Neuroglyph
First Post
Most role-playing game systems are designed around a specific genre. Whether that genre is High Fantasty, Space Opera Science Fiction, or Gothic Horror, most RPG games are aimed at one specific type of setting. 
And even if a game system is not aimed at a specific genre, then that game system is most likely designed to work with a particular campaign setting.
But now the ParaSpace Role-Playing System is breaking free of both genre and campaign setting, and is offering a comprehensive generic set of rules for gamers to use in their heroic adventures. ParaSpace RPS claims to be able to handle any genre or setting, in any age to allow players and game masters “to open the door to the many worlds of their imagination.”
ParaSpace Role-Playing System
Authors: Daran Plows
Illustrations: iStockPhotos
Publisher: ParaSpace Publishing
Year: 2011
Media: Hardback (340 pages)
Cost: £25.00 (+£12.00 P&P direct from the Publisher) [Author’s Note: $42.00 + $21.00 shipping]
ParaSpace Role-Playing System is a generic set of core game rules which can be used with any genre or setting. The rulebook consists of a Player’s Guide for designing characters for use with the game, a Magic section which includes both spells and paranormal abilities, and a GM’s Section to assist game masters in using the rules to create any type of world setting – from wild west to superheroes to heroic fantasy – of their choosing.
Production Quality
Although I did not have a hardcopy of the book to judge the production quality, I did have a complete 340-page PDF to examine and read over the course of a couple weeks. For those interested, the makers of ParaSpace offer a basic version of their rules and character sheet which can be downloaded here from their website.
Overall, the production quality of the core rulebook is at best fair, with some decent writing, but with a somewhat jumbled organizational style. While all the rules for creating a character are in the Player’s Guide, there are also additional rules which appear in the Magic section which have to be considered when designing a character.
The illustrations in the book are few, and appear to be mainly public domain photos. While some are appropriate to the book, there were a couple that made my eyebrows rise a bit – one particular photo in the Magic section of a grim looking gent with runes on his forehead that looks like he’d be more comfortable hanging out at the local leather bar than gracing the pages of a role-playing game manual (see illustration below in the discussion of the Magic Section). Then again, I guess a game system catering to every genre could have a wider appeal – including leather-clad fantasists.
The Player’s Guide
The author of ParaSpace RPS opens the core rulebook with the ubiquitous explanation of the nature of role-playing that has appeared since Gary E. Gygax first published the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. The ParaSpace system uses only d10s to play, utilitzing them in multiples for d100 and d1000 rolls as called for by the game.
Following the explanation of role-playing, there followed some three pages of a Glossary of Terms and abbreviations used to play ParaSpace. Having no frame of reference from the rules as yet for how these terms would be used, the terms range from simple concepts such as WT for weight, and to more complex abbreviations like SROF for spray rate of fire, TEM for total encumbrance modifier - representing “the weight and awkwardness of all items worn or carried” – and GV for grapple value – which ”defines a weapon’s effectiveness at grappling”. Apparently, in this last example, the GV is “added as a bonus to an Entangle Value when attempting such a manoeuvre”, which means you sort of have to understand one abbreviation just to figure out another.
Within the first few pages I got the strong impression that I was reading through a game system which had all the earmarks of being very complex, if not overly so, in order for the Author to encompass fantasy, modern, science fiction, and a host of other genres in combat and other encounters. Of course, other systems such as D20 and 4E have accommodated mixed genres just fine without becoming overly complicated, and have been used to produce spin-off games such as Traveler d20, D&D Gamma World, and Amethyst, using only simple modifications to an existing game system. But the ParaSpace Role-Playing System appears to be far more in depth, delving into greater levels of detail and minutiae than these other systems – but with mixed results.
Character Generation
The author of ParaSpace RPS presents two forms of character generation: one is designed for the role-playing neophyte to use and the other for more advanced role-players who have an idea of what sort of character they want. The “beginner” section consists of a series of tables which can be used to randomly determine things such as the character’s style (Tough/Resolute/Sly/Intelligent) as well as their raison d’etre (or reason for existence) to define why they chose the adventuring lifestyle. Age, sex, culture, family relationships, social standing, and professions are just some of the randomly generated table available to assist a new gamer in making up their first character. Unfortunately, the author clearly over thought the character generation process. Most folks new to role-playing games would almost certainly find this process of rolling to determine every little nuance of a character to be dull and tedious at best. Thankfully, experienced role-players are invited to skip all this and head deeper into the character generation section to work on their persona.
