trancejeremy
Adventurer
Since it's not in the database (and like always, my request to add it goes ignored), I'm posting my review here.
(Cover pic at
http://www.peginc.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/13003DeadFromAbove.jpg
)
==============================================
Dead From Above is the aerial combat book for Weird Wars: Blood on the Rhine (Pinnacles game of World War 2 horror on the Western Front). It's a fairly thin perfect bound softcover, at 64 pages, and is priced at the somewhat standard $15 (I paid $12 total for it from a dealer on Ebay). Like almost all Pinnacle books, it has a huge amount of outside margin, by my eye about 1 3/4". The text size is pretty average, so the amount of text in this book is lower than in most 64 page books.
There's not much art, and a fair amount of old WW2 era photos. Help set the mood, but nothing great.
It's divided into 4 parts. 3 parts source material, 1 part adventure.
The 1st part, source material, is on new rules. It's fairly thin at about 10-12 pages. It introduces the Pilot class*, 3 new skills, and 7 new feats. Then come the rules for air combat. It uses a fairly abstract system, rather than tracking movement literally, it tracks relative 'position' in combat, basically a number from 0 to 10 (the higher being better). By performing various actions, the planes gain or lose position. Position also then makes various tasks easier or harder. For instance, if you have a position advantage over another plane, it's easier to hit it. The rules are fairly comprehensive, there are rules for attacking ground targets, bombing, strafing, different types of bursts, etc.
After some playtesting, the combat system seems to work fairly well. Some of it is a bit odd, it seems like the highest position planes should get to go first, instead of lower. But it works well enough, and is fairly easy after some stumbles.
The 2nd part provides stats and brief descriptions of various aircraft used in the Western Front. Not a huge selection, but covers most the major ones. Small section, only 5 pages.
German: Bf109G, Bf110C, FW 190A-8, FW 190D-9, Ju-52, Ju-87, Ju-88, Me-163 (that rocket plane), Me-262 (jet)
UK: Halifax Mk VI, Hurricane IIB, Lancaster, Mosquito (one of my favorites), Spitfire Mk VB, Typhoon MkIB
US: A-20, A-26 Invader, C-47, P-38L Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, B-17G Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-26 Marauder
I used to be a WW2 Flight Sim junkie, but that was about 10 years ago, and mostly on the Pacific front. But most seem pretty accurate from what I can remember.
The 3rd part is an adventure called Memphis Hell. It's pretty good sized at about 20 pages. It's a combination commando mission and air adventure. I'm not going to give much in the way of spoilers, but basically the PCs have to locate a missing aircraft on the ground, repair it, and finish it's mission. I'm not sure how plausible it is, but it's a pretty good adventure. Tough, too. A begining adventure probably would have been more useful.
The 4th and final part is a mini-compendium of monsters. It's 14 pages of aerial monsters, though that only works out to 9 of them. Acid Cloud, Cloudkill (sort of a octopus of the air), Death Cloud (are we seeing a pattern?), Fallen Angel (finally not a cloud, also includes the leader of them, Moloch), Firebat, Fliegerkopf (pretty gross - a german experiment), Foo Fighter (aka, UFO), Nador (dinosaur man), and Roc (big bird).
All in all this is a pretty good product. The rules are fairly solid, the adventure is pretty good (if a bit tough), the new monsters are fairly interesting (except for the 3 different evil clouds) and well researched (particularly the Foo Fighters).
Still, there are some problems. There is apparently no weapons table for aircraft's machine guns or cannons, so you have to look up on the weapons table in BOTR (and I'm not sure all the aircraft weapons are on there). The number of aircraft is a bit sparse. Pictures or illustrations of all the aircraft would also have been nice. An example of air combat would have been great (and much apreciated). All of this could have been possible if Pinnacle hadn't used such giant margins.
I also really think Pinnacle could have simply put the air combat rules into BOTR, as well as the pilot class. They're really not very long. Still, it's not a bad buy. I give it a pretty solid 3.
* The pilot in this book is not the same as in Dragonstar, but somewhat close. Same attack bonus progression, same skill points, but has a d8 for hit points. Also has no special abilities, but gets bonus feats every so often. So it's probably better on the ground than the DS pilot, but not as good in a dogfight.
