So, what time tomorrow is Big Score going to hit?

[Agent 333]

I'd like to know so I can help make it the fastest selling PDF on DriveThruRPG.
Well, that and I don't want to be sitting here at midnight clicking "refresh" if it's not coming out till noon....

[Crafty_Pat]

I'd like to know so I can help make it the fastest selling PDF on DriveThruRPG.
Well, that and I don't want to be sitting here at midnight clicking "refresh" if it's not coming out till noon....

It'll be early. Checking at midnight wouldn't be a bad call.

[Agent 333]

Now is that midnight real time (EST) or midnight of your crazy Californian clock? 

[Crafty_Pat]

Now is that midnight real time (EST) or midnight of your crazy Californian clock? 

Likely ours, might be theirs. The Monkey hasn't spoken yet.

He's asleep now. Too many bourbon-laced bananas. Ask again later. 

[Agent 333]

Midnight there is like, what 3AM? 4AM? Bah, I might have to wait till I wake up tomorrow . OH well, it'll give me a reason to wake up early (I'm on vacation and my sleep schedule's kinda outta wack).

[Agent 333]

Damn, guess it's not Midnight EST. Oh well... I'll check every hour on the hour till I get it or pass out.... Just in case those silly Monkeys want to release it in Mountain time or something crazy.

[Agent 333]

Well, its 2AM here (Midnight Mountain time IIRC), and I must be off to bed. I guess I'll just have to pick it up first thing in the morning...

Feel free to delete this thread, as it'll have no relevance inside of 6 hours, tops.

[Antilles]

It's up, in case anybody's interested...

[Crafty_Pat]

Yup. It's live.

As it happens, we really did try to get it up at midnight EST but our server here decided to stall. Apparently they started their weekly maintenance three hours early, causing the site to slow to a crawl. Sigh. 

At least it's out now - and nearly an hour before midnight on the far coast. Huzzah!

Enjoy.

[TheAuldGrump]

Yup, got it.

The Auld Grump

[Forcegypsy]

Comments? mini-review? I'm picking this up in 2 weeks so need something to whet my appetite.

[Psion]

It's been out less than 8 hours now... most of which I've been asleep.

But if anyone has some early comments drop 'em here... someone on RPGnet is also already asking for comments:
http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=384139

[Krensky]

OK, a first glance...

The Stockpile system is cool and may well become the default gear system in my games (excluding the SG-1:2015 which seems to run fine on a Take What the GC Gives You hand-waving I've been using.) It does, of course, mean the "What happens to a V item when it's hit with gear prep or Big Budget?" question will come up in my games more.

Cash & Carry... is also cool. I especially like the Prudence mechanic and the Storage mechanic. Both work with Lifestyle to neatly solve issues of inflation and strip money from the PCs without resorting to shenanigans like super pickpockets, second-story men, special taxes, or an "adventurer" economy separate from the the normal economy. The cost listed for training seem a little high, but I understand and agree with the mechanical reasoning and if pressed will likely employ some hand-waving about opportunity costs and gear and whatever along with pointing out the very short time frames.

Then there's Loot. Ah Loot. Let's face it, the complaints about the SC gear system being mission oriented, hand everything back in or else is really about wanting to keep the super-duper-kill-stick-MkIII +9 you found on the body of that assassin that almost did you in. Loot lets you do that, and do it in style. It also covers the little troll of a tech you've convinced to make shiny black box tech items for you or the alchemist who always makes sure he's got a healing potion or two on hand for a discerning customer such as yourself. Loot even brings back the old stand by of treasure being worth XP. Granted, it's worth XP for the people in the party who don't get the dingus, but that's only fair.

The campaign qualities are nice, with Monty Haul being great if only because of the implication that every 'standard' D&D game has it applied and Quality of Life for making me actually really think about what sorts of games it's appropriate for.

The common item list is great and introduces a number of items with mechanical effects and benefits.

Overall, it's certainly worth the $5.50.

[Aragathor]

I bought it because of the cash sytem, and I don't like it.
After first reading the rules a message popped into my mind -> "the player's are the good guys, but they need to move those 50 keys of coke if they want to keep their lifestyle"
The whole section looks like an untested 70% done draft. There are some logical holes in the rules which makes me wonder if it was tested.
My beef:
-Prudence - I hate it when rules try to force player's to do something that is unreasonable. And prudence is something like that, it takes money away with the lame excuse "lifestyle covers only your house and clothes". Oh and yeah, a meal is something extra according to prudence.
-Fencing the goods - it's too easy and inflexible.
-Equipment - no Rep only equipment under those rules. Not unreasonable, but player's don't get anything in exchange.
-Training - 250k for a new hobby? 500k for a proficiency? Life does not work that way. It looks like someone worked extra hard to make it extra useless. Levelling-up and buying equpiment gives you more bang for the buck, of course only if you have a high prudence score, otherwise you're screwed.
-Lifestyle - say what? After every mission? Let's assume a mission every week, this makes for 4 lifestyle payments a month which covers your clothing and housing. No cost for a 1 bedroom ap (which in RL costs about 200-300 a month) but 2k for a 2 bedroom? And the character wears what? Gold threaded rags?
-There is nothing to help the GM in creating monetary rewards, something more than important under this system.

I could go on, but I won't. I'm disappointed, I expected better. But the rules are complicated, too far away from life and take the fun out of the game. I hoped to use them but I can't, because it would include too much work to make them feel right.
Instead of making Lifestyle special to include extras it was changed into a black hole giving nothing except a small bonus for a load of cash.

[meadicus]

Very good comments from Krensky there. I would like of emphasize how good the common item stats are. It's really useful to see skateboards/rollerskates and various different light sources specified. Also a decent mechanic for consuming regular alcohol, which I've found required on many occasions in every system.

The only thing that seems to be lacking is a system for pricing gadgets, which would be required for the Cash n' Carry system. Though it's possible I've missed this as I've only read it through once.

All in all the new gear systems massively open up the Spycraft system to lots of new game styles. The first game I tried to run was mercenary based, and ran into trouble because of the ill-fitting core gear system. I'm confident now of never having any major trouble with the gear system ever again.

Thanks Big Score