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Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory: Litanies of The Lost
von michael h. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 11/19/2021 06:12:43

Cubicle 7 really dropped the ball with this adventure collection. (Which is surprising after the excellent CRB)

If finally got the printed book several days ago and I immediately noticed the many typos (especially in the first adventure, Grim Harvest). NPCs names are sometimes written differently, another changes his/their pronoun from one paragraph to the next and the sentence structure is garbled in many places, as if there was a lot of hasty cut and paste editing going on at the last minute. It takes a lot of this to make me complain about it but in this book it impedes comprehension in some places so I had to bring it up.

Area names are sometimes also mixed up. In one adventure, you rescue NPC A in area X and they immediately ask the PCs to escort them to area X, where they all currently are... It was easy to figure out, what she actually wanted, but this is still annoying.

I also have reason to believe, little thought was put into the general structure of some adventures (or maybe they weren't playtested properly?). In the second adventure, a group of players, armed to the teeth, is presented with a monastery overrun with orcs. The adventure all but wants them to sneak through the dark halls, being only harassed by the orcs, especially their Kaptin and having scripted encounters while rescuing the monks one by one. I can imagine what many players are gonna do instead. I KNOW what my group will TRY to do instead. Exposing the traiter could have involved some more clever detective work also.

And what exactly the deal was between an NPC in the first adventure and the dark Eldar and why the dark Eldar even bothered, I don't know. Players can ask the DM the most inconvenient questions in such situations.

There is also a severe lack of maps in these adventures. Every adventure has an overview map of the entire area and that's it. Not gridded combat maps whatsoever. While it seems to me that W&G is supposed to be a more storytelling-focused game than e.g. DnD, it is still rather combat heavy and many players (especially my group, who I practically raised on DnD 3rd edition half a lifetime ago) really appreciate and ask for those maps. Well, a lot more work for me as the DM here... In fact, some important sub-areas that only appear as a marking on the general overview map do not have a map at all. Even if the bossfight is supposed to be taking place there. I am looking at you, Grim Harvest. So I have to design that entire area with opportunities for tactical play myself. It is not that I don't like that activity, but I have little time these days and there is a reason I am spending money on such a product.

I don't think I will be spending money on further Wrath and Glory Adventures.



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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Archives of The Empire Vol 2
von Paweł S. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 11/18/2021 10:03:14

One of the best supplements to date that Cubicle7 has published. Great work!



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Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Core Rulebook
von Drew U. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 10/22/2021 13:21:23

Wrath and Glory is the newest iteration of 40k roleplay, and it is... flawed. I really want to like it, and it has some wonderful ideas and additions, but there are some mistakes that need to be adressed. I will go through a list of Pros and Cons here, then give some final thoughts. As a preface, I hate dice pools and love D100. It is my favorite core mechanic in gaming.

PROS:

-Much easier on the GM than the old d100 systems. Though I hate dice pools and these rules are still fairly clunky, making things and running combats is easier. As of right now you'll be brewing a lot, but you had to brew a shit load in the d100 systems unless everyone played an exact cutout relevant to the premise, and it is easier here.

-Tiers are a great idea. They help direct the types of PCs that fit for a certain game and accentuate the next pro:

-This is a big one. The fact that this is actually a 40k RPG. Not a "a specific group of humans doing a specific thing in 40k" RPG. Though this point has some caveats in the cons, a game could convivably run many games for a few factions with just the core. And this is very good. If C7 is smart they will release a supplement for Orks, Tau, and Eldar of all stripes in the future. 40k has always been too focused on the Imperium of Man, and this could fix that.

-Frameworks are actually quite helpful for setting the tone of a game, despite how light they are in terms of mechanics (this is a good thing, the game is too crunchy as is).

-The consistent damage is a complaint by a few, but I like it. There are many ways to increase damage and the fact that lasguns will not randomly be better than bolters on a turn without narrative reason is superior to the old D100 rpgs.

-No more talent bloat. The old D100 RPGs had such absurd talent bloat that you essentially had to print out a cheat sheet for yourself on top of the combat cheat sheets and such.

-The book does an okay job distilling the setting into a digestible bite. Many cons on this below.

-Fairly solid pre-made adventures if that's your thing.

Matters of Preference

-This is a much more heroic take on 40k than the past D100 rpgs in terms of survivability. In the older games humans could be torn apart without fail by hits that one could quite likley survive here. I honestly like my games on the deadlier side for this setting, and use the Grimmer and Darker rules as I find memorable injuries to just be a bit too forgiving. For those who like being big shots, they will enjoy this.

