Gamma World StarCraft at GenCon!

The very first thing I got to do at GenCon (after checking into my pimping hotel) was bust out my StarCraft Gamma World variant and play my Gammacore adventure, The Prisoner. It was a blast! Jon, Dave, and all the Canooks were consummate dungeoneers and a pleasure to play with. I look forward to the chance to hang out with them again! Listed below are a few pics I managed to snap when we were chucking the dice, with commentary.

StarCraft Gammacore: The Prisoner

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships

A Gamma World fourthcore adventure for three to six 1st-level characters.

StarCraft: The Prisoner - Preview #3

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships

Adventure Background

It is a period of darkness and chaos in the galaxy. The Terran Dominion has toppled, the few Protoss tribes still alive struggle to unite themselves, and untamed Zerg hordes roam leaderless throughout the galaxy.

This adventure takes place on the covert Terran Dominion military research station, BR-715. With the complete withdrawal of all Dominion military forces in the area, the station has been left on its own and vulnerable to attack. Recently, the station has been transmitting an automated distress signal and has not returned any directed signals inquiring as to their needs.

The Prisoner - Preview #2

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships

Research Cards

The 10 research cards represent clues and bits of lore gleaned by the adventurers before arriving at research station BR-715. Five of these research cards are marked as COMPLETE, and the other five are INCOMPLETE. Of the five COMPLETE research cards, four are true. Of the five INCOMPLETE research cards, only one is true. The players are entitled to know this ratio; however, the precise knowledge of which research is true is reserved for you alone.

At the start of the game, the research cards are shuffled face-down. Each player draws one, reads it aloud to the others, then keeps it face-up in front of them for the duration of the adventure. All research cards are relayed “as-is” – the adventurers cannot use skill checks or any outside means to confirm or deny research, not least because it is assumed they have already done so to the best of their ability before embarking. To determine which research is worth heeding, the adventurers must rely on logic, intuition, and their experience in the station.

The Prisoner - Preview #1

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships

Great minds think alike ... in space!

Castles & Cooks, another blog devoted to all things D&D, has posted their own StarCraft Gamma World project. The articles go into detail on some of the design decision made behind the numbers, and is a good read. They also focus a lot more on stating out individual monsters, a process I have decided to leave exclusively for my upcoming adventures to showcase.

Most unfortunately for me, Castles & Cooks posted their stuff about a month before I did. They beat me to the punch! Although, clearly I had the ideas rolling around behind the screen of this blog since January of this year when I posted my Starship Combat Rules.

It's very interesting to me to see where we diverged in rules, and where we came to the same conclusions. For example, (as you all will see in The Prisoner) we both set the Hydralisk at about the same level, but we diverged in giving the Marine a specific Origin/Background. My reasoning for not doing this, of course, is due to the ability of any adventurer with an assault rifle to be portrayed as a Marine. creating a whole new Origin/Background just for that seemed unnecessary and not gonzo, bat shit crazy enough.

So a toast to C&C, and here's to hoping to see more StarCraft material!

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships * The Prisoner

StarCraft Gamma World: Introduction & Rules

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships * The Prisoner coming soon!

image from www.unmod.com

The Koprulu Sector is a disastrous mess. With the United Earth Directorate and Terran Dominion defeated, the countless Terran factions squabble amongst themselves across dozens of worlds. The Protoss struggle with unification in the face of centuries-old ancient tribal divisions. Rogue hordes of Zerg scour the planets they infest, directionless without the Overmind or Kerrigan to control their appetite for destruction. More disturbing than any of these events are the whispered tales of those whom have come back from the edge of known space. Dark tales of bizarre Protoss/Zerg hybrids and the dreaded return of the ancient Xel’Naga cast a disquieting gloom over the fate of all.

Through the chaos and darkness of the galaxy, a band of heroes emerge. Enhanced by breakthrough technologies and determined to use this time of chaos for the good of their people, these few brave souls venture forth together to stabilize the warring factions, protect the innocent from the horrors of the galaxy, and recover the lost secrets of the Xel'Naga before it is too late.

StarCraft Gamma World is a rules variant to the Gamma World Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast), immersed in the rich storylines and compelling universe of StarCraft (Blizzard Entertainment). Through the rules and handouts presented here, players will be able to explore new tales of wonder and excitement by exploring and building upon the StarCraft universe. Every aspect of the Gamma World rules will be subtly altered, providing a play experience that is fresh and exciting, yet still feels familiar to the roleplaying veterans of Gamma World and Dungeons & Dragons 4^th Edition.

