RPG-System
Astrophobia uses the 'Tiny Frontiers: Revised' RPG system designed by Gallant Knight Games. It is part of the "TinyD6" series, which is known for its minimalist and rules-light approach to role-playing. The rules are intentionally kept minimal, making it accessible for new players and quick to pick up. The emphasis is on storytelling and role-playing rather than complex mechanics. The system encourages collaborative storytelling and provides players with narrative control, allowing them to contribute to the game's evolving plot.
Test, Obstacles, and Saves
The core mechanic of Tiny Frontiers: Revised involves rolling dice to determine the outcome of complex actions, called tests. You roll 2 6-sided dice, and the test is successful if any of those dice land on a 5 or a 6. Some scenarios may increase in difficulty which will require a 6 to succeed, and others may lower the difficulty to require a 4, 5, or 6 to succeed.
Some situations, traits, or even at the GM's discretion may give you advantage or disadvantage. When at advantage you may roll 3d6 to increase your odds of success. When at disadvantage you will only be able to roll 1d6 to decrease your odds of success. Disadvantage always takes precedence over any sources of advantage except when Xenotech is involved. Why? Because alien science. That's why.
The maximum amount of dice you can roll for a single test is 3d6.
Obstacles are challenges that usually require players to make a test to overcome. These could be anything from attempting to barter with a trader, trying to lockpick a door, searching a room for a hidden item, or resolving a conflict with words rather than violence. An obstacle can be overcome with good roleplay from the player without requiring a test but most situations a test will be necessary to determine the outcome.
Save tests are tests rolled when reacting to something happening to your character, or when trying to stabalise yourself if you begin a combat turn at 0 HP. Save tests, just like regular tests, require you to roll 2d6 unless you have advantage or disadvantage.
Death saves will always be 2d6. If you fail your death save two turns in a row, your character dies. These situations hopefully won't happen often, but it is a possibility. In the event of a character death, you may be permitted to create a new character with higher than normal starting XP depending on how far you had advanced your deceased character. This decision is made on a case-by-case basis, and no results can be guaranteed.
Combat, Weaponry, and Range Zones
Combat in Tiny Frontiers: Revised is a strict turn-based system where players and NPCs perform their actions one at a time in order of an initiative roll that each participant completes. Each run through of the initiative order is called a round. Combat continues through rounds until one side of the combatants have defeated their enemies or completed some objective determined by the game master. While it may take some time to get through a round of combat, each round in-game lasts around 5-6 seconds.
To roll for initiative, each participant rolls 2d6 and adds up their total value. The order is determined by ranking each participant's score from highest to lowest. In the event that two participants get the same result they may roll 2d6 against each other to determine who goes first, or one may choose to succeed the other in the turn order.
Each participant has two actions each turn. Attacking, moving, taking cover, holstering or drawing a weapon, grabbing an item, and any other perceivable form of doing something is an action. You can use both of your actions to do the same thing, like attacking twice, or moving twice, or you may combine multiple actions like using a ranged weapon and then taking cover.
Each participant can move up to 5 metres (5 blocks) with a single action as long as there isn't anything hindering their movement (i.e. bad terrain, damaged leg, et cetera).
Attacking an enemy in TF:R is simply just another test- as long as you're within range for the weapon you're using, you can try to attack any enemy. Usually you'll be using a weapon that your character has mastered, which grants you advantage with each attack. If you are proficient with a weapon you're wielding, your attack will be a standard 2d6. If you're unproficient with your weapon, you test at disadvantage and roll a 1d6 - this includes unarmed combat and improvised weapons unless you have a trait that says otherwise.
Standard Actions
While you're free to come up with your own concept for how you handle your actions during combat, These are the main standard actions you can take in each round:
Ability test: Attempt to perform any ability gained from a trait, proficiency, or other source.
Attack: Attack an enemy by any means available to you. This requires an unobstructed line of sight to the target.
Call For Help: Use the system network to call for help from allies. It takes at least a minute (10 rounds) for anyone to be able to reach the combat, unless a DM rules otherwise. This time increases by 1 minute for each region your allies must cross to reach you. If you are under threat, this test is at disadvantage.
Draw/Stow: You draw and/or holster a weapon. You may choose to holster a weapon but not draw a new one, or draw a second weapon without holstering the first.
Evade: Until the start of your next turn, you can test at disadvantage when successfully hit by an enemy to evade the attack and nullify any damage.
Focus: On your next attack test, you succeed on a roll of 4, 5, or 6. Note: Focus does not stack, and expires at the end of combat.
Hide: Make a standard 2d6 Test. If the test is successful, you are hidden, or your actions went unnoticed.
Note that you can't simply hide in plain sight, so you need some sort of cover or concealment to hide. A hidden target can not be attacked directly. Attacking while hidden forces you out of hiding. Traits may alter how hiding works.
