I stated before that I wanted to do a let's read of the new Mutant Chronicles from Mõdiphiüs Entertainment, so I guess I have to follow through.
Please note that I'm new at semi-reviewing like this. Don't let that hold anyone back from ripping me a new one if I am deemed deservable of such, nor ask questions or fill in stuff I miss.
I've played, and loved, the original MC, and have followed the development and playtesting of the new one. I'll still hopefully read this through a relatively fresh lens, as my experience with MC3 is from playtests, betas and being loud enough about their choice of mechanics on the official forums that Chris, normally a puppy on happy pills, almost lost his cool a few times.

This is the full,final and glorious PDF of the game. I'd prefer to read the dead tree-version instead, but this will have to do until my mailman has filed for disability after lugging the game to my door.
The game's cover depicts a battlescene where a strong-jawed hero gleefully plants his heavy boot in the face of a preussian-helmeted undead legionaire, while shooting his oversized Bolter handgun at what I can only assume are more baddies. He is backed up by a red-headed woman displaying impressive upper-body stength by firing an Invader one-handed. In the background Big Bob Watts is laying down the hurt with some heavy machinegunning. It is properly mutanty.

Scrolling down we're treated to an artistic 2-page spread of the solar system. It is followed by a list of the design team, and then by the table of contents. The latter is noteworthy - 41 chapters, 7 appendixes and 490 (excluding the list of backers) pages! Go big or go home.

Chapter 1 - Welcome to Mutant Chronicles

Starting with a quick overview of the game, explaining the role of players and gamemaster, what you need besides this book (a rough dozen d6's, 2 d20's pr player, tokens for each player to keep count of their chronicle points, a rough dozen of different tokens for the GM, and some basic writing equipment). They also take the opportunity here to show off some of the official MC-bling.
They don't bother much with a "What is an RPG", but instead just dives into the actual playing of the game with the responsibilities of the players (have fun), how to read the dice and use the tokens.
The tokens are used to keep track of two major resources in the game- Chronicle Points (for the players) and Dark Symmetry Points (for the GM). We'll get to know these points way too close and personal later on, but in short: Chronicle Points are fate points - a limited resource a player can draw on to pull off heroics or just merely survival. The Dark Symmetry Points serve much the same purpose, only for the GM who uses them to make the fictional life of the player characters worse.

Then we're told what Mutant Chronicles actually is - a dieselpunk techno-fantasy game, and what the dieselpunk and techno-fantasy means in the game. MC is meant to be " a blend of dystopian cyberpunk intrigue in a larger-than-life world where the shoulderpads are big and the hair even bigger", where old technologies have been dusted off and patched up to keep civilization running and the lights on after mankind found itself betrayed and almost exterminated by their advanced technology when the insidous cosmic evil known as the Dark Symmetry seeped into society.

The original game, we're told, primarily focused on heroic battles of freelancers, Doomtroopers and corporate military against the overwhelming horde of the Dark Legion on battlefields of Mars, Venus and beyond. All this is still in the game, but they've also expanded it into urban occult investigations and a noir-shrouded battle never reported on the evening news. MC has always been the latter for me, but it is nice to see them focus on that part.

Next we get a short overview of the game's timelines, of which there are three. The Dark Symmetry-period is when the Dark Symmetry is unleashed on an unsuspecting world. The Dark Legion-era is the classic MC-setting, aka the 2nd Corporate Wars, familiar to players of the old Mutant Chronicles and Warzone. The third time period is Dark Eden. I don't know what they're planning to do with this, but you can colour me curious.
This short intro-chapter is rounded off by a brief overview of the factions of humanity, its opposition the Dark Legion, the main hub of Luna City and a sentence or two of the planets of the solar system (which will all be covered in-depth later on).

Chapter 2 - Mutant Chronicles Factions

The first page in this chapter is dominated by a flowchart-ish figure demonstrating the relations between the major corporate factions of the game.
For those unfamiliar with the corporate fations, they are:
Capitol - based on the cultures of North, Central and Latin America, Capitol is USA in space if USA was a John Wayne-movie.
Bauhaus is based on the Germanic, Scandinavian and European heritage. Very serious and exacting.
Mishima is a mix of Shogunate Japan and the 20th century's keiretsu corporate giants.
Imperial comes from Britain. The clans of Imperial are aggressive, proud and expansionistic. Doubly so when they decide to target other corporations instead of a neighboring clan.
Cybertronic is a new megacorp that rose over night, formed by defectors from Bauhaus. Cybertronic embraces technology in a world where technology can't be trusted, and is viewed with suspicion.
Whitestar is not a megacorp, but an important faction still. Whitestar is based on the Russian heritage, and unlike ..well, everyone else, holds the old, destroyed Earth as its home. A brand new faction introduced in MC3.
The Cartel was conceived as a corporate UN of sorts.
The Brotherhood fills the role of religion.
Luna P.D. is another brand new faction introduced with this edition. LPD is an intercorporate law enforcement agency that at least tries to keep Luna City safe.
Another very short chapter, doing for the setting what the previous chapter did for the game - a brief intro.

