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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KDLadage" data-source="post: 2010645" data-attributes="member: 88">Before I begin, let me say that I have been waiting for this book since it was first hinted about in Dragon Magazine. Babylon 5 is, by a wide margin, my favorite sci-fi setting. And, after reading the book produced by Mongoose, I would have to say that they have done a fine job. Most all of my concerns (and those things that have dragged this rating down from a 5 or even a 4) revolve around game mechanics and organization. I simply disagree with many of the game mechanic aspects of the game. But before we get too far ahead of ourselves, lets look under the hood and see what you get for your US$44.95:A LOOK INSIDEIntroduction / Preface / Welcome (pages 005-013)These three sections cover everything from what you need to play to a look at how this version of d20 fits in with other d20 games. The preface is actually a letter from series creator J. Michael Straczenski; the Welcome section is a brief (10,000 ft. view) of the Babylon 5 Universe. Overall these sections are well written and easy to follow. The letter, although interesting, seems a bit out of place sandwiched into the introductory material as it is. It is offered up as just another couple of pages in the book. Pity, says I.Characters on Babylon 5 (pages 014-058)In this section we get a look at the races available to players (Humans, Centauri, Minbari, Narn, Drazi, and Brakiri -- strangely, in that order), the classes they can begin play in (Agent, Diplomat, Lurker, Officer, Scientist, Soldier, Telepath, and Worker), a look at skills and feats. The races, unless you have seen the show, would take too long to explain. If you have seen the show, there is no need to explain them. So I will move on.The classes are basically as follows:AGENT: These are assassins, covert operatives and spies.DIPLOMAT: These are ambassadors, negotiators, and government ministers.LURKER: These are beggars, bums and thieves.OFFICER: These are pilots, resistance leaders and starship crewmen.SCIENTIST: These are archaeologists, doctors and historians.SOLDIER: These are infantrymen, security officers, and terrorists.TELEPATH: These are psi-corps operatives, corporate telepaths and rogue telepaths.WORKER: These are dock workers, laborers and news anchors.This section is written well, but it is here that the layout shows just how horrible it is. The tables all look like they were cut-and-pasted from excel spreadsheets with all of the lines turned on. The classes seem dubiously balanced at best, with a few (such as the worker) vastly out of place; perhaps as an NPC class it would have been better suited. Some are loaded down with special abilities (Telepath), while others have comparatively little to gain (Officer) while still others seem to gain things that do not belong a part of a class definition as much as they should be a part of the background/role playing experience (Diplomat).My biggest disappointment was how hit points were handled. I knew going in that hit points would not be like they are in D&D or d20 Modern. I agreed that hit points should be kept relatively low; even for high level characters. I was excited about this, actually. The way it was handled seems (well...) wrong. Classes have an 'initial hit points' listing and then a 'additional hit points' listing. A character, at first level, gains the 'initial hit points' for the class. This is a d6+X, with the X being dependent upon the class. Each level, they gain the 'additional hit points' for the class, which is a fixed amount (generally, 2). In other words, CON has no bearing on hit points at all. Ever.Now, in and of itself, this is not a devastating thing, but race has no bearing on Hit Points either! In D&D, for example, race has no direct influence on Hit Points, but through racial CON mods, it can have a lasting effect on them. Same in nearly any other d20 game. Here, Minbari, Centauri and Humans all have the same exact amount of Hit Points regardless of overall health... Now, had the initial hit points been a function of race, the loss of CON influence might be easier to forgive; but alas, no such luck. I have noticed that the Narn gain +2 HP, but this seems fruitless given the situation at hand here. Playing a Narn SOLDIER with CON 03? 1d6+6(+2) Hit Points. Playing a Brakiri SOLDIER with CON 18? 1d6+6 Hit Points. That is just wrong, in my opinion. Hit Points by class is as follows:AGENT: 1d6+4 (2 per level)DIPLOMAT: 1d6+3 (1 per level)LURKER: 1d6+3 (2 per level)OFFICER: 1d6+4 (2 per level)SCIENTIST: 1d6+3 (1 per level)SOLDIER: 1d6+6 (3 per level)TELEPATH: 1d6+4 (1 per level)WORKER: 1d6+3 (1 per level)Now, despite the fact that the creators of this game know the show very well, they appear to have made some errors. I cannot say for sure that these are full-fledged errors, but as a fan of the show, I have to say they sure seem like it. For example, Centauri are described, many many times in this section, as the consummate diplomats. They receive a bonus to two diplomatic skills. They have a bonus to CHA. They can chose between several diplomatic skills as permanent class skills. Favored class: AGENT. Honestly, I can see this as being a relatively common class for Centauri, but favored? I just have a hard time not seeing it being DIPLOMAT. The favored class for the Minbari Worker Cast is SCIENTIST. A lot of highly educated farmers out there on Minbar, I suppose.The Telepath class takes a bit of reading to figure it out. To become a Telepath, one must take this as the first level of the character. After this, the class is not available. This makes latent Telepathic Power a nearly impossible storyline (a.k.a.: Ivanova; in fact, her latent telepathic abilities are not even listed in the character description; they do have a CLASSIFIED listed there, which I assume is for adding this in later...). Granted, her abilities were not revealed until Season 2, and this book deals with season 1, but this illustrates the point. Additionally, the telepathic P-rating (a measure of your overall power as a telepath) is an odd, and very clunky mechanic. It is impossible to alter your P-rating in game, so a strange loss-of-skills-and-hit-points mechanic is employed to obtain a higher P-rating... at first level. See below for more information