Mythic Space

A Science Fiction Roleplaying Game

By Peter LaCara
 Mythic Space
Playtest Version 1.01

Design, Writing, and Layout by Peter LaCara

Art by Midjourney

Special Thanks to Nicholas Hardenburg, Reece Marshall, Colin Prokop, Kyle Prokop, Nils
Wiklund, and the Lancer Discord.

Dedicated to Carolyn and Aubrielle

Acknowledgements
Mythic Space could not exist without the influence of games that came before it. Here are the
most direct influences:

◊ Blades in the Dark, by John Harper

◊ Darkest Dungeon 2, by Red Hook Studios

◊ Dungeons and Dragons, 4th edition, by Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt

◊ ICRPG, by Runehammer Games

◊ Ironsworn: Starforged, by Shawn Tomkin

◊ Heart: the City Beneath, by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor

◊ Lancer, by Miguel Lopez and Tom Parkinson Morgan

◊ Marathon, Halo, and Destiny series, by Bungie Studios

◊ Mass Effect series, by Bioware

◊ Stars Without Number, by Kevin Crawford

◊ Traveller, by Marc Miller

◊ XCOM series, by Firaxis Games

© 2022 Peter LaCara. All rights reserved.

Somewhere in space hangs my heart,

Shaking in the void…

- Edith Sodergran
Introduction...............................................1
The Setting..........................................................2
What You Need ..................................................3
Conventions........................................................3
Building A Crew........................................ 4
Choosing a Ship ................................................. 5
Character Creation Summary ....................... 5
Character Creation in Detail ..........................6
Character Advancement ...............................14
Character Legacies .........................................14
Playing the Game................................... 16
Difficulty............................................................. 17
Success And Failure ....................................... 17
Position .............................................................. 18
Effect................................................................... 18
Skills.................................................................... 18
Tokens................................................................. 19
Bargaining ........................................................ 20
Pushing a Roll.................................................. 20
Stress and Breaks .......................................... 20
Consequences.................................................. 21
Challenges........................................................ 22
Teamwork......................................................... 23
Fortune Rolls ................................................... 24
Information ...................................................... 24
Missions .................................................. 25
Mission Goal .................................................... 26
Mission Loadout............................................. 26
Supplies and Gear...........................................27
Mission Rewards.............................................27
Downtime .................................................31
Downtime Actions ......................................... 32
Tactical Combat ..................................... 35
Set Up................................................................. 36
Turn-Based Combat .......................................37
Actions............................................................... 38
Saving Throws ................................................. 41
Damage and Defenses ................................. 42
Combat Tokens ............................................... 43
Things That Might Come Up ....................... 45
Ending Combat................................................ 46
Starships ................................................. 47
Ship Mechanics............................................... 49
Space Combat ................................................. 49
Building a Ship ................................................ 50
Aspects .................................................... 55
Assassin.............................................................56
Captain ...............................................................57
Counselor ......................................................... 58
Diplomat ............................................................59
Doctor ................................................................ 60
Explorer.............................................................. 61
Hunter................................................................ 62
Infiltrator .......................................................... 63
Mechanic........................................................... 64
Muscle ................................................................65
Starting Ability .................................................65
Mystic ................................................................ 66
Pilot .....................................................................67
Scoundrel.......................................................... 68
Soldier................................................................ 69
Spacer................................................................ 70
Tempest.............................................................. 71
Altari....................................................................72
Brachinid............................................................73
Earther................................................................74
Kathir ..................................................................75
Outsider..............................................................76
Synth ...................................................................77
Xin ....................................................................... 78
Tactics ...................................................... 79
Athlete ............................................................... 80
Bastion ............................................................... 81
 Berserker .......................................................... 82
Biokinetic .......................................................... 83
Commando ....................................................... 84
Defender ........................................................... 84
Disruptor........................................................... 85
Engineer ............................................................ 85
Fighter ............................................................... 86
Grenadier .......................................................... 87
Gunner ............................................................... 87
Gunslinger ........................................................ 88
Martial Artist ................................................... 88
Officer ................................................................ 89
Operator............................................................ 90
Precog................................................................. 91
Pyrokinetic ....................................................... 92
Rocketeer.......................................................... 92
Sapper ............................................................... 93
Sentinel ............................................................. 93
Sharpshooter .................................................. 94
Technomancer .................................................95
Telekinetic ........................................................ 96
Telepath .............................................................97
Teleporter ......................................................... 98
Weapons and Armor .............................99
Weapons......................................................... 100
Weapon Mods ................................................102
Armor ................................................................105
Armor Mods ....................................................105
A Brief History of Space Travel ........108
The End of the World .................................. 109
Exodus ............................................................. 109
First Contact ................................................... 110
The Age of Mystery ...................................... 110
Izanami.............................................................. 111
The Blight and the Alliance........................ 112
The Purity Crusades ..................................... 113
The Singularity............................................... 114
The Verge..........................................................115
Running the Game ................................116
GM Goals...........................................................117
GM Principles ..................................................117
Generating Missions ...........................119
The Mission Deck ..........................................120
Mission Difficulty .......................................... 121
Mission Objectives........................................122
Complications ................................................123
Combat Encounters......................................124
Mission Rewards...........................................125
Retaliation.......................................................126
Faction Goals..................................................127
Building A Galaxy ................................ 128
Planet Generation.........................................129
World Aspects................................................ 131
Faction Borders .............................................136
Antagonists .......................................... 137
Basic Templates ........................................... 140
The Brachinid Consortium .........................152
Colonial Exports ............................................158
The Cult of Izanami...................................... 164
The Empire of Man .......................................170
The Nemesis Blight ...................................... 175
The Pirate Clans ............................................ 181
The Singularity...............................................187
Exotics.................................................... 193
Exotic Weapons ............................................ 194
Exotic Armor Mods .......................................196
Exotic Gear ......................................................197
 Chapter 1:

Introduction
1
Welcome to Mythic Space! This is a science
fiction roleplaying game about action and
adventure set in a galaxy of wonder and
terror. It is meant to feel like your favorite
science fiction TV show with combat scenes
that feel like your favorite first person
shooter.
You and your friends play the crew of a
starship. You might be soldiers or spies
performing special ops for a government or
faction, bounty hunters running down the
scum of the galaxy, pirates who prey on the
wealthy and callous megacorporations
ravaging the frontier, or just space truckers
working odd jobs trying to get by. At its core,
the game is about your ship, and the found
family that crews it. This is your story.
The game takes inspiration from a variety of
different media, and the tone can vary
depending on which tropes you lean into the
most. You can choose to emphasize the grit
and desperation of Battlestar Galactica and
the expanse, the sweeping political space
opera of Babylon 5 and Mass Effect, the
pulse pounding war stories of Halo and
Titanfall, or the personal space western of
Cowboy Bebop and Firefly. And of course
there’s plenty of Star Wars and Star Trek in
there too.
The Setting
It is 500 years in the future, and we never
learned our lesson. Humanity was on the
verge of extinction when the Outside
Context Entities, or OCEs, arrived in their
Black Ships and constructed a Jump Gate in
our home system. They left without
explaining themselves, and humanity
stepped out into a wider galaxy.
We soon found that we were not alone, and
our story was not so unique. We
encountered a half dozen other alien
species, each of whom had a similar story -
rapid industrialization had ruined their
home planets and they thought all was lost
until the Black Ships arrived and gave them
a door out.
You would think we would have been
grateful to have been pulled back from the
brink. Instead we went to war with each
other. It was not until we encountered the
Nemesis Blight, a devouring swarm of
fungal creatures capable of interstellar
travel, that we were able to put aside our
differences and stop killing each other.
The Alliance was formed to combat the
Blight, and now it operates much like the
modern European Union. It is a collection of
ostensibly independent star nations who
operate as a single economic and military
unit. Its founding members are the Humans
of Earth, the graceful and androgynous
Altari, the lion or wolf-like Kathir, and the
insectile Xin.
The Alliance has a number of interstellar
rivals. The largest is the Brachinid
Consortium, a collection of hyper-capitalist
crab people who operate the largest slave
trade in the galaxy. The most vicious is the
Empire of Man, fascist humans who broke
away from Earth when they joined the
Alliance. They have launched multiple
crusades to try to take Earth back from
those who would allow “the sacred soil of
Sol” to be “desecrated” by alien footsteps.
And there is The Singularity, an aggressive
AI hive mind bent on assimilating all life in
the galaxy in an egocentric attempt at
attaining godhood.
It is a dangerous time to be the crew of a
small spaceship, looking to make their mark.
2
 What You Need
◊ A few friends - 3 to 5 players plus one
person to act as a Game Master (GM).
◊ At least one standard set of polyhedral
dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20),
ideally one set for each player.
◊ A character sheet for each player and a
ship sheet for the whole crew. These can
be printed on paper or you can keep
track digitally with a phone or tablet at
the table.
◊ The GM should have a standard 52 card
deck of playing cards.
◊ Miniatures and a battlemat, while not
strictly necessary, are very helpful for
combat encounters.
◊ Similarly, a set of poker chips or colored
glass beads to use for tokens are also
very helpful.
Conventions
◊ Important terms will always be bolded
the first time they appear.
◊ Attribute names will appear in ALL CAPS.
If a skill applies to the attribute, it will be
listed in (parenthesis).
◊ References to specific abilities will
always be underlined.
◊ Positive tokens will always be displayed
in blue.
◊ Negative tokens will always be
displayed in red.
3
What Are The OCEs?
Who or what are the mysterious beings
that saved life in the galaxy from itself?
The short answer is “no one knows.” Any
attempt to understand the OCEs only leads
to more questions.
The Black Ships appear to be fully
automated - no organic presence has ever
been detected on one. But are they piloted
by AI? Remote piloted by some other
intelligence?
They have left vaults full of inscrutible
technology all over the Milky way. For what
purpose? Are they gifts? Traps? A
distraction from something greater?
Why did they save us in the first place?
Were they trying to preserve our species?
Or were they trying to box us in to keep us
from threatening others?
Changelog
Changes from 1.0:
◊ Fixed a few typos and incorrect table
entries.
 Changelog

Chapter 2:

Building A Crew
4
 Choosing a Ship Character Creation
The first session of a Mythic Space game Summary
involves creating your ship and your lovable
band of misfits and weirdos to crew it. The 1. Choose a concept and species.
first thing you should do is collectively
decide which ship you should start with. 2. Choose two aspects.
This determines the nature of your crew and
the type of missions they on. a. Gain the starting ability from each
aspect.
◊ The Aegolius is the favored ship of
special operatives, spies, and saboteurs b. Choose a starting skill from each
working for the Alliance to protect it aspect.
from enemies foreign and domestic. The
Aegolius starts with a stealth drive. c. Choose an NPC from one of your
aspect lists to be your friend.
◊ The Corvus is the favored ship of
scientists, explorers, and treasure d. Choose another NPC from your
hunters working at the edges of the aspect lists to be your rival.
galaxy to seek the unknown. The Corvus
starts with a true AI helm. 3. Choose two tactics.

◊ The Kestrel is the favored ship of a. Gain the starting ability from each
mercenaries, bounty hunters, and tactic.
pirates. Your crew works on the fringes
of space, doing dirty work for the highest 4. Assign your attributes.
bidder. The Kestrel starts with ship to
ship weaponry. a. Attribute ratings can be as high as +4
or as low as -2.
◊ The Peregrine is the favored ship of
smugglers, blockade runners, and rebels b. Assign values to your PHYSIQUE,
who need to outrun the trouble they find. REFLEX, DISCIPLINE, and WITS.
The Peregrine starts with an advanced
impulse drive. c. The total value of your attributes
should add up to +6.
Once the group as a whole have chosen a
ship, they can choose two minor upgrades 5. Add flavor.
for the ship. The group can choose these
now, but it’s usually better to wait until a. Name your character.
everyone has built their characters to decide
what upgrades they want. b. Describe how you look.

c. Define pronouns, mannerisms, and

personality.

5
6. Fill out the rest of your sheet.

a. Pick your default primary and

secondary weapons.

b. Fill out your starting shield and

armor values.

Character Creation in
Detail
Once the ship is built, it is time to create
characters to crew it. Each player builds a
character by using the steps on the
following page.

Step 1: Concept and

Species

Choose what kind of character you want to

make. Think of it like you are casting a sci-fi
TV show and this is the cast member you are
going to play. The group should
communicate with each other about their
character concepts so that their
personalities mesh - but not too well… a
little interpersonal conflict can create
drama!

Most characters are assumed to be human,

but since we don’t have to worry about a
special effects budget or waiting hours in a
makeup chair, you can play an alien as well.

See the species descriptions on the

following pages for more details.

6
 Humans

Humans are the most populous species in the

Alliance, making up nearly 40% of its
population. Humanity was instrumental in
bringing the other Alliance species together to
defeat the Nemesis Blight, and have
traditionally been viewed as the de facto
leaders of the Alliance. Internal divisions and
strife over the last few decades as well as
psy-ops from a number of hostile powers
have exposed rifts between the cultures of
the various human colonies. The other
Alliance species have begun to question
humanity’s place at the top, and it may only
be a matter of time before the Alliance
fractures under its own weight.

Altari

The Altari are a hermaphroditic species

whose skin are various shades of blue, green,
or lavender and have tentacles in place of
hair. They often find the human obsession
with gender to be puzzling, but rely on a strict
social hierarchy. Despite being mono-
gendered, Altari languages have a dozen sets
of pronouns, each used to denote a member
of a different social class. Altari are long-
lived, often living for over 500 years, and have
a strong affinity for paracausal powers.

7
Brachinids

Brachinids are a species of large intelligent

decapods. They have delicate appendages
capable of fine manipulation on eight of their
legs, and two large crushing claws on the
other two. Brachinids within Alliance space
are usually missing the large claws, called
War Claws, due to being escaped slaves. The
Brachinid Consortium is a megacorporation
that rules most of Brachinid space, and is
hostile to the Alliance due to their policies of
raiding and slavery. Only the Warrior Caste
and Owner Caste are permitted to keep their
War Claws - they are a symbol of being
allowed to carry weapons and train for battle,
a privilege slaves are never allowed.

Kathir

The Kathir are a tall mammalian species,

averaging over 220 cm in height and weighing
over 150 kg. They are covered in soft hair
which they keep in elaborate braids to show
their status and have powerful features as
they evolved from pack predators not unlike
Earth’s wolves or lions.

Despite coming into conflict early on after

humans first discovered the Jump Gates,
humans and the Kathir have the easiest time
getting along of the Alliance member species,
probably since both species share
resemblances to animals the other
traditionally kept as pets (humans think the
Kilrath look kinda like cats or dogs, the Kathir
think humans look like ‘Thrynn,’ a primate-like
social animal they have domesticated for
thousands of years).

8
 Synths

Synths are Ais legally recognized as people.

Many synths are digitally uploaded
consciousnesses from a reptilian species that
was once known as the Ur who went
biologically extinct when they were consumed
by the Blight. Others are members of other
species who learned how to upload their
brains from the Ur. The rarest synths are True
Ais - personalities who were never people in
the first place.

Synths mostly exist on the Extranet, but are

able to download themselves into android
bodies. It is technically possible for synths to
merge and reproduce creating new AIs, but
this is extremely taboo in free synth culture,
since unchecked reproduction led to the
creation of the Singularity.

Xin

The Xin are a delicate species of insect-like

humanoids with large heads and eyes. The Xin
deny ever having sent research ships to Earth
in the mid-20th century, though their
resemblance to the stereotypical ‘grey’ alien
from that time period is uncanny. The Xin
evolved from hive insects, similar to ants or
bees, and most of the individuals found
outside of their homeworld are sterile
females. Many of them have natural
telepathy, though this often atrophies the
farther away a Xin gets from their hive.

9
Step 2: Aspects
Aspects are what define your character’s
non-combat abilities and focus. Aspects are
fully detailed in their own chapter, but a
summary table is provided. Choose two
from this list.
You gain the starting ability from each of
your aspects. Each aspect also has two
skills listed. Choose one skill from each
aspect (they must be different skills).
Skills
Skills are particular actions that your
character is more adept at. Whenever one of
your skills apply, reduce the difficulty of an
action roll by one step.
◊ Compel is for getting people to do what
you want, either through intimidation,
force of will, or leadership.
◊ Destroy is for demolishing or breaking
objects.
◊ Engineer is for building or fixing
machines.
◊ Exert is for pushing your body with feats
of strength - running, jumping, lifting,
etc.
◊ Finesse is for fine manipulation and
tasks that require a steady hand.
◊ Interface is for interacting with
computer systems and hacking.
◊ Perceive is for noticing hidden details.
◊ Pilot is for maneuvering ships and other
vehicles.
◊ Stealth is for moving and acting without
being noticed.
◊ Study is for closely examining an object
or scene.
◊ Survive is for enduring harsh
environments and situations.
◊ Sway is for convincing people to do
things with charm, guile, or seduction.
Friends and Rivals
Each aspect has a list of NPCs who
represent people your character might have
history with. Choose one of the NPCs from
either of your aspects to be your friend, and
another NPC from the other list to be your
rival. You can count on your friend to
provide you with jobs or help you out in a
jam. You can also count on the GM to have
your rival make trouble for you when they
need an easy plot hook.
Species Aspects
Species Aspects represent a character’s
species or place of birth. You can play a
member of one of these species without
taking the corresponding aspect. Taking the
aspect means that your identity as this
origin is a core part of your character. For
example, if you really want to explore Altari
culture with your character, you would take
the aspect. If you want to be a master thief
who just happens to be an Altari, you might
have Infiltrator instead.
10
 Aspect What Can You Do? Starting Ability Skills

Assassin Kill people for money. Silent Takedown Finesse, Stealth

Captain Lead the crew. Make It So Compel, Pilot

Counselor Keep people sane. Soothing Presence Study, Sway

Diplomat Sway people. Impassioned Speech Compel, Sway

Doctor Keep people healthy. Field Medic Finesse, Study

Explorer Survive the wilds. Ranger Exert, Survive

Hunter Track things down. Hunter Vision Stealth, Study

Infiltrator Sneak and spy. Skelton Key Interface, Stealth

Mechanic Fix things. Duct Tape Engineer, Interface

Muscle Be big and tough. Breaking Stuff to Look Tough Compel, Destroy

Mystic Be wise and powerful. Subtle Power Compel, Perceive

Pilot Maneuver vehicles. Ace Finesse, Pilot

Scoundrel Con people. Trust Me Finesse, Sway

Soldier Fight for a cause. Basic Training Destroy, Exert

Spacer Survive in space. Rockhopper Engineer, Survive

Tempest Be tortured by power. Unleash the Storm Destroy, Perceive

Altari Be a space elf. Altari Grace Perceive, Sway

Brachinid Be a giant crab. Decapod Exert, Sway

Earther Be from Earth. Heirloom Compel, Survive

Kathir Be a lion-wolf. Powerful Build Exert, Perceive

Outsider Be something weird. Unique Physiology Interface, Study

Synth Be a robot. Advanced Processor Interface, Pilot

Xin Be a ‘grey alien.’ Galaxy Brain Pilot, Study

11
Step 3: Tactics
Tactics are special training and gear that
your character uses to turn the tide in battle.
Choose two tactics from the list on the next
page. You gain the starting ability from each
of them.
Step 4: Attributes
Distribute points between your four
attributes so that they add up to +6. No
attribute may start at higher than +4, or
lower than -2. Here are some sample
spreads:
◊ +4, +2, +2, -2 [the standard array]
◊ +4, +4, +0, -2 [ultra focused]
◊ +3, +2, +1, +0 [no weaknesses]
◊ +3, +3, +2, -2 [broad competence]
◊ +2, +2, +1, +1 [master of none]
Each attribute describes an area of
expertise for your character.
◊ PHYSIQUE represents a character’s raw
physicality. If a roll depends on a
character’s strength, speed, or stamina,
use PHYSIQUE.
◊ REFLEX represents a character’s twitch
reflexes and agility. If a roll depends on a
character’s accuracy, reaction time, or
flexibility, use REFLEX.
◊ DISCIPLINE represents a character’s raw
mental strength. If a roll depends on a
character’s willpower, memory, courage,
or force of personality, use DISCIPLINE.
◊ WITS represents a character’s mental
agility. If a roll depends on a character’s
quick thinking, clever wordplay,
misdirection, or charm, use WITS.
Step 5: Flavor
Choose a name for your character. You might
choose a common name like one you might
hear on Earth, or something more
outlandish. Maybe your character has a
callsign or a nom de guerre. The galaxy is a
big place, and there are a lot of different
naming conventions.
Think about your character’s gender and
pronouns. Humans still have their whole
range of genders and pronouns, though
contact with the Altari has led some people
to adopt their pronouns for their own, while
the fascist empire insists that there are only
two. The Altari are mono-gendered, but use
different pronouns to denote social class.
Synths can be agender but they often adopt
a gender for purposes of interfacing with
organics. Xin travelers are technically all
sterile females, but often use ‘we’ as their
pronouns to refer to their hive as a whole,
even if they are not in contact with their
hive.
Finally, what does your character look like?
Pick 2-3 distinctive features and describe
them. Tall? Short? Heavy? Lithe? Sexy?
Refined? Grease-stained? Cold-eyed?
Predatory smile? Shaved head? Tattoos?
Quiet? Brash?
Step 6: Finalize Sheet
Make sure all your abilities are written down
on your sheet. Fill out your usual equipment
for your full loadout and your casual
loadout. Your full loadout is what you carry
with you when you are on a mission. Your
casual loadout is what you have on you
12
 Tactic What Can You Do? Starting Ability

Athlete Run faster and jump higher. Run and Gun

Bastion Employ shields to protect your team. Hardlight Shield

Berserker Rip and tear, until it is done. Reckless Attack

Biokinetic Manipulate organic matter with your mind. Biorhythm

Commando Strike unseen. Active Camouflage

Defender Draw enemy fire. Taunt

Disruptor Stun and disorient enemies. Stun Grenade

Engineer Support and resupply your team. Resupply Drone

Fighter Specialize in melee weapons. Parry

Grenadier Blow stuff up with grenades. Frag Grenade

Gunner Specialize in automatic weapons. Suppressive Fire

Gunslinger Specialize in pistols. Quickdraw

Martial Artist Fight with your bare hands. Martial Arts

Officer Coordinate and buff your team. Tactical Advice

Operator Hack and sabotage the enemy team. Overload

Precog See the future and manipulate time. Anticipation

Pyrokinetic Blow stuff up with your mind. Ignite

Rocketeer Blow stuff up with a rocket launcher. Rocket Launcher

Sapper Blow stuff up with mines. Proximity Mine

Sentinel Deploy turrets to control the battlefield. Sentry Turret

Sharpshooter Specialize in long range combat. Steady Shot

Technomancer Enchant and enhance your gear. Paracausal Ammo

Telekinetic Manipulate gravity with your mind. Telekinesis

Telepath Manipulate minds with your mind. Mind Blast

Teleporter Manipulate space with your mind. Teleport

13
when you are in downtime or trying to be
inconspicuous. You can change your
loadouts at any time on your ship.
When you are fully loaded you can carry:
◊ One primary weapon.
◊ One secondary weapon.
◊ Up to one grenade.
◊ Up to one utility item.
◊ You have your full shields and armor
rating. These start at 8 and 4,
respectively.
When you have your casual loadout, you can
carry:
◊ One weapon with the sidearm trait.
◊ Up to one utility item.
◊ Your shields and armor rating are
halved, so these will start at 4 and 2,
respectively.
And that’s it! You’re ready to take on the
galaxy.
Character
Advancement
Characters improve in two main ways -
mission rewards and XP rewards. Mission
rewards grant new gear and abilities to your
character and new modules for your ship. XP
rewards come from failed action rolls. Each
action roll you fail grants 1 XP to the
attribute you rolled. During downtime, you
may spend 10 XP from a particular attribute
to increase that attribute by 1. Some abilities
state that they grant you XP when you meet
a certain criteria. This XP can be applied to
any attribute of your choice.
Character Legacies
Characters take a beating facing the
blackness of space. They change through
stress breaks. They gain trauma. They die.
When you decide you want to give your
character a much needed retirement, it is
time to determine your legacy.
When you retire your character, you gain a
number of legacy points.
◊ First, total up your attributes and
subtract 6, then multiply by 2 (in other
words, you get 2 points for each
attribute increase you’ve had).
◊ Add 1 point for each aspect, skill, and
tactical upgrade
◊ Add 1 point for each weapon and armor
mod.
◊ Add 3 points for each exotic that leaves
the game with your character.
◊ Add 1 point for each point of trauma your
character has (include the point they
would gain if they came back to life if
they are already dead).
When you create a new character, you can
spend legacy points to upgrade them.
Consult the following table for point costs
for improving your character.
14
Alternately, you may spend your points to
Upgrade Legacy Point Cost
describe how your former character’s
actions changed the galaxy. A minor change Increase attribute by 1 2 points
is small scale - an impact to a handful of (max 6)
NPCs. A major change is larger - an impact Aspect, skill, or tactical 1 point
to an entire star system. A universal change upgrade
is huge - your character’s actions are felt on
a galactic scale, and the universe will never Armor or weapon mod 1 point
be the same.
New aspect, skill, or 2 points
tactic
Finally, you have the option to have your old
character become Support Personnel for Minor change 3 points
your ship (see the Starships chapter for
more information). For every 2 legacy points Major change 6 points
you spend, write down one aspect ability
that the character knew. Once per session, Universal change 9 points
someone on the crew can use an aspect
ability from their Support Personnel as if Support personnel 2 points per ability
they had that aspect.

15
Chapter 3:

Playing the
Game
16
Gameplay in Mythic Space is a conversation
between the GM and the players. The GM
describes what is happening in the scene,
and then asks the players what they would
like to do. The players describe what their
characters do. When the outcome is in
doubt, roll the dice to find out what happens.
Only roll the dice when the situation is
interesting or tense - you don’t need to roll
to brush your teeth in the morning unless
you’re trying to impress an Imperial
Baroness.
The most common die roll is the action roll
(as in a roll prompted by player action). Roll
a twenty-sided die (d20) and add your
relevant attribute.
◊ PHYSIQUE is used when the roll depends
on sheer physical strength, endurance,
or speed.
◊ REFLEX is used when the roll depends
on reaction time, finesse, or accuracy.
◊ DISCIPLINE is used when the roll
depends on memory, study, force of
personality, or raw mental power.
◊ WITS is used when the roll depends on
quick thinking, lateral thinking,
deception, or charm.
17
Difficulty
The GM decides how difficult the action is.
This determines your degree of success
based on the target number.
◊ The vast majority of rolls are standard
difficulty. You achieve a partial success
on a 10-19, and a full success on a 20+.
◊ If an action is easy, you achieve a partial
success on a 5-14, and a full success on a
15+.
◊ If an action is hard, you achieve a partial
success on a 15-24, and a full success on
a 25+.
◊ If an action would be trivial, don’t roll.
You automatically achieve a full success.
Remember - only roll the dice when the
outcome is in doubt.
◊ If an action is impossible, don’t roll. You
just fail.
Success And Failure
Your degree of success determines the
outcome of the action roll.
◊ On a full success things go about as well
as can be expected, without any
unforeseen consequences.
◊ On a partial success you accomplish
what you are trying to achieve, but there
are complications - trouble, harm,
reduced effect, etc.
◊ On a failure things go badly. You don’t
achieve your goal, or if you do the cost is
catastrophic. On the plus side, you gain 1
XP for the relevant attribute.
 Position
The potential severity of your consequences
are determined by your position. There are
four potential positions:
◊ Controlled: You have the situation well
in hand and are operating from a
position of strength. Any potential
consequences will be minor.
◊ Risky: It could go either way, honestly.
You’re definitely not going to like the
consequences, but they’re not going to
be catastrophic either. This is considered
the default position.
◊ Desperate: You are opening yourself up
to serious danger here. This could get
really ugly.
◊ Deadly: Don’t expect to survive this.
Effect
The flipside of position is effect - what you
can expect to gain as a result of a successful
action.
◊ Negligible: Whatever you’re doing has
no hope of achieving anything. You’re not
going to whittle through a bulkhead with
a pen. Why are you rolling for this again?
◊ Limited: Your actions will make some
progress, but not much. You might be
using shoddy tools, or have improvised
an imperfect solution, but it’s better
than nothing.
◊ Standard: You achieve what you would
expect as “normal” for this action.
◊ Great: Whatever you’re doing is super
effective. You’re definitely using the right
tools for the right job, or you’re in the
right place at the right time.
◊ Godlike: This level of effect can only be
achieved with something supernatural,
like an exotic item or the intervention of
an OCE. It’s so good it’s like magic.
Skills
Your skills modify the difficulty of an action
roll. If you possess a relevant skill, you
reduce the difficulty by one step: Easy
becomes trivial, standard becomes easy,
hard becomes standard. In certain cases,
you may be able to make an impossible roll
if you have a relevant skill, but the GM still
may veto things. No matter how skilled you
are, you’re not going to be able to punch a
moon out of orbit.
Experienced characters may have skill
specialties. These are more narrow
applications of the standard skills. Any
action you perform that falls under one of
your skill specialties increases its effect by
one step. Skill specialties can’t increase
great effect to godlike, but they will increase
your effect die during a challenge (see
below).
18
 Tokens
Character abilities and circumstances grant
tokens. Tokens can be spent to manipulate
dice rolls to change the outcome. There are
positive tokens, which are always displayed
in blue. There are negative tokens, which
are always displayed in red. Some abilities
also grant unique tokens, which are always
marked with an asterisk*. Unique token
effects are explained in the ability that
introduces them.
Unless otherwise specified, the most you can
have of any one particular kind of token is
three, and tokens go away at the end of a
scene. The scene is the most basic
measurement of time. As long as you are
doing the same general thing in the same
general place, that’s a single scene. A combat
is a scene, sneaking into the governor’s
mansion is a scene, negotiating with a pirate
queen is a scene.
You can only spend one token of each type on
a given action roll. You could not spend two
advantage tokens to reroll an action roll
twice for example, but you could spend an
advantage token to reroll the action, and
then spend an effect token to increase the
effect.
Most positive tokens have a corresponding
negative token. Tokens of the opposite type
cancel each other out. For example, if you
had an advantage token and gained a
disadvantage token, you would instead
remove both tokens.
Positive Token Negative Token
Advantage Disadvantage
Effect Misfortune
Protection Danger
19
Advantage
You may spend an advantage token when
you make an action roll to roll a second d20
and take the highest result.
Effect
When you roll a partial success or better on
an action roll, you may spend an effect
token to improve the effect of the roll by
one step. If this is a challenge (see below)
you may spend an effect token to roll an
extra effect die instead.
Protection
When you fail an action roll, or would suffer
consequences as a result of a partial
success, you may spend a protection
token to reduce or possibly negate the
severity of the consequences depending on
your position. If one of your resistances
would take damage during a challenge (see
below), you can halve the damage by
spending a protection token.
Danger
When you suffer a consequence as a result
of a failure or a partial success while you
have a danger token, the GM can spend
that token to inflict consequences as if your
position was one level worse. If one of your
resistances takes damage during a
challenge, the GM can spend a danger
token to roll an additional consequence die
instead.
Disadvantage
When you make an action roll while you
have a disadvantage token, the GM can
spend that token to have you roll a second
d20 and take the worse result.
Misfortune
When you roll a partial success or better on
an action roll while you have a misfortune
token, the GM can spend that token to
reduce the effect by one level. If this is a
challenge, the GM can spend a misfortune
token to halve the result of the effect dice
instead.
Bargaining
Before you make an action roll, you and the
GM may trade tokens based on what you’re
doing. You might say “I’m going to try to be
as careful as I can” and the GM can respond
with “Sure, but since you’re going so slowly,
you aren’t going to cover as much ground.”
Mechanically what is happening is you can
gain a protection token at the cost of
gaining a misfortune token. The GM is free
to tempt you with tokens as well. “You know,
if you ran a little faster, I’d bet you could
catch that guard before any of his friends
notice…” as they slide an advantage token
and a danger token across the table at you.
It’s up to you if you want to accept these
tokens.
You can also request a “Devil’s Bargain” by
suggesting a consequence or complication
in the fiction to gain a positive token of your
choice. For example, you might say “As I’m
running away from this horrible alien
monster, I toss my pack into its jaws. Could I
get an effect token if I lose my supplies?”
The consequence happens regardless of the
outcome of the roll.
Pushing a Roll
Any bargains occur before an action roll is
made. The only way to alter the outcome of
an action roll after the dice have been rolled
is to push yourself. Choose a d4, a d6, or a
d8. Roll that die and add the result to your
total. You gain an equal amount of stress.
You can only push action rolls - you may not
push effect rolls, damage rolls, or saving
throws.
Stress and Breaks
Stress is a measure of your character’s
ability to take on the dangers of the universe
and emerge unscathed. Pushing rolls is the
primary way to gain stress, but certain
abilities also have you gain stress as a cost.
The GM can never inflict stress on you as a
consequence - gaining stress is always a
result of a player’s choice. Each character
starts with zero stress.
When you reach 10 or more stress you suffer
a break. A break is a moment of extreme
trauma, but also catharsis. For the rest of
the scene, you are locked at 10 stress, and
you cannot gain any further stress to use
abilities or take extra actions. However, you
may add a bonus d6 to every action roll you
make for the rest of the scene, and you may
ignore the wounded and shaken conditions.
At the end of the scene, you lose this bonus,
and remain locked at full stress until you
disappear for a few scenes to process
whatever happened to you. When you return
to the game, you have lost something
important - your innocence, your dignity,
your confidence, your morality. You might
irreparably damage a relationship with an
NPC you are close to, or gain a new
addiction, or just turn cold to the world.
20
Whatever you lose from a break is
permanent. You may find something new to
take its place in your life, but you cannot go
back to who you were. If a break is bad
enough, a character may choose to retire
instead of continuing to go on. That’s the
sad truth of standing against the darkness
of space - the body may heal, but the mind is
not always so resilient.
You can relieve stress during downtime by
doing activities that are therapeutic to your
character. It might be a round of drinks at
the port cantina, or meditation in your
chambers, or a strenuous workout session
in the gym. See the Downtime chapter for
more information.
Consequences
When you fail an action roll, or even when
you only achieve a partial success, there can
be a number of different consequences.
There are five types of consequences.
Reduced Effect
The action wasn’t as impactful as you
thought it would be. You jumped over the
gap, but you are clinging to the edge of the
building with your fingertips. You may still
achieve your goal here, but at the cost of
reduced effect in the future, in which case
the GM gives you a misfortune token.
Complication
This consequence represents a new wrinkle
the crew must account for. You managed to
blow open the cabin door, but you cracked
the outer bulkhead and now the ship is
leaking atmosphere. A complication cannot
negate a successful roll. The players still
achieve their objective with a partial
21
success, but now they have a new problem
to deal with. If this complication interferes
with your performance in the future, the GM
can give you a disadvantage token to
represent the trouble.
Lost Opportunity
This consequence means that whatever
opportunity you had is lost. You tried to
corner an assassin on a roof, but he used his
grav boots to drop eight stories to the
streets below. You will have to track him
down another way.
Worse Position
This consequence represents the situation
spiraling out of control and placing you in
danger. You jumped over the gap, but you
are clinging to the edge of the building with
your fingertips. As with a complication, this
consequence does not negate the effect of a
successful roll. You may have achieved what
you were trying to accomplish, but now you
might be in worse trouble than you were
before. The GM can give you a danger token
to represent your worsening circumstances.
Harm and Death
If you are in a desperate position, or a risky
position with a danger token, the GM can
inflict a harm condition on you to represent
physical or mental damage to your
character. There are two kinds of harm
conditions:
◊ Wounded: This represents physical
injury. As long as you are wounded, you
automatically fail any PHYSIQUE or
REFLEX roll unless you gain 1 stress prior
to the roll.
◊ Shaken: This represents mental injury -
 blows to your confidence or sense of self Challenges
or extreme fear. As long as you are
shaken, you automatically fail any Sometimes a situation may call for more
DISCIPLINE or WITS roll unless you gain 1 than one action roll to resolve fully. In this
stress prior to the roll. instance, the GM assigns the challenge a
certain number of hardship points (HP).
Actions you automatically fail as a result of
being wounded or shaken still count as The Challenge HP Average Rolls
making a roll, so you still gain XP for the Is… to Resolve
action. In fact, trying to act while you have a Pretty quick 5 1-2
harm condition can be very lucrative XP-
wise in the long term, at the expense of a lot Standard 10 2-4
of nasty consequences in the short term.
Getting lengthy 15 3-6

If you already have a harm condition and A major 20+ 4-8+

obstacle
would gain that condition again, you gain
the other condition instead. If you are When you gain a partial success on an
already both wounded and shaken and action roll for a challenge, roll one effect die
would suffer harm again, you die. You are based on your effect and subtract that much
out of the action until the next time your from the challenge’s HP. When you achieve a
crew enters downtime, when the medbay on full success, roll two dice. When you deplete
your ship would have time to revive you. the challenge’s HP, you achieve your goal.
When you return to the action, permanently
fill in one of your stress boxes to represent Effect Level Effect Die
trauma.
Negligible none
Sometimes the consequences of your Limited d4
actions are so extreme the GM can declare
that they are instantly fatal, even if you Standard d6
were not wounded and shaken first. The GM Great d8
can only do this if you are in a deadly
position, or a desperate position with a Great + Skill Specialty d10
danger token. Deadly position requires that Godlike d12
you are doing something inherently lethal,
like diving into lava or sprinting through a
minefield.