Characters in Paraspace RPS have 9 Manipulations (attributes) - Physique, Deftness, Quickness, Fitness, Perception, Mind, Intelligence, Charisma, and Luck - with beginning scores ranging from 1 to 7. The points to buy these stats are determined by the character’s age, with extremely young characters and elderly characters getting less stat points to buy Manipulations than mature characters. The most points a character can be granted is 46 points, from the Age 36-40 bracket. These nine Manipulations which define the character are also used in “figured” characteristics, creating sub-abilities like a Learn Bonus, Sanity, Move, and Shock Factor.
Unfortunately, all of these rules for character creation did little to dissuade my opinion that the ParaSpace RPS was overly complex and needlessly so. A character’s age becomes a major factor in the game, and is also used to determine skill points to buy skills and powers. Again, these skills could come from any genre, from the Dark Ages to the Wild West to a Cybernetic Future, so the GM would need to already have a setting in mind before any character creation could be accomplished.
In addition to Manipulations and Skill, characters will have to determine Special Abilities, whether they have magic capabilities and what type of magic system they utilize, as well as what sort of body combat and weapon specialization they might use, and even random quirks – such as addictions, altered personality, and even mental and physical illnesses/handicaps. It’s possible for a hero in Paraspace to be a 10 year old magic-wielding wizard (I know, blatant Harry Potter reference – I’m a fan, so shoot me) - but it’s also possible to create a 40 year old epileptic cowboy or a 25 yo obese space ranger - all with a few random die rolls. Why one would want to play these latter sorts of heroes is beyond me, but perhaps there are players who enjoy handicapped characters in their escapist fantasy/scifi games.
But it was once I got to the skill system of Paraspace RPS, I realized that this role-playing game was showing all the indications of being totally over-designed by its author. With over 200 skills to choose from for use in the game - ranging from Art and Demolitions to Odour Scenting and Scuba Diving - there is simply an overwhelming choice for a game trying to encompass every genre. And there were notable levels of redundancy among skills, particularly among weapons – for instance, there were six different Sword skills, four different Shield skills, and five different Gun skills – each one used with a different type of weapon. Rules for skill use, their selection, and their definitions take up nearly 40 pages of reading - and many skills having complex rules which would almost certainly require the occasional referencing to use during a game session!
In Chapter 3 of the Player’s Guide, the nature of Equipment is discussed, and with it the nature of encumbrance, with these two factors playing a massive role in a character’s ability to function in combat. Sadly, strapping on some armor is not a simple prospect. Donning a suit of mail in ParaSpace requires a cascade of calculations to determine how it affects Body Combat (hand-to-hand) and Weapon Combat (from swords to laser pistols). And adding in a weapon to the character’s ensemble precipitates another cascade of calculations, all to determine how good a character is at hitting enemies and how easily he or she can be hit by them. There are nearly a dozen pages devoted to these calculations before we ever get to read what a character will have for starting money or what he can purchase to defend himself.
But even money is no simple matter in Paraspace, as each character must figure their Average Earnings, Average Cost of Living, and Average Savings – yes, there are tables for all that – before a player can even start purchasing armor and weapons to go out adventuring. But the complexity of buying equipment does not stop there, as each item in the game has a variety of stats which range from Tech Level (TL) and Price (PRC) to Toughness (Tou) and Weight (Wgt). Armor gets away with only 5 stats, but each weapon in the ParaSpace RPS comes with a whopping 19 different statistics, which are used to determine not only how much damage it does, but how it affects the hero wielding it!
At this point, however, character creation is mostly complete, with stats, skills, equipment, done, and most of the character sheet – which looks like an income tax form - filled out. And it only took a little over 100 pages of content to get that far. Mind you, we have not even seen the rules for Combat (Chapter 4), Transports Mounts and Vehicles (Chapter 5), Movement (Chapter 6), Miscellaneous Rules (Chapter 7) for everything from explosions and drowning to poisons and disease effects.
