Oh yeah, Spacers: 180°

In 1997 I really never planned to work with D20, but now? Wow.

I apologize. Yet another edition of Spacers(TM) has been released. My little sci-fi niche for nuts and bolts (and whimsy) just won't leave me be. Blame Bernard Assif, Ben, for encouraging me. He became a co-author as well as an editor. I've actually become a co-editor as well as an author. I just bet the man is wanted for crimes against complacency in Belgium or some other place. Seriously, his love of gaming and roleplaying is a treasure that anybody in the hobby would do well to emulate.

So Spacers has moved past 2d6 mechanics and venturing into D20 and its accompanying polyhedrons. Spacers: 180° is out. Still there is a lot of "winging it" because this OSR-style roleplaying game is not afraid of using the other dice that make up the term "polyhedron." It fails to incorporate odd-sided dice, that games promising to be "gonzo by design," so it's not that daring. The dice we do use are going to be used.

Types have become "Classes." Four of them. The Scrapper, the Spacer, the Solver, and the Synthesizer. With that last one, I think we've mastered the tropes needed for a good start for space opera. Thank Ben for the Synthesizer, I'm not that hip. Then there is the player-Character with psychic abilities. All things Psychic may just take over that Character's role. Quick note, it hasn't happened yet since 1997-- Even psychics still have to turn wrenches in Spacers-Verse.

For all the pressure on him to do otherwise by, well, others; Ben, has helped define how narrative Spacers rules should be focused. While the Playtest edition of Spacers:180° is out, the rules that will be added will hopefully be helpful not defining.

Not Everytime at the Table Jan 2024

 

Deep winter is so great for Spacers.
Image copyright Simon Tranter and Peryton Publishing

So the usual suspects, Just Ben, Peryton, Iron Curtis, and myself have started playtesting the D20 rules for Spacers, (Spacers: 180 °). We were joined by Ben's brother William. This year's sessions promise to be quite fun. First off, Ben has agreed to, with his usual unbridled enthusiasm, to run scenarios. We will be alternating the GM spot and playing the space lizard, Gal Qix'tar. I hope this has the feel of an episodic SF TV program for everyone playing. I get to play a bit. The tone and atmosphere changes from session to session. There are no negatives here.
    The Spacers, Alezander Delu, Nextremi 37, Gal Qix'tar, were joined by Punches Pilot, aka "Co-Pilot" because Alezander feels a little insecure about being a mediocre pilot while he is "the Captain" of the ship. Co-Pilot is a replicant. Being an imposter for a human, he was discovered by the human colony he was the governor of, so he had to get out of town quickly. Now he is getting by as a pilot-for-hire aboard the Arcadia. Nextremi did some deep Character development and added a scarf to go with her hat from last season.
    The cast of Characters assembled, the Arcadia, was in the Earth System. Specifically where the Pluto-Charon settlements (collectively known as "Karen Complex") wasn't too far away. They were receiving a low-energy distress signal, from a ship supposedly in the Alpha Centauri system according to last data dumps. So the crew set about trying to triangulate the signal, where I got to shine as Gal Qix'tar of the Gykko Clan of the Devvah species. I tried to sell insurance to the Oort Corps' Pluto Emergency Response Patrol (P.E.R.P)...
    I can't go into too much detail here. The work is going to be published in the "playtested" version of Spacers: 180°. Let's just say topical jokes and ridiculous abbreviations as well as nuts and bolts science fiction flowed like milk and honey.

Woo. Nextremi has grown up.

Robin, Curtis, and I were needing some Red Bat this last weekend. I billed it as "Rev" as in revised Rat Bat rules, but it ended being the regular rules-- I mean I've got this whole D20 thing going on these days. I wasn't feeling too pulpy, more gritty urban fantasy, so to start things off I went with a scenario called "Low Bar: Six Zombies Walk Into a Bar" .

