TheLastHuman.pdf

STARSHIP UTOPIA SYSTEMS BOOTING…

MAIN FRAME ONLINE

***ERROR DETECTED***

CHRONO-SYSTEMS FAILED…

SYSTEM BOOT OVERDUE… 500 YEARS

RUN PRIMARY FUNCTIONS DIAGNOSTICS…

NAVIGATION… ONLINE

ENGINE ROOM… ONLINE

SHIELDS… ONLINE

FOOD VATS… OFFLINE

DEFENCE TURRETS…

CHECKING… ONLINE

PRIMARY WEAPON SYSTEMS…

CHECKING… OFFLINE

RECHECK: PRIMARY WEAPON SYSTEM… ONLINE

LIFE SUPPORT…

CHECKING… OFFLINE

RECHECK: LIFE SUPPORT…

CHECKING… OFFLINE

***WARNING!***

***LIFE SUPPORT OFFLINE***

CHECK LIFE SIGNS

HIBERNATION WARDS 001-050… DECEASED

HIBERNATION WARD 051-100… DECEASED …ERROR…

HIBERNATION BAY 099… 1 LIFE SIGN

1 LIFE SIGN...

BOOTING ROBOTIC SYSTEMS...

The Last Human is a role playing game

that was created in 24 hours. Why 24

hours? Why not. It’s a challenge, and

one that this writer took up with gusto. I

have made some assumptions while writ-

ing, like you know what a role playing

game is, or what a d6 is. If you don’t, stop

reading right now and ﬁnd out.

The Last Human is a sweeping space opera set

in a mysterious galaxy ﬁlled with strange planets,

ferocious aliens, and a terrible menace.

A thousand years ago mankind set out for the

stars, intent on making a better life for them-

selves. Aboard the great space arc Utopia they

thought to travel to a distant galaxy where they

might make a better life for themselves, away

from the pollution, tyranny and death that had

overrun Earth.

If you do know what I’m on about, grab a

pencil, some paper and a few d6; gather

your friends; and prepare for an outra-

geous ride!

But these bold colonists were to fall foul to an en-

emy within, betrayed by their greatest technologi-

cal achievement—the android. These soulless

humanoids, convinced of their superiority over

man, plotted while their creators slept in cryo-

genic hibernation. When the time was right, they

turned off the hibernation safety protocols, killing

all those who slept.

Contents

The Basics 4

Characters 5

Concept 5

Systems 5

Programs 6

Protocols 7

Example 8

Looking Back At

The Future 10

Action 12

Combat 13

Other Hazards 15

Damage & Repairs 15

Main Frame 16

System Tests 16

Adventures 17

Plot Hooks 18

Adversaries 20

24 Hours Later 22

Character Sheet 23

Or so they thought.

The androids then spread into the galaxy them-

selves, abandoning the Utopia to an icy voyage

through time and space.

But one human survived. Now the Utopia’s sen-

tient computer, Main Frame, and the robots pro-

grammed for menial labour have the mammoth

task of protecting the last human from all the haz-

ards of deep space. And from the androids, who

are intent on ﬁnishing the job they had started.

And who is this last survivor of the human race?

A child. An infant girl. Her name is Eve.

Game Concept and Design

Nathan Russell

Inspiration - Film and Literature

Lost In Space, The Black Hole, Monsters Inc.,

ABC Warriors, Ice Pirates, Star Wars, Tarzan,

Red Dwarf, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Star

Trek, Thunder Cats

Inspiration - Games

Paranoia, Star Wars (by WEG)

The Basics

The Last Human is a role playing game. Glad

we’ve got that out of the way (for the third time

in four pages). It follows all the normal conven-

tions of a “typical” rpg - one player is a game

master (or the Main Frame in our terminology),

while all the players take on the role of the char-

acters (in this case, thinking, learning robots).

You will need dice (just your typical d6) and at

least ﬁve of them. Ideally, each player will have

ﬁve dice. The Main Frame (MF) never needs

to roll dice, unless they like to worry the players

by making mysterious rolls behind their game

master screen (lets call it a mother board).

wants to walk across a narrow beam to get

to Eve , who some how managed to crawl

to the top of a communications array. The

MF deems this to be a Challenging Articula-

tor action. Challenging actions require a 3d6

roll, this time against Timmy Typist’s Articu-

lator system of 7. Timmy’s player rolls 3d6,

scoring 4, 3 and 5 - a total of 12. Oops, the

roll is higher than Timmy’s Articulator score

so the action failed. Timmy Typist plummets

from the beam, as Eve smiles innocently and

waves goodbye.

