It was the dawn of the 3rd Age of Mankind... AGAIN?

Picked up my copy of the NEW Babylon 5 RPG from Comic Quest Megamall.

It's by Mongoose Publishing and it's a beaut. Full color on all pages, hard bound book.

RULES: It does require the PHB 3rd Ed for the core rules, however. It supplants the classes in the book with its own (Officer, Soldier, Diplomat, Scientist, etc.), and has an intriguing approach to hit points: you don't get many. The most a starting character gets is 1d6+6, I believe... and you get no CON bonuses for that. No Armor Class... it uses a Defensive Value instead based on your full Reflex Save and your Size Modifier.

Simple and consistent vehicle rules (which use the same Size Mods when fighting one another) which were lifted and modified from Dragonstar.

SOURCE MATERIAL: The book takes an interesting approach evident from the cover. It's subtitle is SIGNS & PORTENTS, which is the overall title of Season One of the series. All the source material is as of the beginning of the Season... and it's a lot. Poltical situations, major and minor players, a great tour of the B5 station and characters the players might interact with.

Then it gives an episode-by-episode synopsis for the entire season, complete with the dates the events that each episode's events took place in during the year 2258. Each synopsis ends with short discussions about major developments, characters, and organizations introduced in the course of the episode and suggests 5 to 7 plot hooks for the GM to base campaigns or 'episodes' around.

Future releases will tackle developments in future seasons.

OTHER STUFF: Character sheet looks OK, but I'd rather have a B&W character sheet instead of trying to photocopy a full-color one with nice images in the background. Index is OK, a bit sparse. Interesting recommendations on how to create an epic storyline and guidelines on how not to lose the flavor of the series... but not as concise or informative as the prior B5 RPG.

Good resource for a fan - dunno how it plays... yet.