Khonshu Alpha

Most of the #Dungeon23 projects I've heard about seem to be fairly standard fantasy settings, even if they're not strictly set in dungeons. Most of them will probably use general OSR stats for mechanical things like monsters and NPCs.

Khonshu Alpha, being a post-apocalypse science fantasy sort of setting, doesn't really have an obvious go-to system to use.

I'm considering a few options:

Make it System Agnostic: Don't use any stats. Obviously this is a lot easier to write, but I feel like this is putting a lot of work on the shoulders of the GM that actually runs this setting. Even if I'm the only one who ever runs anything in it, I'd essentially just be putting off work to the future.

Make it OSR: OSR isn't necessarily fantasy. There are lot of OSR-style science fantasy games. If I just use fairly basic OSR stats, it should be accessible to the largest number of users. On the other hand, OSR rules may not be the best fit for this setting.

Use a Specific System: There are a number of science fantasy systems to choose from: Mutant Future, Mutant Year Zero, Cepheus Atom. I could even go old-school and run Metamorphosis Alpha or Gamma World. The problem here is that none of these games are particularly popular. Picking any one limits the reach and usefulness of the final product.

Traveller: Traveller and its open-source version Cepheus Engine, while not as large as the OSR, has a big following. There's already a lot of sci-fi material for this system available to use a reference. But obviously, still a smaller audience than OSR. I've written elsewhere about my enthusiasm for writing stuff in Cepheus Engine. https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2022/07/02/the-new-osr-the-case-for-the-cepheus-engine/

Currently, I'm leaning toward either OSR or Traveller. I don't think I have to decide right away, since I don't think it's necessary to provide any actual stats for everything on the very first day. I think I can probably go for a month before I have to make a decision. I don't want to go much further than that, or I'll just be making more work for myself.

by Norton Glover – [email protected] E-Mail: [email protected] RPG Blog: Polyhedral Nonsense #Dungeon23