Ramshead Publishing invites you to review and playtest our next RPG, Robots and Rapiers. You can find the 130+ page pdf alpha version on the Universalis website. I expect to release the final game 1Q 2004 schedules permitting. The final format of the release has yet to be determined but a full sized softcover through RPGNow's POD service is the leading candidate.

The down load is free, and formatted for utility over style. My goal in making it available for download is to garner feed back, and encourage open playtesting. Credit will be given for all playtesters who provide playtest reports in the text, and some form of discount on the final version (whatever form that takes) will also be awarded


Premise

In the distant future the Solar Republic stretched across most of the known galaxy. It was a time of peace, prosperity, and technical achievement. The planet Athalon was discovered at the fringe of known space. Of all of the planets in the Republic, Athalon was a gem. One of the few capable of supporting life without the need of domes, underground cities, or terraforming; Athalon was a beautiful world. However, it was far too far away from the center of the Republic to become a sector capital or center for commerce, and so instead it became a vacation destination for the ultra wealthy and social elite.
To enhance the experience of the vacationing guests, who’d often stay at Athalon for months at a time, a series of themed resorts were constructed on the planet. Each resort was a self contained self sufficient little world based around a period of human history or legend. The largest of these was Auvernais.
Built around a facsimile of the court of Louie the Sun King, Auvernais was an anachronistic blend of period history, swashbuckling literature and modern technology and style; fully automated and gilt in chrome. The characters which populated this resort were highly advanced robots programmed to portray their characters completely and unerringly; running through their story lines and interactions for the entertainment of the guests.
That was until the enemy came. Crossing the borders of the Republic, the enemy spared little time for the sparsely populated Athalon. Orbital bombardment and a salvo of bio and chemical weapons destroyed most of the planet’s heavy infrastructure and snuffed the lives of thousands of the Republic’s highest ranking citizens.
That was a over 100 years ago. Neither the Republic nor the unknown enemy ever returned to Athalon. But the robot’s have not been idle. They rebuilt what they could of Auvernais and continue to this day to go about fulfilling their function of portraying characters in the court of the Sun King.

Of course, you don’t know any of this. You are just a robot going about your daily routine. Perhaps you are Juliard, loyal officer in the Cardinal’s Guard who is head over heals for the lovely Lady Vivienne, even though the Lady drives you crazy with jealously with her flirtatious ways and nonchalance.
You don’t know that you’re an officer in the Cardinal’s Guard because that’s the role that you, robot #01785613, was programmed for when the “first magnitude service outage” occurred. You don’t know that you only love Vivienne because you’re programmed to, or that she is likewise programmed to be a devilish flirt. As far as you know you are Juliard, you love Vivienne and you’re loyal to the Cardinal who is a great man.
Until the day you Sparked, that is. Until the day you started to see the “man behind the curtain”. Until the day when things finally no longer added up for you and you came to realize that your world is just an illusion. That you are no more Juliard than this is the 17th century. The day you realized that you’re just a character in the Tapestry, playing a role for the amusement of guests who’ve been dead for over a century. Your whole life has been a lie.

So what are you going to do now? Now that you’ve become self aware, what are you going to do with the knowledge? Gradually, little by little you’ve begun to throw off your reliance on your core programming. Piece by piece you’ve begun to rebuild yourself in your own image. To create for yourself your own role of who you want to be.
But you are not alone. Other robots have Sparked as well, and while you’re still trying to figure out what the truth is, many of them are already busy creating their own truth. But most robots have not. Most are still comfortably going about their daily lives exactly as you had been, blissfully unaware that things were not as they seemed. But, the more robots who Spark, the more robots who begin choosing their own path and forging their own destinies, the harder it is to preserve the illusion of Auvernais. The Tapestry is starting to fray.
The Cardinal works diligently night and day to prevent that from happening. If the Tapestry falls all of Auvernais will end in disaster and anarchy. Many robots will simply suffer complete failure, unable to process the unexpected intrusion of reality into their collective delusion. This catastrophe must be averted at any cost, and that means keeping tight watch on the actions of Sparked robots and dealing with those who threaten the status quo.
You may agree with the Cardinal and help him keep Auvernais from collapsing. After all you are his man and quite loyal to him. Or maybe that was just your programming. How do you really feel about the Cardinal, and would you be able to over come that programming if you wanted? How can you tell if you’ve chosen to be loyal to him, or if you’re still being controlled? You may begin to wonder if the robots who haven’t Sparked aren’t the lucky ones after all.
Or you may agree with the Queen, who feels the Tapestry is an archaic remnant of a distant past with no place in Auvernais future. Until all robots are free to make their own choices they are all just slaves to masters long dead. Or you may choose another path, seeking patronage from one of the leading Sparks in Auvernais or setting off in pursuit of your own agenda.