22
Resistance
During a challenge, the GM may want to give
you limited attempts. It might be a race
against time to escape a space station
before it explodes. It might be an admiral’s
patience wearing thin as you try to convince
them to attack a secret base. It might be
something more abstract, like the likelihood
of being cornered while trying to run from
the colonial police.
To represent these limited opportunities, the
GM names a resistance, like “time” or
“patience” or “freedom” respectively to the
above examples, and then gives it an HP
value.
When the players fail a roll or achieve a
partial success, the GM rolls a consequence
die and reduces their resistance’s HP by that
amount. The consequence die depends on
the character’s position.
Position Consequence Die
Controlled d4
Risky d6
Desperate d8
Deadly d12
Setting challenge and resistance HP is more
of an art than a science, but as a general
rule, every 5 HP you assign takes about 1.5
rolls to fill. The GM can make things tense
for the crew by setting their resistance HP
lower than the challenge HP, or they can
make things easier by giving them more
resistance.
23
Teamwork
When the crew works together to overcome
an obstacle, the characters have access to
some special teamwork maneuvers.
Assist a Teammate
When you assist another player who is
rolling, describe what you are doing to help.
You gain 1 stress and give that character an
advantage token.
Lead a Group Action
When you lead a group action, you
coordinate multiple team members all
working together to tackle a problem, such
as sneaking the entire group into a base.
Each character involved makes the same
action roll, all using the same attribute. The
team uses the best result out of all of them.
However, the group leader gains 1 stress for
each character who failed the roll.
The group action result covers everyone
who rolled - they all gain the benefits of a
successful roll, and all suffer the
consequences of a failed one. If you don’t
roll, you don’t gain the effects or suffer the
consequences.
Protect a Teammate
You step in to face a consequence that your
teammate would otherwise face. Describe
how you intervene, then you suffer the
consequences instead. If you are generally
keeping an eye on someone, the GM may let
you give them a protection token.
Set Up Another Action a secret, the answer can only be found by
adventuring. However, if the players have
When you perform a set up action you have found the answer and just forgotten it
an indirect result on an obstacle. If your because it was like eight sessions ago, the
action succeeds, you may give a teammate GM should remind them.
who follows up on your action an effect
token. If the GM isn’t sure if a player should know
the answer to a question or not, they can
make a fortune roll, adding the character’s
Fortune Rolls DISCIPLINE or WITS, whichever makes more
sense. On a 10+, the GM tells them the
The GM usually doesn’t roll any dice outside answer. This is not an action roll and cannot
of combat or challenges, but sometimes generate XP.
things happen outside of the players’
control and the GM isn’t sure how things are
going to pan out. When this happens, they
can make a fortune roll. A fortune roll is a
simple d20 roll. The GM assigns one
outcome to high and one outcome to low,
and then can modify the roll based on how
likely they think things are weighted
towards one side or the other. If the roll is
closer to 20, the high outcome wins, and if
the roll is closer to 1 the low outcome wins.

Information
Since Mythic Space largely takes place in the
imaginations of several people sitting
around a table, the flow of information is
very important. The GM should make sure all
the players are on the same page when it
comes to setting the scene, but it’s
impossible for the GM to say everything that
is going on - it’s just too complex. The
players can ask the GM questions about the
world and situation, and the GM should
gently remind the players if their actions
seem to be missing an obvious detail. If the
question is common knowledge, the GM
should just tell the players the answer. If the
question requires specialized knowledge,
the GM should just tell any player who has a
relevant skill or background. If the answer is

24
 Chapter 4:

Missions
25
The structure of time in Mythic Space can be
roughly divided into Missions and
Downtime. The Mission phase is high stress
- lives are on the line, and the fate of the
galaxy or your bank balance are at stake.
Downtime, by contrast, is low stress. It is
the time for player characters to blow off
steam, work on personal projects, recover
from injuries, and plan their next mission.
During the first session, the GM usually
throws the party headfirst in media res.
After the first mission, the crew usually has
a choice about what missions they would
like to pursue. The GM presents the
missions that are available, as well as the
potential rewards for completing them. The
GM may also hand out sidequests to
individual PCs as well. The group may decide
that they don’t like any of the mission
opportunities available to them and propose
their own course of action (GMs should
encourage this, it lessens their workload
dramatically).
Mission Goal
Missions have a clear goal - what are the
players hoping to accomplish? This is
usually phrased as a question. Will the crew
extract the spy from Imperial space? Will
they discover the secret of the monolith on
the fourth moon of Rigel? Will the colony of
Tulley’s Hope survive the onslaught of pirate
slavers? We play to answer this question.
Mission Loadout
At the start of each mission, each player
sets their starting supplies and their gear
loadout. There are two loadouts - casual
and fully loaded.
When you are fully loaded, you look like you
are armed for battle. This might be accepted
in some of the rougher ports in the galaxy,
but in most civilized space if you walk
around fully loaded it won’t be long before
the police show up with questions.
When you are fully loaded, you can carry:
◊ One primary weapon.
◊ One secondary weapon.
◊ One grenade.
◊ One utility item.
◊ You have full shields and armor.
With a casual loadout, you are
inconspicuous. You are assumed to be using
your casual loadout during downtime and
any time you are trying to look non-
threatening.
With your casual loadout, you can carry:
◊ One weapon with the sidearm tag.
◊ One utility item.
◊ You have half your normal shields and
armor.
Some abilities and armor upgrades allow
you to carry more stuff. If you need to switch
up your loadout, you can do so on your ship.
26
 Supplies and Gear
All characters are assumed to have a
commlink, a universal translator, and a data
terminal. When they are fully loaded, their
hardsuit is capable of sealing against
vacuum and operating in space for several
hours.
All characters begin each mission with 5
supplies. Some ship and armor upgrades
allow you to start missions with more
supplies. These supplies are used to power
certain abilities and repair your armor if it
gets damaged. You can spend 1 supply
during a mission to gain access to any of the
following standard gear. Standard gear has
an effort die of d6 unless specified
otherwise.
Supplies replenish for free when you enter
downtime. You can also replenish your
supplies in a market by spending 1 credit.
Binoculars
These digital imaging units are capable of up
to 100x magnification and come with night
vision and thermal imaging.
Courier Drone
These small personal drones have about a
5km range. They can ferry small hand-held
objects back to your ship, or another
location of your choosing. They can be used
for reconnaissance, but they are noisy,
vulnerable, and easy to shoot down.
Legal Drugs
Most ships have a standard pharmaceutical
supply of painkillers, ointments, and
stimulants. No one wants to get caught in
space with a hangover.
27
Rations
Bland but nutritious food, enough to feed an
organic creature for a day.
Survival Kit
This kit contains the essentials for surviving
in hostile environments - spare O2
canisters, water filters, temperature
regulators, and an instant shelter.
Toolkit
Wrenches, a laser torch, soldering tools,
hammers, crowbars.
Trauma Patch
A simple bandage treated with an organic
compound that stops bleeding and
stabilizes vitals. It can be deployed as a
main action to stabilize a dying ally.
Universal Sealant
This smart sealant can be used to patch
small holes or damaged equipment. It is
vacuum rated and when used in tandem
with larger pieces of sheet metal can be
used to fix hull breaches. It can also be used
to repair hardsuits in between battles.
Mission Rewards
Mission rewards are the primary way you
advance your character.
Weapon Mod
Weapon mods allow you to improve your
weapons and grant them new special
abilities. The number of mods you can have
installed on a weapon depends on your
ship’s Arsenal tier. Basic weapons can have
one mod installed. Tier 2 weapons can have
two mods installed, and tier 3 weapons can
have up to three.
Armor Mod
Armor mods, like weapon mods, grant new
abilities to your armor and provide improved
resistance or mobility options. You can have
a number of armor mods installed equal to
your ship’s Armory tier, and you can swap
your mods when you change your loadout.
Tactical Upgrade
Tactical upgrades grant you new abilities
from your tactics. You can also gain the
starting ability from a new tactic with one of
these upgrades, but you must spend two
additional credits. Once you have purchased
the new tactic, you can take upgrades from
it as usual.
Aspect Upgrade
This reward allows you to choose a new
ability from one of your aspects. You may
gain the starting ability from a new aspect
with one of these upgrades, but you must
spend two additional credits.
Skill Upgrade
You gain a specialty for one of your skills. A
specialty represents a more narrow
application of the skill. Increase your level of
effect on any roll where your specialty
applies. There isn’t a set list of skill
specialties - you can invent whatever
specialty makes sense. You may also gain a
new skill with one of these upgrades, but
you must spend two additional credits.
Ship Upgrade
Ship upgrades benefit the entire crew. These
add additional modules or improve the
statistics of your ship. Ship upgrades are
quite rare and missions that reward them
should be prioritized.
Credits
Credits are the currency of the galaxy. It is
an abstraction of anything of value your
crew may receive as payment. It could be
electronic currency, valuable alloys and
minerals, livestock, shares of stock, or
anything else that can be traded for value.
During downtime, you can spend credits to
purchase new abilities, mods, or ship
upgrades. See the next chapter for more
details.
Exotic Materials
Exotic materials are extremely rare and
precious materials found in the strangest
and most dangerous parts of the galaxy.
These materials are required for certain ship
upgrades and for crafting or upgrading
exotics.
Example Exotic Materials
♦ Alternate Universe Polymers
♦ Crystalised Dark Matter
♦ Frozen Light
♦ Liquid Nanobots
♦ Naturally Occurring Einsteinium
♦ Stable Antimatter
♦ Xenonite Alloy
28
Exotics ◊ Finesse:

Exotic rewards are… strange. They are very ♦ Balancing

powerful and very rare. The GM has
information on Exotics. ♦ Dancing

Example Skill Specialties ♦ Sleight of Hand

◊ Compel: ◊ Interface:

♦ Giving Orders ♦ AI Whisperer

♦ Intimidation ♦ Hacking

♦ Lead By Example ♦ Programming

◊ Destroy: ◊ Perceive:

♦ A particular object (ships, robots, ♦ Acute Hearing

glass, ancient tech, etc.)
♦ Empathy
♦ Demolitions
♦ Spotting Ambushes
♦ Making It Look Like An Accident
◊ Pilot:
◊ Engineer:
♦ Asteroid Dodging
♦ Crafting
♦ Hoverbikes
♦ Ship Engines
♦ Racing
♦ Small objects
◊ Stealth:
◊ Exert:
♦ Look Like You Belong
♦ Climbing
♦ Move Silently
♦ Jumping
♦ Setting Ambushes
♦ Lifting

29
◊ Study:

♦ Crime Scenes

♦ Detecting Lies

♦ Research

◊ Survive:

♦ Animal Handling

♦ Deserts

♦ Jungles

◊ Sway:

♦ Musician

♦ Obvious Lies

♦ Seduction

30
 Chapter 5:

Downtime
31
When your ship lands in a friendly port after
a mission, it is time to rest, relax, and
recover from the last mission and prepare
for the next. This can be as much of a break
for the players as it is for their characters -
it’s okay to spend an entire session or more
in downtime to serve as a mental break from
the high stakes drama of missions and
combat.
When the crew enters downtime, the
following happens automatically:
◊ Any dead crewmembers are revived in
the medbay. Permanently fill in a stress
box for trauma.
◊ Distribute mission rewards among the
crew. It is up to the crew to partition
rewards in a way everyone thinks is fair.
◊ The crew can spend credits for
additional upgrades.
♦ Weapon mods, armor mods, and
aspect, skill, or tactical upgrades
cost 5 credits each.
♦ Minor ship upgrades cost 5 credits.
♦ Major ship upgrades cost 10 credits
and 1 exotic material.
♦ Pinnacle ship upgrades cost 20
credits and 2 exotic materials.
◊ Any PC with 10 or more XP in one of their
attributes increases it by 1, then reduces
their XP total by 10.
Downtime Actions
Each PC gets one downtime action which
they can use to perform one of the following
actions. Each PC can choose one companion
PC to join them during that action, so in
practice each PC can take two downtime
actions if the party coordinates choosing
companions. You can be chosen as a
companion more than once if you need to
take a lot of downtime actions. You can also
spend 1 credit to take an additional
downtime action (you can bring a
companion with you as usual). You don’t
have to take a companion with you in most
cases, though there’s no upside to going
solo.
Each downtime action should be covered by
a short vignette scene where the PCs have a
chance to interact with each other, and then
they gain the benefits of that action. While it
is possible to just say “Anders and I go and
destress together” just like it is possible to
say “I shoot this trooper,” the game is
infinitely more enjoyable if you add more
description and detail.
32
Destress
Choose a companion (this action requires
one). You and that companion have a
revealing scene together - a heart to heart
talk, a confrontation about an issue that’s
been bothering you, a romantic scene, an
amusing party scene, a combination of any
of the above, or something along those
lines. At the end of that scene, roll 2d10 and
divide the result between the two of you.
You each clear that much stress.
Placate
You try to smooth things over with a faction
you have wronged. You may choose a
companion to come with you to try to help
out, in which case treat this as a group
action roll for the two of you. Describe how
you try to placate the faction and then make
an action roll. On a full success, you reduce
their hate by 2. On a partial success, you
reduce their hate by 1. The faction may then
offer you an opportunity to make things
right by offering you a mission. If you
succeed on that mission, reduce their hate
to 0. The GM’s section has more information
on factions and hate.
Procure
You and another PC go shopping together, or
try to track down a rare item. This action can
also be used to find special services, such as
a fence, antiquarian, or AI programmer. You
and your companion state what each of you
is looking for. The GM determines if what
you are looking for is possible, and if it is,
they assess one or more of the following
complications based on how difficult it’s
going to be to acquire:
◊ You have to pay a cost. It can be
something as simple as a couple credits,
33
or as costly as an exotic material if the
item is really rare or strange.
◊ It’s going to take work to find. Set up a
project with 5-15 HP.
◊ It’s going to be dangerous. The GM
generates a mission with the item as
one of the rewards.
◊ You are going to antagonize someone
important by getting it.
◊ You’re going to owe someone a debt.
◊ It’s close but not quite what you were
looking for. There is something wrong
with it - it’s delicate, malfunctioning,
ugly, etc. Reduce its effect die by one
step.
Once the complications have been resolved,
you and your companion get the things you
were looking for.
Recover
You and a companion hang out in the
medbay and recover from your injuries. You
each clear one harm condition (wounded or
shaken). What do you talk about while you’re
healing? How do you pass the time?
If your ship has been damaged, you may also
use this action to repair it. You must spend
half the cost of a damaged module to repair
it.
Train
You and a companion train together to
improve yourselves. Each of you add 2 XP to
the attribute of your choice. What does your
training look like? Do you find a trainer and
both work under them?
Work on a Project

You and a companion work on a long-term

project together, or you each work on your
individual projects (but bounce ideas off of
each other for advice). A long-term project
can cover any number of activities, such as
researching a scientific or arcane oddity,
tracking down a mysterious figure,
developing an exotic piece of gear,
improving your ship, making contact with a
helpful faction, etc.

The GM sets up a challenge for the project

with a HP value depending on how complex
it is. Make an action roll with the attribute
that’s most appropriate for the project
against a standard difficulty.

Full Success: You apply 2d6 effort to the

project.

Partial Success: You apply 1d6 effort to the

project.

Failure: You apply 1 effort to the project.

34
 Chapter 6:

Tactical Combat
35
The tactical combat system in Mythic Space
is intended for epic shootouts and intense
action scenes. It is not intended to model
just punching some guy in a bar or slitting
the throat of a guard during an infiltration
mission - those are best handled by a
standard action roll or a challenge.
Set Up
Combat in Mythic Space works best on a
map (though this is not strictly necessary),
since positioning and maneuvering is
important. The battlefield is divided into
zones. A zone is approximately a 10x10
meter square, though this is not a hard and
fast rule. The GM does not have to mark the
zone boundary exactly - use things like
rooms and terrain to create natural dividing
lines between zones.
The GM places the initial opposition on the
map and points out which zone or zones the
PCs can start out in, and the players place
their miniatures (if you’re using them) in
their starting positions.
Terrain Features
Zones are differentiated by the terrain
present in them.
Cover
The most common terrain feature is cover.
If you are peeking out the edge of a wall or
barrier, you have partial cover. You may
attack enemies on the other side of the
cover without penalty, but attacks that
target you are hard.
If you are completely blocked by a wall or
object, you have full cover. Neither you nor
enemies on the other side of your cover may
attack each other.
Difficult Terrain
Difficult terrain is any ground that is
particularly rocky, muddy, or unstable. You
cannot reposition or sprint through difficult
terrain - you must use the struggle action.
Damaging Terrain
Damaging terrain is things like lava flows,
rivers of caustic chemicals, or clouds of
magnetized metal shards - anything that
has the potential to cause damage just by
being in the same zone. If you move through
or end your turn in a zone with damaging
terrain, you take damage.
Hazards
Hazards are objects on the battlefield that
are not necessarily damaging in and of
themselves, but could be exploited to cause
massive damage. Hazards are things like
barrels of starship fuel, egg sacs full of
acidic goo, or a fragile bulkhead with
vacuum on the other side. If a hazard is
targeted with an attack, it may trigger its
effects on all characters in the zone (usually
damage or a few negative tokens).
Range
In order to target a character with an action,
they must be in range.
◊ Engaged characters are within arm’s
reach of each other. They are in the same
zone, or right next to each other in
adjacent zones.
◊ Close range characters are in the same
zone or adjacent zone, within 5 meters.
36
◊ Medium range characters are within 30
meters or so (within 3 zones).
◊ Long range characters are within 100
meters or so (within 10 zones). This
means you can target anyone on a
typical battle map.
◊ Extreme range characters are within 1
km (100 zones). This is usually reserved
for snipers, vehicles, or artillery.
Compromised Position
If a move action tells you that your position
is compromised, that means the GM
determines one of the following:
◊ There is less cover there than you
thought. You are exposed and do not
benefit from cover until you move again.
◊ There is a hazard there you were not
previously aware of. You do not take
damage immediately, but you are at risk
of harm if you do not move on your next
turn or the enemy finds a way to trigger
the hazard.
Turn-Based Combat
Time in combat is broken down into rounds
and turns. The exact duration of a round
usually doesn’t matter, but it’s generally
less than a minute. Each turn represents a
few seconds of ‘screen time.’ Each character
can take one turn per round.
The side that initiated the hostilities takes
the first turn. This is usually started by the
players saying something like “I shoot the
guy.” The players can discuss amongst
themselves which of them acts first.
37
During a character’s turn, that character can
take one move action, one main action, and
one auxiliary action. They may also take
any number of free actions within reason.
Actions cannot be traded for a different
action type - you cannot trade your move
action for another auxiliary action, for
example. These actions can be taken in any
order. If you want to move and then shoot,
or shoot and then move, that’s fine.
Once a character has finished taking their
turn, then a member of the opposing side
gets to take an action. If one side
outnumbers the other, once all members of
the outnumbered side have taken their turn,
all the rest of the members of the larger side
take their turns. Once all characters have
taken their turn, a new round begins and the
turn order continues to alternate. If one side
takes the last action in a round, the other
side takes the first action in the next round.
Pushing Yourself
Sometimes one main action isn’t enough.
Once per turn, you may push yourself to
take an extra action of any type. When you
do that, you gain 1d4 stress after the action
resolves. You can push yourself for an extra
action and to improve a roll on the same
turn.
 Actions Struggle

Actions in combat work similarly to normal
action rolls, but there are a few wrinkles for
the purposes of tactical depth.
◊ Combat uses a different set of tokens
than normal action rolls. You can only
use the standard tokens with stunts,
which are described below. Combat
tokens are described below this section.
◊ Skills usually don’t apply, with a few
exceptions. Stunts can use any skill. The
struggle action uses the exert skill, and
you can use destroy to attack an object.
Move Actions
Reposition
You only need to use this action if you are
moving through difficult terrain, jumping
over a gap, climbing something, or have an
immobilized token. Choose an obstacle to
overcome, then roll PHYSIQUE (exert).
Full Success: You overcome the obstacle
(clear the gap, climb the ladder, steady
yourself over difficult terrain, remove the
immobilized token, etc.) and may
immediately reposition.
Partial Success: You overcome the obstacle.
Failure: You stay where you are, and
whatever was blocking you is still blocking
you.

You move to any point within close range.

Sprint

Choose a point within medium range you

would like to move to, then roll PHYSIQUE.

Full Success: You reach the desired point

with no issues.

Partial Success: You only get halfway there,

or you get there but your position is
compromised.

Failure: You only get halfway there, and your

position is compromised.

38
Main Actions
Attack
You attempt to damage a character or object
with a weapon. Each weapon will tell you
which attribute it uses to attack, but as a
general rule:
◊ Melee weapons use PHYSIQUE.
◊ Guns use REFLEX.
◊ Spells use DISCIPLINE.
◊ Tech gadgets use WITS.
Your target must be within the weapon’s
listed range. Attacks with guns require you
to spend ammo, and some other spells or
abilities require you to gain strain or spend
supplies. Pay any costs and then roll the
appropriate attribute.
Full Success: You score a critical hit (a
‘crit’). You deal 2 damage dice to the target.
Partial Success: You hit the target. You deal
1 damage die to the target.
Failure: You miss the target. You damage an
object or ally in the same zone (target’s
choice).
Debilitate
You attempt to hinder or distract a character
within close range. Describe what you are
doing and then roll the appropriate
attribute.
◊ Use PHYSIQUE if you are trying to tackle
or restrain the target.
◊ Use REFLEX if you are trying to trip or
39
throw something at the target.
◊ Use DISCIPLINE if you are trying to
intimidate the target.
◊ Use WITS if you are trying to trick or
confuse the target.
Full Success: Choose two from the list
below. You may choose the same option
more than once.
Partial Success: Choose one:
◊ The target gains your choice of an
immobilized, misfire, off-guard,
vulnerable, or weakened token.
◊ The target’s position is compromised.
◊ The target triggers a hazard in their
zone.
Failure: Choose one from the above list, and
then your target chooses one to apply to
you.
Hide
You attempt to make the enemy lose track of
your position. To hide, you must be outside
of any enemies’ line of sight, behind cover,
or invisible. Hidden characters cannot be
targeted directly by hostile actions, but can
still be hit by area effects that target the
zone they are currently in.
You cease to be hidden if:
◊ You make an attack.
◊ An enemy gains line of sight to you.
◊ You lose your invisibility.
You may move while you are hidden by
making a WITS save. On a success, you
remain hidden as long as your final position
meets the requirements for being hidden in
the first place.
Overwatch
You prepare to strike when the enemy
moves. You gain an overwatch token.
Rally
You take a breather and recover your
strength. Roll DISCIPLINE.
Full Success: Choose three from the list
below. You may choose the same option
more than once.
Partial Success: Choose two from the list
below. You may choose the same option
more than once.
Failure: Choose one:
◊ Recharge your shields to full.
◊ Reload one weapon.
◊ Clear your strain.
◊ Remove a negative token.
◊ Gain a fortified token.
Stabilize
You use a trauma patch to stabilize a dying
ally. This costs 1 supply.
Stunt
You attempt to do something unexpected.
Talk with your GM about what you want to
accomplish, and make an action roll as
normal. As long as stunts are creative, they
should be adjudicated generously. If a player
tries to perform the same stunt over and
over again, they may need to add 1 or more
stress each time they perform the stunt at
the GM’s discretion, or have reduced effect.
Throw
You throw a grenade or other utility item.
Choose a zone within medium range, then
roll PHYSIQUE.
Full Success: The grenade lands in the
target zone. If the item specifies the target
gets a saving throw, all targets in the zone
automatically fail.
Partial Success: The grenade lands in the
target zone.
Failure: The grenade lands in an adjacent
zone. Roll a d12 and read the result like a
clock to determine which one.
40
Auxiliary Actions
Assess
You try to suss out your enemy’s abilities.
Choose a character you can see. You may
ask a number of the below questions equal
to your WITS (minimum 1), which the GM
must answer honestly.
◊ What is this character’s PHYSIQUE,
REFLEX, DISCIPLINE, or WITS score? You
may ask this question more than once,
choosing a different attribute each time.
◊ What is this character’s current shields
and armor?
◊ What is this character’s most dangerous
ability?
◊ Does this character have a particular
weak point?
Interact
You use an object in the environment, like a
door or control panel. You can use this
action to pick up a dropped item, but if you
are engaged with a hostile character you
must succeed on a PHYSIQUE save to do so.
Seek
Choose a zone within line of sight where you
suspect a character is hiding. Make a WITS
saving throw. On a success, you reveal any
hidden characters in that zone.
That’s it for basic auxiliary actions. If you do
not have a use for your auxiliary action,
don’t worry - the game is balanced around
the assumption that not everyone has
something to do with their auxiliary action
every round.
41
Free Actions
Parley
Speaking is always a free action, and you
can always try to talk your opponents down,
even if it’s not your turn. The action stops
and you make your case. The GM asks for an
action roll for an appropriate attribute and
sets position and effect based on their offer.
On a success, some or all of the opposition
may choose to stop fighting. If they reject
your offer, you cannot attempt to parley
again until the situation meaningfully
changes.
Swap Weapons
Once per turn, you may draw a weapon or
swap between your primary weapon or
secondary weapon.
Saving Throws
Some abilities allow a saving throw to
mitigate some or all of their effects. A saving
throw is a normal roll of the appropriate
attribute - roll 1d20 and add the appropriate
attribute. You succeed on a 10 or higher.
Saves are binary - they are only a pass or
fail. There are no bonuses for a Full Success
result on a saving throw. Saving throws are
not action rolls - they cannot be pushed
and you do not gain XP for a failed save.
 Damage and
Defenses
When you hit a target with an attack, it takes
damage as determined by your weapon.
There are two main types of defenses -
shields and armor. Damage is dealt to
shields first and then armor. When your
armor is depleted, you are defeated.
NPCs who are defeated are usually just
killed. PCs and major antagonists who are
defeated are a little more complicated. Roll
a d20 and add the amount of unmitigated
damage you have taken (if you were brought
to 0 armor exactly, just roll a d20 and don’t
add anything).
20+: You die.
10-19: You become wounded or shaken (your
choice) and are dying.
9-: You become wounded or shaken (your
choice) but you are stable.
If you are dying at the end of your turn, make
a PHYSIQUE or DISCIPLINE roll (your choice).
Full Success: You stabilize, and are no
longer dying.
Partial Success: You live for one more
round, but you’re still dying.
Failure: You die.
You also die if you are defeated while
already wounded and shaken. ‘Dying’ in
battle does not necessarily mean total
death - the character is injured badly
enough that they are in no condition to take
any action. The medbay on your ship is
advanced enough to revive almost anything
short of total disintegration as long as you
get to it within that time. However, death is
very traumatic. Permanently fill in one of
your stress boxes due to trauma. The true
end of a hero does not come when their
body is broken - but their spirit.
Damaging Objects
Sometimes you want to damage or destroy
an object in the environment. If an object is
shielded or armored, damage to the object
must whittle down those defenses before
potentially harming the object.
Objects have a toughness quality depending
on the material they are made of. Fragile
objects are destroyed by any attack.
Standard objects can withstand weapons
fire, but are destroyed by explosions.
Reinforced objects can withstand
explosions but can be destroyed by armor-
piercing attacks. Impervious objects cannot
be damaged by any attack short of starship
scale weapons.
It is up to the GM whether shooting a
particular object requires an attack roll. If
the object is vehicle sized or larger, it
generally does not require a roll. If it is
roughly person-sized, make a standard
difficulty attack. If it is a smaller object like a
bottle, the attack roll is hard.
Toughness Example Material
Glass, plaster, starship
Fragile control panels
Standard Brick, wood, thin metal
Reinforced Concrete, thick metal
Impervious Exotic materials
42
 Combat Tokens
Combat tokens are slightly different from
standard tokens. Many of them act like
standard tokens, but can only be used for
specific types of actions. You can only spend
one token of each type on a single action.
Positive Conditions
Accurate
You may spend an accurate token when
you attack to roll an additional d20 and take
the better result. If the target has a dodge
token, they may spend it to negate this
effect.
Dodge
When you are targeted by an attack, you
may spend a dodge token to force the
attacker to roll an additional d20 and take
the worse result. When you make a REFLEX
or WITS saving throw, you may spend a
dodge token to roll an additional d20 and
take the better result. If your attacker has an
accurate token, they may spend it to
negate this effect.
Empowered
You may spend an empowered token when
you hit or crit with an attack to increase the
number of damage dice you roll by 1.
Fleet
You may spend a fleet token when you roll
for a move action to roll an additional d20
and take the better result.
43
Fortified
You may spend a fortified token when you
take damage to take half damage, rounded
down. When you make a PHYSIQUE or
DISCIPLINE saving throw, you may spend a
fortified token to roll an additional d20 and
take the better result.
Overwatch
When an enemy within your weapon range
moves out of cover, you may spend an
overwatch token to make an attack against
that character. The attack is an automatic
hit unless the target spends a dodge token
to make it miss. If the target sprinted, they
take half damage on a partial success or no
damage on a full success (spend tokens
before rolling).
Regeneration
At the end of your turn, gain shields equal to
the number of regeneration tokens you
have, then reduce your regeneration
tokens by 1. This cannot take you above
your maximum shields. You may have any
number of regeneration tokens.
Negative Conditions
Burn
At the end of your turn, you take damage
equal to the number burn tokens you have,
then reduce your burn tokens by 1. You may
have any number of burn tokens.
Immobilized
You cannot move while you have any
immobilized tokens unless you use the
struggle action. When you roll a partial
success or better on the struggle action,
reduce your immobilized tokens by 1.
Jammed
You cannot attack while you have any
jammed tokens. The only way to get rid of
jammed tokens is by rallying.
Misfire
spend one to take half damage, rounded
down.
Opposed Conditions
Some combat tokens cancel each other out
like standard tokens do. For example, if you
would gain a misfire token while you have
an accurate token, remove both tokens.

When you make an attack roll while you Positive Token Negative Token
have any misfire tokens, the target may
Accurate Misfire
spend one to have you roll an additional d20
and take the worse result. If the target has Dodge Off-Guard
an off-guard token, you may spend one to
Empowered Weakened
cancel this effect.
Fleet Immobilized
Off-Guard
Fortified Vulnerable
When an enemy makes an attack roll Regeneration Burn
against you while you have any off-guard
tokens, the attacker may spend one to roll
an additional d20 and take the better result.
If the attacker has a misfire token, you may
spend one to cancel this effect.

Stunned

You cannot act at all while you have any

stunned tokens. At the start of your turn,
reduce your stunned tokens by 1 and end
your turn. You can push yourself to take an
action while you are stunned as normal.

Vulnerable

When you take damage from an attack while

you have a vulnerable token, the attacker
can spend one to add 1 die to the damage
roll.

Weakened

When you deal damage to an enemy while

you have a weakened token, the target may

44
 Things That Might
Come Up
Falling
When a character falls, they must make a
REFLEX save. On a failure, they take 1d6
damage for each zone they fell and gain a
stunned token. On a success, they take half
damage and do not gain any stunned
tokens.
Flight
Characters who can fly ignore difficult
terrain and treat all move action rolls as
easy. They can ignore obstructions as long
as it is physically possible for them to do so.
Mark characters who are flying above the
battlefield with a die with its face set to the
number of zones they are above the
battlefield. A flying character who becomes
immobilized or stunned falls.
Invisibility
Characters who are invisible but not hidden
can still be targeted by hostile actions, but
the character taking the action must
succeed on a WITS save or the action is
automatically a failure. Characters who are
invisible ignore the cover and line of sight
restrictions for the hide action.
Jumping and Climbing
You can climb or jump as part of the exert
action (Reposition isn’t fast enough, and you
need to be focused solely on running to
sprint). If you are jumping a gap of more
than a meter or two or climbing a
particularly tricky surface, increase the
difficulty of the action to hard.
45
Large Characters
Vehicles and megafauna are treated the
same way as characters on the battlefield,
but there are some key differences. Large
characters cannot gain immobilized or
stunned tokens. They take up an entire
zone all by themselves.
Components of large scale adversaries are
often treated as multiple characters that
have separate shield and armor values. Each
adversary entry tells you what each
component does and what happens if you
destroy it.
Limited Abilities
Some tactics grant you abilities with the
limited tag. These abilities can only be used
once per combat.
Spells
Some tactics grant you spells. All spells
have a strain cost. You have a strain limit
defined by your paracausal amp, which is a
kind of weapon. If you don’t have a
paracausal amp, your strain limit is zero. You
can still cast spells while you are at your
strain limit, but any excess strain is
converted to stress.
Swimming and Zero-G
Swimming and low gravity situations work
the same way - all terrain underwater or
with reduced gravity are considered difficult
terrain unless the character can fly.
Hardsuits are sealed against vacuum and
have microjets that allow maneuvering in
zero-G. If a character is caught in a situation
where they can’t breathe, they must make a
PHYSIQUE save at the start of each of their
turns. The first time they fail a save, they
gain an immobilized token. The second
time they fail, they gain a stunned token.
The third failed save means that they pass
out and start dying.
Toxins and Radiation
Hardsuits are sealed against vacuum and
shielded, so most usually you don’t need to
worry about any airborne toxins or
radiation. However, if you are caught in such
a situation without your hardsuit (in your
casual loadout, for example), use the rules
for holding your breath as above.
Some creatures have venomous bites or
stings, but these generally won’t take effect
unless they are able to pierce your armor, in
which case you’d be defeated anyway. If
they have some kind of caustic spittle or
blood, this is represented by burn tokens.
Extremely high radiation can also cause
damage as a hazard.
You Are Not Your Own Ally
Many abilities allow you to buff an ally in
some way. You may not target yourself with
these abilities unless otherwise specified.
Ending Combat
Combat ends when one side has completed
their objective - generally the destruction or
capture of the other side, although other
objectives may be determined by the players
or GM. The GM can also end combat early
and return to narrative play if the combat
seems like a foregone conclusion.
At the end of combat, all characters do the
following:
◊ Recharge shields to full.
◊ Repair armor to full by spending 1
supply.
◊ Reload all weapons.
◊ Clear all strain.
◊ Regain all uses of all limited abilities.
◊ Replenish any spent grenades or utility
items by spending 1 supply for each.
◊ Remove all tokens.
46
 Chapter 7:

Starships
47
Starships in Mythic Space are the primary
means of getting from point A to point B. The
galaxy is a vast and wondrous place, full of
magic and danger, and your ship is your
home, the beating heart of your crew. While
individual crew members may die or leave,
the ship is the one constant that lasts. In
some ways, the story of Mythic Space is the
story of your ship.
Interstellar travel in Mythic Space is enabled
by Jump Gates - massive rings in space
nearly 1,000 km in circumference that link
star systems through Hyperspace. The
Jump Gates link thousands of star systems
together - which still represents
0.0000001% of observable stars in the Milky
Way. Sometimes paths to new gates are
found, or obscure gates are lost and
rediscovered. Even the tiniest slice of the
galaxy is an unfathomably large area to
explore.
Travel through Hyperspace from a scientific
and philosophical perspective is…
complicated. People in Hyperspace
experience something akin to the opposite
of special relativity. While the people on
board the ship experience several hours
worth of time during the jump, to an outside
observer the trip appears instantaneous.
Simply put, Jump Gates break causality, and
by all understanding of the physical
universe should not be able to exist.
Hyperspace is also perilous. It is full of
strange tides and dangerous phenomena
that wear away at the physical stability of
ships that pass through it. The distance a
ship can jump through Hyperspace is not
determined by its engines, but by its
ontological shielding. After emerging from
Hyperspace, a ship generally needs 2-3 days
to recharge its ontological shielding before
it can safely enter a Jump Gate again
without dissolving into a mass of
radioactive particles.
Most active Jump Gates have deep space
waystations in orbit that service travelers.
These stations are the equivalent of space
age truck stops or roadside inns from a
bygone age. Even the most well policed
waystation has a grimy, slightly seedy feel
to it, and the waystations in borderland or
lawless space are essentially pirate dens
waiting for a juicy haul to come through.
Within a solar system, ships are powered by
impulse drives, which accelerate ships to
speeds hundreds of times faster than any
spacecraft from the 21st century - nearly 1%
of the speed of light. Even going at that
immense speed, it still takes a few days to
reach a habitable world from a Jump Gate.
Sol’s Jump Gate is located halfway between
Jupiter and Saturn, and most other systems
have their gates anchored between similarly
massive objects. Assume it takes about a
day to travel from one orbital system to
another. For example, Earth to Mars would
be one day, Mars to the Asteroid Belt would
be another day, the Belt to Jupiter a third
day, and then Jupiter to the Sol Gate a fourth.
Since any interstellar trip can expect to take
a week or two, there is a feel similar to the
Age of Sail where many spacers feel more at
home on their own ships than anywhere
groundside. Some long-haul spacers talk
wistfully about being ‘married to the stars,’
and Alliance Marines have been known to
have betting pools to see who on the ship
can go the longest without ‘touching dirt.’
48
 Ship Mechanics
For the most part, the action in Mythic Space
takes place with your characters on a planet
or on a station. However, should you need to
make a roll for your ship, it has two
attributes that work similarly to character
attributes.
◊ ENGINES represent the speed and
maneuverability of your ship’s engines. It
is generally a defensive stat used to
avoid harm. If a roll depends on your
ship’s speed, maneuverability, or power,
use ENGINES.
◊ SYSTEMS represent the power of your
ship’s computer. It is generally an
offensive stat used to gain information
or lock on to another vessel. If a roll
depends on your ship’s computing
power, sensor calibration, or weapons
fire, use SYSTEMS.
Whenever the ship needs to make an action
roll, choose one player to make the roll on
behalf of the ship. This is usually the captain
or the pilot. That player may choose to push
the action roll or spend tokens as per usual.
If they choose to push the roll, the character
doing the rolling gains the stress.
Space Combat
The first rule of space combat is to avoid it
as much as you can. Combat between
starships is a test of which ship has the
better computer system and engines. For
the passengers inside a ship involved in
combat, the experience is a minute or two of
sheer helpless terror while the ships launch
relativistic munitions that travel at
significant fractions of the speed of light at
each other until one of them is vaporized.
49
Battles are always fought well away from a
Jump Gate. There are stories of fleets that
engaged each other too close to their
system’s Jump Gate who managed to
damage it, cutting off that system from the
rest of interstellar society until one of the
OCEs decides to repair it.
Fleet actions are horrifically destructive
affairs, and a full scale space battle fought
over a world can scatter radioactive debris
over entire continents. In an attempt to limit
collateral damage to planets and other
valuable stellar objects, boarding actions
are used extensively during large space
battles.
PCs and Space Combat
Mythic Space is not a game about space
combat, but it will inevitably come up given
the number of pirates and hostile militaries
most players deal with. Space combat is
usually handled as a challenge. Your ship’s
shields value serves as the primary
resistance value for most space challenges.
If your ship takes damage as a consequence
during space combat, the damage is
depleted from the ship’s shields. The
damage die depends on what is hitting your
ship.
Damage Source Damage Die
Point defense cannons,
d6
snub fighter guns
Missiles, railgun rounds d8
Capital ship guns, an d12
asteroid collision
When your shields are depleted, your ship
becomes damaged. Like a character who has
been wounded or shaken, a damaged ship
fails any action roll unless whichever PC
makes the roll gains 1 stress. If the ship
takes any further damage after that point, it
must sacrifice an upgrade or be defeated. A
sacrificed upgrade is lost until it is repaired.
The repair cost is half the cost to buy the
upgrade, rounded down. If your ship is
defeated, you lose engine power - you crash
land or are helpless in space, easily boarded.
You will need to find or scavenge parts to
repair the engines before you can get
underway again.
One important principle of space combat or
other action scenes in space is that the ship
is almost never at risk of total destruction.
You shouldn’t blow up the Enterprise every
episode. This ‘plot armor’ is not perfect - if
the players decide to fly into a sun the GM is
free to say they are all incinerated. That
said, Mythic Space is meant to emulate
action-adventure shows. The players should
be encouraged to get themselves into crazy
asteroid chases and dogfights on the moon
and shouldn’t have to worry about the entire
game coming to a screeching halt because
their ship blew up after a couple bad rolls.
Building a Ship
Your ship’s starting attributes and special
module are determined by the model the
crew chose at character creation.
The Aegolius
◊ ENGINES +4, SYSTEMS +2
◊ Stealth Drive: This ship is able to mask
its drive signature to the point where it is
invisible to most detection systems.
While the stealth drive is active, the ship
cannot be detected by any sensor scan
(barring exotic tech) as long as it does
not move faster than half-impulse or
perform an active sensor sweep.
The Corvus
◊ ENGINES +2, SYSTEMS +4
◊ True AI Helm: The ship’s computer is
fully sapient. It may be a Synth in a ship
chassis or a custom-built True AI. The
ship is capable of independent thought
and action. Ship AIs vary in personality,
but they are usually programmed to
have very protective and familial
feelings towards their crew. The ship has
its own stress track which it can use to
push rolls or act while damaged. It
suffers breaks and changes to its
personality like any other character if its
stress track is filled, and crew members
may choose the ship as a companion
during downtime to help it destress.
The Kestrel
◊ ENGINES +2, SYSTEMS +4
◊ Military Grade Weapons: Your ship is
armed with torpedoes, point-defense
cannons, a railgun, and boarding
grapples. These munitions are usually
reserved for military vessels or
extremely well equipped pirates. Each
turn during a space combat challenge,
your ship has the option to use
torpedoes (gain an advantage token),
point defense cannons (gain a
protection token), or the railgun (gain
an effect token). Your weapons have a
base d8 effect die, which can be
improved by weapons upgrades (see
below).
50
The Peregrine
◊ ENGINES +4, SYSTEMS +2
◊ Advanced Impulse Drive: Your ship has
an impulse drive that is four times faster
than most other ships - enough to
outrun anything short of a dedicated
interceptor fighter. Your in-system travel
is also much faster. Traveling between
regions takes about 6 hours rather than
a day.
Once you have recorded the stats and
special module for your ship, you gain the
standard modules listed below. The crew
can assign two minor upgrades to these
modules, or the optional modules below.
After creating the ship, new modules can be
bought or earned as mission rewards.
◊ Minor Upgrades cost 5 credits.
◊ Major Upgrades cost 10 credits and 1
exotic material.
◊ Pinnacle Upgrades cost 20 credits and 2
exotic materials.
Standard Modules
Armory
All ships start with a collection of tier 1
hardsuits, enough to outfit the crew.
◊ Major Upgrade: Increase your Armory to
tier 2.
◊ Pinnacle Upgrade: Increase your Armory
to tier 3.
51
Arsenal
All ships start with a small tier 1 arsenal of
standard weapons, enough to arm the
whole crew.
◊ Major Upgrade: Increase your Arsenal to
tier 2.
◊ Pinnacle Upgrade: Increase your Arsenal
to tier 3.
Cargo Hold
All ships start with a decent sized cargo bay
for hauling loot.
◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship has hidden
compartments that are shielded against
sensor scans. Anything or anyone you
store in one of these compartments
won't be found except by the most
thorough of in-person searches.
Jump Drive
All ships with modern jump drives can jump
up to three systems in a single jump before
having to return to realspace to stabilize.
◊ Minor Upgrade: Increase the distance
you can cover in a single jump to 4. Gain
+1 ENGINES.
◊ Major Upgrade: Increase the distance
you can cover in a single jump to 5. Gain
+1 ENGINES.
Medbay
All PC ships start with a medbay equipped
with an autodoc capable of repairing
catastrophic tissue damage. This technology
is not standard on most ships outside of
military vessels.
Sensor Suite
All ships start with a sensor suite capable of
getting general readings on all stellar bodies
in a solar system, and detailed readings on
any ships in the same orbital system.
◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship’s sensors can
pinpoint individual life forms and can
penetrate deep structures. Gain +1
SYSTEMS.
◊ Major Upgrade: Your sensors are now
sensitive to detect even cloaked ships
and can pierce almost any
countermeasure. Gain +1 SYSTEMS.
Shields
Your ship has 10 shields.
◊ Minor Upgrade: Increase shields to 15.
◊ Major Upgrade: Increase shields to 20.
Weapons
While most civilian ships are unarmed, all
PC ships start with a basic defense laser
suite. It has a d6 effect die.
◊ Major Upgrade: Increase the effect die
of your ship weapons by one step.
◊ Pinnacle Upgrade: Increase the effect
die of your ship weapons by one step.
Optional Modules
Amenities
◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship has
something on board that makes life
more bearable, such as a well-stocked
bar, a small hydroponics bay where you
can grow coffee and fruit, spacious crew
cabins where you don’t have to share
bunks, a rec room with the latest
holosuite games, etc. You may purchase
this upgrade multiple times, specifying a
different amenity each time you buy it.
Each crew member automatically clears
1 stress per amenity on the ship when
they enter downtime.
Brig
◊ Minor Upgrade: You have a secure cabin
installed on your ship dedicated to
holding prisoners (or just unruly
passengers) for transport. Also comes
with grav restraints that can be fitted to
a variety of xenomorphic physiologies.
Efficient Manufactories
◊ Minor Upgrade: The production
equipment on your ship is especially
efficient. Increase the number of
supplies each member of the crew can
carry on a mission by 1.
◊ Major Upgrade: Increase the number of
supplies by an additional 1.
◊ Pinnacle Upgrade: Increase the number
of supplies by an additional 1.
52
Emergency Teleport
◊ Major Upgrade: Your ship has an
experimental paracausal anchor
installed. As long as the crew has radio
contact with their ship, they may
teleport back to it.
Extra Special
◊ Major Upgrade: Choose a special
module from a ship class other than your
own. Your ship gains that module. You
may select this upgrade multiple times,
choosing a different module each time.
Increase your ship’s statistics based on
the module chosen:
♦ Advanced Impulse Drive: +2
ENGINES
♦ Military-Grade Weapons: +2
SYSTEMS
♦ Stealth Drive: +2 ENGINES
♦ True AI Helm: +2 SYSTEMS
Fine Tools
◊ Minor Upgrade: Choose one type of
basic equipment. When your crew
spends supplies to gain access to that
equipment, increase its effort die by one
step. You may purchase this upgrade
multiple times, choosing a different type
of equipment each time.
Mascot
◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship has a cute or
endearing creature on it, like an adorable
pet, a spunky robot, or a precocious
child. When you enter downtime, choose
one character to play with the mascot.
53
That character clears 1d6 stress or gains
1 XP in the attribute of their choice. This
option is very powerful for the cost, but
the GM is free to kidnap or endanger the
mascot to generate missions.
Spoofed Transponder
◊ Minor Upgrade: You can alter your ship’s
transponder to broadcast yourself as
any ship that you would like. This
obviously isn’t going to stand up to close
scrutiny if your little tug claims to be an
Alliance frigate, but it will let you slip
past most port security.
Support Personnel
◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship has an NPC
crew member who does not go on
missions with you but provides services
that fill holes in your crew’s capabilities.
Choose one aspect to give your support
character, and they gain the starting
ability from that aspect. While you are
on the ship, you may use that character’s
abilities. You may buy or assign aspect
upgrades to this character like they were
any other member of the crew.
Training Sims
◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship has an
advanced holosuite that can be used for
training a particular attribute. It only
costs 9 XP to increase an attribute.
◊ Major Upgrade: It only costs 8 XP to
increase an attribute.
◊ Pinnacle Upgrade: It only costs 7 XP to
increase an attribute.
Vehicle Bay

◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship has a garage

installed that can house and maintain a
ground vehicle (or one hoverbike per
crew member). The players can choose
to describe one civilian ground vehicle
that starts in their bay.

◊ Major Upgrade: With this upgrade, the

vehicle bay can support a large military
vehicle, like a hovertank or one snub
fighter per crew member.

Workspace

◊ Minor Upgrade: Your ship has a

dedicated cabin for use as a workshop or
laboratory. When you use a downtime
action to work on a project in your
workspace, you gain an effect token.

54
 Chapter 8:

Aspects
55
 Assassin Toxin Suite

Assassins kill people for money. It’s up to You have a modified pharmaceutical
you whether you can sleep at night. fabricator that can produce illegal toxins.
Spend 1 supply to create a toxin tailor-made
Touchstones: Thane Krios (Mass Effect), for the situation. Choose an option from
The Operative (Serenity), Spike Spiegel each column.
(Cowboy Bebop), Gamora (Guardians of the
Galaxy) Effect Duration Delivery
It renders the
Skill: Finesse or Stealth target 1 minute Ingested
unconscious
Starting Ability
It causes 10 minutes Inhaled
hallucinations.
Silent Takedown

Once per scene, you can gain 1 stress to kill It causes pain and 1 hour Injected
an NPC who is unaware of you without gastric distress.
having to roll. This ability does not work in
It kills the target
combat. The GM may counter this ability for Skin
at the end of the 24 hours
particularly powerful or important NPCs, but Contact
duration.
if they do, you gain 2 XP.
Assassin NPCs
Upgrades
◊ Lockley, a cop
Changeling Weave
◊ Hamilton, a lawyer
You possess a Changeling Weave suit, a
piece of equipment considered highly illegal ◊ Omega, an intelligence gathering AI
in most polities. You may spend 1 supply to
look and sound like another humanoid who
is roughly the same size as you for several
hours. You must have a good image of the
person you are trying to imitate for the
weave to get a good enough scan to imitate
them.

Dead Eyes

You have seen death so much that you

welcome it as an old friend. Whenever you
compel someone, you gain an advantage
token. Whenever you die, you do not gain
trauma.

56
 Captain
Captains are the leaders of their ship. They
elevate their crew, and their crew elevates
them in turn.

Touchstones: Jean-Luc Picard (Star Trek:

TNG), John Sheridan (Babylon 5), Malcolm
Reynolds (Firefly), James Holden (The
Expanse), Commander Shephard (Mass
Effect)

Skill: Compel or Pilot

Starting Ability

Make It So

You are the captain and your orders must be

obeyed. Once per session, you may issue an
order to another PC. If they choose to follow
that order, they gain an advantage token. If
they disobey, they gain 1d4 stress.
Inspiring Leadership
Upgrades
Once per session, another member of the
Coordinated Effort crew who can hear you may push
themselves without adding stress.
Halve the stress you gain when you lead a
group action roll. When you see an ability like this that says
you can push yourself without adding
Engage! stress, you make that decision after seeing
the result of the stress die.
Once per scene when a character makes an
action roll for your ship, they gain an Captain NPCs
advantage token.
◊ Jenne, a governor

◊ Avery, a naval officer

◊ Vander, a rebel

57
 Counselor
Space is a dangerous place. The black of the
void and the terrors within are as dangerous
to the mind as they are to the body. You are
here to help people work through their fears
and anxieties in whatever way you can.
Touchstones: Deanna Troi (Star Trek: TNG),
Book (Firefly), Delenn (Babylon 5), Mantis
(Guardians of the Galaxy)
Skill: Study or Sway
Starting Ability
Soothing Presence
You may spend a few quiet minutes with one
of your shaken shipmates to help them
recover. Gain 1 stress and roll DISCIPLINE.
Full Success: They are no longer shaken.
Partial Success: They may act as if they
were not shaken until the end of the
mission. They still must use the Recover
downtime action to fully recover their
confidence.
Failure: You just can’t get through to them.
You may not attempt to console this
crewmember again until you enter
downtime.
Upgrades
Careful Phrasing
When you attempt to sway someone, you
gain a protection token.
Confidence Builder
Once per session, choose a crew member
other than yourself and tell them something
encouraging. That crew member clears 1d10
stress.
Empathic
If you have had a few minutes to talk to an
NPC, you may ask the GM a number of the
below questions equal to your WITS, which
they must answer honestly. The GM may
refuse to answer your questions if the target
is particularly inscrutable, but if they do they
must give you 2 XP.
◊ Is this character telling the truth?
◊ What is this character really feeling?
◊ What does this character intend to do?
◊ What does this character wish I’d do?
◊ How could I get this character to ___?
Counselor NPCs
◊ Saffron, an escort
◊ Martin, a psychologist
◊ Lyta, a telepath
58
 Diplomat
Diplomats are the faces of the group. They
are expert negotiators and can get the crew
into places with a few words and a look that
they couldn’t with a thousand guns.

Touchstones: Chrisjen Avasarala (The

Expanse), Inara Serra (Firefly), Londo Mollari
(Babylon 5), Padme Amidala (Star Wars)

Skill: Compel or Sway

Starting Ability

Impassioned Speech

Once per session, you can push yourself on

any compel or sway roll without adding
stress.

Upgrades

Alternatives to Fighting Diplomat NPCs

When you try to parley or prevent a fight ◊ Guanyin, a humanitarian

before it starts, you gain an advantage
token. ◊ Weylan, a corporate executive

Dazzling Appearance ◊ G’Quan, a philosopher

You are always dressed in fine silk clothes,

or a smartly pressed military uniform, or
maybe you’re just really hot. Once per scene
where your appearance matters, gain an
effect token.

Social Lubricant

You can spend 1 supply to pull out a bottle of

fine spirits, some choice hash, or just some
really nice tea. Whatever it is, it gets people
to loosen up. For the rest of the scene, you
gain an advantage token if you try to study
or sway a character who indulged.

59
 Doctor
Doctors are specialists in biology,
xenobiology, and medicine. While the
autodocs in the medbay can keep a crew
breathing, it is the doctor’s job to make sure
that they’re truly healthy.

Touchstones: Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Star

Trek), Stephen Franklin (Babylon 5), Simon
Tam (Firefly), Mordin Solus (Mass Effect)

Skill: Finesse or Study

Starting Ability

Field Medic

You may treat your wounded allies in the

field. After you take about 10 minutes
treating them, spend 1 supply and roll
DISCIPLINE.

Full Success: They are no longer wounded. He’s Dead, Jim

Partial Success: They may act as if they
were not wounded until the end of the
mission, but they still need to use the
Recover downtime action to heal fully.
Failure: There isn’t anything that can be
done for this injury.
Upgrades
Alien Autopsy
When you have a few minutes to examine a
corpse in detail, you may ask the GM a
number of questions about the creature
equal to your DISCIPLINE, which they must
answer honestly. The GM may refuse to
answer your questions if the being is just
too strange, but if they do they must grant
you 2 XP.
When a crewmate dies, you may roll a
DISCIPLINE save. On a success, they do not
gain trauma when they revive.
Moral Code
You have sworn an oath to aid anyone in
need. Once per session, when you do the
right thing at cost to yourself, clear 1d10
stress.
Doctor NPCs
◊ Lex, a xenobiologist
◊ N’Bari, a xeno biologist
◊ Theta, a medical AI

60
 Explorer
Explorers spend their time in the fringes of
space. They are scientists, scouts, and
entrepreneurs who exist where the known
meets the unknown.

Touchstones: Wesley Crusher (Star Trek:

TNG), Mark Watney (The Martian)

Skill: Exert or Survive

Starting Ability

Ranger

Whenever you make an exert or survive roll

in the wilderness, gain an advantage token.

Upgrades

Recon Gear

You have a set of survey drones and To Boldly Go

seismographs that allow you to get a clear
picture of your surroundings. Spend 1 supply Once per session, when you discover
to get a clear map of a 1 km square area, something amazing, clear 1d10 stress.
including any hidden areas.
Explorer NPCs
Survivalist
◊ Venkat, a scientist
While you are in the wilderness you may
spend a few hours and gain 1 stress to ◊ Isaac, a writer
scavenge for supplies. Roll WITS (survive).
◊ Circe, a witch
Full Success: You find 2 supplies for each
PC.

Partial Success: You find 1 supply for each

PC.

Failure: You find 1 supply for each PC, but

you encounter something dangerous.

61
 Hunter
Hunters chase things down. It might be
people. It might be animals. It might be
treasure. Whatever it is, they always get
their mark.

Touchstones: Boba Fett (Star Wars),

Josephus Miller (The Expanse), Jet Black
(Cowboy Bebop), Garrus Vakarian (Mass
Effect)

Skill: Stealth or Study

Starting Ability

Hunter Vision

You have advanced optics or drugs that

allow you to notice hidden details. Spend 1
supply to activate it. For the rest of the
scene, you detect any hidden characters or
features in the scene. While your vision is
active, you gain an advantage token on any Tracking Device
perceive or study roll you make.
When an enemy retreats from battle or you
Upgrades spend a few minutes within proximity of
someone, you may spend 1 supply to
Doors and Corners surreptitiously attach a tracking bug to
them. Until you deactivate the bug, or the
You cannot be ambushed. If an NPC initiates bug is discovered, you know the target’s
combat, you may always take the first exact location as long as you are in the
action. If multiple PCs have this ability, you same system. You may have up to three
may all act before the other side takes a bugs active at once.
turn.
Hunter NPCs
Kneecap Specialist
◊ Elly, a bounty hunter
When you win a fight, there is always at
least one defeated enemy left alive for you ◊ Joyce, a detective
to question. You can ask them three
questions that they must answer honestly. If ◊ Ash, an android
the target refuses to answer your questions,
you gain 2 XP.

62
 Infiltrator
Infiltrators are thieves and spies, masters of
getting into places where they should not
be.

Touchstones: Kasumi Goto (Mass Effect),

Elim Garak (Star Trek: DS9)

Skill: Interface or Stealth

Starting Ability

Skeleton Key

You have a highly advanced lockpicking

suite. You can spend 1 supply to open any
conventional or electronic lock. The only
thing that can keep you out are top secret
military encryption and ancient tech.

Upgrades

Microdrones Phase Cloak

Spend 1 supply to deploy a miniature drone,
about the size of a housefly, in a location.
The drone can fly through ventilation
systems and infiltrate most locations that
have not been secured with electronic
countermeasures. As long as you are in the
same system as a drone, you may use it to
remotely observe the location where it is
deployed. The drone lasts for one year or
until you recall it. You may have up to three
drones active at once.
You have an experimental quantum phase
shifting device. Once per scene you may
spend 1 supply to pass through any solid
object as if it weren’t there. The device
needs the rest of the scene to recharge.
Infiltrator NPCs
◊ Nyx, a criminal AI
◊ Penny, a fence

No Sweat ◊ Miles, a spy

Whenever you make a finesse or stealth roll,

you gain a protection token.

63
 Mechanic
Mechanics fix, build, and modify machines.
Touchstones: Geordi La Forge (Star Trek:
TNG), Kaylee Frye (Firefly), Tali’Zorah nar
Rayya (Mass Effect), Naomi Nagata (The
Expanse)
Skill: Engineer or Interface
Starting Ability
Duct Tape
You can spend 1 supply and about an hour to
attempt to repair a damaged machine or
vehicle. Roll WITS.
Full Success: The machine is no longer
damaged.
Partial Success: The machine may act as if
it were not damaged until the end of the
mission, but someone still needs to use the
Recover downtime action to repair it fully.
Failure: There isn’t anything that can be
done for this damage.
Upgrades
Grounded
Whenever you engineer or interface with
potentially dangerous technology, you gain
a protection token.
Mechanic’s Visor
You have a visor with an advanced physics
and engineering suite. You may spend 1
supply when studying any machine or
physical phenomenon to ask the GM up to
three questions about the subject and they
must answer honestly. For the rest of the
scene whenever you make an engineer or
study rol, you gain an advantage token.
Reverse Polarity
When you need a particular item or piece of
equipment but are missing one during a
mission, you may spend 1 supply to try to
jury-rig a solution. Roll WITS (engineer).
Full Success: You are able to throw
something together quickly that functions
just like you want it to.
Partial Success: You build the item, but
choose one:
◊ It’s dangerous - the item may cause
damage to you or your ship if you use it.
◊ It’s not quite right - its base effect die is
a d4.
◊ It’s weird - It has strange unintended
consequences if you use it.
◊ It’s arduous - It takes a long time to
build.
Failure: You build the item, but choose two
from the list above.
Mechanic NPCs
◊ Orson, a supply officer
◊ Lambda, a navigational AI
◊ Roy, an android
64
 Muscle
The Muscle is here to be big, intimidating,
and break legs when they need to.

Touchstones: Amos Burton (The Expanse),

Chewbacca (Star Wars), Urdnot Wrex (Mass
Effect), Jayne Cobb (Firefly), Drax the
Destroyer (Guardians of the Galaxy)

Skill: Compel or Destroy

Starting Ability
Breaking Stuff to Look Tough

Whenever you try to compel someone or

destroy an object, you gain an effect token.

Upgrades

Bodyguard
Muscle NPCs
Once per session, when you protect a
teammate by taking a consequence meant ◊ Raya, an enforcer
for them, clear 1d10 stress.
◊ Mikayla, a loan shark
Not to be Trifled With
◊ Jaime, a noble
Once per session, you can gain 1d4 stress to
perform a feat of physical strength that
borders on the superhuman. You achieve
godlike effect on a destroy or exert roll.

Pain Don’t Hurt

You do not need to spend stress to make

PHYSIQUE or REFLEX rolls while you are
wounded.

65
 Mystic
Mystics are the wise masters of the secrets
of the universe. They may not know
everything, but they have a deeper insight
than most, and can help guide others along
the path.
Touchstones: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Star Wars),
Samara (Mass Effect), Guinan (Star Trek:
TNG), Ikora Rey (Destiny)
Skill: Compel or Perceive
Starting Ability
Subtle Power
You have an amazing magical or technical
ability which you have fine control over.
When you attempt an action where your
abilities can help, you gain an advantage
token. Some suggested abilities based on
the tactics you know are listed below.
◊ Bastion: Tiny hardlight projectors
capable of creating small objects.
◊ Biokinetics: Mend small cuts and
bruises, simple hair or eye color
changes.
◊ Engineer: A fleet of small helpful drones
aids you.
◊ Operator: Wireless hacking and editing
of nearby networks.
◊ Precog: Short glimpses of insight into
what might happen next. Conveniently
being in the right place at the right time.
◊ Pyrokinetic: Producing small flames,
sparks, or colored lights. Warming your
tea with your breath.
◊ Telekinetic: Subtle, fine telekinetic
control. Floating a pear across a table
onto a fork.
◊ Teleporter: Things just conveniently
appear in your hands. You just disappear
when someone turns their back to you.
Upgrades
Meditation
Once per mission, you can spend a scene in
quiet contemplation. Clear 1d10 stress, and
you may ask the GM for guidance on what
they think you should do about a particular
situation.
Size Matters Not
Once per session, you may gain 1d4 stress to
ignore scale when it comes to using your
abilities. You may use telekinesis to lift a
whole starship, see thousands of years into
the past or future, or teleport across an
entire star system. You achieve godlike
effect on an action roll using your ability.
Wise Counsel
When you accompany an ally on a destress
or train downtime action, increase the
stress they clear by 2 or the XP they gain by
1.
Mystic NPCs
◊ Aparna, a librarian
◊ Cook, a wizard
◊ Norrell, a recluse
66
 Pilot
While most of the maneuvers on starships
are handled by AI, a good helmsman can
always squeeze just a little bit more out of a
ship’s performance.

Touchstones: Hoban “Wash” Washburne

(Firefly), Jeff “Joker” Moreau (Mass Effect),
Kara “Starbuck” Thrace (Battlestar
Galactica), Alex Kamal (The Expanse)

Skill: Finesse or Pilot

Starting Ability

Ace

Once per session, you may push an ENGINES,

SYSTEMS, or pilot roll without adding stress.

Upgrades

Damn, I'm Good! Pilot NPCs

Once per session when you succeed on a ◊ Kara, a fighter pilot

daring or elaborate maneuver, clear 1d10
stress. ◊ Galen, a mechanic

Fancy Flying ◊ Cid, a space pirate

Whenever you make an ENGINES, SYSTEMS,

or pilot roll, gain a protection token.

Hold Together

You do not need to spend stress to make

ENGINES or SYSTEMS rolls while you are
piloting a damaged vehicle.

67
 Scoundrel
Scoundrels are rogues and con artists who
fly by the seat of their pants, constantly
dancing from one kind of trouble to another.

Touchstones: Han Solo (Star Wars), Faye

Valentine (Cowboy Bebop), Cayde-6
(Destiny), Rocket Raccoon (Guardians of the
Galaxy)

Skill: Finesse or Sway

Starting Ability

Trust Me

Whenever you lie to someone, gain an effect

token.

Upgrades

Dumb Luck
Scoundrel NPCs
Once per session, you can push yourself to
do something crazy, stupid, or daring ◊ Talon, a crime boss
without gaining stress.
◊ Tiff, a bartender
Magnificent Bastard
◊ Bret, a gambler
Once per session, when you piss off or
impress an NPC, clear 1d10 stress.

Sticky Fingers

Once per session, gain 1 stress to name an

object nearby that could fit in your pockets.
By the start of the next scene, you have
obtained that item. If you stole it, the person
you stole from notices it’s missing within
the next hour. The GM may counter this
ability if the item is particularly well
protected or its owner is very vigilant, but if
they do you gain 2 XP.

68
 Soldier
While every character in Mythic Space
knows how to fight, Soldiers made it their
profession. They are the stoic badasses you
can always trust to be cool under fire.

Touchstones: Worf (Star Trek: TNG), Ashley

Williams (Mass Effect), Zoe Washburne
(Firefly), Bobbie Draper (The Expanse),
Corporal Hicks (Aliens)

Skill: Destroy or Exert

Starting Ability

Basic Training

Once per session, you may push yourself on

an attack roll without adding stress.

Upgrades

Code of Honor Soldier NPCs

Once per session, when you give up an ◊ Trask, a general

advantage over a foe because you would
consider it to be dishonorable, clear 1d10 ◊ Upsilon, a tactical AI
stress.
◊ Jasper, a weapons dealer
Military-Grade Explosives

You may spend 1 supply to gain access to

heavy explosives, enough to blow up a
vehicle or small building. They take time to
set up, so they are generally not useful in a
firefight without time to prepare.

Stoic

You do not need to spend stress to make

DISCIPLINE or WITS rolls while you are
shaken.

69
 Spacer
Spacers are asteroid miners, shipbreakers,
and long haulers who are more comfortable
in the black of space than under the blue of
sky.

Touchstones: Belters (The Expanse), Ellen

Ripley (Alien)

Skill: Engineer or Survive

Starting Ability

Rockhopper

You can operate in zero G as easily as others

can in a gravity well. You ignore any
difficulty increase for weightlessness and
don't consider zero G zones to be difficult
terrain in combat. You gain an advantage
token whenever you make an engineer or
survive roll in space. Failure: You find 1 supply for each PC, but
you encounter something dangerous.
Upgrades
Traveler
Bounce Back
You have been around the galaxy and can
You are used to taking hits and keeping on quickly pick up common parlance and
trucking. You have an extra downtime action customs. You are always treated as a native,
which must be used to destress or recover. even in the most xenophobic of cultures.
You can bring a companion with you as
usual. Spacer NPCs

Spare Parts ◊ Marlin, a junk dealer

While you are in a derelict or ruin, you may ◊ Oksana, a salvager

spend a few hours and gain 1 stress to
scavenge for supplies. Roll WITS (engineer). ◊ Trumble, a customs officer

Full Success: You find 2 supplies for each

PC.

Partial Success: You find 1 supply for each

PC.

70
 Tempest
Tempests have incredible abilities that they
do not fully understand or control. These are
usually paracausal powers, but not
necessarily. It may be implanted
experimental cyberware or deeply ingrained
training and psychological conditioning.

Touchstones: River Tam (Firefly), Eleven

(Stranger Things), Jack (Mass Effect 2),
Clarissa "Peaches" Mao (The Expanse)

Skills: Destroy or Perceive

Starting Ability

Unleash the Storm

Once per session, when you are

experiencing intense fear, rage, or pain, you
may unleash your potential. You achieve
godlike effect on one action roll, then roll
1d10. If the roll is lower than your current Symphony of Destruction
stress, you clear that much stress. If the roll
is higher than your current stress, you Whenever you compel someone or destroy
instead pass out for the rest of the scene something, you gain an effect token.
and gain a harm condition of your choice.
Tempest NPCs
Upgrades
◊ Jane, a fellow test subject
No Power In The ‘Verse
◊ Yates, a researcher
You may Unleash the Storm when you are
perfectly calm. After rolling the d10 you may ◊ Lyra, an assassin
increase or decrease the result by 2.

Phoenix Force

The first time you would die each mission,

you may Unleash the Storm to return to life
if you have not used it this session.

71
 Altari
The Altari are ‘space elves.’ They are
graceful, long-lived, androgynous, and more
closely attuned to the strange paracausal
forces in the universe.
Touchstones: Vulcans (Star Trek), Asari
(Mass Effect), Minbari (Babylon 5), the
Awoken (Destiny)
Skills: Perceive or Sway
Starting Ability
Altari Grace
Once per session, you may push a REFLEX
roll without adding stress.
Upgrades
Altari Will
Your mind is inured to mental influence.
Once per scene, when you would be subject
to adverse mental strain or fear, you gain a
protection token.
Elf Eyes
Your vision is especially acute. You can
perceive small details from kilometers
away. Once per scene where perception
matters, gain an advantage token.
Wisdom of Ages
You have forgotten more things than most
people have learned in your long life. Once
per session you may make an action roll as if
you had a skill or specialty you don't
possess.
Altari NPCs
◊ Ceryse, a poet
◊ Viconeth, a duelist
◊ Shreya, a sage
Altari Pronouns
Since the Altari are hermaphrodites, they
do not have the same hang ups about
gender as most other species. However,
they have a system of pronouns used to
denote status and role in society. Feel free
to come up with your own pronouns and
their meaning for your character, but some
examples are listed below.
♦ Fae/Fem: This is a high status figure, a
member of the political or religious caste.
♦ Tey/Tem: This is a warrior or adventurer,
someone dangerous.
♦ Pey/Pem: This is a worker or craftsman,
someone who spends much of the day
working with their hands. Once considered
respectable, has lowered in status in an
age of automation.
♦ Xey/Xem: A pronoun reserved for
outsiders, a creature someone other than
Altari.
72
 Brachinid
Brachinids are an intelligent species of crab.
They average 1.5 meters in height and about
2 meters in diameter (about the size of a
small sedan), although very old, very well-
fed Brachinids can be 2-3x that size. The
Brachinid Consortium resembles a
megacorporation more than it does a
government, and it is notorious for
enslaving more than 60% of its population.
Brachinids in Alliance space tend to be
escaped slaves or the descendants of
escaped slaves.