Of course, if your GM is allowing magical, paranormal, or supernatural abilities, then you’re still not done creating your character, and will need to head on to the next section of the book – Magic.
Before moving on to Magic, I want to touch on a fairly confusing chapter regarding Experience Points in Chapter 8, which also includes rules about leveling a character along what’s called a “Progression Map” - which is sort of like a class advancement table, although classes really have not been discussed. As previously mentioned, Paraspace appears to be a wide open genre gaming experience, allowing a character to create pretty much any type of character they want (and that the dice rolls will allow), with gained experience points spent on advancing skills, manipulations, and other abilities. The progression maps are provided as a template or guide to advancing characters along particular paths, such as Cleric, Sorcerer, Soldier of Fortune, or Space Pirate. This section is not very well organized, and if anything, makes the process of character leveling and advancement a daunting prospect.
The second section of the Paraspace RPS rulebook deals with Magic, which also encompasses all other supernatural effects. Being a game which tries to be all-encompassing set of rules, regardless of genre, there are 3 different magic systems in the game – Arcane, Inherent, and Transcendental, and a fourth catch-all-the-remainder simply called Special Abilities. The magic system is further broken down into different doctrines, such as Thaumaturgy, Telluric, Sigils, Enchantment, and Formulaic – and that is just for Arcane magic use! As with other forms of combat, magic use requires a series of calculations to create statistics such as MEP (Magical Energy Points), MFR (Magical Force Rating), and PMA (Potential Magical Aptitude).
There are a variety of spells provided for Arcane magic use, as well as for Inherent magic – which seem to be similar to psionics as published in other game systems. Inherent magic might well be used in a modern campaign to represent paranormal channeling of power, and the use of extra-sensory perception.
Other effects which might be viewed as “mutations” or magical powers which defy a system are termed Special Abilities. These range from enhanced personal powers, such as Amazing Speed to shamanistic abilities like having an animal totem (ex. Wolf) which grants a character certain powers. These abilities might be used in a “supers” style campaign, or in a post-apocalyptic mutant campaign setting.
Section 3 of Paraspace RPS is the GM’s Guide, and starts with a section on how to be a GM - which is frankly unnecessary for anyone who has picked up this game and would attempt to run it would have to be a fairly skilled game master. A neophyte GM would probably have put the rulebook down after trying to muddle through the first 25 pages or so of the game. This section also has a chapter on creating a setting, and developing it to mesh with the Paraspace system, which means that this massive rulebook is nothing more than a combination player’s handbook and game master guide, and contains almost no “fluff” content - such as a world or setting - to use these rules with. Game Masters are supposed to assimilate all these rules, decide upon a genre or genres to create their game around, and write all that up prior to play!
Paraspace RPS does include some very basic theory on world building, and a set of tables for creating adventures/missions by randomly rolling for a Mission Statement, Mission Link, Encounter Types, Objects and Places, as well as other miscellaneous elements. So with some random rolls, I created an adventure where heroes would “Confront” a “Crime” involving a “Shepherd” and a “Flying Vehicle” on a “Tundra” in the “Summer”. As the plot for this adventure still made no sense, I was referred to a plot device table to help it along, and got a roll of “Memory Loss” – which pretty much defines what I was feeling by this point while reading this rulebook.
The next section of the book deals with providing creature templates to use during adventures – sort of a monster manual of critters from fantasy, modern, horror, and science-fiction genres. These are provided without much fanfare as a simply bunch of stat blocks for the GM to reference – no pictures or descriptions of the monsters needed apparently. And finally the book wraps up with a selection of magic items which can be found by heroes during the course of play. Like the creature templates, these items are listed without any real explanation as just stat blocks for the GM to reference.
The final four pages of the book are a massive index, which one would assume is going to assist a GM in finding rules to help run this game.
