Showing posts with label FATE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FATE. Show all posts

Thursday, December 3, 2015

John Till's Strange Stars


There's a proof copy of Strange Stars Fate. There are a few things we want to fix, so it's not ready for release yet, but it's getting close.

Friday on the Hydra Collective blog we'll feature an interview I did with John "Fate SF" Till, author of the Fate implementation of Strange Stars (available now in pdf). John had a lot of interesting things to say. Here's an excerpt:

You write a blog with SF in the title! What are some works/authors that you like?
I read a lot of SF on my own, and I am also part of the Second Foundation, a SF reading group in the Twin Cities that has been meeting for decades! This is an SF-rich community, with two world-class SF book stores just a few miles from my house. We read a lot in Minnesota, because of the long winters.

As a kid, my first SF books were:
  • Robert A. Heinlein’s Orphans of the Sky (my lifelong love of generation ships started here!)
  • James Blish’s Spock Must Die. You can’t get any more Strange Stars than the sea of coffee produced by insane Organians!
  • Samuel R. Delaney’s great space operas, Babel-17 and Nova
  • John Christopher’s Tripods trilogy.
  • The Ace Books translations of the Perry Rhodan space opera series. In fact, the first space empires that my friends and I created in the years right before roleplaying games were inspired by Rhodan. I am the very proud owner of TWO German books full of Perry Rhodan ship blueprints!

My big SF influences these days include Alastair Reynolds, the Culture novels of Iain M. Banks, and the classic space opera of Cordwainer Smith. And of course, Eleanor Arnason, Minnesota’s best SF writer. Space opera fans should make a point of reading her Ring of Swords; fans of Niven’s Known Space stories should read her Tomb of the Fathers. I read ALL of Cordwainer Smith’s Instrumentality short stories and Norstrilia last year. I (re)read six Delaney novels over the summer!

Like I said, we read a lot in Minnesota.

Monday, November 16, 2015

Strange Stars Fate A-Z

Just in case you missed it last week, the Strange Stars Fate rule book pdf is available. The softcover files are with OBS and hopefully will be approved for printing soon.

While you wait, check out the "Strange Stars A-Z" series John Till, the author of the Fate rule book, has been doing on his blog.

Thursday, November 12, 2015

Strange Stars Fate Released

The wait is over--at least for you Fate fans. The Strange Stars Fate Rulebook written by John Till edited by myself and featuring art by David Lewis Johnson, Adam Moore and Reno Maniquis and layout and design by Lester B. Portly is here!

For those of you of more old school tastes, you are not forgotten. The OSR rulebook is in the works. Stay tuned.




Sunday, October 11, 2015

Fate SF Strange Stars A-D


As a sort of lead up to the release of Strange Stars Fate (soon now!), it's author, John Till has been doing some Strange Stars related posts on his blog. Even if Fate isn't your system of choice, there is some good and gameable stuff, here!

A: Attendants--a moravec clade who provide topnotch service to the wealthiest clients.
B: Bomoth on Boreas!
C: Clades and how you use them.
D: Adding the Deaders from Last Parsec to Strange Stars.

Friday, October 2, 2015

Another Strange Stars Fate Tease

The Strange Star Fate Rule Book draws ever closer. Here are two sample pages. The title page featuring art by Adam Moore:


And the character record sheet:

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

More Sample Strange Stars Pages


Lester B. Portly sent me several more chapters from John Till's Strange Stars Fate this weekend. Here's the first page of the draft for the "Threats" chapter featuring art by Adam Moore, where the usual suspects appear (the ssraad, ksaa, and the Vokun and the Zao Pirates), but also some you might not immediately think of: a modified clone of Hannibal Early, a renegade thrax, and a blesh master criminal.

Monday, April 20, 2015

Fate Strange Stars Page


Here's another page from the work-in-progress Strange Stars Fate gamebook. The text is by John Till, the picture by David Lewis Johnson, and the layout by Lester B. Portly.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Species of the Alliance


I just uploaded a draft of a document Strange Stars: Sophonts of the Alliance. It's statted for FATE, and it's a product of my tinkering with that system to get to know it. Some of those species I've already statted for SWN on the blog, so I'm not even out the old school among you. The doc has some information that hasn't appeared on the blog. There's something for everybody.

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Bomoth Revisited


In the midst of reading a few FATE games (Starblazer Adventures and Bulldogs! and informed by the SA supplement Mindjammer), I figured converting some of the species I've already created was a good way to try the system out. So here is a Starblazer Adventures version of Bomoth.

Suggested Aspects:
Caterpillar-like form
Invoke: to get into places a humanoid might not be able to go.
Compel: when trying to blend in to a crowd.
Cool, Man
Invoke: to be unfazed in a stressful situation.
Compel: to feel a real sense of danger when it might be imminent.
Hep
Invoke: to find the party or score the drug.
Compel: to fool Johnny Law or pass as a solid citizen.
Live for the Music
Invoke: to play a gig.
Compel: to focus on something else.

Special Abilities:
Extra Set of Hands [-1]: Additional limbs allow a supplementary action without the -1 penalty
Vocal Mimicry [-1]: Bomoth can flawlessly recreate voices or sounds.