{Swords of a Starlight Empire} - Dread Stars - (Quickstart)

As usually I am realy slow at designing and therefor want to create a "short Quickstarter" or Booklet RPG like those crafted by John Harper.
Most of us know that they can tinker for eternities on their projects, but I realy want to get it done and into motion. Additionally, all my projects suffer from my lack of english-language skills, which makes it hightly impotant to find a friendly regular editor among the crowd (if you feel spoken to, let me know ;) )

Swords of a Starlight Empire

I felt inspired by Harper's Danger Patrol, Star Force, Lady Blackbird and Ghost Lines RPGs, which partly do have sequel/prequel/side RPGs forming a series of Games. Epidiah Ravachol's Vast & Starlit and Swords Without Master, got me think of the title for this small project. I am well aware of Ashen Stars and several other Games resolving around "Heroes try to save the Day in a forsaken Starempire" or "Starpolice" kind of games. Non the less, they all do not grasp a modern yet styled pulp feeling that I am looking for.

The first iteration, 'Dread Stars' aims a pagecount of 22-32 Papes to be a booklet in digest-format (5.5 x 8.5 inch).
A group of PC are seeking to unveil the true dangers of the no-mans-land called the Dread Stars. Expanded tables will provide the meat on the narrative bones, so that the MC/GM will have plenty options to fill it up to a campaign.

Another pet-idea is 'Swords of a Starlight Empire - Rites of Passage' and is an adaption of Jason Lutes 'Funnel World' conversion of DW and DCCRPG elements. The main point here is to introduce a handfull of hightly mortal characters from a mundane background to the terrors among the stars. Each player can generate a handfull of random (Level Zero) Everyday-Persons, with the possibility to raise them into advanced Characters, who may join the Swords or another class of character after survival.

I dont realy claim on beeing very innovative with anything I do, but I love to butcher games to create versions and hacks I would like to play.

Attributes:

FOR   Force
DEX   Dexterity
INS    Insight
PRE   Presense
EQU  Equilibrium  /  VOI   Voidbound   / CON   Conduit Hivemind

The Characterclasses:

(Design-Notes: Nope, they are NO Spacemarines, but near that concept. They are the humanshaped sheaths of the Imperial Swords)

The Preatorian

Chosen bearer of one of the thousand blades of the empire. They are the agents of the imperial will, its champion and most honored warrior. So you were told, while nanoengineers altered your mortal flesh and inhuman brutal training was conducted on you. There is barely anything left of the person you was before, only your role remains. To be the choosen sword of the empire.

There is tumult among the stars, demons hidden in the void ready to invade our reality, cultists and heretics who worship the primal dark and the lurking curruption from within the many headed court of the stars and its infinite bureaucracy. You and your brothers and sisters are the only beacon of the imperial order in a vast and starlit universe.

Not age nor illness shall befall you, as your mortal hull is no more. Only by battle and force can you find true death, and sometimes, when your order can retain your body, you will be reborn in a body of steel and join the eclesian forces of the undying.

Subclasses:

Claymore: +1 Force, Claymore Moveset
Called Slayers of Dragons or Imperial Paladin

Dagger: +1 Dexterity, Dagger Moveset
Called Kris Naga or Blackblades

Scythe: + 1 Equilibrium, Scythe Moveset
Called Reaper or Deathangels

Other Factions:

(DN: A brief summery of the general opinions of the Swords on the other factions within the empire)

Loreseeker: They are keeping the flame of civilisation ablazed, searching the unknown and utilize the renmains of the ancient realms of long pasts. Their minds are cycling in strange ways, and sometimes they stray off their paths. Beware of cults of the metal gods, enstranged man-machine-fusions and machnineries beyond comprehension.

Voidwalker: The Choir of the Empire serves with its invisible eyes and their voices reaches beyond mortal limits. Only years of training and disciplin can rescue these voidborn from the claws of madness and demons. Forged like the Swords, they are the emissaries of the empire. But beware when they loose their focus and wander of into darkness, dont hesistate to slay them.

