Rogue Games annouces Thousand Suns™

[rogue_richard]

Rogue Games annouces Thousand Suns™

March 9, 2007 (Chicago, Illinois) — Rogue Games is pleased to announce James Maliszewski’s Thousand Suns™.

Thousand Suns™ is a stand-alone OGL science fiction roleplaying game that includes all the rules needed to play. In addition, it describes the Thousand Suns™ setting, detailing its worlds, alien races, and conflicts.

"Thousand Suns™ is a project born out of my long love affair with older space operas like those written by Piper, Anderson, Niven, and Pournelle, as well as newer authors like Banks, Hamilton, Bujold, and Weber," said Maliszewski.

The setting provides not only lots of detail but plenty of options as well, allowing Game Masters to tailor it to suit their needs. Everything from world building to starship construction and combat to alien species creation is here, so that nothing stands in way of creating the ultimate science fiction adventure.

"I noticed that very few roleplaying games currently in print drew significant inspiration from these sources," said Maliszewski. "It's my hope that Thousand Suns™ will appeal to gamers who, like me, enjoy epic sci-fi in the classic mold."

Thousand Suns™ will be released as a PDF, and will be supported by content on the Rogue Games website. To follow the latest news on Thousand Suns™ , check out Rogue Dispatches, Rogue Games' blog.

The future begins July 2007.

About Rogue Games

Based out of Chicago, Illinois and with an office in Toronto, Canada, Rogue Games is dedicated to creating games that make you think, laugh, and more importantly make you want to play. The Rogues live by one simple motto: Games so good they sneak up on you.™

Contact the Rogues at info@rogue-games.net for more information.

Visit Rogue Games at www.rogue-games.net.

 

[Treebore]

I didn't see a price anywhere.

 

[Cathix]

We're huge fans of Niven. Looking forward to hearing more about this setting. Good luck!

 

[trancejeremy]

Oooooh, the first author mentioned is Piper (presumably H. Beam Piper). While a big influence on Traveller, he's not that popular nowadays.

 

[rogue_richard]

I didn't see a price anywhere.

Price has not been set, but neither James and I believe in high prices. Once I know how big this thing is (James is still writing it) then the price will be set.

Richard

 

[rogue_richard]

We're huge fans of Niven. Looking forward to hearing more about this setting. Good luck!

Thanks, I am really excited about this myself. When James told me the idea, and said he was going to write it at the same time as he does the new edition of Fourth Millenium™, I thought he was crazy.

From what I have seen, and from what he has told me, the game is going to be fun.

This whole thing came about out of the blue, we are busy getting 1776 for layout so we can hit the GenCon release, and we are putting the last touches on a PDF card game. James then had this idea that he had to get out, and boom, Thousand Suns™ is born.

Richard

 

[JamesM]

Oooooh, the first author mentioned is Piper (presumably H. Beam Piper). While a big influence on Traveller, he's not that popular nowadays.

Yes, the Piper in question is the late, great H. Beam Piper. It's a shame he isn't much read nowadays, since his stories still hold up very well, even if the technology and social theory are a bit dated.

Which brings me to Thousand Suns. While taking a great deal of inspiration from all of the authors mentioned in the press release, it's not explicitly based on any of them. Rather, it takes from those authors a certain style and approach, specifically that science fiction should, first and foremost, be fun and open-ended and not simply an exercise in didacticism of any sort. Thousand Suns is my attempt to put the adventure back into science fiction gaming, which, in my opinion, has been burdened of late with attempts to make it "serious" or "insightful." That's not to say Thousand Suns can't do those things, but it's not primarily about social commentary or science education; it's about adventuring among the stars, meeting strange alien races, and working for the glory of the Federation/Empire.

In short, it's new style space opera that takes a great deal of inspiration from the past while still taking into account the changes in SF media over the past forty years. So, you get your vast galactic governments, gigantic starships, inscrutable aliens and nanotechnology and genetic engineering and so forth. The idea behind it is to provide a large canvas for having the sorts of science fiction adventures that gamers love and that are eminently gameable. Let's face it: roleplaying is an entertainment and Thousand Suns is intended to provide lots of it.

 

[jaerdaph]

I know that I'm very interested in one of your other upcoming products, 1776, and have been following this thread at RPGNet: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=317538

I'm also a fan of James's work for d20 Modern with Ronin Arts.

So are 1776 and Thousand Suns d20-based works or no (although this is not a deal breaker for me)? If not, can you tell us a little about the system(s) you will be using for these settings?

Thanks in advance.

 

[JamesM]

So are 1776 and Thousand Suns d20-based works or no (although this is not a deal breaker for me)? If not, can you tell us a little about the system(s) you will be using for these settings?

1776 is not D20-based, but Thousand Suns is. It's being released as an OGL game, however, so it'll include all the rules needed for play. This means not only character creation, but also alien creation, starship construction and combat, star system/planetary generation, and rules for robots, as well as the usual staples such as personal combat, advancement, and so on. The D20 rules are derivative of D20 Modern but they've been tweaked in quite a few places to better emulate space opera (at least in my estimation).

I'd be happy to answer more specific questions if any has them.

 

[rogue_richard]

I know that I'm very interested in one of your other upcoming products, 1776, and have been following this thread at RPGNet: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=317538

I'm also a fan of James's work for d20 Modern with Ronin Arts.

So are 1776 and Thousand Suns d20-based works or no (although this is not a deal breaker for me)? If not, can you tell us a little about the system(s) you will be using for these settings?

Thanks in advance.

I'll let James handle Thousand Suns, I can answer your questions about 1776.

1776 is not d20, it uses 2d12. The system is loose and allows for a more cinematic feel of play. The mechanic is one I am proud of, and it plays very well, it is easy to learn, but does not get in the way of letting your Heroes do heroic actions.

1776 is a historical supernatural role playing game set during the dawn of the American Revolution. I am finishing up the last touches of the Quickstart, which will be a free download giving you a feel for the system and setting. This will be followed up with the full game in August.

Any questions, let me know, and I will be more than happy to answer them.

Richard