Re: Babylon 5 Wars Fleet Action review

>--- "Tom.McCarthy" <Tom.McCarthy@cbu.xwavesolutions.com> wrote:
>> So, I was a little quick to pick on Mike Llaneza and Matt Seidl. 
They both
>> happen to be mentioned as playtesters, and they're both players who
I've
>> seen as active on this group and others for many years.  Of course
they're
>> not responsible for the problems I identified, but I thought they
might have
>> seen some of the material that the author was obviously thinking
about and
>> obviously didn't write down.
>
>
>Mentioned as playtesters.... in the rulebook ?
>

Yep! You, Matt and Roger Gerrish (with his name spelt wrong!) were the
names in the B5FA playtest credits that I recognised.
I picked up a copy of the rules on Sunday (would have been 20 UKP if I'd
had to pay for it... <grin>), and was not impressed. I was thinking of
penning a quick review to the list myself, but thought it might not seem
right to appear to be "knocking" a competitor's product - but seeing as
Tom's said most of the things I was going to comment on anyway, I don't
feel so guilty!
What Tom only mentioned in passing is that the use of full colour
throughout would have been nice if the printing wasn't very poor in
places
and the graphic layout wasn't so messy; bits are hard to follow, with
basic
mistakes like not separating the text far enough from the dark coloured
page surrounds. The 3D diagrams are a clever idea but very badly
executed,
making them horribly confusing when their whole purpose is to clarify
things! I've read through the movement rules about three times and I'm
STILL not sure I've grasped exactly how they work.
The end result is that the whole book (writing, layout and printing)
gives
the impression of having been thrown together in one heck of a hurry.
Now,
I know from bitter personal experience that 1) you NEVER have enough
time
in ANY schedule - it always runs out at the end, and it is always the
proofreading that gets rushed or skipped entirely, and 2) even if you
DID
have enough time you STILL wouldn't spot everything.
But, I have to say that B5FA suffers worse than almost any other
professional gaming product I've seen in recent years.

It's a shame. It could have been so good.....
Maybe I should have offered them the EFSB system instead....?  ;-)

Jon (GZG)
>
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