The Tellian Sector, complete with map, planetary profiles, and a listing of active espionage organisations in the Tellian system itself.
Backgrounds for Moragne, my Runequest 6 / Legend / Mongoose Runequest 2 setting loosely modeled after Angevin England. Suitable for any JAFE (Just Another Fantasy Europe) setting.
My overland travel reference sheet for the Moragne campaign.
The primer for my Moragne campaign.
My potion tables for use with my alchemy rules. These are built off of procedural metapharmacology.
Iron Heartbreakers v. 1.52, my Microlite20 swords and sorcery game inspired by Iron Heroes. It's ideal if you want low or no-magic PCs.
The Necrocarcerus v. 1.1 rules document as well as a map of Necrocarcerus showing rail connections. Also, a copy of the wandering monster table for SAFE AREA DUVANOVIC, a mini-campaign setting within Necrocarcerus that I'm writing.
Showing posts with label 40K. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 40K. Show all posts
Dec 15, 2014
Jan 9, 2013
70%
The answer to the challenge I posted yesterday is 70%.
Two people responded on my blog with what I consider common sense, totally reasonable answers, both favouring 46% but considering the possibility of 66%. Neither is correct. I don't blame them, I blame the rulebook.
What people think happens, what I thought happens for two years after owning the book, is that you roll the character's Fellowship score (since they're trained in the Command skill), plus or minus any modifiers, and a success determines whether or not the target does what you command them to do.
The actual rules in question are hidden away on page 230 (and their location is not listed in the index to maximise one's ease in finding them). Interaction skills change dispositions. Better or worse dispositions act as modifiers to a base chance of 50% (70% if directly supervised) to obey a character, in steps of 10%. A NPC with the Devoted disposition (+20) has a 70% chance to obey the character without supervision, 90% with. I didn't specify the supervision status - my bad, I only noticed it was relevant while rereading the rules yet again. It's the last sentence in the last paragraph in the last column on the page, the only time it's mentioned in the entirety of the rules. Dispositions are also the only social modifiers listed, despite the game's extensive lists of modifiers for other situations (combat, etc.).
The only rules I know of used less in Dark Heresy are the investigation rules (pg. 186). Until I discovered them and suggested that we use them in a Dark Heresy game in 2010, I had never seen another player, in my games or in online discussion, mention or use them (nor since, and I've been keeping an eye out for it). This is unfortunate, because they actually assist players in succeeding in social interactions, boosting the chances that NPCs will comply with their requests dramatically. This helps low-ranked characters who are unable to leverage the talents and attribute boosts they get at higher ranks to succeed socially, and would incentivise players to attempt social solutions to problems that they currently shoot their way out of. The fact that these rules are poorly presented is especially odd for a game that is about a bunch of investigators trying to dig up corruption, using a system known for complaints about the "whiff factor" on skill use, and which encourages players to solve problems by means other than shooting them (though it does encourage a certain amount of shootiness).
The lesson here is: Don't hide a set of rules that will change how people play the game somewhere where they will never find them.
Two people responded on my blog with what I consider common sense, totally reasonable answers, both favouring 46% but considering the possibility of 66%. Neither is correct. I don't blame them, I blame the rulebook.
What people think happens, what I thought happens for two years after owning the book, is that you roll the character's Fellowship score (since they're trained in the Command skill), plus or minus any modifiers, and a success determines whether or not the target does what you command them to do.
The actual rules in question are hidden away on page 230 (and their location is not listed in the index to maximise one's ease in finding them). Interaction skills change dispositions. Better or worse dispositions act as modifiers to a base chance of 50% (70% if directly supervised) to obey a character, in steps of 10%. A NPC with the Devoted disposition (+20) has a 70% chance to obey the character without supervision, 90% with. I didn't specify the supervision status - my bad, I only noticed it was relevant while rereading the rules yet again. It's the last sentence in the last paragraph in the last column on the page, the only time it's mentioned in the entirety of the rules. Dispositions are also the only social modifiers listed, despite the game's extensive lists of modifiers for other situations (combat, etc.).
The only rules I know of used less in Dark Heresy are the investigation rules (pg. 186). Until I discovered them and suggested that we use them in a Dark Heresy game in 2010, I had never seen another player, in my games or in online discussion, mention or use them (nor since, and I've been keeping an eye out for it). This is unfortunate, because they actually assist players in succeeding in social interactions, boosting the chances that NPCs will comply with their requests dramatically. This helps low-ranked characters who are unable to leverage the talents and attribute boosts they get at higher ranks to succeed socially, and would incentivise players to attempt social solutions to problems that they currently shoot their way out of. The fact that these rules are poorly presented is especially odd for a game that is about a bunch of investigators trying to dig up corruption, using a system known for complaints about the "whiff factor" on skill use, and which encourages players to solve problems by means other than shooting them (though it does encourage a certain amount of shootiness).