Overall Score: 1.6 out of 5.0
Conclusions
The old saying about too much of a good thing causing more harm than good would definitely apply to the Paraspace Role-Playing System. The rules are far too numerous and complex to be usable, and the thought of trying to teach this game - even to an advanced group of RP gamers - seems like it would be a nightmare. Frankly, the pack of veteran gamers I associate with regularly would be laughing themselves off their chairs if I tried to present this as a viable game system, especially considering how many more cohesively designed systems we have all played together over the years. Without a doubt, this system would have neophyte gamers running back to their computers and their favorite MMO in less than an hour - or at very least, they would bury themselves in their portable devices playing “Fruit Ninja” while the GM tried to get through even one character creation with a hapless new role-player at the gaming table.
I’ve played genre non-specific game systems before, and have personally adapted settings like Traveller, 2300, and Shadowrun to the Hero System and GURPS, because that’s what my players were “into” at the time. Without a doubt, genre neutral systems have some great potential for fun with the right gaming group. And while no one would deny that Hero System does have complex elements in it to allow for the adaptation to almost any genre or setting, it seems as simplistic as a game of “go-fish” compared to the juggernaut of rules that the Paraspace RPS tries to impose on a gamer.
Even the d20 OGL system has shown remarkable resilience at cross-genre adaptations, and it remains a fairly simple and easy to both create characters as well as play the game. Games like Pathfinder (fantasy), Traveller d20 (science fiction), and Cthulhu d20 (horror) have demonstrated time and again how a straight-forward and easy-to-use system can be molded into a fun playing experience, without being bogged down under a pile of rules covering all minutiae. Even D&D 4E has been successfully adapted to a modern/scifi setting in Amethyst, and to the post-apocalyptic setting depicted in D&D Gamma World.
Paraspace RPS might have a market with some of the extreme simulationist role-playing game crowd, but for the mainstream RP gamer, it’s unlikely this game will be winning much favor. With the popularity of PC games and MMOs, it seems that more and more role-players are looking for a system which can be fast and fun to play as their computer gaming experience, but with the social elements that only gathering round a gaming table can provide. And Paraspace fails to meet these current trends in role-playing games, and is simply too over-designed and too complex to hope to be any fun at all. And the pricetag is staggering for nothing more than an overgrown rulebook.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Author’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
And even if a game system is not aimed at a specific genre, then that game system is most likely designed to work with a particular campaign setting.But now the ParaSpace Role-Playing System is breaking free of both genre and campaign setting, and is offering a comprehensive generic set of rules for gamers to use in their heroic adventures. ParaSpace RPS claims to be able to handle any genre or setting, in any age to allow players and game masters “to open the door to the many worlds of their imagination.”
ParaSpace Role-Playing System
Authors: Daran Plows
Illustrations: iStockPhotos
Publisher: ParaSpace Publishing
Year: 2011
Media: Hardback (340 pages)
Cost: £25.00 (+£12.00 P&P direct from the Publisher) [Author’s Note: $42.00 + $21.00 shipping]
ParaSpace Role-Playing System is a generic set of core game rules which can be used with any genre or setting. The rulebook consists of a Player’s Guide for designing characters for use with the game, a Magic section which includes both spells and paranormal abilities, and a GM’s Section to assist game masters in using the rules to create any type of world setting – from wild west to superheroes to heroic fantasy – of their choosing.
Production Quality
Although I did not have a hardcopy of the book to judge the production quality, I did have a complete 340-page PDF to examine and read over the course of a couple weeks. For those interested, the makers of ParaSpace offer a basic version of their rules and character sheet which can be downloaded here from their website.
Overall, the production quality of the core rulebook is at best fair, with some decent writing, but with a somewhat jumbled organizational style. While all the rules for creating a character are in the Player’s Guide, there are also additional rules which appear in the Magic section which have to be considered when designing a character.
The illustrations in the book are few, and appear to be mainly public domain photos. While some are appropriate to the book, there were a couple that made my eyebrows rise a bit – one particular photo in the Magic section of a grim looking gent with runes on his forehead that looks like he’d be more comfortable hanging out at the local leather bar than gracing the pages of a role-playing game manual (see illustration below in the discussion of the Magic Section). Then again, I guess a game system catering to every genre could have a wider appeal – including leather-clad fantasists.
The Player’s Guide
The author of ParaSpace RPS opens the core rulebook with the ubiquitous explanation of the nature of role-playing that has appeared since Gary E. Gygax first published the AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide. The ParaSpace system uses only d10s to play, utilitzing them in multiples for d100 and d1000 rolls as called for by the game.
