Machinations of the Space Princess (Corebook) (PDF)

Machinations of the Space Princess

The empire has collapsed.

Ninety-nine Space Princesses claim the vacant throne. Their agents scheme, sabotage and murder across a galaxy already splintering into petty kingdoms, criminal fiefdoms, pirate territories and planets abruptly discovering that the imperial supply ships are never coming back.

Ancient weapons wait in dead civilisations. Robot hordes obey instructions issued by extinct masters. Living planets drift between the stars. Slavers, mercenaries, cultists, mutants and glamorous degenerates gather wherever money changes hands.

Somewhere amid this chaos, a group of heavily armed opportunists is looking for its next job.

That would be you.

Machinations of the Space Princess is a complete old-school science-fantasy roleplaying game of space pirates, alien princesses, psychic powers, laser weapons and cheerfully irresponsible adventure.

It is sexy, sleazy, swords and sci-fi.

The Fall of Empire

For a thousand years, the Urlanth Matriarchy ruled much of known space.

Then the Empress died unexpectedly, leaving ninety-nine daughters with plausible claims to the throne and no compelling reason to tolerate one another. The empire fractured as its princesses, nobles, generals, corporations and subject worlds began fighting for position.

The resulting galaxy is violent, unstable and full of opportunity.

Player characters travel from score to score and planet to planet, taking work from people who cannot be trusted, stealing things which should have remained buried and becoming entangled in schemes far larger than themselves.

They may become mercenaries, pirates, explorers, criminals, rebels, rulers or corpses floating gently towards an unfamiliar sun.

Possibly several of these in sequence.

Old-School Rules, Built for Space Opera

Machinations of the Space Princess grew from the old-school rules tradition, particularly Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but rebuilds those foundations for fast, customisable science-fantasy play.

The game retains familiar levels, classes, hit points, saving rolls and d20 combat while adding skills, alien traits, cybernetics, psionics and modular equipment.

Four broad classes provide a starting point:

• Killers excel at violence, whether they are soldiers, assassins, gladiators or gunfighters.

• Experts are adaptable specialists, rogues, pilots, infiltrators and practical problem-solvers.

• Scholars master medicine, engineering, ExoTech, xenoarchaeology and other dangerous forms of knowing things.

• Psions bend physics through mental power while carrying the physical or psychological marks of their abilities.

Skills and character choices allow these classes to cover an enormous range of concepts without requiring a separate profession for every possible variety of interstellar ne’er-do-well.

Build Your Own Alien

The galaxy contains millions of intelligent species.

Rather than providing a short list of rubber-forehead humanoids, the game offers an extensive selection of species traits which can be combined to create almost anything.

Characters might be winged, aquatic, chitinous, bioluminescent, venomous, methane-breathing, cybernetic, undead or adapted to zero gravity. Biological features can be combined with cultural and psychological traits to create a species suited to the campaign—or to reproduce a favourite alien from elsewhere with the serial numbers hastily filed off.

Sample species and random-generation tables are also included for those who would rather throw dice and discover what manner of spacefreak they have become.

Humans remain available.

Somebody has to look boring by comparison.

Weapons, Armour and Ships

Equipment is modular.

Begin with a basic weapon, suit of armour, vehicle or starship, then add the capabilities required to make it distinctive. Build freeze rays, plasma weapons, concealed guns, powered armour, battered freighters, smuggling vessels, warships and improbable personal death-machines without waiting for an official equipment catalogue to anticipate your exact bad idea.

The same approach applies throughout the book:

• Design alien species from traits

• Modify weapons and armour

• Construct vehicles and starships

• Create monsters and alien wildlife

• Assemble henchmen, goons and major adversaries

• Generate planets, cultures and complications

• Produce enough trouble to keep a campaign moving long after the original plan has been forgotten

Starships are treated almost like characters, with their own capabilities, modifications and damage. Space combat uses scale to distinguish personal weapons, vehicles and enormous ships without requiring a degree in orbital mechanics.

A Trillion Worlds

The setting is deliberately suggestive rather than suffocating.

There is no requirement to memorise forty pages of dynastic history before being permitted to buy a laser pistol. The fall of the Urlanth Empire provides the broad situation, while short pieces of background, random tables, implied history and bizarre details create a galaxy that can be expanded in almost any direction.

The Games Master receives tools and advice for creating:

• Planets and star systems

• Civilisations and governments

• Religions, customs and social peculiarities

• Alien beasts and intelligent species

• Criminals, mercenaries and political enemies

• Jobs, expeditions and campaign conflicts

• Ruins, lost technology and ExoTech

• Worlds which sounded perfectly safe when the employer described them

The result can resemble planetary romance, grindhouse science fiction, psychedelic space opera, sword-and-planet adventure or a particularly disreputable issue of Métal Hurlant.

Inside

• A complete standalone roleplaying game

• Four flexible character classes

• Skills, saving rolls and old-school advancement

• Extensive alien-species creation

• Cybernetics and character enhancements

• Psionic powers

• Customisable weapons and armour

• Vehicles, starships and space combat

• Planetary and interstellar exploration

• Tools for creating monsters, goons and villains

• Advice for players and Games Masters

• Campaign-generation material and extensive random tables

• A sample adventure

• Example alien species, equipment and ships

• Character and starship sheets

• Artwork by Satine Phoenix

• More ideas than any responsible person should be allowed to use simultaneously

Free Quickstart

A free quickstart edition is available for those who would prefer to sample the rules before committing themselves to a life of planetary sleaze:

Download the free Machinations of the Space Princess Quickstart

Format

Digital PDF download.

• Complete core rules and setting

• Approximately 240 pages

• English language

• Originally published in 2013

• Written, designed and laid out by James “Grim” Desborough

• Artwork by Satine Phoenix

• Contributions from Colin Chapman and Daniel Bluff

This is the electronic edition. No physical book, beautiful alien princess or lightly used smuggling vessel will be posted.

Printed Editions

Separate print-on-demand editions are available through Lulu.

Buy the black-and-white A5 paperback

Buy the full-colour A5 paperback

Mature Content

This game contains strong language, violence, slavery, sexualised imagery, sleaze, exploitation and other material appropriate to its grindhouse science-fantasy tone.

It is not pornography. It is also not going to pretend that spaceports are populated entirely by tasteful cafés and well-regulated municipal transport.