[HOE] Yet another Unity review... (Shane)

["Jeff Shoffner" <shoffner@usit.net>]

Well, the friendly neighborhood game store finally got a copy of Unity
around here & I picked it up.  About halfway through it.  Figured since
everyone else is chiming in, I would too.....

spoiler space



















































more spoiler space...






























even more spoiler space.....








































heck, considering how long I've been waiting for this book, & how much time
I've plowed through it, MORE SPOILER SPACE!!!!!



































Okay, that's probably enough.  Now, to sum up what I've so far read, ugh.
This is the most lumbersome, ill conceived piece of junk I've read in a
while.  Sorry, Shane, but that's my feel on it.  To those of you who haven't
bought it, I'd wait to see how your posse does with other adventures first.
Maybe even read a little in the gamestore first (if they'll let you.).

First off, a major battle with the forces of good & evil.  Okay....
Combine/mutant assault on Junktown was okay (even though when I first
started out reading it, I kept having flashes of "Why in the hell would you
do that when it would make more sense to do (blank)?") & even expected.  The
whole deal with the harbinger & the mutants, okay, I can swallow that
too.... But Raven making his attack JUST when things are heating up in
Denver?  The arrival of just about every known person ever mentioned for the
ensuing battle?  THEN the "ultimate" showdown of Reckoner v. Raven?  Ugh.
Reminds me of a Loony Tunes cartoon where Daffy Duck is pitching a story of
the Scarlet Pumpernickle to an agent, & the agent is always saying, "Yeah?
Then what happens?" "Then a volcano erupts, pouring motlen lava over
everyone, destroying the town!!!" "Yeah, then what happens?"  "A dam burst,
flooding all the townspeople, there's smog everywhere! Death &
destruction!!!  AAAIIIEEEE!!!!!!!!"   "Yeah? Then what happens?"

Here's a monkey wrench for the works, since this adventure wants seasoned
players, & pretty much states that the posse should be familiar with the
likes of Boise Horror, Something About a Sword, etc., the posse has a chance
at some fairly good swag.  During the Raven/Cole fiasco, I could see some
Templar in the group pulling out Evanor, tossing a Legend Chip in the bag &
start his spouting of the wrongs Raven has done.  Cole grabs his knife &
plunges it deep into Raven, poof, bye-bye Raven....

Better yet, Hellestromme does his first song & pony dance, & someone in the
posse yells, "He blew up the world!!!  KILL HIM!!!!" And starts a massive
barrage of posse-generated bullets.

Or, like someone else has already said, what's to stop the posse from
saying, "Let me get this straight; you want us to take this box with the
Reckoners locked inside all the way to Banshee.  Gunther, cap this fraggin'
brainer & let's get out of here...."


Sorry to sound so harsh on this thing; I'd say I would have kept my mouth
shut about the whole deal, but I kept seeing all these posts about how great
it is, etc., etc.  Folks, it isn't.  If I ever run this thing, I'm going to
do some massive rewriting to make it believable to the players....  Brings
up something I read a long time ago about how to write science fiction.  I
remember the author stating to the effect that in order to make the reader
believe in what you write, you can only make them suspend disbelief once;
any more & you're asking them to swallow too much.  I think I've swallowed
way too much here....

Jeff S