Chapter 3 - Timeline of Mutant Chronicles

The first proper chapter - 15 pages of history.
There is a lot of info here, the TL;DR is as follows: by the end of the 21st century, megacorps rule the world, and the world is stripmined for resources. During the next century, the megacorps manage to terraform the inner planets and by the dawn of the 23rd century is ready to send its best and brightest (i.e the wealthiest) to their newclaimed worlds. The rest is left to eke out whatever life they can on a dying Earth.
The century culminates with humanity's new capitol - the megacity of Luna - unleashing orbital bombardment on old Earth and those who remained. From there on, mankind florished until Imperial (who else, right?) unearthed an ancient artifact when exploring Pluto, released the Dark Symmetry into the universe and plunged society into chaos.

They have done a good job putting things together here, and I don't want to go into too much detail. If anyone is interested enough to buy the game, it is good reading.

Subscribed.

Chapter 4 - Core Mechanics

This chapter lays out the basics of the 2d20 System. As some people might already have guessed, it involves rolling 2 20-sided dice.
It also involves rolling one or both of them equal to or below one of the eight attributes that define a character to succeed. There are also skills involved. A skill is defined as a "focused application within an attribute", and any skill expertise is added directly to attribute values in related tests.
Generally, a player would only need to hit with one of the d20's to succeed, but if you roll more than the single minimum success, you might gain momentum. Momentum allows you to pull of a variety of stunts and boons.
In addition to raw skill expertise, characters can also gain skill focus. Skill focus allows you to generate additional momentum, and thus pull off more impressive stuff, if your roll is below a certain threshold.
To top off skills, characters will also have access to skill talents that allow them to do define their abilities further.

 A sizeable sidebar explains the usage of Dark Symmetry Dice. These dice are normal d6, only read in a special way.
They are effectively "effect dice" as opposed to the d20 "resolution dice".
When rolling these d6's you'll only read the "1", "2" and "6"-sides, ignoring the middling results. The 1's and 2's are read and used as numerical values, whereas 6's generate Dark Symmetry Icons(DSI). DSI's trigger effects, weapon qualities and other special rules.
In the example given  a character fires his gun with a damage rating of 1+*4(the game uses a funky symbol to indicate the Dark Symmetry Dice, here represented with *), with an armour piercing quality. A damage roll is made, resulting in 1, 2, 4 and 6. The 1 and 2 are added to the base damage of 1, resulting in a total of 4 damage inflicted, and with the 6 generating a DSI and triggering the gun's armour piercing quality.

Then we're walked through Chronicle Points (with an minor, but annoying typo I hope they fix before printing). Chronicle Points "reflect that the player characters are cut from a different cloth than the average person". They are refreshed at the beginning of a session, you can have a maximum of five of them at any given time, and you can use them to influence story and perform heroics. A few examples of use include: adding an auto-success to a skill check, perform an additional action in combat, or shake off any light wounds to a location.

Next up is the Dark Symmetry Points. This is a GM's resource, and every game will start with a handfull of these points in a pool for the GM to use. Additionally, events and the player's actions will likely add to the pool - when a repercussion (a natural 20) is rolled on a skill test, or when players decide to add extra dice to a skill test to improve their odds.
The GM will have the option to draw on the Dark Symmetry Pool to activate NPC abilities, interupt a character's action, or trigger a complication like turning an encounter into The Adventures of Lower-Back-Pain Man.
A sidebar discusses the Dark Symmetry Economy, the waxing and vaning of this pool, and directs the GM to read chapter 14 - something we'll hopefully manage to browse through as well later on.
The chapter ends with an "example of play" - in this case, a sewer shootout.

Right about now I should mention that I'm really not a fan of this game's mechanics. The core 2d20 is more than decent - it is quick, easy and versatile. Unfortunately it is besieged by genuinely eyewatering metamechanics and wonk under the banner of superfun cinematic action, and that kinda kills it for me. I should also mention that my opinion is not the only opinion, and that the game is probably perfectly playable for anyone with a less ..Bauhausian attitude than me. And I will try to keep out any personal snark.

We're also on page 33 now and I can say that the game looks gorgeous. For anyone familiar with the original MC and Mõdiphiüs's other releases, it shouldn't come as a surprise.
The text is clear and easy to read. The layout, while pretty heavy with borders and lots of illustrations, is easy on the eye and doesn't distract my attention from the actual reading. All the extra pretties are just that - stuff that adds to the game instead of muddling it.
Many artpieces are reused from the original Mutant Chronicles/Warzone, and more than a few new illustrations dot the pages, along with many backer portraits that come with a little story from the world of Mutant Chronicles. The artwork is overall good and adds to the mutant mood.

Chapter 5 - Character Lifepath

This chapter covers character generation, which is a fairly involved process. It starts off with walking us through the basic attributes - Agility, Awareness, Coordination, Intelligence, Mental Strenght, Physique and Strenght - what they mean and which skills are governed by them.  
It tells us that humans mostly range from 6 to 12 in these attributes, and that a value of 8 can be considered average. Then it is off to the actual lifepath-system, which we'll cover by making an actual character.

