Deluxe USR Sword & Sorcery Cover Concept

Work continues on exploring what a game publisher and creator is like. This. is. a. lot. of. work. I'm approaching it like an art project. And my process is building things out and see what I find, throw out what doesn't work, and hope to Hades I stumble upon a legitimate aesthetic. Working with Jeremy Hart's commissioned illustration I've come to this basic "blocking" of the book's cover to date.  I've added an additional block of text on the back cover (left side of image) with the game's elevator pitch. 

Feel free to rip this to shreds:) No, any design advice you want to throw my way while I share the layout journey is glad and well accepted. This cover design is my attempt to get to "know" the tools I have at my disposal. For the cover it is a b/w illo large enough to wrap-around. What you see here is a close-up of the image, not the whole thing. The full drawing will get a suitable splash page inside the book. Title/text is the other tool and bands of color the final. Trying to draw limits. I'm shit with time management so if I give myself a limited palate I hopefully shorten the wandering around in the woods lost period which I looove and get some product eventually pushed out.

Stupid, Simple Way to Convert Hit Die to BRP Skill Level

The DIY-OSR scene has the best adventure content but I like to play with Chaosium's BRP brand of d100 mechanics for the systems approach to combat and skills. D&D and BRP have an identical approach to Character Attributes, Hit Points are close enough to not matter, but Armor Class and the Monster Attack Table don't port over to the BRP d100 resolution mechanic without some thought.

Here is what I do; the Monster Attack Table is the easiest to convert out of the two. Armor Class 9 (or 12 for ascending) is an unarmored opponent. WarHammer Fantasy Roleplaying has your basic scrub getting a 35% to hit, so for a 1 HD Monster chance to hit is 35%. I'm going to grab the Monster Attack Table from Mutant Future and just add 5% for each row of Hit Dice which improve the character's chance to hit. So a 1+ and 2 HD creature has base line combat (or any primary skill/ability) of 40%. 2+ to 3 HD creature is 45%, etc. Following this progression you top out at 75% chance to hit/primary ability at 9+ to 11. OSR Creatures/Characters at these higher HD will most likely also have some unique attack abilities which will compensate for the flattening out at 75%. But that is all I have been doing for establishing a relation between Hit Dice and a Primary Skill Ability. 

AC is not as easy. Armor Class in D&D represents how hard it is to not only hit your target but to hit decisively enough to actually deliver damage. BRP is less abstract. How difficult one is to hit is not tied to how much damage one would necessarily receive if hit. This is where the creature/monster/character description is important. Not that it shouldn't be anyways regardless of system. I bring it up because as a gamer I can't but help and look at NPC's as just a pile of stats so I can adjudicate action quickly. I find trying to stat creatures out for another system makes me look for what makes the Leech-Man different than the Kobold. 

So looking at the common Kobold. With AC 7 a 1st level character(scrub) needs a 12 or better to hit, or 40% or less. The description of your average Kobold (from B/X) leaves me to believe they don't wear any armor so their improved AC over unarmed will come from their small stature and quick movement. Based on their HD their base combat ability would be 35%. Makes sense to me. Their improved armor class will come from an improved Dodge skill. Say boost 35% up to 45% (5% per each AC better than 9). HP stay the same. So your average OSR B/X Kobold quickly translates into Attack/Parry skill of 35% with a Dodge of 45% and no armor protection to reduce damage if hit!

FGU's Space Opera Combat Tables

All my current Space Opera charts in PDF are found on the Summonings page of this blog.

Your typical one-on-one close, personal combat rules in Space Opera are called (section) 8.0 Ground Combat. This is to cover the fact you are supposed to be able to run small party combat actions as well as large mass battles involving thousands of troops. The rules make no bones about the fact they are a continuing treatment of their rules for miniature mass combat Space Marines. It is also a continuing treatment of the shit editing job which went into the rule book. It starts hard and fast; the first action in the turn sequence is to toss for “move or countermove.” WTF happened to “Initiative”, one of the basic characteristics which “all” in-game action is usually resolved? Maybe we will find out, but yeah, your Initiative score doesn't apply here. Or you could drop this step. Space Opera is cool with you jettisoning whole mechanics. Do it, you won't break it. The game sometimes even offers two different methods to resolve the same action. Yes, instead of move/countermove each side writes down their moves and the moves are revealed and played out simultaneously. This is code for Game Masters everywhere that “yeah you will have to wing it”. Just plow through this crap. You know what the rules really mean. Turn sequence 1. Play a hex-map-based-wargame first. This will take at least one other interested player and like forty hours of your time.

So if you are like me this means you turn to the players and say “Your side lost, bad. What do you want to do?”