The lesson here is: Don't hide a set of rules that will change how people play the game somewhere where they will never find them.
Jan 8, 2013
A Challenge That Teaches a Lesson
Thesis: Almost no one who plays Dark Heresy understands how the interaction rules work because the actual explanation of how one gets people to do things socially is both contrary to expectations and hidden.
A PC with Fellowship 46 trained in the Command skill attempts to convince a Devoted (+20) soldier to obey a command with no other modifiers to the roll. What is the percentage chance that that the soldier obeys?
a) 66%
b) 70%
c) 46%
d) 86%
e) 93%
Follow up: How is this number calculated?
I know the correct answer, and it's always driven me nuts.
Answers can go in the comments or by G+. I'll post the correct answer tomorrow evening.
Jan 4, 2013
The Tellian Sector Returns!
The Tellian Sector returns!
The link has:
A big map of the Tellian Sector I created using Hexographer
An Excel 2007 spreadsheet with planetary profiles for 44 systems with 136 described locations
An Excel 2007 spreadsheet with stats for 15 espionage organisations active in the Tellian System (several are sector-wide)
This was created with the Stars Without Number planetary generator. This is the setting I created for my 40K games. I've used it in three campaigns using the actual 40K games (Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch), and I'll be using it in future when I run 40K games using Stars Without Number.
The Tellian Sector is adjacent to the Calixis Sector, the basic setting for Dark Heresy. Specifically, it is almost directly below it, with its "top" side touching the galactic plane and extending downards. Proximity to the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse allows referees to repurpose material from their Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader books with a minimum of fuss.
Some of the tags in the above planetary profiles are different than in stock Stars Without Number. They are all direct conversions of existing tags - "Unbraked AI" becomes "Silica Animus", the term in the setting for AIs. "Regional hegemon" becomes either "subsector hegemon" or "sector hegemon", "preceptor archive" is "ancient archive", "aliens" become "xenos", "psionics" become "psykers", "pretech cultists" are "tech priest cult", "perimeter agency" becomes "inquisition outpost".
There's also a new tech level, "specialist 4", which is a world with Tech 4 in most respects, but Tech 5 in one or two.
The Tellian Sector tends to focus on the elements of 40K I like the most, and downplay or ignore those elements I least wanted to tell stories involving. There is a lot of malign technology, rogue psykers, Chaos cults, and inscrutable xenos. Orks, Tyranids and Necrons are not present in any great numbers, but there are plenty of Xeno-controlled worlds that could be repurposed to those ends, particularly Washout, Crux Ultima and the Devil's Egg.
The stories I've told using the Tellian Sector primarily focus on the machinations of an arch-heretic named Valentine Illst and his various cronies, particularly a Dark Mechanicus sect known as the Statisticians of Certainty, and a Nurgle cult known as the Black Dawn. Both Illst's core organisation, the Statisticians of Certainty and the Black Dawn are statted up in the espionage organisation section (based on the system in Darkness Visible). If there's demand for it, I can also stat them up as factions using the core rules.
Originally, this was all part of a mega-campaign ("The Navigator of Possibilities") where I would run one campaign / adventure in each FFG 40K system focusing on an interwoven narrative.
The first adventure was a Dark Heresy adventure focusing on a Black Ship that had dropped out of a convoy while transporting a former Interrogator turned heretic, a Mechanicus Magos working for the Inquisition, a dozen or so alpha psykers, and a mysterious artifact known as the Navigator of Possibilities, a communication from the residents of a possible future trying to invade their own past and cannibalise it. The cell managed to stop these foul psyker-vampire mutants from invading our timeline en masse and consuming all life in the galaxy.
The second was a Rogue Trader adventure in which a Rogue Trader crew was asked to find and pinpoint the location of the Statisticians of Certainty, who had captured the Navigator of Possibilities with the help of arch-heretic Valentine Illst. The Statisticians of Certainty had fled into the Lost Worlds, beyond the edge of the Imperium intending to activate the Navigator of Possibilities, travel to the far future, and become techno-gods. This adventure ended with the Navigator of Possibility recaptured, and the Statisticians of Certainty's main fleet crushed, though many of their members escaped. The mysterious pre-Imperial demigod Azar, a supergenius alpha-psyker from the Dark Age of Technology released from his imprisonment on a lost world by the Rogue Trader, was seen vanishing into the future with several of the Dark Mechanicus and the psyker-vampires.
