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Review: Thousand Suns
The definitive version of Traveller has arrived. It's called Thousand Suns.
Disclaimer: I did do some work on this project. Specifically, I was involved in discussions on metagame issues, the feel of Imperial SF, art choices, and wrote a framework for the military. I did not have any input on the 12° system, actual rules, or the like. 95% of the book was new to me when I opened it.
OK, Thousand Suns, by James Maliszewski and Richard Iorio II, published by Rogue Games, Inc., 272 pages.
General impressions.
Thousand Suns is an attractive book, about the size of the old Little Black Books. The cover is engaging, with a blue-tinted starscape fading into some sort of reticle and a grid. The book is written in a conversational style, a welcome relief from the sterile blocks of rules seen in most systems. The book has more than a few editing errors, mostly in layout.. in many places, there are headers that are not highlighted, paragraphs that should have a line between them that run together. This caused me a few problems when I couldn't immediately see the header for one of the characteristics. Interior art is okay, and reflects the intended feel of the game well. The text is broken up with quotes from classic SF novels, starting with Bester's The Stars My Destination. All in all, the book is an easy read.
System
This is blisteringly simple. Called 12°, it can be boiled down to "Attribute + Skill = Target Number. Roll 2d12. Under the number equals success. Modifiers may be applied by the DM." That's it. Combat is equally simple, dispensing with detailed maps and movement rules for a clean system that focuses on action. My favorite touch is linking success with your to-hit roll to damage. Each weapons has a Base and Maximum damage. Each point of success acts as multiplier of the base damage. So if you fire a Blaster pistol (base damage: 5) and make you roll by four points, you do 20 points of damage. I like this because better shots are more likely to hit center mass and do more damage. One place where I had some confusion was in the rules for suppressive and covering fire... the way the rules are written, using these negates any chance to hit your opponent! Also included is a system for wearing away people's resolve, something needed for years in RPGs.
Space combat is a joy, especially for those of us who remember fighting off endless waves of pirates using Traveller's Book 2 system (I'm looking at you,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
isomeme) Again, a simple, fast system using cards to represent ships in a 3D environment. Ship descriptions are equally simple, reducing things to the important questions of How fast am I? What guns can I carry, and how much can I smuggle in my holds?
Character generation
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the rumor broke that Thousand Suns was going to be a class and level system. The rumors were wrong. Once more, we see the game's roots in Classic Traveller. After splitting 25 points between five abilities (Body, Dexterity, Perception, Presence, and Will) you choose your species (if applicable to the particular setting), homeworld package (generic skill sets based on both the world location in the civilization and the chosen social class or planet population. A character from the upper class of a Core world is going to grow up with different skills than a farm kid from a Lo-Pop world in the Marches), and then the career packages.
I really love this part. Each career has three levels, Novice, Experienced, and Veteran. You choose three total packages. You can choose to spend all three in one career, and take the Veteran package, or split them up, even taking three Novice packages. This immediately appealed to me as not only a good design, but as a great tool for character story building. Just the order you pick the careers can suggest a background. For example, say I take three novice levels in Navy, Pirate, and Bounty Hunter. My character enlisted in the Navy, jumped ship to be a pirate, and after a betrayal vowed to hunt them down. Instant motivation! Each package gives you skills, and skills from different careers do stack so my pirate hunter would have the Skill "Shoot" at level 5 (1 from the Navy, 2 each from being a Pirate and Bounty Hunter.) Which leads into Hooks. For each of these steps you pick a hook, something good or ill from that stage of our life that can be a part of the character's ongoing story. There are also benefit points (more for characters who select a Veteran level career.)
Equipment
Hmm. I suppose it's inevitable, but I found the equipment list included to be rather pedestrian. Aside from the combat gear (which we need stats for) there was little here that really stood out. Of course, at this point you can put together a good equipment list with web searches. The list of vehicles and starships is also generic, but that is acceptable in the base rulebook.
Setting
Thousand Suns is a toolkit, and the Meta Setting chapter reflects that. While we do get a setting, it is vague and at every stage of descriptions alternates are given. Even the "official" history (which reminded me strongly of Dune) sketches in highlights only. Lots of room for your details, or scrap it altogether and write your own. To be honest, I'm probably going to chuck the whole thing in favor of my own setting.
Summation
Grand armadas sweeping across the stars... intrigues in imperial courts... ancient alien ruins brooding with forgotten evils, merchant princes buying entire worlds, and a time when one man, or one small group, can change the destiny of a thousand suns... if this is the kind of game you want, then Thousand Suns is for you. It lives up to its billing as a toolkit for Game Masters. Already I've started writing a new homeworld type (Spacer, for those who grew up on the family freighter or deep space station)
4 penguins out of 5.
For the TMLers reading this, feel free to comment, but I ask you sign your comment. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I did do some work on this project. Specifically, I was involved in discussions on metagame issues, the feel of Imperial SF, art choices, and wrote a framework for the military. I did not have any input on the 12° system, actual rules, or the like. 95% of the book was new to me when I opened it.
OK, Thousand Suns, by James Maliszewski and Richard Iorio II, published by Rogue Games, Inc., 272 pages.
General impressions.
Thousand Suns is an attractive book, about the size of the old Little Black Books. The cover is engaging, with a blue-tinted starscape fading into some sort of reticle and a grid. The book is written in a conversational style, a welcome relief from the sterile blocks of rules seen in most systems. The book has more than a few editing errors, mostly in layout.. in many places, there are headers that are not highlighted, paragraphs that should have a line between them that run together. This caused me a few problems when I couldn't immediately see the header for one of the characteristics. Interior art is okay, and reflects the intended feel of the game well. The text is broken up with quotes from classic SF novels, starting with Bester's The Stars My Destination. All in all, the book is an easy read.
System
This is blisteringly simple. Called 12°, it can be boiled down to "Attribute + Skill = Target Number. Roll 2d12. Under the number equals success. Modifiers may be applied by the DM." That's it. Combat is equally simple, dispensing with detailed maps and movement rules for a clean system that focuses on action. My favorite touch is linking success with your to-hit roll to damage. Each weapons has a Base and Maximum damage. Each point of success acts as multiplier of the base damage. So if you fire a Blaster pistol (base damage: 5) and make you roll by four points, you do 20 points of damage. I like this because better shots are more likely to hit center mass and do more damage. One place where I had some confusion was in the rules for suppressive and covering fire... the way the rules are written, using these negates any chance to hit your opponent! Also included is a system for wearing away people's resolve, something needed for years in RPGs.
Space combat is a joy, especially for those of us who remember fighting off endless waves of pirates using Traveller's Book 2 system (I'm looking at you,
isomeme) Again, a simple, fast system using cards to represent ships in a 3D environment. Ship descriptions are equally simple, reducing things to the important questions of How fast am I? What guns can I carry, and how much can I smuggle in my holds?Character generation
There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth when the rumor broke that Thousand Suns was going to be a class and level system. The rumors were wrong. Once more, we see the game's roots in Classic Traveller. After splitting 25 points between five abilities (Body, Dexterity, Perception, Presence, and Will) you choose your species (if applicable to the particular setting), homeworld package (generic skill sets based on both the world location in the civilization and the chosen social class or planet population. A character from the upper class of a Core world is going to grow up with different skills than a farm kid from a Lo-Pop world in the Marches), and then the career packages.
I really love this part. Each career has three levels, Novice, Experienced, and Veteran. You choose three total packages. You can choose to spend all three in one career, and take the Veteran package, or split them up, even taking three Novice packages. This immediately appealed to me as not only a good design, but as a great tool for character story building. Just the order you pick the careers can suggest a background. For example, say I take three novice levels in Navy, Pirate, and Bounty Hunter. My character enlisted in the Navy, jumped ship to be a pirate, and after a betrayal vowed to hunt them down. Instant motivation! Each package gives you skills, and skills from different careers do stack so my pirate hunter would have the Skill "Shoot" at level 5 (1 from the Navy, 2 each from being a Pirate and Bounty Hunter.) Which leads into Hooks. For each of these steps you pick a hook, something good or ill from that stage of our life that can be a part of the character's ongoing story. There are also benefit points (more for characters who select a Veteran level career.)
Equipment
Hmm. I suppose it's inevitable, but I found the equipment list included to be rather pedestrian. Aside from the combat gear (which we need stats for) there was little here that really stood out. Of course, at this point you can put together a good equipment list with web searches. The list of vehicles and starships is also generic, but that is acceptable in the base rulebook.
Setting
Thousand Suns is a toolkit, and the Meta Setting chapter reflects that. While we do get a setting, it is vague and at every stage of descriptions alternates are given. Even the "official" history (which reminded me strongly of Dune) sketches in highlights only. Lots of room for your details, or scrap it altogether and write your own. To be honest, I'm probably going to chuck the whole thing in favor of my own setting.
Summation
Grand armadas sweeping across the stars... intrigues in imperial courts... ancient alien ruins brooding with forgotten evils, merchant princes buying entire worlds, and a time when one man, or one small group, can change the destiny of a thousand suns... if this is the kind of game you want, then Thousand Suns is for you. It lives up to its billing as a toolkit for Game Masters. Already I've started writing a new homeworld type (Spacer, for those who grew up on the family freighter or deep space station)
4 penguins out of 5.
For the TMLers reading this, feel free to comment, but I ask you sign your comment. Thanks!
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Physical details are abstract. Worlds are "Dry" or "Wet" two grab two examples. In line with Imperial SF; but easily expanded for those of us with a more hard SF bent.
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There's nothing stopping someone building a Thousand Suns sector from going to town on world building, but for those who don't want that the simple system should suffice. That's what I really like here, the ability to add things on and not having to try to unweld portions of system written into the rules.
Oh, for fast system building, this is my personal crack (http://home.comcast.net/~brons/NerdCorner/StarGen/StarGen.html).
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Anyway, I don't argue for exact numbers. The numbers alone aren't valuable and often overrated.
However, detail in world building can help us avoid stereotypes like "Mars with huge mega-cities" or the very space-operaish "worlds are one environment only, like Jungle or Desert", assuming the system helps someone going from numbers to what the place actually is like. Which admittedly many systems doesn't do.
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I think I'm looking at this from the point of view of a GM who has spent hours detailing cities/worlds/whatever only to have players ignore it. Sometimes, less is more if it allows the GM to detail plot and NPCs.
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I've just always been in love with the idea that since you can build big in space, you should. It fits with the Imperial SF feel of things as well.
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Meanwhile, in the VIP quarters, the exotic Princess Ivannaritnow was introducing the dashing Assistant Engineer Barth Widdlesworth to new meanings for the word "thrust"...
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It seems like I have to budget for this. I somehow like toolkit games nowadays, and I haven't yet seen a good one for these kinds of settings.
--
Mikko Parviainen from the TML
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