Menace Manual --- anyone seen it yet?

[JPL]

The recent developer interview on the WotC site made this sound promising.

I'm especially glad to hear that Dark*Matter and Star*Drive are in there. As I recently posted on another thread, I always wanted to try Dark*Matter as a somewhat more upbeat, action-oriented game, and I think the d20 Modern rules encourage this style of play.

So...anyone?

 

[Dismas]

The recent developer interview on the WotC site made this sound promising.

I'm especially glad to hear that Dark*Matter and Star*Drive are in there. As I recently posted on another thread, I always wanted to try Dark*Matter as a somewhat more upbeat, action-oriented game, and I think the d20 Modern rules encourage this style of play.

So...anyone?

I've just email Morrus to let him know of the latest entry in my weblog (www.otherniceman.net).

Menace Manual

I received an early first (paper) Wedding Anniversary present yesterday. The postman turned up with a copy of the d20 Menace Manual Still reading through it at the moment, but here are some initial impressions.

The book is a 224 page hardback (USD 34.99, GBP 19.99 - that's about 10 Happy Meals) and contains 4 and a bit chapters; Introduction (8 Pages), Chapter One: Creatures (86 Pages), Chapter Two: GM Characters (45 Pages) and Chapter Four (82) with the remaining pages making up front-piece, chapter, index etc.

Fans of the Alternity campaign settings Star*Drive and Dark*Matter may be please to see some of their wonderful Aliens and Organisations brought to the attention of the d20 Modern player.

So the big question is What is in it for me?

Chapter One:
For a Fantasy orientated campaign you get Doom Hags, more Fiends, Harpies, Ghoul and Half-Fiend templates, Satanic Ichor and other nastiness. Horror campaigns can be spiced up with Bogeyman, Maniac and Revenant templates or maybe the odd Night Terror or two. There is not much in this chapter for those playing straight modern; Giant Anaconda, chimps, scorpions, hippos are amongst the few real world creatures. Psionic campaigns have the old D&D standbys the Intellect Devourer and Thought Eater backed up some new creatures such as Rod and Rogue Tulpa. Moving on to the Sci-fi and Conspiracy brings us a host of Alternity alien goodness Elohim, Etolie, Fraal (Grey), Gardhyi, Kinori Korath, N'sss, Sand Slave, Sasquatch and Sesheyan.

We are also treated to a few new weapons (Mass Pistols, Black Laser etc) and equipment (Fraal scout ship, Dimensional Transformers), giving us a little taster maybe, of the way things might be working in d20 Future.

Chapter Two:
GM Characters, lots of them, same format as the Main Rule Book. Various archetypes shown in 3 levels, Low (2nd Level), Medium (6th Level) and High (10th Level). Need a Demolitions Expert, Grifter or even a Vatican Investigator, they're here. Unlike the samples in the Main Rules, some (like the hitman) stay with one class all the way.

Chapter Three:
Organisations, real world and fictional. The Hoffmann Institute, dedicated to the advancement of mankind. The final church, dedicated to the restoration of the dark gods. CIA, FBI, DoD and FEMA watch GNN news reports of the Cryptonaughts latest hacking attempts, while plotting raids on the Le Gente drug cartel.

The Menace Manual main strength lies in the fact that it is not just fantasy . I think it is time to re-read some of my old Dark*Matter notes.

 

[Psion]

The recent developer interview on the WotC site made this sound promising.

Linkie?

I am interested in an answer to this as well. If they have Star*Drive/Alternity races in it, it definitely sounds like a must buy.

 

[Psion]

Moving on to the Sci-fi and Conspiracy brings us a host of Alternity alien goodness Elohim, Etolie, Fraal (Grey), Gardhyi, Kinori Korath, N'sss, Sand Slave, Sasquatch and Sesheyan.

Answers that question. YAY. Menace Manual --> Must buy list.

(Though it disapoints me that there are so many D&D retreads.)

Edit: Elohim, eh? Can't that be considered a religious reference of the sort that WotC has been wanting to avoid?

 

[Dismas]

Answers that question. YAY. Menace Manual --> Must buy list.

(Though it disapoints me that there are so many D&D retreads.)

I didn't notice a huge amount (but I'm really playing D&D lately) and the creatures listed aren't they only ones (there are about 80).


Links
Designers Spotlight: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20modern/article/20030909a

Map Gallery:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20modern/article/20030909b

 

[JPL]

Edit: Elohim, eh? Can't that be considered a religious reference of the sort that WotC has been wanting to avoid?

In Dark*Matter, as I recall, these were creatures of unknown origin who might be ultraterrestrials rather than "angels" per se.

