I had a chance to page through Spycraft 2.0 yesterday at Barnes & Noble (yes, B&N -- I was stunned that they actually carried any RPG books, let alone a new one like this). It's a hefty book, and after a quick glance at the table of contents and reading about the design philosophy, I do like where it appears to be headed. It looks to be more streamlined and cohesive, with less of the time-consuming paperwork associated with stuff like gearing up.

If I can swing it, I'll definitely be picking it up, and heck, maybe I'll even use it as the engine to re-launch my stalled Spycraft campaign.

Having said that ... I hate the artwork. I was never thrilled with the card game art, but at least it was off on its own. Now it's infected the RPG, and I can't help but feel that the cartoony look clashes with the ruleset. I don't want G.I. Joe here -- I want James Bond, and this doesn't feel like 007. I realize they want to separate the new edition from the old one visually, but the new art, particularly the cover art, doesn't work for me.

This book also represents perhaps a pinnacle of the use of inside color in an RPG book -- it's freaking everywhere, and that's not a good thing. A little color I can stand, but this goes far, far beyond a little color. Heck, all of the gear list tables are green with white or yellow text. It looks less like an artistic decision, and more a choice to make photocopying those pages as difficult as possible. I'd much rather have seen the inside pages devoid of color, which would have had the extra benefit of reducing the book's price by a few dollars (as can be seen by looking at the similarly sized Iron Heroes, which costs about $2 less.

Don't get me wrong, I do like this book, but I did not get that ultra-cool sense of euphoria that I got when I picked up the first Spycraft book -- with all its chrome and excellent genre quotes.

What do you think of the new book? Post a comment or visit the unofficial Spycraft 20 Yahooo Group (of which I'm the moderator).