TLDR: Aside from a lack of artwork and some information left unclear it's a solid book for the price. Also San Antonion didn't get blown up.
I received this free as part of my kickstarter rewards for backing the 2nd edition rule book. I also happen to be a native Texan who has become quite used to sci-fi games always making Texas out to be either the wild west with oil barons, or some fractured microcosm of dieing America and a reborn Aztec empire. Very rarely do I get to enjoy a book that gives the State (and former nation) more attention beyond those cliches. In fact the last one I liked was Rifts: Lone Star and that was more due to the talking doggies.
So to start things off I'd like to talk about what I liked.
It's not expensive. 8.50 for all that information is quite good value in my opinion. However see my critiques about the art.
The book for took the time to break up the Republic of Texas (the game's name for the nation) based on the notoriously varied geographic regions. There's seven specific areas it focuses in on and each is given about as much attention as the core book gave to the individual nations. Each region gets at least two major cities or other locations talked about. There's also mentions of local gangs, higher ups, corporat interests, and all manner of other things to help inspire adventures in those regions.
If you enjoy your world information delivered from an in universe perspective then you'll be happy to know this sourcebook continues their tradition of that. All the crunchy stuff is set well past the in character portions as well so that game specific stuff doesn't get in the way of in character presentations. We also get the now requisitie online commentary from in universe characters. The mixture of their pro-their thing, anti-other guy viewpoints helps make it seem less like an omniscient text and leaves airs of mystery all over the place. This is handy for GM's as it lets them toss whatever they want in without fretting over 'canon'.
They didn't blow up San Antonio. Seriously go read up any other sci-fi treatise on future Texas and you'll see that my home city inevitably ends up nuked at some point. They also added in an interesting twist that builds on this edition's growing use of AIs to drive the horror element of the setting.
More toys. If you play cyberpunk games you know the strong pull of 'shiny things' and this book has a few. Vehicles, guns (it is Texas), and even golemechs used by The Texas Rangers are all written up. The one with the massive shotgun is my favorite.
We get a lot of new occupations as well. If you've wanted to be a Texas Ranger , elite government coder, garage level gun smith, or even a Golem mech pilot there's all of that and more.
The edges added were also interesting and a quick once over doesn't show any to be to unbalancing or redundant. They server mostly to add a bit of Texas 'flavor' to things though most can be easily slotted into other Savage Worlds games even if they're not Interface Zero.
Now there are things I didn't like of course. However most of this is quibbling, especially considering the vast amount of information packed in such an afforable product.
The one huge issue I take with the sourcebook is the almost complete lack of art. There are maybe seven pictures in the whole thing and almost none of them seem to be about the item, or location under discussion on those pages. One of them is even a reprint of the cover art. If they ever get a chance to do a second edition with a bigger budget this is the one thing I hope they rectify. Even if it will cost more to buy.
There are also a few glaring omission from the setting material presented. For example in the original core rule book much ado is made about the country's development of cloned food meat that isn't just grown in a vat, and is heavily implied as being some form of bovine like animal. However aside from mentioning ranches where the meat is grown, and lots said about the wars waged over genetic codes there's little attention given to just what these Brahmin are. Since the book makes it very clear that most open land is now very much uninhabitable and most people live in huge metropolises it left me uncertain if they've changed things between the original core book , and this release.
Another example is in a character flaw for synths. It's apparently some manner of virus that causes issues for the ones made for military use. However noewhere else in the book is it even brought up. IN fact aside from a brief mention in a couple of areas we see little else said on the matter even though it's made quite clear the nation is quite dependent on them for military purposes.
As you can see those are relatively minor matters, and perhaps evem something we may see rectified if they do an updated PDF sometime.
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