Space Adventure RPGs

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?
I wouldn't call it the greatest thing ever, but if I were to run a game in the space adventuring segment, Coriolis would be my choice. I like the flavour and the Year Zero system typically works well enough for me (it's probably my preferred system family, especially for medium-crunch games).
It's notable, though, that Coriolis is one of the earlier implementations and I probably wouldn't run it without a few house rules. Also, there is not too much adventure content outside the big campaign (Mercy of the Icons), at least not in English, and the campaign a) partly feels a bit rail-roady and b) is currently missing the last part. The latter is in the works, though, and despite these imperfections, I still look forward to either play or run the game in the coming years.
 

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aramis erak

Legend
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.
 

Yora

Legend
I started reading Coriolis, not having any real clue what to expect of the system.

First impression: This has so muc art, it's probably more like only 100 pages of actual text than the scary looking page count of 390.

Second impression: The basic mechanics feel a lot like a hybrid of Stars Without Number and Scum and Villainy. Which I both like. This might actually be something I would enjoy to run.
 

Mezuka

Hero
I started reading Coriolis, not having any real clue what to expect of the system.

First impression: This has so muc art, it's probably more like only 100 pages of actual text than the scary looking page count of 390.

Second impression: The basic mechanics feel a lot like a hybrid of Stars Without Number and Scum and Villainy. Which I both like. This might actually be something I would enjoy to run.
The book left quite an impression on me when I first browsed it at the local store. Having so many beautiful illustrations helped sell the setting. Before each session I look at them to put me in the right frame of mind.
 

Yora

Legend
It appears I have already completed reading the game system. I think I dare call it a rules light game compared to most games that are out there. A game that I would run without complainig if I had a group of players asking for it.
But I think this appears to be primarily a campaign setting with some simple rules, compared to other games that are game systems first with a basic samble setting attached.

As someone really into creating new settings and using them for multiple campaigns, the rules of Coriolis don't make a big impact on me. They are looking absolutely fine, but they are also not exciting. A decent pick, but I am not seeing anything tonp draw in people who are already happy with SWN or SaV. Not that SWN is particularly exciting as a system either. I'd say they look pretty interchangeable other than one being 1d20+modifiers and the other being Nd6, count all 6s as successes.

And even as someone who always complains about the GM sections in every rulebook, this one reaches new heights in the "barely even existing" category.

Still got to read the setting section that makes up 60% of the book. That looks indeed like a treat.
 

gamerprinter

Mapper/Publisher
As someone really into creating new settings and using them for multiple campaigns, the rules of Coriolis don't make a big impact on me. They are looking absolutely fine, but they are also not exciting. A decent pick, but I am not seeing anything tonp draw in people who are already happy with SWN or SaV. Not that SWN is particularly exciting as a system either. I'd say they look pretty interchangeable other than one being 1d20+modifiers and the other being Nd6, count all 6s as successes.
Homebrewing my own settings is the biggest draw for me as a GM, I love that kind of creative work. Games that are directly integrated with a defined setting never attracts me. I appreciate it when publishers of game systems provide an example setting using it's rules, but as a requirement to playing game, you must use the given setting, keeps me a 10 pole length away. I never use the default setting.
 

Yora

Legend
That doesn't appear to be an issue with Coriolis, though. Because it is so light on rules, those rules are fairly generic and don't have much in the way of setting-specific assumptions baked into them. The icons stand out being both a cultural element and being represented in some abilities, but with how small or nonspecific the effects are, it looks very easy to reflavor.
Praying the the icon simply gives you extra dice to a roll. Paying for those dice by adding Dark Points to a pool that the GM can use to activate some special actions for NPC enemies doesn't have to be presented as something supernatural. You just ask for an advance on luck, which the GM will later come to collect.
I think Coriolis might actually need less work to be used as a generic system than Stars Without Number. SWN is most often praised for its random planet generation system, but those tables are so deeply tied to the setting that I found them useless for my own setting.

