Who needs computer games? (Sla Industries Role Playing Games)

Member Name: daemonicragnorak

Product:	Sla Industries Role Playing Games
Date:	26/04/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Endless possibilites

Disadvantages: need a good GM

(From the back cover) 'suggested for mature gamers', this gives you an instant insight to what to expect from buying this book in the hope of playing a game of it.

[note: GM is the Games Master - the person running the game]

SLA (pronounced SLAY) is a futuristic horror tabletop role-play game that has been around for a good 15 years now and I myself have been involved with for at least half of those years.

Unlike a lot of standard role-play games you need nothing other than the core book to play a fully functioning game, although the few source books that exist will help out the GM.

The setting is far in the future where one company has essentially taken control of the planet and the boss acts as the planet's dictator. The world knows very little other than crime and poverty with the vast majority unemployed.

The company makes profits by control the masses through media with subversion punishable by death, fear is the key factor to the planets rule and this game.

The characters are going to be put into a world where there is endless crime and danger for them, for very little reward. They will be numbers in the system and it is up to the GM to make them feel like they are expendable.

The way this game plays is simple compared most other role-play games, although additional rules are available of internet forums, which means people completely new to the concept of role-play games can play.

Despite it being good for newbies, it is also good for veterans of role-playing too, through the horror of the game. The idea of the horror of this game is not to be up against unspeakable horrors, like you might find in Call of Cthulu, but more so the be a psychological horror game; it will be down the GM to keep the players constantly afraid and paranoid.

If you have a good GM this game can last a long time, with a campaign spanning from weeks to to months, even years. The rules are also durable enough to allow for you to create your own new world should you get bored of the SLA world, you could even make your own version of Fallout with your local town map.

This game is everything a good role-play is and easily beats anything a game console could offer. Endless possibilities to what you could do, and a very social activity too. Ultimately the amount of fun you have out of this comes down to how good your GM is, but that's no deciding factor as you can always 'sack' the GM and look for another, if they aren't any good.

Summary: One of the better rule-sets for roleplaying