Analysis: '1001 Nights' system variant

Checking on the Coriolis Discord, I read that the publishers are OK with players recreating tables, figures and data from the RPG source material where the only purpose is the facilitation of playing their game and I hereby promise this is my only intent with this article. The 'rules as written' referred to here are from the Coriolis RPG; the analysis is my own content - Doctor Weather

I'd like to use the Year Zero engine to go further than my house-rule tweaks to the Coriolis system, to really lean into the 1001 Nights influence and to properly explore the First-Come and Zenithian cultures. I've already developed some ideas for the two cultures' similarities and differences from what we see in the Core Rules but I'd really like to see the cultures in the very rules themselves. Moreover, I'd like players to be able to look at their character sheet and get a stronger flavour of the game background during play. At the moment I think players see a sci-fi game set in a background that has a strong religious element but where, as a GM, I find myself having to give my players the majority of that background. They can see the Icons in the skill re-rolls and, if I'm clever enough with my plots and NPC, I can deliver information without too much exposition. However, I've been wondering if I could make it easier, for players and myself, to improvise and add to the game there was more background and game flavour on character sheets and in the rules. Another thing I find happening - to me at least - is that it's all too easy to drop back into a white-western game that just occasionally nods its head to a supposed completely-different source. Rules as written, I think you see a space-opera game with Firefly and Alien elements set in an Arabian background. I have enjoyed this game and still play it but again I just wonder, can I embrace the game's influences further? The first time I played Coriolis, the GM told me he actively dropped the Arabian-culture influences to focus on the space opera. I couldn't say he was wrong to do this, I just thought at the time it was a shame. Moreover, I think it's easy to do without even meaning to. My aims
The cultural influences and Core Rules elements - and personal interpretations thereof - that I want to see more of are:

The cultures balance science and religion, thinking of both as equally important parts of the journey towards understanding the universe
The people want 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

Orientalism
I believe - I hope - that in this I am avoiding orientalism. Where I fail, I ask the reader to let me know and I promise to learn and to adapt any house rules accordingly. I think I'm steering myself correctly with the help of source materials from the internet. I'm trying to create cultures that balance science and religion, not that descend into superstitious ignorance. I'm trying to create peoples that are intelligent and developed, not lost in a backward state. I'm trying to create cultures that are different to the ones I normally play in, not worse, or better, ones. Let me know. JUMP TO CONTENTS

The character's story

Purposes:

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

Inspirations:

Before I understood Personal Problems and Darkness Points, some of my players created Personal Problems that couldn't easily be activated without major plot implications - they were focused on the character's long-term future - but what if Personal Problems could be usefully split into small-scale everyday issues and long-term future concerns?
Twilight 2000's 'Big Dream'
Forbidden Land's 'Pride'

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My Legacy

Everyone in the Third Horizon has been raised on stories. Moreover, everyone is well aware that they will have their own story to tell at the end of their life. To some this is a burden but to others it's exciting possibility. To some it'll be the story of their achievements and how they overcame trials and tribulations, to others it was their destiny. In all cases it is the story that their family will tell of them for generations thereafter. Perhaps 'My Legacy' is the very first thing the player sees on the character sheet. It could be quite defining, as it could affect the plot the GM throws that them, maybe challenging them to achieve their greatness or guiding them to it (see the 'Nature of the Dark Between the Stars' paragraph of GM style). Character sheet and plot

One sentence describing the long-term goal or aspiration, or even fear, of the character that details where they think they're going to end up
This could be an end-of-life perspective but would be better something that could be tackled during a campaign, generating plot
It's likely too big to be resolved in a single scenario, but could still influence role-playing choices and so XP

System rules

You don't usually fail a roll that would take you towards your destiny
'This is direction my life is taking but I can't be completely sure of my future. It's important to me and it's what I personally think is my direction of travel. I might be wrong of course and might have to learn what the Icons have in store for me.' Based on this I think I can make good use of Forbidden Land's Pride stat:

