Runo Knows...Armageddon: 2089
I have a love/hate relationship with the d20 system.
I don't care for it much, myself. I think that's mostly because I've never really been a fan of D&D, and that I kept seeing a lot of settings come out for the system that I'd like to get, but didn't get into the system. Then again, for a long time I advocated the idea of system-agnostic settings, and right now d20, and to a lesser extent Savage Worlds and GURPS, are about as close as you're going to get for settings.
In other words, pick your poison and learn how to translate it into your system du jour. Or suck it up and play a system that you don't like.
I started thawing on this recently (mostly after having picked up Green Ronin's "The Red Star" last year at Origins). When I went to Origins, I looked at a number of different books. One, not very well publicized at the Mongoose booth and sitting in a corner, caught my attention. It was called "Armageddon: 2089". At $44.95 for the main book I was hesitant to get a book like that without knowing anything about it.
Fortunately for me my friends bought it for me for my birthday.
Let's go over a few things about in order.
Physical: 304 pages, hardcover, full cover. Decent layout, more than a few typos and editing errors (such as on the very first page referring to Sept. 11th happening in 2002 - TWICE). Not bad art, and some interesting "magazine covers" in it.
System: d20, obviously, not needing anything other than the player's handbook. They add a lot to the combat system - there are, obviously, a lot of differences between barbarians and wizards blasting it out with kobolds and goblins and the Armageddon background of up to 200 ton WarMeks shooting tacnukes at each other.
The system's actually pretty interesting. You're not getting anything done without sensor coverage, but with plenty of that, even indirect fire isn't too much of a problem. Mongoose's explanations of how the basic d20 system works actually helped clarify it a lot for me, and I wouldn't feel bad about using it now. They had to add a whole new level in firepower to the setting for the WarMeks, in a move somewhat reminiscent to me of Palladium's MegaDamage system, but it seems to work so well in theory.
Background: For me, this is the kicker. I'll warn you up front: it's an extension of the present day, and therefore if you have strong feelings about the current administration's dealings concerning foreign policy, you may or may not be offended by the take in this book. It does seem to lean towards anti-Bush, he says perhaps a bit sarcastically.
The background itself is interesting. The United States and the European Federation (in a set up that reminds me A LOT of the Combine-EC set up in the Ogre world) have a Cold War that's quickly going hot. Thanks to coverage of anti-missile defenses, conventional forces, etc., it basically amounts to a lot of long range raids. Large WarMeks, usually deployed by submarine, go on lightning raids against set targets, trying to avoid satellite and other detections. They carry enough armor and firepower to devastate entire cities - Brussels, for example, was nuked by a number of .2 kilotons carried by a WarMek.
It's an admittedly grim, radioactive setting. The authors wanted it that way. To me, it looks like a good chance to play the gray area between good and bad guys as you try to make a buck and/or survive in the world. I'm hoping the follow up books (which I plan on buying) are as good - and hopefully better editted. :-)
I don't care for it much, myself. I think that's mostly because I've never really been a fan of D&D, and that I kept seeing a lot of settings come out for the system that I'd like to get, but didn't get into the system. Then again, for a long time I advocated the idea of system-agnostic settings, and right now d20, and to a lesser extent Savage Worlds and GURPS, are about as close as you're going to get for settings.
In other words, pick your poison and learn how to translate it into your system du jour. Or suck it up and play a system that you don't like.
I started thawing on this recently (mostly after having picked up Green Ronin's "The Red Star" last year at Origins). When I went to Origins, I looked at a number of different books. One, not very well publicized at the Mongoose booth and sitting in a corner, caught my attention. It was called "Armageddon: 2089". At $44.95 for the main book I was hesitant to get a book like that without knowing anything about it.
Fortunately for me my friends bought it for me for my birthday.
Let's go over a few things about in order.
Physical: 304 pages, hardcover, full cover. Decent layout, more than a few typos and editing errors (such as on the very first page referring to Sept. 11th happening in 2002 - TWICE). Not bad art, and some interesting "magazine covers" in it.
System: d20, obviously, not needing anything other than the player's handbook. They add a lot to the combat system - there are, obviously, a lot of differences between barbarians and wizards blasting it out with kobolds and goblins and the Armageddon background of up to 200 ton WarMeks shooting tacnukes at each other.
The system's actually pretty interesting. You're not getting anything done without sensor coverage, but with plenty of that, even indirect fire isn't too much of a problem. Mongoose's explanations of how the basic d20 system works actually helped clarify it a lot for me, and I wouldn't feel bad about using it now. They had to add a whole new level in firepower to the setting for the WarMeks, in a move somewhat reminiscent to me of Palladium's MegaDamage system, but it seems to work so well in theory.
Background: For me, this is the kicker. I'll warn you up front: it's an extension of the present day, and therefore if you have strong feelings about the current administration's dealings concerning foreign policy, you may or may not be offended by the take in this book. It does seem to lean towards anti-Bush, he says perhaps a bit sarcastically.
The background itself is interesting. The United States and the European Federation (in a set up that reminds me A LOT of the Combine-EC set up in the Ogre world) have a Cold War that's quickly going hot. Thanks to coverage of anti-missile defenses, conventional forces, etc., it basically amounts to a lot of long range raids. Large WarMeks, usually deployed by submarine, go on lightning raids against set targets, trying to avoid satellite and other detections. They carry enough armor and firepower to devastate entire cities - Brussels, for example, was nuked by a number of .2 kilotons carried by a WarMek.
It's an admittedly grim, radioactive setting. The authors wanted it that way. To me, it looks like a good chance to play the gray area between good and bad guys as you try to make a buck and/or survive in the world. I'm hoping the follow up books (which I plan on buying) are as good - and hopefully better editted. :-)