I asked a friend to review Quantum Flux: Unique Superscience Artifacts. He suddenly had a crisis in his life and can not finish it. I asked if I could post what he did do here and so is the review from Moses Wuldermuth:
Quantum Flux Unique Superscience Artifacts
By Derek Holland and the Skirmisher Game Development Group
A Mutant Future Compatible Product
First Impressions
This 60 page supplement for the “Mutant Future” post apocalyptic game system is only available as a pdf but immediately feels “heavy” on the screen, as if the text will go on forever. As a pdf only release, the publisher must have felt back cover text to be unnecessary, but I still miss it. Looking over the table of contents and reading the author’s foreword gives a clear indication that this is not any ordinary supplement. The 85 artifacts within its electronic pages are not for day-to-day use or beginning level of play.
Excerpt from the foreword:
“All the items in this book were designed with two idea pillars in mind: they were created using Ancient technology so advanced that it seems like magic and they’ve gone through Hell since the cataclysm.”
This is borne out, and the method used to generate these artifacts(and of course artifacts of your own design) isgiven in the final 2 pages, but to use their method,you must also have access to “Realms of Crawling Chaos”.
System Compatibility
“Unique Superscience Artifacts” assumes a high level of working knowledge of the “Mutant Future” and “Labyrinth Lords” rules as well as access to Skirmisher’s “Wisdom from the Wastelands” series and “d-Infinity” issue 6.
Rating: B
Content
It’s a lot to absorb and targeted for a very experienced ML. Most artifacts are extremely powerful, and some are really unusual. Some are extremely tiny, others extremely large.
Another excerpt from the forward:
“Some entries contain plot hooks, some describe NPCs, others provide adventure locations in broad strokes, some have all of the above. Each artifact can become a central plot point or continuing idea for a whole gaming session — or an entire campaign.”
Descriptions contain a lot of fluff, but the crunchy bits are mostly guidelines and suggestions. When specific game effects are given, they are in the form of mutational powers or magical spells that must be cross-referenced in either “Mutant Future” or “Labyrinth Lords’ Advanced Edition Companion”, respectively.
Rating: B
Layout
The work is laid out in two-columns of text and illustrations, with some half page illustrations here and there, but almost no tables or bullet points.
Editing
The text is nearly flawless, but you may want to keep a dictionary handy.
Rating: B
Artwork
The illustrations in this work are all in color but seem to come from a variety of sources. Though effort was made to make the images match stylistically, some seem to be hand drawn, some seem to be cgi and some appear to be altered photographs. Unfortunately, many look pixilated on the screen and therefore would not print very well.
Rating: C
Final Analysis
For a beginning or intermediate Mutant Lord, the book can be used to get ideas to flesh out his setting and help decide his campaigns ultimate outcome. If you are a Mutant Lord running a very high level campaign, this is the book you have been wanting but didn’t know it. At high-level of play you may wish you had known about some of these artifacts earlier as they require a little bit of pre-planning to implement.
Overall Rating: B
