Blood and Space is a science fiction 'tool kit' for d20 from RPG Objects (available
from RPGNow ), written by
Charles Rice and Chris Davis, with interior art by V Shane and
cover art by Scott Clark. Not quite a game on it's own, it's
apparently aimed at supplementing one of the increasingly large
number of d20 SF (science fiction) games (at least 6 by my count)
or helping a GM start his or her own SF d20 setting. It's a PDF,
which I don't generally buy, but I just couldn't resist this. It
sounded cool, and one of those things that would keep nagging me
in my mind until I buy it (I have no willpower).
It's priced at $8.95, a bit on the expensive side for a PDF. It
is 117 pages, though, and you get a zip with two versions. One is
the full graphic version, while the other is printer friendly.
It's not as printer friendly as some PDFs I've seen, it still has
rather nasty, ink sucking blue shading and artwork, but the
header and sidebar graphics, the real ink killers, are removed,
which is the main thing.
All in all, I'm fairly impressed with it. Some problems, but I'll
definitely be using some of it. If it were a print book, I'd
probably have crossed out a lot of things and written in new
stuff.
The first chapter is introductory stuff. Besides
an introductory story, it explains that this product has stuff
for both space opera style science fiction and hard science
fiction (ie, real science as we know it now). Certain things in
this book are tagged with a label to let you know which is which.
The second chapter is on new classes. These are
set up as normal d20 classes (as opposed to d20 Modern), although
the classes also have a defense bonus, which D&D doesn't use,
but some SF d20 games do use. There are 9 new core classes and 8
new prestige classes.
The new core classes are generally done pretty well, none over or
under powered, and for the most part, are useful. I like the
Doctor, the Engineer, the Scientist. (I have a minor problem with
the Scientist, one of it's special abilities uses a d100% style
roll, I think most rolls in the d20 system should use d20s, oddly
enough.)
The Marine is just a renamed Fighter (more or less), and I
think I would have liked to have seen more than just that. The
Mercenary is close to a Barbarian, he 'rages' like one, anyway,
but other than that, is like a Fighter. I think I would have
liked to have seen something more different, or possibly see the
Mercenary as a prestige class (since it's a job you usually take
after being a soldier or thug, it's not something you start out
in ).
One, the Hauler, seems weird. At first glance, it seems like just
a space-teamster. But upon closer inspection, it's odd - it
apparently assumes that space travel is controlled by Mafia-style
familes (I think). Another, The Hot Shot, seems more suited for a
prestige class (since there is a normal Pilot core class
included).
Some of the prestige classes also seem a bit unnecessary (or
perhaps suited for core classes). For instance, the Colonial
Marine - that seems more suited for a core class, much to the
regular Marine in this product as the Ranger or Paladin is to the
Fighter in normal d20. Or the Starship Officer. Usually Officers
are officers by going to an academy. As opposed to being
enlisted, then promoted to officer. So they should start first
level, I'd think.
So, while I generally like this chapter, I think it's somewhat
of a hit or miss thing. Not all classes will be useful for your
game, but they are well done and balanced with regards to normal
d20 classes, so you can even use them in regular D&D
Chapter Three introduces several new skills.
Most are pretty much what you expect (and what you find in most
SF games), though I think some are stretching it a bit. For
instance, the Boarding skill lets you latch onto another ship
while in Zero-G. That seems way too narrow. A more general EVA
(ie, spacewalk) skill might have been more useful. Another,
Jamming, should probably be either a feat, or tired into the
Sensor Operations skill. There are several new craft skills, high
tech related (Electronics, Chemicals, etc), with examples
provided.
There are also several new feats. Not so many general ones - lots
of new feats for pilots, especially in a space opera style game.
Also many for creating items and and proficiencies for the new
types of armor added in this product (Powered and Orbital. The
Leadership feat is also revised to work with the crew rules in
this product. A handful are just the standard 2 to two skilsl
variety.
Chapter Four is on new equipment. It's not a
huge chapter (about 10 pages), as it says it aims to supplement
the stuff found in most SF d20 games, not be a complete chapter
on it's own.
It uses credits, not unlike most games, but the prices seem quite
low. A 9mm pistol only costs 50 cr. In Dragonstar, a light pistol
is 400 cr. In Traveller d20, it's 200 cr.
There's only a few new weapons, mostly lasers (Infrared and
X-ray) plus something curious called a "Tesla Rifle".
There are several new armors (as mentioned above, including 2 new
categories) and some modification of how armor works. Light and
Medium armor improve AC, while the Heavy stuff provides Damage
Reduction. Unfortunately, no acane spell failure was included, so
you need to do some work if you're using a fantasy/sci-fi game.
