| The reviewer's words... | Thoughts of the author... |
| Hello Everyone- | |
| My name is Mr. Gollum, if you've never seen a review by me, it's because I never made one. But this will be the first of many. I have been on the internet 3 years now, so I've watched it evolve. I have been observing the newsgroups for two. I probably don't carry too much credibilty yet, but hope the gamers accept me with open arms. | |
| Okay, I choose this game because I have read a lot about it on the newsgroups, I gathered it was that good or that bad because it was in discussion a lot. It then occurred to me I actually was reading posts by the author responding to critics, which...bothered me, not saying it's a bad thing, but it's pretty unheard of to say the least. I kind of thought it was neat, almost like a forum of sorts. But what I read from the posts and the author himself did not make me rush out and buy this game, so let's just say it was a slow process. I indirectly bought the game off another gamer who has been low on funds and promised to buy me a better copy when he got back from college. | Well, we do try to let the news group people know about the game, and to answer their questions. |
| Now, as I get the book I look at it and say, that's it?!...it's just something printed at a print shop, but when I broke it down in my head, there are computer programs that charge thousands of dollars, but we aren't paying for the cd, we're paying for the content. So I'll skip past it. | Good point. |
| I glanced through it to start, seems organized, drawings are humorous, reminiscent of the 1st edition AD&D PHB. Funny, yet they demonstrate the point. I especially like the equipment drawing, it's a verser who seems to have versed into every possible era at some point, and the one of skills, shows versers aren't all human in a comic way. But nothing special, I visualize this book having painted illustrations in 20 years, if they last long enough. Which I hope so...and I'll tell you why. Here comes the part where I start reading. | Likes the drawings, such as they are. |
| In the opening we are made aware that the authors come from very different backgrounds, seems promising, one seems well-scholared (M. Joseph Young) the other seems well-adventured (E.R.Jones); neither are recognized gaming authors, this coming from a first-time critic. Which is one of the reasons I gave this one a shot, didn't think many reviewers jumped on it, when I last checked there were three I saw on their site, none of which are saying what I intend to. Anyway, I begin reading the game itself. I get the impression there will be a lot of thinking on my part, not a whole lot of picking up on this the first reading, but instead I may be deciphering a lot, which is not wrong, but makes it hard for any lazy referee. I notice at first the game uses a "play yourself" concept. I was never a fan of this because I got in conflicts with the referee on what I could and could not do, but during the test-play of it the two people who I ran through it using the First Book of Worlds (included in the set, review coming soon) there was no conflict whatsoever---maybe it was the way the author demonstrated in the rules how to do this, or just a stroke of pure luck. But it was laid out pretty smoothly, and just because you play yourself does not mean your abilities are set in stone, there are psionics, magic, and a lot of other things that come about after you get rolling. That alone made the players' reluctance to play themselves fizzle out. I read later in the book you could create a character, but I didn't tell the players that, I wanted it to stay interesting. | Indeed--although you start as yourself, the fact that you can become so much more makes it easy for players to accept their own limitations and then rise above them. |
| As the game started, the premise is to come up with a way to get players from the normal everyday world into the Multiverse. They are allowed equipment up to 200 lbs. (a bit much considering the gamers are both shy of 150 lbs.) and it got quite fun. One, a college student who delivers pizzas on the weekend, crashed her car in order to be transported to NagaWorld (in the First Book of Worlds); the next was in an elevator when the cable broke. | Good creative beginnings. |
| Normally I get upset when players can be seperated, but I made the exception here - both suffered different fates in NagaWorld and were seperated early on. Now before I start describing the game itself, I'll touch on game fundamentals. Referees---be prepared to spend a night creating characters, at the least, it is a very long process, but lack of record keeping there on out will only hurt in equipment. Scores should go up slowly and the referee will probably be able to keep track in his head (believe it or not). Equipment will probably come and go so fast it may become a problem, it's set up so versers will probably become pack rats. I have also failed to mention the background of versing is based on something called "scriff", which infects the versers causing them to jump from scenario to scenario after death, or other reasons, mainly death. It almost makes the game like Sliders but with different time periods, scenarios, universes...you name it, the backdrop for the setting is unlimited, which I feel is their selling point, an interesting one at that. | The best thing according to Mr. Bowzer is the unlimited possibilities for settings. |
