From: [r--dd--n] at [ttidca.TTI.COM] (John Redden) Subject: Other Suns # 1 ------------------ OS.1 ---------------------------------------- This is being posted to the net by myself for Niall Shapero. Others Suns is copyright by Niall Shapero. This gaming material is distributed on a shareware basis. If you do not use the material you owe the author nothing. If you do use it please pay him what you think it is worth at a fair price becasue it took a damn lot of work to develop and playtest. The USmail address is: Niall Shapero 2536 Short Ave Los Angeles CA 90066 USA Those of you with modems can dial into his BBS using this phone number: (213)822-6729 Please email any comments to my electronic mailing address and I will pass them on to Niall. ---------------- end of preamble ------------------------------------------- OTHER SUNS: CHAPTER 1 COPYRIGHT 1982, 1989 by N. C. Shapero INTRODUCTION WHAT IS ROLE PLAYING A role playing game is a game of character development, a game approach that has been likened to improvisational theater. The player acts out a role in the world designed by the Referee just as he might act a role as a character in a play. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS GAME "Earth is the cradle of Mankind, but one cannot remain in the cradle forever" -- Tsiolkovskii OTHER SUNS is a game of exploration and discovery set in the future, when mankind has found new homes on worlds orbiting other suns far from mother Earth. The player creates one or more characters, known as Adventurers, and plays them in various scenarios designed by the Referee. The Adventurer has the use of scientific and other skills, equipment, and, as a last resort (hopefully) combat. The Referee has the use of assorted traps, strange and eldritch creatures, and his own wicked imagination to keep the Adventurer from his goal within the rules of the game. A surviving Adventurer gains experience in scientific and other skills, psionics, and fighting, as well as gaining money with which to purchase further training. The Adventurer progresses in this way (either in military service or in merchant service) until he is so proficient, or has such an incredible reputation for success, that he comes to the attention of the High Lords of the Hegemony (either the flag rank officers of the Admiralty if the character is in the military, or one of the merchant princes if he is an interstellar trader). At this point, he will either be promoted to the command of a star- ship, or he will receive additional financial backing, or some other form of reward will be offered (depending upon whether he is in the military, or is in some civilian occupation). The ultimate goal for the Adventurer is success -- measured in terms of knowledge, prestige, power, position, and money. In order to reach that goal, the Adventurer's primary desire is to stay alive. As a result, combat is to be avoided if at all possible. For combat is more realistic in this game than in some other science-fiction role playing games, and so is extremely dangerous. Glory in battle in OTHER SUNS has been made an ex- ceedingly dangerous path to recognition, though a path still open to those wishing to risk its dangers. A far safer, though still perilous, path to glory for the Adventurer is that of the inter- stellar explorer. And it is this path to glory which is the primary goal of the Adventurer in this game. HOW TO USE THESE RULES First, read through the rules once in their entirety. Roll up a human character. Next, together with a few friends, begin play with a few simple scenarios, adding the more exotic non- human species and the more exotic capabilities (psionics, other senses) as the group's experience with the mechanics of play improves. Once all features of the game have become reasonably well understood by all players, add features of your own (added technology, equipment, alien races, etc.) EQUIPMENT NEEDED TO PLAY Besides this set of rules, OTHER SUNS players will need dice of many shapes for the game. The mix of dice suggested for play is as follows: Type Abbreviation two pair of 20-sided percentile dice 1D100 one 20-sided die marked from 1 to 20 1D20 four 12-sided dice 1D12 four 8-sided dice 1D8 four 6-sided dice 1D6 two 4-sided dice 1D4 Within these rules, dice will be referred to using the above abbreviations. Thus, if it is necessary to roll the sum of two 12-sided dice, it will be written as 2D12. Other die sizes will occasionally be required for which there are no regular dice; a 16-sided die (1D16) for example might be needed for a telekinetic attack. In this particular example, one could roll 1D8 and 1D4 and if the 1D4 equaled 1 or 2, read the 1D8 as the value rolled, and if the 1D4 roll was 3 or 4, add 8 to the 1D8 roll (in much the same way that a 1D4 and a 1D10 can be used to produce the equivalent of a 1D20). Other die rolls desired can be produced with other combinations of the above listed dice, or by rolling the above dice and either ignoring certain rolls and rerolling, or by dividing the roll by some constant and rounding fractions consistently up or down. In this way, a 1D7 roll can be produced (roll 1D8 and reroll if an 8 is rolled) or a 1D3 roll can be produced from a 1D6 (divide by 2 and round all fractions up). No dice are provided with the game; they can be purchased from any hobby store or mail order house that sells role-playing or war games. 