[HoE] [HOE] CotA Review

[Bax <bax1@concentric.net>]

  Finally got the time to give Children o' the Atom a thorough reading:

  Overall, I think it's great.  I really liked the Brainburners book, and
CotA is very much from the same mold.  The background information on the
Cult o' Doom and the schism is in-depth and interesting; I've already got a
ton of good senario and encounter ideas from it.  The new hindrances and
edges for Doomsayers are useful and (more importantly) fun. The powers are
a somewhat mixed bag, but the really good ones are a hoot (I love "Viridian
Giant), and there is enough variety to give someone wanting to run a
Doomsayer a fair amount of latitude in which way they want their character
to go.
  (sidebar note:  someone earlier was complaining about MIRV being too
powerful for the point cost- I have to take exception.  After reading it
over, I think it's just about right; 3 strain is a pretty high cost [for 2
more you can just Nuke 'em], and unless you get a raise you're only doing
1d10 to each target- I've got a pc Doomsayer in my game with a 5d12 faith,
and his Atomic Blast is something of a joke among the rest of the party;
more often than not, his Atomic Blast just does wind damage- he'd generally
be better off just shooting his target...I see MIRV as a Doomsayer Assault
Rifle; better than a rifle, but not THAT much better...I'll keep an eye on
it in play and see if I change my tune.)
  The Marshal's section is chock full of revelations (and more than a few
teasers for the Lost Vegas set), and was great fun.
  The biggest improvement over Brainburners is the art.  A bunch of the
illustrations were done by some guy who draws like Adam Hughes (Thomas
Biondollio?) who is a LOT better than Loston Wallace, the workhorse of
Brainburners.  Very nice.
  A similarity with Brainburners is the lacklustre cover art; I'm not
saying it's bad, I'm just saying that it doesn't measure up with the
quality of the rest of the book.  It's servicable, and you can't really put
it down, but there's not alot to get excited about either- a couple of Mad
Max extras jumping a schoolteacher with glowing green hands.  Given all the
great, colorful images inside the book I can't help but think they could
have come up with something a little more stirring.  Another minor art
gripe; for all the talk about mutants and the New Flesh in the book, you
don't actually see any mutated Doomsayers- most of them just look like
norms.

  But enough with the minor complaints.  It's a great book, and I urge
y'all to pick up a copy ASAP.

  bax