Title: Gatecrasher
Company: Hot Tub Dragon Games
Category: RPG System
Reviewer: Dirk DeJong

Once more a small unknown has ventured into realms untouched or abandoned by the major publishers and come out with a game. Gatecrasher is the latest attempt to merge fantasy and hard Sci-Fi. Touted as a high tech/high fantasy game by Hot Tub Dragon (HTD), it's an amalgam of the innovative and the incompatible.

Gatecrasher's unusual genre can be used for almost any length of campaign, long term or session-by-session. Placed in our Solar System 100 years after an accident opened a gate between universes, it attempts to meld the opposing worlds of fantasy, with spells and dragons, and high-tech, with blasters and spaceships.

Gatecrasher's system are based on Tech Levels (TL). There are three types: (1) TL Area (TLA), the technology that can be found in an area, (2) TL Magical (TLM), the highest technology that a magic-user's magic can effect, and (3) TL Restricted (TLR), the highest technology that can work in an area without acting up. The US is at TLA "L". At TLM "L", you could enchant your Mac. At TLM "D", you could only enchant your socks. And at TLR "D", just try starting your Mac. Incidentally, a high TLM allows you to run over most technology with your magic, but the higher the TLM, the less magic available. Likewise, a low TLR can stop you from using high-tech to kill anyone with magic. The few places with high TLA AND high TLR, that don't shoot magicians, allow for a strange mix of magic and tech.

There are several character classes, each with advantages and disadvantages, but many disadvantages can be mitigated by proper character design. Character races range from elves and angels, complete with wings and halos, to cyborgs and robots. A bonus is that different character races get varying supernatural or special abilities.

For the techies among you, there's an adequate but limited list of gadgets. Still, all possible variations of each item couldn't be covered, so, if you want a difference between a TL "S" and a TL "X" blaster, make your own versions.

For magic-users, the magic system combines the expected and the unexpected. First, it's like the tech area - adequate but limited. Second things like the supernatural powers of most characters, especially the elemental races, help make each character unique. And third, there are no cleric classes, nor real alignment limitations, except for techies using magic and vice-versa.

The monster lists are average, but the Random Icky Things Table merits a special note. When you're attacked by 40 or 50 Golf Balls from Hell you'll understand.

On Gatecrasher's downside: (1) HTD positioned it as a comedy game, but it's too complex and serious to ever be a real comedy game. (2) The difference between magic and tech is sharp, each hating the presence of the other. So, mixed groups have a limited number of places to play. (3) Techies can have a field day, as all penalties for flouting alignment only affect magical abilities. (4) The many rule exceptions, tables, and abbreviations makes finding and reading the rules for combat between a wizard and a starship trooper an exercise in patience. Granted, you'll learn the abbreviations and there is a listing of them; but the rules exceptions scattered throughout the book without organization can be frustrating. However, a promised errata section should correct the rules problems and ambiguities found.

Overall, Gatecrasher is a good first game from a new small company, better than many put out by the big companies. While not for everyone, the uniqueness of the system, limitations and all, and the attention to the details needed to flesh it out, have made this a worthwhile addition to anybody's collection wanting to have a go at playing an angel in power armor, or a spaceman with an enchanted starship.

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