Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN num: 9781894938013
ISBN number: 1894938011
Label: Guardians of Order
Manufacturer: Guardians of Order
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: October 25, 2004
Publishing house: Guardians of Order
Sale Popularity Level: 557487
Studio: Guardians of Order
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Ex Machina d20 is the ultimate cyberpunk genre and setting book for the d20 System! In addition to an extensive treatment of cyberpunk role-playing rules and options, this hardcover book features four dynamic and distinct settings that range from the grim-and-gritty far future to a dystopian world 90 minutes from now.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
Plain and simple, this sistem rocks! A bit difficult at start, due to massive details on each stat and its usage, but when you get it, a whole new world of opportunities lies at your feet! I was a big fan of Cyberpunk 2020, but now i would NEVER came back to that sistem, now that i know of Ex Machina.
A little defect: there is no charachter sheet, you gotta do it yourself. Do'h! :-/
Rated by buyers -
Ex Machina Review:
Ever look at Cyberpunk games and think, ?Oh ma Gosh! Like, gag me with a spoon, like, this is so like yesterday.? Let's face it, the genre is so Big Hair, Culture Club, Japan Inc, Duran Duran, Ramones, and leg warmer'd out it's just sad. I look at Cyberpunk and I think; ?why is there an image of Richard Simmons sweating to the Replicants in my mind??
So why am I looking at a new Cyberpunk game, when I have this bias that the genre is, in essence, a deader horse than the Japanese economy? Largely because this game seems to agree ? this is the cyberpunk genre, and you will recognize it fairly quickly upon opening the book, but it is the genre as we see it in today's science fiction, and not trapped in the 80s like older competing games and some of the other new rivals. Nor is it, thankfully, like another current competitor has been described to me; so obscure that you just can't wrap your head around what's going on and how to play it.
The book is split into sections for the genre history, the game rules, running and playing the genre, and finally ? four complete and separate settings with entirely different themes. Most of the past Cyberpunk RPGs gave you a single predetermined setting around which the entire game revolved, so this itself is something of a notable step in a new direction.
There may be sixteen chapters to Ex Machina, but I'm going to cover it by the major sections.
The Genre Section:
In the genre section we get a ten page introduction into the history and themes of the Cyberpunk genre, starting in its pre-roots of the seventies, moving into the labeling of the genre around the time of Gibson's Neuromancer, and eventually wrapping up with the modern 'post-Cyberpunk' genre.
There is some coverage of how the genre has been forced to change with times ? after all much of what 80s Cyberpunk considered radical is part of the mundane reality of today's world ? Wireless, Hand held Computers, Sprawl, the Net, Genetically modified foods, Globalized Mega Corporations, lessoning of nations and nationality ? or are experimental but real such as Cloning, optical computers, synthetic but real diamonds, single molecule machines, and Neural interfaces. Modern Cyberpunk still looks to the dark side of tomorrow, but the tomorrow of yesterday is not the tomorrow of yesterday.
From there we get a bit on the dX game engine Guardians of Order uses as one of its two house systems, the usual 'what is roleplaying' commentary, and a brief intro on each of the four settings. These intros wet your taste for what is to come, although the IOSHI entry is so vague as to leave at least me completely confused yet throughly intrigued ? seeming to talk about skill chips and split patents rather than the society thus resulting.
Tri-Stat rules for the Cyberpunk genre:
Tri-Stat has managed to solidly establish itself as -the- dominant cinematic rules light RPG. All past Cyberpunk games have been neither of these two factors, which brings us to a natural point of suspicion about this new RPG - are we looking at a bag of apples trying to be oranges?
I'm going to try and show that while it may be the ideal game of apples, it has managed to conquer the realm of oranges as well - that this has ended up as the the best take on a Cyberpunk rules set I've seen to date despite some problems I did end up having with it. As for my ability to compare, I had R. Tal's Cyberpunk 2013 within days of its release, I had a similar jump on for Cyber Hero, Shadowrun, GURPS Cyberpunk, and even ICE's Cyberspace. I went through the 80s, and for Science fictions fans, the Cyberpunk genre was our pet rock and I admit I was there with everyone else.- Tri-stat has a very simple core - you have three stats, Body, Mind, and Spirit. In any task you roll two dice and hope to get under a number determined by your value in those stats plus whatever skill is relevant. Further rules allow for opposed rolls, degrees of success, and so on. Injury is a hit point system, and damage is always going to be ACV plus 25, 50, 75, or 100 percent of some number - barring critical hits, where ACV is more or less your 'base to-hit' number.
- Characters are built on points without classes or levels, and a defects system exists to give you more points by defining weak points in the character.
The skills list is large, and has specializations to give it further focus - if you know law, you could then specialize into a field of law. Guns, a type of gun. Etc.
Characters get their real game mechanical depth from a system of 'attributes' which functions as a combination of perks, powers, special gear, and other unusual abilities. On very first glance many of these will seem out of place in the Cyberpunk genre. Attributes such as Mind Control, Healing, and Creation (creates objects) for example, on the surface take leaps ... Read More
Rated by buyers -
This whole system (Tri-Stat dX) is a great open rules system, what the other reviews may say about rating it a 1 don't do it justice, it is a critically acclaimed system used for Silver Age Sentinel's and BESM (Big Eyes Small Mouth) Game systems, it is worth looking into just for that, what makes this book a definate buy, is the settings, which are inventive, and breath new life into the cyberpunk genre, not all of them are for the faint of heart, and are very gritty, most being negative-utopia's. I recomend this to anyone who is into the cyperpunk genre.
5 out of 5
Rated by buyers 
-
If you break the book up into two sections with the very first being the rules and the second being story, I give it a 1 for the very first and a 4 for the second. The rules system is heavily weighted towards stats with no balance in numbers, A super master in one skill can be beaten by a novice as long as the novice has higher stats. In addition, just about everything costs character points. Want a car? It'll cost you. Also, as a cyberpunk game, it should be saying something about programming and using the net beyond what it does. It says nothing past a few pages of hacking and virtual usage. Finally, to quote the game itself, "cyberpunk is about brand names". You expect "Zeise" eyes and "Kono" monoblades. You get none of this. No brand names, no special equipment, it's all up to you to build it. Very poor in my opinion.
The second part is almost all story in 4 different 'worlds' and while it is an interesting read, it falls down due to the very first part being incomplete.
I'm not sorry I bought it, but I would rather not have paid as much as I did.
Rated by buyers -
Having been an avid roleplayer for over 18 years, games have come and gone, some good, some bad, but most are about the same. This book, and the system that governs it is simply different. The boys and girls over at Guardians of Order (the publisher), really must know what they are doing, because when I started to read the Ex Machina book and the Tri-stat dx system core book, it was like a breath of fresh air was put back in my gaming enthusiasm. Honestly speaking, my desire to game anymore has been diminishing for about 5 years now do to the same old storylines and boring systems that I have been using form the beginning, but the Tri-stat system is so unbelievably flexible and simple, and that it takes away all the limits that are imposed upon other cookie-cutter systems. Not to mention, that once coupled with the inventive and wonderfully written ideas and settings that are contained in this particular tome, you have a combo that really is exciting.
The Ex Machina book is loaded with information and comes with four, yes thats four, different settings to run your cyberpunk dreams. Keep in mind that these are just examples and you can easily create one of your own, if properly motivated. Excellent writting, unique points of view, and vivid descriptions make this book a home run for anyone looking for a change to a better way of doing things. Buy this book and support a company that obviously is more interested in thier work than the bottom line, as they give the core rules for free on thier website!
Find other books like this one:
