Quick-Start Saturday: Conspiracy X

Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

—oOo—

What is it?
Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is the quick-start for Conspiracy X 2.0, the most recent edition of the roleplaying game of hidden alien invasion, conspiracies, and secrets. Conspiracy X 2.0 is very much a roleplaying game inspired by and published in the wake of The X-Files and in the nineties, was a very contemporary roleplaying game. Originally published by New Millennium Entertainment in 1996, it was published by Eden Studios, Inc. from 1997, receiving a second edition in 2006.

It is a thirty-four page, 15.96 MB full black and white PDF.

How long will it take to play?
Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is designed to be played through in a single session, two at the very most.

What else do you need to play?
The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit needs a a four-sided, six sided, eight-sided, and ten-sided per player.

Who do you play?
The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit includes an Aegis Cell of six operatives. They consist of a CDC scientist, the cell leader determined not to lose another agent again; an FBI agent recently recruited to Aegis for asking too many questions and who believes he was abducted as a child; an ICE investigator who really found himself investigating an illegal alien; an MKULRA psychic with limited powers; a US Army technician skilled with computers; and a DEA agent with an empathy for dogs.

The Cell has a base of operations in an abandoned building. It includes barracks, a field hospital, gym, communications suite, and medical, electronics, and computer workstations.

How is a Player Character defined?

An Agent in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit has six attributes—Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Willpower. Life Points are the amount of physical damage a character can suffer; Endurance his fatigue; and Essence Pool, his spiritual energy. He will have a variety of Qualities and Drawbacks—advantages and disadvantages, a Profession that is his day job, and various skills. These typically range in value between one and five, but can go higher, though two and three represents general competence.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically, Conspiracy X 2.0 uses a ten-sided die to resolve actions, which can be a Test or a Task. For a Task, the player rolls the die and adds a value each for his agent’s appropriate Attribute and Skill. A result of nine or more (this target number can be higher) is a success and higher results can grant better outcomes. For a Test, where there is no skill that applies, the player only adds the value of the Attribute, doubled for a simple Test, but not for a standard Test. Modifiers can be applied to a Test or a Task, ranging from ‘+5’ for easy to ‘-10’ for Near-Impossible.

If a player rolls a natural ten, a bonus six-sided die is rolled and one deducted, the result added to the ten. The player can keep doing this as long as he keeps rolling a six on the bonus die. Similarly, if a natural one is rolled, six-sided die is rolled and the result subtracted from the roll, and this is also open-ended.

An ‘Outcome Table’ in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit gives the possible results of outcomes from nine to twenty-four. There are results given for rolls one and lower.

The rules cover vehicles and chases as both feature very heavily in the included scenario.

How does combat work?
Combat in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is kept simple and starts with initiative being determined by the Chronicler—as the Game Master is known—and then narratively. A Player Character can undertake multiple actions, but the latter comes with penalties. Melee attacks can be parried or dodged, and range for missile or gun attacks modifies both the Task difficulty and the damage multiplier. The rules also allow for lighting, recoil on firing heavy weapons, the use of scopes, and actually being under gunfire. This forces a Willpower Test. If an attack is successful, the result on the ‘Outcome Table’ can add a modifier to increase the damage. Body armour has its own Armour Value, which is rolled for when the wearer is attacked, and the result subtracted from the damage rolled.

A Player Character or NPC reduced to five Life Points or less is badly hurt and suffers penalties to all actions. A Consciousness Test is required if the Life Points are reduced to zero or less, and a Survival Test if they are reduced to minus ten or less.

The rules also cover Endurance loss for exertion and Essence loss for mental stress and exhaustion.

How does ESP work?

All Player Characters in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit are capable of five basic ESP abilities—‘Hunch’, ‘Intuition’, ‘Ken’, ‘Read Aura’, and ‘Second Sight’. They require a Difficult Willpower Test and if successful, an individual ability cannot be used for a week.

This differs from the full Conspiracy X 2.0 rules where the players have the option to draw Zener Cards as in a real Rhine Test to test psychic ability.

One of the Player Characters in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit has the Clairvoyance Psychic power, and unfortunately, it is not clearly explained how this works in the rules given.

What do you play?

The scenario in the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is ‘Convoy’.In the wake of the Roswell Incident of 1947, the secret organisation whose brief during World War 2 has been to monitor Nazi occult activities, split over how it would handle the increasing activities of extraterrestrials on Earth. Both claim to want to protect the USA and the world from both alien and paranormal threats. They just differ in how they wanted to achieve this. Aegis works to monitor alien activities and study their physiology, technology, and psychology, whilst developing the means and methods to combat the aliens as a threat. The National Defence Directorate has made treaties with the aliens that has allowed the abduction of human subjects, genetic experimentation, sabotage, and espionage. In return, the National Defence Directorate has received advanced technology from the aliens. Unfortunately, the rivalry between Aegis and the National Defence Directorate has festered and developed to the point where encounters between the conspiracies are often lethal. ‘Convoy’ is one of these encounters.

In ‘Convoy’, the Player Characters’ Cell is activated to protect and transport a recovered alien spacecraft to the Groom Dry Lake Research Facility. Another Aegis Cell has already recovered the spacecraft from a National Defence Directorate team and the Player Characters are directed to meet the other Aegis Cell survivors. This is a challenging scenario. The National Defence Directorate agent assigned to track them down is ruthless and has access to extensive resources to bring to bear on what quickly turns into a manhunt in which the Player Characters may end being identified as wanted criminals. The scenario can start wherever the players have decided their characters’ Cell is based (or it can start anywhere on the continental USA). Expect state police chases, watchful toll booth operators and seemingly innocuous weighing stations, biker gangs paid to do the dirty, and even abductions by the Greys—depending upon how the players and their characters decide to transport the downed spaceship. The players and their characters have free as how they approach the problem, but they will definitely need guile and some luck as well as brute force to get their truck and its cargo to its destination.

Is there anything missing?
Yes. The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit has everything the Game Master and her players will need to play, except for the full rules for use of the Clairvoyance by the Psychic Player Character. The Game Master will either need to access the full rules for Conspiracy X 2.0 or make up the rules on the spot.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is easy to prepare, although an example of combat would have helped, as would clearer explanations of the Player Character Psychic’s ability.

Is it worth it?
Yes. Although there are elements missing from the Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit, this is a simple, but tough, action-packed challenge for any group of players and their characters. The bad guys of the National Defence Directorate are desperate to recover their lost alien spaceship and will go to almost length to get it back. The scenario sharply showcases the rivalry between the two agencies in what could be a desperate fight for survival.