The third was a Deathwatch campaign in which this sudden burst of activity by Valentine Illst was registered by his old foe, an Inquisitor-Lord on Ammis unable to travel between the star due to a daemon's vendetta. A kill team of Deathwatch marines was assigned to hunt down Illst (who is possibly any one of a Xeno pretending to be human, a Silica Animus remotely operating a doppleganger, or a colonist from the Dark Age of Technology resurrected over and over again by infernal science). The kill team captured Titus Hyle, Nurglish sorcerer and master of the Black Dawn, slew several others among Illst's cronies, and eventually captured Illst himself after leading an Imperial naval fleet into the Black Atlantis dyson sphere.
The Black Crusade game, if I ever run it, will be about breaking Illst free of the Inquisition's headquarters on Ammis, and recovering the Navigator of Possibilities from the same.
The Only War adventure is a secret until I run Black Crusade, but will involve Illst and his cronies once again. Azar will show up here again, and the nature of his mysterious connection the Illst matter resolved.
The link has:
A big map of the Tellian Sector I created using Hexographer
An Excel 2007 spreadsheet with planetary profiles for 44 systems with 136 described locations
An Excel 2007 spreadsheet with stats for 15 espionage organisations active in the Tellian System (several are sector-wide)
This was created with the Stars Without Number planetary generator. This is the setting I created for my 40K games. I've used it in three campaigns using the actual 40K games (Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader and Deathwatch), and I'll be using it in future when I run 40K games using Stars Without Number.
The Tellian Sector is adjacent to the Calixis Sector, the basic setting for Dark Heresy. Specifically, it is almost directly below it, with its "top" side touching the galactic plane and extending downards. Proximity to the Calixis Sector and the Koronus Expanse allows referees to repurpose material from their Dark Heresy and Rogue Trader books with a minimum of fuss.
Some of the tags in the above planetary profiles are different than in stock Stars Without Number. They are all direct conversions of existing tags - "Unbraked AI" becomes "Silica Animus", the term in the setting for AIs. "Regional hegemon" becomes either "subsector hegemon" or "sector hegemon", "preceptor archive" is "ancient archive", "aliens" become "xenos", "psionics" become "psykers", "pretech cultists" are "tech priest cult", "perimeter agency" becomes "inquisition outpost".
There's also a new tech level, "specialist 4", which is a world with Tech 4 in most respects, but Tech 5 in one or two.
The Tellian Sector tends to focus on the elements of 40K I like the most, and downplay or ignore those elements I least wanted to tell stories involving. There is a lot of malign technology, rogue psykers, Chaos cults, and inscrutable xenos. Orks, Tyranids and Necrons are not present in any great numbers, but there are plenty of Xeno-controlled worlds that could be repurposed to those ends, particularly Washout, Crux Ultima and the Devil's Egg.
The stories I've told using the Tellian Sector primarily focus on the machinations of an arch-heretic named Valentine Illst and his various cronies, particularly a Dark Mechanicus sect known as the Statisticians of Certainty, and a Nurgle cult known as the Black Dawn. Both Illst's core organisation, the Statisticians of Certainty and the Black Dawn are statted up in the espionage organisation section (based on the system in Darkness Visible). If there's demand for it, I can also stat them up as factions using the core rules.
Originally, this was all part of a mega-campaign ("The Navigator of Possibilities") where I would run one campaign / adventure in each FFG 40K system focusing on an interwoven narrative.
The first adventure was a Dark Heresy adventure focusing on a Black Ship that had dropped out of a convoy while transporting a former Interrogator turned heretic, a Mechanicus Magos working for the Inquisition, a dozen or so alpha psykers, and a mysterious artifact known as the Navigator of Possibilities, a communication from the residents of a possible future trying to invade their own past and cannibalise it. The cell managed to stop these foul psyker-vampire mutants from invading our timeline en masse and consuming all life in the galaxy.
The second was a Rogue Trader adventure in which a Rogue Trader crew was asked to find and pinpoint the location of the Statisticians of Certainty, who had captured the Navigator of Possibilities with the help of arch-heretic Valentine Illst. The Statisticians of Certainty had fled into the Lost Worlds, beyond the edge of the Imperium intending to activate the Navigator of Possibilities, travel to the far future, and become techno-gods. This adventure ended with the Navigator of Possibility recaptured, and the Statisticians of Certainty's main fleet crushed, though many of their members escaped. The mysterious pre-Imperial demigod Azar, a supergenius alpha-psyker from the Dark Age of Technology released from his imprisonment on a lost world by the Rogue Trader, was seen vanishing into the future with several of the Dark Mechanicus and the psyker-vampires.
