If you were wondering, this is my second idea the first one being a faction game set in this world. I've been playing around with this steampunk universe for some time. I originally created it for a Risus campaign with my friend through Skype (that's what happens when the closest person your age, that speaks your language and you personally know, lives 8000km away), but we lost contact and than we started a new campaign and than he lost interest in RPG's, we got mad at each other about it and haven't talked to him since than. Anyway enough of my friendship problems, let's talk about The Steam of stars.
The Steam of stars is a Sci-Fi, Steampunk and Cyberpunk universe. The galaxy is controlled by different mining corporations and even though officially there are no guns fired, the galaxy is in chaos, both caused by political wars and "normal" wars. Different planets are controlled by smaller factions and criminal organizations, but soon the corporations will own everything. And as you might have guessed, everything, almost everything (you are going to soon find out) is powered by steam and coal is money, but they don't use coal as we do, because burning coal is a this precious black rock and I don't think a space ship powered by coal would fly too far. The coal is extracted in special furnaces and changed straight away into energy, it's what allows the spaceships to fly and shoot lasers (pew-pew), but you can't load the coal into the furnace ahead of time, because it goes to waste, it has to be the right amount at the right time. So space battles are mostly about getting the enemy to waste his energy before you do, or to maneuver the ship the right way to get the enemy stranded in space without fuel and board him after he has sat in the cold for long enough.
However there is one thing more precious than coal, the common folk call it "the steam of stars". The energy extracted from this mineral comes from only a few mines in the galaxy. There is one difference to coal - the energy can be stored for later allowing the corporations that own all the "steam of star" mines (other than a few random crystals found here and there who got rich on them) to create weapons and giant star ships more powerful than anything ever created. No man won a fight, no musket can beat the laser weapons. They say they corporations create even energy shields for their guards that no sword can pierce. A few of those weapons run around the black market, but no one has the money to power them with the precious "steam of stars".
There are three kind of weapons found in "The Steam of stars" universe - black powder weapons (muskets, pistols, real world renaissance weapons), though a bit more advanced, some even enhanced with mechanisms powered by "the steam"; Melee weapons are a very common addition to every person with a gun, richer people enhancing them the same way as they did with their black powder weapons; and at last energy weapons, they are located on all space ships that want to protect their precious cargo (counting the people inside, however the coal is often much more worth), however as you would know if you have read the previous spoiler, they will be powered differently on corporation ships and normal ships. "Star steam" is also used for smaller weapons to achieve laser guns, they extracted mineral is stored in energy pack which look like real world magazines, with a blue fluid-gas stored in them that can be seen through the glass on the energy pack. Once an energy pack is used, you have to exchange it for a new one however it takes quite some time to use it up.
Your character is composed of 17 skills, out of which four are for combat. The combat is a big part of the game and it's what took me the most time to make, but out of most situations in the cities you will have to get out of using your talking skills just because you don't want to start a gang war and get arrested for disturbing peace. Also, I don't like how in many systems and games, people take on a magazine of bullets and they just won't die, because their HP is OP, so here it's much easier to get finished-off.
Skill list and explanation:
Athletics: Skill of jumping around, doing dangerous stunts etc.
Notice: usually a passive skill, works how you would think it works.
Sleight of hand: pick pocketing, lock picking, etc.
Stealth: sneaking, hiding, etc.
Survival: first aid, finding yourself around the world etc.
Computing: even though the galaxy might not have computers like our world does, but it's the skill of working with, basically anything that is a computer.
Mechanics: skill of engineering, working with mechanisms, gears, repairing star ships etc.
Fabrication: making items from stuff, e.g. make ammunition, makeshift weapons etc.
Pilot: Flying star ships.
Deception: Lying to other people.
Intimidation: making people like you
Provocation: The skill of attacking someone mentally, but also provoking someone to do something.
Willpower: Resisting mental attacks and also pushing yourself to your limits.
Marksmanship: Shooting with small and big guns, throwing etc.
Melee combat: Fighting with anything that would apply as melee.
Block: Blocking attacks with armor.
Evasion: Evading attacks.
Now for combat explanation look bellow
More when interests is shown or when it's not shown, though I can tell you that the combat system is inspired by rougelikes like DF, Sil and CDDA, but it's simplified.
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Topic: The Steam of stars [RPG] (1/4), [OOC] (Read 1152 times)