The Conspiracy X 2.0 – Introductory Game Kit is published by Eden Studios, Inc. and is available to download here.

2002: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game

1974 is an important year for the gaming hobby. It is the year that Dungeons & Dragons was introduced, the original RPG from which all other RPGs would ultimately be derived and the original RPG from which so many computer games would draw for their inspiration. It is fitting that the current owner of the game, Wizards of the Coast, will releasing the new version, Dungeons & Dragons, Fifth Edition, in the year of the game’s fortieth anniversary. To celebrate this, Reviews from R’lyeh will be running a series of reviews from the hobby’s anniversary years, thus there will be reviews from 1974, from 1984, from 1994, and from 2004—the thirtieth, twentieth, and tenth anniversaries of the titles to be reviewed. These will be retrospectives, in each case an opportunity to re-appraise interesting titles and true classics decades on from the year of their original release.

-oOo-

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game was published in 2002. Published by Eden Studios, Inc., best known for the definitive roleplaying game of zombie action and survival, All Flesh Must be Eaten, it is an adaptation of the cult television series which ran between 1997 and 2003. Set in the California town of Sunnydale, it depicts the lives, loves, and conflicts of a group of friends who fight vampires. Or rather a group of friends who help out Buffy Summers, a girl in high school who becomes the ‘Slayer’, or Vampire Slayer, chosen and empowered fate to battle against vampires, demons and other forces of darkness. Despite wanting to live a normal life, Buffy is constantly stalked and attacked by vampires, whilst other powers—known in the series as ‘Big Bads’—plot against her, all attracted to Sunnydale because it sits atop a Hellmouth. As a Slayer, Buffy is aided by a Watcher, who guides, teaches and trains her, and helped by her friends, who are collectively known as the ‘Scooby Gang’ in reference to the long running cartoon. As much as the term ‘Scooby Gang’ is appropriate, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is very much a more modern approach to the idea of monster hunting, reflected in the look and tone of the series, dealing up three parts action-horror, irony, and feeling combined with strong positive roles and depictions of its characters, especially the female ones.

The Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is designed to be played in two ways. First, it can be played using the cast from the television series, and to that end, character sheets are provided for the series’ protagonists up until season five. This is perfect for one shots or convention games, and like many licensed roleplaying games is an attractive means to introduce fans of a particular intellectual property to the concept of roleplaying. However, the second way is playing using characters of the players’ own creation, as is standard in most roleplaying games. That comes up against an issue. Which is, who plays the Slayer? There is only meant to be one Slayer, although as the Buffyverse expands, this is not the case. This ranges from the initially canonical there can only be the one Slayer or one and a replacement Slayer to a handful of Slayers and male or canine Slayers! It all depends on how far the gaming group wants to diverge from the television series. In part, who gets to roleplay the Slayer is important because just as in the television series, the Slayer in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is very powerful, the other roles less so (although over time they can grow into their own).

A character in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is defined by Attributes, Qualities and Drawback, and Skills, as well as Drama Points. The six attributes are Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Willpower. Qualities are advantages and Drawbacks are disadvantages. Attributes typically range between one and five, but can be higher depending on character type and Qualities selected. Skills range between zero and ten in value. Character creation begins with selecting a Character Type, each of which defines the number of points which can be assigned to Attributes, Qualities and Drawback, and Skills. Three are given—White Hat, Hero, and Experienced Hero. White Hats are ordinary folk, like Xander Harris or Willow Rosenberg, specialised in particular skills, such as magic, knowledge, or the occult, and who on their own, have difficulty facing a vampire. Heroes are stronger and faster, able to face a vampire one-on-one and destroy it, such as Buffy or Riley of the Initiative. Experienced Heroes are even stronger and represent Buffy later in the television series, but are not recommended for starting play. Although there is no Character Type for it, some of the Scooby Gang from the series are designed as Experienced White Hats. Once a Character Type is chosen, it is a matter of assigning the points and designing the character, often building out from a Quality based on the player’s concept, for example, a Watcher character requires the Watcher Quality or a warlock or wizard would need the Sorcery Quality. The character creation is not difficult and is clearly explained, plus the book includes not only twelve starting Player Characters or archetypes as examples, including New Slayer, Watcher, Former Vampire Groupie, Psychic, Beginner Witch, and more, but also character sheets for all of the major cast and members of the Scooby Gang, including Spike and Angel, with adjustments season by season, from seasons one to five.

Theodore Buckner is from Philadelphia, but has been sent to Sunnydale to live with his grandmother, whilst his parents are working abroad. He has learned to be self-sufficient and strong willed because he has been bullied at school ever since he can remember, whilst at home, he has learned to keep an eye on his grandmother and her medications, as she is often housebound. He loves reading and playing Dungeons & Dragons, and was fascinated by some books he found in his grandmother’s library which revealed that magic is real. Now he can play his favourite character Class, a Warlock!

NAME: Theodore Buckner

CHARACTER TYPE: White Hat

CHARACTER CONCEPT: Gamer turned Warlock

Life Points: 28

Drama Points: 20

ATTRIBUTES

Strength 1 Dexterity 2 Constitution 2 Intelligence 4* Perception 3 Willpower 5*

(1 Level from Nerd Quality)

QUALITIES (+8 from Drawbacks)

Good Luck-2 (+2), Hard to Kill-2 (+2), Nerd (+3), Occult Library (+1), Sorcery-2 (+10)

DRAWBACKS

Unattractive (-1), Clown (-1), Misfit (-2), Dependent (Grandmother) (-2), Teenager (-2)

SKILLS

Acrobatics 0 Art 0 Computers 2 Crime 0 Doctor 1 Driving 0 Getting Medieval 0 Gun Fu 0 Influence 1 Knowledge 4 Kung Fu 1 Languages 1 Mr. Fix-It 0 Notice 0 Occultism 1 Science 3 Sports 0 Wild Card (Dungeons & Dragons) 2

Manoeuvres / Bonus / Base / Damage Notes

Dodge / 2 / — / Defense action

Magic / 8 / Varies By spell

Stake / 2 / 0 / Slash/stab 

(Through the Heart) 0 2 ×5 vs. vampires

Telekinesis / 7 / 2 × Success Levels Bash or Slash/stab

Mechanically, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game uses the Unisystem mechanics first seen in All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Or rather, it uses a stripped-down version called Cinematic Unisystem designed for faster, more dynamic play, which would go on to be used in several of Eden Studios, Inc.’s  other roleplaying games, including the Angel Roleplaying Game, Army of Darkness Roleplaying Game, and Ghosts of Albion Roleplaying Game. To have his character undertake an action, a player rolls a ten-sided die, and adds either the appropriate attribute and skill or double the attribute if no skill is involved, plus any bonuses from appropriate Qualities. The roll itself can be modified for difficulty and other factors, but the aim is always to roll nine or more. A typical White Hat will be adding five or six to this roll at most, whilst a Slayer, even a starting Slayer, will be adding twelve in combat. The aim here is not just to succeed, but to roll multiple Success Levels, one for every two points above nine. This determines how well the Player Character performed or how much of a task he completed, or how much extra damage he inflicted in combat. Besides standard actions, the rules cover research, fear checks or ‘getting the wiggins’, but the main focus is upon combat.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is an action-horror television series and the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is an action action-horror roleplaying game, and both cinematic in style. In fact, it is also a martial arts action-horror roleplaying game, because the Slayer in particular, will be engaging in jump kicks and spin kicks and sweep kicks, slam tackles, and more as well as decapitations, feints, dodges, wrestling holds, and so on, not forgetting of course, Through the Heart stake action. Gun combat is covered in the rules, but Buffy the Vampire Slayer is all about the cinematic, martial arts action rather than shooting things—which would attract the police—and so all of those martial arts manoeuvres are built into the roleplaying game, and whilst the players should be noting them down on their character sheet, there is very handy list and their effects in the back of the book. Success Levels count for a lot in the game as the greater the number of Success Levels a Player Character can generate, the more damage he can inflict, and in some cases, the greater the multiplier to determine the damage inflicted. Most notably, the damage done when attempting to stake a vampire through the heart. This is not instant in the game, it is possible to miss the heart, but if the damage exceeds the target vampire’s Life points, then he is done and dusted. This modelled by applying a multiplier of five to the Success Levels to determine the damage done.

With Qualities such as Slayer and Hard to Kill, as well as high physical attributes and combat skills, the Slayer will find herself rolling with the punches, spin kicking vamps, and dusting them to death (again) with alacrity. Not so, the White Hats. Even the weakest, newest of vampires represents a severe challenge for them, and unless they get lucky, they are toast. Fortunately, they have two means of withstanding vampire attacks. First is teamwork, hopefully work together until the Slayer can land the final stake. The second is Drama Points. Drama Points are a balancing factor in the game. White Hats have double the number that Heroes have—and they need them.

There are five uses of Drama Points—‘Heroic Feat’, ‘I Think I’m Okay’, ‘Righteous Fury’, ‘Plot Twists’, and ‘Back from the Dead’. ‘Heroic Feat’ grants a +10 bonus to a single roll, in and out of combat; ‘I Think I’m Okay’ halves all of the damage that the Player Character has suffered so far; ‘Righteous Fury’  gives +5 to all combat rolls for a whole fight; ‘Plot Twists’ enables the player to add or change an aspect the game; and ‘Back from the Dead’ does exactly that for characters who are dead. However, once spent, Drama Points are used and cannot be regenerated. Instead, they have to be earned or purchased. The latter uses Experience Points and costs more for a Hero than a White Hat—again enforcing the one advantage that the White Hat has over a Hero. They are earned for coming up with funny, quotable lines in game, for committing heroic acts, and for when something bad happens to a character.

Magic, as per the television series is primarily used as a narrative device, requiring research to determine if a spell is available in the Player Character’s Occult Library, which only contains a limited number of spells until more volumes are found. The rules allow for some magic spells to be cast in combat, but emphasises rituals rather than quickly unleashed bolts of fire. A handful of spells is listed, but the likelihood is that the Player Character Witch or Warlock will be building spells from scratch, which the rules do focus on. To cast a spell, the Witch or Warlock’s player adds the character’s Willpower, Occultism, and Sorcery to a roll of the die. It is not enough to succeed, but the Success Levels rolled must equal the Power Level of the spell, for example, the Power Level of seven for Amy’s ‘Rat-Ification’ Spell. If the number of Success Levels is lower than the Power Level, then there are side effects, and there is a table to determine what they are, which allows for plenty of input from the Director. Lastly, magic using characters can use telekinesis for various things, including attacks. The magic system is fairly short, and would be greatly expanded upon with The Magic Box supplement. For the Player Character Witch or Warlock this supplement is a must, since the core rules really only explore the subject so far… Consequently, this is perhaps where the BBuffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is at its weakest.

For the Director—as the Game Master is known in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game—there is background on Sunnydale and stats and backgrounds for all of its important NPCs. Monsters and vampires have their own chapter too, primarily focusing on vampires and demons, and as well as the means for the Director to create her own, there are stats for just every monster, vampire, Big Bad, and more included in the book. For the most part, the NPC and monster stats are kept simple, with just three attributes— Muscle, Combat, and Brains, along with simplified abilities intended to make them easier to use in play. In addition, there is advice for the Director on setting up and running a series, in particular, how to start with the Big Bad and work out from there, defining his aims and resources, when he will appear in episodes, working out the plot and adding subplots, and then doing the same with episodes. Particular attention is paid to special episodes—season premieres and season finales, all of which should help the Director build a season which emulates the format and structure of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game. It is a very well-done piece of analysis rewritten as advice for the Director.

Then the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game puts all of that advice into practice with the scenario, ‘Sweeps Week’. Set in Sunnydale with the Player Characters in Sunnydale, it presents an intriguing pop culture mystery with more than a few red herrings and plenty of action. It is a great starting adventure which comes with plenty of tips for the Director, gets the tone of the television series rights, and showcases how beginning adventures in rulebooks do not have to be an afterthought. A good adventure in the core showcases the types of adventures it is intended to handle and what the Player Characters should be doing in play, and ‘Sweeps Night’ does that very well.

Physically, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is incredibly well presented. It is liberally illustrated with photographs from the series, and where artwork is used, such as in the sample archetypes, that too is very nicely done. The book uses the Buffy the Vampire Slayer trade dress very well and similarly, the book is incredibly well written, designed for both the Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan new to roleplaying and the roleplayer new to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The opening fiction sets the scene, as does the overviews of the first five seasons of the television series, with explanations of what the book is in between. Whilst there is no example of character generation, there are numerous examples of Player Characters, both members of the cast and starting archetype characters. The latter are accompanied by backgrounds and roleplaying notes as well, all ready to hand out to the players. Interspersed throughout are quote after quote from the series, further enforcing the feel of the series in the roleplaying game, backed up by the glossary of ‘Buffy Speak’ at the back of the book. This is followed by glossary of gaming terms, reference tables, and an index, and there plenty of examples of the rules in play throughout too, including an extended example of combat, something that modern roleplaying games all too often omit.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a very geeky television series, a combination of action, horror, comedy, and drama, all served up with a very knowing sense of irony. The the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game captures that and not only puts it on the page, but makes it playable. The Lord of the Rings Roleplaying Game, published by Decipher, Inc. also in 2002, would go on to win the Origins Award for Best Roleplaying Game 2002. As a licensed adaptation of its source material, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is undeniably the superior design and implementation, showing a wonderfully enjoyable and insightful understanding of the source material. Under any circumstances, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Roleplaying Game is one of the outstanding roleplaying adaptations, which if there was a list of top licensed roleplaying games, deserves to go in the top five, if not the top three.