Once per session, if you think an action contributes to your destiny then you can choose to roll an extra dice in the event of a failed roll - d12 or maybe even a d20, so you get a 75% chance of holding to your path, rather than a 50-50
Where you succeed, you know you're on the right track and have of course passed a useful roll
Where you still miss the roll, your future has suddenly become less clear to you

Destiny in doubt
You may no longer have an obvious destiny or may just be going through a moment of doubt whilst you work out what lesson you needed to learn to stay on the path. At this time, you gain an extra personal problem for the GM to trigger - so you lose the ability but become more involved in the plot. You and the GM can agree a new, temporary personal problem or you can take a generic one:

Listlessness (1-3 DP, depending on severity) - you are distracted by self-doubt or by something that reminds you of the destiny perhaps lost and somehow wander into danger, for example:

1DP - you miss an important point of etiquette and an NPC becomes annoyed, causing your party a little more hassle in negotiations
2DP - your carelessness knocks away someone's equipment and their dromedon wanders off
3DP - you wantonly embrace danger, throwing away your food onto a passing nekatra gladiator and Legion escort in full-honour uniform - get ready!

Realigning your stars
The temporary personal problem stays until it can be resolved. This can be part of the design between you and the GM or it can be an in-the-moment success. You could actively search for an answer or a success that would get you back on track or the GM could offer one and if you succeed at a challenge then you're back on track: the new problem goes away and you regain your extra dice option. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Under divine gaze

The Icons have marked the players out as worthy of extra help and the so the Dark Between the Stars will challenge them to make them prove this worth (see the 'Nature of the Dark Between the Stars' paragraph of my GM style summary). JUMP TO CONTENTS

Under Their Gaze

Under the gaze of The Icons the PC has a blessing, a gift, skill or knowledge that sets them apart - an 'Icon Fate' or 'Personal Blessing'
The religious think of it as their fate, a gift from the Icons. Those with a more secular bent think of it as a skill they have honed or a natural talent of their genes. It will need to be something much more specific than technology as a skill or "cool under pressure", which could be applied in any game situation needing dice. The GM and player should agree on a specific skill area and/or circumstance. Examples
A good circumstance could be "I'm better when there's an audience to show off to", with agreement that the party doesn't count as an audience; it has to be a crowd of strangers. A good skill could be hairdressing, which isn't going to come up too often but in a game of courtly politics could be judiciously used by the cunning player. Other things could be:

Fixing engines
Playing chess
Duelling with pistols

System rules
You can always gain free a re-reroll at +2 at the thing you're good at, as if you had always made a preparatory prayer for it. If you succeed, then you succeed, praise the Icons. If you still miss then you lose the benefit until you can regain your confidence: You must succeed again without the Icons' help at your chosen skill. The GM and player could agree anything from a training montage to pre-arranged plot moment in game. Optional considerations

Maybe instead you could get another once per session where you can buy a critical success for the cost of 1DP, copying the Gambler's Talent
Confidence could also be regained by praying to the Icons, as any preparatory prayer

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Under Its Gaze

Under the gaze of The Dark Between the Stars the PC has a problem that dogs them constantly - a 'Dark Fate' or 'Personal Problem'
This is just the existing Personal Problem in Coriolis, but I'll guiding the player to choose something that can be activated in everyday situations, so in every session, irrespective of the greater plot. The religious would think of it as their fate, but a constant challenge from the Dark Between the Stars. Those with a more secular bent think of it as something that 'always happens to me', simply because of who they are - their social status or their genes, perhaps. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Skills

Representing the cultures more in the skills
The Core Rules skills reflect Coriolis being a space-opera game, leaning perhaps into the Firefly influence by having a specific skill for each ship role. Obviously, I need to keep the sci-fi element but rather than generic space-opera, I'll look to incorporate these themes:

