Coming of Shadows and August
- Thread starter rbax
- Start date
ShadowScout
Mongoose
KamokaziUK said:
Strange... I can't really get most books here in Austria, so I usually order them from... guess what... England! Leisure Games actually... And I never had any troubles... they get the goods quickly, deliver fast (if it's in stock - some of their things aren't always, like miniatures...), and have a nice selection (though I hope they'll add the new Battletech Spaceship minis soon, as I want to use them as "generic unknown alien ships" for my B5 universe :wink: ).
And even the stuff I pre-ordered from Mongoose... it all arrived pretty fast, and that here in Austria! OK, so the basic rulebook took a while... but only because they send it as parcel instead of as letter, to better package it... but the other supplements were here pretty fast.
Maybe you should rethink your purchasing strategy? :wink:
:lol:psyclonejack
Mongoose
Well here in Iowa,
Signs and Portents arrived a week ago, at my local store.
They phoned yesterday, informing me Coming of Shadows is in. So of course I rushed down and grabbed it, asap. All I can say, as I only did a flip-through, is: Daddy Like! Now I just can't wait for the EF book. But this will keep me reading for a week or two. Thanks Mongoose!
A content,
PsyJack
Signs and Portents arrived a week ago, at my local store.
They phoned yesterday, informing me Coming of Shadows is in. So of course I rushed down and grabbed it, asap. All I can say, as I only did a flip-through, is: Daddy Like! Now I just can't wait for the EF book. But this will keep me reading for a week or two. Thanks Mongoose!
A content,
PsyJack
A
Anonymous
Guest
Where in Iowa you ask?
<----- Waterloo, Iowa
Have my local store THE CORE order everything for me. Too bad they don't stock it. But then again they are more a comic and card shop.
<-----
Waterloo, IowaHave my local store THE CORE order everything for me. Too bad they don't stock it. But then again they are more a comic and card shop.
psyclonejack
Mongoose
Might help if I log in . . . . .Where in Iowa you ask?
<----- Waterloo, Iowa
Okay . . . that works better. Now you can see what the arrow is pointing too.
<----- Waterloo, Iowa
Okay . . . that works better. Now you can see what the arrow is pointing too.
CARTMAG said:
Actually.....you'd be suprised at the number of people who honestly don't understand that realization. Of course they also think the California is the trend setter for everything else that will happen to the US and that the East Coast is a cold, wet place full of angry motorists and Republicans (or both).
We are cutting edge, trail blazers, trend setters and all that other rebel with a cause nonsense. Which is why we are all are now so uncomfortable about this whole recall thing. For God Sake, even Florida is laughing at us and that's hard to take after the election fiasco there.
--- Rich
hey.... we are all a bunch of angry moterists that we know.. but i take aception to being a republican.. and what most people dont realise is that most of the east coast are democrats...
ands my brother lives in Cali. and he thinks the recall thing is a bunch of crap. and he also belives that right now California needs a real politition that knows the job to get that state back on track. they dont need the crap thats going on now
ands my brother lives in Cali. and he thinks the recall thing is a bunch of crap. and he also belives that right now California needs a real politition that knows the job to get that state back on track. they dont need the crap thats going on now
So I just got my copy of The Coming of Shadows. Unfortunately I have to say that the title is a little too accurate. The pictures are so dark I have a hard time making out what most of them are supposed to be. Whoever is in charge of this needs to increase the brightness and the contrast next time. They look like they would have been effective pictures had they been easy to see. The picture of G'kar was taken from the pilot. Something from 2nd season may have been somewhat more appropriate since his makeup undergoes signifficant changes from season to season.
In addition to this, I'm not really crazy about the way the book is organized. Well, lets face it, this is more fact book than it is RPG. We get 1 short chapter in the front updating the major characters from the show to the 2nd season, and introducing a few new ones (like Sheridan, who IMO, belonged in the core book). Then we get a chapter in the back of the book with some new rules. The information on Delenn really doesn't update her beyond the end of the 1st season. Why? We learn all sorts of information about her in 2nd season.
What I would have rather seen is a much shorter chapter full of plot synopses with more setting information on the various places that they visit in the second season. Also, why are the whitestars reserved for the Minbari sourcebook and not here? Weren't they first introduced in season 2? Also in season 2 we get to see what a vorlon looks like for the first time, so why aren't they detailed? The answer seems to be that they're being reserved for the appropriate race book in order to make it so that you have to buy it. While I can understand the business sense behind this, I have to disagree with the functionality of this approach.
In my opinion a core RPG book should give you the basic information needed to play in any era of a setting. The Forgotten Realms gives you drow in the FRCS, and then the drow are further developed in Races of Faerun. Does this make it so that you have to buy RoF? No, not really, but RoF does add a good amount of useful information. The Star Wars RPG gives you the information you need to play in 3 eras (Rise of the Empire, Rebellion, and New Jedi Order - in fact the only major one it misses is Zahn's New Republic Era). Anyway, the problem with this type of approach is in-game usefulness. If I want to play a game that features a couple shadows that you need to kill, a white star for the characters to fly around in, and Marcus Cole as a major NPC, I should have to lug around 4 separate books since all of those elements were major ones in the series. All except for possibly Marcus should have been in the core book.
While this may look a bit like a rant, I'm actually trying to offer some suggestions for improvement for the next one: 1- Make sure the pictures are clear and bright enought before sending it to the printer. 2- keep the episode guide to no more than a quarter of the book. Chances are that if we're investing in the game, we not only remember the series pretty well, but we also own the DVDs. 3- Include all the useful information from the season. The third season should have some information on the Centauri Homeworld, updated characters, stats for shadows and vorlons, and more in-depth information for the places they visit off the station. Season 4 should give us some good information on Mars, shadow tech, First Ones, Lorien, Z'Ha'Dum (or however you spell that), etc. 4- I personally won't be mad if some of the same information is repeated in more than one book where appropriate. I would rather have all of the relevant information in more than one source than have to carry around a master index so that I know where to find things. For instance, the book on the Vorlons and Shadows should have their stats as should season 3 (actually season 2, but its too late for that already).
In addition to this, I'm not really crazy about the way the book is organized. Well, lets face it, this is more fact book than it is RPG. We get 1 short chapter in the front updating the major characters from the show to the 2nd season, and introducing a few new ones (like Sheridan, who IMO, belonged in the core book). Then we get a chapter in the back of the book with some new rules. The information on Delenn really doesn't update her beyond the end of the 1st season. Why? We learn all sorts of information about her in 2nd season.
What I would have rather seen is a much shorter chapter full of plot synopses with more setting information on the various places that they visit in the second season. Also, why are the whitestars reserved for the Minbari sourcebook and not here? Weren't they first introduced in season 2? Also in season 2 we get to see what a vorlon looks like for the first time, so why aren't they detailed? The answer seems to be that they're being reserved for the appropriate race book in order to make it so that you have to buy it. While I can understand the business sense behind this, I have to disagree with the functionality of this approach.
In my opinion a core RPG book should give you the basic information needed to play in any era of a setting. The Forgotten Realms gives you drow in the FRCS, and then the drow are further developed in Races of Faerun. Does this make it so that you have to buy RoF? No, not really, but RoF does add a good amount of useful information. The Star Wars RPG gives you the information you need to play in 3 eras (Rise of the Empire, Rebellion, and New Jedi Order - in fact the only major one it misses is Zahn's New Republic Era). Anyway, the problem with this type of approach is in-game usefulness. If I want to play a game that features a couple shadows that you need to kill, a white star for the characters to fly around in, and Marcus Cole as a major NPC, I should have to lug around 4 separate books since all of those elements were major ones in the series. All except for possibly Marcus should have been in the core book.
