 |
| Warpstar! Taking the Warlock! engine into space... |
Warpstar! arrived at the same time as Warlock! Compendium 2, a 242-page hardback digest-sized book with artwork and trade dress similar to Warlock! except that the book has a silver tint rather than a sepia/gold tint.
TL;DR: Warpstar! is very much a space opera game; it's not hard SF. The feel is a blend of the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, Laserburn and some of the 2000AD settings like Strontium Dog. The game engine is simple, hackable and the setting leaves more than enough space to expand upon with your own ideas. The game feels very different to others out there, with shining technology and hope present. This isn't grimdark, but I could imagine it feeling very noir and dangerous in the locales that player characters would frequent.
The game is very much built on the same engine as Warlock!, which I've discussed at more length in a previous post so I won't dive in here. The significant changes include that the rules for talents have been integrated into the game as has the way of expressing the statistics on non-player characters (denizens). Both of these mechanics were also released for Warlock! in Compendium 2 (which came out the same day).
Combat has been refreshed; the biggest changes relate to ranged weapons; you can now carry out a flanking action to try and get the drop on the enemy by making an athletics roll. If you succeed, you get +5 on your skill roll, but if you fail you face a -5 on any dodge tests for the rest of the round to signify that you've been caught in the open. You can also attempt to pin the enemy down which locks them in position and gives them a -5 penalty. Of course, you've got to make a successful spot check to do this; if you succeed you don't damage them.
One really nasty rules change is for surprise attacks; if you succeed, the victim goes to 0 stamina (no matter how much damage you roll) and the damage rolled is used as a modifier on the critical table roll, which is absolutely brutal. Snipers will be feared.
Weapons are described with a code such as M2d6+1E. This is a medium weapon which does 2d6+1 on a hit and rolls on the Energy Weapon critical table. This amalgamates what was in the rules for Warlock! together and feels a bit more SF.
Starship weapons are discussed in detail; they use the same kind of coding. The starship rules gloss over their use against human scale targets, saying that the two are on such different scales that they cannot be intermixed; however, the vehicle rules mention that damage from vehicles to starships should be divided by 3 and from starships to vehicles should be multiplied by 3. As vehicles use the same weapons as characters, this gives a route in.
Starships travel by warp and are controlled by Minds, limited AIs rather than the full Banksian Culture style intelligences. They can operate all aspects of the ship, but most operations benefit from a human in the loop. Starships are described in terms of their manoeuvrability, the ship-scale guns that they carry, the anti-personnel guns they carry, how good their scanners are, their armour and a structure value (which is a surrogate for stamina on a character). There are a number of examples suitable for a party and their adversaries, plus some bigger vessels which may be encountered. Starships have their own critical table.
Other vehicles are covered; these are defined by manoeuvrability, guns, armour and structure (although this is now on the same scale as characters rather than starships). Again, they have a separate critical table.
All characters have the potential to manifest the warp in the form of Warp Glyphs. These are effectively like spells and psionic effects. They are either standard or opposed. Standard glyphs just need a skill test to activate, whereas opposed glyphs need the character to win an opposed warp focus skill contest as these attack an opponent directly. All glyphs need stamina to work. Rolling a 1 triggers a second check (just like spells in Warlock!) that will force a roll on the mishap 'warp bleed' table should they fail again. There are a set of mutation tables like those seen in the Warlock! Compendium to use should the warp twist the characters when it bleeds through. There's a list of 36 warp glyphs for characters and their opponents to have access to.
The final sections of the book describe the galaxy; the setting is 'The Chorus', an empire far in the future when the location of Earth has been lost. The Autarch leads the Chorus from the planet Jewel, balancing the demands of the Hegemony (the military and the feared Nova Guard in their powered armours), the Merchant Combine (whose ships and goods are the lifeblood of the Chorus) and the Warp Consortium (an alliance of technologists who have developed warp and other technologies) to maintain peace and stability. The Autarch partly achieves this by controlling the supply of Cadence, a drug which will give users immortality. Worlds are ruled by great houses whose approach varies widely. Aliens (denizens) and robots are common and described along with a basic discussion of technology. There's a section on denizens, which also provides a bestiary, and the book ends with some advice for the games master before the character sheet. There's no introductory scenario.
This is very much a space opera game; it's not hard SF. The feel is a blend of the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, Laserburn and some of the 2000AD settings like Strontium Dog. In fact, I can imagine many of the stories in 2000AD in the early 1980s (when I was reading it) being playable with this game without changing from the Chorus setting. The game engine is simple, hackable and the setting leaves more than enough space to expand upon with your own ideas.
I like what Greg has done here; it feels very different, with shining technology and hope present. This isn't grimdark, but I could imagine it feeling very noir and dangerous in the locales that player characters would frequent.
Recommended.
26 October 2020
No comments:
Post a Comment