Classic Reviews by Crothian
Blackhammer Firearms 1
This is a book that while I have not been waiting for it, I am happy to see it come out. I know the author, M Jason Parent is a big cyber punk fan and this small book defiantly fits into a cyber punk game. It is always nice to see a writer get to write something that they have been wanting to for a long time. I however was never a big fan of the cyber punk or the not so distant future RPGs.
This book is a PDF by EN Publishing. They are one of the leaders in the PDF market and the author M Jason Parent is a talented writer and has shown himself time and time again to have a good grasp on both the mechanics and the details of a game book. The PDF is a small one only being five pages long. Despite that they still have placed book marks in it. The art and layout are good and each weapon is nicely drawn up. There are some gray borders that wile looking great on the screen can eat up a bit of ink for people printing them off.
The book is about some guns. Some nicely described and well detailed guns; but just guns. There are five different ones presented here and they are versatile and seem really good. The book has these set in Progress Level 6 as shown in the d20 Future supplement for d20 Modern. The weapons fire using a chemical propellant system. I am curious if such a weapon exists or how the science behind it is. Either way the detail on how the weapons work is provided and seems to make sense as a near future weapon.
The background information is nice and with luck the company will be expanded and detailed in the future. It would also be cool to see other weapons in and expanded catalogue or cheap knock off versions of these high quality weapons.
In the end though it is a little hard for me to get excited about some new guns. As well as they are detailed and described the book lacks a little something extra. I am not sure what but hopefully in future books we will see a little more.
Blackhammer Firearms 2
Sometimes I want to rename the books I am reviewing to better fit the content. This one would be called Return of Black Hammer: More Guns. Like its predecessor this book gives the reader a good amount of weapons for a near future game. They fit well in a cyber punk game as well as anything on the cusp of Progressive Levels 5 and 6 as defined in the d20 Future book.
This book is a good follow up to the first one. It is again written by M Jason Parent. EN Publishing as everyone should know by now is a leader in the PDF industry. The PDF is longer then the first coming it at around a dozen pages and has the same basic layout and look. The art of the weapons is nicely done, but the layout leaves something to be desired as there are two pages that hare just half blank. Other then that the book looks good. Like the first one it is book marked and has some gray borders that will eat a bit of ink when printed.
The book has a lot of different guns presented in it. I count about forty new weapons and three new types of ammo. The weapons are nicely described and fill out a good variety of arms from pistols to assault rifles. They are all fully stated out with a few new rules on how they interact with some of the burst rules from d20 Modern for instance.
The book makes a good addition to the weapons found in the d20 Modern and Future books. The level of detail is much greater making them a bit more interesting to use as they become more then basic weapon stat blocks.
This one I did find to be better then the first but still missing a little something. It is an enjoyable read but really did not make be excited to use anything in here although in a modern game I probably will.
Black Hammer Firearms 3
In the near future games many times the guys with the best gun seem to come out victorious. The gun has always been a fascination of gamers and the near future weapons seem to be especially popular since they represent the most powerful and cutting edge technology; even if most of it does not actually exist today. With the d20 game quickly adapting itself to each and ever genre out there is no surprise that these products are starting to real find their own niche. The New Tribes series represents EN Publishing dive into this newly forming market. Their Black Hammer series has filled the role nicely.
Black Hammer 3 is the third in the line of books about near future weapons. Each one has presented a few new and interesting weapons in the. They are all written by M Jason Parent giving them consistency in writing style. This fifteen page PDF is fully book marked, layout is good with some white space issues the whole series has, but the over all look of the books is really cool. It is like the first two well book marked.
The series has really grown since the first book. The page count on them is not high but considering there are over three dozen weapons in the book alone, one quickly sees that there is lots of information in these few pages. The weapons and technology behind them are all nicely described and they have nice information to use. These weapons are more then just stats on a page. The few pictures are of cool guns, and more pictures could be useful.
The power of the weapons seems appropriate for the time frame. The weapons are good and players will want them as they are nice upgrades from other items in d20 Modern for instance. Many of the weapons are also versatile and that just helps players to want them even more. But none of them strike me as something one would not want in one’s game. A small annoyance though is some of the items referenced here are to be described in the fourth series of the book which at this time is not out yet.
One of the great things about these books is they are actually useful in non d20 systems. While there are no conversions notes or anything like that in these books, they are detailed enough that someone familiar with d20 and another system appropriate for the weapons like Shadowrun should have no problems. The back ground material is easy to use in most cyber punk type settings and should be nice to offer something the players of the system might not be familiar with.
The Black Hammer books have really done a great job of presenting weapons in a new and interesting way. The background information is really the key for me and I really hope one day it will be expanded on so that readers can learn more about these companies. There is a lot of room to grow in the series and it does not always have to be the new and latest weapons though that does not hurt either. The series really fits well together and the more I read them all together the more I like them.