The third was a Deathwatch campaign in which this sudden burst of activity by Valentine Illst was registered by his old foe, an Inquisitor-Lord on Ammis unable to travel between the star due to a daemon's vendetta. A kill team of Deathwatch marines was assigned to hunt down Illst (who is possibly any one of a Xeno pretending to be human, a Silica Animus remotely operating a doppleganger, or a colonist from the Dark Age of Technology resurrected over and over again by infernal science). The kill team captured Titus Hyle, Nurglish sorcerer and master of the Black Dawn, slew several others among Illst's cronies, and eventually captured Illst himself after leading an Imperial naval fleet into the Black Atlantis dyson sphere.
The Black Crusade game, if I ever run it, will be about breaking Illst free of the Inquisition's headquarters on Ammis, and recovering the Navigator of Possibilities from the same.
The Only War adventure is a secret until I run Black Crusade, but will involve Illst and his cronies once again. Azar will show up here again, and the nature of his mysterious connection the Illst matter resolved.
Dec 30, 2012
40K Stars Without Number Warrior Training Packages
Arbiter
The character is either a member of the Adeptus Arbites or a similar planetary institution. He investigates crimes and violently confronts the guilty.
Skills: Combat/Projectile Weapons, Combat/Primitive, Culture/World, Perception, Persuade, Security
Assassin
The character is a member of an assassin temple or death cult, or they are a professional killer for pay.
Skills: Athletics, Combat/Primitive, Combat/Projectile Weapons, Security, Stealth, Vehicle/Any
Crusader
A holy warrior motivated by faith. Crusaders are found throughout the Imperium, and are often attached to the Ecclesiarchy or the Inquisition.
Skills: Combat/Energy Weapons, Combat/Projectile Weapons, Culture/World, Leadership, Religion/Imperial Creed, Tactics
Feral Warrior
The character comes from a backwater world, often a Death World, and prefers to use the techniques they acquired there.
Skills: Athletics, Combat/Primitive, Combat/Unarmed, Culture/World, Stealth, Survival
Ganger
The character acquired their skills as part of an organised criminal group where they supplied muscle.
Skills: Combat/Unarmed, Combat/Any, Culture/Criminal, Persuade, Security, Vehicle/Any
Guardsman
The character was a member of the Imperial Guard or PDF or a professional mercenary organisation with similar training.
Skills: Combat/Energy Weapons, Combat/Any, Leadership, Tactics, Tech/Imperial, Vehicle/Any
Pirate/Armsman
The character has worked as a pirate or armsman aboard a voidship, defending it from attack.
Skills: Combat/Any, Culture/Spacer, Exosuit, Navigation, Tech/Imperial, Vehicle/Space
Naval Officer
The character has served as a naval officer aboard a voidship, either as part of the Imperial Navy or a private vessel.
Skills: Combat/Gunnery, Culture/Spacer, Leadership, Navigation, Tactics, Tech/Imperial
The character is either a member of the Adeptus Arbites or a similar planetary institution. He investigates crimes and violently confronts the guilty.
Skills: Combat/Projectile Weapons, Combat/Primitive, Culture/World, Perception, Persuade, Security
Assassin
The character is a member of an assassin temple or death cult, or they are a professional killer for pay.
Skills: Athletics, Combat/Primitive, Combat/Projectile Weapons, Security, Stealth, Vehicle/Any
Crusader
A holy warrior motivated by faith. Crusaders are found throughout the Imperium, and are often attached to the Ecclesiarchy or the Inquisition.
Skills: Combat/Energy Weapons, Combat/Projectile Weapons, Culture/World, Leadership, Religion/Imperial Creed, Tactics
Feral Warrior
The character comes from a backwater world, often a Death World, and prefers to use the techniques they acquired there.
Skills: Athletics, Combat/Primitive, Combat/Unarmed, Culture/World, Stealth, Survival
Ganger
The character acquired their skills as part of an organised criminal group where they supplied muscle.
Skills: Combat/Unarmed, Combat/Any, Culture/Criminal, Persuade, Security, Vehicle/Any
Guardsman
The character was a member of the Imperial Guard or PDF or a professional mercenary organisation with similar training.