While this may look a bit like a rant, I'm actually trying to offer some suggestions for improvement for the next one: 1- Make sure the pictures are clear and bright enought before sending it to the printer. 2- keep the episode guide to no more than a quarter of the book. Chances are that if we're investing in the game, we not only remember the series pretty well, but we also own the DVDs. 3- Include all the useful information from the season. The third season should have some information on the Centauri Homeworld, updated characters, stats for shadows and vorlons, and more in-depth information for the places they visit off the station. Season 4 should give us some good information on Mars, shadow tech, First Ones, Lorien, Z'Ha'Dum (or however you spell that), etc. 4- I personally won't be mad if some of the same information is repeated in more than one book where appropriate. I would rather have all of the relevant information in more than one source than have to carry around a master index so that I know where to find things. For instance, the book on the Vorlons and Shadows should have their stats as should season 3 (actually season 2, but its too late for that already).
Enlightened Bystander
Mongoose
Barendur, the reason that people like Sheridan and Marcus weren't in the Core book is that they would open the floodgates. If they are included, what about people from later series, or tech, or synopsi? Suddenly the book blossoms into an Encyclopaedia, or a lot of detail is cut out.
I also diagree with your summary point two. I don't own the DVDs, and likely others do. The Synopsi are there to generate scenario ideas, and to allow the GM to keep close to the story. [/img]
I also diagree with your summary point two. I don't own the DVDs, and likely others do. The Synopsi are there to generate scenario ideas, and to allow the GM to keep close to the story. [/img]
Saberhagen
Mongoose
Enlightened Bystander said:
But they are overly detailed and over written for an RPG book - there are already books out there with episode-by-episode summaries; what makes the Mongoose books worth buying is the material at the end of each summary with story ideas and 'background' information/stats. The trouble is I'm not 100% convinced that's what Coming Of Shadows delivers enough of.
I appreciate the 'drip feed' approach to information - that games slowly introduce different elements to 'shadow' (excuse the pun) the TV show's arc - but not if that means early sourcebooks are padded because all the meaty stuff will be coming later.
Enlightened Bystander said:
Point 1 - I think that if a character is in the opening credits of season 1 - 5, they should be in the core book (I could forgive omitting Keffer though). I don't see how that would open the floodgates to anything considering that all we are talking about are what amount to iconic NPCs of the game.
Point 2 - Too much space is used when shorter summaries would have worked better. I would be in favor of keeping long episode descriptions if the summary of the episodes were shorter and more of that space were spent on plot hooks and statting out important elements from that episode.
A
Anonymous
Guest
>>>Also, why are the whitestars reserved for the Minbari sourcebook and not here? Weren't they first introduced in season 2? <<<
Sorry to be nit picky.. but the white star was not introduced till Season 3 three, episode one
Sorry to be nit picky.. but the white star was not introduced till Season 3 three, episode one
Baraendur said:
1. Agreed. Some of the pictures are just too dark.
2. Agreed again. The episode guides in Coming of Shadows were too damn long. We don't need everything covered just the important stuff. The B5 game isn't one I imagine many non-fans will pick up.
3. Yes and no. Some things should be covered. Characters and ships/vehicles should be, but some things should be left to different books. The Vorlons & Shadows have their own book coming out, and homeworlds should be covered in the race specific books and other worlds could be included in a "Planets of the Galaxy" style book (Much like the SWD20 has done).
4. I would. That was a real pain in the backside during the time of 2nd edition AD&D. Don't repeat anything you don't HAVE too.
Thems just my thoughts.
hassanisabbah
Mongoose
Baraendur said:
Whooooo..... Save that for the Nymphology 2.....
hassanisabbah
Mongoose
You can please some of the people, some of the time, but the others will post their complaints till their brains run out their ears.
I swear I have never seen so much continous picking on any of the other boards.... Must be a sci-fi thing :lol:
I swear I have never seen so much continous picking on any of the other boards.... Must be a sci-fi thing :lol:
