Orbit is a labour-of-love project by Jeff Diamond, a Sci-Fi RPG very much unlike the others on the market. The whole thing feels like somebody has taken a healthy dose of Hitchhiker's Guide to the galaxy, mixed it with an equal amount of Heavy Metal and then seasoned it with a dash of good old Rock'n'Roll.

And I mean that in the most positive of ways.

The game itself has been revised, ridding itself of it's once-cumbersome chart and experience-level based mechanics and replacing them with a simple (but solid) system that even employs a few narrativist elements.

Ey, you there in the back-row! Quit the teeth-gnashing. They're tastefully implemented and easy to comprehend. I'll talk about them a bit further down.

The Setting

While the System is rather flexible and there are several possible variants of how to get the game started, the most basic approach is that the characters will be adolescent life forms which are part of the The League of Allied Worlds. The League was formed by several star-faring civilizations and has, to reduce the effects of overpopulation, instituted the Wandershen Charter.

Basically, they'll round up their adolescent offspring, provide each one with a small stipend and a one-way ticket out of league-controlled space and order them not to return for the next 4 years. Non-compliance will get your parents fined, and returning (or still being there) within the next 4 years will get you drafted into military service. The official position of the League is that those 4 years will provide a learning and growing experience for their future citizens. Inofficially, the young punks are expected to get "screwed, blewed and tatooed", to quote a certain traxxian ambassador.

So, you're far away from home, with money in your pocket, armed with your wits and your prior given career training. Perfect opportunity for partying and getting into trouble. And that's what the game is about. Mostly.

Of course, there's a bit more brewing in the background. The lawless depths of non-league space. The Abbormog menace that lurks in the darkness beyond. Rebellious androids demanding to be accepted as sentients, rather than property. But none of this stuff is of earth-shaking gravity (excuse the lousy pun). The universe, by large, is happy and cheerful, and your main problems tend to be more of the "We need money to get to the next system, dude...you know, like, Disaster Area is playing there" than of the "Help us, Obi Wan, you're our only hope!"-type. But that doesn't mean that our valiant heroes will not encounter a few rogue androids in the cargo hold of the ship they stowed away on, does it?

The System

Orbit uses a pretty basic roll-under percentile system. The Target Number is the appropriate attribute, multiplied by a set amount that depends on the skill level.

Most characters' attributes will be between ten and thirty, while the skills can at most triple this value to provide a target number. The result depends on your margin of success, ranging from a failure (failing the roll) to a critical success (beating the target number by more than 50 points).

Pretty basic, nothing exciting. Until you get to the criticals. Here's the part where the narrativist stuff shows, and it's a great show.

Once you manage a critical success, you get the choice of

a) Getting the best possible result out of what you tried. Your basic critical hit.

b) Getting an alternative result. Like missing the trooper, but hitting the grillwork above him, making it come down and stopping him from pursuing you. Alternative results are always non-lethal and are told by the player, not the GM. The Player gets author stance.

c) Gonzo success. The action is wildly successful, but in a way not originally intended by the character. Like breaking into a strongbox, hoping to find some cash and valuables, and ending up finding a strange alien artifact. Again, the player tells what happens and gets author stance.

d) Gonzo failure. The character fails in a spectacular way. Why someone would want that to happen? Simple. The player again gets author stance and may introduce some new plot twists, and he gets to increase the skill he has used since he learned from his spectacular failure.

There is also a Gonzo Action for when things go terribly wrong, allowing a character in mortal danger to roll. If he succeeds, he gets to tell how the character managed to save the day. If he fails, he faces the choice of retirement or death.

Retirement means that the character survived, but decided to quit his adventuring life. He is still there, though, and may be used by the GM as NPC. The player gets author stance on how the character survived and may still have saved the day, but at a cost. Retired Characters can come back for one last time (to save the galaxy, settle their differences, whatever, but should be a very personal thing), but if they ever fail a Gonzo Action again, they'll be dead.

Death means exactly that. You didn't survive, but you still get author stance one last time to make a great exit and maybe even save the day. Your choice.

Some Background Information

The League consists of 11 Races. I'll introduce them here, so everybody can imagine what the average party looks and behaves like. There are about 30 more races presented in the book, but those are not league members and as such are not subjected to the Wandershen. They also are even more freaky. Also, you can play an artificial life form (a.k.a. Android).

Human I think everybody has seen at least one of those. They're still around.

