First. There are some core things to consider when making the rules. I will list these here as a reminder while I lay down a framework. I will be working on this project in real time, here on this blog and incorporating ideas out of my previous games using rules by other people and notes I set down about what I'd hope to see. Some of this may change a good deal before everything is finished but here will be a sort of record revealing the thinking involved.
The List
Humans are the most violent creatures in the galaxy. Period. No other alien race can touch them. This influences to a great extent what humans can accomplish in combat during game play.
Rocketship Empires is human centered. If RSE has a monster manual all of the other alien races are in that book and not in the player's book.
Left to their own devices human groups will always turn on one another. See item one on the list.
RSE is pulp science fiction and weirdness. It is meant to be a fun romp. Where logic, science and reason are involved it is meant to help establish a slightly more believable setting for the imaginations of the referee and players. Beyond creating a fun pulp setting with some 1930's flavor nobody should take any of the discussions about starships, space travel, starship combat, psionics, future science, aliens or anything else to very seriously. This especially includes the author.
Character Generation
Body and Soul
First determine if your character is going to be more adept at external, physical things or at internal, mental or will based actions. If your character is going to be more adept at physical things you place +1 point in the Body category. If your character is going to be more adept at intellectual or psionic pursuits you place +1 point in the Soul category.
Body = Strength, Agility, Toughness and Beauty.
Soul = Intelligence, Will, Perception and Guile.
Each major category has four sub-categories. All characters begin with a value of 1 in both Body and Soul and every sub-category so when you assign a +1 to the Body category both your Body score and all four of its sub-categories gain a +1 value. So now your character stats look like this...
Body 2
Strength 2, Agility 2, Toughness 2 and Beauty 2
Soul 1
Intelligence 1, Will 1, Perception 1 and Guile 1.
Finally you have three points you can spend on any of the eight sub-categories as you see fit but no sub-category may exceed a score of 3 during character creation. Let's say that you choose to spend 1 point on Agility, 1 point on Perception and 1 point on Guile. Your final starting character stats would look like this.
Body 2
Strength 2, Agility 3, Toughness 2, Beauty 2
Soul 1
Intelligence 1, Will 1, Perception 2 and Guile 2
RSE (Rocketship Empires) will use a d6 mechanic to resolve actions, skills and combat. In basic terms actions will be assigned a difficult score related to a simple 1d6 roll. See below:
6 Risky Business (Very Difficult)
5 Dicey (Difficult)
4 Hard Boiled (Tough)
3 Eggs and Coffee (Smooth - Not That Hard)
2 Easy as Pie
1 No Roll Necessary
General Actions
General actions are determined directly by the character's stats or two major and eight sub-categories; body, strength, agility and so on. The number of dice you get to roll is the score you have in the appropriate category. Let's say that Sam needs to bust open the door into the room of his best girl when he hears her cry out for help. Busting open a door is going to require some Strength. The referee determines that the door is made of sturdy wood but has no special reinforcements or complications to make it especially hard to bust through. The referee says, "That's one hard boiled door, Sam." Sam needs to roll 4's or better on his dice to get a success to knock down the door. Sam is our example character and begins with a Strength of 2 and so he gets to roll two d6. Sam rolls a 3 and a 5 giving him the success that he needs to bust through the door. Sam only gets one success and that is what is required to perform his stated goal for that action. If he'd succeeded with an additional success, say he rolled a 4 and a 5 Sam would only expend half of his action to bust through the door and would have half of an action left in that turn.
More on actions and rolls a little later but just so I remember here is a little note.
Actions have carry through. If Sam had two successes to knock open the door he'd have half of an action left. Inside the room wrestling with his best girl is a criminal goon. Sam doesn't want to accidentally shoot his best girl so he quickly abandons the idea of pulling out his heater. Instead Sam decides to paste the goon in the bean with his fist. Sam is skilled in Brawling. Brawling is governed by Strength. When Sam has a full action to brawl he gets one color dice (red) and two white dice for the two points he has in the brawl skill but Sam only has a half action. He only gets to use half of the dice available to him in his pool rounded UP so in this case he gets his red dice for his Strength and one white dice for his brawl skill. Lady luck will have to smile a little in Sam's direction for him to both burst through the door of his best girl's room and land a good sock on the kisser of the goon inside...but this is still possible.
This is a little insight into the game play I am looking to create and just a start. More later. Going to take a little break for now.
As a side note I am thinking creation of the full rules for RSE is going to take about a year from today but there is no time like the present and most of my thoughts and game development will be recorded / shared in this blog.
Everyone is welcome to provide feedback and comments as things progress.
-Ed
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