuries of corporate intrigue and international and planetary politics. This doesn’t even cover all the multitude of new aliens added to the lore or added to this game. This is a solid story hit. 5/5
Execution– I like what’s here, but don’t completely love it. The layout is ok, but it’s lots of green boxes with a black background. There are pictures, but not many when it comes to the aliens. Humans and weapons yes, which I like, but not many to show the new xenomorphs. The book does read easily and has hypertext, so I love that. The campaign is good, but I don’t like the layout as I feel some of the style hides the lead and makes it a bit hard to run on the fly. But, I do appreciate it. I’d like the pregens to be separate, but they do exist in the book. Not as character sheets, but as blocks that you can print out. It’s good, but I would like a few improvements. 4.5/5
Summary– If you want to run a military campaign for the Alien RPG, this is the book you need. Heck, it comes with a military campaign so you don’t event need to do hard work as a GM for the first 8 sessions! It’s not perfect; I want more player options and some changes to layout and writing. But these are small complaints compared to the parts of the book that are well done. 93%
Throat Punch Games 