The game operates with "Life Points" during caracter generation. These points allow you to choose more favourable careers and events. Normally you get 5 of these, but an option exists to start with 12 - allowing you to build a character completely without random, and unwanted, elements. I like my randomness, so I'll build my character without using any Life Points. Here we go:

I start with a baseline of 5 in all attributes. I have the option to switch some points around, but I have to do it now - I do not have this option later on. I'll just leave them as they are.
Randomly determining birth faction and background makes me a citizen of Whitestar. I've recently played Stalker, so in honor of that game I will be Oleg. Oleg Pepsi.
I note down initial skills (Survival and Resistance, both at lvl1), the languages of Luna Patois and RussoMandarin, and the Comrade of Whitestar-talent. This talent allows me the Right of Adoption - to offer my children to the Tsarina to be raised in the appropriate fashion. Huh..  I also make Resistance a signature skill - something I have a knack for.

A roll on the Faction Event-table tells me that my homeland bears the scars of the Exodus, and that I blame a specific enemy in the Bauhaus-corp.

Status: A 2d6-roll puts me squarely in the lower working class, nets me bonus points in Physique and Strenght (putting them at 6), a new rank in the Resistance-skill(2), an average earnings-rating, a pair of work goggles with one cracked lens, well-worn clothing and a small suburban apartment.

A roll on the Environment and Region table tells me Oleg hails from a Heritage Hotspot - a frontier bunker -  and nets me a bonus point in Agility (6) and a rank in the Acrobatics-skill. I also get to choose an item from my bunker life - a corporation-appropriate handgun sounds good.

Next up is Oleg's education. As I have declined using any Life Points, it will be blue collar. A roll on the Education-table gets me drafted! Oleg lucked out - maybe.
The life of a military grunt grants me a +2 to Strenght and Physique (now both at , and a +1 to Agility(7), Awareness(6), Coordination(6) and Mental Strenght(6). The skills offered bring Oleg's level of competance to Athletics(1), Close Combat(1), Education(1), Ranged Weapons(1), Survival(2), Resistance(2, plus an additional Focus1) and Willpower(1).
I also get to pick a Talent and choose Rigorous Training from the Athletics-tree. Along with Survival and Resistance, Oleg will be a tough SOB.
Oleg leaves bootcamp with a set of military fatigues and a pair of light military shoulder pads.
The final thing is a roll on the Adolescence Event-table, which kinda messes me up a bit. A result of 10 makes Oleg dimwitted! He is slow to react, and will always go last in combat unless I pay one DSP(a Dark Symmetry Point) to the GM. The upside is that tests against mental assaults are one difficulty level lower. Oh well, at least we know how to march really well.

So we're halfway and sum up 16 year old Oleg Pepsi, comrade of Whitestar:
   Strenght 8  Physique 8  Agility 7 Awareness 6
Coordination 6  Intelligence 5  Mental Strenght 6  Personality 5
Skills: Acrobatics1, Athletics1(Rigorous Training), Close Combat1 Education1, Ranged Weapons1, Survival2, Resistance2(Focus1, signature skill), Willpower1.
Traits: D'oh!
Gear: Worn clothing, military fatigues, crappy work-goggles, a pair of shoulder pads and a handgun.

Now it is time for the actual careers. Thanks to the draft Oleg can choose to pursue a military career, and that seems like the sensible thing to do. So Oleg will take a basic military career, leaving him with the following attributes and skills:

   Strenght 10  Physique 10  Agility 8 Awareness 7
Coordination 8  Intelligence 1  Mental Strenght 8  Personality 5
Skills: Acrobatics1, Athletics2(Rigorous Training), Close Combat2(signature skill), Education1, Mechanics1, Ranged Weapons2, Survival3, Resistance2(Focus1, signature skill), Willpower1(Stubborn).

I decided to make the most of Oleg's slow wits and picked a Willpower-talent. Oleg submits to no heretics! I picked up the Mechanics-skill - tractor repair can be very handy for a post-apocalyptic army grunt. I also add a ballistic nylon military outfit, an assault rifle and a pair of medium military shoulderpads to my list of equipment.
A roll on the Career Event-table results in a 29 - implicated in a heretical plot. That doesn't sound good at all, but I get a Brotherhood contact who owes me a favour. The last thing to do  is to note down that Oleg is now 1d6+1 years older - 20 years.

Every character gets two careers - you can choose to do 3 or even 4 to minmax it, but two is supposed to be standard.
After finishing his first career, Oleg really want to become a Resector - an iconic career that covers the adventurers of Whitestar that go out into the wastes and bring back treasure, knowledge and wonders. And horrors. Unfortunately he does not possess the preliminary skills and, after his run-in with dirty heretics, has soured on military life.
 So we'll do a random roll and wind up with Technical Repairman - guess that tractor repair-course paid off.

The final career of Oleg Pepsi leaves him with :
   Strenght 11  Physique 12  Agility 10  Awareness 9
Coordination 9  Intelligence 8  Mental Strenght 8  Personality 6
Skills: Acrobatics1, Athletics2(Rigorous Training), Close Combat2(signature skill), Education1, Mechanics2(Natural Engineer, signature skill), Pilot1, Ranged Weapons2, Survival3, Resistance3(Focus1, signature skill), Thievery1, Willpower2(Stubborn).

