PrivateEye
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I enjoyed reading and writing about Aquelarre, so I'm now starting on Cepheus Deluxe which recently plopped through my letterbox, courtesy of DriveThru.
It’s a 230 page perfect bound softback (though also available as a hardback PoD).
It describes itself as a “Science Fiction Role-Playing Game”, ass being rules-light, and easily compatible with older rules sets (they mean Traveller) as well as Cepheus Light and Cepheus Engine Core.
It’s published by Stellagama Publishing, and authored by Omer Golan-Joel, Richard Hazlewood, Josh Peters and Robert L S Weaver.
It is laid out in two columns, and with black and white artwork. This is a bit variable, and not really up the the standard of many of the full-on commercial products you would see on the shelf of your local rpg shop - but I kind of like that, because it harks back to the early days of the hobby, and my memories of the original Traveller LLBs.
After the Legal Disclaimer, we get the Table of Contents, which is as comprehensive as you might wish, including Basic Rules, Skills, Character Generation, Personal and Vehicle Combat, Psionic, Space Combat, World Creation etc.
Next is the Introduction, with the obligatory “What is a Role-Playing Game?” and a helpful section highlighting the main changes from Cepheus Light.
These include: Characteristic DMs are back in (they were not a part of Cepheus Light or Sword of Cepheus); Pseudo-hexadecimal digit strings are now wholly optional; Less randomness and more choice in character generation (and no death); Damage is no longer applied to characteristics, rather applied to Stamina and Lifeblood; the main book now includes Character Traits, expanded and clarified cybernetic rules, robot design rules, and allows starship hulls up to 10,000 tons rather than 5000 tons etc
We then get a section telling us about the authors and about Stellagama Publishing before we get into the “meat” of the game.
Basic Rules
This starts with Dice Roll Conventions (generally 2D6 + modifiers, or D66 rolls) and a clear description of Task Notation - eg “throw Athletics/STR 8+”.
If a task is remotely feasible, a natural 2 is always a failure and a natural 12 is always a success, regardless of target numbers or circumstances.
For opposed rolls the higher score of 2D6 + Skill and Characteristic Modifier wins - on a tie the person with the highest total DM wins. If it’s still a tie, you roll again.
Unskilled rolls suffer a -3 Modifier.
Repeat attempts are generally allowed, unless circumstances make this impossible, and there are rules for Collaboration (essentially anyone else with the requisite skill can roll as well, and if they succeed they add +1 to the main guy’s roll).
There are also rules for Advantage (taking the best 2 of 3D6) which generally apply to things like Traits and Cybernetics.
There are rules for Fatigue (a simple -2 modifier to all rolls) and a list of common target numbers. As with other Traveller-related games, 8+ is the standard/average task.
There is also an optional section for adding Hero Points to the game. If you want to use these, each player starts each session with 2 HPs, and the group has a group pool of HPs equal to the number of players (optionally you can omit the group pool). Bad failures add a point to the group pool, and great successes add to you personal pool. You can use the points to get re-rolls both for players and NPCs and to re-roll on the Trauma Surgery, Cyborg Conversion or Bio-Reconstruction tables.
Comment: This is pretty standard, but I do like the addition of Hero Points for those wanting a more heroic campaign.
Skills
Skills are rated 0-5, which is pretty standard, and it’s recommended that all military PCs start with level 0 in Athletics, Driving, Gun Combat, Melee Combat and Zero-G, and that purely civilian characters start with 0 in Athletics, Drive and Zero-G.
By the way, level 0 skill means you don’t roll with the -3 penalty for being unskilled.
The skills are slightly different than the ones in Cepheus Engine Core: Repair is a combination of Electronics and Mechanics, Admin subsumes Advocate, and Carousing subsumes Gambling. This leaves us with 31 core skills which feels quite manageable.
Languages are separate from core skills - you start with your culture’s standard language, with additional languages equal to your EDU modifier - there are no Language Skill Modifiers - you either know the language, or you don’t. Obviously this doesn’t cater for someone who knows a smattering of a language, but it does streamline things.
There are rules for Skill advancement (and for learning new languages) by spending experience points. As in some other 2D6 games, there is a cap - you total skill levels may not exceed the sum of your current INT + EDU characteristics (look out for the effects of ageing on your character).
Nearly forgot - As an option you can improve characteristics (except Social Standing) by spending experience points. This is fairly expensive, and characteristics cap out at 15. Social Standing can only be improved through role-playing and successful adventuring.
