Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Urban Steampunk

December 23, 2014December 23, 2014 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Urban Steampunk

System– Uber RPG

Producer– Uber Goober Games

Price– ~$ 13 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/100785/Urban-Steampunk-ber-RPG-Steampunk-sourcebook

TL; DR– Ankmir is a fun playground, but this book isn’t full of player options. 85%

Basics-You can’t have steampunk if you don’t have a Victorian city full of machines! This book provides a perfect city of steam Ankmir to play in/destroy while giving GM’s the options to build their own world.

Theme or Fluff-Much like the other setting books by Uber Goober, this book does a great job of building three different worlds in the same city. Uber Goober sets up a world of steam tech, a world full of rebels, and a world for magic all in the same city. Whatever game you want to play, Uber’s sets up the world and gives good background for a great setting to start your own game. 5/5

Mechanics or Crunch– And here is where the book suffers. Just like Steampunk Uncharted, this book isn’t a splat book for characters. There are few mechanics discussed here, but don’t get this book if you just want more player options. There is a great deal of information regarding all the different important population information a player could want if you want to get super crunchy in your story. It’s a story book, but that aspect is done well. 3.5/5

Execution-This book could use some more pictures to distract from the walls of text. But the book does have lots of maps, so that helps. There is textbook problem here as many pages are just two columns of black text on a white background. That doesn’t draw the reader, but what is here is set up as best as it could be giving the amount of art that is in this one. Each area gets a description, how to play in the three types of steampunk, story seeds, and persons of interest in the area. 4.25/5

Summary– As with Steampunk Uncharted, if this book and the core Uber RPG: Steampunk book were put together, they would add up to one amazing book. Uber RPG: Steampunk introduced the city of Ankmir, but this book expands on the main city presented there. Ankmir is a fun playground to run around in, but if you only want new stuff for your characters, you might want to look at the other books by Uber Goober. 85%

Ring Side Report-Double RPG Review of Uber RPG! Uncharted Steampunk and Universal Airship Combat System

December 11, 2014 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ Leave a comment

Product-Universal Airship Combat System

System– Uber RPG: Steampunk

Producer– Uber Goober Games

Price– ~$ 13 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/101071/Universal-Airship-Combat-System-ber-RPG-Steampunk-sourcebook

TL; DR– Two books in one! 87%

Basics-Time to hit the sky! Universal Airship Combat System is a book covering the rules for airship and mech combat in the Uber RPG system. This book covers combat in the RPG as well as giving simple rules for a tabletop miniature system.

Theme or Fluff- Back to the fluff first reviews for the Uber system. This book is not a theme book, but it gives enough options that you can fit any theme into it. Uber RPG: Steampunk doesn’t have a default setting, so this book provides the mechanics to build whatever options you want into your own world. One of the saving graces for theme in this book is how damage is dealt. The system uses a 52 card deck to determine where shots hit and how it damages the ship. That kind of story elements really marries theme with mechanics as you get a short snippet on how the attack happens and some mechanical details to. As with the base Uber RPG: Steampunk, the book doesn’t do much give you a world, but provides the tools to build it. The only problem with that is you, the GM and players, have to do much more heavy story lifting. 4/5

Mechanics or Crunch– While this book isn’t a theme book; it is an amazing book for its mechanics. Much like Uber RPG: Steampunk, the base system is d6. The system presented here is amazingly simple and quick. Movement happens in ascending dexterity order. Slower ships move, and faster ships can react. Attacking happens simultaneously. You add up all the attack power your ship has, and then subtract the defensive powers your target has, and roll six sided dice. For each five rolled, draw a card from a deck of cards. For each six, draw two. The book has a chart detailing how the card damage and affects the ship as each suit and number focus on specific areas of the ship. Done! It’s a slick and quick system that makes combat not drag as some large scare combat systems do. The book even provides mech combat if you want to climb into a steam powered mechanical walker. And rules for mech vs. airship combat! AND rules for a table top miniatures game! Honestly, this book is jam packed with a quick, easy to use, fun to execute combat system. 5/5

