The Notebook is a novel little sourcebook supplement in the form of a binder filled with loose leaf pages dedicated to characters, organizations, places, tech and events of note in the world. Aside of some stat blocks, its all in-world lore. I’m a big fan of this sort of approach to fluff (see my undying love for the Monstrous Compendium binders and the Gamer’s Handbook of the Marvel Universe) even if the content doesn’t real set my world on fire.

This is sort of the main problem with Underground as a line. The rulebook is fantastic, boasting full color art and glossy pages and a deep well of energy. The supplements are not so lavishly illustrated or printed, and the energy level is all over the place. Notebook is on the sedate end of the scale.

With that, let us pause and discuss the Underground system. It uses the Mayfair Exponential Games System, also known as MEGS, which was the backbone of the DC Heroes RPG. It was designed to let characters of a wide range of power levels interact together without getting smeared.

Like D&D’s THAC0, it is a system that requires a sort of rearranging of brain cells, but once you get it, it is kind of genius. It uses a sliding benchmark scale, where each value of Units is equivalent to a bunch of stuff. One Unit is 125 pounds, 12 feet, 5 seconds, 64 cubic feet; Four Units is double that: 250 pounds, 24 feet, etc. Because you have all these equivalencies, you can add and subtract units related to different things to get meaningful results.

For example.  Say a character with a strength of 25 wants to throw a car that weighs 15 units (1.5 tons). Subtract 15 from 25, you’re left with 10 units for distance – about 100 feet. You can apply this in all sorts of interesting ways. Neat, right? I am by no means a math person, and writing this hurt my head a little bit, but I have to admit, kind of understanding it feels like I now know magic.