Cepheus Light - A Short Review

Cepheus Light - a short review

My #RPGaMonth for November is again something old and something new, namely Classical Traveller and Cepheus Light, which is a rule reduced version of Mongoose’s OGL Traveller 1. I have read both [1] and am going to compare it to.

Traveller is a game which exist in many different variant, but Cepheus Light still uses the old 2d6 skill rolls. That is to succeed you need to get 8+ on two d6, but your skill level is subtracted from number, you have to roll. Pilot-2 will get the value to 6+. As always there a situational modifiers and so forth. Attribute modifiers like in Moongoose’s version have no effect on skill rolls.

The game uses six attributes: Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education and Social Standing, so there is not charisma attribute for a sparkling personality or general attractiveness. There aren’t any advantages or disadvantages or perks or something similar. A character is complete by her/his attributes, skill levels and equipment. If you write this down a character sheet it is just a few lines and can be done on a credit card size character sheet, like Zozer did for the Hostile setting [2]. Atrributes may range from 1 to 15, but are generated with a 2d6 Roll, so values are about 7 or 8, with a slight increase since you may add a bit later on.

Character generation is done in the usual Traveller fashion. The player chooses a career that her/his character should pursue. After that you get skills or bonus points to attributes from roll against certain career specific tables. Nowadays, this would be called a life path system.

The combat rules in Cepheus Light are fast and relatively harsh. Damage is applied to the three physical attributes. So, normally a character can absorb about 21-25 points of damage, before dying. But whenever the first attribute reaches zero Cepheus Light lets a character fall unconscious for 1d6 rounds. Without help that might mean getting captured or worse. After the unconsciousness the character wakes up with half the damage to the attribute restored. Two attributes down to zero give a serious wound. Compared to the original Traveller rules these are more forgiving, compared to Mongoose’s version Cepheus Light is harsher.

Cepheus Light has each character have two actions per round and combat seems much more versatile than in the original. That versatility is completely explained in two longer combat examples in the book, which take an awesome amount of 8 of the 160 pages. There the Cepheus Light book really shines and I would really find it useful if other people could follow this example. Writing down rules clearly is one thing, but a fully worked out combat example may also at least implicitly give something away about how the game is supposed to be played and which strategies might be incorporated. Combat feels fast paced and simple, but in no way overly heroic.

Since we did not play any of the space ship rules stuff in the play tests I skip that parts. The rules are in the book and they seem good. Like for combat Cepheus Light offers a more streamlined version of the original approach, without being lost in details. Thumbs up for that :)

How did the playtest feel?

I ran two sessions of Cepheus Light where we played a reversed version of the classical Divine Intervention module [3] as a one shot. All players had played Traveller in the shape or form before so we could get right into the action, which is a kind of spy covert-op stuff. In both cases as a GM it felt easy to manage the stuff and left enough space for creative details along the path. The players made plans and could follow them through while having enough surprise and danger for them.

In conclusion

A great book. It offers a modernized version of Classic Traveller without being too Mongoose-y.  As it is pay what you want and there is going to be an editable .doc version which could be the basis for a homebrew version of it, Cepheus Light is arguably the best deal you could hope for. A huge thanks to Omer Golan-Joel and Josh Peters for writing the book and making it available in this way. Get it now!



[1] It is actually a reread for Traveller 1, that I have played decades ago.
[2] Look at the id card in the middle of the page. That is actually a character sheet. http://spacecockroach.blogspot.com/2017/12/a-review-of-hostile-by-zozer-games.html
[3] http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Divine_Intervention/Night_of_Conquest

Numenera 2 - Destiny

My #RPGaMonth for October is Numenera 2 - Destiny, the latest incarnation of Monte Cook’s Numenera game.

What is Numenera 2?

Numenera 2 means that there are two core books. The first Numenera - Discovery is more or less the same thing that was already the first Numenera. One may look at reviews for that, the differences are small. The greatest being that you now have Player Intrusions as well. A player intrusion is the reverse of a GM intrusion. Instead of getting an experience point for a complication, you pay with an experience point for a greater positive effect which is described in detail in your character's type.

What is Numenera - Destiny?

So, Numenera - Discovery is about the players discovering the so-called Ninth World. The Destiny book is different. The focus of the campaign is on playing in a community setting. The players help to start a community, make it prosper and steer or influence it. The games here will likely be more bound to a specific location where your community may reside. Instead of sole exploration, the management of resources has now a great deal of importance.

