clarence

9) Round 5 a) Mechanics Torrance has the Pilot initiative but rolls a failure. Rather than maintain his offensive this round, he elects to repair the Dorsal Ion Cannon. He sends his best starship mechanics (losing the opportunity to open fire, as they were also gunners - lousy planning) and the Mechanics’ skill roll is 21%, a success. Only two more successful rolls are needed to get it online again. Reeves maintains Defensive Manoeuvres and this time rolls 24% Pilot skill. A success, which grants her one level of success over her opponent. She gains Gunnery initiative this round and chooses the Dominate Special Effect, which will make her Gunnery rolls Easy (75% + 20% = 95%) The pirate vessel opens fire, rolling 93%. This would normally be a miss but Reeves Piloting skill and choice of Special Effect makes this a hit instead. The damage roll is 4 versus the Crew Compartments (location roll 41). Torrance returns fire with both lasers. 34% for Port versus the (location roll 62) Crew Compartments, 14% for Starboard against the Open Spaces (96). Damage rolls are 4 and 6 for Port and Starboard respectively. Initiative next round will be with Reeves. Narrative Torrance wants his Ion Cannon back on line. With it, he will be able to vapourise the Speeding Blade. He locks autopilot onto the pirate vessel and relays orders to the repair crews. "Damn!" shouts Reeves as yet another burst of laser hit. Crew compartments will not stand another hit now, with only 2 hit points left. At least she has the satisfaction of seeing the SolFed ship being scorched too. 10) Round 6 a) Mechanics Reeves chooses Offensive Positioning this time and her Pilot roll is 51%, a success. Torrance maintains Offensive posture and rolls 91%, another Pilot roll failure. Reeves has one level of success and this time chooses Dominate, intending to take the fight to her pursuer. Her Gunnery skills are Easy (or 95%) this round. The Speeding Blade turns and fires the Prow Blaster, rolling a 57%, a normal hit on the Gamma Star's Port Laser. The damage is 5 points, sufficient to disable the Laser. Torrance fires back with Starboard Laser, rolling 58%, a hit for 7 points of damage against the Speeding Blade's Open Space, hit points now below zero for that section. Rolling 1d6 on the Area Damage Table: the crew mess has a hull breach. Unless repaired, it will be in complete vaccum in 10 rounds. Everyone in the crew also take 1d4-1 hit point damage. Movement around the ship is also restricted, as security doors seal off the mess. Initiative next round will remain with Reeves. Narrative With her ship badly mauled, Reeves elects to fight, not flee. She is sure her crew would support the decision, though there is no time for a bridge conference. She skillfully whips the Speeding Blade 180 degrees and flies straight at the Gamma Star. The specially augmented Prow Blaster catches the SolFed ship's Port Laser and she watches it blown into smithereens. Torrance cannot believe the audacity of this common pirate. His Port Laser damaged, he retalliates with the Starboard Laser, striking a satisfactory hit against the Speeding Blade. 11) Round 7 a) Mechanics Reeves rolls 03 on her Pilot skill (Offensive), a critical success. Torrance responds with a 15% Pilot roll, a normal success. Reeves chooses Dominate Special Effect again. Reeves gains Gunnery initiative. The Speeding Blade fires its Prow Blaster, this time rolling 22% (a hit) versus the Gamma Star's Engine systems (location roll 09), for 8 points of damage. This is sufficient to disable the Gamma Star's engines (which have 6 Hit Points). The Gamma Star returns fire with the Starboard Laser. It rolls 91%, a miss. Initiative next round will be Reeves’. Narrative The Speeding Blade continues her near-suicidal charge at the Gamma Star. Reeves' skills, audacity and sheer luck win out as the row Blaster destroys the enemy's drive system. The Gamma Star is adrift in deep space, maneuvering thrusters at least allowing for some movement. 12) Round 8 a) Mechanics Reeves has Pilot initiative and rolls 08, another critical success (10% of Pilot skill 75 = 7.5, round up to 8). Torrance, with disabled engines, is unable to pursue. The GM rules his Pilot skill roll is Very Hard this round (85% - 40% = 45%). With a 16%, the SolFed ship turns towards the pirate vessel. Reeves has one level of success in Piloting, so elects to take the Withdraw special effect. The pirate vessel makes a parting shot from the Stern Blaster, rolling 59%, a hit against the Gamma Star's Sick Bay, for 3 points of damage. Torrance dispatches his mechanics to get the engines online again. Narrative It is a narrow escape. Reeves pulls a safe distance away from the Gamma Star and punches the badly damaged Speeding Blade into Hyperspace. Torrance sees the pirate vessel vanish from his scanner screens and curses the enemy. I'll get you next time, he vows. But for now, he has more important matters to deal with.

