Something of a cazy notion to pre-order the Homeworld Revelations 2D20 RPG from Modiphius. I have plenty on the shelves already, from Traveller/Cepheus to Infinity 2D20, vectoring at full thrust past some excellent PbtA offerings, Scum & Villainy and lighting up some FFG/Edge Star Wars awesomeness. Ah well, I jumped in. In fact I also had a go at the originating RTS PC game to give me a flavour. I was unsurprised to find that I was wholly crap at it, but I got the idea.
This is probably my first, lighter end 2D20, based as it is on the Star Trek line, no doubt with some touches. Perhaps not the very lightest end, but much breezier than Infinity and housed in a 9.5/6.5″ digest sized book. I must say I am pleasantly surprised at the innovations that have come to the 2d20 stable since Infinity and Conan. It remains recognisably the same game but streamlined and honed to achieve some of the complexity of system with a simpler concept and word count. It is, perhaps, a little better explained than Infinity, though that isn’t saying too much.
I had wondered if the six Attributes and six Skills would make characters generically much the same, with minor variations in capability, whilst finding that ‘everyone can do everything’. This is cunningly mitigated by Focuses, Defining Aspects, and Truths and Talents. Focuses are suggested, but utimately freeform traits where, if a skill test succeeds, is within the skill value, and falls within the focuses’ influence, two successes are gained instead of one. This elegantly achieves the more complex 2d20 effect, without the need to keep track of focus values for the skills. It steps your character up to shine in particular situations. Defining Aspects are special Truths that can be used to gain Focus Points, most often to give you a dedicated critical for the skill task. Leverging these Aspects in play also provides Resource Units (RUs) for advancement. Talents provide specific rule benefits, in general and specific skill areas. For example, ‘Empathic’ gives you an additional d20 to Insight when determining the intentions or feelings of another character. Truths are freely expressed traits that can either provide an advantage or a complication, reducing or increasing the difficulty of a test by 1. These are used as part of scenes too.
I like the way initiative works, with player side typically going first with one character and then handing over to adversaries to go and switching between throughout, moderated by Momentum or Threat spend to break that pattern. Usual options for holding, and spending Momentum to get an extra Major action. It looks like it will hang dynamically together really well. I may have to unlearn a few minor things to pick up the nuances of this tightly put together 2d20 ruleset.
The seven step lifepath will quickly create a Kushan character with some backstory and everything needed to get going. It looks simple and quick. There’s also a ‘creation in play’ option, to record the very basics and find out more as you are playing the game. Nice. To round out the playable roster are supporting characters, quickly created and available to play if in the scene. I’m not sure if this is quite troupe play, but it is heading that way when you want to switch into the shoes of a haried flight specialist, or a troubled dealer on the lower decks.
I’ll be interested to see how Resource Units are spent in play, either upgrading characters, supporting characters or ships. Nice to use the RUs coined from the RTS PC game.
Starships are given a fairly comprehensve treatment in the game. Ships are rated on a scale of 1 to 6, ascending in size and power. Ships have 6 attributes, just like characters, but these are tailored to their role: Communications, Computers, Engines, Sensors, Structure, and Weapons. These are used directly in the game, replacing character attributes when using a skill that harnesses the ship capabilities. I have only skimmed, so need to get some play in to see how it all works out at the table. My surface scan has picked up lots of character actions (hoorah for action and things to do), simple starship combat rules, building on the mechanics that have come before, many starship stats with pictures, and a template set of ship creation rules. Plenty to go at.
The Historical and Society Briefings look to give a gamable set of information to underpin the setting. It’s good to see that these briefings are laced with Story Seeds to prompt adventure. I’m new to the Homeworld setting, so it looks pretty good to me, not least because it appears quickly digestible.
The book rounds out with sections on Gamemastering and Non-Player Characters, backed by a pretty comprehensive looking Index. At 332 pages they pack a lot into this book. The GM pre-order bundle comes with a themed dice set, some cheat sheet handouts, counters, and my first digest sized landscape GM screen. Dinky, sweet, and maybe useful.
I had wondered about expanding the game with some cool starship miniatures. It looks as though Modiphius have got that well covered with Homeworld Fleet command, a fast play boardgame of spaceship combat in the Homeworld universe. It comes with 101 starships with an expansion providing 100 more. You’d want to get them painted…
Crowdfunding will launch in November 2022, so not very long from time of writing. I’ll see what the damage to my Budget Attribute would be, expecting some immediate ‘Breaches’. What a combo that would be though!
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| Role VTT |
The game has potential for broader re-use beyond the Homeworld setting, should you be interested. I might want to tighten some aspects of the game, such as what starship ‘short jumps’ actually meant. It might be there in the text. As it is, there is plenty of play potential at a rage of levels with this core game. I tend to gravitate to Foundry VTT these days for online play, but worth noting that the free Role VTT has a ready to play gaming room themed to Homeworld. The VTT is free to use and excellent for webcams, audio, and some sheets and dice tools around the edges. t would be the obvious place to start. It won’t calculate any of the Stress dice or successes, but you can eyeball that fairly quickly.
A fun romp of a space opera, starship based on an epic journey to the people’s homeworld against considerable odds.