Dark Nova Role-Playing Game - Main Manual

495 Pages·2011·21.147 MB·English

by  Breandán Ó Ciarraí

DARK NOVA GAMES
®
DARK NOVA
ROLE-PLAYING GAME

Written By: Breandán Ó Ciarraí
Developed By: Breandán Ó Ciarraí
Orren Fansler
Martin Fox
Editors: Tiffaní Uí Ciarraide
Kiera Knapp
Cover: Jeff Agussoekarno
Breandán Ó Ciarraí
Back Cover: Erica Parks
Roman Kochnev
Interior Artists: Jeff Agussoekarno
Erica Parks
Roman Kochnev
Breandán Ó Ciarraí
Woody Hearn

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In loving memory of Wendy Natkong, who encouraged me to dream lofty dreams, and
encouraged me to reach the highest potential of my imagination. Special thanks to Woody
Hearn for getting the word out like nothing I’ve ever seen, and to Adam Easterday, Jim "JM"
Cargill, Bradly Billingsley, Justin Shepard, Michael Shumate, and Jeff Brister for making this
all come together. We’d also like to thank Andrew and the staff and regulars at Fat Ogre
Games for helping us playtest Dark Nova into a functioning RPG we are all proud of.

Upcoming Books From Dark Nova Games

 Dark Nova: Fortune and Glory (2012)
 Dark Nova: WAR! (2012)
 Dark Nova Mission Pack (2012)
 Dark Nova: Dirtside Miniature Rules (2013)
 Rise of Legends RPG (2013)
 Dark Nova: Starfire Fleet Battle Rules (2014)
 Empires of Anterion RPG (2014)
Future expansions planned for 2012 and beyond include
miniature wargaming and fleet battle rules, expansions on
the Dark Nova universe as a whole, and a compendium of
alien races throughout the known galaxy. These will be
announced on our website and in the above-mentioned
expansions as release dates are set.
And be sure to check our website for downloadable
missions and other content at www.darknovagames.net!

Dark Nova Role-Playing Game
Copyright © 2006 by Dark Nova Games
Revised Edition © 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.

ISBN (978-0-9834064-0-2)

Published by Dark Nova Games, 8310 Woodsong Lane, Suite 47, Spring, TX 77389

Printed in the United States of America
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ROLE-PLAYING GAME MANUAL
Table of Contents- Player’s Section
Setting ...................................................................................................................................... 6
A History of the Human Sphere .............................................................................................. 6
A Guide to Known Space ...................................................................................................... 34
Nations and Factions ............................................................................................................ 39
Life in the 24th Century .......................................................................................................... 68
Character Generation ............................................................................................................ 81
Attributes and Ability Scores ................................................................................................. 81
Races ................................................................................................................................. 102
Psionics .............................................................................................................................. 127
Archetypes and Occupations .............................................................................................. 133
Affiliations and Backgrounds .............................................................................................. 176
Skills ..................................................................................................................................... 177
Skill Checks ........................................................................................................................ 176
Skill Check Modifiers .......................................................................................................... 177
Gaining and Improving Skills .............................................................................................. 177
Skill List .............................................................................................................................. 179
Weapon Proficiencies ......................................................................................................... 197
Skill Packages .................................................................................................................... 199
Combat ................................................................................................................................. 214
Initiative .............................................................................................................................. 215
Attack Roll .......................................................................................................................... 215
Damage .............................................................................................................................. 219
Special Rules ..................................................................................................................... 220
Movement in Combat ......................................................................................................... 232
Vehicular Combat ............................................................................................................... 233
Ship-to-Ship Combat .......................................................................................................... 236
Electronic and Network Warfare ......................................................................................... 239
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Omninet ................................................................................................................................ 243
Structure ............................................................................................................................. 244
Tools of the Omninet .......................................................................................................... 246
Omninet Combat ................................................................................................................ 248
Accessing and Netjacking ................................................................................................... 249
Searching and Downloading ............................................................................................... 250
Programs ............................................................................................................................ 251
Customizing Emulators ....................................................................................................... 256
Omninet Quick Resolution Rules ........................................................................................ 257
Equipment ............................................................................................................................ 258
Weapons ............................................................................................................................ 259
Armor ................................................................................................................................. 275
Augmentations ................................................................................................................... 284
Personal Gear and General Equipment .............................................................................. 290
Vehicles ................................................................................................................................ 312
Customizing Vehicles ......................................................................................................... 313
Personal Vehicles ............................................................................................................... 315
Combat Vehicles ................................................................................................................ 320
Powered Armor .......................................................................................................... 321
Skimmers and Grav Tanks ......................................................................................... 324
Battlewalkers .............................................................................................................. 327
Robots ................................................................................................................................ 330
Small Craft .......................................................................................................................... 333
Fighters .............................................................................................................................. 336
Ships ..................................................................................................................................... 339
Freetraders ......................................................................................................................... 342
Privateers ........................................................................................................................... 352
Warships ............................................................................................................................ 362
Vessel Upgrades and Components .................................................................................... 379
Customizing Ships .............................................................................................................. 379
Ship Components ............................................................................................................... 381
Weapon Systems ............................................................................................................... 392

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Table of Contents- Game Master’s Section
Running Dark Nova .............................................................................................................. 395
The Proper Campaign ........................................................................................................ 395
Storytelling 101 ................................................................................................................... 396
Dealing With Players .......................................................................................................... 398
NPCs and Interaction ........................................................................................................... 400
Threat Ratings .................................................................................................................... 400
Reactions ........................................................................................................................... 401
Reputation and Notoriety .................................................................................................... 402
Contacts ............................................................................................................................. 403
Sample NPCs ..................................................................................................................... 414
Threats and Critters ............................................................................................................ 420
Behind the Scenes- GM Rules............................................................................................. 442
Resists ............................................................................................................................... 442
Perks and Flaws ................................................................................................................. 446
Tariffs, Restrictions, Licenses and Fees ............................................................................. 457
Star System Design and Generation................................................................................... 461
Mission Design and Mission Generator Tables ................................................................... 467
Salvage and Loot................................................................................................................ 470
Omninet System Design and Sample Systems ................................................................... 473
Buildings and Stations ........................................................................................................ 474
Tech Levels ........................................................................................................................ 475
Movement and Encumbrance ............................................................................................. 476
Experience Points ................................................................................................................ 477
Earning Experience Points ................................................................................................. 479
Applying Experience Points ................................................................................................ 480
Level Advancement Experience Table ................................................................................ 480
Starter Mission ..................................................................................................................... 481
Mickey’s Bar & Grill ............................................................................................................ 481
Character and Ship Record Sheets .................................................................................... 485
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AN EVERYMAN’S HISTORY OF
THE HUMAN SPHERE

OMNINET ACCESS GRANTED
> IDENT 0977632: Freeport Acheron Stellarcom Relay 10927
> Unless you aren’t human, have been hiding under a rock all your life, or are a product of the Fringe
Colonies’ craptacular public school system, you know the history of the freakin’ human sphere. However,
since curious aliens and the willfully ignorant are in no short supply, I took the time to cobble together the
down-and-dirty of human history of the past three centuries. Everything before that was dirt-bound
history, before humanity left mamma Earth (that’s the old-school name for Terra, for the target audience
of this post) and became the wonderfully annoying pain in the Universe’s rump that they have become.
I’m a human, and a Freetrader, and I do deep runs into territories I won’t name. What that means is that I
know my race, I’ve been a lot of places, and I get bored and read a lot of flexi-books on history and such.
In other words, I know what I am talking about here. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
> Cap'n Sally 2318-22Jan-0230GST