Aargh! Thar be brains!

The fact is, I have been waiting for years to write that title. I have always liked All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Eden Studios, Inc.’s RPG of horror and surviving the zombie apocalypse—and in particular, its many supplements. From Enter the Zombies and Pulp Zombies to Fistful O’ Zombies and One of the Living, each offered interesting zombified twists upon classic genres—even Zombie Smackdown, a supplement that actually managed to make the subject of wrestling not only interesting, but also palatable and fun. So the news that the publisher would be releasing a pirates and zombies supplement was most welcome indeed—and not only because I could use this particular title.

Unfortunately, by the time Aargh! Thar be Zombies! was published in 2010, it felt as if the premier zombie roleplaying game had missed the boat. After all, the mini-craze of piratically-themed roleplaying games, arguably initiated after the release of the film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003, had sailed by 2010, no doubt spurred by that film’s decidedly dull sequels. And whilst Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl certainly had a dead hand in raising zombies to the mainstream, it was followed by dull sequels that added nothing to the genre whilst other media has had a stronger, more recent hand in making zombies popular. This is not say that Aargh! Thar be Zombies! is a bad supplement as there are some good ideas within its pages, but the truth of the matter it is not good one either. Which to be honest, is disappointing given the quality of the publisher’s previous support for All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

The main problem with Aargh! Thar be Zombies! A Pirate Sourcebook is the writing. Or rather, not with the writing, but with the editing. In terms of its actual writing, it is overwritten; in terms of if its ideas, it is often underdeveloped; and if anachronisms do not quite abound, they are certainly present. This supplement could have been a solid, if not a stand-out addition to the All Flesh Must Be Eaten line, but fundamentally it never got the edit it deserved or needed. The result is somewhat frustrating book, knowing it could have been just that little bit better.

Roughly half of the book is devoted to the subject of piracy. The history of piracy— including its Golden Age that lasted from 1680s to the 1720s; a discussion of why someone might go on Account—that is, become a pirate; life in the Age of Piracy, including death, disease (nasty they are too!), women pirates, the Pirate Articles, pirate punishments (the latter noting that being made to ‘walk the plank’ was a myth, though a good one), and more. Perhaps the most interesting section here is that devoted to Asian Piracy, which revolved the dynastic wars in Vietnam and the wars between Vietnam and China. This is interesting of course because it is unfamiliar, but it nicely dovetails into the supplement Enter the Zombie. At two pages long it feels a little short and perhaps deserves a chapter of its own, especially as it feels out of place amidst the traditional pirate history.

Mechanically,  Aargh! Thar be Zombies! works around three character types—the Norm, the Survivor, and the Inspired. This of course determines how much a player has to spend on his character’s stats, skills, and Qualities. Most player characters are expected to be Survivors, but the Zombie Master can allow the Inspired if he wants his game to include Vodou. In addition, the Silver Screen Swashbuckler is available if the Zombie Master is running a pulpier, more action orientated game. The supplement gives an array of Qualities and Drawbacks—advantages and disadvantages—to help create all four character types. For example, the ‘Born for the Sea’ and ‘Sea Legs’ Qualities and the ‘Landlubber’ Drawback are there as you would expect, as is the discussion of using the Physical Disability Drawback from the All Flesh Must Be Eaten for doing peg-legs and hooks for hands. Also included are rules for fighting Florentine style, that is with two weapons in true classical style. What is odd here, is that the history of duelling feels out of place in what is otherwise a very mechanical section and it does not help that the history is very Anglo-centric in that it does not present options for learning the art outside of London. 

Rules are included for the creation of ‘Zombie Swashbucklers’ player characters or NPCs. Essentially, these are a cut down version from those given in full detail in Enter the Zombie, though with a piratical slant. Thus the ‘Billy Bones’ Aspect allows for the creation of a fleshless zombie (or skeleton)whilst the ‘Ghostly Form’ Aspect allows for the creation of zombies that can walk through the bulkheads of ships or even a sword blow. As well as full equipment lists, the supplement of course handles ships and their crews in detail, including sample ships such as the galleon, the junk, and the viking longship! The equipment chapter also covers both experienced and cursed ships—plus ghostships, gives Qualities and Drawbacks to  individualise both ships and crews, and of course,  ship-to-ship combat, the latter a solid set of rules.

Aargh! Thar be Zombies! mixes both authenticity and Hollywood in its treatment of the magic and religion of the period. Not ‘Voodoo’, but ‘Vodou’, in which practitioners can invoke and entreat the Loa to gain the benefit of various miracles and rituals. These are powerful without being flashy and go all the way up rituals involving zombies. There is plenty of opportunity here for roleplay by any character who is practitioner, and similarly, for the GM to portray the Loa whom the character may need to do favours for.

Aargh! Thar be Zombies! includes several campaign settings or Deadworlds, just as you would expect with any supplement for All Flesh Must Be Eaten. There are three fully described ones, plus two shorter ones, followed by some scenario ideas. The five begin in somewhat mundane fashion, with ‘Voodoo Queen of the Shrouded Isles’ in which a Vodou Mambo calls for vengeance after she has been wronged and so unleashes a zombie plague from the Caribbean upon the rest of the world. ‘The Black Fleet’ is equally as mundane, having an Aztec curse unleash a plague of black ships upon the world. Both of these Deadworlds feel as if the author was obliged to include because after all, you have to do something based upon a certain series of pirate films. Given just how ordinary they are, it is a pity that so much space was devoted to them.

Fortunately, both are followed by the third, fuller Deadworld, ‘Islands in a Dark Sky’. This is the absolute highlight of Aargh! Thar be Zombies! and describes a Deadworld in which Galileo uses Da Vinci’s flying machine to leave the Earth and sail ‘the Dark Sea’ between the worlds. By 1643 pirates, national navies, and merchantmen now sail ‘the Dark Sea’ in Essence-powered ships, whilst their crews know not to fall overboard lest their Essence is leached out… Another threat are the Necronian Corsairs, fearsome skeletoid humanoids that hover near death and who augment themselves with horns, spines, wings, and more to further instil fear in their continuing drive to drain Essence from other worlds and other species. It is also possible to create Essence-powered devices and weapons, such as flintlocks, lightning swords, and air masks. This is an engaging mix of the Fantasy and Science Fiction genres that transplants all of the piratical elements to between worlds, whilst adding the unknown and the chance to explore new ‘seas’ and ‘strange new worlds’ to the mix. This could almost have been a whole setting all on its own, and certainly more space could have been devoted to it in favour of some of the less interesting Deadworlds.

Of the lesser Deadworlds, ‘Tay Son Rebellion’ draws heavily on the section describing Asian Piracy to give something interesting, a big civil war that spreads beyond the borders of Vietnam to involve China and eventually armies of thinking zombie! There is potential here to mix in Enter the Zombie and thus add in Wuxia zombies, just as there is potential here for something exotic and more flavoursome than the first two Deadworlds. So it is a pity that this is as short as it is. Lastly, ‘The Aztec Lord’s Curse’ is as the title suggests another take upon the Aztecs and curses, and again is more interesting than ‘The Black Fleet’, though not by much. 

Physically, Aargh! Thar be Zombies! feels rushed and not quite up to the standard of previous supplements for All Flesh Must Be Eaten. As has already been mentioned, the editing is lacklustre at best, woeful at worst, whilst an actual feature of Eden Studios, Inc.’s house style actually leads to an annoying anachronism. The publisher alternates gender in terms of ‘he’, ‘she’, and so on, from one chapter to the next. The problem is that in a semi-historical book like Aargh! Thar be Zombies! this just looks anachronistic. Another annoyance is the use of the piratical vernacular. It works in the sections of colour fiction that precede each chapter, but not in the main text where it it is at odds with technical context of the book.

If you were looking to run a game set in the Age of Piracy using the UniSystem, then Aargh! Thar be Zombies! would be a good place to start—and if you wanted to add zombies and Vodou, then again Aargh! Thar be Zombies! would be a good place to start. Yet were you looking for inspiration, particularly from its Deadworlds, then whilst Aargh! Thar be Zombies! is not without its flavoursome and inspiring settings, the majority are uninspiring and uninteresting at worst, at best, just flat—or is that becalmed? The overall effect is to undermine the solid content to be found within the pages Aargh! Thar be Zombies! whose parts are better than the sum of its whole.

Adventure to the MAX!

Over the years the roleplaying hobby has thrown up a number of games specifically designed to be played by kids and in the process, actually introduce them to the hobby. Whether that is uncovering mysteries in PandaheadProductions’ Meddling Kids, exploring the magic of the woods and its denizens in Firefly Games’ Faery's Tale, adventuring in, beyond, and above the Atlantis of Third Eye Games’ Mermaid Adventures: An RPG of Undersea Fun, or protecting society from the dangers of big nature in Mouse Guard RPG from Archaia Studios Press, they invariably combine relatively simple mechanics with a setting that will spark the imagination of the younger, neophyte player. In each case, their aim is to help the parent who wants to introduce his child to his hobby and thus help the child who is curious about the fantastic adventures that he hears about, or sees, his parent playing. 

The latest RPG to aimed at kids is Adventure MAXIMUS!, a traditionally themed game published by Eden Studios, Inc. and set in a fantasy world. This can be the fantasy world of the Game Master or Maximus Master’s own devising, or can be the one lightly sketched out in the pages of Adventure MAXIMUS! This is the world of “Ex-Machina,” once known as Magisterica before the Reign of the Wise Wizard Kings ended. Following this apocalypse is a world in which mythical creatures roam the lands and both food and trees can talk. As much as the setting is traditionally themed in its fantasy, what sets it apart from others is a vein of light-hearted, if not slight silly humour, that runs through it. This shows in the setting, for example, there is a nation called The Take-Out Kingdom, in some of the actions that characters can take, each of which has a card of its own, and in several of the monsters that the adventurers will face. The presence of this light-hearted humour is intentional, as it is designed to engage the younger player’s imagination and to encourage him to think and engage with the world.

For the most part, the elements of the setting that the players and their characters interact with during play are represented by cards which are drawn from several decks. These include a Blue Race deck, a Green Class deck, an Orange Action deck, Purple Spell deck, a Red Item deck, a Black Monster deck, and a Gold Map deck. A character is comprised of a Blue Race card and a Green Class card, and will be equipped with cards from the Orange Action deck, the Purple Spell deck – if the character can cast spells, and the Red Item deck. The cards from the Black Monster and Gold Map decks are used to create adventures in conjunction with the game’s Adventure Sheet. (There are ten cards in the Green Class deck, eight in the Blue Race deck, ten in the Orange Action deck, thirteen in the Black Monster deck, eighteen in the Purple Spell deck, thirty-four in Red Item deck, and fifteen in the Gold Map deck.) In addition, Adventure MAXIMUS! uses its own “Maximus” dice as well as needing numerous tokens to represent Action Points, Damage Points, and Experience points. 

To create a character in Adventure MAXIMUS! a player draws three Blue Race and three Green Class cards, choosing one of each as his character’s Race and Class. Both provide special abilities whilst the Green Class card sets the number of Orange Action cards, RedEquipment cards, and Purple Spell cards – if a spellcaster, that the character can have. These are randomly drawn. The Adventure MAXIMUS! character sheet has specific places for all of these cards.

So for example, Louise creates her first character. She draws three Blue Race cards and gets Elf, Giantkin, and Food-kin. She chooses Giant-kin she wants to play a big fighting type and Giant-kin can use “Close Attacks” at “Far Range.” For her three Green Class cards she draws The Guard (a warrior who protects others), The Officer (a true warrior and leader of men), and The Sparklemancer (who is all about making friends). She decides to choose the latter, if only for the fact that not only is the idea of a Giant-kin running around in a gown and wielding a wand funny, but so is her Class Power, “Jazz Hands” which lets her dazzle her opponents with this dance move. Of course, this is a “Close Attack,” but since she is a Giant-kin, she can do “Close Attacks” at “Far Range” or “Jazz Hands from Afar”! The Sparklemancer also gives her Close Attack +1, Far Attack +2, one Action Card, three Equipment Cards, and three Spell Cards. For her Action Card, Louise chooses one which gives her “Double Flip!”, “The Naked Goblin!”, and “Lippy-Hippy-Shake!”. The first forces her enemies to lose an Action Point if they see her “Double Flip!” with her sword; the second gives her a +3 Scary bonus and if her enemies fail a Fear Test they must flee because of her big armour (or in her character’s case, her big gown as she is a Sparklemancer); and the third forces all of her enemies to dance as Louise actually gets up from the table and dances! These three actions cost her two, three, and three Action Points respectively.

