From: [r--dd--n] at [ttidca.TTI.COM] (John Redden)
Subject: Other Suns # 1
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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.
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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.