    Iron Curtis developed Cyd Cyne, a bartender at the establishment known as the Low Bar. Unbeknownst to the PC he has demon blood in his veins. This might explain his failed career as a city medic and proclivity towards violence. The Wednesday night gig, six muscle-bound dudes in leather claiming to be "Men at Work Down Under" were scheduled to do their dance act. They were intercepted by a Dr. Patrick Neal Benson (Neal Patrick Harris in appearance) and given a celebratory drink. As they walked into the bar, they, well, um... they turned into zombies. So six zombies, supposedly from Australia, walked into a bar. What they didn't count on was that the twenty-four patrons there were martial arts instructors, cops, body-builders, and other physical fitness enthusiasts. Five were quickly subdued. Cyd had to kill one, because it was attacking him and going for the cigar humidor-- Jeremy, the Low Bar's owner, would have a fit.
    The second act of the night, Liz Kroft, shows up as the police cars are everywhere. Peryton had showed up late and started developing her Character during the fight scene. While she is a successful Insurance Fraud investigator, like actually working for the company and not just contracted, her passion is singing. Her seeing Cyd and her neighbor Jessica T- consoling each other, she got the story. Taking a clue from the homeless guy that recognized Dr Benson from the plasma donation center down on Tulsa Boulevard. Jessica revealed that she was bitten by one of the zombies.
    In the ER, where Jessica was treated, Cyd just knew, that she wasn't going to get better. He and Liz only talked about it half the time that she was in the same room (Cyd is not that subtle). It is here that Jessica insisted they find the bastard behind her ailment and fix things. Some serious on-line research commenced. Liz pulled her Obscura Perk and got more than GobbleTubeFace blather. He wasn't living out in suburbs, he had a small mansion off a "city-rich" street, Golden Dawn Drive, just half a mile away from the Plasma Center.
    Going a bit Meta here. Figuring on Peryton and Iron Curtis's tendency to not indulge in my dramatic pacing, I had a whole "Watch-and-Wait" script worked out for the two players to observe.
    So while Jessica waited in the car, Liz and Cyd were debating climbing the iron-pole fence surrounding Dr. Benson's lot. Meanwhile three SUVs full of tactical-looking guys crashed the doctor's gate. One was left to watch the still running vehicles.
    Liz decided to sneak forward and get a license plate if possible (NO WAY! DID THAT JUST REALLY HAPPEN?). While she was scribbling down the plates, a hearse from like 1960 pulled into the driveway as well. The guard in the driveway started shouting about a "Zip" into his radio and started shooting with a silencer on his Ithaca, as an Eyeball-headed humanoid stepped out. It would wave its left hand and the man would clutch his chest and keel over. It would then proceed into the house.
    Flashes would indicate that gunshots were happening, all the weapons had silencers, and screams would happen. Two people would run out of the back of the house, observed by Cyd still in the bushes next to the iron fence. Neal Patrick Harris,... err Patrick Neal Benson would scream and the house would go dark. The two survivors would get into a black-clad SUV and peel out. A minute late, much more casually, the Eyeball would get back into its hearse and leave.
    Our "adventurers" would need my NPC to prompt them to search the house. Jessica reminded them that she did not want to be a zombie. They discovered in a house full of corpses, a secret closet with a red book, indeed the Liber Rubrim. They'd hear noises at the front door.
    Slipping out the back door, the PCs moved into the woods around the house.A dozen people in tactical gear would be all over the house. Bodies would be removed from the house and loud radio exclamations of "It's not here!" would mark the scene. An hour later all the SUVs and a fake ambulance would leave.
    Sneaking away, our PCs would end up back at Liz and Jessica's apartment building. Cyd would still be saying that things were not going to end well. Liz steadied things by mentioning that they should take a look at the phone book-sized journal in front of them. While she and Jess' would only see patterns on each page, sometimes a a hand-written note with an ink pen on the margins, they just couldn't make heads nor tails of it.
    Cyd though could.
    He brewed a weird concoction into a tea and had Jessica drink it. He sent Jessica to her bed and told "Everything is going to be good now." He was going to sleep on her couch. Liz would go to her apartment across the hall.
    In the morning, Cyd would knock on Jessica's door. Opening it slightly after a rustling sound, he'd face Jessica in full on ZOMBIE MODE...