Welcome back to the Gaslands PIT Crew!
Today we're going to be talking about the new edition of Gaslands,
Gaslands: Refueled!
First Impression:
Okay, just looking at the book itself,
it looks really well done. Hardback, high quality magazine paper...
Yeah. My first copy of the rules got wet, so I'm happy to see this
better quality product here. It looks like they did a good job of
including everything from the Time Extendeds done so far. Oh, new
Sponsors! Looks very well laid out... Okay, maybe not. They're still
doing the “basic” and “advanced” nonsense that annoys me. It
makes it really hard to refer back to stuff that you need. And having
to remember if the vehicle or weapon is “basic” or “advanced”
is not something conducive to easy play.
What's New?
There's two new (totally new)
scenarios. One involves giant bugs and lizards and the other is a
bunch of helicopters duking it out in the ruins of London.
There's a bunch of new sponsors, which
had been mentioned. Here's a brief list and some thoughts:
Verney -
I get the feeling that this sponsor is
inspired by the Death Race remake version of Frankenstein. It looks
like the sponsor is for folks who want tough, strong vehicles that
aren't easy to take out. Probably looking at trucks and the like.
Maxxine -
At the core, it looks like a variation
of Miyazaki's style of play, maybe with a dash of Slime. Not sure
what to make of them quite yet, I'm going to need to play a game or
two with this sponsor before I can nail them down.
The Order of the Inferno -
This appears to be an off-shoot of the
Cult of Speed, but with all the fire, all of the time. I made some
“fire crew” teams a while back, but I'm thinking that these guys
might be more in line with that concept now. It's all about fire
here. Being on fire. Other vehicles of fire. Staying on fire. Yeah.
Beverly -
I like this concept because I've been
wanting to pick up a Ghost Rider car for shits and giggles, but now I
can actually build a list around that car. Beyond, you know, it
looking cool. The core of this group has one real car and a bunch of
ghost cars. The ghost cars can't be harmed, and I don't think they
can harm other cars, but they can collect Soul Tokens that can passed
to the real car and help repair it. So, a really cool idea. Not sure
if it's going to work in practice.
Rusty's -
A bunch of hillbillies with War Rigs
and trailers. That's it. I mean, there is more to it, as they have a
bunch of different trailers they can hook up to Middle and Heavy
vehicles, but there's not much more to them.
Of course, where there's new Sponsors,
there's new Perk classes. Let's break them down:
Built -
This one seems to be for... Well, I
have no idea, really. These Perks are all over the place, with no
real theme. Some seem to be for big vehicles, others for fast ones,
and so on. Very situational stuff.
Horror -
This one seems to be about taking
damage to deal damage, mostly fire damage.
Reckless -
Hazard Tokens galore! And fire.
There's a pair of new weapons, a new
dropped Napalm template weapon and the Wall of Amplifiers. That one
is clearly a reference to Fury Road and I'm okay with it. They also
added the Roll Cage as an upgrade, which I was looking at doing
myself. I'm not sure I agree with the point cost, I think it's a
little expensive, but at least I don't have to worry about it
anymore.
The most important thing is rules for
ramps! Finally! They're pretty simple, but they're there, which is
what a lot of people have been asking for.
What's Gone?
First thing I found that disappointed
me was the lost of the APC. I liked that unit. I had a few and now I
don't know what I'm going to do. I suppose I can remake them using
Heavy Trucks...
Jeeps are also gone, which is a shame.
They were great for Rutherford lists, both thematically and
mechanically.
Most everything else seems to be there,
even if a few things have minor tweaks and changes.
What's Changed?
There's a quick list in the Gaslands
design blog, but one of the big ones is that rockets no longer have
Blast. The Experimental Nuclear Engine and Experimental Teleporter
are now upgrades, so there's some changes to the Technology Perks
list. Speed also got some changes as well. The only sponsor with
major changes is Slime, who's almost completely redone.
Most of the rest of the stuff is minor,
so I'm going to point you again to the Update entry on the Design
Blog for Gaslands.
From what I've seen so far, most of the
changes made to the rules are purely clarifications and streamlining.
And these are good changes. I don't know how many times, per games,
I've been confused by the wording. I had the HARDEST time figuring
out how collisions worked until I sat down and played the game.
Miniguns appear to have dropped a point
from 6 to 5.
One important thing is you can now
Evade explosions. That kind of sucks, as my Drag Racer rolling bombs
don't work as well, but I do think this is a good change.
In Conclusion:
I'm not happy about having to print out
and glue down another half dozen sets of Dashboards. However, the new
Dashboards are much more condensed and won't waste as much paper. And
also include the basic rules for the type of vehicle, as well as
space at the top to give them names.
Everything else? I'm okay with it. The
tweaks and changes needed to happen. The new sponsors and perks are
good, or so it looks right now, and having everything in one book is
nice.
If you've been playing Gaslands, you'll
want to pick this up.
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