 May 27, 2012 - 7:34am | Re: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Engine reading up what little info there is on this and the fact that Zeb Cook developed it makes me think that it is a close cousin to Star Frontiers. Perhaps worth looking into. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
May 27, 2012 - 9:24am | Found Bug hunters and the system guide on Scribd http://www.scribd.com/doc/65361088/Bug-Hunters http://www.scribd.com/doc/38340533/System-Guide need to dig into the system guide to see how much like Star Frontiers it is. Would love to get my hands on the other world books to check them out. Edit Review: Some levels of complexity in this that I doubt are needed. Player core vs Player character with EXP either applied to player core or player character, applying EXP to player core presumes you intend to roll up a new character in another universe or if this character dies then in this universe that you are playing so you dont loose time invested in the Amazing Engine which seems odd in that by just buying another world book you automatically start with a high level character but that would mean that you repeatedly played with characters you did not improve because EXP went to core. I got lost in the ability attribute generation mechanic- seemed like too many steps to get a value. My impression is that most ability scores range between 20 ish to 90 which is the max much like SF. Characters have 4 core ability pools from which two ability scores each are derived much like SF but the 4 pools are Physique, Intellect, Spirit and Influence generating: Fitness & Reflexes, Learning & Intuition, Psyche & Willpower, Charm & Influence. This layout is a little different from Star Frontiers but there is a clear relationship between SF and AE here with the ability pairs. Skills look comprehensive with specialties and subspecialties where sub specialties represent enhancements to skill attempts. I did not dig too deeply into combat- more of a seriously shallow scan to see if I recognized it. Personally I think in many ways SF was lightning in a bottle despite the things I consider failings in it. AE just did not measure up to Zeb's earlier success. In one respect AE was a bit ahead of its time in that it was one core system that could be used in any genre or world. Something Savage Worlds and D20 has accomplished more recently. Not sure why the line was killed but it was under Williams this occured so the fact that it would have competed with the flagship game, D&D and her pet project Buck Rogers both, I'm not surprised it had a short run, '93-'94. With the fragmention of D&D's customer base with a gazillion different settings, AE must have suffered from poor sales- I can see customers who are already buying material in two different settings looking at this skeptically. Combine that with the obvious fact that it did overlap with both D&D and BR, and if I'm correct, the fact that this is the period that TSR was alienating customers with lawsuits left and right as fans set up fan sites to their campaigns on the brand new shiney internet, then its days were numbered. WotC and Gamesworkshop were already challenging TSR's status as top dog with their successful product lines. In a year or two TSR would issue a line of collectable cards then dragon dice. Come '97 Random house would return a huge ammount of unsold hard cover books (TSR had jumped its hard cover releases from 2/year to 12 that year) and dragon dice expansion packs along with a huge fee that was not covered by sales and TSR could not pay their bills so Lorraine sold out to WotC. Amazing Engine was largely a victim of its time, and lack of support. If it had been developed by another company (with Zeb Cook's imput) then we would actually have cousin to or a more proper successor to Star Frontiers. It tried to be the be all and end all of gaming with fantasy, various sci-fi, and gritty steampunk gaming world books. Curriously it was only supported with world books not modules which may have hindered its from gaining popularity. A world book and no module support means more work for GMs and not every GM will put in that work. ready to run modules mean more people playing. I'm betting the individual world books are quite rare. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 27, 2012 - 10:00pm | I remember seeing bug hunt in the stores but never played with that system. Everyone I was playing with just switched over from games like twilight 2000 to the GURPs system and then eventually the story line turned into the aliens theme. Do you know who has the game rights for bug hunters now? |
May 27, 2012 - 10:23pm | Found a book on ebay TSR amazing engine galactos barrier $7.00 buy it now price. |
May 28, 2012 - 4:56am | One thing that has me thinking is the differences (and similarities) between the ability stats in Star Frontiers and Amazing Engine. Star Frontiers ability pairs: STR/STA DEX/RS LOG/INT PER/LDR Amazing Engine Core/character ability pairs: Physique: Fitness/Reflexes Intellect: Learning/Intuition Spirit: Psyche/Willpower Influence: Charm/Position RE Physical Ability values In Star Frontiers there is two separate ability pairs that represent the physical aspects of the character. On one hand one ability pair represents the strength of body (Strength and Stamina) and on the other hand one pair represents the sharpness or speed of the body (Reaction Speed and Manuel Dexterity). Amazing engine just reduces this to a pairing of Strength and Speed together in one pair. RE: Mental capabilities Star Frontiers has only one pairing Logic and Intuition though you could make the case that Personality and Leadership are also mental values but it would only be a minor point IMO. In amazing engine however you have two pairing and they mimic the two pairings for physical in Star Frontiers Strength of Mind and Speed or Sharpness of mind. the Learning/Intuition pair is the sharpness or speed pairing while Psyche/Willpower is the Strength of mind pairing. Why is strength of mind important? Well in a cross genre game Willpower looks to be that score that will be the one used to resist things, sort of a default saving throw and in this case I'm all for ability score based saing throws not arbitrary class based saving throws but then Star Frontiers is loaded with saving throws it just didn't label them in bold caps: STA check or become infected, RS check for half damage etc. Psyche is important for characters using psionic or magic abilities as per the different world books. Finally the red headed step child of the ability pairs PER/LDR, Zeb Cook didn't do anything ground breaking new with this one in AE. Charm and PER pretty much function in identical manners. LDR and Position have some different flavors to them but the base idea is very close. So what? Well we all tinker and play at writing rules so as an intellectual exercise I was thinking that the symmetry of double ability pairs that represent strength and sharpness of both the physical and the mental abilities is good. This would of course give you a system where you would have 5 ability pairs; two for the physical, two for the mental, and one for the person. On a philosophical level you could almost see the personhood ability pair of PER/LDR or Charm/Position as the integration of aspects of physical and mental. For PER or Charm it would be the intregration of the sharpness of the mind with strength of body. However, for LDR or position its the intregration of Strength of Mind and sharpness of body. This would be why there is not a double ability pair for the person. Just some idle musings on my part. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 May 30, 2012 - 6:43pm | Cool. Thanks for the link. I own almost all of the Amazing engin systam books. Bughunters was my favorite. I used it as the "history of the humans" in my SFcampaine years ago. Reasonable men adapt to the world around them; unreasonable men make the world adapt to them. The world is changed by unreasonable men. Edwin Louis Cole |
May 30, 2012 - 8:43pm | Cool. Thanks for the link. I own almost all of the Amazing engin systam books. Bughunters was my favorite. I used it as the "history of the humans" in my SFcampaine years ago. What did you think of the Core vs Character stats and the method for generating character abilities? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
