Voidrunner Introducing the Voidrunner’s Codex!

The Voidrunner’s Codex is coming this year. It’s a set of three sci-fi rulebooks for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition: the Voidrunner’s Codex itself, the Star Captain’s Manual, and an adventure called Escape from Death Planet. Over the coming weeks we’ll be talking a lot about these books, but in the meantime, here’s a glimpse at an early draft of the introduction chapter of the Voidrunner’s Codex.

 

[whimsychris123]

looks great! It would be nice if you included some literary inspiration as well.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I would like to ask about the challengue rating or XP reward of the monsters when there are advanced technology. For example in the movie "Alien: the eight passenger" only one xenomorph was enough to kill almost all Nostromo's staff, but in the second movie dozens, maybe hundreds of xenomorphs were killed from other room thanks sentinel towers. Or the final confrotation against the queen alien, when Ripley uses the "exosuit" power-loader.

Some times in some videogame the player save the best weapons for the boss, and then this is killed easily, in some cases only one shot is enough.

If you have played some battle royal shooter videogame you could realize when your enemy is using this or that firearm. Or you can see killing zombies is different when you are using firearms from WWII or from the cyberpunk age.

 

[Rebel Mage]

Still planning to kickstart this in May?

I believe this was already answered in Discord, but for other people reading: Seems to be 4 June now, judging by the sidebar on the site.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

I believe this was already answered in Discord, but for other people reading: Seems to be 4 June now, judging by the sidebar on the site.

(at least that's more time for polish, though)

 

[xiphumor]

Can someone help me think of some examples as to when one would roll a Science check as opposed to Engineering, Nature, or Medicine? I’m having trouble seeing how it covers new ground, and the specialties given as examples don’t really help. In my mind Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics are all clearly Engineering, while Astronomy and Earth Science are Nature.

 

[Corinnguard]

Can someone help me think of some examples as to when one would roll a Science check as opposed to Engineering, Nature, or Medicine? I’m having trouble seeing how it covers new ground, and the specialties given as examples don’t really help. In my mind Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics are all clearly Engineering, while Astronomy and Earth Science are Nature.

I think it's the difference between Pure Science and Applied Science. Engineering is Applied Science, you take a discovery and you put it to use by making a device which duplicates the properties/effects of whatever you discovered. You learn that you can use magnetic fields to peer inside a person's body. So you build a device that can do just that for medical research, and the device gives you an advantage toward Medicine checks. Astronomy is Pure Science, you make a discovery for science's sake.

Rolls an Insight Check. If this isn't it, my second guess would be that Investigation got renamed as Science.

 

[Reynard]

Can someone help me think of some examples as to when one would roll a Science check as opposed to Engineering, Nature, or Medicine? I’m having trouble seeing how it covers new ground, and the specialties given as examples don’t really help. In my mind Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics are all clearly Engineering, while Astronomy and Earth Science are Nature.

Science and Engineering are not the same thing. Engineering is applied. Science isv theoretical.

Source: am engineer

 

[Morrus]

Science and Engineering are not the same thing. Engineering is applied. Science isv theoretical.

Source: am engineer

That's basically it. Spock and Scotty have overlapping skill sets, but they are different skill sets.

 

[xiphumor]

Science and Engineering are not the same thing. Engineering is applied. Science isv theoretical.

Source: am engineer

I get that, but I suppose in fantasy games I’ve treated Engineering as covering the hard sciences. Chemistry and Math are engineering specialties, after all.

I guess this reduces Nature down to Biology? It covered Astronomy before, and likewise, I always treated it as covering Earth Science.

Anyway, still super pumped!

Q: How are monster types handled in VRC?

 

[Morrus]

Q: How are monster types handled in VRC?

It's still D&D. We haven't changed the basic structure of the game. It'll all be compatible.