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Message: <blockquote data-quote="trancejeremy" data-source="post: 2010246" data-attributes="member: 924">"So, you want a realistic, down to earth show that's completely off the wall and swarming with magic robots?"I don't know about the rest of that quote, but this product will be able to help you with the magic robots part. Factory is a book of magical equipment with a twist. Technological-magical equipment. Magical Computers, Robots, Exosuits, and Dweoware, which is the magical version of cybernetics/cyberware (similar to "Spellware" in Dragonstar). So it's not for every d20 campaign. But it's very well done.Factory is a 192 page book, priced at $24.95 (I bought mine new from Noble Knight Games. Excellent seller, BTW). The font is on the large side, but the margins are normal sized. The layout of the book is a bit odd, everything sort of flows together, with lots of little chapters. The book starts off with some basic info on how to fit it into your game. This is actually probably not easily done, unless you're running Dragonstar, or something similar. (You might be able to fit some of it into Xcrawl as well, though that tech is closer to modern day earth). And it does state the obvious that you can simply replace all the magical terminology with technobabble and you now have a book full of robots and cyberware.The section on computers is about 25 pages, and is probably the least obviously useful. There's lots of rules, including for computer hacking, mostly breaking into computer systems. It's not quite the full fledged net-running/hacking/decking rules that you find in some cyberpunk RPGs, but not far from it. I think some of the implications of computers might not be fully realized. For instance, eldritch-mail, aka e-mail. That works just like our email does, only the magical computer doesn't need to be hooked up to the internet, just on the same plane. But what are the bandwidth limits? You can you say, email someone in a dungeon with a computer a magical scroll?Then we get to one of the main draws of the book - robots. They're magical robots - essentially they are to golems what the B2 is to the Wright Brothers airplane. It's fairly simple to design them. You pick a size, which gives you the base stats. You then buy upgrades for it. Each size has a limited amount of space , so there is a finite number of upgrades possible, though the real limit is generally how much you can spend.Next comes some sample robots. This is one of my main problems with the book. First off, the selection of sample robots is mostly security/military bots, with a couple others generic ones thrown in. I would have liked to have seen some androids (I like androids). More importantly, I'm not sure how these robots were designed. Some don't seem to follow the rules, and there is no price given so they can be hard to figure out. For instance, the Callahan robot. It's a top of the line police bot (as you might guess from it's name). Most of the stats make sense, but it has 5 hit dice, instead of the normal 2 HD for robots. While there are upgrades to increase AC and damage resistence, there are none to increase HD. So, I'm guessing it has 3 levels in Fighter, which is also indicated by the fact it has two feats.  This robot can also cast spells, or has spell-like effects that it can use. I can't figure out where those came from. Following this is Exosuits. These are essentially a subset of robots, without a brain and with a pilot inside. Smaller than most mecha, they're more akin to powered armor or battledress.There are several pre-made designs. These do have prices on them. Strangely, none of them have reinforced hulls, which would give them damage resistence. Lower versions of that are fairly reasonably priced, so it's something of a puzzler that it's missing. Following this is a chapter on PC robots. A variety of robots are available, they generally all have ECLs, as they are somewhat more powerful than humans. There are pretty good variety of choices, from Companion robot (which is less sleazy than it sounds) to a domestic robot (think Kryton from Red Dwarf) to various security models. Each also is fairly customizable.The last major part of the book is on "Dweonetics", which is essentially a magical version of cybernetics, that is, enhancing the body artificially. Instead of machines, dweonetics use implanted magic items (called "Dweoware"). They essentially work the same as spellware from Dragonstar, and quite honestly, spellware is much easier on the tongue.There's a whole lot of these implantable items. More than in the Dragonstar books, though there is some duplication (since many items from both duplicate magic items from the DMG). I can't begin to cover all of them. But most things from cyberpunk games are represented in one form or another.After this comes lots of minor stuff. There are some templates, small amount of equipment, and some info on weapons taken from this companies first book, Arsenal (which I don't have, so I can't compare). The art is generally pretty good. Some is heavily pixelated, almost harkening back to the days of dot matrix printers (I'm actually guessing it was originally a JPG file, but used lots of compression, which added lots of aliasing, which makes things look blocky). There is one picture in particular which most people will get a chuckle out of (I don't want to give it away here, but it's brilliant in terms of idea).So, is this worth buying? Well, if you want magical robots, magical implants, and magical computers, definitely yes.  There are a few minor problems as mentioned, and I would have liked more stock robots (particularly androids), but this is a very deep book. Very very deep. Also might be very useful for a cyberpunk game (this book supports d20 Modern,too), or near future. B </blockquote>

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