REVENGe IS A DISH
BEST SERVED...
Credits
Author Greg Stolze
Designer Daniel Solis
Photography Hubble Site, STScl
http://hubblesite.org/
1
Intro
Downloader, meet the ...in Spaaace! demo I ran a couple times at
mensional hillbillies are now using your former head as a spittoon
GenCon. ...iS! demo, meet your downloader.
and I ma reprogram your courtesy unit with my ball bat! seemed to
make character death seem like a small price to pay.
What s Going On?
Nevertheless, I recognize that some groups may be reluctant to
If you ve read ...in Spaaace! you know that it s not exactly a prep-
submit to the sadistic whims of a GM with a fist full of tokens, so I ll
intensive rules-fest. The bulk of this demo is an oddball clique united
propose some alternatives for the players.
only by the desire to find a robot supervillain named NV. The charac-
ters are built with character rules. As the GM, you need to build
Play the Counter-Gathering Game
challenges appropriate to the number of players with characters.
...in Spaaace! is really two games being played at the same time. One
is the game of controlling the plot, and the other is the game of
Typically, I threw up about three challenges. If no one took Gigobot
gathering the tokens. Naturally, success at one typically means failure
5000, one challenge was No Way to Get There, which prompted
at the other. Players who concentrate on picking losses carefully can
one group to buy travel tickets out of a guy s raincoat. That guy
turned out to be front for a group of white slavers taking the charac- probably fend off the GM in the endgame.
ters off to mine astro dust until they dropped. This led to a PC revolt,
When You Win, Don t Be Gracious
with the monkey getting shot by a gigantic redneck preying-mantis,
When a player wins narrative control, there s no reason to simply
prompting the Sloth Machine to dump some Doc Inna Box on him
survive being dumped out the airlock when you can narrate
but, being too lazy to read the label, he used mantis-specific medicine
something that puts your character at an advantage. It can t be
which caused the monkey to grow chitin and respond favorably to his
a huge plot insertion, but try something like I find an emergency
shooter s pheremones.
space suit on the outside of the ship, get into it rapidly (because it s
When Gigobot 5000 was in play, I just had NV steal his fly space-ride.
designed for this very contingency) and then sneak around to ambush
(In the stunning conclusion, Gigobot also found out NV was copying
the pirates who assume I ve walked the plank into the starry void.
his wardrobe).
Put the ball back in the GM s court to get full value of the token you
exchanged.
One group of characters ran into a gigantic, planet-wide party in the
system where they were hunting for clues. Another got entangled
Impose House-Rule Limits
with Pat s whiny, telepathic ex-girlfriend while they were trying to lure
Depending on how much you want to alter the playing field, you can
NV with an exquisitely enviable artifact called something like The
make two very simple tweaks to the rules for ...iS! and radically alter
Jeweled Balls of Tharzidak.
the GM s ability to play an aggressive token-sweeping game.
NV himself was the ultimate challenge, though he really only inter-
Option number one is to limit how high the Challenge rating can go
acted with the characters in one demo. It worked well for me to
for a single plot point. The best limit is to say no single Challenge
present him as (of course) pathologically jealous of the Sloth Machine.
can be greater than the highest single Trait of any character. If you
( ...and while Gr33d and I were out robbing banks and kidnapping
use this with the demo, no Challenge can be greater than 3, because
beauty queens, you got to stay at home on the sofa eating pizza and
no character has a Trait above 3.
watching TV! All because dad felt it was thematically appropriate!
Sometimes, dad let me taste beer. He did not! )
Option number two is to simply start the GM out with a number of
points to spend on Challenges that s equal to the points each player
In short, wing it. I typically spent less than five minutes on prep each
gets to build a character. This really levels the playing field possibly
time, and it worked fine.
to the point that the players wind up fighting each other, rather than
curb-stomping the GM s story authority. But hey, whatever works for
A Possible Problem, Unless it Isn t
your group. Some GMs may even secretly like it.
I found that by the end of the game, I usually had most of the tokens
and could readily fiat that someone else was already killing NV when
On That Edifying Note...
the PCs arrived (which I did) or simply send three-quarters of the
Here are the characters. Go nuts.
party to a fiery, cataclysmic doom (which I also did). It didn t seem
to impinge on anyone s fun, to be honest lines like The transdi-
2
Junkie Monkey
RULES SUMMARY
You start with seven tokens.
