[Review] SLA Industries: Threat Analysis 1: Collateral

Introduction

The name’s Davenport. I review games.

It was rainin’ pretty hard outside — rain that smelled like someone was shampooin’ a hippo with formaldehyde. Never a good sign.

Not unless you’re hopin’ for a visit from the SLA Industries team, that is.

Sure enough, there’s a hard knock on my office door. Just one loud, hard knock, like that said all that needed to be said.

I open the door, and there was this stooped-over 9′ palooka wearin’ a respirator that covered whatever passed for his ugly mug.

He was wheezin’ like Darth Vader havin’ an asthma attack, but that didn’t fool me. This guy may’ve sounded out of breath, but I knew that he could flip a Buick without thinkin’ twice about it. He was a Skav, fresh outta Cannibal Sector 1.

SLA Industries, all right.

He holds up a book in one of his beefy mitts. “Review,” he says.

I take the book and give it the once-over. Threat Analysis 1: Collateral, the cover says. I may not’ve known what that meant, but I know a bestiary when I see one. And from the look of it, this one was a doozy.

“Read,” the Skav says.

“Uh, yeah, that usually comes before the reviewin’ part.”

“Bye,” he says, and stomps back out into the stinkin’ rain.

Good thing, too. I didn’t think the guy was ever gonna shut up.

Anyway, here’s the review.

Contents

This may be a tricky review. The sheer volume of information packed into this volume is difficult to convey, but I’ll do my best!

Dream Entities

Dream Entities are, perhaps, the creepiest beings detailed in this volume, being manifestations of reality breaking down. Starting out as oily black eggs, they proceed through several stages of development, each phase having variants and each phase becoming steadily more “real.” They form from the legends and lore of their location and take on shapes inspired by some source of fear, feeding off of the fear they produce. In fact, some of their forms can appear as distorted versions of other threats in the setting, such as Serial Killers, Cannibals, or members of the various factions opposed to SLA Industries itself.

In a way, Dream Entities epitomize the paranormal horror intrinsic in the setting, insofar as they simply don’t make sense. Even fully manifested Dream Entities have internal organs that don’t connect in any sane manner.

To make matters worse, as Dream Entities continue to damage the fabric of reality, they can infect an area with the dreaded disease knowns as the Grey, which causes its victims to gradually fade from existence and which can be spread literally by word of mouth.

Not only does the chapter provide stats on numerous Dream Entities of various stages, but it also includes descriptions of their unique abilities (such as the power to be only semi-corporeal or to cause reality distortions) and even samples of their paranormal weaponry.

Mort City Gangs

After a subject as exotic as the Dream Entities, a chapter on gangs might seem rather mundane. Nevertheless, this chapter illustrates how gangs can be a real threat to SLA Operatives and offers up a fascinating look at the types of gangs, what motivates them, what rules they follow, what crimes the commit, and even what equipment they use. The latter includes the gang’s colors, which, when worn, provide a variety of actual physical benefits to the gang member, and K’Shangs, which are civilian powersuit models repurposed for combat.

The chapter features stats on ten types of gang members and writeups of ten different gangs.

Manchines

As described in the core rules, Manchines are combat robots gone haywire that have the disturbing habit of “disguising” themselves with the rotting dead flesh of their victims.

The chapter includes two basic models — the human-sized Urbanite and the hulking Brute — and then provides randomized tables to determine how the various body parts of a given Manchine differ from the norm. Following are stats on the various modifications that may have been applied to a Manchine, such as extra limbs or integrated firearms. The net result is that while a Manchine might be easy to spot — or, rather, to smell — the PCs will never be sure of the thing’s actual capabilities.

Not only does the chapter offer four colorful Manchine NPCs, but it also includes rules for Manchine player characters. Such characters start out much more powerful than a standard SLA Operative but do not receive end-of-mission XP or SCL advances, providing a solid balancing mechanism that simulates a machine that’s six centuries old and rather set in its ways.