Execution– Uber Goober is a small company, and small companies don’t have the art resources to make large scale book full to the brim with art. This book has lots of pages with only text. That kind of hurts the overall appeal as you have major textbook problem. However, this book has more tables and lots of art to show what the authors meant for each type of ship and mech. It’s better than the original book, but still a bit flawed. 4/5

Summary-This is an easy to use, short book that give you multiple ways to integrate steamtech into your world. This book isn’t the most reader friendly, but there is more art than the base book for the system. If you like the quick combat style of Uber RPG: Steampunk, then this build upon that and give more flair to large scale combat. Honestly, if Uber would add the random table of hit locations to the base Uber RPG: Steampunk I would love that system even more. If you you’re looking for a good tabletop system to handle steampunk miniature combat or a way to integrate more steam machine combat in your Uber RPG: Steampunk game, this is a great book to add to your collection. 87%

And now another Uber RPG: Steampunk Product!

Product-Uncharted Steampunk

System– Uber RPG

Producer– Uber Goober Games

Price– ~$ 13 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/102911/Uncharted-Steampunk-ber-RPG-Steampunk-sourcebook

TL; DR– Marry this with the base book, and it’s amazing. 83%

Basics-Need a world for your Uber RPG: Steampunk players to roam in? This is a companion book to the base Uber RPG: Steampunk game. This book provides a world to play in/destroy while still letting GM’s build their own world.

Theme or Fluff- Uber Uber Goober likes to let GMs build their own world. This book, while a setting book, still let’s GMs build their own world. How? Well each part of the world gets a description in the three main Steampunk styles that Uber introduces at the start of their books: steam tech focused, rebelling against society, and fantasy steampunk. Honestly, this has to be the best approach I’ve seen to getting the theme of your game out there. The author basically says “Here are three different worlds and their themes to play with. Choose one and go!” 5/5

Mechanics or Crunch– And here is where the book suffers. The book discusses the survival skill and gives ideas for encounters, but this book doesn’t have many new mechanics in it. What is here is good, but the books main purpose is to build the world for you, got give you new toys for that world. It doesn’t add to many new enemies or options, but what is here is well fleshed out. 3.5/5

Execution-PICTURES! This book has more pictures! The pictures of the continents are well done. However, much like Uber Goober’s other books, there are still a ton of pages with just black text on white page. This book is, by definition, a geography/history textbook, and it suffers from many of the same problems old textbook do. That makes this much less exciting to read. A few more pictures of the peoples and scenes of different places would have really helped draw the reader in. 4/5

Summary– If this book and the core Uber RPG: Steampunk book were put together, they would add up to one amazing book. This book has all the world building and steampunk theme any player could ask for. The core book has sleek mechanics that make the game run well. This book and the core both fill the gaps the other is missing. On its own, this book is a good world book that gives the GM enough options to make the game they want happen in the world of their choosing. What this book doesn’t have are many more mechanics and some more pictures to help set the stage and scenes. All together, this is good foundation for GMs to build the world they want. 83%

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of Uber RPG: Steampunk

December 7, 2014 ~ fineyoungmisanthrope ~ 2 Comments

Product-Uber RPG: Steampunk

System– Uber RPG

Producer– Uber Goober Games

Price– ~$ 20 here http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/100784/ber-RPG–Steampunk?site=&manufacturers_id=2798

TL; DR– A dense, but good, all purpose steampunk RPG. 82%

Basics-Have a steampunk idea in your head, but don’t have a way to execute it? This is the RPG for you. Uber RPG: Steampunk is a generic system designed to allow players and GMs to build the Steampunk world they want. Let’s dig into the individual parts.

Theme or Fluff- Usually I look at the mechanics of a book first, but this RPG’s theme needs a bit of an introduction First. Uber RPG: Steampunk is designed to be completely setting agnostic. If you want superhero Steampunk, then you can make this game superhero Steampunk. You want fantasy Steampunk, here you go. Magic? Same deal. That’s great, but you now have to bring many more of your own ideas to the party. The book does have examples of what kind of worlds you can build, but you’re the director on this one. This level of freedom is a double edged sword as now a GM and the players have to do much more of the heavy lifting instead of letting the RPG come prebuilt and prepackaged with its own world. The Steampunk is strong in this one as the author spends an incredible amount of time describing steampunk and the different forms of it. That is an excellent introduction to anyone who isn’t sure what Steampunk is. But, the saying “good at everything, master of nothing” kind of creeps in as so many different ideas a brought forth with only a little focus on each one. 4.25/5

Mechanics or Crunch– The system is a d6 based system. It’s quick and painless when you know what you’re doing. Let’s break down the different areas of the game.

