ISO A4 format - Freelance Traveller

Critics’ Corner
Babylon 5 - The Trouble With Drazi
reviewed by Jeff Zeitlin
Babylon 5 - The Trouble with Drazi. Greg Lynch, Bryan Steele
Mongoose Publishing http://www.mongoosepublishing.com
32pp, softcover
(currently out of print; was UK£5.00/US$9.95)
Editor’s Note: This article is a lightly-edited version of one that
was originally posted to the Freelance Traveller website in 2009.
Mongoose gave up their Babylon 5 license
shortly before the original writing of this review, so
this is the only adventure that we will see for this
universe in the Mongoose Traveller line.
On the Shelf
As with the other two Babylon 5 items for
Traveller, this volume sports a black cover with the
Babylon 5 logo at the top, the Traveller logo at the
bottom, and a CGI image between, this one of a
space battle. [But see “A Note About The Cover” at
the end of this review. -ed.] The battle illustrated
has only a tenuous connection with the adventure;
the adventure starts in the aftermath of a raid in
which the ship the PCs are on is rendered into so
much scrap, and the rescue of the PCs from the
hulk is the start of the adventure. Unlike other
Traveller releases to date, this book, weighing in at
a mere 32 pages, is thin enough to disappear if
shelved so that only the spine, rather than the front
cover, is visible.
Initial Impressions
Although the production quality is generally
consistent with all contemporary Mongoose Traveller
products, the Babylon 5 sourcebooks get a
downtick for the grey background over the entire
page—it reduces the readability of the text. Some
of the subtitle fonts are also difficult to read. I approached
this volume with some skepticism because
of its light weight; 32 pages simply is not
enough for an adventure of the quality of (for example)
Prison Planet or Beltstrike. It does, however,
appear to present enough information to be useful
to an “index card referee”—one who keeps a
pile of miscellaneous characters, location maps,
special equipment, and so on handy to grab when
needed in any scenario.
On Closer Inspection
There are indications that this product was
originally intended to be part of Mongoose’s Babylon
5 Roleplaying Game line for the d20 system,
rather than for Traveller; the “Designation of Product
Identity” paragraph on the title page makes reference
to the d20 SRD and omits any reference to
the Traveller SRD. There are also a couple of explicit
references to the Babylon 5 Roleplaying
Game.
During the initial rescue of the players by the
Drazi, a case of mistaken identity develops, and
this is one of the keys to the adventure. Even if the
PCs successfully correct the impression, a key request
will be made, to all appearances because of
the reason for the initial mistaken identity, and
even once it is firmly acknowledged to be an error,
a key Drazi character states frankly that he intends
to use it to his advantage, if the players are willing.
There is one section where the PCs appear to
be in a position to influence the adventure greatly,
but even there, they are practically guided to the
necessary information to resolve the situation fa-
(Continued on page 15)
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