I pick up a basic tool kit, age another 1d6+1 years to a total of 23, and make a final roll on the career events - a 30 tells me that I helped discover a heretic temple and were rewarded for it. The reward is five assets (monies)and a new trait: Snitch. Well, thank you sooo much!

Now we're almost done, the last step is Final Customization.
Oleg receives two Chronicle Points, and may convert up to two remaining Life Points to Chronicle Points. As we haven't used a single one, Oleg is now a very lucky tractor-repairman with 4 Chronicle Points. The remaining 3 Life Points can be used to buy skill expertise or focus, or added to my assets (monies). I'll take the skills. Furthermore, I get 2 Attribute Points, two Skill Points, and a talent.

   The final Oleg Pepsi, age 23. Ex-military Tractor Repairman:
Strenght 11  Physique 12  Agility 10  Awareness 9
Coordination 9  Intelligence 8  Mental Strenght 10  Personality 6
Skills: Acrobatics1, Athletics2(Rigorous Training), Close Combat3(signature skill), Education1, Mechanics3(Natural Engineer, Focus1, signature skill), Pilot1, Ranged Weapons2, Survival3, Resistance3(Hardy, Focus1, signature skill), Thievery1, Unarmed Combat1, Willpower2(Stubborn).
Traits: Comrade of Whitestar, Dimwitted, Snitch

He starts off with a number of assets equal to his Personality-score, but has 5 more from his expert snitching - a total of 11. We'll remember that value when we visit the chapter on economics later.
He has an army chest with a reservist uniform and military effects, an old handgun, a standard issue assault rifle, a pair of cracked work goggles and a basic tool kit, and still pretty much stuck in the lower working class.
He is big, strong and pretty scary, but not the sharpest tool in the shed. Even so, he's a decent tractor repairman. And he'll march the socks of anyone!

The last table is a Relationship-table, an option you can use to find out how  characters wind up together. A roll of 3 tells me that Oleg was among the survivors of a terrible orbitable crash, and asks me what was found in the wreckage to make Oleg and another bond.

Chapter 6 - Experience and Gameplay Awards

This short chapter is about experience points and character development.
It starts off with talking about short term rewards - specifically Chronicle Points and that players should be encouraged to burn Chronicle Points with both hands during play.
For this to work, the GM has to award a steady stream of these points to the players and we're given the general guideline: a group should be rewarded 1-3 Chronicle Points for each hour of play, prompted by narrative milestones, fights or making the table laugh.

The long term rewards are Experience Points, and we're given a general guideline here as well: a GM should award players 300-500 XP for a 4-hour session, based on the amount of progress, teamwork, accomplished goals and roleplaying.
It encourages GM's to award equal amounts of XP to each player, and then awarding smaller amounts of bonus XP to individuals for coming up with good plans or roleplaying above and beyond the call of duty.
I do hope this theme is revisited in a later chapter, because that's all (really - I've just used smaller words) the GM-advice we get.
The rest of the chapter discusses how to use acquired XP - improving attributes, skills and talents. The mechanic here follows a fairly standard system: attributes can be raised by paying XP in amounts of 100 x target attribute, skills cost 200 x target skill rank or focus, and talents has a base cost of 200, multiplied by a factor dependant on where a specific talent is on the talent tree (more on this in the next chapter).

Chapter 7 - Skills & Talents

Here we are treated to the crunch of the skill and resolution systems.
We are told about general(that anyone can attempt), advanced(that require specialized training or knowledge) and signature(that are character knacks and can be developed to a greater expertise at a lower cost) skills, skill focus and talents.
Skill Expertise (skill levels) and Focus are capped to a maximum of 3. Signature Skills can have a maximum of level 5, but you wont have many of those.
It sums up the core of of making a skill test - adding an attribute and related skill together to make a Target Number, and trying get at least 1 of 2 d20's equal to or below that TN. If any dice-result is within your Focus-rank(should you have one), it will generate an additional success for each one.
I might mention that the Target Number never changes. Ever - it is always Attribute+Skill or, if you don't have any skill, just Attribute.
The difference between someone with low attributes(6) and expert skill(5) and a bungler with with high attributes(11) is only that the bungler has a higher chance of bungling - their chances of success will be the same. Which leads us to failures and Repercussions.
A simple failure - not rolling any successes - is just that; you do not complete your task. Unless you happen to roll within your Repercussion-range.