As a long time astronomy fan, I can see that the writer of the setting is not an astronomy fan.:giggle:
Doesn't hurt the setting or the game at all, since I don't see it affecting any events during play and it appears to be pure flavor text, but the cases where things were justified by astronomic phenomenons all made me thing "Write what you know". Because the people who do know about the subject will notice when you don't.
 

Mezuka

Hero
That doesn't appear to be an issue with Coriolis, though. Because it is so light on rules, those rules are fairly generic and don't have much in the way of setting-specific assumptions baked into them. The icons stand out being both a cultural element and being represented in some abilities, but with how small or nonspecific the effects are, it looks very easy to reflavor.
Praying the the icon simply gives you extra dice to a roll. Paying for those dice by adding Dark Points to a pool that the GM can use to activate some special actions for NPC enemies doesn't have to be presented as something supernatural. You just ask for an advance on luck, which the GM will later come to collect.
I think Coriolis might actually need less work to be used as a generic system than Stars Without Number. SWN is most often praised for its random planet generation system, but those tables are so deeply tied to the setting that I found them useless for my own setting.

As a long time astronomy fan, I can see that the writer of the setting is not an astronomy fan.:giggle:
Doesn't hurt the setting or the game at all, since I don't see it affecting any events during play and it appears to be pure flavor text, but the cases where things were justified by astronomic phenomenons all made me thing "Write what you know". Because the people who do know about the subject will notice when you don't.
You might enjoy The Atlas Compendium. You can generate missions and systems very easily. Coriolis Atlas Compendium - Free League Publishing | Coriolis | DriveThruRPG.com
 

aramis erak

Legend
It appears I have already completed reading the game system. I think I dare call it a rules light game compared to most games that are out there. A game that I would run without complainig if I had a group of players asking for it.
But I think this appears to be primarily a campaign setting with some simple rules, compared to other games that are game systems first with a basic samble setting attached.
The rules are only medium-light (2 of 5, not 1 of 5). The big difference mechanically for the player from Alien is in pushing.
THat said, the mechanics are streamlined while not truly rules-light, at least not if we grant that Risus is at most 1, D&D is 3 or 4, and Phoneix Command is 5...
It's not light enough for me to run without cheatsheets, but it's light enough to not need anything but the tables once familiar in play.
As someone really into creating new settings and using them for multiple campaigns, the rules of Coriolis don't make a big impact on me. They are looking absolutely fine, but they are also not exciting. A decent pick, but I am not seeing anything tonp draw in people who are already happy with SWN or SaV. Not that SWN is particularly exciting as a system either. I'd say they look pretty interchangeable other than one being 1d20+modifiers and the other being Nd6, count all 6s as successes.
There are significant amounts of setting element in the character gen. That certain generic mechanics (Pushing, in this case) are framed as character prayer is a strong. That character prayer is a standard modifier is also a huge whack of setting as rule. Those two are compelling rules elements. They're also easily ported out to other games.
And even as someone who always complains about the GM sections in every rulebook, this one reaches new heights in the "barely even existing" category.
By comparison to others, yeah, it's really short on the useful tables. That said, one can easily borrow from Alien or Traveller.
Still got to read the setting section that makes up 60% of the book. That looks indeed like a treat.
It's infodense, but lacking certain elements I'd like to know...
 

Yora

Legend
Something that I feel being left unfortunately unclear is what kind of population scale the setting is supposed to have. The Coriolis Station is stated as having some 500,000 Zenithians living on it, 60 years after the original people split into two groups that stayed and went down to the planet respectively. How much is that of the total Zenithian population? Half of it? A tenth? A percent?
What about the Firstborn? Are they more or less common than Zenithians? Are there twice as many? Ten times as many? A hundred times as many?
Also, there are 36 system that are all have permanent populations, with 6 major inhabited planets. But there is still such population pressure that people are driven out to live as nomads on space ships?

Specific numbers don't matter, as no interstellar scale settings have them. But it seems really unclear what the population dynamics here are supposed to be.
 

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