1D12 can be simulated by rolling 2D6: if the first D6 roll is 4-6, add 6 to the roll of the second die, otherwise add 0 to the roll of the second die. 1D8 can be simulated by rolling 1D10 and ignoring and rerolling die rolls of 9 or 10. 1D4 can be simulated by rolling 1D6 and ignoring and rerolling die rolls of 4 or 5 or alternatively by rolling 2D6 as described above to produce a 1D12 roll, dividing the result by 3, and rounding all fractions up to the next largest whole number. OTHER SUNS does not need a playing board. The player's imagination provides the stage on which the characters act. As assistance in this drama, the player will find the following items helpful: (1) Paper, (2) Pencils and pens, (3) Lead or plastic figures, (4) a great deal of time, and finally (5) imagi- nation (the more, the better). While not essential to the play of the game, a simple four function calculator with square root will greatly reduce the time and effort required for calculations. BACKGROUND HISTORY The L'Doran Hegemony is a multi-species multi-star system government that developed while the human race was building the pyramids in Egypt. In the years while mankind developed on Earth, the myriad races of the Hegemony forged a multi-species empire that covered almost a third of the galactic rim. When Homo Sapiens went out to the stars in the latter part of the twenty-first century, he did so armed to the teeth. The Hegemony had and has one real hard rule: "Thou shalt not make war upon any species of the Hegemony". When the Terran Empire met the L'Doran Hegemony in the fourth century of the Atomic Era the contact was explosive. Humanity humans lost the first Hegemony-Empire War on the battlefield, then won it at the peace tables. A brief period of peace followed the first war while the human leaders rethought their position in the galaxy and prepared for the next war. It is a tribute to the force of will, the strength, the spirit, and the sheer unmitigated chutzpah of the human race that it went about preparing, in all seriousness, to take on practi- cally a third of the rest of the galaxy single handed. What the heck, it almost worked! But though the human race had adopted virtually all of the technological wonders of their opponents, and though the humans were by and large better at the bloody game of mass warfare and killing than the majority of the Hegemonic species, Homo Sapiens was terribly outnumbered in the second Hegemony-Empire War. At the end of the war Earth was a radioactive cinder and the Terran Empire (though not the human race) had been utterly de- stroyed. But the Empire was not alone in death. The economic stresses and strains imposed by the war did what the human star- ships had failed to do. And the starlanes were clear of both Hegemonic and Imperial starships. In the ninth century of the Atomic Era, the Hegemony began to rebuild and reform as various former member races reacquired sufficient investment capital and sufficient risk money to begin building starships once more. In the eighteenth century of the Atomic Era, the L'Doran Hegemony covers one quarter of the galac- tic rim. Human worlds, former Imperial colonies, have joined the Hegemony, and the combined efforts of all races are being direct- ed towards peaceful exploration, expansion, rediscovery of old worlds, and the development of new worlds. In this era of starfaring Drakes and Magellans, in this era of freebooters, explorers and exploiters of all kinds, the play- ers must make their fortunes. TECHNOLOGICAL BASE The L'Doran Hegemony is an FTL-starflight capable society (FTL = faster than light). Contragravity drives for normal space and atmospheric flight are commonplace. Power for all common needs is provided by cheap and efficient total conversion de- vices. Privately owned FTL starships are common. Planetary weather control techniques are well known and planetary engineer- ing to order is an expensive though scientifically trivial pro- ject. Time travel, and cross-time travel are possible, though extremely difficult (in much the same way that space travel is now). MONETARY BASE The unit of exchange in the L'Doran Hegemony is called the System Monetary Unit (or SMU) and is worth roughly 0.02 troy ounces of gold. The unit of exchange in the Second Empire is called the Mark and is worth roughly 0.025 troy ounces of gold. Inflation is a factor of interest only in some primitive local economies -- it is not a factor in the economy of either the Hegemony or the Second Empire.