The Coming of Shadows
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Speaking of supplements¸ the very first 'season' book¸ The Coming of Shadows¸ has just plopped on to my desk. Detailing the Earth Year 2259¸ it is 144 pages of scrumptious full colour goodness¸ containing everything you need to take your campaigns into the next era of the B5 story. Hold on to your hats¸ as things really begin hotting up here! The supplement kicks off with Personalities of 2259¸ fully detailing all the major movers and shakers of the galaxy¸ from their stats¸ to biography and personality. Want to see if Vir has advanced beyond 1st level? The answer is here! To give you a quick run down¸ we have complete bios on Captain Sheridan¸ Ivanova¸ Garibaldi¸ Franklin¸ Lieutenant Corwin¸ Lieutenant Keffer (soon to be an ex-Keffer)¸ Talia¸ Lyta (soon to be scary)¸ Delenn¸ G'Kar¸ Mollari¸ Na'Toth¸ Lennier¸ Vir¸ Bester¸ Mr Morden (never alone)¸ and Zack Allen. We also have more sample characters¸ such as the Starfury Pilot and Brakiri Poisonmonger to enable you to flesh out your own scenarios quickly and easily. The Galaxy of 2259 forms the major part of The Coming of Shadows¸ giving what we believe to be the most detailed episodes synopses ever published for B5. As well as the rundown of events on each episode¸ we also cover new rules and flesh out the background of individuals¸ organisations and technology¸ where appropriate. Just flicking through the various sub-headings will give you some idea of the weight of material in here; The Trigati¸ The Icarus¸ The Book of G'Quan¸ Techno-mages¸ Drazi Leadership Contest¸ Missionary Licences¸ Soldier of Darkness (complete with stats¸ if you want to give your players a _real_ fright!)¸ Future Corps¸ Bureau 13¸ Project Lazarus (complete with template for your own... experiments)¸ The Underground Railroad¸ Toxic Sleepers¸ Centauri Rite of Ascension¸ Tricks of the Narn Resistance¸ Centauri Psycholinguistics¸ The Emperor's Telepaths¸ Sinclair's Rangers¸ Emperor Turhan¸ Bethesda Dome¸ The Streib (along with their racial traits¸ allowing you to bring them into your own scenarios)¸ The Lumati¸ Foundationism¸ The Great Machine... Phew! That was just skimming - there are many more entries to fuel any passion for Babylon 5. In addition to this¸ we also have a series of sidebars running through the year¸ Eye on History¸ giving you a detailed blow-by-blow account of the Narn/Cenaturi war¸ which you can follow on the Galactic map of the main rulebook. All this builds up to the explosive ending of 2259¸ which is sending the entire galaxy on a course of trouble¸ strife and retribution. The next chapter covers Rules Additions - basic nuts and bolts for you to add to your games of Babylon 5. These include Critically Injured Characters (think hit points don't give the full story of Garibaldi's injuries - feel free to use these!)¸ Medical Specialities¸ Memory Vaulting (how _did_ Lyta hide her memories of Kosh?)¸ and new prestige classes - the GROPOS Hoverpilot¸ EarthForce Intelligence Agent¸ Centauri Royal Guard¸ and the Techno-Mage (_that_ will get people flocking to the chapter!). There are also two templates to add to characters - the Empath and the Imperial Telepath (remember the veiled Centauri women?). Equipment and Vehicles brings into focus the 'kit' from 2259 that players may be just dying to get their hands on. The equipment includes items such as cryogenic freezer units and micro-bugs. However¸ I'll give you the full list of spacecraft included here¸ as I know many people have been waiting for these; EA Deep Space Exploratory Craft (Copernicus)¸ Explorer Survey Ship¸ G'Quan Heavy Cruiser¸ Primus Battlecruiser¸ Vorchan Warship¸