David McKenzie

I bought this after reading about it in Designers and Dragons: the 80s. I remember seeing it in stores at the time, but knowing nothing about it and having no money as a teenager, I let it pass. Fortunately it is still inexpensive even though it is no longer in print.

The game is a military post-apocalyptic science fiction game. Military RPGs (eg. Phoenix Command, Merc, Recon, Twilight 2000, Aftermath!, Morrow Project) were popular only in the 1980s {Edit: Twilight 2000 has been reprinted recently and probably appropriately (late 2010s)]. The last three are similar to this one as they describe a world in which order has broken down and the characters -- military types -- are left on their own and have a mission to restore order. Living Steel also translates the setting to a science-fictional one with quite a detailed background setting: the former holiday planet Rhand and the rigid social environment of the StarGuild Imperium. This is a very recent apocalypse. Anarchy has arrived on Rhand in multiple waves: alien invasion on the eve of civil war, and a virus released by the aliens which turns humans into sociopathic Vissers. The players are part of another faction, the distant Seven Worlds which was crushed by the Imperium years ago. Their explicit goal is to build a better world from the ashes of the old.

System-wise it is quite crunchy but has some interesting elements. Each character gains skills from their past history, which is tied to the game setting. This part is reminiscent of the career paths in Traveller. The firearms combat is very detailed with detailed rules for glancing shots, different types of injuries. It looks, like real combat, quite lethal. This makes even gung-ho characters a little wary of combat. There are a couple of game mechanics/setting details which assist though. First is that the characters are 'Swords' of the Seven Worlds and so possess powered armour which makes them like superheroes in combat. Second is a 'karma' mechanic which I've not seen in RPGs before, which allows improvement points to be passed on to a player's next character after the first one dies. Since you can earn karma by being true to your noble warrior's path, even sacrificing yourself for the cause can be a sensible role-playing option.

There is some information about the planet and its factions, and a starting point for the campaign rather than a full adventure. But it is sufficient to get you thinking.

I was quite impressed by the thought which has gone into this product, which was a refinement of other work by Leading Edge Games (both the world of Rhand and the lethal and fine-grained combat system had been used in different contexts before). I am tempted to play it if I can interest my players, which is high praise for an RPG product.… (meer)