SETTING
The XENOSCAPE setting will challenge all players with its survival tasks in the primitive world of Materia: surreal plants and lethal atmospheric conditions make a very hard living, considering that the surface is also strolled by immense creatures which are totally devoid of what happens in the smaller ecosystem where the players will set their game.
Civilization is long gone, there is no coinage and barter is the only universal type of commerce: the few sentient species that can be found tend to help each other day by day hoping to get better survival chances by gathering in caravans and small nomad groups, but only when taking advantage of someone has already been discarded as first option.
The Law of the Livings is the only universally known and passed on tradition generation after generation by Rhapsodes and by its Priests, preaching respect for Nature and all the living species, especially for those gifted with sentiency: among its most known precept, the most important one is about writing which is considered a blasphemous act, source of the disaster that annihilated the human society and considered to hide an alien, unnatural power, bringer of chaos and destruction for the living which has always been fooled by prophets, sacred scriptures and propaganda.
You will meet beings which will feature very weird biology and astounding capacities yet scientifically accurate and conceivable (Forest Wanderer, Arthropoids, Squamata, Neuro-fungi, Kyrbians, etc), you will cross crystal deserts and nuclear forests, caves dug inside gigantic dead corpses or inside the reactor of a long-forgotten era.
Rules
he game uses 12mm six-sided dice and cards for items in order to simulate the barter-based commerce system of the setting.
XENOSCAPE features an original and unique game design that mixes elements both from the old and the new wave RPG tradition and it has been designed as a sandbox game that mimics the fundamental aspects of survival in the wilderness. It is in fact based on an old school base system (classic character sheets and round by round combat) but on a pure resource management system too.
Each character will be described by 3 characteristics (Body, Reflexes, Mind) which added in couples sums up to build 3 Systems (Nervous, Energetic, Immunitary) points pool that you will be allowed to spend in order to increase your check results and that you later will need to recover. Rest and feeding will be your main ways to regenerate your resources and such primary needs will be your prime directive in such a wild setting. The game does not need any dice roll on the players' side, yet we suggest to use 12mm six-sided dice in order to keep track of your System Points loss which characters may use to get better chances at succeeding checks but also representing their health status.
You will find a finely tailored system inspired by our flora and fauna biology yet adding a sci-fi twist, which has been developed with the help of professional naturalists, virologists, and anthropologists.