Thank you Stephanie. Let me know if you have any questions. And just a reminder that you get the PDF for free if you bought a print copy! @rust Good to hear Rust! Both Extended Conflicts and Circles have contributed a lot to my own gaming sessions. And yes, a chapter on robots would have been nice. I have a modular system in the works, but it didn't make the deadline I had set for myself. Edit: We just reached #2 on Lulu : )

3) The Scenario The Gamma Star has been tracking the Speeding Blade. The Solar Federation vessel has one chance to capture or destroy the pirate before it escapes into an asteroid field. The GM controls the Gamma Star, while the PCs (Pirate Characters ) are aboard their ship, the fleeing Speeding Blade. Despite being pirates, and therefore "bad guys", the PCs are regarded as the protagonists in this encounter, while the GM controls the antagonists. 4) The Situation ("Round 0") a) Mechanics Both Captains order their crews. Initiative for the first round is made on D10 + Handling of the vessel. Torrance rolls D10 + 5, for a total of (3 + 5 =) 8; Reeves rolls (6 + 7 =) 13. A win for the pirate vessel. The captains must then choose whether to perform Offensive or Defensive actions. The pirate ship won initiative and the Captain elects to take Defensive actions, sensible against such a heavily armed warship. The Solar Federation vessel elects to take the Offense. Their actions will take place in Round 1, below. Narrative Aboard the Gamma Star ... +++ SitRep to Captain Torrance +++ "We have her, sir. The Speeding Blade is heading towards an asteroid field." "Move to intercept before she gets in amongst the asteroids otherwise we'll never find her." "Aye aye, Captain." Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Speeding Blade... "We've been pinged, Captain! SolFed frigate closing fast!" "All hands to battle stations. Prime cannons fore and aft. Flank speed to the asteroid field." "Aye aye, Cap'n." 5) Round 1 a) Mechanics The Speeding Blade has initiative at the start of this encounter. Reeves begins Defensive manoeuvres and rolls 90% on her Pilot roll, a failure. Torrance makes Offensive Manoeuvres and rolls 61%, a success. This grants Torrance one level of success and he chooses the Dominate Special Effect, making his Gunnery rolls Easy (80% + 20% = 100%) this round. Torrance's skilled Piloting grants him Gunnery initiative. He opens fire with the Dorsal Ion Cannon: a Gunnery roll of 74 is a hit, causing 4 points of damage to the Speeding Blade's Sick Bay (location roll 29). The Sick Bay occupies one module and therefore has only one Hit Point; the Autodoc is in wrecks. It can’t be repaired until they land next time. Reeves fires back with the stern blaster; gunnery is at Hard because of her Defensive Positioning. A roll of 05%, scoring a critical hit on the Gamma Star's Crew Compartments (location roll 54%). She picks Maximum Damage as Special Effect (she has one Success Level higher than Torrance), for a total of 8 Hit Points damage. Pilot initiative next round will go to the pirate vessel, as it had the highest success level in the last roll. Narrative Sasha Reeves knows she is heavily out-gunned and starts a series of tight turns and shifts in relative altitude. Torrance pursues with great skill, allowing him to target the fleeing pirate more easily. Gunfire lances thrugh space, resulting in little more than scorched paint work. 6) Round 2 a) Mechanics Reeves continues Defensive Manoeuvres and makes the first Pilot roll. With a 28% she scores a normal success. Torrance continues the Offensive and rolls 41%, a success. Both Captains made the same levels of success (one each), so no Special Effects are applicable. Gunnery initiative remains with Reeves. Reeves fires with the Stern Blaster: a roll of 03 is a critical hit again! Torrance opens fire with both Port and Starboard Lasers, respectively rolling 81% (a miss) and 25%, a hit. This grants Reeves one level of success and Gunnery initiative. She picks Maximum Damage (8). Location rolled: Crew Compartments. Torrance’s location roll is 56, Crew Compartments for 7 points of damage. Initiative next round will stay with Reeves and she will make the first Pilot roll Narrative Torrance continues his pursuit of the Speeding Blade, maintaining weapons lock on the fleeing pirate. Reeves seems unable to lose him. He fires both laser batteries and blows a hole in the side of the pirate ship. He smiles grimly. Reeves retalliates in kind, the Speeding Blade's Stern Blaster lancing through the Crew Quarters. 7) Round 3 a) Mechanics Reeves had one level of success in the previous Gunnery round: this grants her the Pilot initiative this round. She continues Defensive Manoeuvres and rolls 66% on her Pilot skill, a normal success; both ship's gunnery rolls will be Hard (-20%). Torrance rolls 18% on Pilot skill and maintains Offensive Manoeuvres. Both Captains made the same levels of success (one each), so no Special Effects are applicable. Gunnery initiative remains with Reeves. Reeves fires with the Stern Blaster, scoring 21%, a normal hit for 7 points of damage against the Gamma Star's Dorsal Ion Cannon. The Cannon has only 5 hit points and so is disabled until repaired. Torrance retaliates with the Port Laser, rolling 54%, a hit against the Crew Compartments again. Damage is 10 points. Crew Compartment hit points are more than halved (30-7-10=13). Initiative next round will stay with Reeves, as both gunnery rolls were at the same Success Level. Narrative The pursuit remains close, both Captains using every gramme of their skill to gain an advantage. Reeves is sickened by the losses her ship is sustaining. That Ion Cannon will be the death of us all, she thinks. She orders her gun crews to open fire and is rewarded when the Ion Cannon is hit with withering Blaster fire. Revenge is sweet! 8) Round 4 a) Mechanics Reeves maintains Defensive Manoeuvres but rolls 90% for her Pilot skill, a failure. Her own ship's gunnery rolls will be Hard, but Gamma Star's gunnery is unaffected. Torrance rolls 64% Pilot skill, granting him one level of success, for which he chooses the Dominate Special Effect, raising his Gunnery skill to 100%. The SolFed ship fires first with Port and Starboard Lasers. These roll 22% and 35% respectively, scoring normal hits for 2 points (against the Speeding Blade's Engines (not sufficient to disable the engines) and 7 points versus the Crew Compartments (only 6 hit points left in that section). The Speeding Blade retalliates with a 19% from the Stern Blaster. This is a hit against (location roll 31) the Sick Bay, scoring 3 points (not enough to disable the medical facilities). Initiative next round will be with Torrance. Narrative The ships continue their zig-zag race to the asteroid field. Reeves, for the first time in three standard years, buckles herself into the pilot seat as the ship shakes under the pounding of the Gamma Star's lasers. Torrance, for his part, is looking over damage assessments from the Speeding Blade. All in all, he thinks, things are going rather well.

