[Blue Harvest] Playtesters needed

[pulpapocalipsis]

Hello everyone!

We are two spanish game designers looking for some playtesters for our project. Below you have some info about what the game/system goes about.

Anyone interested can drop us a mail at pulpapocalipsis@gmail.com and we will give you more information.

Thanks in advance

p.s. We are not english native speakers so we apologize in advance for all the mistakes you might encounter.

BLUE HARVEST

Thousand years have passed since the Occult War devastated the Golden Age's civilization in an Arcane Apocalypse. In just one night millions of human beings died in the supernatural fire of the Tau Bombs or devoured by the blaspheme entities summoned over the world. All the progress and science of the Golden Age, their nations, their machines and its sophisticated culture were wiped out: in its place only left silent ruins where a handful of survivors reduced to barbarism hid terrified from the monster that were reclaiming the world.

Thousand years have passed and men has walked the hard road from savagery to civilization once again. New and exotic cultures flourished over the ruins, keeping as legends the Golden Age's precious knowledge. Other, darker, nations are the nightmarish empires created by the monsters from beyond this world, where countless human beings are oppressed in unspeakable ways. Non human species share the world with mankind, and the ancient technical and scientific arts have become as esoteric as the arcane schools, legacy of the Occult War.

Blue Harvest is a game of post-apocalyptic Sword and Sorcery, inspired by the Weird Fantasy and Pulp. Think about it like as a result of Clark Ashton Smith and Robert E. Howard writing the Mad Max trilogy. With airships.

--- the system ---

Blue Harvest's system has been designed to be fast and simple, allowing, at the same time, countless game options. Based around a unified conflict resolutions system, with only a reduced ruleset most of situations will be solved. The system has been designed to keep dice to roll and rules to remember to a minimum. On top of this core rules, additional ones are added to describe in more detail important aspects like combat or magic.

Characters are described by five basic attributes, that not only take into account their physical or mental skills but also their resources (contacts, gear, wealth) and their supernatural abilities (magic and science). In addition, characters have a handful of traits that describe only those things that make them special and unequalled.

Each character has four specialties. Specialties represent those things that make a character unique, and include his specie, homeland, his combat, magic or social skills, arcane-technologic items, followers, etc. Whatever they be, they represent powerful skills and never stock abilities.

A character's specie grants not immediate benefits, each specie gives access to some special skills that can be bought or not. Homeland, in the same vein give access to cultural restricted skills, further differentiating characters from different places.

Combat is based in challenge points that, in place of more common hit points, represent all the factors that can affect a combatant, like weariness, wounds, tactical position or moral. This way a combat can end with a defying sword on the enemy's throat without even inflict a wound, or with the evil priest running away through a secret door. Challenge points allow characters to use all kind of skills, not only combat ones. Distraction maneuvers, thrusting, energy rays, dirty tricks, everything has its place in Blue Harvest.

Magic is divided in three levels of power, allowing the access to arcane skills to almost any character. From simple traditional tricks, learnt in a familiar way to powerful wizards, characters can choose their level of commitment with the arcane world. But remember that those who choose to fully use its power will see their souls and bodies corrupted and destroyed.

In Blue Harvest, science is an arcane force too, as dangerous and fantastic as the magic is. Scientist are able to create strange devices on the go, change the time-space, create biological aberrations and much more. As with magic, using this barely understood forces will have a high toll for the scientist.

Both arcane systems share the same mechanics and because of that do not add new and complex mechanics. The arcane system is not based on closed, predefined spells, but in a series of "fields of knowledge" that allow the players to create spells on the go, choosing their effects and level of power to fit their needs.

Players do not have to keep track of their character's belongings. An abstract system of resources and wealth allows the adventure to keep going even if someone forgot his 15 feet of rope. Only the most important resources, like arcane objects, followers or vehicles have real game stats, and they work like traits for the character using them.

Finally, a simple but clever subsystem is used to manage some important aspects of the game. By using four type of points, the player will control his character's positive and negative energies. The positive energies allowing him to make amazing deeds or improve his character. The negative ones, representing the corruption, sanity loss and long term negative effects.