CyborGladiators
From: Firefly Games
Reviewed by: Butch Curry
CyborGladiators is a new wargame from Firefly Games. This is the tabletop equivalent of Unreal Tournament... in a good way!
From the back cover:
"Only victory can save your life. Only victory can make you a champion. Only victory can set you free. Abducted by aliens, you are now an ultimate fighting machine doing battle in deadly futuristic arenas for the entertainment of your masters. You are a CyborGladiator."
How does it play?
The plot is straight out of Star Trek: an evil race of aliens kidnaps people from various planets and make them fight each other to the death. (In fact, if you can play this game for an evening without breaking out in the Trek fight song at least once, you're not embracing the spirit of it I daresay.)
CG uses a self-contained, chopped-down, souped-up version of the excellent Action! System rules. Character creation is a snap; if you copy the blank character sheet in the book it takes about 5 minutes; longer if you're building a character with a lot of cybernetic upgrades, but not much. You have four different races to choose from: tech-savvy Humans, powerful reptilian Tuara, quick feline Kisa, and intelligent insectoid Crigg. There are four basic attributes, assigned with a quick point-buy system. The other six attributes are all derived from these, so with a little quick math you're done with the first part of your character. If anything, buying your skills takes even less time. There are only 17 to choose from, with most of them weapon proficiencies of one sort or another.
Buying cybernetics is the only time-consuming part of the process, due more to 'kid in the candy store' feelings than complexity. There are over thirty different implants, grafts, and nifty doo-hickeys to choose from. The weapons list is kept short and simple by comparison, but the weapon stats are simple enough that you can expand it with ease.
The mechanics are nice and simple and d6 based (3d6 + your Reflex score vs. your opponents Evade to hit; other checks are 3d6 + stat vs. target number as well). There are a lot of modifiers and maneuvers available, enough that I would have liked to see a summary sheet of all of them included as one of the extras in the book. Having one for each player would cut down on tossing the rulebook back and forth to look up modifiers, particularly in the early stages of play. Once you've played through a few rounds, though, and all the oddball rules have come up at one time or another, you should have it pretty well sorted out, and play can proceed at a rapid pace.
A nice addition to the book is the arena-building section. There's a great selection of different environments, traps, and hazards to trick out your arena. I particularly like the rules for dealing with the pools of blood you end up with after dismembering or decapitating an opponent... (But then, I play all my FPS's with the maximum possible gore settings, too.)
If all that isn't enough, you get rules for 'career modes' of play, as well as pregenerated characters and 8 fold-up cardstock figures so you can start playing immediately.
How does it read?
CG is a fast, fun read, peppered with some short fiction bits which - while they won't exactly win the Pulitzer - add a bit of flavor.
How does it look?
CyborGladiators has a clean, easy to read layout, a distinctive design, and some nice interior art. The cover is the only disappointment here; it's technically good, but doesn't capture the spirit of the game in the way that the interior art does.
Is it worth it?
The hardest part about reviewing CyborGladiators was stopping long enough to write. It has all the addictive fun of a first-person-shooter... and on top of that, it's cheap! This one is a blast. Check it out.
For more details on Firefly Games and their new wargame "CyborGladiators" check them out at their website Firefly-Games.com, and at all of your local game stores.
(Product Summary)
CyborGladiator
From: Firefly Games
Type of Game: Wargame
Written by: David Pulver, Marc Vezina, Scott Bennie, and Patrick Sweeney
Cover Art by: Bart Willard
Interior Art by: Bart Willard and Richard Cox
Number of Pages: 62, plus a page of 8 cardstock minis
Retail Price: $14.95 (US)
Item Number: FGS 1004
ISBN: 0-9747671-0-7
Email: patrick@firefly-games.com
Website: Firefly-Games.com
Reviewed by: Butch Curry