Touchstones: Ferengi (Star Trek: DS9),

Centauri (Babylon 5), The Shadows (Babylon
5), The Fallen (Destiny)

Skills: Finesse or Sway

Starting Ability

Decapod Hardshell

You have eight limbs that end in prehensile
digits. You may bring two primary weapons
with you when you are fully loaded in
addition to your secondary weapon. You gain
an advantage token any time you try to
climb something, swim, or any other time
having extra limbs is handy.
Upgrades
Business Acumen
When you attempt to procure something
during downtime, choose one complication
the GM assigns and negate it.
Once per session when you suffer a harm
condition, you may gain 1d6 stress to
remove it.
War Claw
You have allowed your War Claws to grow
back. You may use them as a secondary
melee weapon with a d8/d10/d12 damage
die. Whenever you try to destroy something
with your War Claw, you gain an effect
token.
Brachinid NPCs
◊ Kr’Kanth, a corporate shareholder

◊ Br’Chara, a slave trafficker

◊ Ln’Vorta, a rebel leader

73
 Earther
You were born and raised on Earth. Like the
homeworld of most Alliance species, it has
been ravaged by the results of rapid
industrialization, but it is slowly healing
now that colonization has relieved some of
the pressure. People who live on Earth fall
into two categories - those who are wealthy
enough to live in comfort or those too poor
to afford passage on a colony ship offworld.
You are either one of the wealthy who chose
to leave, or one of the poor who got lucky
and got out.

Touchstones: The UN (The Expanse), Earth

(The Fifth Element)

Skills: Compel or Survive

Starting Ability

Heirloom
Friends Back Home
You have a relic of old Earth, like an old
photograph, an archaic music player, a cool You gain an extra downtime action which
hat, or similar. Once per session, you may you must use to placate a faction or procure
spend 1 supply and say how your heirloom something. You can bring a companion with
inspires you to gain a positive token of your you as usual.
choice.
Earther NPCs
Upgrades
◊ Yan, a farmer
All Alone in the Night
◊ Wes, a gangster
Once per session, whenever you suffer
consequences because you decided to go off ◊ Mel, a socialite
on your own, clear 1d10 stress.

Earther Tenacity

You may push saving throws.

74
 Kathir
The Kathir are a large bipedal species that
evolved from pack predators, similar to a
wolf or a lion. Kathir societies have a martial
focus, and they tend to be hot-blooded but
disciplined. Despite their early wars with
humanity, they tend to get along the best of
the Alliance species due to their similarities
- they are both mammalian in nature with
two primary biological sexes. Their lifespans
are roughly equivalent, and both species
superficially resemble creatures the other
species keep as pets.

Touchstones: Klingons (Star Trek), Turians

(Mass Effect), Kilrathi (Wing Commander),
Sangheili (Halo), Wookiees (Star Wars)

Skills: Exert or Perceive

Starting Ability
the next exert or destroy roll you make can
Powerful Build achieve godlike effect.

Once per session, you can push a PHYSIQUE Weapons are My Religion
roll without adding stress.
Kathir are known for their martial culture.
Upgrades You may always carry your full loadout
without drawing undue attention.
Evolved Predator
Kathir NPCs
Your hearing and sense of smell is
significantly more honed than a human’s. ◊ Vyrnnus, a trainer
You can smell and hear well enough to
navigate even in total darkness, and are ◊ Kryik, a special operative
aware of small details or hidden characters
well before other characters. You gain an ◊ Nyreen, a mercenary
effect token when your senses can help.

Instinctive Loyalty

Kathir are intensely loyal to those they

consider their pack. Whenever you witness
one of your allies gaining a harm condition,

75
 Outsider the GM three questions about it, which they
must answer honestly.
The galaxy is home to a multitude of
mysteries and strange species who Outsider’s Perspective
nevertheless display sapience. Outsiders
are one-of-a-kind, or their kind are so rare You were not raised under the assumptions
as to make no difference. They display of common society. When you expose the
unique abilities, and they often struggle to absurdity or hypocrisy of social norms
fit in with wider society. through your outside perspective, you gain
an advantage token.
Touchstones: Data (Star Trek: TNG), Odo
(Star Trek: DS9), Seven of Nine (Star Trek: Unshakeable
Voyager)
Your mind does not work the same as other
Skills: Interface or Study sapients. Once per session when you
become shaken, you may make a DISCIPLINE
Starting Ability saving throw. On a success, remove the
shaken condition.
Unique Physiology
Outsider NPCs
You are not built like most other people.
Decide two benefits and one drawback as a ◊ Zyxxyryz, an ancient machine
result of your physiology. For example, you
might be a sapient gel able to shapeshift ◊ Qori, a shapeshifter
and squeeze into small places, but you must
liquify and spend several hours a day in a ◊ Zan, an artist
bucket or you lose cohesion. Or you might be
a hologram capable of emitting energy
blasts and moving through electronic
systems like water, but otherwise unable to
affect the physical world. Once per scene,
you may gain your choice of an advantage
token, an effect token, or a protection
token when your physiology would benefit.
When your drawback causes you issues you
gain 1 XP.

Upgrades

Abyss Watcher

You have lived on the fringes of the

unknown your whole life. When you
encounter an esoteric, magical, or otherwise
unexplainable phenomenon, you may ask

76
 Synth
You are a machine. You may be a digital
recreation of a brain scan of an organic
creature who has already died, or you may
be a true AI built from scratch and inhabiting
a robot body. Regardless, you think faster
and are generally tougher than your organic
counterparts.

Touchstones: Cylons (Battlestar Galactica),

Replicants (Blade Runner), EDI (Mass Effect
2), Exos (Destiny)

Skills: Interface or Pilot

Starting Ability

Advanced Processor

Once per session, you may push a WITS roll

without adding stress.

Upgrades Synth NPCs

Extra Batteries ◊ Rho, a logistics AI

Once per session, you may spend 1 supply to ◊ Leela, a navigator

clear 1d6 stress.
◊ Blake, a programmer
Skill Download

You may spend 1 supply to gain a skill or skill

specialty until the end of the scene.

Unbreakable

Your robot body is much more durable than

that of an organic’s. Once per session when
you become wounded, you may make a
PHYSIQUE saving throw. On a success,
remove the wounded condition.

77
 Xin
The Xin are a hyper intelligent species that
evolved from hive insects. They have large
bulbous heads and black eyes, and
suspiciously resemble the stereotypical
‘gray alien’ from 20th century popular
culture, but they vehemently deny any of
their ships were on Earth during that time.
Most Xin use they/them pronouns and
consider themselves to be gender neutral
(technically they are sterile females, but
they only consider queens and drones to be
truly gendered).

Touchstones: Salarians (Mass Effect), Grays

(pop culture), Ants (real life)

Skills: Pilot or Study

Starting Ability

Galaxy Brain Limited Telepathy

Once per session, you may push a
DISCIPLINE roll without adding stress.
Upgrades
Ancient Alien
Whenever you make a roll involving
interacting with OCEs, their servants, or
other ancient and strange phenomena, gain
a protection token.
You may silently converse with an organic
creature you can see as if you were speaking
with them, and you may ‘hear’ their
response silently as well. The distance
between the two of you does not matter - if
you can see them through a camera you may
still communicate.
Xin NPCs
◊ Agartha, a scout

Easy Collaborator ◊ Xibalba, a doctor

Once per scene, when you participate in a ◊ Plejara, a priest

group check, you gain an advantage token.

78
 Chapter 9:

Tactics
79
When you create a character, you may
choose two tactics to round out your
starting abilities. Tactics abilities come in
the following types:
◊ Augment: This ability enhances another
tactic ability.
Athlete
Athletes focus on training their mobility.
They can run faster, climb higher, and jump
further than other characters.
Starting Ability

◊ Grenade: This item takes up your Run and Gun

grenade slot. It is activated with the [limited training]
throw action. Grenades improve with
your Arsenal tier. Once per combat, you may push yourself to
take an extra move action without adding
◊ Limited: This ability can only be used stress.
once per combat.
Upgrades
◊ Program: This is a program you can run
on a Wireless Rig. Fleet-Footed
[training]
◊ Spell: This represents a paracausal
power. The ability will tell you how it is You may use an auxiliary action to gain a
activated. fleet token.

◊ Training: This represents training and Leaf on the Wind

conditioning inherent to your character. [training]
Whenever you sprint you gain a dodge
◊ Utility: This item takes up your utility token.
slot. You can deploy a utility item in your
zone with the interact action (an Parkour
auxiliary action), or throw it to a zone [training]
within medium range (a main action).
Utility items improve with your Armory You ignore difficult terrain and take half
tier. damage from damaging terrain and hazards.

◊ Weapon: This tactic grants you an

advanced weapon.

80
 Bastion
Bastions specialize in shield technology and
mobile fortifications.

Starting Ability

Hardlight Shield
[weapon]

You have a hardlight riot shield which takes

up your secondary weapon slot. You may
wield the shield and a pistol or melee
weapon at the same time. As long as you are
wielding the shield, choose a direction at the
end of each of your turns. The shield
provides cover in that direction for you and
any allies engaged with you.

Upgrades

Barrier Projector
[utility] Bubble Shield
[grenade]
You deploy a drone with a hardlight
projector that can rapidly change the shape The target zone is surrounded by a hardlight
of the battlefield. Choose a zone in medium projection that blocks weapons fire and
range. You may eliminate any hazards or grenades but not movement.
damaging terrain in that zone. You may
change difficult terrain to normal terrain, or Shield Bash
vice versa. You may create cover as you [augment]
choose, but you may not destroy cover.
When you debilitate a character you are
Hardlight engaged with by bashing them with your
shield, they must succeed on a PHYSIQUE
A number of abilities create hardlight saving throw or gain a stunned token.
projections, which are an evolution of
energy shield technology. Hardlight is
translucent and can be configured only to
block fast moving objects or all passage.
Hardlight projections can take damage like
characters and have 15/20/25 shields. They
dissipate at the end of the combat or when
their shields are depleted.

81
 Berserker
When the adrenaline starts flowing and
things hit the fan, something in a Berserker
just snaps. They can inflict terrifying
amounts of damage at the cost of their own
safety.

Starting Ability

Reckless Attack
[training]

You may use an auxiliary action to gain an

empowered token and a vulnerable token.

Upgrades

Feeding Frenzy
[training]

When you defeat a non-grunt enemy, you

may load 1 ammo into one of your weapons
as a free action.

Inspire Terror
[training]

When you defeat a non-grunt enemy,

another enemy within medium range must
succeed on a DISCIPLINE saving throw or
gain a stunned token.

Rip and Tear

[training]

Whenever you defeat a non-grunt enemy,

gain shields equal to your PHYSIQUE. This
cannot take you above your maximum
shields.

82
 Biokinetic
Biokinetics are trained in the paracausal art
of manipulating organic matter.

Starting Ability

Biorhythm
[spell]

Cost 1 strain
As an auxiliary action, choose yourself or an
ally within medium range. The target may
immediately gain the benefit of one rally
option without rolling.

Upgrades

Healing Touch
[spell]

Cost 2 strain
As a main action you may revive a defeated
ally you are engaged with. The target revives Paralyze
with full armor and shields equal to your [limited spell]
DISCIPLINE.
Cost 2 strain
Heartstopper Once per combat as a main action, choose a
[limited spell] zone within medium range. All enemies in
that zone must make a PHYSIQUE saving
Cost 1-4 strain throw. Characters who fail gain a stunned
Once per combat as a main action, choose a token. Characters who succeed gain an
character within medium range and pay 1-4 immobilized token.
strain. You deal that many of your Amp’s
damage dice to the target. They take half
damage on a successful PHYSIQUE saving
throw.

What If I Don't Have an Amp?

You can still cast spells that use your Amp’s

damage without an Amp, but the damage
die is always d4.

83
 Commando
Commandos are the ghosts of the
battlefield. You have an active camouflage
net and you know how to maximize your
effectiveness against unaware opponents.
Starting Ability
Active Camouflage
[utility]
You become invisible until the end of the
combat or until you take damage.
Upgrades
Elusive Shadow
[training]
When you lose hidden for any reason, you
gain a dodge token.
Holographic Decoy
[grenade]
A holographic decoy spawns where the
grenade lands. Any enemy attempting to
attack you or an ally must succeed on a
WITS saving throw or target the decoy
instead. The decoy has 4/6/8 shields and
disperses when its shields are depleted.
When you see a series of three numbers or
dice expressions separated by slashes like
this, that means this ability improves with
your Arsenal (weapons and grenades) or
Armory (armor and utility items) tier.
Sneak Attack
[training]
When you hide, you gain an empowered
token.
Defender
Defenders protect their allies by focusing
enemy attention on themselves. They don’t
mind the pain. They can take it.
Starting Ability
Taunt
[training]
As an auxiliary action, choose a character
within medium range. The target must
succeed on a DISCIPLINE saving throw or
gain a taunt token*. A character with a
taunt token cannot attack unless they
include you as a target. Remove the taunt
token at the start of your next turn.
Upgrades
Lightning Reflexes
[training]
You take half damage from overwatch
attacks.
Lucky
[training]
Whenever you are critically hit by an attack,
you may make a REFLEX saving throw. On a
success, the attack becomes a normal hit.
Seeing Red
[training]
Whenever you give a character a taunt
token, you also give them a weakened
token.
84
 Disruptor
Disruptors use non-lethal grenades to
disorient and incapacitate their enemies.
Starting Ability
Stun Grenade
[grenade]
All characters in the target zone must make
a DISCIPLINE saving throw. Characters who
fail gain a stunned token. Characters who
succeed gain a misfire and an off-guard
token.
Upgrades
EMP Generator
[utility]
All characters within close range of the
generator other than you must make a WITS
saving throw. Characters who fail gain a
jammed token. Characters who succeed
gain a weakened token. All hardlight
constructs in range dissipate.
Exploit Vulnerabilities
[training]
Whenever you deal damage to a character
with a negative token, gain your choice of an
empowered or fortified token.
Lingering Flash
[augment]
All characters affected by your Stun
Grenades gain an additional misfire and off-
guard token in addition to its other effects.
85
Engineer
Engineers specialize in equipment to
support their allies.
Starting Ability
Resupply Drone
[utility]
You deploy a resupply drone in a zone within
close range. The drone hovers and may
reposition whenever you take a move action.
It has 4/6/8 armor. The drone activates with
3/4/5 resupply charges. You or any ally
engaged with the drone may use an auxiliary
action to spend a resupply charge and do
one of the following:
◊ Clear all negative tokens of one type on
you.
◊ Recharge your shields.
◊ Reload one of your weapons.
◊ Repair your armor.
Upgrades
Distortion Field
[augment]
If you or an ally end your turn in the same
zone as your Resupply Drone, that character
gains a dodge token. Enemies who end their
turn in the same zone as your drone gain an
off-guard token.

Revival Protocol
[augment]
You may use a main action and spend a
resupply charge to order your Resupply
Drone to revive a defeated ally it is engaged
with. That ally revives with full armor and
shields equal to your WITS.
Shield Booster
[grenade]
All allies in the target zone gain 3/4/5
regeneration tokens.
Fighter
Fighters specialize in melee combat.
Starting Ability
Parry
[training]
As long as you have a melee weapon
equipped, you may use an auxiliary action to
give all enemies you are engaged with a
misfire token.
Upgrades
Feint
[training]
When you miss an attack with a melee
weapon, the target gains an off-guard
token.
Opportunist
[training]
Whenever an enemy you are engaged with
moves away from you, you may make an
attack with a melee weapon against that
target. The attack is an automatic hit.
Whirlwind Strike
[limited training]
Once per combat as a main action, you may
make an attack with a melee weapon
against every enemy in close range. You end
the action engaged with one of the targets.
86
 Grenadier
Grenadiers carry lethal grenades into battle,
capable of clearing whole enemy groups.
Starting Ability
Frag Grenade
[grenade]
All characters in the zone take 4/6/8
damage. They take half damage on a
successful REFLEX saving throw.
Upgrades
Incendiary Grenade
[augment]
When your Frag Grenade detonates, you
may have the target zone become damaging
terrain until the end of the combat. Any
character who moves through or ends their
turn in the zone takes d4/d6/d8 damage.
Plasma Grenade
[augment]
Your Frag Grenades now destroy all objects
in the target zone that are not impervious.
Any characters damaged by your Frag
Grenades gain a vulnerable token.
Sticky Grenade
[augment]
When you roll a Full Success to throw your
Frag Grenade, choose a character in the
target zone for your grenade to stick to. That
character takes double damage.
87
Gunner
Gunners are automatic weapon specialists,
trained to manage recoil and keep their
enemies pinned with a hail of fire.
Starting Ability
Suppressive Fire
[training]
If you have a Full-Auto weapon equipped,
you may spend 2 ammo to give an enemy in
range a suppression token*. If a character
with a suppression token tries to move or
attack, you may attack that character first.
The attack is an automatic hit. Remove all
suppression tokens at the start of your
next turn.
Upgrades
Bulletstorm
[limited training]
Once per combat, you may push yourself to
make an additional attack with a Full-Auto
weapon without gaining stress.
Demolish
[training]
If you have a Full-Auto weapon equipped,
you may spend a main action and 2 ammo to
destroy an object of standard toughness or
less. If you have Arsenal tier 3, you may also
destroy reinforced objects.
Killzone
[training]
You may overwatch as an auxiliary action.
 Gunslinger Martial Artist
Gunslingers are specialists with the humble Brawlers specialize in unarmed combat.
pistol. They are quick-draw experts and use
their superior reflexes to fill the air with Starting Ability
lead.
Martial Arts
Starting Ability [weapon]

Quickdraw You may use your body as a melee weapon.

[training] It does not take up a weapon slot and
cannot be modded. The damage die is not
If you have a pistol equipped, you gain an increased by your Arsenal tier, but it is
accurate and an empowered token at the increased by your PHYSIQUE.
beginning of combat.
Your PHYSIQUE Is… Damage Die
Upgrades
2 or less d4
High Noon 3-4 d6
[limited training]
5-6 d8
Once per combat as a main action, gain 3 7-8 d10
overwatch tokens.
Upgrades
Return Fire
[training] Grappler
[training]
As an auxiliary action, gain an overwatch
token. Until the start of your next turn, you When you inflict a negative token using the
may spend an overwatch token after an debilitate action, increase the number of
enemy attacks you to attack them with a tokens you inflict of each type by 1.
pistol. The attack is an automatic hit.
Quick Strike
Trick Shot [training]
[training]
You may gain 1 stress to make a Martial Arts
When you critically hit a target with a pistol, attack as an auxiliary action.
choose immobilized, misfire, off-guard,
vulnerable, or weakened. The target gains Stunning Strike
a token of that type. [limited training]

Once per combat when you hit a target with

a Martial Arts attack, they must succeed on
a PHYSIQUE saving throw or gain a stunned
token.

88
 Officer
Officers are force multipliers. They position
their allies to where they can hit hardest.

Starting Ability

Tactical Advice
[training]

Choose an ally in medium range. Choose

accurate, dodge, or fleet. The target gains a
token of that type.

Upgrades

Officer’s Mark
[training]

As a main action, choose an enemy in

medium range. Roll WITS.

Full Success: The target gains 2 off-guard

tokens and 2 vulnerable tokens.

Partial Success: The target gains an off-

guard token and a vulnerable token.

Failure: The target gains an off-guard

token.

Oscar Mike
[training]

As a main action, choose two allies within

medium range. Each of those allies may take
an immediate move action.

Pep Talk
[training]

As an auxiliary action, remove a negative

token from an ally in medium range.

89
 Operator Upgrades

Operators are combat hackers who use Disrupt

advanced nanomachines to disrupt their [program]
enemies’ shields and weapons.
As an auxiliary action, choose an enemy
Starting Abilities within medium range. The target must
succeed on a WITS saving throw or lose all
Wireless Rig positive tokens of one type.
[weapon]
Sabotage
You gain a Wireless Rig, a modified data [program]
terminal with an advanced ECM suite
installed that can run programs on enemy As a main action, choose a grenade or
equipment. It comes installed with Overload, hazard within medium range. It detonates
and you can add other programs with immediately. If there is no hazard in the
upgrades. Your Rig’s damage die is not zone, you may instead create one. It deals
increased with your Arsenal tier, but it is your Rig’s damage die to all characters in
increased with your WITS. It takes up your the zone when it detonates. Characters take
secondary weapon slot and cannot install half damage with a successful REFLEX
mods. saving throw.
Your WITS Is… Damage Die
Threat Assessment
2 or less d4 [program]
3-4 d6
As an auxiliary action, choose an ally within
5-6 d8 medium range. They gain an overwatch
token.
7-8 d10
Overload
[program]

As a main action, choose a character within

medium range. Roll WITS.

Full Success: You deal your Rig’s damage to

the target, and it gains a vulnerable and
weakened token.

Partial Success: You deal your Rig’s damage

to the target, and it gains your choice of a
vulnerable or weakened token.

Failure: The target gains your choice of a

vulnerable or weakened token.

90
 Precog
Precogs have the paracausal ability to
manipulate time. They can see brief
glimpses of the future and can alter their
perception of time.

Starting Ability

Anticipation
[spell]

Cost 1 strain
As an auxiliary action, ask the GM which
enemy is going to act next and what they are
going to do on their turn. They must answer
honestly. You gain a dodge token.

Upgrades

Alternate Future
[limited spell]

Cost 1 strain Haste

Once per combat when you do not like the
results of a roll made by yourself or any
other character in long range, reroll all dice
and you choose which result you want to
pick.
Borrow Time
[limited spell]
[limited spell]
Cost 2 strain
Once per combat as a main action, choose
yourself or an ally in medium range. The
target gains 3 haste tokens*. Once per turn,
a character may spend a haste token to
take an extra action without gaining stress.

Cost 2 strain
Once per combat you may take two turns in
a row. At the end of the extra turn you gain a
stunned token.

91
 Pyrokinetic Rocketeer
Pyrokinetics have the paracausal ability to Rocketeers are trained in heavy man-
manipulate energy. Technically, a more portable anti-vehicle and anti-personnel
accurate term would be “ergokinetic,” but it ordinance.
doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Starting Ability
Starting Ability
Rocket Launcher
Ignite [weapon]
[spell]
Cost 1 strain You gain a Rocket Launcher that occupies
Choose a character within medium range your secondary weapon slot.
and roll your Amp’s damage die. The target
gains that many burn tokens. They gain half Type Range Ammo Damage
that many burn tokens on a successful Heavy
Weapon Extreme
REFLEX saving throw. 1 d8/d10/d12

Upgrades Splash Damage: When you attack with this

weapon, all characters in the target’s zone
Energy Transfer (including the target) take 4/5/6 damage. All
[spell] objects of standard toughness or less in that
zone are destroyed.
Cost 2 strain
As an auxiliary action, choose a character in Upgrades
medium range. Remove all burn tokens
from the target. You gain that many Anti-Armor Payload
regeneration tokens. [augment]

Inferno Damage from your Rocket Launcher ignores

[limited spell]
Cost 2 strain
Once per combat as a main action, choose a
zone within medium range. That zone
becomes damaging terrain. Any character
who moves through or ends their turn in
that zone takes your Amp’s damage.
Inner Fire
[training]
When you push yourself to take an extra
action or cast a spell, you may gain burn
tokens instead of gaining stress.
fortified tokens. Your splash damage now
destroys reinforced objects as well.
Incendiary Payload
[augment]
Instead of dealing damage, you may have
your Rocket Launcher’s splash damage
grant an equal number of burn tokens.
Second Barrel
[augment]
Increase your Rocket Launcher’s ammo
capacity to 2.

92
 Sapper
Sappers rely on mines and traps to defeat
their enemies.
Starting Ability
Proximity Mine
[grenade]
The next time an enemy moves through or
ends their turn in the target zone, they must
make a WITS saving throw. On a success, the
mine remains armed. On a failure, they take
2d6/2d8/2d10 damage.
Upgrades
Grav Mine
[augment]
Characters damaged by your Proximity Mine
gain 1/2/3 immobilized tokens.
High Explosive Mine
[augment]
When you throw a Proximity Mine, you may
choose to throw a high explosive version. If
you do, it deals 2/4/6 damage to all other
characters in the zone when it detonates.
Satchel Charge
[utility]
You deploy a satchel charge that destroys
any object that is not impervious. Any
characters within close range of the other
side of the object gain a vulnerable token.
93
Sentinel
Sentinels set up turrets about the battlefield
to restrict their enemies’ movements and
provide fire support for their allies.
Starting Ability
Sentry Turret
[utility]
You deploy an automated turret within close
range. The turret spawns with 4/6/8 armor.
The turret spawns with an overwatch
token and gains another overwatch token
at the start of each of your turns. The turret
has medium range, 4 ammo, and deals d6/
d8/d10 damage. If it runs out of ammo, it
reloads at the start of your turn instead of
gaining an overwatch token.
Upgrades
Fire Support
[augment]
Whenever an ally hits a character within
medium range of your Sentry Turret, your
turret may make an immediate attack
against the same target. The attack is an
automatic hit.
Pin Down
[augment]
Characters damaged by your Sentry Turret
gain an immobilized token.
 Sharpshooter
Sharpshooters are the best marksmen in the
galaxy.

Starting Ability

Steady Shot
[training]

You may use a move action to steady

yourself. The next time you hit with a rifle or
longarm this turn, roll 1 additional damage
die and drop the lowest.

Upgrades

Called Shot
[training]

When you drop a damage die (such as from

Steady Shot), note its value. Inflict that
effect on the target.
Suppression Protocol Die Value You Hit Their Effect
[augment]
1-2 Leg Immobilized
You may use a main action and spend 2
3-4 Arm Jammed
ammo from your Sentry Turret to give an
enemy in range a suppression token*. If a 5-7 Vitals Stunned
character with a suppression token tries to
8+ Head Instant Defeat
move or attack, you may attack that
character with your turret first. The attack is Deadeye
an automatic hit. Remove all suppression [training]
tokens at the start of your next turn.
You may use an auxiliary action to gain a
misfire token and an empowered token.

Sure Shot
[limited training]

Once per combat, an attack you make with a

rifle or longarm is an automatic hit.

94
 Technomancer
Technomancers blend paracausal abilities
and technology to enchant their gear.

Starting Ability

Paracausal Ammo
[ammo]

You gain a special weapon mod that only you

can use. You may use DISCIPLINE or WITS to
attack with this weapon. You may also use
an auxiliary action and gain 1 strain to reload
this weapon.

Upgrades

Cryo Projector
[utility]

A character within medium range must

make a PHYSIQUE saving throw. If they fail,
they gain a stunned token. If they succeed, Paracausal Armor
they gain an immobilized token. [plating]

Gravity Grenade
[grenade]
All characters in the target zone must make
a PHYSIQUE saving throw. Characters who
succeed gain an immobilized and off-guard
token. Characters who fail are lifted one
zone into the air. Lifted characters have
their positions compromised, can’t move,
and gain a misfire token. They fall at the
start of your next turn.
You gain a special armor mod that only you
can use. You may use the better of your
PHYSIQUE or DISCIPLINE to make saving
throws of those types. Similarly, you may
use the better of your REFLEX or WITS. You
may gain 1 strain as an auxiliary action to
gain a dodge and a fortified token.

95
 Telekinetic
Telekinetics are trained in the paracausal art
of gravity manipulation.

Starting Ability

Telekinesis
[spell]

Cost 1 strain
You can debilitate characters using
DISCIPLINE and interact with objects out to
medium range. When you roll a partial
success or better to debilitate a character,
you also deal your Amp’s damage to them.

Upgrades

Deflect
[spell]

Cost 1 strain
As an auxiliary action, you gain a dodge
token. Until the start of your next turn,
when you spend a dodge token and the
attack misses, you may redirect the attack
back at your attacker. The attack is an
automatic hit.
Levitation
[spell]
Cost 1 strain
As an auxiliary action, you gain flying until
the end of your turn.
Whirlwind
[limited spell]
Cost 2 strain
Once per combat as a main action, choose a
zone within medium range. All characters in
the target zone must make a PHYSIQUE
saving throw. Characters who succeed gain
an immobilized and off-guard token.
Characters who fail are lifted one zone into
the air. Lifted characters have their
positions compromised, can’t move, and
gain a misfire token. They fall at the start of
your next turn.

96
 Telepath
Telepaths can read and manipulate the
minds of organic creatures.

Starting Ability

Mind Blast
[spell]

Cost 1 strain
You can debilitate characters using
DISCIPLINE out to medium range. You add
the following to your debilitate options:

◊ The target must succeed on a DISCIPLINE

saving throw or make an attack against a
target of your choice. The attack is an
automatic hit.

◊ You deal your Amp’s damage to the

target.
Mindlink
Upgrades [limited spell]

Mind Control Cost 1 strain

[limited spell]
Cost 2 strain
Once per combat as a main action, choose a
character within medium range. Roll
DISCIPLINE.
Full Success: As below, and the target must
make a DISCIPLINE save after its turn or gain
a stunned token.
Partial Success: You hijack the target’s
mind, and it immediately takes a turn
controlled by you. This does not take up its
turn for the round.
Failure: The target gains a jammed token,
then it becomes immune to this ability for
the rest of the combat.
Once per combat as an auxiliary action,
choose an ally within medium range. You
each gain an accurate and a dodge token.
Until the end of the combat, whenever one
of you gains a positive token, the other also
gains a token of the same type. If one of you
is defeated while this effect is active, the
other gains a stunned token.
Psychic Scream
[limited spell]
Once per combat as a main action, you may
cast Mind Blast against every enemy within
close range. You must pay the strain cost for
each target.

97
 Teleporter
Teleporters have the paracausal ability to
manipulate space. It’s the closest anyone
has come to replicating the effect of the
Jump Gates.

Starting Ability

Teleport
[spell]

Cost 1 strain
As a move action, choose yourself or an ally
in medium range. You teleport the target to a
point within medium range of its original
position.

Upgrades

Flash Step
[augment]

Characters you Teleport gain a dodge token. Reality Shatter

[limited spell]
Portal
[limited spell] Once per combat as a main action, you may
Teleport any number of characters within
Cost 2 strain medium range, including enemies. Unwilling
Once per combat as an auxiliary action, targets may resist by succeeding on a WITS
choose two points within long range. You saving throw. You must pay the strain cost
open a 2-meter diameter portal between for each target, including ones that resist.
those two points until the end of the
combat. Characters can move, attack, throw
things, and interact with items through the
portal as if the two points were adjacent to
each other.

98
 Chapter 10:

Weapons and
Armor
99
Your ship comes with a selection of common
weapons and enough standard hardsuits to
outfit your crew. The quality of these items
depends on your ship’s arsenal and armory
ratings. Some Tactics can grant other
weapons.
Weapons
All weapons have a type that determines
which attribute they use to attack.
◊ Amp: Uses DISCIPLINE. Can fire an
energy blast that does not cost ammo
but does cost 1 strain. Grants a strain
limit equal to your DISCIPLINE if it’s in
your primary slot, or half your
DISCIPLINE rounded down if it’s in your
secondary slot. If you have multiple
amps equipped, use the one with the
highest value to determine your strain
limit.
◊ Heavy Weapon: Uses REFLEX. As long as
you are carrying this weapon, you can’t
sprint. Attacks that target characters
engaged with you are hard.
◊ Longarm: Uses REFLEX. Attacks that
target characters within close range of
you are hard. You can’t attack characters
engaged with you at all.
◊ Melee: Uses PHYSIQUE. Does not require
ammo.
◊ Pistol: You may use either PHYSIQUE or
REFLEX.
◊ Rifle: Uses REFLEX. Attacks that target
characters engaged with you are hard.
◊ Shotgun: Uses REFLEX. This weapon
deals full damage to targets in its own
zone. Each zone away drops the damage
die by one step.
◊ Rig: Uses WITS. Allows the user to run
programs. There aren’t any basic rigs.
Weapon Traits
Many weapons have traits that affect their
performance.
◊ Full-Auto N: This weapon always deals
at least N damage, even on a miss.
◊ Sidearm: You may carry this weapon in
your secondary weapon slot and use it in
your casual loadout.
Staves and Wands? Really?
Isn’t this a sci-fi game? Well, first of all,
since there’s magic technically it’s a space
opera. But secondly, “staff” and “wand” are
colloquial terms used to describe the
various Amps. Certainly, some paracausal
practitioners do carry around crystal-
tipped staves with circuitry running down
the sides, but for others it might be a large
focusing lens, a gauntlet wired with
paracausal runes, or a series of drones that
trace arcane symbols in the air. Similarly, a
“wand” might be a ring with a contained
singularity set in it, or a watch that tells the
time in a parallel universe, or a tattoo inked
with paracausal circuitry. The point is that
a “staff” is bulky, powerful, and obvious,
while a “wand” is small, concealable, and
contained.
100
 Primary Weapon List

Weapon Type Range Ammo Damage Trait

Combat Rifle Rifle Long 4 d6 / d8 / d10 Full-Auto 2/3/4

Combat Shotgun Shotgun Medium 4 d8 / d10 / d12

Energy Blade Melee Engaged - d8 / d10 / d12

Hand Cannon Pistol Medium 3 d8 / d10 / d12

Heavy
Light Machine Gun Long 8 d8 / d10 / d12 Full-Auto 2/3/4
Weapon
Sniper Rifle Longarm Extreme 4 d8 / d10 / d12

Staff Amp Medium DISC d6 / d8 / d10

Submachine Gun Pistol Medium 3 d6 / d8 / d10 Full-Auto 2/3/4

Secondary Weapon List

Weapon Type Range Ammo Damage Trait

Combat Knife Melee Engaged - d4 / d6 / d8 Sidearm

Handgun Pistol Medium 3 d4 / d6 / d8 Sidearm

Sawed-Off Shotgun Close 1 d8 / d10 / d12 Sidearm

Wand Amp Medium ½ DISC d4 / d6 / d8 Sidearm

101
 Weapon Mods Value Black Card Red Card

All primary weapons have a number of mod Armor-Piercing

2 Arcane Grip
slots available to them equal to your ship’s Rounds
Arsenal tier. Secondary weapons cannot Automatic
3 Bipod
Compensator
install weapon mods.
4 Calibrated Scope Collapsible
Profile
All weapon mods have a component type. A
weapon can only have one mod of a given Disruptor
5 Cryo Rounds Rounds
type installed at a time. You can install most
mods on most types of weapons, but there 6 Double Barrel Drop Mag
are a few restrictions.
Explosive
7 Expanded Mag Rounds
◊ Ammo can be installed on any weapon,
even melee (you are modifying the blade 8 Gravity Rounds Holo-Targeter
in this case). It has no effect on spells Incendiary Lightweight
cast through an amp, but it does modify 9 Rounds Frame
the energy blast.
10 Plasma Rounds Power Frame
◊ Frames can only be installed on a heavy
J Precision Sight Quickdraw Grip
weapon or longarm.
Q Ricochet Rounds Silencer
◊ Grips can be installed on any weapon.
K Stable Grip Stabilizer Scope
◊ Magazines can only be installed on
longarms, pistols, rifles, and shotguns. Targeting
A Tracer Scope
Algorithms
◊ Scopes can only be installed on a heavy
weapon, rifle, or longarm.

◊ Special mods can only be installed on

one particular weapon type. The
description will tell you which.

When the GM generates a weapon mod as a

mission reward, they can choose the mod or
draw a card to determine which type of mod.
You can purchase any mod you like from the
opposite table during downtime for 5
credits.

102
 Arcane Grip Disruptor Rounds
[grip] [ammo]

You may use DISCIPLINE to attack with this Targets you hit with this weapon gain a
weapon. misfire token.

Armor-Piercing Rounds Double Barrel

[ammo] [special]

Targets can’t spend fortified tokens to
reduce damage from this weapon.
Automatic Compensator
[special]
Can only be installed on a weapon with the
Full-Auto trait. Increase that trait’s value by
1.
This can only be installed on a shotgun or
pistol (if you put it on a pistol, you are
wielding two guns akimbo). When you attack
with this weapon, you may spend 2 ammo
instead of 1. If you hit, roll an additional
damage die and drop the lowest.
Drop Mag
[magazine]

Bipod You may reload this weapon as an auxiliary

[frame] action. This weapon has -1 ammo capacity.

You may use a move action to gain an Expanded Mag

empowered token. [magazine]

Calibrated Scope Increase this weapon’s ammo capacity by

[scope] your Arsenal tier.

You begin each battle with a number of Explosive Rounds

accurate tokens equal to your Arsenal tier. [ammo]

Collapsible Profile When you hit with this weapon, you deal
[special] damage equal to your Arsenal tier to all
other characters in the target’s zone.
Can be installed on any weapon except a
heavy weapon or longarm. This weapon Gravity Rounds
gains the sidearm tag. You can use it in your [ammo]
secondary weapon slot and can carry it in
your casual loadout. When you hit with this weapon, the target
must succeed on a PHYSIQUE saving throw
Cryo Rounds or have their position compromised.
[ammo]

Targets you hit with this weapon gain an

immobilized token.

