As Mikaela has mentioned, convention season is approaching. We will be there with Splinter, and may or may not have dead tree copies of Phantasm and/or Anathema there also. But I mainly want to talk to you about a new game that I've been developing over the past several years, which I've kept under wraps until now, and which I'm very excited about.
The Singularity System is universal, setting-neutral science fiction roleplaying system. Have you ever found a roleplaying system you liked, but didn't care for the setting, and the two were too closely wedded to separate? Or found a roleplaying setting you liked, but didn't want to take the time and effort to convert it into a system you liked? The Singularity System is a solution to both these problems.
What the Singularity core rules aim to do is to provide a totally kickass rules set for science fiction roleplaying: adventure and exploration, personal combat, and of course super fun, streamlined, engaging vehicle and starship combat.
And now I'm going to start geeking out because you see...this ruleset isn't just designed to be awesome, it's designed to be applicable, with a little work, to any science fiction setting you can think of, from Larry Niven's "Known Space" future history to Alastair Reynolds' "Revelation Space" universe, Bungie's Halo to Bioware's Mass Effect, Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Ridley Scott's Alien, James Cameron's Aliens, Ridley Scott's Prometheus, James Cameron's Avatar, you get the idea.
This is NOT a new idea. In fact, we have stiff competition. Both GURPS and Hero System are designed around the idea of providing a setting-agnostic, generic, customizable roleplaying "toolkit". The Singularity System takes the same "toolkitting" approach, but is more focused on Science Fiction. A more accurate comparison might be to Star Hero or GURPS Space, only the Singularity System is more self contained. You see, Star Hero is a xhundred page book that requires you to have bought, read, and understood the Hero System Core Rules, a xhundred page book. Don't get me wrong, I am in a never-ending love affair with the Hero System, but we wanted to offer something that traded some of its versatility (by focusing on science fiction) in exchange for streamlining, and coming up with a rules system that was more lightweight and successful.
Also, vehicle and starship combat rules. As a long-time player of multiple tabletop roleplaying games, I have had a hell of a time finding a set of Vehicle Combat Rules that don't absolutely suck, making the game lag and break down into a morass of unfun confusion and bafflement, and rapidly hemmoraghing player engagement and interest. The Singularity System is my attempt to fix that, while simultaneously incorporating some ideas of the classic science fiction RPG Traveller I thought were awesome (they had some good ideas about Starship combat) but leaving off the rest of them, which I could take or leave.
By far the most awesome thing about the Singularity system is its customizability. We're going to be making a ton of very cheap, lightweight "modules" that can be patched on to the game. Modules will include two categories. Basic MOD modules are setting-neutral, like the game itself. Psionics, Cyberware, more Starships, things like that. SET modules convert the game into a specific science fiction setting, providing rules for specific races, tech, characters, and vehicles from that setting.The Singularity System will have two original setting modules--one of which you may have heard of before--available for use soon after launch, but freeware products will also provide support for playing in some of your favorite science fiction universes, including some of those mentioned above.
Both types of modules will be low-priced, micro-content packs: basically speaking, they will be all crunch, focused on giving you more options for your game, with the minimum amount of fluff needed to tie things together. You can pick and choose the modules you want, and customize your own Singularity universe.
So, to review...
* The Singularity System is a setting-neutral toolkit for science fiction roleplaying, adventure, and giant fighting robots in the far future. It takes a wide-open toolkitting approach to adding the content the user wants for their game.
* The game will use a streamlined, fast-generating, extremely customizable, proprietary d6 system (the titular Singularity System) with dice pools. The mechanics are superficially similar to a vastly simplified and streamlined Shadowrun 3rd Edition, but it's not based on any particular RPG, it's been built from the ground up to serve not the setting, but the genre of far-future science fiction adventure.
* Its starship and vehicle combat rules are innovative and awesome, with enough depth to be a war-game in-and-of themselves, but simple enough to learn in an evening.
* There will be at least two original setting packs (Setting Modules) for the Singularity system. Later, FREE setting modules will include rules for playing in some of your favorite pre-existing science fiction universes.
* Expansion Modules will add tons of extra content onto the base game, more weapons, vehicles, gear, rules for customizing weapons and gear, cyberware, alien races, rules for designing your own alien races, rules for designing your own mechs, starships, rules for being an interstellar trader, hacking, virtual reality, genetic engineering, and so on.
Whew. We will be bringing the Singularity System with us to demo and/or sell at this year's GenCon, Origins, and before those, Lunacon, coming up in just a few weeks. That means its launch is imminent. I have been toiling on this one in silence for years, playtesting it with friends, having a blast, I've even written up several of the expansion modules, and those should be ready to go soon after launch. As you can probably guess, I am SUPER EXCITED!
-DTO Out.
