a brief review/commentary..
This addition is so-so. Definitely pales in comparison to the recent Special Modifications release. There isn't anything blatantly wrong with the book, it's just completely lack luster.
I think I dislike it mostly because it contains a lot of the little things that I usually let slide, but that annoy me incredibly.
Example 1: The Quermian Kinesic Intuition is in a call out graphic, but is a pretty important (and cool) FEATURE of the race, that should absolutely be listed in the BULLET POINTS so as not to be accidentally missed. You can do a call out as well, but the bullet points in the main text are where ALL the info belongs.
Example 2: According to the text and the power Additional Limbs listed in the bullet points of the racial traits, the Quermians have 6 arms. BUT there is not a single image in this book (or in a basic google search of the species name) that depicts them with more than 2 visible. Makes the whole thing feel like someone messed up somewhere along the line. Seeing is believing.
Example 3: Farsight. It could have been a super cool Force power, but instead it's only a very good way to spend a bunch of xp doing what 2,000 credits worth of easily obtainable technology can do. I understand that tech can be taken away, and not everyone has 2,000 credits... but the power needed a little more Umph to stand out as a unique and interesting Force concept. Would have worked better with more focus on the Mastery (scrying) aspect, helping the power to function kind of like the Forsee power but for things that are definitely happening NOW.
Example 4: Unexpected Demise is the worst kind of signature ability. By making it possible (easy even) for a relatively non-combat oriented career to take out big bad bosses by flipping a destiny and landing one hit (not usually hard to do that minimum 1 damage), it de-incentivises and detracts from the other classes that ARE combat oriented and have to spend significant amounts of XP to accomplish the same task. It's nice to add variety to the careers but no single power should be capable of stealing spotlight of a different careers entire focus. If you give your politician the ability to stop an enemy ship in space, then your ace pilot doesn't get to do his thing when it tries to get away.
Example 5: Czerka Detonator Rounds. If you are going to provide special AMMUNITION options that change the profile of weapons, it needs to be a category and the ammunition's limitations need to be specified.
"When loaded in its model 57 'homesteader' rifle, these rounds have the following effect..."
Great... can I load this ammo into other weapons? does it have the same effects on those weapons?
these are super important questions. Honestly i wouldn't mind seeing more ammo types, then slug throwers might be more interesting of an option. Not surprisingly, this special ammunition category is needed for Missiles, Grenades and similar munitions as well.
aaaaany way.
Updated seeker career trees to include new specializations and new signature abilities.
Updated Force power trees to include new Force power.
The Quermians are related to the Xexto, and do indeed have six limbs (two legs and two pairs of arms, just like the Xexto). They ytypically leave theiur second pair of arms hidden under loose clothing. This was established in the original Visual Dictionary for The Phantom Menace.
ReplyDeleteI'm aware that they do indeed have the listed number of arms. My statement was more to suggest that it would be nice to have more obvious visual verification of this fact.
ReplyDeleteI am also aware of the suggested cultural cause for this lack of imagery. I wasn't even going to mention this in my original post as it's mostly an academic waste of time, but : if they are so culturally bound to hiding and covering their extra arms that there are no (or next to none) images of them showing those extra arms... then how exactly are they getting a mechanical benefit from said arms/hands?