Hello everyone, and welcome to the Finder’s Archives. Some of you may remember that a year ago, I did a “re(tro)view” of an old system called SLA Industries. It remains one of my all-time favorite settings due to the horror noir feel, but the mechanics were always considered “iffy.”
Well, that looks to be about to change, as SLA Industries is getting a 2nd edition, and, as of this writing, the Kickstarter launched on the 17th of September. That said, I’ve been digging into the preview that they made available as a Quickstart (and I’ll include a link to it at the end).
Instead of doing a full review, I’m going to focus on what has changed since the last time around.
The first mechanic change to note (although ironically this isn’t the first one addressed in the Quickstart) is that the dice mechanics. Instead of being a “roll 2d10 and add skill,” it’s now “roll X amount of D10s and add your skill bonus.” Not only that, but they’ve added a success dice, to determine the success. This allows for a “degree of success” mechanic, somewhat similar to Genesys and Star Wars – but without the triumph/despair aspect. It also tends to mean that when you fail, you have a chance of failing SPECTACULARLY. To use a Genesys/Star Wars term: You don’t fail with advantage – you either simply fail or fail with disadvantage (and vice versa).
The next thing to note is the stat/skill differences. It no longer runs from 0 to 10, but 0 to 6. Two is average for a stat. This allows for a somewhat flatter curve of stats than the old system did, but it means, at least in my group, that there’s far more room for customization and “sub-optimal” choices than before. For example, now you’ll find a human sniper in the group, rather than all of them being Wraith Raiders (or Wraithen as they’re now called).
Initiative is also a roll now, where before it was a function of Dexterity. Highest Dexterity used to always go first unless surprised. That is no longer a given, though they do still get a significant bonus to it.
And here comes one of the biggest (and nicest changes) – calculating damage is now a LOT easier, and there’s a bit of randomness to it now since it’s not a set number, but rather a rolled one. This, at least to my group, was a very welcome change. It cuts down on the math and means that if you’re lucky enough, even with a bad weapon, you can still hurt someone in decent armor. (Just don’t take on someone in power armor, like Thresher – I suspect they will be SERIOUSLY bad news for you).
My own favorite change is something entirely new to the system though. There’s always been an element of “glamor” to the pursuits of the PCs in this game. They’re supposed to look good in camera to distract the populace, and now there’s the Ratings Points for that, something I always felt was needed mechanically. Ratings points let you do stuff that looks good on camera, like punching your Vibro-sword through someone (for extra damage) or the smirk for the camera, that gives you bonuses to any Charisma check.
And all of this seems to come with minimal changes to the setting itself, apart from advancing the timeline a number of years and introducing at least 1 new race to the player mix.
In short, while the Quickstart only shows SOME of what’s coming, I’m very excited to see where they go next. You can find their Quickstart HERE, and there’s still a few days left on the Kickstarter for their project.
Kim Frandsen
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Since this was written before the Kickstarter went live, that can be found here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nightfall/sla-industries-2nd-edition