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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)

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Average Rating:4.1 / 5
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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)
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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)
Publisher: StoryWeaver
by Michael B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/11/2014 08:36:25

Having purchased High-Space, I can guarantee that I will not be using Mercenary Breed or Science-Fiction Companion books in any of my games (except possibly for the odd Edge or Hindrance).

--CHARACTER ANALECTS-- Character (human) creation is extremely detailed, where players have to choose a Culture (starting skills prior to purchasing more) and Career (starting equipment prior to requisitioning more). Some generic Alien Race types are presented, but this portion is not as detailed as the Science-Fiction Companion.

Skills are expanded with the inclusion of multiple piloting skills, philosophy (debating), psychiatry (help remove technology shock and restore "Equilibrium"), programming, security, and spacewise. All skills have a very clear use in this setting, and none seem unnecessary.

Hindrances and Edges have a very strong genre feel, and the inclusion of "Glanding" has an almost Shadowrun-esque feel. Cybernetic implants are dealt with through acquiring edges, and may be overly simplified (even compared to Science Fiction Companion) for some people's taste.

--FLEET MANUAL-- This book lets you "write up" your ship with the same level of detail that you would a character. You select attributes (Maneuver, Computer, FTL, Displacement/Size, Quality), Design Edges (describing the original purpose of the vehicle and determining basic features), Edges (Shock Pods, Positronic Core, Cargo Container, X-Ray Lasers) and Hindrances (Non-Atmospheric, Pulls to the Left, etc).

The rules indicate that a ship's "Automatics" can take care of every function per round, but a WildCard character can override the function and perform it manually. Included are a variety of Tactical Maneuvers (Align for Impact, Weapons Release, etc). Damage is resolved using "Compromises" and "Breaches" as rolled on a damage table, with cumulative penalties. There is also a large section on space Hazards.

--OVERALL-- While the Science Fiction Companion grazed over multiple settings, High Space instead focuses pretty squarely on space ships, exploration, and space combat. The setting has done a great job of providing detail to characters, personality to ships, and a number of inspirations throughout the three books. I strongly recommend this product for someone wanting a Sci-Fi Savage Worlds.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)
Publisher: StoryWeaver
by Henry M. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/28/2014 22:17:13

A good B- or C+ product. It’s got a lot of great stuff to steal for your sci-fi games, especially if you’re aiming for more Space Opera or Star Trek than Honor Harrington or Hammer’s Slammers. However while many of the bits are great (eminently theft-worthy even), as a stand-alone product/campaign it didn’t quite come together for me.

It’s got very high production quality, and the obvious errata-fodder is very minimal. I really liked many of the character creation tweaks, and plan to steal them shamelessly. It seemed to me that the alien entries were kinda abbreviated and there just because they felt like they HAD to put them there to still be Sci-Fi. The campaign material certainly doesn’t do anything to emphasize them. But they were plenty robust for anyone who wanted to create or import their own. The computer and ship rules are clever and an easy ways to approach things. As has been mentioned elsewhere, the cyberware and augmentation edges are also a great implementation method – vastly better than “whatever the character can afford” or I guess in this case “whatever they can acquire based on rank”. Several of the skills, edges and hindrances are right at home in most any sci-fi game. The Lantern setting also has plenty of stuff to steal or use outright for a bunch of different flavors of sci-fi. These are all very good things and well worth your time.

And while the acquisition system is novel, and very useful for keeping things fast, the whole post-scarcity economy is a bust as far as I can tell. Not just because I personally think it’s a crock for any “hard” sci-fi genre, but because the game itself treats it as a crock. All 3 books go on to repeatedly emphasize wealth, possessions, trade, sales, deals, and commissions as the things that make the world turn, not just at the character/peon level, but also at the “powers that be” level economy. The post-scarcity shtick looks like it got ladled on at a later date to explain the acquisition system but everything else had already been written. My suggestion is to keep the acquisition system for character generation and for major story items like ships, but just admit it’s hand-wavium for convenience sake and go back to using money for everything else. I’d also delete every single reference to Equilibrium. It smacks of the Guts rolls that used to be in base SW rules and were dumped for good reason. I’m not a fan of extra stats to book-keep whose sole purpose is to occasionally screw over the character on random die rolls. There’s no upside to using it, the situation that triggered the roll usually has plenty of consequences already, and I’m content to fall back on Spirit rolls for the times I need something like that situationally or as some kind of campaign based sanity management.

All in all, I’ve spent far more money for far less valuable gaming material. I’m not overawed, but I’m also perfectly satisfied with my purchase.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)
Publisher: StoryWeaver
by Timothy S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/15/2014 00:45:07

Wonderful space opera. Great rules, great art, and I love the "ships as characters" in the second book. This is now my go-to space book for Savage Worlds... with a little Star Frontiers thrown in. As a matter of fact, the only thing missing from High Space are setting-specific, original alien races. Luckily, Savage Worlds makes it super easy to design any playable races you want.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)
Publisher: StoryWeaver
by Petras F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/02/2013 22:51:38

Nice rules, nice setting - overall, an interesting option to traditional space opera. I specially enjoyed the acquisition system and the background concepts and how everything made character creation fast and easy. Just got into the Savage Worlds wagon and you can be sure that I am going to buy more stuff from this line.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)
Publisher: StoryWeaver
by Mike G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/06/2013 01:43:50

This was a good, solid attempt to make a sci-fi space-opera game for Savage Worlds, but it's not without some flaws.

The good stuff: I liked the alien race generation rules, and I rather thought the Fleet book was innovative. Making spaceships into characters is very intriguing, and I may implement a lot of it in my games. It utilizes making cybernetics as Edges rather than as Gear; not that I'm partial to that, but I thought it was a good application of this approach from the Sci-Fi Gear Toolkit by Paul Wade-Williams. Adding Culture to character creation is a good approach as well if only to differentiate human characters a bit more, and I liked the addition of the Equilibrium Rules (a sort of Culture Shock mechanic to assess how well your character deals with the strange and new phenomena)

The not-so-good: The more you read, the more questions come up that I think needed to be answered. Examples, for instance, of various spacecraft would've been handy, to give me a reference on how many Edges should I take for various items on a ship. Such as, it lists Lifepods as an Edge, but if by taking this Edge once, does that mean I have escape pods for everyone, or do I need to take that multiple times. An example of ship development would've been nice, and something more for robotic characters would've sent this game into the five star margin.

On a side note, I'm not a fan of the concept of Post-Scarcity, but I don't apply this as a flaw to High Space. It does, however, turn me off from The Lantern setting, but I thought I'd disclose my own personal misgiving in this regard. However, I did like the simple Acquisition system.

Overall, I think it's a good sci-fi approach to Savage Worlds, and worth getting to enhance your own Savage Worlds game.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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High Space Core Rules (v1.2)
Publisher: StoryWeaver
by Naomi B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/20/2013 00:33:06

I haven't used this yet but it appears to be fun. I would have liked a character sheet with the download and it seems to need the Savage Worlds core book but what can you expect for this price? A great extension to the original.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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