The Early Years (9000 BCE to 2016CE)
There were three known eras of civilization, the Emergent Epoch (48,000 BCE - 34,000 BCE), the
Atlantean Epoch (25,000 BCE - 10,000 BCE), and the Golden Epoch (9,000 BCE - Present), the first two
ending with a massive global disaster that ended the existing civilizations and pretty much wiped out most
of the evidence of their existence. Each epoch marked a greater and greater complexity of technology
and civilization, though some could argue that we’ve been seriously increasing the former and backsliding
on the latter these days. Political commentary aside, it basically boiled down to ten thousand years of
slow, plodding development of civilization, a big waffle stomping disaster, and thousands of years of
recovery before the next period of stability and civilization.
Around 10,000 BCE, sea levels rose dramatically in a very short time, drowning the mostly-coastal early
civilizations of the Atlantean Epoch under up to four hundred feet of water. They would not be re-
discovered until the end of the 20th Century CE (though most scientists had no idea what they were
looking at), and not fully understood until the first half of the 22nd Century CE.
After that, civilization had to start all over again. The Golden Epoch began with the first re-emerging
civilizations in what is now Persia around 9,000 BCE. Rapidly advancing agriculture, metalworking, city-
building, and political complexity eventually created the first empires of Sumeria and other Mesopotamian
civilizations. The successive Egyptian, Qin, Roman, Frankish, Angevin, Incan, Khmer, and Aztec empires
rose and fell, and many nations explored and colonized every scrap of land on the planet. For the first
time in Terran history, a global interconnectivity between civilizations evolved. Summing up the years
between then and the 20th Century- Humanity had a lot of wars, stabbed a lot of things, blew a lot of
things up, and was largely ignored by every race out there as a backward planet with no resources of
note.

