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How To Play Coriolis The Third Horizon
How to play Coriolis The Third Horizon.
Hi everyone, this is a special how to play episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for Coriolis The Third Horizon. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play your own Coriolis The Third Horizon game at home.
I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections.
Game category
Attributes and skills
Icons
Initiative
Action Points
Armor
Critical success
Distances
Ranged combat particulars
Reactions
Movement and encumbrance
Partial damage
Zero hit points or mind points
Darkness points
Building a character
Game category. Coriolis is a tabletop roleplaying game set in space. You can crew a space craft, explore the horizon by traveling to new star systems through portals, unravel secrets such as who built the portals, plot and scheme with factions over power and influence, pray to the icons, and carry out missions. But beware the Dark between the Stars, an unspeakable corrupting force in the intersection between civilization and the endless nothing of space. All of the dice used for Coriolis The Third Horizon are six sided dice, also called d6. You roll the number of dice your character has in a specific skill. If one of your dice rolls a six, you succeed at what you were trying to do. Coriolis has well described combat rules that players who enjoy Dungeons and Dragons will find interesting.
Attributes and skills. Your character has four attributes: Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. Each attribute has a few skills, which are ways you can apply that attribute during gameplay. The strength attribute has the skill of melee combat. The agility attribute has the skills dexterity, infiltration, ranged combat, and piloting. The wits attribute has the skills observation, survival, data djinn, medicurgy, science, and technology. The empathy attribute has the skills manipulation, command, culture, and mystic powers.
Every point you have in an attribute or skill gives you a six sided dice, also called a d6, that you can roll. For example your observation skill is two and your wits attribute is three, so you roll five dice total when you observe. If you roll all the dice but none of them show the number six, that roll was a failure. Read the skill’s failure text out loud for your game master to interpret. If you get one six on one dice, that means you succeeded. One six is a limited success, so you will read the skill’s wording out loud to find out how that specific skill is limited. For example it might take longer than expected or the information gained might be brief. Extra sixes beyond the first one give you cool bonus effects, which vary depending on which skill you used. You can exchange each extra six one for one for a bonus effect. If you roll three sixes, that means you got a critical success. Each skill has words explaining how a critical success is awesome and how you get an extra bonus because of the critical.
There are 16 possible skills you can put points in. Half are general skills and the other half are advanced skills. Anyone can roll a general skill, but you can’t roll for an advanced skill unless you have at least one point in it. One notable advanced skill is command, which can be used to heal a stressed out ally whose mind points have been depleted to zero. You can’t roll for command to help your friend unless you have at least one point in it.
Here is an example skill roll. The airlock is closing. Sabah tries to hurl herself towards the airlock to make it through before it closes. The Game Master calls for a dexterity roll to see if Sabah gets through the airlock or not. Sabah has one point in the dexterity skill and three points in the agility attribute, so that means she rolls four dice total. If zero of the four dice show a six, she failed, and the airlock closes before she can get through it. If any of those dice show a six, she succeeds and makes it through the airlock before it closes. If one dice shows a six, that is called a limited success. For the dexterity skill, a limited success is described as, quote, “Limited success: you manage to pull off the maneuver, but just barely.” End quote. Every extra six beyond your first might let you pick a bonus effect from the dexterity skill’s page, if it has bonus effects. Some skills do, some skills don’t. Dexterity doesn’t have any bonus effects for extra sixes, but the manipulation skill, for example, does. If three of the dice show sixes, that’s a critical success. For dexterity, the rule book says, quote, “Critical Success. You succeed with flawless skill, and you achieve some unexpected, positive side effect, like helping a friend or creating an obstacle for an enemy. The GM decides the details.” End quote. This example of a skill roll shows you that the more dice you roll, the more likely you are to get a limited success, get bonus effects, and get a critical success.
Icons. If your skill roll isn’t successful, one option you have is to pray to the icons, if that’s a thing you want to do. Praying to the icons can only impact skill rolls, not combat rolls. It’s an instant prayer your character can do that doesn’t take any time out of your other actions. You simply declare that you’re praying to the icon associated with the skill you’re rolling, and you can re roll all your failed dice that weren’t sixes. The rerolled dice now might become successes. If you prepared a prayer to that specific icon beforehand earlier in the session, then praying to that icon not only lets you reroll failed dice, but you also get either a plus one modifier which means one extra dice, or if you prayed in that icon’s chapel, then a plus two modifier which mean two extra dice. Every time you pray to an icon, though, the game master gets one darkness point.
Let’s begin talking about combat rules by starting with initiative. Initiative means turn order. When combat starts, each player rolls one d6, and the game master rolls one d6 for each enemy or group of enemies. The number on the dice is the character’s initiative score, and sets the order that people act in the round of combat. People who rolled a six can take their turn before people who rolled a five, who can take their turn before people who rolled a four, who can take their turn before people who rolled a three, etc. If two people both have the same number, roll a second dice and the higher number goes first. After everyone has gotten to go once, that ends the round, and it’s time to start a new round in the same initiative order as before.
Raising and lowering initiative. There are ways to raise your initiative score. There’s a talent called Combat Veteran that lets you roll twice and keep the higher dice result. Some weapons and certain skill bonuses can also raise your initiative score. If you are performing an attack in a way your GM accepts would surprise the enemy, add two to your initiative. Sneak attacks. To perform a sneak attack on an unsuspecting target, roll the number of dice you have in your infiltration skill and the skill will tell you how to interpret your success or failure. If you wait somewhere to ambush a target and they walk up to you while you remain stationary, you get a plus two to your infiltration roll. Sneak attacks also get modified by the range you are away from your target. Roll only once, and then increase or decrease your sneak attack’s initiative based on distance using table 5.2 on page 86. Lowering initiative. You have the option of choosing to lower your initiative score if you’d like to wait and see how things unfold. For example if you rolled a six for initiative but aren’t sure if these new arrivals are friends or foes, when it comes to you, you can choose to delay until a new lower number, such as a two. Your new score remains your permanent initiative for the rest of the combat.
Action points. At the start of the round of combat, you get three new action points. You can spend your action points to do slow, normal, fast and free actions. Unspent action points do not carry over to the next round.
A slow action costs all three action points. For example, administering first aid is a slow action. Tinkering with a gadget is a slow action. Activating a mystic power is a full action, and takes all three action points and your entire turn.
Normal actions cost two action points. For example, a melee attack in close combat is a normal action. Firing a shot on a ranged weapon is a normal action. Reloading your weapon is a normal action. After a normal action, you still have one action point left for your turn.
