Monday 5 November 2018

N.E.W. Universal Upgrades

This is a review of the N.E.W. Universal Upgrades supplement which gives advanced character options. This is a collection of articles taken from the EONS website, the official magazine for the WOIN role-playing systems. Here is a list of its contents -
New Upgrades for Androids Over 20 upgrade exploits for android player characters. I found this article incredibly useful when I was creating the stats for Celeste. It is one of the best articles in the book.
Solurials Plant based parasitic aliens.
Drahzik Ferocious galactic man-hunters. These are very similar to the Predator aliens.
Houseki Ponderous crystalline beings.
Pajak Greedy insectoid thieves and bandits.
Jamila Beautiful humanoids who exude strong pheromones.
Zetan Phased beings who move at incredible speeds.
Kryte Crystalline psionic barbarians.
Clones Genetically engineered humans grown in tanks.
Belters Men and women from asteroids and low gravity planets.
Jovians Sturdy, serious people from high gravity planets.
Warped Crazed psychic humans from near black holes.
New Universal Exploits Nearly 30 new exploits for all WOIN genres. Another extremely useful article. All of these new exploits appear in the N.O.W. rulebook.
Hobbies and Quirks Advanced rules for choosing and using your character hook. For me, this is by far, the most useful article in the book and is one I refer to constantly when creating new characters. This is another article that can be used with any WOIN rulebook.
Ageing with Grace Expanded rules and exploits for older characters. Once again, an article that useful for any WOIN rulebook.
Reputation, Contacts and Credit Rules to make the most out of your REP score.
What Does my Logic Score Mean? Guidelines for intelligence and languages.
I rate this supplement very highly. Some of the articles are extremely useful and indeed have been integrated into the N.E.W. and N.O.W. rulebooks. The articles for the new alien races are the ones I'll use the least although I did use the rules for the Drahzik when I created a couple of Predator characters to use in my The Ace of Spades Campaign. Clones, Belters, Jovians and Warped give you more options for creating human characters and so are very useful. The last four articles in the supplement were very well written and extremely useful. The articles on New Universal Exploits and Hobbies and Quirks made this supplement a must have buy for me. All in all, this is an excellent supplement for anyone interested in the WOIN games. Although it is  primarily written for N.E.W. gamers there are articles in here that will be useful in any other WOIN setting. You can buy this supplement form Amazon UK for £14.70. Here's a link for it - https://www.amazon.co.uk/WOIN-Universal-Upgrades-Russ-Morrissey/dp/136575281X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1541325558&sr=8-1&keywords=Woin+universal+upgrades

4 comments:

  1. Great review Bryan, lots of useful upgrades in there

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    1. Absolutely right, Dave. I've found this a very valuable supplement.

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  2. I always love that extra depth you add to your characters B, these upgrades sound particularly useful. I love the ageing rules idea

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    1. Many thanks, Andy. As you can tell. I love my WOIN games and I do like going the extra mile. This is such a useful supplement that has seen a lot of use since I bought it.

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