Monster of the week

Played this recently with a friend at a local hobby store and was immediately impressed by the RP depth and simultaneous ease of this game system. Being able to set up a mostly fleshed out character in 10 minutes, while also having group growth be a major part of the system really got me on board, so I bought the book to have a gander at it and ripped through it in a week.

The Good

If you are someone who comes from a group of friends with a drama background, or have ever done any sort of improv, this is going to be an incredible system for you. If you're not, you'll still be able to get a lot out of this system, and also grow your abilities as a "Keeper" or a Player by using its ultra loose, be cool, fly by your pants sort of setup.

The art in this book is fantastic and suits the aesthetic perfectly. Each character type feels unique, well balanced, and while reading I could easily imagine playing each and every one, and how that would play out at the table. The monsters and mysteries presented are great to help you get a grasp on what being a Keeper entails.

10/10.

The Bad

Though I still love this system, and am equally impressed as I was after my first introduction to it, this book could have realistically been half the length, or more of the repetitive content converted into additional mysteries or monsters.

A LOT of what is in here is slight rewordings of things that have already been established at the beginning of the book. Even the parts where they mention that they're doing this to 'go into more depth for the Keeper' are slight variations of a copy and paste job with little to no additional information.

I also found the layout of the book downright wonky at times.
- Information for making key worded weapons is given long before what those keywords mean, and even before learning how combat works.
- Basic moves are copy and pasted multiple times through the book
- Often asked myself if I had already read this chapter, then realized there were some minor variations.
- Paragraphs that seemed pretty important would sometimes be shoe horned in a chapter wide wall of copy and pasted text from earlier in the book.

Conclusion

This is a fantastic system, with a lot to love, and feels like a warm hug from the 90s sci fi / monster shows that we all came to love. If you pick it up to play with your friends, I guarantee, you will have a great time. I'd be willing to give it a 10/10 with better formatting and editorial choices.