The name's Davenport. I review games.

So the other day I get a really loud knock at the door. After makin' sure my gun was loaded, I open up and see my pal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundarr_the_Barbarian#Ookla_the_Mok">Ookla standin' there. Ookla's a real nice fella for a big smelly lion-gorilla-man-thing, so I was happy to let'im in.

"Growr gnah gnar graw!" he says.

"What's that?" I says. "You want me to review Barbarians of the Aftermath, the new post-apocalypse supplement to the beer-and-pretzels swords-and-sorcery game Barbarians of Lemuria?"

"Gnah gnar growr graw!" he says.

"Huh," I says. "New rules for mutations, firearms, vehicles, and psionics?"

"Gnar graw growr gnah!" he says.

"No kiddin'?" I says. "Rules to create your own apocalypse from the ground up? Everything from the A-bomb to zombies? All right, I'm in. And when it comes to reviewin', you know I'm the best there is..."

"Graw growr gnar gnah!" he quips.

"Oh, yeah, wise guy?" I says. "Sez you!"

I don't care who ya are – I will not be Mokked.







Substance

[NOTE: Because Barbarians of the Aftermath is a supplement, this review will assume the reader is familiar with the core rules found in Barbarians of Lemuria.]

Chapter 1:  Your Own Private Apocalypse

Stuck for an apocalyptic scenario to get your setting rolling? BotA has the cure for what ails ya. With rolls on eight tables, the book lets you determine the time and nature of the apocalypse, how long ago the apocalypse took place, what sentient species are running about, the scarcity of resources and level of technology, the state (or non-state) of civilization, and the influence (if any) of the supernatural. And the whole thing is great fun.

Each table exerts some influence on the others. For example, a Lovecraftian or Biblical apocalypse will make supernatural entities more likely, an apocalypse that took place eons ago will leave plenty of time for intelligent nonhumans to evolve, and a Stone Age tech level will put a damper on the growth of civilization. In addition, the tech level will preclude certain Careers – there won't be much call for Road Warriors in a Bronze Age post-apocalypse.

If there's any flaw in this design, it's that the possible time of the apocalypse starts at the beginning of the Atomic Age, despite the fact that not all of the potential scenarios require the Bomb. In other words, the system can't randomly generate a Victorian zombie uprising or a medieval alien invasion. Of course, that's just a flaw with the random setting generator – there's nothing preventing the GM for creating such a scenario himself. And besides, the random generator can create post-apocalyptic settings such as these. It's just that they'll have their origins no earlier than the mid-20th Century. (For example, it's entirely possible to wind up with a far future apocalypse that results in a "Wild West" status quo.)

Chapter 2: Heavy Metal Heroes

In general, BotA follows the BoL character creation system but takes some extreme twists and turns.

The chapter first introduces some new Careers and post-apocalyptic takes on BoL Careers, many with alternate names to fit pulpier or more modern sensibilities (e.g., a "Dok" may be a Healer or a Medic).

The big change comes in the form of Genotypes, which replace the Nationalities found in BoL. In BotA, it's not where you're from – it's what you are. Specifically, characters may be:

• Adonai (super-evolved, super-psychic, super-snooty human)


• Alien


• Awakened Animal


• Awakened Plant


• Bot


• Human, Standard


• Human, Super-Soldat (super-soldier with a strange fetish for German names)


• Human, Wastelander (your basic barbarian)


• Mutant


• Supernatural Entity

The mechanical aspect that most stood out to me beyond mutations – which I'll get to in a bit – is the use of the game's holistic Careers to simulate Awakened Animals, Awakened Plants, and Supernatural Entities. In other words, players of these Genotypes must take their Genotype as one of their four Careers. This score, in turn, will govern everything related to being a creature of that type. For example, if your character is an Awakened Bear, you'd roll his Bear skill when doing anything bear-like. The system puts me very much in mind of the Trait mechanic in Over the Edge, and like that mechanic, it lends itself to abuse without GM involvement – who's to say what all a Demon Career might entail? Fortunately, the chapter includes some helpful examples: assorted animals, fungi, flowering plants, trees, angels, elves, and vampires.

Chapter 3: The Ways of This Changed World

This chapter introduces new rules that separate BotA from BoL: archeotech, firearms, mutation, nanozones, psychic phenomena, radiation, and vehicles.

