Game Product Reviews

Core Game System
	I like the rules for structuring campaigns. Some of the ideas here are new, and it does a good job of showing how to recreate the epic structure of the show in your RPG. The character creation rules are also good and unique. The back story of a character is far more important than the stats, and this makes it easier to tie adventures into the character's history, to make things personal. I also like the skill system and skill resolution. Unfortunately, I do NOT like the way combat is done in this game. It resolves slowly, and the body diagram hit location chart is confusing and unnecissary. Overall, I liked it enough to base a long campaign on the system, but I plan to completely rework the combat system to make it faster and simpler. Because of the large amount of material in the book, it sorely needs an index. Fortunately, an index is downloadable from Chameleon Electric's web site.

EarthForce Sourcebook
	This sourcebook is very important if you have any EF personell as characters. Furthermore, it adds more equipment, skills and charactaristics. More importantly, it includes the Starship combat system for the Babylon Project. I like this system, although I have not had a chance to play it yet. It is fast, easy to understand and tactics are important. Moreover, it is one of the very few starship combat systems I have seen where ships obey the Newtonian Laws of Motion (except gravity drive ships, of course). The weapons chart was accidentally omitted from the book, but it can be downloaded from Chameleon Electric's web site and it was included in the Gamemaster's Screen, below.

GameMaster's Rescource Kit
	Maybe I was expecting too much from this product. I admit the gamemaster's screen is very handy. Having all the charts available in one place is critical, in the core sourcebook I find it hard to find what I need. And the painting on the front is certainly beautifully done. The information pack within was not as good as I was hoping for. It would help if the pack made it clear where the planets discussed were on the map. The main thing that I found helpful for my game was the stats for the Explorer Class starship, and a timeline for the Explorer project.

B5 Security Manual
	There are a lot of nice images in this book. I find it helpful to have it around when I have players who are less familiar with the TV series, so I can point to an example of that they are encountering. If you were basing a campaign on B5 itself, this book would be invaluable.