Title: Amethyst: Foundations
Publisher: Dias Ex Machina and Goodman Games
URL: http://www.goodman-games.com/4370preview.html
Amethyst: Foundations is a 4e update of a prior work by the same name for 3rd edition. It contains rules and fluff for a 4e game set in a world where magic and technology have come into direct conflict.
Fluff: The combination of magic and technology is not, as any gamer who remembers shadowrun will tell you, a unique combination, but Amethyst has a unique spin on it. Theres a rich background here that goes well beyond the usual "OMG MAGIC IS BACK" and builds rich world to fit the two mechanics.
The general gist of it is that there are two gates, one of chaos and one of order, which act as magical poles of a sort. From these gates magic enters the world. Maybe. Or maybe its all an illusion created by people. One of the things i really like about the writeup is that its presented with some ambiguity, and the viewpoints of different cultures and peoples are presented. This is a nice change from the usual metaplot infodump that accompanies most settings.
If i have a problem with the fluff, its not in what it says nearly so much as in how it says it. Maybe i'm linear minded, but the organization of this book leaves something to be desired. Other than a brief introductory chapter with a few terms outlined, you have to get to chapter 10 before you get anything resembling a history or any real setting details. Consequently the preceding 8 chapters on races, classes, etc leave you frequently scratching your head at some of the references. You see this a lot in modern epic fantasy novels, a sort of immersion ethos where the author dumps you in, throws a lot of terms at you, and eventually you pick up the meaning by osmosis or something. Having comitted this sin once or twice myself, i have a lot of sympthy with the decision to do it. Properly executed, it makes for a much smoother information acquisition. That having been said, i think a game book is one of the places where infodumping is okay, verging on good. Its not a huge problem, though. The index is good, and if you read the whole book you generally pick it all up, but it bothered me to have to flip around before i was halfway through chapter 2.
Crunch: I should caveat this entire section by saying i have not played a session with Amethyst, nor do i predict that i will be able to in the near future, given the my full gaming schedule and the lengthy queue to run games. That having been said, I've played a lot of 4e, and spent even more time lurking in the CharOps forums, so i feel like i've got a pretty grasp on how to analyze 4e material without playing it.
Races. I like the racial options. They're doing the "its familiar, only not!" thing, but thats not necessarily bad. I think that there is a substantial portion of the gaming community who look for those broad roles to be filled, and you have to take that into account. A product that fails to attract the attention and interest of customers isn't going anywhere. Plus, this product is admittedly meta to a certain degree. My only reservation here is the Tillen, who are sort of vampire elves. I've nothing against the concept in theory, but they don't really fit the rest of the races that smoothly. Some nice additions in this section include bits on cross breeds (very helpful) and various human regions.
A new feature in Amethyst is called the Lifepath. This is sort of like a cross between a racial feature and a background, in so much as it grants benefits much like a race does, but is based on where the character comes from. it adds a nice level of customization that i think 4e in general is hurting for.
The various new classes are all pretty interesting. Again, i haven't yet talked my group into paying it, so i can't speak particularly to the balance aspects, but it seems well constructed, and thematically its all well done.
Closing thoughts: I'm still slightly frustrated at having to dig as much as I did to figure out what the Hammer was and so forth, but other than that I'm excited to play Amethyst. I'll post an update once i've actually done so.
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