Dungeons & Disapora

For centuries, the Third Horizon—a system of thirty-six star systems—and a wave of colonial expansion and exploration reached through a series of portals built and abandoned long ago by an alien species now known as the Portal Builders, has existed in a state of peaceful isolation. Contact had been long lost with the First Horizon and the Second Horizon following an interstellar war which ended in the portals being permanently closed to the previous Horizons. Yet the Third Horizon was never without its tensions—tensions that would be exploited from within and without. Most notably the latter as the First Horizon fought to take control of the Third Horizon and the Second Horizon fought to prevent it, their proxies continuing the conflict across the ribbon of the stars that made the Third Horizon and changing it for ever. Some fled the war and never saw its outcome. Their ragtag fleet went in search of a signal emanating far from the Third Horizon, said to be from the Nadir, sent with its sister colony vessel, the Zenith, from Earth to Aldebaran, centuries before. The Zenith made contact with, and reinvigorated, the Third Horizon. The Nadir disappeared into the Dark Space between stars. The twelve year journey, known as the Long Traverse, brought the fleet to a system with only two gas giants it called Jumuah where the signal was lost and that was its final stop. The star portal which would hopefully have led onward, hopefully to more prosperous worlds was dead. The fleet was stranded. The survivors were forced to adapt. They labelled their new home the ‘Lost Horizon’ and founded ‘The Ship City of Coriolis the Eternal and Jumuah the First and Last’, or Ship City, in a hollowed out asteroid which they expanded with the hulls of ships no longer space worthy. That was two hundred years ago.

Almost a century after its founding, prophet-physicists made a startling discovery—the ‘Slipstream’. It enabled Greatships, gigantic, sturdy vessels capable of withstanding the buffeting ripples of the Slipstream, to navigate at near Faster-than-Light speeds to other systems. In time, following the River of Stars, the people of Jumuah and the Ship would expand beyond the Lost Horizon and establish eleven settlements and outposts across what is called the Charted Sphere. Now, despite its dangers, travel aboard the Greatships has become almost routine. In addition to new worlds and new systems, the explorers also made discoveries.

They found ruins. They found signs that Humanity was not the first to settle the Great Dark and the region around Charted Space. They found Gardens, Shallows, Structures, and Deep Vaults. They began to learn about them by translating the glyphs left on the ruins and the artefacts the explorers and archaeologists found. They also found the Blight. Whether it appears as blooms, as frost, as dust, or as ice, Blight is a plague that corrupts both structures and biology, that can kill and destroy, but also leave its sufferers with strange visions. And the deeper that explorers and archaeologists delve, the greater the danger of Blight. Today, almost two hundred years after the Long Traverse began, the Explorers’ Guild has risen to direct expeditions to the twelve most significant sites discovered to date and to search for other ruins.

This is the setting for Coriolis: The Great Dark. Published by Free League Publishing following a successful Kickstarter campaign, it is sequel to Coriolis: The Third Horizon, a more traditional Science fiction roleplaying game with strong Middle Eastern themes and flavour. It marks a radical departure in terms of style and tone as well as what you play in Coriolis: The Third Horizon. In Coriolis: The Great Dark, the Player Characters are not the crew of a spaceship, travelling from one world to the next, trading, investigating, fighting, and running, as they would be Coriolis: The Third Horizon and many other Science Fiction roleplaying game. Instead, they members of, or working for, the Explorers’ Guild. As teams, they will travel aboard a Greatship on the Slipstream, be dropped off in system before the Greatship departs, and make their own way to a world or moon or asteroid and explore a ruin, delving deep into its reaches, looking for discoveries, artefacts, and information. However, time is short, resources are limited, and there is the constant threat of the Blight. It feels like the Player Characters are delving into dungeons in deep space, but if this is dungeoneering Science Fiction style, it is a style—and setting—that is inspired by nineteenth-century expeditions, deep-sea diving, and pulp archaeology. The dangers of the unknown are not the only threats that the explorers face in entering the ruins. The criminal organisation known as the Black Toad sends teams into ruins to harvest the Blight and turn it into a drug that is smoked for its hallucinogenic properties. Acts of piracy have been attributed to a group known as the Wreckers and there are creatures and other things lurking in the ruins.

