NovaQuest: Mankind's Quest for the Stars

[mthomason]

This is not the future Mankind envisaged. Instead of colonies and luxurious spacecraft ferrying people from Earth to their new homes, there are battles with alien races over resources and space travel is only for the more hardy of the species. Instead of a paradise built through technological advances, Earth is now mostly wasteland. The lucky few live within corporate-owned cities and have to work hard to earn the means to survive.

Meanwhile there are those who run the risk of extended space travel. Perhaps seeking adventure, or fortune. Perhaps building alliances to rebuild their once-shattered world. Perhaps even seeking the mysterious artefacts known as NovaStones…

Containing new rules for character generation, skills, combat and space travel in a sci-fi setting you can use the modular nature of the new RuneQuest (TM) main rulebook, available from Mongoose Publishing to your advantage by using our rules for your own settings as well as the rich new universe we will be presenting.

NovaQuest (TM) will be available to order online in both printed and PDF formats. The first preview download should be going up over the next couple of weeks.

Find out more at http://www.novaquestrpg.com

 

[Enpeze]

I have to say that I love to read about new MRQ settings announced each day I turn on my browser. Great.

Allow me to ask some questions:

-How big is the universe of novaquest? Traveller like with thousands of stars or rather small with several dozens like Fading suns?

-Space travel? How does it function?

-are the aliens more hard SF or more dogs and cats in space?

-do you plan techlevels for novaquest? ala Gurps TLs or traveller?

-What kind of adventures allows the setting? More the science fantasy type of "Star Wars" or more hard SF ala "Transhuman space"?

 

[mthomason]

I have to say that I love to read about new MRQ settings announced each day I turn on my browser. Great.

Allow me to ask some questions:

-How big is the universe of novaquest? Traveller like with thousands of stars or rather small with several dozens like Fading suns?

Pretty much as big as you want it to be!

The main book details space in the immediate vicinity around Earth and the surrounding empires, but if you want to get in an explorer ship and set off thataway you can keep on driving The tools will be there to create worlds...

Most alien races gets a significant lump of territory (maybe up to several dozen inhabited systems) although we'll mostly be concentrating on the homeworld and notable colonies in the core book. Later on we might cover some of these in more detail. If you want to set your campaign outside of that area you're more than welcome to do so - we may even hint at what is sitting across on the other side of the galactic disc at some time...

-Space travel? How does it function?

Most races have jump drives, which a jump through hyperspace taking maybe a few minutes at most. The actual distance travelled depends on the drive power and the quality of technology behind it. It's closer to BSG (the new one) than B5 or Star Trek.

-are the aliens more hard SF or more dogs and cats in space?

A bit of everything, really. Feel free to drop races you don't like.

As a nod to our RQ inspiration, we felt we just had to have ducks... but they're not exactly the same

-do you plan techlevels for novaquest? ala Gurps TLs or traveller?

Something similar, as we want to be able to define the technological capabilities of each race or a given facility.

-What kind of adventures allows the setting? More the science fantasy type of "Star Wars" or more hard SF ala "Transhuman space"?

Space Travel isn't something entered into lightly. You're not going to find people out vacationing in giant pleasure cruiser starships - you're going to find people that are trying to get from point A to point B out of necessity, to haul trade goods, or to mine asteroids for minerals.

You're not going to find shiny corridors aboard ships with neat little compartments hiding strange pulsing technological mysteries - you're going to find metallic gratings on the deck with holes cut in the wall panels where the engineers have had to solder wires together to keep the life support working, and deck plates levered up to bypass the fuel lines.

You're not going to find passenger liners, you're going to find armed vessels with cramped conditions hoping they make it there in one piece.

Engineers don't sit around pressing buttons and moving isolinear chips around to fix problems - they step into rooms with various explosive gases leaking and figure out how to weld things together without blowing the ship up.

Most of that is setting information though - any additional rules we're introducing are designed to be modular and allow people to substitute technology we haven't used. We don't have lightsabers, warp drive, or human-looking robots - but the rules wouldn't prevent a GM from creating them

 

[Turloigh]

As a nod to our RQ inspiration, we felt we just had to have ducks... but they're not exactly the same

Finally: "Duck Dodgers - the Roleplaying Game!" :lol:

No offense, I just couldn't resist... Truth is, I'm looking forward to what you're doing. :wink:

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

Hey Buddy - Don't Knock The Ducks

Anyway - Duck Dodgers is so cool!