Character Generation-Characters are made via a point buy system. As with the theme, anything goes as long as you all agree with what you want in your world. Several different examples of prebuilt characters are in the book, so you get a great idea of how to build a character. Look at the examples as your character build can kill you if you do it wrong! There is that much freedom here. If you know what you want, you can build that person from the get go. However, if you go in blind, you can make some serious mistakes that will end you in the first fight you get into.

Base Mechanic-This system is a d6 based system, but does not use the standard two numbers are good/one bad mechanic. Fives are one success, six’s are two successes, and ones represent complications. Every roll is mostly independent of any other number with successes dictating how well you succeed at a task. Dice pools are made in the standard attribute + skill ranks method common to d6 systems. If you roll more ones than total successes a botch happens where the GM dictates your failure somehow. This system is meant to speed up the game as the size of your dice pool can also dictate automatic successes. The larger the pool, the mightier the task you are assumed to instantly succeed at. I think that’s an awesome addition to the rules of any RPG. You reward players for building in one direction, but don’t slow the game down having to make them roll the dice.

Powers-This game uses powers to determine your attacks and other actions. Since the game doesn’t have one setting, Uber RPG: Steampunk gives you the ability to build whatever power you need ranging from magic missiles to Tesla coil ray guns. Each power builds a Mighty Dice Pool which keeps powers balanced. It’s easy to build lots of different powers quickly, and the balance also keeps things working like clockwork (Ha, Ha, Steampunk pun!) during combat. Powers can also be pushed which means that you roll extra dice or do extra effects, but this comes at the cost of doing damage to yourself or reducing the Mighty Dice Pool of your weapon. This represents over exerting yourself, running out of ammo for the gun, or causing some Steampunk device to go haywire.

Combat-Combat is quick and deadly! Each turn players get to announce and perform an action in descending dexterity order. Attacks use the Mighty Dice Pool determined earlier during character creation. Some powers reduce the effectiveness of an attack, but aside from that, there is no set number to determine if an attack hits and how hard. Characters do not have hit points. Instead, characters have conditions ranging from stunned (out of combat for one turn) to dead. After your attack with a power, you determine the number of success you got on your roll and compare that on a chart to the constitution of the target. Some powers and abilities reduce the dice pool rolled, but beyond that there is no defense roll or armor class from the target. It quick, clean, and very deadly!

Summary-This is well done universal system. You get all the toys you could ask for, but you have to build them yourself. Again, that’s heavy lifting for the GM as well as the players. Combats quick, but you do give up some say in what happens as aside from some powers, you don’t get to determine how attack affect you. This system works well if you invest time into it, but you do have to invest that time. You can also see the LARP roots in this system keeping combat quick and focusing on the narrative on the encounter rather than the numbers of the encounter. 4.5/5

Execution– I like the system, but the book itself has a classic case of text book problem. The book is incredibly full of information leading to several pages of text with few pictures. The text is small, but you can easily resize on an iPad if you read the PDF. I do like the quick summary of the game in the first few pages, but the sheer number of pages with text explaining everything in this book makes the book drag a bit. The content is good, but more pictures and white space would really help this one. 3.5/5

Summary-If you want flexibility; this is the system for you. The rules are well done to the point that anything anybody could want to make happen can happen. The theme is light, but that’s a direct result of the book being open to anybody who wants to make their own Steampunk game. The mechanics really reinforce that theme of open Steampunk design by focusing on balancing all the different things people could create. I do like the balance presented in this game. My only real concern with this game is it gets lost in its own open design and the density of material presented. The art is good, but there just isn’t enough of it. And, white space is your friend! However, if you can get past the problem of getting too much in a book, and don’t mind completely building your own world and powers, this book is a well stocked tool box for building your own Steampunk world. 82%