A Player Character is defined by his Profession, attributes, Health, Hope, and Heart, Talents, Quirk, and Keepsake. The Professions are Artist, Enforcer, Esoteric, Odd Jobber, Roughneck, Scholar, Scoundrel, and Traveller. Each provides sample names, gives a key attribute and Talents, some equipment, and a Speciality, which grants an extra Talent. Of the Professions, the Esoteric is a mystic or prophet driven reshape the peoples of the Lost Horizon and the Odd Jobber covers a range of roles such as Guild Clerk, Alley Cook, or Artefact Dealer. All of the Professions provide a variety of roles and associated Talents each of which expand a Player Character’s background. Most Talents can be taken up to three times and add a bonus base die for each level. For example, ‘Streetwise’ adds a bonus base die per Talent level to locate stolen goods, find a contact, or learn rumours, which ‘Jury-Rig’ does the same for crafting or repairing mechanical devices and components. A Player Character has six attributes—Strength, Agility, Logic, Perception, Insight, and Empathy—and three stats—Health, Hope, and Heart—which measure how much trauma he can suffer before he is broken. The attributes range in value between one and five, except the key attribute for a Profession. His Quirk represents a flaw that when roleplayed will earn a Player Character Experience Points and a Keepsake his means of recovering Hope.

To create character, a player selects an origin, chooses a Profession and Speciality, divides twenty-four between his character’s attributes, chooses three more levels of Talents from the Profession, choose a Quirk, a Keepsake, and some equipment, and then a name, appearance, and a reason why the character became an Explorer. Many of these elements can be rolled for as well.

Name: Chandra Koulidis

Profession: Odd Jobber

Speciality: Stair Peddler

ATTRIBUTES

Strength 2 Agility 4 Logic 4

Perception 3 Insight 4 Empathy 5

Health 6 Hope 9 Heart 7

TALENTS

Actor (1), Charmer (2), Cultural Savant (1), Mentalist (1), Streetwise (1)

Origin: Among the Alleys and Shanties of Aluminium Bay

Associated Faction: The Black Toad

Contact: Cook Lissa Losoi

Quirk: Wears makeup

Keepsake: Piece of a Builder shard

Appearance: Unruly hair

Reason for becoming an Explorer: To escape the drudgery of everyday life

Equipment: Fancy clothing, waking pills, bottle of shroom brandy

Mechanically, Coriolis: The Great Dark, uses the Year Zero engine, first seen in Mutant: Year Zero – Roleplaying at the End of Days. To have a character undertake an action, a player rolls a number of Base Dice equal to a combination of attribute and applicable Talent, plus Gear Dice. A single roll of a six (or the symbol on the custom dice for Coriolis: The Great Dark) indicates a Success. Multiple Successes improve the outcome, especially in combat and conflict. If the roll is a failure and no sixes are rolled, or a player wants more Successes, he can Push the roll. This enables him to reroll any dice which did not result in a one or six. A roll can be Pushed once and any rolls of one on the Base Dice indicate that the Player Character loses a point of Hope, whilst any rolls of one on the Gear Dice indicate that the item of equipment used is damaged and needs to be repaired, and if happens multiple times, it will break. Other Player Characters can help another on a task, each one contributing an extra Base Die to the player making the roll.

Conflict in Coriolis: The Great Dark uses the same core mechanics. Initiative uses a deck of cards numbered from one to ten and the rules for conflict cover both ranged and close combat, plus social conflict. A combatant can move once and do one action per round. Reactions, such as blocking or dodging, are counted as actions and so use up a Player Character’s action in a round. A single Success is required to inflict the base damage for an attack, but extra Successes can be expended to increase damage as well as other effects. In close combat can be used to wrestle an object from an opponent, trip him, or push him away. Ranged combat allows for aimed fire, full auto, cover, and so on. Armour has the potential to protect against damage, requiring a roll and Successes to be rolled, to be effective. If a Player Character suffers more damage that reduces his Health to zero, he is Broken and cannot act. Critical damage is inflicted if the number of successes rolled are equal to, or exceed, the ‘Crit Threshold’ for the weapon. This necessitates a roll on the ‘Critical Injuries’ table. Two critical injuries will both NPCs and Player Characters.

Social combat is handled via rolls versus an opponent’s Empathy or Strength attributes. The rules also cover chases and vehicle combat, including spaceship combat. The rules for both are simply handled and overall, the rules for Coriolis: The Great Dark are a very traditional version of the Year Zero mechanics.

