Facilitating Futuristic Firefights
The Singularity System
is a setting-neutral science fiction tabletop game by End Transmission Games. It differs from other science-fiction tabletops in two major ways:
First, it is designed to be exceptionally mod-able and expandable: the core mechanic (a dice pool system) is very flexible, and the system is designed as such to facilitate the rapid generation of new content. Additional content is designed in a "modular" format, which can easily be "plugged in" to any Singularity campaign with minimal effort.
Second, the system places equal focus on personal, vehicular, and starship combat. As a result, combat at or across any of these scales is quick and easy to run.
Thus far, three plug-in modules have been released for the game:
- Biotech adds a slew of cyberware, bioware, and nanoware modifications to the game for characters to trick themselves out with.
- Mind Games adds a Psionics system to the game, and adds a bunch of psionic equipment and optional augmentations (for use in conjunction with Biotech).
- Firefight adds expanded rules for personal combat, including combat maneuvers, armor and weapon customization, and a bunch of new weapons and equipment.
Additionally, one setting sourcebook has been released for the system, detailing the Systems Malfunction universe. This sourcbook also includes a selection of Biotech's augs, Mind Games' psionic talents, and a brand new plug-in module for Aetherial Magic.
End Transmission Games' website can be found here
This game provides examples of:
- Ace Pilot: The "Vehicle Expertise" and "Ace" perks allow characters to become ace pilots of the vehicle class of their choice.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Personal-scale and Vehicle-scale combatants are built on the same system as each other (as in the numbers that describe each type of combatant are directly comparable). Despite this, combats between infantry and vehicles tend to be Curb Stomp Battles in favor of the vehicles unless the personal-scale combatants are tricked out in Powered Armor or heavily aug'd.
- Cybernetics Eat Your Soul:
- Cyberware and other augs have a cost in Purity. Once your purity runs out, you start paying Purity costs from your maximum health.
- If you're using the Aetherial Magic plug-in from the Systems Malfunction sourcebook, getting aug'd also lessens the effect that magic, both helpful and harmful, has on you. At Purity 0, you can't be effected by magic at all.
- Dump Stat: Strength is arguably less important than other attributes when playing with only the core rulebook, as it only governs which weapons can be equipped and a handful of personal combat and maneuvering skills (while the corebook focused mainly on vehicular and starship combat). Plugging in Firefight and Biotech changes this drastically (Firefight introduces a mechanic by which characters with exceptional strength get a bonus to melee damage and weapon recoil, while Biotech introduces a number of ways to aug your strength to superhuman levels.)
- Goddamned Bats: Energy Suckers, one of the generic types of xenofauna presented in the corebook, are this both to players and in-universe: they are interstellar, octopus-like energy parasites that have a tendency to latch on to a starship's essential systems, and their Life Drain mechanic makes them really annoying to fight.
- Humongous Mecha: are modeled as vehicle-scale combatants. Unlike other vehicles, each of their major components has it's own integrity meter, and they use personal-scale evasion rules rather than vehicle-scale evasion rules (they don't have to declare evasive maneuvers like other vehicles, and can attempt to evade automatically).
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Advent is one of the systems attributes (on par with Strength, Fortitude, Intellicence, etc.) Characters can spend points of advent re-roll dice and avert catastrophes.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Starships equipped with multiple missile racks can pull this off, as can vehicles equipped with rocket pods. It's worth noting that firing a large number of missiles drastically reduces the accuracy of each individual missile in the volley.
- Padded Sumo Gameplay: Starship combat tends feel long and grueling, as opposing starships slowly beat the snot out of each other, disabling each other system by system. Tends to apply only if the ships are evenly matched: a torpedo boat verses a dreadnought would easily be a Curb-Stomp Battle. Even in these cases, Starship combat tends to be much less like Rocket Tag than personal combat.
- Point Build System: Attributes are bought with attribute points, Perks are bought with Weaknesses, and everything else (skills, gear, 'ware, psionic talets, aetherial spells, vehicles)) is bought with Skill points.
- Powered Armor: fills a niche somewhere in between personal-scale and vehicle scale combat. The corebook contains rules for designing custom powered armor, which Firefight expands on.
- Rocket-Tag Gameplay: Personal combat tends to be very quick and deadly, especially with the Firefight and Mind Games plug-ins involved.
- Squishy Wizard: Characters who focus heavily on Psionics tend to be much less skilled in other areas, as the points used to purchase psionic talents come out of the same pool used to buy skills and gear.