Motivation
You got ripped off. NV stole your stash. You want it back.
Any time you laugh out loud, give a token to the person who
made you laugh.
Backstory
When an event is in doubt, you blindly bid for the right to
You re a genetically enhanced orangutan trained in the arts of
narrate the outcome.
mechanical repair. At some point, tinkering with robot impellers and
star drive redundancy manifolds got boring, so you started smoking
" If you bid fewer tokens, the GM narrates but has to give
pot. Just like the commercials warned, it led to harder stuff tailored
you a token.
viruses of the pleasure centers in the brain, targeted spinal nerve
iontopharesis, and finally, the nadir of the drug experience: Psichosis.
" If you bid more tokens, you give the GM a token but get to
A carefully designed nanospore, psik not only does the normal
narrate.
drug schtick of making you feel smart, invulnerable and euphoric, it
" If it s a tie, you narrate but lose ALL the tokens you bid.
temporarily activates usually-dormant regions of the brain responsible
for psychic powers. Thus, the more people around you are high, the
Your traits act like free virtual tokens when you re bidding. If you
higher you become.
bid no actual tokens and win on the strength of a trait, you don t
have to pay.
You had amassed a big freaking pile of the stuff, enough for a
gigantic psik rave, and then this robot supervillain called NV came
You can propose completely random events. The GM decides
along and swiped it.
how unlikely they are and sets an ante cost of 1-5 tokens.
Separate from the ante, you bid normally. If you win the bid, you
Central Trait
give the GM the ante in addition to the single token the winner
Bioengineered Grease Monkey (2 tokens). As a modified primate,
always donates. If you lose the bid, you keep the ante.
you re more intelligent than most humans (though clearly no wiser),
you re stronger, and you re a pretty darn good mechanic. You can
also hold stuff with your feet and, if necessary, fling poo.
Side Trait
Drug Addict (2 tokens). You know how to score and slam, and you re
also quite adept at taking advantage of any friends who have yet to
abandon you.
Note
You cannot talk. You can only grunt, gesture, pantomime, and write
notes.
3
Gigobot 5000
RULES SUMMARY
You start with seven tokens.
Motivation
NV stole your Barry White vocabulizer unit, and your business is
Any time you laugh out loud, give a token to the person who
suffering. You want it back.
made you laugh.
When an event is in doubt, you blindly bid for the right to
Backstory
narrate the outcome.
Gigolo robots have always been a controversial luxury item, and none
more so than those equipped with the nigh-irresistible simulated
" If you bid fewer tokens, the GM narrates but has to give
voice of Barry White. You were making serious money in the Amazon
you a token.
Moon Belt when a robot supervillian named NV one of the original
Seven Deadly Synthetics snuck up behind you, knocked you out and
" If you bid more tokens, you give the GM a token but get to
stole your voice unit. They don t make them any more the closest
narrate.
you d be able to get is Mel Torme unless you go on the black market.
" If it s a tie, you narrate but lose ALL the tokens you bid.
You can t afford black market prices, and anyhow, why should you
pay to get a replacement for something that s yours to begin with?
Your traits act like free virtual tokens when you re bidding. If you
bid no actual tokens and win on the strength of a trait, you don t
Central Trait
have to pay.
Robot Gigolo (3 tokens). As a robot, you re stronger than a human
You can propose completely random events. The GM decides
being, insensitive to pain, and immune to the lures of procreation. As
how unlikely they are and sets an ante cost of 1-5 tokens.
a gigolo, you can lay down a smooth line of jive, boogie with perfect
Separate from the ante, you bid normally. If you win the bid, you
rhythm, and please the ladies the way only a selfless engine with no
give the GM the ante in addition to the single token the winner
personal interest in sex can.
always donates. If you lose the bid, you keep the ante.
Side Trait
Starship Pilot (1 tokens). Piloting a ship is like making love to a
woman. You just mess round with the controls and pay close atten-
tion until things seem to be going well. You own a fly intergalactic
ride, and the payments are murder. All the more reason to recover
your smooth.
