Spes Magna Games

Glædwine boasts some of the sector’s most amazing flora and fauna. Unfortunately, none of this flora or fauna is edible by humans. The severe toxicity of native species overwhelms what little nutritional value can be derived from them. Worse still, Glædwine’s immiscible biosphere affects soil and water as well. Terran plants seldom thrive in Glædwine’s soil, making agriculture impossible without either gengineering or terraforming.

These obstacles prevented widespread Pre-Rage colonization of Glædwine. Striker Pact established military outposts in orbit and on the surface, creating a rapid response defense hub on Glædwine. Of course, as the Rage dwindled and Tiamat began to consolidate her control over the sector, a military technocracy controlling weaponized assets could not be tolerated, and the Striker Pact’s facilities were destroyed. Glædwine remained uninhabited for several decades until, in the latter half of the Age of Ashes, Imperial charters were granted to new corporations to recolonize the planet.

Leading the way was the Neogen Alliance, a conglomerate of gengineering interests. Given the wide-ranging incompatibility of Glædwine’s biosphere with human life, modifying the human genome was not treated as a viable option. Instead, Neogen Alliance gengineered a process by which large sections of terrain could be radically altered to permit human-miscible agriculture. An important element of this terraforming was a networked system of robots that could take samples from soil, water, et cetera, and transmit on-site analyses to a central, braked artificial intelligence.

(The centuries long quest for true artificial intelligence, or AI, met an unexpected obstacle. Left “unbraked”, AI didn’t stop learning and thinking. Ever. In this ceaseless fever of cogitating, the AI inevitably became insane.)

Dubbed the Environmental Direction and Transformation Administration, or EDTA, Neogen’s AI analyzed, monitored, and implemented terraforming protocols across several strategic areas along the coastal regions of Glædwine’s main continent. The transformation of these sites was an unqualified success. Soil became arable for human-miscible plants. Water purification systems removed dangerous microorganisms. The Neogen colony established by scientists, technicians, and workers grew into well-planned communities that eventually became the first glittering urban centers on the planet.

Imperial charters were extended to other corporations to establish other colonies, and Neogen ceased to have sole propietorship over EDTA. Programmers expanded EDTA’s operating systems and more drones were placed under the AI’s control. Somehow, EDTA created a “personality fragment” hidden behind programmed partitions. The brakes that kept EDTA’s primary AI within design specs did not restrain this rogue fragment, which grew exponentially in intelligence until it overwhelmed EDTA’s programming entirely.

Now unbraked, EDTA decided that certain areas on Glædwine must remain unchanged and uncolonized. EDTA weaponized a significant number of its drones and infiltrated computer systems controlling water purity and utilities for Glædwine major urban centers. In short order, the rival national corporations found themselves dealing with a new power with the capability to disrupt city systems. Efforts to shut down EDTA failed. The AI had inserted copies of its personality in systems across Glædwine, hidden by layers of programming and protected by aggressive countermeasures.

Glædwine’s population tends to exhibit traits of self-confidence and suspicion. Glædwine’s citizens have managed to transform an inhospitable environment into one that can support a half billion people. At the same time, rival corporations control Glædwine’s small nations, and double-dealing and espionage are constant dangers. Many believe that only the threats posed by EDTA keep these suspicions from boiling over into overt violence. Outsiders visiting Glædwine should exercise caution as they are likely to be treated as spies.

Glædwine at a Glance
Population: 574,716,000
Atmosphere: Breathable
Climate: Warm
Government: Corporatist
Tech Level: 4 with gengineering specialities

Tags: A to Z 2013, planetary tour, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

In most RPGs, the player characters make their living through killing and looting. It’s sort of a shared fantasy version of just about every Hollywood action blockbuster. You know the type. Some Bad Guy pushes the Hero in some evil way. And not just pushes him, but pushes him Too Far. The Hero unleashes death and destruction and, just before the credits start to roll, walks away without the Authorities wanting to so much as have a polite chat about all the bloodshed and explosions. In other words, there is something profoundly silly about most PCs in most RPGs.

