James Nicoll Reviews

MAN OR MACHINE?

Tell new intriguing science fiction stories with M‑SPACE Companion. 

Create sidekick droids and AI villains with rules for robots and artificial intelligence. Or play as a robot. 

Make powerful characters with the latest cybernetic implants. And try the cutting-edge Q Tech implants, bordering on magic. 

Learn about your characters’ former lives in the Origins chapter, or breach security with the new rules for hacking. 

A failed cybernetic experiment hides behind the blast doors at the bottom of a mineshaft. Find out more in the scenario Escape on Mosek Uhn.

This is what you get:

• Rules for modular robots, both humanoid and simple droids. 

• Cybernetics, with implants and body part replacements. 

• The almost magical Q Tech implants. 

• Rules for detailed character backgrounds. 

• Computers and hacking. 

• Scenario: Escape From Mosek-Uhn. 

• Updated character sheet.

And, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to download the seven additional Origins tables in the free Companion Addendum. Available from FrostByte Books’ webpage.

Along with the Companion, Circles of Steel contains 13 organisations for robots and cyborgs. Tailored for the Companion, Alex Greene has crafted a versatile set of Circles, easy to use in any campaign. The PDF is a Pay What You Want title.

M‑SPACE is needed to make full use of the Companion, but it is compatible with most d100 games.

The Traveller Companion is here…

This book is the ultimate toolkit for Traveller campaigns, allowing referees and Travellers to pick and choose the best additions for their adventures and explore the galaxy in greater detail than before. From alternate Traveller creation systems and training to gas giant operations and starports, from the effects of gravity and diseases to animal encounters on alien worlds and the use of transponders, there is a wealth of new rules-based material for all Traveller campaigns, ready to be unleashed on every new world, every starship, and every group of Travellers.

Returning to the universe of New York Times Notable book This Alien Shore comes a new space opera from an acknowledged master of science fiction.

When deep-space travel altered the genes of the first interstellar colonists, Earth abandoned them. But some of the colonies survived, and a new civilization of mental and physical ​“Variants” has been established, centered around clusters of space stations known as the outworlds.

Now the unthinkable has happened: a suicide assault has destroyed the life support system of a major waystation. All that is known about the young men responsible is that in their last living moments they were receiving messages from an uninhabited sector of space, and were playing a virtual reality game.

Two unlikely allies have joined forces to investigate the incident: Ru Gaya, a mercenary explorer with a taste for high risk ventures, and game designer Micah Bello, who must find the parties responsible for the attack in order to clear his name. From the corridors of a derelict station lost to madness to an outlaw stronghold in the depths of uncharted space, the two now follow the trail of an enemy who can twist human minds to his purpose, and whose plans could bring about the collapse of outworld civilization.

A mysterious child lands in the care of a solitary woman, changing both of their lives forever.

I expected many things from this trip. I did not expect a family.

A ship captain, unfettered from time. A mute child, burdened with unimaginable power. A millennia-old woman, haunted by lifetimes of mistakes. In this captivating debut of connection across space and time, these outsiders will find in each other the things they lack: a place of love and belonging. A safe haven. A new beginning. 

But the past hungers for them, and when it catches up, it threatens to tear this makeshift family apart. 

The Cepheus Engine RPG comprises the core rules for a Classic Era Science Fiction 2D6-Based Open Gaming System. Inspired by the original three books of the oldest 2D6-based science fiction roleplaying game, the Cepheus Engine system incorporates elements of Open Game Content from previous releases of that game of intergalactic drifters and wanderers to create a basic system that will allow players and Referees alike to create their own science fiction universes or play in the ones they are already familiar with.

You’ll find the core essence of your favorite sci-fi game here. You can explore interstellar space, make a ton of Credits on speculative trade, find yourself halfway across the sector after a serious misjump, or blow people up with your mind, if you can find training. You can even die during character creation. This stand-alone manuscript provides all the rules you need to play the game. The Cepheus Engine rules were intentionally designed to integrate well with other 2D6-based science fiction gaming systems, especially your favorite Classic Era modules and supplements. All of the material in the Cepheus Engine rules is considered Open Game Content.

Please note this set of rules is the same as the Cepheus Engine System Reference Document.
There are a few minor changes and fixes. It also includes a blank character sheet, blank sub sector sheet, combat reference sheets and a complete index. There is no internal art, except for the cover art and the blank sheets.

Jason Kemp has kindly let Moon Toad produce this edition with his permission. 

From the New York Times bestselling author of the legendary Witcher series — the books that inspired the Netflix show and the hit video games — comes the first in an epic new trilogy.
Reinmar of Bielawa, sometimes known as Reynevan, is a doctor, a magician and, according to some, a charlatan. And when a thoughtless indiscretion finds him caught in the crosshairs of powerful noble family, he is forced to flee his home.

But once he passes beyond the city borders, he finds that there are dangers ahead as well as behind. Strange mystical forces are gathering in the shadows. And pursued not only by the affronted Stercza brothers, bent on vengeance, but also by the Holy Inquisition, Reynevan finds himself in the Narrenturm, the Tower of Fools.

The Tower is an asylum for the mad, or for those who dare to think differently and challenge the prevailing order. And escaping the Tower, avoiding the conflict around him, and keeping his own sanity might prove a greater challenge than Reynevan ever imagined.

What if…

The Martians really did invade Earth in 1897? And again, in 1938? 

Venus really is a lush jungle planet, where dinosaurs still roam? 

Psionics are a reality? Crystal Technology an everyday fact of life? 

Rockets ply the spacelanes between Mars, Earth, Venus and the asteroids? 

The year is 1959? 

Worlds United is a setting of Planetary Romance and Pulp Science Fiction. Your characters are adventurers and explorers, people of extraordinary abilities, with drive and ambition to match. Here, the gleaming alloy air cars of Gernsback era SF are a reality; one really can sail the Martian canals, or wrangle dinosaurs on Venus; and there truly are wrecks of Martian War Tripods standing fearsomely tall in the Smithsonian – and the fear that the Octopoid Martians, unseen for a generation, are once again drawing their plans against us…

Fully compatible with Mythras, Worlds United takes you into a 1959 with rockets, rayguns, dinosaurs, and rip-roaring adventure

Tales of the Black Feather Three and their exploits abound far and wide, and Wydrin of Crosshaven, Lord Aaron Frith and Sir Sebastian have become sell swords in demand. Having foiled powerful mages and evil magic, they now face a challenge unlike any before — in the form of Wydrin’s mother.

Devinia the Red, notorious pirate and captain of the Poison Chalice, is intent on finding the fabled treasure hidden within the jungles of the cursed island of Euriale. She needs the skills of her daughter Wydrin and her companions to get there, and our heroes cannot resist the lure of coin and adventure. But no explorer has returned from the heart of the island, and it’s not long before the Three find themselves in the clutches of peril. Deep within the island of the gods, there are remnants of forces best left undisturbed…