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The Expanse (Chronological) #1.1
The Expanse Roleplaying Game
The Expanse Roleplaying Game brings James S.A. Corey’s award-winning series of science fiction novels to the tabletop. Using the Adventure Game Engine (AGE) rules that power Green Ronin’s Fantasy AGE, Blue Rose, and Modern AGE RPGs, The Expanse takes players to afar-future solar system where humanity is divided: Martians, Belters, and the people of old Earth struggle for political power and resources, but older, alien, forces are stirring in the universe, and human history is about to take an unexpected new turn. The Expanse RPG applies the fast-playing, stunt-powered AGE system to spaceships, solar colonies, adventure, and intrigue in the far-future, where the actions of the characters may change the course of history!
224 pages, Hardcover
Published May 14, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 21, 2019
Being a fan of both the books and television series of The Expanse I was excited when I saw this setting was being offered as a role-playing game (RPG) on Kickstarter. I joined in the effort and was happy to see it come to fruition.
The Expanse RPG uses the Adventure Game Engine (AGE) and this was my first exposure to that system. It’s premise is fairly simple: three six-sided dice are rolled and any modifiers from skills, abilities or equipment are added to see if the results equal or beat a Target Number (TN) that is set by the Game Master (GM) based on the difficulty of the task (for reference 11-13 are challenging TNs). One of the three six-sides dice is a different color than the rest and is the Drama Die. In addition to contributing to the test roll, the number it depicts helps to break ties (for opposed tests), depicts progress for extended tasks and shows how many stunt points are available for certain test rolls (stunt points can be used to do bonus effects and are often used in conjunction with certain special skills a Player Character (PC) earns as they advance in experience. There are a variety of specialist skills and abilities to cover pretty much any type of PC someone might want to play in The Expanse setting.
In addition to the rules (which includes rules for space combat), there is a lot of setting information and some basic advice on running a RPG to those new to the hobby, all of this I thought was great to have available. For fans of the novels and television show, the game setting assumes games set during the time immediately following Eros’ crashing into Venus, but advice is offered to run a game before or after this event.
Overall, a great product and I was a glad to be a part of making it happen. My gaming group contains several The Expanse fans but I’m not sure when we’ll get a chance to play with our current backlog of RPGs waiting to get a one-shot or campaign but I’m adding it to the list.
The Expanse RPG uses the Adventure Game Engine (AGE) and this was my first exposure to that system. It’s premise is fairly simple: three six-sided dice are rolled and any modifiers from skills, abilities or equipment are added to see if the results equal or beat a Target Number (TN) that is set by the Game Master (GM) based on the difficulty of the task (for reference 11-13 are challenging TNs). One of the three six-sides dice is a different color than the rest and is the Drama Die. In addition to contributing to the test roll, the number it depicts helps to break ties (for opposed tests), depicts progress for extended tasks and shows how many stunt points are available for certain test rolls (stunt points can be used to do bonus effects and are often used in conjunction with certain special skills a Player Character (PC) earns as they advance in experience. There are a variety of specialist skills and abilities to cover pretty much any type of PC someone might want to play in The Expanse setting.
In addition to the rules (which includes rules for space combat), there is a lot of setting information and some basic advice on running a RPG to those new to the hobby, all of this I thought was great to have available. For fans of the novels and television show, the game setting assumes games set during the time immediately following Eros’ crashing into Venus, but advice is offered to run a game before or after this event.
Overall, a great product and I was a glad to be a part of making it happen. My gaming group contains several The Expanse fans but I’m not sure when we’ll get a chance to play with our current backlog of RPGs waiting to get a one-shot or campaign but I’m adding it to the list.
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November 12, 2021Another in my truly pointless project of checking out all the RPG books from the Austin Public Library. As with the Walter Jon Williams "Hardwired" RPG book, I think there's a strong chance that this was bought out of confusion with the Expanse novels. It is funny to me that the Expanse, which itself grew out of a roleplaying game experience, is now reinvented as a roleplaying game, but I still don't quite know who is buying this book. (Other than libraries confused about whether it's the novel or an RPG.)