Skills: Combat/Energy Weapons, Combat/Any, Leadership, Tactics, Tech/Imperial, Vehicle/Any
Pirate/Armsman
The character has worked as a pirate or armsman aboard a voidship, defending it from attack.
Skills: Combat/Any, Culture/Spacer, Exosuit, Navigation, Tech/Imperial, Vehicle/Space
Naval Officer
The character has served as a naval officer aboard a voidship, either as part of the Imperial Navy or a private vessel.
Skills: Combat/Gunnery, Culture/Spacer, Leadership, Navigation, Tactics, Tech/Imperial
40K Stars Without Number Psychic Training Packages
Astropath
The character is an astropath, a psychic communications specialist.
Skills: Culture/Any, Language, Navigation, Tech/Warp
Diviner
The character is an Imperial diviner, a precognitive specialist. Diviners make a good living predicting the future for their employers, both private and Imperial.
Skills: Combat/Warp, Gambling, Perception, Tech/Warp
Medicae Psyker
The character is a psyker-healer. Many of these individuals are sent to the battlefields of the Imperial Guard to serve as field medics.
Skills: Combat/Any, Religion/Imperial Creed, Tech/Warp, Tech/Medical
Psychic Investigator
The character uses their psychic powers to investigate crimes. This may be for the Inquisition, the Adeptus Arbites, or for private interests.
Skills: Perception, Persuade, Security, Tech/Warp
Psychic Scholar
The character is a researcher into the mysteries of psy-power. Many of these individuals dabble in forbidden lore, and are greatly prized by the Inquisition.
Skills: Culture/Any, Religion/Any, Science, Tech/Warp
Shaman
The character comes from a feral world or other primitive background and uses its rites and rituals to activate their psychic powers. Shamans often serve as the keepers of lore for their societies.
Skills: Combat/Warp, History, Survival, Stealth
Sorcerer/Witch
The character is an unsanctioned psyker, who will either fall prey to Chaos sooner or later, or who has already sold their soul to the laughing gods.
Skills: Combat/Warp, Culture/Ruinous Powers, Religion/Ruinous Powers, Tech/Warp
Templar
Combat psykers are in high demand amongst the Imperial Guard.
Skills: Combat/Any, Combat/Warp, Leadership, Tactics
The character is an astropath, a psychic communications specialist.
Skills: Culture/Any, Language, Navigation, Tech/Warp
Diviner
The character is an Imperial diviner, a precognitive specialist. Diviners make a good living predicting the future for their employers, both private and Imperial.
Skills: Combat/Warp, Gambling, Perception, Tech/Warp
Medicae Psyker
The character is a psyker-healer. Many of these individuals are sent to the battlefields of the Imperial Guard to serve as field medics.
Skills: Combat/Any, Religion/Imperial Creed, Tech/Warp, Tech/Medical
Psychic Investigator
The character uses their psychic powers to investigate crimes. This may be for the Inquisition, the Adeptus Arbites, or for private interests.
Skills: Perception, Persuade, Security, Tech/Warp
Psychic Scholar
The character is a researcher into the mysteries of psy-power. Many of these individuals dabble in forbidden lore, and are greatly prized by the Inquisition.
Skills: Culture/Any, Religion/Any, Science, Tech/Warp
Shaman
The character comes from a feral world or other primitive background and uses its rites and rituals to activate their psychic powers. Shamans often serve as the keepers of lore for their societies.
Skills: Combat/Warp, History, Survival, Stealth
Sorcerer/Witch
The character is an unsanctioned psyker, who will either fall prey to Chaos sooner or later, or who has already sold their soul to the laughing gods.
Skills: Combat/Warp, Culture/Ruinous Powers, Religion/Ruinous Powers, Tech/Warp
Templar
Combat psykers are in high demand amongst the Imperial Guard.
Skills: Combat/Any, Combat/Warp, Leadership, Tactics
Dec 29, 2012
Darkness Visible / Polychrome Review
Darkness Visible and Polychrome are supplements for Stars Without Number by Sine Nomine Publishing (which is a one-man shop run by Kevin Crawford). Stars Without Number is one of the most exciting and interesting science fiction games to come out this decade, and I think both of these supplements expand the possible kinds of games you can use the system for.
Polychrome covers the eponymous world, which is a cyberpunk dystopia. You've no doubt seen and read about cyberpunk dystopias before, and can create your own, but if you're pressed for time, there's one premade for you here. There's a description of the world, NPCs profiles, pre-established conflicts for you to exploit, hooks for why off-world visitors would want to come to Polychrome, all good stuff. Unfortunately, this section doesn't include faction write-ups to use the SWN faction / politics system.
