Dystopia Rising Tabletop Corebook

I've been playing tabletop rpgs for about 20 years now and I have to say that dystopia rising is a simplistic system that leaves a lot to be desired and the books aren't even in color or at least this one isn't. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. If my group wants to game in the zombie apocalypse, we still go toward d20 modern. I'd probably even go with fantasy flights end of the world series before we attempt this one.

A friend of mine first bought this sourcebook at a ny comicon a couple of years back being regular dnd players our gameing group was a bit nervous about what to expect. So after incessent pleading we finally say down a week later to what turned out to be one of the best role playing session of my life.The rules were very well laid out and pretty easy to grasp for the most part, and character creation was a breeze (after we found the well hidden character sheets on the games website) and in about an hour of character creation and a brief rules intro we were ready to play.Our session was brief (two or three hours at most) and our gm followed the rules to the letter (something I suggest you do not do for the sake of your sanity) causing almost everything we did to attract a zombie horde. Sending my beautifully built heavily religious technomancer madly driving a quickly salvaged car down a highway through zombies with only the car doors between us and sure death.The session ended with my character committing suicide as the zombie horde closed in around us, a bleak game to be sure. And yet this action packed and physically terrifying couple of hours had nothing to do with the gm, his actual mission looking back was a poorly scripted mess all he did was follow the base game mechanics and the setting did the rest. I have never been as terrified playing a game before as I was that night, trying to survive in game for a couple of days on nothing but our wits and whatever we could scrounge up. It was exhilarating.The book itself is beautifully written making it very easy to get a sense of the grim world around you through the flavor text, artwork, and even basic fare such as item tables where items taken for granted today, such as bandages or clean water, are some of the most expensive, and hard to come by items on the market. Role playing and setting the scene began immediately with many of the character improvements fulfilling little more than backstory roles and with almost all of the detriments (actions I was forced to take to create my almost godlike character) consisting of options such as being exiled from a part of the world or for four whole skill points (a hefty amount in this game where one can expect to receive one or two skill points every two or three missions, and need to use at least three skill points to up even some of a characters lowest stats) a character could be orphaned, he'll I took that immediately, of course it meant writing out a heavy backstory which would become the main focus of most of our missions and lead to intense mental scarring both in game and out but that's okay because I had an extra four skill points to use.In all the game is amazing creating a real sense of desperation almost immediately for the players which will last even after months of game sessions. The only reasons I give this game four stars instead of five are for some minor tweaking that needs to be done. Getting back to that drive through hell in the beginning did I mention the car had no fuel, yeah I drove a car on sheer willpower. This would not have been a problem if this wasn't my starting character, oh and did I mention I had Jesus like healing abilities to. Of course I did have to give up in some other areas such as basic fighting technique (if I had ever left my car I would have been killed almost instantly) but this wasn't a problem because the other players would back me up in anything I lacked.The main issue there was more likely to do with me though and not the game during the week between when my friend bought the book and the others conceded in playing I pored over the sourcebook looking for anything that I could exploit, and I found it in religion and psionic powers. But beyond a couple of loopholes the game is extremely solid and the gm can always adjust to unsportsmanlike players, and really the variety of deadly options the gm is given almost encourages it increasing the terror of surviving but also sweetening the reward.

I am a fan of the material and background. However, the RPG engine needs work.

This core book is one of the most comprehensive and amazing guides I have seen in recent years. The team that wrote this show their love and dedication to the genre, and paint a picture of the post-apocalypse unlike any other. The writing, artwork and story are top notch, gritty, and wonderful. I can't wait to see what they put out next.Oh... And the game is Freaking Awesome!! But I'm here to comment on the book...

I play in the larp version of this game and this book was very helpful. It has great descriptions of the various baddies and goodies of Dystopia.

Great to curve the zombie fetish we all have. Its night, dawn, & day of the dead with some mad max thrown in for fun.

I played this tabletop game at GEN CON with the creator (Mike) as our GM and it was the highlight of my weekend and of the convention. The new expansion is awesome and I highly recommend this to anyone interested in a new fresh style of RPG.

I really like this setting and I am definitely looking forward to getting more of the books. It has a setting that is easy to work with so it does not feel difficult to adjust to your style or system that you would like.