Move: Move up to 5 metres in any direction you are able to. Difficult terrain or traits may alter this distance. (1 block in Minecraft = 1 metre)
Spot: Make a standard 2d6 Test against a hidden target to perceive them. If successful, you spot your target, causing them to no longer be hidden to yourself or your allies until they hide again. Traits may alter how spotting works.
Suppressing Fire: Choose an area within range of your weaponry, and until your next turn you may attack with disadvantage at any enemy entering the area.
Weapons
There are four category of weapons in TF:R - Light Melee, Heavy Melee, Light Ranged, and Heavy Ranged. You can attack unarmed or with an improvised weapon such as a barstool or a rock, but these aren't classified as weapons. Both light and heavy melee weapons have the benefit of never running out of ammunition.
Light melee weapons only require one hand to hold which lets you use your other hand to hold another object - including another light weapon. Light melee weapons require you to be adjacent to an enemy, or within 1 metre, to attack. Examples include tasers, stun batons, laser swords, mundane sharp blades, and other small melee weapons. Light melee weapons do, by default, 1 damage on a successful attack.
Heavy melee weapons require two hands to hold, usually due to their larger length or heavier weight. Due to their larger size. heavy melee weapons can attack enemies within 2 metres. Examples include shock-staves, drills, dual-sided laser swords, mundane greatswords and staves, and other large melee weapons. Heavy melee weapons do, by default, 2 damage on a successful attack.
Light ranged weapons can be held and shot with one hand which lets you use your other hand to hold another object - including another light weapon. Examples include throwing knives, shiruken, hand-crossbows, laser pistols, kinetic handguns, and other handheld ranged weaponry or throwable weaponry. Light ranged weapons do, by default, 1 damage on a successful attack.
Heavy ranged weapons require two hands to hold, usually due to their larger weight or complex operation. Examples include rifles, automatic weapons, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and bows. Heavy ranged weapons do, by default, 2 damage on a successful attack.
Cinematic Ammo tests requires a character to make a test for every ranged weapon they used that requires ammunition. Anyone who fails has run out of ammo for that weapon and must do something to refill their supply. This may be as simple as reloading your weapon from ammo brought along with them or borrowing ammo from someone else. Characters who share their ammo supply with someone else perform their own cinematic ammo test with disadvantage. Heavy weapons tend to have bigger ammo clips, and can reroll a failed cinematic ammo test once per scenario. This test always happens at the end of combat.
Combat Zones
In combat, characters occupy one of three zones. Zones represent areas close to the fight. There are thre zones during combat: Close, Near, and Far. Each zone should be viewed from your character's perspective.
In each zone you can attack with different weapons:
Close:
- Any Melee
- Light Ranged (at disadvantage)
Close range is 1 metre around you.
Near:
- Heavy Melee
- Any Ranged
Near range is 1-2 metres around you.
Far:
- Any Ranged
Far range is 2+ metres away from you.
Health, Death, and Revival
Hit Points
Hit points (HP) are determined by your starting species, usually ranging anywhere between 4-8. These hit points represent how much damage your body can take before you lose consciousness. In combat, every successful hit deals at least 1 point of damage.
When you have enough experience points available, you can increase your HP by 1 point up to a maximum of 4 times per character.
Sleeping for at least six hours for organic species (4 hours recharging as a mechanoid) can refresh your HP back up to your current maximum. While sleeping or recharging, you are unconscious. If something is going on around your character, they are less likely to be aware of it and have disadvantage when testing to see if something would wake them up or alert them.
Dying
Dying begins when a character is reduced to 0 HP. They drop unconscious at that moment, and without further assistance the character can succumb to their wounds and die. If you start a round of combat with 0HP, you can make a save test to stabalise yourself and regain 1HP. This save test takes both of your actions, so once it's completed your turn ends. If you fail your first death save, you can make one final death save on your next turn at disadvantage. If you fail this final death save, your character dies.
Any character can perform a save test to stabalise someone while they are unconscious. This counts as an action, and you must be within close range. Additional traits and tools can bring someone back from unconsciousness without needing to perform a test, such as any item that performs any amount of healing.
Revivals
Death is not the end. Each main faction offers a Revival System Programme, which can bring your character back to life. Characters on Astrophobia have a chip installed in the topmost vertebra of their spine, which backs up their memories and personality construct. In the event of their death, the RSP chip will send a signal to your designated faction's Revival Facility, which will dispatch a crew for corpse retrieval. A new body will be grown based on the character's genetic material. If the genetic material is unretrievable, the facilities will grow a clone replacement.
- First and foremost, revivals aren't automatic. If your character dies, reach out to the relevant community manager for your main faction (SGS - Bleyjo, FPU - Calico, BSC - Edo).
- Characters who die with their RSP chip intact retain all of their memories, including the circumstances of their death.
