Infinity RPG - first impressions

So, I've been reading the Infinity RPG Core Book, and it's very exciting.

It's based on the 2d20 system by Modiphius, which is used for other games like Star Trek Adventures, John Carter of Mars, Conan, Mutant Chronicles, and perhaps most importantly (for me), the Fallout TTRPG that is being released next year (not the Wasteland Warfare RPG expansion, which is being released next month, a completely different one).

So first let me talk about 2d20. I was not familiar with it before Infinity, so I don't know how it is in the other games (though I'm tempted to find out now). The core mechanic is 2d20 (duh) roll-under. You have stats and skills, and you add them together to get your target number (along with any penalties). You then roll your d20s (there are actually times where you roll more or less than two of them, but it's usually two), and if you get your target number or lower on any of your d20s, you get a success. The system has a really cool mechanic called "Momentum", where if you get more successes than you need, you get to use them as bonuses for other rolls.

The setting is based on the Infinity skirmish wargame, and is a very cool post-cyberpunk setting inspired by anime like Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed. As is common for wargame settings, there are many factions (several of which have, or are getting, their own splatbooks for the RPG). The characters are predominantly human, though there is the option to play as a werewolf looking alien (alien-human hybrid? I don't know yet) in the core book, with other alien options in other splatbooks.

Character creation is through a (mostly) random lifepath style system, that seems like a solid reference to old-school Traveller. You get points to spend to choose what you want instead of rolling randomly, and there are two options: few points that if you don't spend them can be used to buff your stats at the end, or lots of points to customize as much as you want, but you don't get to use the points to buff your stats at the end. I'm a huge fan of lifepath character creation, so it's hard for me not to see this as a huge selling point, but I get that it's not for everyone. There are some spots in character creation where something you roll (or choose) will have you create an NPC from your past, and other interesting background building opportunities.

The art is very slick (Modiphius makes gorgeous books), and there's tons of it throughout the book.

Overall I'm very excited, and I can't wait to get a group together to try it out (expect a full review when that happens). It also makes me extremely hopeful for the future Fallout 2d20 game.

Starport Scum - mini-review

Starport Scum  is a skirmish wargame err, solo, coop, it's an RPG... I swear. Okay, so maybe labels aren't so important.

A quick rundown:

• It's a "tabletop game of fierce space adventure, space pirates and salvage crews looking for the next big break."
• It's a narrative RPG, that uses tags to define abilities (it is classless).
• It also happens to be a miniatures wargame (it's one or the other, and both at the same time).
• It's very lightweight rules-wise, and is easy to run.
• It is designed with Coop/Solo play in mind, and can be played without a GM (however, having a GM definitely enhances play).
• It has rules for playing without miniatures (or you could use printed paper standees, tokens, or whatever you have, if full-blown minis aren't your thing).
• It has many supplements with optional rules (like adding Fate points, social interaction as combat, more gear, vehicle rules, and Faction turns), and is very DIY friendly.
• There is progression, and gear, and is designed around investing in your characters over extended campaigns.
• There is also rules for "goons", which are expendable nobodies that the players can control, and can level up and get better gear (if they survive).
• It can be played with an "X-Com" feel to it, with a stable of characters that you level and gear up, that can be rotated out to let them recover from injuries.
• It has lots and lots of random tables to roll on, either as inspiration, or as a sort of GM replacement.

It's an interesting sort of game. It has the fast wargamey feel of Savage Worlds, the freeform narrative tags of something like Lady Blackbird or Fate, and has a simple DIY feel of OSR. It does all this without feeling like they simply copy pasted from these different games, and actually feels like it's own thing.

The author is very active and helpful on social media, and is constantly creating new material (sadly, not as much for Starport Scum anymore, though he's mentioned doing more in the future).

There is also a fantasy version of it called Dungeon Scum. It's the same core system, designed for fantasy, with a very interesting system for magic. It's fully compatible with Starport Scum. I used this and a hack of "How to Host a Dungeon" to run a tribes of monsters fighting over dungeon territory campaign.

Star Crawl review

Alright, first of all, Star Crawl is a supplement for Dungeon Crawl Classics and/or Mutant Crawl Classics, which means you’ll need a copy of at least one of those to make proper use of it. I say at least one, because really I feel like having both is ideal, since it touches on concepts from both.

Star Crawl has a number of resources for running DCC/MCC games in a space-oriented SciFi setting. Most of it is useful even if you are just running any kind of SciFi game, even if you aren’t going to space. There’s also a decent amount that is useful for any sort of DCC/MCC game.

One of the first things in the book is the Occupations. It has one-hundred SciFi themed occupations, and is a pretty interesting list. It has everything from Athlete and Janitor to Hyperspace Navigator and Xenobiologist. Something to note is that most of the occupations don’t give weapons, as it’s assumed that people like Standup Comedians and Ophthalmologists don’t walk around packing heat. Something it does give all the occupations is a Credit rating (more on that later). These are great for inspiration, though for me personally, customizing occupations is one of the first things I do to help define the setting I’m running (this list is a great starting point though, even for me).