Normally your Repercussion-range will be 20. If you're hurt and bleeding, losing your marbles, or attempting to perform an action requiring a skill you do not possess, the Repercussion-range will be lower.  
When a roll generates a Repercussion, the GM will have an opportunity to either impose an immediate Complication or add 2 Dark Symmetry Points to his pool to mess you up as he sees fit.
So a simple 2d20-test can result in

• extraordinary success (by hitting with both dice)
• success(hitting with one dice)
• success with complication(hitting with one dice and repercussioning with the other)
• failure(not hitting with either die)
• fumble(not hitting with either die, + a complication)
• catastrophic bungle(both dice within repercussion range)

Next is Skill Test Difficulty. Not all skill tests are created equal, and if a task is considered tougher than average, you will have to generate multiple successes to pull it off. Difficulties could very well lead to impossible rolls - requiring you to generate 3+ successes with two dice.
The way to solve this is to pay the GM Dark Symmetry Points - each DSP buys an additional d20, up to a maximum of three, to roll. While this significantly increases your chance to succeed, it also has the potential to f*** you up royally. The more d20's, the more potential Repercussions. And a single well-spent DSP from the GM can quickly negate any feeling of success you manage to gain from the roll.
Another approach is to burn Chronicle Points - each one will give you an additional d20 set to "1", and Skill Focus can generate additional successes.
But Chronicle Points are a limited resource, and relying on Skill Focus means relying on blind, low percentage, chance. Chronicle Points in combination with Skill Focus is however a powerful combination.
Players are given the option to automatically fail such tests - choosing not to roll at all and just say "fail". This will add a Dark Symmetry Point to the GM's pool, and for no appearent reason AT ALL award the player a Chronicle Point.
Teamwork and opposed skill tests are detailed - both relatively quick, easy and inoffensive.  
A Skill Difficulty-table gives an overview of factors that can influence the difficulty of tests, and concludes this part of the chapter.

The rest of the chapters details the individual skills, in quite some detail.
Each skill gets an overview of its uses, different stuff that may modify the difficulties of tests and a seperate Talent Tree.
If we take our friendly tractor repairman Oleg Pepsi, he picked up a couple of talents during his creation. Among them was Rigorous Training from the Athletics-tree, which allows me to add one additional success to a successful Athletics-test.  If we continue down that tree (which might make a root, instead of tree?) and pick another talent we might go for Leverage, allowing me to perform uncanny feats of strenght and reroll a number of d20's equal to my Leverage talent-rank, and add any successes to my original roll. Or Irresistable Force that gives me the Knockdown-quality on all melee attacks. Or.. you get the idea. Feats. Exception-based gamedesign in practice.

Chapter 8 - Gaining and Spending Momentum

Momentum is a term that has been peppered throughout the text so far, and here they explain what it is.
Momentum is gained by scoring more than the minimum amount of successes needed on a skill test. As we see above, diverse talents are good at racking up Momentum. Once you got some, you can spend it.
Momentum is a pretty big part of combat, and will be further covered there, but you can do other things with it as well. Generally, the more Momentum you generate and spend on a test, the quicker, better and more cinematic your performance will be.
You can also choose to bank your Momentum - instead of using it on an action where you won't really gain anything from it, you can choose to instead put it into Group Momentum - a resource-pool all players can draw from.
Momentum is a dish best served fresh. You have to use it as you gain it, or bank it as Group Momentum. The Group Momentum-pool quickly bleeds out if it's not used.
As an aside here, our friendly, but slow, tractor repairman is at a distinct disadvantage here. Being dimwitted and forced to act last every round, all other players will get to use, and quite possibly empty, the Momentum-pool before poor Oleg gets a chance.

In addition to the immediate ways of spending Momentum on simple tests, you may also get the chance to spend it on Scenario Momentum - to advance storylines, interact with the environment or take advantage of opportunities in a scene.


In somewhat related news, Mõdiphiüs informs us that MC3 will be up on DriveThru tomorrow.

This looked really interesting, so i looked into and came across the speed-bump that is named Jay Little.

Shame. I'll leave you to your lets read.

Aka The Eater of Worlds.

Still, I consider myself a fan, and refuse to let a mediocre ruleset kill this for me without a fight.

I've always liked the original system though damages were set a bit low relative to armor.  Sure it got crazy broken in the supplements but that's easily corrected.  This new hand holding singing kumbya version doesn't really appeal to me.

Chapter 9 - Chronicle Points

Well, I did wish for this - more clarification of Chronicle Points. A short chapter, but it gives a bit more detail on this resource from both sides of the screen.

Interestingly, it tells us that a character will begin play with at least two, and up to four (hi there, Oleg!) Chronicle Points, and that these will fluctuate during play as they are spent and gained.
At the start of each session, Chronicle Points will be reset to its original value - meaning that Oleg the repairman will always have more resources to draw on than the hyperdesigned Doomtrooper who spent all his Life Points during Chargen. Huh..
Luckily, they square away this imbalance with stating over-leaf that each character's pool of Chronicle Points refreshes to three at the start of each session. So while I know that Oleg starts with 4CP the very first time, I still don't know how many he's supposed to have the second session. So that's not really helpful at all.

Anyway.... The chapter lays down the guidelines for what CP's can be used for; an opportunity to describe something dramatic and exiting, and encourages players to describe the cinematic actions of their characters as they spend CP's (Yes, I said I'd keep down the snark, but when they serve it up on a silver platter..).
It goes on to list concise, actual mechanical effects: spend CP's on skilltests for automatic successes, gain an extra action during combat, recover a Mental Wound, recover one Light Wound box in each location (another contradiction - earlier information stated that a CP cleared all Light Wounds from a single location), make a story declaration for both cosmetic or mechanical effects, or suppress a weakness (allowing a character to ignore a single penalty-inducing condition for a scene).

