[M-SPACE] Preview Download & Release Date

[clarence]

I have two pieces of good news today: a preview of M-SPACE is now available for download and we also have a release date for the book. 

The preview is 30+ pages and will give you a good overall feeling for the game. A little bit of everything is included. If not sure whether this book is for you, here’s your chance to find out more.

 

Head over to www.frostbytebooks.com to download it.

 

The full game will be released at September 19. It will be a 220 page softback, in black and white, and initially be available from Lulu. More details later. 

[rust]

Looks very good indeed, congratulations. 

[clarence]

Thank you Rust! I'm happy you like it. 

[Questbird]

It looks great clarence. I like the layout. Reminded me a bit of the old Traveller black books with better art (keywords which jumped out at me: Starships, Starship Combat, Psionics, Carbine, Far Trader, Gunnery). Good work!

I did notice one spelling error: p.42, under 'Extended Conflicts', para 3.

loosing her DEX conflict pool gradually

should be losing

 

[clarence]

Thanks Questbird! Can't deny the Traveller influence : ) All in all, I would say it's midway between Traveller and Star Wars.

And thanks for spotting the typo. Final manuscript updated.

[Questbird]

4 hours ago, clarence said:

Thanks Questbird! Can't deny the Traveller influence : ) All in all, I would say it's midway between Traveller and Star Wars.

And thanks for spotting the typo. Final manuscript updated.

No problem. Midway between Traveller and Star Wars sounds like a pretty sweet spot to me.

[clarence]

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):

 

[clarence]

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. 

[clarence]

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. 

 

 

[K Peterson]

Interesting, but this example isn't really my kind of thing. Social combat, in my opinion, has a tendency to minimize actual roleplaying to gather information, make a good impression, uncover secrets, etc.

Do you have any other extended conflict examples? Would they all follow this pattern, where you have 'active' participants engaged in a form of combat with one another? Or could they be applied with active .vs passive participants?

Let's say my starship's drive is having issues. Parts need to be replaced before it can be used again. Could an extended conflict cover this situation? And would my engineer be engaged in a kind of 'mechanical combat' with the drive, until its resistance was overcome and the repair was completed? 

[clarence]

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.

 

[HaganeHebi]

On 9/11/2016 at 8:22 PM, clarence said:

I have two pieces of good news today: a preview of M-SPACE is now available for download and we also have a release date for the book. 

The preview is 30+ pages and will give you a good overall feeling for the game. A little bit of everything is included. If not sure whether this book is for you, here’s your chance to find out more.

 

Head over to www.frostbytebooks.com to download it.

 

The full game will be released at September 19. It will be a 220 page softback, in black and white, and initially be available from Lulu. More details later. 

Hi,

I'm kind of a newb here, but I have been lurking and following the development of this game for a while already and I'm super-excited that it's about to be published! So I hope you'll allow me a small question in regards to your post above: You talk about the softback, but will a PDF version also be released? I've long given up on buying physical books as space is at a premium where I live and as such I only buy PDF/ebook versions anymore. It is always such a heart-breaker when RPGs that I'd love in my collection don't have electronic releases (I'm looking at you Burning Wheel), so I really, really hope you'll plan to have an electronic version of M-Space for sale too?

[clarence]

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. 

[ShawnLStroud]

Hey Clarence:

Your preview looks wonderful!  Can't wait to see this thing in physical form.

 

[clarence]

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

[HaganeHebi]

9 hours ago, clarence said:

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. 

Excellent! Marking down the days on the calendar!

[clarence]

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. 

[oberonkestral]

48 minutes ago, clarence said:

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. 

I always appreciate getting a Hi-Res vesion for my tablet and a printer friendly version to be able to print sections for players as needed. More is better for me!

[HaganeHebi]

Well, personally I prefer an as high quality pdf as possible, such that images stay crisp when zoomed in (often important for maps and the like). I have access to Acrobat Pro, so in my case I can always rework/lower the quality on PDFs as needed myself. But I guess peeps who don't have access to a pdf editor might find a B&W file without backgrounds easier to print if they're so inclined, and low-res files may be useful for use on lower spec tablets that might choke on heavy/complex files.

[clarence]

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.