What's horror without a little levity... that can then ramp the horror back up again.
- The Core Rulebook pokes some fun or just snarks from time to time.
- At start of the Skills section, the book talks about role-playing being a conversation, the story evolving a step at a time, and everyone lives happily ever after.Yeah, just kidding about that last part. Not on the Frontier, you don't.
Sooner or later, the shit — just like prisoner Murphy — hits the fan. - The intro to the Gear chapter succinctly sums up what most gamers are here for:By now, you know that life on the Frontier sucks. The only way you are going to make it out here is by gearing up and keeping your wits. This chapter can’t help you hold your shit together, but it gives you what you need to breathe in deep space and stomp some bugs. And since we all know that stomping is more important than breathing, let’s start there, shall we?
WEAPONS AND ARMOR - Some sound advice in the description for the U1 grenade launcher, typically found under the barrel of the M41A Pulse Rifle:When facing superior numbers, the U1 is your friend — don't enter an alien hive without one. Well, don't enter a hive with one, either. Just stay away from the hive. Okay?
- At start of the Skills section, the book talks about role-playing being a conversation, the story evolving a step at a time, and everyone lives happily ever after.
- The Colonial Marines Operations manual has some gems, mostly from being written as though by a Marine to a prospective rookie Marine.
- At the start of the "Making Marines" chapter dedicated to character creation, there's an opening written as through by a grizzled veteran Marine to a new boot, telling them that the recruiter probably oversold the joys of life in the Corps. "If you’ve signed up thinking you’re going to be taking on enemy platoons by yourself and slow motion running away from explosions like some goddamn action hero nonsense — just stop that shit right now. You’re embarrassing yourself and you are embarrassing the Corps." What makes it funny is that, after some discussion about the basics of character creation, the very next page is clearly a recruiter talking to some prospective Marines, and definitely overselling things.RECRUITMENT 101. In the Corps, the galaxy is your playground, and you get to see it all. Every assignment is a new planet, every mission is a new moon. You have trouble making friends? In the Corps, you will have no choice but to form life and death bonds with your squad — instant life buddies.
- The entry for the Bi-Mex Personal Shades is amusing because — aside from a brief bit of crunch — it's written like ad copy for the high-tech pair of aviator sunglasses, starting off with "Save the colonies and look cool doing it" and ending on "Protect your eyes while you protect your country," and in between claiming to protect from anything up to directed energy weapons (which they actually can, per that rules bit mentioned earlier, though the shades are destroyed in the process).
- A recipe for (pretty bad) cornbread is included, complete with official-sound designations followed by real-world ingredients. It's an amusing nod to the unimpressive cornbread the Marines aboard the Sulaco had.470 ml W-Y Colonial C-Ration Insta-carbohydrate supplement IM:14988
(2 cups Yellow Cornmeal or Cornflour) - One piece of gear is the collapsible tripod and winch Dallas and Labert used to lower Kane to the bottom levels of the Derelict, with description of its very handy features, and concludes:Also, when whatever lives down there wraps itself around your face, your buddies can winch your ass back up, blow quarantine procedures, and put everyone at risk—just for fun.
- In discussing the UPP's Kremlin-class warship, it's noted it has mainframe computer, called 1VAN/3 (Ivan). It's noted be close enough to a Seegson A.P.O.L.L.O. that the company claims theft, and the GM can treat it as having identical stats... but with a Russian accent.
- This sidebar discussing the mountain Tithonus on Bernice 378 (Mu Herculis A), where a Marine base is built into the caves and tunnels of the mountain:A NOTE FROM MU/TH/UR: At the top of Tithonus there is a huge, weathered lump of rock. Part of the original rock formation, the stones have eroded in such a way that at dusk each day they cast shadows that make the damn thing look like a massive skull. Some marines just don’t see it—others it gives the heebie-jeebies to. It’s just a trick of the light, of course—like the face people used to think they saw on Mars. When you get up real close, you can see it’s a pile of rocks. It really is just rocks. It totally is.
- The entry for the miners' dormitories in "Operation Deep Shaft" gives this note regarding players who like to loot everything.Any jerk going through the personal effects left behind can find [various loot] for every Turn spent searching. Jerk.
- At the start of the "Making Marines" chapter dedicated to character creation, there's an opening written as through by a grizzled veteran Marine to a new boot, telling them that the recruiter probably oversold the joys of life in the Corps. "If you’ve signed up thinking you’re going to be taking on enemy platoons by yourself and slow motion running away from explosions like some goddamn action hero nonsense — just stop that shit right now. You’re embarrassing yourself and you are embarrassing the Corps." What makes it funny is that, after some discussion about the basics of character creation, the very next page is clearly a recruiter talking to some prospective Marines, and definitely overselling things.
