Crothian
First Post
Bulldogs
With the whimper of the death of Star Wars d20 and the new version of the popular Babylon 5 game I have found myself looking and interested in other sci fi games. Dawning Star is of course out there and I reviewed that so now I am moving on to Bulldogs!. Bulldogs is an interesting Sci Fi game in that it is not human centric and has a very Pulp feel. It is not hard Science fiction.
Bull Dogs! Is a game by Galileo Games Inc. It is designed for the d20 system and does not have many tweaks to the system that would make it hard to use with other science fiction d20 games. The softbound book is two hundred and fifteen pages long. It is written by Brennan Taylor. The book is all black and white with a good lay out and average art. While I rarely mention the binding of books this one gets talked about because it is very strong. I have read through number of times, propped it open, dropped it, threw it across the room, and it has stood up to that well.
I like the feel of the book but I think the setting comes across a little small. It all takes place in a big galaxy But the information on the galaxy is a little on the light side. The history is summed up in a few pages. The races are described in some detail but with mechanics mixed in with the other information. The races are mostly humanoid and nothing seems all that alien. So while there are some good things in the book I do not feel that is stands alone quite that well. Some of the races might have balance problems. A lot of the races for instance get +2 to two stats and only -2 to one stat. So, a DM should be aware of that especially if they are the type to be concerned with balance. There is a section for crafting one’s own alien race. I like that they put it in there but the section probably should be expanded to its own book. The options in there are a bit limited mechanically and it leaves a lot of work up to the user. I would have preferred to see a system more like in Palladium’s Alien Unlimited that has a lot of options almost too many of them.
The book has plenty of core classes. It is a good list of what one would want but nothing here really strikes me as interesting., The classes look fine mechanically and are all the run of the mill par for the course and what ever other clichés I can come up with for them. The prestige classes and equipment lists are not much better. The equipment lists and list of weapons though is pretty darn complete though.
The book has space ships and some good rules for using them and building them. The space ships help give the setting its pulp feel. The ships while looking alien also can resemble classic planes from the world wars especially in the way the space combat works. This is an interesting and different way to do things and I think it works. The modifying space ships rules are nicely done and again that section could easily be expanded into its own book.
Over all the book has a hits and misses. Mechanically it seems okay but I find the setting and races a bit bland and just needing more information. The book does offer ways to create own races and space ships, an area that is not always covered. While both of these areas easily deserve their own book I like the that the writer included them in here. I think Bulldogs might be best used as a place to mine for information and ideas for other science fiction games especially d20 ones then to use it completely on its own. However a good setting book for Bulldogs can easily rectify that opinion.
With the whimper of the death of Star Wars d20 and the new version of the popular Babylon 5 game I have found myself looking and interested in other sci fi games. Dawning Star is of course out there and I reviewed that so now I am moving on to Bulldogs!. Bulldogs is an interesting Sci Fi game in that it is not human centric and has a very Pulp feel. It is not hard Science fiction.
Bull Dogs! Is a game by Galileo Games Inc. It is designed for the d20 system and does not have many tweaks to the system that would make it hard to use with other science fiction d20 games. The softbound book is two hundred and fifteen pages long. It is written by Brennan Taylor. The book is all black and white with a good lay out and average art. While I rarely mention the binding of books this one gets talked about because it is very strong. I have read through number of times, propped it open, dropped it, threw it across the room, and it has stood up to that well.
I like the feel of the book but I think the setting comes across a little small. It all takes place in a big galaxy But the information on the galaxy is a little on the light side. The history is summed up in a few pages. The races are described in some detail but with mechanics mixed in with the other information. The races are mostly humanoid and nothing seems all that alien. So while there are some good things in the book I do not feel that is stands alone quite that well. Some of the races might have balance problems. A lot of the races for instance get +2 to two stats and only -2 to one stat. So, a DM should be aware of that especially if they are the type to be concerned with balance. There is a section for crafting one’s own alien race. I like that they put it in there but the section probably should be expanded to its own book. The options in there are a bit limited mechanically and it leaves a lot of work up to the user. I would have preferred to see a system more like in Palladium’s Alien Unlimited that has a lot of options almost too many of them.
The book has plenty of core classes. It is a good list of what one would want but nothing here really strikes me as interesting., The classes look fine mechanically and are all the run of the mill par for the course and what ever other clichés I can come up with for them. The prestige classes and equipment lists are not much better. The equipment lists and list of weapons though is pretty darn complete though.
The book has space ships and some good rules for using them and building them. The space ships help give the setting its pulp feel. The ships while looking alien also can resemble classic planes from the world wars especially in the way the space combat works. This is an interesting and different way to do things and I think it works. The modifying space ships rules are nicely done and again that section could easily be expanded into its own book.
Over all the book has a hits and misses. Mechanically it seems okay but I find the setting and races a bit bland and just needing more information. The book does offer ways to create own races and space ships, an area that is not always covered. While both of these areas easily deserve their own book I like the that the writer included them in here. I think Bulldogs might be best used as a place to mine for information and ideas for other science fiction games especially d20 ones then to use it completely on its own. However a good setting book for Bulldogs can easily rectify that opinion.