There's also a system for trading/selling cargo, although it's
pretty sketchy and quite random. Basically, you roll a d20, and
that gives you the supply/demand ratio - you divide the d20 by
10, and that gives you the current price of that cargo on the
planet. It doesn't really take into account the size of the
planet you're selling it on, and while it says that you should
give each planet an import preference, it doesn't give much in
the way of guidelines.
There are some sample cargos, about a page's worth. It's almost
like the list gets cut off, because it starts with A (Alcohol)
and goes to M (Microbes) and stops. There's only 10 or so, so
it's not that comprehensive (especially since many of the listed
cargos are obscure, like magnetic bottles. And many are vague,
like "Metals", instead of specific metals).
Chapter 5 is on Starships, and is about 30 pages
long.
Starships are handled somewhat abstractly.
Apparently you just pick a hull. Each hull then has a Cargo Size
rating in tons. You then fill up the ship with various bits of
equipment. Simple, and it works well in computer games like Elite
and Privateer and the like.
However, there are some problems. The corelation between the
physical size of a hull and the amount of cargo space is odd. As
ships get larger (much larger in terms of physical size), the
amount of cargo space only increases a little. As does the crew
and passenger capacity. (Note - crew sized is sometimes handled
abstractly, sometimes it's handled exactly, just when which is
which is somewhat confusing)
Also note, you apparently don't pick the size of the hull (that
chart is just included for fun, I guess), but the "Hull
Type". They are broken up into a number of categories and
numbers, from 1 to 6, and listed on a chart. For instance,
Fighter 5, or Civilian 3. (Not a lot of choice, all things
considered, only about 20 different hulls for space ships.)
It's also a bit weird, I think. Apparently no one but the
military has huge ships. That doesn't make much sense, because in
the real world, the largest ships are supertankers, and there are
huge commercial liners and cargo carriers. And while the military
has larger ships, they aren't really much better than the tiny
models. Science Fiction is full of giant ships, from the Star
Destroyers of Star Wars (not to mention the Death Star), to the
Battlestars and Baseships of Battlestar Galactica, to the ships
of the Aliens in V and Independance Day. Even in Science Fiction
RPGs, huge ships are fairly common - in Traveller, ships go up to
a million tons (and each Traveller ton equals 5 real world gross
tons).
Another oddity is how it handles star drives. There are two
general choices, hard SF slower than light (STL) drives, and a
variety of different style Space Opera FTL drives. This is good,
except it doesn't really duplicate the most common setup in
fiction/RPGs (or one of the most common) - having a manuever
drive to propel the ship, and a 'jump' drive to move the ship
from star system to star system. Many SF games, in fact most d20
SF games, use a variation on this: Traveller, Star Wars,
Dragonstar. All the FTL drives in this seem to be like the Warp
Drive from Star Trek - the ship just moves really fast, avoiding
the laws of relativity.
It does have "Jump Gates" as an option, and while I
imagine ships that use those would just use the STL drives, the
STL drives all have proper names from Earth astronomy (star
names, more precisely: Spica, Rigel, Aldeberaan, Capella, Altair,
etc), which makes it a bit odd. It would have been nice if they
were given a descriptive name, not a proper one.
Another thing - many fictional depictions of starships (and
real ones) separate a starships powerplant from the drive it
uses. This doesn't, exactly, though it has additional power
plants you can buy to give more power. (This is more a note than
a complaint)
There's also a variety of weapons. Again, some real world
weapons, such as lasers and rail guns, along with space opera-ish
weapons, like anti-matter torpedos and mass drivers. There's a
lack of really big weapons, suitable for huge ships, like one
finds in some SF games (for instance, Traveller, there are spinal
mounts which displace 1000s of tons), despite the fact that the
physical size of ships in Blood & Space should be large
enough to accomadate them.
Again, the ship defenses are split into hard science and space
opera. In this case, the names for the space opera defenses are a
bit odd. Rather than resorting to technobabble, they have names
like "Joust Shield" and "Lancer Shield". This
didn't do much for me.
There's a variety of spaceship equipment that take up cargo
space.. Some real world, some staples of sci-fi. They range from
things like hospital bays to things like ram scoops. (The way Ram
scoops are described and work give me fits). See this:
http://www.itsf.org/brochure/ramscoop.html
If it were fuel scoops like in Traveller, which lets you skim
hydrogen from gas giants, then I'd understand. But rams scoops
are really inappropriate for most science fiction ships.
It's not a bad chapter or system, but I think they tried to do
much, and be too broad. And so, didn't do a great job. (I do
think the hull size vs. ton amount is screwed up. And their tons
seem to have no relation to any real world ton, which confused
the heck out of me at first). So it works, I just don't think it
doesn't make that much sense. It also works best at small-ish
ships - there doesn't seem all that much point in building
larger, super ships, since middle sized ones carry almost as much
as the bigger ones (or as much, in some cases).
I also think that some facilities are too small, and some really
need to be tailored to the size of the ship. For instance, in
order to make a carrier, you need the carrier deck facility. It's
only 10 tons, allowing it fit on most ships, even medium sized
ones (100 feet long). However, there's a requirement that it only
goes on huge ships. This seems like a kludge to have it make
sense. A more robust system would have had the carrier deck take
up say, 100 tons, but only a huge ship would have that much room
to spare. That way, no special rules needed.
Operating costs are also really really low. Couple hundred of
credits a month. Even with 9mm pistols costing only 50 cr, that's
pretty cheap.
Chapter 6 is on starship crew. Essentially, it
handles crew in a very abtract manner. It doesn't really use many
(any?) d20 conventions, but is more similar to a wargame. They
are rated as either Raw, Green, Inexperience, Average,
Experience, Crack, Legendary, (with a XP chart) and there are
several different crew types. While this is not bad, why not just
use regular d20 levels? I mean, that's exactly what levels mean,
a way of describing how competent someone is. This chapter also
describes just what each crew type can do in combat. Crew pay is
really really low. Even in a universe with a 9mm only costing 50
cr, 100 cr a month to pay the salary of a Legendary level crew is
far too little.
Chapter 7 is on Starship combat, and is about 20
pages. You pretty much need a map for their method, either a hex
map or square map. (I have several big hex maps from games like
Knight Hawks and Star Fleet Battles). It's somewhat like a simple
board game. Each hex 5,000 miles. Every weapon has a range in
hexes. Ships have acceleration ratings. Much of the gameplay is
handled like normal d20 system combat. You roll initiative, then
act. Move, fire, etc. Seems pretty solid, and fairly newtonian,
at least in the rules. I had some trouble figuring out the combat
example, though.
The largest section in this part is on "terrain",
mostly assorted space objects. Other than the really dense
asteroid fields (real asteroid belts are not even remotely like
you see in fiction), this section is well done. Even described
the difference between a nova and supernova. (Though I think
usually the term is "Kaboom", not "Kabomb".)
So, to sum up, I'd say this is good, but flawed. I like most of
the new classes, and the new skills & feats are generally
well done (if a bit redundant if you own a d20 SF game). The
theory behind the starship construction system is good, but seems
suited for smaller ships - it doesn't scale up well to larger
ones (although I think they just didn't scale it up correctly).
The starship combat system is fairly good (reminds me somewhat of
the old Knight Hawks game), but the example of how it works could
have been better, or less confusing (especially on movement and
starting conditions). It's also perhaps too divorced from the d20
system in some areas, most notably crew experience. The trading
system is barebones and perhaps a bit too detached from reality.
The interior art, at least for characters, is very good and is
professional quality (as is the layout). I got this book about
the same time as I got Galactic Races (from FFG), yet I noticed
that the character art is better in this than in Galactic Races.
The starship art, on the other hand, isn't quite as good. I don't
know if it was due to the digitalization of the art, but there is
a big problem with aliasing in the spaceship art. (That is, the
lines of the ship look rough or jagged. Also happens in the
character art, but it's much more noticeable with the spaceships.
The spaceships are often sort of odd looking)
B- is probably what I'd give it. It kind of
reminds of the old spaceship supplement for Star Frontiers,
Knight Hawks. Not quite as good, though.
The $9 question - was it worth the money?
What I'm going to use it for, at least immediately, is replace
many of the badly broken (IMHO) classes from Traveller d20 with
the classes from here. And I like the starship design system well
enough that I'll probably fiddle with it to make it mesh more
with Dragonstar (particularly it's starship sizes) and make it
more suitable for larger ships
If it were $5, I probably would feel very happy. But for $9,
while I don't feel cheated, it is pushing the price for a PDF
product (at least for me). I mean, $9. That's 1/3 of what I paid
for the Traveller T20 book, which admittedly had lots of horrible
rules and white space, but was also was big enough to at least
stun someone if you hit them with it. And maybe seriously injure
them. But then again, I'm generally broke (and when I have excess
money, I'm pretty cheap) and don't like PDFs. But I still think
that they didn't take enough advantage of the PDF format. At the
very least, they could have reproduced various charts and such,
in an easy printing format (ie, no color, no shading, no frills)
at the back of the product. As it is, I can't really even use the
blank starship form, because it's in color and has large solid
boxes (can't really afford ink, so I only print out things that
are frills free). Still, for most people, it's a pretty good
deal.
OGL Note: While they didn't update section 15
of the OGL correctly (Instead of Blood & Space, it lists
"Darwin's World", I guess they copy and pasted from
that), much of the book is open content.
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