Anyone have The Red Star Campaign Setting yet?

[prcrash]

I just ordered this from my FLGS, and I was wondering if anyone has it yet and what you think of it. I saw the preview PDF in the Green Ronin site and read about the background of the setting and it looks interesting (far ahead timeline-wise of D20 Modern but not quite D20 Future -- looks like PL-6 <> PL-7 to me)

 

[Emiricol]

Green Ronin you say? Red Star? Sounds promising. Hm. I'll be watching this thread too

 

[prcrash]

Found this little tid bit of info in a web magazine...

"The military are trained as sorceresses who "kast" (cast) "protocols" (spells) that are part of military strategies. Troops are carried in huge, mile long "Skyfurnaces", filled with infantry which are dropped into battle as needed inside smaller pods. Within these giant ships, there is an isolation chamber for the sorceress, where she is sort of suspended, alone, and can focus all her concentration on kasting protocols."

 

[Dismas]

Green Ronin has some previews up http://www.greenronin.com/cgi-bin/product.cgi?prodid=1406#related

I have to admit I had never heard of Red Star before and it wasn't even going to be on my purchasing radar, but having seen the previews it might just have to find the cash from somewhere.

 

[Khur]

The Red Star Campaign Setting is a good-lookin' book (I have a copy in my fat li'l fingers here.) Hardback, glossy pages, full color, nice art, and so on. On a skimming pass, I've spotted a few minor errors in its pages, but it looks promising all the same. I'll be reviewing it "for real" soon.

Oh, and this is based on the Modern SRD, but it has its own classes and such. There are no references to d20 Future as far as I can tell.

 

[Olive]

Oh, and this is based on the Modern SRD, but it has its own classes and such.

So it doesn't use the strong/fast/tough etc hero classes? Any explanation of why?

There are no references to d20 Future as far as I can tell.

No, while it was originally planned to be Future, they decided they didn't need it to be once they looked at the future rules.

Oh yeah, some one put a reasonably detailed discussion up on the GR forums.

 

[Khur]

To quote the book:

"The Red Star Campaign Setting does not use the normal pattern of basic and advanced classes. Characters in the Red Star universe usually have strong identities specific to the setting. Given there are no penalties for multiclassing, it should be possible to create any character type from the comics with the rules presented here...."

Seems they decided the specific classes served the setting better.

They also don't use the normal d20 Modern occupation rules.

More later.

 

[Dismas]

They also don't use the normal d20 Modern occupation rules.

More later.

Or non-lethal damage rules. From what I understand it follows the DnD model instead. Also spells do non-lethal damage to caster.

 

[Olive]

Seems they decided the specific classes served the setting better.

They also don't use the normal d20 Modern occupation rules.

What do they do with occupations?

I have a theory that Pramas/GR doesn't like the d20 Modern classes... from the very brief preview, it looks like The Black Company will use some d20 Modern influences as well, but that has named classes as well...

Ah well, what are the RS classes?

 

[swrushing]

Does anyone else find the stark red background and gray with black shadow text in **every table** to be a little straining on the eyes? i did. While i am all for flavor, feel and style, this struck me as a real sacrifice of form and function for flash.