Ketrin Your basic catgirl/boy, with night vision, fur, retractable claws and an attitude. They tend to live in prides and most consider clothing to be optional.

Ironkin Short and stocky Heavy-G humanoids, not unlike dwarves. Their culture is somewhat reminiscent of some native american tribes.

Gelssk Lizard people; the race is further divided into a green, herbivorous (and snobby) variant and a red (noble savage type) carnivorous subspecies.

Vangg Big, demonic looking humanoids with exoskeletons and enormous physical strength. Rather wise, since they're one of the oldest known spacefaring races.

Mezh Another lizard race. Mezh look quite human, but have a snake-like lower body. They also have poison glands and fangs. Pel'tuurian A race of bi-coloured humanoids, governed by a rather strict caste system.

Rowglin Complementing the Ketrin, the Rowglin are your typical, pack-oriented wolfpeople. And yes, they do make great pirates.

Xel Sentient, plant-based lifeforms that usually take on a humanoid form for ease of interaction.

Arach A hive-minded race of arachnids. An arach resembles nothing so much as a human-sized spider. Some arachs have left their native hive to pursue an independent life. Those, and only those, are subject to the Wandershen. Arachs can implant their mind into the body of another lifeform through a gruelling process known as "rebirth".

Traxxian A four-armed lifeform with 4 eyestalks and a behaviour pattern very reminiscent of a human male with testosterone poisoning. Think of the Worms of M.I.B. fame and you get a taste on just how bad they usually behave.

Warg A common term for mixed breed of any of the above races (yes, of course they all can interbreed. Wouldn't be fun otherwise). Their looks vary significantly, but are usually a mix of their parents appearance.

Vehicles and Spaceships

Mostly, the vehicles are common SciFi fare; jetcars, hoverbikes and similar modes of transportation, except maybe the fact that a lot of them are converted "classic" cars (we're talking "1955 Ford Thunderbird" here). Orbit includes a simple but efficient construction system for both vehicles and spaceships, which makes modifying your ride not only possible, but even easy.

Spaceships are cheap. Really cheap. Your average player's ship will cost no more than maybe 50.000 jeng, the sum you'd pay for a big luxury car. That means that owning a ship is a rather common thing, and also means that you won't have a 25 year mortgage on the thing. Getting it blown away from under your ass is not the end of your financial career, provided you bought an escape pod or two. Provided you are mad enough to do this, there are also Gryphons, llifeforms that inhabit Voidspace, that can be captured and trained to carry passengers. Don't let the name fool you, your average gryphon tends to look like a crossbreed between Cthulhu, a cordless drill and an aquarium full of angry lobsters.

Magic

Well, it's not magic, just sufficiently advanced Mathematics. But your average Psychomathic Adept can work wonders by manipulating the fabric of the universe. Orbit uses a rather freeform approach to supernatural powers, so there are no set spell-lists. Rather, you get some examples and a few guidelines. There are also psionic powers, which are mostly regarded with suspicion by the League. Psionics are divided into different subskills, each dealing with a different area of knowledge (one does include manipulating computers by sheer force of mind, another deals with freezing things, and so on).

Technology

Pretty much standard, except for a few really quirky items (like the first-aid spider or the Traxxian built communicator that makes you appear as a buff male on the receivers side), but the equipment list is pretty complete. There are enough gadgets to keep the players entertained for a while, and there's also a section on rare and wierd objects (much akin to magic items).

The Appearance

Orbit is a 270+ pages softcover book. Several of the interior pages feature full-color artwork. The artwork throughout the books is quite good and helps a lot to convey the mood of the setting. There are only few typos, but a rather important chart was incomplete. Key20 provided an errata sheet, though, so it didn't pose much of a problem. The errata may also be downloaded at the official Homepage.

The books has an extensive table of contents in front, as well as a small index in the back of the book. There is a gamemaster section, explaining the basics of roleplaying as well as the basics of the narrativist mechanics used. Rounding the book off is a small selection of NPCs and plot hooks.

Final Thoughts

Orbit has replaced Lightspeed as my personal favorite SCiFi-RPG. The System is simple, yet elegant, and the books covers all the areas necessary for playing. The inclusion of humour and an optimistic outlook on the future is a nice deviation from today's rather gloomy SF settings. As is the fact that owning a spaceship doesn't require you to make monthly payments for the next 25 years.

More Information on the game and a few samples of the Artwork can be found on The Official Orbit Homepage.