You can spend one action point to do a fast action. Some example fast actions are sprinting a short distance, defending, taking cover, dropping to the ground to make yourself harder to hit, getting up off of the ground, drawing a weapon, picking up an item, parrying in close combat, and making an attack of opportunity in close combat. These fast actions all only cost one action point. Note that you can’t attack while you are prone on the ground. While prone, you need to spend a fast action to stand up before you can attack. Quick melee attacks with a light weapon or unarmed also count as fast actions instead of normal actions, although they get a negative two modifier to the attack roll, which means rolling with two fewer dice. Movement is also a fast action. You can move as many meters as your movement rate for one fast action, which costs one action point.
The last category of actions are free, they don’t cost any action points. Some example free actions are when you quickly shout to a comrade, and when your armor protects you against an incoming attack. Those free actions can still be done even if you don’t have any action points left to spend. You can end your turn without having spent all of your action points, and you actually need to if you plan on reacting to an opponent’s attack. Defending against an incoming attack in close combat and making an attack of opportunity both cost one action point. When you help someone perform a slow, normal, or fast action, that counts as an action for you, too. For example, if you don’t have three action points, you can’t help someone with their slow action. Note: helping is never a fast action. The fastest helping can be is a normal action.
Armor. Using your armor is also a free action, and doesn’t cost any action points. When you’re taking damage from an attack, roll the number of dice you have in armor rating. Every six you roll reduces your incoming damage by one. If your armor reduces your incoming damage all the way to zero, you can’t suffer a critical injury from that attack.
Here is an example of a melee attack. To attack an enemy in close range, first say you’re spending two action points to do a normal action to attack in close combat. Then roll the number of dice of your melee combat skill and the number of dice you have in strength. If you get one six, you hit the enemy, yay. When you successfully hit an enemy, your weapon deals the number of damage your weapon says it deals. That’s part of the weapon’s stats. If you get extra sixes, you can spend them one for one to choose an additional effect listed in the melee combat skill’s rule book text. Extra dice can also be spent for extra effects during ranged attacks, too, by the way. The bonus effects for a melee attack include dealing more damage, inflicting a critical injury, striking fear into your enemy, raising your initiative, disarming your enemy, and grappling them. You can have page eighty seven of the rule book open when you attack to read those six bonus options you can choose from, or you can add that text to your character sheet to avoid having to flip through the rule book. Each extra six you roll on your attack can buy one extra effect. For example if you roll two extra sixes, you might choose to do one extra point of damage and disarm your target. Picking their weapon back up would cost them a fast action. Or you could choose two extra points of damage.
Here is an example of how you can ranged attack spending your choice of three, two, or one action points. If you spend three action points, that is a slow action called an aimed shot. You roll your ranged attack number of dice and your agility stat number of dice with a plus two modifier, which means rolling extra dice to represent how you’re taking the time to aim carefully. If your target is within melee distance of you, they’re close enough to react to your slow careful aim and you can’t make an aimed shot against them. You can make a normal shot against a melee target, though. A normal ranged attack costs two action points and has no modifier. Or the third option is that you can spend one action point to do a quick shot, a type of fast action. Rather than taking the time to aim carefully, a quick shot means you’re shooting from the hip. Hey, even hip shots can hit people. Sure, you get a negative two modifier to your attack roll, with means rolling with two fewer dice, but that might still hit the target, and it only cost you one action point, so in some circumstances a quick shot might be just what you need. Those three examples show how a ranged attack can be made spending one, two, or three action points, for a negative two, zero, and positive two attack modifier.
Critical success. As with skills, any time you roll three sixes in combat, that’s a critical success. Your weapon comes with a number for how much damage it does on a critical.
Distances. There are four distance ranges in Coriolis. Something is close range if it is within two meters of you. Two meters is about how long a person is if they lay down. You can step and reach a person two meters from you easily. Short range in Coriolis includes anything up to twenty meters away from you. Twenty meters is how long five cars parked end to end are. Twenty meters is about twice as high as a telephone pole. Long range in Coriolis is anything up to one hundred meters away. One hundred meters is how long a football field is, or about how far you would get if you were quickly walking for one minute. Beyond a hundred meters, everything is called extreme range.
Ranged combat particulars. There are a few things that only come up during a combat involving a ranged weapon. These include target size, range modifiers, taking cover, reloading, automatic fire, mounted weapons, and multiple targets. If you’re a melee fighter fighting a melee enemy, you never need to think about any of those things. But if you’re using a ranged weapon or your opponent is, here’s what those terms do.
Target size. If your target is prone or small, your ranged attack gets a minus one modifier, which means rolling with one fewer dice to hit. If your target is large like car sized, you get a plus one modifier, and roll with an extra dice. If you’re trying to hit a huge target, like the side of a barn, you get a plus two modifier and roll with two extra dice to hit.
Range modifiers. Firing at a target that is short range, between two and twenty meters away, is normal and doesn’t have range modifiers. At long range, between twenty and a hundred meters away, your ranged attack gets a negative one modifier, so you roll with one less dice. At extreme range beyond a hundred meters, your ranged attack gets a negative two modifier and you roll with two less dice. If you’re within close range, two meters, the modifier depends on whether the target is engaged in combat with you or unaware of you slash immobile. For a target engaged in melee combat with you, probably grabbing your weapon and pushing it out of the way, you get a minus three modifier and roll with three fewer dice to hit. For a target unaware of you or immobilized and unable to dodge your projectile, your ranged attack is made with a plus three modifier, three extra dice.
Taking cover. Cover only protects against ranged attack, not melee attacks. Taking cover is a fast action and costs one action point, separate from the movement to reach the cover, which might also be one action point. You can move as many meters as your movement for one action point. The armor rating of different types of covers varies, ranging from two armor for a sofa couch to four armor for a door to five to seven for interior and exterior walls, to a maximum of eight armor for being underground in a foxhole. Cover and armor can be combined. An example of using cover is, if you’re in a fox hole and someone hits you with an attack and would deal four damage to you, roll eight dice for your cover plus one dice for your armor for nine dice total. Every resulting six reduces that four incoming damage by one. Ranged attackers don’t solely suffer from cover rules protecting their targets. If you’re firing from cover, you get a plus one modifier on your attack and roll with one extra dice, for aimed shots and normal shots, but not quick shots, which are made from the hip too rapidly to have aimed.