-Dice pools are slow, clunky, and offer nothing that other mechanisms do not. I hate them. You may like them, and this dice pool system is okay. At least shifting 6s gives some form of interactivity and some people like hucking 12 d6 when their warlock smites something.

-The game is crunchy in a very clunky way. Tons of non-interactive or intuitive powers and open mechanics. It is not smooth and interconnected like say, Zweihander or Lancer. Some like crunch. I do not, when it is not satisfying. Keep the book nearby and the cheat sheets plentiful.

-Before I complained to C7, there was no PF character sheet (the timing was funny, I likely had 0 impact on its creation). There is one now, so this does not go in Cons, but no game should ship with a sheet that is ugly or not printer friendly.

Cons

-The fact that every product in this line is shipped with major typos and issues and those do not get fixed for months is unforgivable.

-The fact that this science fantasy game about war in the far future lacks mass combat rules and void ship rules in the core is unforgivable. The subsystems for Ship combat could be a really cool and streamlined take on what BFG tried to do all those years ago, for example.

-The beastiary sucks. Yes a book is coming out in the far future but you will need to get all the Abundance of Apocrypha homebrews (which you should anyway, JeffBiscutGod is an absolute grace on this community).

-The take on the setting is shallow, uninteresting, and frankly lacks a lot of mastery. 40k is not consistent at all, but this should be a publishers reason to read everything they can to construct the most rich and intersting 40k they can, disregarding bits that are bad. This reads like 40k for DnD heads. The old D100 systems had a myriad of issues, but Dark Heresy was one of the most flavorful games I've ever played.

-Some of the tier assignments are odd. It is clear that they are a measure of combat prowess, not position in society or any sort of soft power.

-Too few psyker powers. the D100 systems had this too. I know the tabletop wargame has about six spells per list, but this is the place to be far better than that. The medium is less limited.

-Brewing is easy, but I'm having to brew some things I shouldn't have to. No greater Daemons in core? for real?

-The sub-setting is incredibly restrictive for no reason. Why on earth (Terra?) is it a single system. Give us a system for playing in 40k. All of it. Release your pet system later as a supplement to give new GMs ideas.

-Overall lack of content. It releases at a fairly slow pace and it is rarely enough. Especially when the game is missing key components of the 40k experience.

-Too married to the Wargame. This is an RPG, and it should be striving to faithfully and effectivley immerse players into the vast and rich setting that is 40k. Not emulate the wargame on a skirmish scale.

-It just reeks of a lack of passion. Most of the aspects in which it falls short are not structural issues. They are issues of C7 not giving enough care to a setting that deserves it, even if the company that made it (GW) is shit. I get that making games is hard work, and this medium does not rake in the dough. But I genuinely think that the folks at C7 can do better than this.

Final Thoughts

I want to like WanG. It has many good things under all the issues. I like each expansion produced (even if they come riddled with typos and errors), But it needs many expansions to be up to snuff (hell, where it should have been at launch), but for now I am in C7's corner. Despite the myriad of issues, I play WanG instead of other 40k rpgs and will support it as much as I can. I just wish it was easier to defend. If you like 40k and can bring your own setting knowledge into this, get WanG and the homebrew mentioned above. I hope C7 does us proud.



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Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Champions of Death
von Liam S. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 10/19/2021 07:42:54

Will it ever end?? The constant brilliance from Cubicle 7 and its writers never cease to amaze. Soulbound: Champions of Death is fantastic. Immediately upon reading the first few paragraphs I began to see the campaigns and one-shot adventures I could conduct with this product. It has an absolute plethora of information for the GM and the players. From a sleugh of Archetypes to a Kleptomaniacs dream of items and artefacts. Not to even mention the Dark Rituals and Endeavours this book provides. From raising Hordes of undead servants, to a simple feast to gain some new “friends” and of course the Vampire’s dream of Sycophants and Cultist devoted to you, all in the hopes of one day being granted the blessed Blood Kiss. Rituals and Endeavours, that add fun and with the simple ruleset of Soulbound nothing to complex as to overflow the players and GM with information. Vampires, Ghouls, Ghosts and Skeletons all make a show, brilliantly might I add. Not forgetting the big bones of the Ossiarch Bonereapers. There is genuinely enough information here to build endless campaigns and enough archetypes to give players an absolute breadth of choice. 5/5 couldn’t recommend more. Death isn’t the end. In fact it just got a whole lot more interesting.