The analogy might be like a part of the game Civilization where you start with the first city. You may pick a spot where the community starts or take over a site abandoned or something like that. The characters are now kind of the wise women or wise men which help develop everything. The game has two different play modes. There is the normal RPG part, where the characters act like before and interact with persons on a detailed and individual level. But there is also a long-term level, where each action is measured in full months. E.g. it takes 2 months to train the local people in defence, or 1 month to establish a new trade route or something like that.

The community itself is described in a couple of stats (mainly rank, health, armor, damage) and a couple of resources that are available, like how many pieces of Thaum Dust the community has stored, or how much food and water is produced.

Players action can change the stats of the community and different communities may interact with each other via their stats. Like the rank 2 killer robot tribe attacks a rank 4 community with health 20 and armor 1. On a successful attack the robot deal 2 points of damage, but due to the armor only 1 point of health is decreased. Probably the defences at the perimeter of the community were a bit lax, but nevertheless fast enough, such that only a few casualties occurred.

How does it feel playing?

We only did three sessions, so I can’t comment on long-term motivation, but it is really a different beast if you like me have played more or less only on an individual level. Playing the long-term actions has a certain feeling like role-playing a strategy game like Civilization. It is much fun and helps to overcome the limitations of such a computer game by the power of imagination. It is a bit like the modes in Microscope where you switch between a global view and a local narration. It gives you all those ideas, where to start a new individual RPG session. For example to build the protective force field that helps to mitigate the killer robot tribe problem mentioned above you need certain resources (long-term action “build force field”). To get those you may need to explore a certain abandoned site where the needed parts may be located (long-term action “find iotum”). But there are strange people living there with whom your community can probably trade, etc… You get the picture. In each of those cases you stay on the abstract long-term mode, but also switch to individual character mode, where the party explores the site and directly interact with the people there.

Final thoughts
Right now, I like the ideas very much. It is sometimes a bit fuzzy which level or mode to chose to play that, but it is so inspirational to think in a more big picture way. I will certainly come back to have a longer try. 

https://www.montecookgames.com/introducing-numenera-2-discovery-and-destiny/

Savage Worlds & "Das schwarze All"

 As my #RPG aMonth for May, I going to review Savage Worlds and a German-only setting book called "Das Schwarze All" (The black cosmos)

Savage Worlds

Savage Worlds is one of those RPGs the claim to be generic, i.e. it should work on all scales and for all kinds of settings. Certainly, you can play characters that act as heroes and shape the world around them.

 I have read the Deluxe Edition of the Savage Worlds which is just the core rules without setting specific details, but with notes on game mastering a beastiary and five one sheet adventures.

The whole document has 161 pages, but contains many pictures and let's be frank ads for setting books. The crunch starts on page 16, where traits (attributes), skills, edges/hindrances (advantages & disadvantages) are introduced. Instead of using plain numbers Savage Worlds uses dice to measure the abilities in traits and skills (from d4 to d12) similar to Cortex+. But instead of a pool like in Cortex+ you just roll your skill die together with an additional d6 called the wild card die and take the highest die. But the dice explode on the highest number, i.e. a 6 on d6.  The average ability for something a character learned is d6 and with the wild die, the chances fo succeeding a check which is always against 4 is 75%. For each additional 4 more than the initial 4 in the result your effect gets a raise, i.e., will get stronger.

On page 18 and 19 there stats für 16 archetypes that are simple characters that can be used as pregens without background or even as foes. An archetype or a character is just 7-8 lines without equipment and the only system with more concise character formatting I know of is Traveller. Next are rules for some specific races like elves and rules to create custom races, lists of hindrances, edges and skills.

The second chapter contains 17 pages of equipment from low tech to science fiction.

Chapter Three contains the standard game rules. It contains rules for trait and skill tests, combat, damage and healing. The most interesting part is that you have bennies to reroll tests, but not damage rolls, and also you can soak damage with it. A special thing for Savage Worlds is the use of card decks for initiative. Each player and the NPCs are dealt cards with determine the order. If someone gets a joker, there is a bonus on all actions for the character.

Chapter 4 contains a potpourri of situational rules, like mass combat, chasings, social conflict or travel for about 20 pages. Next is 20 pages of spells and powers.

A chapter on game mastering and a bestiary followed by 5 one page adventures complete the book.

For my one-shot session, I more or less ignored all situational rules from chapter 4, but we used all the rest of the game rules.

How does the game play feel? Fast and very versatile, but it did not click with me so far in a way that I would prefer to play Savage Worlds instead of other games.