The play of Coriolis: The Great Dark switches back and forth between life and intrigue in Ship City and exploring the Ruins in the Great Dark. To support the former, there is a detailed description of Ship City, its districts and the powerful guilds—the Navigators Guild, the Machinists Guild, the Gardeners Guild, and the Coriolites, the families that adhere to the traditions of the Third Horizon, and the Black Toad, the shadowy criminal cartel operating throughout the Charted Sphere, as well as the less powerful, though still influential Explorers Guild. The background on the rest of Charted Space is not as detailed, but there is more than enough information to bring it to life on the Player Characters’ expeditions.

Expeditions form the second part and primary focus of play in Coriolis: The Great Dark and that starts with the creation of a Crew. There are five positions on the Crew—Delver, Scout, Burrower, Guard, and Archaeologist. The Delver leads the way into Ruins; the Scout looks for hidden dangers ahead; the Burrower digs paths and secures routes through tunnels and caves; the Guard protects the Crew; and the Archaeologist interprets the Ruins, as well as glyphs and artefacts found. The Explorers Guild trains Crew members in particular Manoeuvres. For example, the Burrower can use ‘Destabilise’ in conjunction with an explosive charge to destroy a wall or blockage to either open up a route or block it, whilst the Delver can use ‘Rally’ to restore Hope or remove a Condition for all nearby Explorers. These are extra combat actions that can be used specifically during a delve.

In addition to some personal equipment, the Explorers Guild provides the Crew with a rover and an interplanetary shuttle. Both will be carried aboard the Greatship that ferries the Crew to the system destination where it drops the Crew off. The oddest item that the Explorers Guild loans the Crew is a Bird, also called a ‘Garuda’, which serves as a guardian spirit and Blight-finder. They are actually bioengineered artifacts discovered in the Ruins and awakened, willing to co-operate with the peoples of Ship City. Many are kept as companions and there is specific Bird Market in Ship City. In the illustrations, the Birds have a hawk-like appearance. Although they vary in terms of type and ability, the Birds are indispensable when it comes to exploring Ruins. In particular, their ‘Clear Blight’, ‘Blight Scan’, and ‘Soak Blight’ powers help a Crew keep safe on a delve. Whilst the individual Player Characters will earn Experience Points, collectively as a Crew they can earn Crew Points for taking on a challenge, going on a trek or delve, making discoveries, and so on. These can be spent to learn new manoeuvres, as well as to improve the vehicles and the Bird. Effectively, improving the vehicles and the Bird are the equivalent of the community improvement rules found in other roleplaying games from Free League Publishing. Plus, there are Talents which help a Player Character interact with his Crew’s Bird more easily. Choosing a Bird and both a rover and a shuttle is a collective endeavour that comes at the end of Player Character generation.

Name: Fench

Type: Guide

Health: 4 Energy: 3

Appearance: Ink black with a long beak and bold personality

Special Power: Farsight

Basic Powers: Attack, Defend, Clear Blight, Blight Scan, Sock Blight, Glow

Expeditions can be mounted for many reasons, such as finding new sites to colonise, prospecting for new resources, and even to find new Slipstream routes, but the iconic type of expedition is the ‘Delve’ into Ruins. There are rules for land exploration, which essentially covers the Crew touching down in its shuttle and then making its way to the Ruin site by rover. Once there, the rules shift. Not just in intensity, but also in their axis. If the journey to a Ruin is horizontal across the landscape, the Delve swings through ninety degrees into the vertical. Not every Delve has this verticality, but most do, and it makes a Delve feel more like spelunking or potholing. Of course, one of the inspirations in Coriolis: The Great Dark is deep-sea diving and this is reflected in the heavy suits that the Crew members wear and are depicted in the art. A Delve also has the feel of a mountain climbing expedition and mechanically by the journeying rules in other roleplaying games from Free League Publishing. Mountain climbing because a Crew has to keep track of Supply—consumables including oxygen, water, food, energy, ammunition, and light—and establish camps where Supply caches can be laid up, and the journeying rules because the Player Characters will have specific roles on an expedition or Delve.

