ZeroSpace 3e EN:Introduction
Welcome to ZeroSpace...
The Universe
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The Fall Of The Old Imperium
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What Is A Roleplaying Game?
Every roleplaying game has a section at the beginning that attempts to explain what a roleplaying game is, and ZeroSpace is no exception. So let's get started! As trivial as it sounds, two distinct elements set "roleplaying games" apart from other things which are not roleplaying games: roleplaying and game play.
First, a roleplaying game involves roleplaying. Generally speaking, roleplaying involves taking on a persona or character and making decisions based on what that character would do in a given situation. Does having a character in a game, by itself, make that a roleplaying game? No. The little dog token in a Monopoly game and a Blood Elf in World Of Warcraft are both characters, but Monopoly and World Of Warcraft are not roleplaying games. Can you roleplay as a dog while playing Monopoly? Yes, and you can roleplay as an elf while playing World Of Warcraft. What keeps these from being roleplaying games is that the roleplaying is not part of the game -- you can't get your Monopoly dog out of jail through unscripted conversation with the jailer, nor can you use roleplaying to convince a cultist in World Of Warcraft to let you pass by without a fight. If the rules of the game do not allow for the possibility that a conflict could be resolved through unscripted conversation (however unlikely that might be), then it isn't a roleplaying game.
Second, a roleplaying game is a game. Roleplaying games are sometimes compared to improvisational theatre, and there are similarities, but improv theatre isn't a game. How can you tell if something is a game? Games have rules that govern things like conflicts between players and whether something a player attempts is successful. Improv theatre is fun, but there aren't any rules like this. As Drew Carey described "Whose Line Is It Anyway?", it's "the show where everything's made up and the points don't matter." It's fun, but it's not a game, and therefore it's not a roleplaying game.
ZeroSpace has more rules than some games, but less than others, and an essential part of conflict resolution involves making decisions that your character would make under the circumstances. Maybe those decisions aren't the most tactically advantageous, but if they are true to what your character would do, and if you are having fun playing, then you are playing correctly, because that's what ZeroSpace is all about.
If you would like to read more about who plays roleplaying games, and why and where they play them, check out The Escapist -- The Five Ws of RPGs.
The Players
In a roleplaying game, each player adopts a persona called a player character, or "PC". The player characters are imaginary people who inhabit the fictional world of ZeroSpace.
In many ways, the player is like an actor who chooses their own part and writes their own lines as the play progresses. The game moderator sets the stage and introduces the characters to their world, but the story is driven by the player characters.
The Game Moderator
The game moderator, or "GM", creates the story and portrays everyone that the player characters encounter during their adventures. These are called non-player characters, or "NPCs". The players help create the adventure by responding to the challenges the GM presents and by pursuing the PCs' own goals. This dynamic creative process creates a story which neither the game moderator nor the players could have created alone.
Why ZeroSpace?
Why does ZeroSpace exist? That is an excellent question. The simple answer is that we wanted to write the space fantasy game we wanted to play.
Ground Rules
A roleplaying game is fundamentally a cooperative activity. The players (one of whom is the Game Moderator) are not in competition. The goal is not to be the most powerful character, or to win every fight. The goal of a role-playing game is to create interesting stories and to entertain everyone at the table. We hope that you are the kind of player that creates interesting characters and enjoys creating stories with your friends.
Use Common Sense
The single most important piece of advice we can give you is that you should use your common sense. If something in the rules violates the way you think your game should work, then override it. If the rules permit something ridiculous, or would prevent something completely ordinary, then override them. Do not be one of those players who adheres to the letter of the rules in defiance of common sense.
In fact, if you can make a character work without resorting to the rules, you should. Saying "it works like this" is often a better solution than trying to find rules to force it to work that way.
Avoid Rule Arguments
It is in the nature of any human activity that differences of opinion will arise. We've tried to make the rules for ZeroSpace as simple and clear as possible, but there's only so much we can do. Sooner or later, there will be a difference of opinion among the players regarding what a rule means, or how a rule should be implemented. There is nothing wrong with this: discussion and consensus are healthy. However, the time for rule discussions is between games, not during games. If a rule discussion takes longer than 60 seconds, the game moderator should make an executive decision and table additional discussion for later. If players balk, the GM should be civil but firm, and move on.
Respect Genre Conventions
ZeroSpace is a space fantasy game, and being a space fantasy game, it has certain genre conventions. Robert McKee defines genre conventions as the "specific settings, roles, events, and values that define individual genres and their subgenres."