 

[Fiddler]

Thanks for kicking out a SF setting so quickly. I am planning on playing with the MRQ rules by adapting Gurps Transhuman Space(my favorite RPG setting) and Gurps Biotech and Ultratech. It will be fun plugging in the Gurps ideas to a MRQ SF setting.

 

[Enpeze]

Thanks for kicking out a SF setting so quickly. I am planning on playing with the MRQ rules by adapting Gurps Transhuman Space(my favorite RPG setting) and Gurps Biotech and Ultratech. It will be fun plugging in the Gurps ideas to a MRQ SF setting.

THS is great for a "realistic" hard SF feel. But I always thought: having a colony with hundred of thousands of people on mars in 2050? Naa. Not possible.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The MRQ rules work well enough for my Traveller adaptation.

I'm looking forward to the previews for this new setting.

 

[mthomason]

I'm looking forward to the previews for this new setting.

Hoping to have a preview PDF ready this weekend!

 

[lastbesthope]

Hoping to have a preview PDF ready this weekend!

My 3-Day Weekend:

Matrix 10 DVD set
Death Hulk
AND a preview pdf :lol:

Now all I need is some beer and chocolate (checks fridge).....

Excellent!

LBH

 

[Enpeze]

a preview would be great. I like it.

 

[mthomason]

Preview is up at http://www.novaquestrpg.com

All comments welcome. This will be going into playtest soon so absolutely nothing is final.

 

[atgxtg]

Preview is up at http://www.novaquestrpg.com

All comments welcome. This will be going into playtest soon so absolutely nothing is final.

Looks sorta interesting so far. PIty you can't swipe Dragonewts-they'd made a great alien species.

 

[mthomason]

Looks sorta interesting so far. PIty you can't swipe Dragonewts-they'd made a great alien species.

Well.

Dragonewts are mentioned in the SRD.

I *believe* that makes them fair game (will have to check this one out), as long as they're not copied verbatim from a non-OGLed book.

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

Looks sorta interesting so far. PIty you can't swipe Dragonewts-they'd made a great alien species.

Well.

Dragonewts are mentioned in the SRD.

I *believe* that makes them fair game (will have to check this one out), as long as they're not copied verbatim from a non-OGLed book.

 

[atgxtg]

Now that gives me a few ideas. Like given them hyperspace transit conduits or some such to represent thier travel powers.

In some ways they can be as interesting if not moreso as a Sci-Fi species than as a fantasy one.


For some strange reason, I feel like playing with the game's logo.

 

[AKAramis]

A Picayune Nitpick:
in Root Skills and Subskills, you say brackets, put use parentheses but brackets are [], not ().
() are parenthesis/parentheses (sing./pl.)

Promising.

 

[mthomason]

Oh, nitpick away

Actually both Chambers and the Oxford English Dictionary defines brackets as marks used in printing to group several words together, including both () round brackets (aka parentheses) and [] square brackets.

I usually prefer saying "brackets" unless it really matters which type, as you never know when someone is going to edit your () into [] (or vice-versa) and not notice your specific reference in the text as to which type.

Speaking of which, the subskill drafts have actually been through {} and [] before settling on () because the rest just looked ugly.....

 

[Rurik]

My only complaint is that there is not much new for the members of this board. I fully realize we are not your primary target audience, but much of the preview is standard rules stuff we are all (perhaps too) familiar with.

What is new I like, the background sounds good and I like the subskills (very reminiscent of Ringworld).

Are more previews planned?

 

[Lieutenant Rasczak]

My only complaint is that there is not much new for the members of this board. I fully realize we are not your primary target audience, but much of the preview is standard rules stuff we are all (perhaps too) familiar with.

What is new I like, the background sounds good and I like the subskills (very reminiscent of Ringworld).

Thats a bit of an unfair assessment really, if he put too much of the 'new' stuff in the preview its open to abuse if you kwim.