Black of Space, GM's Toolbox

This is a handbook of suggestions for situations and rolls, sort of a playbook for the GM. It is a supplement for These Are The Voyages, a LUPOS game.

Situation Keywords

Situations have zero to three keywords (and rarely more). Here is each keyword, and what it means in the game.

Dangerous: All situations have the risk of consequence, but a dangerous situation takes that up a notch. In a dangerous situation the character's are directly at risk from injury, anguish, or despair. A dangerous situation means that: any failure to earn outcome on a roll to deal with the situation earns a threat roll in response from the GM.

Harrowing: When a situation is harrowing, the matter is dire. Harrowing means that at the end of player's action in a round, they suffer one despair. This loss of confidence may not be diverted or absorbed. Also, at the end of any round: Add one advantage to the pool if there is less than three in the pool.

Dramatic: In these situations, drama between two player characters is key. Unlike a GM standard situation which has a resolution track, there is a five square tug of war between two characters.

Mission: These situations are directly tied to the success and failure of the current mission. Characters that resolve such a situation earn an extra square on their situation track towards experience. Command characters may issue orders once per mission situation, giving another character a bonus die to roll if they do as instructed.

Unknown: The space out there is full of the unknown, and discovery of the unknown is part of this game in a big way. When a situation has the unknown keyword, the characters in it are coming face to face with something new in the universe. Unknown situations face escalation, meaning the GM rolls once per round to see if they: earn a new keyword, regain a resolution square, or put a die in each pool on the table.

Shiptied: These situations inherently relate to the ship and its crew. This could be anything from a space battle, a chase, or even just the ship lending support fire to the surface from orbit. Sometimes the GM will set this keyword, and other times the First Officer or Captain may invoke it for an action. When it is added to a situation, applicable assets are counted and that many dice are added to the advantage pool. In addition, any Officer may call on the ship for an additional bonus die to action rolls. However, shiptied means that the ship is also at risk, and the GM can roll threat on it directly as if it were a character.

Situation Rolls

Here are some tips and tricks for handling rolling in the game, mostly inside situations.