Horizon: Redline

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but close enough.
Review: REDLINE is the first of Fantasy Flight Games' new Horizons line of d20-compatible products. Regardless of whether Horizons was inspired by the (uniformly excellent) d20 minigames published in POLYHEDRON, the format is very similar. Like SPYCRAFT, but only weighing in at 62 pages, REDLINE is a d20 mod that replaces races with backgrounds that influence ability scores and supplants the D&D core classes with ones appropriate to the setting. What is that setting? REDLINE features the apocalypse, MAD MAX-style.

There have been post-apocalyptic d20 games before. DARWIN'S WORLD was one of the very first, but it had a far more GAMMA WORLD feel to it - reflected in the name, really - than REDLINE. This release wants to put character behind the wheels of high-powered vehicles cruising the ruined highways of some nameless desert, fighting with speed tribes and the irradiated detritus of a shattered civilization. Just a cursory flip through the classes reveals the heavy influence of movies like THE ROAD WARRIOR, with classes that map directly to Mad Max and his mohawk-wearing nemesis, Wez, from that film. One could even play a version of the Feral Kid without much difficulty.

The standard d20 skill list has been tweaked to fit the genre, and the list of feats has likewise been altered. It looks as though REDLINE is well on its way to establishing the definitive junkheap future for d20, but the wheels come off the minute one hits the section of vehicles and vehicle combat.

Anyone who's seen one of George Miller's Max films knows that combat between, in and on vehicles is an important part of the movies' feel. For about half of REDLINE's page count, the book's three authors seem to grasp the tenets of this action/SF hybrid genre. But when vehicles come into play, REDLINE suddenly becomes a d20 version of CAR WARS, complete with heavily-modified vehicles sporting all manner of advanced weaponry. This is a far cry from the crossbow-wielding minions of The Humungus, or even the speed demons of the near-future MAD MAX. This radical shift in tone nearly ruins the product.

REDLINE recovers from this serious misstep, though the rest of the book remains a tad shaky. Setting ideas are painted with broad strokes - which is fine, really, for a product of this length - and a few highly inappropriate mutated monsters find a spot near the tail end, along with information on dealing with "The Creep," a catchall term for what nastiness lingers from the apocalypse, be that fallout, biological contamination, or whatever.

Despite its flaws, REDLINE is still fantastic stuff. The artwork is (mostly) quite evocative and the character types perfect for restaging the high-speed adventures of THE ROAD WARRIOR and MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME. The short format of the book doesn't allow the authors to go wild with extraneous fluff, and means that page for page the value is there. One wishes that the vehicle combat rules had been seriously rethought, but given the strengths of the other material, this oversight can be forgiven.

Rating:
Summary: Not perfect, but close enough.
Review: REDLINE is the first of Fantasy Flight Games' new Horizons line of d20-compatible products. Regardless of whether Horizons was inspired by the (uniformly excellent) d20 minigames published in POLYHEDRON, the format is very similar. Like SPYCRAFT, but only weighing in at 62 pages, REDLINE is a d20 mod that replaces races with backgrounds that influence ability scores and supplants the D&D core classes with ones appropriate to the setting. What is that setting? REDLINE features the apocalypse, MAD MAX-style.

There have been post-apocalyptic d20 games before. DARWIN'S WORLD was one of the very first, but it had a far more GAMMA WORLD feel to it - reflected in the name, really - than REDLINE. This release wants to put character behind the wheels of high-powered vehicles cruising the ruined highways of some nameless desert, fighting with speed tribes and the irradiated detritus of a shattered civilization. Just a cursory flip through the classes reveals the heavy influence of movies like THE ROAD WARRIOR, with classes that map directly to Mad Max and his mohawk-wearing nemesis, Wez, from that film. One could even play a version of the Feral Kid without much difficulty.

The standard d20 skill list has been tweaked to fit the genre, and the list of feats has likewise been altered. It looks as though REDLINE is well on its way to establishing the definitive junkheap future for d20, but the wheels come off the minute one hits the section of vehicles and vehicle combat.

Anyone who's seen one of George Miller's Max films knows that combat between, in and on vehicles is an important part of the movies' feel. For about half of REDLINE's page count, the book's three authors seem to grasp the tenets of this action/SF hybrid genre. But when vehicles come into play, REDLINE suddenly becomes a d20 version of CAR WARS, complete with heavily-modified vehicles sporting all manner of advanced weaponry. This is a far cry from the crossbow-wielding minions of The Humungus, or even the speed demons of the near-future MAD MAX. This radical shift in tone nearly ruins the product.

REDLINE recovers from this serious misstep, though the rest of the book remains a tad shaky. Setting ideas are painted with broad strokes - which is fine, really, for a product of this length - and a few highly inappropriate mutated monsters find a spot near the tail end, along with information on dealing with "The Creep," a catchall term for what nastiness lingers from the apocalypse, be that fallout, biological contamination, or whatever.

Despite its flaws, REDLINE is still fantastic stuff. The artwork is (mostly) quite evocative and the character types perfect for restaging the high-speed adventures of THE ROAD WARRIOR and MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME. The short format of the book doesn't allow the authors to go wild with extraneous fluff, and means that page for page the value is there. One wishes that the vehicle combat rules had been seriously rethought, but given the strengths of the other material, this oversight can be forgiven.