"Das Schwarze All" (The black cosmos)

It is a 138 pages A5 hardcover. After a few pages of foreword, the actual setting section begins, in which the background is described. It is a somewhat over-excited SF parody, such as the The Ice Pirates. For me, the two most interesting things are the xylophilic, i.e. living trees that feed purely carnal, and the artificial intelligences, called E.P.I., which can take over physical beings. Otherwise, it's a collection of puns and many a joke that does not always meet my idea of humor. Of course, there are also various allusions to the classic German role-playing game The Dark Eye, but they are all rather lovingly done and very appreciating to the original. In short, the setting is a mixture of humorous space parody, but not so pointless that there would be no coherent overall setting. There is an empire, three different religous cults and some moreorless believable societies.

The second part of the book is dedicated to character creation, here are new races and backgrounds. For example, there are the backers, an ancient race of beings whose real appearance is unknown, and who walk around in protective suits that make them look like Vorlorn of the Babylon 5. The diggarz are actually quite classic fantasy dwarfs who live in space mines, mutants, novae (a kind of amazons) and xylophiles. Some values and talents are changed or adjusted and there is a new more pronounced version of PSI powers.

This is followed by a section of equipment that covers classic weapons but also microwave emitters or lightwave swords. The lightwave word has a sine wave-shaped blade of light as one may guess from the name. Then some sample spaceships from the space bike to an Imperial Freighter. Starting on page 98, the setting special rules, such as faster than light flight, the FreakRoll rocket or the set-box method for the equipment. Several pages with sample characters complete the work. From the point of playability, the book is great: even as a Savage Worlds noob, I could quickly pour my ideas into an adventure with the help of the book. I just took the background setting and with the help of the sample ships and characters I had a nice one-shot ready. In short, the "Das Schwarze All" is just fun.

The Followers of Baba Yaga - A secret society for Amazing Adventures

Disclaimer
All rights regarding Amazing Adventures RPG belong to Troll Lord Games. This page is just a fan product.

 

Followers of Baba Yaga

 

A secret society for Amazing Adventures

The Followers of Baba Yaga are a secret society originally from the Russian kingdom that has spread all over the world mainly through Russian immigration. Since the October Revolution, the political influence in Russia has strongly diminished as its head figure Grigori Rasputin was at least officially murdered because of his unruly influence on the Czar and his wife in December 1916.

Grigori Rasputin (via Wikimedia Commons), Picture in Public Domain

Goal and Intent

The Followers see themselves in the tradition of the famous sorceress Baba Yaga who is called a witch by most people outside the Followers. They try to get into possession of strong arcane artefacts to get more powerful as a society but also to bring Baba Yaga herself back from the dead. The Followers oppose the idea of personal wealth and greed but instead see the world as a place that needs a fresh start with a more rural, less feudal, but also less liberal ways. A society made of craftspeople and farmers, where local wise men and women are supporting and advising village-like communities. Needless to say, that the Followers see themselves as those ruling wise men and women.

Reach and Resources

The Followers are a society that consists of many skilled arcanists and in many countries around the world, they may have exceptional members. While some members may have individual wealth the society is not about money. Instead, members tend to have some influence on local figures of power as advisers or healers or even close friends. Using social skills and charms, they may get favours, money or other means to fulfil the goal of the Followers.

Membership Requirements

Although there is no written formal qualification process, full members are expected to be skilled arcanists with high charisma. Being from the countryside and coming from a small village may help. An individual who wants to join the Followers needs to have the endorsement of three members.
Many times older members take an apprentice about the age of 15 and train them in the arcane arts. Having mastered the art to a satisfying degree those apprentices may become members, but only when there is an unclaimed area.
Obviously, members are expected to follow Baba Yaga, and that means to serve the common cause of gaining artefacts and resurrecting the old witch.

Membership Benefits and Drawbacks 

The immediate benefit is some access to the arcane knowledge of the society. Members tend to have collections of ancient arcane knowledge with existed only in oral form and that falls outside the usual academic traditions. A member might utilise that knowledge

Operations and Activities

Most operations involve finding arcane objects and getting them to a member that understands the artifact in question.

Hierarchy

There is very little complex hierarchy. Every member is more or less equal, with the exception of the regional leaders and the overall leader. This is due to the fact that in each area of at least 20 km radius there is only one member. One may imagine the members as a modern analog of the local witch. There is only one of them and thus very little motivation to rise.

The benefit of being a regional leader is more on an advisory level, while the overall leader is seen as a representative of Baba Yaga and can rely on obedience of the other members.

All being more of less equal does not mean that there are not members with a higher reputation that might influence other ones more likely.

Interior Mobility

In order to rise in the society you need needs to build up reputation which is done by collecting artefacts.

