NINEFOX GAMBIT RPG is a tabletop roleplaying game of heresy and hard choices set in the tyrannical interstellar empire known as the Hexarchate.
YOU belong to one of the Hexarchate’s six factions. YOU are entangled with a regime that can change the very laws of physics—at the cost of human sacrifice.
Will you…
CONFRONT your leaders, at the risk of being labeled a heretic and hunted down?
CHANGE the system from within, despite the chance that you’ll be crushed by it instead?
COLLABORATE to preserve what you can, at the cost of your principles?
Assimilation is a fate worse than death.
Designed by NY Times bestselling author, Yoon Ha Lee and based on his Hugo-nominated Machineries of Empire space opera series. Included are three starter scenarios by Marie Brennan, author of The Memoirs of Lady Trent and, with Alyc C. Helms as M. A. Carrick, the Rook and Rose epic fantasy trilogy. Cover art by Stephanie Folse.
Yoon Ha Lee is an American science fiction writer born on January 26, 1979 in Houston, Texas. His first published story, “The Hundredth Question,” appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1999; since then, over two dozen further stories have appeared. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
I've only ran one session of this so far, which is why it's 4 stars, the star number may increase over time when new questions that come up in gameplay are answered by the book.
It was an excellent session, to be sure, based on the third scenario - of course my group would choose the most complex one, but I wouldn't have it any other way! The party consisted of two Andan, one Shuos, and one Rahal, and they went to - shall we say, acquire - a rare piece of technology that may shift the calendrical balance in the Hexarchate. They were successful, though a couple came close to assimilation, and quite a few hands were severed along the way. The group rather enjoyed this more narrative-driven RPG and really like the group mechanics.
Only two of us were familiar with the setting, the rest of our group had no previous knowledge of the Machineries of Empire, but found it easy enough to realize the Hexarchate should be stopped, even though they are cogs within it.