Include artistry and performance for the storytelling, poetry, song and dance, etc.
Acknowledge that, despite the technological background, the people express their gratitude for their personal capabilities by still carrying out some tasks physically: people still manually cook, create art, complete in sport, hold court, dance, fix things with their hands...
Equally, there's an uneven distribution of wealth, so some aren't lucky enough to have a lot of technology in their lives - maybe they can only afford one machine, with which they earn a living perhaps, and have to do everything else themselves

...And I'm prepared to sacrifice the 'one skill per ship role' idea to get this, as personally I don't use the ship combat mini-system in my games. I will happily concede that it's a good system but it feels like a mini-game unto itself and I just don't find myself drawn to that game is all. And I'm not removing it, just removing the dedicated skills. Equal importance of the 4 attributes
Following the trend in the later Year Zero games, I want each ability to be equally important for skills. 1 point in any ability now provides an effective point in exactly 4 skills. There are still 16 skills overall; I don't want there to be more than this, so as not to increase the complexity of the skills list. Specialisations
I'm including specialisations, inspired by Twilight 2000 and experimentation with house rules, for two reasons. One, I'm keen for players to feel confident in skills they design their characters to be good at (see discussions in analysis: Coriolis system for more on this). Two, it adds a lot of flavour to character design: I've rejigged the main skills to represent the cultures somewhat but the specialisations really help with that.

ABILITY	SKILL	SPECIALISATION EXAMPLES
Power	Athletics --- Endurance --- Melee --- Presence	Force, speed, zero-g --- Specialisation by hardship: marathon running; holding your breath; extreme heat --- Specialisation by weapon type: blades; unarmed --- Intimidation, body-building, beautification, drawing attention
Co-ordination	Agility --- Craft --- Pilot --- Ranged	Tumbling, balancing, sleight of hand, infiltration --- Painting, carpentry, lock-picking --- By vehicle type --- By weapon type
Wits	Observation --- Science --- Survival --- Technology	Eye for details, third eye --- Physical sciences, mathematics, human sciences, medicurgy, history/archaeology, religious studies --- First aid, resource gather, flora and fauna --- Data djinn, mechanics, power sources
Empathy	Culture --- Insight --- Manipulation --- Performance	Etiquette, first contact --- Reading emotions, detect lie --- Command, persuade, seduce --- Story, song, poetry, dance, teaching

Remove strict adherence to advanced skills lockout
No skill is now completely blocked from use untrained. Instead, the GM can rule that the particular circumstance blocks a roll, as something about the situation is outside the character's realm of familiarity. For example, a culture that has cars requires characters have pilot to be an advanced driver. However, if that culture is planet-bound then the GM could rule that the character with pilot can't use it to fly a plane or pilot a space craft.

Characters might need a background sentence written in character gen to define what parts of the skills a character can use
This could be updated by experiences gained in play - maybe even XP spends, though this would need to be play-tested

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Power

Power: rather than just raw, physical strength, this is now the power of the body extended to the ascetics' ability to sit for hours out in the snow, the courtiers' ability to draw attention to themselves and the gymnasts' feats of controlled strength. A physical culture, despite the tech background
I'm building around the idea of a culturally-shared desire to preserve the importance of being human, despite the advanced of technology that could, despite its usefulness, break people's connection to the world. The people are very religious and the Icons look over humanity, not the wilderness. People could use robots to cook for them, but they prefer to cook, to better appreciate the resources used to sustain them. People could send machines to war but they believe if you feel someone needs to die you should do it yourself. Equally, since the Long Night, not everyone has access to a lot of tech, and they might need to prioritise their tech resource onto certain tasks, forcing them to manually conduct the others.

