Computer + Video Games - Commodore Is Awesome

1Contmued from page 93get for your £3.00 set up fee anf 1.00 per turn, you will bepleasantly surprised.First you receive a rulebookthat isn't really a rulebook, butis a secret document designedas your mission briefing. Itstarts off telling you that as anewly promoted commander,you have been given commandof a X-71 scout ship.It then explains how paralleltime space areas werediscovered more than 50 yearsago and finally colonised by theHome System. Unfortunately,these were already occupiednot only by humans, but byaliens as well. Some of thesealiens are good, some fair,some not so fair and somediabolical, Further readingshows a new parallel area hasbeen discovered, namely shiftD. They cleverly use ahexagonal diagram to showthese shift locations. It is up toyou as Starship Commander togo back/forward/across to shiftD and set up bases, colonies,factories and tradingembargoes with humans andaliens alike.You then have to teleportmaterials and power crystalsback to your mother system forcredits, which can be used toraise the level of your via tradefrom a penny farthing to amegaplanet shattering allieddestroying craft. The problem isthat everybody else has thesame goal!The set up has examples ofmoves and results which helpwith the first moveconsiderably, as this move isalways the hardest.Once the briefing section ofthe rulebook is read, you thenget onto the How to Playsection. This part of therulebook is excellent because itreinforces the briefing sectionin a nice easy flowing manner.This game is fully run bycomputer and you put yourorders in via a special codeexplained in the rulebook!VERDICTThe Only criticism of thegame is the results sheets get tobe a bit samey, but as it onlycosts a £1.00 a time I canoverlook that. It is the kind ofgame that would appeal to aperson who had given greatthought to starting up in a Sci Ficomputer moderated game, butwas undecided what to go for.If you are interested in joiningStarship Commander, it costsE3.00, but if you write to Wayne,enclosing the logo above, hewill pass your money ontoMitre and they will credit youwith two free turns. All chequesand POs payable to MitreGames.• GAME Saturnalia• SUPPLIER: Sloth EnterprisesREVIEWER: WayneSaturnalia is without doubt thelongest running singlecharacter fantasy RBA, in theU.K. I can remember startingthe game way back in late 1984,because one of the GM's, NeilPacker, had a party in anotherREIM, game that we bothd played and through the gamewe met at a pub meet_ Whilechatting, he casually mentionehe was starting up a new P.B.with a partner called SimonLetts, under the banner of SlotEnterprises and he invited meto try it out. To date, over threeyears have passed and I am stiplaying the game. I think thisspeaks for itself!Admittedly I do have a softspot for the game and wantedto review it for some time.However, Sloth had declinedmy offer of a review on severaloccasions because they had asmany players as they couldhandle and they did not wantanymore. I really respected thisattitude. Now, times havechanged as they have employequite a few new G.M's and theyhave spaces available for newplayers.The world of Saturnalia is onof monsters and magic. Greatdragons abound, Magic Casterare common, monsters of alldifferent kinds roam the planet,mighty warriors clash for gloryand you have to try and surviveamongst all this'The mechanics behind thisgame are simple and are asfollows. You control a singlecharacter, whose personalityand background you create,then each turn you decide uponthe actions your characterwished to take. You can send inyour turns whenever you want.This game has an "open"format, so it is really up to youhow much you play. This is agood option for people oflimited finances or live abroad,Of course, the more turns yousend in, the more powerful yourcharacter becomes, so there is aslight disadvantage to notsending in regular turns.You are given a total of 250points to create your characterwith_ These can be divided youamong the five variousattributes your character has,which are:Combat Ability (CA): Ameasure of your offensive anddefensive weapon skill plusoverall strength.Magic Power IMP): Thisdetermines what spells you areable to cast, what divine powersyou are able to learn and howresistant to certain magic spellsyou are, It can also determinehow mentally