It has a table for Star Signs (Birth Augurs from DCC), and it is appropriately themed, and fairly short and sweet. It includes a few options specific to the Star Crawl rules, like “Saves vs Psy attacks” and “Ship/Vehicle Attack rolls”.

There is also included a rule for a Perception stat. It’s based on things like Luck, Intelligence, and Race (more on that later), and works pretty much like you’d imagine if you are familiar with more “traditional” d20/3.5 style games. I’m not a fan of this mechanic. Not because it’s not well made, I just don’t think it fits the style of play that DCC/MCC is going for (or that I’m going for). If you’ve missed having some kind of perception stat, however, this version is very well made, and is portable to any setting, not just space games.

The next section is the classes. It’s probably important to note that Thief and Warrior are listed in the “standard” classes list, and they are just a reference to the DCC rulebook. The new classes in the book are Mechanic, Medic, Psycher, Scoundrel, Soldier, and Swashbuckler.

The Mechanic has three unique abilities; Repair, Understand the Unusual, and Pilot. All three are pretty simple, mechanically. They get bonuses to certain checks, and there are tables of example DCs. I would not have minded a more robust system here, but it’s a solid basic covering of the trope, and I think Mechanic characters will suitably feel like mechanics.

Medics are what they say on the tin, and have three unique abilities; Basic Medic Check, Trained Professional, and Improvised Care. Basic Medic Check allows them to do things like stabilize dying characters, and diagnose and treat ailments. Trained Professional lets them reroll checks made to heal characters when they have access to proper medical equipment/supplies, and Improvised Care lets them patch someone up even when all they have is a belt and a broken stick. There’s a decent amount rules here, spelling out exactly when you can and can’t make these checks. Again, fairly solid and straightforward representation of a trope.

Psycher is a much more complicated class than the first too, including all the abilities of Extra Sensory Perception, Base Psycher Check, Mind Burn, Power Manifestation, and Psychic Powers, with rules for manifestation, misfire, and corruption for using Psycher Powers. Still fairly light compared to, say, the Wizard from DCC. It’s probably important to note that there are only 10 Psycher Powers in the Star Crawl book, and another 10 are references to powers from MCC. Again, it’s another simple, clean, and ultimately effective representation (I’m sensing a trend here).

Scoundrel is basically a reflavored Thief, with enhanced Luck, and a skill list. It’s so similar, actually, I’m kind of surprised the Thief was listed as a standard class in addition to it. The reflavoring is good, and it manages not to step on the toes of the Mechanic too much (something I was worried about).

Soldier is probably my favorite class in the book, and I think a big part of the value of the book overall. I’m not familiar with all the different supplements and third party products out there, so I’m not sure if there is another source for this sort of thing, but the Soldier is very interesting in that it is a class designed around having more than one character. Most of their abilities, Squad Tactics, Chain of Command, and Recruits, are focused around running a “squad” of characters. Obviously DCC/MCC is known for having a lot of characters early on, but this class carries that throughout all levels. I like it, and it actually seems like it’d be easy to port this over to other settings, even non-SciFi ones.

Swashbuckler is a class that is mostly just a remix of DCC classes. It has Lucky, Two-Fisted Fighter (essentially the Halfling’s Two-weapon Fighting), and Well Traveled (which gives them a single Scoundrel/Thief skill). I think it’s a nice combo, and does feel like a swashbuckling style character. I think Two-Fisted Fighter is very interesting in a SciFi game where one-handed ranged options are more common.

Star Crawl also includes a page of notes on how to incorporate the other DCC/MCC classes. It seems like pretty basic advice, but it’s nice that it’s included.

Now we have Race Templates. Like Perception, some may feel these don’t fit the style of game DCC/MCC is going for, as they handle races as extra stats and abilities rather than making them classes. Personally, I’m super stoked about this. They’re pretty simple, and straightforward, and are exactly what you’d expect from races that aren’t based on class, but that’s largely the appeal to me. I’m not always interested in the races as class idea, and I think races can be a great way to express the setting to the PCs. These are great to use as is, or to customize to fit a specific setting idea.

The race selection is pretty good, and establishes a bit of an “assumed setting”. It includes Avians, Bio-engineered (slave clones), Bugs, Greys, Hoomins, Lizards, Prime Apes, Robots, Space Pigs, Stonefolk, Tentacloids, and Vegetoids. That’s a pretty solid spectrum of races to pick from. The bonuses and abilities are pretty much what you’d expect, with a +1 or +2 to a stat, maybe a -1 to a stat, and abilities like bonuses or penalties to saves or tracking by sense of smell. All races are not created equal, and one thing I wouldn’t have minded would be a table for rolling race randomly, but considering how easy it would be to give them numbers, I suppose it would be a waste of page space. In fact, here’s the table I use if you’d like to use it for your game:

1	Avian
2-4	Bio-Engineered
5-6	Bugs
7-8	Greys
9-11	Hoomins
12-13	Lizards
14-15	Prime Apes
16-18	Robots
19-20	Space Pigs
21	Stone Folk
22-23	Tentacloids
24	Vegetoids

I decided that in my world, Hoomins and the races they create to serve themselves (Bio-engineered and Robots) are the most common races.

The Equipment section starts off with a page On Currency and Economy. It covers the “Credit” system, which is a more abstract system for tracking wealth, similar in a lot of ways to D20 Modern’s “Wealth Check”. It’s probably not necessary, as you could very easily drop this and just track the actual currency a character has. However, I really like that this is included. It’s an option I think a lot of people would be interested in, and could easily be ported over to other settings. Basically each character has a die size that represents their credit, and they can make rolls to purchase items (or just auto-buy if the item is cheap enough).

The Weapon section is, like most things in the book, pretty straightforward and effective. It has twenty-two melee and ranged weapons, with some interesting and exotic weapons like Electro Whip and Personal Projectile Launcher. Each weapon is listed with its “Value”, which ties into the Credit system. There is also a small section on Weapon Modifications, which is a nice addition, if a bit lean. Definitely easy to go in and add your own custom items later.

The Armor section is pretty similar to the Weapon section, with 7 different types of armor, and a small section on modifications.

The Other Gear & Equipment section is pretty small, especially if you don’t count the table of 100 “Random Found Items”. There’s only 6 Tech Gear items, and 7 Medical Gear items. This could probably do with a bit bigger section, given that tech plays a pretty significant role in SciFi, but the found items table is very good, and if you have MCC there’s a lot you can pull from there.

There is a page on Space Environment Rules, which includes rules for Zero-Gravity, Surviving without Air, and The Vacuum of Space. These are decent, short, and straightforward. Again, an area you could flesh out in more detail if you wanted, but all the basics are covered for you.

Ships & Space Combat is next. Full disclosure, I haven’t tried the spaceship rules yet, just read through them. There are 12 pages of pretty detailed ships and ship combat going on here, with cool special templates for positioning. There’s rules for building out custom ship stats, with different size ships, System Slots for loading it out with different options, and weapon options. Ship damage has tables to roll on to see what is damaged, and is pretty detailed. Overall it looks really good, and while it’s pretty much the biggest part of the book, it’s still pretty straightforward and only really covers a “basic” level handling spaceships. More than enough for most games, but still plenty of room to be creative and add your own ideas. Probably just enough room that a small supplement would be worth buying if someone decided to write it up (I just might).

Next is the section on Psycher Powers. As I said before, it has 10 included, and references 10 from MCC. The 10 in Star Crawl are Astral Projection, Cosmic Awareness, Memory Scalpel, Mental Illusion, Mind Puppetry, Mind Reading, Psyche Crush, Tech Storm, Telepathic Link, and Thought Shaping. It’s a solid selection, and it covers all the basics of that classic “SciFi Psychics” flavor.

There is a section on Patrons (“Star Borne Patrons” in this book), and it specifically says it works like the rules in DCC. There are two included patrons, The Witness Beyond the Stars, and Mother of Hearts. The Witness is focused on knowledge, “seeing all that occurs across the universe”. The Mother of Hearts is a cool greater being alien that uses parasitic “Siblings” to bond with her followers. Both are interesting, and again, you can pull from DCC/MCC to add more (there’s actually a paragraph that specifically details just that).

There’s a nice 8 page section on Strange New Worlds. It has lots of details on establishing different worlds, and their environments. The Terrestrial Twists and Celestial Strangeness tables both have 50 ideas each to help make places unique.

There’s a small Bestiary. It has 20 different races/creatures, some of which expand the player race options into NPCs. This is pretty small, but also fairly expected from a DCC/MCC supplement. DCC/MCC is a great deal about unique NPCs, and there is enough here to get you started creating your own. Also, as with pretty much everything else, you can pull from the books and modules for DCC/MCC.

The book also includes a 0-level funnel, called “The Promethean Adventure”. Again, I haven’t run this yet, but it looks very good, and has a sort of “Space Titanic on Acid” feel to it.

There is a decent amount of art in the book, and while it’s probably not going to win any awards just for the art, it’s very characterful, and I think very fitting for the style. I also like that the cover is very eye-catching, with its black & white weirdskull.

TL;DR - Star Crawl covers everything you need to add Space and Spaceships to a DCC or MCC game. It introduces several exciting new mechanics, and most are fairly plug-n-play to use if you want, or ignore if you don’t. It doesn’t have everything you could ever want, but that mostly leaves room for your own custom content (or potentially a second book in the future). Definitely a lot of value for the cost.