Does anyone want to pitch me on Coriolis?
I only heard the name before and only learned a few things about it today. Any fans of it who think it's the greatest thing ever and want everyone to know why?
The setting is described as Arabian Nights in Space. I have only read about it and it seems rife with RP and adventure opportunity.
I have played a few Free League games and enjoy the year zero system. In various games you build a dice pool for testing out an event. Typically, rolling is only done for important things. I find the system does a good job of sitting back and staying out of the way. If you desire something more tangible and crunch rules heavy like D&D or GURPS, you probably wont like this system.
I have it, haven't run it. Have read it. It's close to other YZE games, but not quite the same
The claim of Arabian Nights in Space is a bit of an exaggeration, or more mildly, an aspiration that I don't feel is likely to be delivered without everyone playing being on board; at least, that's on a first read basis, it reads more as
The Unauthorized Chronicles of Riddick RPG than 101 Arabian nights. A couple of elements make me go "
WTF‽‽‽" Religion seems much more important than I recall in
101 Arabian Nights... and Vin Diesel has said Chronicles drew inspiration from
101 Arabian Nights. Still, the roots are there, it just may take a bit of effort to find them.
It's got this one weird element to it - that of a fantasy religion - that on first read pulls me away from an Arabian feel I would expect either pre-Islamic Arabian henotheism¹ with local deities for every system, or one or both of Christian and Islam, possibly corrupted forms; instead we get a polytheist faith with mechanical effects... The 9 "Icons" - a synchretism of Islamic, Catholic/Orthodox³, Mormon², and pantheonist practices.
The 9 are: The Messenger, The Dancer, the Gambler, the Deckhand, the Merchant, the Judge, the Traveler, the Lady of Tears, the Faceless One. The faith borrows bits from a bunch of places... the illos for several of the Icons look Indian, not Arabian. A Mormon-style mission, but specifically to the frontiers. An Islamic style pilgrimage, clearly borrowed from the Islamic Hajj. A ramadan-style fast. Catholic/Orthodox style confession to clergy. Obligation to life-bond (essentially marry; it's implied to include LGBTQ, but not explicitly stated. Annual requirement for temple declaration of the creed of the faith. Giving of Alms, as in Islam. Twice daily prayer kneeling on a prayer rug - clearly Islam inspired, but reduced. Blessings of places and vehicles being done by the faithful themseves - this may be drawn from Catholic/Orthodox tradition, or from the ordination of almost all Mormon males and the Icon faith extending that to the women as well.
The ship rules are similar to Alien's - but not quite the same. 5 hull sizes, limited number of module slots. Hyperspace has to be entered with everyone in cryostasis or comas... being awake is potentially lethal. Having a chapel, a priest, and taking time to pray are all mods to hyperspace calculations... If you've played alien ship combat, it will feel familiar. Maintenance is more a cost rather than a serious risk issue.
The mechanics make religion quite the thing in the game.
The push mechanic is not called that, but it's present. and called "Praying to the Icons." It generates a darkness point (GM metacurrency). Preperatory pray will give you a bonus die on the reroll when you later have the character pray to that icon, or 2 if said prep was in a chapel; it lasts the session. It's not clear if you can prep for multiples.
Darkness points are the GM only metacurrency. Pushing gets them, they can be spent on a variety of what will in later games be extra success spends. NPC reactions also spend them. THe GM can use them to make gear disappear. Or to cause weapon issues (ammo, misfire), have more NPCs show up, put bystanders in danger, and more.
It's worth noting - 1's do not do special things. They just aren't successes.
Mechanical Differences
1's don't do damage on pushes.
GM is semi-weak GM - many things require Darkness Point spends
16 skills, half of which are not useable unskilled.
1×⚅ is limited success, >2×⚅ is triggering the critical success level. Simple success is 2×⚅.
Modifiers directly alter number of dice.
Since the release of T2K, it's important to note it's the d6's only side, not the dice step side.
3 short scenarios in the back, not the 1 mid-length one of many later ones.
The mission generators aren't as concrete as those in Alien or Blade Runner, despite the game having similar scope to Alien.
Money is tracked as money, nor abstract resources.
Die Roll for initiatve (some flavors use cards).
Action Points instead of Fast/Slow (Alien, Vaesen) or Move/Action (MYZ)
HP = Str+Agl, Mind Points = Wits+Emp. (Various other flavors have different ones
notes:
¹: Henotheism: worship limited to one god, but acknowleging many others may exist and even be valid, but not for the henotheist to worship.
²: By Mormon, I'm including all of the groups deriving from the Restoration by Joseph Smith, not just the LDS. No denigration is intended to any of those; Mormon is simply the most intelligible term for them as a clade.
³: most especially the Coptic, Maronite, Assyrian/Chaldean, and Ethiopian churches, including those in the Roman Communion and the Coptic Orthodox Communion, plus the Assyrian Churches.
