TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

[Gary Miles]

From the back cover of Terracide:

 

The Earth is No More

 

Humanity was struggling to catch up with its alien neighbors when Terra ceased to exist. The attack had been a long time coming; It crossed lightyears of space before impact. Thousands of relativistic weapons swept across the system in a matter of hours, moving too swiftly for anyone to see them coming, try to escape, or to warn anyone else what was happening.

 

When they struck the homeworld, the surface of Terra became a molten holocaust, and the oceans boiled away into the tortured skies. Every settlement on Luna, Mars, and the Galilean moons met the same fate. Colonies on smaller moons and asteroids simply shattered, vaporized instantly by the impact. In the final hours of the attack, on the fringe of Sol’s oort cloud, the last comet-herders were just beginning to figure out something was wrong as they went off the air, one by one. And then it was over.

 

There were no survivors.

 

Terracide by Grady Elliott is a gritty, space opera noir. The Earth has been annihilated, leaving only the few million humans who were working in deep space alive. Those who have survived must not only continue the human race, but to discover who – or what – destroyed their home world.

 

This review is based on comp copies of the Terracide softcover book, and the Terracide PDF, specifically given to me for review by Blackwyrm Games. This is not a playtest review, but is based on a thorough reading of the book, and this reviewer’s nearly 30 years of experience with the Hero System.

 

Terracide is a setting book for Star Hero, part of the Hero System 6th Edition.. The author, Grady Elliot, terms the setting “space opera noir”.

 

What this means, to quote directly from the book:

 

-- Earth-like worlds are extremely rare. There used to be exactly one – Earth. Now it’s gone. Having failed in its efforts to find another Earth, humanity decided to make one. There are several terraforming projects under way, but all are centuries from completion.

 

-- Aliens are not like us. They aren’t even remotely humanoid in appearance, didn’t evolve on Earth-like worlds, don’t breathe oxygen, and most don’t have spoken languages. Dealing with them successfully requires specialized knowledge.

 

-- Rubber science is not welcome. With the exception of the FTL drive, the technology presented in Terracide is at least loosely based on real-world science. There is no artificial gravity, no reactionless drive, and no ill-defined energy weapons known as “blasters.”

 

-- The laws of physics are in effect. Gunfire in a rotating space habitat will be thrown off by the rotation. “Ramming speed” is 100% fatal in space combat, for both spacecraft involved – no survivors. Psionics is a ploy used by con-men to scam true-believers out of their last credits.

 

Overall, the setting is a winner. It combines a very interesting background with the author’s thorough knowledge of the Hero System. The overall “feel” of the setting, to me at least, is a mashup of inspirations such as Babylon 5, nuBattlestar Galactica, Firefly/Serenity, and Alien/Aliens. Somewhat gritty, but not “grimdark”. Personal combat can be very deadly, and space combat even deadlier, but there is hope of rebuilding the human race on space stations and through terraforming planets.

 

The book includes Hero System templates for character genetic background (including nine different genetically engineered genotypes); background templates, which include Terrans, Colonists, Floaters (zero-g modified, such as Bujold’s “quaddies”), and Terraformers; and templates for things such as education, military training, government service, criminal backgrounds, and a number of others. The selection of templates is quite good, and seems to cover a majority of character-types likely to be wanted by players. And of course, being the Hero System, players can make any kind of character they want anyway.

 

There are also ten pre-generated characters to be used as examples, or to be used as Player Characters if desired. The writeups all seem reasonable, and are illustrated with a picture of each character. The character illustrations are drawn, but are created in Jeff Hebert’s HeroMachine. They are nicely done for what they are, and will do in a small-press book such as Terracide, but HeroMachine instills a kind of “sameness” to the characters. Original drawings would have been better, but I understand that original artwork would probably have been cost-prohibitive for a production such as this. Also included, in the GM’s section, are a number of writeups of NPC’s, such as security personnel, military crewmembers, special agents, and terrorists. Again, these are illustrated by HeroMachine drawings, but once more, perfectly serviceable.

