From: bkfeir@knuth.uwaterloo.ca (Bryan K. Feir)
Subject: Re: Justitfiers RPG?
Keywords: wolf, brontosaraus, Hershey bar
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 07:10:25 GMT

   Okay... I haven't heard anything about Justifiers for a while, so it's
interesting to see that there is actually still an active attempt to sell
it.  I bought the game some time back, and I have actually run it, so I
think I'm at least reasonably qualified to comment.  I wrote this text file
up some months back with this question came up before, and am including it
almost completely unmodified.  For those of you who aren't interested, just
hit 'n'.

                 A SHORT REVIEW OF JUSTIFIERS RPG

A very brief history:

   The year is 2311.  Most of the world's goverments fell after a series of
wars and civil wars that left them all in bad shape.  The controlling factors
now are the Mega-Corps, the few large corporations that have managed to hang
on to their assets.  To all intents and purposes, they are the governments now,
they just don't have to worry about getting voted out.

   With the development of TransMatt technology in 2010, the human race has
expanded out into the stars.  Teams of 'Justifiers' are beamed into orbit
around a planet, after which they land, perform a complete survey, and build
another TransMatt portal on their end to allow them to get back.  The Terran
TransMatt Specialties Inc. (TTMS) has a total monopoly on production of these
portals, backed up by booby-trapped components and assassination squads.

   Genetic engineering produced the first 'Betas', or Beta Class Humanoid
Constructs, near the end of the last century.  These half-human half-animal
creatures were completely owned by the corporation that created them, and had
no rights of refusal, so they quickly replaced humans on most of the really
dangerous jobs, including Justifier teams.  After lobbying from the Galaxy
Workers Alliance, Betas are given semi-human status: they are allowed to buy
out their contracts, and have most human rights except the right to own shares
of the Mega-Corps.

   Since then, the expansion has continued, a few colonies of Free Betas have
been established (usually sending the trouble-makers out where they have to
work hard just to survive), and several colonies are attempting to break from
their parent Corps.  Hostile takeover attempts are in the air, and more new
planets are being checked out...


The game itself:

   Justifiers is a combination Science Fiction/Anthropomorphics RPG.  The feel
is mostly (though I almost hate to use the word) cyberpunk: high tech, but low
morals.  Most of the characters will be Betas, for the simple reason that a
normal human would be crazy to volunteer for a dangerous job like a Justifier.

   The game comes as a 128 page trade paperback.  Inside are the basic rules
needed to start running standard Justifiers teams.  A full timeline is given,
and descriptions of the Mega-Corps are there as well.  There is a supplement,
the Corporate SourceBook, which lists several of the moderate-sized Corps, and
lists off dozens of colony worlds.  It also contains expansion rules for
characters in Corporate Security, Marines, and the like.  It also describes
how a war is usually fought.

   The most interesting feature of this book is its skill list.  This was a
game designed with its background in mind: there are many different classes of
skills, ranging from Metallurgy to Jungle Survival to TransMatt Technology to
Trauma Treatment.  These people are scouting out a planet to see if it could
be a viable colony, and the skills to do it are in there.  Since the skills
are fairly focussed, the characters start off with many different skills to do
with their particular specialty.  Characters are assumed to be competent to
start with.

   Almost everything in the game is based on a d%.  This includes all stats and
skills.  It is possible to have stats above 100 (or below 0, though that's not
recommended) due to species-based modifiers.  Cybernetics technology can also
play around with stats.

   Psionics exist in the Justifiers world, and are fairly well known and very
definitely exploited.  Anyone with psi talents can expect to pay up to five
times as much to buy out their contract because of their usefulness.  However,
psionics are not extremely powerful; especially at the lower levels, they tend
to tire out quickly.


Problems:

   My main complaint with the Justifiers game is that it looks like an amateur
production.  The description of how figured stats increase as you get better
isn't the same in the 'experience' section as it is in the 'characteristics'
section.  There are several references to things that occur later on in the
book; the timeline should have been earlier.  The 'Presence' characteristic
is listed, but the only use described for it is to be averaged with the
'Carousing' skill.  And all the page references in the combat examples are
wrong.

   There was also the slight problem that while they described the shuttle
and equipment used by the Justifier teams in good detail, and listed exactly
how much equipment there would be per team member, I'd have liked a better
description of how large a normal Justifier team was, and what sorts of
standard configurations there were.  After all, there has to be a maximum
size for the team just based on how much equipment you can fit into the
shuttle.  There also should be at least one commander, one Medical officer,
one planetologist... I realize that the configuration will change depending
on what they know of the planet, but it would be nice to have some ideas.

   For that matter, the standard operation of a Justification mission isn't
listed either.  I assumed in what I was running that they have to stay on
planet until they get 'relieved' by people from the home base... with the
TransMatt beam only going at 12c, that will be several months for the beam's
signal to go there and back.

   I also dislike somewhat the 'level' concept used to increase most of the
stats.  As a result, to some extent how quickly your stats increase depends
on how much money you get paid for the mission, which is (or at least should
be, from the background) determined more by corporate politics than by how
good you are at those skills.  An unfortunate D&Dism creeping back in.  It
also tops out much too quickly: One pre-made character I did for the Mission
Leader had spent close to 100 missions working for his corporation, had made
it to Lt. Colonel, and had almost bought himself out... and he had 100 skill
points, which was an average set of rolls.  14 of which was from the first
level.  On a percentile skill system, 100 points is simply not enough to show
for that much time.

   It doesn't help that there are no sample characters that are completely
written out.  Even in the 'Cold as Ice' adventure book, all the NPC's have
only the 'important' skills written out, and looking through the rules, I
can't see how some of them could possibly have got skills that high at that
low a level.


Conclusions:

   The game itself is not bad, though it's not well explained.  A bit of GM
fiat will be required under many circumstances.  For the first several games,
until you get more experienced players into the higher officer ranks, the
mission commanders should be NPC's.  The skill advancement system should be
tossed altogether and replaced with a simple combination of traning and panic
judgement increases.

   The 'Corporate Sourcebook' is almost invaluable as a background resource,
as it contains the names of all of the major corporations (not just the mega-
corps and a few obscure references), descriptions of what they all do, and
lists of worlds own and operated by each of them, with gravity ratings, native
life, and technical level.

   At least one adventure booklet is useful to give you a rough idea of some
standard team setups.  Admittedly, some common sense can be used on this part,
but it's still nice to know how things are normally done.

   All the game needs is a little polish work to make it really worth running.
Hopefully some of the points are addressed in the newsletter that StarChilde
Publications puts out.
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc