You operate in the Bleed, a semi-autonomous frontier region of space where the Combine governemnt is weak enough to need freelance contractors to represent the law. You are a Laser, a freelance contractor paid to represent the law.
The book proper starts with an in-universe description if the major bulletpoints of the setting and how you fit in it. Let's dive in:Ĭhapter 1: All the Justice Credits Can Buy It's a game of utopianism vs bitter reality, altruism vs selfishness, and ray guns vs your face.
If you have more concrete questions about just how it works, trust me, we'll get there before long. The way information unfolds reminds me of Mouse Guard, in that it starts with the highlights about the game's mood, central activity, world, and where the player characters fit in it. I'll be doing these writeups alongside the book's layout, generally one chapter at a time. It draws huge inspiration from Firefly, the grittier bits of Star Trek, the jedi-free parts of the Star Wars universe, and anything else involving people meeting aliens and solving mysteries in order to keep on trucking. Ashen Stars takes the system away from the 'present day meets the unreal' format to the stars, which may or may not happen to be ashen. You may recognize GUMSHOE from the horror investigative games The Esoterrorists, Fear Itself, Trail of Cthulhu, and Night's Black Agents, or the superpowered CSI game Mutant City Blues. ), published by Pelgrane Press, which uses the GUMSHOE engine for investigative games. (Hillfolk/DramaSystem, Feng Shui, Robin's Laws of Good Gamemastering, The Dying Earth, Over the Edge, Lasers, The Bleed, and You posted by General Ironicus Original SA post