Archeotech

The chapter first describes the BotA approach to discovered treasure-troves of items from the "Before Time". Essentially, the game treats these as the technological equivalent of literal BoL treasure troves, and as such, doesn't bother with trying to describe every nut and bolt found; instead, it's assumed that the PCs will trade off the majority of the stuff, blowing the proceeds on the post-apocalyptic equivalent of ale and whores (and gaining experience points in the process). However, amongst the junk will be 1d6 items of particular value. The chapter then explains how to determine the nature of the items and how the PCs can identify, repair, and power them. The book handles all of this in a streamlined manner that avoids the eye-wrecking tech identification flowchart of old-school Gamma World.

Firearms

The game accounts for auto-fire by giving every firearm a Rate of Fire stat, indicating the number of times the character can divide up his Ranged Combat attribute in order to make multiple attacks. In other words, a character with an Agility of 3, a Ranged Combat of 3, and a weapon with a Rate of Fire of 2 could make two shots – one at 3+2=5 and one at 3+1=4. I'm inclined to let characters add their scores in Gunslinger and Soldier to multi-shot attacks with pistols and longarms, respectively. Otherwise, weapons with high rates of fire become progressively less useful. (The exception to this loss of usefulness comes in the form of Mighty and Legendary Successes, which allow the shooter to take out a number of rabble equal to the Rate of Fire or twice the Rate of Fire, respectively.)

I'm a big fan of the ammo mechanic, however. All weapons have an Ammo Capacity. Make a non-critical roll of doubles with a number above the Ammo Capacity, and the weapon is out of ammo unless you had the foresight to purchase a reload. Nice and simple, even if it does make characters who run out of ammo in the very first round look a bit foolish. (One minor quibble: the mechanic doesn't seem to cover missile weapons like bows.)

The section also accounts for blast radius and cover – the latter both in terms of making the target harder to hit and giving armor bonuses.

Mutation

Here's where the book really takes off.

This section consists of a series of tables that determine the precise nature of the character's mutation. The initial table determines whether the mutation is Sense, Offensive, Physical, Mental, or Defensive in nature, or whether the character is a "Superfreak" with several mutations combined into one. From there, the results get progressively more specific and may be positive or negative.

Gonzo? You bet. I've seen randomly-generated mutants end up with arrow-shooting mouths, chest tentacles, knee swords, and body parts 3x larger than normal. Space flight, teleportation, and specific psychic powers are also on the menu, although regeneration is a notable oversight – one for which I have it on good authority the author is kicking himself.

There are several ways to start out with a mutation, which counts as either a Boon or a Flaw. Awakened Animals, Awakened Plants, Normal Humans, and Wastelander Humans can all select the Mutation Flaw. Aliens can select a Mutation Boon as a species trait but must counter each one with a Mutation Flaw. And then, of course, there are Mutants themselves, who are a special case: they get one Mutant Boon per rank in their Mutant Career (starting at 0), and they also get one "Genetic Drift Die" per Mutant Career Rank that lets them replace one of the dice rolled during mutation selection. Mutants may also select the Mutantion Flaw.

In addition, Mutants can take the non-random method of generating mutations, picking whatever mutations they like but allowing the GM to select a counterbalancing Mutation Flaw for each positive mutation selected.

So, what is the difference between a Mutation Boon and a Mutation Flaw? Well, that's where this system gets a little weird: when rolling randomly, Mutation Boons can be bad and Mutation Flaws can be good. The difference lies in the fact that Mutants can spend those Genetic Drift Dice when rolling for Mutation Boons, while Mutation Flaws must be totally random. Furthermore, even if the player rolls up a positive Mutation Flaw, the GM gets to describe the mutation. One lovely example given in the text is that of a player rolling flight as a Mutation Flaw and the GM determining that the mutant flies by means of super-flatulence.

On the whole, it's a really entertaining system – one that had folks in #rpgnet chat rolling up mutants just for fun. The downside is that some of the outcomes can be fairly generic, like ending up with -1 to Ranged Combat. Such results had me longing for the unfailingly wacky random mutation results from Gamma World.

Psychic Phenomena

This segment was a bit of a disappointment to me. The base rules for psionics mirror those for magic in BoL. Yes, this means that psychic powers are freeform, which I think makes them lose quite a bit of flavor. If you're wanting a pure telekinetic or pyrokinetic, for example, you're out of luck. On the other hand, psychics do have some hindrances and abilities that make them distinct from sorcerers. On the downside, psychics are limited by their Wyrd career levels in the effects they can create; in other words, a psychic with 2 points of Wyrd can only create sorcery-like effects of the 2nd magnitude or below. Also, psychics can't reduce the amount of psychic energy a "spell" requires by rituals and trappings. However, psychics can store psychic energy in talismans, channel psychic energy through special devices such as weapons, and use their powers to heal themselves or others.

Radiation

You can't very well have an all-purpose post-apocalyptic RPG without rules for radiation, and BotA doesn't disappoint. Not only does it cover realistic lethal radiation and gonzo mutagenic radiation, but it also throws in paranormal radiation (both magical and psychic). All of them cover damage, short term, and long term effects. I particularly like the fact that magic radiation can have mutagenic effects as well, allowing for magical mutants to haunt your supernatural apocalypse.

Vehicles

Vehicle creation is probably the crunchiest (and, not coincidentally, my least favorite) aspect of the system. Thankfully, "crunchy" is a very relative term in this case.

Design starts with the vehicle's Size and type of travel. Size, in turn, helps determine the starting vehicle attributes: Power, Strength, Maneuver, Speed, Ram Rating, and Super Structure. Some of these have maximum ratings: a vehicle cannot have a Power higher than its Size, for example.

That last bit doesn't make much sense to me. I guess it didn't to the author, either, because in the example for the next step in vehicle design – customizing the aforementioned attributes with 4 + Size points – he merrily ignores the max Power rating.

Finally, the player gets Size x 3 (minimum 1) Upgrades (such as weaponry) with which to trick out his vehicle. More Upgrades may be purchased by taking Downgrades (such as fragility).

The system is designed to handle everything from motorcycles to space frigates. With a bit of fudging, the system can handle still larger vehicles as well. Transforming vehicles are covered, but mecha are not – I tried and failed to create a mecha for one of my players. Subsequently receiving some tips from the author, I could have pulled it off, but I wouldn't expect everyone to have that resource at their disposal. (And besides, I have it on good authority that a mecha supplement is in the works...)

Vehicle combat and chases make use of a 5-step Range Band chart, with the player's vehicle in the middle: Close Quarter Battle, Short, Small Arms, Sniper, Visual, and Sensor. While this does nothing to indicate vehicle positions, it is a simple way of keeping track of who's close enough to do what (including eluding pursuit). Likewise, the system includes a simple list of vehicle actions to make vehicle combat exciting yet uncomplicated.

Chapter 4: Guns, Gasmasks and Other Gear

BoL takes a pretty loose view of equipment: you want it, you got it. In BotA, however, the wildly divergent tech levels and availability of equipment required something a bit more detailed. To that end, characters start the game with 3d6+3 points to spend on equipment (more or less, based on the overall scarcity of goods in the setting). These points go to purchasing goods that are Common (1 point), Uncommon (2 points), Rare (4 points), and Unique (6 points), with tech levels ranging from 0 (Stone Age) to 6 (Far Future). Players may not be to keen on the idea of re-rolling for their equipment allowance each session to simulate the easy-come, easy-go nature of apocalyptic settings. I know that I'd have been a lot less enthusiastic about Gamma World if I'd known that I'd end up losing a good chunk of whatever high-tech goodies I managed to find.

The chapter definitely offers a wide variety of equipment, from hand-held mirrors to tak-nukes. It also offers ways to customize equipment and create it from scratch. Somehow, the higher-tech weaponry struck me as being rather world-specific: blasters, for example, are ultratech slugthrowers rather than energy weapons, while lasers are more accurate but less damaging than modern-day firearms.

The section gives a brief nod to cyberwear as well, although the rules seem a bit confusing. Basically, cyberwear (or "Augmentek," as the book calls it) can replace a missing body part, optionally providing enhanced capabilities or even mimicking mutations (which saves enormously on the book's page count). During play, cyberwear has an Advancement Point cost in addition to the equipment cost. Fair enough, but what if you want your character to start play with cyberwear? In that case, there's just the Unique point cost to pay, in which case, why not take the very best cyberwear for your "money"? The author has informed me that Augmentek is intended for characters to discover rather than possess at the beginning of play, but again, that seems to be a restrictive setting conceit.