Serial Killers

As with the street gangs, this chapter takes a relatively mundane threat and turns it into a serious challenge. The section delves into the stages of mental disturbance that lead to a life of serial killings and provides stats on nine Serial Killers variants, many of which will be quite familiar to fans of “slasher” movies. (Among the latter are the Jason Voorhees-like Lumbering Nightmare, a huge, silent brute with an inexplicable ability to soak up damage without complaint.)

The chapter describes the Serial Killers gangs known as Cognates, which band together for mutual defense against the assorted threats posed by the setting, and gives examples of well-known Cognates and a description of a typical Cognate lair.

In true twisted SLA Industries form, the book also includes details on how Serial Killers can become media celebrities, complete with agents.

A selection of choice Serial Killer weaponry and armor is also featured, as well as variations on the all-important Serial Killer mask and the benefits they provide.

Scary Monsters

A kind of catch-all for creatures that don’t fall neatly into other categories, this chapter includes details on Ex-War Criminals, Carrien, and Cannibals.

The Ex-War Criminals are veterans of the War Worlds, planets consumed with perpetual armed conflict, whose psyches are permanently scarred by the experience. Essentially, they are forever at war, and they have the equipment to make that war happen, including the huge bipedal mechs known as BattleSuits. The section includes stats for various BattleSuit models and assorted weaponry. It also shows once again how the media in SLA Industries never lets a slaughter go to waste by following the exploits of Ex-War Criminals for entertainment purposes.

The section covering the skull-headed Carrien — what might be considered the “Orcs” of the setting — details the rank-and-file Carrien, the canny Alpha Carrien, the massive, antlered Greater Carrien, and the truly bizarre Mutant Carrien, also providing stats for their simple weapons. The chapter doesn’t go into quite as much detail on these creatures, but since they’re well-covered in the core rules, I really didn’t mind.

Naturally, the chapter details the eponymous Cannibals of the Cannibal Sector. These horrific creatures were once considered human, but that’s now up for debate. While the wretched “Runts” among them appear to be little more than average (if ugly) humans, the Cannibals higher on their matriarchal pecking order are truly huge and grotesque: The massive male Butchers, the elite female Termagants, the horrific (even to Cannibal eyes) and unpredictable Abominations, and the wickedly intelligent Matriarchs. Also of interest are the Progeny of Rawhead, a more advanced from of Abomination with which the Cannibals worshipping the Dream Entity known as Rawhead have been “blessed”. The section even covers the Cannibals’ beloved hounds, the cruelly-armored Cannibal Mastiffs. As with the Carrien, the Cannibal’s nasty weapons get write-ups as well. I particularly like the fact that the Butchers will coat their bladed weapons in their own diseased blood as an extra source of damage.

The Children of Scarogg

Spawned from the genetic experiments of the mad Dr. Arild Frode Scarogg, the huge, emotionless Vodyanoy — or, as they are more commonly known, the Skavs — combine the physical might of the Cannibals with an uncanny knack for improving upon captured technology and deploying it for their own ends. Constantly rasping and wheezing under their ever-present respirators, they nevertheless show no sign of suffering from disease. The chapter covers several different strains of Skav with variable physical and mental capabilities. Also detailed are the Skav’s efforts to infiltrate Downtown and the ghastly slave trade they undertake there. The chapter wraps up with numerous examples of Skav-optimized weaponry, including numerous firearms as well as the surprisingly advanced Scav Ion Cannon.

Planet Mort Fauna

A sort of bestiary-within-a-bestiary, this chapter covers the “natural” fauna of the planet.

