ION Heart: Pilot's Handbook

At time of writing, I lack the necessary amount of dice needed to play, but just from reading the instructions it is a book I can wholeheartedly recommend. The story circuits are interesting and can be used as a springboard to create your own. If the dice rolls result in conflicting elements, the book encourages you to think outside the box and get creative. An example would be an inhabitable world yet has settlements albeit few. You could rationalize this as civilization living in protective domes, underground (or in atmosphere) where it is not hazardous, teams of experts in progress of terra-forming within their landships, etc. Nothing is infeasible. This too extends to the rules of engagement in combat. Tactical yet light. Tables are simplified for ease of understanding as well as for later reference. At any time you can disengage whether it be a change in attack range (close, long), deescalating a situation, or simply to flee. There are no duels to the death unless you choose it to be. The same can be said of exploration, it is your/character’s story, pursue whatever fancies your interests. A mercenary for hire hopping systems per job hoping for a windfall, member of a rescue team investigating a series of distress calls in the fringes, field researcher of anomalies that leads to uncovering or disturbing a forgotten mystery, for better or ill – you get the idea.

Tabletop is a great vendor to work with!

These are small format (8.5"x6"), which surprised me a little, but they are fun, nicely written and illustrated, physically sturdy, and the binding looks good. I need to play with it a few more times solo to determine what I think of the gameplay, but they were on sale as a bundle and I decided to grab it as I collect mech rules like a junkyard dog collects fleas...