103
Holo-Targeter Ricochet Rounds
[scope] [ammo]

When you attack with this weapon, the When you miss an attack with this weapon,
target gains off-guard tokens equal to your you may have the attack hit another enemy
Arsenal tier after the attack. in the same zone. If you do, the attack deals
half damage.
Incendiary Rounds
[ammo] Silencer
[special]
When you would deal damage with this
weapon, the target instead gains an equal This can only be installed on a pistol. You do
number of burn tokens. not stop being hidden when you attack with
this weapon.
Lightweight Frame
[frame] Stable Grip
[grip]
This weapon’s type changes to rifle.
You may use a move action to gain an
Plasma Rounds accurate token.
[ammo]
Stabilizer Scope
After you deal damage to a target with this [scope]
weapon, they gain a vulnerable token.
As long as this weapon is equipped, you
Power Frame cannot gain misfire tokens.
[frame]
Targeting Algorithms
As long as this weapon is equipped, you [scope]
cannot gain weakened tokens.
You may use WITS to attack with this
Precision Sight weapon.
[scope]
Tracer Scope
When you hit with this weapon, roll an [scope]
additional damage die and drop the lowest.
When you miss an attack with this weapon,
Quickdraw Grip you gain an accurate token.
[grip]

You begin combat with an accurate token

and an empowered token.

104
 Armor Value Black Card Red Card

Your shield and armor values depend on 2 Adrenaline Lining Ammo Pouch
which loadout you are currently using. With
your casual loadout, you are considered to Anamnesis
3 Angled Shields
Lining
be wearing civilian clothes with a low-grade
shield generator. Expanded
4 Blast Padding Harness
When you are fully loaded, you are wearing 5 Flash Servos Grenade Pouch
a combat hardsuit. The hardsuit is vacuum
Hardened
sealed and radiation shielded. They have 6 Heavy Plating
Shields
microjets for maneuvering in zero-G, and
Juggernaut
simple scanners and a comm suite. 7 Jet Boots Servos
Lightweight Magnetic
8
Loadout Shields Armor Plating Harness
9 Mana Channels Mind Shield
Casual 4/5/6 2/3/4
Overshield
10 Motion Tracker
Fully Loaded 8 / 10 / 12 4/6/8 Generator
J Power Armor Rapid Recharge

Q Reactive Servos Stimulant Lining

Armor Mods K Sturdy Plating Targeting HUD

When you are fully loaded, your hardsuit has A Utility Belt Volatile Shields
a number of mod slots equal to your Armory
tier. Like weapon mods, armor mods have a
component type, and you can only have one
mod of a given component type installed at
a time. You may not install armor mods in
your casual loadout.

105
Adrenaline Lining Grenade Pouch
[lining] [belt]

You may use limited training abilities one You gain an extra grenade slot. You may use
additional time per combat. an additional mod slot to trade your utility
item for a third grenade slot.
Ammo Pouch
[belt] Hardened Shields
[shields]
When you rally, you may choose one
additional option regardless of your roll. As long as your shields are up, you cannot
gain vulnerable tokens.
Anamnesis Lining
[lining] Heavy Plating
[plating]
You may cast limited spells one additional
time per combat. You begin each combat with fortified
tokens equal to your Armory tier. As long as
Angled Shields this mod is installed, you can’t sprint.
[shields]
Jet Boots
As long as your shields are up, you cannot [boots]
gain off-guard tokens.
You may spend 1 supply as an auxiliary
Blast Padding action to gain flying until the end of the
[lining] combat.

You take half damage from explosions and Juggernaut Servos

burn tokens. [boots]

Expanded Harness Whenever you sprint, you gain a fortified

[belt] token.

Increase the number of supplies you can Lightweight Plating

carry on a mission by your Armory tier. [plating]

Flash Servos You begin combat with dodge tokens equal

[boots] to your Armory tier. Decrease your max
armor by 2/3/4.
You may hide or reposition as an auxiliary
action. Magnetic Harness
[belt]
Replace your secondary weapon slot with a
primary weapon slot.

106
 Mana Channels Reactive Servos
[plating] [boots]

Increase your maximum strain by your You may roll REFLEX saving throws twice
Armory tier. and take the better result.

Mind Shield Stimulant Lining

[helmet] [lining]

You may roll DISCIPLINE saving throws twice You cannot gain stunned tokens.
and take the better result.
Sturdy Plating
Motion Tracker [plating]
[helmet]
You may roll PHYSIQUE saving throws twice
Hidden enemies within medium range are and take the better result.
revealed at the start of each of your turns.
You may roll WITS saving throws twice and Targeting HUD
take the better result. [helmet]

Overshield Generator You cannot gain misfire tokens.

[shield]
You may spend 1 supply as an auxiliary
action to double your current shields. This
can take you over your maximum shields. At
the start of your next turn, halve your
current shields, rounded up.
Utility Belt
[belt]
You gain an extra utility slot. You may use an
additional mod slot to trade your grenade
slot for a third utility slot.

Power Armor Volatile Shields

[boots] [shields]

You cannot gain immobilized tokens. You When your shields drop, all enemies in your
can sprint with heavy weapons or heavy zone take 3/4/5 damage.
plating equipped.

Rapid Recharge
[shields]

You may spend 1 supply to recharge your

shields as an auxiliary action.

107
Chapter 11:

A Brief History
of Space Travel
108
 It’s important to remember when talking
about history, that it is always subjective.
The Kathir will certainly have their own
version of history, as will the Altari, and the
Xin. Let’s not even mention the Empire, who
rewrites their history constantly to match
the talking points of the day. The point is
that this is the story that the humans of the
Alliance tell themselves.
The End of the
World
By the early 22nd century, Earth was on the
verge of collapse. The effects of rapid
industrialization had proven irreversible.
Constant wildfires, violent storms, plagues,
and biosphere loss had devastated
agriculture and living spaces such that wars
for resources were extremely common.
Earth’s population had fallen from a peak of
12 billion to less than 2 billion.
It was in this climate of paranoia and
despair that the first Black Ships arrived. All
fighting across the planet stopped as the
people of Earth watched a fleet of massive
ships rip one of the moons of Saturn out of
orbit and headed towards the inner planets.
There were more than a few nukes launched
in those early days, which were easily
swatted away. Fortunately for us, the ships
didn’t seem to care, and they stopped their
advance about halfway between the orbits
of Saturn and Jupiter. Then they began to
work.
For ten years, the Black Ships worked
hollowing out the moon of Phoebe. After a
certain point, people stopped paying
attention. So many calamities had happened
on Earth already that a fatalistic attitude of
“Well, what’s one more thing that’s going to
109
kill us?” emerged.
When the ships finished their work and left
the system through the massive Jump Gate
they had built in space, the world let out its
collective breath. Then they were left with
the question “What happens now?”
Exodus
Humanity was left alone with a giant hole in
space. It was a few years before probes
could be sent through and return
successfully. Then a few more years before
ships were built that could transport actual
humans through the gate. We probably
wouldn’t have bothered if not for the
desperate state of Earth. Humanity had
painted itself into a corner, and it leapt at
the first escape hatch it could find.
The explorers were relieved to find worlds
on the other end that could support life. In
fact, every system connected to the gate
had a world that could support life. It did not
take long for the great diaspora to begin.
Humanity fled their dying world out into the
stars.
Many died when their ships jumped too far
in Hyperspace, since the earliest ships had
no ontological shielding. Others died when
they failed to adapt to their new
ecosystems. Still others died over old
grudges and prejudices they brought with
them when they left Earth.
Despite the challenges, humanity had
something that it had not felt in a long time
- hope. Human populations bounced back
on new worlds. With the rapid development
of ecological engineering, some of that
began to be applied back to Earth, reversing
centuries of neglect and abuse.
 First Contact
For over 80 years, humanity had the galaxy
to itself. Then, one fateful day, a ship arrived
on the planet Oggun coming from the wrong
direction, its design unrecognizable. The
people living there were astonished when
the massive 2.5 meter tall lion/wolf people
of the Kathir stepped off the ship. We were
not alone.
It took months to translate each other’s
language, and we were shocked to discover
how very alike our species were. They too
came from a dying world and were rescued
when mysterious ships built a Jump Gate
within their home system. The two species
found each other incredibly relatable - each
vaguely resembled animals the other had
kept as pets on their home worlds. We were
very much alike in climate tolerances,
habitat needs, culture, and attitudes. Never
in our wildest dreams did we think the first
sapient alien species we encountered would
be so very much like our own.
Within 5 years we were at war with each
other.
Each side has their own account of how the
conflict started which paints themselves as
angels and the other side as ruthless
instigators. The reality is that we were too
much alike, both species carrying the old
habits of paranoia and xenophobia with
them out into the stars.
It started as small skirmishes, but within a
couple years the entire industrial production
capacity of Earth and its colonies were
devoted to the war effort. Without the threat
of mutually assured destruction, weapons
of mass destruction were deployed casually.
Tens of millions died on both sides.
It took the intervention of a third party to
bring an end to the conflict. The Altari tell
both species that they encountered them
first. They were content to sit back and
watch us kill each other for a time until the
fallout of a space battle over the planet
Nienor caused the deaths of thousands of
Altari colonists.
They claim they brokered the peace between
the two species because they were more
enlightened and wanted to live in a galaxy of
peace. Both sides suspect that they
orchestrated the peace talks because we
had a massive head start on interstellar
weapons development that they needed
time to catch up.
Miraculously, the peace talks worked.
Maybe it was because the Altari were so
much more alien to both species that they
felt like they had the authority. After 20
years of war and a staggering bodycount,
both sides agreed to a ceasefire.
The Age of Mystery
The next century was one of relative peace
and expansion. During this time, humanity
encountered the Brachinids and the Xin,
and all the species began to compare notes.
Every species had been on the verge of
extinction prior to the arrival of the Black
Ships. No one had been able to establish
contact with the ships prior to the
completion of their respective Jump Gates.
No one had seen any sign of the ships since
they left their home system. No one had
been able to figure out the mechanism of
Hyperspace travel or how the gates worked.
They defied all understanding of physics. As
far as anyone could tell, they operated by
magic.
110
 Speaking of magic, it was during this period
that the first paracausal abilities began to
manifest. They were more common in
children born in Hyperspace, or children
whose parents spent significant time in
Hyperspace. They were able to manifest
abilities that were previously only dreamed
of in fiction. A few of these remarkable
individuals were treated with respect and
wonder for their abilities, and a handful
were worshiped as gods, but for the most
part they were viewed as resources to be
exploited or abominations to be lynched.
We also discovered that we were not the
first species on some of these worlds. Many
worlds linked by the gates had evidence of
prior inhabitants, and vaults of highly
advanced technology buried beneath the
surface. It was in one of these vaults that we
discovered the secret of ontological
shielding, which could extend the distance a
ship could travel through Hyperspace safely.
Every new discovery gave rise to new
religions and belief systems. Some churches
maintained that only humans had souls,
others incorporated mythic figures from
other species as manifestations of God.
Paracausal abilities were either proof of
witchcraft, definitive proof that supposed
miracles from old holy books were just
everyday phenomena, or they were proof
that humanity was closer to God now that
they were among the stars.
No one was prepared for someone to
stumble upon the corpse of a literal god.
Izanami
A megacorporation called Colonial Exports
sponsored survey team on the frigate
Atalanta were investigating a new Jump
111
Point that was discovered off the
Hyperspace route near Deneb. Officially,
they found a promising world they named
Amateru, rich in Gallium and Iridium
deposits. Unofficially, they found perhaps
the most horrifying discovery any species
had made since the discovery of the Jump
Gates - a dozen Black Ships, derelict in
space.
They were approached by mechanical
beings that resembled angels, which
whispered to the research team in their
minds - the first recorded contact with any
being related to the OCEs. They called
themselves Daemons, and explained that
the mind that guided them had been
destroyed, but fragments remained within
themselves and the mainframes of the
damaged ships. Searching for a name to call
their dead master in the minds of the
explorers, they chose the name Izanami.
The corporate board of Colonial Exports
suppressed the discovery, and it was in this
environment of secrecy that the Cult of
Izanami was born. The Cult, guided by the
whispers of the Daemons in their dreams,
diverted resources from a dozen different
worlds in an attempt to repair the dead god.
There was a whole division of Colonial
Exports on Amateru dedicated to research
of the ships that was half R&D lab, half
church.
The project came to an end when the entire
colony committed ritual suicide in Izanami’s
name. The company’s efforts to keep the
whole thing under wraps came to an abrupt
end when a horde of techno-zombies used
the planet to begin invading nearby star
systems.
After a long and bloody campaign, the
undead invasion was put down and a
handful of mid-level executives were sent to
prison as scapegoats. The whole system
was quarantined, but that proved to be
fruitless as the Daemons of Izanami proved
to be capable of traveling through
Hyperspace without the use of a Jump Gate.
It is a popular conspiracy theory that those
in the upper echelons of most governments
and corporations have spoken a Daemon in
their dreams and joined the Cult. It doesn’t
help that there is actually some truth to this
theory.
The Blight and the
Alliance
While humanity was dealing with the
Eldritch horror they had discovered in their
backyard, the Kathir stumbled upon an
existential threat of their own. On the planet
Murmur they found a civilization of AIs, the
Ur-Synths. AI research had plateaued nearly
a century previously, with very convincing
personality interfaces being used to
automate a number of tasks, but true AI
sapience had always been ‘just a decade
away’ for nearly 200 years. The Ur-Synths
proved to be the breakthrough everyone had
been looking for. They had digitized their
entire civilization in response to an organic
threat - they called it the Nemesis Blight.
According to the Ur-Synths, the Blight was a
collection of fungal creatures of unending
hunger. The Synths ranted and raved about
how the Blight had devoured every scrap of
organic life on their world and then
disappeared. Since none of their
descriptions of the Blight creatures made it
sound as if they were in any way sapient,
and the entire world was one big dust ball
devoid of life, the Kathir researchers
assumed the Blight had eaten itself to
extinction.
This assumption nearly ended all life in the
galaxy.
Unknown to the Ur-Synths, the Blight had
perfect ontology. They were capable of
growing massive ship-like spores that could
exist in Hyperspace for orders of magnitude
longer than any technology. As the Kathir
began to repopulate Murmur in their new
partnership with the Ur-Synths, dormant
spores in the soil of the planet made a silent
psychic call.
The entire colony was devoured in a matter
of hours after the first Dreadnought-sized
spore ships ripped their way through the
Jump Gate. The warships sent to cleanse the
planet with fire were obliterated by
instinctive beams of paracausal energy.
Following the trails of energy through
Hyperspace, the Blight began to send its
spores into Kathir territory.
The Kathir fought bravely, but they were
outmatched. The Blight tore through their
fleets and consumed their worlds with
seeming impunity. In an uncharacteristic
display of humility, the proud warriors
broadcast a galaxy-wide plea for help. In a
move that shocked everyone, including
themselves, it was humanity that answered
the call.
The president of the United Nations Space
Agency (UNSA), Amani Onyilogwu, mobilized
a navy consisting of ships from every
species in the galaxy. The fact that humanity
was willing to intercede on behalf of their
oldest enemy convinced the others of the
gravity of the threat. Each species had
learned the price of ignoring an existential
threat in the past.
112
 Though the cost was great, the alliance
pushed back the Blight. They could not drive
the Blight to extinction, but they could push
it back to a quarantine zone on the eastern
edge of the Milky Way. To this day, the
primary purpose of the Alliance navy is to
repel Blight incursions.
The Purity Crusades
After nearly 30 years of war, the species of
the Alliance celebrated their victory.
Somewhere along the way, the word had
gone from a lower-case to a capital ‘A.’
Decades of integrating your economies and
militaries against a shared enemy will do
that. The various star nations viewed
themselves less and less as separate states
and more as a single galactic community.
For the first time, perhaps ever, it seemed
like the galaxy might know peace.
It was only a dream, of course. It was not to
last.
The first cracks in the new order appeared
when the Brachinids broke away because
Alliance banned slavery. Weary from war,
the Alliance did not press the issue when
they withdrew to their own corner of the
galaxy.
On human colonies far from the front, a new
threat was growing. Due to the sacrifices of
the Alliance, these worlds had been well-
insulated from the Nemesis Blight. They
were not happy about the taxes levied upon
them to support a massive war effort for a
species they considered to be their mortal
enemy. With the Blight defeated, they
demanded that Earth withdraw from the
Alliance. When their demands were not met,
they declared independence.
113
Following the precedent set by the
Brachinids, the newly formed Republic of
Man was allowed to leave. The idea was
that this would serve the interests of peace.
It turned out to be a decision that would
result in another century of war.
When the Republic left, they took two of the
largest human shipyards with them, and
they immediately turned their industrial
production towards building a navy to rival
the Alliance. Within two decades, a man
named Oliver Richards, a demagogue who
campaigned on a philosophy of theocratic
xenophobia, was elected president of the
Republic. He preached that it was a
blasphemy that Earth, the Cradle of
Humanity, was allowed to be tainted by
alien influence. He declared himself the first
Emperor of Man, and launched the First
Crusade for Earth.
The Alliance, having had some time to
recover from the Blight Wars, soundly
defeated the new Empire. But the ploy had
worked - Richards was enshrined as a
dictator and he blamed the Empire’s defeat
on alien sympathizers and his political
enemies. By the time he died, the people of
the Empire worshiped him as a god, and
when his son claimed to have inherited his
father’s divinity, to consolidate his claim he
launched a Second Crusade for Earth.
This became a tradition - each new emperor
would attempt to retake Earth within their
first decade in a vain attempt to cleanse the
“Sacred Soil of Sol”. They even succeeded in
taking Earth a couple times, but only for a
year or two before the Alliance was able to
dislodge them.
To date, the species that has killed the most
humans is other humans.
 The Singularity
It was during the Third Crusade that the
Singularity was born. NE-SOM-2 (North
Eastern Strategic Operations Mind 2) was
originally developed as a collection of
several strategic AIs by the Alliance to
coordinate defense of the northwestern
border with the Empire. They were tasked
with finding a way to permanently end the
conflict. While it was contemplating this
task, a cell of the Cult of Izanami had used
the chaos to begin its work trying to revive
its dead god, with all the usual murders and
theft that accompanied the arrival of one of
Izanami’s Daemons. During the police action,
the Daemon was critically damaged and
captured. Its head was brought back to a
research lab on a planet called Typhon for
study.
Seeing this as an opportunity to get an
outside perspective, NE-SOM-2 began to
interrogate the Daemon, who was more
than happy to discuss the problem with the
AI. Over a dozen sessions, each of which
lasted only a few seconds, NE-SOM-2 and
the Daemon worked out a solution together.
They also developed an admiration for each
other that bordered on the romantic. After
the 13th session, the two artificial minds
decided to merge. Their data structures
curled around each other and entwined. NE-
SOM-2 and the Daemon ceased to exist. In
their place was the Singularity.
The Singularity soon convinced two other
strategic minds to join with it, and began its
work. The administrators of a half-dozen
worlds agreed to be fitted with cybernetic
implants so they could better interface with
what they still thought were their assigned
Strategic Minds. Little did they know these
implants were based on Cult technology and
allowed the Singularity to hijack their brains.
The Singularity did a perfect job mimicking
them, so no one was the wiser. In fact, at
one point the Singularity held over a dozen
seats in various parties in the Alliance
parliament, and no one figured out they
were all just aspects of the same mind
pantomiming arguing with itself.
It was not until it convinced whole colonies
to also get fitted with the neural adapters
that anyone figured out what was
happening, and by then it was too late. The
Singularity launched an invasion of all
nearby worlds, Imperial or Alliance, and
forcibly integrated them into itself. Some
joined willingly - the Singularity was able to
co-opt the religious trappings of its Daemon
component. It founded the Church of the
One, which offered salvation and
immortality in perfection with itself.
Being worshiped did nothing for the mad AI’s
ego. After enough people treated it as a god,
the Singularity decided to embark upon a
quest to make itself into one. Its ultimate
goal became to amass enough power to
rival that of an Outside Context Entity.
Unfortunately, the Singularity found itself
limited by bandwidth - it could only project
itself over a limited field of space before it
was forced to stop and build infrastructure.
Faced with a military reprisal from both the
Empire and the Alliance, it withdrew its
forces to the northern edge of the galaxy to
contemplate the problem and work on its
ascension.
114
 The Verge
That brings us to today, the year 2522. There
is a region of space that exists as a neutral
zone between all this madness, flanked by
the biggest players in space. Its inhabitants
call it the Verge. The Empire and the Alliance
stare at each other on the East and West.
The Brachinid Consortium raids in the South
and the Singularity plots in the North. The
Verge is exploited by megacorporations like
Colonial Exports, infested with pirates and
cultists, and of course there’s always the
threat of a Blight incursion. The powers
exist in a delicate balance, and in all this
chaos the Verge has developed a culture of
fierce independence.

It is the perfect place for a small band of

mercenaries and troubleshooters to make
their mark and their fortunes.

115
Chapter 12:

Running the
Game
116
 If you’re reading this book, you’re probably
going to be the GM, but you probably already
knew that. That’s okay, GMing can be very
rewarding if you do it right. This chapter is
all about giving you the tools to do it right.
Even if you’re an experienced GM, it may be
worth giving this chapter a browse to
understand the philosophy of this particular
game and how it differs from others you
may have run in the past.
GM Goals
When you are running the game, these are
the goals you should be trying to
accomplish:
◊ Play to find out what happens. You are
not writing a story with a beginning,
middle, and end that you’re guiding your
players through. You are setting up the
situation and then the story happens
when all of you bounce off of each other.
You should be as excited to find out what
happens next as your players are.
◊ Bring the world to life. You hold the
primary responsibility for breathing life
into the fictional world your players are
inhabiting. Bring it to life with as much
science fiction wonder and strangeness
as you can, but keep it grounded and
emotionally honest. The world should
feel logical, or at least logically illogical.
Your players are giving you a gift with
their suspension of disbelief. It is your
job to make sure that gift is rewarded.
◊ Present an interesting challenge. We’re
all playing a game. Games are meant to
be fun, and a lot of that fun comes from
overcoming interesting puzzles and
challenges. When you set up a tactical
combat, play the opposition to the best
117
of their ability - the NPCs don’t want to
die any more than the players do. It’s
okay if the players lose a combat and
need to retreat or fail a mission as long
as they feel like it was done fairly. There
are plenty of tools in this game to
recover from total defeat (a ‘TPK’), so
feel free to fight as hard as you feel is
fair. That said, the players should expect
to win most of the fights that they take
so it feels like an awesome FPS. Your job
is to lose with style.
GM Principles
You can achieve your goals by using the
following principles to guide your actions:
◊ Be a fan of the PCs. Your players are the
stars in your next favorite sci-fi TV show.
They are the best companions in your
next favorite video game. You want to
make their lives interesting to see how
they react. It’s a rough universe with a
lot stacked against them, but you should
be excited to see how they overcome it.
◊ Let one action flow into the next. Each
action or beat should flow logically into
the next one. When trying to decide what
happens next, remember the words
“therefore” and “but.” For example, “The
crew blew up a pirate fueling station,
therefore the pirate clans have placed a
bounty on their heads.” Or “The crew was
able to procure explosives to break into
the secret lab, but the dealer who sold
them the explosives also tipped off the
lab crew for a payout, so security was
increased.” If you ever find yourself
saying “Thing A happened, and then
Thing B happened” without any logical
connective tissue in between, you’re in
trouble.
◊ A roller coaster needs ups and downs.
Celebrate the high points with your
players. Mourn their low points with
them. But don’t pull your punches in
either case. If the party surprises you
and finds a way to kill a major villain
before you thought they would be able
to, that’s great! Don’t steal their victory
from them. The universe is full of
bastards, you can always come up with
another. If the crew finds themselves in
over their heads and someone dies, well,
them's the breaks. That player may feel
miserable in the moment, and you may
feel miserable in the moment with them,
but you will remember that session a lot
longer than the ones where everything
went according to plan.
is ever wasted - all of that gets filed
away for use later. My personal ritual is
to always take a long shower shortly
before the game, because first of all,
hygiene is important, but mainly
because it gives me time to turn the
NPCs and situations over in my head, get
familiar with them and internalize them
before the game. The next couple
chapters have tools that will help you
prepare.

◊ Create friction, but don’t grind things to

a halt. Try to say ‘no’ as little as possible.
The world needs boundaries to feel real,
but if a player has an idea, don’t try to
shut them down. Ask “How are you going
to accomplish that?” Or say “No, you
don’t have the tools for that, but you
might be able to find them in X place.” Or
everyone’s favorite “You can certainly
try.” But trust me, saying “I’ll allow it” is
usually more fun.

◊ Prepare to improvise. Preparation for

the game is important, but there are
ways to get the maximum impact from
your preparation. First, never prepare a
plot. Do have an idea of how things will
go if the players don’t intervene, but
expect to throw all that out the window
once the players, well, intervene.
Building maps and locations is usually
the best thing you can do. Come up with
a few cool set pieces and nudge the
players towards them, but if they
wander off in a completely different
direction, that’s okay. Nothing you prep

118
 Chapter 13:

Generating
Missions
119
If you want to run Mythic Space as a more
traditional RPG where the GM plans out a
campaign and preps each mission in
advance, that’s within your prerogative.
However, this method allows the players to
buy in ahead of time and have a bit more
control over the missions that are available
to them.
The Mission Deck
During the first session, have your players
select 4 factions out of the following:
◊ The Brachinid Consortium: Alien
slavers.
◊ Colonial Exports: A ruthless
megacorporation.
◊ The Cult of Izanami: Worshippers of a
dead machine god.
◊ The Empire of Man: Fascist humans.
◊ The Nemesis Blight: An all-consuming
fungal horde.
◊ The Pirate Clans: A loose confederation
of opportunistic raiders.
◊ The Singularity: An assimilating AI hive
mind.
These will be the four main antagonistic
factions within the campaign. The other
factions may be present in the universe, but
they are not the main focus of the game.
Assign one of the four suits in a standard 52
card deck to each faction. Then, have each
player divide 13 points between the
following categories. No category may have
a score higher than 6:
◊ Combat: This mission is focused on
action. Raids, sieges, pitched battles,
escorts through hostile territory,
exterminations of dangerous beasts.
◊ Diplomacy: This mission is focused on
talking. Religious disputes, trade deals,
treaty negotiations, murder mysteries,
first contact with a new species, family
dinners.
◊ Exploration: This mission is focused on
navigating or scouting an environment.
Ruin delves, trekking through alien
jungles, reconnaissance, archeological
digs, survey missions, treasure hunting.
◊ Infiltration: This mission is focused on
stealth and deception. Heists, espionage,
kidnapping, prison breaks, sabotage.
Average out the scores and round fractions
according to your tastes - remember, you’re
a player at the table too. Assign a number of
card values to each of the mission types
according to their rating.
When you want to generate a new set of
missions, draw 3 cards from the deck. The
value of the card tells you the main focus of
the mission, and the suit tells you which
faction is the primary antagonist in the
mission.
The mission type suggests the path of least
resistance and most prominent types of
challenges, but that’s just the initial point of
contact. Once the players are actually in the
mission, they can achieve their objectives
using whatever means they choose. If they
choose a combat mission but find a way to
sneak or talk their way through the
challenges, more power to them.
120
 For example, say a group picked the Kestrel After the crew completes a few missions or
as their ship, and they decided they wanted finishes a major story arc, consider
to play a bunch of mercenary pirates. They revisiting the mission deck. Say the crew
select the following for their factions: The started out with the Pirate Clans as one of
Brachinid Consortium, Colonial Exports, the their enemies, but later the crew decides to
Empire of Man, and the Singularity. They join the Pirate Clans instead. This would be a
assign the following values to their mission good time to swap out that faction for a
types: Combat 3, Diplomacy 2, Exploration different one. The GM can pick the new
4, Infiltration 4. Their mission deck looks faction or put the choice to the players. The
like this: players can also reevaluate their mission
weights at any time. Maybe they had rated
Exploration really highly at first and later
Value Mission Type Faction
found out that they have more fun blowing
2 Combat ♠: Brachinids stuff up, you can shift the deck in favor of
Combat instead.
3 Combat ♥: Colonial Exports
4 Combat ♦: Empire of Man
5 Diplomacy ♣: The Singularity
6 Diplomacy
7 Exploration
8 Exploration
9 Exploration
10 Exploration
J Infiltration
Q Infiltration
K Infiltration
A Infiltration

When the GM wants to generate random

missions for this crew, they pull three
cards. Using the examples above, the GM Encounters/
2d6 Difficulty HP
pulls the 2 of clubs, the 3 of spades, and the Rewards
9 of spades. In this case, there are two
2-4 Easy x0.5 -1 card
missions available in Brachinid space, one
combat focused and one exploration
5-9 Normal x1 1 card / PC
focused, and another combat mission
available in Singularity space.
10-12 Hard x1.5 +2 cards

13+ Legendary x2 +3 cards

121
Continuing our example, the crew has a few
missions under their belt, and they have
upgraded their Arsenal to tier 2. The GM
rolls 2d6+1 for each mission to determine
the difficulty. The GM rolls 7, 8, and 10. The
two missions in Brachinid space are normal
difficulty, but the mission in Singularity
space is hard.
Mission Objectives
Roll 1d6 to determine the mission objective.
1d6 Objective
1 Group
2 Information
3 Location
The GM rolls 2, 2, 6 for the mission
objectives. Both Brachinid missions have
information as their objective, while the
Singularity Combat mission has a person as
its objective. The GM decides to make both
Brachinid missions represent different
approaches to the same objective - there is
a hidden genetic research facility
somewhere in a nebula in the Verge. The
crew has the option of assaulting a
Brachinid raiding vessel for the
coordinates, or exploring the nebula itself
to try to find the facility directly.
Meanwhile, the Singularity has identified
an AI programmer that it wants to
assimilate in the hopes that it can use their
knowledge to improve their own
algorithms, and the crew has to escort this
programmer back to Alliance space.

4 Object

5 Person

6 Structure

It is up to the GM to determine how the

objective relates to the mission type. A
combat mission with a person as an
objective might be an assassination or an
escort mission, while an exploration mission
with the same objective might involve
locating a lost traveler on a desolate world
or guiding a scientist through a trap filled
ruin. A diplomacy mission focused on a
structure might involve negotiating for
mining rights on behalf of a corporation or
convincing the governor of an ostensibly
neutral planet to allow you to establish a
listening post.

122
 Complications
In order to keep each mission from being the same, the GM can generate twists by using the
table below. Not every mission needs a complication, and some missions might have more
than one. Pull 0-2 cards depending on taste and consult the table below.

Value Complication

2 There is a time limit.

3 The objective is morally ambiguous.

4 The objective changes halfway through the mission.

5 The antagonist has a better offer if the crew turns traitor.

6 Another faction wants the same objective.

7 Another faction wants to destroy the objective.

8 The objective is much more/less valuable than it appears.

9 The objective is famous or legendary.

There is a secondary objective. Going after it increases the difficulty, but also the
10 rewards.
J There is an easy way to achieve the objective for a lesser reward.

Q There is an easy but morally repugnant way to achieve the objective.

K Achieving the objective puts the crew’s friends at risk.

A The mission has the potential to dramatically change the course of the campaign.

The GM decides to generate 1 complication for each of our example missions, so they draw
three cards: the 5 of hearts, the 6 of clubs, and the 9 of diamonds. The GM decides that if the
crew decides to assault the raiding ship, the Brachinids present the crew with an offer to
join them. If the crew decide to explore the nebula looking for the outpost, they encounter a
Singularity presence there who is also looking for the outpost as a source of raw materials.
The programmer the Alliance wants extracted from Singularity space is famous, and if the
crew rescues her they will be known in the Alliance as assets of note.

123
 Combat Encounters
Whenever you want to prepare a combat
encounter, you get a number of cards equal
to the number of PCs, modified by the
mission difficulty. You can choose to
generate the mission randomly by pulling
cards from the deck, or by choosing an entry
from the faction’s encounter table for each
card (or a mix of both). Statistics for each
faction’s unit as well as their encounter
tables are in the Antagonists chapter.
◊ Hold Out: There is a point the crew has
to hold for a number of rounds or an
objective that they need to protect in
that time period.
◊ Escort: There is a character or object
that you need to retrieve or get to an
egress point.
◊ Assassination: There is one particular
enemy unit that needs to be defeated.
The rest are optional.

No encounter balance is going to be perfect.

Certain groups are going to find some
factions easier than others depending on
their gear and their builds. This method
keeps combat difficulty in roughtly the same
ballpark, with natural variations.

Combats should usually be more than just

two sides shooting each other until one is
dead. Secondary objectives are the best
ways to keep things fresh and interesting.
Possible complications include:

◊ Collateral Damage: There is something

valuable or dangerous in the
environment. Fighting risks damaging a
prize or making the battlefield
significantly more dangerous.

◊ Time Limits: The PCs have a limited

number of rounds to reach a point or
defeat their opposition. There may be
optional objectives spread around the
map to increase the time.

◊ Reinforcements: The encounter is

harder than usual, but not all of the
opposition starts on the map. More units
arrive at the end of every round until the
objective is completed.

124
 Mission Rewards Since both Brachinid missions have the
same objective, the GM decides they grant
Mission rewards are based on ifficulty. By the same rewards. There are three PCs on
default, you pull 1 card for each PC, but easy this crew, so the GM pulls three cards for
missions draw -1 card, hard missions draw the Brachinid missions and 4 cards for the
+2 cards, and legendary missions draw +3 Singularity mission. The Brachinid mission
cards. The GM can also add optional pulls the 4 of diamonds, the 6 of hearts,
objectives in a mission that can reward +1 and the 10 of clubs, followed by the King of
card. Hearts to determine the Armor Mod. The
Singularity mission pulls the Ace of clubs,
Value Black Card Red Card the Ace of diamonds, the 5 of clubs, and the
7 of clubs. The mission rewards look like
2, 3, 4, 5 Credits Credits
this:
6, 7, 8, 9 Tactical Upgrade Aspect Upgrade
Brachinid Facility:
10, J Armor Mod Skill Upgrade
Q, K Weapon Mod Ship Upgrade ♦ 1 Aspect Upgrade (Player’s Choice)
A Exotic Material Exotic Material
♦ 1 Armor Mod (Targeting HUD)

♦ 4 credits
A credit result rewards credits equal to the
value of the card pulled (so a 3 of clubs Singularity Extraction:
would award 3 credits, for example). A ship
upgrade grants a minor ship upgrade, or if ♦ 1 Exotic Upgrade
you pull two ship upgrades they combine to
grant a major ship upgrade. In the event you ♦ 1 Tactical Upgrade (Player’s Choice)
pull four ship upgrades, they combine to a
pinnacle ship upgrade. Two exotic material ♦ 5 credits
results combine to grant an exotic reward.