Then we're told that each hour of play should should produce 1-3 opportunities for players to gain CPs, and what those opportunities are; achieving key milestones in an adventure, good roleplaying, and voluntarily failing a skill test.

It tells us again that players should be strongly encouraged to use, use, use the Chronicle Points. Just to make sure we get it, it repeats it.

So this chapter just repeats something we've already read only in a more voluminous way, and manages to contradict that information. Not a good one, Chris & crew. Not a good one..

Coming up next is combat. I'm going to need a couple of drinks before I handle that.
But I will!

Thanks for doing this, I was super interested in it!

Quote from: One Horse Town;853049This looked really interesting, so i looked into and came across the speed-bump that is named Jay Little.

Shame. I'll leave you to your lets read.

Ditto.

From what I know of him, he is the source of unnecessary and unelegant mechanics. In this case I'm looking at Momentum and Chronicle points.

Chapter 10 - Performing Actions

This chapter is a short intro to the combat section, which will tell us about different actions to perform, how long they take to perform, and how players can use their resources at hand to draw on additional actions. OK!

It starts with defining the lenght of a combat round - as long as it takes. From a handful of seconds in a frantic firefight, to several minutes in starship battle involving dreadnoughts and hundreds of crewmen. Fair enough.
Then we are introduced to the different types of actions available to us in a combat round, which are Free Actions(like giving a short order or dropping prone), Restricted Actions(like unjamming a weapon or short movements), Standard Actions(attacking or running) and Response Actions(dodging an incoming threat or performing an attack of opportunity).
During a combat round we can take any number of free actions, or one free action and one restricted action, or two restricted actions, or one standard action. We are also allowed a single response action.
The End.

Chapter 11 - Combat Basics

Starting off, it corrects my interpretation of the previous chapter. During a combat round, my options are any number of free actions and a standard action, OR one free action, a restricted action and a standard action. And a response action. Not really sure we can fault my reading comprehension on that one, buddy..

Then Turn Order is discussed. Very simple - the players will agree on the order in which their characters act, when they're done the NPC's get their turn (in whichever order the GM chooses), and then Oleg the repairman acts.
It mentions one of the uses of the GM's Dark Symmetry Pool - spending a DSP to trigger an NPC and have it act before anyone else. I haven't seen anything (so far) that will allow players to counter such a move. It also states that if players spend too long time discussing action rather than acting or arguing about Turn Order, the GM should add a DSP to his pool. Such a sight should surely spur them into action.

Surprise attacks and ambushes get a section. Reading it, it did seem a bit iffy. After rereading it it is actually pretty neat.

We are then treated to a concise overview of the aforementioned free, restricted and standard actions, their tactical applications, and what they allow and don't allow you to do. The same is done with response actions, but I should mention one thing about them; you have to give the GM a Dark Symmetry Point to attempt a response action, and likewise the GM must spend DSP's from his pool to have NPCs respond. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to just have a normal f***ing turn structure.
A sidebar lists possible complications for when you roll a repercussion in combat, and an insert tells us that tied Parry and Dodge -tests are always adjudicated in favor of the PCs.
Combat Momentum is discussed, along with a table with options from which to pick from after a good roll - ranging from inflicting extra damage to striking a weak spot in your enemy's armour or getting in an additional attack, to steeling your nerves and shake off any accumulated Dread(more on that later).

The rest of the chapter concerns itself with Combat Positioning and Abstract Movement.
Distance in Mutant Chronicles is not measured in feet or metres, but in zones. For what it is, it is pretty decent and it does work, but ...meh. All the things you'd expect to be covered are covered - zone set ups, how to move within and between them, hazardous terrain and more.
A fun factoid; according to RAW, walking/leisurely jogging is defined as moving a distance of up to 50 meters during a combat round. All-out running is defined as moving a distance of up to 500 meters! Cinematic fights sure are mobile.
The chapter ends with an insert of three unfortunate backers, depicted in one of the very few truly atrocius pieces of interior art.

Chapter 12 - Damage, Wounds & Healing

Which looks at physical damage, wounds, the effects of different wounds and injuries, and healing by application of skill, equipment or recuperation.
It starts with how damage is inflicted with detailing weapons' damage rating, and any bonuses that can be applied to it.
We're going to go back and pick up Oleg the tractor repairman again. I didn't bother with any derived attributes during chargen, but I'll serve them up now:
   Strenght 11  Physique 12  Agility 10  Awareness 9
Coordination 9  Intelligence 8  Mental Strenght 10  Personality 6
Skills: Acrobatics1, Athletics2(Rigorous Training), Close Combat3(signature skill), Education1, Mechanics3(Natural Engineer, Focus1, signature skill), Pilot1, Ranged Weapons2, Survival3, Resistance3(Hardy, Focus1, signature skill), Thievery1, Unarmed Combat1, Willpower2(Stubborn).
Traits: Comrade of Whitestar, Dimwitted, Snitch

Oleg gets some derived attributes, namely a Close Combat Damage Bonus of *2, a Ranged Damage Bonus of *1, and the following Hit Point-values:
Head:4 Torso:9 Arms:5 Legs:7, 7 Serious Wound-boxes and 4 Critical Wound-boxes.

