Greg Smith
Mongoose
I bought this book on impulse at the Call to Arms tourney. It was a shiny new hardback and magpie-like I had to have it. Once I got home and had a flick through it, I decided that it could be a very dull book - just a few paragraphs on each and every planet on the map.
But it was not!
It starts with a fairly standard world-building chapter, the likes of which have been in every science fiction game since Traveller. It is however clearly written and has enough detail to feel real. The resulting stellar and planetary statistics are easy to read without refering back endlessly to this chapter (the only exception being the government ratings).
The bulk of the book is a description of every planet on the galactic map. These are grouped under the race that controls them. Many will be familiar to anyone who has read the world descriptions in the previous factbooks, but these are not a reprint and many have been updated to cover the events upto 2262.
These descriptions are very readable and provide a wealth of background for any game. The planets and races that are not heavily featured in the series make for very interesting reading indeed. I can however imagine some devout canonists taking exception to some of the information provided, but personally I like the leaps of imagination that have been made.
The map is in glorious technicolour inside the front and back cover. It is revised from the map in the core book - it does not feature any additional systems, just revisions based on the date (2262). The map however is somewhat inconsistent with the descriptions of the systems - and this is the disappointing aspect of the book for me.
For example - several worlds are shown as dead worlds but are clearly not (Coriana 6, Kitab, Trogoh), Markar is shown as dead but Zander is not (both are habitable worlds with a dead population), Lorka is shown as a homeworld for a minor race but is not described as such, Shengol is shown as a minor colony but has a large population and a shipyard; and uninhabitable worlds with colonies are shown as dead worlds while others are shown as colonies (Oleng, sector 49).
The last section of the book deals with space travel. I particularly liked the random objects in hyperspace. This chapter does seem to duplicate some of the material in the Zocalo though. Plus there is an index which seems correct (pretty unusual for Mongoose).
There are two planets without descriptions in the book - Denizala in Vree space and Z'HA'DUM :shock:
On the whole, a really good book that provided me with dozens of adventure ideas as I read through. It could have been absolutely top-notch if the map had been better.
But it was not!
It starts with a fairly standard world-building chapter, the likes of which have been in every science fiction game since Traveller. It is however clearly written and has enough detail to feel real. The resulting stellar and planetary statistics are easy to read without refering back endlessly to this chapter (the only exception being the government ratings).
The bulk of the book is a description of every planet on the galactic map. These are grouped under the race that controls them. Many will be familiar to anyone who has read the world descriptions in the previous factbooks, but these are not a reprint and many have been updated to cover the events upto 2262.
These descriptions are very readable and provide a wealth of background for any game. The planets and races that are not heavily featured in the series make for very interesting reading indeed. I can however imagine some devout canonists taking exception to some of the information provided, but personally I like the leaps of imagination that have been made.
The map is in glorious technicolour inside the front and back cover. It is revised from the map in the core book - it does not feature any additional systems, just revisions based on the date (2262). The map however is somewhat inconsistent with the descriptions of the systems - and this is the disappointing aspect of the book for me.
For example - several worlds are shown as dead worlds but are clearly not (Coriana 6, Kitab, Trogoh), Markar is shown as dead but Zander is not (both are habitable worlds with a dead population), Lorka is shown as a homeworld for a minor race but is not described as such, Shengol is shown as a minor colony but has a large population and a shipyard; and uninhabitable worlds with colonies are shown as dead worlds while others are shown as colonies (Oleng, sector 49).
The last section of the book deals with space travel. I particularly liked the random objects in hyperspace. This chapter does seem to duplicate some of the material in the Zocalo though. Plus there is an index which seems correct (pretty unusual for Mongoose).
There are two planets without descriptions in the book - Denizala in Vree space and Z'HA'DUM :shock:
On the whole, a really good book that provided me with dozens of adventure ideas as I read through. It could have been absolutely top-notch if the map had been better.
