Blasters and Lasers Zero Edition on Kickstarter ZineQuest

I’m in the last two days of a successful ZineQuest 3 campaign (Kickstarter’s February promotion). Its already funded two zines (Grogzilla #2 and The Duck Crusade) and it is now funding one last zine, a RPG in a zine Blasters and Lasers Zero Edition.

Here’s the cover by jeshields.

Blasters and Lasers (B&L) is a traditional tabletop roleplaying game at its Maximum Gaming Fun. It is a game about characters exploring a far future that should be familiar to anyone who was brought up on a diet of TV and Film science fiction full of travelling the galaxy in a spaceship. The setting of the game, the Fractured Galaxy, is teaming with humans and aliens, opportunities to trade, explore strange worlds and fight for what the characters believe.

D100 Powered

B&L uses the same stripped-down, straightforward D100 variant as Skyraiders of the Floating Realms, a fantasy game of skyships and sky islands, developed for fast and furious campaigns and one-shot convention games. The system is short and concise and does not mess about getting stuck into the action when needed yet fades into the background when not needed. All skills and chances to do things are expressed as percentages, so it is easy for players to understand the risks that their characters are taking.

What this Zero Edition Contains

A fuller version of this game is being developed, but this Zero Edition gets you up and going in the worlds of the Fractured Galaxy, with the following chapters.

1. Characters

Using simple archetypes, players create their alter-egos in the game and learn how to develop their skills and abilities during the game.

2. How to do Things

This chapter deals with the percentile-based skill system that the game uses. Small and compact, it allows both the players and the Referee to quickly resolve whether the characters succeed at what they are attempting when the outcome of their actions is unclear.

3. How to Fight

Be it with blasters, lasers, laser-sabres, or exotic martial arts this chapter explains how combat works in the Fragmented Galaxy.  There will also be a simple system for resolving space ship combat.

4. Augmentations

This chapter deals with the different sources of extraordinary power that characters from the Fragmented Galaxy may have. Such as.

Psychic powers, Cybernetics & Bioware, Alien powers, Signature Technological Items.

5. Factions

The Fragmented Galaxy may not have a unifying Galactic Government, but it has several factions that are vying for control.  This chapter gives a few typical examples and details the benefits that characters may gain by becoming members.

6. Aliens, Pirates, and other Freebooters

A short chapter that explains how to create memorable Aliens and other non-player characters. A few examples are given to get the Referee started with populating worlds.

7. Adventure: Marooned

A non-linear adventure that sees the newly created characters find their way off a small Mining Moon, and into a life of galactic adventure. As well as encounters and events that make up the adventure, there will be a quick review of the % Indexing system that is used to quickly describe planets.