Second World Sourcebook

[Raptor]

I just picked this up and haven't had a good look yet. Has anyone else bought it?

 

[Tetsubo]

I'm interested in any details you can provide. This looks interesting.

 

[Hammerhead]

I've bought it, but I'm waiting for it to arrive from Amazon. I hope it's good. SWS's last product ruled, so I have very high hopes.

 

[Blacksad]

I'm also interested in it, so if you can provide any details, it would be very nice!

I'm currently building a setting with a near futur earth who has conquered some part of the solar system, with space station next to jupiter and terraformation of mars.

An alien invading force that take control of 2/3 of the outer space colonies, with the strange fact that those aliens are humans, and have acces to magic.

The approch of the alien triggered some strange events, with people disapearing on the world, to latter come back at a completly different place, having been in a fantasy world in the meantime.

The Fantasy world would be a mix between renaissance and the world of darkness.

The earth would have mecha powered by science.

The alien would also have mecha powered by science, but also rare magical mecha which can only be piloted by people followed by an ancestor spirit, something that hasn't happened to them in a century, and reappears now thanks to earth inhabitant who seems to be followed by some of those ancestors.

The alien were at war with an Oni-like race, and teamed with them to destroy ...

Well, I should stop now, but I would like to know how much this book would be usefull to me ^_^

 

[tensen]

I'm interested in any details you can provide. This looks interesting.

I'm about 260 pages or so into reading through it.

You get the flavor of a wonderfully detailed setting. As well as a flowchart to that makes it easy to use the entire ruleset as a tool kit for designing your own world instead. Definitely a win-win situation.

I personally have the idea of utilizing bits of it for a Sliders type of campaign.

 

[Psion]

I just picked this up and haven't had a good look yet. Has anyone else bought it?

I have it, and am slowly digesting it in preparation for a review.

Its partly a setting and partly a toolbox. The basic paradigm that the book aims to support is that of a second fantasy world alongside a fairly normal Earth which the author called the "First World". First World shunts out some magic -- or so it is assumed; the author pretty much leaves it to the GM how to treat magic and provides some rules variants.

In fact, the book is loaded with rules variants. If the decisions behind d20 Modern weren't quite your cuppa tea, this book may work for you, as it provides advice on tweaking lethality, magic, and so forth. It also supports D&D/d20 core, and provides a variety of options and material to marry the two.

Though he leaves the disposition of the setting to you, he provides a lot of details and ideas. One of the central ideas behind second world is that of primal forces, and a set of advanced/prestige classes called wardens master a variety of psuedo-magical abilities as they advance. The wardens are very flexible; much like 2WS's masters of arms classes, you choose many or most of your class abilities off of a list.

Anyway, I think that the book is best for advanced and creative DMs who don't like to be hemmed in. As I think that describes me, I like it.

 

[Psion]

In case you missed it, my review is now up:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/reviews/index.php?sub=yes&where=active&reviewer=Psion&product=TSWS