stable/unstableyou are.Vitality (VIT):This gives youan indication of your charactersoverall health and physicalcondition. If you go to 0 or lessvitality you are dead! A score ofaround 500 vitality means thatyou are very healthy.Scouting Ability (SA): Thisguages your ability to hide inthe shadows, pick pockets andclimb walls.Perception (PER): Thismeasures how observant youare, how much you can see,hear and perceive out of theway places. A score of 0 PERmeans you are blind. A score of500 means you would spot aneedle on the floor of a roomthe minute you entered it.You then give your charactera background and history, plustraits and hbits. You areencouraged to go into greatd detail, as this gives the G.M. theM. idea what kind of character youare trying to play. You can alsoh worship one of the 14 gods thatrule Saturnalia, straight away,but I would advise you to readII about the gods below, beforeyou do!Once you have created yourcharacter and you get your firstturn back you are then set looseon one of Saturnalia's eightislands and expected to survive.When you start wanderingabout actually doing thingswhich call upon you to use yourmajor abilities, you discoversome of your total scores startto drop. For example, if youd were a thief and you creeparound someone's back yardand suss Out their house for apotential future robbery, youwould find that you lost pointsfrom your PER and SA overalltotal. What you have actuallydone is "used" them up withthe effort you have put intospying and sneaking about.These losses are dependant onthe GM, who decides what youhave lost through acombination of personalopinion and random dicerolling.Magic spells are quite easy tolearn as they are usuallyavailable cheaply from temples,wisemen and sages throughoutthe world. The magic systemand divine system are one andthe same, being very easy tohandle, Basically, you need 100MP to "learn" a 10 point scroll,200 to "learn" a 20 point scroll,etc, up to a maximum 400points, which can "learn" youthe most powerful spells.WAYNE'S VERDICTSaturnalia is my favouritegame. However, when I startedplaying, it was the only game ofit's kind and there were notmany people playing. Now it isbigger arid more commercial. Ipersonally do not think thegame's expansion has madethe quality of it deteriorate.Good news for all you It's ACrime players who are not inthe top 100 or are strugghingto find your feet in this game.Jason Gilbert, who plays abunch of hooligans calledDark Justice in game seven ofCrime, has written enclosing afew hints and tips for theCA-VG game. I have added afew of my own and I hope theywill be of use.If you want to make surethat you take over a certainblock, work out how manymen and machine guns youneed from the following table:Block Type Combat ValueNeededPitiful l e s s than 7V. Weak less than 7Weak 7PEAfl gffCautiousAlert 15Guarded 1 8Rough 2 0vStr Strong more ' 2than 424Too Strong more than 42Invulnerable m o r e thanyou'll ever have!This table is approximateand success is not guaranteed!For high notorietyFirebomb Churches, ambushother gangs and issue Controlorders for other blcoks thatother gangs own.The minimum criteria forbecoming a boss is: At least 30blocks; five sub-machine guns;13 pros; 400 notoriety points:$5most Yt notorious gang within asquare 300. " of blocks not exceedingoi When robbing try sendingonly a one pro, one punk andtwolrecruits and make it thefirst order on your card. Thisusually s has the effect ofobtaining o a lot of money.h Finally, never rob with yourwalkie-talkies on. The policelistenain and have a greaterchance v of catching you.e There is still time to join inthetCA-VG It's A Crime game.Just send me your name andaddress, o which I will pass ontoK.J.C. b They will send you: aFREE rule book, two PREF.eRounds and a FREE Start uptWAYNE'S WONDERFUL OFFERhThe cost of a start up inSaturnalia e is usually £5.00 andfuture rounds are E1.75.However, after negotiating withthe peopleat Sloth, I have comeup with the following offers:• Sloth will pull 20 applicantsnames Out of a hat and they willget their cheque/PO sent back tothem, with a FREE start-uppackage and rule book. •Anybody else who applies willget a REDUCED start-up for£4.00 and will also get threeFREE turns which is a SAVINGof E5.25. • Anybody whoalready plays Saturnalia can setup a second character for FREEand also get three FREE rounds.