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Berlin '61 Submission


PK Games

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  • 1 month later...
  • 5 months later...

Berlin 61 has the honour of being the first Basic Roleplaying monograph in print! They haven't gotten around to put it in the Basic Roleplaying category in the catalog together with the pdf, but it's out.

Congrats PK! :thumb:

SGL.

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  • 2 months later...

A review for the Berlin 61 monograph, partly ported from my review of the GORE version, as it appears in the review section:

Berlin 61, written by C.S. Barnhart aka PK Games from the forum, is a 132 pages long espionage horror setting. This beetle review will first take a look at the content of the book, then the print quality and layout, before ending it all with a Triff says summary.

The beetle rating goes as follows: 1=horrible, 2=bad, 3=average, 4=good, 5=great & 6=perfect!

(both a rating of 1 or 6 beetles is very rare to get)

The Berlin 61 monograph is available at Chaosium's [url=http://http://catalog.chaosium.com/index.php?cPath=37]webpage, and is available both as a PDF and a printed book.

C O N T E N T :

Chapter 1: Introduction (page 5-8) - 4/6 b1.gif's

A short overview of the supplement and the setting.

Chapter 2: Berlin '61 (page 9-40) - 5/6 b1.gif's

This is the "setting" chapter of the book. It describes the history and daily life in post-war Berlin in good detail, with an extra focus on the most well-known landmarks in the city to flavour your campaign. It also gives a very good description of the different organizations and fractions in the city (CIA, US Army, KGB, Red Army, Stasi, etc.), within the perspective of the setting.

Chapter 3: Mythos (page 41-70) - 3/6 b1.gif's

Here a description of the mythology of the Kotothian pantheon of gods, together with descriptions and stats for a lot of supernatural creatures from the Kotothian mythology. The later part of this chapter feels like an attempt to make some CoC mythology up from scratch, which is not fully succesfull.

Chapter 4: Rules (page 71-92) - 5/6 b1.gif's

This chapter covers character generation, new skills, some pulp adventure guidelines, and rules for creating James Bond-like gadgets with unusual or semi-supernatural abilities. They should probably never bee shown to the players, as they can surely be abused, but these rules present a great framework for the GM to work with.

Chapter 6? (should be 5!): Super Heroes & Super Spies (page 93-102) - 3/6 b1.gif's

Rules for using the setting for a supers game, with some allready flesh-out NPCs. For those who like supers...

Chapter 6: Equipment (page 103-129) - 6/6 b1.gif's

The is where the book really shines. The author have obviously done a lot of research and shares a wealth of knowledge on the subject (his military background probably came in handy with this chapter). Everything from daily items and cost of living to detailed descriptions and tables for weapons, explosives, various body armors and helmets, gas masks, and any type of gear and equipments kits that can be of use in this setting. This chapter makes the book worth the cost alone. Great work Barnhart!

L A Y O U T :

Less illustrations than with the GORE edition, but greatly improved. The book have some nice pictures giving the book the perfect cold war and espionage feel. The text layout is also good. Only negative aspect to point out is that page 24 & 25 in the pdf version won't print properly.

T R I F F S A Y S :

I recommend the book to anyone who thinks an espionage or an espionage-horror setting in post-war Berlin sounds interesting. I would also recommend it to anyone who plays in settings during WW2 or the cold war period, if only just for the equipment chapter.

Final verdict: 5/6 b1.gif's

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have a question for anyone else who has the deadtree version of the Berlin 61 monograph. On page 16, the page begins with...

"...concentration camps was too much to bear."

Then talks about the holocaust, housing, entertainment, traveling but it is also cut off at the end of the travel section, ending...

"While both transportation systems should..."

The next page, page 17, begins with GM help.

So what am I missing? I know that the section seems to start near the end of something and doesn't finish properly. Do I have a bad copy or is there something wrong with the printed pdf?

Other than that,however, I am enjoying the monograph a good deal.

Thanks.

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Hey, Lammomedes:

Same set up in the hard copy; no joy ;-( Looks like a typo/misprint/ouchie thing.

Cheers,

Sunwolfe

Edited by Sunwolfe
Got an E and an A mixed up :-)

Present home-port: home-brew BRP/OQ SRD variant; past ports-of-call: SB '81, RQIII '84, BGB '08, RQIV(Mythras) '12,  MW '15, and OQ '17

BGB BRP: 0 edition: 20/420; .pdf edition: 06/11/08; 1st edition: 06/13/08

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As a follow up, is there any interest in further B61 material? I have 3 adventures tucked away to be worked on and still ideas on the overall conspiracy behind the setting.

I for one would like to see more adventures. :)

SGL.

Ef plest master, this mighty fine grub!
b1.gif 116/420. High Priest.

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As a follow up, is there any interest in further B61 material? I have 3 adventures tucked away to be worked on and still ideas on the overall conspiracy behind the setting.

I would love some adventures.

Rod

Join my Mythras/RuneQuest 6: Classic Fantasy Yahoo Group at https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/RQCF/info

"D100 - Exactly 5 times better than D20"

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OK, well I will have to find the files, find the printouts and edit the adventures.

If I submit a new monograph it looks like it will be divided into 4 sections.

Section 1: A Merry Berlin Christmas

Section 2: The Wall

Section 3: The Train

Section 4: Encounters Manual

Sections 1, 2 and 3 are full adventures and Section 4 is a selection of unique locations and pre-made encounters.

I will contact Choasium and see if they are interested in a follow up monograph.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Sorry for the long long long delay in answering. Had to relocate from Europe back to the states and get adjusted from field work to classroom work and get used to being an instructor of combat camera instead of field combat camera.

Anyway, a recent break though (having found old notes on an external hard drive) and some new ideas have prompted be back into working on B'61 again. I hope to have the Encounters Manual up and running before August and sent to Dustin (if he will have it) shortly there after. The nw book/pdf should have updated character creation rules to move the game into a more pulp/action setting but still allow the horrow basis to exist with the normal notes for how to use the setting with silver age secret agents or silver age super heroes.

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Problems with Chaosium's Berlin '61 pdf.

I don't really know how to contact Chaosium as my previous attempt went no where so I'll post this here and perhaps you can guide me.

I haven't gotten completely through the monograph yet but at the end of page 10:

Needless to say, all of this means that Berliners have seen

everything and survived a lot. They are calm, sturdy and

hard-working, even though many of them appear a bit

withdrawn or do not speak much about their past. In most

cases, the reason for that is the Holocaust. For many of

them the shock caused by revealing the truth about con-

page 11 is a period background piece. Page 12 begins with:

essentially be complementary, U-Bahn is controlled by the

West Berlin authorities while S-Bahn is a property of the

East German railroad company. Originally both systems

were available for East and West Berliners alike, but as

time passes, the East German government is discouraging

its citizens from using both systems.

Obviously something missing or mis-formatted.

Mis-formatted. Page 16 continues where page 10 ended and the end of 16 continues to page 12.

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