Like those journeying rules, in a Delve a Crew is trying to get to a key location or locations. This has a specific procedure, first making a Delve roll to move into the next area, then dealing with any hazards, and dealing and suffering from any Blight. Blight can be encountered anywhere, but is primarily associated with Ruins and often with the strange creatures and things discovered there. The Delve suits that each Crewmember wears provides some protection against the Blight, but if a Crewmember does suffer from Blight, it reduces his Heart stat. If this is reduced, his player rolls on the ‘Blight Manifestation’ table to represent its direct effect, which can be temporary or permanent. For example, the Crewmember might be stricken with uncontrollable shivering that leaves him Exhausted; temporal dissonance that causes lapses in time perception such that the Crewmember always goes last in combat; crystalline blooms grow from the Crewmember’s skin causing pain and piercing his Delve suit; and even ‘Wander the Pale Halls’ after the Crewmember falls into a coma, experiencing vivid hallucinations of the Pale Halls, leaving him permanently Broken.

The play switches to more traditional exploration once the Crew reaches a location. Here its members can search for artefacts, shards, and secrets. The Game Master has a good set of tables for creating Delves, defining its age, purpose, type, depth, theme, quirks, discoveries to be made, Blight levels encountered, and more. She can populate it with threats and creatures, the latter from the roleplaying game’s extensive bestiary, and even rival parties also exploring the Ruin. This is supported by an extensive discussion on the nature of the Ruins and the themes of the roleplaying game—Space as a wild sea, a sense of wonder, the mystery and enigma of the Builders and who they were, as well as intrigue, hope, and teamwork. The advice for the Game Master is excellent, covering not just running the roleplaying game, but also creating her own content for it. The Game Master is also supported with a sample scenario, ‘The Black Ziggurat’ in which the Explorers Guild sends the Crew to look for a missing Navigator near the eponymous site. The scenario emphasises the Delve aspect of play, but adds some intrigue into the mix as well.

Lastly, ‘The Outcast Explorer’ presents the option to play Coriolis: The Great Dark in solo mode. In these rules, the player still roleplays an Explorer, but one who has been spurned by everyone except the Explorers Guild. It sponsors the Outcast to explore the Red Garden, a vast valley located on Ilum, one of the moons of the two gas giants in the Jumuah System, which is dotted with labyrinthine Builders ruins. However, the Explorers Guild does not care how the Outcast conducts his expedition or if he survives. If he does, the Explorers Guild will simply sponsor him again. The rules are solidly serviceable for what you would expect for solo play, though of course, they do lose that shared sense of trepidation and wonder and awe at exploring the unknown. In the meantime, there is nothing to stop the Game Master visiting some of the tables for ‘The Outcast Explorer’ for further inspiration for Delves of her own.

If there is a downside to Coriolis: The Great Dark, it is that it does not explore the aftermath of expeditions and Delves as well as it should. What the Player Characters are rewarded with by the Explorers Guild and how their discoveries might change perspectives on who and what the Builders were and so on. The likelihood is that some of the ramifications will be explored in future releases, such as the campaign, The Flowers of Algorab.

Physically, Coriolis: The Great Dark is very well presented. It is well written and the artwork is excellent, capturing that sense of wonder almost at the end of the universe and the strangeness of what the Player Characters might find below, coupled with the slightly ramshackle feel of Ship City.

There can be no doubt that Coriolis: The Great Dark is a radical shift Coriolis: The Third Horizon. Where the setting of Coriolis: The Third Horizon was more open and traditional in what the Player Characters could do and more obvious in its Middle Eastern inspiration, Coriolis: The Great Dark is constrained and less obvious in its inspiration. There still is a Middle Eastern inspiration, but less is made of it, as if the culture of Ship City has evolved and changed in response to its change of circumstances, giving it a refreshing unfamiliarity. There is grime and grit to the setting too, its ramshackle nature have less of the sheen of Coriolis: The Third Horizon and more of a Blue Collar Science Fiction look and feel. There are likely more types of stories that can be told and roleplayed in the setting of Coriolis: The Great Dark, but its core activity is Delving and exploration, discovering secrets, revealing mysteries and experiencing the wonder and awe of both the past—what the Builders left behind—and Charted Space. Coriolis: The Great Dark brings a sense of cosmic curiosity and the mystery of the unknown to Science Fiction roleplaying, ready to be experienced, for discoveries to be made, and secrets to be revealed.