Something interesting :)

[Scott Adams]

Soemoen emailed this to me ..its in his own words but thought it would be
interesting :)

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I picked up a book (Rick Swan's _Guide to Role-Playing Games_) which has the
following review of P&P.  Thought you might get a laugh out of it.
-=-=-=-=-
POWERS AND PERILS *1/2
(Note: rated on one to four asterisks; only 4% of games rated lower)
Avalon Hill, 1984
Complexity:  High
Powers and Perils was a major disappointment at the time of its release,
especially because the Avalon Hill Game Company is renowned for its quality
products.  Undeniably ambitious, with five rulebooks comprising 200-plus
pates,
P&P is a hodgepodge of unfocused ideas and absurdly complex systems that's
nearly impossible to play.
Nowhere is this obsession with detail more evident than the character-creation
system, which requires over forty pages of rules and dozens of charts to
explain.  Virtually every aspect of a PC, regardless of how trivial, requires
the player to navigate complex formulas and an alphabet soup of
head-scratching
abbreviations.  For instance, the formula for a character's Portage Ability
(how much weight he can carry) is (S x 2) + (StB x 20), while his Magic
Defense
Value equals his Mana Level + (MEL)/2, rounded up, unless he's untrained, in
which case it's something else; you'll have to page through the rules to find
out what StB and MEL stand for.  All of this might be acceptable if the end
result produced interesting characters, but they're only colourless lists of
numbers, no more realistic than the most basic Dungeons and Dragons PCs and
far
less interesting than, say, Element Masters characters.
The combat system is surprisingly straightforward, but nothing out of the
ordinary.  The magic system is based on an interesting arrangement of classes
called Magic Paths, each with its own laws and spells, but using magic
involves
even more formulas and tables, and it's hardly worth the effort.
Completing the game are a detailed list of about a hundred creatures and a
book
of treasures and encounters.  The creature list is unexceptional and spotty...
The encounter and treasure lists, on the other hand, are comprehensive and
imaginative, easily the game's best feature.  An introductory adventure is
included in the boxed set, but as it requires a thorough understanding of the
game system, only the most determined players will be able to slog through it.

I've got no problem with it.  But in case you want to distribute it widely
(web, etc) here's the copyright info:

_The Complete Guide to Role-Playing Games_
Copyright 1990 by Rick Swan.
St. Martin's Press, New York.