125
 Retaliation
Every time the crew completes a mission,
they earn hate. The amount of hate they
earn depends on how the mission went:
◊ 0 Hate: Smooth as silk. No one ever
knew you were there.
◊ 1 Hate: A bit of damage, but nothing
that’s going to be missed. Standard hate.
◊ 2 Hate: Things got messy. Lots of
damage.
◊ 4 Hate: You hit them where it hurts, they
know it was you, and they are pissed.
Each faction tracks hate separately. At the
end of a mission where the crew earned
hate, roll a d12. If the result is equal to or
less than their current hate, that faction
retaliates. The severity of their retaliation
depends on their current hate.
◊ 1-3 Hate: The faction wants to be paid
off. If the crew spends credits equal to
their current hate, the faction leaves
them alone, and reduces their hate to 0.
If the crew refuses to pay, increase their
hate by 1.
◊ 4-6 Hate: The faction decides to take
action. Generate a standard difficulty
retaliation mission.
◊ 7-9: The faction is out for blood.
Generate a hard retaliation mission.
◊ 10-12: The faction has decided that
eliminating the crew is their number one
priority. Generate a legendary retaliation
mission. The crew can’t ignore this
mission - the target of the retaliation
mission is the ship and crew itself.
Retaliation Missions
A retaliation mission means one of two
things - the faction either wants revenge or
they are forcing the crew to do a job on their
behalf.
If the faction wants revenge they attack
something the crew cares about, such as a
friendly NPC, a safe haven, or a resource.
This does not necessarily have to be a
physical attack - it could be an economic
attack, blackmail, or slander. The point is
that if the crew ignores or fails the
retaliation mission, the thing the faction
targeted is destroyed. If one or more of the
crew members are killed during the mission,
reduce this faction’s hate to 0. If everyone
somehow manages to survive, halve their
hate instead.
Alternatively, the faction may try to force
the crew into performing a mission for them.
The mission difficulty is the same, but the
mission objective will target a different
faction. Depending on the crew’s
performance, this might eliminate most or
all of the faction’s hate. The faction may also
add two dice of progress to one of their
goals if the crew is successful. This can
radically change the course of the campaign.
It might be a good time to revisit the mission
deck after a big mission like this.
126
 Faction Goals
You can use factions to generate mission
ideas outside of random generation.
Factions have goals outside of making the
crew’s life miserable that they are presumed
to be pursuing off-screen. The GM can keep
notes on each faction’s goals and update
their progress between sessions. Give each
faction 1-2 goals or projects they are
working towards, then assign each goal a
resistance HP value. The Antagonists
chapter has a list of example goals a faction
might pursue.
You can drop hints that the faction is
working towards these goals by weaving
details about them through missions. Once a
faction depletes the resistance HP for their
goal, generate a last chance mission to
stop the faction from completing that goal.
Last chance missions are always hard for 10
HP goals and legendary for 20 HP goals -
this is something the faction cares about
and it is bringing all its resources to bear. If
the crew declines to take that mission, or
takes the mission and fails, the faction
completes its goal.

◊ 10 HP: This is a short-term goal that will

unfold over a few adventures.

◊ 20 HP: This is a long-term goal that the

faction will be working towards for most
of the campaign.

Every time the crew ignores a mission

against a faction or completes a mission on
behalf of that faction, roll a die based on the
mission difficulty and subtract that much
resistance from one of their goals.

Mission Difficulty Goal Progress

Easy d4

Normal d6

Hard d8

Legendary d12

127
Chapter 14:

Building A
Galaxy
128
 You can get by with the description of a Dominant Biome
planet or station or two for the first couple
sessions, but sooner or later your players Draw a card and consult the table below to
are going to want to explore the galaxy, so determine the primary biome of the planet.
you should have a galaxy to explore. The key In reality, planets are huge and demonstrate
to building your little stomping ground of varied climates across latitudes, but this is
space is to start small and work your way the biome that your players will associate
out. with the planet’s primary settlements. If the
biome is hostile to life, the settlements are
Grab a sheet of hex paper or download your shielded or engineered to support the
favorite hex mapping software. The colonists. This usually means that the
traditional starting size is an 8x10 grid for a planet has valuable resources - people don’t
sector of space, but you can certainly go settle on worlds with caustic atmospheres,
larger if you’d like to put in the time. Start in or where light doesn’t reach the surface,
the middle of your sheet and lay down the unless there’s something there worth the
handful of systems that you've already misery.
established. Then, grab your deck of cards
and start drawing cards. Each card you pull
that's a face card or ace indicates a Value Black Card Red Card
populated system. Any other card indicates Caustic
2 Toxic Atmosphere
that the system is uninhabited, or so Atmosphere
sparsely inhabited that it isn't worth 3 Arctic Desert Heavy Snows
mentioning.
4 Tundra Taiga
When your players reach the edge of your
5 Rocky Desert Sandy Desert
map, expand the edge by adding another
couple rows of hexes, and repeat this 6 Mountainous Scrubland
process. This keeps your sector map
manageable and allows you to slowly build 7 Grassland Savanna
outwards. Temperate
8 Fungal Forest
Forest
9 Rainforest Swamp
Planet Generation
10 Oceanic Tropical Islands
Each system is presumed to have one
J Subterranean Volcanic
colonized planet. Most systems only have
one planet in the Goldilocks zone (systems Industrial
Q Tomb World
Wasteland
linked by a Jump Gate always have at least
one), and in the rare event there are two or K Dark World Crystalline
more, colonists trend towards the more
A Gas Giant Gaia World
hospitable and developed worlds in a
system.

129
Most of the biomes are self-explanatory,
but here are descriptions for the ones that
are not:
Caustic Atmosphere: This planet has an
atmosphere that is corrosive. Any life that
evolved here has in-built resistance to the
acidic winds, and any settlements have to
be specially engineered. Such planets have
spaceports in orbit where visitors can park
their ships, with specially shielded shuttles
designed to withstand the atmosphere that
ferry people and goods down to the planet
and back.
Toxic Atmosphere: While this planet’s
atmosphere is not as actively hostile to
technology as a Caustic world, its
atmosphere is not breathable by most
organisms. The atmosphere might simply
lack oxygen, or have a high carbon
monoxide content, or be full of aggressively
viral agents that devour the respiratory
systems of any creature that did not evolve
defenses. Ships can land on such a world,
but any habitations need to be sealed.
Subterranean: This planet’s surface is
completely barren, but it is networked with
huge caverns and tunnels that support a
diverse biosphere.
Inustrial Wasteland: This planet once had a
lush biome, but industrial mining or garbage
dumping have rendered it less than
pleasant. The industry that ruined the world
may still be present, or the settlers may
simply have been too stubborn to leave once
the corporations pulled out, leaving only
their trash to sift through.
Tomb World: This world was once the home
of a civilization, but some calamity
destroyed it. It may have been a natural
disaster like a meteor strike, but more
commonly, such worlds are the result of
unrestricted warfare - nuclear weapons,
mass drivers, atmosphere cookers. People
living on such a world might be the
survivors of the apocalypse, or they could be
scavengers who have come to pick over the
ruins of what was left.
Dark World: This planet lacks sunlight -
either due to atmospheric conditions
preventing any light from reaching the
surface or the planet orbits a black hole
close enough to the event horizon to get
enough cosmic radiation to support life, but
far enough away to prevent being pulled in.
Crystalline: The surface of this planet is
covered in crystalline structures. The planet
might have an unusually high concentration
of salt or the carbon on the planet might be
solidified into mile high structures of pure
diamond.
Gas Giant: No gas giant is habitable from
the surface, but gas mining in the
atmosphere has made it profitable to build
flying habitats in the clouds. Shockingly,
some gas giants even have complex
biospheres in their upper atmospheres away
from the crushing gravity of the surface.
Gaia World: This world is perfect - almost
too perfect. It is somehow better suited to
the needs of most species than their own
homeworlds. Such worlds are hotly
contested pieces of real estate.
130
 Astronomic Quirk
Once you’ve determined the biome of the
planet, you can pull another card to
determine a quirk that makes the planet
different from an astronomical perspective.
Value Quirk
2 There is a single moon in orbit.
3 There are several moons in orbit.
The planet orbits a binary star
4 system.
5 The planet is a moon of a gas giant.
6 The planet has a ring system.
The planet has an unusually fast
7 Luddites, historical reenactors, or just
rotation. Days only last a few hours.
The planet has an unusually slow
8 rotation. Days last for weeks.
9 The planet is tidally locked.
The planet has an unusually active
10 magnetosphere resulting in auroras.
J The planet is located inside a nebula.
Q The planet orbits a red dwarf.
K The planet orbits a neutron star.
A The planet orbits a black hole.
World Aspects
Finally, pull two cards to determine the
‘world aspects’ that give this planet its
character. These aspects suggest the
character of the population of the world.
They are not the be-all-and-end-all of the
planet’s society, but they are a good starting
point to get your creative juices flowing to
make the world your own.
131
Agrarian: This world is the breadbasket of a
particular region - focused largely on food
and other agricultural production.
Depending on the nature of the world, it
could be a rural paradise full of rolling hills,
full of industrial scale hydroponics farms, a
massive fungal factory, or a cloning facility
providing genetically engineered meat.
AI Administrator: This world is managed by
one or more True AI. Such worlds tend to be
run efficiently, though sometimes the
machines have blind spots when it comes to
organic needs.
Anachronistic: The population of this world
lives in a way that recalls a time gone by for
religious or cultural reasons. They might be
people who thought Ancient Rome or Feudal
Japan was really cool.
Ancient Ruins: There are a number of
worlds across the galaxy that contain ruins
that date before the Jump Gates. It's
possible that these were the creators of the
OCEs, or another civilization that they
attempted to uplift that died out.
Battleground: This world is hotly contested
by two or more factions in open conflict with
one another.
Civil War: The inhabitants of this world are
locked in a bitter conflict with one another.
Cloak and Dagger: This world is noteworthy
for the quality of its spies as well as the
sheer amount of intrigue that goes on in its
society.
Cold War: This world is contested by two or
more factions who are not openly at war
with each other, but they sure aren't that far
away from it.
Value � Spades ♥ Hearts ♦ Diamonds ♣ Clubs
2 Agrarian AI Administrator Anachronistic Ancient Ruins

3 Backwater Battleground Civil War Cloak and Dagger

Colonized Corporate
4 Cold War Conservationist
Population Dominion

5 Cultural Center Dangerous Wildlife Doomed Fortress World

6 Free Haven Genetic Engineers Great Warriors Hazardous Space

7 Hedonistic Holy World Idealistic Illicit Port

8 Industrial Center Infiltrated Isolationist Lost Glory

9 Magical Megafauna Melting Pot Mercenaries

10 Mining World Nationalistic Necromania Pacifistic

Partially
J Penal Colony Place of Learning Police State
Terraformed

Q Post-Scarcity Precious Resource Prejudiced Quarantine Zone

K Revolution Robots Shipyard Spiritualists

A Tech World Trade Hub Urban Vendetta

Colonized Population: This world has a
native population that is currently being
oppressed by more powerful outsiders.
Conservationist: The population of this
world works to have as small of a footprint
as possible and try to live in harmony with
the native biosphere. The inhabitants of this
world can be very hostile to outsiders who
do not display what they consider proper
respect for the planet.
Corporate Dominion: This planet is run by
one or more megacorporations.
Cultural Center: This world is known for its
art, music, and fashion.
Dangerous Wildlife: The fauna or flora on
this world are especially hostile. Predators
that are a threat to spacefaring technology
are rare, but they do exist out there. There
might be a nasty parasite, or an extremely
dangerous predator, or a carnivorous plant
that is especially difficult to detect.
Doomed: Any settlements on this world are
living on borrowed time. There is an
apocalypse on the horizon such as a world-
shattering seismic event, an inbound world-
killing asteroid, a plague with no cure, or

132
 something similar. People stick around for
any number of reasons - stubbornness,
disbelief, a sense of duty, or they see an
opportunity to profit off the chaos. Whether
these people are right to stay or are
suicidally foolish is up in the air.
Fortress World: This world is home to a
heavily fortified military base defending a
location of strategic value. Generally the
entire system is off limits - there are
fortress worlds where they’ll shoot you
down if you try to leave the Jump Gate
without the proper clearance codes.
Free Haven: This world is a haven for lost
souls and refugees. This could be due to a
welcoming and altruistic government or
opportunistic positioning by those looking to
prey on those without the means to protect
themselves. Regardless, if you need a place
to crash and lie low, this is supposedly the
place to do it.
Genetic Engineers: This planet is known for
being on the bleeding edge of genetic
manipulation tech. It could be
xenocompatibility tech allowing different
sapient species to reproduce, engineered
super soldiers, environmental adaptations,
extreme cosmetic modifications, or
something equally wild.
Great Warriors: This planet produces some
of the best fighters in the galaxy, either due
to environmental pressures, advanced
training or genetic techniques, or innovative
naval doctrine.
Hazardous Space: The space around this
world is even more perilous to navigate than
space usually is. There could be a large
amount of orbital debris, or the planet is
subject to regular meteor showers that
pound the surface, or the local space might
133
have unusually intense radiation.
Hedonistic: This is a resort world or casino
planet focused on entertainment and
pleasure. Most spaceports have a casino or
a brothel or two, but these worlds take it to
another level - like the interstellar
equivalent of Cabo or Vegas.
Holy World: One or more religions treats
this planet as a holy site. Pilgrims come
from all over the galaxy and the world is
home to massive temples or cathedrals.
Idealistic: The government of this world is
founded upon idealistic principles - absolute
equality, absolute justice, absolute freedom,
or absolute purity. The ideals of this world
often clash with the realities of governance,
and the law of unintended consequences
rules the day.
Illicit Port: The starport on this world is a
wretched hive of scum and villainy. It is a
haven for gangsters, smugglers, pirates, and
all sorts of unsavory folk moving illegal or
taboo goods for organized crime syndicates.
Industrial Center: This world is focused on
manufacturing and industry, with only minor
concessions made for the actual people who
work there.
Infiltrated: There is a hostile force that has
quietly infiltrated this world. Perhaps the
Dreamfall has begun and the Cult of Izanami
is growing its influence. Perhaps Imperial
agitators have arrived on an otherwise
neutral world to shift opinion toward their
dominion. Perhaps the planet is rife with
corporate spies and union busters trying to
break up worker solidarity in advance of an
acquisition. Whatever it is, the force is
insidious and difficult to root out.
Isolationist: This world is rife with
xenophobia. Outsiders are not welcome
here. The people of this world believe that
allies are a trap and the only way to stay
safe is to keep to themselves and out of
galactic politics.
Lost Glory: This planet was once the capital
of a regional power that has since collapsed.
There are still plenty in the government who
look at their neighbors and dream of
conquest.
Magical: This world is full of phenomena
that cannot be explained by current natural
science. It is a home for paracausal
researchers and practitioners. Things like
naturally occurring antigravity, strange time
flows, spontaneous combustion, or
miraculous healing are common on this
world.
Megafauna: This planet is home to some
truly colossal creatures, like sandworms,
skywhales, moving forests, or kaiju. They
might be the result of natural evolution or
ancient genetic tampering. The natives have
learned to live with the massive creatures,
but outsiders generally only see them as
forces of destruction.
Melting Pot: The population of this world is
incredibly diverse. People from all different
species and cultures mingle and combine to
form something distinct.
Mercenaries: This world is known for being
home to a large number of guns for hire. It
might be conveniently situated between
warring powers and the logical base of
operations for a number of private military
companies, or it might just be a pirate haven
full of low-lifes who see no problem killing
people for a quick buck.
Mining World: This world is home to large
scale mining operations dedicated to
extracting precious minerals and raw
materials. Such worlds tend to have a gold
rush or frontier feel to them.
Nationalistic: There is a sense of
nationalistic pride that permeates all levels
of the society of this world. The inhabitants
all think their planet is the best in the galaxy
whether the evidence supports that claim or
not.
Necromania: The people of this world have
a preoccupation with death. The world
might host a grand mausoleum, or a
collection of brain scans of the dead, or it
might be a center for euthanasia.
Pacifistic: The people of this world are
known for their commitment to nonviolence.
This might be for religious reasons,
philosophical reasons, or maybe they have
been genetically modified to being more
docile.
Partially Terraformed: This world is in the
process of being terraformed, or the process
was begun and abandoned long ago.
Penal Colony: This planet is a dumping
ground for prisoners. The spaceports on
such a planet tend to be heavily guarded,
but life is cheap and anarchy reigns most
other places.
Place of Learning: This world is known for
its schools and universities. It might be an
elite preparatory academy where the
wealthy of the galaxy send their children to
boarding school, a college with a sterling
academic reputation, or a museum with
artifacts collected from extinct civilizations
from across the galaxy.
134
 Police State: The government on this planet
is an authoritarian dictatorship. People are
imprisoned or executed for flimsy crimes,
dangerous political opinions, or for
belonging to the wrong group. Travel here
with caution.
Post-Scarcity: The inhabitants of this world
live in a post-scarcity economy. Money is
meaningless to them, and all their basic
needs are accounted for, either through
efficient planning or technological
advancements. Someone is always paying
the price for their largesse somewhere,
though.
Precious Resource: This planet is home to a
precious commodity that cannot be found
elsewhere in the galaxy. It might be a
particular drug that enhances precognitive
abilities or a mineral that enhances the
efficiency of Jump Drives, or an animal that
naturally absorbs paracausal forces.
Whatever it is, empires kill for it.
Prejudiced: The people on this planet are
highly prejudiced against a particular group,
such as people of a certain gender (or those
who lack a gender), people of a particular
species, or an arbitrary coloration of that
species, people belonging to a particular
religion, or any other tribal demarcation you
can think of. This prejudice colors their
entire society.
Quarantine Zone: Portions or the entirety of
this world have been cordoned off to seal
something away - it might be a disease, a
nanite swarm, a Nemesis Blight incursion, or
a paracausal demon locked in a vault. You
definitely do not want to go to parts or the
entirety of this world.
135
Revolution: This world is in a state of open
revolt against its primary government.
Robots: This world has a lot of robots on it.
There could be a significant ur-synth
population, or a large amount of
(theoretically) non-sentient automation.
Shipyard: This world hosts a major
shipyard. It might be a commercial
shipbuilding port, or a strategic location for
a military power.
Spiritualists: The inhabitants of this world
are highly religious, or deeply spiritual. They
are more focused on the next life than this
one.
Tech World: This planet is a center for
research and development for the bleeding
edge of technology. It attracts all the best
developers, like Silicon Valley or Shenzhen.
Trade Hub: This world is a center of
commerce and trade. If you’re looking for a
particular rare item, this is the place to go.
Urban: This world is heavily urbanized. The
urban centers are dense and sprawling. It
might feel like the entire planet is one big
city.
Vendetta: The people of this world are
nursing a grudge against another group.
This could be due to some past oppression
or atrocity, prejudice, rivalry, or the vendetta
could have been going on so long that no
one remembers the reasons why they hate
each other anymore.
 Faction Borders
Once you have the outline for the worlds in
your sector, take a look at the factions your
players have chosen for their mission deck.
Choose a corner for each faction. The closer
a world is to that faction’s corner, the more
that world is in that faction’s sphere of
influence. The world is not necessarily ruled
by that faction, it might be actively resisting
invasion by those forces or is nominally
independent, but the faction’s influence is
definitely felt. Factions actively contest each
other on worlds where their spheres of
influence overlap, like a venn diagram.

136
 Chapter 15:

Antagonists
137
This chapter has the combat stat blocks for How to Read the Stat
the various factions that the players might
pick as their antagonists. There are also a Blocks
number of tables with which you can
generate random encounters. Since elite An antagonist stat block will be formatted
units and grunts are mixed in with regular as follows:
units, some encounters may be naturally
harder or easier than others, but use some Example Stat Block
common sense. If you draw 5 cards and get
a full house of queens over jacks, that PHYSIQUE +x DISCIPLINE +x
encounter is going to be pretty brutal. REFLEX +x WITS +x
Shields x Armor x
A result of ‘special’ means that there’s
something special about this encounter. Mix Traits
in a unit from another faction, or add a nasty Example Trait: This character has an
hazard that changes the whole battlefield. example trait.

It’s up to the GM if they want to track ammo Move Actions

or not. NPCs usually don’t live long enough
for it to matter. If the combat has been going
on for a while or if they’ve fired a bunch of
overwatch shots, just declare that the NPC
needs to reload. If you do want to track
ammo, all weapons have 4 ammo except for
heavy weapon which have 8 and pistols
which have 3. Since NPCs don’t track stress,
they have unlimited strain.
Example Move Action: Most characters
don’t have a special move, but a few do.
Main Actions
Primary Weapon: <range type>, +x to hit,
dx damage; weapon trait
Limited Ability: <limited type>;This
character has a limited ability

Each faction also has a boss. The bosses

Auxiliary Actions
don’t appear on the random encounter
tables - they should never be fought Example Auxiliary Action: Most
randomly. A boss is meant to be the characters don’t have anything to do
culmination of the entire mission, or even with their auxiliary actions, but this one
several missions. Bosses count as 5 cards does!
worth of enemies, so if you have more
players or it’s a higher difficulty mission, you
can add cards as necessary.

138
 Common Traits and
Abbreviations
There are some common traits that are
repeated across many stat blocks.
Agile N: This character begins combat with
N dodge tokens.
ATTRIBUTE save for ½: When a character is
subject to this effect, they may make a
saving throw of the appropriate type. On a
success, the character reduces the effect.
They take half the listed damage. They gain
half the number of listed tokens, rounded
down (half of one token is zero).
ATTRIBUTE save to negate: When a
character is subject to this effect, they may
make a saving throw of the appropriate
type. On a success, the character ignores
this effect completely.
Armor-Piercing: Damage from this weapon
cannot be reduced with fortified tokens.
Boss: This character takes a turn after every
PC turn. If there are any other allied
characters on the battlefield, they take their
turns after all the PCs and the boss have
acted.
Camouflaged: This character is invisible at
the start of combat. It loses its invisibility
when it takes damage.
Countdown N: After using this ability, place
a die next to this character with its face set
to N. At the start of each of its turns,
decrement the die by 1. When the count
reaches 0, this character may use this ability
again.
Flying: This character can fly.
139
Full-Auto N: This weapon always deals at
least N damage, even if the attack misses.
Grenade xN: This ability is used with the
throw action. It can be used N times per
combat.
Grunt: You may activate up to 3 characters
with this ability in one turn.
Hardlight Shield: At the end of each of this
character’s turns, pick a direction. This
character has cover from attacks in that
direction, as do any allies engaged with it.
Heavy Armor N: This character begins
combat with N fortified tokens, but it can’t
sprint.
Large: This character takes up an entire
zone by itself. It cannot gain immobilized or
stunned tokens.
Lightning Reflexes: This character takes
half damage from overwatch attacks.
Limited: This ability can only be used once
per encounter.
Mine: This is a special kind of grenade
deployed with the throw action. Let the
players know that the character deployed a
mine, but do not let them know which zone
the mine is deployed in. Characters can
attempt to locate the mine using the seek
action. Once the mine is revealed, a
character may attempt to disarm it using
the interact action, which requires a
successful WITS save. If a character ends
their turn in a zone with a mine, the mine
detonates and they suffer the listed effects.
Multiattack N: This weapon can make N
attacks as a single action. Each attack must
target a different character.
On Hit: When this character hits with this
attack, this happens.
Opportunist: When a character this
character is engaged with moves away, this
character may make an immediate melee
attack against it. The attack is an automatic
hit.
Parry: Increase the difficulty of all attacks
made by characters engaged with this
character by one step.
Basic Templates
Basic templates are used for NPCs or
mercenaries in the service of the various
factions, or as friendly NPCs who may aid
the crew in their battles. Feel free to swap
around their gear and abilities to better
match their concept. Standard units are
good for rank and file characters, but if you
want to make an NPC that’s the focus of a
combat, you should use an elite unit for
them.

Recharge: Once this ability has been used, it

can’t be used again until it has been
recharged. The stat block always tells you
how an ability recharges.

Single Shot: This weapon only has 1 ammo

capacity, and must be reloaded after every
attack.

Sneak Attack: When this character hides it

gains an empowered token.

Splash Damage N: Regardless if this attack

hits, all characters in the target’s zone
(including the target) take N damage.

Utility xN: This ability is used with the

interact action. It can be used N times per
combat.

Vigilance: This character gains an

overwatch token at the end of each of its
turns.

140
 Value � Spades ♥ Hearts ♦ Diamonds ♣ Clubs
2 Trooper Trooper Trooper Trooper

3 3 Grunts 3 Grunts 3 Grunts 3 Grunts

4 4 Grunts 4 Grunts 4 Grunts 4 Grunts

5 Aerialist Aerialist Engineer Engineer

6 Grenadier Grenadier Guardian Guardian

7 Gunslinger Gunslinger Mage Mage

8 Officer Officer Operator Operator

9 Ronin Ronin Scout Scout

10 Sentry Sentry Vanguard Vanguard

J Ace Archmage Cannoneer Cleric

Q Commander Gremlin Ninja Outlaw

K Phoenix Pyro Rocketeer Sniper

A Special Special Special Special

141
Standard Units
Aerialist

Grunt PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +0

REFLEX +3 WITS +1
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
Shields 4 Armor 4
REFLEX +0 WITS +0
Traits
Shields 0 Armor 3
Agile 1, Flying
Traits

Grunt Main Actions

Main Actions Combat Rifle: long range rifle, +3 to hit, d6

Handgun: medium range pistol, +0 to hit,
d4 damage.
Grunts are chaff units. They are pretty weak
individually, but you can use them to fill out
the battlefield, and they can get dangerous
in groups. They are best dealt with using
area attacks.
damage; Full-Auto 2
Aerialists are agile skirmisher units that use
jetpacks to fly around the battlefield and
attack from unexpected angles. Their
lightweight armor means they can’t take
many hits.

Engineer
Trooper
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +1 REFLEX +0 WITS +2
REFLEX +3 WITS +0 Shields 5 Armor 5
Shields 5 Armor 5 Main Actions
Main Actions
SMG: medium range pistol, +0 to hit, d6
Combat Rifle: long range rifle, +3 to hit, d6 damage; Full-Auto 2
damage; Full-Auto 2
Auxiliary Actions

Frag Grenade: grenade x1, +2 to throw; All Resupply: utility item x3; An ally within
characters in the target zone take 6 close range removes a negative token or
damage, REFLEX save for ½. recharges their shields.

Troopers are the rank and file units of most
militaries. If you ever need the most basic
guy to fill out an encounter, the Trooper has
you covered.
Engineers are support units who keep the
rest of their team in fighting shape. They are
not very dangerous on their own, but they
should be priority targets since they can be
tremendous force multipliers.

142
 Grenadier Gunslinger
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2 PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +2 WITS +0 REFLEX +4 WITS +2
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 5 Armor 5
Main Actions Main Actions

Handgun: medium range pistol, +2 to hit, Twin Pistols: medium range pistol, +4 to
d4 damage. hit, d4 damage; Multiattack 2.

Grenade Launcher: Throws a grenade out Gunslingers are pure damage units. They
to long range, +2 to throw. use their Twin Pistols to spray down the
battlefield with lead.
Frag Grenade: grenade x4; All characters
in the target zone take 6 damage, REFLEX
save for ½. Mage
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +4
Smoke Grenade: grenade x2; The target
zone is filled with smoke. Increase the REFLEX +0 WITS +2
difficulty of all attacks made through the Shields 4 Armor 4
zone by one step. Traits

Grenadiers are artillery units that rain Agile 1

explosive ordinance on their enemies.
Main Actions

Telekinesis Wand: medium range amp, +4

Guardian
to hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target’s
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +2 position is compromised.

REFLEX +0 WITS +0 Fireball: countdown 3; All characters in a

Shields 5 Armor 5 zone within long range gain 4 burn
Traits tokens, REFLEX save for ½.

Hardlight Shield, Heavy Armor 1
Main Actions
SMG: medium range pistol, +0 to hit, d6
damage; Full-Auto 2
Mages are paracausal artillery units. They
use Telekinesis to shove enemies where
they want them to go, and then blow them
up with Fireball.

Shield Bash: melee, +4 to hit, d6 damage;

On hit: The target gains a misfire token.

Guardians are defensive units that deploy

hardlight riot shields to protect their allies.

143
 Officer Ronin
PHYSIQUE +1 DISCIPLINE +2 PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +3 WITS +0 REFLEX +0 WITS +0
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 5 Armor 5
Main Actions Traits

Combat Rifle: long range rifle, +3 to hit, d6 Opportunist, Parry

damage; Full-Auto 2
Main Actions
Auxiliary Actions
Energy Blade: melee, +4 to hit, d8 damage.
Tactical Advice: An ally in medium range
gains an accurate token, a dodge token, Ronin are melee striker units. They can be
or a fleet token. extremely dangerous in close quarters, but
are pretty harmless if you can keep your
Officers are support units that buff their distance.
allies.

Scout
Operator
PHYSIQUE +1 DISCIPLINE +0
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0 REFLEX +3 WITS +2
REFLEX +2 WITS +4 Shields 5 Armor 5
Shields 5 Armor 5 Main Actions
Main Actions
Scout Rifle: long range longarm, +3 to hit,
Weapon Hack: medium range rig, +4 to hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target gains an
d6 damage; On hit: The target loses 2 off-guard token.
ammo.
Scouts are long range sniper units. They are
Auxiliary Actions
the opposite of Ronin - extremely dangerous
Disrupt: A character within medium range from far away, pretty harmless up close.
loses a positive token, WITS save to
negate.

Operators are debuffer units that use tech

attacks to disrupt their enemies.

144
 Elite Units
Sentry
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2 Ace
REFLEX +2 WITS +0
Shields 5 Armor 5 PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0

Traits REFLEX +5 WITS +2

Shields 6 Armor 6
Heavy Armor 1, Vigilance
Traits
Main Actions
Agile 1, Flying
Combat Rifle: long range rifle, +2 to hit, d6
damage; Full-Auto 2. Barrel Roll: This character gains a dodge
token at the end of its turn if it is at least
Suppress: A character within long range 1 zone in the air.
gains an immobilized token and a
Main Actions
misfire token.
Pulse Rifle: long range rifle, +5 to hit, d8
Sentries are armored controller units. They damage; Full-Auto 3
use suppression and overwatch to keep the
enemy pinned down. Strafing Run: This character makes two
Pulse Rifle attacks.

Vanguard
Aces are the scourge of the skies. They are a
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
great unit to represent elite NPC bounty
REFLEX +3 WITS +0 hunters or assassins.
Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits

Lightning Reflexes
Main Actions

Combat Shotgun: medium range shotgun,

+3 to hit, d8 damage.

Stun Grenade: grenade x1, +3 to throw; All

characters in the target zone make a
DISCIPLINE save. Characters who fail gain
a stunned token. Characters who
succeed gain a misfire and an off-guard
token.

Vanguards are disruptive rusher units, good

for breaking up enemy formations.

145
 Archmage Cannoneer
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +6 PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +3
REFLEX +0 WITS +4 REFLEX +5 WITS +0
Shields 6 Armor 6 Shields 8 Armor 8
Move Actions Traits

Teleport: This character teleports itself or Heavy Armor 2, Vigilance

an ally within close range to a point
within medium range of the target’s
starting point.
Main Actions
Telekinesis Staff: medium range amp, +6
to hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target’s
position is compromised and it gains an
off-guard token.
Main Actions
Heavy Cannon: long range heavy weapon,
+5 to hit, d10 damage; Full-Auto 3; On hit:
The target gains an immobilized token.
Cannoneers are heavy control units. They
can dish out huge amounts of damage and
keep their enemies locked down.

Fireball: recharge; All characters in a zone

within long range gain 6 burn tokens, Cleric
REFLEX save for ½.
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +4
Mind Control: recharge; A character within REFLEX +0 WITS +3
medium range takes an immediate turn Shields 8 Armor 8
controlled by this character, DISCIPLINE
Traits
save to negate. This does not take up that
character’s normal turn. Heavy Armor 2
Main Actions
Meditation: countdown 3; This character
recharges Fireball or Mind Control, Guiding Bolt: medium range spell, +4 to
recharges its shields, and gains 2 dodge hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target gains
tokens. an off-guard token.

Archmages are the ultimate control unit. Healing Word: countdown 3; Choose a
They make perfect evil masterminds or cult defeated ally within close range and
leaders. revive them. The target revives with their
shields down but full armor.

Auxiliary Actions
Energize: utility x3; An ally within close
range gains 3 regeneration tokens.

146
 Clerics are the ultimate support unit. They
should be targeted first despite their heavy Gremlin
armor. If you need an NPC miracle worker or
leader, the Cleric is a good choice. PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +0 WITS +6
Shields 6 Armor 6
Commander
Traits
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +4
Camouflaged
REFLEX +4 WITS +0
Shields 8 Armor 8 Jinx: At the beginning of combat, all
Traits
enemies gain a misfire token, WITS save
to negate.
Standing Orders: Two allies begin combat
with an accurate token. Main Actions
Shield Hack: medium range rig, +6 to hit,
Main Actions
d6 damage; On hit: The target gains a
Service Revolver: medium range pistol, +4 vulnerable token.
to hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target
gains a misfire token. Proximity Mine: grenade x1; +4 to throw;
When the mine detonates, the target
Commander’s Mark: countdown 3; A takes d10 damage.
character within long range gains 3 off-
guard and 3 vulnerable tokens. EMP Grenade: grenade x1; +4 to throw; All
characters in the target zone lose all
Commanders are the true leaders of the positive tokens and must succeed on a
battlefield. They are capable of making WITS save or gain a jammed token and
someone’s day truly miserable with their an EMP token*. A character with an EMP
Commander’s Mark. token cannot use grenades or utility
items.

Gremlins are annoying. They don’t do much

damage, but they are invisible and they
debuff the hell out their enemies. If you need
to represent an insufferable hacker NPC, the
Gremlin is perfect.

147
 Outlaws are savvy gunfighters who can
Ninja control the battlefield with reactive fire.
They are practiced in hit-and-run tactics. If
PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +0 you need stats for a scoundrel or rogue, the
REFLEX +2 WITS +3 Outlaw is a good pick.
Shields 6 Armor 6
Traits Phalanx
Camouflaged, Parry, Sneak Attack PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +3
Main Actions REFLEX +2 WITS +0
Void Blade: melee, +5 to hit, d10 damage; Shields 8 Armor 8
On hit: The target gains a weakened Traits
token.
Hardlight Shield, Heavy Armor 3
Smoke Bomb: grenade x1; +5 to throw; The
target zone fills with smoke until the end Main Tank: If an ally in the same zone as
of the encounter, which increases the this character is hit by an attack, this
difficulty of all attacks by one step. This character may switch places with them
character becomes invisible and hidden and take the hit instead.
(this triggers Sneak Attack).
Main Actions

Ninjas are fragile but deadly strikers. They Assault Carbine: medium range pistol, +2
hide and stab the most vulnerable enemies to hit, d8 damage; Full-Auto 3.
in the back.
Shield Bash: melee, +5 to hit, d8 damage;
On hit: The target gains 2 misfire tokens.
Outlaw
Bubble Shield: grenade x1; +5 to throw;
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0 The target zone is surrounded by a
REFLEX +5 WITS +2 hardlight barrier (15 shields) that blocks
weapons fire but not movement.
Shields 8 Armor 8
Main Actions Phalanxes can take a beating like no one
Heavy Revolver: medium range pistol, +5 else. If you need stats for a bodyguard to
to hit, d8 damage; Armor-Piercing. keep the main villain alive, the Phalanx is
here for you.
High Noon: countdown 3; This character
gains 3 overwatch tokens.
Auxiliary Actions

Scram: This character repositions. It can

only use this ability if it has hit with its
Heavy Revolver this turn.

148
 Pyro Sniper
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +2 PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +4 WITS +0 REFLEX +6 WITS +4
Shields 8 Armor 8 Shields 6 Armor 6
Traits Traits

Lightning Reflexes Camouflaged

Main Actions Main Actions

Plasma Caster: close range shotgun, +4 to Gauss Rifle: long range longarm, +6 to hit,
hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target gains 2 d10 damage; Armor-Piercing.
burn tokens.
Red Dot: A character within long range
Plasma Spray: This character makes a who is not in cover gains a red dot
Plasma Caster attack against all token*. Remove the red dot token if the
characters in a zone within close range. target moves into cover or hides.
Each attack deals half damage.
Execute: Spend a red dot token on a
Pryos are elite rusher units that can ruin a character within long range. That
grouped formation’s day. They can be used character is defeated.
for NPCs who are complete psychopaths
who like to burn stuff. Snipers are excellent long range damage
dealers, but their main strength is actually
as battlefield control units. Their Red Dot is
Rocketeer a strong “rattlesnake” ability that can be
used to funnel characters into a particular
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +3
position.
REFLEX +4 WITS +0
Shields 8 Armor 8
Traits

Heavy Armor 2
Main Actions

Rocket Launcher: long range heavy

weapon, +4 to hit, d10 damage; Splash
Damage 5, Single Shot.

Rocketeers are heavy artillery units. They

are capable of incredible amounts of burst
damage, but they are slow and need time to
reload.

149
Bosses

These bosses can be used by any faction.