For example, there are no rules for running out of fuel, or for recharging a blaster. It's not that starships do not run out of bullets, or that blasters never need recharging. Of course they do, and if a character intentionally empties their blaster, then the gun runs out of juice just as you'd expect. It's just assumed that they don't normally run out of juice unless there is a dramatic reason for it. The rest of the time, the character is refueling the starship or recharging the blaster when it's convenient to do so.
Core Mechanics
Rolling Dice
When a character attempts a task, and the outcome is either contested or there is some random element involved, the player rolls 2d6, counts the dots, and adds the result to their relevant attribute. This roll is compared to a difficulty number the GM assigns (typically "challenging", or 12). The attempt succeeds if the player's roll equals or exceeds the assigned difficulty.
The following table shows the chances of success for various task difficulties and attribute values. You don't need to refer to this during play -- it's just to show you what kind of results you should expect.
| Task Difficulty | Character Attribute (added to 2d6 roll) | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Poor | Typical | Great | Legendary | Superhuman | Monstrous | Unearthly | |||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | ||
| 9 | Routine | 42% | 58% | 72% | 83% | 92% | 97% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 12 | Challenging | 8% | 17% | 28% | 42% | 58% | 72% | 83% | 92% | 97% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| 15 | Demanding | 0% | 0% | 3% | 8% | 17% | 28% | 42% | 58% | 72% | 83% | 92% | 97% | 100% | 100% |
| 18 | Frustrating | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 8% | 17% | 28% | 42% | 58% | 72% | 83% | 92% |
| 21 | Nigh-impossible | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 3% | 8% | 17% | 28% | 42% | 58% |
When the character is under no pressure, they may be able to "take the average" or "take the max", depending on the circumstances. See Actions for more information.
Plot Points
Each player begins each game session with one plot point. A player gains a plot point when they do something particularly entertaining or interesting, when one of their character's complications causes a serious problem for them during the game, or when the GM overrides a roll of the dice to make things more difficult for the characters. Plot points are spent to alter the game world, gain a skill bonus, or gain an advantage in combat. See Actions for more information.
Benchmarks
We assign numbers to characters' abilities so that we can tell what they can do. No one wants to guess what their characters can pick up or how fast they can run.
The movement distances in this table are for characters' natural abilities, based on their Agility and Brawn. See Movement for more information.
| Rank | Lifts | Throws (25 kg) |
Affects (radius or range) |
Walk | Run | Sprint | Jump |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Per Round | Per Round | Per Round | |||||
| 1 | 35 kg | 1 meter | 1 meter | 2 meters | 3 meters | 9 meters | 1 meters |
| 2 | 50 kg | 2 meters | 2 meters | 3 meters | 6 meters | 18 meters | 1 meters |
| 3 | 75 kg | 3 meters | 3 meters | 5 meters | 9 meters | 27 meters | 2 meters |
| 4 | 100 kg | 4 meters | 4 meters | 6 meters | 12 meters | 36 meters | 2 meters |
| 5 | 150 kg | 6 meters | 6 meters | 8 meters | 15 meters | 45 meters | 3 meters |
| 6 | 200 kg | 8 meters | 8 meters | 9 meters | 18 meters | 54 meters | 3 meters |
| 7 | 300 kg | 11 meters | 11 meters | 11 meters | 21 meters | 63 meters | 4 meters |
| 8 | 400 kg | 16 meters | 16 meters | 12 meters | 24 meters | 72 meters | 4 meters |
| 9 | 600 kg | 23 meters | 23 meters | 14 meters | 27 meters | 81 meters | 5 meters |
| 10 | 800 kg | 32 meters | 32 meters | 15 meters | 30 meters | 90 meters | 5 meters |
| 11 | 1200 kg | 45 meters | 45 meters | 17 meters | 33 meters | 99 meters | 6 meters |
| 12 | 1600 kg | 64 meters | 64 meters | 18 meters | 36 meters | 108 meters | 6 meters |
| 13 | 2300 kg | 90 meters | 90 meters | 20 meters | 39 meters | 117 meters | 7 meters |
| 14 | 3300 kg | 128 meters | 128 meters | 21 meters | 42 meters | 126 meters | 7 meters |
- Lifts indicates the greatest weight that the character can "clean and jerk" (pick up and lift overhead). A character carrying or supporting such a weight can take at most one or two steps per round. A character can move normally while carrying a weight corresponding to one rank less than their Brawn. For example, a character with rank 8 Brawn could carry up to 300 kg and suffer no penalties to their movement while doing so.
