I first wrote this game at the same time I wrote Hostile Space. In fact, as I was working on the wargame, I decided that it would be a fun setting to role-play in. I originally wrote Hostile Space after watching tons of clips from various Mecha shows. For some reason, they were just coming one after the other on my feed. I enjoyed watching the Mecha buzz around and fight each other. Therefore, it seemed like it could make a really fun dogfighting game.
However, the heart of all good Mecha/Real-Robot stories was not about the dogfighting, it was about the characters and their stories. Many of them had very spiritual plotlines and focused on romantic love triangles. They were all about relationships. The big robot battles were often just metaphors for the spiritual and emotional conflicts that characters were engaging in. Hostile Space was not going to capture that aspect of Space Mecha. Wargames were not a good venue for the melodrama and theatre, but it would be perfect fodder in a Role-playing game.
Hence, Glittering Void: A Role-Playing Game of Space Mecha Theatre was born.
Space Mecha Theatre
What is Space Mecha Theatre? Despite the trappings of Sci-fi, big robots, and warfare; the genre is not about the flying robots. Those are just the genre tropes and setting. The setting tropes should not be confused with what Space Mecha Theatre is about. Space Mecha Theatre is ultimately about people and their stories. Most of the drama, melodrama, and tragedy occurs outside of the Mecha.
Space Mecha Theatre is about how individual people deal with the complexities around them like war, political scheming, and advanced technology while maintaining what quintessentially makes us human. The common humanity of all the protagonists is the key focus of the story. There is always "Big Things" going on around the characters like war, economics, and politics but it always comes down to how the individual deals with them and carries on. The focus is on what makes us humans, and the commonality of emotions and experiences of the human condition. That is the Theatre.
Big Robots, spaceships, colonies, and political powers are all just setting conventions for the human theatre to take place in. Space Mecha Theatre means that this is going to be set in a world where such machines are common. The focus is human vs. human conflicts in a relatively "real" sci-fi universe within the Solar System. Travel times are slow, communications are limited, and space is a hostile environment.
This is not Space Opera. This is not Hard Sci-Fi. This is not Space Fantasy. This is Space Mecha Theatre!
Game Design GoalsThis game took me about 5 years to complete. It is the crunchiest Role-Playing Game that I have put together. However, it had many of the same design goals as my other, simpler RPG-Lite games. The key difference was how I wanted the game to be able to capture the varied and wonderful action that I had found in Space Mecha Theatre content.
This game had the following design goals:
- Give players interesting and meaningful choices
- Make character creation simple and easy
- Simple, abstracted, attritional combat, NO HIT POINTS!
- Hard to outright "fail"
- Reward Role-play
The Core Unifying Mechanic
This game uses three basic concepts that layer together to create a relatively deep unifying mechanic to the rules.
- The Rule of 4
- Dice Shifting
- Level of Success
The Rule of 4 simply means that on any given dice, you want to score a 4 or more for a success.
Dice-shifting means that all Modifiers are to the size of dice that you roll. The dice used in this game are standard RPG dice so D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20. Difficulty changes the dice you roll, not the target number. The target number is always 4+ per the Rule of 4.
Level of Success simply means that the higher you roll above 4 on a test, the greater your potential level of success. These levels of success are compared in opposed rolls to determine outcomes. To determine a level of success, you simple roll a dice, and subtract 4. You can then compare the level of success between opponents.
That's it. This simple unifying mechanic is the basis of all tests and rolls within
Glittering Void. These rules apply for characters negotiating a Peace Treaty between Great Powers, fights between Combat Suits, and Characters trying to bluff their way past guards.
Man has expanded into the Solar System with the help of the Fold Drives. They have established themselves across the Solar System. These colonies fragmented into new alignments and political blocs. Now, there are four Great Powers that maintain a stable balance of power between themselves using an umbrella organization called the Concert of the Solar System. Scattered between these Great Powers is a variety of Freeholds; independent colonies that shift their allegiances between Great Powers via proxy contracts and alliances. The Great Game is the various Great Powers of the Solar System jockeying for spheres of influence with these independently minded Freeholds.
Characters in
Glittering Void can take on a wide variety of roles within the world of the New Age of Mankind. The default setting is agents of the Concert of the Solar System as Peace Representatives, where their job is to act as roving troubleshooters to maintain the stability and integrity of the Solar System order and avoid an all-out war. However, there is room for a variety of campaign styles and 1-off adventures such as Scouts, Couriers, Pirates, Businesspeople, and more. The New Age is full of political intrigue, espionage, and off-book operations that are perfect for various types of games.
The game has a brief and high-level background that is entirely optional for you to use. It includes tools about common technologies such as Combat Suits, generators for quickly developing your own Freeholds and colonies, and even a starting adventure to give you a feel for the world of
Glittering Void.
What is in the Book?
The game book has what you need to get started to play right away including blank character sheets, index, table of contents, Quick Refence Guides, and Appendices with all the common technologies, skills, backgrounds, and gear for the game. It has a core concepts section to get you started, followed by easy character creation. There is also a section about how to run the game for the aspiring Comptroller (GM). There is even a sample scenario to give you a good place to start off in the
Glittering Void! This rulebook is 165 pages long!
I have played this game with people who have never played Role-Playing Games before, as well as veterans to RPGs. It delivered a satisfying game experience for both groups of players. The Character creation was easy enough for newbies to wrap their heads around and make strong characters. The gameplay was crunchy enough for harden veterans to enjoy making tough tactical decisions. The mechanics are simple but allow for a wide variety of in-game depth and complications. This game was 5 years in the making!
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| Art by _SpacePossum_ |
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