Degree of Secrecy

Very high. While individual members like Rasputin might be well known public figures heir participation in the Fellowers of Baba Yaga is moreorless completely unknown. It takes direct involvement in the sect or in one of their operations. Most henchman would only know that the work for a certain guy, but not the structure of the secret society behind.

History:
TODO

Expanded Background:
TODO


Members of Note
TODO

Dungeon #21: Jammin'

#RPGaMonth - March Part 1:  Dungeon #21

So, this is my late review for March. Actually, it is only a part of it.

This is one of the RPG books I own for the longest time. If I recall correctly, I bought this one in 1991. It is number 21 from January/February 1990. It says on the inside that the Dungeon had 31000 copies printed at that time.

At that time I couldn't read English very well and wasn't really able to make much use of it, but the back cover fascinated me nevertheless.  So, I bought it used for 5 Deutsche Mark (~ 2$ at the time).

In it you'll find a Gaelic themes adventure called the Cauldron of Plenty (AD&D lvl 2-4), a higher level (15-18) D&D adventure called the Bane of the Elfswood, a general Fantasy adventure for AD&D (lvl 8-10) by the name of Incident at Strathern Point and a greek themed adventure for AD&D Lvl 6-8 which has the title The Chest of the Aloeids. I only skimmed those, but they look fine to me.

What I read and ran was the last adventure by Jasmes Ward himeslf called Jammin'. This is an introductory adventure to Spelljammer that can be played without the Spelljammer box set and serves as kind of an advertisement to the setting.

The following will contain hefty spoilers if you plan to play it, you should really stop here.

The group meet same moreorless shady thief which seemed to be a Grey Mouser type to me in a tavern, who hires the crew to get some treasure of some moon god from a flying ship that will land in the mountains this evening.

In truth the ship is a stranded space ship, that got stuck on the ground on our thief wants the party to loot the ship to collect his share afterwards. It is a pirate ship run by undead spirits lead by a spectre captain  now. In true pirate fashion the skeletons have pistols and weird stuff.

In play the game went on like a dungeon crawl, where the players explorer the ships deck. The spectre keeps the skeletons in a certain folded state and will only activate them after certain events. It has an aura of mystery how this sailing ship can be found in a small lake in the mountains with no connection to rivers.

If the players are succesful to defeat the spectre and his crew they will have their on ship to sail the wild space, i.e. the airless void that contains the planets.

I liked it very much: it feels a bit old fashioned, but in a wonderful and weird way. Spelljammer as a setting seemed great, and I will write more about it in the second part.

Perry Rhodan in Cortex Prime Heroic - Part 2

Disclaimer

All rights regarding Perry Rhodan and any parts belonging to the series of novels under that name belong to Verlag Pabel-Moewig in Rastatt. This page is a fan product as described here by the series' editor in chief.

All rights regarding Cortex Prime are licensed to Magic Vacuum Design Studio. The Cortex Prime Heroic System is in a beta/testing state right now and details can be found on the Kickstarter page here. I would like to thank Magic Vacuum Design Studio for the permission to write about this and to publish the following character files.

 

Perry Rhodan in Cortex Prime Heroic - Part 2

Last week I ran my Cortex Prime Heroic scenario in the Perry Rhodan setting at a local con (HeinzCon) again. So, I decided to share the remaining three character files I prepared for that session.

Sample character files

IRMINA KOTSCHISTOWA

Affiliations:           
Solo   D10     
Buddy D6 
Team D8


Distinctions:        
Not an old lady
“I can create life”
Smart but controlled temper

Power Sets:               

Mutant
                     
Cell Control D8
Psionics D8
Empathy D8
Psychic Resistance D6

SFX:  Healing. Add D8 to dice pool when helping others to recover stress.  Spend 1 PP to step up physical stress or trauma of someone else.
SFX:  Focus.  If a pool includes a Mutant power, you may replace two dice of equal size with one die +1 step larger.
SFX: Reprogram cells. Add a D6 and step up your effect die by +1 when inflicting physical complication on a target using Cell control.
Limit: Exhausted. Shutdown any Mutant power and gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a transition Scene.
Limit: Shaken Confidence. Step back all Mutant powers by one step to gain 1 PP.  Activate an opportunity to recover.

Special Agent of the Cosmic League
Energy Shield (Enhanced Durability) D8     
Fly (Combat Powersuit) D6
Combined Beam Pistol  (Weapon) D6
                     
SFX: Cell activator. Ignore stress, trauma, or complications caused by aging or poison.
Limit: Gear Shutdown any Cosmic League power and gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.