Colin Brett has been kind enough to let me publish his test run of the starship combat rules in M-SPACE. See more of Colin’s work at http://www.colinabrett.me.uk/ 1) Introduction An example of starship combat in M-SPACE. Presented in "mechanical" and "narrative" formats, to describe the dice rolls and story aspects of a space battle. 2) The Ships Gamma Star - Solar Federation Patrol Ship SPEED 6 HANDLING 5 SIZE 110 Modules: Bridge 5 Engines (TR100) 6 Manoeuvre (TR100) 5 Sick Bay 20 Crew 50 (12 Crew Members) Weapons 13 Open Space 8 Hyperspace 3 Total Modules: 110 Armor – Shields – Hyperspace 3 Weapons: Dorsal Ion Cannon (5): Damage 2D6+1, range 10, 360 degree arc Port Laser (4): Damage 2D6 Starboard Laser (4): Damage 2D6 Hit Locations: D100 Location 01-05 Bridge 06-11 Engines 12-16 Manoeuvre 17-35 Sick Bay 36-75 Crew Compartments 76-80 Ion Cannon 81-84 Port Laser 85-88 Starboard Laser 89-96 Open Space 97-00 Hyperspace Captain Kurt Torrance: A tough, no-nonsense, by the books ship captain with a strong sense of duty and fair play... except when dealing with pirates, whom he considers the "scum of the universe.” DEX 8 Action Points 2 Pilot 85% General Crew Skills: Gunnery 80% Mechanical 70% Speeding Blade - Pirate Raider SPEED 8 HANDLING 6 SIZE 62 Modules: Bridge 4 Engines (TR70) 7 Manoeuvre (TR70) 5 Sick Bay (Autodoc) 1 Crew 30 (7 Crew Members) Weapons 4 Open Space 8 Hyperspace 3 Total Modules: 62 Armor – Shields – Hyperspace 3 Weapons: Prow Blaster (2): Damage 1D10, 90 degree forward arc Stern Blaster (2): Damage 1D8, 180 degree rear arc Hit Locations: D100 Location 01-07 Bridge 08-19 Engines 20-28 Manoeuvre 29-30 Sick Bay 31-80 Crew Compartments 81-84 Prow Blaster 85-88 Stern Blaster 89-96 Open Space 97-00 Hyperspace Captain Sasha Reeves: Hot-headed and somewhat reckless, she is wanted for numerous acts of piracy and smuggling and has been on the run for three standard years. DEX 11 Action Points 2 Pilot 75% General Crew Skills: Gunnery 75% Mechanics 50%

Just found out that M-SPACE was among Lulu’s five best-selling titles in games last week! Incredible : ) Thanks everyone for the support.