For her spells, Louise receives “Banana Slips” (makes the floor slippery with the essence of banana peel), “Jared's Reducer!” (because she can shrink both herself and others, and sometimes she wants to be smaller), and “Feel the Heal!” (to make her friends feel better if they get hurt). For her equipment, Louise gets a pillow, a pot of super glue, and a length of rubber hose.

Louise the Sparklemancer

Weapon: Wand Armour: Gown

Attacks: Close A­ttack +1, Far A­ttack +2

Class Skills: Fast Talk +3, Notice +2, Crime +4

Willpower 2

Class Power

(1AP) Jazz Hands: +1 Willpower against one target's Willpower, if successful the target is Dazed for one round.

Race: Giant-kin

Giant-kin ability – Reach! You can use Close A­ttacks on things that are in Far range. Big, tough, and kind are words used to describe Giant-kin, but many prejudiced people will run in fear from you.

Action Card:

(2AP) Double Flip!: You can Dazzle your enemies with your sword play, they lose an Action Point if they can see your Double Flip!

(3AP) The Naked Goblin!: Your armour makes you look a lot bigger than you really are, you get a +3 Scary bonus. Enemies that can see you must make a Willpower test or flee in fear. Any enemies who win the test are immune to this effect for the rest of the encounter.

(3AP) Lippy-Hippy-Shake!: You have the uncanny ability to make your enemies dance when you dance. Get up from the game table and dance, enemies dance until you stop.

Spells: Banana Slips (1AP), Feel the Heal! (2AP+), Jared's Reducer! (4AP)

Equipment: Pillow, pot of super glue, rubber hose.

Adventure MAXIMUS! is designed to be an action orientated game. Once the action – or a “Courageous Situation” starts, whether that is getting into a fight, climbing a mountain, or entering a competition to bake a pie, then the Maximus Dice come out. What a character can do over the course of a single Round is determined by the number of Action Points he has, these being set by his Blue Race card. These are spent not only to undertake normal actions such as walking, running, looting, attacking, charging, using a skill, and so on, but also to undertake the options given on the character’s Orange Action cards and his Purple Spell cards – if he has any. A character can spend as few or as many Action Points as he likes and they always refresh from one Round to the next.

When it comes to skill rolls and other actions, a character rolls a number of Maximus dice equal to his skill. Each Maximus die is a six-sided die marked with three blank sides, one side with a single sword, a second with two crossed swords, and a third with a Maximus symbol. Each sword represents a success, so the crossed swords represent two successes. The Maximus symbol also represents two successes, plus it allows a character to roll another die and add its success to his total. As long as a player keeps rolling the Maximus symbol, he can keep rolling and adding successes. 

At its most basic, as a player rolls a single success on the Maximus dice, then his character succeeds at the desired action. Some skills require a player to roll two or more successes to achieve his desired aim. For example, the First Aid needs two successes to be rolled if a character wants to restore healed one dot on his or another character’s Health Track. Opposed skill rolls require one participant to roll more success than the others if he is achieve his desired aim. 

Combat though, is kept even simpler. Initiative is determined by the highest number of successes as you would expect, but only in the first round. In subsequent rounds, initiative order actually passes to the left, so that the player who acts first moves round the table rather than being randomly determined. Simple and for the most part a fair means of handling it, although there is nothing to stop the players rolling for initiative each round as is traditional. Actual combat is a matter of rolling the Maximus dice and rolling as many successes as possible. Armour negates these successes, so whatever gets through is taken as damage to the defender’s Health.

In keeping with the light nature of the rules, the advice for the Maximus Master is kept quick and simple. First and foremost, it adheres to a simple rule that applies to the Maximus Master as much as it does to the players – “Have FUN!” Second, that he should keep the game going by saying “Yes, and…” to all of the impossibly inventive ideas that his players might come up with. For example, heroes have tracked down the thief who stole the Frog God’s favourite jewelled eye and are racing after them along a steep path down the side of a mountain. Louise the Sparklemancer tells her Maximus Master that she wants to cast Banana Slips to make Barry the Burglar lose his footing. Of course, her Maximus Master says, “Yes,” and then describes how Barry the Burglar not only loses his footing, but also loses hold of the stolen jewel which goes flying through the air only to land on the gas bag of the aerial steamship that was passing below…! 

In addition, preparing an adventure is made all the easier for the Maximus Master with the inclusion of the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System.” By following its simple step-by-step instructions in conjunction with the Black Monster and Gold Map decks, plus some input from the players in form of names and descriptive words – or if preparing the adventure ahead of time these can come from the rulebook’s “Courageous Maxi-Libs List” – the Maximus Master can create a whole adventure. First, he draws a Boss Monster card from the Black Monster deck and equips him with Action, Item, and Spell cards as necessary. This is the “Who” or villain of the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System,” whilst another Red Item card is the “What” and a Yellow Map card forms the “Where.” Together these elements form the Climax Map of the adventure. These steps need to be repeated two more times to create two more Adventure Maps that the player characters must travel through in order to get to the Climax Map, although neither of the Monsters faced in these Adventure Maps will be Boss Monsters. 

The Maximus Master also needs to fill out the following statement using the players’ suggestions or the “Courageous Maxi-Libs”: “A message has been delivered to your Adventure Call Box. ‘________’ has asked for your help! ‘________’ has the ‘________’, you must travel to the ‘________’ in the “________.’ Bring back the ‘________’ and you will be rewarded!” So for example, “A message has been delivered to your Adventure Call Box. The Wizard Of Zoz has asked for your help! Sweet & Sour and Sweet & Spicy!* have the Clean Underpants, you must travel to the ruins in the Forest of Doors. Bring back the Clean Underpants and you will be rewarded!” In order to get through to the Forest of Doors, the player characters will have to travel through Teddy Bear Junction and then to Gum Drop Falls. 

* Twin chicken chunks from the Take-Out Kingdom that were just born bad. 

What is so good about the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System” is not just the ease and speed with which the Maximus Master can create an adventure, but also the fact that it can be picked up and used by the very players that the game is written to be run for. In other words, kids can run this as much as adults can. In combination with the card-driven means of creating characters, the “Who-What-Where-How Adventure Creation System” gives Adventure MAXIMUS! a strong capacity for "Pick Up and Play." Not necessarily such that the game can be played straight out of the box – though the RPG is easy to learn in terms of its mechanics, but the preparation time for an adventure is mere minutes rather than the hours it might be with other RPGs. Just as it is for character creation. 

Adventure MAXIMUS! could be run as a fairly straight forward fantasy RPG, but that would be to ignore its potentially rich vein of humour and silliness. This shows more in the decks of cards that support the game – the Black Monster deck, the Purple Spell deck, the Yellow Map deck, and the Red Item deck than the Blue Race deck and the Green Class deck. In fact, with just the one humorous or silly option in each of the latter two decks – the Sparklemancer in the Green Class deck and the Food-kin in the Blue Race deck – the game feels disappointingly traditional in terms of what characters it offers the players to play. In fact, the choices can be best described as “fantasy vanilla” and it would have been nice if some other choices had been included, preferably ones that matched the game’s humour. Yet once past the Blue Race deck and the Green Class deck and the options and choices for the Maximus Master are a lot more varied and mine much more of the vein of silliness. Whether that is the Bunny Mummy!* from the Black Monster deck, the Foothills of Fungus** from the Yellow Map deck, or the Bunny Borough Bow*** from the Red Item deck, they all show that Adventure MAXIMUS! is intended to be anything than wholly serious in its feel and style. 

* My favourite monster! 

** Actual hill-sized feet upon which grows fungi!!

*** Also known as the Velveteen Wackit because an arrow fired from it never inflicts damage, but anyone hit is turned into a bunny!!! 

Physically, Adventure MAXIMUS! is neatly presented in full colour. In its current form it does need another edit, but it has two more pressing problems. The first is that it fails to state up front what it is, not what a roleplaying game is, but what Adventure MAXIMUS! is and how it is intended to work. It becomes apparent after reading through the whole of the short rule book, but this seems at odds with the “pick up, get playing” intent of the design. The other issue is that there is not enough background, though that said, this lack allows plenty of room for the Maximus Master and his players to create as they go. A lesser issue would be that there might not be enough cards for long term play, though there is nothing to stop anyone from creating their own cards. 

As much as the origins of Adventure MAXIMUS! as a fantasy RPG lie in Dungeons & Dragons, its tone and feel have a more contemporary source – contemporary television animation. It recognises that it is silly, but it embraces this aspect in a joyous fashion whilst referencing this, that, and the other in postmodern “reference anything and everything” fashion. Adventure MAXIMUS! is not necessarily the Adventure Time RPG and certainly is not based on the Cartoon Network Studios animated series of the same name, but it is not impossible to suggest it as an inspiration. The combination of the two in Adventure MAXIMUS! results in an RPG that can be played as a traditional fantasy RPG akin to Dungeons & Dragons, but by design is much lighter in tone, with a setting and means of adventure creation that allows room aplenty for player input and player imagination.

Zombies? None Today.

Since 1999, when it comes to zombies and RPGs, All Flesh Must Be Eaten from Eden Studios has been the holder of the corpse crown. Yes, there have been contenders, such as the unimpressive Dead Reign from Palladium Games and Goblinoid Games’ interesting and charming Rotworld, but All Flesh Must Be Eaten remains the cadaver king. Much of that is due to the Origins Award winning RPG being supported with some excellent sourcebooks that explored variations upon the classic shambling undead and showed how they could easily be inserted into genres beyond the collapse of our society as the dead rise that we know and love from George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead and more recently from The Walking Dead television series. Over the years, the RPG has received supplements that covered Martial Arts (Enter the Zombie), Fantasy (Dungeons & Zombies), and even Wrestling (Zombie Smackdown), amongst others, but never Science Fiction. Well, that latter claim is not really true, because All Flesh Must Be Eaten got its very own “Sci-Fi Sourcebook” with the release of All Tomorrow’s Zombies back in 2007. So I have had this book waiting to be reviewed for no little time, and in the meantime, I have picked up a copy of the next sourcebook, Argh! Thar Be Zombies! which is all about zombies and pirates. In order to review that, it behoves me to review All Tomorrow’s Zombies before I get to either Argh! Thar Be Zombies! or the forthcoming World War II supplement, Band of Zombies.

Anyway, All Tomorrow’s Zombies, the supplement that shoves zombies into outer space and into the future, shows the Zombie Master how to do the genre of Science Fiction in the UniSystem, the mechanics used in all of Eden Studios’ RPGs. It has a lot to deal with, primarily how technology works and how it affects both the player characters or members of the Cast, and members of the carcass carnival. Primarily, these technologies are Bioware, Cyberware, and Nanotech, the purchase of the associated Qualities (or Advantages) enables a Cast member to select Enhancements such as Bio Filter, Dermal Armour, and Infravision. Some Enhancements are also available to Cast members who are Robots – similarly available to select for player characters, and also to zombies, which are not available as player characters. Another option for Cast members is Psionics, the rules in All Tomorrow’s Zombies being a streamlined version of those previously outlined in Pulp Zombies.

As well as augmenting themselves with advanced technology, with All Tomorrow’s Zombies, the Cast members get to play with it. The equipment list is not extensive, but it covers all of the genre’s staples, from Motion Sensors and Teleport Anchors to Energy Swords and Pulse Rifles. If the Cast members want spaceships, then they can buy and design them with the Spacecraft Quality, which in effect works like the Bioware, Cyberware, and Nanotech Qualities, but allows the Cast to design a spaceship that is their personal property, fitting it out with Qualities and Enhancements of its own, including an intelligent ship’s computer and a teleporter. Some the supplement’s settings, or Deadworlds, come with their pre-costed starship designs. To accompany the starship creation rules, the vehicle rules for All Flesh Must Be Eaten are expanded to cover space travel and starship combat, whilst other rules handle cyberspace and hacking as well as the hazards of the various different environments that the Cast members might encounter. Over all these rules should handle most situations, but they are not all that hard in terms of the science in “Science Fiction,” tending towards the fiction rather than the science.

Similarly, the discussion for the Zombie Master about how to game the genre of Science Fiction tends to take a broad overview rather than delve into exacting detail. This is primarily because the type of Science Fiction that the supplement draws from, mostly film and television Science Fiction, should be familiar to most of its readers. One interesting aspect of the genre is that for most part, zombies cannot be created through magic, the supplement instead offering some contemporary alternatives, such as Tetrodotoxin or “Zombie Powder,” Scopolamine, and variant-Creutzfeldt–Jakob Disease. This is in addition to the new zombie Aspects that have a more modern bent like being Solar Powered or needing to feed on Radiation.

As with other genre books for All Flesh Must Be Eaten, this supplement comes with its own share of settings or “Deadworlds” as they are known, that makes use of genre support presented earlier in the supplement. There are seven in All Tomorrow’s Zombies, which take up just over half of the book. The first of these is “The Cybered Dead,” which essentially takes the entirety of the genre elements discussed in the previous pages and dumps them wholesale into a Cyberpunk style future. Naturally, national governments have weakened as the corporations have risen to power and in many cases, sovereignty. As the rights of the individual has dwindled, some have either sought protection as indentured employees of the corporations, or slipped into the shadows to survive as cybered up street samurai and Cyberweb riding cowboys, working for principles if they can, or the highest bid if they cannot. Where the zombies enter the picture is originally as the victims of a biochemical act of terrorism, but these were then co-opted by various corporations as cybered up undead security and shock troops. Since outlawed, these combat zombies still turn up and they are still created, so finding out is just one aim of those that run the shadows like the Cast. The problem with “The Cybered Dead” is its “kitchen sink” approach to the genre. What this means is that it is all too familiar and too obvious. The only really interesting aspect of this Deadworld is the addition the undead and that is just not quite enough to make the Deadworld stand out.

If “The Cybered Dead” is all too familiar, the second Deadworld, “The Cycle of Death” probably suffers from the opposite. It depicts a future in which near barbarism following a radical decline in oil supplies has been avoided by genetic engineering enhanced by nanotechnology. Originally developed by engineers from India, the spread and application of this new technology has also been accompanied by the spread and widespread acceptance of Indian culture and Hinduism as a faith. Where it has not completely broken down, society has settled down into a pattern of city states that due to nanotechnology are mostly self-sufficient. Most people have been modified for the better by this technology, and that includes the Cast, each of whom have the ability to modify themselves to a limited extent. The Cast, whether security for a city state or a nanotech engineer, will face bigger problems than the gangs that roam the wilderness in the form of two types of tough zombies derived from the prevailing technology. Beyond facing these new types of zombie – and they are interesting in themselves – “The Cycle of Death” does leave you Zombie Master wondering what quite else to do with this Deadworld because it is never really discussed.

“Cyber Marines and Death Machines” is an even more obvious Deadworld in terms of its inspiration. The “Cyber Marines” part of the title gives it away. This is a Deadworld of pure Survival Horror inspired primarily by the film Aliens, but also by Predator and Resident Evil. When contact is lost with the remote colony of MR-372, a recon unit of colonial marines, along with the usual corporate advisors, is sent in to investigate. As the world reveals its secrets, the team is forced to confront their worst fears, desperate isolation, a hostile environment, and monsters that are every bit as yucky as those from the Alien series. Plus zombies, of course. There is room in this Deadworld for expansion beyond a simple one-shot, both backwards and forwards. The authors suggest that it could be run as a sequel to the “They Came from Beyond” Deadworld to be found in the All Flesh Must Be Eaten corebook, and then use the supplement, One of the Living, for advice and resources on handling the Cast’s survival in the long term. If “The Cybered Dead” is all too familiar, so is “Cyber Marines and Death Machines.” Yet “Cyber Marines and Death Machines” is a more effective piece because its treatment of its genre is more focused and not as broad.

For its inspiration, the Deadworld “Virtual Armageddon” draws from the Matrix series of films as well as the MMORPGs of today. It depicts a future in which the solution to a society riven by disease is upload everyone’s consciousness into a global virtual world known as Neutopia. There some people continue to live an ordinary existence, whilst others see their new existence to play in virtual worlds of the imagination, able to adventure, but never truly die. This is, of course, the perfect excuse for the Zombie Master to get out his other All Flesh Must Be Eaten genre books and run adventures in these genres within Neutopia. Fistful o’ Zombies (Wild West and zombies), Dungeons and Zombies, and Pulp Zombies will all be useful for that, but Enter the Zombie (zombies and martial arts) will be the most useful if the Zombie Master wants to let the Cast employ Matrix-style moves in his games. The introduction of the zombie into this Deadworld is particularly fitting, drawing from the MMORPG playing experience, and the zombie is introduced not just in the virtual world, but the real one too. Overall, this Deadworld offers the most flexibility because it can draw upon many genres, and the Cast get to play some quite powerful characters.

Although its title is not quite as telling, of all of the Deadworlds in All Tomorrow’s Zombies, “The Death of the Alliance” is actually the most obvious in terms of its inspiration. For millennia, the twin empires of Thaxia and Zothia co-existed peacefully; the Thraxian Empire, governed by its Mystic Knights, providing foodstuffs and spiritual guidance whilst the Zothian Empire provided technology in return. Yet an ambitious advisor to the Zothian Emperor and a fallen Mystic Knight subverted the teachings of the Mystic Knights to usurp the throne and declare war on the Thraxian Empire. The latter managed to hold out until Emperor Krauss and Dark Lord Garth used necromancy to turn the inhabitants of Thraxia into zombies and so raise an unstoppable army of the undead. This then, is a Space Opera setting that should essentially be retitled “Star Wars and Zombies!” This could be huge fun and this shows in the well-executed efforts to work the undead into a familiar setting. It is also perhaps the easiest of the Deadworlds to run in All Tomorrow’s Zombies because it is so familiar and so light in feel. Bar of course, the existence of the zombies.

Rounding out the supplement in “Future Shock,” is a pair of Deadworlds that the Zombie Master will have to develop himself. The first of these, “Dead Contact,” is a variation upon “Cyber Marines and Death Machines,” but has the Cast as the inhabitants of a colony that discovers a secret, whilst “I, Zombie” reveals the dangers of a new form of near instantaneous travel.

Physically, All Tomorrow’s Zombies is well presented and well written. The artwork nicely depicts the grim nature of the various settings, and if the book needs a little editing here and there, it is only minor.

In all honesty, one of the reasons that I did not review this book when I first bought it was because I did not enjoy it. There was something about the supplement that was dissatisfying. On reading it for a second time, All Tomorrow’s Zombies is still dissatisfying, but not to the same degree. The source of the dissatisfaction is twofold. First, there is the breadth of the genre that the supplement has to encompass. In terms of rules and mechanics, All Tomorrow’s Zombies does encompass the genre successfully, but in terms of the Deadworlds, less so. Which leads to the second issue, that of uneven Deadworlds. The least interesting and most dissatisfying Deadworlds are too broad and leave the Zombie Master as to what to do beyond facing the members of recently risen retinue, which in some cases are not themselves all that interesting. The better Deadworlds, specifically “Cyber Marines and Death Machines” and “The Death of the Alliance” are better written, and more effort is made to work the undead into both.

Over all, All Tomorrow’s Zombies is still a good sourcebook for All Flesh Must Be Eaten. It does a good job of handling the Science Fiction genre for both the RPG and the UniSystem in general, such that in using its rules you could run a Science Fiction campaign in the setting of your choice or of your own creation. Plus you do get some really creepy, often nasty Deadworlds that bring zombie horror to the genre.