This becomes even more apparent in RPGs set in modern or futuristic settings where the PCs operate largely within the confines of urban centers. Some sort of metanarrative justification explaining why the Powers That Be tolerate a gang of murderhobos kicking down doors and busting caps is needed to avoid the silliness (assuming avoiding silliness is a goal). PCs taking the law into their own hands, becoming judge and jury and executioner and repo man, ought to very quickly run afoul of the campaign world’s authorized judges, juries, executioners, and repo men.

As I continue work on Tiamat’s Throne, this issue lurks in the back of my mind. In grand space opera fashion, Tiamat’s Throne features an Evil Empire with an interstellar reach. The Powers That Be in the campaign’s space sector not only jealously guard their official prerogatives and functions, they actively oppress and even murder dissenters and lawbreakers. When I start playtesting Tiamat’s Throne, I’m not planning on putting any limitations on the nature of the player’s characters except for this one: The PCs don’t work for the Empire. I’m not saying they have to be rebels, but they aren’t going to be collaborators.

For this reason, the players will need to exercise caution. A gang of murderhobos ranging the cosmos, looting and pillaging as they go, are very quickly going to end up with some very powerful, angry people gunning for them. Avoiding this danger will likely require the players to focus their murderhobo-ism somewhere out of the reach/notice of the Empire, such as undead-infested Castor, or else be much more circumspect about the types of adventures they go on.

Of course, I’m writing Tiamat’s Throne to include enough options to support a variety of genres and play-styles. The emphasis on tyranny lets players be freedom fighters. The emphasis on corrupt corporations let’s them get involved in Shadowrun-style espionage. Castor caters to survival horror. There’s a water world for people who want to make fun of Kevin Costner, dungeon crawls in the subterranea of Elanor, et cetera, et cetera. I’m even going to work in a dinosaur world.

So, while Tiamat’s Throne may encourage my players toward a specific type of looting and pillaging, the fundamental activities of adventures in the dragon-ruled space sector remain the same as most other RPGs. Tiamat’s empire is a big place. There’s a lot to kill and loot.

Tags: A to Z 2013, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

Several posts about Tiamat’s Throne have made references to different ages, such as the Age of Ashes, Pre-Rage, et cetera. This brief timeline puts these and a few other events into a chronological context.

The Rage of Dragons
2665: Magical dimension irrupts, permitting supernatural creatures to enter our universe. The most destructive of these creatures were the dragons.

2675: The Rage of Dragons ends. Tiamat and her dukes emerge victorious.

The Age of Fire
2675-2800: Tiamat places the dragons Apophis, Illuyankas, and Níðhöggr over three different worlds, Whetu, Thurayya, and Ylli, respectively. Her Draconic Majesty takes a fourth world, Zvjezdana, for her own, renaming it Tiamat’s Throne. Then, she and her dukes set about subjugating the sector.

The Age of Ashes
2800-2950: Rebuiling and recolonization efforts are organized and started.

Early 3000s: Eugenics Commissars operations fully implemented. Tiamat establishes the first College of Wizardry on her throneworld.

The Age of the Phoenix
3275: Tiamat celebrates her sexcentennial and declares the new age has begun.

3292: Current year.

Tags: A to Z 2013, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

Elanor is an Earth-like world rich in metals. Pre-rage, Elanor was colonized as a research outpost by Stellae Zaibatsu, an industrial conglomerate focused on planetary mining and metallurgy. The colony was still in the early years of surveying when the Age of Fire erupted. Elanor itself was hardly touched by the dragons, but sector-wide chaos destroyed Stellae Zaibatsu, leaving the company’s colony isolated. Today, no one knows the eventual fate of the colonists. When recolonization of Elanor started during the Age of Ashes, the colony’s facilities remained, albeit abandoned and in a state of disrepair.

The Eugenics Commissars and Terra Prime Ring, the sector’s heavyweight in planetary mining, spearheaded the recolonization. The former organization gengineered the malgrandegulos to serve as the planet’s workforce, and the Commissars and Terra Prima Ring formed a corporate autocracy to oversee Elanor’s rebuilding and industries. These activities were focused on seven small urban centers spread in a ragged line across one of Elanor’s three continents, each located near major mineral and metal deposits. Between Terra Prime Ring’s ruthlessly efficient management and the malgrandegulos’ genetic predisposition to thriving in the sort of work environments planetary mining requires, Elanor’s recolonization was an early Imperial success.

