I've been spending less time thinking about the Murdering Empire project or writing a blog post than I have actually writing the game.
In fact, I have a completed version available of the one-page, Version 0.1 rules for Murdering Empire completed.
It is very bare bones, as a one-page game must be, but it also shows my experimentation with a different kind of writing style and approach to RPG Design.
I'm posting the rules on my Patreon - as a public release, for any and all to see. I intend what every basic, one-page rules I come up with for the final release to be free and available in multiple formats. I want everyone to have a copy of the rules within easy reach when they play.
I've also been working on the Zine component of the game. The first Issue is a short introduction and then a collection of 15 random tables to inspire and help give some idea of the lack of canon I want to have in the setting. I'm trying to make the tables less something you roll on and more a seriesthought provoking prompts for both GMs and Players. The virtue of this setting is everyone can be inspired by different or even contradictory entries and bring those ideas to the table.
The Zine will be a for-purchase release and available to my Patrons, like all my work, for the monthly subscription price of one dollar American.
That said, I can resist sharing a few of the entries.
The tables are arraigned as a series of fifteen questions. Some are relatively straightforward, like
WHAT WAS THE EMPIRE?
3. Monsters! Once lush worlds have been stripped bare. All the wealth of the stars was pumped out to feed the decadence of a parasitic Core.
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14. I hate to admit it, but the Empire had its uses. The Ship and Star used to mean the safe conduct of the Pax Imperio. A Trader could make money in those days.
To the more introspective, like
WAS THE EMPIRE'S TECHNOLOGY WORTH IT?
10. In space, with the coronas of the warp field around me as I head to a planet I’ve never seen before, I can tell you it’s worth it to me.
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20. You can’t solve the problems of technology with more technology. We used to think that without the natural world we would not survive. Now that we can survive anywhere in space using technology, how do we live?
And some of them are frankly a bit dark.
HOW LONG DO YOU HAVE LEFT?
9. Maybe one in ten survive past childhood here. If you can do that, you still have a 50/50 chance of dying from cancer. Our gift from the old Empire.
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15. My first child would have been born next month.
I admit that last one kind of haunts me.
Let me know what you think about this direction for random tables and the one-page rules. You can comment here on the blog, on Patreon, or Twitter at @blemaxstudios.
TL;DR: Download One-page RPG rules free HERE. Join the Patreon for $1 and get full Zine when finished - and twenty other titles!
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