Athletics	This keeps force but expands the specialisations into other areas of prowess
Endurance	Accounts for the different hardships across many different environments across the Horizon
Melee	Unaltered
Presence	I'm very keen on people being able to be physically impressive and not have to rely on a social skill to make themselves felt in a situation. With the specialisations people can be seen at court with draw attention, intimidate with their sheer size to prevent a bar-room brawl and be skilled at showing the body in its best lights, representing the cultures' belief that the physical body is still more important than the technology that serves it

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Co-ordination

Co-ordination: the ability of the mind to direct the body beyond full-body movement, bringing in hand-eye co-ordination and fine skills of artistry. Introduction of artistry
Along with my desire to get more story, poetry and song into games with that 1001 Nights connection, I've always wanted more art in general, allowing characters to go into the physical crafts that create the background's curtains, paintings and murals. However, Agility already had 4 skills, so I've had to make space by moving dexterity-equivalents and infiltration into specialisations.

Agility	Takes the dexterity-equivalents and infiltration into specialisations but also allows for sleight of hand magic and thievery
Craft	Allows for the arts and crafts
Pilot	Unaltered
Ranged	Unaltered

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Wits

Replacing the Firefly influence with more 1001 Nights
Whilst I absolutely get the idea of giving each ship role its own skill to use, to preserve each PC having their own expertise, I don't use space combat in my games. I've played down the whole Firefly-side in fact. I don't hate it; I just want to play up the 1001 Nights angle and something has to give, so I'm pursuing what I seem to want to play. Too many Wits skills
Dropping from 6 to 4 was really hard but I'm fixed on keeping 4 skills to each ability, so sacrifices had to be made.

Observation	Unaltered - I just use this too much as is to alter it perhaps
Science	This is now explicitly all sciences. I get that in our world someone who knows physics wouldn't know sociology but again I'm going to try and play into this different culture. I'm thinking not everyone in the Horizon will be lucky enough to get an education and that if you are, you'll generally have access to all science information. Moreover, the people value learning so much that children sent for education get a rounded one, specialising only later in life or by allowed personal preference. I think this matches the old world, where philosophy and science were the same and polymaths were the norm. I'm also wondering if, in an advanced society, there are unifying principles, parallels within each field, that allow people to learn all the sciences together through observation of these unifying patterns. Medicurgy joins science for the purpose of representing real doctoring and surgery.
Survival	I've extended this to cover even part of medicurgy but limited to just first aid, thinking that physical people - soldiers, crawler drivers and such - could still get access to all the means of staying alive through accessing this skill and not needing to stray into academia to do it.
Tech	This is now all tech, all interactions with technology at all levels from getting your tractor to work up to fixing fusion engines, working very much under the change to advanced skills discussed above. Merging data djinn in here is in line with a slight crossover I've encountered in games, where a situation has often meant that data djinn or science / tech might be appropriate. I didn't want it in science and tech seemed natural. Again, it does break the expertise of the ship combat system but see my reasoning above for this.

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Empathy

Culture	Possibly not changed from Core Rules but I have found myself using this in games for history and archaeology, making science the hard sciences and culture the human sciences. I'm now replacing this by keeping culture for interaction with other people - an empathy skill - and making sure all raw knowledge stays in wits.
Insight	This is reading people, using empathy to gain information.
Manipulation	This is impacting on people, using your knowledge of them to change their minds or behaviours.
Performance	Performance comes with my desire to get more story, song and dance literally into the game by allowing characters to show how it's part of their life. I have my privileged characters using poetry as a language of meetings and court all the time and I'd like to not always use manipulation for it. Also, I want characters who are parents and grandparents to have knowledge of their myths and culture through a channel that isn't academic in root. I've kept all art forms in here, thinking that, for example, a ballet dancer will need both agility and performance: It's not enough for them to just move their body well with agility, they have to be able to express themselves with performance too, to really capture an audience's heart.