Reloading. Reloading during combat is a normal speed action and takes two of your three action points. Most ranged weapons don’t need to be reloaded during a combat. Certain specific ranged weapons don’t have enough ammunition to not run out during one fight, depending on which type you’re using. If you’re using a long rifle, bow, or rocket launcher, you’ll have to reload after every time you fire. And in the special circumstance that you fired three quick shots in the same turn, if you’re not using a mounted weapon, your clip is depleted and needs to be reloaded. Note: there is a talent called Rapid Reload that makes reloading faster.
Automatic fire. Fully automatic weapons are a bit different from other ranged weapons. They fire as a slow attack which costs three action points. They have to fire on a target at long range or closer, not extreme range. They fire at a negative two modifier, which means two fewer dice on your to hit roll, your ranged attack plus agility roll. Those three things are downsides. But the upside is that whether or not your initial attack hit, you can choose to keep rolling dice one at a time. The extra dice get added to your first roll. Remember, extra sixes can get you extra effects, like dealing one more point of damage. So you can keep adding one dice after another after another, up until you roll a one, at which point the fully automatic weapon’s clip is empty and needs to be reloaded. Reloading takes two action points.
Mounted weapons. If you mount your fully automatic weapon on a vehicle, full auto fire has the additional perk of a one ending the attack but not needing a reloading action, because the vehicle has enough space to store a very large clip of ammunition.
Multiple targets. The last cool perk of fully automatic weapons is that after rolling is finished, you can choose how to distribute your successes to a new target that is within close range of that first target. The first six that you distribute to a target is a normal hit that deals the weapon’s damage. Every six after the first one can do one of the ranged weapon attack bonus effects, which includes an extra point of damage, among other things. There’s no limit to how many targets you can hit as long as they’re within close range of the previous target.
Reactions. There are also three reactions in Coriolis. Reactions are fast actions that cost one action point to do. These three reactions are: defending in melee, overwatch fire from ranged, and attacks of opportunity. Defending in melee. To defend, first say that you’re going to defend before the attacker rolls their attack against you. Then spend one action point. Then roll the number of dice you have in your melee combat skill and your strength attribute. For each six the defender rolls, you can choose from a list of options that includes decreasing damage, counterattacking, disarming your attacker, or raising your initiative. If the enemy attacked you with a weapon but you were defending unarmed, roll with a minus two modifier, which means you roll with two fewer dice. Enemies can defend if the game master spends a darkness point. Overwatch fire. An overwatch fire is a fast action where you spend one action point to be able to name a ninety degree arc direction you’re setting up a watch in. At any time, you can spend two action points to fire on anything in your watch area. Your attack goes off before the enemy’s, even after they declare their action. If both you and the enemy are in an overwatch position, then you both roll your ranged combat dice to decide who goes first. Attacks of opportunity. An attack of opportunity is when you choose to spend one action point to close combat fight an enemy who was in melee range with you but is now moving away from you. Add plus two to your attack roll. If they stop within melee range of you then you can’t attack of opportunity them.
Movement and encumbrance. Your normal movement speed of your movement rate number of meters might get decreased by difficult terrain, crawling, or sneaking. Difficult terrain, crawling, and sneaking all halve your movement rate.
Overencumbered. If you are carrying more than twice your strength number of items, roll the Force skill every time you move a long distance. If you fail the roll, then either let go of some items or stop moving.
Partial damage. There are some experiences in Coriolis that cause only a fraction of a damage point but, if you receive multiple, can add up to one damage. If you fall, drown for multiple rounds, catch on fire, get smacked by the blast power of an explosion, stay hungry or thirsty for a long amount of time, get too cold, get exposed to the vacuum of space for multiple rounds, are exposed to radiation, etc, your game master might have you keep track of how long you’re exposed for to see if it adds up to one damage point.
Reaching zero hit points or zero mind points. You might reach zero hit points during a combat. You start with the number of hit points of your strength and agility numbers added together. So if your strength is three and your agility is four, you would start with seven hit points. You might have some talents that increase your hit points, too. So what happens during a combat when you run out of hit points and reach zero? That’s called being broken. Broken characters are unable to continue fighting. They’re either unconscious or unable to physically move their bodies. All you can do is ask your friends for help. If you get hit again in this state, you could suffer a critical injury. Only critical injuries can actually kill your character, and they’re not guaranteed to do that. Table five point six on pages ninety six and ninety seven list the critical injury possibilities. There is a d66 table of injury options. To see which one you receive, roll a first six sided dice, also called a d6, to represent the first digit, and then a second d6 to represent the second digit. For example, rolling a three and then a five would be a thirty five on the table. Rolling a one and a two would be a twelve. Each critical injury table entry explains what happens to you and, if you can recover from it, how long that recovery takes. Numbers one through thirty five don’t instantly kill your character. Numbers thirty six through sixty six do instantly kill your character. If you have a good game master, they’ll let you play as a non player character you met earlier in the adventure rather than have you sit out for the rest of the session after your character dies. If you character lives, there are two ways you can recover. The first is to receive first aid. First aid is a slow action, so it costs three action points, performed by an ally rolling their medicurgy skill number of dice. If there’s at least one six, the roll is successful, and your character gets back up immediately, regaining as many hit points as sixes on the medicurgy roll. The second way to recover is by time passing. If you survive the fight, roll a d6 and that’s how many hours pass before you gain one hit point back. Then once you’re no longer broken, you regain one hit point per hour until you’re fully healed. The critical injury has its own separate healing trajectory explained in its entry in the critical injury table.
Reaching zero mind points. You can be attacked not only physically, which depletes your hit points, but also mentally by stress, which depletes your mind points. If you reach zero mind points, your character is too stressed out to function normally. Roll a d6 and that’s how many hours pass before you regain a mind point and are able to function again, unless your friends help you. Your friends can help you recover by rolling command or medicurgy. Note that command is an advanced skill that can only be used by characters with at least one point in it. Each friend only has once chance to help you. Recovery attempts are a slow action that cost three action points, and you gain as many mind points as they get sixes on their dice. Once you’re back up to at least one mind point, you will recover one mind point per hour until you’re back to maximum. Roll a d6 to see if you suffer any permanent effects. If the result is a one, your maximum mind points are permanently reduced by one. If that happens multiple times and your maximum mind points drop to zero, it’s time to make a new character.