Specialties:
Medical Master D10
Science Master D10
Psionic Expert D8
Psych Expert D8

Milestones:       

“But where is the ethics in this”
1 XP When you use your mutant power to alter the genes of a non player character or refuse to do so in a dangerous situation.
3 XP When ...
10 XP When you use your mutant power to kill a living being or cure a deadly disease.                                     

“Never call me old”
1 XP When you ...   
3 XP When you ...
10 XP When you ...

Bio:

Irmina Kotschistowa was born on April 26th in 3412 on Terra (Kirgisistan). She is an excellent scientist on the field of bio chemics and worked with the Cosmic League League's leading scientist Geoffry Abel Waringer on the planet of Last Hope.

Irmina Kotschistowa is of medium height, slender but rather curvaceous. Her hair is long and very dark with grey strains. Although her biological age is 175 years and her real age is some centuries she despises to be called an old lady.

Her special ability is called metabiological grouping, i.e. she can control biological cells. With this ability she is able to cure diseases, but also to cause deadly cancerous mutations. Moreover, she can reprogram the DNA to condition the cells for a specific long term behavior, even when she isn't there.

Each time she uses her mutant abilities to harm other beings Irmina feels a strong guilt.

PERRY RHODAN

Affiliations:      
Solo   D8
Buddy D6
Team D10

Distinctions:
Knight Of The Deep
Risk Pilot
Heir To The Universe

Power Sets:        

Elected Representative of IT
Superhuman Intuition D10
Enhanced Reflexes D8
Enhanced Stamina (personal cell activator) D8
Psychic Resistance D6

SFX: Instant Situational Awareness. "Instant Switcher". Spend one 1 PP to reroll.
SFX: Aura of a Knight. Ignore psychic stress or trauma for 1 PP
SFX: "The Terranian". Ignore the highest die of your roll. On a success step down the highest die in the doom pool by one for 1 PP
Limit: Exhausted. Shutdown any Mutant power and gain 1 PP.  Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.


Speaker of the Cosmic League
Energy Shield (Enhanced Durability) D8
Fly (Combat Powersuit) D6
Combined Beam Pistol (Weapon) D6

SFX: Cell activator. Ignore stress, trauma, or complications caused by aging or poison.
Limit: Gear Shutdown any Hanse power and gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

Specialties:    
Combat Master D10
Cosmic Master D10
Covert Master D10
Psych Master D10
Menace Expert D8
        

Milestones:        

"The scar itches..."
1 XP When you
3 XP When you
10 XP When you

?
1 XP When you
3 XP When you
10 XP When you

Bio

Perry Rhodan (born June 8, 1936, in Manchester, Conneticut) is a Terran and wear a cell activator. He was the first person to fly to the moon. With the aid of the Arkonides and their superior technology that he found there, he united humanity and led them to the stars.

He is tall, of slender, almost gaunt stature. The eyes are gray-blue, his hair is dark blond.

On the one hand Perry Rhodan's tremendous logical thinking, his sense of cosmic connections and the ability to adapt to new circumstances in no time at all - Rhodan is therefore repeatedly referred to as an "instant switcher". On the other hand, a dry sense of humor characterizes the human being Perry Rhodan.

For bystanders but especially his intuition is legendary, which has led him to nearly always make the right decisions based only on fragmentary pieces of information, the scope of which he could not estimate at the time.

Currently, Perry Rhodan leads a fleet of Galactic ships that has set out to investigate the Frostrubin and the Endless Armada.

ICHO TOLOT

Affiliations:      
Solo   D6
Buddy D10
Team D8

Distinctions:
Former Agent of Seth Apophis
A Friend of Mankind
Carries the Heritage of the Beasts

Power Sets:        

Halutian
Godlike Durability D12
Superhuman Strength D10
Superhuman Speed D10
Superhuman Intellect D10
Superhuman Reflexes D10

Superhuman Stamina D10

SFX: Planning Brain. Step up or double a Haluter die against a single target. Remove the highest rolling die and add three dice for your total.
SFX: Focus. If a pool includes a Haluter power, you may replace two dice of equal size with one die +1 step larger.
SFX: Increase Cell Structural Density. Spend 1 PP to ignore physical stress or trauma unless caused by psionic attack.
Limit: Urge Laundering. Shutdown Superhuman Intellect for 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.
Limit: Oops. Turn a Haluter Power Trait into a Complication to gain 1 PP. Recover on an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

Scientist from Halut
Fly (Red Combat Suit) D10
Combined Beam Pistol (Weapon from Halut) D10

SFX: Cell activator. Ignore stress, trauma, or complications caused by aging or poison.
SFX: Hyperphysical tinkerer. Add a d6 and step up your effect die by +1 when using Scientist from Halut to create assets involving hyperphysics
Limit: Gear Shutdown any Hanse power and gain 1 PP. Recover power by activating an opportunity or during a Transition Scene.

Specialties:    
Combat Master D10
Cosmic Expert D8
Psych Expert D8
Science Expert D8
Tech Master D10
Menace Expert D8
        

Milestones:        

"My little one"
1 XP When you
3 XP When you
10 XP When you

Honest Character
1 XP When you
3 XP When you
10 XP When you

Bio

Icho Tolot is a Halutian scientist who became one of humanity's most loyal friends. It is a typical Halutian. Its size of about 3.50 m at almost two tons of weight under terrestrial conditions impressed almost every opponent.

Tolot is adventurous, sincere, sincere and, like all Halutians, loves its independence. After a brief study of humanity, its enthusiasm for humans grows. As - like all Halutians - two-sexed beings, in time it develops a kind of maternal instinct for the Terranians, sees them as its "children" and loyally supports them. It often calls them "my little one". It has an intimate relationship with Pucky in particular.

His notorious laughter is so loud that it can sometimes lead to health damage in his environment. For example, the left eardrum of a ship's commander burst when Tolot laughed out loud next to him.

Halutians have two brains separated by a horizontal bone plate: The upper one is called the Ordinary Brain and takes care of the bodily functions and feelings and thus corresponds approximately to a human brain. The lower, the Planning Brain is an organic computer with the power of positronics. It allows the Halutians to draw absolutely logical conclusions quickly and precisely and perform complex calculations. A Halutians smallest perceptible time unit is ten nanoseconds.

In case of danger, thanks to their special metabolism, Halutians can deliberately transform their body structure on a molecular-atomic basis. There body is thus harder than Terkonit steel, so it already requires a heavy ship's gun to hurt a Halutian in this state. Thanks to their metabolism, they can survive five hours without a protective suit in a vacuum.

My Review of Justifiers - Das Abenteuerspiel for #RPGaMonth

My Review of Justifiers - Das Abenteuerspiel for #RPGaMonth

This month, February, I am reading an older game from 2010 called Justifiers - Das Abenteuerspiel. Some may remember that there was a Science Fiction game called Justifiers released at the end of the eighties.

Part 1

Markus Heitz whose name is very prominent on the cover is a successful German fantasy novelist who was an avid player of said game. When the opportunity presented itself he bought the rights to the setting and wrote two great novels in the Justifiers universe. Moreover, he was the editor of a series of about 10 book from other authors in the same cosm.

So in 2010 a new German edition of the Justifiers game was released by Ulisses Spiele (which may be more known for the new Torg - Eternity nowadays) and that is what I am reading right now.

It is a 300 something page hardcover in DinA5 format, i.e. about half US letter format. It starts with a 20 pages short story by Heitz which puts you right into the world.

The setting itself is a very grim Sci Fi world in 3042 AD where large corporations are in control of complete planets. Since not everything such a corporation does is legal or achievable without violence  they employ a special kind of soldiers, called Justifiers. The rpg is about squad level military actions done by those Justifiers who are more often than not half-man half-animal characters. These products of genectical engineering of animal DNA into humans are called Betas and they get some of their characteristics from the type of animal like Cat, Armadillo or Bison.

Part 2

Pages 52 to 156 contain the chapters on Rules and Character Creation. The rules part is rather short, only 34 pages and of those eight pages dwell on explaining what a pen & paper is and the obligatory text example of a group playing the game.

The rules are rather simple. Each character has three attributes Physical, Mental and Spiritual and subordinate to the attribute there is a number of skills. Physical skills are athletics, ranged and close combat, survival and resistance. Mental skills are computer usage, stealth and some more. Spiritual skills include intuition, perception and so forth. In total there 15 skills. Skill checks are done by combining the attribute and skill value and taking the corresponding number of d6 into the dice pool. Modifiers can increase or decrease the number of dice. Each 5 or 6 in a roll gives one success point and you need a certain amount of successes to achieve what you had in mind.

Combat is as you would expect, but with very few hit points. Some things are special nevertheless:

1. at the beginning of a fight each player gets a roll and with a success all players get the complete stats of the enemy
2. initiative is done by going clockwise round the table, rotating the starting player like in a traditional card game.
3. characters never die from hits instead become unconscious in the worst case.
4. besides the standard actions in a combat like move, defend, attack. There are also certain special actions depending on the scene which are prepare by the GM and for which special action cards are dealt.

The last point is a bit puzzling. The idea is that you run premade scenarios which will already include such special action cards, but one could imagine preparing such before the game in other cases as GM. To add a certain action feeling each character has fate points that work in the usual way.

I have not played this game, but I played another game called John Sinclair from the same author with similar rules (without the special cards) and must say that it generally works very fine. Combats are fast and fun.

The next chapter is about character creation. Character creation starts by picking a race, i.e. the type of animal that was used to enhance the human dna. The rules has 10 such beta types: armadillo,  bison, polar bear, fox, cat, rhino, chimpanese, tiger, racoon and wolf. Each type has certain specialities. Armadillos have body armor, bison charcters are strong etc. Interestingly the book also shows images beta types that  are known from the novels but for which there aren’t rules like a badger beta. Next you pick the specialization of the character within the squad like pilot, field medic, technician, weapon expert. Specialization gives certain perks/advantages, equipment and skill points. Next you distribute points to the attributes and certain skills. Furthermore, you get a number of adventure points to buy additional advantages or equipment.

Since the characters play in military squadron each player has a rank and a number of mission points that she or he must fulfil before be allowed to leave the corporation and became a free person. The mightier the beta type the more of these points are necessary to become free. The main thing is: if a character isn’t free he or she isn’t allowed to keep what the find on a mission other than to buy it with adventure points.

At the end we get 10 example characters. One for each beta type.

Part 3

The last part of the book offers the rules for playing as a group, i.e. the creation of the spaceship and the game mechanics for flying and fighting said ship. The rules are similar to what is described in the second part.

Next, there is a section about the exploration mode. This is a more boardgame-like system where you do a squarecrawl instead of a hexcrawl. Players a given certain cards and they make special skill checks based on the effects of the cards.

Finally, the last third is a complete scenario for the characters on the world "Holz-11" which offers a mission with a mix of the explorative board-game like mode and the more normal rpg mode.

I will not go into details because to be honest I have only skimmed through the scenario. Why?

To a certain extend my interest in the game ceased to continue after I had understood the rules and the boardgame-like aspects didn't go so well in reading it. So, be warned: playing might be totally different and what reads strange might actually be much fun on the table, but for me it made the impression of moreorless repetetive die rolling mechanics without much story or suspension. I have played a monster hunter companion game with similar mechanics called John Sinclair and the rpg part will ceratinly be fun, but as in John Sinclair I fully expect a certain balancing problem. The be good at the squarecrawling you need a character who is specialised on certain things, but then he or sche sucks at fighting and vice versa. I would expect that a certain part of the party are always a bit bored because they can't do meaningful contributions.

Outlook

It seems that Markus Heitz who owns the rights to the game thinks about Jusitifiers in a similar way now. Last Saturday he announced a new edition of Justifiers (in English) in cooperation with Clockwork publishing (makers of the new Space 1889) which shall be kickstarted this year and will use the mechanics of the German RPG Splittermond. The reason for the change of system are that the old system seemed to be a bit dull and also easily unbalanced for him.

Thus, no need to care too much about Justifiers - Das Abenteuerspiel in the future as a new and different edition is on its way.

RPG Review - StarSiege

Disclaimer: I am trying to read an RPG book a month this year as part of this Google+ community. The following review is based on reading and some dry testing, but although I tried a copuple of times, I never managed to get a group together in the last weeks.

Introduction 

As my RPGaMonth for January I have read Troll Lords 2008 Science Fiction RPG called StarSiege: Event Horizon. You can get the whole thing at DTRPG and there is a free QuickStarter available http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/58817/StarSiege-Introductory-Manual.

Unfortunately, my playtest did not happen in time so everything that follows is based only on reading the thing. I hope that I can play it for real in the near future and will add some more comments here then.

compared

Screenshot of the Cover of the StarSiege Box Set. The books itself are b&w.

The basic review

StarSiege comes in a box with three different books. There is the Field Manual which could be called the player's handbook, there is the Operations Manual which could also be called GM's guide and a setting book called Victory 2442.

StarSiege itself is a (heavily) modified version of the so called SiegeEngine system used in Castles and Crusades or Amazing Adventures which I am very fond of. The basic game mechanic is rolling a D20 against some difficulty rating which has base 18 for your weak attributes and base 12 for the good ones. The attributes themselves are the usual D20-type ones when it comes to attribut bonus, but instead of the D&D ones you get Physique, Reflexes, Knowledge, Savvy, Confidence and Empathy. As usual you can pick a species like feline or android but instead of classes you have professions and skill bundles. StarSiege doesn't have individual skills but instead you have certain bundles like Combat which is for all skills that are in the realm of fighting. Specialities can provide additional bonuses like for Defense.

There aren't levels either instead experience points can be used to increase an attribute, buy a speciality and so forth. The last legacy of it's OSR kind of origin StarSiege got rid of are Hit-Points which increase by level. Instead there are very limited number of  wound points and stress points for mental damage and a maximum of three critical hits each, before a character is dead. Finally, there are bennies which are called Nova Points which work in the usual way.

Part of a screenshot of my PDF copy, the contents are black&white.

The way of dealing with combat of any kind, i.e. between persons, tanks on the ground, planes in the air or star ships, is all handled in the same way. There are distance bands like Close, Medium or Long and these come with a logarithmic scale for the different size classes if you want to figure it out in real distance. In game term shooting space ships in close distance works exactly like shooting at robots in close distance on a personal level. The rest is mostly the usual OSR like way with the idea of Critical Wounds instead of vast number of hit points.

There are rules for mutation, psionics and cyber ware and very general creating equipment which work the same for weapons, psionic powers and basically everything you want. It is a point buy system which makes use of the logarithmic scale and special effects or flaws. Although this subsystem is very basic it is nevertheless elegant. You could as easily build a death star as a one person submarine.

In the same simple but elegant way StarSiege describes money transacts with a simple credit system which works on a personal as well as a planetary level. Speaking of planets the operations manaual has a system for creating planets as well.

All in all the rules are a combined 70 pages. Very dense and simple but seemingly elegant.

Part of a screenshot of my PDF copy, the contents are black&white.

There is also a setting book with 24 pages. In short it is about a SciFi Setting with little Psionics, almost no Cyberware and no mutant powers. There has been an almost devastating war with an alien race, which humanity only won at great cost with the help of other aliens. Now, there is little central government left and colonies start to find there on ways. I'd say it is not bad, but also nothing special.

StarSiege isn't about a fixed setting though. It aims to be a general SciFi rpg which can be used to play the Expanse as well as Star Wars in the same manner that old AD&D could run campaigns in ancient Rome or in Middle Earth. Its rules are simple and reading it makes you admire the elegance. It is like someone tried to make an original Traveller like game with more D&D like mechanics.

A more detailed look at a boring part

Doing some dry runs of fights things get a bit less fun. For me there is too little element of surprise. You do a to-hit roll and then your weapon does a fixed amount of damage. Depending on the kind of armor, the damage is dealt to the armor or the character. In the first case the armor will get worn out soon, in the second case your character will be.

Now, things are a bit too simple for my taste. Doing the same static amount of damage does mean other then missing there is no other challenge in combat besides hitting the enemy 3 or 5 or maybe 10 times, if it is some thing really tough you fire at. Technically, that might be a nice mechanism, but it never lets players experience a coup de grace or something like that. My take would be to rate success a bit by the amount the roll exceeds the challenge rating. Something that is done in many other RPGs.

So what is StarSiege, really?

In my humble opinion StarSiege is more a tool kit to build a campaign and build a custom version of the game for it. You want to play Firefly style adventures then you probably want to tweak fighting rules a bit more to the heroic side. There are optional rules for minions (called Mooks in the book) compared to real boss fight like encounters.

If your group is more into a Star Trek like approach then this game should work quite well. You just build the ships and planets and go on.

You might even want to play a stellar expansion game. In such a case it is possible that each player plays a planet (sic!) and built from there. All necessary rules are included, you just have to tweak here and there.


It is really that versatile. In a way it is a bit like Fate or even more FAE. A very reduced system with tons of possibilities, but unlike Fate there are not tons of cool setting books flying around.

The only available module for StarSiege. Printout from the PDF.
The brown coat reminds me of something...

 

What the future might bring for StarSiege

In the Troll Lord Games forum there is talking about a new edition of StarSiege written by Jason Vey who did Amazing Adventures. That version should be more compatible with the other StarSiege Engine games and would certainly have a detailed less abstract combat system for example. There is no real news about whether this will happen or not, as it depends on the success of Amazing Adventures and StarSiege.

What we know is that Troll Lord Games is working with James Ward who created Metamorphis Alpha to do a SiegeEngine version of the game. I read that this should be out in Q2 probably meaning a Kickstarter for it in Q2 2018. Maybe this will give StarSiege a bit of a push as well.

 

Conclusion

I'd recommend the game just for reading it and seeing how simple things can dealt with in comparisson to games like StarFinder and the like.