I would like some feedback on these books if you don't mind.

[Kargan3033]

I'm thinking about buying these three books.
1:Skraypers
2:Thundercloud Galaxy
3:Fleets Of The Three Galaxies

If anyone here has any or all three of these books I'd like to hear your take on them and if they are worth buying or not and why I should or should not buy them.

Thanks.

[Zer0 Kay]

All i have of those is fleets. It is interesting but only really usable if your running a military campaign, there is no chance of a PC owning one... Of course I'm assuming your running a "normal" game. With Rifts its fun to run your PCs as if they could own one or maybe their generals or warlords.

[Kargan3033]

All i have of those is fleets. It is interesting but only really usable if your running a military campaign, there is no chance of a PC owning one... Of course I'm assuming your running a "normal" game. With Rifts its fun to run your PCs as if they could own one or maybe their generals or warlords.

Well I don't have anyone to play with, I'm more of a collector as well as using them as a source of home brewed adventures to share with others.

[ShadowLogan]

I'm thinking about buying these three books.
1:Skraypers
2:Thundercloud Galaxy
3:Fleets Of The Three Galaxies

If anyone here has any or all three of these books I'd like to hear your take on them and if they are worth buying or not and why I should or should not buy them.

Thanks.

#1 & #2 I don't have and really can't help you with. You might also get better feed back in the Dimension Books index of the MDC Worlds section as these are all dimension books.

#3. I can help you with:
-It has Space Magic (actual branch) Spells listed and described. IIRC it was mentioned in a previous PW DB as existing, but never really done. Depending on the situation this may or may not be useful, though it can always give a different slant to a magic user.
-some space equipment described and stated that PCs might need/use if they are in space. Some of it can also be useful out of space to IIRC, or to help set up a "marooned" ship/escape pod siltation.
-there are some "rules" for building new space vehicles (fighters, cruisers, etc), but I find them somewhat lacking as they feel more like generalized guidelines. If this is only what you are after only though, I would not recommend the book (other books and common sense do better job iMHO) just to get these "rules".
-Dominators get some attention with their star forts detailed (to some extent) and some additional background on them. This may or may not be useful.
-the bulk of the book talks about the major players in PW-3G and some of their bigger ships/stations that as are more likely to be used as background setting than something the PCs will end up using. Deckplans are not part of the book (not even generalizations like in the old Macross2 books or RT 1E), but putting out deck plans for all those ships likely would have pushed it from a SB size to more of a full WB size and might have required having material cut.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I'm thinking about buying these three books.
1:Skraypers

It's a heroes unlimited game set in the three galaxies in an isolated, relatively technology primitive world with no connection to the outside world. it's MDC conversion of HU superpowers are partly obsolete with the subsequent advent of Revised conversion book one being more modern.

Overall it's a very nice setting for what it is--aliens invade and conquer earth and Heroes form a resistance movement caused by a chemical agent the aliens used. but it's also very very specific. unless you want to run a skraypers campaign specifically it has little that you can't just get from HU2 and revised conversion book one. that said, it does have some neat stuff in it, and the Tarlock aliens are some of the most creative in palladium.

2:Thundercloud Galaxy

Don't have it.

3:Fleets Of The Three Galaxies

Very good. tons of new ships, information on the structure of all the major powers fleet structures, plot hooks, shapeship construction rules, and space magic at long last. one of palladiums better and more useful products.

My only hesitation is that you posted this on the Rifts forum and not the Rifts Dimension books forum. all of these books take place within the setting of Phase World/The Three Galaxies. One about one isolated planet, one about a galaxy and one about spaceships. none of these books will be very useful for a non-phase world game, although they might be mined for some D-bees to incorporate but that's mostly it.

[Kargan3033]

Thank you Treebore but I'm not into on line games, never have been.

ShadowLogan the space magic sounds interesting and I have ordered The Fleets book as well as The Thundercould Galaxy book so I should have then in about 2 weeks time so thank you for your input.

Nekira Sudacne I will look into the Skraypers, sounds like it would be useful for a project that has been kicking around in my mind for some time now and from what you said the Tarlock seem to be a bunch of bad asses which could be quite useful to me and as I said before I'm a collector of PnP rpg games. thank you for your feed back on the Skraypers and the Fleets books

[drewkitty ~..~]

1) Scrapers: see NK's answer. & The powers in the book are converted from HU1.

2)Thunderhead: about half setting text and half adventure creation resource.

3)F3G: mostly agree with NS. However, There are no star ship "Construction Rules" in the book. What is does have is some guidelines & examples about the limitations about how many weapons different size ships should have.

For actual Starship Construction Rules you would need to get the Aliens Unlimited: Galaxy Guide gamebook.

[Braden Campbell]

"Fleets" has a lot of plot and adventure seeds buried within it, my personal favourite being the Golgan Tachyonic Anti-telephone.

"Thundercloud" is 1880's colonial Africa... in space. It's designed to focus on exploration/colonization adventures and campaigns, hunting alien big game, and interacting with natives either through peaceful means or by killing them. It also contains the Thunderduck - the greatest single animal in all of Palladium canon.