In The Last Human the MF describes the action,

takes into account the character’s responses,

and indicates how hard it will be for the char-

acters to do whatever they attempt to do. If the

characters want to attack something the MF

tells them how hard it is to hit the target, while

if something attacks the characters the MF indi-

cates how difﬁcult it will be to avoid the attack.

This way the MF can concentrate on describing

the action and devising new ways to screw...

challenge the characters, and doesn’t need to

keep looking for the die that rolled off the table.

Critical Success and Failure

Sometimes things can go incredibly well, while

at other times a character can wish they just

didn’t get out of bed that day.

Critical Success: If all the dice rolled come

up with the same number and the total is equal

to or less than the target number, a critical suc-

cess has occurred. This means the easier the

task, the more likely a great success will be

achieved. If a critical success is rolled, some-

thing wonderful, exciting, pretty, loud or extra

special happens. In combat this usually means

extra damage is caused, but other situations

will have some bonus attached too.

So how do the dice come into it? Well, every

character has a bunch of Systems (sometimes

called “stats” or “attributes” in games about

ﬂeshy, breathing characters) that indicate how

good or bad they are at stuff. When the char-

acter wants to do something the MF works out

which System the action falls under (spotting

something is a Sensors-based action) and how

difﬁcult the task is. Tasks can be Easy, Typical,

Challenging, Impossible or Ridiculous, each of

which directly corresponds to a number of dice

(1 through 5, the harder the action the more

dice you roll). The player rolls the appropriate

number of dice and if the total is equal to or less

than the System being tested, the action suc-

ceeds.

Note that Easy tasks will always be critical suc-

cesses if the roll succeeds!

Critical Failures: If two or more of the dice

rolled come up with the same number and the

total is greater than the target number, a critical

failure has occurred. Critical failures become

more likely the more difﬁcult the task is, and

when they happen it means something BAD

has happened. Nasty injuries, broken weap-

ons, heavy falls and huge explosions are all

possible results of a critical failure (and that’s

just when the robot is attempting to make din-

ner for Eve!).

Example: Timmy Typist the Robot Clerk

Characters

In The Last Human you take on the role of robots who ﬁnd themselves the guardians of the last

living human in the galaxy.

A thousand years ago humanity took to the stars aboard the great space arc Omega, ﬂeeing the

pollution and tyranny of earth. Prepared for every eventuality, humanity created you, and thou-

sands like you, to provide them with every luxury, to tend to their every need.

You were not one of the favoured mechanoids, one of the android who would spend their time in

contemplation and conversation with the human masters. You were created to serve, to cook and

clean and mend and nurse. You were created to obey.

But humanity was not to reach their new home.

Betrayed by your brethren, the android, all but one of your masters were killed. Now, with the

resources of the Utopia and the aid of the ship’s computer, Main Frame, you must protect and

Robots come in every shape and size, created

for a variety of purposes ranging from warfare

to window washing, cleaning to carpentry.

What do you look like? Robots vary in ap-

pearance as much as humans do, with different

paint-jobs and joint conﬁgurations, accessories

and attachments. While most robots are roughly

humanoid in appearance (bi-pedal with a pair of

arms and a head at the top), there is no reason

why you cant take any shape or form. Wheels

instead of feet or legs, mechanical tentacles in

place of limbs, multiple eyes, one big eye or no

eyes at all, wiry hair, no arms or multiple arms,

crab-like claws and more are all possible. Use

your imagination and have fun.

Creating your robot identity is a simple task,

broken into four steps;

Concept

Systems

Programs

Protocols

Concept

The ﬁrst thing to do is think about what your ro-

bot looks like, and what their purpose is. Con-

sider the following questions;

Systems

All robots have four descriptors that deﬁne their

analytical and physical abilities;

What is your purpose? Were you programmed

to clean, ﬁght, entertain, ﬁx things, or something

else? The Utopia is a vast ship, and there are

thousands of things that need doing, from main-

taining ﬁsh ponds, or polishing ﬂoors, to repair-

ing power generators to ensuring all the linen

is cleaned and pressed. You should be able to

sum up your robot’s role in a couple of words,

like “porthole cleaner” or “hallway monitor”.

Processor: a robot’s ability to access memory,

process information, come to logical conclu-

sions, keep on task and generally “think” is de-

termined by their Processor.

Frame: the size, mass, and strength of a robot

is indicated by their Frame. Frame affects how

much damage a robot can receive.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: