Review updated: 5/5 Stars. Mr. Elliott can’t be accused of being unresponsive to customers' comments and criticisms. I provided this initial review of his product and dinged him on several points. I was upset about the lackluster cover, and he updated it with new cover art, including a spaceship, which I was disappointed to find missing from my original PDF purchase. The table of contents and index issues haven’t been addressed yet; however, having played with these rules some more, I find this shortened rule set really doesn’t suffer as much from those missing items as I originally suggested. Finally, I purchased a print version of these fine rules and got the spaceship cover art I always wanted, and I am very happy with it, indeed.
Original review (4/5 Stars):
Unfortunately, my PDF version of these rules didn’t come with the cool spaceship on the cover, but rather an underwhelming planet with rings motif (e.g., Saturn). Honestly, the spaceship cover is what initially drew me to this product, so that’s a bummer to begin with. Further bummed, the marginal table of contents was missing hyperlinked page numbers and there is no index. I thought the early placement of the tech levels table was odd until the following section on “setting” referenced various TLs a lot, so it’s a good thing TLs were introduced early on.
The following section on characters was solid, with an ample 12-step character creation checklist. These rules consist of six characteristics, six careers, and 24 skills, amongst other things. Several techniques are introduced to speed up character creation. For example, the author provides number strings (basically 42-point buy) for determining characteristic values (no die-rolling here). This process culminates with the familiar hexadecimal UPP code.
Task/skill difficulties aren’t the expected 8+ for everything. The referee is encouraged to establish a difficulty rating from 2 to 12, depending on the presumptive challenge of whatever is being attempted. When in doubt, it is suggested that the referee roll 2d6 to establish a challenge rating at random. Unskilled penalties, multi-skill requirements, opposed rolls, and characteristic rolls are all within the scope of these abbreviated rules (much like Classic Traveller).
The section on combat deals fairly and simply with initiative, surprise, movement, time, range, terrain, grappling, auto fire, throwing things, aiming, reloading, injuries, medical attention, armor, robots, sensors, damage repair, etc. Rules for simultaneous, melee, ranged, vehicular, and starship combat abound.
Spaceflight procedures cover crew requirements, skimming fuel, travel times, passenger options, spacecraft operations, misjumps, finances, buying and selling speculative cargo, and more.
Shipbuilding rules consist of a 17-item checklist consisting of displacement tons, hull size, drives, power plants, fuel, computers, artificial gravity, ship’s fittings and weaponry, final design notes, etc. For those who prefer premade vessels, 21 historic and new ships are outlined and discussed over 6 or 7 pages.
The equipment section dives into a broad range of weapons, armor, vehicles, tools, gear, and various other accessories to keep travelers active in gameplay and engaged in pursuit of their goals for a long time to come.
Although I’m not interested in any treatment of psionics (space magic), the author dedicates 4 to 5 pages to the subject to keep those Referees and Players interested and engaged.
Worlds and star mapping are adequately covered over the next 7 to 8 pages. Animals and encounters follow up over the next 5 to 6 pages. Solo gaming enthusiasts will be pleased to note a section of solo rules that takes up the next 10 pages. A setting, the Autonomous Region, is designed and outlined over the following 11 or 12 pages. Much of this seems to be a repeat of material provided elsewhere in the Zozer lineup, but I think it is good and appropriate to be included here as well.
Appendix 1 covers the optional random (dice-rolling) character (and NPC) generation method. Appendix 2 covers supplementary planet/star system generation methods and materials for generating extra detail to keep travelers engaged in whatever setting a referee places them in.
The product is rounded out with various forms (character sheet, ship sheet, star system sheet), blank and filled hex grid maps, legal notice/game license, and artwork. If I counted correctly, 10 black and white, non-AI pieces of art tastefully decorate these rules.
These 2d6 retro sci-fi rules have turned out to be precisely where I wanted and needed them to be – not too much nor too little. At 91 pages in length, this ruleset isn’t as comprehensive as Cepheus Universal, clocking in at 443 pages, or the Clement Sector Core Rules at 673 pages. Conversely, Retro Sci-Fi Rules provides much more detail IMHO than Cepheus Atom, Quantum Starfarer, etc. While each 2d6 sci-fi ruleset has its sweet spot (rules-heavy, rules-lite, rules ultralight), I think I might have found my GOAT 2d6 sci-fi ruleset in Zozer’s Retro Rules (individual results will, of course, vary).
Happy gaming!
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