As much as it pains me to do this, I am going to defend the 6th edition of GW. Before I get started, I just want to say that I started with the 4th ed (from 92) and that my favorite edition is the 5th (Alternity).
In the d20 Apocolypse thread, buzz posted this as a responce to one of my posts:
I do have to agree that the PH is much less than what I was hoping for, but 4 out of the 5 other books are worth the price-
Machines and Mutants is the best. It has only one objective, stating out critters and robots, and it does that well. The only downside is the pages devoted to the advanced classes and environmental templates (which could have been much better.
Cryptic Alliances and Unknown Enemies expands the community rules from the PH (which allow players to run communites instead of characters), expands on old CA and introduces old ones. The leadership chapter can be very useful if social interaction is important to the campaign. The chapter on interactions between communities is its weakest point as most of it is common sense.
The Gamemaster's Guide is placed here only because I don't care much about new doodads. The chapters on different genres and the cause of the cataclysm are the best, IMO. The first chapter is more for new GMs and describes how to run pretty much any rpg (of course the examples are on Gamma Terra)- a nice addition since all GMs have to start somewhere.
Out of the Vaults fullfills its objective- new doodads. Since I am much more interesting in what is in CA&UE, I haven't reread it much. Some of the ideas are interesting, but overall there wasn't any that gave me adventure ideas. The few that would have I already read a version of in an earlier edition.
Beyond the Horizon is not worth the money, sad to say. It is mostly descriptions of places of different GTs and would take some effort for GMs to adapt them to their own vision. The rules on travel are very nice, however.
And now we have the PH. The racial rules, mutations, descriptions of biomes and nanotech just suck. The community rules and critters are the best part, IMO. The community rules is the reason it is still on my shelf.
Now with all that said, there is a resource that is better than GW and d20AP- GURPS Y2K. I have been thinking on why I feel this way and have been looking at all the books and I think I have it. GURPS books do not concern themselves with rules. Y2K is stuffed with ideas that can help a GM come up with his vision of the end of the world and what happens after. That type of material is found both in GW and d20AP, but they want to codify rules. Not for everything, but a lot of stuff that really doesn't need rules. I thought the ethanol still in d20AP was cool, but why would I need someone to tell me how long and how much ethanol is produced? I can either come up with it on the spot or find in a book or on the net. Some of you are wondering why I placed BtH so low on my list- it is made up of concrete examples that I would have to alter to fit my visions of GW.
I wish the 1st chapter in d20 AP was 4 times the size it is now.
In the d20 Apocolypse thread, buzz posted this as a responce to one of my posts:
I do have to agree that the PH is much less than what I was hoping for, but 4 out of the 5 other books are worth the price-
Machines and Mutants is the best. It has only one objective, stating out critters and robots, and it does that well. The only downside is the pages devoted to the advanced classes and environmental templates (which could have been much better.
Cryptic Alliances and Unknown Enemies expands the community rules from the PH (which allow players to run communites instead of characters), expands on old CA and introduces old ones. The leadership chapter can be very useful if social interaction is important to the campaign. The chapter on interactions between communities is its weakest point as most of it is common sense.
The Gamemaster's Guide is placed here only because I don't care much about new doodads. The chapters on different genres and the cause of the cataclysm are the best, IMO. The first chapter is more for new GMs and describes how to run pretty much any rpg (of course the examples are on Gamma Terra)- a nice addition since all GMs have to start somewhere.
Out of the Vaults fullfills its objective- new doodads. Since I am much more interesting in what is in CA&UE, I haven't reread it much. Some of the ideas are interesting, but overall there wasn't any that gave me adventure ideas. The few that would have I already read a version of in an earlier edition.
Beyond the Horizon is not worth the money, sad to say. It is mostly descriptions of places of different GTs and would take some effort for GMs to adapt them to their own vision. The rules on travel are very nice, however.
And now we have the PH. The racial rules, mutations, descriptions of biomes and nanotech just suck. The community rules and critters are the best part, IMO. The community rules is the reason it is still on my shelf.
Now with all that said, there is a resource that is better than GW and d20AP- GURPS Y2K. I have been thinking on why I feel this way and have been looking at all the books and I think I have it. GURPS books do not concern themselves with rules. Y2K is stuffed with ideas that can help a GM come up with his vision of the end of the world and what happens after. That type of material is found both in GW and d20AP, but they want to codify rules. Not for everything, but a lot of stuff that really doesn't need rules. I thought the ethanol still in d20AP was cool, but why would I need someone to tell me how long and how much ethanol is produced? I can either come up with it on the spot or find in a book or on the net. Some of you are wondering why I placed BtH so low on my list- it is made up of concrete examples that I would have to alter to fit my visions of GW.
I wish the 1st chapter in d20 AP was 4 times the size it is now.
