Big update! Lots of changes, but the big ones are removing Luck, renaming the Classes, and a major revamp of how space ships work. I’ve tried to explain my reasons for these changes in the changelog below, but if anyone has any questions (or disagreements!) I’m very happy to hear them.

In other Meteor news:

• I’ve got an adventure in the works by the name of Hades’ Helm as an example of the sort of dangerous environment delving, non-horror modules I have in mind for Meteor. It’s gone through one round of playtesting, and needs significant revision before a public release but I’m very happy with the broad strokes and direction it’s going.
• Hades’ Helm is intended to be a part of a larger “vertical slice” module which would cover an entire star system. Writing has started on that, but it’s much further from completion than the smaller part, so Hades Helm will likely release on its own first.
• I released Wallet Stations a pocket sized generator for space stations to visit. Not specific to Meteor but a version of this will likely end up in the game at some point. I am otherwise working on a series of “fractal” die drop generators to create galactic sectors, star systems, and then the planets and stations within.
• With this update I think I am close to the core rules being stable enough to launch an online SRD (see the one I have for Brighter Worlds as a point of comparison. The reason I don’t have one set up yet is that maintaining two versions of a game is a pain, so I wanted to wait until the rules were sufficiently static that I wouldn’t be needing to track changes in two places.

Meteor 0.6 Changelog

• The Luck attribute is removed. Instead half of Training is used for “untrained” rolls.
  • I found that it wasn’t uncommon for players to feel as though they were being “punished” for having specific skills if their Training was low, since it would “force” them to roll with Training as opposed to Body. This change makes it so the Training attribute is for anything learned or practiced (as opposed to innate with Body) but you don’t get the full value without an appropriate Skill.
  • This shouldn’t significantly impact actual gameplay, the Luck ability was always used as a sort of “untrained” roll while I was running it. This just makes that more clear.
  • I always felt that Luck was a patch job to cover the gap left by my chosen abilities, and as playtesting indicated it was also a bit awkward removing it felt right.
  • An alternative to “half of training” is that if you roll untrained you roll twice and must succeed both times. Effectively disadvantage, but since that mechanic doesn’t appear anywhere else in the game I like halving the ability better.
• While at zero Resolve taking non FFF actions now requires adding Fatigue rather than losing Training.
  • I’d rather have the stress/fear/panic mechanics reinforce the central inventory management tension than interact elsewhere.
  • As a minor related change, the rate of “healing” resolve loss has been tweaked.
    • I expect this to vary until I get more long term playtesting.
    • These numbers don’t have any impact on one shots, which is the main mode of play for my playtests. It’s hard to get a handle on these without being to setup longer term campaigns.
• Class Changes
  • Name changes! I have gone through a number of iterations for the name and have never been hugely happy with them. Without going into too much detail they felt either too narrow, too descriptive of action rather than skill set, or had too much overlap. After some fruitful discussion in the Cairn server (particular thanks to Nick) I’ve settled on renaming them as archetypal buzzwords, and then including a bunch of actual “profession” titles beneath to help people get an idea of what I’m talking about
    • Enforcer is now ARMOR
    • Deckhand is now WRENCH
    • Synth is now SYNTH (ha)
    • Researcher is now LABCOAT
  • Wrench “percussive maintenance” talent now requires losing Resolve as an ongoing cost.
    • It was too much of a shortcut in roleplay, and sort of sidesteps the interesting bits. Still not entirely pleased with it, but I think this is better.
  • Labcoat class ability now costs 1d4 Resolve instead of just 1.
    • Being able to be used in place of any Ability, especially Critical Damage Saves and the like, for such a low cost was just too useful. Especially outside of adventures where Resolve loss matters.
    • Alternative version of this fix is to only cost one, but to have it only make it so a given Training roll acts as though the player had a relevant skill. Lower cost but more limited. I like it being broader, but this is a possibility in the future.
  • I haven’t done it yet, but I’m tempted to concert all Class Talents to the format of “pay 1d4 Resolve –> get effect”
    • It would make Resolve matter more in non horror modules, and give more justification to it existing when it’s going to usually be rolled much less than Body or Training
    • I do worry it’d turn into “Fatigue 2” but I’m framing it as Fatigue represents becoming tired, while loss of Resolve represents getting stressed out.
    • It’s not in the text yet (pending playtesting), but my proposed new talents would be:
      • ARMOR: Lose 1d4 Resolve to reroll any damage die.
      • SYNTH: Lose 1d4 Resolve to activate an Augmentation instead of gaining Fatigue.
• Ship Changes
  • Ships now have slot based inventories, just like players.
    • Honestly not sure why I wasn’t doing this to begin with. It seems obvious.
  • No more supply, instead Fuel Canisters are consumed in a similar manner.
    • This is very similar to Supply, but interacts with the inventory system and pulls the mechanic tension of inventory management back into the foreground. Ships are now a balance between installed modules, fuel storage, and cargo space.
    • A Fuel canister being single use might be too punishing, pending playtesting each canister may contain 3 uses.
  • Core Module Damage is now done in a random order, rather than sequentially
    • Sequential damage was originally in place because a damaged module became totally inoperable, and it made things incredibly swingy if the ship’s drives happened to be the first thing shot.
    • Now that “damaged” modules continue to work, just at much lower capacity, random damage can make things more exciting.
    • The Core Modules may be reduced to 4 or increased to 6 to make randomization easier in the future.
  • Some specialty modules are rewritten to accommodate for the above changes.
• “Pockets” as a separate inventory section is removed.
  • It simply wasn’t doing enough to be useful, and also increases the chance of disagreements based on what counts as being small enough.
• Equipment Changes
  • Plasma Projector changed to 1d8 blast, bulky. Removed “organics only” restriction.
  • Powered Sledgehammer damage die increased to d10.
• The Galaxy
  • A chapter that includes the “lore” of the game.
  • I’ve had some of this written already as a sort of “setting bible” just for my own use, to try and keep my mental model of Meteor consistent so the rules and items feels coherent. I was organizing and cleaning it up to send to a friend for SECRET COLLABORATION REASONS and figured I might as well include it in the book.
  • None of the information or setting within the Galaxy chapter is necessary or required for the game. The first intention of Meteor is still to just be a quick “pick up and play” system for running other SciFi modules with. However this setting is what I’m using myself as the “glue” to allow fairly disparate adventures and modules to exist together.
  • This chapter may also end up being folded into the GM Tools chapter, it largely depends on how extensive or developed this becomes.