Written by Charles Ryan
$20/200 pages

When it was time to decide on whar kind of adventure I wanted to design for my next gaming session, the choice was pretty limited "Spaceships or dragons?" I couldn't envision anything other than something in the fantasy or science fiction genre as having any real merit. The real world is just too mundane to have cool adventures in. After all, if it were so exciting, why pursue an escapist hobby like gaming? I had taken a look at some of the games in the "modern day" genre, and they all seemed too formulaic or otherwise limiting --until I encountered Millennium's End.

Chameleon Eclectic has created in Millennium's End a truly inspired game. It makes a powerful argument for running modern-day adventures. It plays on the strengths of the setting, providing lots of background information and well-balanced game mechanics underneath.

The true setting of Millennium's End isn't quite the world as we know it. Rather, it is a dark reflection of our world where natural resources are terribly scarce, terrorism is everywhere, brush wars are erupting all across the globe, and even the strongest political ties are unraveling. The world is descending through an epic downward spiral, and the players find themselves as a cell operative for an agency operating at the front lines.

The players work for "BlackEagle", an "investigations firm" for hire that is involved with assignments ranging from missing persons and search and rescue to corporate spying and outright paramilitary actions. The players may find themselves diving to the ocean floor to recover sensitive items, investigating serial murders raiding overseas drug labs, or even putting third. world political figures in their gunsights.

When BlackEagle takes on a job, it is passed on to its various cells of operatives. The players are members of one such cell, usually only aware of each other's identities and perhaps a few-others in the organization. This arrangement lends itself well to the "adventuring party" method of play, and gives good cause for the GM to introduce certain NPCs as needed.

Too many games these days have made terrible compromises in the depth of their game system in favor of "playability". The problem with such systems is that they lend themselves more to gaming rather than performing actions. Millennium's End does an admirable job of creating a system that reflects the many pros and cons of the characters' options. It creates enough realism to make players think in terms of what to do if they really did find themselves in a particular situation yet doesn't disrupt the natural pace of the game.

Character development reflects this trend. Characters have 10 basic attributes, and are further fleshed out by the addition of 15 secondary attributes and "talent bases" -- which are dependent on the scores of the basic attributes. These give a good sense for a PCs aptitudes.

The game makes very good consideration of details, and goes to some length to explain them in understandable terms. When covering weapons, the game explains the difference between different types of bullets, explosives, weapons silencers etc. Each covers the advantages and disadvantages and where one type is considered more appropriate than another. The world itself is explained well, both chronologically over the past few years and politically -- explaining each country's domestic and international affairs.

Even car chases are given a nice treatment, with rules explaining what actions a driver may take and a set of driving-specific skill resolutions and failure tables. Background on the Internet's role in the game as well as the Americaspecific GenNet and how it enters the game is given. A selection of weapons is provided that reflects both currently available mundane and exotic weapons, as well as a few prototypes that haven't made inroads yet in our world but may be encountered in the Millennium's End world. Finally, terrorist groups and competing firms are described somewhat to help show potential. adversaries and their goals. Clearly, GMs are given plenty of useful material to draw scenario ideas and other inspiration from.

However, one of the most important contributions of the entire game is in its to-hit tables and hit-location system. Simply put, it really doesn't have any. What Millennium's End does is provide a series of generic character figures in typical action poses, divided into segments representing the different body parts that might be hit. A couple of transparencies are provided which have a few large circles and a cluster of numbered points in each. When somebody makes an attack (fires a shot, etc.) the GM picks the circle and figure appropriate for the range of the attack and the target's profile at that point. If the target is behind some sort of cover, a piece of paper (or paper cutouts) can be used to represent whatever areas are masked by the cover. Finally the player places the center point of the circle on the point he is aiming for.

If the roll totally succeeds, then that spot is indeed hit. However, if he fails the spot hit is the one whose number matches the amount by which the shot was missed. The numbers increase from 0 on upwards, becoming progressively further out from the center until the shot is finally declared a total miss. The elegance of this system cannot be overstated. Not only is it quick and simple, but it allows for resolving a to-hit roll, the hit-location, recover modifiers, called shots, and degree-of-failure all at the same time.

It also is a lot of fun to use, as players consider their angles and decide where to shoot with a method that lets them see exactly what they're getting into rather than trying to mentally calculate whether the modifiers would be best for one Icind of shot or another. This is one tool that truly deserves to be emulated by all role-playing and tactical combat games.

Millenium's End uses the tapestry of our world as the background, it's decay and impending collapse as the setting, and the players as people embroiled deeply in the events that may ultimately shape the future. It allows for great flexibility in creating adventures, provides large amounts of information on the technology and groups in it, and runs realistically, yet smoothly. In the gaming scene, games have been continually compromised for one ideal or another. Nevertheless, Millenium's End does remarkably well in maintaining a balanced system, wrapped up by a rapid-fire world on the verge of disaster.

Terror/Counterterror:
A Milenium End Supplement

reviewed by Matt Staroscik

$15/143 pages

Once again, Chameleon Eclectic has hit the mark with Terror/CounterTerror. This wellresearched, well-written sourcebook will be a boon to anyone running a game in a modern- day or near-future setting. Fifteen terrorise organizations and six counterterrorist groups are covered in detail; dozens more terrorist organizations are summarized in a six-page table.

To keep informatron on terrorist organizations compartmentalized, each entry is divided into two parts. The first part is designed to be read by the players, and is formatted like a BlackEagle research report. Such reports contain basic information on the goals, methods, and resources of the terrorist or counterterrorist group. In the case of the terrorist organizations, the repotts also contain a number of intentional errors and oversights. The second part of the entry ("The Real Scoop") is for the GM's eyes only. The Real Scoop corrects the intentional errors and adds numerous details to the entry. Typically, the GM will have access to a detailed history of the organization, information on the leaders, and current operations.

NPC archetypes are also used to profile terrorist squads that PCs may encounter. For example, a typical cell of the "Aryan Soldiers" consists of one Charismatic Leader, one HighEnd Grunt, one Guerilla, and two to eight Cheap Thugs. Some NPC archetypes are provided in Terror/CounterTerror while some are found in the Millenium's End core rules.

While each terrorist entry is approximately four pages, the counterterrorist material is much thinner. Six groups are listed, with the British SAS receiving the largest entry. The American Delta squad and the FBI Hostage Rescue Team each recieve a mere two pages.

Other resources are provided, including maps of a terrorist training camp and a 747-400. There is also an excellent discussion of terrorism in general -- how groups are organized, their methods of attack, and the types of ideologies that are their motivating force. This interesting, thought-provoking material should be required reading for anyone running an RPG involving terrorism.

While it would have been nice to see more information on countertertorist squads, Terror/CounterTerror is still a great product. The reports provided are representarive of what other intelligence or security agencies might provide to their operatives, making the sourcebook useful for any modern-day or nearfuture game. While the material is all well-researched,Terror/ CounterTerror does not pretend to be a scholarly study of tenorism. The authors have invented plenty of material -- and to their credit most of it sounds plausible, blurting the line between fantasy and reality. It's also important to keep in mind that the world of 1999 in Millenium's End is a much darker place than the world of today. While not exactly "cyberpunk", it does incorporate some of that genre's themes, such as urban decay, skyrocketing crime, and corporate corruption. This does not dilute the qualitv or utility of the Terror/CounterTerror sourcebook however, which remains a one-of-a-kind resource.