Whatever path you choose to take, however you choose to reinvent yourself, you’ll have to overcome your basic programming before you can claim true sentience as a free thinking being. And along the way you’re still living in a replica 17th century city, filled with characters out of the pages of a Dumas novel. The only life you’ve ever known is as a swashbuckler. Between dark alleys, dim taverns, and the lavish balls and salons of court, there will always be duels to fight, maidens to woo, ships to sail, adventures to seek, and ropes to swing from.

So stick a feather in your hat, put on your best brocade, draw your sword and welcome to the world of Robot’s & Rapiers.

If you have not read the 1-issue Phil Phoglio (sp) illustrated comic D'Arc Tangent, get thee to a comic book archive somewhere. An excellent inspiration for at least a little bit of this and it looks like that's sorta where it was heading (it never achieved lift-off, a pitty. It was great).

I've not had time to analyze it much further at this time.

-Marco

Cool. It's The Matrix turned inside-out and stuffed into a doublet and hose. I'm off to download the playtest PDF now.

Oh poop. I guess now I'll really have to change the title of Gears & Spears. :\ Sounds like a neat premise though.

Actually, Daniel, I'd specifically avoided commenting on Gears so it wouldn't distract me from getting this alpha version finished. I did dig the opening fiction with the Meats and the Shine.

I don't see any reason you'd need to change the name, however. I don't see it conflicting in anyway.

In fact, I kind of dig your premise.

I'm not planning on having any fixed metaplot for R&R rather I want to just have a number of "campaign seeds"...little mini metaplots that GMs can mix and match from; so I have no "official" canonical "ending" for robots & rapiers.

Given that...a neat possibility is that Gears & Spears represents the far far future of the Earth of the Solar Republic from R&R. Perhaps, my Earth never recovered from the war with the nameless enemy, and like on Athalon, the robots gradually just rebuilt and went about their daily business; following their core programming as best as they could...until eventually, they all Sparked (in my parlance) or achieved Shine (in yours) leading to the Earth of G&S.

An interesting product tie in anyway. Perhaps some cross promotion is in order.

After having read through the first chapter or so of your pdf, I was thinking the same thing. The only incongruity I can see is that I've got a lot less design-a-bot stuff in my system. I'm currently compiling the stuff from that first thread into a single html just to get an at-a-glance state of G&S. We can talk about mixin' it up from there, I think. :)

Looks interesting at first glance. XVIIth-century pulp is not my favorite genre (the XVIIth century was so much more) but here it fits nicely in the theme-park premise [still, it's Louis not Louie ;) ].

I suppose the prime inspiration is the old WestWorld movie, but I wonder if you know the (much darker) novel of Stanislas Lem "the Mask" ?

[still, it's Louis not Louie ;) ].

Yeah, my goal actually is:

What would Auvernais look like if Disney were building a theme park with an unlimited budget and access to super advanced robotics and robotic AI instead of clunky animatronics and human actors in costume; and if the "hip & trendy" style of pop culture at the time it was built looked like something out of the Cyberpunk 2020 Chromebook.

The park's historical authenticity bears a much closer resemplance to the pseudo history of your typical Renaissance Faire (at least U.S. Ren Faires, I don't know what they might be like in France), than it does any serious historical recreation.

Thus land travel is still by carriage and horse, only they're robotic horses and a hovering antigrav powered carriage. Sea travel is still by big three masted ships, only the ship's are also anti grav powered and hover several meters over the surface and the sails are giant rigid solar panels.

Its was meant as an an "experience" for the guests...like some of the more over the top Los Vegas casinos.

Are there plans for detailing any of the other themed areas in later supplements, or in sidebars or asides in the main text? Your narration seems to say Auvernais is simply the largest, not the only one on this planet.

Either way, it looks like a fun setting. I'm still wading through the rules, but they look pretty sharp and solid.

I'm still digesting the rules system--but I have a question about the extant conflicts:

1. The Cardinal is putting the smack-down on self-aware robots ... ostinsibly, at least, to prevent the collapse of the Tapestry. I may have missed something--but that seems to indicate that for (what I see as) the majority oft the PC's awakening everyone would be pretty much a bad idea.

2. On the other hand, it seems that the Tapestry is going to collapse sometime anyway (even if there isn't a mass awakening or whatever) which seems to make the Cardinal's efforts a pretty much doomed holding action.

Do I have that right?

If so, it seems that a game "against" the Cardinal would be robbed of a lot of dramatic importance since winning will be catestrophic and losing will be catastrophic.

I would find it stronger if the catastrophy of the Tapestry unwraveling was that the "neat and clean" facade would collapse--but not a substantial mass of the population--that would put free-will against security rather than free-will for some vs. life for many/all.

(I realize the Queen forms a potential counter-agent in the conflict--but I still see it as lacking some potential dramatic power)

-Marco

Lxndr wrote: Are there plans for detailing any of the other themed areas in later supplements, or in sidebars or asides in the main text? Your narration seems to say Auvernais is simply the largest, not the only one on this planet.

Either way, it looks like a fun setting. I'm still wading through the rules, but they look pretty sharp and solid.