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Mystic powers

Untrained Mystic Powers work on current mind points or current health points
Core Rules as written, mystic powers seem quite controlled abilities, as they're just like any other talent but as described in the scenarios, they are an unbidden affliction for most people - scary, mysterious and out of control even. The Seekers can control them, and after the campaign humans may have started to develop a real skill, but before then it's a less controlled talent. (This change might make mystic power talents less powerful than other talents initially but this should be more than made up for in role-playing opportunity.) Splitting them between health points and mind points allows them to be accessible to PCs that have chosen physical attributes as well as those choosing mental. Improved by talents
When players meet a Seeker or other skilled user, they can learn to gain better control of their powers. They can purchase further talents to always be able to roll a minimum of X dice and maybe a second talent that says always use total HP / MP instead of current. Mystic powers might also be activated by GM with DP until the player purchases a talent to lock out the Dark Between the Stars. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Combat

Initiative is based on an appropriate stat
This extends the use of the dexterity skill in house rule for initiative to a natural end point where a relevant skill can be used depending on the nature of the conflict. Agility would be used for martial combat; culture or insight would be more appropriate for getting the first word in court. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Background

There're two parts to this:

Origin: First-come and Zenithian (and potentially humanite)
Upbringing: privileged, stationary and plebeian

The latter can easily vanish after character creation. This might be welcome to some, as playing out the systemic biases and bigotry of a stratified society can be distasteful, but it's there, it's real and I'm going to try and use it. With the agreement of the players, it can fall to them to decide how they want to interact with it in game. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Origin

Mostly role-played
A lot of the differences between origins seem centred around science vs. religion and I want all characters to have some of both in their lives, to a degree controlled by the player. For the most part then, I'll keep origin in character creation and the role-playing that I'll take responsibility to introduce through my plots. Small change: bonuses when dealing with people of your origin
I'm going to try one extra thing though: characters will get a +1 to +3 bonus to insight skill and specialisations when dealing with people of their own origin. Avoiding anything negative
I was thinking of a penalty for all empathy skills when dealing with people of other origins but on reflection this seemed too negative, too likely to bolster and encourage stereotyping and bias. I want these realistic factors in the game but I don't the players to feel trapped behind these barriers. Players will be able to break them down and use their skills normally with other origins, it's just that they'll get a bonus with 'their own people'. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Upbringing

Removing the connection to talent and skill levels
I'm not sure I like the assumption that plebeians aren't as skilled. I get that they don't have the same access to education as other upbringing levels but they do have access to non-academic skills and occupations with the expectation of performing them well in life. Introduce age for starting talent and skills and keep upbringing social
I'm going to steal Forbidden Lands' age-based starting points for attributes and skills and move upbringing into insight skills and in-game social situations, matching the thinking for origin above: characters will get a +1 to +3 bonus to insight skill and specialisations when dealing with people of their own upbringing level. Reputation isn't fame, it's more about social status
Reputation seems to be a combination of both ideas, rules as written, but at its core these rules seem to be about people of higher social status having greater influence on people in society: the higher up you are, the more you get your own way. I'll keep this factor in the game but rename it 'social status' to make it clearer that it's about being able to give orders to someone of lower status than yourself and having the expectation that they'll usually be carried out in civilised society. Split fame - and infamy - off into its own thing
I'll keep the word 'reputation' but have run in system as Forbidden Lands' reputation does. It doesn't matter if it's fame or infamy, that's flavour, it's more a chance of being recognised. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Social status

Existing Reputation becomes social status
You'll have a starting rating that effectively says you can give orders to anyone with a lower number than you and expect them to carry it out under normal social circumstances. This number will be altered by professions and behaviours that would serve to make people respect you more or less. A privileged that is always drunk will have people ignore their commands more often, whilst a plebeian whose risen in the ranks of the Legion may well be able to give commands to stationary folk. The flip side: more responsibility
To stop privileged character being better than plebeians through a high social status I'll balance this with an in-game requirement to behave as your social status demands. If you don't follow the rules of society and just use your social status to give orders then it will drop as people lose respect for you. A plebeian could walk away from a fight or disaster and no-one would judge them but a privileged would be expected to step and take charge, to try and resolve the problem. High social status means people follow your orders but they expect you to give them for the betterment of society. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Reputation