- You can take an action to destroy another character's RSP chip if they are unconscious or at 0 HP. If there are other characters nearby which would attempt to stop you, you test at disadvantage to do so.
- If the RSP chip is destroyed, characters lose their memory up until the last time they went to sleep.
- Reviving a character costs 10 XP. If they do not have enough XP to revive, they can refund already owned upgrades (such as Traits, additional HP, etc.) back into XP. You can never refund your starter traits or base HP.
Xenotech
Xenotech is any technology that is useful, rare, and difficult to find. Most Xenotech is almost impossible to recreate because it is made of unknown materials, has anomalous properties that can't be explained by modern science, the fuel that powers it is as rare, or some mad scientist made it and wrote really poor documentation. Xenotech is coveted by Explorers because it is both useful for exploration, and valuable if you need to sell it.
Xenotech comes in two major categories: Simple and Complex.
Simple Xenotech is easy to use: You can drink a vial of medicine, apply items from a med kit, inject a syringe or stimpak into your arm, aim a gun, swing an axe, wear a suit of armour, or press a button on a box.
Complex Xenotech is trickier, you might need to speak a passphrase, hum a tune, spray a certain perfume on it, psychically project emotions at it, or flip a bunch of switches and press buttons in the right order. Complex Xenotech can only be used by Explorers with the proper training. If you're lucky, you can find a manual for the item which requires about an hour to read, but experimenting and researching carefully on your own can take days or even weeks. Explorers with the Xenotech Expert trait can activate any complex Xenotech without trouble, but are no better at identifying what it does before they use it.
Most Xenotech can only be activated a few times before it is exhausted; anything that can function perpetually is extremely valuable. Some xenotech may be helpfully labelled (or unhelpfully mislabeled) by the last Explorer who found it. Some Xenotech may have strange or harmful side effects. Safely identifying Xenotech may require Tests or finding specialists who can answer questions about it. (edited)
On well-funded missions, Explorers may be issued a piece of Xenotech necessary to complete the mission. In this case, each Explorer will be given the necessary training to use their Xenotech. Some examples include:
- A crystal that makes water within 02 feet breathable like air. It only works for 24 hours.
- An energy knife that can cut through anything, but once it has cut something it can never cut anything made from the same material again.
- A complex gadget that will make every gun within its like of sight shoot at it (up to and including orbital weapons platforms).
- A mask that is programmed to mimic a specific person’s face and voice. It fools electronic systems perfectly, but any person within 15 feet can see a telltale flickering.
- A black cube that transforms any surface into a vacuum-safe, intangible barrier 8 feet wide that Explorers can pass through without causing any catastrophic decompression. After an hour the cube and the barrier evaporate completely, leaving an 8-foot-wide hole which may cause catastrophic decompression.
- A grenade that banishes anything in its radius from the timeline. Everything destroyed by it retroactively never existed.
- A pill that can be eaten to learn one language for a month. The user loses the ability to read their native language until it wears off.
- A visor with complex controls that let the wearer see radio waves. The wearer can’t see visible light, which may hinder simple tasks (like walking).
- A lamp with beautiful flashing pattern that hypnotizes certain species of predators for 15 minutes before it burns out.
- A tablet that has complex touch commands and a bunch of wires that can be hooked up to a person to repair bullet holes and deep lacerations.
Xenotech items of all kinds may be acquired during adventures. It is up to the Game Master to determine exactly what these items do, how easy it is to use them, and what sort of benefit, if any, they provide. Remember, not all Xenotech is good, and some items that seem harmless could potentially be harmful.
Character Creation Guide
Creating your character is a quick and easy process. You don’t need to follow this specific order, but it serves as a nice outline.
1. First, select a heritage from the playable Astrosapients.
you can find the list of playable Astrosapients on the front page of the Wiki.
2. Select two unique traits for your character to start with.
You can select a total of two traits from the following lists:
3. Select a Weapon Group to be proficient with, and one weapon within that group to be mastered with.
Weapon Groups can be found in the Weapons & Equipment section.
4. Lastly, decide your character’s occupation.
Your character’s profession, what they are most knowledgeable on, such as a ship’s mechanic, a software programmer, or a xeno-biologist. This can confer advantage on tests related to that topic if you roleplay it well!
Progression
Throughout your adventures on the server, you’ll earn experience points. Contrary to other RPG systems, these are not used to level up. Instead, you spend XP points to upgrade your character.
9 XP: A permanent +1 HP increase (You can upgrade your health a maximum of 4 times).
12 XP: A new weapon category proficiency or weapon mastery.
15 XP: A new trait - You can have a maximum of 7 chosen traits (this includes the 2 you choose at character creation) and your species trait for a maximum of 8 traits total.
Note: The first trait your purchase is 10 XP. Every trait after this costs the standard 15 XP.
