Hey all,
I finally did up my promised review of TA #2 and posted it to JTAS and went to post it on RPGNow.com but I couldn't find a post review link or even a link to purchase it from there (TA #1 is there though) can anybody offer a little help? Anyway while I'm here <command paste>
Better late than never, here is my much overdue review of Traveller's Aide #2 "Grand Endeavor" from QuikLink Interactive, Inc.
This is the second in QuikLink's Traveller series of Portable Document Format (.pdf) publications and features four short stories by Martin Dougherty set in the T20 background, and the Prologue and Chapter 1 of his serialized (continued in forthcoming Traveller's Aides) full length Traveller novel set against the backdrop of the The Interstellar Wars between the Terran Confederation and The Vilani Imperium.
The whole is 47 pages of great Traveller fiction with 7 interior black and white sketches and a full color cover.
The first short story is the title piece "Grand Endeavor" which introduces us to the flavor and setting for T20's Ley Sector in the year 1000 Imperial, as experienced by a fairly typical crew of a pretty standard free-trader Eternal Optimist, who are called on to act in an extraordinary capacity. I'd give this story an Imperial Sunburst (scale of 1-5) rating of * * * *
The second short story, "In Wilder Places Too..." follows the mis-adventures of an unlikely pair of less enthusiastically respectable travellers who find themselves in the natural (for character's of their type) position of 'volunteering' for a job nobody else would touch. Not a bad story, but not quite my style, so only an I. S. rating of * * *
The third short story, "Reactivation Clause" is my personal favorite of the short stories, perhaps because Scout characters have always been my favorite, but it also has a fine twist ending I didn't see coming (and I usually know how a book or show will end well before), bravo Mr. Dougherty and thank you. I don't want to give anything else away and hope I didn't already say too much, naturally I have to assign an I. S. rating of * * * * *
The fourth, and last short story, is "Wheelman" and we are once again with the crew of the free-trader Eternal Optimist from the "Grand Endeavor" story. They get wrapped up in a fast paced plot involving a Vargr, police, gangsters, spies, a shoot out and a car chase, this story has everything! It was a fun read and like the others offers all kinds of great plot pickings for the GM, just don't let your players read the stories first! I'll slam through all four gears of "Lifters" sweat piece of rubber and steel road car (assuming he'd ever let me behind the wheel) and give this a very fast and tire smoking I. S. rating of * * * *
Finally <grin> we come to "The Last Hurrah", at least the Prologue and Chapter 1, which begin in 2158 AD. In the prologue we follow a group of fresh faced junior ratings in the Terran Confederation Navy as they ship out on their first real mission, before catching up some 15 years later with the war very hot. I'll have to fire all missiles here and give it an I. S. rating of * * * * *
On the format questions raised by the first issue of this series regarding printing it out I have to say they missed the mark, at least for what I was hoping. There are now two versions available, the screen version and a printer version, for the same price you get one or both. However the only difference is the printer version is two columns, which does save a few pages of paper, but it still has the outline graphics on each page that look nice on screen but suck up ink and don't look like much in black and white. I had been hoping they would have made the printer version much plainer and printer friendly. The other technical issue to look at is the editorial quality and I have to tip my hat here, it is excellent. On the whole however (so disappointed was I by the print version) I can only give this aspect of the product an S. I. rating of * *
So overall this edition of the Traveller's Aide still rates a must buy in my books with an averaged I. S. rating of * * * *
Finally I should also mention that if you skip or skim too quickly over this issues introduction you may be missing something of interest. So go and check it out already.
Last I checked (07/24/2002) The T20 Traveller Book is still available for preorder (
http://www.travellerrpg.com/index.html and scroll down) and not only do you save 20% off the msrp of $44.95 for the massive 448 page tome ( your price $36, you save $8.95) (s&h extra but quite reasonable) you also get a free issue of the Traveller's Aide (that's like $5 more in your pocket). I don't know how much longer the preorder will be available, but a lot of us expect not much longer so hurry up and decide. If you just want to check out the Traveller's Aide, or a bunch of free stuff the link above will get you there too.
Daniel "far-trader" Burns