Thank you Rust! Let me know what you think about it when you have the time.

Excellent! Let me know what you think about it.

g33k is right: just forward the Lulu receipt to me and I will return a download link as quickly as possible.

M-SPACE is now available as a PDF! We are really happy that so many have found the book already; the response has been amazing. Thank you all. Those of you preferring the digital version can buy the PDF in the following ways: From our website www.frostbytebooks.com. Or from DriveThruRPG, though it will take a day or so for the title to appear there, depending on how quick DTRPG is. I will post the link as soon as it goes live. If you have bought a printed book from us earlier this week, you get the PDF for free. Just send an email with the Lulu receipt to clarence.redd@gmail.com, and we will return a download link. Please leave a short review, either at DTRPG or Lulu, if you have a moment to spare! It helps greatly to spread the BRP/Mythras goodness. Here's a rundown of the contents again: … Intuitive modular starship design … Quick-paced and creative starship combat, based on the acclaimed Mythras combat rules … Rules for extended conflicts, applicable to any type of conflict, including social … Alien & Culture creation … World Building … Rules for how to create and run Organizations … Rich character generation … Mechanics for Passions & how they affect characters … Modular vehicle design … Creative combat rules - in both classic and simplified flavor … Psionics … Equipment and ready-made vehicles & starships The game engine used for all this is Mythras Imperative. If you want some more details before you make the decision, check out the preview on our webpage.

Good to hear! I hope your postal service is a bit quicker than our's been the last year. @Questbird Don't you just love those shipping codes : )

Yes, I got that code too. Free mail shipping and 50% on ground shipping. Perfect timing. Valid through September 26.

I didn't think you would have troubles like that as the book is printed by Lulu. Doesn't Lulu have local printers in Canada? As Sweden is not a very big market for Lulu, I seem to have my copies printed in France. But Canada should be big enough I think?

Just a heads up to those who ordered M-SPACE: Keep the receipt you get from Lulu. You will need it in a week or two to claim the free PDF included in the purchase. And a big thank you to everyone who bought the book today.

Ok, I'm working on it : ) Nothing can stop me from doing it now... except maybe my cat.

Thank you rsanford : ) Let me know if you have any questions about the release.

After three years of development, FrostByte Books finally releases M-SPACE d100 Roleplaying in the Far Future. Order at www.frostbytebooks.com. Built upon the Mythras engine (formerly RuneQuest 6), it's a game with a new take on a classic set of rules. BRP-based games are often quick to learn and have a slightly gritty edge, and with a few strategic innovations like Extended Conflicts, modular starship design, and combat Special Effects, opportunities for creative play are greatly expanded on in M-SPACE. Extended Conflicts is an entirely new mechanic, used to make any conflict as detailed as the players want. You can turn, for example, cocktail parties, pod races and interpretations of obscure manuscripts into thrilling gameplay. Any situation the players decide to focus on uses the same basic mechanics, making them very easy to adapt. Common elements of the d100-engine are used - opposed skill rolls and characteristics - but combined in a new way for more flexible storytelling. The modular approach to starship design is a first in the BRP/d100 world, with building blocks added in a very straightforward way. Combined with Mythras' creative combat, rewired for starships, the space opera genre is easy to recreate in all its dazzling glory. Additional chapters cover flexible character creation, passions, modular vehicle design, detailed alien creation, world building, star mapping and rules for creating and running organizations. All in all, a complete setup for most sci-fi needs. Returning to the roots of roleplaying, the game is not tied to a specific setting. Instead, it works as a toolbox for GameMasters and players to easily create their own imaginary universes. Several world books and campaigns are planned for release in the year to come. M-SPACE is available as a 220-page softback from Lulu today, on September 19. Link: www.frostbytebooks.com FrostByte Books is a small publishing company in the south of Sweden. We simply can't get enough of mesmerizing imaginary worlds, and the creative power RPGs bring to their players. M-SPACE is our first roleplaying game. M-SPACE is published under a Mythras Gateway license provided by The Design Mechanism. For more information and images contact: Clarence Redd clarence.redd@gmail.com www.frostbytebooks.com

Excellent work, Colin.