On the other hand, I should caution that the equipment rules make it entirely likely that characters will begin play with a Unique item, potentially making them remarkably formidable – the provided example of power armor comes to mind. This may or may not be an issue, but creating a setting in which high-tech devices are akin to magic items that must be discovered will take at least a touch of GM fiat.

Chapter 5: Flora, Fauna and Other Foes

Given the sheer number of possible settings this supplement can produce, the author perhaps wisely decided against a full-blown (and setting-specific) bestiary in favor of a foe generator with example creatures. After a quick rundown on the tricks employed by rogue A.I.s, the chapter provides:

• Aliens (Random)


• Example: The Stalker (think Predator)


• Droids, Killbots


• Hunter-Killers (small, fast Rabble)


• Robotrons (human-sized robot warriors)


• Destructors (giant mecha- or tank-like robots)


• Droids, Utility


• Fauna Pack


• Example: Delta Dawgs


• Flora Patch


• Example: Perforating Poppies


• Mutants (Random)


• Example: Kannibal Klown


• Sentient Cloud (nanites)


• Waste Barbarians


• Waste Zombie


• Waste Zombie Lord

The selection is flexible enough to create any number of creatures on the fly. It's a little heavily weighted toward Rabble for my taste, however. Also, I'm mildly annoyed that the Delta Dawgs possess a stun ray mutation that isn't possible with the random mutation generator (but probably should be).

Chapter 6: Aftermath Adventure Generator

Again, rather than going with a necessarily setting-specific introductory adventure, the author chose to create a random adventure generator. This is a very simple 6-step process, with tables for determining Objectives, Locations, Foes, the Villain, the Villain's Role, and Rewards. However, it does drift toward the setting-specific at times, especially regarding the possible villians:

• The Robot Carnival (a massive robotic death machine described in the vehicles section)


• Sentient Cloud


• AI Defense Grid


• Standard NPC


• Waste Zombie Lord


• Otherworldly Entity

More generic entries would have been welcome.

Still, the system did allow me to come up with a decent adventure concept in less than 15 minutes involving the heroes seeking to make peace with a nearby tribe of mutants living in an abandoned missile silo while simultaneously eliminating their mysterious charismatic leader.

Style

The book is a gorgeous full-color hardcover making extensive effective use of public domain pulp sci-fi images. The original artwork – primarily weapons and sample characters – is quite competent and does nothing to detract from the overall feel of the book.

The writing is straightforward, conversational, and (at times) quite witty, making for a truly easy read. Despite the full-color pages, the layout is likewise easy on the eyes, with the ample visuals complementing rather than competing with the text.

I noticed no typos or editing mistakes.

Conclusion

Boy, is this one hard to rate on Substance.

On the one hand, it takes a beer-and-pretzels system and crafts it into a masterfully flexible multi-apocalypse sourcebook. I can see it getting loads of use for everything from gritty zombie uprisings to Thundarr the Barbarian-style gonzo post-apocalypse.

On the other, it's a sourcebook with a relatively low page count and a price worthy of a full-blown RPG.

Now, I totally get the effects of production values on price, and this is a beautiful, full-color, hardbound book we're talking about here. Combined with the quality writing, and it gets a solid "5" for Style from me, no question. But price has to affect value, and most people don't buy RPG books for the pretty pictures...

You know what? To heck with it. BotA gets a "5" for substance, too. Yes, it's a bit pricey, but you get a lot of potential post-apocalyptic mileage for your money. I'm currently running the first Gamma World module with it, playing in a Medieval Lovecraftian apocalypse game, and having great fun with both. If you're after a fast-playing post-apocalypse game – or even a fast-playing general-purpose sci-fi game – give this one a look.

Quote from: Dan Davenport;424818I don't care who ya are – I will not be Mokked.

Gold.

Sweet review. This sort of game isn't even my thing, and this review made me want to go pick it up. Sounds fun.

Sounds cool but $15 is a tad high for a pdf to satify a curiousity.  Curious that Simon doesn't seem to be associated with it.

If the book included the rules, it would be a must-buy for me. Since it doesn't, I will only pick it up if I find it on steep discount. It's too expensive for what it is.