That * again indicates a Dark Symmetry Dice, so Oleg will add 2 of those to any melee damage tests, and 1 to any ranged damage tests due to his slightly above average eyesight. He is big and strong, so those are pretty good values. Being big and strong also puts him ahead in the hit points-department, so Oleg can take one on the chin in addition to dishing it out. Lastly, he has 10 Mental Wound-boxes.
One of he items he got with him was an old pistol. If we assume this pistol to be an Iron Hand Autopistol, one of of the common small arms in Whitestar territory, it inflicts a relatively unimpressive 1+*4 dmg - meaning that Oleg will do from 1 to 11 points of damage on a hit. I'm too stupid too figure out the probabilities of dice-system here, but I do recognize the fact that a single bullet has the potential to cause a lot of grief.

We are introduced to hit locations, and how armour and cover works.
Armour will reduce damage by a set amount - if Oleg wore his ballistic nylon reservist uniform, it would soak 1 point of damage to covered locations.
Next up is what constitutes cover, and that there are two kinds - light(like wood or aluminium panels) and heavy(like big crates or cars). Cover provides variable protection - represented by an amount of Dark Symmetry Dice rolled and the result substracted from inflicted damage. Being behind light cover which generally has a soak of *2 means that any damage will be reduced by up to four points. Or none at all. Additionally, cover can be destroyed as firefights go on.
I can't help thinking that the precarious protective value of cover kinda puts a dent in the whole concept of tactical movement.

Then we get into the details of what happens when you get hurt.
Light Wounds represents scratches, bruises and relatively minor annoyances. These are the separate location-values and of no real concern. If damage manages to fill up a location's HP's, any surplus will be crossed off as Serious Wounds. Serious Wounds are worse, they take longer to heal, slow you down and they inflict Dread (we'll visit that one in a bit). If all your Serious Wounds get filled up, you'll then suffer Critical Wounds. Which are really bad. When you suffer critical wounds, penalties will start piling up and you'll have to roll on the Critical Injury Table, possibly suffering sudden death. Otherwise, you'll simply die when you're out of Critical Wound-boxes.
rant/ I like hit locations, but not in this game. They only add an additional dice roll in a game where you already have dice coming out of your ears. Where and what  you hit doesn't matter at all unless you luck out with a few, select rolls on the Critical Injury Table, and that extra die-roll just ends up randomizing your buffer-points. Which, I concur, might be the whole point. But a poorly implemented one. /end rant

Overall, this damage system is pretty hairy. It is also pretty random - the end result being that you really don't want to get hit. Unfortunately, your only option to avoid getting hit is basicly to  dress up in heavy armour and shoot everything before it can shoot you back.

Next is a list of horrible status effects you can suffer in combat - from bleeding wounds, blinded, burning, to staggered or terrified.
Fortunately, we can then read about the various ways of healing damage. As we've seen, player characters can use chronicle points to shake off wounds, as can First Aid, but only Light Wounds. Serious and Critical wounds require specialized knowledge and equipment, or a long time on your back.

Chapter 14 - Mental Strain & Madness

This chapter covers mental resillience and health, emotional strain and excursions into madness. It operates with Mental Wounds (of which Oleg above has 10), which represents a mixture of Sanity Points and ..no really, just Sanity Points.
Take more than 5 mental damage from a single encounter, or be reduced to zero, and you'll crack. We are given a few tables detailing sample potentially damaging situations, as well as the results of breaking down in the face of cosmic horror. Willpower is used to resist mental assaults.
Oleg the repairman with his ..peculiarities will likely be unfazed by events that might send others running.
Madness-inducing encounters and mental assults can quickly rack up unhealthy levels of Dread. We are introduced to the mechanics for recovering from trauma and regaining your Mental Wounds - which can be challenging.

Then, finally, we get to Dread. The chief mechanical effect of Dread is that it adds to your Repercussion-range. So as you get hurt, shaken and brutalized, accumulated Dread makes you much more likely to suffer potentially disastrous consequences on skill tests. Fortunately, we are also told of the various ways to shake or bleed off this horrible trait. Favorite chapter so far - working sanity mechanics!

What would happen if you were to drop the thing about buying extra dice?
I.e. you always roll 2d20.

Does that mess with too many other things in the system?

Quote from: Caudex;854144What would happen if you were to drop the thing about buying extra dice?
I.e. you always roll 2d20.

Does that mess with too many other things in the system?

Removing the extra dice-mechanic would leave you with a threelegged dog.
Difficulties and the way they work is the big one. The Dark Symmetry pool would be bankrupted, meaning you'd have to rework how combat, initiative, power use and corruption work.
It would be much less work to just use a different system than to try to tug at a perceived loose thread and watch everything unravel.