| Next, comes the Skills feature which are what the ability scores is made up of. The authors hit the nail on the head in creating something that covers everything, but requires reading over a few times before play to grasp. I am not sure this is something anyone could actually grasp in any written format. I liked how the premise for psionics is not categorized but is more like customizable. It's a good idea considering psionics is based in the mind, so you should use your mind. Next, is magic, which is the same set up as psionics, but doesn't work as well. I think it's a shame the authors are so set on claims of only one rule book for $50, they could've put out something similar to the Player's Option-style books giving more in-depth magic concepts (maybe they'll read this and expand on it on their site). | O.K., I'll take that invitation. We could have published multiple necessary book; probably could've done it in four or five necessary $20 to $25 booklets. We'd like you to be able to play for less than $80 to $125--that's what the other companies charge for their games, but more than we want to pay. |
| Also, upon playing the game I noticed combat flowed averagely, but was very detailed, almost to the point where we felt like surgeons narrating a pit fight. A spider-like creature fought one of our players and it ended pretty fast with the player on the short-end of the stick. Pretty lame? No, in any other game it'd bore us to death, in this game death makes for more creativity. Though we haven't got to it yet, the chapter which covers insanity is unlike any other coverage I've ever seen and made me look twice to see if either authors were educated in Psych. It will be fun to do just looking at it and I am looking at the perfect moment to plug it in. Another selling point added to the claims of the people promoting it, is it's compatibility to all other games. It was easily done with numbers, but since I am not running the game with the first characters we converted from Alternity (which I'll also be reviewing) until the Friday following my review I am not absolutely sure how well it flows. Although, I don't think it will run much different except in ways of scores, combat should also be a more interesting feature, I like combat in this game more than Alternity and will make Alternity better yet. I also liked the fact that, "non-creative GMs need not apply". In other words, the more interesting the referee, the better this game gets, the Book of Worlds provides a good layout, but it is suggested you could take anything into Multiverser (movies, books, etc.) I eagerly await running something along the lines of Predator (the first one). | There's a lot there that he likes--combat, life after death, insanity materials, interfacing with other games, and flexibility. He seems to have compared Multiverser favorably to the latest game from one of the big companies. |
| GMs will have a great time with "bias" which is what infects equipment from outside world, they can actually make custom events to happen to players. For example: a Colt .45 in the wild west-type scenario can shoot ketchup in a world instead of bullets if the GM chooses. Also, different worlds have different bias attached, so some worlds are more likely to have it than others. | He likes the Bias concept, although his example is a bit extreme. |
| A lot of complaints have surfaced the authors have made a game that endorses Christianity in some way. I am not sure I concluded the same, I did get the hint of monotheism, not Christianity. Besides, the rules are as such where this can be "customed" out. And to have Christianity mixed in a book that contains supernatural abilities would also seem hypocritical especially coming from the fact one of the writers is a theological scholar. So I will forget these things have been said, it seems irrelevant. | Thank you--yes, the game endorses an ethical monotheism as a framework for a systtem in which all theories of the supernatural are in some sense real in some worlds. It does not require a "Christian" world view to play. |
| My biggest complaint is you can't get this in stores, I am not confident in mail order enough, but I have not heard any bad feedback on their shipping. I also emailed once and got a polite response within a DAY (didn't even get an automated response!). As I look back on this review I am trying to say more bad things because a really light review is not my style but I can't, I wish the other companies would take notice because I feel this book is going places. I hope it does, I want a Book of Worlds Vol. 2. This is the best module ever developed(more on upcoming review, sorry). | We do hope that we'll be able to get it into many more stores over time, and to publish our second book of worlds soon; and we do answer all electronic mail quickly--after all, that's the point of the electronic mail concept. |
| Style: 3 (Average) | O.K., our presentation wasn't any better--or worse--than most. |
| Substance: 5 (Excellent!) | I think that means we published a great game in an average quality package. |
The original review was posted on RPG.net, and forwarded to us. He later reviewed The Second Book of Worlds, which he enjoyed even more, and our free download world, Orc Rising.
The Multiverser Information Center