OGL CyberNet - Cyberpunk Roleplaying
by August Hahn | ISBN 1-904577-61-X
Price: $39.95 | Core | Pages: 256 | Hardback | MGP 6601
http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/pdf/cybernetpreview.pdf
This is the reason why big expensive hardcover color rulebooks get a bad name. We have a big thread running about "prices getting a little nuts?", people kept complaining about $40-$50 books and how they where to expensive to buy, i kept pushing the quality and value for money issue. When i look at this preview i think i'll have to reevaluate my ideas, big expensive hardcover color rulebooks do not equal quality in art and writing.
I just pulled Armageddon: 2089 Total War out of the bookcase, a title i was very hyped about, most of the designs that where previewed looked decent and i love big robots (especially when the setting has that Full Metal Panic feel). HC, 304 pages, full color, $45. Expensive but if it lived up to the hype it would have been worth it, it didn't. 62 pages out of 304 could have been acceptable as color, these pages contain the big robots that are computer rendered, these images range from acceptable to kewl. Page 242 has rhe only other acceptable art, some smoking ruin at night. The eight core classes have a color image, but these are really bad, i could do better than those! That's about it for the color art, the rest are just a couple of logos, two or three adds that are made from recycled 'art', and a couple of Grey/Green actionshots made by using the robot computer generated images. Although the border/page art is nice, it often hinders readability (especially tables). In all Armageddon had very little color art that justified making the book fullcolor and so 'expensive' (and i'm not even talking about the bland rules). I really hoped that MGP had learned from their 'mistakes' with Armegaddon and would have a bigger art budget, because frankly these books smell of cheap and bad art...
Then comes the rule blandness, nothing really new, just abilities piled together to create 'new' classes, this stuff feels like a cheap book filler. When i look at these 'prestige' classes and then look at similar 'prestige' classes from Spycraft then i have to say, those Cybernet classes are bland, unimaginative, and don't really add anything new to the equation.
How am i supposed to sell these books to consumers? You a big robot/cyberpunk game? Are you sure it has to be D20, because there are far better games out there (battletech, heavy gear shadowrun, cyberpunk, etc.). There now is an alternative for big robot games, DP9 has made Heavy Gear D20 compatible (or will do so in the near future). I really haven't seen a good Cyberpunk D20 alternative, but i'm pretty sure that this ain't it (based on what i have seen so far and MGPs track record)...