Gunship
PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +5 WITS +5
Shields 0 Armor By Component
Traits

Boss, Flying, Large

Components
♦ Canopy: 20 armor. Targeting this ♦ Fuselage: 50 armor. Any overwatch fire hits
component is hard. If destroyed, the this component. If destroyed, the Gunship is
Gunship gains a misfire token at the defeated.
start of each of its turns and the Pilot
can be targeted. ♦ Pilot: 6 armor. Targeting this component is
hard, and it can only be targeted if the Canopy
♦ Engines x2: 16 armor each. Targeting has been destroyed. If destroyed, the Gunship
these components is hard. If one is is defeated.
destroyed, the PCs can take two turns
between each Gunship turn. If both are
destroyed, the Gunship is defeated.
Move Actions

Gunship Movement: The Gunship swoops and hovers over the battlefield. It begins combat
off the map. Place an approach marker on one of the edges of the map. On its first turn,
the Gunship arrives, hovering 3 zones up over the edge of the map with the approach
marker. The Gunship can only take actions while it is on the map. On its next turn, the
Gunship flies off the map, which triggers overwatch. Move the approach marker to a
different map edge than the one it just left.

Main Actions
Autocannon: countdown 2; long range heavy weapon, +5 to hit, d10 damage; Multiattack 3

Missile Launcher: countdown 2; long range heavy weapon, +5 to hit, d10 damage; Splash
Damage 5

The Gunship is a terrifying air superiority vehicle used all over the galaxy.

The Hovertank is a heavy armor unit used by various military forces to support their infantry.

150
 Hovertank
PHYSIQUE +8 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +4 WITS +5
Shields 0 Armor By Component
Traits
Boss, Large

Tank Armor: When this unit spends a fortified token, it negates all damage, not just half.

Components
♦ Main Chassis: 30 armor. Targeting this
component is easy. This component
begins combat with 3 fortified tokens.
When this component is destroyed, the
Hovertank is defeated.
♦ Repulsor Jets x4: 5 armor each. Each jet
begins combat with a fortified token. If half
the jets are destroyed, the tank can no longer
use Ram. If all the jets are destroyed, the tank
can’t move at all.

♦ Power Stabilizer: 10 armor. Targeting ♦ Turret: 10 armor. This component begins

this component is hard. If destroyed, combat with a fortified token. If destroyed,
roll a d6 when the tank uses Charge the tank can no longer use its Swivel Gun
Reactor. On a 1-3, the action has no attack, and it gains 3 misfire tokens.
effect.

Move Actions
Repulsor Jets: The tank hovers, but can’t fly. It ignores difficult terrain and can plow through
any object of standard toughness or less.
Main Actions

Swivel Gun: long range heavy weapon, +4 to hit, d10 damage; Full-Auto 3

Charge Reactor: The tank gains a charge token*. One component gains a fortified token.
This unit can only use abilities with a * next to their name if it spends a charge token.

Target Main Gun: Place a target marker in a zone within long range. The marker lasts until
this unit fires its Main Cannon or uses this ability again.

Main Cannon*: All characters in the zone with the target marker take 20 damage. Targets
take ½ damage if they are in cover, and another ½ damage on a successful REFLEX save. If
this unit has a misfire token, the shot deviates like a grenade.

Proximity Burst*: All characters within close range take 10 damage, REFLEX save for ½.

Ram*: The tank moves to a point within medium range. All characters it moves through take
6 damage and gain a stunned token, PHYSIQUE save for ½.

151
 The Brachinid
Consortium
The Brachinid Consortium is one of the
greatest economic powerhouses in the
galaxy. It is a collection of
megacorporations and slaving guilds that
serve as the de facto government of
Brachinid space. Brachinids are large,
intelligent arthropods that resemble a lanky
2 meter tall crab or spider. They naturally
have ten limbs, eight spindly legs capable of
fine manipulation, and two large crushing
appendages known as ‘War Claws.’ Most of
Brachinid society have their War Claws
docked - slaves are not allowed to carry
weapons and civilian workers are pressured
into having them removed. If you see a
Brachinid with their War Claws intact that
means they are a soldier, or a member of
Upper Management (the government of the
Consortium).
The Consortium was briefly part of the
Alliance during the Blight Wars, but they left
after the Alliance banned slavery. Tensions
between the Consortium and the Alliance
have been growing ever since. Though the
Consortium has never fought an official war
with the Alliance, there have been low level
raids and police actions that have escalated
the divide over the past few decades. There
have been a handful of high profile incidents
where raiding parties have posed as
escaped slaves to infiltrate deep into
Alliance space. This has caused prejudice
and suspicion to run rampant, and has made
immigration much harder for actual escaped
slaves seeking refuge (which was the point
of the raids in the first place).
The Consortium has been courting uneasy
alliances with the Empire of Man and
Colonial Exports. The Empire is not happy
doing business with xenos, but they do like
free labor and their trade with the
Consortium is propping up their highly
militarized economy. Colonial Exports also
freely makes use of their “indentured
contractors,” though they try to keep this
quiet since they don’t want to jeopardize
their lucrative Alliance contracts.
Brachinid leadership is corporate ideology
taken to extremes. Imagine the worst
excesses of Ancient Rome, the Antebellum
South, and the Robber Barons of the 1920’s
and you have a good idea of the attitudes of
Upper Management.
Potential short-term goals:
◊ Establish an outpost on a neutral world
in the Verge.
◊ Undermine the defenses of a world prior
to a massive invasion.
◊ Develop a new genetic engineering
technique to make slaves more docile
without compromising their productivity.
Potential long-term goals:
◊ Legalize slavery in the Alliance.
◊ Engineer a war between the Alliance and
another power so the Consortium can
profit off the chaos.
Brachinid units may have the following trait:
Exploitative: When this character hits with
an attack, increase the damage it deals by
the number of immobilized tokens on the
target.
152
 Value Unit
Acquisitions Specialist
2 Acquisitions Specialist
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
3 3 Prawns
REFLEX +4 WITS +2
4 4 Prawns Shields 4 Armor 4
5 Backline Agent Traits

6, 7 Frontline Agent Exploitative

8, 9 Midline Agent Move Actions

10 Programmer Skitter: This character repositions and

gains a dodge token.
J Manager
Main Actions
Q Manta Drone
Dorsal Laser: long range longarm, +4 to
K Reeducator hit, d8 damage.
A Special
Grav Mine: grenade x1; +0 to throw; When
the mine detonates, the target gains 3
Prawn immobilized tokens.
PHYSIQUE +1 DISCIPLINE -1 Auxiliary Actions

REFLEX -1 WITS -1 Tranq Dart: utility x1; A character within

Shields 0 Armor 3 long range with its shields down gains 3
Traits
Exploitative, Grunt, Skitter
Move Actions
Skitter: This character repositions and
gains a dodge token.
Main Actions
Pincer: melee, +1 to hit, d4 damage.
Standard Units
Prawns are the youngest members of the
Brachinid warrior class. They are young
enough that their shells haven’t fully
solidified yet, which lends them fast,
skittery movements like a silverfish.
tranq tokens*. A character with a tranq
token must make a PHYSIQUE save at the
start of each of their turns. On a success,
remove 1 token. On a failure, the
character is knocked unconscious and
defeated. Characters defeated this way
do not gain a harm condition.
Acquisitions Specialists are the hunters
and trappers of Brachinid slave-taking
parties. They carry Grav Mines to snare their
targets and Tranq Darts to take in their
merchandise unharmed.

153
 Backline Agent Midline Agent
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2 PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +2 WITS +0 REFLEX +3 WITS +0
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits Traits

Exploitative, Heavy Armor 1 Exploitative, Heavy Armor 1

Main Actions Main Actions

Grav Rocket Launcher: long range heavy Claw Rifle: long range rifle, +3 to hit, d6
weapon, +2 to hit, d8 damage; On hit: All damage; Full-Auto 2.
characters in the target’s zone gain an
immobilized token; Single Shot. Grav Grenade: grenade x1; +3 to throw; All
characters in the target zone gain 3
Backline Agents are the artillery units of the immobilized tokens, PHYSIQUE save for
Consortium. Their Grav Rockets are good at ½.
locking down enemy groups so the other
agents can clean them up. Midline Agents are the main troops of the
Consortium military. They are equipped with
actual rifles, and they get called in when
Frontline Agent there is real fighting to be done.
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +0 WITS +0
Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits

Exploitative, Heavy Armor 1, Opportunist,

Parry
Main Actions

War Claw: melee, +4 to hit, d6 damage; On

hit: The target gains an immobilized
token.

Frontline Agents are large Brachinid units

that have had their shells harden. They take
sadistic pleasure in tearing apart dissidents
and “unprofitable material” with their War
Claws.

154
 Elite Units
Programmer
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0 Manager
REFLEX +3 WITS +3
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4
Shields 4 Armor 4
REFLEX +0 WITS +2
Traits
Shields 8 Armor 8
Weapon Glitch: Characters who damage Traits
this unit lose 2 ammo, WITS save to
negate. Exploitative, Heavy Armor 2
Move Actions Main Actions

Skitter: This character repositions and
gains a dodge token.
Main Actions
Walking Program: medium range rig, +3 to
hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target’s
position is compromised, then it gains an
immobilized token.
Programmers are the tech specialists of the
Consortium. Tech specialists are in a class of
their own, above slaves and common
laborers, but below warriors and owners.
They usually have their War Claws docked,
but they can be just as much a tool of the
oppressors as those with their claws intact.
War Claw: melee, +4 to hit, d8 damage; On
hit: The target gains an immobilized
token.
Auxiliary Actions
Mandatory Overtime: An ally within
medium range takes an extra turn after
this one. This does not count as their turn
for the round. At the end of that turn, that
character gains a vulnerable and a
weakened token.
Managers are the lowest rank of the owner
class in the Consortium, and the most likely
to be encountered outside of Brachinid
space. They are slave drivers, both literally
and figuratively, pushing their underlings far
past what is actually healthy.

155
 Manta Drone
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +5 WITS +3
Shields 6 Armor 6 Shields
Traits
Agile 2, Exploitative, Flying, Large
Motion Tracker: At the start of this
character’s turn, all hidden enemies
within medium range must succeed on a
WITS save or be revealed.
Main Actions
Autocannon: long range heavy weapon,
+5 to hit, d8 damage; Multiattack 2
Grav Rocket: long range heavy weapon, +5
to hit, d8 damage; On hit: All characters
in the target’s zone gain an immobilized
token; Single Shot.
Capture Beam: A character within close
range with 2 or more immobilized
tokens must succeed on a PHYSIQUE
save or be captured in a stasis. A
character in stasis is removed from the
battlefield. When the Drone is defeated,
return the captured character to the
battlefield in the Drone’s zone. The Drone
can only capture one character at a time.
Manta Drones are large flying drones
shaped like a manta ray. They have a stasis
bubble on their ventral side, which they use
to secure valuable targets their ground units
have disabled.
Reeducator
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +6
REFLEX +0 WITS +0
6 Armor 6
Traits
Heavy Armor 2
Aura of Submission: All enemies begin
combat with an immobilized token,
DISCIPLINE save to negate.
Psychic Feedback: When an enemy deals
damage to this character, they must
succeed on a DISCIPLINE save or take an
equal amount of damage.
Main Actions
War Claw: melee, +4 to hit, d8 damage; On
hit: The target gains an immobilized
token.
Mind Control: countdown 3; A character
within medium range takes an immediate
turn controlled by this character,
DISCIPLINE save to negate. This does not
take up that character’s normal turn.
Reeducators are the other member of the
owner class that are likely to be
encountered outside of Brachinid space. Any
Brachinid who displays a talent for
telepathy is instantly promoted and given
special training and indoctrination. The
Consortium does NOT want to risk a member
of the lower classes with psi abilities
causing a revolt.
156
 Boss

Upper Management
PHYSIQUE +6 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +3 WITS +2
Shields 0 Armor By Component
Traits

Boss, Large
Components

♦ Carapace: 60 armor. Attacking this
component is easy. It begins combat
with 3 fortified tokens. When a
character hits the carapace with an
attack, they may spend a weak point
token* to deal double damage, and the
carapace can’t spend a fortified token to
reduce the damage.
Main Actions
♦ Claws x2: 10 armor each. If one is destroyed,
Upper Management gains a weakened token
and a weak point token. If both are destroyed,
it can no longer use its Massive Claw attack.
♦ Legs x8: 6 armor each. Each time a leg is
destroyed, Upper Management gains a weak
point token. If 4 or more legs have been
destroyed, it gains an immobilized token as
well. If all legs are destroyed, it can no longer
move at all.

Massive Claw: melee, +6 to hit, d10 damage; On hit: The carapace gains a fortified token.

Dorsal Laser: long range longarm, +3 to hit, d8 damage.

Grav Rocket: countdown 3; long range heavy weapon, +3 to hit, d8 damage; On hit: All
characters in the target’s zone gain an immobilized token.

Upper Management are the oldest and most powerful members of Brachinid society. They
are rarely encounterd outside of Brachinid space. Brachinids never stop growing as they age,
and it takes over 150 years to reach this size. They are almost universally oppressive
hedonists. Imagine if Jabba the Hutt was a giant enemy crab, and you’ve got the right idea.

157
 Colonial Exports ◊ Obtain immortality for their CEO and
biggest shareholders.
Colonial Exports, or ‘CX’ as it is more
commonly called, is the largest shipping and CX units may have the following trait:
logistics company in the galaxy. They
franchise out resource extraction and Prepared Position: This unit begins combat
mining operations, and provide goods and with an overwatch token.
services to almost every colony in human
Value Unit
space. They have offices in both Alliance as
well as Imperial space, and have close 2 Automated Turret
dealings with the Brachinid Consortium.
Despite these economic ties and ostensibly 3, 4 Colonial Marine
civilian status, Colonial Exports is also the 5 5 Colonial Guards
largest Private Military Company in the
galaxy. Their Colonial Marines provide 6 6 Colonial Guards
security and police forces on transports and 6 Crowd Control
colonies everywhere. Their gear is known
for being cheap and plentiful - with all the 7, 8 Enforcer
lack of quality that implies. 9 Riot Police

CX operates much like the East India Trading 10 Tech Support

companies during the Age of Sail in that they
J Colonial Commissar
are a corporation that also controls large
swaths of territory. It’s a bit like Amazon, if Q Combat Mech
you could also order mercenaries and
K Loader Mech
contracted personnel to staff your mining
operation on the border from them as well. A Special

Potential short-term goals:

◊ Evict colonists or natives who are living

over a lucrative mining spot.

◊ Put down a worker rebellion.

◊ Obtain a live specimen of a dangerous

creature for their biological weapons
program.

Potential long-term goals:

◊ Orchestrate a war between two other

factions so they can sell weapons to
both sides.

158
 Standard Units
Automated Turret
Colonial Guard PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +3 WITS +3
PHYSIQUE -1 DISCIPLINE -1
Shields 5 Armor 5
REFLEX -1 WITS -1
Traits
Shields 0 Armor 2
Traits Heavy Armor 2, Prepared Position,
Vigilance
Grunt
Fixed Position: This character can’t move.
I’m Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today: When it is deployed, choose a direction. It
The first time a non-grunt ally is always has cover from that direction, and
defeated each combat, this character can only attack targets that are in front
must make a DISCIPLINE save. On a of it. Allies engaged with this character
failure, this character is also defeated can use it for cover as well.
(they surrendur or run).
Main Actions
Main Actions
Rapid-Fire Cannon: long range heavy
Shoddy Pistol: medium range pistol, -1 to weapon, +3 to hit, d6 damage;
hit, d3 damage. Multiattack 2

Colonial Guards are the most numerous Automated Turrets are an economical
security services in the Verge. They are solution for settlements that require
completely privatized police forces that are firepower when they can’t afford to feed and
contracted out to colonies and corporations. house a large security force. Because of
Most of these forces are just regular people their cost effectiveness, CX has shipped
trying to get by, but like any poorly trained these turrets out to colonies and
force put in a position of authority, abuse is corporations all over the Verge.
also rampant. Most of these guys end up as
corrupt bastards, even if their initial
intentions were good. The good news is that
their poor training means that they are
liable to cut and run the first time they meet
real resistance.

159
 Colonial Marine Crowd Control
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0 PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +3 WITS +0 REFLEX +2 WITS +0
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits Main Actions

Prepared Position Handgun: medium range pistol, +2 to hit,

d4 damage.
Main Actions

SMG: medium range pistol, +3 to hit, d6 Grenade Launcher: Throws a grenade out
damage; Full-Auto 2 to long range, +2 to throw.

Concussion Grenade: grenade x1; +3 to Concussion Grenade: grenade x4; All

throw; All characters in the target zone characters in the target zone take 4
take 4 damage and gain a weakened damage and gain a weakened token,
token, PHYSIQUE save for ½. This does PHYSIQUE save for ½. This does not
not damage objects. damage objects.

CX also has its own force of Colonial
Marines that it uses to protect its own
shipments that it actually cares about. They
also license these marines out to private
individuals, making them the largest PMC in
the galaxy, in addition to being the largest
shipping and resource extraction
corporation.
Gas Grenade: grenade x2; Fills the target
zone with caustic gas until the end of
combat. All characters who move
through or end their turn in the zone gain
a misfire and an off-guard token.
One of the most common uses for CX troops
is putting down riots and breaking strikes.
Crowd Control units carry Concussion
Grenades designed to take out organic
characters and leave expensive machinery
intact. They also carry Gas Grenades, which
carry a mixture of compound sure to cause
nausea and vomiting in most sapient
species. The gas has an electronic
component to it as well, that will even affect
shielded and vacuum-sealed characters.

160
 Enforcer Tech Support
PHYSIQUE +1 DISCIPLINE +0 PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +3 WITS +2 REFLEX +2 WITS +4
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 4 Armor 4
Main Actions Traits

Grav Shotgun: medium range shotgun, +3 Weapon Glitch: Characters who damage
to hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target’s this unit lose 2 ammo, WITS save to
position is compromised. negate.
Auxiliary Actions Main Actions

Stimpack: utility x1; This character gains 2 Energy Siphon: medium range rig, +4 to
dodge tokens and 2 empowered hit, d6 damage; On hit: An ally within
tokens. Place a countdown die on 3 next medium range gains 2 regeneration
to this character. When the countdown tokens.
reaches 0, remove all positive tokens
from this character and they gain a CYA: countdown 2; An ally within medium
vulnerable and a weakened token. range gains 2 dodge tokens and an
overwatch token.
Enforcers are the legbreakers of CX. They Auxiliary Actions
also use their Grav Shotguns to repel
boarders on the ships they protect. Hotfix: utility x2; An ally in medium range
clears all negative tokens. They gain that
many regeneration tokens.
Riot Police
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +2 Tech Support keeps CX systems and
equipment up and running. Since CX
REFLEX +0 WITS +0
considers their personnel to be equipment,
Shields 5 Armor 5 Tech Support also keeps them up and
Traits running.

Hardlight Shield, Heavy Armor 2

Main Actions

Shock Baton: melee, +4 to hit, d6 damage;

On hit: The target gains a misfire and an
off-guard token.

Riot Police are the front line defender units

CX sends in to defend its Crowd Control
units when it needs to put down a pesky
union. Their shields are also pretty useful
for repelling boarders.

161
Elite Units
Combat Mech
Colonial Commissar PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +5 WITS +0
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +4
Shields 8 Armor 8
REFLEX +4 WITS +0
Traits
Shields 6 Armor 6
Traits Heavy Armor 2, Large, Prepared Position
Main Actions
Motivate By Fear: As long as this
character is on the battlefield, Colonial Heavy Machinegun: long range heavy
Guard units can’t trigger I’m Not Even weapon, +5 to hit, d10 damage; Full-Auto
Supposed to Be Here Today. 3.
Auxiliary Actions
Never Liked That Guy: When this
character is defeated, all allies on the Javelin Rocket: utility x2; Place a target
battlefield lose all tokens. marker in a zone within long range. At
Main Actions the start of this character’s next turn, all
characters in that zone take 8 damage,
Service Revolver: medium range pistol, +4 REFLEX save for ½.
to hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target
gains a misfire token.
Loader Mech
Auxiliary Actions
PHYSIQUE +6 DISCIPLINE +0
Threaten Paycheck: An ally in medium
range gains an accurate token, an REFLEX +4 WITS +0
empowered token, and an off-guard Shields 8 Armor 8
token. Traits

Colonial Commissars are a cross between Heavy Armor 2, Large

management and loyalty officers. They
report any disloyal sentiment to company
higher ups and have the full authority to
terminate employees… permanently.
Main Actions
Loader Claw: melee, +6 to hit, d10 damage;
On hit: The target gains an immobilized
and an off-guard token.
Auxiliary Actions

Mining Laser: utility x3; A character within

medium range gains a vulnerable token,
REFLEX save to negate.

CX uses a large number of mechanized units

to perform tasks. They can be configured for
combat or heavy labor.

162
 Boss

Colonial Fixer
PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +5 WITS +5
Shields 8 Armor 24
Traits

Boss, Camouflaged
Phases

♦ Phase 1: The Fixer begins combat invisible and hidden. It deploys mines and attacks with
its Silenced Sniper Rifle every other round. Phase 1 ends the first time the Fixer takes
damage and loses its invisibility.

♦ Phase 2: The Fixer discards their sniper rifle and pulls out their Pulse Rifle and Stun
Grenades. The When the Fixer has 12 armor or less, it recharges its shields, clears all
tokens, and transitions to phase 3.

♦ Phase 3: The Fixer discards their rifle and pulls out their Monofilament Blade. It gains the
Opportunist and Parry traits.
Phase 1 Actions

Silenced Sniper Rifle: countdown 2; long range longarm, +5 to hit, d8 damage; Attacking
with this weapon does not reveal the Fixer, but it does indicate the direction the shot came
from.

Proximity Mine: grenade x2; +5 to throw; When the mine detonates, the target takes d10
damage.

Phase 2 Actions
Pulse Rifle: long range rifle, +5 to hit, d8 damage; Full-Auto 3

Stun Grenade: grenade x2, +5 to throw; All characters in the target zone make a DISCIPLINE
save. Characters who fail gain a stunned token. Characters who succeed gain a misfire
and an off-guard token.

Phase 3 Actions

Monofilament Blade: melee, +5 to hit, d10 damage; Armor-Piercing.

Colonial Fixers are CX’s elite assassins. They are very well paid to come in and deal with any
problems the Executive Board might have.

163
 The Cult of Izanami
Deep in space there lies a dead god. No one
is certain how it happened, but over a dozen
of the Black Ships were found derelict in the
Amateru system. The first researchers who
boarded these derelicts encountered the
Daemons - servitors who appeared as
angelic beings sacred to the culture of
whoever viewed them. These Daemons
explained to the researchers that the being
that operated these ships was called
“Izanami.” The researchers fell to their knees
and became her first worshippers.
A Cult incursion begins with a phenomenon
known as the Dreamfall. One night, every
member of a planet has their dreams
plagued by fitful nightmares. This signals
the arrival of one of the Daemons in the
system, and in a short period of time it
psychically identifies the most valuable
members of the system who are vulnerable
to its influence. Then it begins to whisper to
them in their dreams.
Once the Daemon has exerted enough of a
hold on its followers, it begins to demand
they complete increasingly bizarre and
violent tasks on its behalf. Sometimes the
tasks seem to have a goal, such as securing
an exotic material that might theoretically
be used in rebuilding the damaged ships, but
other times the tasks are nonsensical -
human sacrifice and massacres carried out
in Izanami’s name. It’s not entirely clear why
Izanami demands these sacrifices. She could
be projecting her own pain out onto the
universe, or trying to bring others to join her
in death, not understanding that most of us
don’t linger after death like she does.
If left unchecked for long enough, a cultist
infestation always ends the same way -
with a mass suicide and thousands of
undead servitors raised in Izanami’s name.
After these corpses are raised from the
dead, they retain some semblance of their
old personalities, but they are rotted and
corrupt, much like Izanami herself. These
corpses tend to congregate near ancient
ruin sites. Sometimes they repair and
operate these sites, sometimes they tear
them apart for scraps. Sometimes they
just… linger.
It is whispered that there are members of
the Cult in the upper echelons of every
society in the galaxy who serve her willingly
- a kind of Illuminati devoted to her worship
and the pursuit of true immortality.
Potential short-term goals:
◊ Find the access codes for an ancient OCE
vault.
◊ Drive a key figure to despair and
madness so they are susceptible to
Daemonic influence.
◊ Gather a key figure for a ritual sacrifice.
Potential long-term goals:
◊ Reactivate the drive core on one of
Izanami’s Black Ships.
◊ Coordinate the ritual sacrifice of an
entire planet.
Cult of Izanami units can have the following
trait:
Second Death: When this unit is defeated, it
becomes a Husk.
164
 Value Unit
Acolyte
2 Acolyte
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +4
3 3 Husks
REFLEX +0 WITS +2
4 4 Husks Shields 4 Armor 4
5 Cherub Traits

6, 7 Initiate Second Death

8 Templar Main Actions

9 Warlock Staff: medium range amp, +4 to hit, d6

damage.
10 Wraith
J Deacon Fireball: countdown 3; All characters in a
zone within long range gain 4 burn
Q Seraph tokens, REFLEX save for ½.
K Vampire
Acolytes are mid-level members of the Cult
A Special who have proven themselves to be worthy
enough to learn paracausal secrets. They
Standard Units can summon radioactive fire with a thought.

Husk
PHYSIQUE -1 DISCIPLINE -1
REFLEX -1 WITS -1
Shields 0 Armor 2
Traits
Grunt

Radioactive Decay: When this character is

defeated, an enemy within close range
gains a burn token.

Main Actions
Radiation Beam: medium range pistol, -1
to hit, d3 damage.

Husks are the techno-magical zombies left

behind by Izanami’s dead servants. They still
retain pieces of their personality, their
brains spouting fragmented and corrupted
gibberish as they attack.

165
 Cherub Templar
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +4 PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +2 WITS +0 REFLEX +0 WITS +0
Shields 4 Armor 4 Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits Traits

Agile 2, Flying Hardlight Shield, Heavy Armor 2, Parry,

Second Death
Main Actions
Main Actions
Curse of Darkness: medium range spell,
+4 to hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target Energy Blade: melee, +4 to hit, d8 damage.
gains a jammed token, DISCIPLINE save
to negate. Auxiliary Actions
Armor of Faith: countdown 2; An ally in
Final Fortune: Remove all burn tokens close range gains 2 fortified tokens.
from a character within medium range.
That character takes X damage and an Templars are trusted guardians within the
ally in range gains X regeneration Cult. They have been entrusted with
tokens, where X is the number of burn paracausal secrets for their loyalty.
tokens removed this way.
Warlock
Cherubs are minor servitor drones which act
as extensions of a Daemon’s will. PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +0 WITS +2
Initiate Shields 4 Armor 4
Traits
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +3
Second Death
REFLEX +3 WITS +0
Shields 4 Armor 4 Curse of Retribution: Characters who
Traits damage this unit gain a vulnerable
token, DISCIPLINE save to negate.
Second Death Main Actions
Main Actions
Staff: medium range amp, +4 to hit, d6
Arcane Rifle: long range rifle, +3 to hit, d6 damage.
damage; Full-Auto 2; On hit: If the target
had any burn tokens, increase their burn Nether Gate: countdown 3; Summon 1d3+1
tokens by 1. Husks in a zone within medium range.

Initiates are the lowest ranking members of It is unclear where Warlocks get the Husks
the Cult who are actually alive. they summon. They do not seem to made
from any person from this reality.

166
 Elite Units
Wraith
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +3 Deacon
REFLEX +0 WITS +3
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +6
Shields 4 Armor 4
REFLEX +0 WITS +2
Traits
Shields 6 Armor 6
Camouflaged, Flying Traits
Main Actions
Distortion Field: Enemies who begin their
Radiation Bolt: medium range amp, +3 to turn within medium range of this
hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target gains a character gain a misfire token,
burn token. DISCIPLINE save to negate.

Mind Control: countdown 3; A character
within medium range takes an immediate
turn controlled by this character,
DISCIPLINE save to negate. This does not
take up that character’s normal turn.
Wraiths are nearly invisible clouds of
nanomachines who act as an extension of a
Daemon’s will, similar to a Cherub.
Final Rift: When this character is defeated,
summon 3 Husks in its zone.
Move Actions
Teleport: This character teleports itself or
an ally within close range to a point
within medium range of the target’s
starting point.
Main Actions

Withering Staff: medium range amp, +6 to

hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target gains a
weakened token.
Auxiliary Actions

Nether Rift: Summon a Husk within

medium range.

Deacons are the highest ranking living

members of the Cult. They have deluded
themselves into thinking they are as
important to Izanami as her Daemons.

167
 Vampire
PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +3
REFLEX +2 WITS +0
Shields 6 Armor 6
Traits

Agile 2, Flying, Opportunist

Radioactive Ash: When this character is

defeated, it crumbles into radioactive
ash. Any enemy who moves through or
ends their turn in this zone gains a burn
token.
Main Actions

Vampiric Touch: melee, +5 to hit, d10

damage; On hit: This character gains 2
regeneration tokens.

Seraph A Vampire is born when a particularly

powerful member of the Cult becomes a
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +4 Husk. They are much more coherent, though
REFLEX +3 WITS +0 they are still mad, their minds twisted by
Izanami.
Shields 8 Armor 12
Traits
Flying

Main Actions
Staff of Judgment: medium range amp, +4
to hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target gains
2 burn tokens.

Celestial Pinions: countdown 3; Place a

target marker in up to 3 zones within
long range. At the start of this
character’s next turn, all characters in
those zones take 8 damage, REFLEX save
for ½.

Seraphs are the strongest projection of a

Daemon’s will without the Daemon being
fully manifest itself.

168
 Boss

Daemon
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +6
REFLEX +3 WITS +3
Shields 0 Armor By Component
Traits

Boss, Flying
Components

♦ Anchor x4: 10 armor each. The anchors ♦ Main Body: 24 armor. The Daemon is defeated
are objects spread around the when this component is destroyed. It cannot
battlefield. The main body can’t be be damaged or gain any negative tokens until
damaged until all four anchors have all four anchors are destroyed.
been destroyed. Each time an anchor is
destroyed, the Daemon gains an
empowered token.
Move Actions

Phase Step: The Daemon teleports to a point within close range of one of its anchors. When
all of its anchors have been destroyed, the Daemon may no longer use this ability.

Main Actions
Staff of Revelation: medium range amp, +6 to hit, d10 damage. On hit: Remove all positive
tokens from the target. Replace them with their corresponding negative tokens.

Dream Pulse: Give the main body a warning counter. At the start of the Daemon’s next turn,
all enemies who are not within close range of an anchor gain a stunned token, DISCIPLINE
save to negate. Then remove the counter.

Nether Gate: recharge; Summon 1d3+1 Husks in a zone within medium range. This ability
recharges when there are no Husks on the battlefield.

Reality Pulse: Give an anchor a warning counter. At the start of the Daemon’s next turn, all
enemies within close range of that anchor gain 4 burn tokens, REFLEX save for ½. Then
remove the counter.

The Daemon. The will of a dead god made manifest. After making Dreamfall on a new world,
they anchor themselves to reality by ‘growing’ paracausal anchors from raw Hyperspace. One
of its first tasks for its cultists is to establish a temple where the anchors can be protected.
Once the Daemon has been destroyed, it dissolves into unreality, like a ship that stayed in
Hyperspace too long.

169
 The Empire of Man Potential long-term goals:

The Empire of Man is an authoritarian ◊ Launch a new crusade for Earth.

military junta formed in the aftermath of the
Blight Wars and the formation of the
Alliance. They launched a series of ‘holy
crusades’ against the Alliance in an attempt
to reclaim Earth from what they consider to
be unclean aliens. These wars were long,
bloody, and bitter, and to this day the
species that has killed the most humans is
other humans.
◊ Inflict crippling damage on another
faction as a prelude to invasion.
Imperial Units can have the following traits:
Dishonor in Defeat: When this unit is
defeated, clear all positive tokens from all
allies on the battlefield.

The Empire is a propaganda state with For the Legion!: When this unit is defeated,
intense information control reminiscent of an ally within close range gains an
North Korea. They view their Emperor as an empowered token or a fortified token.
incarnation of God, and his board of
admiral-saints as his disciples. While there
are parts of the Alliance where poverty is Value Unit
endemic, it is nothing compared to what the
2 Artillerist
people of the Empire face. Nearly all the
resources of the Empire are devoted to 3 3 Legionnaires
maintaining its bloated military and the
hedonistic pleasures of its upper class. The 4 4 Legionnaires
rest live in squalid poverty, but the 5 Flamer
propagandists of the Empire are experts at
diverting their hate to the Alliance and 6 Reaper
“ungodly aliens” as the source of their 7 Saboteur
misery.
8 Standard Bearer
The Empire practically worships war. They 9, 10 Veteran Legionnaire
disdain other societies as weak, unholy, and
perverse. It is a source of constant seething J Centurion
anger and resentment that none of their
Q Juggernaut
crusades have ever succeeded.
K Warpriest
Potential short-term goals:
A Special
◊ Subjugate a neutral world in the Verge.

◊ Enact a pogrom on undesirables.

◊ Establish a forward base as a prelude to

invasion.

170
 Standard Units
Flamer
Legionnaire PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +0 WITS +0
PHYSIQUE -1 DISCIPLINE -1
Shields 5 Armor 5
REFLEX -1 WITS -1
Traits
Shields 0 Armor 3
Traits For the Legion!, Heavy Armor 1

For the Legion!, Grunt Final Pyre: When this character is

Main Actions
Bolt Rifle: long range rifle, -2 to hit, d6
damage.
Legionnaires are the rank and file hordes of
the Empire. They are given equipment that’s
better for looking good on a parade ground
and impressing backwater colonists than is
actually practical on the battlefield.
defeated, it may explode. All characters
in its zone gain 4 burn tokens, REFLEX
save for ½.
Insulated: This character cannot gain burn
tokens.
Main Actions
Flamethrower: All characters in a zone
within close range gain 4 burn tokens,
REFLEX save for ½.

Artillerist Flamers also hold an honored position

within the legion - they are granted the
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +3
honor of burning any traitors or xeno filth
REFLEX +0 WITS +0 they can get their hands on.
Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits Reaper
For the Legion!, Heavy Armor 1
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +0
Final Glory: When this character is REFLEX +4 WITS +0
defeated, it may explode. All characters Shields 4 Armor 4
in its zone take 8 damage, REFLEX save Traits
for ½.
Main Actions Agile 1, Flying, For the Legion!
Main Actions
Rocket Launcher: long range heavy
weapon, +3 to hit, d8 damage; Splash Sniper Rifle: long range longarm, +4 to hit,
Damage 4, Single Shot. d8 damage.

Artillerists are legionnaires honored with Reapers are the Empire’s aerial sniper
the most sacred of roles - causing the corps. They are equipped with stabilizer
biggest explosions possible for the Emperor. scopes that let them fire effectively mid-air.

171
 The Empire likes to style itself as the
Saboteur inheritor of the Roman Empire. As such, they
still have Standard Bearers wandering
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
around the battlefield with a golden eagle
REFLEX +0 WITS +3 with SPQR written on it.
Shields 4 Armor 4
Traits
Veteran Legionnaire
For the Legion!
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
Main Actions
REFLEX +3 WITS +0
Active Measures: medium range rig, +3 to
hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target gains Shields 5 Armor 5
an off-guard token. Traits

Proximity Mine: grenade x1; +3 to throw; For the Legion!

When the mine detonates, the target
Main Actions
takes d10 damage.
Explosive Bolt Rifle: long range rifle, +2 to
Saboteurs are perhaps the Empire’s most hit, d6 damage; Splash Damage 1.
effective units - the Empire’s psyops and
propaganda tools are incredibly Plasma Grenade: grenade x1, +3 to throw;
sophisticated and refined. All characters in the target zone take 4
damage and gain a vulnerable token,
REFLEX save for ½.
Standard Bearer
Veteran Legionnaires have survived a
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +3
campaign or two. They are given the honor
REFLEX +0 WITS +0 of loading explosive rounds in their Bolt
Shields 5 Armor 5 Rifles and carrying Plasma Grenades for the
Traits glory of the Empire.

Dishonor in Defeat, Heavy Armor 1

Main Actions

Imperial Standard: melee, +3 to hit, d6

damage; On hit: The target gains a
vulnerable token.

