Sample file. Outrider Studios. Remnants

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1 Remnants They are artifacts left over from another age, built before the world burned and the lands were broken. They endure. Remnants is a mecha game unlike any other. Explore the Broken Lands, discover ancient secrets, and control the greatest weapons in the world. Fight for your family. Fight for your honour. Fight to survive. Fight for what s left. II Outrider Studios OS 201

2 role playing game Written By Steve Bergeron Edited by Caitlin Bergeron and Patrick Riegert Rapidfire Rules by Steve Bergeron and Quinton Oliviero Cover and Interior Art by Adam Wesierski - dasadam.deviantart.com Map by David Anderson - thistledownhair.deviantart.com Playtesters Kirk Bittman, Teal Smith, Marcus Padgett, and The Great Derek Breedon Special Thanks to 21 AC&W Squadron for telling me what they want in a tank. Nathaniel Southworth-Barlow for bookmarking the PDF. Published by Outrider Studios - web For more Remnants info go to Remnants Role Playing Game is 2011 Outrider Studios. All rights reserved. Second Printing,

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Credits 1 Welcome 3 Overivew 4 Chapter 1 The Broken Lands 6 The Past 6 Map 9 The Remnants 13 Battle Remnants 14 Chapter 2 Life in the Broken Lands 17 Life Adapted 17 Humanity Adapted 19 Cultures 20 Chapter 3 Rapifire Rules 26 Stats 26 Skills 27 Difficulty 27 Reserve 28 Rule of Awsome 28 Critical Failures 28 Help! 29 Combat 29 Combat Sequence 29 Combat Modifiers 30 Environment Damage 32 Armoured Rules 34 Armoured Combat 38 Chapter 4 The Characters 41 Building a Group 41 Character Creation 43 Building a Background 44 Assign Stats 48 Skill List 49 Advantages & Disadvantages 54 Gear and Money 55 The Near Humans 61 Character Advancement 63 Chapter 5 The Battle Remnants 65 Ishin Creation 65 Remnant Srats 66 Remnant Traits 67 Remnant Trait List 69 Remnant Specialties 69 Remnant Advancement 71 Duress and Traits 72 Trait Descriptions 75 Upgrades 75 Powers 77 Drones 84 Chapter 6 Game Master 89 Rewards 89 Themes 92 Rules Options 94 Managing Conflict 95 Bad Weather 99 Sample Creatures 101 Mercenaries 103 Artifacts 107 Open Warfare 109 Character Sheet 114 Battle Remnant Sheet 115 2

4 Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology. - Larry Niven Welcome to REMNANTS What would happen if primitive peoples living in the burned out wastes of their forebears had access to the deadliest weapons of war? Would they ever rise above barbarism or would they remain locked in unending battles? Would they ever understand the war engines at their disposal or would they languish in ignorance? Remnants is a game about answering these questions. Players Players in Remnants take the role of Ishinari. They are warriors who enter battle clad in armoured combat mecha known as Battle Remnants, or Ishin. They may fight for their clan, tribe, family or city-state, or they may fight for honour, money, power, or just to survive. Anyone can be an Ishinari and all must choose their own path. Play Style As a mecha game, the Focus of Remnants is less on tactical details and more on cinematic action. Stats and rules are just complex enough to ensure maximum variety between each character and their mecha, while things like Reserve, the Rule of Awesome, and critical failures add a more cinematic feel to the game. There s no tactical map and while some exact numbers are listed in terms of ranges and speeds, they are intended more as guidelines than actual hard and fast numbers. The GM of a Remnants game is responsible for determining the exact style and pacing of the game, and his or her rough plans should be laid out in advance. Where to Start Chapter 1 explains the default setting of Remnants. Chapter 2 includes info about people and cultures that will help players flesh out their characters. Chapter 3 covers the Rapidfire rules system. Rapidfire is fast, flexible, and easy to learn. Chapter 4 has all of the rules for creating a Remnants character, while Chapter 5 is all about the armoured mecha that are the stars of a Remnants game. Chapter 6 is for the Game Master and contains information on running a Remnants game and setting up encounters. 3

