So, the other day I was visiting my mother, half-listening to a conversation between her and some of her matronly friends. One of them mentioned that their nephew had a real gaming addiction.

When Wizards introduced the Eberron campaign setting, I was (at best) skeptical. I was a staunch supporter of Faerun and I loved that world. My friends suggested I give Eberron a try since it was going to be the ‘official’ world of D&D. I read the campaign book and I was impressed by the world and how it had a very different flavor from that of Forgotten Realms. I dove in headfirst and Eberron has not disappointed me except for one fundamental flaw: religion.

This is a game I just bought from Indie Press Revolution and read in about an hour. I had version 1.0 (and received 1.1 for free about a month after I ordered it as part of a deal with IPR). Shock: Social Science Fiction v1.1 is not your typical science fiction role-playing game. For starters, in Shock the setting is more than just a pretty backdrop--the Shock is the setting.

In the earliest days of Dungeons & Dragons, creator Gary Gygax ran an epic series of adventures in a place called Castle Greyhawk. This was Neolithic roleplaying—a simplistic hack and slash that virtually defined the “dungeon crawl” mentality that dominated the hobby for years. Many people remember this campaign, having read about it in roleplaying magazines or even seen it played at conventions; but there can’t be more than a handful of people who think it would be a good idea to bring Castle Greyhawk back to life in the modern era. Unfortunately, one of those people apparently works at Wizards of the Coast, and so we find ourselves with a $35, hardbound book that says, “You meet in a bar—let’s go kill some monsters!” I had hoped the hobby had already made its saving throw against this kind of thing.

The world of the Eberron campaign setting introduced many new ideas and facets to Dungeons and Dragons. One of the primary facets was that of the ‘Dragonmark’, a permanent, tattoo-like mark that mysteriously began appearing on members of certain races several centuries prior to the ‘present day’ Eberron. The ‘Dragonmark’ (as they came to be known) grants its bearer spell-like abilities based on its race and ancestry.