Spes Magna Games

Earlier I fiddled with the rules in Stars Without Number. Today, I amp up the fiddling to full-blow tweaking.

The Gist of It All

There are two types of dice rolls made to determine success: either 1d20 or 2d6.

* For a 1d20 roll, 20+ means the character succeeds, 13-19 means the character succeeds but with some sort of complication or consequence, and 12 or less means the GM says what happens, but the character earns some bonus experience points.

* For a 2d6 roll, 10+ means the character succeeds, 7-9 means the character succeeds but with some sort of complication or consequence, and 6 or less means the GM says what happens, but the character earns some bonus experience points.

Combat

There are two basic combat moves, one for melee combat, the other for ranged combat. Here they are, ripped from Dungeon World and mercilessly tweaked for Stars Without Number:

Hack and Slash: Roll 1d20 + attack bonus + attribute bonus associated with weapon + combat skill level + target’s Armor Class. A modified melee attack roll of 20+ is a hit, and the character deals damage and avoid the enemy’s attack. At the player’s option, the character may deal +50% damage but is then exposed the enemy’s attack. 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.

Volley: Roll 1d20 + attack bonus + attribute bonus associated with weapon + combat skill ranks + target’s Armor Class. 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, you must choose one consequence:

* You have to move to get the shot, placing you in danger as described by the GM, or
* Your shot is ill-placed, and deals half damage, or
* You have to take several shots to hit, using twice as much ammo.

The next move is used when a character defends a person, item, or location from attack. Relevant attribute bonus and skill ranks are determined by player description and GM adjudication.

Defend: Roll 1d20 + attack bonus + relevant attribute bonus + relevant skill ranks. On 20+, choose three options. On 13-19, choose one option.

* Redirect an attack from the thing you defend to yourself, and/or
* Halve the attack’s effect or damage, and/or
* Open up the attacker to an ally, giving that ally a +1 bonus against the attack, and/or
* Deal damage to the attack equal to your level.

Skills & Skill Checks

I want to simplify the skill points system. A character gets a list of skills determined by Background Package and Training Package. A skill that occurs in only one package starts at skill level 0. If a skill occurs in both packages, it starts at skill level 1. At 1st level, every character picks one package skill as a specialty. This skill gains a +1 bonus to skill level.

At each level after first, an expert receives +3 pips, and warriors and psychics receive +2 pips. All characters receive bonus pips equal to his prime attribute bonus. The player divides these pips between skills as desired, including new skills. Except for the character’s chosen specialty, a character’s maximum level in a skill is equal to 1, plus their level divided by 3, rounded down. The maximum level for a character’s specialty is equal to 2, plus their level divided by 3, rounded down.

For example, 1st-level expert Rocket Rob Braden has a 14 Intelligence, and his backgrounds are Astrogater’s Mate and Pilot. His starting skills and skill levels, with a Vehicle/Space specialization, are Combat/Gunnery 0, Culture/Spacer 1, Exosuit 0, Navigation 1, Science 0, Tech/Astronautics 0, Tech/Postech 0, Vehicles/Air 0, and Vehicles/Space 2. At 2nd level, Rocket Rob receives +4 pips. His skills become Combat/Gunnery 1, Culture/Spacer 1, Exosuit 1, Navigation 1, Science 0, Tech/Astronautics 1, Tech/Postech 0, Vehicles/Air 1, and Vehicles/Space 2.

Stars Without Number uses 2d6 + relevant skill level + relevant attribute modifier for skill checks. The total is compared to the check’s difficulty number, ranging from 6 to 13. Since I want Dungeon World-style static difficulty numbers, let’s convert the standard method to a modifier:

Difficulty 6 = +1 modifier
Difficulty 7 = +0 modifier
Difficulty 8 = -1 modifier
Difficulty 9 = -2 modifier
Difficulty 10 = -3 modifier
Difficulty 11 = -4 modifier
Difficulty 12 = -5 modifier
Difficulty 13 = -6 modifier

Use a Skill: Roll 2d6 + relevant skill level + relevant attribute modifier + difficulty modifier. On 10+, you succeed. On 7-9, you succeed, but with a complication or consequence.

Saving Throws

Standard Stars Without Number saving throws need to be converted to work with a static target number of 20+. This is done by determining the bonus for each saving throw category as 20 – the class’s save number. For example, a 1st-level expert must normally roll 16+ on 1d20 to make a Physical Effect save. Using my tweaked version, the 1st-level expert has a +4 bonus to Physical Effect saves.

When exposed to a danger that requires a saving throw, the GM typically determines the category (Physical Effect, Evasion, et cetera), but the player gets to describe how the character attempts to avoid the effect. This description helps determine the relevant ability score modifier.

Make a Saving Throw: Roll 1d20 + save category modifier + relevant skill modifier. A modified roll of 20+ is a success. A modified roll in the 13-19 range means the character stumbles, hesitates, flinches, et cetera. The GM determines an appropriate effect that involves a worse outcome, hard bargain, or ugly choice.

Character Armor

The method of combat describe above makes a character’s Armor Class irrelevant for its normal purposes. Instead, a character’s Armor Class determines how much damage the character ignores from attacks. Subtract the character’s Armor Class from 9. This is how much damage he ignores from an attack.

This damage, less the character’s Dexterity modifier, instead affects the character’s armor directly. I’ll need to come up with how many hit points different armors and shields have, as well as a simple mechanic for repairing armor and shields.

Enemy Attacks

When a character is subjected to an enemy’s attack, the most common result is for the character to suffer damage. The damage is equal to the creature’s lowest damage die plus its attack bonus plus +1 for each additional attack in its attack routine.

For example, a Sarxian howling tiger inflicts 1d6+5 points of damage (1d6 for its claw, +4 for its attack bonus, and +1 more because it has two claw attacks).

Tags: A to Z 2013, Dungeon World, Stars Without Number

One thing I’ve not touched upon so far in my rough draft Tiamat’s Throne is religion. I’ve made few hard decisions regarding the topic. For example, I’ve deliberately not added a cleric character class to the setting’s science fantasy. Tiamat’s Throne includes real-world religions since settlers from Terra spread through the stars, colonizing exoplanets and bringing diverse cultures with them. So, in Tiamat’s Throne, one can encounter Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, et cetera. One can also encounter devotees of dragon cults, death-worshipping necromancers, and other fantasy staples.

It seems more prudent to me to say that no religion — not even the one I favor — grants anyone any special powers than to say that only some religions or all religions do. Healing spells have been rolled into the magic-user’s bailiwick. The cleric’s other main feature — special power over the undead — is missing from the setting so far, and it is likely to stay that way.

I am, however, considering modifying the class feature of experts and warriors. As it stands now, the respective class feature of these two classes are as follows:

“Experts have a knack for success, and can re-roll a failed skill check once per hour.”

“Warriors have uncanny luck on the battlefield. Once per fight, they can automatically evade an attack that would otherwise have hit them.”

It might be a good idea to have optional class features that would permit experts and warriors to be more customized, perhaps based on training package. So, for example, there could be a paladin training package for warriors that would permit the character to substitute the standard warrior ability with a paladin ability.

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

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