Product Review
The original Blue Planet game
was much like The Shining (film), oddly put together
and hard to understand but with great underlying ideas
and a cool setting. It had over complicated rules
and was so big it put most phone books to shame. Important
information seemed to have been cunningly hidden and
some of the less interesting points were described
in depth. The problem for many of us though was that
underneath it all, there was one of the greatest roleplaying
games of all time and we’d found it.
But in a true comeback style, the
second edition, Blue Planet V2 has stepped up with
its trusty sidearm and silenced the non-believers.
It has been kitted out with great looking new hardback,
featuring fantastic artwork. The rules have also been
give a good going over and now with one simple read
through you’ll have an idea of how things work.
All in all we have to give Blue Planet V2 a great
big pat on the back and take it out for a celebratory
dinner.
The Players Guide is one of two
books you’ll need to play the Blue Planet game
properly, the other being The Moderators Guide. The
Players Guide is (strangely enough) full of things
the players will want to know to help keep the game
moving. It gets through this information in 4 easy
steps.
1)
It gives you a good quick understanding of the world
your in.
The game takes place on a well thought
out and highly detailed planet. This was discovered
when a probe was sent through a wormhole near Pluto,
the probe then sent back details of a solar system
called Serpentis. One of the planets in this system
was Poseidon, an almost exact copy of Earth only with
greater water coverage. Earth sent a team to the planet
to scout it out and when they got positive results
they started a colonization effort.
It was then that disaster struck.
A virus known as the Blight ravaged Earth and they
lost contact with the colonies on Poseidon. While
Earth was sorting out its problems the colonists struggled
on, and with their pioneer spirit burning strong they
forged themselves new lives on the planet they now
called home. Then in 2164 Earth sent a small science
vessel back to the planet, but re-contact brought
mixed reactions from the colonists.
Your characters play in the year
2199. It is a time of unrest, the Global Ecology Organization
(GEO), a worldwide UN-like force, is trying to stop
the various huge corporations from going to war with
each other. The natives of the planet are also an
issue as they begin turning to terrorism in an effort
to protect their Planet. Everyone else is either taking
advantage of the situation or trying to protect the
freedom they have come to love. The characters you
play are in the middle of all this and taking a backseat
is not an option
2)
You get to make a unique and diverse character (see
how nice they are to you).
Character generation is on the whole
quite good. There is not only a basic human character
type but also several different “mutations”
to choose from. These range from Modi’s, which
are humans who have had biomods added to their bodies,
to Silva’s, which are like monkey/human hybrids.
Here comes the weird bit, the whales and the dolphins.
Stop looking at me like that… it’s true.
I have so far never managed to convince a player to
take one of these characters and I’m actually
quite pleased about this. I can see how having them
as NPC’s can greatly increase the planets setting
and mood, but I can’t help but feel that a player
taking on one of these may put them off the game.
3)
The new Synergy Rules System is explained.
The rules work really well. For
starters you will only need D10’s and I’ve
always had a soft spot for systems that don’t
require millions of different dice types. Skill tests
are based on difficulty numbers derived from the circumstances
your in and your skill in the area your being tested
on. You then roll a number of dice based on your aptitude
and if you get under the difficulty you succeed, congratulations.
4)
You get the rest of the history and background.
The first edition of this game made
a bit of a mistake by piling loads of stuff on you
the second you started reading. BPV2 however has put
it either at the back or in the Moderators Guide.
This is good as it let’s you get interested
in the world first and explains the things you need
to know to play, then it gives you the option to go
deeper if you feel the need.
The information is broken up into
manageable chunks as well, with sections on hardware,
biotech, history and then an update on what life’s
like on the frontier at the moment. There’s
even a timeline so you can play Mystic Meg with all
you gamers and tell them how things will be in a few
years time. Nostradamus anyone?
Well there you have it, the first
book in a long series hopefully. I do genuinely feel
that with a good moderator in charge this game can
be more involving than most systems and it let’s
your players feel like their characters are actually
having direct effects on the way the planets history
is evolving. The fact that the setting is so diverse
can make for varied campaigns as well. With corporate
sabotage missions one week to GEO rescue missions
the next, your games should never be less than interesting.
Blue Planet Players Guide, buy it
and get your feet wet or stay dry and miss out on
a pretty damn fine game.
Reviewed By Jon Simpson
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