Bulldogs! Has Cool Art!

Bulldogs! has cool art. Like a space mechanic who could have stepped out of the Boondocks!

And telepaths!

And alien space-decadents.

So glad my FLGS finally got it in!

Project Generations - Scenario Writing

Generation Ship art by Fraterchaos
http://shadowness.com/fraterchaos/generation-ship-2

I spent the day today working on the scenario chapter for Project Generations, the FATE-based SF series on generation ships that I am writing for +Chris Birch's Modiphius Entertainment. The first Project Generations product is tri-statted for Starblazer Adventures, Diaspora, and Bulldogs! 

Once I turn in the manuscript for this one, I'll be working on an all-new Project Generations product for FATE Core. I already have some great new ideas for that one. Really over the top!

Chapter Six of the current project is where the scenario lives. The previous chapters build up to the scenario, but also give you TONS of new tools for running games set on generation ships, stats for two sample generation ships , a deck-by-deck treatment of one generation ship, and stats for numerous auxiliary/support ships for use inside and outside the vessel. (These come in helpful because generation ships can be HUGE!)

The scenario chapter broke 31 pages today of single spaced text - it's a monster! The chapter includes background on the generation ship used in the scenario, information on its current state and the rival factions on-board, rules on awakening from cryostasis on a generation ship, drop dice tables for ship locations, and scenes. I think whether you like to use a scenario in its entirety, or you prefer to pick and choose a few elements of a published scenario to use in your own game, you'll get good value out of this product.

My goal is to get most of the scenario finished this weekend. We'll still have some NPCs to statt out during the week, but if I can finish the scene pieces this weekend, we'll be in good shape to finish the writing before April.

Then comes art and layout, which is in great hands with the team Modiphius has together!

Just look at what they are doing for Achtung! Cthulhu over here!

Below Decks With Project Generations

http://paulinespiratesandprivateers.blogspot.com/
2010/10/tools-of-trade-load-sight-fire.html

Today I created two huge Drop Dice Tables for Project Generations!  They allow a GM running the scenario included with Modiphius Entertainment's first Project Generations product to create random encounters for both the Habitat (i.e., green space) areas, as well as the Below Decks levels of the vast generation ship in the scenario.

The tables should be useful for any SF game set on a vast space ship.

I also created keys for each of the two drop tables so that GMs have ideas about what to do with each encounter/location. There are also encounter mechanics that make it easier to build out each encounter.

Awakening From Cryostasis In Project Generations

http://www.zengardner.com/
the-cryogenic-false-hope-escape-hatch-caper/

In the scenario I am writing for Project Generations, the PCs play the Reserve Crew of a generation ship who are awakened from cryostasis. Today, I completed the character generation rules for the awakening and character generation process. All of the details for using Project Generations chargen with the Diaspora and Starblazer Adventures rulesets are now set. I still have some specific details to work through for Bulldogs!, but the overall framework is there now and seems to hang together well.

The overall approach is character generation on the fly. That is a feature of a number of FATE games, and has the benefit of bringing people into play rather quickly. Character generation is grounded in the space ark and cryostasis experience through the use of two tables, while also leaving room for some up-front player creativity and intentionality in character design before play begins.

I think the system strikes the right balance between narrativist and sandbox approaches to PC generation. If you don't like to know everything about your character before play begins, I think you will be happy with this. You have room to explore and grow your character, which is exactly what I saw happen in the playtest.

I am happy to have the rules in a more or less final form that feels right to me.

Project Generations - More Details On The Publication

Over the weekend, the product page went live for Project Generations, my forthcoming FATE-based supplement on generation ships for Modiphius Entertainment.

It has a lot more details on the contents of the publication!

Once we iron out a few more details, Modiphius Entertainment should be putting up timeline information for the release as well.

Stay tuned to FATE SF this week! On Wednesday, we'll post our FATE Library review of Starblazer Adventures!

Prison Planet

Planet 27121 is briefly mentioned in human space survey records an uninhabitable ice planet in a system of resource-poor worlds with toxic atmospheres. It is in fact a prison world with several hundred captives. The planetary ice giant orbits far from its red giant star. Its atmosphere is incapable of supporting life. The world has a number of ice rings (not visible in this image) and many moons. It is remote from the core areas of human space, in a pirate-infested interstitial zone between rival and sometimes warring states. Conveniently enough, the system also has a hyperspace suture which connects it directly to the imperial homeworld. There is usually an imperial presence here, sometimes strong, and most often clandestine and cloaked.

http://www.cosmostv.org/2011/09/solar-system-may-have-had-extra-planet.html

While an abundance of gulags and prison planets exist within the states of human space, this one is privately operated. Originally, it was a pirate base made from a few pressurized bubbles and tubes. Over time, it has become a very well-defended and supplied private prison. Today, Planet 27121 is a very lucrative warehouse for interstellar kidnapping and hostage-keeping. It is also the ideal place where a sovereign can or state ministry can remove potential successors, pretenders, and dissidents from the political chessboard.

Rumors:

• The imperial Sacred Band's Heirophant-class Battle Carrier Akhenaten appeared in the system recently, and dropped a shuttle planetside. The shuttle and the ship departed a few hours later though the hyperspace suture.
• Several of the empire's rival and sometimes warring states stockpile potential alternative heirs of their adversaries here
• Structure B recently experienced an accidental depressurization, killing several cult leaders and social reformers

This world was generated using the Planet Generator in Chapter 26 of Starblazer Adventures. I was watching Alien 3 at the time. What are the odds of randomly generating a prison planet while watching Alien 3?

OGL Mechanics:

• This is a Class 8 Planetary Ice Giant
• Atmosphere incapable of supporting life
• Full ring system
• Many moons
• Average population (+4) - 100s of inhabitants
• Planetary Skills:
• Diplomacy +7 Epic
• Resources (wealth) +6 Fantastic
• Resources (materials) +8 Legendary
• Resources (industrial) +3 Good
• Military capability +6 Fantastic
• Planetary security +8 Legendary
• Tech level +5 Superb
• Trade level +4 Great
• Mandatory Aspects:
• Planetary Government: Pirate Kingdom-Penal Colony
• Parent Star Classification: Red Giant 
• Additional Aspects:
• Friends in high places (usually several high places)
• Ready for a siege
• If you want to leave, someone will have to pay
• "It's an ice giant - you have no one to blame but yourself if you try to escape"

Bulldogs! Ports of Call

There is a hefty 70 page supplement out for FATE Bulldogs! called "Ports of Call".

Time to get off the space freighter and take a look around at some new starports and planets!

It is fairly unusual for a FATE-based game to have multiple scenarios and supplements, but it looks like Bulldogs is well on the way to that! To date, Galileo Games has published this supplement, four free scenarios, and a novella for Bulldogs! You can see the entire inventory of that company's PDFs right here.

Now This is a Player Handout!

In Bulldogs! you play space-based working class stiffs on a Class D space freighter. In other words, the default play style is something out of Firefly or one of Traveller's various space transports such as a Beowulf class free trader. So in Bulldogs! you get an employment contract to fill out as a player handout. Which is cool.