The really exciting parts of the book are the rules additions and game structures in the back half, starting from about page 14 onwards until page 30. You've got rules for "shadowrun" operations, investigations, hacking, new cyberware and other gear, stats for various NPC antagonists and allies, and generators for adventures and NPC resources (one table is called "A Memorable NPC Quirk Is Their..." and another is "What's that Underhab Building?"). At the very back of the book is a PC-suitable handout with the player hacking reference sheet.
This kind of stuff is not unusual, though as always for Stars Without Number the material is both high-quality and extremely gameable. What elevates it above the ordinary bunch of tables, and this is true of most material like this in Stars Without Number books, is the detailed information on structuring play and using the tables as part of that. The information on running investigations is literally one page of text with two columns, and yet it packs more useful advice about how to handle investigations and legwork in cyberpunk games than dozens of similar pages in Dark Heresy. Similarly, the two pages titled "Inside Jobs" dealing with undercover corporate espionage / sabotage almost reads like it was written to cover all the information about these things that Shadowrun 4e left out (for example, how much PCs should be paid) and has a bunch of generic adventure seeds that can be repurposed endlessly, as well as a couple of quick tables to flesh out these seeds. SWN's great strength compared to many other adventure games is its concision and concreteness where other games are prolix and vague, and Polychrome demonstrates that well.
There's also an introductory adventure in Polychrome. I haven't played or run the adventure, so I can't speak to it, but I like that it only takes up six pages instead of say, the thirty-one that the intro adventure in Dark Heresy does.
As fond as I am of Polychrome, I actually consider Darkness Visible the better supplement of the two. If I only had to buy one, it's the one I would buy (fortunately, I didn't have to choose). Darkness Visible is a 97 page supplement about running an espionage campaign. The first chunk of the book deals with the Perimeter agency, which is part of the core Stars Without Number setting. They're an interstellar covert-ops group left over from the previous interstellar human civilisation devoted to preventing technological experimentation from creating existential threats to humanity. I don't use the actual Stars Without Number setting much, so it's of limited gaming value to me, but I did find the section well-written, interesting, and full of gameable ideas. It passed the "Chupp Test", where after reading it, I wanted to play a Perimeter agent.
The bulk of the book is taken up with rules material for running espionage campaigns, and it's a feast of good stuff. There's a subsystem or replacement system for the faction / politics system in stock Stars Without Number that focuses on the resources and actions most relevant to espionage agencies. These rules are meant to by used by PCs to direct the course of the agency they work for, and used properly (as the rules explain), they allow the players to create missions for their characters to go on instead of requiring the referee to come up with them. It's a really well done system, and I encourage other writers to study it as an example of how you can take what initially appears to be a very limited, strictly defined frame for a campaign that appears to provide limited agency (the PCs are operatives given missions by a patron agency) and turn it into a "sandbox" game.
The maltech antagonists are given extensive treatments, including stats, cool new gear, a genetic modifications subsystem and good discussions of how each type of organisation (eugenics cults, doomsday cults, and "godmind" cults focused on unbraked AI) works. There's a lot of work done exploring why and how people might want to tamper with this stuff despite the risks. At the end of this section, there's a version of the Stars Without Number "tags" system for the cults with a random generator.
If you're unfamiliar with the "tags" system, it's a set of randomly generated keywords that are attached to things (mainly planets and factions in the core rules) that have associated entries that suggest friends, enemies, complications, things, and places. These are tied into the adventure generation system in a consistent way so that with a couple of quick rolls you can create entire adventures. The terminology is consistent across books whenever adventure seeds or structures are presented, so you could actually take the tags from the cults in this book, plug the associated subcategories into the adventure seeds in Polychrome or the stock rules, and instantly generate adventures. It's a really subtle, well-done part of the Stars Without Number system that I don't see a lot of people comment on, and it's always surprised me that it hasn't been more influential or studied.
"Tradecraft" is the chapter explaining how to create espionage adventures in detail, and is worth the price of the book on its own. Even if you're not that interested in the Stars Without Number system itself, this section is worth reading through as a very concrete, well done example of how to structure and run espionage / intelligence missions. Once again, it's incredibly concise at 13 pages, with about half of that devoted to specific mission types. After that are rules specific to an espionage game, more background and training packages and some new gear.
