Kickstarter Spherechild - multidimensional P&P roleplaying game

[AxeMA]

Spherechild is a universal pen&paper role-playing game in which adventures take place on multiple worlds (for example Fantasy and SciFi). But instead of taking one character to multiple worlds, every player has a character for each world and switches between those. Only by using their telepathic powers and working together across worlds, the adventure can be completed successfully.

The Kickstarter starts on November 1st. You find the prelaunch page on kickstarter here.

What is in the kickstarter?
* The core rule book: This 300-page book contains all the rules for Spherechild as well as two complete world descriptions with bestiary, campaign suggestions and a total of three introductory adventures.
* Icros - The third world: Icros was occupied for decades by alien invaders called the Ekla until they were repelled in a vicious war. The characters are shifters, alien hybrids who used to do the Ekla's dirty work but were left behind when they escaped.

Both books are available as PDF and as print version.

Additional products are:
* The Vendal warrior - A miniature file as .obj.file.
* GM screen - A three folded game-master screen

Some stretch goals include Spherechild scenarios. They will be collected in an adventure book (PDF only) which is exclusively available during this Kickstarter and can’t be bought afterwards.


Do you want to test Spherechild?
Download the quickstarter on our bilingual website www.spherechild.de.
This book contains the abridged rules as well as information about the spheres Valcreon (Fantasy) and Sol Thu’ma (SciFi). Eight ready-made characters and the adventure “Secrets in deep space” allow you to play right away.

 

[RobinRolls20]

So this is like Sense8, but there is actually a good reason for the player characters to use their telepathy, because they are in different worlds and cannot physically do everything they have to? Interesting idea!

How do you come up with adventures for that though? Sounds very tricky. I couldn't come up with one on the spot.

 

[AxeMA]

Thank you for asking.

Creating an adventure may sound tricky, but it is not harder than creating a „normal“ one. The core rulebook contains an example adventure and a chapter how to create an adventure which take place on different worlds. This is very detailed with a lot of examples.
I promise, after reading that you will have plenty ideas for this kind of adventures.

If you want to have a look how an adventure could work, I refer to the english quickstarter.

 

[RobinRolls20]

I checked out the two adventures from your download section. Really, really cool. I think I'm starting to get a feel for it.

How did you come up this this idea, the whole "switching characters but not worlds" premise? I've never seen it anywhere else.

 

[AxeMA]

The idea of playing one adventure on multiple worlds was the beginning of the whole.
We recognized very early that switching with the characters would cause many problems, especially with the knowledge- and the technical stuff-transfer.
So we had to find a solution for that.

But after nearly twenty years from edition one to edition three now, we can say that it worked (and still works).
Right now we are working on sphere four – a Victorian age based horror sphere – and it is surprisingly easy to add this sphere into the existing cosmos.
This was also one of the main goals – create a setting that allows the integration of every imaginable world.

 

[AxeMA]

The Kickstarter is online.
Please find more details of the pledges and stretch goals here ...

 

[AxeMA]

The first KS-update is about the "wild magic" of Spherechild.

The wild magic of Spherechild starts one level earlier than the magic systems of many rulebooks. It is divided into skills, which deals with a special areas of magic. The spell can be performed on the basis of only one magic skill or several combined magic skills. which allows a player to compose a spell according to your own wishes and ideas.

Find it here ...

 

[Longspeak]

Late to the thread....

One of my all time favorite games is Everway, another game of many worlds and those who travel among them. I'm in, regardless, but are you aware of Everway, and how would this compare and contrast, setting-wise?

I'm going digital. Will you have a US fulfillment arm to keep shipping in the realm of the reasonable? I might up to paper if there's a decent shipping rate.

 

[AxeMA]

Hi Longspeak.

Sadly, we don't have an US fulfillment for lowering the shipping. I can totally understand to keep it digital, because sending a parcel from Europe to US is very expensive.
But thanks for your support.


And I have to apologize that I don’t know Everway, because I’m a big fan of Jonathan Tweets Talislanta, 13th age and Ars Magica. But (thanks to drivethruRPG) I closed this gap in my RPG-CV immediately.

As far as I understand the book, the spherewalkers in Everway can change the worlds by walking through a gate. You have one character. And the worlds seem to be very fantasy like.

On Spherechild you can’t travel between the spheres. You have one character on each world which are connected like siblings. They can meet in (they see a projection of the other person) and speak together every time they want.
An Spherechild adventures happens on two spheres (or more if you want). Only when both groups are successful the adventure is successfully finished.
This leads to world switching adventures where you change the sphere in one session to solve all the problems and find the clues.

The spheres have big differences in development. Valcreon is Fantasy, Sol Thu’ma high Sci-Fi with FTL, Icros is comparable with our time and Ma Ika is a Victorian Setting.

There is a chapter about how to create this kind of adventures on two or more spheres and help to include your own world in the cosmos (if you like).

The core book has everything you need, all rules, two fully developed spheres with all information and additional rules for adventure-/world creation.
Maybe our English quickstarter (here) can give you an idea about Spherechild.

 

[Longspeak]

Sound very interesting. And you've got the broad strokes of Everway (Though if you got caught up on DriveThru you probably saw the "Silver Anniversay" edition. It's awesome, but doesn't convey how groundbreaking the game was in the mid-90s. I'm not sure it all aged well, but I still remember it fondly.

Anyway, I saw "Sphere" and the other similarities. I look forward to the project. But yeah, Postage from Europe to Seattle is insane. Last thing I back, shipping was more that the item being shipped.