As a capstone, an adventure will be presented to help launch any newly forming StarCraft Gamma World campaigns. The adventure will utilize the design principles of Fourthcore (Save Versus Death), thrusting the characters into a high-stakes, life-or-death struggle to contain a threat to the entire universe that will test the skills of not only the characters, but the players themselves!

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StarCraft Gamma World: Tokens & Sample Characters

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships * The Prisoner coming soon!

Several sheets of custom-made tokens have been created for use in StarCraft Gamma World. The tokens each have a normal and a bloodied side and encompass a wide variety of people, creatures, and sizes found in the StarCraft universe.

StarCraft Gamma World: Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships * The Prisoner coming soon!

Backgrounds, advanced equipment, and upgrades (evolutions, and disciplines) represent the primary mechanics in which characters are differentiated and their major combat powers.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds present a culmination of talents, baseline equipment, and major attributes that a character has. Backgrounds fall into three categories: genetic, psi, and technological; with the exception of Commander, which falls into no category. Characters in StarCraft Gamma World are above the common soldier; they are the elite of the elite, and a unique product of the recent contact between three space-faring races. As such, StarCraft Gamma World characters have background combinations that are bizarre, innovative, and over-the-top.

Though many backgrounds and other game mechanics describe strange permutations and combinations, all playable characters are considered to be humanoid in basic shape and function.

StarCraft Gamma World: Starships

Intro & Rules * Tokens & Sample Characters * Backgrounds, Equipment, Upgrades * Starships * The Prisoner coming soon!

Starship Combat

Enemy starships are added to combat encounters much the same way as standard creatures, each contributing their designated XP to the encounter total. Enemy starships, obviously, are only appropriate in encounters where they can threaten and interact with starships under the command or protection of the adventurers. Non-Combat vessels are ships that do not possess any weapons that are dangerous to other ships, but often represent support craft, transports, civilian vessels, and other targets of opportunity.


Vessels in combat are considered to be continually moving under their respective propulsion systems and inertia, and do not require a specific action to control. Starship positions relative to each other are not physically represented, but are instead assumed to be moving about on the battlefield at some distance to each other.

4E Naval Combat (StarCraft Vessels)

Protoss Carrier                                                    Level 9 Attack Vessel
Size 4                                                                           1,600 XP
HP 200
Speed 4
Offense 25            Defense 17
Feint 17                 Damage 4d10+28

Energy Shields

Gamma World has given us a great mechanic for energy shields. Recently, WotC put out a preview for an awesome Solo killer robot. The robot has regenerating shields, as seen below:

Force Field (while not bloodied)
The Eradicator gains 10 temporary hit points at the start of each of its turns.

This is very slick way of doing energy shields. I will be stealing this idea for anysessions of scifi games that I run in the future, such as StarCraft. I'm thinking this would be the big racial power for Protoss characters, called Shield of Adun. I'd like to have this as a scaling effect, so I'm thinking Temporary Hit Points equal to 2 + 1/2 level, which would be right in line with invigorating assault, a Cleric at-will attack that grants temporary hit points as an effect. Also, a feat that sets the scaling temporary hit points in line with standard racial resistances:

Improved Shield of Adun

Prerequisite: Protoss

Benefit: Your Shield of Adun provides +3 temporary hit points.

The monster has the (robot) keyword, clearly a renaming of the (construct) keyword. Something of note: in Gamma World, robots have immunity to poison only. In D&D 4E, constructs have immunity to disease and poison. I've got a feeling that disease is being eliminated from teh game entirely as a keyword, and these design decisions will filter thir way to D&D proper. Which is all good and well with me. I mean, when's the last time you saw a PC's power with the disease keyword? As of this posting, there are ZERO. (Unless there are some in Dark Sun?) So, effectively, every monster is immune to disease because PCs are incapable of giving them a disease.

Lastly, if you look at how this creature is put together, it becomes very obvious that it is a reskinned Beholder. I love that. I think what happened was that the designers saw a cool monster type in D&D that works well, the Solo Beholder, and ported it over to their new game system. What I think they probably didn't thinkof was how this teaches all the DM's out there how to do something similar for their games. This a wonderful example of how to reskin a monster to your personal theme.