StrikeForce 2136 is an entry into the non-D20 realm of science fiction games. Unlike most others, it centers around a vision of what earth will be like twelve decades from now. Interplanetary or interstellar travel is not a focus of the game, rather the squabbling for power over the earth by various organizations is. The premise is that a worldwide system has evolved to develop ultimate warriors and the players are the products of this system. The central question is will the player characters adhere to this system and advance its agenda or will they become disillusioned and fight against it.
The game itself is divided into three books. The first, the Strike Manual, concerns the character creation process, a moderate description of the setting and the mechanics for play. The second book is the Tech Manual, solely dedicated to equipment and technology of the relatively near future. The third book is the Defense Zone Manual, a set of tools to assist the GM in developing and managing adventures. All three books are soft-cover with non-color illustrations sprinkled throughout.
This is a “rules heavy” game with a large number of charts and a high level of technical detail. Combat can be slow under certain conditions.
The Strike Manual
This book includes the character creation process. StrikeForce 2136 uses a class and skill based system with a percentile dice mechanic. A player rolls for the race of the character (all are “human”, but several are genetically engineered versions with different traits). The primary attribute scores are generated with dice rolls based upon the race and then used to calculate a handful of secondary attributes. Generation of the character’s educational level (used later to purchase initial skills) is also rolled randomly from a chart. The character class (called a profession) is about the only character feature chosen and not randomly determined.
There are only a handful of professions to choose from. They are the Special Tactics Officer (STO), Corporate Spy (C-Spy), Nano-Tech, Med-Tech and Psi-Tech. STOs are the fighting specialists, C-Spies are the espionage specialists, Nano and Med Techs are the technology builders and the Psi-Techs are psionics specialists.
Skills are purchased with points based upon education and profession. Like many games, characters start out relatively weak and the GM must scale the challenges accordingly. The skill system is one area where StrikeForce 2136 operates a bit differently than most other games of the genre. Most skills operate on an opposed-roll basis, but what is a bit different is the mechanic of “tweaking” one skill roll by using a second skill to possibly give a bonus to it. When a player wants to really succeed, he can boost his chance with a tweak and/or use a finite number of “Luck” points to enhance the result. This introduces a second roll and does slow things down a bit, but can help the character to succeed on crucial rolls.
Character’s “passions” are also chosen. These are trigger conditions that may force an evaluation by the character if he continues to believe in the system or becomes disillusioned by it due to circumstances he finds himself in during play. For example, the passion “protection of civilians” may trigger a check if the player finds himself ordered to blow up a building full of terrorists who are holding civilians hostage.
The Strike Manual includes a discussion of the society of the setting covering countries, guilds, corporations and the System. Also included are extensive rules sections for movement, combat, character recovery, Artificial Intelligence, Cybernetics, finances, character medical recovery and character advancement.
Tech Manual
This book is dedicated to the description of the equipment used by the characters in the game. Toolsets for building and customizing personal armor, constructing vehicles, constructing scanners and other custom equipment are found here. A character’s gear is perhaps even more defining of a character in this game than in most others. The gear is only made available (legally) to characters based upon their “experience”. Characters are assigned “tech levels” based upon how experienced they are within the system. More powerful technology is restricted to higher levels of experience, so a character’s gear is also a pretty good indicator of their skill levels as well.
The rules for building personal armor and vehicles will appeal to detail oriented players. If you prefer abstract handling of the subject matter, StrikeForce 2136 is probably not for you. The process of design is time consuming but results in highly unique combinations making one character different from every other, even amongst others of the same profession. It really is fundamental to the flavor of the game. In StrikeForce 2136, the clothes really do make the man.
The Defense Zone Manual
This is the smallest of the three books. It is primarily an aid for the GM to create and manage adventures (called “missions”). It includes aids for creating NPCs, developing and keeping track of conspiracies, descriptions of certain types of cities or corporate complexes and some more general advice on running the game.
One thing that all three books lack that would have improved the game is an index section in each book. The books are currently being re-laid out to enhance readability, correct typos and include different artwork, so perhaps an index will be a possibility for later editions.
Summary
StrikeForce 2136 is a detail oriented and rules heavy treatment of the “Grim Future” school of science fiction. Its setting has more in common with Cyberpunk or Shadowrun than Traveler or Star Wars. For technophiles and those who favor “build your own” features in games, this game may appeal to your inner engineer/tinkerer. If you favor rules-light and abstract treatments of science fiction with fast combat or want a wide variety of stock alien races and worlds to visit, you will probably want to give this one a pass.