Incidentally Chapter 14 - The Dark Symmetry Pool discusses the mechanics concerning this resource.
It presents the ways DSPs are gained - when players hit repercussions, voluntarily fail tests, buy extra die or when the GM decides to. The latter is referred to a a Dark Symmetry Generator and are NPC's, places, items, monsters and other encounters which, when they appear, generate Dark Symmetry points. Another option for the GM is to translate NPC-momentum into DSPs.
It then walks through usage of the pool - activating special abilities, corrupting equipment, taking Response-actions, interupting initiative, summoning reenforcements, triggering complications or environmental effects, inflicting Dread on PC's, or allow NPCs to reload their guns.

Good idea: having an actual game mechanic for the Dark Symmetry.
Bad idea: doing it like this.

Chapter 15 - Corruption & Falling to Darkness
Building somewhat on the previous chapter, this one discusses the various ways of how the Dark Symmetry warps and corrupts technology, places and people.
It details one of the uses of the Dark Symmetry Pool - making Corruption Rolls by spending points from the pool, converting them to Dark Symmetry Dice and rolling a damage test against whatever defence an item, location or person has. Alternatively, heretics and monsters may corrupt through ritual, spell or presence.
It lays out how different kinds corruption affects different kinds of equipment, and how both indirect and direct corruption affects people. We are introduced to some of the big names - Ilian, Algeroth, Semai, Demnogonis and Muahwije - and their taints.
A good chapter offering both simple and functional rules, as well as lots of GM inspiration.

Chapter 16 - Gifts of the Dark Symmetry walks us through the supernatural and horrific abilities the Dark Apostles grants their followers, and the mechanics of gaining, casting and suffering the fallout of dark magic.

Chapter 17 - The Art of the Light does the same as the previous chapter, only with the Brotherhood and their abilities.
Both chapters come with sizable spell lists, from the mundane to the weird to the downright "oh my god, I'm going to die so horribly".

Chapter 18 - Vehicles
This chapter talks about cars, motorcycles, trucks, trains, zeppelins, tanks and combat walkers. In addition to the basic capabilities of the different vehicles and a sizeable selection of various tools of locomotion available to characters, it also lays out a basic, and good, system for vehicular combat that covers everything from bicycles to jetfighters.

It is followed by Chapter 19 - Spaceships that covers the operation of the big'uns, the role of crew, maintenance, the hazards of combat, and a catalogue of ships to choose from.

Chapter 20 - Weapons, Equipment & Gear
A short introduction to gear, encumbrance, equipment availability, quality and sophistication. We are also told of the ancient technologies of Artificial Intelligences and Thinking Machines.

Chapter 21 - Weapons
A big, colourful catalogue of killing instruments that starts off with detailing the various basic capabilities of weapons - range, damage, ammo, firing modes, encumbrance, reliability, size and a list of diverse special qualities. Then it is off into the Armoury and the illustrated gun porn.
A thing that was heavily discussed during development was the concept of Reloads. Bullets are not counted here, instead you'll carry an amount of reloads for your weapon. A reload is defined as "enough bullets for one fight" - which sounds neat enough in principle, but a bit iffy in practice as a six-shooter can maintain sustained fire as well as a high-capacity assault rifle.
You also have the option to "let rip" - emptying your gun at an enemy for extra damage potential, or using a reload to lay down covering fire etc. And you want to keep on the GM's good side, as a possible consequence for a rolled Repercussion is that you run out of ammo.

Chapter 22 - Armour is just what you'd think it is. Detailing the properties of diverse types of body armours, helmets and shoulderpads, and the different megacorps' approach to them.

We're halfway through the book now - page 247. Whew!

Chapter 23 - Assets, Resources and Acquisitions
This chapter concerns itself with how you get stuff. It introduces a nifty abstract mechanic to model purchasing power - involving Assets (representing accumulated monetary resources in the shape of cash, belongings and property, or even leverage or reputation) and Earnings (representing static income and, more or less, social status and credit rating).
We are told about the rules of acquistion, and the factors that influence it. (Very) simply put, if you want something you must make an Earnings-test. If you succeed, you get it. If you fail, you can burn off your Assets to get it.
They manage to make this process rather mindnumbing, but I can't help but like the basic premise.

Chapter 24 - Belongings
Starting off with discussing the importance of lifestyle, the keeping of appearances and that it costs money, this chapter then goes on to give us lots of stuff to buy, steal or loot- clothing, food, healthcare, drugs, athletics gear, survival gear, communications, surveillance equipment, tools for various trades, computers, libraries, fancy subreality gear, combat gear and weapon attachments.
The chapter ends with multiple tables summing up all the gear and their in-game attributes and costs.

Chapter 25 - Adversaries
 We've got stuff to loot, now we need someone to loot them off. This chapter lays down the rules of NPC's, and introduces Target Categories - Troopers (thugs whose sole purpose is to be gunned down), Elites (challenging opponenents) and Nemeses (bosses), and the rules concerning their abilities and gameplay. Rules for hordes and squads of opponents are given.
NPC's get a simpler statline and skill resume, allowing them to be run from a post-it note. It also lists special rules, abilities and traits commonly found in NPCs, specially the Dark Symmetry-kind.
The chapter ends with a catalogue of statted NPC's - both menials and uniques - that can be encountered and interacted with.