Darkness points. I mentioned earlier that every time a player prays to an icon to reroll their failed dice that didn’t have sixes on them, the game master gets a darkness point. Praying to icons is not the only way a game master gains darkness points. It also happens every time the players portal jump, travel in the dark between stars, or use a mystic power. The game master can spend darkness points any time they want to put an obstacle in front of the player characters. Rerolling failed GM dice can be done by spending one darkness point. An NPC breaking initiative order and going first costs one darkness point. A player character’s clip running out of ammunition, meaning the player has to spend two action points to reload after this attack is finished, costs one darkness point. Making a player character misfire, which means the attack is lost and the player character has to spend three action points to clear the jam, costs three darkness points. An NPC can take a reactive action if the game master spends one darkness point. For three darkness points, a player character can drop and lose an important item of the game master’s choice. Reinforcements can be purchased for one to three darkness points during combat. Innocent bystanders can be caught up in the danger for two darkness points. A player character’s personal problem from their character sheet can suddenly affect them for one darkness point. The environment can suddenly endanger the player characters for one to three darkness points. The player character can be struck with sudden madness for one to three darkness points. And lastly some nonplayer character talents or abilities can be activated by darkness points.
Building a character in Coriolis The Third Horizon involves writing something down for the about a dozen categories. These categories are: name, appearance, background, upbringing, concept, reputation score, distribute attribute points, determine hit points, determine mind points, distribute skill levels, talent, icon and icon talent, personal problem, relationship with other player characters, gear, and crew position.
Let’s roll an example character, Calico Jack, a pirate NPC, or non player character, from our past adventure, “Salty Sea Shanties”. He’s a 4 foot, five inch tall handsome sea dwarf with salt and pepper hair. When he smiles at people he’s flirting with, a gold tooth sparkles. Calico Jack’s background is a space to write on the character sheet about where he’s from and how he grew up. Is he a normal human? No, he’s a sea dwarf. Table 2.2 lets you pick one of three upbringing options: plebian, stationary, and privileged. He’s a plebian, so he gets 15 attribute points, 8 skill points, 2 reputation points and 500 birr currency to start with.
Concept. We write on our character sheet what Calico Jack’s concept is, basically, what he does for a living. He’s a pirate captain, so, looking at the list of options, he’d be either a pilot or a fugitive from this list. Probably a fugitive, yeah. Specifically, a criminal. The criminal concept has a page with some stats, and it tells us that criminals like Calico Jack have negative two reputation points. Yeah, that makes sense. I guess that means 2 reputation points from being a plebian minus 2 reputation points from being a criminal leaves us with 0 reputation points.
Distributing attribute points. How many points you get to distribute depends on your upbringing, so looking his plebian upbringing, we have 15 attribute points to distribute. An individual attribute should be at least 2 and at most 4, with the exception of your key attribute, which should be 5. The criminal’s key attribute is empathy. The four attributes are Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. We’ll start by setting the key attribute, empathy, to 5. That leaves ten points left. Calico Jack is fairly well rounded, so we’ll put 3 points each in the other attributes, giving that last point to wits so he can outsmart the law enforcers following him. Calico Jack’s attribute distribution is: strength 3, agility 3, wits 4, empathy 5.
Hit points and mind points. To calculate your hit points, add your strength and agility together. Calico Jack’s strength is 3 and agility is 3, so that means he has 6 hit points. To calculate your mind points, add your wits and empathy together. Calico Jack’s wits are 4 and empathy is 5, so that means he has 9 mind points. Damage can reduce hit points, and stress can reduce mind points.
There are 16 possible skills you can put points in. Half are general skills and half are advanced skills. Anyone can roll a general skill, but you can’t roll for an advanced skill unless you have at least one point in it. As a plebian, Calico Jack has 8 skill points to distribute. The criminal concept’s skills are force, melee combat, dexterity, and infiltration, so let’s put two points into each of those recommended skills. Voila, done. For my players who are playing at a higher level than starting characters, you’ll have five extra skill points to distribute. The most skill points you can put in any one skill is five.
Your talent depends on your concept. The criminal’s talents are listed, and we can pick from intimidating, mystical power, or nine lives. Oh, definitely nine lives for Calico Jack. That’s his talent. Looking up the talent on a later page, it gives Calico Jack this ability, quote, “No matter how bad it looks, you always seem to come out of situations alive. When you suffer a critical injury, you get to switch the dice – turning the tens digit into the ones and vice versa (page 94). If your attacker has the talent Executioner, the effects neutralize each other – roll the critical injury normally.”
Every character gets an icon and an icon talent. You can roll for it on table 2.5, or my players can pick out the icon that most matches their character. Calico Jack would probably respect The Gambler or The Deckhand or The Merchant or The Traveler. The Deckhand’s talent suits Calico Jack. It says, quote, “If your ship drops to zero Hull Points or Energy Points, you can restore D6 points of either kind instantly. This requires no action from you – it is the Icons intervening on your behalf.”
The criminal has some options for personal problems. I think I’ll pick this one, quote, “A group of zealous Icon believers are on your tail.” Calico Jack is always trying to escape the people he most recently plundered.
The criminal concept lists some example relationships to other players characters. This one makes me chuckle. Quote, your team mate “is principled. A shame it’s the wrong principles, though.” Haha, so Calico Jack respects that you obey those law things, but not the laws themselves. Gear. The criminal starts with some gear. I’ll roll randomly since it’s a table. He starts with a transactor with a fake identity. That’s handy. Neat. The very last choice in character creation is the crew position. Calico Jack would be the captain. Thus concludes our creation of the Coriolis The Third Horizon version of Calico Jack. The character sheet is all filled out.
For players in my upcoming Coriolis The Third Horizon game, when you build your character, please follow these starting character rules, and add another five skill points. You can put a maximum of five points into any one skill. Your weapon can be any weapon listed in your concept’s starting gear list of items. As your GM, I’ll describe the group’s concept, spaceship, group talent, patron, and nemesis. Not all of that information gets shared with the players, but I can say your group talent will be Last Laugh: the party can get yourselves out of a pinch using your knack for entertainment. The GM gets one Darkness Point per use, and the party can use Last Laugh once per session.
Hopefully this little rules chat helps my players build their characters and understand how to play. For everyone listening, if you’d like to hear an example adventure, the episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast right after this is a demonstration of us playing Coriolis The Third Horizon in a oneshot game session. We invite you to listen to it to hear an example of Coriolis The Third Horizon in action. We encourage you to find the Coriolis The Third Horizon rule book yourself, and play a game with friends.
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How to play Coriolis The Third Horizon.