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Then things got interesting. Some say that the development of nuclear power or the dropping of the
atomic bombs during the Second World War marked humanity’s accelerated expansion into the cosmos,
no one knows for sure. One thing is certain, after Dubya Dubya Deux and the subsequent development of
a lot of nukes and nuclear power, we got someone’s attention out there. The race called Daikrytum by the
Arelli- actually little more than organic drones created by some as-yet unknown race- began to study
humanity in earnest.
Not the brightest candles in the Galactic menorah, the Daikrytum lawn-darted a few ships, thus giving
humans in the old United States and the Soviet Union lots of new toys to play with. Nothing major came
out of it that wasn’t already in development, to be frank, but it gave humanity a thirty year jump in certain
technologies. The existence of these aliens was hidden from the public until the early 22nd century when
we first encountered the Arelli, and by then everyone in the various governments that did know were long
dead and couldn’t be held accountable for hiding the truth.
With these new technologies- chiefly more advanced computers, since the ones prior to this were a step
above an abacus in complexity, and three steps below in efficiency- mankind managed to reach out into
space. In 1957, the Ruskies (oh how I love that ancient term, it just rolls off the tongue) launched Sputniks
1 and 2, the Great-Grandpappy of satellites. The first one just orbited and beeped a lot, the other carried
the first pooch into space, Laika, before killing her with a cyanide pill and burning up four months later.
Not to be outdone, the Americans (the United States of America, this was before the North American
Union) put Explorer 1 in orbit, and it actually did something other than beep. This was the tin-can that
found the Van-Allen Radiation Belt that is an integral part of Terra’s planetary defense shields these days
(back then, it was just a neat and poorly understood phenomenon.) The Russians, always enjoying a
good game of chess (trust me, I’ve played against a Ruskie Freetrader, and damn near lost my ship), put
Yuri Gagarin into space, followed by the Americans putting Alan Sheppard up the next month, one after
t’other, in 1961. The pissing contest continued.
The Russians put the first woman up (yay double-X chromosomes!), but the Americans topped the tater-
wagon, as my grandpappy used to say, in 1969 by putting a man on the moon. I’ve seen the Armstrong
Museum in Tranquility City on Luna, and even though I have been places that those astronauts couldn’t
even imagine, it still gives me shivers of pride seeing those footprints preserved in the soil. Three and a
half centuries later, and they still look like they were made yesterday. Granted, encasing the landing site
and the lander module in a vacuum dome, and later in a stasis field, helped keep it pristine. Point being,
the Americans made it to another celestial body first, and set up the franchise.
Politics, however, took a big steaming crap in the cereal bowl of space exploration. Throughout the 70’s
and 80’s, space exploration played second-fiddle to the confrontation between the United States and the
Soviet Union, another chess-match played out with smaller countries and peoples’ lives, and not much
got done of any significance. Eventually, the Russians figured out that Communism didn’t work, and they
collapsed into borderline anarchy for nearly twenty years before discovering the wonders of Nazi-esque
fascism.
Without the threat of the Soviet Union, the United States shifted its focus to other issues, but still paid little
attention to large-scale space exploration, focusing mostly on near-Earth things like the early space
stations, one of which had fallen out of orbit by the time of The Fall, and the other one getting turned into
confetti during it. By the end of the 20th century, with Dubya Dubya Trois (WWIII for you uneducated
social reprobates in the Kalindra corridor) revving up, a lot of talk was espoused about going back to the
moon and such, but nothing happened. Now, you’re probably asking yourself why any of this matters. The
answer is simple- as bad as The Fall was, if it hadn’t happened, we might not be here, floatin’ around in
space thousands of light years from Terra, because everyone back then had their heads up their asses.
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World War Three flared up and was done by the second decade of
the 21st century. It was more like fifteen wars at once, frankly, but
largely between the Russian Federation under the neo-Fascist
Putinist regime and the rapidly-fragmenting NATO alliance, led by
the waning United States. Most of the action took place in the
Middle East and Asia as Jihadist hardliner governments swept into
power throughout both regions from 2010 into 2012. These
governments allied with Iran which, in turn, allied with Russia. As a
full-blown depression and the Mexican Civil War between US-allied government forces and drug-cartel-
backed rebels drained the resources of the United States back home, they began withdrawing from the
international stage. Meanwhile, the hyper-corrupt United Nations began fast-tracking its own irrelevancy
and collapse. This emboldened Russia and its allies, who soon began asserting themselves.
Russia invaded former Soviet territories in Ukraine and Georgia- the former through political manipulation
and the latter by force- and began threatening to invade Eastern Europe. NATO moved in to defend its
allies, and a whole lotta SpecOps skirmishes, political posturing, and tank-division-level saber-rattling
began. Eventually, it came to blows, but I’m getting ahead of myself. With the overthrow of the “moderate”
government and rise to power of the Jihadists, Pakistan launched a lightning strike into Kashmir along
with rather sloppy nuclear strikes against India in an attempt to blitzkrieg their hated neighbor. Didn’t work
out the way they planned, and India- no longer restrained by a beleaguered US and rapidly-collapsing
UN- retaliated in kind. India won by default of having more territory to absorb the hits and more nukes to
hit back with. It spread like wildfire- the Fourth Arab-Israeli War in 2015, sparked by Iran and the alliance
of hardliner Arab nations, the Russian-allied state of Venezuela staging assaults into neighboring pro-US
nations, etc. Other than a bunch skirmishes and two major battles in Ukraine as US-led NATO forces
pushed the Russians out, the Americans and Russians didn’t let their direct conflict expand, using their
proxies instead. This was due to the former still recovering from their economic crash and the latter
having bitten off more than they could chew, so they used the rest of the world as their damned chess
pieces in their little game. Neither side really gained any leverage, just got a lot of people killed. Despite
everyone’s predictions, however, China pulled a Switzerland and- other than peacekeeping and
humanitarian efforts in what was left of Pakistan- stayed out of the mess.
As Israel was making significant headway against the united Arab armies, some dimwitted Jihadist
managed to slip into Tel Aviv with a rogue 5 kiloton Pakistani nuke and pop it. Israel… well, since the
whole world was going to shit anyway, I guess they figured why not rain a little nuclear hellfire down on all
of the countries trying to wipe them out? The war ended with the Amtar al-Nar, the “Rain of Fire”- Israel
hammering Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran with tactical nukes- the Second Iranian Revolution
(seems the people were pretty pissed at their government, which went POOF! In a nuke blast), and the
overthrow of the Putinist regime by moderates within the Russian Federation in rapid succession. While it
was nasty, and millions died, it has largely been deflated in history’s eyes by what came next.
The Fall (2016 to 2039)
The Mini-Dark-Age is how one historian described The Fall. While I agree that the results were similar-
the near total collapse of civilization in many regions of the world, massive waves of death and disease,
and the radical shift in social and philosophical views- the causes were completely different. The original
Dark Ages were caused by the slow decay and eventual collapse of the Roman Empire, and primarily
only affected those areas that had been part of, or repressed by, the Empire. The Fall was caused by a
nexus of really bad things happening all at once, ending with a really big rock smacking into the Earth at
hyper-mach velocities.
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It was, as a result, sudden and affected the entire planet. Regardless, it had resounding effects that echo
into our time today, and caused the 21st century to be one of the most fundamentally important centuries
of modern history. Hence why I am talking about it so damned much.
At the end of 2016, an asteroid- Toutatis, which had been expected to pass a safe distance from Earth
after two near-misses in 2004 and 2012- was knocked off of its projected path by an unknown event.
Some scientists today theorize that it was a gravitic flux or influence from a passing body or the alignment
with the center of the galaxy, others have different theories ranging from the critical (human error in
calculating Toutatis’ notoriously erratic rotation and orbit) to the conspiratorial (the asteroid was moved by
[insert alien race that the conspiracy theorist hates here] to wipe humanity out), but the results are not in
doubt.
2001-2015: Third World War- a largely proxy
Since it zipped in behind Luna, no one saw the change in
war fought between the United States and her
orbital path until it was too late, so Earth only had a couple of allies and various nations backed and supplied
weeks’ warning. The gravitational tug of Luna broke the by the Russian Federation and Iran. Starts with
the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 on
binary asteroid apart, and it went from being a big bullet to a
the United States, and escalates in 2011-12
shotgun blast. Toutatis A slammed into the North Atlantic off
with brushfire wars in the Middle East. Goes
the coast of Morocco, with smaller shards hitting in Louisiana into full swing with Russian incursans into
and in the mountains north of Mexico City. Toutatis B, the Ukraine and Georgia in 2015. Ends with the
Second Iranian Revolution and the collapse of
smaller of the two halves, shattered as it hit the atmosphere,
the Putinist regime in Russia by the end of
with pieces hitting in the Pacific and Indian oceans, the Sea
2015.
of Japan, and China. Fragmentary shards from the breakup
of the asteroid rained down on the planet for days, along with 2016-2039: The Fall- impact of the asteroid
Toutatis and the subsequent climatic effects
ejecta from the larger impacts.
collapse much of civilization and lead to the
deaths of over two billion people. Origins of the
Between the impact-caused tsunamis, tectonic activity
Order of the Harp, who will become the Ahruga
caused by the shock along the Pacific Rim, the impacts a century later, and the Restored Templars.
themselves, and the rain of debris and fire across most of the Private military contractors, often referred to
pejoratively as “mercenaries”, aid law
Northern Hemisphere, hundreds of millions died in the first
enforcement and local communities in bringing
three days alone. Known as the Week-Long Night, the first
order and security to many regions, leading to a
seven days after the impacts were like something from an redemption of the profession in the public eye
apocalyptic passage- no sun could get through the dust cloud and leading to the term “mercenary” losing its
negative connotation. Centuries later, these
and debris field in the upper atmosphere and orbit, the sky
PMCs will evolve into powerful and prosperous
seemed to rain fire as particles and ejecta burned up on re-
mercenary corporations. Origins of the political
entry, and choking, poisonous clouds of ash swept the areas philosophy that leads to the foundation of the
downwind from the impact sites. Then came the rain, again of Free Systems Alliance centuries later.
biblical proportions, as the billions of tons of vaporized water
2031-2039: The Restoration- civilizations
condensed and fell back to earth. Thankfully, it bonded with
rebuild and recover, cities are rebuilt, order and
the particulate matter in the atmosphere, and after weeks of control re-asserted. Emergence of a new
nonstop rain the sun shone through, albeit dimly. sociopolitical map, with many old nations
disappearing, and new nations being born. Birth
of the North American Union, Australio-Pacifica
I have seen the videos from that time in the archives, and I
Coalition, Han-Zhou Empire, Nippon Empire,
can say that it was a worse time for humanity than even the
and other new or expanded nations. Rise of
Capellan War sixty years ago. Imagine panicked populations, neo-traditionalism in culture and government.
riots, civil services being overwhelmed and collapsing Development of early genetic engineering
allows for removal of certain genetic defects,
overnight, governments overthrown in the chaos, entire
ends cancer and allows for the treatment of
nations drowned in the waves, darkness, death, despair, and
many other illnesses ranging from Multiple
no end of religious zealots screaming that the End Times Sclerosis to Alzheimer’s.
were upon them, all the while seeing nothing but black sooty
skies for a week followed by non-stop muddy rain for days before it began to clear up.
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