Astroarcane

Brian and I have been working for some time now on a project most exciting: a tabletop roleplaying game based on your favorite space fantasy (that is Astroarcane).

Characters are built not around stats like Strength and Intelligence, but around their skills in various arenas of challenge: Action, Investigation, Rhetoric, Subterfuge, Craftsmanship, and Exploration. Each of these skill headers has four sub-skills: for example, Rhetoric is divided into Culture, Debate, Manipulation, and Networking.

Get these babies ready!

Because this is a game about telling an adventure story, we don’t have your traditional RPG hit points. Instead, you have a Drive: various conflicts, from being sat on by a Brontosaurus to being socially snubbed by a Duchess, will reduce your Drive. If you don’t do anything about this, you can drop all the way to Out of Commission, and will be helpless for a while to affect the story. Or, you can make time for a Recovery scene, drawing on your relationships with those around you to re-motivate you and refill your Drive. You’re kind of taking some time to lick your wounds, get an encouraging talk, etc. (Special races will have special restrictions on Recovery.)

We’re really hoping that the structure of the game lends to creating amazing and action-packed adventures. We’ll be looking for playtesters in the next couple of months, so let us know if you’d be interested (here in comments is fine).