Bubble Gum Crisis RPG

It's 2032. Mega-Tokyo stands on the ruins of the original city, which was destroyed years ago in the Second Great Kanto Earthquake. Rebuilding the city so quickly was only possible with the help of cyborg workers, known as Boomers, developed by the powerful Genom Corporation. But corruption in the Genom boardroom is causing chaos in the streets as the world's largest corporation uses any means at its disposal to advance its hidden agenda.

Now, a group of vigilantes known as the Knight Sabers works to thwart Genom's plans. Using powered armor and advanced weapons technology, the Knight Sabers are on a mission to reclaim the streets...

Bubble Gum Crisis is a classic, eight-part anime series, which should be available for rent at better Video stores everywhere. It spawned two other series, The AD Police Files and Bubble Gum Crash. It's near-future cyberpunk, with lots of motorcycles, orbital lasers, cyborgs, explosions, cops, ano women with big guns.

R. Talsorian Games will be releasing the Bubble Gum Crisis RPG in September. It will be a slick looking book, using original Japanese artwork. RTG is working closely with the Japanese to ensure that the game not only looks its best, but is also full of official BGC information.

Fans, whether they are gamers or not, will be lining up for this one. RTG is also planning on releasing Bubble Gum Crash and Armored Defense Police sourcebooks, too. Perhaps better still is the Bubble Gum Plus book, which will bring to light official BGC material from the vaults of the Japanese production crew. Release dates have not yet been scheduled for the sourcebooks, however.

The BGC line is based on the Fuzion RPG engine, which is a hybrid of RTG's Interlock and Hero Game's Champions systems. Fuzion games can be run at several levels of complexity, depending on the needs of the scenario.

On one extreme there are three stats; on the other there are ten. Characters are built with points instead of die rolls, and there are both d6 and d10-based task resolution rules. The Fuzion system is designed to be compatible with 4th Edition Champions, Mekton, and Cyberpunk. You can test-drive the ultra-simple Fuzion variant with the Mega Tokyo Combat Scuffle minigame, which you should be able to pick up for one buck or less at better game stores. In other RTG news, the Ninja High School RPG is on the way! A tie- in comic is expected to launch simultaneously. No release date has yet been set.

Babylon Project

The Babylon Project is the name for the Babylon 5 licensed RPG. It's being developed by Chameleon Eclectic, the publishers of Millenium's End, one of the best modern-day RPGs ever. the Babylon Project will, of course, be set in the science fiction universe of the Babylon 5 TV show, and will provide information on the running the show's characters, conflicts, and settings in an RPG format.

According to Chameleon Eclectic representatives, the rumors of The Babylon Project's engine being based on cards rather than dice are utterly unfounded; in fact the game uses a system which has been described as "FUDGElike." The system uses more stats than most RPGs today, having sixteen in four categories. Besides the usual suspects (Strength, Agility, etc.) you'll find gems like Finesse and Xenoralation.

The Babylon Project, like all B5 products, has to be approved by The Man, series creator J. Michael Straczynski. It's JMS's vision you see when you watch the television show, so it's great having him oversee the production of the RPG.

It looks like The Babylon Project will be both a terrific sourcebook for B5 fans, and a must-have for sci-fi gamers. Release is scheduled for October.

Exile

Exile is White Wolf's upcoming sci-fi RPG. No release date has been announced yet, and the materials our agents procured were very preliminary. More than one person was heard speculating that White Wolf rushed out the Exile preview rules in order to show something against Fading Suns, which is currently its most obvious competition. Whatever White Wolf's reasoning, their booth was packed all weekend with people who wanted a glimpse of the future.

Most of Exile's setting is still a closely-guarded secret, but the playtest rules did have almost 20 pages of information on the politics, technology, and races that will be found in the game. There were also embryonic character creation and task resolution systems. Here's a quick summary.

The game world is split between the Hegemony, a collection of 700 civilized star systems, and the Grange, the lawless space beyond. Your character used to be a citizen of the Hegemony, but has recently been exiled. Your offense? Perhaps you are a criminal, or a political dissident; perhaps the government of your world is just trying to meet its quota. Kicked off your home world and forced out of the Hegemony, you have to make the best of things in your new life as an Exile.

While most Exile games look as if they'll take place in the Grange, little information about it is currently available. Instead, White Wolf's preview covers the Hegemony and the factions that comprise it.

The Hegemony is a collection of Syndics, which are smaller governing bodies. Each Syndic has its own sphere of influence and "feet," rather like the Clans in Vampire. The following Syndics are listed in the Exile preview:

• Androgyne, artistic near-humans with strong mediation skills.
• Sark Sauron, pragmatic reptilian beings.
• Starborn, a line of humanity optimized for life in space.
• Armada, the stellar navy that defends the Hegemony.
• Diplomatic Service, the Hegemony's espionage agency.
• Bak'Sakusa, warrior spiritualists.
• Common Weal, steeped in tradition and ruled by aristocracy.
• Pax Republica, born of a bloody revolution by idealists and intellectuals.
• Consortium, the key figure in the galactic economy.
• Cartel, where greed and fear are the building blocks of interstellar organized crime.
• Zae Zatandt, anti-technology monks.
• Voidians, a religious Syndic who believe that individuals shape their own reality.
• Trancers, hedonists whose Syndic has been forced underground.

The game system used in Exile is not the familiar Storyteller system. Instead, the attributes - Vigor, Coordination, Presence, Expression, Reason, and Intuition - are rated from 1 to 100. Skills are rated on the same scale, and are grouped according to the controlling attribute. Task resolution is a simple roll-under system, but with a twist; the higher you roll - while remaining under your skill number - the better you perform.

For each 10 points you produce on a successful roll, you gain one "success." For example, if you have a Zero G skill of 55, and you produce a roll of 50, you have 5 successes that you can use to embellish your task. Successes can be burned, singly or as a group, for things like calling a shot.

Even though Exile doesn't use the Storyteller System, it still has White Wolf written all over it. During character creation you are expected to think about your family, your history, the reason for your exile, your political affiliation, and your character's drives. There are freebie points to spend, and background options to buy. Storyteller System fans will find enough familiar about Exile to quickly grow accustomed to it.

Overall, Exile is one of the most- anticipated upcoming releases, at least among the people clustered around the booth at GenCon. It's still too early to tell just what the final product will look like, but it sure looks like the White Wolf crew are on to something.