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Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Stars and Scales
von Liam S. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 10/19/2021 07:31:56

A great entry to the ever-growing Soulbound catalogue. A great pick up to run one-time adventures or additional characters for short adventures. Works perfect for introducing people into the TTRPG world, if they are worried about talking, no worries you're a giant lizard who doesn't talk much! You want an easy lean into fights, no worries you're a giant lizard! It's great to have people who are unsure but want to try something simple. The Saurus Oldblood is great for that. On the other end you have the skink, now while they are a cool smaller Lizard, they are slightly more advanced as spell casters. Again, a great introduction into spellcasting, especially using them for one shot adventures. A short list of spells to dabble in the arcane is a great start. The reason this product gets 4/5 is, I feel like there could have been maybe 2 more Archtypes. An Ancient Kroxigor and a Chameleon Skink Chief, or something similar. However, it’s a relatively cheap product packed with great ideas. With the information given in this PDF there isn’t much stopping astute GM’s to create a few more talents and archetypes to really fill out the Seraphon.



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Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory, Core Rulebook
von delfino g. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 10/13/2021 00:01:59

Coming from a mostly DnD background I had no idea what kind of system I was getting into with Wrath and Glory but, surprisingly enough it seemed extremely manageable!

The wrath dice system is great and fun to brain storm the critical failures or success with the party when they happen. The Gilead system they put before you is a great jumping off point to really give you tons of space to stretch you world build skills out. The only real set back is some extra rules in combat that maybe could have been more streamed line (throwing a granade they way it blast and full round actions into multi actions )

all in all im pretty casual when it comes to Warhammer lore a newbie for sure. And I still had a great time DMing this over foundry VTT.

10/10 would pick up again



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Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Champions of Death
von Robbie S. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 10/03/2021 18:07:08

Another stellar expansion that completely opens up the excellent Soulbound system to a whole new perspective to easily play as the bad guys.



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Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Core Rulebook
von Robbie S. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 10/03/2021 18:05:43

Sometimes feels like a direct answer to 5e doing everything it does in a streamlined and satisfying way, with some of the best 5e homebrew mechanics and ideas bolted into the foundations of Soulbound in a way that makes it a deeply satisfying system to run after a lot of experience with D&D.

It doesnt hurt that Soulbound seems designed with AoS miniatures in mind and is fully compatible with bringing your Age of Sigmar collection to the tabletop for cinematic battles.



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Warhammer Age of Sigmar Soulbound: Bestiary
von Robbie S. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 10/03/2021 18:01:59

Soulbound does a beautiful job of directly translating units from Age of Sigmar into TTRPG experiences. Anyone with a love of Warhammer is going to get a kick out of this system, and the Bestiary is a treasure trove of fun ideas and an essential companion to core book.

Monster design in Soulbound, like the system itself, is elegantly simple, yet deeply satisfying.



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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay First Edition - Shadows Over Bögenhafen The Enemy Within Part 1
von Antoine D. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 08/20/2021 01:02:45

Great scan. Putting 1 star to alert that it is missing a scan of the famous Bogenhafen color map.

Edit: After digging on the web for a while, I found a very high res version, I am happy to provide it if the editor contacts me.



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Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory - Redacted Records
von Jacob S. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 08/19/2021 09:15:41

So this seems probably to be quite the contentious release for C7, certainly the most contentious since Ulisses original Core Rulebook release before the license changed hands in relation to Wrath & Glory overall.

Redacted Records is the beginning, as far as we know, of a series of more 'zine' like articles from various writer that C7 is releasing to expand not only the game mechanics but the overall setting of Gilead. Here it does shine, the setting of Gilead is quickly becoming "What fire are we going to try to put out today" as the system has an ever growing myriad of destructive threads within, without, and beyond, that threaten the tentative network of influences across the planets of the System as they attempt to stay together without upseting each of the balances of one another.

The various components of the release include:

  • Space Hulk Generation
    • Here you will get various articles on the creation of space hulks from general layout, events therein, loot to be found, and threats thereon (though not many have actual bestiary entries on the threats as NECRONS while mentioned are not currently in the game)
    • Additionally there are notes on Space Hulks occupying Gilead currently, though these can obviously be transplanted anywhere as they're space hulks. They don't have their own layouts noted rather than a narrative write-up of what you will find on them
  • Frameworks
    • Creating Frameworks
    • Each Faction gets frameworks
      • Entertainingly there is an A-Team easter egg in the Scum Frameworks
    • Each Faction has an extension of abilities on their own that aren't all tied to being part of a Framework specifically
      • The Adepta Sororitas for example have a table to more specifically emulate the Order they are a part of rather than just "Order Famulous", and this is transferable. The Adeptus Mechanicus do as well with specific Forge Worlds. Whereas the Adeptus Ministorum have the ability to get 'Faith' talents at a lower cost and activating them with Glory rather than Faith specifically.
    • Frameworks by Tier (if you want a more general approach to a game suggestions are made as well)
  • Strange Servitors of Gilead
    • Herein is another setting expansion with various notes of servitors and how oddly they are made or have become in the system since the Cicatrix.
  • New Talents
    • These are a list of 'A to I' talents that are being added to the game. They are mostly cheaper than what is seen in the Core Rulebook which I think is good as many talents in the Core were a costly investment and for some it felt like the reward was not worth the effort. Others after time had little else to spend XP on. Here we see a variety of talents to expand a character out in a lot of different ways other than just combat.
  • Cults
    • Ten cults (five each) on Avachrus and Netherus that threaten Gilead in one way or another.

New Items: (not associated with NPC blocks):

  • Various Loot from Space Hulks for Imperial, Aeldari, Ork, Chaos, or Weird origins
    • The entries here are not inherently new items, though some are they aren't laid out like normal items and are more narratively described with mechanical additions to items within the core. For example Archaic Weaponry are pieces of Adeptus Mechanicus gear that woud increase standing with the faction if they were donated.
  • The Gilead Rosarius
  • Sinister (unique power sword)
  • Penitent's Lash
  • Jokaero Modifications
  • Improvised Weapons (associated with a new talent)

New NPC Blocks:

  • Psychneuein
  • Corrupted Scribes
  • Jacobin Grizari
  • Slaughter Servitor (Processor, Corral, or Excoriator)
  • Eternity Watch
  • Machinae Fractus
    • Spider Skulls
  • Sundered Wheel Cultist
  • Helixus Harvester Tech-Priest
  • Iron Feeder
  • Heralds of the Asure Flame
  • Order of the Throne Knight Paladin (the first Imperial Knight stats we've seen)
  • Escutcheon Assassin
  • Epciurean Bodyguard
  • Worshipful Rootfolk

In all, I can say that if you're a player the most useful things you will likely find here are the 'Framework Creation' guidelines as that's a group activity and more expressly the talents. As a GM the entire booklet is of course useful for inspiration, the frameworks and talents more directly useful (oddly I think the space hulk loot tables are more useful...not in space hulks than in them), and the new NPCs are a nice addition (the Knight expressly for higher tier threats.

That said I do think it is a little pricey (personally I'd like $15 for the pdf over $20) given how...loose the Space Hulk generation feels (they're all separate articles rather than one concise piece of creation material), if there was more meat to that then I would feel like it will be a very solid release when they get around to correcting some layout issues and minor issues throughout the text (nothing major now since the hot-patch). I however understand that any cheaper for a booklet of nearly 100 pages would be difficult to get any profit on as you have to pay for creation, maybe if Redacted Records was smaller and you therefore had more to make down the line it may have been easier. I however can't say one way or the other.

Overall, I'd rate it at 3 stars, it was a rougher release than it needed to be as the couple issues should have been picked up in proof reading (honestly I'd have likely put it at 4 if it were not for that), and I do think it is a little pricey for the directly relevant material to a game not in Gilead. NOT a bad product in any regard, but more average. Perhaps with further 'Redacted Records' releleases I'll feel the series overall is better we will have to see.



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Warhammer 40,000: Wrath & Glory - Redacted Records
von Drew U. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 08/16/2021 09:18:16

Fix this. It's a mess of typos, missing info, and is overcosted to boot. This needs to be errata'd asap, as does Forsaken System. It's absurd that this was released in this manner and that these things aren't fixed as soon as people point them out. This review will change upon action being taken.

I want to support and like WaG, I really do. It has the capacity to be a great iteration of 40k roleplay, but this sort of thing just won't cut it.

EDIT: The day after this review an update dropped for this product. The talents are still undercosted and the contents a tad lackluster, but the errors have been promptly edited. I am impressed with C7 and hope this trend continues. I look forward to the next supplement.



