Pyramid Review
Terra Primate RPG
Published by Eden Studios, Inc.
Written by Patrick Sweeny with Al Bruno III, CJ Carella, and David F. Chapman
Cover by Jeff Reitz
Illustrated by Storn Cook, Thomas Denmark, Talon Dunning, DW Gross, Jon Hodgson, Chris Keefe, Jason Millet, James Powers, Gregory Price, and George Vasilakos
7¼" by 9¼" 256-page hardcover; $30
With Terra Primate, Eden Studios sets out to do for apes and primates what they did for zombies with their All Flesh Must Be Eaten RPG. The format is the same, physically and conceptually, with Terra Primate exploring the place of the ape within popular culture and extending them not into "Deadworlds" (as in All Flesh Must Be Eaten) but rather into Apeworlds. In All Flesh Must Be Eaten, the focus is squarely upon humans surviving in a world beset by members of the shuffling corpse cortege, rather than in playing the zombies themselves -- though this has been explored to some extent in the recent Enter the Zombie supplement. Though the initial focus in Terra Primate is upon humans encountering the inhabitants of various Apeworlds, the rules do allow players to take the role of Gorillas, Chimpanzees, Orang-utans, and even Gibbons . . .
As with All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Terra Primate is a sturdy -- but slightly smaller than standard size -- hardback. It is heavily illustrated in a range of different styles, giving it something of a scrappy look. Otherwise, the layout is decent and well-organized, backed up with an excellent index and an appendix . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: December 27, 2002
Copyright © 2002 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.