Tabletop Game / Albedo: The Role-Playing Game

"As they looked to the heavens, they wondered, just what kind of people where they?"

— Tag Line from the Albedo Platinum Catalyst tabletop RPG.

Albedo: The Role-Playing Game is a Tabletop Game originally released in 1988 (first edition) and 1993 (second edition) as a RPG adaptation of Steve Gallacci's Albedo: Erma Felna EDF furry comic and originally published in the own author's Thoughts & Images' self-publishing brand, with Paul Kidd (Scriptwriter of Nightshade (1992) and Shadowrun lead designer for the Super NES) writing the script and Gallacci himself doing the art used in the game.

The premise of the game is more or less simple: You're basically playing as a member of either the Extraplanetary Defense Force (EDF), the Independent Lepine Republic (ILR), or Enchawah Corporation and you have to deal with the different types of military, political and social problems that exist in the Albedo universe, often with the help of canon characters and sometimes on your own. Unlike other RPGs, you don't need to play a warrior character, as you can be a soldier, a scientist, a policeman or even a prostitute if you want to. The most important part of this game is how sociable you can be and how your ability to communicate with others, rather than your fighting skills, can help you get out of any mess you find yourself in.

As an additional note, the RPGs are notable for being a Universe Bible of sorts for the whole Albedo universe, even if some information can contradict some info used in the comic, especially regarding food and some elements of the backstory.

The game has two different story modules:

• The Drift: Deals with a EDF ship drifting in space after being seriously damaged in a battle, while the crew tries to survive waiting to be rescued, but not before lots of internal strife happens inside the ship.
• Zho Chaka: Deals with a revolution in a EDF's banana planet of the same name, while some members are trying to stop the revolution or participating on it.
• Albedo: Platinum Catalyst: An Updated Re-release published in 2004, with updated rules and it's own modules. It was published by Sanguine Games and written by Pieter van Hiel and designed by Jason Holmgren and Michael Arbogast. It expands the backstory of all the sides of the conflict (EDF, ILR and Enchawah) and also includes a complete timeline of the previously unexplained events up to the year SD 195, before the Battle of Derzon, the very first battle of the comic. The name Platinum Catalyst was given due to the Milestone Celebration of the comic, who turned then twenty years in that time.
• Structural Integrity: More than a module it's also an addendum who updates the story up to end of the first Story Arc after the ILR attack on Dornthant, being also the only module whose plot takes place during the second arc. It also explains in a very heavy-handed way what you cannot do in the Albedo universe, in the case you didn't already know.

NOTE: This page is only for tropes from either the original RPG and its Updated Re-release, and not from the miniature-based RPG Albedo Combat Patrol 164.

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Albedo: The Role-Playing Game provides examples of:

• A.K.A.-47: Most of the weapons used in the RPGs are mashup versions of many Real Life weapons, albeit unlike the realistic counterparts, they're only named by descriptive names rather than specific brands. Also, both sides has different weapon designs:
  • EDF:
    • The Commander's Arm looks like a Tec-9 with a shorter magazine.
    • The Short Arm looks like a AK-47 with a grenade launcher and a sight included.
    • The Common Use Long Arm looks like a World War II-era M1 carbine with a much more modern sight.
    • The Bullet Projected Grenade is basically a slimmer World War II-era German Panzerfaust.
  • ILR:
    • The MP-197 is basically an UZI with a more futuristic look.
    • The MG-202 (the one who looks like a sniper rifle) looks like a mix between a Dragunov rifle with a Mosin-Nagant rifle.
• All Deaths Final: Since the RPG games are more established on reality than other fantasy-based games, if you got killed in the games, you're dead for good and there's no way for bring any dead character to life, other than cloning.
• All There in the Manual: Contains a lot of information on the setting that isn't featured in the comics. The Platinum Catalyst re-release also includes a module who explains the aftermath of the ILR attack on Dornthant, when about one million people died after that attack.
• Artistic License – Biology: In the original games, the Lepines were included inside the Rodent family, when in both the original canon and Real Life, rabbits are considered as a separated racial group (lagomorphs). The GURPS conversion of the game and, oddly enough, the Platinum Catalyst version, fixes this oversight.
• Banana Republic: Zho Chaka in the module of the same name and Denotah.
• Darker and Edgier: The Platinum Catalyst re-release: Not only the writers changed the characterization of all the sides of the conflict from Gray-and-Grey Morality to A Lighter Shade of Gray for the EDF's advantage, they turned the ILR to almost Always Chaotic Evil levels, by turning their Nazi tendencies up to eleven to People's Republic of Tyranny levels and turning also Enchawah Corp. into a somewhat shadier MegaCorp. On the other hand, the EDF is portrayed into somewhat more positive light, despite its flaws are also mentioned. This is one of the reasons why Gallacci considers especially this version as Loose Canon at worst.
• GURPS: The Refractions anthology gives you a guide to convert the rules of the game for using in the GURPS system, rather than using the default system.
• Nintendo Hard: The games are notorious for having a steep learning curve due to having more realistic rules regarding action, meaning you cannot simply going out like Rambo in this game, forcing you to behave in a more realistic fashion.
• Separated by a Common Language: Despite the RPGs being made for American audiences in mind, the core book uses Australian English^note Technically, it uses British spellings of some words, like "civilisation". because the co-writter of the book was Paul Kidd, a native Australian. This is later averted in the second edition and in the Platinum Catalyst version, as both are now written in American English instead.
• Spoiled by the Manual: Played a bit in the books, as the RPGs rule books spoils many plot points from the comics, albeit not giving names of the people involved in those spoilers, especifically named people that died at the end, like Alfon Voga at the end of the first Story Arc
• The Squad: Under most circumstances player characters have a small group of "supporting characters" operating under them. Given how fatal the system is they tend to be Red Shirts.
• Too Much Information: The Platinum Catalyst re-release includes a paragraph about the hygiene box used by the soldier of all sides and what that box had inside, including condoms, and a additional line about how the soldiers use the condoms for water-proofing rifles. Taking into account the fact a common rifle is normally very large and many species, especially Equines, had their male equipment being the same one as their non-sentient ancestors by Word of God...