 June 4, 2014 - 5:20pm | http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/130417/The-Digital-Gods The above is a link to an adventure from Gagmen claiming to be a Star Frontiers adventure. It is "pay what you want" so you can get it for free if you want. I picked it up and have read it and here is my quick review: Not a bad adventure but not really what it claims to be. It says its a Star Frontiers adventure and has some of the pictures showing Dralasite, Vrusk and Yazirians. The NPCs stats are also given in SF form. There are some creatures given in SF form. But that is where it ends. None of the background given matches any SF canon. Four out of the five NPCs are robots and they are not given in SF robot form. The NPCs are also only given a basic stat line with NO secondary stats and NO skills. Probably the worst is that there are no maps, deckplans or floorplans of any kind. One of the main features of SF was the combat system and the grid movement on paper with little chits. This is no where present and really needs to be for an adventure to be an SF adventure. As a side note the Publishers claim this is to save the GM time by having an adventure ready. It kinda fails here to in that there are alot of suggestions on how to play the adventure but a real lack of details. Besides no maps, there is a mention of a pirate crew but no stats given at all. Some room descriptions are included by again no details and some are just a room name. 3 Stars Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
 June 4, 2014 - 6:42pm | Yeah, the robot stats are a little sparse, but so are all the NPC's. He simply gave them all equal treatment. But I see this as an opportunity for the GM to adjust the power level of the adventure, coming up with the skills and equipment to account for it. This also allows for some flavor adjustment. He provided a lot of room for referee creativity and as a result gives plenty of room to using it simply as a sandbox. I have never considered the maps and chits an essential part of the game. They are merely visual guides, not at all necessary to playing the game. I don't think he wrote it to serve any serious contribution to canon, which seems clear when he gives special attention to describing the setting. There is no reference to any SF planet or villain races. I think he simply wrote something he wanted to write and sought to make it fun, incorporating the SF races in a different universe. He clearly didn't take himself too seriously. I think some people need to do it that way. My review is simply that it is wordy and in need of some serious, serious editing in more ways than one. He seems to have made it a true adventure, not so much formulaic to other SF modules. It looks interesting, and I think he put a lot of thought into it and what he wanted it to express. I would be interested in playing it, not as Star Frontiers, but as a quirky, space adventure. For the robots, I would apply some of my Adventure Bots material from SFman 13, 14 and 16, which also offer some quirkiness. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
 June 5, 2014 - 3:24am | I'm surprised you gave it three stars as the faults you cited would have been major faults that would have cost them stars with me. It claims to be a SF module and Robots that dont conform to SF robots really? Background doesn't match star frontiers background? Begs the question of why claim Star Frontiers? and the then forgeting to included stats, including inadequet stats, poor room description, no map? I guess this proves that even a 1000 chimps sitting in a room pecking randomly at typewriters could eventually produce a Star Frontiers module. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 5, 2014 - 5:12am | I started reading it and then switched to skimming it when I found it tedious. It makes a big deal of educationg the reader as to the differences of 70s sci fi from earlier sci fi then pretends to use an 80's sci fi RPG to run the adventure. In truth it comes off as a badly written screen treatment that you'd submit to a movie studio to sell them on an idea for a movie. It in no way resembles any module I ever bought or read and I'm glad I didn't pay for this one. It claims to be an aid for beleagered DMs which is a farce- it does nothing to help a DM short of time. In fact the author invites you to tell them about any thing you create to run the adventure, like they want you to flesh out their adventure for them. it in know way is a sandbox but a railroad and even admits to being a rail road in its text. Looking at the other Gagmen products for "sale" on Drivethru: One is a boothill and the other seems to be a Fantasy adventure and the blurb for the Boothill mod suggests a tongue in cheek send up of 70s western movies. This leads me to the opinion that Gagmen are not really serious module writers but lampooners. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 5, 2014 - 6:42am | If you are familiar with them, it reads more like a Bulldogs adventure then an SF adventure. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 5, 2014 - 1:33pm | It's a fixed adventure. Of course its a railroad. All fixed adventures are. All the SF modules are railroads. This module never claims to be a sandbox. I used the word not to say that it is a sandbox, but that because of its lack of detail, it can be used as a source of information for a sandbox. Its wordiness is due to pretentiousness and a bit of inexperience, as well as trying to establish the setting (Non-Pan Galactic) and flavor (70's). The ONLY reference it makes to Star Frontiers is "Designed for use with Star Frontiers". That's it. It never claims to be the Star Frontiers setting. Not once. Star Frontiers is a system. It's setting is just a default setting. The sytem, as the 2001 and 2010 modules showed, is meant to be used any way you want. It's not as if it were Zebulon's Guide, claiming to be the SF setting. Apparently this adventure was written in the progress of a podcast episode, a show focused on adventure-writing. The podcast can be found here: gagmen.net View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 5, 2014 - 1:25pm | Might be my interpretation of "Designed for use with" which I take to mean as should be used with. Like .38 cal bullets are designed for use with .38 cal weapons. You could fire them with other weapons but may not have the best fit and some work would be required. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 5, 2014 - 1:34pm | During the podcast, they say it is a rip-off of a movie called Nightflyers. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 5, 2014 - 2:00pm | "Designed for use with" Ok I take your point but....there is little evidence of the authors actually having read the AD rules let alone the KHs rules. Like I said it reads like a screen treatment for a movie. They do make the claim that its to help a beleagered GM and that is a joke. No maps, no real stats, just page after page of pros for me to read which would be a nightmare to try to refer to during a game. It reads as a lampoon of the period science fiction and the fact that they did one offs of Western and fantasy supports that. I would not donate money for these "modules" Zero Stars in my book. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 5, 2014 - 2:37pm | Did you listen to the podcast? It sounds like a screenwriting session. I'm not sure what you mean by "lampoon". 70's and 80's B-science fiction was always like a lampoon, but only in its tossing in all sorts of wierd stuff from left field. But this module doesn't seem to present any comedy that I saw. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 5, 2014 - 4:51pm | jedion, is this the statement you're talking about regarding beleaguered GM's? "The GagMen Podcast is designed to help the beleaguered DM looking for material to liven up a game or save him a night of planning." I don't see the problem here. By the way, the evidence of familiarity with the rules (at least past familiarity) is in the robot stats. Note that the "STS" (though failed from "STA", actually Structure Points,) is "100" on three of the robots and 200 (reinforced) on the fourth. Also note that the other stats all conform to rules regarding robots, except they are missing the additional bonuses from the robot levels, which is a mistake that even experienced players might forget if they haven't played in a while. But it may also indicate lack of experience with the system, but I don't see someone skimming it knowing to use those stats and yet not notice the level bonus. But it may fit with what I said before, in that they may be leaving the power of the game open, and the referee is responsible for choosing the level and the stat bonuses related to the level. Given that being the initial impression I got from it, I think that is what they intended. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 5, 2014 - 7:23pm | @ Ascent: You are welcome to use this module. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 6, 2014 - 8:47am | Why do you feel the need to assure me? I have no need to defend its playability. Nor is my ego so fragile that it needs any sort of petting. I was simply correcting mistaken views concerning the module. Just keeping the review on track. An honest review is best done with accurate knowledge. I'm sorry if I offended you in the process. I assure you, my words have been wholely without animus. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 6, 2014 - 9:31am | Ascent, i have no animus its simply so foreign a presentation of a rpg module as to strike me as the worst module I have ever seen. I've begun to suspect that its not a serious attempt at producing a module especially since it has an attached audio blog it comes off as entertainment at best. I would never use it. I'm not against someone else having a greater degree of appreciation for it since story based rpgs were all the rage at one time with some vampire based rpg. That however is not my cup of tea. I am still harshly critical of the statement that it will help a DM or save him a night of planning as it will do no such thing since the dm will have a boat load of work to do just to use this. The statement is grossly in error in my opinion. EDIT: I can give it one positive comment- there seems to be a copious ammount of art work in it and that is not always the case with small independent publishers. Most of it is good and some is very good. the image of the astronaut with the face plate of his helmet bursting open was down rigth impressive. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 6, 2014 - 11:10am | @Ascent well thank you for CORRECTING our views. Of course our opinions need correction, not like we can form our own opinions. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 6, 2014 - 1:50pm | I know YOU have demonstrated no animus, jedion. (I was only speaking for myself and not implying anything from it.) I do appreciate your position and agree the module needs a lot of work. Though I think I could do the stat, weapons and program stuff on the fly. Listening to the podcast, the story didn't sound too bad. Understanding their intent, I could definitely get some use out of this with a play group. (I don't mind railroading a group with a fixed module as long as they know it's a fixed module and are willing to participate to make it work.) I got used to reading the story from fixed modules when I was a kid. I have a special appreciation for it, mainly because I'm a good vocal reader. (Perhaps fixed modules contributed to that.) Though a lot of referees simply scan through the story and then use the cliff notes to vocalize their own narration on the fly. Trouble on Janus was far, far worse than this module. @ratt - We can't all be perfect. ;) View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 9, 2014 - 7:40pm | Well, I've been editing this adventure, and it is not bad at all. It had a few jumbled elements, but I'm fixing those. It also needs the pirate NPC stats. I will work to provide some cohesiveness and explanation to the digital gods story line to make it make more cohesive sense and make the reason for the station going down be more pronounced. I'll post the final result when I'm done. I at one time tried to fix Trouble on Janus, but it was too much of a pile of crud not worth the effort. The writer's disdain for the players and the reader alone made it worthless. It was very clearly the ONLY submission for that convention. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 9, 2014 - 9:04pm | Well, I've been editing this adventure, and it is not bad at all. It had a few jumbled elements, but I'm fixing those. It also needs the pirate NPC stats. I will work to provide some cohesiveness and explanation to the digital gods story line to make it make more cohesive sense and make the reason for the station going down be more pronounced. I'll post the final result when I'm done. I at one time tried to fix Trouble on Janus, but it was too much of a pile of crud not worth the effort. The writer's disdain for the players and the reader alone made it worthless. It was very clearly the ONLY submission for that convention. Not to mention that it was actually a Traveller module masquerading as a Star Frontiers module. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 10, 2014 - 7:34am | Yeah, I remember reading about the bodysnatch stuff in Janus in a Traveller document somewhere. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 10, 2014 - 6:19pm | Yeah, I remember reading about the bodysnatch stuff in Janus in a Traveller document somewhere. No just the whole tone and intro to it sounded Traveller to me. Not that there is anything wrong with Traveller if you are playing Traveller. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
June 11, 2014 - 6:10am | Sheesh. You got a tone out of it? The only tone I got was "The players are idiots, and if there's anything here you don't understand, you're an idiot, too, because I am the greatest GM in the world. Marvel at my brilliant storytelling in a module I wrote by myself at a gaming convention in a few hours in a game system I know nothing about." View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 11, 2014 - 2:46pm | I think we tried to say that earlier but were giving him a chance at an outline for an adventure. Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
June 11, 2014 - 6:26pm | jedion and I are talking about Trouble on Janus. View my profile for a list of articles I have written, am writing, will write. "It's yo' mama!" —Wicket W. Warrick, Star Wars Ep. VI: Return of the Jedi "That guy's wise." —Logray, Star Wars Ep.VI: Return of the Jedi Do You Wanna Date My Avatar? - Felicia Day (The Guild) |
June 11, 2014 - 6:42pm | Sheesh. You got a tone out of it? " Believe it or not people have, for want of a better word a "tone" in their writing. I discovered at a Bible college that I could identify a verse based on how it sounded with who was reputed to have been the human author. People I converse with frequently or read their writing frequently become associated with a tone, Larry Moore, Iggy, Terl obar, Rattraveller, and you all have a tone or feel to your writing. Even though I haven't met any of you, you all have a feel or tone about you that becomes recognizable over time. If someone emmulated the classic SF module format in their writing Alpha, Betta, Gamma sections etc we would all recognize it as being intentionally like a SF module. The janus module feels like a Traveller module to me and I suspect that the author was simply emulating style of sci fi RPG module that he was familiar with despite the fact that he was attempting to write a SF module. Perhaps that is part of his arrogance- "I know sci fi, how hard can it be to write a SF module?" I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
