This is a classic rule set that reminds the reader of Traveller, but cleaned up and streamlined for play.

If you are a fan of Traveller, you will like Thousand Suns.

Why was OGL license required for this rule set? Does it use a Wizards of Coast (D&D) rule set? How?

Yet another boring generic ""space opera rpg"" that brings no new ideas to the table. Having said that, the real problem is not lack of originality in terms of setting tropes, but a lack of examination of the tremendous potential of scifi tropes.

Simply put, this is one of the best rule systems I have ever read. The system is clean, exciting, and easy to pick up. If you are looking for a game system that is classless, levelless, modular, and customizable, just buy it. It's an absolute steal. I love it so much that I've been adapting it to use in my fantasy campaign.

Most excellent product, full of very practical and useful material for your Tekumel campaign. Now even easier to use as you can search the PDF! Please publish rest of them!

There is no 3.5 rating, and since the good outweighed the awkward, in my opinion, I weighted the review at "4". The system is a great homage to various others of the 70s and 80s, most notably Traveller.

The basic mechanics are streamlined and forthright. The game is written intelligently, and it seems the author has a good feel for what is important in the Golden Age Imperial science fiction genre. The rules are reasonably well laid out in the table of contents, and, while they are not indexed, do have references of the "see p. x" variety that almost always point to the correct spot. They are hyperlinked in the PDF version.

However: the rules set (in fact all the books) are desperately in need of decent proofreading. Many sentences and paragraphs look as though partial changes were made to different galleys and then not reconciled. There are errors in grammar, syntax and, quite simply, bit that read like two different sentences were spliced together. This detracts from the whole.

The rules also make much of being generic enough that one may graft them onto any system, a plus. There is a fine line between that and insufficient information, however.

For example, when one has price lists of items, and costs for starships, this suggests that these would be relative to some sort of economy, and none is given. Costs of travel, lifestyle, ship maintenance and so forth are entirely up to the users. Of course, our group again made them up and I referenced some other games for inspiration and suggestions, but while we are following the rules example of keeping things functional and not too granular, the setting does suffer form a complete lack of "what goes on in ordinary life and how do people live"?

Nonetheless, we will use this system, rather than others, because it allows one to get on with the adventuring rather than bogging down in granularity and, if more sourcebooks are forthcoming for the author's own setting, these may address some of the shortcomings.

The character sheet is acceptable. Our group found it more useful during generation than in play. We found insufficient space for the Hooks, and the Vitality break points for penalties do not match up to the rules suggestions, especially since different characters will have different totals and the penalties come at percentages of the total. We made our own sheets, which had most of the "tactical" information on one page, and the "background information" on another.

Although I wrote a review of some early 1KS material, the new rulebook is worth another look.

Science fiction roleplaying in the Traveller mold has been a long standing part of our hobby. However, few explicitly acknowledge or attempt to seek out mechanics that chase after the roots of this variety of science fiction. Thousand Suns, by contrast, both acknowledges and supports the classic science fiction literary underpinnings of "imperial sf".

The mechanics of the game are simple, and use the best die, the d12. If you don't like d12s, a) don't buy this game, and b) you have bad taste.

The most important part of this rulebook for me is the setting creation and GM section. These channel GM preparation into clearly, immediately actionable locations that the players will immediately want to interact with. The trade system is just random enough to give a risk of a loss, but manipulable enough to entice characters to try it. The system is also transparent enough that players can build a strategy around trade.

I do have some reservations about the systems simulating trade and planetary events because how reliable it is. What I mean is, in much of the source material sf, the characters end up on an adventure out of desperation because they lost their shirt in a business deal or in a war. The system doesn't make any allowances for this, and the principles by which GMs approach the game make it difficult to do something like this in a fair way.

If you're looking for vividly drawn, strange, sf settings, look elsewhere - the literary antecedents of this game offered a universe that was eminently recognizable to Earthlings in the 1950s. However, if you want a game about exploration, shady or somewhat blinkered PCs being put into tight situations, boostrapping themselves to free market success and shooting bad guys, this is a rollicking, fast-moving, fun adventure. I'm reviewer tiling up one star because it explicitly calls out exactly what kind of sf it is chasing after and because the speed and simplicity of a solid, workable system. Check it out and I can't wait for more to come!

Adventure suffers from lack of structure feels like a haphazard collection of rooms, in other words it's a so called funhouse dungeon. I think there are better modules that combine horror and dungeon crawling. Not really a bad adventure but lamentably mediocre.

My printed copy has arrived! It's C-format hardback - which is a really portable size - looks incredibly like a school book sci-fi text. Also got the PDF on the iPad. (Well worth the $30)

At the moment I'm mainly buying games to read -and what a great read! Well fleshed out background ideas based on the classic 40s-60s "Imperial" theme, whilst providing a vast open setting to develop and explore. Very informed, with literary quotes scattered throughout.

