Re: [BNW] Brave New World in the bargain bin

["Daedelus" <daedelus@netwalk.com>]

{{WARNING!!.... LONG WINDED RANT ALERT}}

Well since I've seemed to have stirred a smoldering ember into a raging
inferno, perhaps I should clarrify a few things, and how my twisted lil mind
works ( ok... maybe thats too long for here).

I'm the publisher of Daedelus, and indepedent gaming magazine.
With that said a lot of material comes across my desk. Some good, some bad.

When I was comparing the Marvel Adventure Game, WEG's DC game, Abberant...
It was more of a personal choice, I agree its like comparing Apples and
Oranges. But here's my break down, since I've read through all of them.

- Marvel is good although they tried the SAGA system and it didn't work well
with Dragonlance (IMHO). It works slightly better with Marvel.
From my point of view though... where's the info on Spiderman. We have a
book on X-men, the Avengers, and the Fantastic Four.... I would have
preferred to see a Spidey sourcebook before Reed Richards Guide to
Everything (which really didn't explain much of anything)

-WEG's DC is a good system... but the use of specialized icons (I need 3
superman symbols to succeed at smacking the bad guy, etc.) complicates the
system. Also the character creation rules for that are complex to say the
least. Once again it tries to be Universal, so it needs that.

-Aberrant is a fine product but IMHO it is tied too closely to Trinity. Also
I don't like the idea of the whole media icon, rule your own island concept
that is prevelant in Aberrant.

With that said as far as the meta-plot goes.. as Theron pointed out,
"Settings sell, not systems". However today settings and systems are
designed at the same time and are so interwoven that to remove the system
from the setting, and vice versa seems to ruin the concept. Once again this
isn't just in BNW. 7th Sea also has this going on, as does L5R, Babylon 5,
Last Unicorn's Star Trek Universe, etc. Even TSR is doing this with 3rd Ed.,
making it more tied to the Greyhawk Setting.


>If I were a game publisher, I'd be terrified of the phrase "if you don't
like it, don't use it", because that rapidly becomes "if you don't like it,
don't buy our future products".

I agree with you on this Theron. However I'm a consumer, and I have the
right to either buy or don't buy something.

Once again everything goes back to everyone's personal preferrences.

Me personally, I didn't feel the BNW left a bad taste in my mouth.
I have problems with books that rehash old material, reformat it, and slap a
cover on it. (which is basically what the "Complete" set of books from TSR
were).

Now while Pinnalce/AEG could have given us a 250+ book on the system, and
another 200+ book on the setting, this isn't the concept that they were
going with.

Once again.. the concept goes back to the designer. For those who aren't
aware of ths, but the BNW system is very similar to the Deadlands system.
The presentation of the books is also very similar.
Now the Revised edition of Deadlands split the material into Players
material and Marshall's material, the original ed. was presented like BNW
is.

Someone (I think it was Steve Crow) mentioned about picking up the corerule
book and whipping out a template and explaining the rules in 5 minutes. As
someone who runs demos at conventions I love this. I haven't ran a BNW demo,
but I ran one of Deadlands, and for people who've never seen the game let
alone played it, its a godsend.


> If that doesn't clarify things, well then we'll just have to agree to
disagree.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, thats what makes Freedom of Speech so
great.


{{stepping off high horse}}
I really am sorry if this rant caused a tiny "flame" war.
This was not my intent. Sometimes I think the editor in me sometimes
needs to be let out of his cage more often ::smirks::.

Once again I think trying to understand how my mind works is too long to go
into in an e-mail :)

Trent Slabaugh
Publisher
-Daedelus Magazine