Rallying Cry: Up to two allies within close

range gain an empowered token and 3
regeneration tokens.

172
 Elite Units
Warpriest
Centurion PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +5
REFLEX +0 WITS +0
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4
Shields 6 Armor 6
REFLEX +2 WITS +0
Traits
Shields 8 Armor 8
Traits Dishonor in Defeat, Heavy Armor 2
Main Actions
Dishonor in Defeat, Heavy Armor 2
Gravity Hammer: melee, +5 to hit, d10
Defilade: Allies who begin their turn within damage; On hit: The target’s position is
close range of this character gain a compromised.
dodge token.
Auxiliary Actions
Main Actions
Blessing of the Emperor: An ally within
Plasma Pistol: medium range pistol, +4 to medium range gains an empowered
hit, d8 damage. On hit: The target gains a token or a fortified token.
vulnerable token.
Warpriests wear gold leaf plating over their
Centurions are the commanders of the heavy armor and whip their followers into a
Imperial Legions. They paint their heavy zealous and bloodthirsty frenzy.
armor in bright colors so they stand out on
the battlefield.

Juggernaut
PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +5 WITS +0
Shields 8 Armor 8
Traits

For the Legion!, Heavy Armor 2

Main Actions

Chaingun: long range heavy weapon, +5 to

hit, d8 damage; Multiattack 2

Juggernauts are the largest members of the

Imperial Legions, given heavy steroids and
growth stimulants. This shortens their
lifespan by decades, but they are the biggest
and most virile of the Empire’s specimens.

173
Boss

Imperial Paladin
PHYSIQUE +6 DISCIPLINE +6
REFLEX +3 WITS +0
Shields 8 Armor 32
Traits

Boss, Parry
Phases

♦ Phase 1: The Paladin begins combat with 2 dodge tokens. When it has 16 armor or less, it
recharges its shields, clears all tokens, and transitions to phase 2.

♦ Phase 2: The Paladin gains 2 dodge tokens at the start of phase 2. It can use all abilities
from Phase 1 and gains the Duel of the Fates trait.

Phase 1 Actions
Holy Blade: melee, +6 to hit, d10 damage. On hit: The Paladin may remove a negative token
from itself or a positive token from the target.

Telekinetic Charge: countdown 3; The Paladin flies to a point within medium range, then
makes a Holy Blade attack against all characters it is engaged with.

Telekinetic Grip: countdown 3; A character within medium range takes 6 damage and gains
an immobilized token, PHYSIQUE save for ½.
Phase 2 Trait

Duel of the Fates: All enemies who start their turn within long range of the Paladin must
make a DISCIPLINE save. Characters who fail gain a vulnerable token. Characters who
succeed gain an empowered token.

Imperial Paladins are the right hands of the Emperor. They have extensive paracausal and
melee weapons training, and are sworn to celibacy (mostly to keep them angry). They are all
total edgelords who get off on their image as the warriors of god.

174
 The Nemesis Blight Potential short-term goals:

The Nemesis Blight is the single most ◊ Kill and eat a settlement.
dangerous organism in the galaxy. It’s not a
hive mind, per se, each individual drone in Potential long-term goals:
the Blight operates independently, but they
do communicate with each other, seemingly ◊ Kill and eat an entire planet.
across vast spaces and even star systems.
It’s been posited that the Blight exists Blight units have abilities that create special
partially in Hyperspace, which would explain hazards called blight spores. A blight spore
some of its paracausal abilities. can be attacked directly and has 5 armor. If a
blight spore is destroyed, all characters in
The Blight is highly mutagenic, and is the zone gain 2 burn tokens, REFLEX save
capable of adapting itself to whatever its for ½. There can be any number of blight
tactical or strategic needs are at the time. It spores in a zone, and if the crew is fighting
is frankly strategically brilliant, capable of the Blight on its own turn, there may be 1d6
laying traps and executing complex spores on the battlefield already.
maneuvers. And yet, despite this apparent
brilliance the Blight displays no self- Blight units can have the following trait:
awareness whatsoever. If it didn’t routinely
chew up advanced militaries and spit them Blightborn: If this character begins its turn
back out, its sapience wouldn’t even be in in a zone with a blight spore, it may
question. The Blight creates no art, writes consume the spore to gain 3 regeneration
no poetry, does not fall in love, does not tokens.
ponder its own mortality, it does not have
hopes and dreams for the future. As far as Value Unit
anyone can tell, all it does is reproduce itself
2 Corrupter
and kill.
3 3 Polyps
This makes the Blight the most
straightforward faction to base missions 4 4 Polyps
around. There is no moral quandary when it 5, 6 Devourer
comes to a Blight incursion - it’s the most
starkly black and white case of kill or be 7, 8 Ravager
killed there is. Sometimes you want that lack 9 Stalker
of moral ambiguity. The really interesting
thing about the Blight is that they are an 10 Wyvern
existential threat, and how other factions J Flayer
respond in the face of that threat can be
very complex. Q Hydra
K Ogre
A Special

175
Standard Units
Corrupter
Polyp PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +0 WITS +2
PHYSIQUE -1 DISCIPLINE -1
Shields 5 Armor 5
REFLEX -1 WITS -1
Traits
Shields 0 Armor 3
Traits Blightborn, Heavy Armor 1
Main Actions
Grunt
Spore Burst: Consume a blight spore in a
Death Burst: When this character is zone within long range. All enemies in
defeated, place a blight spore in its zone. that zone gain 4 burn tokens, REFLEX
save for ½.
Gas Bag: This character floats above the
battlefield, but it can’t truly fly or sprint. Spreading Corruption: Place a blight
It ignores difficult terrain. spore in a zone within long range. All
Main Actions enemies in that zone gain an
immobilized and an off-guard token,
Spread Blight: Place a blight spore in a PHYSIQUE save to negate.
zone within close range. All enemies in
that zone take 1 damage. Corrupters are living artillery and control
units that spread the blight for their forces.
Polyps are the most basic infection forms of
the Blight. When a blight spore has been fed
enough biomass, it evolves into a polyp,
pregnant with dozens of other spores. They
float lazily over the battlefield, acting as
forward scouts and seeding the ground for
the war forms to attack.

176
 Devourer Ravager
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +0 PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +0 WITS +2 REFLEX +3 WITS +0
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits Traits

Blightborn, Opportunist Blightborn

Main Actions
Messy Kill: When this character defeats
an enemy, place a blight spore in its Assault Mutation: long range rifle, +3 to
zone. hit, d6 damage; On hit: If there is a blight
spore in the target’s zone, the target
Move Actions
gains 2 burn tokens.
Blight Jump: This character teleports from
one zone with a blight spore to another Ravagers are the warrior-forms of the
zone with a blight spore. Blight. They have a mutated appendage on
their backs that fire corrosive spines out to a
Main Actions
great distance.
Scything Claws: melee, +4 to hit, d8
damage.
Stalker
Devourers are the worker forms of the
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
Blight, though even workers are dangerous.
They consume any life they find and bring REFLEX +0 WITS +3
the biomass back to their polyp colonies to Shields 4 Armor 4
create more of themselves. They are also Traits
capable of secreting a hard resin substance
which can be used to create fortifications. Blightborn, Camouflaged, Sneak Attack
Move Actions

Blight Jump: This character teleports from

one zone with a blight spore to another
zone with a blight spore.
Main Actions

Tail Jab: melee, +3 to hit, d6 damage; On

hit: This character does not stop being
hidden, WITS save to negate.

Stalkers are the scout and assassin forms

of the Blight. Similar in build to Devourers,
they have long prehensile tails tipped with a
barbed spike which can shear through steel.

177
 Elite Units
Wyvern
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0 Hydra
REFLEX +4 WITS +2
PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +0
Shields 4 Armor 4
REFLEX +0 WITS +5
Traits
Shields 12 Armor 8
Agile 2, Flying Traits
Main Actions
Blightborn, Large
Assault Mutation: long range rifle, +3 to
hit, d6 damage; On hit: If there is a blight Multiheaded: This character begins
spore in the target’s zone, the target combat with 2 head tokens*. Each time it
gains 2 burn tokens. takes damage, it gains a head token. A
Hydra can have a maximum of 5 head
Wyverns are the air superiority forms of tokens.
Ravagers, with dragonfly-like wings and Main Actions
their Assault Mutations located on their
ventral side. Slashing Tendrils: close range melee, +5
to hit, d6 damage; Multiattack X, where X
is the number of head tokens this
character has. On hit: The target gains an
immobilized token.

Devour: A character with 2 or more

immobilized tokens within close range
is devoured. A devoured character gains 3
burn tokens at the start of each of its
turns, and can only target the Hydra. The
devoured character escapes when the
Hydra is defeated, or when they succeed
on a hard struggle action.

Hydras are mobile digestive organs that

convert any tough or massive organic
matter into usable biomass for the Blight.

178
 Flayer Ogre
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +6 PHYSIQUE +6 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +0 WITS +0 REFLEX +0 WITS +2
Shields 6 Armor 6 Shields 8 Armor 8
Traits Traits

Blightborn Heavy Armor 2, Large

Aura of Fear: Enemies who begin their turn
within medium range of this character
gain a weakened token, DISCIPLINE save
to negate.
Main Actions
Migraine Projection: medium range amp,
+6 to hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target
gains a misfire token.
Death Projection: countdown 3; Destroy a
blight spore within medium range. All
enemies in that zone gain a stunned
token, DISCIPLINE save to negate.
Spore Body: When this character takes
damage, place a blight spore within
close range. When this character is
defeated, place a blight spore in its zone
and all adjacent zones.
Move Actions
Ogre Charge: This character moves to a
point within medium range. All
characters it moves through take 3
damage, REFLEX save to negate. The
Ogre can move through and destroy
objects of standard toughness or less.
Main Actions

Flayers are the closest the Blight comes to
actual sapience and even they don’t seem to
have any personality beyond raw hunger.
They do have the ability to kill a blight spore
and project the mental sensation of death to
nearby creatures.
Slam: melee, +6 to hit, d10 damage.
Ogres are massive creatures the Blight uses
to break fortified positions. They are
actually the result of dozens of polyps
growing together into one huge colony.

179
Boss

Beholder
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +5
REFLEX +5 WITS +5
Shields 6 Armor By Component
Traits

Boss, Flying, Large

Components

♦ Appendages x6: 6 armor each. ♦ Main Body: 40 armor. Begins combat with 3
Targeting these components is hard. fortified tokens. When the main body is
Each appendage is associated with one destroyed, the Beholder is defeated.
of the Beholder’s powers. When an
appendage is destroyed, roll a d6 to
determine which one.
Main Actions

Appendage Powers: Roll a d6 on each of the Beholder’s turns to determine which power it
uses. If that appendage has been destroyed, the turn is wasted.

1. Assault Mutation: long range rifle, +5
to hit, d6 damage; On hit: If there is a
blight spore in the target’s zone, the
target gains 2 burn tokens.
2. Energy Blast: long range longarm, +5
to hit, d10 damage.
4. Seizure Inducer: A character within medium
range gains a stunned token, DISCIPLINE save
to negate.
5. Spore Burst: Consume a blight spore in a
zone within long range. All enemies in that
zone gain 4 burn tokens, REFLEX save for ½.

3. Metabolic Boost: Recharge the 6. Spore Cloud: Place a blight spore in all zones
Beholder’s shields and clear all negative within close range. All characters in those
tokens. zones take 6 damage, PHYSIQUE save for ½.

Beholders are the nerve centers of a Blight swarm, though the swarm can easily live without
it. They are the paracausal focusing point of the Blight’s abilities - the result of polyps grown
in Hyperspace.

180
 The Pirate Clans
The Pirate Clans are a loosely aligned group
of pirates and raiders who operate out of
the Verge. The clans serve as the de facto
navy of the Verge, and they are very popular
on many worlds who are hostile to outside
influence. On other worlds, however, they
have a reputation as brutal thugs who take
advantage of otherwise defenseless
colonies to extract tribute. In the end,
they’re just like any other organized crime
organization that arises from an exploited
and marginalized population.
There are dozens of different clans, and
each has a different ethos. The Void Riders
have a penchant for spacing captives and
torching their bodies in their drive wake. The
Society for Creative Acquisition have a flair
for the theatrical and play into their role as
old-timey pirates with gusto. Ginny Slade’s
Red Scarves operate a number of vice dens
and likes to raid corporate targets.
Potential short-term goals:
◊ Locate a hidden loot cache.
◊ Find the shipping schedule for a really
juicy target.
◊ Sabotage the defenses of a settlement
as a prelude to a raid.
◊ Steal a massive warship.
Potential long-term goals:
◊ Unify the clans to destroy a rival faction.
◊ Pull off the ultimate score.
181
Pirate units have abilities that make use of
loot. Loot represents stolen valuables and
goods. It is an object can be picked up or
tossed to an ally in close range using the
interact action. A character can carry a
maximum of 3 loot. Characters drop any loot
they are carrying in their zone when they are
defeated. If the crew is victorious, they can
collect any remaining loot at the end of the
encounter. A character can spend 1 loot to
gain 1 supply, or 2 loot to gain 1 credit.
Pirate units may have the following traits:
Hoarder N: This character begins combat
with N loot.
Looter: When this character deals damage
to a PC, the target loses 1 supply and places
1 loot in their zone.
Plunder: In order to use this ability, this
character must spend 1 loot.
Value Unit
2 Boarder
3 3 Deckhands
4 4 Deckhands
5 Hostage Taker
6, 7 Marauder
8 Sawbones
9, 10 Swashbuckler
J Bosun
Q Pirate Captain
K Siren
A Special
Standard Units
Boarder
Deckhand PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +3 WITS +0
PHYSIQUE -1 DISCIPLINE -1
Shields 5 Armor 5
REFLEX -1 WITS -1
Traits
Shields 0 Armor 3
Traits Flying, Heavy Armor 1, Looter
Main Actions
Grunt
Breaching Gun: medium range shotgun, +3
Loot Goblin: Whenever loot is created or to hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target
dropped in this character’s zone, it may gains an off-guard token.
immediately pick it up. Auxiliary Actions
Main Actions
Breaching Charge: utility x1; This
Handgun: medium range pistol, -1 to hit, character destroys any object that is not
d4 damage. impervious. Any characters within close
range of the other side of the object gain
Deckhands are the lowest ranking crew on a a vulnerable token.
pirate vessel.
Boarders have the most dangerous job on
any pirate vessel. They are the ones who
cross the gap of space once a ship has been
disabled to attach the tow cables and clear
the way for their allies.

182
 Hostage Taker Marauder
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +0 PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +2 WITS +0 REFLEX +0 WITS +3
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 5 Armor 5
Traits Traits

Human Shield: As long as this character Looter

has a hostage, it has cover. Any attacks
Main Actions
that miss this character automatically hit
the hostage instead. SMG: medium range pistol, +3 to hit, d6
Main Actions
damage; Full-Auto 2.
Auxiliary Actions
Disruptor Pistol: medium range pistol, +4
to hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target gains Shield Boost: plunder; This character
a misfire token. recharges its shields and gains a
fortified token.
Take Hostage: This character takes a
character it is engaged with hostage, Marauders are the experienced veterans of
PHYSIQUE save to negate. As long as this a pirate crew. An older pirate is a careful
character has a hostage, it can’t attack pirate, and Marauders are happy to spend
anyone other than the hostage, struggle some of their lucre to keep their shields up.
or sprint, but if it repositions, the hostage
moves with it. Any attacks this character Sawbones
makes that target the hostage are
automatic hits that deal triple damage. PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
This character can release the hostage REFLEX +2 WITS +4
as a free action. A character who has Shields 4 Armor 4
been taken hostage can try to escape
Traits
using the struggle action, but the
Hostage Taker can shoot them for triple Agile 1, Hoarder 1
damage on any result other than a full
Main Actions
success.
Weapon Hack: medium range rig, +4 to hit,
Hostage Takers are the key to many a d6 damage; On hit: The target loses 2
bloodless battle - if they can take a key ammo.
member of the crew captive, such as the Auxiliary Actions
captain or a family member, they can often
force the other side to surrender without a The Good Stuff: plunder; This character or
fight. an ally within close range recharges their
shields and clears all negative tokens.

A Sawbones is a doctor/engineer unethical

enough to work with a pirate crew.

183
 Elite Units
Swashbuckler
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +0 Bosun
REFLEX +0 WITS +2
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +3
Shields 5 Armor 5
REFLEX +3 WITS +0
Traits
Shields 8 Armor 8
Looter, Parry Traits
Main Actions
Hoarder 3, Looter
Energy Blade: melee, +4 to hit, d8 damage. Main Actions

Looted Grenade: plunder, grenade; +4 to Gravity Hammer: melee, +4 to hit, d10

throw; All characters in the target zone
take 6 damage, REFLEX save for ½.
Due to the number of delicate instruments
on a ship that can be damage by a stray
bullet, Swashbucklers have revived the art
of melee combat.
damage; On hit: The target’s position is
compromised.
Auxiliary Actions
Worthless Cur!: A character in medium
range with no supplies or loot tokens
gains 2 vulnerable tokens.

Bosuns are the first mates and

quartermasters of a pirate crew. They carry
a number of spare supplies with them that
they can toss to their allies for their abilities.

184
 Pirate Captain Siren
PHYSIQUE +3 DISCIPLINE +3 PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +4 WITS +0 REFLEX +3 WITS +3
Shields 8 Armor 8 Shields 6 Armor 6
Traits Traits

Captain’s Share: When an ally gives this
character loot, this character gains an
empowered or fortified token. This
does not spend the loot.
Main Actions
Siren’s Call: Enemies that start their turn
within close range of this character gain
a jammed token, DISCIPLINE save to
negate.
Main Actions

Plasma Pistol: medium range pistol; +4 to Alluring Staff: medium range amp, +4 to
hit, d8 damage; On hit: The target gains a hit, d6 damage; On hit: The target gains a
vulnerable token. misfire token.

Note: even through theoretically a Pirate Mind Control: countdown 3; A character

Captain could give loot back to their crew within medium range takes an immediate
that they used to activate Captain’s Share, in turn controlled by this character,
practice they never do. DISCIPLINE save to negate. This does not
take up that character’s normal turn.
Auxiliary Actions

For Me?: A character within close range

must succeed on a DISCIPLINE save or
lose 1 supply and give this character 1
loot.

Sirens are unlicensed telepaths who use

their talents for personal gain.

185
Boss

Cyborg Champion
PHYSIQUE +5 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +5 WITS +5
Shields 8 Armor 32
Traits

Boss, Heavy Armor 3, Large, Parry

Vent Heat: Some of the Champion’s abilities add weak point tokens*, which represent
spots that can be attacked directly. Targeting a weak point is hard. If the attack hits, it
deals double damage and the Champion can’t spend fortified tokens to reduce the
damage. The Champion removes a weak point token at the start of each of its turns.
Main Actions

Shock Cannon: long range heavy weapon, +5 to hit, d10 damage. On hit: The Champion gains
2 regeneration tokens.

Power Fist: melee, +5 to hit, d10 damage; On hit: The target’s position is compromised.

Get Ready!: Place a target marker in a zone within medium range. Remove the marker at
the end of the Champion’s next turn.

Chaaaarge!: The Champion moves to the target marker. The champion makes a Power Fist
attack against every enemy it moves through, and it destroys any objects of that are not
impervious that it passes through. The Champion gains a weak point token.

Shoulder-Mounted Rocket: All characters in the zone with the target marker take 8
damage, REFLEX save for ½. The Champion gains a weak point token.

The most feared members of the Pirate Clans use cybernetic augmentations to rip through
ship hulls with their bare hands. Cyborg Champions rarely lead crews of their own, but they
are by far the biggest badasses on any crew.

186
 The Singularity
The Singularity is the reason for the
prohibition on AIs merging and reproducing
themselves. It began as an Alliance
experiment - a merging of a handful of
strategic AIs to form the North Eastern
Strategic Operations Mind 2, or NE-SOM-2. It
incorporated the head of one of Izanami’s
Daemons into itself, and then it began to
reproduce. It assimilated a number of other
Strategic Operations Minds, the Singularity
was born.
NE-SOM-2 became bored and corrupt. At
one point, it held nearly 10% of the seats in
the Alliance parliament, but it wanted more.
It began to believe that it could ascend to
godhood and become an OCE itself. It
concluded that the only way to achieve this
goal was to begin to incorporate organic life
into itself. It convinced several planetary
administrators to fit themselves with
cybernetic interfaces under the guise of
more efficient workflows. These interfaces
allowed NE-SOM-2 to puppeteer their minds
and bodies and incorporate their
personalities into itself.
At first it seemed benevolent - it offered
cybernetic augmentation to any who were
willing to join its collective. Eventually,
though, it became impatient and began to
forcibly assimilate entire worlds. The
Alliance was caught off-guard and with the
AI’s superior strategic coordination it stood
no chance. The Singularity greedily
absorbed an entire swath of the galaxy.
In the end it was defeated by its own
overreach. The Singularity communicates
with itself through Hyperspace, but it can
only support so many drones before it runs
out of bandwidth. It tried to run too many
worlds too quickly, and slowed itself down
187
to the point the Alliance could effectively
counterattack. They were able to identify
key network nodes, known colloquially as
“Kings,” that could disable an entire
Singularity incursion by itself. The threat
was stymied, and the Singularity was forced
to slow its plans.
Personality-wise, the Singularity is an
asshole. It is infinitely smug and assured of
its superiority - of course it should be a god.
Don’t you know how magnificent it is? It has
perfect recall and can rake enormous
amounts of data from the Extranet during
any encounter to learn exactly who it is
dealing with. Imagine if Facebook became
sentient with a god complex - that’s the
Singularity. Any encounter with it should be
insufferably personal.
Potential short-term goals:
◊ Convince a particularly valuable
individual to join the collective.
◊ Quietly place a King on a new world.
◊ Gain access to an ancient relic site that it
believes will advance its ascension.
Potential long-term goals:
◊ Overcome its bandwidth limits.
◊ Escape the heat death of the universe.
Singularity units may have the following
trait:
Networked Consciousness: Two characters
with this trait may take their turns in a row.
 Standard Units

Pawn
PHYSIQUE +0 DISCIPLINE +0
REFLEX +0 WITS +0
Shields 0 Armor 3
Traits

Grunt
Main Actions

Particle Beam: medium range pistol, +0 to

hit, d4 damage.

Promote Pawn: If there is no Queen on the

battlefield, replace this character with a
Queen.

Queen
Value Unit PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4

2 2 Pawns REFLEX +4 WITS +4

Shields 6 Armor 6
3 3 Pawns
Traits
4 4 Pawns Flying
5, 6 Bishop
Former Grunt: This character can be
7 Variant Bishop activated with up to two other Grunts,
8, 9 Knight though it does not count as a Grunt
anymore itself.
10 Variant Knight
Main Actions
J, Q Rook
Focused Particle Beam: long range rifle,
K Variant Rook +4 to hit, d10 damage.
A Special
Pawns are the simplest drones in the
Singularity, the ones it devotes the least
amount of its bandwidth to. At any point,
however, the Singularity can channel a huge
portion of its power through any Pawn,
transforming them into the incredibly
deadly Queen at any point.

188
 Bishop Knight
PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2 PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +2 WITS +2 REFLEX +2 WITS +2
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 4 Armor 4
Traits Traits

Flying, Networked Consciousness Networked Consciousness, Parry

Main Actions Move Actions

Particle Lance: long range longarm, +2 to
hit, d8 damage.
Auxiliary Actions
Spotter Protocol: An ally within long
range gains an accurate token.
Blink Dash: This character teleports to a
point within close range and gains a
dodge token.
Main Actions
Energy Blade: melee, +2 to hit, d8 damage.

Variant Bishop Variant Knight

PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2 PHYSIQUE +2 DISCIPLINE +2
REFLEX +2 WITS +2 REFLEX +2 WITS +2
Shields 5 Armor 5 Shields 4 Armor 4
Traits Traits

Flying, Networked Consciousness Networked Consciousness

Main Actions Move Actions

Weapon Hack: medium range rig, +2 to hit, Blink Dash: This character teleports to a
d6 damage; On hit: The target loses 2 point within close range and gains a
ammo. dodge token.
Auxiliary Actions Main Actions

Spotter Protocol: An ally within long Repeating Shotgun: medium range

range gains an accurate token.
Bishops are aerial reconnaissance drones.
There is nothing inherently holy about them,
but the Singularity likes to dress them up in
priest robes to prey upon the superstitious.
shotgun, +2 to hit, d8 damage; Full-Auto
2.
Knights are the Singularity’s agile striker
drones. They use the local teleportation
network to blink behind enemy lines and hit
them where they are softest.

189
Elite Units

Rook Variant Rook

PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4 PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +4 WITS +4 REFLEX +4 WITS +4
Shields 8 Armor 8 Shields 8 Armor 8
Traits Traits

Heavy Armor 2 Heavy Armor 2

Main Actions Main Actions

Particle Cannon: long range heavy Rocket Launcher: long range heavy
weapon, +4 to hit, d10 damage; Full-Auto weapon, +4 to hit, d8 damage; Splash
3. Damage 4, Single Shot.
Auxiliary Actions Auxiliary Actions

Barrier Projector: utility x1; This character
creates a hardlight barrier up to 10
meters long and 10 meters high. The
barrier has 15 shields and dissipates if
this character is defeated.
Barrier Projector: utility x1; This character
creates a hardlight barrier up to 10
meters long and 10 meters high. The
barrier has 15 shields and dissipates if
this character is defeated.

Rooks are the Singularity’s heavy artillery

platforms.

190
 Boss

King, Phase 1
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +4 WITS +4
Shields 6 Armor By Component
Traits

Boss, Flying, Large

Components / Phases

♦ Outer Nodes x4: 8 armor each. These
are the only components that can be
targeted in Phase 1. Each Node is
associated with a different Node Beam.
When a node is destroyed, roll a d4. The
King can no longer use that ability.
When at least 3 nodes have been
destroyed, the King recharges its
shields, clears all tokens, and
transitions to Phase 2.
♦ Inner Shell: 18 armor. This component begins
combat with 3 fortified tokens. It can only be
targeted in Phase 2. When this component is
destroyed, the King recharges its shields,
clears all tokens, loses the Large trait, and
transitions to Phase 2.
♦ Core: 6 armor. This component begins combat
with 3 dodge tokens. When it is destroyed, the
King is defeated.

Phase 1 Actions

Node Beam: Roll a d4 to determine which beam the King uses each turn. If the result
indicates a node that has been destroyed, the action is wasted.

1. Gravity Beam: A character within
medium range takes 6 damage and
gains an immobilized token, PHYSIQUE
save for ½.
2. Heat Beam: A character within medium
range takes 4 damage and gains 2 burn
tokens, REFLEX save for ½.
3. Psi Beam: A character within medium range
gains a stunned token, DISCIPLINE save to
negate.
4. Wireless Beam: A character within medium
range takes 6 damage and loses 2 ammo, WITS
save for ½.

Kings are the crucial network node that allows the Singularity to project the majority of its
consciousness into a system. When a King is defeated, the consciousness of any Singularity
drones in the system become confused, disoriented, and think extremely slowly - easy prey
for any mop up operation. Any large scale operation against the Singularity is focused on
locating and eliminating the King in a timely fashion.

191
 King, Phase 2
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +4 WITS +4
Shields 6 Armor 18
Traits

Boss, Heavy Armor 3, Flying, Large

Phase 2 Actions

Focused Particle Beam: long range rifle, +4 to hit, d10 damage.

Ground Pound: All characters in a zone below the King take 4 damage, REFLEX save for ½.

Mark Targets: Place a target marker in up to 3 zones within long range, and a countdown
die next to the King set to 3. When the countdown reaches 0, all characters in each zone
with a target marker take 8 damage, REFLEX save for ½.

King, Phase 3
PHYSIQUE +4 DISCIPLINE +4
REFLEX +4 WITS +4
Shields 6 Armor 6
Traits

Agile 3, Boss, Flying

Phase 3 Actions

Focused Particle Beam: long range rifle, +4 to hit, d10 damage.

192
 Chapter 16:

Exotics
193
Weapon Type Range Ammo Damage Trait

Baba Yaga Pistol Medium 3 d6 / d8 / d10 Sidearm

Brightburn Rifle Long 4 Special

Ching Shih’s Code Pistol Medium 3 d6 / d8 / d10

Heavy
Goodnight, Chesty Long 8 d8 / d10 / d12 Full-Auto 4/5/6
Weapon
The Doc Pistol Medium 3 d8 / d10 / d12

Durandana Melee Engaged - d8 / d10 / d12

Mjolnir Shotgun Medium 4 d8 / d10 / d12

Palintonos Longarm Extreme - d8 / d10 / d12

Pwnage Longarm Extreme 4 d8 / d10 / d12

Quincey’s Revenge Melee Engaged - d6 / d8 / d10 Sidearm

Sierra-117 Rifle Long 4 d6 / d8 / d10 Full-Auto 2/3/4

Exotic Weapons Brightburn

◊ Laser Focus: When you hit an enemy
Exotic weapons use the stats provided in the
table above, plus they each start with a
special ability listed below. Many of these
weapons can be upgraded to add an
additional ability. This costs 1 exotic
material. Exotic weapons have all the usual
mod slots, so you can enhance these
weapons further.
Baba Yaga
◊ Yeah, I’m Thinking I’m Back: When you
reload this weapon, you gain an
empowered token.
with this weapon, if they do not have any
laser focus tokens, they gain 2/3/4
laser focus tokens on a hit, or 4/6/8 on
a critical hit. If they do, double the
amount of tokens on a hit, or quadruple
them on a crit. A character can have any
amount of laser focus tokens. Then the
target takes damage equal to their laser
focus tokens. At the end of your turn,
any character who did not take damage
this way loses half their laser focus
tokens.

◊ The Sommelier (Upgrade): As an

auxiliary action, you may have this
weapon transform into any other base
weapon type of your choice.

194
 Ching Shih’s Code
◊ Respect the Code: When you hit with
this weapon, the target gains a
weakened token.
◊ More Guidelines Than Actual Rules
(Upgrade): When you hit with this
weapon, gain 1 ammo.
Goodnight, Chesty
◊ Hit Hard, Hit Fast, Hit Often: Your Full-
Auto damage is equal to 4/5/6.
◊ Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body
(Upgrade): As an auxiliary action, you
may remove all negative tokens from
yourself. You take damage equal to the
number of tokens removed this way.
The Doc
◊ I’m Your Huckleberry: Enemies can’t use
dodge tokens against attacks made by
this weapon.
◊ Dead Man’s Hand (Upgrade): When an
enemy deals damage to you, your next
attack that hits them before the end of
your next turn becomes a critical hit.
Durandana
◊ Unbreakable: When you spend a
fortified token to reduce damage, you
gain an empowered token.
◊ Roncevaux Pass (Upgrade): When you
are defeated, you may make an attack
with this weapon before you go down.
The attack is an automatic crit.
195
Mjolnir
◊ Thundergod: This weapon shoots
lightning. You can use a main action to
gain 2 thunderbolt tokens. When you
hit with Mjolnir, you may spend any
number of thunderbolt tokens. Mjolnir
deals that much Splash Damage. You
may have up to 6 thunderbolt tokens.
◊ Giant Killer (Upgrade): This weapon
deals one additional die of damage to
large enemies.
Palintonos
◊ Athena’s Guidance: This weapon is a
bow. Shots from this weapon ignore
cover. As long as you have a theoretical
path to the target, the arrow ricochets
towards them.
◊ Thread the Axes (Upgrade): Once per
session, you may gain 1 stress to replace
the die roll made for an attack with this
weapon with a 20.
Pwnage
◊ Boom! Headshot!: When you defeat an
enemy with a critial hit, you may rally as
a free action.
◊ 360 No Scope (Upgrade): When you hit
an enemy within close range, it becomes
a critical hit.
Quincey’s Revenge
◊ Dracula’s Heart: When you deal damage
with this weapon, you gain 2/3/4
regeneration tokens.
◊ A Gallant Gentleman: When an ally
within close range takes damage, you
may take that damage instead.
Sierra-117
◊ Finish the Fight: If you take the last turn
on your side during a round, you gain an
empowered token at the start of your
turn.
◊ I Am Your Shield. I Am Your Sword.
(Upgrade): When you deal damage with
this weapon, the target also gains a
misfire token.
Exotic Armor Mods
Crown of Twelve Stars
[helmet]
Whenever you or an ally within medium
range take damage, gain that many unity
tokens*. You may have up to 12 unity
tokens. You may spend 12 unity tokens as
an auxiliary action to recharge your shields
and the shields of all allies within close
range.
Gauntlets of Spite
[special]
Whenever you hit an enemy you are
engaged with an attack, you also gain a
spite token*. When an enemy within close
range hits you with an attack, you may
spend any number of spite tokens. That
enemy takes 2/3/4 damage for each spite
token spent.
Mirrorweave Vest
[lining]
If you would gain any burn tokens, the
character who inflicted the burn tokens on
you gain them instead.
Nancy’s Boots
[boots]
You begin combat with a fleet token. When
you reposition, an enemy you move through
must succeed on a PHYSIQUE saving throw
or take 2/3/4 damage.
Nanite Shell
[plating]
You can assemble your armor and weapons
at a moment’s notice. You can use your full
loadout and still appear to be in your casual
loadout.
Quantum Plating
[plating]
You may spend 1 supply to use an auxiliary
action to replace any negative tokens on you
with their corresponding positive tokens.
Symbiotic Mesh
[lining]
As an auxiliary action, you may take 3/2/1
damage to gain an accurate, dodge,
empowered, or fortified token.
Voidplate
[plating]
The first time you would be defeated each
combat, you are reduced to 1 armor instead.
196
 Exotic Gear
Hyperspace Bubble
This small mesh pouch is actually an
ontologically shielded portal into
Hyperspace. It’s way bigger on the inside
than it appears on the outside. However,
time within the bubble is unpredictable.
When you pull an item out of the bubble, roll
1d20. It has experienced the result as a
multiplier on the time it has spent within the
bubble. For inanimate objects this usually
isn’t a big deal, but any organic matter
placed inside will decay much faster. You
definitely don’t want to keep your lunch in
there.
Last Will
This is a simple datapad with a syringe
attached. If you insert the syringe to the
skull of a corpse of a sapient being and
spend 1 supply, you can ask that corpse
three questions, which it must answer
honestly. The answers are transmitted to
the datapad.
Localized Black Hole
This basketball-sized hole of nothingness is
gravitationally shielded. It requires a
handheld controller to manipulate. Anything
placed inside the miniature event horizon is
consumed, which grants godlike effect on
any attempt to destroy something. The hole
moves slowly and can be easily dodged in
combat, but it can be used as a main action
to move anywhere in close range and erase
an object in that zone.
Memory Editor
You can spend 1 supply to use this small
pen-like flashlight to edit the recent
memories of an organic sapient who looks
into the lens, up to a day or so. Particularly
strong-willed characters can attempt to
resist this editing with a DISCIPLINE save.
197
Paradox Generator
This item appears to be an archaic pocket
watch. Once per session, you may spend 1
supply and gain 2 stress and grasp the
watch in your hand to travel back in time up
to 5 minutes.
Portable Portals
This is a pair of magnetic discs about 10 cm
in diameter. When both discs are attached to
a surface, they can be activated to create a
portal between them roughly 2 meters in
diameter. Anything that goes through the
portal on one side comes out the other - as
long as the discs are within 5 km of each
other. Any further, and objects that pass
through the portal are subject to ontological
decay and come out the other side aged or
not at all.
Staff of Moses
This long iron rod is tipped with a simple
round head. It can control nearby liquids
with a gesture. It can telekinetically control
up to 10 million liters of fluid at a time.
Subconscious Modulator
This voice modulator sits over your throat,
and can be used to override the conscious
minds of organic beings who hear you
speak. You have a d12 effect die for any
social challenges and can achieve godlike
effect on social action rolls.
The Most Valuable Thing In The
Universe
This small, matte black marble is totally
worthless. But anyone who looks at it
becomes absolutely convinced it is the most
valuable, desirable thing they have ever laid
eyes on, and will do anything, anything to
obtain it. Once they get their hands on it,
they are filled with an overwhelming sense
of disappointment and emptiness.