The Comae Engine

Hi Robert, good question! I’m not sure I have a reasonable answer, but I’ll give it a try. It’s a bit long, so bear with me.

To me, the images in Comae Engine tell of characters experiencing strange, eerie and unexpected events. All of the drawings could be scenes from an RPG scenario (or any other story) that I would be more than happy to play. They not only state the fundamental storytelling phrase ”What if…”, they also fire up my imagination by asking ”Then what happened?”

And that’s what I wanted to create with The Comae Engine as well. I needed a roleplaying game that could tell many different types of stories, without leaving classic RPG rules behind. That way, I can still play a dungeon crawl if I want (probably not) but also investigative, social or just plain weird scenarios with rules I’m comfortable with. I’m not sure I have succeeded, but this is the closest I’ve ever got. With a host of detailed conflicts to choose from, I have changed the way I play,...See more relying less on violence and more on creativity and other conflict types.

The artwork might seem dark or overly strange, but it captures the essence of storytelling in a fantastic way. Aside from being really cool images : )

Regarding the cover, I’m sorry to hear you find it troubling (or ugly?). I get a lot of positive feedback on it and very few complaints. I see the illustration as critique of the screen-based society we live in today, where a few select individuals thrive on likes and comments in social media - while making most of us feel worse about ourselves. We trample on our mental well-being, while lifting some random person to the skies. A truly sad development. But roleplaying games can actually be a good force in all this, yanking us away from our screens and tell stories together instead.

What an interesting and thorough reply. I didn’t think the cover was ugly. As a matter fact, the artwork is compelling I just didn’t see how it worked with your game, but after reading your reply and the depth of your analysis, I get the feeling that you have a creative heart and that includes for the artwork. I see now what you want to convey.
I really do appreciate the care you put into your reply. And I’m quite pleased with my purchase of The Comae Engine. Happy gaming.

Hey Krzysztof, good question! It usually depends on the situation. In melee combat I usually allow for two vs. one, with -20% for the outnumbered fighter. With some clever use of Lenses by the PC, I might even push it to four vs. one in a cinematic setting. In social conflicts, I only allow for a single opponent in a round, as everyone can't talk at the same time. Instead, those taking part in the conflict take turns coming up with arguments and rolling. Further, in some physical challenges - like pushing a huge rock blocking an exit - all PCs combine their Conflict Pools, but make individual skill rolls vs. the rock. The PCs who rolled better than the GM deals damage to the rock's Pool, but those who failed or rolled below the GM reduce the PCs' combined Pool. In essence, it's often best to use common sense and discuss the conflict's setup with the players.

Hi Robert, I'm happy you like it! I have put in a great deal of time and energy to age the character sheets to perfection : ) But I have the spotless original somewhere on my HDD, so I'll add it to the downloads section of FrostByte's web page. Not sure how scalable it is though.

Thanks

Hi Tobias, the misplaced text should be correct in the most recent version, 0.98b.

Hi Ryan, I’m happy you like what you see so far! Skills are not based on two characteristics as in Mythras, but use a skill pyramid instead with fixed base chances, to make character creation really quick. On top of skills, you add Focuses for specialisations.

For PC improvement, I’ve kept it simple. After every session, PCs get to raise any skill of the player’s choice. If they have followed their Willpower Focus (similar to Passions) they get a second XP roll. You can tie them to failures or checkmarks if you want, but it’s not specifically stated in the rules.

Hi Jason, Comae Engine works really well for Call of Cthulhu. I use it extensively for Odd Soot, my 1920s mystery RPG, and it plays very smoothly. There are no sanity rules in the book, however, but it’s easy to use POW as a fear conflict pool and Willpower to check for reactions. With a pool breakpoint at zero, characters should probably gain some more lasting effects as POW drops into negative values.

Hi Robert, that's correct. DriveThru usually notify buyers when a new product version is uploaded.

Ok I found a link in the rulebook pointing to site with sheets. But in my opinion black&white should be default option :)

Hi Aaron, good to hear you found the download link! Would a separate download for the black and white sheet be a good idea?

For sure separate link would be great. I think black and white sheet is the most basic one and most often used.

Hi Markey, the rules are meant to be setting-agnostic and the cover image is not representative of the genres that are possible.

With that said, I do have a sci-fi and 1920s RPG background, and it probably shines through in the ruleset. So, much like Mythras Imperative can be used for most settings, but has a slight bend towards fantasy, Comae Engine leans toward modern gaming. But in practice it’s just as easy to use with mythic and fantasy settings, even though my personal focus is not on those genres. I know several groups using it for vanilla fantasy, darker variants and various crossovers. And I’m sure fantasy-based plugins will appear in time.

Hi Mark, there will be a license for third party creators, but I'm not sure yet what it will contain. It will be either an open license or similar to the Mythras Gateway. Feel free to email me if you have any suggestions about the license or if you have a project idea you want to share. My email is clarence.redd (a) gmail.com

Hi Artikhun, I couldn’t decide whether to make Unarmed 1d4 or 1d3 (ie. 1d6 divided by two, rounded up). I finally went with 1d3, but I’m still not sure.

I'd like to see non-lethal combat - an emphasis on throws, pins, restraints, and even sleeper holds, where Unarmed can do a lot more than just plink away at the target's BODY stat, 1d3 at a time.

+1 on non-lethal combat!
I sold a few games today so I immediately wanted to get this. Great game engine! I really like what you've done with it ... I have actually been working on something eerily similar ... I guess now I don't need to finish it ;) I'd love to see a POD option eventually (I have M-Space with Elevation and Odd Soot in PDF and Print versions). I'm also curious to see what licensing you will use. I usually use CC-by or CC-by-nc-sa. But something like the Gateway license might work well - depending on what you are really looking to achieve with it.

Hi Alex, good idea! I believe I have some notes on that already.

Thanks James! I'm happy you like it. I believe the POD version is not too far off. But the licensing stuff is more complex than I imagined, but I will certainly look into CC. And sorry if I short circuited your game project!

Now that the ORC license is out, that may be the way to go. I noticed Design Mechanism's new Classic Fantasy Imperative is using it.

Hi Serge, thanks for the suggestion! I will give it some thought, but I actually like the idea that it's impossible to get an exceptional roll with a really low skill. I see it as a feature.