There was certainly never anything that I saw that pointed specifically to a particular religion and said, "These are real angels, created by the God of Abraham, and this is how you kill them, because they are jerks, because God is a jerk."

Dark*Matter also made a point of showing that all different religious traditions could produce miracles. Whether this was due to actual divine intervention or the power of faith itself was unanswerable.

Besides which...WotC is exempt from the d20 license, and can show nipples and Quaker-bashing to their heart's content.

And the apparent intent of the license is not to avoid all real-world religious references, but rather to avoid disrespect and intolerance. Since the d20 license has always been enforced in good faith (so to speak), I trust that WotC will continue to do so.

 

[Dismas]

Here is the Table of Contents
TOC

Chapter One: Creatures
Acid Rainer
Alien Probe
Anaconda, Great
Animated Object
Boar (Wild Pig)
Bodak
Bogeyman (Template)
Cat Folk
Charred One
Chemical Golem
Chimpaneze
Crawsfordville Monster
Crawling Claw
Demonic Machine
Dimensional Horror
Dinosaur, Pleisosaur
Dinosaur, Pterasaur
Dinosaur, Tyrannosaur
Doom Hag
Dead Tree
Drop Bear
Elohim
Etolie
Fiend (Arch, knife, headsnatcher, blood, spider, whisper, tumor)
Fire Wisp
Fraal (Gray)
Gardhyi
Ghoul (Template)
Grimlock
Half-fiend (Template)
Half-Fraal (Template)
Harpy
Hippotamus
Infester
Intellect Devourer
Jynx
Kinori
Kroath
Litter Brute
Luciferan
Malleable Creature (Template)
Maniac (Template)
Man-O-War, Giant
Mapingauri
Megalodon
Mongolian Death Worm
Monitor Lizard
Montauk Monster
Mothfolk
Neothelid
Night Terror
N'sss
Revenant (Template)
Robot
Rod
Rogue Tulpa
Sand Slave (Template)
Sasquatch
Satanic Ichor
Scorpion
Sea Serpent
Sesheyan
Sewer Sludge
Shark, Huge
Skin Feaster
Snake, Cobra
Snake, Hoop
Star Doppelganger
Thought Eater
Thunderbird
Toxic Sludge
Udoroot
Whisper in the Dark
Yeti
Zap
Zeikune

Chapter Two: GM Characters
Bring Supporting Characters to Life
Buying Services
Reading Character Entries
Animal Handler
Attorney
Black Marketeer
Burglar
Clergy
Contract Killer
Cultist
Demolitions Expert
ER Physician
Firefighter
Fringer Scientist
Government Agent
Government Investigator
Government Bureaucrat
Grifter
High-Tech Criminal
Lawyer
Martial Arts Disciple
Mercenary
Paramedic
Parapsychologist
Security Guard
Security Specialist
Spy
SWAT Team Member
Undercover Cop
University Scientist
Vatican Insvestigator
Wilderness Tracker
The 25th Freedom Corps
Barret's Crew
The Circle A's
The Cleaning Crew
Club Diabolique
Shadow Company

Chapter Three: Factions
Reality Vs Spin
Splinter Groups & Rogue Agents
Reading Entries
Al-Jambiya
CIA, The
Crimson Scorpion
Cryptonauts, The
Department of Defense, The
FBI, The
Federal Emergency Management Agency, The
Final Church, The
Global News Network
Green Brigade, The
Hoffmann Institute, The
La Gente
Nautilus Club, The
Neo-Scientologists
Nova Records
Six-Fingered Hand, The
Solomon Solutions
United Nations Elite Security Force, The

Creatures Ranked by Challenge Rating

 

[JPL]

Here is the Table of Contents
TOC

Mongolian Death Worm

Oh, now I MUST own this book.

 

[Psion]

There was certainly never anything that I saw that pointed specifically to a particular religion and said, "These are real angels, created by the God of Abraham, and this is how you kill them, because they are jerks, because God is a jerk."

True, but the card game Jihad wasn't in context of the Islamic religion, either, but it got slammed for tweaking the sensitivities of muslims. I'm not saying that they were trying to be religious, but I just found that using a word that has strong religious meaning for your game creations is not the wisest way to go.

Besides which...WotC is exempt from the d20 license, and can show nipples and Quaker-bashing to their heart's content.

Yeah, yeah, as I have pointed out several times in the various threads on this topic. Not my point, though. Sure they can. But should they?

 

[Kesh]

Here is the Table of Contents
TOC

Chapter One: Creatures
...
Mothfolk
...

Chapter Three: Factions
...
Hoffmann Institute, The
...

Yes! That's going to make my conversion of The Killing Jar ten times easier! I am sooo buying this book.