Following the explanation of role-playing, there followed some three pages of a Glossary of Terms and abbreviations used to play ParaSpace. Having no frame of reference from the rules as yet for how these terms would be used, the terms range from simple concepts such as WT for weight, and to more complex abbreviations like SROF for spray rate of fire, TEM for total encumbrance modifier - representing “the weight and awkwardness of all items worn or carried” – and GV for grapple value – which ”defines a weapon’s effectiveness at grappling”. Apparently, in this last example, the GV is “added as a bonus to an Entangle Value when attempting such a manoeuvre”, which means you sort of have to understand one abbreviation just to figure out another.
Within the first few pages I got the strong impression that I was reading through a game system which had all the earmarks of being very complex, if not overly so, in order for the Author to encompass fantasy, modern, science fiction, and a host of other genres in combat and other encounters. Of course, other systems such as D20 and 4E have accommodated mixed genres just fine without becoming overly complicated, and have been used to produce spin-off games such as Traveler d20, D&D Gamma World, and Amethyst, using only simple modifications to an existing game system. But the ParaSpace Role-Playing System appears to be far more in depth, delving into greater levels of detail and minutiae than these other systems – but with mixed results.
Character Generation
The author of ParaSpace RPS presents two forms of character generation: one is designed for the role-playing neophyte to use and the other for more advanced role-players who have an idea of what sort of character they want. The “beginner” section consists of a series of tables which can be used to randomly determine things such as the character’s style (Tough/Resolute/Sly/Intelligent) as well as their raison d’etre (or reason for existence) to define why they chose the adventuring lifestyle. Age, sex, culture, family relationships, social standing, and professions are just some of the randomly generated table available to assist a new gamer in making up their first character. Unfortunately, the author clearly over thought the character generation process. Most folks new to role-playing games would almost certainly find this process of rolling to determine every little nuance of a character to be dull and tedious at best. Thankfully, experienced role-players are invited to skip all this and head deeper into the character generation section to work on their persona.
Characters in Paraspace RPS have 9 Manipulations (attributes) - Physique, Deftness, Quickness, Fitness, Perception, Mind, Intelligence, Charisma, and Luck - with beginning scores ranging from 1 to 7. The points to buy these stats are determined by the character’s age, with extremely young characters and elderly characters getting less stat points to buy Manipulations than mature characters. The most points a character can be granted is 46 points, from the Age 36-40 bracket. These nine Manipulations which define the character are also used in “figured” characteristics, creating sub-abilities like a Learn Bonus, Sanity, Move, and Shock Factor.
Unfortunately, all of these rules for character creation did little to dissuade my opinion that the ParaSpace RPS was overly complex and needlessly so. A character’s age becomes a major factor in the game, and is also used to determine skill points to buy skills and powers. Again, these skills could come from any genre, from the Dark Ages to the Wild West to a Cybernetic Future, so the GM would need to already have a setting in mind before any character creation could be accomplished.
In addition to Manipulations and Skill, characters will have to determine Special Abilities, whether they have magic capabilities and what type of magic system they utilize, as well as what sort of body combat and weapon specialization they might use, and even random quirks – such as addictions, altered personality, and even mental and physical illnesses/handicaps. It’s possible for a hero in Paraspace to be a 10 year old magic-wielding wizard (I know, blatant Harry Potter reference – I’m a fan, so shoot me) - but it’s also possible to create a 40 year old epileptic cowboy or a 25 yo obese space ranger - all with a few random die rolls. Why one would want to play these latter sorts of heroes is beyond me, but perhaps there are players who enjoy handicapped characters in their escapist fantasy/scifi games.
But it was once I got to the skill system of Paraspace RPS, I realized that this role-playing game was showing all the indications of being totally over-designed by its author. With over 200 skills to choose from for use in the game - ranging from Art and Demolitions to Odour Scenting and Scuba Diving - there is simply an overwhelming choice for a game trying to encompass every genre. And there were notable levels of redundancy among skills, particularly among weapons – for instance, there were six different Sword skills, four different Shield skills, and five different Gun skills – each one used with a different type of weapon. Rules for skill use, their selection, and their definitions take up nearly 40 pages of reading - and many skills having complex rules which would almost certainly require the occasional referencing to use during a game session!
