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Ruby

By Greg Saunders

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Paperback, 411 pages

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…Beyond Earth. Earth is a distant memory. Welcome to the Red System. …Beyond Humanity. The human race is finished. NuManity rules the Red Worlds. …Beyond the Body. NuMen ‘Dream’, Casting forth their intellects while cryogenically frozen to control distant Shells scattered through the Red Worlds, allowing them to work for the benefit of all NuManity and also to rid their minds of the vestiges of unwanted ‘human’ emotions. When they wake they remember nothing – a perfect system. …Beyond Dreams. But you are not the same. You are a Lucid, you remember every Dream vividly. Wracked by near-human emotions and faced with the full horrors of the Red System, only Unity can give you release, but at a price. You must work as an agent of Unity, freeing Obsessive Dreamers, battling Outsiders and eradicating the last dregs of humanity even as the rest of NuManity remains oblivious. Welcome to Ruby. Now close your eyes and sleep… www.fireruby.co.uk

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Mar. 13, 2008 By greg.saunders

"Review by Christian Kräuter"
'I took the plunge and bought the PDF; I'm not quite done reading through it, but I thought I'd share my thoughts on the book.

Layout is quite pedestrian, there's a lot of text and only few pictures. I also noticed a few typos. Nothing too abysmal, especially when you consider the amount of text involved, but it pains me to see typos. That is not to say that the book is riddled with typos. I've read my share of RPG books, and I've seen far worse.

The system, as described, seems workable, but since I had no chance to actually play it I can't comment. You'll need a few D6 of two different colours to denote dice and inverted dice. ... More > />
The setting is effin' brilliant. It’s an everything-and-the-kitchen-sink, but those wildly different backgrounds, worlds and concepts are neatly ordered and kept apart by the inner consistency of the game. The "Red" solar system is inhabited by a bunch of posthumans that lack most of the baser human instincts, creating a perfect, peaceful and prosperous civilization that is also as bland as it gets. No sex, no crime, no emotional trouble, no base instincts, no greed, no pain, no want, no poverty. And no fun. Well, almost. These Numans have the ability to "cast" their consciousness into shells while they dream, artificial lifeforms located anywhere in the system. This ability provides most of the workforce (basically, those people work in their sleep, and forget about it when they wake). People also cast to different worlds designed to indulge their basic-yet-suppressed human instincts in an effort to stabilize their psyche. When they wake, they remember nothing but the satisfaction gained by indulging their repressed urges, ready to function as a peaceful member of society again.

Then there are the Lucids, rare anomalities that in fact DO remember their "dreams", and are borderline nutcases. Lucids are incredibly useful, since they do remember and can actually follow and enforce long-term-goals. They are also emotionally unstable and prone to insanity. Lucids are used by Unity (which comes across like a kind of semi-conscious hivemind, created by the intellects of all the Numans) as troubleshooters, fixing problems within the "dreamworlds" (which happen to exist physically in the solar system), hunt down rogue Humans (the original kind, with base instincts intact, and considered a dangerous pest by Numanity) and rogue Lucids.

So, you get your trouble neatly sorted by planet. There's one for open warfare in all of it's forms, one for emotional turmoil (which eerily resembles dreamscapes in form and function), 4 moons dedicated to greed and criminal urges, 2 planets dedicated to work (and usually devoid of lucids, who have more important things to do than mine rocks) and one riddled with human infestation. Multi-genre without all of the crossover hassle commonly associated with it. Each of these places is described with just the right amount of detail to get your creative juices flowing without overdefining. This solar system is an interesting, alien place, but never so alien that it can't be grasped by the players, since at it's core, it's all about human feelings and urges. You can always relate to the worlds, no matter how strange they seem at first.

Oh, and it's pretty hard sci-fi, the only "soft" part is the casting itself. The rest is rather plausible tech. From the preview, I would have assumed something far more "fantastic", but the "low-tech" approach (comparatively speaking) works incredibly well. So, my first verdict: The layout is functional at best, the rules are simple enough and seem workable, but what really shines is the setting. It's a real gem (no pun intended).’
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Product Details

Copyright	Greg Saunders (Standard Copyright License)
Edition	1st Edition
Publisher	Fire Ruby Studios
Published	March 6, 2007
Language	English
Pages	411

Binding	Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink	Black & white
Dimensions (inches)	6.0 wide × 9.0 tall