Ok, I take that as a resounding "we want several PDFs" : ) I will try to make at least one full color and one B&W for printing, both hi-res.

Thanks! I will post here on the forums when the PDF is available. Just out of curiosity: I sometimes see games with multiple PDFs included (one full color, one black & white, one low-res). Is this a good idea? I never find any use for them, but others might I assume.

Thank you Shawn! I'm really looking forward to what everyone will create with it.

I'm happy to hear you are interested in M-SPACE! And yes, there will be a PDF version. It will be another couple of weeks, but after that it will be available from DriveThruRPG. Like you, I prefer books as PDFs to save on space - but to use in play I usually go for physical copies.

Ah yes, everyone has different views on how to handle social situations. That's just as it should be (though I always ask my players to roleplay, with the dice as a reality check on how they fared). A starship mechanic making repairs on a hyperdrive works fine too. One part is never truly passive rules-wise though - the GM rolls for the hyperdrive and lowers the mechanic's pool. In this particular case I would use the mechanics INT (or INT+DEX) as her conflict pool, and Mechanics for skill rolls. For the hyperdrive I would make a more abstract decision: how difficult is this situation supposed to be? How do I make it fit into the scenario? For a medium hard conflict I recommend a Conflict Pool of 11, and a 50% chance of thwarting the mechanic. So, how can a passive object have something similar to a skill roll and a conflict pool? Here, I would probably think of the drive's pool as an equivalent of how long it takes to fix the broken parts. The percentage is perhaps how difficult the actual technical challenge is. Thus, every time the mechanic is successful and rolls damage to the hyperdrive's pool, she has made some progress on the repairs. Every time her pool is reduced, she failed to fix anything at all, and she's come closer to having no idea on how to proceed.

I have posted an early version of the following example before, but here's what it ended up like in the book. This is an example of how extended conflicts can be used. Here, it's a generic dinner party that can be used to gain information, contacts and/or enemies. Dinner Party Skills: Any communication skills Conflict pool: CHA Damage: 1d6, rolled once per round. All participants failing their rolls take the same damage. Round length: 30 minutes Pick 1-6 NPCs as the main participators. If there are more people attending the dinner, treat them as subordinates to the main NPCs (and ignore them to simplify the setup). Define the NPCs conflict values as follows (if you don’t already have them): Low-level: Any social skill at 30%, CHA 6 Mid-level: Any social skill at 50%, CHA 11 High-level: Any social skill at 75%, CHA 16 Decide how long the party will last. Play the dinner! All involved makes a skill roll every half hour the dinner party lasts. Only those failing their rolls takes damage. The person with the highest success rolls the damage (1d6). When the time is up, participants have made it through the banquette according to the points they have left in their pools: Zero. The character made a lousy impression. She won’t be invited again, will have a bad reputation in these circles and won’t easily get a job or information from these people. Will be at -10% in communication skills in these circles (Dislike on the Social Disposition Table on the next page). Below half their pool. The outcome is neutral. Nothing special happens. Social disposition +/-0. More than half the pool left. She made a good impression. She will be invited again and will be favorably met in the future (Friendly on the Social Disposition Table). In addition, for every successful roll the character makes, there is a chance that something interesting and useful is revealed. It can be related to the scenario or not, and can be secrets overheard, rumors, new business relations presented, love affairs implicitly indicated, etcetera. The GM may want to prepare beforehand what tidbits are revealed and how many successful rolls it takes to get each of them.

I thought I would say something more about M-SPACE combat. RuneQuest 6/Mythras has a very good reputation regarding combat rules, and some people even regard them as being the best in any RPG. At the same time, some have found them hard for new players to grasp. In M-SPACE you are given a choice of complexity: the default combat rules are somewhat simpler than the full Mythras rules (the same as in Mythras Imperative), and a chapter called Simplified Combat makes them even easier to use and learn - without sacrificing the creativity and fun Mythras is known for. By removing hit locations and reducing the number of Special Effects drastically, combat can be introduced step by step, without intimidating players. As they grow accustomed to the system, it's easy to increase complexity until it suits the style of the campaign. And with special effect cards now sold by The Design Mechanism, it's never been easier to get into the Mythras combat mechanics. As someone generally quite sceptical to combat in RPGs, I have found them both fun and very creative.

Excellent : ) I have the exact same sweet spot. And the possibility to effortlessly shift between mythic (Star Wars) and faux semi-hard sci-fi. Here's another illustration from the book; one of my favorites by David Sladek (talented US illustrator):