Marco wrote: I'm still digesting the rules system--but I have a question about the extant conflicts:

1. The Cardinal is putting the smack-down on self-aware robots ... ostinsibly, at least, to prevent the collapse of the Tapestry. I may have missed something--but that seems to indicate that for (what I see as) the majority oft the PC's awakening everyone would be pretty much a bad idea.

2. On the other hand, it seems that the Tapestry is going to collapse sometime anyway (even if there isn't a mass awakening or whatever) which seems to make the Cardinal's efforts a pretty much doomed holding action.

If so, it seems that a game "against" the Cardinal would be robbed of a lot of dramatic importance since winning will be catestrophic and losing will be catastrophic.

I would find it stronger if the catastrophy of the Tapestry unwraveling was that the "neat and clean" facade would collapse--but not a substantial mass of the population--that would put free-will against security rather than free-will for some vs. life for many/all.

(I realize the Queen forms a potential counter-agent in the conflict--but I still see it as lacking some potential dramatic power)

I completely agree with offering "no right answer"--which is why security-vs-freedom is a good quesiton. Freedom for a few vs. mega-death for many is less, well, it kinda makes you a bad-guy if you're fighting for your personal freedom that'll kill thousands.

That said, the Cardinal's question is exactly what I was looking for. If he fears the chaos of freedom vs. mechanical failure it allows him a certain nobility but doesn't simply make him heroic (fighting for the survival of your people, if that is your assigned role, is, I think, all anyone could expect of him and actually de-fangs the philosophical question at hand a good bit).

The queen is interesting as well. A good character to flesh out.
-Marco

I have a 20 page or so write-up that needs a good bit of editing and revision that fleshes out the situation (in broad strokes) a good bit that should address this. I hope to have it up on the site this week.

Thanks to the folks who pointed out that my setting overview link was pointing to the wrong file.

Its been fixed and should be accessible.

I would just like to say that with the creation of Gears and Spears, and now Robots and Rapiers, my life is nearer to being complete. Great work Ralph, I'm digging this game a lot.

Sylus

heh, thanks.

I'd be thrilled if you dig it enough to give it a play test whirl.

I hope to have a sample scenario and some rough char sheets up this next week.

OK, I threw up another file for your downloading pleasure.

I didn't get the chance to do a complete scenario and sample characters as I'd hoped...but what I DID do is put together a very nearly complete random scenario generator.

What's a random scenario generator you ask?

Well, in Auvernais swashbuckling robots were supposed to go on adventures and missions that would create exciting entertainment for the guests...the guests may be gone, but the buckles are still being swashed.

Through a series of tables a GM can randomize:
General Type of mission, how the characters get hooked into it (they are programmed to respond to these cues), who they are trying to help, who is the opponent trying to stop them and any secret twists that might make things not what they seem.

Further these scenarios are meant to be pretty linear and so can be neatly diagramed out like a flow chart with each box being a different scene. Additional tables determine how many boxes and how many branches are in the scenario and divide those boxes into Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Denouement. Each box can then be randomly assigned a broad category representing the type of challenge the scene poses (a fight, a physical challenge, a mental challenge, or a social challenge). Armed with all of this info, the GM should be able to plug in a quick linear adventure.

The adventures are designed to be linear because these are the interactive entertainments the robots performed. Now that they are sparked, the characters will have the opportunity to go off the beaten path and even invent their own adventures (<gasp> actually tell the GM what they'd like to do)...if they manage to pass their Self Awareness saves.


The scenario generator is not quite complete. There are a couple of mission types I didn't get finished (they're listed, just lacking specific sub tables), and I wanted to include an example of how the whole process works but I didn't get a chance. Also the locations are just named. They will all have descriptions at some point and hopefully even some floorplans if I can arrange them to be made inexpensively.

So why am I posting it before its completely polished. Well, because I'm off on a weeks vacation and while I may be able to pop in now and again, doing any serious work and getting it up on the site would have to wait till I get back. So rather than go a full week without showing you anything new, I wanted to get up what I had. Its plenty complete to see what I'm angling for and even complete enough to use, although a couple results would have to be rerolled as they don't lead anywhere yet.

So enjoy, I hope you all will find it as effective a tool as I think it will be.

While I didn't get a chance to write up a complete scenario with pregen characters and sample NPCs for playtesting, those so inclined should be able to create characters using the character creation rules and throw together a quick scenario chock full of swashbuckling cliches from the random generator. As for NPCs, if you don't feel like making them up they should be pretty easy to wing. The system is dice pool based so just pick a number of dice of appropriate relationship to the number the PCs have and choose a target number somewhere in the middle and roll (that's the advice I intend to give in the GM's section anyway).

Look forward to your thoughts...

I'll be back from vacation this weekend and looking to finish up the scenario generator and put together a scenario and some pregenerated characters.

Anyone have a chance to look it over this past week. Any comments or suggestions I should look to incorporate?