SAINTS & Synners is about to GallantFund and at over 200%.
That’s Gallant Knight Games’ Kickstarter alternative where fans simply pre-order, and if enough do, the game gets made; if not, a refund is offered.
SAINTS & Synners uses the TinyD6 system to bring to life the high-action of the sci-fi setting created by Brandon Verhalen.
It’s a world which is rebuilding from a devastating war but in which organised crime has recovered more quickly and is now dominant.
Players can take on the role of a Star Marine and try and clean enforce order, or be a SAINT and work for lay against the criminal Syndicate. PCs can even be Synners, members of the Syndicate, or merely work for themselves and stay out of the mess.
The SAINTS & SYnners RPG brings eight new Heritages to the game, comes with Backgrounds, Traits, new Starship and Psionics rules. There’s a complete adventure too.
You don’t need TinyD6 to play; the game is a complete TinyD6 RPG and has all the latest errata built-in.
SAINTS & Synners preview
The HyperNet
The HyperNet is the backbone of galactic civilization, connecting everyone across the vast reaches of space. Communication, banking, systems operations, and a whole host of other things pass over the relays every millisecond. Governments, corporations, criminals, it does not matter, everyone needs the Hypernet to function in order to conduct their affairs. This necessity creates a valuable target for people to exploit to gain both power and wealth.
Anyone can use the HyperNet in its base form, accessing through physical keyboards or other devices. These are just standard users who want to watch a video, listen to music, take a HR vacation. No special training or augmentations is needed to access the HyperNet at this level. However, to use the tech at its most effective takes a little bit more than a fancy interface.
HyperTechs
HyperTechs are those that have not only spent the time training to use the equipment but also have implants that let them merge their minds directly with the HyperNet at a deeper level than the average user. The implant is not exceptionally large and only requires a minor surgery by an experiences cybersurgeon to connect the neural pathways. The training that is required to master the implant is what keeps it from being used by the masses.
Hyper Reality
Once a HyperTech has the implant and the training they can enter the Hyper Reality of the net. A tech will merge their mind and create the reality, the filter with which they view the data they are processing. Unlike a hyper reality vacation or show, the tech creates this filter to represent the data they want to interact with and help them process it in a faster and more efficient way. For example, if the tech wants to access a file the data could look like a large book, a scroll, or a traditional screen.
This would seem to be a waste of time, and for normal small bits of data this would be true. If you are just reading a single page, then it would be far easier to pull that up on a screen. However, in Hyper Reality, time is dilated, and the page just represents the data a tech is grabbing. This fusion of mind and machine allows the human brain to operate at the subconscious level. When entering the HyperNet your mind is functioning much the same way as it does when in REM sleep and dreams that seem to span hours or days happen in mere moments.
This is how a HyperTech is both more efficient, and at the same, so dangerous. A tech can slip into a system, grab data, cover their tracks, and be out inside of a moment. In that one moment the tech could have fought the security program , snagged the data, and ordered a pizza.
Each time a tech enters the system they choose the filter they will use to view the data. These can be a fantasy world complete with dragons and castles or a modern looking world with vampires, it does not matter, these are just representations of the data that the tech finds easiest use. Something like a castle would likely stand in for a major security point, a dragon a defensive program and a powerful one at that. Some very secure systems can force the filter onto the tech, so they must view the world as the creator set it to.
These secured filters cannot force the tech to adapt personally. What this means is that it is possible for a tech to appear as a knight in armor in a 1920s world. The drawback is that the system can tell when you do not fit in, and this draws attention to the tech as they try and bypass the security systems. This is the main purpose of such a filter. A tech can try and figure out the filter before they enter but this is a difficult task to do when under pressure or trying to get in and out fast.
HyperNet : The Rules
Time: Time is dilated in the HyperNet, and it moves much faster relative to the time passing to people not connected to the system.
- An entire hypernet encounter takes no more than one turn in combat, no matter what. It takes one action to enter the Hypernet, one action to complete the task in the Hypernet, and one action to exit the Hypernet.
TinyD6 generally only grants two actions a turn, so where does this third action come from? The tech’s filter.
Filter: The filter is created by the Tech as a tool to interact with the system. Think of it as a digital UI overlayed on the HyperNet, and unique to each tech. This personal filter can distort and change the view of the world in whatever ways the tech desires. Each filter is custom to the tech.
- Each Tech’s filter is the default for them when entering the HyperNet. A player should define what their unique filter looks like and how it makes the HyperNet look.
- A tech using their own filter gains one action a turn in the HyperNet. This action is gained after their initial two actions have been spent.
- Filters can have filter traits, unique advantages that benefit a Tech while in the HyperNet. Only filter trait can be applied with each visit to the Hypernet and must be loaded in before entering the system.
- If a system has its own secured filter the Tech can try and override it with their own filter. This requires an action (generally the second action of a tech’s turn in the Hypernet). Doing so is a standard test. With a success, the override is successful. On a failure, the tech is detected.
The HyperNet rules also feature avatars, unique visual representations of the tech and their companions in the HyperNet, system rules to represent safeguards and defenses, and all new traits and tools to create compelling, but fast paced digital encounters in the world of SAINTs & Synners!
Quick Links
- GKG’s SAINTS & Synners.
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