What these two books have done IMHO, is turn Stars Without Number into a better system for running Dark Heresy-type games than Dark Heresy itself is. As long-time readers of this blog know, I have a 40K - Stars Without Number conversion, so the idea for me is not a new one (checking my back posts, I just realised I never posted the training packages for warriors and psychics - expect those to go up in the next few days). I think that between Darkness Visible and Polychrome, you now have more rules support for playing a bunch of Throne Agents going around investigating heresy than you do in Dark Heresy itself. If you're currently playing Dark Heresy and finding yourself butting up against what is a very clunky, overly complicated rules system that is mostly available in extremely expensive full-colour hardcover books, it might be worth your time to dole out a much smaller amount of money on Stars Without Number and the two supplements mentioned in this review and switch over. Not only will this be easier on your pocketbook, I suspect you'll actually have a superior play experience.
Polychrome covers the eponymous world, which is a cyberpunk dystopia. You've no doubt seen and read about cyberpunk dystopias before, and can create your own, but if you're pressed for time, there's one premade for you here. There's a description of the world, NPCs profiles, pre-established conflicts for you to exploit, hooks for why off-world visitors would want to come to Polychrome, all good stuff. Unfortunately, this section doesn't include faction write-ups to use the SWN faction / politics system.
The really exciting parts of the book are the rules additions and game structures in the back half, starting from about page 14 onwards until page 30. You've got rules for "shadowrun" operations, investigations, hacking, new cyberware and other gear, stats for various NPC antagonists and allies, and generators for adventures and NPC resources (one table is called "A Memorable NPC Quirk Is Their..." and another is "What's that Underhab Building?"). At the very back of the book is a PC-suitable handout with the player hacking reference sheet.
This kind of stuff is not unusual, though as always for Stars Without Number the material is both high-quality and extremely gameable. What elevates it above the ordinary bunch of tables, and this is true of most material like this in Stars Without Number books, is the detailed information on structuring play and using the tables as part of that. The information on running investigations is literally one page of text with two columns, and yet it packs more useful advice about how to handle investigations and legwork in cyberpunk games than dozens of similar pages in Dark Heresy. Similarly, the two pages titled "Inside Jobs" dealing with undercover corporate espionage / sabotage almost reads like it was written to cover all the information about these things that Shadowrun 4e left out (for example, how much PCs should be paid) and has a bunch of generic adventure seeds that can be repurposed endlessly, as well as a couple of quick tables to flesh out these seeds. SWN's great strength compared to many other adventure games is its concision and concreteness where other games are prolix and vague, and Polychrome demonstrates that well.
There's also an introductory adventure in Polychrome. I haven't played or run the adventure, so I can't speak to it, but I like that it only takes up six pages instead of say, the thirty-one that the intro adventure in Dark Heresy does.
As fond as I am of Polychrome, I actually consider Darkness Visible the better supplement of the two. If I only had to buy one, it's the one I would buy (fortunately, I didn't have to choose). Darkness Visible is a 97 page supplement about running an espionage campaign. The first chunk of the book deals with the Perimeter agency, which is part of the core Stars Without Number setting. They're an interstellar covert-ops group left over from the previous interstellar human civilisation devoted to preventing technological experimentation from creating existential threats to humanity. I don't use the actual Stars Without Number setting much, so it's of limited gaming value to me, but I did find the section well-written, interesting, and full of gameable ideas. It passed the "Chupp Test", where after reading it, I wanted to play a Perimeter agent.
The bulk of the book is taken up with rules material for running espionage campaigns, and it's a feast of good stuff. There's a subsystem or replacement system for the faction / politics system in stock Stars Without Number that focuses on the resources and actions most relevant to espionage agencies. These rules are meant to by used by PCs to direct the course of the agency they work for, and used properly (as the rules explain), they allow the players to create missions for their characters to go on instead of requiring the referee to come up with them. It's a really well done system, and I encourage other writers to study it as an example of how you can take what initially appears to be a very limited, strictly defined frame for a campaign that appears to provide limited agency (the PCs are operatives given missions by a patron agency) and turn it into a "sandbox" game.
The maltech antagonists are given extensive treatments, including stats, cool new gear, a genetic modifications subsystem and good discussions of how each type of organisation (eugenics cults, doomsday cults, and "godmind" cults focused on unbraked AI) works. There's a lot of work done exploring why and how people might want to tamper with this stuff despite the risks. At the end of this section, there's a version of the Stars Without Number "tags" system for the cults with a random generator.