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Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Fourth Edition Rough Nights and Hard Days
von Will G. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 08/11/2021 18:30:25

By far my favorite pregen adventures I've ever run. Every scenario takes place over the course of a singular day/event. A night at an inn where your characters don't get to sleep! A day at a courthouse and an epic trial by combat! An evening at the Opera that your characters won't enjoy watching because they're solving the political intrigues! A fourth one is a wedding that could end in four different murders and destabilise the nearby town's hierarchy. A lavish dinner party filled with skaven mercenaries, scheming politicians all trying to poison each other, madcap plots and rambling speeches and dastardly liasons in the night!

There is no sweeter sound to the GM than an exasperated player saying "I JUST WANT TO SLEEP" in character as a disgruntled nobleman breaks down every door of the inn trying to find the bastard "Who's fuckin' my wife!?"



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Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition
von Michael M. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 08/09/2021 01:53:45

The Second Edition of the Doctor Who Roleplaying Game is a mixed bag, making it not a bad product, but also not a brilliant one.

Before I dive deeper into the details, let me say that I'm not very experienced with the First Edition. I used to play it a few times, but the rules didn't convince me. It felt too much lost in mechanical details, at least as I remember it; it's been a couple of years. Reading that the new edition would be streamlined caught my interest. I'm down for rules-light, narrative games. But the new edition isn't really what I expected. It’s kind of the same problem that I have with 2D20: The result reads like it was meant to be something else, but someone experienced Fate during the development process and wanted this, too.

Unlike the other reviewer, I like the idea of concept and focus. They are simple, focused guidelines that can help especially new players to understand their character. Yes, they are not very detailed and open for interpretation, but that’s fine for me. It’s a broader framework that helps you finding and defining your character. Coming from Fate, I’m used to it. I also have no problem with the streamlined skill list. And honestly: If something is missing here, that’s the easiest to fix.

The basic rules for overcoming an obstacle are also in my favour. The ten-step ladder of difficulties reminds me of Cypher and makes it very easy to rate the difficulty. Simply determine it on a scale from 1 to 10 and multiply the number by 3. Done. I appreciate that they cut the extra step of math (compare the result to TN to get your margin of success). Just check if you rolled any 1s or 6s and see if you need to add a BUT or AND to your result. That is straightforward and the kind of simplification that I like.

My problems begin when it comes to Distinctions. I agree that they are too hand-wavey. I don't miss or need an elaborated list of Traits. But an important mechanic like this needs more guidelines. I think they took the wrong notes from Fate here. Distinctions feel a lot like Stunts; Stunts are also very versatile and can be everything that makes the characters special. But they also come with easy and strict guidelines on how they work mechanically and what they cost. Doctor Who Second Edtion does this not. It leaves this part of the game design to the GM. That feels lazy and opens the door for unnecessary discussions at the table. Just a few bold decisions and some bullet points (like: a Distinction does either a, b, or c for x Story Points) could’ve solved it. As vague as this central element is, other parts are just as crunchy, like temperature or chasing rules.

My other big problems are Story Points. They follow a trend for meta-resources that I don't always like. Only if they are very well executed. Here they are not. The bottom line is that they are more important than rolling the dice. Reading this, I got the impression that a conflict between PC and NPC is decided primarily by who is willing to spend more Story Points. That’s okay, but not my style. I like Story Points (or similar) as a tool to influence the luck and award players. But I don't like the stacking game after the roll. What makes it worse is the indecision of what to spend Story Points on. That is a problem with many games that use this kind of meta-resource. Somehow anything goes with them, and using them isn't particularly intuitive. That can quickly lead to discussions that take the focus away from the actual scene. Once again, Fate does it better here.

Back to the good stuff: The other reviewer already praised the experience system and I want to second that. The only thing I don't understand is why the costs have to be so different. Sometimes it's x times target level, then x plus target level, then x plus x times target level, or a fixed value. That already reads unnecessarily complicated.

A last thing about the layout and writing. Yes, it’s Doctor Who and the Doctor is chatty. The text captures this very well. However, it is mainly text for quick use at the gaming table. And for such purposes, being chatty is a bad thing. More highlights and reference tables would've been very useful. The layout is clear and pleasant to read. The colors are also very well chosen. In short, it looks good. One thing that is not quite mine: As in the first edition, all the images here are also photos or stills from the TV series. I understand why they do it (or maybe have to do it), but it doesn't appeal to me. I know what the series looks like. Here I would have liked to see more original artwork that inspires adventures. Adventures without the Doctor. Adventures with Companions we don't know but are like the player characters you create. Adventures on worlds we haven't seen yet.

