The Coming Of Shadows

[Messageboard Golem]

The Earth year 2258 was set to be one of new beginnings but instead became a time of exceptional discord. The disputes between the Narn and Centauri have steadily escalated as the two age-old enemies vie for territory and influence, even as the Minbari subtly manipulate the younger races for their own nebulous ends. The Vorlons have, for the first time, appeared to other races on board the Babylon 5 diplomatic station but their motives seem convoluted and beyond the concerns of others. Even the Earth Alliance has suffered, with the seemingly accidental death of its president and a growing feeling among many that its government has become fragmented, with shadowy groups becoming increasingly self-serving, pursuing secret agendas with worrying consequences. Terrorist groups have grown increasingly daring in their activities, trying to secure freedom for worlds within the Earth Alliance or keep alien influence far from humanity. Times are growing dark for the weak and helpless, but it is also fertile ground for opportunists and heroes to leave a permanent mark on the galaxy.

The Coming of Shadows is a sourcebook for the Babylon 5 roleplaying game, exploring in detail the personalities and events of 2259. Used in conjunction with Chapter 8 of the main rulebook, Signs and Portents, Games Masters can now accurately extend their campaigns and story arcs beyond 2258 to include the dramatic galaxy-shaking events detailed here.

Every episode of the second season of the Babylon 5 television show is fully covered in The Coming of Shadows, along with numerous scenario and campaign hooks that will make it easy to integrate them with ongoing story arcs already unfolding in current games. As described in Chapter 9 of the main rulebook, Campaigns on Babylon 5, players can witness or even become directly involved in these events, engaging in story arcs of their own that may put them at the centre of the galaxy alongside the heroes of the television show. This sourcebook also includes the main personalities found on board Babylon 5, updated from those that appeared in the main rulebook in 2258, as well as featuring a few new faces. New rules additions, equipment and vehicles are also featured, expanding the Babylon 5 roleplaying game no matter where or when the Games Master chooses to set his story arcs and campaigns.

The year 2258 set the scene for players new to the Babylon 5 roleplaying game. The Coming of Shadows will elevate games to new levels of passion and excitement as players begin to discover just who the real powers in the galaxy are. . .

 

[Simon Collins]

This is not a playtest review.
This review contains spoilers for both the game and the TV series.

The Coming Of Shadows is a d20 RPG sourcebook for the second season of the Babylon 5 TV series, from Mongoose Publishing.

The Coming Of Shadows is a 144-page colour softcover product costing $24.95. Space usage is good with smallish font and margins, but not as good as the two previous products with a few small chunks of white space here and there, and the inside covers and another page used for ads for upcoming products. The book uses a similar presentation style as the main RPG/Factbook with lots of stills (a disturbing number of which are too dark to make out any detail) and rather bland tables and sidebars. Writing style is direct and concise, whilst editing contains rather more frequent minor errors than the previous two books, though still irregular. A notable error is that from p.67 onwards, all the section headings are dated 2258 instead of 2259.

After a brief overview of the use of the sourcebook as a guide to, and inspiration from, the second season of the TV series, the main NPCs from the TV series are given updated stats and background, including Sheridan and Mr. Morden (who was missing stats in the first book). Mr. Morden is deemed to be a 3rd-level Scientist/6th-level Shadow Agent, but I could not find any trace of a Shadow Agent class or PrC elsewhere in this or previous books. More sample standard characters are also offered, such as Drazi smuggler, Narn citizen, and ISN Reporter.

The majority of the book is taken up with an episode guide for Season 2 of the TV series (2259) along with new information, rules and campaign/adventure ideas linked to each episode. Notable information includes stats for the Soldiers of Darkness (Shadow minions), a template for those affected by Project Lazarus, the changes to Talia Winters brought about by Jason Ironheart, Centauri psycholinguistics (including a new Craft skill for writing speeches using this concept), the upgraded Defence Grid for the station, new races (the xenophobic, analytical Streibs and the arrogant, symbiotic Lumati), discussion of the Psi Corps sleeper program, and Vorlon agents. There is also an ongoing commentary throughout the book on the status of the war of retribution between the Narns and Centauri as the season progresses.

The next section provides some rules additions, beginning with an optional rule for allowing the GM to rule a certain character has been critically injured and requires long-term medical treatment if they went below -5 hit points. New medical specialties such as xenobiology, toxicology, and trauma care are also offered. There are also rules for telepaths to create a memory vault (an area of the mind containing a single memory of a location, event, or person which is much harder for scans to access than normal).