Use Forbidden Lands' Reputation for fame
Adventurers in both settings can become famous and Forbidden Lands has this well covered. Apply a location / circumstance to the value
A character will have more than one reputation with different parts of the Horizon and the fame/infamy aspect would vary by circumstance. The star of the Plantation Owner's Daughter will have a high reputation with all systems that broadcast the show. It could be fame or infamy depending on whether someone sees them as an actor or as their character when meeting them in real life. The star would have a single rating but it would only apply where people know their show and the fame / infamy element would be handled in play, dependent on circumstance. If this same star is also an explorer on Menkar then they would have a separate reputation just for Menkar, dependent on their exploits there. Fame starts at zero in character creation by default
A character could buy starting fame with a talent and certain concepts could provide reputation instead of social status if that fits better. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Age

Affects starting ability and skill points, using Forbidden Lands for inspiration

	Young	Adult	Old
Attributes	15	14	13
Skills	9	12	15
Talents (not including Icon and Group)	0	1	2

Reasoning:

1 attribute point is worth 4 skill points now based on there being 4 skills per attribute
1 talent oftens grants a +2 skill bonus, though often in a restricted circumstance resembling a specialisation, so a talent is worth slightly less than 2 skill points - keep the maths simple by saying 1 talent is 1 skill point?
Each age group in the above table therefore gets 69 'equivalent points'

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Relationships

I've never actually used this as a GM or a player. I get that it's a plot and XP thing but nonetheless. Relationships between PCs seem to generate well enough on their own during character gen and evolve well enough in play that I think I'm just going to drop this 'stat'. It doesn't add anything to the culture and storytelling angles I'm pursuing and arguably becomes naturally more detailed and interesting during play when just left to the human players interacting. If I were pursuing the game's Firefly influence more heavily then I could see it being a big thing but I haven't missed that from my games as yet. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Test characters

Concept from the player
Scion of a lesser branch of the Jangahir moguls of the Quadrant of the Pillar. Guest-lecturer & tutor at several academies on Coriolis: promotes Firstcome approaches to archaeology & anthropology, with a particular interest in religion. Lay-preacher, especially devoted to Lady of Tears & the Star Singer (Traveller). Took sabbatical to 'work in the field': joined Shalla Djabari's operations. Fluent in Zeni & Kuan as well as the Jangahir trade-tongue of the Quadrant. Notes as a GM and for system design
Andrew, the player, has always spoken of Masruq as raised in the way of the nomad fleets but then allowed to pursue his own interests. Specifically, he was taught fencing and etiquette as a young noble but as an adult pursued academic interests. JUMP TO CONTENTS

Masruq - Mogul teacher turned adventurer

From 14 ability points and 12 skill points...

POWER	3	Masruq was trained in fencing but even as a child his interests lay elsewhere
Athletics	0
Endurance	0
Melee	0	Fencing 1
Presence	0
CO-ORDINATION	2	Whilst other Jangahir children pursued sports and physical activities, Masruq was drawn to books
Agility	0
Craft	0
Pilot	0
Ranged	0
WITS	4	His tutors were surprised at his ability and attention to detail when it came to studying the path humanity has taken through the stars
Observation	0
Science	1	History/Archaeology 2; Religious Studies 1
Survival	0
Technology	1
EMPATHY	5	Despite being drawn to books, Masruq's real motivation was derived from an interest in people, with whom this child of a noble family always had a natural understanding
Culture	2
Insight	1
Manipulation	1	Command 1
Performance	0	Teaching 1

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Note to reader: this purposefully long analysis article Second note to reader: everything here automatically assumes inclusion of my house rules and GM style for 'normal' games Side note: I've been through Forbidden Lands and Twilight 2000 rules looking for Year Zero Engine inspiration for this article's changes

Contents