This is my second of four planned reviews on the CD collections you can get from FFE. Some of this is interesting for collectors (especially if you never caught these in the hobby stores when first published). How much you might use for your existing game is up to you.
CD & Case - Mark must have been pretty burnt out when he did the external graphics for this. It's a blast from the past of the black book covers with white/red text. The back is the same. Quite a difference from the others in the collection. At least the CD itself received a nice printed-on label.
FASA compilations - Also like the previous JTAS collection, booklets were unstabled and then scanned in. Also like the previous collection the scan resolution could have been somewhat higher, and there are the odd scans that are slightly off-center. It's much what a person would do if they are scanning in their own stuff for archival purposes. But one expects a slightly higher standard for commercial work. Still, its not a deal killer.
Going through the FASA modules, you can see how they got more sophisticated as time went by. The initial ones, like King Richard are nowhere near as nice as the later Aslan Mercenary ships one. There are some odd designs though. And in some instances the accompanying information is quite sketchy. For instance in the Fenris/Valkyrie ones, there are custom fighters listed, that have 3 lasers, can carry 2 additional missiles, but the tonnage for the fighters is never listed. Extrapolating out the tonnage of the fighters (144 tons / 8 fighters = 18 tons each) is possible, but they should have put this info in the pamphlet. Which, of course, is an oversight of the original design, not the compilation. There are some other interesting statements, like the missile firing system... it's almost like they modeled it after a torpedo launching system. Missiles are loaded into the tube, the tube closes, it depressurizes, shoot! Air is pumped into the tube, the inner door opens, tube is reloaded.... Das Boot in Space!
The adventures aren't too bad. Definitely enough information there to run some nice adventures. The old Legend of the Sky Raiders three-book series is included. It could be easily adapted to your own Traveller setting.
Gamelords Compilation - Same thing here. The interesting part of the Gamelords stuff is that they have some environment books (desert, mountain and undersea). In the books they cover how much effort is required to move through the terrain, what things you might encounter, etc. Very useful if you have PC's in these sorts of environments. Definitely something that would expand the basic core rules.
There are also two 'Pilot's Guides' to subsectors. If you are looking for a new adventure setting that your PC's probably don't have the books too as well, here ya go!
Overall I'm not disappointed. Thus far this disc is certainly the "lightest" in terms of overall content. The JTAS one was pretty good because each JTAS was pretty long. Some of the FASA booklets end at 18pages. But this is also material I don't have, so I would say it was worth the money to add to the collection.
CD & Case - Mark must have been pretty burnt out when he did the external graphics for this. It's a blast from the past of the black book covers with white/red text. The back is the same. Quite a difference from the others in the collection. At least the CD itself received a nice printed-on label.
FASA compilations - Also like the previous JTAS collection, booklets were unstabled and then scanned in. Also like the previous collection the scan resolution could have been somewhat higher, and there are the odd scans that are slightly off-center. It's much what a person would do if they are scanning in their own stuff for archival purposes. But one expects a slightly higher standard for commercial work. Still, its not a deal killer.
Going through the FASA modules, you can see how they got more sophisticated as time went by. The initial ones, like King Richard are nowhere near as nice as the later Aslan Mercenary ships one. There are some odd designs though. And in some instances the accompanying information is quite sketchy. For instance in the Fenris/Valkyrie ones, there are custom fighters listed, that have 3 lasers, can carry 2 additional missiles, but the tonnage for the fighters is never listed. Extrapolating out the tonnage of the fighters (144 tons / 8 fighters = 18 tons each) is possible, but they should have put this info in the pamphlet. Which, of course, is an oversight of the original design, not the compilation. There are some other interesting statements, like the missile firing system... it's almost like they modeled it after a torpedo launching system. Missiles are loaded into the tube, the tube closes, it depressurizes, shoot! Air is pumped into the tube, the inner door opens, tube is reloaded.... Das Boot in Space!
The adventures aren't too bad. Definitely enough information there to run some nice adventures. The old Legend of the Sky Raiders three-book series is included. It could be easily adapted to your own Traveller setting.
Gamelords Compilation - Same thing here. The interesting part of the Gamelords stuff is that they have some environment books (desert, mountain and undersea). In the books they cover how much effort is required to move through the terrain, what things you might encounter, etc. Very useful if you have PC's in these sorts of environments. Definitely something that would expand the basic core rules.
There are also two 'Pilot's Guides' to subsectors. If you are looking for a new adventure setting that your PC's probably don't have the books too as well, here ya go!
Overall I'm not disappointed. Thus far this disc is certainly the "lightest" in terms of overall content. The JTAS one was pretty good because each JTAS was pretty long. Some of the FASA booklets end at 18pages. But this is also material I don't have, so I would say it was worth the money to add to the collection.
