[explorers]

Table of Contents

[explorers] is a SciFi tabletop roleplaying game in which the players explore various planets, reporting back to HQ eventually.

The game has wonderful, very streamlined rules. It is found in print or as PDF at DriveThruRPG.

The system has a nice setting with just enough details to get you into the world, streamlined, simple rules that make playing a pleasure, and a unique handling system for equipment:

Since in the setting of the game equipment is standardized, you don’t write it down on your character sheet. Instead, there is a set of playing cards you can print yourself or buy on DriveThruRPG, and this makes it very easy to lay out the cards on the table to indicate which ones you have on your person and which ones are stored somewhere (vehicle, base, etc.) and it makes it wonderfully easy to exchange items within the party and still keep perfect track of who has what.

Developing this game and playtesting it for two years was a great experience, and learning the skills necessary to make a printed book and printed playing cards was a new challenge for me.

Images
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Here are a few pictures:

Introduction
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It is the year 376 in the Galactic Human Empire, mostly just called The Empire. Humanity spans a hundred thousand worlds in as many solar systems. Poverty, scarcity, disease and even work are curiosities of history. Spending their days in a perpetual holiday, engaged in philosophy and arts or simply in relaxation and fun, humans of The Empire are living a good life.

You are not a human.

At the edge of human space, genetic clone slaves are guarding the borders of The Empire against aliens, and exploring and preparing new world for the growing human population to settle or exploit for resources.

Of course, exploration of new worlds is dangerous and many explorer teams never return to mission control. No sane person would risk real human life on such a dangerous adventure.

You are an Explorer. You are a clone. You are expendable.

Game Overview
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[explorers] is a science fiction pen & paper roleplaying game. Within that subset, it is

cooperative
All players work together, as part of a team.
modular
Individual adventures (called "missions") are largely isolated from each other, making it easy to join a group or deal with people leaving as well as missing a few evenings.
narrative
narrative The game is focussed on telling a good story, so game mechanics are straightforward and reward good playing over micro-management.

Setting
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[explorers] is set in the far future, with mankind having settled many thousands of solar systems. Technology is so advanced that even space travel is a thing of the past, with planet-to-planet teleport transport the norm. Against this background, the players take on the role of explorers, human clones sent as first teams to newly discovered planets where they will face the local environment, with its natural dangers and local wildlife (if any) as well as possible aliens or even forgotten human colonies. Unique Features

There are a number of unique or rare features in the game that set it apart from most other RPGs.

Simple, yet versatile, award-winning dice mechanics
Strong focus on teamplay and positive interaction
Character clone mechanics allows for more player death without the frustration
Unique “equipment cards” system makes the handling of weapons, armor and other equipment easy and fun instead of the usual administrative overhead.
(deprecated) Interactive iBooks rulebook with built-in tools, multimedia and carefully interlinked glossary