Sargasso of Space

Cover
Sargasso of Space is an official game adventure for the XXVc role-playing game. It was written by Bruce Nesmith, and had catalogue number 3571. As far as the reviewer knows, it is long since out of print. I believe Bruce Nesmith did some Dragon Magazine work, and some Ravenloft work later.

Packaging

The cover is nice and impressive, with at least two ships breaking up in flames somewhere in space, after something that seems to be either a collision, or the aftermath of a battle. The detail is fairly crisp and clear, and the ships seem to be fairly "Buck" in that they are cylindrical and so on. In short, a nice, dramatic cover picture clearly "Buck". However, it doesn't really bear directly on the title of the adventure - Sargasso of Space - so there's no direct link between the title of the adventure and the cover.

The interior layout is classical, in that it conforms to the Buck Rogers standard with the usual starlit borders, uses the same fonts as the BR boxed set, and has clear maps and so on on the interior side of the cover, so that they're backed by cardboard and fairly stiff. The only real problem I have with that is that the adventure will fairly easily be "jacket-less", in that the cover and the adventure is easily separated, but I guess one has to give something to get something.

Synopsis

Sargasso of Space is a sequel to Deimos Mandate. The adventure is designed for 3 to 6 characters of 5th to 7th level. Sargasso of Space is a sequel inasmuch that the two adventures work together, but there are no direct storylines that interconnect terribly strongly.

In Sargasso of Space, a team consisting of a new type of RAM space combat gennies has run off with a NEO ship using prototype cloaking equipment. Naturally, RAM is quite interested in retrieving both the ship and the errant gennies, for "correction". NEO is primarily interested in retrieving the ship. The RAM officer given the mission, is an antagonist from Deimos Mandate, tying the two adventures together.

The gennies are on the run, and plan to get a bottle (space-platform habitat) of their own, and perhaps start up as pirates or something (they're not terribly clear on that). The adventure is mostly set up in the asteroids, so supplemental material on the Belt is recommended, but not necessary to run the adventure.

Going into more detail than that has the potential of ruining everything, so I'll not do that.

New equipment and gennies given

Gennies: The gennie type detailed in Sargasso of Space are fairly well balanced, tipping toward fairly powerful. There shouldn't be any problem in allowing them into a campaign after Sargasso of Space is played through, if the GM so wishes.

Equipment: The prototype cloaking device is the primary new device described. It fits well in the BR universe, in that cloaking technology is already known in BR (Black Barney's Rogue has it, and the RAM fighters known as Kraits also have it), and the game mechanics are fairly simple and doesn't add much overhead to combat and so on.

Bottles fill up a gap in the BR universe concerning orbital habitats, and is info that's potentially useful in self-made adventures.

Evaluation

This adventure is a standard MacGuffin hunt, in that there's a Plot Device that's stolen or otherwise unavailable, and the player characters are given the task of retrieving the MacGuffin. It's a good old reliable standby, and is a type of adventure where there's difficult to go wrong.

This fits Sargasso of Space perfectly. Though not presenting brilliant twists of plot, shining NPCs or stellar plot, it is a workhorse that'll do the job. It'll entertain, without too much work or adaption needing to be made by the GM - always a good point. It is an average adventure.

Credits for Sargasso of Space

Adventure design: Editing: Karen S. Boomgarden
Cover painting: Jerry Bingham
Interior art: Continuity Studios, Burbank, Calif.
Maps: John Knecht
Typography: Angelika Lokotz
Graphic Design: Paul Hanchette