The chapter first adds some new rules for natural weapons, including the damage stats for something big enough to wreck a large vehicle. Then it’s on to the critters:

• Carnivorous Pig: More details on these creatures and their behavior, including descriptions of several different breeds. I particularly like the F.O.M.P. (F**k Off Massive Pig), which makes use of those nifty new vehicle-wrecking stats.
• Canines: The feral dogs of the Cannibal Sector, the feral dogs that have been tamed, and the simple Downtown strays.
• Fleshworm: Sort of like a severed tentacle with a jaw that shoots out and delivers an acidic bite, this thing hides in corpses to lure its next meal. Very nasty.
• Puddle Hermit: An acid-spitting spider that hangs out in polluted bodies of water.
• Pipe Dweller: The apex predator of the Mort sewers, this is something like a giant centipede. Very tasty once boiled and glazed in garlic butter.
• ArachnoStalker: Another giant spider, this one heavily armored. It enjoys prolonging its prey’s suffering.
• Loper: A vaguely insectoid semi-aquatic beast with an impaling, blood-draining proboscis.
• Arrowhead Cockroach: Just large, voracious, disease-spreading cockroaches. Gross.
• Sector Mutant: Something like a cross between a troll and a mindless zombie, these creatures are what happens when a Cannibal (or possibly other creatures) drink water containing the mutagenic pollutant known as KZ-14.
• KZ Dog: The canine equivalent of the Sector Mutant.
• Skulker: A dog-sized carnivorous roach with disturbing cunning and a numbing saliva that lets it feast on sleeping victims without waking them.
• Lower Downtown Hagfish: A lamprey-like fish that attacks by breaking limbs.
• Gnaggot: A carnivorous flying maggot that’s just as pleasant as it sounds.
• Dreg: A wretched degenerate human that goes about on all fours and serves as the bottom of the city’s food chain.

I have only two complaints about this chapter.

First, I wish that the creatures were presented in alphabetical order.

And second, I wish the chapter were larger. Yes, I realize that it contains quite a few creatures, but I am a sucker for a good bestiary, and this is a very good bestiary. It leaves me greedy for more information on Mort’s twisted ecology.

Naga 7 Division

Something akin to SLA Industries’ version of the X-Files or the Men in Black, this division is dedicated to investigating — and often eliminating — paranormal creatures (like Dream Entities) and other phenomena. In the process of describing the organization’s history and methods, the text gives still more information on just how fundamentally screwed up what passes for “reality” is in this setting.

The chapter covers the three types of Naga 7 operatives, all available as PCs:

• Aethernaut: The oddly affable operatives dedicated to the study and containment of Dream Entities. Humans or (more recently) Neophrons.
• AetherTracker: Exclusively ADV Carrien, they have an uncanny sense for detecting Dream Entities and are deployed to track down and eliminate them.
• Naga Field Agent: Exclusively Human experts in archeology with a sense for the presence of paranormal artifacts, even from planetary orbit.

Included are skills unique to Naga 7 Division and the truly bizarre weapons and armor they use when going up against Dream Entities.

More importantly, the chapter describes more about the true nature of the SLA Industries setting in a few pages than the first edition did in the entire rulebook.

Presentation

As was the case with the SLA Industries core rulebook, the art here is as vibrant as it is gritty and disturbing. Every creature gets at least one exquisite image to show your players.

The writing goes into great detail without ever growing tiresome, and the in-setting fiction is top-notch. If there are any typos, I didn’t catch them.

The layout manages to allow for plenty of information per page while keeping sufficient whitespace to prevent looking cluttered.

And then there’s the all-important index. This book sports a fine one indeed.

Conclusion

I’ve been a huge fan of TTRPG bestiaries since my earliest days in the hobby. Even before, actually — I got the AD&D 1e Monster Manual before I knew what D&D was. I thought it was just a cool book of fantasy monsters with made-up stats.

I say this to illustrate the fact that I have extremely high expectations from a bestiary.

Threat Analysis 1 – Collateral meets or exceeds them. In fact, this is one of the finest bestiaries I’ve ever read.

Would I have liked more creatures? Sure… but the price would have been less information on each creature, and as evocative as the writeups are, that would have been a crime.

Bottom line? This one gets a rare ten-out-of-ten fedoras. If you have any interest in SLA Industries at all, you want this book. Trust me.

Purchase here.