I really enjoy the Expanse books and stories I have read, to the point where I scoffed at one of the characters from the book as statted up here. Come on, Chrisjen Avasarala has a contact score that low? Probably this is because I'm not understanding the nuance between talents and skills and focus, which is sort of my issue with this game system: seems fiddly. Which I like, up to a point -- that point being where character creation is about intersecting descriptions of social class, background, profession, drive. After that, the book sort of lost me.
Partly this might be due to the fact that there's no real core activity in the Expanse. That is, in D&D, you kill things, take their stuff, and so become more powerful to do more killing and get more stuff; in the Expanse universe, you might be military, or freelancers, or politicians -- there's a little capsule description of all those campaign frames. And the book does give some of the themes of the books that should give this RPG a coherent feeling, but... I just don't know what I would do with this or why I would be particularly interested in adventures in the Expanse universe.
The book also makes some motions towards being welcoming to very beginning players and gamemasters, going so far as to break down the different types of troublesome players you might meet. Which makes me wonder if this book has been successful as a crossover hit with non-gamer Expanse fans, as was clearly the hope.
I really enjoy the Expanse books and stories I have read, to the point where I scoffed at one of the characters from the book as statted up here. Come on, Chrisjen Avasarala has a contact score that low? Probably this is because I'm not understanding the nuance between talents and skills and focus, which is sort of my issue with this game system: seems fiddly. Which I like, up to a point -- that point being where character creation is about intersecting descriptions of social class, background, profession, drive. After that, the book sort of lost me.
Partly this might be due to the fact that there's no real core activity in the Expanse. That is, in D&D, you kill things, take their stuff, and so become more powerful to do more killing and get more stuff; in the Expanse universe, you might be military, or freelancers, or politicians -- there's a little capsule description of all those campaign frames. And the book does give some of the themes of the books that should give this RPG a coherent feeling, but... I just don't know what I would do with this or why I would be particularly interested in adventures in the Expanse universe.
The book also makes some motions towards being welcoming to very beginning players and gamemasters, going so far as to break down the different types of troublesome players you might meet. Which makes me wonder if this book has been successful as a crossover hit with non-gamer Expanse fans, as was clearly the hope.
April 11, 2019
So I only have the PDF so far (I am a Kickstarter backer) but the quality of the book is great. The changes to Modern AGE are great and make the game even makes re narrative in style with Fortune Points allowing for a fair amount of player agency.
The Churn mechanic is also great. In the session I ran at a local gaming convention it did a great job of building tension at the table as I advanced a meeple along the track to certain doom!
Fans of the TV series should know this is based on the books, but running the TV show would work well enough. Also spoilers abound for Leviathan Wakes so here’s your spoiler warning.
The Churn mechanic is also great. In the session I ran at a local gaming convention it did a great job of building tension at the table as I advanced a meeple along the track to certain doom!
Fans of the TV series should know this is based on the books, but running the TV show would work well enough. Also spoilers abound for Leviathan Wakes so here’s your spoiler warning.
July 27, 2019
Great game, interesting system, amazing back story. Just beginning a campaign with this as GM.
April 21, 2020
I loved this source book and I'm running a rewarding & successful campaign from it now. The rest of this review is going to be my nitpicks. But please don't let them turn you away from it. Just use them to temper your expectations a bit.
I honestly wish this was built on something a little crunchier than the AGE dice system. There's a surprising amount of GM handwaving everywhere except the grid combat.
I also wish it took the chance to expand the Canon of the world rather than just restate it on the page. It's even stuck based in the era between books 1&2 in the series... So some of the most interesting stuff in the series isn't even vaguely defined in terms of game mechanics.
With recent popularity I hope to see a second edition of this that refines and expands to everything amazing the Expanse has to offer. A little more and this could get to a five star system for sure!