In Chapter 3 of the Player’s Guide, the nature of Equipment is discussed, and with it the nature of encumbrance, with these two factors playing a massive role in a character’s ability to function in combat. Sadly, strapping on some armor is not a simple prospect. Donning a suit of mail in ParaSpace requires a cascade of calculations to determine how it affects Body Combat (hand-to-hand) and Weapon Combat (from swords to laser pistols). And adding in a weapon to the character’s ensemble precipitates another cascade of calculations, all to determine how good a character is at hitting enemies and how easily he or she can be hit by them. There are nearly a dozen pages devoted to these calculations before we ever get to read what a character will have for starting money or what he can purchase to defend himself.
But even money is no simple matter in Paraspace, as each character must figure their Average Earnings, Average Cost of Living, and Average Savings – yes, there are tables for all that – before a player can even start purchasing armor and weapons to go out adventuring. But the complexity of buying equipment does not stop there, as each item in the game has a variety of stats which range from Tech Level (TL) and Price (PRC) to Toughness (Tou) and Weight (Wgt). Armor gets away with only 5 stats, but each weapon in the ParaSpace RPS comes with a whopping 19 different statistics, which are used to determine not only how much damage it does, but how it affects the hero wielding it!
At this point, however, character creation is mostly complete, with stats, skills, equipment, done, and most of the character sheet – which looks like an income tax form - filled out. And it only took a little over 100 pages of content to get that far. Mind you, we have not even seen the rules for Combat (Chapter 4), Transports Mounts and Vehicles (Chapter 5), Movement (Chapter 6), Miscellaneous Rules (Chapter 7) for everything from explosions and drowning to poisons and disease effects.
Of course, if your GM is allowing magical, paranormal, or supernatural abilities, then you’re still not done creating your character, and will need to head on to the next section of the book – Magic.
Before moving on to Magic, I want to touch on a fairly confusing chapter regarding Experience Points in Chapter 8, which also includes rules about leveling a character along what’s called a “Progression Map” - which is sort of like a class advancement table, although classes really have not been discussed. As previously mentioned, Paraspace appears to be a wide open genre gaming experience, allowing a character to create pretty much any type of character they want (and that the dice rolls will allow), with gained experience points spent on advancing skills, manipulations, and other abilities. The progression maps are provided as a template or guide to advancing characters along particular paths, such as Cleric, Sorcerer, Soldier of Fortune, or Space Pirate. This section is not very well organized, and if anything, makes the process of character leveling and advancement a daunting prospect.
The second section of the Paraspace RPS rulebook deals with Magic, which also encompasses all other supernatural effects. Being a game which tries to be all-encompassing set of rules, regardless of genre, there are 3 different magic systems in the game – Arcane, Inherent, and Transcendental, and a fourth catch-all-the-remainder simply called Special Abilities. The magic system is further broken down into different doctrines, such as Thaumaturgy, Telluric, Sigils, Enchantment, and Formulaic – and that is just for Arcane magic use! As with other forms of combat, magic use requires a series of calculations to create statistics such as MEP (Magical Energy Points), MFR (Magical Force Rating), and PMA (Potential Magical Aptitude).
There are a variety of spells provided for Arcane magic use, as well as for Inherent magic – which seem to be similar to psionics as published in other game systems. Inherent magic might well be used in a modern campaign to represent paranormal channeling of power, and the use of extra-sensory perception.
Other effects which might be viewed as “mutations” or magical powers which defy a system are termed Special Abilities. These range from enhanced personal powers, such as Amazing Speed to shamanistic abilities like having an animal totem (ex. Wolf) which grants a character certain powers. These abilities might be used in a “supers” style campaign, or in a post-apocalyptic mutant campaign setting.
Section 3 of Paraspace RPS is the GM’s Guide, and starts with a section on how to be a GM - which is frankly unnecessary for anyone who has picked up this game and would attempt to run it would have to be a fairly skilled game master. A neophyte GM would probably have put the rulebook down after trying to muddle through the first 25 pages or so of the game. This section also has a chapter on creating a setting, and developing it to mesh with the Paraspace system, which means that this massive rulebook is nothing more than a combination player’s handbook and game master guide, and contains almost no “fluff” content - such as a world or setting - to use these rules with. Game Masters are supposed to assimilate all these rules, decide upon a genre or genres to create their game around, and write all that up prior to play!
Paraspace RPS does include some very basic theory on world building, and a set of tables for creating adventures/missions by randomly rolling for a Mission Statement, Mission Link, Encounter Types, Objects and Places, as well as other miscellaneous elements. So with some random rolls, I created an adventure where heroes would “Confront” a “Crime” involving a “Shepherd” and a “Flying Vehicle” on a “Tundra” in the “Summer”. As the plot for this adventure still made no sense, I was referred to a plot device table to help it along, and got a roll of “Memory Loss” – which pretty much defines what I was feeling by this point while reading this rulebook.
The next section of the book deals with providing creature templates to use during adventures – sort of a monster manual of critters from fantasy, modern, horror, and science-fiction genres. These are provided without much fanfare as a simply bunch of stat blocks for the GM to reference – no pictures or descriptions of the monsters needed apparently. And finally the book wraps up with a selection of magic items which can be found by heroes during the course of play. Like the creature templates, these items are listed without any real explanation as just stat blocks for the GM to reference.
The final four pages of the book are a massive index, which one would assume is going to assist a GM in finding rules to help run this game.
Overall Score: 1.6 out of 5.0
Conclusions
The old saying about too much of a good thing causing more harm than good would definitely apply to the Paraspace Role-Playing System. The rules are far too numerous and complex to be usable, and the thought of trying to teach this game - even to an advanced group of RP gamers - seems like it would be a nightmare. Frankly, the pack of veteran gamers I associate with regularly would be laughing themselves off their chairs if I tried to present this as a viable game system, especially considering how many more cohesively designed systems we have all played together over the years. Without a doubt, this system would have neophyte gamers running back to their computers and their favorite MMO in less than an hour - or at very least, they would bury themselves in their portable devices playing “Fruit Ninja” while the GM tried to get through even one character creation with a hapless new role-player at the gaming table.
I’ve played genre non-specific game systems before, and have personally adapted settings like Traveller, 2300, and Shadowrun to the Hero System and GURPS, because that’s what my players were “into” at the time. Without a doubt, genre neutral systems have some great potential for fun with the right gaming group. And while no one would deny that Hero System does have complex elements in it to allow for the adaptation to almost any genre or setting, it seems as simplistic as a game of “go-fish” compared to the juggernaut of rules that the Paraspace RPS tries to impose on a gamer.
Even the d20 OGL system has shown remarkable resilience at cross-genre adaptations, and it remains a fairly simple and easy to both create characters as well as play the game. Games like Pathfinder (fantasy), Traveller d20 (science fiction), and Cthulhu d20 (horror) have demonstrated time and again how a straight-forward and easy-to-use system can be molded into a fun playing experience, without being bogged down under a pile of rules covering all minutiae. Even D&D 4E has been successfully adapted to a modern/scifi setting in Amethyst, and to the post-apocalyptic setting depicted in D&D Gamma World.
Paraspace RPS might have a market with some of the extreme simulationist role-playing game crowd, but for the mainstream RP gamer, it’s unlikely this game will be winning much favor. With the popularity of PC games and MMOs, it seems that more and more role-players are looking for a system which can be fast and fun to play as their computer gaming experience, but with the social elements that only gathering round a gaming table can provide. And Paraspace fails to meet these current trends in role-playing games, and is simply too over-designed and too complex to hope to be any fun at all. And the pricetag is staggering for nothing more than an overgrown rulebook.
So until next review… I wish you Happy Gaming!
Author’s Note: This Reviewer received a complimentary copy of the product in PDF format from which the review was written.
Grade Card (Ratings 1 to 5)
- Presentation: 2.25
- - Design: 2.5
- - Illustrations: 2.0
- Content: 1.5
- - Crunch: 2
- - Fluff: 1
- Value: 1
Attachments
Last edited by a moderator:
