Total Chaos

[lordxor]

Begin rant:

Just ordered Total Chaos from DriveThruRPG. Not worth $18 in PDF form. Only 3 new units and 30 new scenarios in a 258 page book. I could see a print version being $18, but the PDF... kind of a rip off. Also, there is already a good bit of errata posted in the errata forum. If you are going to force your fan-base to be fact checkers or editors, give them a break on the PDF cost. This is a $8 PDF at best.

:End rant

Recommendation: If you have all the Jihad books and Turning Points, don't bother with this product. You are not missing much as it is just a reprint of the chaos campaign tracks in those products. Yeah, there is a little bit of new stuff sprinkled in, but it is not worth the price.

[Øystein]

Actually, the book is 63% new writing, and 37% reprinted information.

In addition it contains as complete an information you are likely to get on Operation SCOUR, the conquest of the Blake Protectorate, for now.

With regards,
Øystein
Strategic Assistant

[roosterboy]

30 new scenarios

Earlier today I counted 54 new tracks.

[Neufeld]

I disagree strongly, the planetary campaign articles makes it totally worth it.

[roosterboy]

Earlier today I counted 54 new tracks.

Actually, I was wrong. I recounted this morning and got 62 new tracks in Total Chaos.

[lordxor]

Actually, I was wrong. I recounted this morning and got 62 new tracks in Total Chaos.

Well, the cover says over 30. If there are that many, would it not be better to say over 60? If you are going to under-sell the product on the cover, you may as well say, "Meh, there are a few new tracks."  ;D I did not bother to count in detail, so sorry. Even so, $18 is still a little pricey for a PDF of this nature. I bought a few other PDFs from some other games. Full source books (some over 150 pages) with no repeat material for under $6 each.

[StuartYee]

To be honest, I was never really thrilled with the "news article point of view" format of the Jihad series books.

If you haven't bought any of those books, Total Chaos is a great way to get the "meat" of those books (in terms of scenarios) and much more.

[Darth Nichos]

I think this book is awesome; not only does it give me more detail on the various battles of the Jihad, but it covers key characters as well. Thanks a bunch guys for the Book!

[Kommando]

Running through the Total Chaos campaign I've come across numerous errors, problems and brutally unbalanced rehashes of tracks already in Blake Ascending etc.

Generally the tracks make far more sense, have more objectives and are more cohesive than the ones presented in TC.

TC seems to suffer from a lot of 'the GM has to make it up' which turns a half hour game planning job into a 4 hour trawl through Sarna and RAT tables.
I cannot see how people are expected to play the invasion of Sian tracks in anything less than a whole weekend per track.

That being said, the Support points and Warchest points rules are some of the most comprehensive and fair revisions ive seen.

[nckestrel]

Running through the Total Chaos campaign I've come across numerous errors, problems and brutally unbalanced rehashes of tracks already in Blake Ascending etc.

Generally the tracks make far more sense, have more objectives and are more cohesive than the ones presented in TC.

TC seems to suffer from a lot of 'the GM has to make it up' which turns a half hour game planning job into a 4 hour trawl through Sarna and RAT tables.
I cannot see how people are expected to play the invasion of Sian tracks in anything less than a whole weekend per track.

That being said, the Support points and Warchest points rules are some of the most comprehensive and fair revisions ive seen.

Sian - Celestial Calamity.
Attacker (Player) - 100% of the player's total force and up to a full battalion of Dragon's Breath mercs.
Defender - 200% of the attacker's total deployed force.

As worded, it's perfectly legal for the attacker to be two 'mechs, bring two Dragon's Breath merc 'mechs, and fight against 8 defenders.
Or you can use Quick-Strike or BattleForce to do a larger combat in less time.

[Gunbunnie]

I liked Total Chaos. I felt it was worth my money for both the book and PDF.

[Kommando]

Sian - Celestial Calamity.
Attacker (Player) - 100% of the player's total force and up to a full battalion of Dragon's Breath mercs.
Defender - 200% of the attacker's total deployed force.

As worded, it's perfectly legal for the attacker to be two 'mechs, bring two Dragon's Breath merc 'mechs, and fight against 8 defenders.
Or you can use Quick-Strike or BattleForce to do a larger combat in less time.

Very well, Sian shall be decided over a game of Hockey. We have josef and melinda, and their Dragon buddies pete, steve and alexis.
And we're facing the Kaosan Comets Hockey club.

[Fallen_Raven]

I actually find Total Chaos to be a much more balanced version of the Jihad campaign. Between the improvements in the Planetary Campaigns (being able to side track for missions and earn some supply points is a huge boon) and the rewriting of several tracks (destroy a light building during a blizzard = wait three turns for it to collapse on its own), the campaign has become more playable and enjoyable.

Plus, $18 for one book with the whole campaign vs buying each and every one of the source books individually? Not a difficult financial debate.

[nckestrel]

Very well, Sian shall be decided over a game of Hockey. We have josef and melinda, and their Dragon buddies pete, steve and alexis.
And we're facing the Kaosan Comets Hockey club.

Whatever you like.  It's a game.  Fit the game to your life, not your life to the game.  Death Commandos will not show up and demand the 'correct' scale of battle.

[Cik]

Whatever you like.  It's a game.  Fit the game to your life, not your life to the game.  Death Commandos will not show up and demand the 'correct' scale of battle.

we might

YOU DIDNT SEE ANYTHING

[Degman]

I've got to admit that I wasn't that thrilled when TC came out, since I've believed that it's mostly a compilation of Jihad campaign tracks. I've bought it early this year and it still took me almost two months to actually start reading it.

And I realized that it's much better than I've originally thought. The warchest system seems much better connected and logical than when it was piecemealed into several books, and it also has a nice, chronological write-up of most of important Jihad events. Great for those who don't have all Jihad books, but also very helpful to those of us who have them, since it's all in one place.

A highly recommended buy  O0

[GreekFire]

I'm with Degman. I didn't think it looked interesting, eventually borrowed it from a friend. Gave it a quick glance, forgot about it, then left it alone for the better part of half a year.

Eventually I wanted to start a new campaign in the Jihad era and I checked it out again. It's really well done. The planetary blurbs are all solid, hard data and the tracks themselves are fun and have enough variety to keep you engrossed. They also scale up pretty well as your force grows larger.

My only complaint would be over a few of the support point costs, but it's nothing huge. Oh, and how many of the options for each track involve moving at a snails pace and/or not being able to hit anything at all. That get's annoying pretty fast.