It’s a 230 page perfect bound softback (though also available as a hardback PoD).
It describes itself as a “Science Fiction Role-Playing Game”, ass being rules-light, and easily compatible with older rules sets (they mean Traveller) as well as Cepheus Light and Cepheus Engine Core.
It’s published by Stellagama Publishing, and authored by Omer Golan-Joel, Richard Hazlewood, Josh Peters and Robert L S Weaver.
It is laid out in two columns, and with black and white artwork. This is a bit variable, and not really up the the standard of many of the full-on commercial products you would see on the shelf of your local rpg shop - but I kind of like that, because it harks back to the early days of the hobby, and my memories of the original Traveller LLBs.
After the Legal Disclaimer, we get the Table of Contents, which is as comprehensive as you might wish, including Basic Rules, Skills, Character Generation, Personal and Vehicle Combat, Psionic, Space Combat, World Creation etc.
Next is the Introduction, with the obligatory “What is a Role-Playing Game?” and a helpful section highlighting the main changes from Cepheus Light.
These include: Characteristic DMs are back in (they were not a part of Cepheus Light or Sword of Cepheus); Pseudo-hexadecimal digit strings are now wholly optional; Less randomness and more choice in character generation (and no death); Damage is no longer applied to characteristics, rather applied to Stamina and Lifeblood; the main book now includes Character Traits, expanded and clarified cybernetic rules, robot design rules, and allows starship hulls up to 10,000 tons rather than 5000 tons etc
We then get a section telling us about the authors and about Stellagama Publishing before we get into the “meat” of the game.
Basic Rules
This starts with Dice Roll Conventions (generally 2D6 + modifiers, or D66 rolls) and a clear description of Task Notation - eg “throw Athletics/STR 8+”.
If a task is remotely feasible, a natural 2 is always a failure and a natural 12 is always a success, regardless of target numbers or circumstances.
For opposed rolls the higher score of 2D6 + Skill and Characteristic Modifier wins - on a tie the person with the highest total DM wins. If it’s still a tie, you roll again.
Unskilled rolls suffer a -3 Modifier.
Repeat attempts are generally allowed, unless circumstances make this impossible, and there are rules for Collaboration (essentially anyone else with the requisite skill can roll as well, and if they succeed they add +1 to the main guy’s roll).
There are also rules for Advantage (taking the best 2 of 3D6) which generally apply to things like Traits and Cybernetics.
There are rules for Fatigue (a simple -2 modifier to all rolls) and a list of common target numbers. As with other Traveller-related games, 8+ is the standard/average task.
There is also an optional section for adding Hero Points to the game. If you want to use these, each player starts each session with 2 HPs, and the group has a group pool of HPs equal to the number of players (optionally you can omit the group pool). Bad failures add a point to the group pool, and great successes add to you personal pool. You can use the points to get re-rolls both for players and NPCs and to re-roll on the Trauma Surgery, Cyborg Conversion or Bio-Reconstruction tables.
Comment: This is pretty standard, but I do like the addition of Hero Points for those wanting a more heroic campaign.
Skills
Skills are rated 0-5, which is pretty standard, and it’s recommended that all military PCs start with level 0 in Athletics, Driving, Gun Combat, Melee Combat and Zero-G, and that purely civilian characters start with 0 in Athletics, Drive and Zero-G.
By the way, level 0 skill means you don’t roll with the -3 penalty for being unskilled.
The skills are slightly different than the ones in Cepheus Engine Core: Repair is a combination of Electronics and Mechanics, Admin subsumes Advocate, and Carousing subsumes Gambling. This leaves us with 31 core skills which feels quite manageable.
Languages are separate from core skills - you start with your culture’s standard language, with additional languages equal to your EDU modifier - there are no Language Skill Modifiers - you either know the language, or you don’t. Obviously this doesn’t cater for someone who knows a smattering of a language, but it does streamline things.
There are rules for Skill advancement (and for learning new languages) by spending experience points. As in some other 2D6 games, there is a cap - you total skill levels may not exceed the sum of your current INT + EDU characteristics (look out for the effects of ageing on your character).
Nearly forgot - As an option you can improve characteristics (except Social Standing) by spending experience points. This is fairly expensive, and characteristics cap out at 15. Social Standing can only be improved through role-playing and successful adventuring.