 

There are also writeups of representative samples from each of the alien races- Ammonite, Cytherian, Fluorian, Titan and Jovian. The aliens are all very alien, with not a rubber-foreheaded humanoid among them (and are illustrated with original drawings, not HeroMachine). Aliens are not recommended as Player Characters.

 

A number of types of spacecraft and starships are included, fully written up as Hero System vehicles. There is also a fairly extensive list of equipment, weapons, and weapon accessories, which could also be used for other Star Hero games besides Terracide.

 

A sample background setting is included- Marathon Free Station, a rotating asteroid habitat in orbit around Groombridge 34B. This station is what reminds me a little of Babylon 5, a “wretched hive of scum and villainy” just waiting for Player Characters to come and adventure.

 

The final part of the book is a GM’s Vault, where the GM can find the answers to some of the big secrets of the setting, such as the background of the Terracide attack, as well as various adventure ideas and seeds.

 

There are a number of Appendices- a setting Glossary, a reading list including an interesting variety of science fiction and non-fiction, and an extensive listing of possible spacecraft names, for when the GM or Players are drawing a blank.

 

Production values on Terracide are pretty good. I have a few minor quibbles. The text in the printed book is black type on a gray graphic background, which makes it somewhat difficult to read. This is alleviated in the PDF, which includes the complete book in full color (with black type on a pale bluish background), plus a printer-friendly version that eliminates the background and page borders. Some of the art is pixelated, especially the starmaps (which, by the way, are actual near-Earth stars), and could probably have been improved by either using a higher DPI resolution, or by redrawing them (they obviously were taken from screencaps from a stellar mapping program.). Also, the starmaps have route lines that are coded red and blue in the full-color PDF, but in the printed book, which is black-and-white, there is no visible difference in the lines. There are also a few “see page XX” errors.

 

Overall, I think this is a good production of a very good setting, and could prove quite entertaining, especially for those players that enjoy “hard” science fiction, and nittty-gritty life on the edge of the deep black.

 

I would rate it (on a scale of 1-5):

 

STYLE: 3 (decent, but could use improving- see above)

 

SUBSTANCE: 4 (lots of interesting background, as well as things which could be adapted for other Star Hero games)

[CptPatriot]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

Thanks for the review, Gary. I thought this book held promise when it was first announced. Being given a megaplot like that just begs for the PCs to want to answer it. Do the survivors try to terraform Earth again? I think I just might get this book after all.

[Gary Miles]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

Don't have the book in front of me, but I don't think they do in the timeframe of the book. Since this setting attempts to be somewhat "hard science" (with the exception of FTL), terraforming takes A LONG TIME. Even the worlds that are already being terraformed are nowhere NEAR ready for habitation. The remnants of humanity is busy trying to rebuild and stay alive.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

And here I thought I was the only twisted person who read A Killing Star and thought "Hmm, that'd be an interesting sort of setting to play in"

Gonna have to pick up a copy of this.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

And here I thought I was the only twisted person who read A Killing Star and thought "Hmm, that'd be an interesting sort of setting to play in"

Gonna have to pick up a copy of this.

 

Killing Star was my inspiration for destroying the Home System. After that, I found it hard to stop, so I went after a whole bunch of bad SF cliches that needed some killing. I think I might have spared a few and attempted to rehabilitate them; I'd have to check....

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

Killing Star was my inspiration for destroying the Home System. After that' date=' I found it hard to stop, so I went after a whole bunch of bad SF cliches that needed some killing. I think I might have spared a few and attempted to rehabilitate them; I'd have to check....[/quote']

 

You bombed bad Sci Fi tropes with relativistic weapons?

 

I admire the way your brain-meat operates.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

You bombed bad Sci Fi tropes with relativistic weapons?

 

I admire the way your brain-meat operates.

