The Great Maze

Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile addition to your Deadlands library.
Review: In 1868, the Great Quake rumbled through California. The entire coast shook itself apart and tumbled into the Pacific Ocean, and all the land nearby was torn apart by deep chasms. Ocean water rushed into these chasms, forming the Great Maze. Since then, the Maze has become the most lively, diverse, and dangerous part of the Weird West. It holds a fortune in gold, silver, and ghost rock, but it's rough and lawless territory with many powerful groups struggling for control. Only the toughest and smartest survive long enough to prosper.

The Deadlands Player's Guide contains enough basic information about the Maze to get you through a short visit to the area, but the Great Maze boxed set adds a lot of depth and color. If you are a marshal and you plan to write your own stories based in California, figure on picking up a copy sooner or later. It covers all the details of life in the Maze, so when you create the world for your posse it will be more compelling and realistic. If you are a member of the posse, you can start by borrowing your marshal's copy, but you'll probably want to get your own eventually. There are plenty of things in there to keep you interested.

The boxed set has half a dozen parts. The most important one is a 128-page sourcebook titled The Great Maze. It begins by covering some practical matters, like where the miners get fresh water and what they do with their ghost rock after they chisel it out of the ground. Then the book moves on to talk about the geography of the Maze, including details about certain places of interest. A whole chapter is devoted to the Chinese residents of California. The city of Shan Fan is run by a syndicate called Hsieh Chia Jen. There are also petty warlords, Chinese pirates, and even a Shaolin temple. Another chapter covers the city of Lost Angels, which is the most important port in the Maze. Other chapters contain information about the Native Americans in the area, common types of ships in the Maze, and the armies of the Union, the Confederacy, and Mexico. Along the way, the book introduces a lot of interesting characters that could pop up in your stories. Plus, there are four new character archetypes and eight new abominations.

The set also includes two smaller books. One is titled, Field Report #325: The Chinese Fighting Arts. It begins with a few pages about Chinese culture, and then gives you everything you need to build a martial artist, including new edges, hinderances, apptitudes, and special powers. The other small book is an adventure titled "Pass the Salt," which will have the posse chasing all over the Maze and meeting some of the major characters from the sourcebook.

In addition to the books, the set comes with a color map of the City of Lost Angels and the surrounding area. It also has layouts for two styles of boats that are common in the Maze, which you can use to stage water battles with miniatures.

To tell the truth, there's no reason for all of this to come in a box. The set doesn't include dice, or miniatures, or any other oddly shaped hunks of plastic that would rattle around. The folks at Pinnacle could have easily combined the two smaller books into the sourcebook, and sold it in shrink-wrap to keep the other loose bits of paper together. But since they've produced such an awesome line of games, maybe we can cut them a little slack.

No matter what style of game you're running, the Great Maze makes an excellent backdrop. Not only does it bristle with nifty plot hooks, but it's a completely new and fascinating landscape to explore. If you plan to spend a lot of time playing Deadlands, you should find a reason to head in that direction for a while. If you are brand new to the Deadlands system, then there are two or three essential core books that you'll need to buy first; but once you have those, The Great Maze boxed set will make a worthwhile addition to your library.

Rating:
Summary: A worthwhile addition to your Deadlands library.
Review: In 1868, the Great Quake rumbled through California. The entire coast shook itself apart and tumbled into the Pacific Ocean, and all the land nearby was torn apart by deep chasms. Ocean water rushed into these chasms, forming the Great Maze. Since then, the Maze has become the most lively, diverse, and dangerous part of the Weird West. It holds a fortune in gold, silver, and ghost rock, but it's rough and lawless territory with many powerful groups struggling for control. Only the toughest and smartest survive long enough to prosper.

The Deadlands Player's Guide contains enough basic information about the Maze to get you through a short visit to the area, but the Great Maze boxed set adds a lot of depth and color. If you are a marshal and you plan to write your own stories based in California, figure on picking up a copy sooner or later. It covers all the details of life in the Maze, so when you create the world for your posse it will be more compelling and realistic. If you are a member of the posse, you can start by borrowing your marshal's copy, but you'll probably want to get your own eventually. There are plenty of things in there to keep you interested.

The boxed set has half a dozen parts. The most important one is a 128-page sourcebook titled The Great Maze. It begins by covering some practical matters, like where the miners get fresh water and what they do with their ghost rock after they chisel it out of the ground. Then the book moves on to talk about the geography of the Maze, including details about certain places of interest. A whole chapter is devoted to the Chinese residents of California. The city of Shan Fan is run by a syndicate called Hsieh Chia Jen. There are also petty warlords, Chinese pirates, and even a Shaolin temple. Another chapter covers the city of Lost Angels, which is the most important port in the Maze. Other chapters contain information about the Native Americans in the area, common types of ships in the Maze, and the armies of the Union, the Confederacy, and Mexico. Along the way, the book introduces a lot of interesting characters that could pop up in your stories. Plus, there are four new character archetypes and eight new abominations.

The set also includes two smaller books. One is titled, Field Report #325: The Chinese Fighting Arts. It begins with a few pages about Chinese culture, and then gives you everything you need to build a martial artist, including new edges, hinderances, apptitudes, and special powers. The other small book is an adventure titled "Pass the Salt," which will have the posse chasing all over the Maze and meeting some of the major characters from the sourcebook.

In addition to the books, the set comes with a color map of the City of Lost Angels and the surrounding area. It also has layouts for two styles of boats that are common in the Maze, which you can use to stage water battles with miniatures.

To tell the truth, there's no reason for all of this to come in a box. The set doesn't include dice, or miniatures, or any other oddly shaped hunks of plastic that would rattle around. The folks at Pinnacle could have easily combined the two smaller books into the sourcebook, and sold it in shrink-wrap to keep the other loose bits of paper together. But since they've produced such an awesome line of games, maybe we can cut them a little slack.

No matter what style of game you're running, the Great Maze makes an excellent backdrop. Not only does it bristle with nifty plot hooks, but it's a completely new and fascinating landscape to explore. If you plan to spend a lot of time playing Deadlands, you should find a reason to head in that direction for a while. If you are brand new to the Deadlands system, then there are two or three essential core books that you'll need to buy first; but once you have those, The Great Maze boxed set will make a worthwhile addition to your library.

Rating:
Summary: The Great Maze
Review: This book is quite an amazing piece of literature. It contains martial arts rules for anyone who's ever wanted to be jackie chan and it also has tons of info on the great maze and to top it all of it contains and full lenth adventure for your posse. This book is definitely worth the moola.