Four new prestige classes are offered:
* GROPOS Hoverpilot - 5 levels, minimum 5th-lvel entry, good BAB, non-standard Saves, class features that aid getting into enemy territory, focused on flying vehicle defense and attack bonuses.
* EarthForce Intelligence Agent - 5 levels, minimum 5th-level entry, average BAB, non-standard Saves, and class features that involve making use of government resources and their advanced training in covert operations and information gathering.
* Centaurum Royal Guard - 10 levels, minimum 6th-level entry, good BAB, non-standard save progressions, and class features that improve their ability to protect the Centauri emperor such as erasing past records, advanced training, and psychic conditioning.

* Techno-Mage - 10 levels, minimum 7th-level entry, average BAB, non-standard saves, and class features offering a variety of choices during progression for advanced technology creating pseudo-magical effects.

Two templates are also provided:
* Empath - empaths are created as the result of a failed psi corps experiment on former telepaths, rendering their telepathy useless but giving them an ability to alter the emotions and perceptions of those they contact.
* Imperial Telepath - high-rated female Centauri telepaths used to protect the Centauri emperor, functioning as a symbiotic foursome.

A new Telepathic feat, Commanding Presence, for Empaths, is also described, which works a little like the Command spell from D&D.

A further and final section gives further information on vehicles and equipment, including cryogenic freezer units, stims, Earth Alliance Explorer Survey Ships, Centauri Republic Primus Battlecruiser, and tractor beams.

High Points:
Like the Signs And Portents chapter in the main RPG/Factbook, the campaign ideas surrounding the Season's episode guide is helpful for inspiration and detail when developing one's own adventures and story arcs as a GM. The new equipment, vehicles, and PrCs are welcome additions to the information pool, as are the updated stats for the main NPCs and the standard NPC examples.

Low Points:
A few rules that need smoothing round the edges and a (seemingly) missing PrC - the Shadow Agent. Purely in terms of game rules, 90% of the book is reference material, so those who already own Season 2 on DVD (or recorded it from the TV), may find it much less useful. I would have preferred to see the Centaurum Royal Guard and the Imperial Telepath in the upcoming Centauri sourcebook, but that would have slimmed down even further the scanty game rules.

Conclusion:
A great reference book for GMs who don't already have the series on DVD/Video, and full of inspiration in terms of the campaign/adventure ideas, even for those who do. Somewhat more limited in terms of its addition to the game rules, but covers a wide variety of topics.

 

[Falanor]

Good review, though I disagree about the missing prestige class being a low point. They tell you all of his classes abilities that Morden has, and I kind of get the feeling that this prestige class will be fully detailed in "The Vorlons and the Shadows" book that they mention in this book.

I agree about the Centauri stuff, but they did say this would have the things that show up in the series as they show up, course there were no Rangers in this one...

 

[Simon Collins]

Falanor

I agree, I think the PrC will be in that upcoming book.

I just felt that since they introduced a character with the Prestige Class, they should have detailed that prestige class in the same book, for GM's to develop their own Shadow Agents. Heck, Mr. Morden's only a 6th-level Shadow Agent, what do 10th-level ones get? ;-)

Simon Collins

 

[Simon Collins]

Alexander Fennell of Mongoose made the following point about Mr. Morden's presentation in this book:

"During Season 2, there is only one shadow agent, and that's Mr Morden. GMs who don't want to stay faithful to the series can develop their own shadow agents when the PrC is detailed in a later sourcebook (and then backwards engineer one to appear in their games in season 1 or 2)."

 

[KDLadage]

The Coming of Shadows is the second-season sourcebook for the Babylon 5 Roleplaying game published by Mongoose. My review of the Roleplaying game can be found on this website as well.

One of the real strengths of the core rulebook was the section detailing the first season. When I first got wind that the second season book would be a softcover, rather than a hard-cover like the core book, I was a little disappointed. My own thinking went something akin to either "keep all of the seasonal books hard-cover" or "you should not have included season 1 in the core book, so that in the end I would have a softcover for each season handy..." Alas, I was not consulted. But... lets dive in and look at what we get for our $24.95, shall we?

