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1 CREDITS Beam Saber is made by Austin Ramsay This work is based on Blades in the Dark (found at http://www.bladesinthedark.com/ ), product of One Seven Design, developed and authored by John Harper, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/). This game is dedicated to Christine Blight for her brilliant suggestions, and tireless support of my work and well being. Editing and Page Layout by Christine Blight. Cover art by Vincent Patrick Thank you to all the people supporting me through patreon. Additional thanks goes to the members of the Beam Saber, Tabletop Treehouse, Friends At The Table, and Blades In The Dark discord servers for their advice and enthusiasm. This work uses the Sector 17 font (found at https://www.dafont.com/sector-017.font ) by Neoqueto, and licensed for our use under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/ ). PLAYTESTERS Hannah Banks, Ray Berry, Darren Brockes, Cassandra Connors, Steven Dennis, Mara Dyne, EveryZig314, Josh Good, James Horgan, Sarah M, Cory McDaniel, Mephil, Takuma Okada, Mal Peters, Sean R., Erik Rådman, Sasha Reneau, Ethan Steele, Måns Silfwerplatz Thunström, Yabvi 2 FIRST A WORD TO PLAYTESTERS Thank you so much for helping test this game! I’m really hoping that between all of our efforts, we can make Beam Saber into something that will be published under the Forged In The Dark catalogue. The game isn’t finished yet, and there’s still a lot I want to add, (you can find this in the Future Update Goals section) and a lot that I’m considering changing. If you'd like to support its development, I have a Patreon. If you find the size of this document intimidating, try starting with the Beam Saber Quick Start Guide! Please send your notes, recording links, play by posts, etc to [email protected] As playtesters, you have a few responsibilities: Please provide play notes about your experiences with the game. Ideally, this would be in the form of live streaming or audio recording. Written transcripts, or your notes from the session are good too, as are photos of the character and series Playbooks, and other game ephemera from your session. Please provide feedback about your experiences with the game. If there were problems that your group experienced with specific mechanics, the rules as written, the character sheets, or any other stumbling blocks during play, I want to hear about it. If there were things you particularly enjoyed, I'd love to hear about that as well. Offer problems, not solutions. When providing feedback, try to focus on the problems you encountered, and explain those in as much detail as you can. Don't worry about offering solutions to these problems, or whatever design you think might be better. I'm still interested in hearing about how you worked around these problems at the table. Lastly, tell me what you were excited about! The characters you met, the locations you explored, the obstacles you overcame (or fell to), and the mechanics you enjoyed! Despite its grounded tone, Beam Saber is still a game and those are meant to be fun. 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS CREDITS......................................................2 ARMOR AND SPARK.............................28 PLAYTESTERS...............................2 EFFECT.................................................29 FIRST A WORD TO PLAYTESTERS...3 BONUSES TO ROLLS...........................30 TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................4 COLLATERAL DIE.............................31 PLAYER RESOURCES..............................12 FORTUNE ROLL....................................31 CHANGELOG FOR V0.461..........13 GATHERING INFORMATION ................32 THE BASICS..............................................14 THE GAMEPLAY CYCLE.......................33 INTRODUCTION....................................15 PLANNING THE MISSION.....................33 THE SETTING.......................................15 ENGAGEMENT ROLL...........................36 THE PLAYERS.......................................16 LINKED MISSIONS................................37 THE PILOTS..........................................16 THE PILOTS...............................................38 THE VEHICLES.....................................16 PILOT CREATION..................................39 THE SQUAD..........................................17 HISTORY, TRAGEDY, AND OPENING..39 THE GAME MASTER.............................17 HISTORY...........................................40 PLAYING A SESSION............................17 EXAMPLE HISTORIES.................40 BEFORE YOU START...........................18 TRAGEDY.........................................41 WHAT YOU NEED TO PLAY..................18 EXAMPLE TRAGEDIES................41 TOUCHSTONES....................................18 OPENING..........................................41 AUDIO...............................................19 EXAMPLE OPENINGS.................42 TV SERIES........................................19 PILOT ACTIONS....................................42 MOVIES.............................................19 INSIGHT ACTIONS...........................42 VIDEO/COMPUTER GAMES............19 PROWESS ACTIONS........................42 ROLE PLAYING GAMES...................19 RESOLVE ACTIONS.........................43 BOOKS..............................................20 DRIVES..................................................43 MAKING THE GAME YOUR OWN.........20 EXAMPLE DRIVES...........................44 FOR THOSE FAMILIAR WITH BLADES SPENDING DRIVE............................44 IN THE DARK........................................20 CONNECTIONS.....................................46 THE START...........................................21 BELIEFS............................................46 THE CORE SYSTEM.............................21 STRESS.................................................47 ACTION ROLL...................................21 SCARS...................................................48 BASICS OF AN ACTION ROLL.........22 TEAMWORK..........................................49 CLOCKS................................................22 ASSIST..............................................49 POSITION..............................................23 LEAD A GROUP ACTION..................49 GUIDELINES FOR RESULTS BASED PROTECT.........................................50 ON POSITION...................................24 SETUP..............................................50 CONTROLLED..............................24 PILOT LOOKS.......................................50 RISKY...........................................24 RIVALS...................................................50 DESPERATE.................................24 ALLIES...................................................52 CONSEQUENCES AND HARM.............25 PILOT ADVANCEMENT.........................53 SELECTING CONSEQUENCES.......26 PILOT VS PILOT AND PLAYER VS CONTROLLED CONSEQUENCES PLAYER.................................................53 ......................................................26 PILOT ACTIONS IN DEPTH...................54 RISKY CONSEQUENCES............27 COMMAND........................................54 DESPERATE CONSEQUENCES. 27 CONSORT.........................................54 RESISTANCE........................................27 ENGINEER........................................55 4 FINESSE...........................................55 EXAMPLE STARTING EMPATH HUNT................................................55 BELIEFS............................................71 INTERFACE......................................55 EXAMPLE EMPATH ALLIES AND PROWL.............................................55 RIVALS..............................................71 STRUGGLE.......................................55 EXAMPLE EMPATH STARTING STUDY..............................................56 BUILDS.............................................72 SURVEY............................................56 THE ENVOY..........................................74 SWAY................................................56 ENVOY ACTION RATINGS...............74 WRECK.............................................56 XP TRIGGER.....................................74 STANDARD PILOT GEAR.....................56 ENVOY SPECIALIST PILOT GEAR..74 PILOT PLAYBOOKS...................................59 ENVOY SPECIALIST VEHICLE GEAR THE ACE................................................60 ..........................................................75 ACE ACTIONS..................................60 ENVOY ABILITIES.............................75 XP TRIGGER.....................................60 EXAMPLE GATHER INFORMATION 76 ACE SPECIALIST PILOT GEAR.......60 EXAMPLE STARTING ENVOY ACE SPECIALIST VEHICLE GEAR..60 BELIEFS............................................76 ACE ABILITIES..................................61 EXAMPLE ENVOY ALLIES AND EXAMPLE GATHER INFORMATION 62 RIVALS..............................................76 EXAMPLE STARTING ACE BELIEFS EXAMPLE ENVOY STARTING BUILDS ..........................................................62 ..........................................................76 EXAMPLE ACE ALLIES AND RIVALS THE HACKER........................................78 ..........................................................62 HACKER ACTION RATINGS.............78 EXAMPLE ACE STARTING BUILDS. 62 XP TRIGGER.....................................78 THE BUREAUCRAT...............................65 HACKER SPECIALIST PILOT GEAR78