Anyone care to read my 4 page C&C review?

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Given that the GM for any RPG does 95 percent of the work, I think a game that helps him/her out should promote this feature as one of its main virtues.

Sure, if the players simply do not like a game, they will not play it. Big surprise. But it is refreshing to see a system that recognizes the burden on the GM, and tries to lessen it somewhat.

IME the GM's happiness with a system it perhaps the most important factor in determining whether or not a gaming session succeeds.

Bingo. Unless the players want to take over as DM the guy who is doing most of the work should have a big say in what game is going to be played. I didn't like DM'ing 3e after about 6th level, and as a result sessions went downhill. Eventually I told the guys I'd rather not play at all than to run 3e. Nobody else really has the time to DM so we switched back to 1e, then to C&C when it came out, which pretty much entailed them selecting primes for thier 1e characters.

 

[SteveC]

All reviews are a study in bias. That's what an editorial is. Its your bias. Your opinion. The only obligation a reviewer has is to be fair, and it looks like he was.

Chuck

Really good points! I think what some people are looking for in a review is basically a list of the contents and they use it to make up their own mind. To me, that's not really a review. One thing a reviewer, a good reviewer will do anyway, is give me their opinion. I think that all of the best reviewers on ENWorld and RPG.NET pretty much wear their hearts on their sleeves when it comes to their opinions. The very best of them give you both solid content and their take on it.

For me, I have certain reviewers that I tend to agree with. The most valuable review for me is one from someone I trust who reviews a game that I think I'd like, and then hates it. This makes me seriously examine a product before buying it, and it has saved me having even more bad products on my bookshelf.

As far as C&C goes, I think people are having a love-hate relationship with it. For me, I love the SIEGE engine in its simplicity, but much of the remainder is so darn clunky! When I first looked at the game I had one of those "wow!" moments, but when I got to the classes that turned into an "ick!" I don't think I've ever had such extreme opposite reactions to different parts of a game in a very long time. I guess this means I can understand where all of the extremes of reaction occur to the game, since I have both of them myself...

--Steve