Journey to Newhome is a series of short adventures designed for the Darwin’s World post-apocalyptic role-playing game. The adventures in this book are based around characters first introduced in the novel, Burning Lands. Journey to Newhome continues the story of several of those characters, but in a format usable in the Darwin’s World role-playing game. You will find usable game statistics for the book's major characters, as well as an overview of what happened to those characters after the events described in the novel.
More than just a write-up of stat blocks, however, Journey to Newhome provides usable adventures in the format of a protracted campaign of far-reaching consequences, though with some modification each adventure can be played individually as a short diversion or a single night’s challenge.
Journey to Newhome is composed of eight adventures that tell the story of a heroic new beginning for the people of the Twisted Earth. These adventures are set approximately ten years after the events described in the Darwin's World novel, Burning Lands, and also weaves in elements of other Darwin's World adventures (such as Halidom and the Mindmasters series). Each installment in the campaign features one or more characters (either directly or indirectly) from the novel; during the course of the campaign the player characters get a chance to meet these figures, deal with them, possibly fight them, and in some circumstances, adventure alongside them.
The Terran Insterstellar Marine Force is the toughest
branch of the Unified Earth Military Command. In their storied 200 year history
as the infantry arm of the Terran Expeditionary Fleet, the Leathernecks had
battled the feral xenomorphs of Rigil Kentaurus, stormed the asteroid
fortresses of the Void Pirates and eradicated an uprising of the savage native
Vrish who threatened the Pleiades Colony. But
they had never faced a foe like the Fyr'Toll
Background: It is the year 2268 and mankind is locked in a bitter war of extermination with the Fyr`Toll, a frightening, inhuman blend of man and machine. Their first attacks came without warning and decimated the most powerful nations on Earth. The United States of Africa, the Indian Conglomerate, the Pan-American League and the Asian Coalition all lie in ruins.
Earth refused to surrender and after a desperate first year of conflict, managed to match the Fyr`Toll’s technological advantages through a series of daring boarding actions, capturing and reverse engineering enemy vessels. Once parity was achieved however, the war seemed to drag on indefinitely and has just entered its 25th year.
On a deep-space survey mission thought to be far away from the front lines, the player characters served on the UASS Johannesburg, searching out resources vital to the war effort. It is then they run across a Fyr`Toll survey ship, the Kra`Tep. After a brief, vicious firefight, both vessels crash on an uncharted planet below.
Two enemies, stranded on one planet on the edge of space. Neither able to overcome the planet’s natural magnetic field to call for help and watching as a fast-growing jungle constantly threatens to overrun their ruined vessels, as predators kill their crew one by one.
After several firefights, their numbers dwindling, the captain of the Kra`Tep meets with the senior surviving officer of the Johannesburg and suggests the two sides join forces to get free of the deadly planet. When the pact is announced, approximately 25% of the humans and Fyr`Toll strike out on their own, unable to overcome the hatred each feels for the other.
These attack each other, the opposing side and even their fellows, all in an
attempt to “convince” them that cooperation with their worst enemy is pointless
at best, dangerous at worst.
A game of exploration: This is the campaign of “stranded on a different star”. A hostile alien world must be explored and possibly tamed, at first for simple survival but eventually with the monumental task of pooling resources for a return voyage.
A game of character interaction: But the planet isn’t the only challenge players in the game will face. Can they manage to hold their unstable coalition together and overcome the hatred bred by decades of war? Can they bring their dissidents back into the fold?
A game of discovery: And even when the planet has been explored, there are mysteries left to solve. What about the planet hinders technology? What secrets wait to be discovered in alien ruins? And how closely will each side honor their agreements? If a powerful alien weapon is discovered, will its secrets be shared or will the discovering side try to hide it for return to their side in the war above.
A game of community: Stranded on a Distant Star will be financed by the “ransom” system, where gamers interested in the game will finance it and guide its direction.
If the $1,500 donation threshold is achieved, patrons will gain access to a special discussion group, where they will see advance drafts of the game and comment on its direction. The game will be designed by veteran OGL designer Charles Rice and its mechanics will be 100% OGL, though the setting will remain the property of Vigilance Press/Charles Rice.
Once the game is completed, the game will be made available for free on RPGNow in PDF form. All contributors will be credited in the final PDF copy.
Contributors of $20 or more will receive a POD-print copy of the game.
About the author: Charles Rice is an Ennie-nominated writer with over 100 credits. His books currently in print include: Modern20, Supers20, Darwin’s World (True20 Edition) and the Two Worlds RPG, included in the collectors edition of the Two Worlds X-Box 360 game.
Learn more or donate at the Vigilance Press blog, RPGDesign.
Voyages of Discovery is a complete fantasy game powered by the Modern20 game engine and set in a sword and sorcery world that technologically resembles 19th century Earth. Voyages of Discovery is a complete setting and game system in one book, nothing else is needed to play.
Print Edition
I'll be sending the printer files to Amazon at the end of the week, giving customers a few days to report any typos we missed. Feedback will be rewarded! You can purchase the print edition now (or upgrade later), but please know that is will take allow 4-6 weeks for delivery depending on when you order.
Congrats chuck!
Like I did for my first batch of print books, I'm taking orders this week and then ordering stock on Friday. So to ensure your copy order by Friday.
Note that you can get it quicker from Amazon directly, but we make more when you buy it from us. We appreciate the support either way.
Also on Kindle...
Modern20 is soon to be available via Amazon Kindle. This was sort of experiment for me, and it sadly had mixed results.
Unfortunately the kindle doesn't support tables, which really sucks for an RPG book. Using the power of my newly created modern20 database, I was able to make it as Kindle friendly (which uses a subset of HTML but doesn't support the TABLE tag!) as possible.
I still think it's useful if you own a Kindle, but not if your looking up something in a table (i.e. chemistry explosions table). But I'll make this commitment to Kindle users, as Amazon improves better formating options for the Kindle, I'll keep updating the book (and updates are free).