By Todd Downing Red Dwarf RPG (Series Sourcebook) [Paperback]

by Todd Downing

Three Million Years. Infinite Dimensions. Unlimited Possibilities. Staggering drunkenly from the long-running BBC sci-fi comedy series, Red Dwarf - The Roleplaying Game brings all the fun, creativity and personal abuse of the TV show to a dining table near you! Play a Human, Hologram, Mechanoid, Gelf, Simulant, Evolved Pet, even a Skutter or a Wax Droid! Create your own alternate Red Dwarf dimension and scour the universe in search of adventure, romance and the edible pot noodle! -12 profiled character types with infinite variations. -Complete cinematic roleplaying system. -Ships, hardware & personnel listings. -Handy primer on roleplaying Red Dwarf. -AI section with valuable gameplay tips (pencils, standard dice and friends not included). Three-million years! Infinite dimensions! Unlimited possibilities! Staggering drunkenly from the long-running BBC sci-fi comedy series, Red Dwarf - The Roleplaying Game brings all the fun, creativity, and personal abuse of the TV show to the tabletop arena. Powered by the XPG system featuring easy, cinematic play, the Red Dwarf RPG boasts more than fourteen primary character types, profiles of the people, ships, and tech, a primer on comedy roleplaying for the novice, and numerous photographs and original artwork. The universe is vast, and you have no clean socks. If Earth is a small coin on your dining table, then you are somewhere over here - just outside Guam. That is to say, you're a long way from home (unless you live in Guam, in which case... oh, just bear with the analogy). In all likelihood, you are the last of your species, or close to it. Your companions are a bizarre collection of losers, drifters, madmen... even accountants! Well, probably not accountants. This isn't a horror game, after all, but you get the idea. Before you start shaking your head and muttering, "but I already hang out with losers, drifters and madmen," just remember these are wholly and entirely different losers, drifters and madmen... in space. Red Dwarf An intuitive character generation system, including odd personality quirks Integrated XPG system that supports the setting, not vice versa "Self-test" skill mechanics Skill-based character improvement Easy-to-learn combat system All the popular, and not so popular, worlds, creatures and items found in the TV series Supported at its source, with graphics, adventures and supplements, fiction and forum interaction

Genres: Role Playing Games

Unknown Binding

About the author

Todd Downing is the primary author and designer of over fifty roleplaying titles, including Arrowflight, RADZ, Airship Daedalus, and the official Red Dwarf RPG. A fixture in the Seattle indie film community, he is the co-creator of the superhero-comedy webseries The Collectibles, and the screenwriter behind The Parish and Ordinary Angels (which he also directed). His first feature film, a supernatural thriller entitled Project, was included in a PBS young directors series in 1986. He has written for stage, screen, comics, audiodrama, short-form and long-form, interactive and narrative, in a career spanning three decades. The father of two adult children, Downing spent several years in the videogame industry, working on games such as Spider for the Playstation, Allegiance for the PC, and Casino Empire. He also creates book covers and marketing art for fellow authors and corporate clients, and has done voiceover work for Microsoft and the Seattle Seahawks Pro Shop.

Widowed to cancer in 2005, Downing remarried in 2009 to a singer and fiction editor. The couple's "empy nest" in Port Orchard, Washington, consists of her mother and a herd of rescued cats (or should that be a murder?). Thankfully, he has an office door that closes.

Reviews

[Dan Schwent · Rating 4 out of 5]

Confession Time: There was a point in my life when Red Dwarf was unquestionably my favorite show. I've seen every episodes, some at least ten times. Way back in 2003, I chanced upon this at the Fantasy Shop and snapped it up. After all, there isn't much Red Dwarf merchandise to be found on this side of the pond, especially in those days. However, I never read it from cover to cover until now. My gaming group was strictly Dungeons and Dragons and I couldn't get them interested.

This is a pretty slick little RPG. The system is very simple and I'm fairly confident I could run a game after just skimming the rules. As the book says several times, the system is there to support the setting, not vice versa. Add your skill number and the relevant attribute and roll under that number using 2d6. Easy peasy.

Beyond the streamlined rules, the book contains stats for damn near every character, device, and ship seen on the show, even Talky Toaster. There are Mad-Lib like tables for whipping up adventures and all sorts of random adventure aids. The player options are fairly broad. Besides human, you can play an evolved pet, wax droid, simulant, hologram, Kinatawawi, Pleasure GELF, and various mechanoids.

The writing is really clear, which is awesome since most RPGs read like stereo instructions written in an alien language. It's also peppered with quotes from the show and dry British wit, making it easily the funniest RPG manual ever written.

I still probably won't find a group to play Red Dwarf with but based on the manual, I'm giving it four out of five stars.