#taterpigs

The Basics

Plunderdark is a Dice Game for Heroic Adventures in a Late Medieval Dark Fantasy Anti-Canon Sandbox. It centers play around underdog Heroes pursuing their Convictions to make their grim and perilous world a better place.

Dark Fantasy

Imagine the world at the start of Willow or The Dark Crystal. The world is in the grip of an Evil Despot. The forces of Good, insofar as they exist, are in hiding or on the back foot. Foolhardy scholars collude with the powers of the Hidden World to work sinister sorceries. Remnants of past ages dot the countryside, promising wealth and fame to those who plumb their depths, and doom to those who linger too long in their hollows.

Late Medieval

Imagine our world in the decades preceding the Protestant Reformation and the invasion of the New World. Armored knights exist alongside castles and early firearms. The printing press is a new invention, allowing information to move and propagate faster than ever before. The progeny of conquerors and despots have grown fat on the exploitation of the common folk for nigh on a thousand years. Wealthy merchant adventurers exploit the trust of their common kin and the greed of the nobility they aspire to surpass to amass their own great fortunes.

Anti-Canon Sandbox

You have a number of dice to assign to systems equal to your ship's Reactor. You do this by actually placing physical dice into the slots for each system.

If a character on the crew has a relevant Skill, they can put a different color die into the system as long as at least one die is assigned from the Reactor.

Damage to the ship is marked by Xing out the topmost square of a system. Hull is the max system damage a ship can take before it shakes apart. Of course, the Reactor is a system that can take damage, and damage to the Reactor reduces the power dice to go around; so it's possible to be dead in the water before you explode.

Ship Systems

W01-03: Weapons. Roll to do damage to other ships (or to shoot down incoming missiles, if you have PDCs).

Thrust (THR): Going fast/sublight maneuvering. Roll to evade missiles and get enemy ships in your crosshairs.

Kinetic Dampers (DMP): Roll to defend against high velocity ballistics like PDCs and rail guns; not effective against missiles. Passengers take Stress every round equal to Assigned THR minus Assigned DMP, so also important for keeping your crew from blacking out or suffering strokes.

Warp (WRP): FTL nav computer and engines. Roll to calculate the jump to "lightspeed." Use a clock. When it fills, you can jump out of a tight spot.

Making of Ship

You start with a basic ship frame.

In the fiction, the frame is the reactor + sublight engines which the rest of the ship is built around. The bigger/more powerful the frame, the more shit you can strap to it.

In the rules, the frame gives you your Reactor Rating, Thrust Rating (always Reactor -1), Total Cargo, and Hard Points (for weapons, dampers, and scanners). You then buy the rest of your stuff with Cargo and Hard Points.

Big ship modules like FTL drives, heat sinks, and crew quarters cost Cargo to install. Actual Cargo space is just mounting points for depressurized cargo containers. Not accessible without a space walk.

Smaller ship modules like weapons systems, shield projectors, and long range sensors take up Hard Points.

Still thinking about Hull . . . I figure it should start at Reactor +1. Maybe increase with armor Modules? Or at some fraction of total System Rating?