Hi everyone, this is a special how to play episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast. I’m the game master for an upcoming session using the rules for Coriolis The Third Horizon. This episode is a summary of what I learned after reading the rule book. Hopefully this will be a handy guide for how to play for my players, will help me organize myself, and will be useful for you listeners, too, who are looking to play your own Coriolis The Third Horizon game at home.
I’ll organize this how to play guide into sections.
Game category
Attributes and skills
Icons
Initiative
Action Points
Armor
Critical success
Distances
Ranged combat particulars
Reactions
Movement and encumbrance
Partial damage
Zero hit points or mind points
Darkness points
Building a character
Game category. Coriolis is a tabletop roleplaying game set in space. You can crew a space craft, explore the horizon by traveling to new star systems through portals, unravel secrets such as who built the portals, plot and scheme with factions over power and influence, pray to the icons, and carry out missions. But beware the Dark between the Stars, an unspeakable corrupting force in the intersection between civilization and the endless nothing of space. All of the dice used for Coriolis The Third Horizon are six sided dice, also called d6. You roll the number of dice your character has in a specific skill. If one of your dice rolls a six, you succeed at what you were trying to do. Coriolis has well described combat rules that players who enjoy Dungeons and Dragons will find interesting.
Attributes and skills. Your character has four attributes: Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. Each attribute has a few skills, which are ways you can apply that attribute during gameplay. The strength attribute has the skill of melee combat. The agility attribute has the skills dexterity, infiltration, ranged combat, and piloting. The wits attribute has the skills observation, survival, data djinn, medicurgy, science, and technology. The empathy attribute has the skills manipulation, command, culture, and mystic powers.
Every point you have in an attribute or skill gives you a six sided dice, also called a d6, that you can roll. For example your observation skill is two and your wits attribute is three, so you roll five dice total when you observe. If you roll all the dice but none of them show the number six, that roll was a failure. Read the skill’s failure text out loud for your game master to interpret. If you get one six on one dice, that means you succeeded. One six is a limited success, so you will read the skill’s wording out loud to find out how that specific skill is limited. For example it might take longer than expected or the information gained might be brief. Extra sixes beyond the first one give you cool bonus effects, which vary depending on which skill you used. You can exchange each extra six one for one for a bonus effect. If you roll three sixes, that means you got a critical success. Each skill has words explaining how a critical success is awesome and how you get an extra bonus because of the critical.
There are 16 possible skills you can put points in. Half are general skills and the other half are advanced skills. Anyone can roll a general skill, but you can’t roll for an advanced skill unless you have at least one point in it. One notable advanced skill is command, which can be used to heal a stressed out ally whose mind points have been depleted to zero. You can’t roll for command to help your friend unless you have at least one point in it.
Here is an example skill roll. The airlock is closing. Sabah tries to hurl herself towards the airlock to make it through before it closes. The Game Master calls for a dexterity roll to see if Sabah gets through the airlock or not. Sabah has one point in the dexterity skill and three points in the agility attribute, so that means she rolls four dice total. If zero of the four dice show a six, she failed, and the airlock closes before she can get through it. If any of those dice show a six, she succeeds and makes it through the airlock before it closes. If one dice shows a six, that is called a limited success. For the dexterity skill, a limited success is described as, quote, “Limited success: you manage to pull off the maneuver, but just barely.” End quote. Every extra six beyond your first might let you pick a bonus effect from the dexterity skill’s page, if it has bonus effects. Some skills do, some skills don’t. Dexterity doesn’t have any bonus effects for extra sixes, but the manipulation skill, for example, does. If three of the dice show sixes, that’s a critical success. For dexterity, the rule book says, quote, “Critical Success. You succeed with flawless skill, and you achieve some unexpected, positive side effect, like helping a friend or creating an obstacle for an enemy. The GM decides the details.” End quote. This example of a skill roll shows you that the more dice you roll, the more likely you are to get a limited success, get bonus effects, and get a critical success.
Icons. If your skill roll isn’t successful, one option you have is to pray to the icons, if that’s a thing you want to do. Praying to the icons can only impact skill rolls, not combat rolls. It’s an instant prayer your character can do that doesn’t take any time out of your other actions. You simply declare that you’re praying to the icon associated with the skill you’re rolling, and you can re roll all your failed dice that weren’t sixes. The rerolled dice now might become successes. If you prepared a prayer to that specific icon beforehand earlier in the session, then praying to that icon not only lets you reroll failed dice, but you also get either a plus one modifier which means one extra dice, or if you prayed in that icon’s chapel, then a plus two modifier which mean two extra dice. Every time you pray to an icon, though, the game master gets one darkness point.
Let’s begin talking about combat rules by starting with initiative. Initiative means turn order. When combat starts, each player rolls one d6, and the game master rolls one d6 for each enemy or group of enemies. The number on the dice is the character’s initiative score, and sets the order that people act in the round of combat. People who rolled a six can take their turn before people who rolled a five, who can take their turn before people who rolled a four, who can take their turn before people who rolled a three, etc. If two people both have the same number, roll a second dice and the higher number goes first. After everyone has gotten to go once, that ends the round, and it’s time to start a new round in the same initiative order as before.
Raising and lowering initiative. There are ways to raise your initiative score. There’s a talent called Combat Veteran that lets you roll twice and keep the higher dice result. Some weapons and certain skill bonuses can also raise your initiative score. If you are performing an attack in a way your GM accepts would surprise the enemy, add two to your initiative. Sneak attacks. To perform a sneak attack on an unsuspecting target, roll the number of dice you have in your infiltration skill and the skill will tell you how to interpret your success or failure. If you wait somewhere to ambush a target and they walk up to you while you remain stationary, you get a plus two to your infiltration roll. Sneak attacks also get modified by the range you are away from your target. Roll only once, and then increase or decrease your sneak attack’s initiative based on distance using table 5.2 on page 86. Lowering initiative. You have the option of choosing to lower your initiative score if you’d like to wait and see how things unfold. For example if you rolled a six for initiative but aren’t sure if these new arrivals are friends or foes, when it comes to you, you can choose to delay until a new lower number, such as a two. Your new score remains your permanent initiative for the rest of the combat.
Action points. At the start of the round of combat, you get three new action points. You can spend your action points to do slow, normal, fast and free actions. Unspent action points do not carry over to the next round.
A slow action costs all three action points. For example, administering first aid is a slow action. Tinkering with a gadget is a slow action. Activating a mystic power is a full action, and takes all three action points and your entire turn.
