1001 Nights variant overview
Game rules - homebrew
These are the rules I use for my 1001-Nights, homebrew variant of Coriolis. With this variant I'm trying to really lean into the First-come and Zenithian (and humanite) cultures and to bring storytelling directly into the game as something important to both cultures - a literal 1001-Nights influence if you will. Moreover, I'd like players to see these changes directly on their character sheet, to get a feel for them right away, not purely reliant on me trying to give them background information through exposition.
These are the rules I've landed on after an analysis that's also summarised in my aims below.
My aims
The cultural influences and Core Rules elements - and personal interpretations thereof - that I want to see more of are:
The 1001-Nights variation is entirely focused on character creation, as my house rules for 'normal' games cover system changes beyond characters. I also always incorporate everything from my GM style in the 1001 Nights games. Character sheet
...available on Role: https://app.playrole.com/sheet-templates/d25cfa5e-coriolis-pc-1001-nights-variant/save
Purposes
Purposes
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The cultural influences and Core Rules elements - and personal interpretations thereof - that I want to see more of are:
- The cultures balancing science and religion, thinking of both as equally important parts of the journey towards understanding the universe
- The people wanting to recover the technology and understanding lost in the Long Night, which was not just an event but a tragedy - a necessary cost perhaps, of the escape from the other two Horizons, but a terrible one
- They value story, poetry, art and song, to both help them analyse their lives and to record it for the benefit of those still to come - where databases were destroyed in the Long Night, story remained
- The Icons are not the gods of creation but rather vastly intelligent divinities that walk with humans, guiding them, encouraging them onwards - they are honoured and respected forces of the universe but not beings that enslave humanity for their own benefit or toy with humans for mysterious purposes
- I want to avoid the idea of humans bowing down to unknown natural forces that rule their lives - these humans are scientists that understand the ravages of nature are not angry gods, humans humble and wise enough to know that they don't yet understand everything and who value a little help on the way to enlightenment
The 1001-Nights variation is entirely focused on character creation, as my house rules for 'normal' games cover system changes beyond characters. I also always incorporate everything from my GM style in the 1001 Nights games. Character sheet
...available on Role: https://app.playrole.com/sheet-templates/d25cfa5e-coriolis-pc-1001-nights-variant/save
Character stories
Full rules: 1001 Nights variant: character stories
| My story | Characters have a description of where their life is heading and what they will become or achieve in the future:
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|---|---|
| Under Their gaze | Characters have an innate skill, a gift from the Icons, something that they are really good at:
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| Under Its gaze | The existing 'personal problem' stat renamed but where I'll make sure that players always pick something that can be triggered in any session and not connected to their future and plot, reserving this for 'my story' |
- To show how important storytelling is in the background
- To exhibit a cultural importance to finding and understanding your place in the universe
- To personally or intimately link the player characters - as people chosen to stand out in the crowd - to the Icons and the Dark Between the Stars
Character backgrounds
Full rules: 1001 Nights variant: character backgrounds
| Origin | Characters gain +1 to +3 bonuses to empathy skills, and their specialisations, when dealing with people of their own origin |
|---|---|
| Upbringing | Characters gain +1 to +3 bonuses to empathy skills, and their specialisations, when dealing with people of their own origin Characters receive up to 3 dice adjustments where their upbringing would control their knowledge and education - for example, plebeians might gain a +1 bonus to storytelling but a -1 penalty when reciting poetry; these could vary by planet and culture though, and are left to the GM to agree with their players Upbringing no longer controls starting attributes, skills and talents, instead controlling the starting level for the new social status stat |
| Social status | The 'reputation' stat now becomes social status, which is nothing to do with fame or infamy, purely a measure of how high up the social order you are:
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| Reputation | The stat reputation stays on the character sheet but now becomes fame, copying Forbidden Lands' reputation stat, though across the Horizon a character will have different reputations in different places and with different groups of people |
| Age | Age now controls starting attributes, skills and talents |
| Relationships | Having never used these in game myself, relationships are dropped - as a standalone role-play and XP module though, they could come in and out as the GM wants |
- I want to bring origin and upbringing more into the game
- I didn't really like plebeians being less skilful than the privileged - I get that privileged have greater access to academia but the human is much wider than that, especially considering the new skill list I'm implementing
- I want a clearer separation of social status and a character's fame - I want both in the game, the former for role-playing the culture and the latter as a measure of the characters' growing story and influence on the Horizon, just separate and clearer
Skills
Full rules: 1001 Nights variant: skills
| Redesign of the attributes and skills lists | The existing skills list covers space opera pretty well but with the redesign I've tried to push the background and a storytelling culture more |
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| 4 skills per attribute | All the newer Free-League games balance out the attributes now and I'm all in favour, allowing players to specialise in any stat without feeling like they've lost out by the maths |
| Specialisations | This is really a continuation of what's already in my house rules for skills; I've just tried to help with some suggested specialisations now that I've changed the skill lists they work from |
Combat
Full rules: 1001 Nights variant: combat
I'd like a less-complicated rules system that's much more focused on manoeuvres than doing critical hits. I still want the players to make tactical choices in combat, as I do enjoy seeing people cleverly using the rules, but in the vein of something a little more Errol Flynn and Zorro and a little less miniatures and wargame. I'm arguably dangerously targeting a halfway house between narrative and tactical choices but I have to try...
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Replacing birr with resources
Full rules: 1001 Nights variant: birr and resources
This is still under playtesting but I'd like to continue the theme of simplification and reduction of bookkeeping by replacing birr with something akin to Vaesen's resource system: Everything that the PCs could want has a resource level; if a PC's social status is equal to or greater than that resource level then the PC can just obtain the item under 'normal conditions' - i.e. if you're in a civilised area and sellers of that kind of thing would be reasonably common enough.
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Ship as an NPC
Full rules: 1001 Nights variant: the ship as a character
Also still under playtesting and building on the move away from birr, I'm trialling a simplification of the ship-creation rules that borrow from Mutant: Year Zero's ark rules. I'm hoping to turn the ship into an NPC that the players interact with more without having to do so much accountancy with birr.
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Re-rolls beyond Darkess Points
Full rules: 1001 Nights variant: re-rolls
This is for players, or characters even, that don't want to embrace the religion but still want the re-roll. I'm making sure to keep the connection to the Darkness and its challenge of heroes but opening up some other doors to it.
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- 1001 Nights variant: character backgrounds
- 1001 Nights variant: character stories
- 1001 Nights variant: skills
- 1001 Nights variant: combat
- 1001 Nights variant: birr and resources
- 1001 Nights variant: the ship as a character
- 1001 Nights variant: re-rolls
- Analysis: '1001 Nights' system variant
- GM style: Darkness Points
- GM style: Narrative games and rolling dice
- House rules summary
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