on telepaths.The Skills and Feats section is a bit lacking. That is because they do not repeat any material already in the Player's Handbook. Even if that material is a part of the SRD. Some might say that paying for the same material twice is a waste. I say having to refer to two books when 1 would work just fine seems a bit of a waste. Toughness is cut to +2 Hit Points (why that 1 hit point was seen as worthy of dropping, I am not sure). A few racial feats are listed, and a lot of telepathic feats.Overall, I would say this section is a mixed bag.Combat (pages 059-080)Babylon 5 drops the Armor Class and brings in the Defense Value. Armor is treated as a damage reduction system (good thing). Combat is a smooth and simple thing that most d20 vets would find easy to follow. The chapter covers hand-to-hand, ranges and vehicular combat (including some starship stuff).Equipment (pages 081-100)Equipment includes personal and vehicular. So along with knives and PPGs, you will find Vorlon Transports and Drazi Battle cruisers in this chapter -- I have no idea why these are in the same section, so don't ask.Telepaths (pages 101-109)This section details all of the things you can do as a telepath. All of these abilities are keyed to the all-important P-rating. At first level, a character can chose to have a baseline telepath with a P-rating of 1d2; for this, the character starts with 1d6+4 hit points and gets 8+INT mod skill points per level. However, they can chose any of these options as well:P rating 1d2   ( 1- 2): 8+INT mod skill points per level (x4 at first), 1d6+4 initial hit pointsP rating 1d3+2 ( 3- 5): 6+INT mod skill points per level (x4 at first), 1d6+4 initial hit pointsP rating 1d3+5 ( 6- 8): 4+INT mod skill points per level (x4 at first), 1d6+3 initial hit pointsP rating 1d4+8 ( 9-12): 2+INT mod skill points per level (x4 at first), 1d6+2 initial hit pointsThe abilities are established in a tree-like structure making sure the 2nd level P12 does not gain some earth-shattering ability off the bat... The abilities range from Accidental Scan (a passive ability that allows you to gain information from a target without expending effort; you just cannot control the ability at all), to Reality Fabrication (a P11 ability that allows you to completely re-write a target's perceptions).I cannot recall if anyone in the series ever had their P rating change, so I will concede the point on this and move on.Strangely, the last two pages of this section are the maps of B5. This appears to be a misprint, as it actually belongs in the next section...All Alone in the Night (pages 110-147)This is a good overview of the station and its crew. Everything from what it is like to board B5, how the diplomatic mission is carried out, what various common areas such as the Zocolo and the Council Chambers look like, customs and postal services to who is in charge of what is detailed here (from a first season and pilot movie perspective). The character breakdown is a bit odd, however. As I stated earlier, Suzan Ivanova is listed as being a 6th level Officer... nothing of the telepathic abilities she has hidden for a long time (and must have been her first class level...) is listed. Lennier has only 9 hit points (as opposed to Delenn's 15...)Strangely, the last two pages of this section are the maps of star systems of the B5 universe. This appears to be a misprint, as it actually belongs in the next section...And the Sky Full of Stars (pages 148-172)This is the Galaxy of 2258. A look at jump travel, hyperspace, the major powers and their colonies... even more races to chose from are listed here (and I am not sure why they are not simply listed in the races section...) The new races include: Abbai, Gaim, Markab, Pak'ma'ra, and Vree.Signs and Portents (pages 173-260)This monster section details the entire series, episode by episode, and provides some game-information (such as ship statistics or character write ups) and notes on how that episode fits in to the game. Each episode also is given a lot os scenarios and campaign hooks that can used in game. Overall, this is my favorite section of the book (and is the reason the title is Role playing Game and Fact book). Perhaps the coolest section here is the write-up of Bester (9th level telepath, 6th level psi cop).Campaigns on Babylon 5 (pages 261-291)One of the toughest challenges of running a game in an established universe like Babylon 5 is how do you make the characters feel like they are important next to the likes of the legends of the universe you are playing in. Well, aside from the fact that most of the legends are more down to earth than in a lot of games I have seen, there is this section on how to run a game in Babylon 5 and make it your own. Notes on how to handle the effects of character action against cannon; epic campaign advice, multiple story arcs, experience and awards, and the types of campaigns one might run are all here.As are the prestige classes. These are: Fence, Mutari (combative sportsman), Planetary Surveyor, Psi Cop, Psi Corps Military Specialist, Raider, Terrorist, Thenta Makur Assassin, True Seeker, and Xenoarcheologist. In addition to the normal data for these classes is listed the episode they come from...Glossary, Index, License and Character Sheet (pages 292-304)The rest is the normal stuff of a book... not much of particular interest other than the character sheet, which is (in my opinion) poorly designed.CONCLUSIONSCONS: The fact that things that are in SRD (and thus, can be repeated in the book) are not in the book, bugs me in ways I cannot even begin to describe. This forces a person that wishes to play a BABYLON 5 game to purchase the Player's Handbook (or download the SRD) to reference what is in fact a 40-page area to add to this game. The organization is poor (races are scattered throughout the book, rather than in one section, star ships are just another piece of equipment, lots of equipment are not found in the equipment section, but are instead found in the episode guide segment).PROS: The information on B5 is acceptable. The game appears to be at least semi-playable (but extremely bothersome to play, to be honest). This is a passable game, and (in my opinion) is not worthy of the license.2 out of 5. is simply the best I can allow myself to give this book.</blockquote>

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