Samwise7RPG: Thousand Suns: My First Impressions (Grognardia, James Maliszewski)

Thousand Suns is a game about an immense galactic empire (or federation or republic) which is starting to possibly stagnate and crumble due to inner pressure and exterior threats. That's left up to the GM of course, but there is a tone of optimism throughout the text which is refreshing. The future can ideed be bright and ripe for the picking for those willing to risk it all by hurling themselves out into the void.

Thousand Suns... it's 100% of your daily allowance of awesome sci-fi RPG goodness! It'sssss great. :D

You can pick up a PDF or physical copy here:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/m/product/97661

The influence of Traveller is strongly felt, because it cites many of the same retro sci-fi space opera novels as its source material. As I read through it I was reminded of the Foundation books by Isaac Asimov as an example. Some of the early adventurous spacefaring episodes from The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits also came to mind as I flipped through.

The game makes the reader dream of campaigns in which to use the resources that are provided in its inspiring pages. I want to start tinkering on GM prep for a campaign using it right away. It's nice when a game/setting can inspire that sort of excitement.

Aliens, humans, and genetically modified "clades" populate the known universe of thousands of possible worlds. The clades remind me of some of the oddly designed species in The Skyrealms of Jorune. Come to think of it... many of those species could be cut and pasted right into this game... *Tim scribbles notes*

It seems fairly simple to design your own homebrewed species too. As I read along I really just want to make my own species and jump right into playing. I love the hooks for each of the listed species too. They are pure imagination fuel. The hooks as a mechanic is something that I suspect will grow on me even more with play.

The exact nature of the enourmous space setting however is implied rather than dictated by the text. I rather like its laissez faire old school attitude. It's modular like the rules that are provided, and it acts more like a GM's toolbox of ideas to use as you see fit. It acts more like a setting outline than a typical published setting. Take what you like and ignore the rest. In some ways it all reminds me of the GURPS: Space book which is an awesome sci-fi tome of goodness.

The main dice mechanic is roll 2D12 where rolling lower is better. Your target number is your skill rank plus your stat and you need to roll that or under to be successful. That's the meat and potatoes of it all. Nice and simple. Snake eyes (2) are a dramatic success (crit) and a 24 is a dramatic failure (fumble).

Degrees of success are counted when you roll beneath (success) or above (failure) a target number. For instance if your TN is 8 and you rolled a 5 you have 3 degrees of success. This matters for contested dice rolls and for doing extra damage in combat. The roll with more degrees of success wins.

Character creation is via point buy but there is a random method of rolling 1D12 for each stat. When in doubt I tend to opt for the random option so I'm glad that it's there.

The stats are Body, Dexterity, Perception (a bit like Intelligence too), Presence, and Will. Resolve (Social Hit Points) and Vitality (Hit Points) are derived from your stats. Initiative is rolled via 1D12 plus an average of Dexterity and Perception.

You pick a generic type of homeworld package (or roll for a random one which I prefer). Core, civilized, the marches, spacer, and wildspace are your options. This gives you some skills. If the GM has some worlds pregenerated then they will have some named planets for you to choose from that fit the type of planet you have. There are some tables to generate them later in the book which look like a lot of fun for players and GMs to use.

You can pick up to three careers or stick with one to be more of a focused character, and they give you a good many skill ranks. There are detailed guidelines on making your own careers (awesome) but the provided ones are: academic, aristocrat, army, barbarian, belter, bounty hunter, civil servant, colonist, criminal, diplomat, doctor, entertainer, journalist, law enforcer, marine, missionary, navy, pirate, rebel, scientist, scout, spy, starship crew member, survivalist and trader. Phew. That's a lot of fun options! Plus there are two psi-classes: esper and espo.

The longer you stick with one career the more Benefits you get (Assets, Membership, Retainer, and Starship Mortgage are your choices).

In regards to the skill list, there seems to be a nice medium number of them. In sci-fi games I tend to like a lot of skills and I'm happy with the ones I see in this game. It also wouldn't be hard to add in a few more as a GM. ;D You would just have to designate one stat to associate it with.

You get to make up 5 hooks that are a bit like Fate's Aspects or short phrases that help describe your character and their quirks, but the mechanical use of them is that they let you use Action Points which are a bit like Hero or Fate Points in other games. When a hook can be used in a session you get to use an Action Point. Simple enough. New characters start with 5 Action Points to burn up. You can get extra points when your negative hooks come into play during a session too. I like the versatility of the Hooks, especially as a means of bringing into play a character's background. It also seems like a nice way to differentiate one character from another.

The example aliens are standard and also retro-cool and some are quite odd like the space ents (Czanik). Groot has made that type of alien more popular though. ;D My personal favorite is the Kriilkna! They remind me of a creature formulated from the dreams of H.R. Giger and David Lynch.

There are a good variety of psi-powers but for this game I really want to hone in on a more hard sci-fi feel without them. They are there though to bring in The Force or psychic powers if that's what you like in your space knight shenanigans.

The ships section has a good many examples for your characters to zoom around in with their FTL "D-Drives." I think there is another supplement about ships too for the Thousand Suns line.