So I was at Sentry Box (my LGS) last night browsing around, seeing if I could find a fix for the weekend, and I came across Redline on the new release rack. Now being a big fan of the mad max flicks, and way before that, an avid car wars gamer, I immediately decided to buy it without even flipping through it. With the amount of uninspired crap on the d20 market, this can often be a mistake. But it certainly was not.
Let me first say that I buy a *lot* of campaign settings and gaming material. I love the read and the rules and the whole feel of it all. Now that being said, Redline is probably the best d20 product I've picked up yet. The caveat to this is that I have not yet made it to the vehicle combat section, but judging by the rest of the material I'm sure its great. And the very car wars-esque car icons on the grid maps made me giggle with delight.
So why do I love it so much? Simple elegance:
The backgrounds (races) and classes are interesting, elegant, very appropriate for the setting, and very simple in execution. They are a perfect interpretation of D&D d20 classes ported over to this kind of setting.
The merged skills, feats, treatment of weapon proficiencies and equipment... its all vastly simplified while retaining all of the dynamics and rules that one could hope for and need. The section on the creep and the creep mechanic is very well done as well.
From an aesthetic standpoint, this book is also perfect. The art is (for the most part) very very good, the layout is simple and attractive while not getting in the way of legibility, the paperstock is nice and heavy, nice cover.
The only flaw that I immediately noticed was piss poor editing (how can you not notice that you have two Chapter 8s when examining the proofs??).
Other than that, the book is very sparse in terms of setting material, but then again thats what the horizons line is supposed to be about - basic templates for new worlds. In this case however, I really wish they'd extend Redline as its a winner.
Three thumbs up.
Let me first say that I buy a *lot* of campaign settings and gaming material. I love the read and the rules and the whole feel of it all. Now that being said, Redline is probably the best d20 product I've picked up yet. The caveat to this is that I have not yet made it to the vehicle combat section, but judging by the rest of the material I'm sure its great. And the very car wars-esque car icons on the grid maps made me giggle with delight.
So why do I love it so much? Simple elegance:
The backgrounds (races) and classes are interesting, elegant, very appropriate for the setting, and very simple in execution. They are a perfect interpretation of D&D d20 classes ported over to this kind of setting.
The merged skills, feats, treatment of weapon proficiencies and equipment... its all vastly simplified while retaining all of the dynamics and rules that one could hope for and need. The section on the creep and the creep mechanic is very well done as well.
From an aesthetic standpoint, this book is also perfect. The art is (for the most part) very very good, the layout is simple and attractive while not getting in the way of legibility, the paperstock is nice and heavy, nice cover.
The only flaw that I immediately noticed was piss poor editing (how can you not notice that you have two Chapter 8s when examining the proofs??).
Other than that, the book is very sparse in terms of setting material, but then again thats what the horizons line is supposed to be about - basic templates for new worlds. In this case however, I really wish they'd extend Redline as its a winner.Three thumbs up.
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