And if the players know the rules they will say “covering fire.” But that is sequence #5. Ignore them. Your players are just trying to make you forget sequence #2. Indirect Fire. This is a whole world of random hurt the StarMaster can literally rain down upon the players. Tough talk breaking down at the local spacer bar? PC's smoothly going for their hardware to blast their way out of trouble? Sorry, StarMaster needs to resolve sequence #2. Full salvo of APROBDIF Projectors coming in from the unisex! Oh yeah, the effects are not resolved until sequence #7. Does that mean between sequence #3. and sequence #6 the PC's could move away? On space ships? On power cycles? Humping ass burning Wind? Yes it does. The whole sequence will work to give you hair-breath escapes, but should only be used when you and the players need to drill down to that level of detail cause that is where the game has taken the action. Space Opera is not going to work for newbies. Folks using this game are going to have to be confident gamers and know when to role-play and when to get out the rulebook.

Seriously, it takes a judgmental asshole like myself to run Space Opera. You need to be able to look your players in the eye and say “roll initiative” and get them not to scramble to the rulebook looking for a way out. Because the rules are so poorly edited they will find it.

What I remember from running Space Opera in the early 80's was constantly jettisoning combat rules to get to a “roll to hit” situation. And this is one table and a percentile number. That is it. Again, dead simple. For Direct Fire/Ranged Attacks you roll 1D100 on the Range to Target Table. Shooting someone at Short Range 80% chance or less to hit. Long 15% chance, etc. Now there are six separate tables of DMs to the Direct Fire Roll, I get that. But use my PDF sheets attached and you will have the information you want at your fingertips at the table. Hand-to-Hand, Close Combat is a base 35% to hit for any attack, subject to a very small set of DMs. No, in Close Combat Initiative; deciding who strikes first, has all the multiple DM tables! Space Opera makes a big production out of producing your Hand-to-Hand Capability. But once you have this number, and you need compute it for thirteen different weapon categories, you only use it for establishing strike order for each combat turn! I can see where many folks turn their head, hand out in the universal symbol of “No thank you” and pass on trying to run the game. In this instance it asks you to crunch simple, but time consuming formula for a number which again gets multiple DMs to consider every time you use it. But it does give a sharp distinction between Direct Fire Combat. You don't use the same resolution method for either one of these combats and in real life these are two very different methods of combat. I will have to go with this as a feature of Space Opera and not a bug. Embrace it. And you are going to have to embrace the Penetration Tables. (p. 43-51) Which means rolling on the Hit Location chart. But who doesn't love Hit Location charts?!? Put the tables on a sheet durable enough to last at the actual game table and everyone should get dialed into their Penetration numbers quickly.

Both these methods of combat funnel back into the same method of resolving damage once a penetrating hit has been won. In fact, all weapons do the same damage! Regardless of weapon/attack used damage in Ground Combat is resolved the same way, roll for severity and apply the corresponding amount of damage to the character. There are additional degrees of complexity you can add in from the rules or just as well leave out. You have two described methods of achieving an initiative/turn order for Pete's sake! You can take the Combat Turn Sequence in its entirety or you can trim it down to only the steps you wish to execute in a given combat. In each sequence, each step in the combat “turn” can have additional DMs to add in. The key to using however many combat mechanics you want is having these DM tables not in the book but out on the table to use. And with this reread so far I see nothing which would stop you from scaling the combat mechanics when considering large engagements of troops. The resolution mechanics can be both applied to an individual character as well as an individual combat “unit”. Need to know the rate of fire of your gun in Close Combat? They have rules for that. Don't need that level of detail. No worries. Toss the rule entirely and combat still works.

The attached PDF file is to make generating these numerous DM tables for use in one place easier. I believe once these tables are removed from the book and made more accessible as a two-sided, laminated sheet the game would become remarkably easy to run.

FGU's Space Opera Resolution Mechanics Examined

Space Opera has the reputation of being poorly organized (agreed) and unplayable (not agreed). I recently purchased the perfect-bound copy of the game so I could revisit Space Opera and see if there is a fun, playable game here. I think there is. Nothing groundbreaking, but the game has a voluminous equipment section and the game is a complete science fiction gaming system with a great deal of options available for detailed levels of play per where the StarMaster and PC's want it. Unlike Traveller the game doesn't break with the exclusion or inclusion of many of its rules systems.

Space Opera Resolution Charts PDF FILE 

I will be paraphrasing from the RAW, but I've included relevant page numbers from Volume 1 so you can look this information up if you like.

The expectation is PC resolution revolves around Characteristic Rolls (CRs). Usually a roll-under statistic, but not always. These CRs are to be made only in 'hairy' moments where there is a chance of being injured, killed, losing gear or fixing something where failure has grave consequences. (p.3)

Shock Resistance CR is our first example of this mechanic in action. (p.18) Your SR target number is derived from your Constitution. Roll your SR or lower on a 1D20 to avoid the effects of shock. The book goes on to describe each individual Characteristic's CR mechanic. Each Characteristic CR method is described and they are not identical. Intelligence and Intuition CR rolls are base on achieving a 11 or less on a 1D20 with the target number modified by DM's per the character's Characteristic score. (p.23) The Bravery CR is rolled with 2D6 (p.24) while checking a Surprise CR is rolling your Agility or less on a 1D20. (p.24) PC Initiative is a 1D20 roll plus the character's Dexterity with an additional list of modifiers to consider. (p.26)

Resolving actions by applying a character's Skills follows a similar path; a distinct method of resolution per skill. It is difficult to see a relationship between a character's Skills and Characteristics because of these numerous subsystems as well as the whole employment and reenlistment procedure for the character's background is placed between these two topics in the book. (p.26-42) Reenlistment is completely optional and is resolved with a 3D6, rolling the target number or greater for success.

But the numerous subsystems are not complex. The implementation of roll your stat plus/minus with modification is not foreign to any roleplayer. So it follows a better organization of the game's resolution mechanics would make this easier to play. As a modular system designed to be used in whole or part for your own vision of a space opera game universe it is worth using. I like the game for its fairly simple mechanics with a great character creation system, world generation tables and exhaustive gear list. I cannot speak to its starship combat rules as I have never run them. These rules will get their own look at some point and I may be able to generate a blog post on what I think of this important part of the game.

Careful look at Skills reveals Space Opera takes philosophically different approaches to resolution with whole branches of skill-orientated tasks. Applying your Combat Skills in play is done differently than applying your Scientific Research Skills which is different yet again from how Technical Skills are resolved! Once sorted though these different methods define the fun which can be had with Space Opera. Unified mechanics across the board in a game can get dull. If everything is resolved the same way, nothing you do in the game is truly unique. While the game offers players a chance at custom builds the simple Class system makes playing an Armsman different than playing a Technician or an Astronaut. Want to experience something new in the game for your PC, have your Armsman try and fix a radio. Learn how the other side lives! So I think the diverse subsystems, for this game, work.

Scientific Skills are also used to do Scientific Research. For routine information gathering there is a flat 71%, plus Intelligence and Skill Level, chance or less to make the correct observation. (p.47) To successfully complete Scientific Research requires having the right number of sciences to overcome the research subject's complexity. The chance of success is found by adding all of the success Dms and then subtracting the problem complexity Dms. (p. 48) There is also a table which will give the amount of time required to be spent before a success throw can be made.

The Medical Scientist and Physician have additional subsystems for the application of advanced medicine and healing abilities. Routine forms of medical research have a 75% plus 3% per skill level chance of success. (p. 46) Making the correct diagnoses of known diseases is 40% plus 5% per skill level without computer access. The chance is greater/modified if advanced consultation is available making diagnoses by a Medical Scientist almost certain. (p. 46) Physicians can increase healing rates (p. 47) as well as manufacture drugs (30% chance of success plus 3% per skill level plus 3% per Mk of the Medi-Computer. (p. 47) Engineers follow the same procedures Scientific Research while the Technician has its own unique subsystems.

Tech Skills and training (p. 57) are for the operation and repair of equipment. The rule book here offers a fine example of the numerous misleading typos which need to be faced while reading Space Opera. “The procedure to be followed for repairing breakdowns are described in the 5.0 Equipment Maintainance section, ...” No, there is no such thing. Single-system and Multi-system Breakdowns are resolved per section 4.22 and 4.23. Equipment Maintainance & Repair is described in section 4.21.

Fixing a single-system and multi-system breakdowns are resolved by rolling the target number or less on a 1D20. (page 76-77) Tech level skill can both increase chance of success as well as decreasing time needed for repairs. There is an alternate subsystem for the MediTech as well as fixing battle damage.

The MediTech can diagnose known diseases 20% plus 5% per skill level. (p. 58) A correct diagnoses will allow a MediTech to use medical equipment to treat with a chance of success.

Battle damage is repaired at a rate determined by the Tech's skill level. (p. 78)

That is all you are going to get on how to adjudicate success and failure outside of combat. Combat, both close and ranged, will be covered in another blog post. For now I am going to try and put this list of game mechanics in an easy-to-read PDF format for use at the table. The tools a StarMaster needs to referee are admittedly poorly organized for use in the original rulebook, but being able to see them laid out in front of you can eliminate much of the confusion and allow resolution and saving throws to be decided and rolled quickly. Just like you would want in any roleplaying game.