Big Bang: The Mostly Illustrated RPG Guide to Modern Weapons Special Edition

Big Bang is a series of modern weapon equipment products from Alternative Realities Press. This particular product is the revised edition of the first of that series written by Dana Jorgensen. This particular publication describes much of the weaponry currently in use in Iraq by Iraqi, American, British, and Australian forces. According to the product info listed in the EN World reviews section, this book contains 125 weapons from rifles to machine guns to grenade launchers and even anti-tank weaponry.

This book has weapon statistics for Cyberthriller, d20 Modern, FUDGE, and the Action system. Having stats for 4 different system does seem to make the book a little thicker, but care is done to keep the amount of information provided for each system in a short and concise table.

Note: I only have d20 Modern, and cannot comment on the rules accuracy of any game sysem. As such, all comments on game rules from this point forward are for sections under the heading of "d20 System" only.

After a short introduction, including changes in this revised version, the author also introduced a few new rules (or rather, rules changes) to the way systems calculate weapon damage in regards to armor penetrating missiles. Although the rules look to be solid, the way they are presented leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I understand the need for optional/additional rules when you don't feel that the core roles are lacking, but the author chooses to instead insult the original game creators while presenting the new rules. I would have loved to copy and paste a few of these comments into my review, but since the copy/paste function is disabled in this product I will not retype them into this review.

As for the meat of this product, the weapons in this product are highly researched and presented with plenty of supporting text, as well as a table of outside of game statistics such as production years, muzzle velocity, and the manufacturer's accuracy groupings. Weapon pages also include picutres or drawings of the weapons, including accessories (such as bayonets, grenade launchers, and extra magazines).

As mentioned above, the armor penetrating missiles do have stats that are calculated differently from core rules. As such, you may want to read the optional rules the author presents and make sure that these weapons are balanced against other weapons you are including in your game. The only other small rule change that rubs me a little wrong is the Purchase DC listed for the AK-47, which Dana lists at 7 (whereas the d20 Modern core rules lists this as 15). While I do understand that the cost of purchasing an AK-47 is fairly cheap, it does go against the unwritten rule that all firearms are DC 15 or higher so that players cannot easily obtain firearms without losing some bit of wealth. Some, including the author, may not agree with this rule, but to keep yourself from having a heavily armed level 1 party, it has a purpose.

What I liked:
Weapon descriptions are very detailed and well researched. Having pictures or drawings of the weapons included really adds to the flavor of the game instead of having them as just stats for players to sift through for maximum damage potential.

What I didn't like:
The single column layout with large amounts of text makes this read more like an essay on weaponry than a game book. I like the additional text, just not how it is laid out. There is also plenty of white space between text and game stat tables, as well as a few random blank pages inserted between weapons.

In presenting the rules, the author chooses to insult the writers of d20 Modern for creating rules he didn't like. It's not that the rules Dana presents are bad, I think they are very intuitive, but it's not very professional to introduce new rules in this manner.

Conclusion:
This book rates merely a 'meh' on my scale. If you're looking for factual information on a large amount of military weapons, this book is for you. Otherwise, this is very similar to other equipment books out there.


Edit: After hearing from the publisher, the review copy I was given was somehow not a full production release copy that was given to the public. I had originally posted a few negative comments regarding the lack of bookmarks and the copy/paste function not working. The actual product that was released does in fact include both of these functions. Because of that, I raised the product from a 2 - BAD to a 3 - Average.