Normal actions cost two action points. For example, a melee attack in close combat is a normal action. Firing a shot on a ranged weapon is a normal action. Reloading your weapon is a normal action. After a normal action, you still have one action point left for your turn.
You can spend one action point to do a fast action. Some example fast actions are sprinting a short distance, defending, taking cover, dropping to the ground to make yourself harder to hit, getting up off of the ground, drawing a weapon, picking up an item, parrying in close combat, and making an attack of opportunity in close combat. These fast actions all only cost one action point. Note that you can’t attack while you are prone on the ground. While prone, you need to spend a fast action to stand up before you can attack. Quick melee attacks with a light weapon or unarmed also count as fast actions instead of normal actions, although they get a negative two modifier to the attack roll, which means rolling with two fewer dice. Movement is also a fast action. You can move as many meters as your movement rate for one fast action, which costs one action point.
The last category of actions are free, they don’t cost any action points. Some example free actions are when you quickly shout to a comrade, and when your armor protects you against an incoming attack. Those free actions can still be done even if you don’t have any action points left to spend. You can end your turn without having spent all of your action points, and you actually need to if you plan on reacting to an opponent’s attack. Defending against an incoming attack in close combat and making an attack of opportunity both cost one action point. When you help someone perform a slow, normal, or fast action, that counts as an action for you, too. For example, if you don’t have three action points, you can’t help someone with their slow action. Note: helping is never a fast action. The fastest helping can be is a normal action.
Armor. Using your armor is also a free action, and doesn’t cost any action points. When you’re taking damage from an attack, roll the number of dice you have in armor rating. Every six you roll reduces your incoming damage by one. If your armor reduces your incoming damage all the way to zero, you can’t suffer a critical injury from that attack.
Here is an example of a melee attack. To attack an enemy in close range, first say you’re spending two action points to do a normal action to attack in close combat. Then roll the number of dice of your melee combat skill and the number of dice you have in strength. If you get one six, you hit the enemy, yay. When you successfully hit an enemy, your weapon deals the number of damage your weapon says it deals. That’s part of the weapon’s stats. If you get extra sixes, you can spend them one for one to choose an additional effect listed in the melee combat skill’s rule book text. Extra dice can also be spent for extra effects during ranged attacks, too, by the way. The bonus effects for a melee attack include dealing more damage, inflicting a critical injury, striking fear into your enemy, raising your initiative, disarming your enemy, and grappling them. You can have page eighty seven of the rule book open when you attack to read those six bonus options you can choose from, or you can add that text to your character sheet to avoid having to flip through the rule book. Each extra six you roll on your attack can buy one extra effect. For example if you roll two extra sixes, you might choose to do one extra point of damage and disarm your target. Picking their weapon back up would cost them a fast action. Or you could choose two extra points of damage.
Here is an example of how you can ranged attack spending your choice of three, two, or one action points. If you spend three action points, that is a slow action called an aimed shot. You roll your ranged attack number of dice and your agility stat number of dice with a plus two modifier, which means rolling extra dice to represent how you’re taking the time to aim carefully. If your target is within melee distance of you, they’re close enough to react to your slow careful aim and you can’t make an aimed shot against them. You can make a normal shot against a melee target, though. A normal ranged attack costs two action points and has no modifier. Or the third option is that you can spend one action point to do a quick shot, a type of fast action. Rather than taking the time to aim carefully, a quick shot means you’re shooting from the hip. Hey, even hip shots can hit people. Sure, you get a negative two modifier to your attack roll, with means rolling with two fewer dice, but that might still hit the target, and it only cost you one action point, so in some circumstances a quick shot might be just what you need. Those three examples show how a ranged attack can be made spending one, two, or three action points, for a negative two, zero, and positive two attack modifier.
Critical success. As with skills, any time you roll three sixes in combat, that’s a critical success. Your weapon comes with a number for how much damage it does on a critical.
Distances. There are four distance ranges in Coriolis. Something is close range if it is within two meters of you. Two meters is about how long a person is if they lay down. You can step and reach a person two meters from you easily. Short range in Coriolis includes anything up to twenty meters away from you. Twenty meters is how long five cars parked end to end are. Twenty meters is about twice as high as a telephone pole. Long range in Coriolis is anything up to one hundred meters away. One hundred meters is how long a football field is, or about how far you would get if you were quickly walking for one minute. Beyond a hundred meters, everything is called extreme range.
Ranged combat particulars. There are a few things that only come up during a combat involving a ranged weapon. These include target size, range modifiers, taking cover, reloading, automatic fire, mounted weapons, and multiple targets. If you’re a melee fighter fighting a melee enemy, you never need to think about any of those things. But if you’re using a ranged weapon or your opponent is, here’s what those terms do.
Target size. If your target is prone or small, your ranged attack gets a minus one modifier, which means rolling with one fewer dice to hit. If your target is large like car sized, you get a plus one modifier, and roll with an extra dice. If you’re trying to hit a huge target, like the side of a barn, you get a plus two modifier and roll with two extra dice to hit.
Range modifiers. Firing at a target that is short range, between two and twenty meters away, is normal and doesn’t have range modifiers. At long range, between twenty and a hundred meters away, your ranged attack gets a negative one modifier, so you roll with one less dice. At extreme range beyond a hundred meters, your ranged attack gets a negative two modifier and you roll with two less dice. If you’re within close range, two meters, the modifier depends on whether the target is engaged in combat with you or unaware of you slash immobile. For a target engaged in melee combat with you, probably grabbing your weapon and pushing it out of the way, you get a minus three modifier and roll with three fewer dice to hit. For a target unaware of you or immobilized and unable to dodge your projectile, your ranged attack is made with a plus three modifier, three extra dice.
Taking cover. Cover only protects against ranged attack, not melee attacks. Taking cover is a fast action and costs one action point, separate from the movement to reach the cover, which might also be one action point. You can move as many meters as your movement for one action point. The armor rating of different types of covers varies, ranging from two armor for a sofa couch to four armor for a door to five to seven for interior and exterior walls, to a maximum of eight armor for being underground in a foxhole. Cover and armor can be combined. An example of using cover is, if you’re in a fox hole and someone hits you with an attack and would deal four damage to you, roll eight dice for your cover plus one dice for your armor for nine dice total. Every resulting six reduces that four incoming damage by one. Ranged attackers don’t solely suffer from cover rules protecting their targets. If you’re firing from cover, you get a plus one modifier on your attack and roll with one extra dice, for aimed shots and normal shots, but not quick shots, which are made from the hip too rapidly to have aimed.