5 Overview Remnants is set in the aptly named Broken Lands. The Lands are the scarred remains of a once beautiful and verdant place. Most of the mountains are volcanic, the forests are filled with dead and petrified trees, the water is often poison, and wastelands are pockmarked with the bones of dead cities and the massive craters of ancient doomsday weapons. Life in the Broken Lands is hell, but people adapt, survive, and might one day thrive. Wherever the lands are less than completely inhospitable, people can be found scratching out a living. There are plants and animals adapted to the tough conditions and people farm, herd, and make do. The problem is that there is never enough. Every tribe, every clan, every village, and even the few great city-states live right on the edge of starvation, though few would ever admit it. All it takes is one failed crop, one bad birthing season, or even a bad ash storm and people will fall short. Often, the only recourse is warring on neighbours to try and take what is needed to survive. In hard times, the people of the Broken Lands are like wild dogs -- tearing at each other to get enough scraps to survive. Then and Now The history of the broken lands can be summed up as follows: There was a great civilization. It destroyed itself in an apocalyptic war. Now, many centuries later, the remaining people try to scratch out a living in the hell left behind. The details are a little more complicated than that but that is about as much as the average person knows and few are curious about the past. Who wants to remember the ancestors that brought about the present doom? Remnants In the context of this game, a Remnant, or Ishi, is a piece of the past civilization. Remnants can be anything from tiny trinkets to grand ruins or the great engines of war known as Ishin, or Battle Remnants. Most Ishi are worthless; they are dead, lifeless and depleted. Few people, if anyone, knows how to return old Remnants to their former glory. Some of these ancient Remnants were tools or trinkets, but there are more than a few weapons amongst them. A functioning Remnant weapon can end -- or start -- a war. The one small mercy is that after centuries of treasure hunting and conflict, few of these devastating weapons remain. 4

6 The Battle Remnants While the number of Remnants is decreasing over time, the number of Battle Remnants, or Ishin, is slowly increasing. An Ishin is a towering, armoured combat robot. They stand between 10 and 20 feet tall, are controlled by a single pilot, and are armed with an array of ranged and close combat weapons. Every Battle Remnant looks unique and adapts to the will of its pilot. Remnants repair themselves when damaged and never need to be serviced, refueled, or rearmed. Unless a Remnant is literally ripped to pieces, it rebuilds itself, even after falling in battle. If the Remnant s pilot is killed, it reverts to a basic form, ready for the next pilot. The number of Battle Remnants has slowly increased over the years, as a Remnant s destruction is a rare event and Ishin are still discovered from time to time. It is hard to guess the exact number of Ishin in the world. All of the strongest tribes and clans possess one or two. There are a number of independent mercenary companies with Ishin and all of the great city-states have at least 10 each, if not more. The best guess is between 1500 and 2500 for the whole of the Broken Lands, but these numbers could be way off in either direction. The Broken Lands are vast and difficult to travel; no one is quite sure how full -- or empty -- they might be. Life Adapted No living thing in the Broken Lands is the same as its counterpart in our world. In fact, most creatures have little or no resemblance to the plants and animals that we would find familiar. There are two reasons for this. First, the Broken Lands are not a future Earth but rather are on another planet, dimension, or reality. Second, the ancients weren t just masters of war. They cracked the code of life itself; they shaped themselves and the creatures around them to suit their needs. Their legacy is rampant, rapid evolution. Without the ancients knowledge of how to control and direct the path of life, the many species of the Broken Lands took new and sometimes illogical forms. The crucible that is the Broken Lands ensures that only the strongest, smartest, and most resourceful survived. The People Surviving in the Broken Lands requires determination, grit, and more than a little luck. The tribes and clans that scrape a living from the lands are a poor shadow of humanity s former glory but are made of the toughest and luckiest people to ever take breath. The people from the city-states might be a little softer, but not much. Regardless of one s origin, life is short and often violent. When times are desperate, civility and respect often give way to theft and violence. Be careful in your dealings, as justice can be hard to come by. 5

Table of Contents. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1-2 INTRODUCTION 3 The Tomb of Annihilation 3. GAME OVERVIEW 3 Exception Based Game 3

Table of Contents. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1-2 INTRODUCTION 3 The Tomb of Annihilation 3. GAME OVERVIEW 3 Exception Based Game 3 Table of Contents TABLE OF CONTENTS 1-2 INTRODUCTION 3 The Tomb of Annihilation 3 GAME OVERVIEW 3 Exception Based Game 3 WINNING AND LOSING 3 TAKING TURNS 3-5 Initiative 3 Tiles and Squares 4 Player Turn