clarence

Thanks, I’m happy you like it!

Interesting! It’s been very hard to find second-hand copies. I got hold of one some years ago, but I’ve never played it. 

Good to see so much new Gateway material!

Just a quick thought, @Loz. How about a pinned post at the top of this forum, with a link to TDM’s forums (and Discord perhaps)?

The Mythras community is quite lively these days, but not so much here on BRP Central. New players might need a pointer to more active sites. 

Good to hear about all the new titles being worked on! Luther Arkwright as a standalone game sounds fantastic. Keep up the good work.

And it’s nice to have faces associated with all the familiar names.

I don’t think you mentioned any new Lyonesse products. Anything planned for it?

Looking forward to the recording!

Extended Conflicts in M-SPACE are designed to handle situations like that. I run regular races (both in sci-fi and in the 1920s) with Drive as the main skill and DEX+POW as Conflict Pool. Depending on the vehicles, the Conflict Pools might be affected by the vehicle’s stats as well. 

If you want the vehicles to attack each other, I would run it as a regular vehicle fight (also in M-SPACE) in parallel with the Extended Conflict. For every round in the race, drivers get a chance to attack/evade as well. 

Thanks Ben! I hope to have them (and a few more) corrected this autumn. 

Good idea! I will look into it. DriveThru’s setup process for print is terrible, so I need to check my files for compatibility issues. If everything looks ok, I would be happy to release it in print. 

Hey, thanks! I spend way too much time finding a cover illustration that I really like. Sci-fi covers from the 1960s and 1970s are my favourites. They could be really mind-altering - or wonderfully clichéd. 

Thank you @prinz.slasar! Hopefully, there will be more M-SPACE material from both Scott and Alex in the future.

I like the age table in Mythras and use it often.

As a simple rule of thumb, I give 150 points for people in their 20s (Adults). Then, 200 points for 30 to 40-somethings (Middle Aged) and 250 points for 50 upwards (Senior). But you could just as well ignore age and treat the tiers as Novice, Expert and Veteran. 

The version in Mythras is a bit more varied if you need it.

And good luck with the campaign. I would love to hear how it develops.

1 hour ago, rsanford said:

So Clarence when are you going to add stuff for bioengineering and transhumanism?

The original plan was to include sleeves and ghosts in the Companion. But everything took longer than planned, and I had to drop that chapter, unfortunately. I have the basics in place, so it will hopefully not be too long before it is finished. 

What would you like to see in terms of bioengineering?

2 hours ago, dieselpunk said:

I really like the new art direction in this book too. As interesting as some of the pieces were in M-Space, I found some of the full color pieces in that work to be more fantasy than SF and mostly disconnected with the content. The companion pieces are much more integrated. My favourite is the portrait on p. 57. 

Thanks, Runeblogger! A thorough and balanced review.

And the Companion hits number five at DriveThruRPG:

New Release: M-SPACE Companion

M-SPACE Companion has finally been released!

The new rules expand M-SPACE’s capabilities greatly. And it’s my best looking book so far.

I have teamed up with Scott Crowder (Pentallion) to move M-SPACE into an even wider range of sci-fi storytelling.

This is what you get:

• Rules for modular robots, both humanoid and simple droids. 
• Cybernetics, with implants and body part replacements. 
• The almost magical Q Tech implants. 
• Rules for detailed character backgrounds. 
• Computers and hacking. 
• Scenario: Escape From Mosek-Uhn. 
• Updated character sheet.

And, if you haven’t already, don’t forget to download the seven additional Origins tables in the free Companion Addendum.

Along with the Companion, Circles of Steel has already been released. It contains 13 organisations for robots and cyborgs. Tailored for the Companion, Alex Greene has crafted a versatile set of Circles that are easy to use in any campaign. The PDF is a Pay What You Want title on DriveThruRPG.

15% Launch Discount

M-SPACE Companion is 128 pages, printed in full colour. 

I have two versions available on DriveThruRPG: Print and PDF. To buy them, just follow the links below. The discount lasts only a week, so you need to be quick. 

M-SPACE Companion

Print $18  $15.30

PDF $9.95  $8.50

Circles of Steel

Print $3.30

PDF Pay What You Want

Let me know if you have any questions about the books or PDFs.

It sounds like a perfect match!

Thanks, I’m happy you like it! 

It will not make it into the Companion though. The book is almost ready to release. But I can put the rules in a PDF that you can download from my website. They need a bit of play testing first, however. 

Or you could make it really simple. The example below is for starship battles, but should be easy to use with small changes for ground forces as well. 

Skill

Assign a Combat Value from 1 to 100 to each fleet. This reflects their combined combat training. Add +5% for each hero joining a fleet. 

Sloppy: 30%

Regular: 50%

Veteran: 70%

Elite: 85%

Conflict Pool

Calculate the Conflict Pool of each side from the size of their forces. 

For starship fleets, add all Size Ratings of the ships together to get a single value. Then, if needed, divide both by 2, 5, 10 or any other number (always divide with the same number for both, however), so the biggest Conflict Pool ends up below 40. 

If the Conditions of the ships are poor, multiply the Conflict Pool by Condition. For each Tech Level lower than an opponent, divide the Pool in two. 

Armour and Shields

For any armour and shields, use values between 1 to 6:

1-2. Weak

3-4. Mid

5-6. Strong

How to Play

With all values set, run the battle as a regular Extended Conflict. 

Both sides make Opposing Rolls. Highest successful roll wins and deals 1d6 damage to the opponent’s Conflict Pool, after subtracting any armour and shields from the damage. 

Whenever a fleet’s Conflict Pool is halved, they are given a chance to withdraw or surrender. With a Conflict Pool at zero, only scattered remains of the fleet manages to escape and the battle ends. Any heroes either escape, are missing (but alive) or are held captive. 

If both fleets are reduced below one third of their Conflict Pools, casualties are considered high. Both sides can call a cease-fire and enter into negotiations. 

That’s an excellent idea! I haven’t tried it though. I would use Pilot (Starship) and Gunnery as usual, and add a Knowledge skill for strategy and tactics, replacing Pilot in some cases. 

What I have found out in my own large-scale battles is that weapons need to be quite powerful to have any effect. As a start, combining ten cannons into one works quite well, calculating damage as 1d6 x10 for example. Having 5-10% of a capital ship’s Modules as weaponry has provided a good balance. 

Also, letting ships of roughly the same Size Rating attack each other adds a bit structure to the chaos. That way, the PCs can engage in dogfighting with small ships, while bigger vessels take out each other above (or below) their heads. 

For quicker resolution, a single Gunnery roll can be made for all cannons on a ship - as long as they target the same opponent. 

I would also recommend a malfunction table for big ships. Hit Locations are a lot of fun (with some cool Star Trek-style damage like taking out an entire deck), but might be too slow if there are many ships. With a unified Hit Point score and a fairly detailed malfunction table, you can get quite cinematic results. 

Have you tried Extended Conflicts for combat?

Good work! It feels like something bad will happen during that concert.