Taking everything into account, I’m not very hyped by the Second Edition. My problems are others than with the First Edition, but the result is the same: I’m not eager to jump into the TARDIS and go on adventures in time and space. It’s a nice read and a beautiful book, though, but it makes me think (again) of a better system for a great Doctor Who RPG experience.



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Doctor Who: The Roleplaying Game Second Edition
von Conor L. [Verifizierter Käufer] Hinzugefügt am: 08/05/2021 09:48:56

This isn't a nice review to have to write, because I've been a fan of the Doctor Who RPG since it first came out. I've been GMing it for about 10 years now, and have bought each and every new edition and expansion that Cubicle 7 has published. They've had a remarkable good run and I don't think they've ever put a foot wrong, until now.

The most prominent change you'll notice moving from First Edition to Second Edition is the removal of Traits. Traits were the little interesting quirks you attached to your character during character creation to make them unique. You'd have simple little ones like "Brave" or "Cowardly", and big, more complex ones like "Telekinetic" or "Immortal", each with their own little rules for how to play them. It was a really nice, flexible system. Sure, some of the minor traits probably didn't need to be spelled out so formally (giving charm bonuses for a character being Attractive probably doesn't need a paragraph in the rule book), but in general they provided clear, balanced rules for playing pretty much any character you could think of. Possibly even more importantly, it was the fun part of character creation; the part where you take your generic Ood or Sontaran or whatever and ask yourself "Do they have a recurring nemesis? An unreliable heart? Do they have any cyborg body parts?" Everybody loved picking Traits!

Except, apparently they didn't. Because Traits are gone now and replaced with Focuses and Distinctions, and the book tries its hardest to gaslight you into thinking that Traits were some sort of awful mathematical burden that you're better off without. Focuses and Distinctions try to fill in what Traits used to do, but are blander, more hand-wavey, and less well defined. The book tells you that they allow you to "add character to your character without worrying about points and values" but, to be honest, that comes across as the sales pitch of somebody who's just replaced the wheels of your car with digestive biscuits and is trying to tell you that it's an improvement because now they taste delicious.

I'll start with Focuses. Every character has a Focus, which is defined in the book as "What makes them tick?". Essentially it's your character's driving force defined in one-or-two words, and it functions a little bit like the Traits of old. When your character does something that could be helped by their focus (for example, a person with a Romance Focus flirting), they get some extra dice on their roll. When your character uses their focus as justification not to do something (for example, somebody with a law focus refusing to commit a crime), they get rewarded with story points. The trouble is though, hammering a character down into a focus-shaped box leaves you with flat, one-dimensional characters. Yes, you've saved on book-keeping by not having to write down as many Traits, but you've essentially given your character "their thing", and that's what that character is going to be about.

I can understand where the Focus concept came from. Just before he regenerated, the Twelfth Doctor told his next incarnation to "Be Kind", and sure enough, the Thirteenth Doctor's thing has been kindness. And yes, "Kindness" is her focus on the pregen character sheet. The trouble is that this one-note approach would generally be seen as more of a weakness than a strength of the current era of Doctor Who, and it also doesn't really apply to any character other than the Thirteenth Doctor. What made the Tenth Doctor tick? Loads of things: compassion, justice, loneliness, grief over the Time-Lords, his love for Rose, his own vanity and self-importance. If you were to try and force all of that down into one Focus you'd either have to pick one random thing from the list, disregarding every other aspect of his character, or pick something so vague that it could literally apply to any character ever. Cubicle 7 has done both of these with their pregens: Yaz's focus is "The Law" and Ryan's is "Hope". If the creators of the game can't even make the Focus system interesting, then what hope do the players have?

Then we have the Distinctions, which are sort of replacements for the bigger Traits only not nearly as well defined. Let's look at a Time-Lord character for example. In the First Edition, a Time-Lord would have a particular set of Traits: Time-Lord, Code of Conduct, Feel the Turn of the Universe, and Vortex. Time-Lord gives an Ingenuity bonus and lets them regenerate (as defined in the regeneration rules), Code of Conduct binds them to a code of behaviour, Feel the Turn of the Universe gives an innate ability to tell if time has been tampered with, and Vortex lets them fly a time machine. Sure, some of these things should probably go without saying, and a lot of them could be merged together, but each one of them is specific, and has its own defined rules which the players of GM can check at any time.

