Review Ratings & Criteria

Since other people have adopted this system for doing reviews on building block sets for Mobile Frame Zero I've decided to place the questions and ratings in an easily accessible place.

The Questions for Building Block Set Reviews:
Can you build some sort of creation right away? (Yes = +5 / No = -5)

• By some sort of creation I mean a Frame, Station, or Starship.  You should always be able to make terrain from a building block set.  If the set can build a nice looking piece of terrain/cover from the instructions, that's worth (0).  Let's be honest, following the instructions is not why we buy these sets.

Is it below, at, or above the golden ratio? (Below = +5 / At = 0 / Above = -10)

• The Golden Ratio is $0.10 per part.  This is generated by dividing the cost by the number of parts and rounding to two decimal places.

If you can't build a frame right away, or choose not to, does it have parts you should be able to put into use right away? (Yes = +5 / No = -5)

• Generally this is going to mean Travis Bricks, Headlight Bricks, Hinge Plates/Bricks, Bar Plates, Clip Tiles/Plates, Lampholders, etc.  Or maybe that one piece you need to finish that frame that's been sitting on your work desk for months.

Does it have more than a handful of immediately useful parts? (Yes = +5 / No = -5)

• This is probably the easiest question to answer and the most subjective at the same time.

The Questions for Non-Building Block Set Reviews:
Is it below, at, or above $10 per Frame?  (Above = -10, At = 0, Below = +5)

• This is kind of arbitrary but it seems like a good price point to start with.

Is it a good size to use in a game?  (No = -5, Yes = +5)

• This is pretty subjective but I think anything ranging in size between a Chub and a Classic is pretty good.  Any bigger or smaller might become problematic.

How many removable parts does it have to represent systems?  ( Zero to One = -5, Two to Three = 0, Four or more = +5)

• Easy enough to understand.

Does it have enough parts you can remove to represent White Dice damage?  (No = -5, Yes = +5)

• Same here.

The Ratings:
Added to a base score of zero (0), the answers to these questions should give a range of -25 to +20 points.  Which gives us the following scores and ratings:
+20 = A+
+15 = A
+10 = A-
+5  = B+
  0  = B
-5  = B-
-10 = C+
-15 = C
-25 = C-.