Character #21: Thousand Suns

 

Here's one I did not have on my first post listing of systems, because I had the PDFs in a folder for the Grognardia blog, the home of the author James Maliszewski (and admitted Traveller fanboy none the less!). I was reading his blog today, like I do every  day, and it spurred the thought, so here I am.

Thousand Suns is James' science fiction role-playing game 

set in a future when humanity has traveled into the far reaches of the galaxy, colonized new worlds, encountered other intelligent species, and established interstellar states by which to govern itself. The game draws much of its inspiration from the classic literary “imperial” science fiction of the 50s, 60s, and 70s, so called because its stories typically featured mighty galactic empires and whose plots often hearkened back to events from the Age of Imperialism in the 19th century.

In thousand suns, a character hails from one of hundreds of settled planets. Numerous

species, whether alien, human, or genetically engineered clade, call these planets home.

Likewise, representatives of these species come from all walks of life, from highly trained

naval officers to determined explorers to wily merchants to almost any other vocation imaginable. As he travels the galaxy, he might explore alien ruins, engage in dogfights with enemy fighters, re-contact a lost colony world, fly amidst the spires of a world-city, or take up a life of trading. Despite the wealth of inspiration it draws from the classics of literary sci-fi,

thousand suns is not a game about recreating them; it is about using their plots, ideas,

and themes as springboards to create new science fiction adventures in which the players

become both authors and participants. 

The game intro continues, stating his desire that the rules "are flexible, easy to understand, and modular", to give the GM "a toolbox with which to add, subtract or emphasize whatever elements he wishes without having to worry about its effect on other parts of the game."

I think he wanted a streamlined, modern, flexible version of Traveller, not hemmed in by the Imperium or Mongoose. So harkening back to the OD&D days (and pre-Imperium Classic Traveller) of providing the system, you create the milieu how you want it.

I'm a Classic Traveller fanboy myself, but admit to the issues that perhaps Mongoose Traveller has attempted to address. I recently purchased the PDFs for Thousand Suns, and James is working on a revision/update. Check out his blog linked above and read all about it. I have not played or even created a character for Thousand Suns, so this will be interesting.

Interesting starts out with it being D12-based.

Character generation is 7 steps in 12 pages in Chapter 2.

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.

1. Determine Ability Scores. The five abilities are Body (strength and health), Dexterity, Perception, Presence (charisma), Will. Divide 30 points among these 5 abilities (min 1 max 12), or an alternate method is to roll 1D12 in order for each. Derived numbers will be Initiative Rank, (Dexterity + Perception)/2, and Vitality (HP), ([Body + Will]/2) x 5.

Skill tests have a target number equal to the characters skill rank plus the associated ability number (these are listed on the character sheet for each skill). All combat skills use Dexterity. 2D12 are rolled against the target number (roll under).

I allocate: Body 5, Dexterity 8, Perception 7, Presence 5, and Will 5. This results in an Initiative Rank of 7 (fractions are dropped), and a Vitality of 25.

2. Select Species. The available species (GMs are urged to create more of their own) are Terran (human), Clades (genetically engineered sub-species of humanity: Myrmidon - super soldiers, or Delphic - heightened intelligence), Czanik (friendly intelligent aliens, large ambulatory tree-like creatures), Hen Jaa (six-limbed cephlapod-like beings at odds with Terran civilization), Kriilkna (trilaterally symmetrical mute arthropods). Species are listed in Chapter 3, so I have to jump ahead to look them up.

Wow, those are some aliens! I think I'll go with a Mymidon. I note the free skills and ability increases (Body and Will) and increase my Vitality (+5 points!) as a result.

3. Select Homeworld Package. Homeworld selection comes with subsequent free skills, and suggested Hooks. Hooks are background info or personality traits that help define the character. Hooks are tied into Action Points, which are like luck points that can be expended for mechanical benefits in the game (bonus to a target number, free re-rolls, etc). Action points are regained by 'bringing hooks to bear in an adventure in ways the GM thinks makes the game more exciting and fun'. Interesting mechanic, will be interesting to play and see how that works. 

Instead of choosing a homeworld, you can also roll for it randomly. The options are Core (Upper/Middle/Lower Class), Civilized, The Marches (Frontiers - High/low population), Spacer (starship, spacestation, etc), or Wildspace (low or high tech). I roll (2D12) and get Core - Middle Class. This  Package gets me 5 more free skills.

Suggested Hooks are Arranged Marriage, Black Sheep, Friend of the Family, Only the Best

Will Do, Your Good Name, but we're not there yet.

4. Select Career Package(s). A career package is a collection of skills and ability bonuses

that represent training and experiences acquired by the character while “on the job” before

the start of play. Career packages have three levels, Novice (1), Experienced (2), and Veteran (3), so you can take a number and level using your three level points (ie, three at level 1, or one at level 2 and one at level 1, etc). Career packages are listed in Chapter 4, so I have to jump ahead again. 

Sticking with my Myrmidon Clade species (genetically tailored super soldier), I'll go with Experienced Marine and Novice Colonist. I'm not seeing any information on officer vs enlisted in the Career info even though it lists skill differences for Officers, so I'll just go with enlisted. I note all the skills on my character sheet, adding skill levels to any I already have. 

5. Create Hooks. The 5 hooks consist of one based on species, one based on homeworld, and three based on career(s). For species I go with Watch you back. I pick the species and home world hooks from the suggestions given: Watch your back (species), and Friend of the Family (homeworld). No suggestions are given for career hooks, so I make them up. For Marine I go with Pedal to the metal (for his vehicle skills), and Embrace the Suck (for the general Marine attitude/mantra). For Colonist I come up with It's a cute kitty (picture a first encounter with a new species that goes south).

Ah, in the Hooks and also Action Point sections it explains a little about the career ranks, that those are chosen as hooks (and chosen to get certain skills too). Seeing as how my Marine character has moved on to being a Colonist, I won't sweat that I didn't do a rank Hook. 

6. Benefit Points. Benefit points are awarded based on career levels, and are cumulative. So Experienced Marine gives 1 point for Novice, and 4 points for Experienced for a total of 5 points. As a  Novice Colonist I get 1 point, for a grand total of 6 Benefit Points.  Benefit points are like a starting currency, "to acquire things that would be of use to them in the course of a campaign", such as cash, memberships, retainers, even a mortgage on a starship. All of this is GM/campaign specific, part of the 'toolbox'. One point equals 10,000$. I think I'll use 3 points for 30,000$, and 3 points on an Intersector organization membership, The Colonists Guild.

I was waiting for some explanation of when/how to use my species Bonus points (4) for skills or abilities. A note at the beginning said if not stated, points can be used to purchase ability points at 2 for 1, and 1 for 1 for skills. I think I have a good spread of skills, so I'm going to use my 4 points to buy one point of Dexterity and one point of Presence.

7. Finishing Touches. Name, age, gender are all selected. age of course should be based on careers and levels. I decide on 10 years in the Marines (starting age 18), plus 4 years as a Colonist, so 32 years old.

So here's Markon Vassim, Myrmidom Clade, 32 year old ex-Marine, Novice Colonist.

Oops. I did not note the Target Number (TN) for all my skills. That would be the Skill level plus the applicable Ability score. So Shoot would be 4 (level) plus 9 (Dexterity) for a 13.

Thoughts on Thousand Suns

This is definitely a toolbox ruleset. Almost every item has some note about as the GM sees fit or in the GMs campaign. So the GM has to put in some definite amount of work to create their campaign environment, as that drives aspects of character development. I think James is working on a more defined setting for his revision, so maybe some of those items would be answered, or at least more well defined.

I like the character generation system in that you pick it and define the character you want (species and possible multiple careers), giving you generally the skill set you want. I don't like that species and careers, wo major parts of character generation, are in separate chapters. Why not embed it in the character generation chapter? 

When I first looked through this the Hooks really threw me for a loop, but the more I read about it the more I like it. It looks like a cool mechanic to embed the character species, career, homeworld, upbringing and background into the gameplay. Very cool to build a mechanic that bring rulings and roles into rolls.

#CharacterCreationChallenge