Enforcers: Shadows of the Swords, but many in number. They are the arms of the empire that reaches out to the uncounted worlds. While less disciplined and easy to stray from the true paths, they are holding together the empire.

Technocrats: What use has knowledge, when it starts to rule you? They seek out the ancient technology only for their own goals. They are a selfobsessive caste within the imperial court.

Drifters: Freelancing Voidwalkers. Dangerous and unreliable, dont count on them if the stakes are hight. Most of them have unpleasant tendencies to question your authority, forgive them and try to educate them in the imperial ways.

Conduit: Mutated anomalies of strange behavior. They are somehow connected to each other by a kind of hivemind, which grants them the ability of FTL-Communication. The imperial dependance on this weird creatures is a weak point that you are well aware of. Keep your watch over their every move, you never knwo what they are hiding.

Fartraders: Scum that is ruled by their greed. Dont listen to their talks of guild honor and brotherhoods, they know no true layalty, when coins changing hands.

The first 3 classes will be the Preatorian, who will be a leading character with hight combat & defence skills, but also social & negotiation moves. The Loreseeker is handling the tasks of engineering, piloting, decrypting ancient lore and all technical stuff, while the Voidwalker is a psi specialist, mindprobing, telepatic communication, detect lies, sensitive for the Voidstream and its creatures.

Preatorian Stereotypes: Imperial Ambassador / Paladin / Assasine
Loreseeker Stereotypes: Pilot & Engineer / Gadgeteer / Master of Ancient Lore
Voidwalker Stereotypes: Psi-Corps / Investigator / Ecliarchon (Priest/Healer)

Each PC group must at least include one Preatorian Stereotype.
The Attribute Equlibrium is an indicator for the Characters balance of energies. For the Preatorian to keep his modified body and his reassembled mind working, for the Loreseeker to not fall into the grip of corupting knowledge, for the Voidwalker to fend off the mindtwisting influence of the Void.
Overall, it is also the saveroll agains psicic atacks.

The overall themes of adventures are:
Crimeinvestigation, Hunting Monsters and Cultists, Searching ancient Knowledges, Defending Imperial Colonies.

The underlining tone is also established by moral questions as the Preatorian and its team are confronted with corruption and the decay of the empire.

First Sketch of the Charasheet

EDIT:

Now the most finished one, waiting for the Moves to be complete.

Man this looks cool! And Rites of Passage consummated an idea I've had floating around in my head for a while: Given how simple PBTA games are, you could quite easily design different systems for different levels of play and stack them on top of each other because it's so easy to make new characters! Anyway, I'm happy to edit your book - and be innovative! Take pride in what you do - my own game was initially just a conversion of Exalted to a PBTA system, but gradually it took on a life of its own and it's all my own work now! There's no problem with stealing - just treat it as a stepping stone towards your own original work. Nice sheets by the way!

The game brings to mind the cover of this book I saw my Dad reading once:



Which is from this series:



P.S. How are you painting Empire and the Infinite Bureaucracy?

Hi Spigot, I do have the New Sun RPG Supplement for GURPS, its indeed inspiring, but I hadnt this in mind initially :D
If you like to helpout, are you also on G+ which I frequent ofter than the board here?


I had 2 ideas after flipping through AW DW and ClassWarfare and looking at my Charasheet. I focus mostly on 2-3 Themes for the Moves of my classes, which means, it would be possible to keep them as compendiums classes anyway. So instead of creating "fixed" classes, I could build a career-system for the characters, where your main career Pretorian (Space-Paladin/Politician), Claymore (Spacecrusader / Heavy Infantery) and the Kris Naga (Assasin / Infiltrator) also unlocked the major elements like ranks and general skills, while 1-2 compendium careers offers more specialisation and unlock different equickments.?

Nice ideas and design. Count me interested! I really like the aesthetic you are creating for this.  The overall themes and focus of the adventures (Crime Investigation, Hunting Monsters and Cultists, Searching Ancient Knowledges, Defending Imperial Colonies) appeal to me. The feel kind of reminds me a little bit of Ben Lehman's Polaris - which is definitely a good thing. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this as it develops.