If you're unfamiliar with the "tags" system, it's a set of randomly generated keywords that are attached to things (mainly planets and factions in the core rules) that have associated entries that suggest friends, enemies, complications, things, and places. These are tied into the adventure generation system in a consistent way so that with a couple of quick rolls you can create entire adventures. The terminology is consistent across books whenever adventure seeds or structures are presented, so you could actually take the tags from the cults in this book, plug the associated subcategories into the adventure seeds in Polychrome or the stock rules, and instantly generate adventures. It's a really subtle, well-done part of the Stars Without Number system that I don't see a lot of people comment on, and it's always surprised me that it hasn't been more influential or studied.
"Tradecraft" is the chapter explaining how to create espionage adventures in detail, and is worth the price of the book on its own. Even if you're not that interested in the Stars Without Number system itself, this section is worth reading through as a very concrete, well done example of how to structure and run espionage / intelligence missions. Once again, it's incredibly concise at 13 pages, with about half of that devoted to specific mission types. After that are rules specific to an espionage game, more background and training packages and some new gear.
What these two books have done IMHO, is turn Stars Without Number into a better system for running Dark Heresy-type games than Dark Heresy itself is. As long-time readers of this blog know, I have a 40K - Stars Without Number conversion, so the idea for me is not a new one (checking my back posts, I just realised I never posted the training packages for warriors and psychics - expect those to go up in the next few days). I think that between Darkness Visible and Polychrome, you now have more rules support for playing a bunch of Throne Agents going around investigating heresy than you do in Dark Heresy itself. If you're currently playing Dark Heresy and finding yourself butting up against what is a very clunky, overly complicated rules system that is mostly available in extremely expensive full-colour hardcover books, it might be worth your time to dole out a much smaller amount of money on Stars Without Number and the two supplements mentioned in this review and switch over. Not only will this be easier on your pocketbook, I suspect you'll actually have a superior play experience.
Mar 16, 2012
Gaming Plans 2012
If you had asked me even in university if I would have been able to plan out my gaming plans for an entire year ahead of time, I would have laughed. These days, things are different, and I find that my gaming is stable enough that I have a planning horizon of about 18 months.
In 2012:
Thousand Thrones (Every other Sunday)
This is an expected 36+ sessions, so I should still be playing it somewhere around a year and a half from now
Emern (Every other Wednesday)
This is a recent change, and may not be permanent. Emern used to be weekly, but we've had the last two weeks off. School is getting busy for one of the players, and I recently had a player leave due to scheduling commitments, so I'm hoping we can recruit some new blood and fiddle with the schedule to make sure it works for everyone.
Dark Heresy (Once a month on Saturday)
Curtis, the best DM I know, is planning to start coming back to Toronto in April or May to run a heavily houseruled version of Dark Heresy in a custom setting. The group attached to this game was for many years my "main" gaming group, but it imploded in spring last year, lingered in its dying spasms through summer and fall, and died full on in late December / early January. I'm hopeful we'll go from Narsil to Anduril over time.
Dawnlands (TBD)
I was originally planning to run a Dawnlands game in March, but I've been busy with the interview process for a job and some other things. Now that I have the job and a definite starting date, I'm thinking of running the game online per a suggestion by my buddy Jude. I'm thinking it will be every other week, on IRC or another platform if people have recommendations, in 4 hour sessions. I'm looking for text-based platforms instead of speech or video ones, I think. Anyhow, this'll have open recruitment, and I'll put up a post when I'm ready letting folks know.
In 2012:
Thousand Thrones (Every other Sunday)
This is an expected 36+ sessions, so I should still be playing it somewhere around a year and a half from now
Emern (Every other Wednesday)
This is a recent change, and may not be permanent. Emern used to be weekly, but we've had the last two weeks off. School is getting busy for one of the players, and I recently had a player leave due to scheduling commitments, so I'm hoping we can recruit some new blood and fiddle with the schedule to make sure it works for everyone.
Dark Heresy (Once a month on Saturday)
Curtis, the best DM I know, is planning to start coming back to Toronto in April or May to run a heavily houseruled version of Dark Heresy in a custom setting. The group attached to this game was for many years my "main" gaming group, but it imploded in spring last year, lingered in its dying spasms through summer and fall, and died full on in late December / early January. I'm hopeful we'll go from Narsil to Anduril over time.
Dawnlands (TBD)
I was originally planning to run a Dawnlands game in March, but I've been busy with the interview process for a job and some other things. Now that I have the job and a definite starting date, I'm thinking of running the game online per a suggestion by my buddy Jude. I'm thinking it will be every other week, on IRC or another platform if people have recommendations, in 4 hour sessions. I'm looking for text-based platforms instead of speech or video ones, I think. Anyhow, this'll have open recruitment, and I'll put up a post when I'm ready letting folks know.
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