 

Oh, there are a whole bunch of tropes that deserve to be R-bombed, but I found more creative ways to deal with them.

[mattingly]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

When Ken Hite heard about the book Terracide, he was reportedly disappointed that the players didn't get to destroy the Earth. So I came up with a tongue-in-cheek prequel to the game.

 

"It's Phase 12. The Earth is front of you. What is your action?"

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

Dive for cover!

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

Dive for cover!

 

Remember, you can only DFC for half your maximum movement, and the penalty in this case is -3,185,500 (assuming you need to get completely off the Earth to avoid this attack).

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

Remember' date=' you can only DFC for half your maximum movement, and the penalty in this case is -3,185,500 (assuming you need to get completely off the Earth to avoid this attack).[/quote']

 

This is why we love the mega-scale advantage. Can I get that as Naked Advantage, with the Only to Dive For Cover limitation?

[IndianaJoe3]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

This is why we love the mega-scale advantage. Can I get that as Naked Advantage' date=' with the [i']Only to Dive For Cover[/i] limitation?

 

You can't use megascale movement with DFC. (6e2 86)

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

You can't use megascale movement with DFC. (6e2 86)

 

Oh, there you go again, stepping on my lines, raining on my parade, costing me medals....

[L. Marcus]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

GM's fiat, and Xav designed the setting!

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

GM's fiat' date=' and Xav designed the setting![/quote']

 

True, but it's a serious setting, and I was being anything but serious when I brought up "megascale dive for cover." Actually, I find that mental image more than a little silly, myself. In a comedic or "toon" campaign, I'd buck the rules and allow it, absolutely!

[L. Marcus]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

... I want to play in a Duck Dodgers campaign now.

[phoenix240]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

This looks interesting. Probably a little grim for my group but worth a read.

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

This looks interesting. Probably a little grim for my group but worth a read.

 

It's true, the background events in the setting are definitely grim. But an individual Terracide campaign can be either grim, or hopeful. (or anywhere in between) I'm currently running a game in which the PCs are involved in the struggle of an abandoned space habitat to remain free from the military government taking over Terran Space after the Terracide. They've got a bunch of squatters, deserters, corsairs, smugglers, renegades, salvage operators, and other assorted low-lifes, planning to take on pretty much the rest of the Galaxy. It looks hopeless, but they've got a couple of aces in the hole.

 

An effort to refurbish the old space habitat was under way before the Terracide, although nobody knows who was financing it or why. Now it seems their foresight will be the salvation for many thousands of refugees fleeing the military junta. But it's quite possible they're actually connected with the new military regime, in which case they won't like it when the habitat declares its independence.

 

In the early stages of the campaign, the PCs stole an extremely rare and valuable FTL comm device from a Solar Express Company man who wasn't supposed to have such a thing. (They're usually only found in the possession of major governments.) It has given their insurrection a fighting chance by keeping them up to date with what's going on elsewhere in Terran Space, but they still have no idea how it came to be in the possession of the Solar Express Company. Eventually, the original owner might come looking for it.

 

Currently, the PCs' corsair allies have returned to Omicron Free Station to do battle with the Colonial Reserve Fleet and the Solar Express Company, while the PCs are on a desperate mission to find reinforcements at a notorious pirate haven in the Ross 614 system. If nothing goes wrong, they should be able to bring a small-ish squadron of pirates to Omicron about the same time the CRF's relief forces get there.

 

It might be enough to buy them a little more time, but after that the Powers That Be will escalate the conflict again, and no more reinforcements are available....

 

The campaign web page is here... Terracide: Salvaging Hope

[phoenix240]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

Have to admit, that sounds pretty cool

[Lucius]

Re: TERRACIDE Review by Gary Miles

 

... I want to play in a Duck Dodgers campaign now.

 

You're going to dodge ducks?

 

Or duck dodges?

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary buys a Naked Advantage Megascale on a Trigger, Trigger is whenever I Dive for Cover