Reloading. Reloading during combat is a normal speed action and takes two of your three action points. Most ranged weapons don’t need to be reloaded during a combat. Certain specific ranged weapons don’t have enough ammunition to not run out during one fight, depending on which type you’re using. If you’re using a long rifle, bow, or rocket launcher, you’ll have to reload after every time you fire. And in the special circumstance that you fired three quick shots in the same turn, if you’re not using a mounted weapon, your clip is depleted and needs to be reloaded. Note: there is a talent called Rapid Reload that makes reloading faster.
Automatic fire. Fully automatic weapons are a bit different from other ranged weapons. They fire as a slow attack which costs three action points. They have to fire on a target at long range or closer, not extreme range. They fire at a negative two modifier, which means two fewer dice on your to hit roll, your ranged attack plus agility roll. Those three things are downsides. But the upside is that whether or not your initial attack hit, you can choose to keep rolling dice one at a time. The extra dice get added to your first roll. Remember, extra sixes can get you extra effects, like dealing one more point of damage. So you can keep adding one dice after another after another, up until you roll a one, at which point the fully automatic weapon’s clip is empty and needs to be reloaded. Reloading takes two action points.
Mounted weapons. If you mount your fully automatic weapon on a vehicle, full auto fire has the additional perk of a one ending the attack but not needing a reloading action, because the vehicle has enough space to store a very large clip of ammunition.
Multiple targets. The last cool perk of fully automatic weapons is that after rolling is finished, you can choose how to distribute your successes to a new target that is within close range of that first target. The first six that you distribute to a target is a normal hit that deals the weapon’s damage. Every six after the first one can do one of the ranged weapon attack bonus effects, which includes an extra point of damage, among other things. There’s no limit to how many targets you can hit as long as they’re within close range of the previous target.
Reactions. There are also three reactions in Coriolis. Reactions are fast actions that cost one action point to do. These three reactions are: defending in melee, overwatch fire from ranged, and attacks of opportunity. Defending in melee. To defend, first say that you’re going to defend before the attacker rolls their attack against you. Then spend one action point. Then roll the number of dice you have in your melee combat skill and your strength attribute. For each six the defender rolls, you can choose from a list of options that includes decreasing damage, counterattacking, disarming your attacker, or raising your initiative. If the enemy attacked you with a weapon but you were defending unarmed, roll with a minus two modifier, which means you roll with two fewer dice. Enemies can defend if the game master spends a darkness point. Overwatch fire. An overwatch fire is a fast action where you spend one action point to be able to name a ninety degree arc direction you’re setting up a watch in. At any time, you can spend two action points to fire on anything in your watch area. Your attack goes off before the enemy’s, even after they declare their action. If both you and the enemy are in an overwatch position, then you both roll your ranged combat dice to decide who goes first. Attacks of opportunity. An attack of opportunity is when you choose to spend one action point to close combat fight an enemy who was in melee range with you but is now moving away from you. Add plus two to your attack roll. If they stop within melee range of you then you can’t attack of opportunity them.
Movement and encumbrance. Your normal movement speed of your movement rate number of meters might get decreased by difficult terrain, crawling, or sneaking. Difficult terrain, crawling, and sneaking all halve your movement rate.
Overencumbered. If you are carrying more than twice your strength number of items, roll the Force skill every time you move a long distance. If you fail the roll, then either let go of some items or stop moving.
Partial damage. There are some experiences in Coriolis that cause only a fraction of a damage point but, if you receive multiple, can add up to one damage. If you fall, drown for multiple rounds, catch on fire, get smacked by the blast power of an explosion, stay hungry or thirsty for a long amount of time, get too cold, get exposed to the vacuum of space for multiple rounds, are exposed to radiation, etc, your game master might have you keep track of how long you’re exposed for to see if it adds up to one damage point.
Reaching zero hit points or zero mind points. You might reach zero hit points during a combat. You start with the number of hit points of your strength and agility numbers added together. So if your strength is three and your agility is four, you would start with seven hit points. You might have some talents that increase your hit points, too. So what happens during a combat when you run out of hit points and reach zero? That’s called being broken. Broken characters are unable to continue fighting. They’re either unconscious or unable to physically move their bodies. All you can do is ask your friends for help. If you get hit again in this state, you could suffer a critical injury. Only critical injuries can actually kill your character, and they’re not guaranteed to do that. Table five point six on pages ninety six and ninety seven list the critical injury possibilities. There is a d66 table of injury options. To see which one you receive, roll a first six sided dice, also called a d6, to represent the first digit, and then a second d6 to represent the second digit. For example, rolling a three and then a five would be a thirty five on the table. Rolling a one and a two would be a twelve. Each critical injury table entry explains what happens to you and, if you can recover from it, how long that recovery takes. Numbers one through thirty five don’t instantly kill your character. Numbers thirty six through sixty six do instantly kill your character. If you have a good game master, they’ll let you play as a non player character you met earlier in the adventure rather than have you sit out for the rest of the session after your character dies. If you character lives, there are two ways you can recover. The first is to receive first aid. First aid is a slow action, so it costs three action points, performed by an ally rolling their medicurgy skill number of dice. If there’s at least one six, the roll is successful, and your character gets back up immediately, regaining as many hit points as sixes on the medicurgy roll. The second way to recover is by time passing. If you survive the fight, roll a d6 and that’s how many hours pass before you gain one hit point back. Then once you’re no longer broken, you regain one hit point per hour until you’re fully healed. The critical injury has its own separate healing trajectory explained in its entry in the critical injury table.
Reaching zero mind points. You can be attacked not only physically, which depletes your hit points, but also mentally by stress, which depletes your mind points. If you reach zero mind points, your character is too stressed out to function normally. Roll a d6 and that’s how many hours pass before you regain a mind point and are able to function again, unless your friends help you. Your friends can help you recover by rolling command or medicurgy. Note that command is an advanced skill that can only be used by characters with at least one point in it. Each friend only has once chance to help you. Recovery attempts are a slow action that cost three action points, and you gain as many mind points as they get sixes on their dice. Once you’re back up to at least one mind point, you will recover one mind point per hour until you’re back to maximum. Roll a d6 to see if you suffer any permanent effects. If the result is a one, your maximum mind points are permanently reduced by one. If that happens multiple times and your maximum mind points drop to zero, it’s time to make a new character.
