The _Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide_ has hit the stores.
Quick comments and first impressions:
* The art in TNE is really beginning to irritate me. Nearly every
page has some space wasted with the rococo and worthless TNE
pseudo-computer borders. There's a @#$*#$& POWER SWITCH at the
top of a lot of the pages, and I just wish it were functional so
I could turn off the damn art.
There's also an 8 page color spread in the middle with the, IMHO,
mediocre to bad drawings of RCES going about their "duties", as
so often seen in Challenge. IMHO, a waste of four-color ink.
A better choice would have been something like the color vehicle
paint drawings in the T:2000 vehicle supplements, which were far
superior in artistic merit and were useful and relevant to the
supplement, and often enlightening in themselves.
Some of the equipment drawings are useful. A bright spot in the
book's art design are the drawings of two TL14 Ithkluri weapons.
The Hiver ships shown look like shoeboxes. I'm trying to forgive
in the interest of promoting alien psychology in ship design,
but the picture of the Hiver Utility Vehicle landed on a moon
looks very unrealistically bad. I can deal with boxes in the
vaccuum of space, but where's the landing legs? The Schalli
battle-dress looks like it escaped from _Battletech_. Stats
for an _Aliens_ style cargo handler are given on a battle
dress page, but it's easy to miss because there's no art for
it, and it's in a corner. Shame, shame -- major art and
marketing oversight, IMHO, here. (How do I know? One of the
color plates shows an odd variant of it.)
* The subtle and not so subtle Imperium-bashing can get a bit
heavy for old-timers who remember what it was like even at
it's worst. I get the impression that the RC thinks that
it is desigining equipment that was overlooked by the fallen
civilization (the Imperial idiots!). I may be reading more
into this than is really deliberately there.
* Some new FFS rules are introduced. The RC seems to be somewhat
confused about the difference between a grav belt and a G-tube
or grav bike. Also, grav belt propulsion by ducted propellor
somehow bothers me -- I liked the grav belt on the cover of the
MT _Imperial Encyclopedia_. There is no such thing as a "two
man grav belt" -- that thing is a bedframe grav bike. Some
interesting musings on how gravitic fields work, and what
happens when you stick a weapon or your arm outside the grav
belt's field.
* Every time they say that independents have trouble getting RC
body sleeves, I ask, "Why would they want one?" I miss the
IISS TL15 uniform vacc suits, which made the IISS look more
like professionals, IMHO, and less like superheros in their
long-johns. There's a very comic book feel to TNE in the RC,
and if I wanted to play in the comic books, I'd play _V&V_ or
_Champions_ or the like. I don't. This goes back to art.
Ditto for the battle dress -- especially the light model that
looks like the poor fool is wearing a corset. Now Imperial,
Solomani, or Zhodani battle dress from MT and previous --
those are much more interesting.
* The info included seems more useful. There are some equipment
designs, a lot of weapon designs with associated rounds and
magazines, and a fair number of vehicle and starship designs.
Modules for the _Auroras_ are included. A TNE _Trepida_ is
included, designated by the RC as _Intrepid_ (they thought
the Imperial designation was inappropriate.) The companion
_Astrin_ APC is not included, nor the ballistic vehicle
re-entry system the IMC used, which seems like it would be
a good candidate for inclusion, considering the uses intended
for this supplement. (Admittedly, we haven't seen that system
spelled out in stats yet in the game.) A MT-era Solomani design
for a "grav tank" called the _Chariot_ is included, here called
the _Pyrrhus_ since it isn't really a MBT grav tank, and if
used like one.... The art used for it is familiar, but I
don't know if the _Chariot_ was in DGP's _101 Vehicles_, or
if they're just reusing the picture for, say, the Gram grav
tank.
Also, comments in the text indicate that the Hive Federation
is able to equip its' Ithkluri Marines at TL 14 already, and
that they are *exporting* TL 13 parts to the RC. DGP stated
that the Federation was at TL 15/16 before the Rebellion
(marginally superior to the Imperium), and since the only
damage they suffered was due to the Collapse itself, I suspect
the Federation is well on its' way to becoming the pre-eminent
technological and trading power in Charted Space.
Summary. I'm still a bit unsettled about this one. If I get it,
it will only be to strip out the useful stuff and chuck the bizarre.
I've never seen a book so putatively realistic that gave me such
a sense of unreality. Your milage may vary -- I'd like to hear
other people's opinions, especially the newer players.
Steve Bonneville
[email removed]