Just got the german version of the book - the new cover looks great, much better than the one of the english version (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) But the weapon pictures range from good to crappy, especially in the melee weapons part. Why can't only one artist be hired to do all pictures? I know that much art is recycled from older editions, but the resulting mix of styles looks bad.

Hey! I happen to like the English cover, ork Suicide Girls with anti-tank missiles rock!

I'd have to say the art is a mix primarily for financial reasons and also because it's notoriously hard to find good RPG artists on the cheap. CGL also hires a lot of freelancers so I'm sure it's hard to get a single person who's willing to commit to and undertaking like that. I mean... especially for Arsenal, that's a lot of goddamn art.

anyone got a shot of the german cover?

There you go.

Not going to lie, I like our cover better.

Is there a different German augmentation cover?

Iirc there had been no decision made yet. But would be nice, I don't like the english cover.

meh, i think i prefer the english one (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I'm not a fan of the english Augmentation cover either. It's too plastic-y and Poser like.

Arsenal though, I love. And I ain't an ork kinda guy (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Yeah, not a fan of Aug's cover.

The problem with arsenal is that it basically straight powers up your game across the board. FFBA in particular is a 'duh' moment. But it has some cool stuff - martial arts in particular makes melee fighters viable characters.

But I'd get street magic and augmentation over it, straight up.

like augmentation or street magic is not a power up (move-by-wire, more initiation tricks, adept powers).

And uh... isn't that kind of the point of expansion books? To give players somewhere to go after they've bought everything in the core rulebook?

Arsenal's my table's favorite, everyone from the mage to hacker can find something they could use or would help flesh out their character. Securtech PPP can be kinda twinky but it also helps squishy characters die less quickly so it all even outs.

Besides, if the PC's can get it so can the opposition, it all balances.

Have to agree here with a caveat that I thought that the martial arts rules aren't written well so a smart player will just mix and match the best bits from multiple martial arts (like every PC we've made since the book came out).

I give it a straight C+ grade for blatant fan service power creep and so many nonsensical factual errors as to make the firearm modification section a complete farce.

Whoa! I might have to print that out and tape it over my Arsenal cover.

If they just add dp to everyone, since everyone needs them, then that's a sign the item design failed. Making everyone buy new stuff just so they stay the same is stupid.

Not from a marketing standpoint.

Chris

I think that Augmentation and Street Magic add more to the game than Arsenal. Aug and SM have their share of "powerups" (which are hopefully not as overpowered as additional material in many other games) but they also give character new ways to do things (drone hand or possession traditions for example). Arsenal has a few of these, but has mostly "powerups". Besides while both SM and Aug have interesting fluff parts, Arsenal has just a quite useless (in my opinion) chapter about black market.

I am not saying that Arsenal is a bad book, but most of its content will help you munchkinize an existing character more than it'll give you new character concepts.

If only all new stuff would add options with advantages and drawbacks, and not straight power ups.

Bleh. Not a fan. I'll stick with my Anglophone cover.

I completely agree here..

In order of usefulness I'd go

BBB
Runner's Companion
Arsenal
Street Magic
Unwired
Augmentation

I know there's a lot of cool stuff in Aug... but aside from customized cyberlimbs... I rarely put anything else from it in any of my cybered or bio'd characters. The stuff I care about in character creation is all in BBB now.

plus ca change... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smokin.gif)

It doesn't have to come with drawbacks, there just has to be some sort of choice. Move by wire isn't that huge a powerup because its expensive, and you know, synaptic boosters may actually be better. There is actually a viable set of reasons to take either of them

Okay a couple of the spirits in SM are probably straight up better than the basic ones, but atleast I can pretend hey.

On the flip side, FFBA just makes everyones dicepools bigger. Hurray. Yuo have two choices

A) Wear FFBA

B) Suck. Or wear milspec, but that really isn't that much of a choice of 95% of the games.

Just read in the Pegasus-boards that they'll bring up a new cover for the german version of Augmentation.

I thought Arsenal was good. More gear is always fun, and more bigger guns is EXTRA fun. But yeah, I agree that the weapon drawings in Arsenal are more than a little disappointing. A lot of them are low-res copies from older sourcebooks, and consequently the weapon drawings don't have any sort of consistent feel. That's my only gripe with the book, and it's really a pretty minor one. Other than that, anything you don't like about it, just don't allow in your group.

My personal favorite Arsenal pic is the Scout holdout pistol without a trigger guard so if a character (re)holsters it they shoot themselves.

Whee! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/indifferent.gif)