- Throws (25 kg) indicates the farthest distance that a character could throw a compact object weighing 25 kg. To see how far a character can throw heavier objects, subtract the Brawn rank required to lift the object from the character's total Brawn rank. Look up the difference in the "Rank" column: this indicates how far the character can throw the object. For example, a character with rank 8 Brawn (the peak of human potential) could throw an object weighing 50 kg (such as a cooperative slender human) up to 8 meters.
- Affects (radius or range) indicates the radius around the character that they can affect with their powers if their powers affect a radius, or the maximum range of the power if it affects a single target. For example, [Element] Mastery can move or manipulate the chosen element within this area and can use the element to inflict direct damage to a target up to this distance away. The "radius" value is not used for powers that inflict damage directly unless they have been purchased with the Explosive Damage power enhancement.
Off The Scale
Obviously, there are values which are far below or far above what appears in this table. An atmospheric fighter craft, with mass of roughly 7 tons, is far more than even a character with rank 14 Brawn could move, while a baby or a housecat has a Brawn less than 1. Don't worry about it. At such extremes, the GM should just use their best judgement, and the rest of the players should roll with it.
Glossary
- Accuracy (ACC)
- ability to aim when making ranged attacks
- advantage
- an exceptional ability that a normal human can have, but that most humans do not have
- Agility (AGL)
- agility, flexibility, and coordination
- all-out move
- base move x 6; incurs penalties on attacks and task rolls
- attack bonus
- a number added to a combat task roll (another name for "task roll bonus")
- attribute
- the eight basic character traits: Brawn, Agility, Reason, Perception, Willpower, Prowess, Accuracy, and Endurance
- base move
- normal ground movement based on attribute or power rank
- base rank
- the rank of an attribute or power when the character is fully healed and not impaired in any way
- Brawn (BRN)
- physical might and general hardiness
- character point
- spent to buy attributes, skills, advantages, and powers for a character
- damage
- the amount of damage which exceeds the target's protection value
- damage rating (DR)
- the potential amount of damage inflicted by a power or weapon
- defense bonus
- a number added to a combat task difficulty (another name for "difficulty modifier")
- difficulty modifier
- a number added to a task difficulty to make it more difficult
- double move
- base move x 2; incurs penalties on attacks and task rolls
- Endurance (END)
- the amount of abuse a character can withstand before they are unable to participate in a conflict
- expertise
- a character's field of extraordinary competence
- extreme success
- rolling three or more over the task difficulty set by the GM
- game moderator (GM)
- the player who sets the story in motion, plays everyone and everything in the game other than the PCs, and arbitrates any disputes
- non-player character (NPC)
- a fictional character belonging to and controlled by the game moderator
- Perception (PER)
- awareness of one's surroundings, intuition, and understanding of the motivations of others
- player
- a living, breathing person playing the game
- player character (PC)
- a fictional character belonging to and controlled by a player
- plot point
- spent to alter the game world, gain a skill bonus, or gain an advantage in combat
- power defect
- a drawback to the power that makes it less useful than it normally is
- power enhancement
- an extra capability that makes a power more useful than it normally is
- protection value (PV)
- the amount subtracted from an attack's damage by a power or protective equipment
- Prowess (PRW)
- hand-to-hand fighting ability
- rank
- a number from 1 to 14 describing each of a character's attributes and powers
- Reason (REA)
- ability to analyze data, draw conclusions from the facts at hand, and solve problems
- run
- base move x 2 (another name for "double move"); incurs penalties on attacks and task rolls
- sprint
- base move x 6 (another name for "all-out move"); incurs penalties on attacks and task rolls
- success
- a task roll that equals or exceeds the task difficulty
- take the average
- assume that the player rolls 7
- take the max
- assume that the player rolls 12
- task difficulty
- the number the player must match or exceed on a task roll
- task difficulty, opposed
- 8 + the defender’s relevant attribute
- task difficulty, unopposed
- routine 9; challenging 12; demanding 15; frustrating 18; nigh-impossible 21
- task roll
- 2d6 + the rank of the character's relevant attribute + any bonuses
- task roll bonus
- a number added to the character's attribute when making a task roll
- walk
- normal ground movement based on attribute or power rank (another name for "base move")
- Willpower (WIL)
- determination, focus, and strength of personality