Collector First Impressions

Ideal Hands Games

 Collector

Ideal Hands Games

By Greg Farrell, Joe N Brown, and Danny Kostianos

Special thanks for the advance copy

 

Little is certain in the shadowy Realm, except that death is fast approaching. When the time comes, those who want a tolerable afterlife must pay 1500 gold coins to the goddess Ubato. Anyone who falls short is trapped in limbo, forced to watch others make a journey forbidden to them. With a world teetering on the brink and a life days away from ending, the Roller sets out to pay the toll the only way they know how. Dice games.

They'll roll off against a range of opponents, each one stranger and more disturbing than the last. Greatest of perhaps all adversaries is their collector, who lent them money to get the Roller back on their feet and now intend to collect. The game itself is simple enough but when you lose it all, that includes your immortal soul. You can cash out of a match with your winnings in tow but the call of the game means you'll be back eventually.

Collector is a micro-RPG by Ideal Hands Games, currently on Kickstarter. Clocking in at just under 30 pages, it's designed for one player and one game master. There's also rules for a solo play and multi-roller mode, though the game works best with two souls dueling with dice for a peaceful repose. It's an agile game, with a strong central idea and a stronger central mechanic. 

Ideal Hands Games

There isn't a huge amount beyond that but Collector covers all the ground it wants to. Collector is a simple enough game, one that captures a lot of the current zeitgeist in dark speculative RPGs but with a novel twist. There's a few issues in presentation I do hope get worked out by its proper release.

Narratively and mechanically, the lure of the dice is all that's left in Collector. Beyond the apocalypse unfolding in the background, the Player character, or roller, knows they're soon to die. There are plenty of apocalyptic RPGs and such fatalistic affairs are especially popular right now. But I appreciate how Collector bucks the mold a bit in that players have accepted their impending death, all that's left now is to make preparations for their passing. 

It adds a novel twist to the well populated genre of superdark fantasy, a compelling hook that helps set up the dice game mechanics. The setting itself has some personality, especially through the  strange characters inhabiting the various random charts and their secretive gang affiliations.

Galactic Crisis - A Star Wars: Rise of the Separatists Review

 

Fantasy Flight Games

Star Wars: Rise of the Separatists

Fantasy Flight Games

Developed by Tim Cox with John Dunn, Jordan Goldfarb, Sterling Hershey, Keith Kappel, Monte Lin, and Jason Marker

The Star Wars Prequel trilogy has a dire reputation, both rightfully and wrongfully. But even so, the galaxy spanning Clone Wars forms the basis of an era almost universally loved by fans. Years of multimedia spinoffs play a part in that, the most prominent of which being the animated series simply titled Star Wars: The Clone Wars. As possibly the last part of the franchise fans won't go to blows over, the era was ripe for Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars roleplaying game. Some of their final publications for the line, the Clone Wars would warrant two supplements, the first of which is titled Rise of the Separatists.

Covering the first half of the 3 year long conflict, the book provides new careers, gear, and enemies to help bring the Clone Wars to the game table. Beyond the mechanical side of things, Rise of the Separatists also covers the history of the war, along with some helpful direction for game masters.

Like the previous era sourcebook, Dawn of Rebellion, this was compatible with all three gamelines, a relatively easy feat since FFG were vigilant about keeping their releases fully compatible. Edge of the Empire does suffer for having a focus that drifts from the frontlines but Rise of the Separatists makes a decent effort there. The advice on working in the mechanics specific to each game line is underdeveloped and the selection of force powers sits at a measly two. The successor book, Collapse of the Republic, would have more content tailored to the scum and villainy of the galaxy and at least added more of the force powers.

Aside from that, it's easily one of the most substantial supplements released for this system, to the point where I wonder if this book and its companion could have made for their own core rulebook.

The Call of Duty

Rise of the Separatists gets right to the point with its careers, allowing players to take on the iconic roles that make the era so beloved: the elite clone troopers and their heroic Jedi generals. Some less expected additions are snuck in and even the more obvious careers prove for some more unique playstyles.

Most notably, the book introduces Heroic Level Play, where player characters start with over twice as much XP and a considerable stack of cash. The FFG corebooks wisely offered characters considerably less impressive than what we see in the films. Depicting the swan song of the Republic and its defenders calls for something more grand though and Heroic Level Play helps bridge the gap between the characters created by the players and the ones they see on screen.

The Clone careers prove to be more exciting than the somewhat boring soldiers and mercenaries of previous books. Rise of the Separatists tailors their talent trees towards aiding NPC allies and dealing with large swaths of foes. Its more than just a reskin of previous careers and plays to the era's trademarks.

The selection is fairly obvious, with the ubiquitous Clone Trooper and broad Clone Officer. The unassuming Clone Pilot ends up shining through as the first functional pilot career in this entire system. With the introduction of the damage reducing Barrel Roll talent, similar to terrestrial careers' Parry, the developers finally adress how absurdly lethal space combat has been up to this point.

Fantasy Flight Games

The two Jedi careers are remarkably plain, Knight and Padawan. Previously we only had the offshoots and exiles of that ancient order, so finally having the "real deal" is exciting, as basic as they might seem. These trees end up having some of the more interesting talents, without falling into the gimmicks of previous force user careers. Padawan is particularly impressive, with a swath of abilties that focus on the "student" aspect with a character that's always learning, sometimes even through failure.

Beyond that are several new Universal trees, containing some more oddball choices. Force-Sensitive outcast covers familiar ground, though representing Asajj Ventress type "Dark Jedi" means it has a far more aggressive and adaptable bent. 

Republic Navy Officer covers the non-cloned officers of the Republic's military, with Scavenger picking through a galaxy left in ruins. Republic Representative is specifically to cover senate aids and career politicians.