Strangely enough, I haven't read half enough books from that period, and my concept of "Space Opera" was more based on Star Wars, so it's refreshing that the game is presented as a "straight" setting, without the camp Flash Gordon associations, so prevalent in some retro-sci-fi games.

Given the choice between playing this and my GDW Traveller, I would choose this, partly because the fast play d12 mechanics provide a broader probability range with more opportunities for modification (see the previous review for a brief description of the d12* system) But also because I love the feel of rolling two d12s. ;)

The presentation is incredibly slick and professional, with a high standard of illustrations, consistent with the classic sci-fi theme, whilst the starships have a plausible clean hi-tech look.

The section on Esperanto took me by surprise! :) This is an optional extra will entertain dedicated fans lovers of the genre.

James Maliszewski is a master of game and gaming culture observation (I'm a fan of his Grognardia blog). It's great to see those skills channelled into this game.

It's also a "complete" system. This rulebook is pretty much all you need.

If you're curious... just go for it.

Billiam B. bit.ly/rpgblog

I'm only familiar with one of the stated inspirations for The Cursed Chateau -- the classic D&D Module X2 Chateau D'Amberville (Castle Amber), and as such that framed a lot of my expectations for the adventure.

In general, I liked the setup of the map and the anticipated flow of adventurers through the Chateau -- initial encounters being more weird than fatal (unless the adventurers take unnecessary risks), and later encounters becoming more challenging. Of course, the overall setup of the adventure is primarily one of running through a gauntlet until certain conditions are met.

Of course, that's the main issue I had with the adventure: keeping track of whether or not conditions have been met actually ends up consuming a fair amount of the DM's time when running this neoretro-module and I wonder -- if followed as written - that may be some unnecessary overhead to the DM's work.

I loved the artwork -- very atmospheric and evocative of the strangeness DMs should be striving for when showing the strangeness and the horrors of the Chateau. The latter rooms also felt a lot like classic Castle Amber, where players begin encountering evidence of the former resident's life choices and their inevitable ends as they stumble towards their ultimate release from the Chateau.

All in all, a very solid module to run -- though the record keeping associated with the core conceit of the module may have to be handwaved for DMs adverse to it.

Originally posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/12/30/tabletop-review-the-cursed-chateau/

Usually we only get review copies of newly released titles here at Diehard GameFAN, so I was a bit surprised to see a code for The Cursed Chateau come into my inbox a week or so ago. After all, it was released towards the end of 2009. Still, I’m a sucker for “haunted house” adventures, having cut my gaming eye teeth on Ravenloft and I’ll always love old school D&D, which is the system this is made for. With those two things in mind, I decided to review The Cursed Chateau and see if it is was worth the four dollar price tag.

The Cursed Chateau is designed for Dungeons & Dragons, and both editions of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. It’s written for four to eight characters with their levels ranging between 4 and 6. Although you’ll want to have a cleric with, the adventure does seem to favor Warrior classes the most. That’s always a nice change of pace.

The crux of The Cursed Chateau revolves around the machinations of one Lord Jourdain Ayarai. This wealthy lord slipped into depravity, debauchery and demon worship (Go alliteration!) due to a massive case of ennui. Eventually Jourdain tired of life itself and decided to shuffle of this mortal coil via a suicide ritual that would allow him to enter the world beyond. Of course, why he needed a ritual instead of a sword to the heart is never explained. Unfortunately, the ritual went awry and now Jourdain’s spirit is tied to his earthly home. He is now more bored (and insane) then ever and with the ability to seal the grounds of his manor off similar to how a Lord of Ravenloft can seal their domain, once inside, there are only two ways to leave The Cursed Chateau – by breaking the curse or joining Ayarai in death. It’s a neat little plot and it can fit nicely inside a Ravenloft campaign easily. It can fit in any D&D campaign really, but Ravenloft is definitely the best home for this due to the powers and setting.

The adventure has no real beginning or end, leaving it up to the DM to decide why his players should go to this locale. The game gives a few examples of why, but there’s nothing that would especially make characters WANT to take the risk of being eternally sealed in with a mad spirit and its undead servants. For some DMs, the best option is just to throw the chateau in as a background location on the way to another adventure and have the players blunder in to it. The end of the adventure is completely random and depending on dice rolls and character decisions, they just may be trapped there forever. You see, the adventure ends when Jourdain 100 “diversion points.” The problem is it’s a bit hard to earn diversion points and quite easy to lose them. The chart really isn’t balanced at all and the possibility of the adventure frustrating players as well as the DM is actually quite high. More care should have been taken to ensure the table didn’t cause this gaming gridlock. The adventure suggests adding your own bits to the table, but honestly most people that purchase adventures want things laid out for them a little more than this. My suggestion would be to either lower the diversion point threshold or cut it out altogether and just have Jourdain’s soul move on after a certain piece of the adventure or better yet, when it feels right. Otherwise you’re risking ennui setting in on your players, not just the main antagonist.

