I’ve flipped through it. There’s about 25 pages of rules that yes, include the scavenging stuff, and a few other things that needed to be in the main book like traveling rules (Still no vehicle rules) and how to do Extended Tests. The rest of the book is the looting table (You know, the one that was vitally needed in the core book and wasn’t there.) and all the equipment lists in one place, so that’s good, but information I already had in the core book. I’d have appreciated it if they’d devoted that space to something more useful, like, I don’t know, an adventure. Oh yeah, remember that adventure in the core book that says it’s a sequel to the one in the GM Kit, so I haven’t run it yet. Well, that adventure isn’t in the kit. Luckily, I’ve been running the excellent adventure that someone on the forums wrote, “A Real Pizza Work,” and that’s turned into a fun little campaign. Would’ve been nice to have those travelling rules for it, though.
The rest of it is some rule summary sheets, a couple pages of pop-out cardboard caps that I don’t need because I bought real caps months ago, and a bunch of character sheets. No screen, and so far, I haven’t found a link for the Tool Kit in it like they had for the rulebook, so I presume I don’t get a PDF of it.
Someone said something about Modiphius copying Bethesda’s formula of “Release a broken game and expect the modders to fix it.” That’s accurate. And the tradition continues. I feel like I just paid money for a broken DLC that was mostly cosmetic stuff I’ll never bother with anyway.
Sometimes I feel sorry for the people at Modiphius for all the complaining about this release, then I find another glaring editing mistake or missing critical information or sloppy writing and I am reminded of why there is so much complaining.
Honestly, if they could just get together, hammer out a second edition and do it right with proper playtesting and cleaning up a lot of the problems, I would happily buy it. Have basic vehicle, looting, and travel rules in the core rulebook, then make expansion books that elaborate on those. Include rules on how to make your own baddies with skills and such and how much XP they should be worth, but only include a token few as examples. Then they can make an entire book of nothing but baddies to fight. This game is loads of fun, but we have to fill in so many blanks that it is frustrating as a GM.
That’s in the Starter Kit (which is yet to be released) as opposed to the GM Toolkit and the looting tables are in the core book (starts on page 200). There are definitely issues with repeated material (some of which is obviously cut and paste as it includes the same glaring issues).
The table that tells you by location how many times you’re supposed to roll on the tables on page 200 is missing. That one’s in the Tool Kit. Again, something that should’ve been part of the main game is DLC you have to pay extra for. The video game analogy stands. This is like buying a game where you have to pay an additional $29.95 for the ability to move the controller to the right.
Oh, good! and given how long it took for THIS to come out, we should have that Starter Kit in a couple years, and then I can finally run the adventure in the book. Yippee!
Lots of complaints here, some reasonable some not. The way i look at this system is similar to early D&D (yes i have the white box) in which they provide the outline and the GM has a TON of flexibility within those rules. Personally while there are areas that need more hard data, like vehicles (ummm…pilot skill needs SOMETHING!), more complex creatures ala Fallout 4 (glowing, albino, bloated, etc), etc. there is plenty here to build and design a game of your own. I have crafted my own populated settlement, dropped it into the commonwealth and designed a series of quests to get the PCs from lvl 1-4. So far so good. One PC did tag the pilot skill so if errata doesn’t come out for vehicles soon, ill pull from other systems and make my own. Otherwise the game has been fun, the players like the “snappiness” of the combat, and the world feels exciting. Personally I’m happy so far.