[kaid]

I myself of the three probably liked scraypers the most it is a setting where the super powered heroes are actually really strongly challenged. The couple times I had a campaign in it were the few times playing super hero games that the heroes were pretty afraid and had to be very judicious about when we actually came out into the open and threw down. Sure super heroes can beat up 10 or 20 of the normal villians all day long. But you are fighting a force that is not afraid of calling down orbital strikes on you if things get to out of hand. It winds up being a much more covert style super hero game than is typical which makes it a fun change of pace.


The other two books are excellent as well fleets of the three galaxies is really interesting with lots of added back ground and plot stuff. I guess my only issue with it is the main content is stuff that most players don't get much used of. Capital ships are cool and help round out your fleets but for most they are either going to be the setting of where you are stationed inside and so the actual stats won't matter much if at all to you or something you will only ever see at a distance or try really hard not to get anywhere near. I almost wish we had a book like that but more for runner style craft light transports/small cargo ships/bounty hunter skiffs and what not things an actual player group is more likely to have access to and run.

[Zer0 Kay]

All i have of those is fleets. It is interesting but only really usable if your running a military campaign, there is no chance of a PC owning one... Of course I'm assuming your running a "normal" game. With Rifts its fun to run your PCs as if they could own one or maybe their generals or warlords.

Well I don't have anyone to play with, I'm more of a collector as well as using them as a source of home brewed adventures to share with others.

well in that case I loved it. I like all the technical books. If you draw out decks for ny of them shoot some this way.

[Kargan3033]

All i have of those is fleets. It is interesting but only really usable if your running a military campaign, there is no chance of a PC owning one... Of course I'm assuming your running a "normal" game. With Rifts its fun to run your PCs as if they could own one or maybe their generals or warlords.

Well I don't have anyone to play with, I'm more of a collector as well as using them as a source of home brewed adventures to share with others.

well in that case I loved it. I like all the technical books. If you draw out decks for ny of them shoot some this way.

Well if I can find a good mapping program, sort of like the one PB used in the 1st edition Robotech/Macross books I might be able to whip up some deck plans in the future but right now I'm trying to make some fan stuff/adventures for Robotech but I'm so damn busy it's hard to do so.

[Kargan3033]

1) Scrapers: see NK's answer. & The powers in the book are converted from HU1.

2)Thunderhead: about half setting text and half adventure creation resource.

3)F3G: mostly agree with NS. However, There are no star ship "Construction Rules" in the book. What is does have is some guidelines & examples about the limitations about how many weapons different size ships should have.

For actual Starship Construction Rules you would need to get the Aliens Unlimited: Galaxy Guide gamebook.

Thanks for the info I do have AU so designing a ship or two should not be that much of an iusse when I get around to making up some fan stuff for Heros Unlimited/Aliens Unlimited or Phase World.

[Kargan3033]

I myself of the three probably liked scraypers the most it is a setting where the super powered heroes are actually really strongly challenged. The couple times I had a campaign in it were the few times playing super hero games that the heroes were pretty afraid and had to be very judicious about when we actually came out into the open and threw down. Sure super heroes can beat up 10 or 20 of the normal villians all day long. But you are fighting a force that is not afraid of calling down orbital strikes on you if things get to out of hand. It winds up being a much more covert style super hero game than is typical which makes it a fun change of pace.


The other two books are excellent as well fleets of the three galaxies is really interesting with lots of added back ground and plot stuff. I guess my only issue with it is the main content is stuff that most players don't get much used of. Capital ships are cool and help round out your fleets but for most they are either going to be the setting of where you are stationed inside and so the actual stats won't matter much if at all to you or something you will only ever see at a distance or try really hard not to get anywhere near. I almost wish we had a book like that but more for runner style craft light transports/small cargo ships/bounty hunter skiffs and what not things an actual player group is more likely to have access to and run.

Thanks for the info, Skraypers sounds like a the next PB book I should order, super heros fighting off an alien invasion sound like like it has some very good possibility for some ace on the line home brewed adventures.

[jaymz]

1:Skraypers

A dimension book that is stand alone with options of having it as part of the Three Galaxies/Phaseworld (It is not set that way by default the last I checked). In this regard it is similar in Aliens Unlimited giving options of how to have the Milky Way of Heroes Unlimited be part of the Three Galaxies/Phaseworld. This book is pretty good overall. Interested setting and story. The MDC conversions for the powers are good too.


2:Thundercloud Galaxy

A must for anyone wanting to run Three Galaxies/Phaseworld dedicated campaigns and games. (In this vein one should have Phaseworld, Phaseworld Sourcebook, Anvil Galaxy, Three Galaxies and Dimensional Outbreak, and Fleets of the Three Galxies, mentioned next below as well ) Good book. Good art. Lots of usable interesting things throughout.


3:Fleets Of The Three Galaxies

Good book for general info. Personally I found the stats side to be inconsistent between ships, weapons, etc, when compared to earlier publications. That's just me though. It IS a good book to have though as it does flesh out the fleets of the various powers more. Art is good as usual.