Much of the adventure requires use of the random event chart, known as “Jourdain’s Fun.” Most of these are spooky bits such as blood dripping from the walls or phantom screams. Only two are combat based, which I think is a great idea. However there are two problems. The first is that thanks to magical weapons and items, most D&D gamers (and their characters) don’t react to bumps in the night very well. They either ignore them or laugh them off. It’s one of the reasons even back in the days of old school D&D most gamers that wanted that went to Chill, Call of Cthulhu or something similar. Again, this is why I suggest putting this adventure in a Ravenloft campaign, as gamers playing that tend to react better to spooky than those that have been in a Monty Haul campaign. The second problem is that because so few D&D gamers react to horror/terror outside of Ravenloft, those distraction points are going to dry up and we’re back to the potential endless loop of being stuck in the chateau.

Monsters are an interesting mix. Most of the undead in the adventure are Skeletons, zombies, ghouls and shadows…which probably won’t present much of a challenge to characters between levels 4 and 6, which this adventure is made for. However, there are a few solo monsters like a wight, a spectre and a wraith that can show up randomly and act as mid-bosses. Unfortunately, only the spectre has any real hit points, soi to give your players a challenge, you may want to buff things up a bit.

The two boss fights (for lack of a better term) involve a demon and an Iron Maiden Golem. The demon is exceptionally weak to begin with and it shouldn’t pose much of a challenge. You can also avoid this battle entirely. You’ll find some players will purposely trigger it just to earn more distraction points however. The Iron Maiden Golem is the real challenge of the adventure and should give any characters that come across it pause. It’s a very original monster, does a lot of damage if the DM plays it right and it by far the biggest source of terror in the adventure.

My two biggest problems with the adventure both revolve around the same issue, which is that The Cursed Chateau tries to mix horror with D&D style fantasy and unfortunately doesn’t do a good job of it. There are a lot of monsters other than undead here, that include fire elementals, hell hounds, gargoyles and more. There are also a LOT of monsters, which prevents any real sense of dread from occurring. A spooky adventure is best served with lots of red herrings and a few but powerful creatures. When you line an adventure with a lot of weaker monsters that the character could beat a level or two ago with ease, the mood is lost. The second problem is there are a lot of magic items in the adventure. A good horror adventure has little to no magic and forces the players to rely on what they have on them and/or their wits. There is also way too much gold just lying around haphazardly, which makes this adventure more of the old Monty Haul trope than something truly scary to unleash on players. A good DM will take one look at this and realize they have to rebalance the entire adventure to create a spooky feel throughout it. They’ll be removing a lot of the things that don’t fit the theme like the black pudding and gelatinous cube, cutting down the number of distraction points needed to end the adventure, buffing up the monsters they do keep, and removing a lot of the gold or magical items.

Overall, I give the adventure a thumbs in the middle. It’s only four dollars and there’s a lot of content here. Unfortunately it’s not so much a spooky horror adventure as it is a hack and slash Monty Haul affair wrapped in some Ravenloft style trappings. It might be a good adventure for those that want a haunted house affair for their players even though everyone likes killing dozens of creatures in an adventure but it misses the mark when it comes to actually providing a chilling experience for D&D players. The Cursed Chateau is well written storywise and is laid out nicely, but it really needed to decide what type of adventure it really wanted to be and could have used some definite balancing.

I recently purchased this book. I bought the Hardcover version as well, but for now I can only comment on the PDF.

Simply put, Thousand Suns is a Imperial Science Fiction game using the 12° system.

[12° System]

For those of you not familiar with this system, it uses two twelve sided dices (2D12) for all rolls. You determine a target number by adding an ability (average of 6) and a skill (variable value). For example, a Dexterity of 6 and a Shoot of 6 will give you a Target Number of 12. When you roll, you need to roll equal or under the target number. So in the previous example of a target number of 12, you need to roll from 1 to 12 to succeed. The amount by which you succeeds becomes your degree of success.

I have to say that I am not a fan of systems using a roll low approach, but it works somewhat neatly anyway.

[Characters]

The book starts with character creation. You can build any character you can imagine in such a setting, from a grizzled army veteran to a frail scientist. The character creation is based on choices and is NOT class-based, which I like. You start will a pool of 30 points to choose your abilities between Body, Dexterity, Perception, Presence and Will. Then you basically go through phases to choose what your character will be. Each choice adds to your skills and attributes.

The phases are:

1. Determine Ability Scores: Divide 30 points between the character’s five abilities.
2. Select Species: Choose the character’s species. Spend the bonus points listed under the “Traits” section of the species on abilities and/or skills of one’s choice.
3. Select Homeworld Package: Choose one homeworld package for the character.
4. Select Career Package(s): Choose three levels of career packages for the character.
5. Create Hooks: Decide on five hooks for the character, one based on his species, one based on his homeworld, and three based on your his career(s).
6. Benefit Points: Determine how many benefit points the character receives and spend them.
7. Finishing Touches: Give the character a name, age, and gender.

You do not have any freebies after this to add to your character so you must choose wisely. Some choices you make can give you some free points to spend on skills and attributes.

I like this approach to character creation which reminded me of lifepaths.

[The Setting]

In the Gamemaster section is presented numerous options to make the setting what you want it to be. The author claims that the first part of the book was left deliberately free of setting-related information so the Gamemaster may plug his own setting in. It is somewhat true, if the GM decides to replace races and a few character options (such as languages which are already tied in to the setting).

Then the Author gives the Gamemaster a run down of what his setting is. It is brought forward in a fashion that helps understand why such and such choices were made. It also gives the GM the opportunity to choose between and Empire or a Federation to be the ruling body of the setting. It is a very interesting option for GMs!

The setting itself is your usual Imperial Sci-Fi background, with old federations, civil wars, first contact and such. Note that Terrans (or humans) are considered to be on top and the Federation/Empire of the Thousand Suns is top dog. No other Alien race is more powerful (or at least not yet...).

[My Take on it]

Overall, the product is well made. The layout is well done and the art is mostly decent. As for the writing, I have not spotted many spelling errors (but since I am French, what do I know?).

I will need to delve further into it and playtest it, but so far so good.

[Differences with the old Edition]

This is basically the revised edition that was published by Rogue-Games. The layout is way better, the rules are better explained. Psionics are embedded in the basic system and appears to be working fine. Overall, it is a far superior work that its last iteration

The Cursed Chateau is a horror-infused, retro fantasy, location-based adventure module designed to be compatible with any old-school class-and-level system. It is designed for 4 – 8 characters of 4th – 6th Level and contains stats that are meant to be broad for compatibility with many systems. The adventure pins the PCs in a nasty little game of investigation and survival while attempting to succeed in the adventure’s hopeful outcome. This module is filled with twists and lots of nasties and should keep the players on their toes, as long as they realize how success is achieved.

The infusion of retro fantasy and horror is done perfectly. Obtaining the great riches can come at a heavy cost with plenty of secrets hiding in the shadows. It’s a great adventure module for dropping into a campaign or running by itself. Although if you’re not careful, this adventure could cut your campaign short.

I definitely recommend running this adventure module. Not only as an old-school styled module but also as a horror-themed module for any compatible game system (or one that can become easily compatible). With its possible high-level of difficulty, its bound to keep your players guessing and each and every turn.

Thousand Suns: Transmissions from Piper begins with the following words: "Written by H. Beam Piper..." Although other authors are listed, those words alone made me sit up and take notice. H. Beam Piper is one of the most important science fiction authors who ever lived. (James Maliszewski's introduction is very good for the uninitiated.) His amazing stories influenced some of the greatest sf writers and visionaries of the genre. And this supplement takes these terrific stories and adapts them to gameplay for the Thousand Suns game.

The Transmissions include three full stories and adaptations: Naudsonce, Last Enemy and Ministry of Disturbance. The adaptations for each story include specifics on how to adapt Thousand Suns to the requirements of the stories, which (for example) predated modern understandings of the ubiquity of computers and therefore use other technologies to accomplish what we today would expect to see spacemen use computers for.

Naudsonce describes the difficulties of dealing with an alien species with unusual cultural and communications. The Last Enemy is an astonishingly well-crafted view of assassination in a world where reincarnation is a scientific fact. The Ministry of Disturbance takes history as its main subject, and what one leader decides to do when he sees his galactic empire beginning to stagnate.

Each of these stories is accompanied by different sorts of science fictional problems from linguistics to reincarnation, and optional rules for how to handle each of them are well-detailed in the supplement. These rules are intended to help GMs further explore the ideas of each story, and they succeed admirably. Rather than being a hodgepodge, as so many science fiction games are, these explore one idea quite thoroughly - like the source material itself. As a story-oriented gamer, this approach has no equal.

There are some minor typos, though nothing game-killing. There are no bookmarks or hyperlinks to jump directly to the material desired. However, I am so in love with this material, the format, and the stories, good lord, the stories, that I'm reviewer tilting this one up, up, up. This is exactly what should be done with the amazing stuff that is falling into the public domain now. Thought-provoking adventure and great gaming ideas!