Note
Until you recover your Barry White unit, you can only talk in a creepy,
rhythmless, metallic monotone like the Cylons from the old 1980s
Battlestar Galactica.
4
THE SLOTH MACHINE
RULES SUMMARY
You start with seven tokens.
Motivation
Not much. It would be cool to get the landlord off your back,
Any time you laugh out loud, give a token to the person who
though.
made you laugh.
When an event is in doubt, you blindly bid for the right to
Backstory
narrate the outcome.
You were built by an evil genius as part of a robot supervillain
megateam, but you were never that into it. Known as the Seven
" If you bid fewer tokens, the GM narrates but has to give
Deadly Synthetics, you personally got included for symbolic value
you a token.
more than anything else. After LU5T and PR1D3 got junked, the
group split up over artistic differences. Since then, you ve just been,
" If you bid more tokens, you give the GM a token but get to
you know, hanging out. Now you hear some dudes are pretty mad at
narrate.
your brother NV though, and you don t blame them. NV is a jerk.
" If it s a tie, you narrate but lose ALL the tokens you bid.
Central Trait
Your traits act like free virtual tokens when you re bidding. If you
Poorly Thought-out Robot Supervillain (2 tokens). As a robot
bid no actual tokens and win on the strength of a trait, you don t
supervillain, you re stronger than most humans, you don t feel much
have to pay.
pain, and you can fly. You used to have heat vision too, but you
You can propose completely random events. The GM decides
hocked it to make rent last year.
how unlikely they are and sets an ante cost of 1-5 tokens.
Separate from the ante, you bid normally. If you win the bid, you
Side Trait
give the GM the ante in addition to the single token the winner
Stupification (2 tokens). You ve got this screen on your chest that
always donates. If you lose the bid, you keep the ante.
you activate by pulling a big lever (like an old time slot machine
your builder was into puns and stuff). It disrupts the thought
processes of biological beings that can see the display, leaving them
distracted and apathetic. Some of your process-servers and skip-
chasers are getting wise to it, though.
5
Pat L Oiseau
RULES SUMMARY
You start with seven tokens.
Motivation
NV stole your lover. You want to retrieve your paramour or, failing
Any time you laugh out loud, give a token to the person who
that, to kick NV s shiny metal ass.
made you laugh.
When an event is in doubt, you blindly bid for the right to
Backstory
narrate the outcome.
You grew up in Kansas on Earth, attended a small liberal arts college
in the Horsehead Nebula and were really just starting to find your way
" If you bid fewer tokens, the GM narrates but has to give
as an adult in the universe when you met Leslie. Les was different
you a token.
from your other relationships, not being a telepath or an empath.
(You ve always been catnip to the psychically aware because of your
" If you bid more tokens, you give the GM a token but get to
incandescently beautiful soul.) It was really, really cool to go out
narrate.
with someone who didn t know what you were thinking all the time,
" If it s a tie, you narrate but lose ALL the tokens you bid.
who didn t know you were lying when you said, Hey, that haircut
looks great! & but then this smooth talking robot with a Barry White
Your traits act like free virtual tokens when you re bidding. If you
voice got Leslie high, issued an invitation to come see his place in the
bid no actual tokens and win on the strength of a trait, you don t
Asteroid Belt, and your beloved has been gone ever since. You never
have to pay.
even said, I love you not from shyness, but because those lousy
You can propose completely random events. The GM decides
telepaths always knew.
how unlikely they are and sets an ante cost of 1-5 tokens.
Separate from the ante, you bid normally. If you win the bid, you
Central Trait
General Artistry (1 token). In an attempt to cash in on your incan- give the GM the ante in addition to the single token the winner
always donates. If you lose the bid, you keep the ante.
descently beautiful soul, you ve learned how to play the guitar, write
poetry and paint. You can also talk your way into art shows, wear
flouncy shirts, and smoke with a cigarette holder without looking
stupid.
Side Trait
Incandescently Beautiful Soul (3 tokens). It s not that you re a
better or kinder or more ethical person: But, from what mind readers
tell you, your soul is just& pretty. Telepaths and empaths find you
much less unpleasant to be around than most people, and even
normal people sometimes find your more than usually charming.
6
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