[HoE] Iron Oasis: Some Thoughts

["Marcus Schakowski" <marcus@schakowski.demon.co.uk>]

Hi Everyone,

Okay, finished reading through "Iron Oasis" this evening.
Page count is 140 pages of useful stuff. Actually make that 141... the index
is useful I suppose.
The first 51 pages are Posse Territory and feature a report by Librarian
Knudsen on what's shakin' in and around the Junkyard.
The Chapter Headings will give you a good idea of what's covered so here
they are:
Junkyard: A Brief History
Judgment Day
The Iron Oasis Today
Outer Junkyard
Inner Junkyard
The Junkyard Militia
Who's Who
The Sky Pirates

This stuff is well written, quite amusing at times, and gives a good feel of
the setting. The artwork reminds me a bit of old Paranoia supplements (funny
situations with little "descriptive" captions). I chuckled quite a few
times. Some of the information is a bit thin in places and could have been
expanded upon (such as a more complete price-list). Nothing to complain
about.

This leads me onto the next section: The Unfriendly Skies.
Still Posse Territory this section deals with everything you ever wanted to
know about flying - from skills, to manoeuvres, combat, construction (from
microlights to military grade jets). Rules heavy but very complete. It
weighs in at 42 pages and gives rise to major gripe number 1...

While the stuff in this section is interesting and useful (under very
specific circumstances) it's completely lost on me why is was included in
this product (which is about Junkyard and NOT the sky pirates). While the
latter are linked to Junkyard, they are by no means major players in the
settlement itself. I feel that this material should have been part of
another sourcebook (dedicated to the Sky pirates perhaps). It's completely
misplaced in this product. Especially considering that it comes to 42
pages - that's a lot of space which could (should) have been used to provide
more info on the Iron Oasis.

Onto the next section then (No Man's Land) and more rules. It's the turn of
the non-living impaired mechanically augmented person (non-harrowed cyborgs
to you and me). 26 pages of rules on mechanical devices to stuff into living
people. Standard fare for anyone whose played Cyberpunk or Shadowrun. Other
than pay lip service to the past (i.e.. City o' Gloom) this adds nothing to
game, other than make harrowed cyborgs a little less unique.

The final Section (The Marshal's Handbook) is a measly 14 pages of text and
describes the "secret stuff" that player's shouldn't know about. Some
irritating references to "things we can't tell you yet, but you'll love it".
Also included are some general rule changes regarding massive damage,
explosions, and Junker powers. No real plot hooks or great schemes in the
making.

So, what we have here is a city sourcebook of just over a third actually
deals with the city. The rest is rules for airplanes, rules for cyberware,
rules for explosions, and rules for... , erm, no - that's it.
No full colour fold-out map (as I have already mentioned in an earlier
post), too few story / scenario ideas, and generally not enough of the Good
Stuff (i.e. the first 50 odd pages).
I think this could have been a superb product if it were a 64 page
supplement focusing on Junkyard alone. All the extra bits that have been
bolted on seem very out off place. I can't shake off the feeling that much
of it (primarily the aircraft stuff) was intended for another supplement
that was scrapped and then included in Iron Oasis.
Iron Oasis tries to be two things at once and somehow doesn't quite succeed
in either.
And that's the way I think of it... I got a somewhat thin sourcebook on
Junkyard and another on the "Zen and the Art of Aircraft Maintenance".
They're stuck between the same two covers but what the Hell, saves me time
packing them for the next gaming-session...

c'ya

Marcus