Compare that to the Time-Lord Distinction given as an example in the Second Edition. Directly from the book, a Time-Lord's abilities are: "able to generate, telepathic, lonely". How does regeneration work? Don't know! It's not defined in the book. How does telepathy work? Also, not in the book! The First Edition has specific rules for telepathic powers, differentiating Clairvoyance, Telepathy, Hypnosis, and Telekinesis, and setting rolls and limits on each of them. In this case it seems the whole concept has just been left up to whatever whim the GM takes. As I've said, I've been running the game for 10 years now, and in that time I've GM'ed several telepathic characters. You know what's really handy to have when they want to try some crazy mind-power hijnks? A table of rules so they can know exactly what their limits are!

Cubicle 7 would probably defend this as reducing the amount of maths in the game, and generally getting people away from having to look things up in the book. But it's so inconsistent! The rules governing telepathic powers are gone, yet there's still a table on page 102 defining how much damage a character will take over a number of days in 30 degree temperatures, and how this differs from 45 degree temperatures. There's been plenty of episodes of Doctor Who with various forms of psychic powers involved, but I don't think there's ever been one about The Doctor getting sunburned after spending a week walking around in the summer. It's like they honestly made an effort to cut out all of the most useful, fun rules and only leave in the really mundane ones that nobody ever read.

Focuses and Distinctions aside, there's also been some changes to how dice-rolls work. In First Edition your level of success or failure at a task depended on how high or low you rolled under the target. This has been changes to a D&D-like system of critical successes and failures. You roll one 1, something bad happens, two 1s and it's a critical failure, and the same in reverse with 6s. It's an interesting idea, and it does make it a lot quicker to calculate how well a roll has gone. A weird side-effect though, is that if a caveman and Bill Gates both roll to hack a computer system, they are both just as likely to get a critical success. This seems like a pretty unbalancing flaw, but critical successes are so rare that I'm not sure how much impact it would have on most campaigns, and it does make things a bit more efficient. I'd have to play more to make up my mind.

Story Points have been nerfed, allowing the player to effectively reroll their lowest dice for a higher number rather than adding addititional dice to their roll. On the one hand, this prevents a player with a low skill succeeding at something very unlikely by throwing a bunch of Story Points at it. On the other hand, people with low skill succeeding at something very unlikely is pretty much the character development arc of most Doctor Who companions. The jury is out on this one too.

There's also been a slightly questionable change to the Skills system. Fighting and Marksman are gone and have been merged into the singular "Combat" skill. This is to make room for a new skill called "Intuition". Personally I don't think it makes much sense that a boxer and archer would both be using the same skill for their professions, and I think it's questionable if Intuition actually is a skill (when have you ever heard of anyone training get better at hunches?), but this is fairly minor.

To bring some positivity though, there is one aspect of the Second Edition that really shines, and that's the Experiences system. Character growth in the First Edition was very ill-defined, and advice to the GM was pretty much "let people have an extra skill point now and then, if you feel like it." Well, that is now gone, and the new rules are fantastic! Basically, now, at the end of each game, everyone sits down and reminisces about the cool things that they've just done. Then each of them chooses one particularly cool experience that each character had, and that gets written on the character's sheet. Now, every time that character experiences a similar situation they can recall that Experience to get an extra dice added onto their roll. Even better, each time an Experience is recalled, it increases in value, and can eventually be traded in for a permanent boost to a skill or attribute. This is an excellent incentive to keep players invested in the campaign, and is a really clever way of keeping the memory of previous sessions fresh. Gamifying the process of reminiscing about a session is genuinely an ingenious idea!

Overall though, Experience system aside, I can't really recommend this edition of the game when the First Edition exists and does almost everything either just as well or better. It's very frustrating because I feel this could have been an opportunity to do some really great things with the Doctor Who brand. Simplyifying some of the Traits and streamlining some of the more cumbersome systems is a great idea, but its been done with such overzealousness that it's stripped out all of the fun. As it stands, I'm unsure if I'll continue collecting the books in this range. The Second Edition rules are so vague and filled with "agree with the GM how this works" that I don't really see what the value of expansions could be.

As it stands, this book is probably going to be more something to decorate my shelf with than anything I use for actual gameplay.



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