I honestly wish this was built on something a little crunchier than the AGE dice system. There's a surprising amount of GM handwaving everywhere except the grid combat.
I also wish it took the chance to expand the Canon of the world rather than just restate it on the page. It's even stuck based in the era between books 1&2 in the series... So some of the most interesting stuff in the series isn't even vaguely defined in terms of game mechanics.
With recent popularity I hope to see a second edition of this that refines and expands to everything amazing the Expanse has to offer. A little more and this could get to a five star system for sure!
February 2, 2020
"TRhe last fly of the Cassandra" es un relato corto situado cronológicamente justo tras la primera novela de la serie. Viene junto a las instrucciones del juego de rol de The Expanse que se publicó vía Kickstarter hace un par de años. Parece mentira que en tan pocas páginas se pueda generar tanto interés. Supongo que se incluirá en algún momento en el compendio de relatos cortos sobre la serie que se publicará el año que viene tras la última novela de la serie. Son personajes que no salen en la serie pero a los que en unas pocas páginas los autores les dan una historia de fondo creíble y con muchas posibilidades. Muy entretenida para trastornados de The Expanse.
February 27, 2023
A very compreehensive book with a lot of examples and using a language that facilitates understanding even if you've never played an RPG before. It could have a little more details in setting, if you never watched the TV Series nor read the books all may end up a little vague. The art is debatable (specially the main characters) but that is a matter of personal tastes. The rules are all well explained, you probably won't need to refer or research any other material to understant almost everything. It may not be the most fun rulebook to read but it sure is a good sourcebook to play.
January 30, 2022
A really great translation of The Expanse stories into a roleplaying system. Green Ronin's AGE system is a nice balance of detailed game systems that capture the hard science feel of the books but still have the narrative freedom to allow players to explore their own character stories. The book is well-designed to not only teach the system but to also act as a good resource for first-time GMs to help them get into the hobby.
January 2, 2020
Not really sold on this for my future sci-fi RPG'ing. But for source material for Hyperlanes, Esper Genesis, or one of the other D&D 5e-adjacent systems that I've had my eye on, this will work well for my group.
March 20, 2020
This Table RPG system focuses too much on game mechanics rather then on storytelling and fun.
"Stunt points' which are one of the core mechanics in the system, in fact kill all the drive in the action scenes.
"Stunt points' which are one of the core mechanics in the system, in fact kill all the drive in the action scenes.
February 22, 2023
Forgot to update this.
A fun sounding RPG but mechanics seem awkward.
In terms of writing, I like it and hope to create a game from it at some stage, despite some information missing or appearing to be from other settings that slipped through.
A fun sounding RPG but mechanics seem awkward.
In terms of writing, I like it and hope to create a game from it at some stage, despite some information missing or appearing to be from other settings that slipped through.
December 6, 2019
Uses the AGE system (Dragon Age). Feels more fluid in combat than Starfinder, but still has the ability to accurately portray combat physics.
December 14, 2019
Ahora solo necesito conseguir una partida para probarlo xD
November 29, 2021
Good system can't wait to play more!
January 20, 2022
I adore The Expanse SO very much and this RPG really captures the actions and relationships for the book series.
April 11, 2022
The RPG mechanism is delicately designed and seamlessly coupled with The Expanse settings and plots. Can't wait to try it.
March 2, 2023
Contains the short story "The Last Flight of the Cassandra" which is quite an intriguing little tale!
August 31, 2019
This is a tantalizing bit of short fiction that serves as the introduction to the The Expanse RPG core rulebook. Serves wonderfully in its role as an incitement to RPG adventure and as a way of setting the tone of The Expanse universe -- gray scarcity punctuated by mystery and wonder. Probably not worth the trouble of tracking down the RPG sourcebook for anyone who doesn't need it for gaming purposes. Maybe it will show up in a short story collection, someday.
June 26, 2019
I really want to know what the deal is with Xi-Mallow 434 now.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews