A NOCTURNE — playtest v0.7.1 release
Howdy, all! A Nocturne version 0.7.1 is here, complete with four playbooks, two craft playbooks, and a sample cluster containing six systems and twelve factions. If you notice any mistakes or weird omissions, flag them and I’ll get into the editing caves! In the meantime, feel free to inflict this on your (hopefully willing) players, and message me with feedback!
In case anyone’s just tuning in: A Nocturne is a Blades hack where you play as interstellar space bastards looking to make a quick profit in a vast and uncaring universe. It’s a bit weird and twisted. Enjoy!
(apologies for the low resolution – I’m currently compiling these PDFs for speed and ease of use, so very-slightly-blurry images are unfortunately a side effect)
Ooooooohhhhh
Im totally making off-topic backseat driver suggestions here, you should push the graphic design on the ships. Like a circle, deathstar or dropship with all the advancements in rings. Or like that show Lexx, a ship thats a mile long straight line, you have two lines of choice. Or a hemispherical two-part ship, or a mobius. It’ll throw off all your lovely craft-sheet layouts and make the whole thing miserable. Or like a celtic knot, 3d triangle, with linked advancements layered
Or like those R-Type techno-organic baddies, the Bydo, any plans for a ship like that?
Greg Barnsdale I’m not sure, but now my mind is racing with the possibilities. An organic ship is definitely in the works, and I’m certainly open to some weird-ass shapes.
Silver Samurai What readers are you using?
The Broken is one of the coolest playbooks ever. Love it!
Really loving what you have. The descriptions/looks of the ships are great. I love the ideas the modules put in my head.
Makes me think of other types of large weird/bad exploitable ships that could make another ship playbook.
Maybe one based around a huge generational colony ship that’s gone wrong (a la Pandorum) or one based around a swarm of pirate ships. Maybe one that’s like a planetary strip miner like Galactus or one that drops atmospheric conversion factories ahead of a colonizing force.
Calum Grace my suggestions are probably better finishing touches, i dont want to throw off the solid work that you’re doing. Having some trippy shaped ships doesnt help if they dont have solid themes and moves and options. But that was what happened to me too, i got thinking about art and comics and games and shows and my head started spinning, like its far future zero-g, why cant you have ships that look like lobsters or amorphous clouds??!?
I really like this game’s use of the turf system to allow for “factions” that are inside the ship. I really want to play a game about taking control of a huge hulker while using the planet buster laser to extort and punish a la the Lexx.
Oh! Maybe a playbook loosely based on Stanley from the Lexx? The Key, a person who is mysteriously linked to the ship, and integral to it’s effective use. Sort of like the Mortal playbook in Monsterhearts.
What math have you used for interstellar travel and fuel use? You also have the ‘cheap’ option of only accelerating part of the trip and coasting the rest [which would make no difference for rest of world except for crew]..
Matthijs Krijger I used an online calculator ( nathangeffen.webfactional.com – Space travel calculator ), but rather liberally – I’m going for the feel rather than absolute rigour. I also went for constant acceleration (with a flip and burn around the halfway mark) because I wanted that greater variance between observed time and crew time. That said, the coasting option could be a good alternative to the quarter acceleration table.
Greg Barnsdale Oh, yeah, I only took them as such. I’m gonna be working up concepts for craft long before I think about what they look like – then I can dip into the weird stuff!
spikemaw I really love this playbook idea.I might do some noodling to see how I’d make it work.
You need few more tables, “As fast as possible” (around 3G), “As cheap as possible” [=coasting], “as long as it is fast for us, we dont care how much time passes for rest of world”, “optimal compromise between cheap and fast”, “given the distance and fuel (profit) we got, how fast can we get there” (=reverse table).
Matthijs Krijger I definitely don’t want to overburden the players with tables, but I’m certainly going to consider these alternatives. Again, I might do some experimentation to see if I can make some of these work in a way that’s fast and intuitive in-play.
Calum Grace This is looking good. Thank you for sharing. Can I ask what software you are using for your layout?
Matthew Chappory I’m a dirty casual who’s using Photoshop right now. Should probably take the plunge and pick up Illustrator…
Calum Grace InDesign will be your best bet as you can set up style sheets, master pages and import/link graphics as you need them. It will allow you more efficiency when laying out a document. If you are using a Creative Suite licence you also get access to some useful typefaces. I’m happy to help as it’s what I do for a living 🙂 If you go down that path drop me a line.
God, this game is so my kind of sci-fi it hurts. If I can offer some constructive criticism, I think the Outlaw needs a bit of work. It feels too much like a copy-paste of the Hound, and I’m not sure if it fits the tone of the game right. Compared to the other playbooks, the Outlaw feels a bit . . . blasé? Maybe change up The Most Dangerous Game move to be less about hunting prey and more about being obsessed (with a person, place, thing, concept)? The idea of the playbook is solid, I’m just not sure if it quite lines up with the rest of the game as it stands. Not to take anything away from the game, by the way. This is such a cool concept and there are so many neat (and twisted) opportunities that can come out of it. Best of luck as development goes forward!
Alex Lopez I really like that idea. The Outlaw needs a little more oomph, I agree
Alex Lopez Oh no yeah, I totally get where you’re coming from. The Outlaw certainly needs some more work to bring it more in line with the genre at hand, and I’ve been feeling that more and more as I go through. I really like the idea of the obsession spin on The Most Dangerous Game! Anyway, yeah, the Outlaw is going on my noodling-around-with list for sure.
Thanks! The only issue I realized later is that Obsessed is already a Scar, but there’s still an idea there.
Maybe something like this:
Monomania: the Outlaw names a thing that he is seeking or hunting. Add a new end of session exp question “Did you struggle with your monomania? Any crewmates that also struggled may mark one exp.
Sort of like Vengeance, but more Moby Dick.
spikemaw ooooooh, that’s good. Also, I seriously need to add Moby-Dick to my list of inspirations at some point, ‘cos that book has loomed large in my mind since I read it last year.
spikemaw Oh man, that’s good.
A lot of sci fi hunters are Ahab inspired. I was thinking about a couple characters from Farscape.
Reading through this, I was thinking “this really vibes with the old “Counting to Infinity” rpgnet setting riff” I was so fond of. Great stuff.
Daniel Veillette There’s a reason I made one of the suggested craft names “Counting to Infinity”! Bailywolf’s original thread is what first tipped me off to the possibilities of this kind of far-future hard sci-fi (and got me to read Revelation Space) when I first read it about 7-8 years ago. Never looked back since. I must remember to add it to the top of my list of inspirations! I’m standing on the shoulders of RPG giants here.
Hah, I missed that it was in there 🙂
Not quite on topic, but have you thought about other Craft types to add?