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1994-07-16
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Path: usenet.ee.pdx.edu!fastrac.llnl.gov!s1.gov!overload.lbl.gov!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!newsxfer.itd.umich.edu!gumby!yale!news2.near.net!news.delphi.com!uunet!not-for-mail
From: "Pickman's Model" <jgl2p@landau5.phys.virginia.edu>
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.archives
Subject: REVIEW: Thicker than Blood (CP 2020)
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: 15 Jul 1994 16:21:59 -0400
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This is being posted for a friend. Send e-mail to familiar@io.com
The following review is sponsored by THE FAMILIAR MAGAZINE. Look for
us in November
Thicker than Blood
A 48 page (staple bound) adventure for Cyberpunk 2020
Atlas Games, $9
Grade: C+
Reviewed by Lisa Padol
R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020 is necessary to run this, although
determined gms could convert to another system. There's a reference to
the rules for acid rain in R. Talsorian's Night City, but that's an
atmospheric detail which can be faked. This adventure has a good
premise, but the execution is sloppy. A corporate woman hires the pcs
to find her son. He has apparently been kidnapped, but it turns out
that he has run away with a woman who, unlike the corporate woman,
really loves him. This is a nice twist. There's plenty of good advice
about justifying the involvement of pcs from the various Cyberpunk
"classes", fitting this adventure into an ongoing campaign, and
dealing with difficult players who refuse to get involved in the
adventure. However, one tactic seems extreme. If the pcs refuse the
job, their would-be employer decides to spread the word that they're
not up to snuff. This doesn't make much sense. She could easily hire
another team. More reasonably, the author suggests that the gm ensure
that the pcs have a dire need for cash. Another nit pick is that
there's a reference to a non-existent player handout. GMs are told
that there are 2 leads for the pcs, the real one and a red herring.
PCs should be tricked into going for the red herring first. While I
dislike this set up, the sections dealing with both leads are nicely
detailed. Not detailed enough to make a complete adventure, however,
so there's another twist: whatever the pcs ultimately decide to do,
their employer will try to eliminate them to protect her secrets. I'm
a little skeptical of this cliche. If all these corporate folks kill
their teams, how on earth do they get anyone to work for them? But
since it is a cliche of the genre, I'll suspend disbelief. So, sooner
or later, they'll figure out who wants them dead and do something
about it. Or, Brooks suggests, they'll die and the players will play
friends of the deceased pcs who want to avenge them, a trick used in
Call of Cthulhu because of the high mortality rate. Do the pcs
confront their employer at home or at the office? If it's the office,
the gm has to make up maps of the corporation and the corporate net.
After all, this is "a typical Corporation with very high security on
its data fortress". All gms can just whip those up, right? Seriously,
if I'm paying $9 for an adventure of less than 50 pages, it can damn
well have those maps! And don't tell me it's outside the scope of this
adventure to attempt to raid the offices or net of one's double
crossing employer! The corporate's home isn't mapped, but at least
it's described. Lots of possibilities for resolving the scenario are
discussed, although some obvious alternatives weren't mentioned. In
most cases, the corporate can counter anything the pcs pull, although
gms are advised to allow players to derail the scenario by coming up
with clever ideas. The adventure's strengths are the unusual premise
and the good advice for gms. Its weaknesses are the uneasy
tensionbetween making this a linear and a nonlinear scenario, and the
lack of detail which I'd expect for the price. This was a tough call.
It wouldn't have taken much to make it at least a B-.
This review is copyright The Familiar Ltd 5/2/94. This file may be
downloaded and circulated freely via electronic media only in
entirety. Publication and all other rights are retained. For more
information about The Familiar, our address is: familiar@io.com