The cover is glossy, which makes the cover photo very nice looking indeed. Three shadows over a planetary background, one with a beam of pure death streaming from it; an Earth (Omega?) ship off to the side. Nice look.

The back cover appears to have been printed in error. Much of the information seems to have been lifted from the core book unedited, and does not apply to this volume. Unfortunately, the editing errors do not end here. Most of them are minor and easilly overlooked. Others are rather glaring and I find difficult to understand how they managed to stay in the book...

INTRODUCTION
The introduction is on page 3. It is a brief and interesting read. It does a decent job of selling the book to those of us reading it. In this chapter we get the information that the book is to be one of several "season guides" (see above for my thoughts on season 1 in the core book).

PERSONALITIES
Pages 4 to 14 cover the personalities of 2259. Here we are introduced to Sheridan (12th level officer; although they mistate the name of the Minbari ship Sheridan destroyed), as well as updated character sheets for Ivonova, Garibaldi, Fraklin, Winters and so on...We get photos of the characters; however Sheridan's is so dark as to be nearly black throughout; G'Kar's I am fairly certain is not G'Kar, Vir's is the same as in the core book, as is Mr. Morden's (but at least he gets stats this time).

Mr. Morden includes a class I cannot find anywhere. At first I thought his 6th Level Shadow Agent was simply telling me he was a 6th level Agent, in the employ of the shadows. This does not appear to be the case, as the numbers simply do not add up.

This chapter closes with some sample NPC type characters. A nice closer for this chapter, in my opinion, and something that should have been in the core book.

THE GALAXY OF 2259
This is the meat of the book, and runs from page 15 to page 125. For the most part, the writing is well done, the information is fairly accurate and the interpretations are about what I expected. However, some things seem odd here -- mostly from an editing perspective.

-- many, many photos in this section are so dark as to be almost black squares with little or no details. Examples: pages 15, 17, 23, 24!, 25!, 38!, 43, 46, 48, 62, 68, 74!, 78, 79!, 88, 89, 91!, 119, and so on. I am sure I missed a few. Those with "!" next to them are particularly bad.

-- From pages 15 to 66, all episodes are given the correct year of 2259; after this page, all (and I do mean all) episoides are given the incorrect year of 2258...

-- Some minor errors seem to have cropped in... much like the Darkstar/Blackstar name change in Sheridan's character write-up in the previous chapter. These errors are small and simple to ignore. Honestly, I espect a few things like this to crop up given the scope of the show.

-- Spellings... There exists a few odd spellings, not ones I am familiar with, or not used to. Clark vs. Clarke, Hague vs. Haig for example. Not a major deal, just not the way I expected them to be spelled.

-- The sections detailing the advancement of the Narn-Centauri war (The War of Retribution) were well done and well placed. Nicely written and good information for a long-running campaign.

Overall, I would say a good job here.

RULES ADDITIONS
Critically Injured characters is a good set of rules I may use at some point (although most likely sparingly)

Memory Vaulting is an interesting read.

The Pretige Class GROPOS HOVERPILOT is, well, ok I suppose. Seemed a bit NPCish, but that is ok. Every now and again, you need a good NPC Prestige CLass.

The Prestige Class EARTHFORCE INTELLIGENCE AGENT seemd to fill a nitch I am not sure needed filling. I thought this was covered by the AGENT class...

The Prestige Class CENTAURUM ROYAL GUARD was well put together.

The two templates (EMPATH and IMPERIAL TELEPATH) were interesting if not all that useful. They do, however, illustrate the limitations of the psionics system in the game as presented.

The New Telepathic Feat was good (COMMANDING PRESENCE).

The book closes with some equipment (fair) and space vehicles (below average). I say below average, as I am still one that feels that the space combat system, as presented, is less than playable. But that could be me.

CONCLUSIONS
So, how to rate the book? I give it a 4. It is a good book overall, that makes the most of a system that has some real flaws. But, seeing as how Mongoose is doing a companion volume, perhaps all is not lost. Perhaps the material is to be elevated as a whole. I can only hope.

[b[]edit:[/b] No companion volume; and the system has gotten worse over time... I have revised teh rating.

 

[KDLadage]

The direction that Mongoose has decided to take with Babylon 5, coupled with the bad taste I have in my mouth for the Mongoose Publishing message boards has lead me to the conclusion that I have no place in the Babylon 5 RPG Universe. I will neither be purchasing nor reviewing any further B5 Books and/or material.