Darkness points. I mentioned earlier that every time a player prays to an icon to reroll their failed dice that didn’t have sixes on them, the game master gets a darkness point. Praying to icons is not the only way a game master gains darkness points. It also happens every time the players portal jump, travel in the dark between stars, or use a mystic power. The game master can spend darkness points any time they want to put an obstacle in front of the player characters. Rerolling failed GM dice can be done by spending one darkness point. An NPC breaking initiative order and going first costs one darkness point. A player character’s clip running out of ammunition, meaning the player has to spend two action points to reload after this attack is finished, costs one darkness point. Making a player character misfire, which means the attack is lost and the player character has to spend three action points to clear the jam, costs three darkness points. An NPC can take a reactive action if the game master spends one darkness point. For three darkness points, a player character can drop and lose an important item of the game master’s choice. Reinforcements can be purchased for one to three darkness points during combat. Innocent bystanders can be caught up in the danger for two darkness points. A player character’s personal problem from their character sheet can suddenly affect them for one darkness point. The environment can suddenly endanger the player characters for one to three darkness points. The player character can be struck with sudden madness for one to three darkness points. And lastly some nonplayer character talents or abilities can be activated by darkness points.
Building a character in Coriolis The Third Horizon involves writing something down for the about a dozen categories. These categories are: name, appearance, background, upbringing, concept, reputation score, distribute attribute points, determine hit points, determine mind points, distribute skill levels, talent, icon and icon talent, personal problem, relationship with other player characters, gear, and crew position.
Let’s roll an example character, Calico Jack, a pirate NPC, or non player character, from our past adventure, “Salty Sea Shanties”. He’s a 4 foot, five inch tall handsome sea dwarf with salt and pepper hair. When he smiles at people he’s flirting with, a gold tooth sparkles. Calico Jack’s background is a space to write on the character sheet about where he’s from and how he grew up. Is he a normal human? No, he’s a sea dwarf. Table 2.2 lets you pick one of three upbringing options: plebian, stationary, and privileged. He’s a plebian, so he gets 15 attribute points, 8 skill points, 2 reputation points and 500 birr currency to start with.
Concept. We write on our character sheet what Calico Jack’s concept is, basically, what he does for a living. He’s a pirate captain, so, looking at the list of options, he’d be either a pilot or a fugitive from this list. Probably a fugitive, yeah. Specifically, a criminal. The criminal concept has a page with some stats, and it tells us that criminals like Calico Jack have negative two reputation points. Yeah, that makes sense. I guess that means 2 reputation points from being a plebian minus 2 reputation points from being a criminal leaves us with 0 reputation points.
Distributing attribute points. How many points you get to distribute depends on your upbringing, so looking his plebian upbringing, we have 15 attribute points to distribute. An individual attribute should be at least 2 and at most 4, with the exception of your key attribute, which should be 5. The criminal’s key attribute is empathy. The four attributes are Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. We’ll start by setting the key attribute, empathy, to 5. That leaves ten points left. Calico Jack is fairly well rounded, so we’ll put 3 points each in the other attributes, giving that last point to wits so he can outsmart the law enforcers following him. Calico Jack’s attribute distribution is: strength 3, agility 3, wits 4, empathy 5.
Hit points and mind points. To calculate your hit points, add your strength and agility together. Calico Jack’s strength is 3 and agility is 3, so that means he has 6 hit points. To calculate your mind points, add your wits and empathy together. Calico Jack’s wits are 4 and empathy is 5, so that means he has 9 mind points. Damage can reduce hit points, and stress can reduce mind points.
There are 16 possible skills you can put points in. Half are general skills and half are advanced skills. Anyone can roll a general skill, but you can’t roll for an advanced skill unless you have at least one point in it. As a plebian, Calico Jack has 8 skill points to distribute. The criminal concept’s skills are force, melee combat, dexterity, and infiltration, so let’s put two points into each of those recommended skills. Voila, done. For my players who are playing at a higher level than starting characters, you’ll have five extra skill points to distribute. The most skill points you can put in any one skill is five.
Your talent depends on your concept. The criminal’s talents are listed, and we can pick from intimidating, mystical power, or nine lives. Oh, definitely nine lives for Calico Jack. That’s his talent. Looking up the talent on a later page, it gives Calico Jack this ability, quote, “No matter how bad it looks, you always seem to come out of situations alive. When you suffer a critical injury, you get to switch the dice – turning the tens digit into the ones and vice versa (page 94). If your attacker has the talent Executioner, the effects neutralize each other – roll the critical injury normally.”
Every character gets an icon and an icon talent. You can roll for it on table 2.5, or my players can pick out the icon that most matches their character. Calico Jack would probably respect The Gambler or The Deckhand or The Merchant or The Traveler. The Deckhand’s talent suits Calico Jack. It says, quote, “If your ship drops to zero Hull Points or Energy Points, you can restore D6 points of either kind instantly. This requires no action from you – it is the Icons intervening on your behalf.”
The criminal has some options for personal problems. I think I’ll pick this one, quote, “A group of zealous Icon believers are on your tail.” Calico Jack is always trying to escape the people he most recently plundered.
The criminal concept lists some example relationships to other players characters. This one makes me chuckle. Quote, your team mate “is principled. A shame it’s the wrong principles, though.” Haha, so Calico Jack respects that you obey those law things, but not the laws themselves. Gear. The criminal starts with some gear. I’ll roll randomly since it’s a table. He starts with a transactor with a fake identity. That’s handy. Neat. The very last choice in character creation is the crew position. Calico Jack would be the captain. Thus concludes our creation of the Coriolis The Third Horizon version of Calico Jack. The character sheet is all filled out.
For players in my upcoming Coriolis The Third Horizon game, when you build your character, please follow these starting character rules, and add another five skill points. You can put a maximum of five points into any one skill. Your weapon can be any weapon listed in your concept’s starting gear list of items. As your GM, I’ll describe the group’s concept, spaceship, group talent, patron, and nemesis. Not all of that information gets shared with the players, but I can say your group talent will be Last Laugh: the party can get yourselves out of a pinch using your knack for entertainment. The GM gets one Darkness Point per use, and the party can use Last Laugh once per session.
Hopefully this little rules chat helps my players build their characters and understand how to play. For everyone listening, if you’d like to hear an example adventure, the episode of Firebreathing Kittens podcast right after this is a demonstration of us playing Coriolis The Third Horizon in a oneshot game session. We invite you to listen to it to hear an example of Coriolis The Third Horizon in action. We encourage you to find the Coriolis The Third Horizon rule book yourself, and play a game with friends.