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High-Space: Character Analects

High-Space copyright Patrick Taylor

Created and written by Patrick Taylor

Edited by Ray Duell and Will Herrmann

Cartography and maps by Joe Sweeney

Layout and design by Kascha Sweeney & Patrick Taylor

Interior art by:

Nathan Carlisle [shamanx.deviantart.com]

Shaun Williams [madaboutgames.deviantart.com]

Joe Pykett (sangheil117.deviantart.com)

Sandro Rybak (qikalain.deviantart.com)

‘Rectangular’ Photoshop™ brushes courtesy of Kuschelirmel (http://kuschelirmel-stock.deviantart.com)

TO THE FAMILY, FRIENDS, AND COLLEAGUES WHO SUPPORTED ME OVER THE YEARS. A SPECIAL MENTION TO WILL HERRMANN FOR HIS EDITORIAL EXPERTISE

This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle

Entertainment Group. Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for

purpose of this product.

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ContentsThe Future 5

Character Creation 7

Alien Races 12

Culture 14

High-Space Skills 16

Careers 24

Core Rules Hindrances 28

High-Space Hindrances 28

Core Rules Edges 32

High-Space Background Edges 32

High-Space Edges 34

Glanding Powers 38

Equilibrium 42

Hard-Tech 46

Computers 48

Weaponry 53

Personal Protection 56

Equipment 58

Vehicles 61

XS+ Vehicles 63

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The Future...the way it was meant to beWelcome to High-Space — a Fast! Furious! Fun! futuristic game, with world-spanning and mind-expanding combat and exploration using the Savage Worlds rules.

Hi-tech weaponry, vehicles, and sentient computers – just some of the things that are at the heart of futuristic games, and High-Space makes it easy for Players and GMs (aka Game Masters, Marshals, etc.) to bring it all to life.

In High-Space, technology is not a new way of doing things – it is described in terms of how it interacts with characters. Computers are integrated into the game in a way that makes them easy to relate to and utilize. Powered-armor and Augmentic technologies are not a new set of rules that side-track you from normal character development, rather they are enhanced options that fit in with everything else that is savage!

The LanternWhat you are reading right now is a set of rules. The games they let you play are Fast! Fun! Furious! You will need a setting to play them in. A ‘sandbox’ if you like that terminology.

High-Space offers you that sandbox in a self-contained setting called ‘The Lantern.’ an island nebula of high technology, political and tactical maneuvering, philosophies and religion, all set against a background of vanished ancient civilizations and cataclysmic events, contained in a setting that acts like one giant pressure-cooker!

As with any rules there is a bias in High-Space for the kind of games they are suited to – High-Space is best suited to genres such as the ‘harder’ New Space Opera, Renaissance Scifi, as well as gritty sci-fi thrillers. Even science-fantasy is readily accessible when the arcane Edges in the Savage Worlds core rules are included! Ultimately the technology is part of the flavor of the game, and the focus is on the characters and savage action!

Inspiration!Inspiration for High-Space came from some of the following sources:

• The New Space Opera anthologies edited by Dozois and Strahan. • The Culture series by Iain M. Banks• The Known Space series by Larry Niven• Childhood’s End by Arthur C Clarke• The Uplift novels by David Brin• Starship Troopers• Firefly and the Serenity movie• Infinity war-game by Corvus Belli • Alien I to IV• The Ender series by Orson Scott Card• Halo• Jodorowsky’s Metabarons graphic novels• Star Trek, and more...

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Post-scarcity and Acquiring GearHigh-Space assumes that your games take place in a ‘post scarcity’ universe, where money is unknown to most people and their daily needs and general wants are supplied.

Every item has an Acquisition Rank (AR). If a character meets the AR for an item they can get the item - literally just write it down on their character sheet when the chance presents itself. If the item has a higher AR the character can still acquire it through game-play, although it will become something that has to be worked at in order to be keep, a ‘McGuffin’ if you will. People will not automatically try to acquire common items from characters unless the items have some form of rarity, represent a particular station or authority. However, this does not apply to criminals and those living outside of the society that would otherwise provide for them. This is especially true of pirates and raiders in The Lantern campaign setting!

Rank-based character experience within your game can be assumed to mean anything that reflects a character’s status and capabilities. You might take it to mean that the ‘powers that be’ use Rank to arbitrarily assign equipment to characters, such as happens in the military. It might be a representation of the political clout of the characters, or of their ability to build their own equipment, or even steal it! The important point to note is that although a character may own a piece of equipment, they do so by virtue of some agency – be it the rule of law, politics, debts, favors, or acquired technical knowledge and manufacturing capability. Should the situation arise where characters already possess or newly acquire a piece of technology that has an AR greater than what they can normally meet, then vested interests will deem that equipment fair-game in terms of acquiring it for themselves, by whatever means they represent. This goes more so for groups that characters belong to than it does for opposing interests out to steal their equipment – after all, it’s easier to demand that someone hand something over to you than it is to steal or take it!

This is not to say that equipment should be snatched off characters without any recourse. Instead, characters who try to hang onto hardware that is clearly ‘above their station’ will find they have to defend their acquisition more effectively and forcefully. Far from being a problem, this provides for some great adventure hooks, and hanging onto such elite goodies becomes a motivation for all the characters involved.

Where prices are mentioned in High-Space they are only to give an idea of the relative value of items compared to other items in the Savage Worlds core rules, and other licensed settings.

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