(Cover pic at
http://www.peginc.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/13003DeadFromAbove.jpg
)
==============================================
Dead From Above is the aerial combat book for Weird Wars: Blood on the Rhine (Pinnacles game of World War 2 horror on the Western Front). It's a fairly thin perfect bound softcover, at 64 pages, and is priced at the somewhat standard $15 (I paid $12 total for it from a dealer on Ebay). Like almost all Pinnacle books, it has a huge amount of outside margin, by my eye about 1 3/4". The text size is pretty average, so the amount of text in this book is lower than in most 64 page books.
There's not much art, and a fair amount of old WW2 era photos. Help set the mood, but nothing great.
It's divided into 4 parts. 3 parts source material, 1 part adventure.
The 1st part, source material, is on new rules. It's fairly thin at about 10-12 pages. It introduces the Pilot class*, 3 new skills, and 7 new feats. Then come the rules for air combat. It uses a fairly abstract system, rather than tracking movement literally, it tracks relative 'position' in combat, basically a number from 0 to 10 (the higher being better). By performing various actions, the planes gain or lose position. Position also then makes various tasks easier or harder. For instance, if you have a position advantage over another plane, it's easier to hit it. The rules are fairly comprehensive, there are rules for attacking ground targets, bombing, strafing, different types of bursts, etc.
After some playtesting, the combat system seems to work fairly well. Some of it is a bit odd, it seems like the highest position planes should get to go first, instead of lower. But it works well enough, and is fairly easy after some stumbles.
The 2nd part provides stats and brief descriptions of various aircraft used in the Western Front. Not a huge selection, but covers most the major ones. Small section, only 5 pages.
German: Bf109G, Bf110C, FW 190A-8, FW 190D-9, Ju-52, Ju-87, Ju-88, Me-163 (that rocket plane), Me-262 (jet)
UK: Halifax Mk VI, Hurricane IIB, Lancaster, Mosquito (one of my favorites), Spitfire Mk VB, Typhoon MkIB
US: A-20, A-26 Invader, C-47, P-38L Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, P-51 Mustang, B-17G Flying Fortress, B-24 Liberator, B-26 Marauder
I used to be a WW2 Flight Sim junkie, but that was about 10 years ago, and mostly on the Pacific front. But most seem pretty accurate from what I can remember.
The 3rd part is an adventure called Memphis Hell. It's pretty good sized at about 20 pages. It's a combination commando mission and air adventure. I'm not going to give much in the way of spoilers, but basically the PCs have to locate a missing aircraft on the ground, repair it, and finish it's mission. I'm not sure how plausible it is, but it's a pretty good adventure. Tough, too. A begining adventure probably would have been more useful.
The 4th and final part is a mini-compendium of monsters. It's 14 pages of aerial monsters, though that only works out to 9 of them. Acid Cloud, Cloudkill (sort of a octopus of the air), Death Cloud (are we seeing a pattern?), Fallen Angel (finally not a cloud, also includes the leader of them, Moloch), Firebat, Fliegerkopf (pretty gross - a german experiment), Foo Fighter (aka, UFO), Nador (dinosaur man), and Roc (big bird).
All in all this is a pretty good product. The rules are fairly solid, the adventure is pretty good (if a bit tough), the new monsters are fairly interesting (except for the 3 different evil clouds) and well researched (particularly the Foo Fighters).
Still, there are some problems. There is apparently no weapons table for aircraft's machine guns or cannons, so you have to look up on the weapons table in BOTR (and I'm not sure all the aircraft weapons are on there). The number of aircraft is a bit sparse. Pictures or illustrations of all the aircraft would also have been nice. An example of air combat would have been great (and much apreciated). All of this could have been possible if Pinnacle hadn't used such giant margins.
I also really think Pinnacle could have simply put the air combat rules into BOTR, as well as the pilot class. They're really not very long. Still, it's not a bad buy. I give it a pretty solid 3.
* The pilot in this book is not the same as in Dragonstar, but somewhat close. Same attack bonus progression, same skill points, but has a d8 for hit points. Also has no special abilities, but gets bonus feats every so often. So it's probably better on the ground than the DS pilot, but not as good in a dogfight.