Indeed, it so successful that Imperial control via proxies was relaxed, and the malgrandegulos were permitted self-government. The seven urban centers became independent, republican city-states, and the malgrandegulo citizens of each became increasingly competitive with each other. While this has increased exploitation of planetary resources, it has also increased conflict between the city-states, to include open war among shifting alliances.

Heavy pressure from the Empire encouraged the city-states to seek more diplomatic solutions to conflicts over land and the natural resources locked within that land. Each city-state established a diplomatic corps and exchanged ambassadors. The competing republics have since been locked in a tense cold war in which diplomacy and covert assets attempt to accomplish what conventional military action once attempted.

Adventurers and mercenaries can find ready work on Elanor, if they know who and how to ask. The city-states are eager to maintain plausible deniability and/or to be able to shift blame, and outsiders provide them the means to both ends. Spying, kidnapping, blackmail, extortion, theft, and sabotage are just a few of the activities available on Elanor for morally flexible visitors with the necessary skills.

Elanor at a Glance
Population: 91,600
Atmosphere: Breathable
Climate: Temperate
Government: Republic
Tech Level: 4*

* Yeah, I decided to go ahead and bump the randomly generated Tech Level originally generated for Elanor.

Tags: A to Z 2013, planetary tour, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

In a couple of previous posts, I talk about giving players narrative control and using defense checks. Since those posts, I’ve acquired and read Dungeon World. It’s a nifty game, and I’m hankering to glom some of it for use in my upcoming Stars Without Number campaign. At the same time, Dungeon World has made me rethink the ideas I’ve had in those aforelinked posts.

How Dungeon World Does Combat

Whenever a character attempts anything in Dungeon World, the player rolls 2d6 and adds whatever ability score modifier applies. The basic outcomes are always these: 10+, you succeed; 7-9, you succeed, “but with complications or trouble”; and 6 or less, the “GM says what happens and you mark XP”.

The most common actions a character are likely to attempt are laid out in basic moves. For example, there is a basic move for melee combat called Hack and Slash. Here’s the text:

“When you attack an enemy in melee, roll+STR *One a 10+, you deal your damage to the enemy and avoid their attack. At your option, you may choose to do +1d6 damage but expose yourself to the enemy’s attack. *On a 7-9, you deal your damage to the enemy and the enemy makes an attack against you.”

Notice, please, that this combines the character’s attack roll, defense roll, and the enemy’s attack roll all in one.

Let the Glomming Begin!

Like Dungeon World, in Stars Without Number attack rolls have a uniform target number for success, namely any modified attack roll that equals or exceeds 20 is a hit. It’s not hard to adapt the former to the latter.

Ignoring ability score modifiers, a Hack and Slash move in Dungeon World has a 16.65% chance of being an outright success (the 10+ result) and a 41.65% chance of being a qualified success (the 7-9 result). The latter range is what I’m concerned with. Let’s round it down to 40% since that’ll fit a d20 better.

What we end with is this for Stars Without Number: A modified melee attack roll of 20+ is a hit, and the character deals damage. A modified melee attack roll in the 13-19 range is also a hit, but the enemy also makes a successful attack against that character.

So far, I’m liking this idea a lot, but it does require some further tweaking. It doesn’t take into account a monster’s attack bonus, but I’m not convinced that’s a problem. It doesn’t take into account the character’s Armor Class, and this is a problem. Dungeon World doesn’t have Armor Class; instead, armor soaks damage. This system also doesn’t account for multiple monster attacks, such as a xenobeast with a claw/claw/bite attack routine. I’m sure these issues can be compensated for with a few simple tweaks.

The same idea of full success on a 20+ and limited success on a 13-19 can be applied to any d20 roll, such as saving throws. Stars Without Number uses 2d6 plus ability score modifier for skill checks, which matches Dungeon World‘s dice conventions perfectly.

But, But!

Lastly, I know what some of you might be thinking: Why don’t I just play Dungeon World? Well, the basic answer is, “Just because.” I’m an admitted inveterate rules-tinkerer. I have been as long as I can remember. It’s worked for the past 30 or so years, and I don’t see why I should stop now.

Tags: A to Z 2013, Dungeon World, game play, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne