#Orbital2100 RPG – Hard Sci-Fi RPG for The Expanse?

Orbital 2100: A Solar System Setting Using the Cepheus Game Engine by Paul Elliott at Zozer Games is the “second edition” of Orbital but now based on the Open Game Content Cepheus Engine System Reference Document vice the Mongoose Traveller first edition rules. Coming in at 239-pages, Orbital 2100 provides a more hard sci-fi setting within our Solar System around the year 2100. According to the publisher’s blurb:

Orbital is a science fiction setting for Traveller with a fairly realistic (TL 9) feel that is set within our own solar system. The Earth is locked in a Cold War with the people of Luna. Both face off, 400,000 km apart, threatening mutual annihilation whilst they compete to colonise the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Older colonies such as Mars and Mercury are independent and caught up in this struggle for solar system supremacy. Spacecraft use nuclear thermal rockets and create gravity by spinning pods or centrifuges, this is spaceflight as envisaged today!

What I think Mr. Elliott really means to say, to avoid legal troubles, is that Orbital is a science fiction setting for the Cepheus Engine. Orbital 2100 attempts to update the original material that used the Mongoose Traveller first edition rules. No longer a legal option, to avoid intruding on Mongoose Traveller’s second edition Closed Gaming Content and Product Identity, Orbital 2100 is based on the Cepheus Engine.

With Cepheus Engine providing the game rules, Orbital 2100 focuses on the setting. The first three chapters; The Situation, The Cold War, and Organisations provide a great deal of background and sets the stage for player adventure.

Character Creation follows the Cepheus Engine which allows this small section to focus on the differences in chargen from Cepheus. For instance, a new definition of Social Standing is introduced as well as new Background Skills. At this point, players “select a campaign” of which there are five. Depending on the campaign selected, different careers are recommended. There are no new career paths presented in Orbital 2100; rather, equivalent careers are mapped to Cepheus Engine careers. Other changes include a slightly modified Skills Cascade list, unique Military & Spacer Ranks, and modified Mustering Out process. The later is an interesting wrinkle to long-time Traveller RPG players because Orbital 2100 does not use the “traditional” end chargen and start adventuring. Instead:

In a typical game, characters must muster out before the game begins. In Orbital, it is more likely that characters will still be in employment within their chosen career. Player’s may finish character generation at any desired point and have their characters join the game, although an aging crisis or some events may also indicate a character has left the character generation process and begun the game. – Orbital 2100, p. 35

Being set in 2100, the governing tech is generally TL 9 (with TL 11 in computing and electronics). There is no anti-gravity or jump drive. Trips are limited to inside the solar system using Nuclear Thermal Rockets and spin habitats. The next chapter, Spacecraft Design, introduces three classes of spacecraft that follow these setting restrictions. Deep Space Vehicles (DSV) are analogous to “starships”(100 tons or larger)  in Cepheus whereas Orbital Vehicles are this settings “small craft” (under 100 tons). The added vehicle class is Launch Vehicles (100 tons or less using regular chemical rockets. (Orbital 2100, p. 37). Although Cepheus Engine provides rules for building up to 5000 tons, the Orbital 2100 limit is 2000 tons (p. 60). Orbital 2100 does introduce an alternative drive, the TL 10 Fusion Drive (or Nuclear Pulse Fusion Drive – NPF p. 61). This vastly more efficient drive can make ships more akin to those seen in the TV series The Expanse.

Operating Spacecraft generally follows the Cepheus Engine rules with the greatest exception being travel time within the Solar System. Without getting too scientific, Orbital 2100 uses an orbital racetrack for travel between the inner planets and easy tables to assist in computation of travel times (p. 71). Fuel is also treated much differently, being defined in terms of “Burns” (p. 73) Bottom Line – The Expanse “Flip and Burn” is rare in Orbital 2100. Maintenance is also treated differently, as well as trade revenue. Setting-specific Encounter tables and updated Space Combat rules also are found here (remember – Trajectory is King! – p. 77).

The next chapter, Hardware, properly focuses first on Space Suits. Rovers, Orbital 2100’s version of vehicles, area also here but no rules for their design/construction are presented (nor are they found in Cepheus Engine). Computers are also redefined, and a section of Orbital and Launch Vehicles given. These Launch Vehicles go beyond chemical rockets by adding items like a Mass Driver Catapult or other alternate launch systems. Background and stats for common DSVs are also presented, as well as modular space stations.

Orbital Society is more setting background looking at Law Enforcement, Art, Colonies and the like, background on life aboard a DSV, various Treaties and Regulations and the Earth Orbit Network. There are many adventure seeds buried within these pages!

Working in Space is the Orbital 2100 version of the Environments & Hazards section of Cepheus Engine. The most interesting part to me was “Ways to Die in Space.” There are also rules for Astroid Mining found here as well as a basic outline of how to set up an outpost.

Worlds breaks from the Cepheus Engine design system and instead presents the planets and moons of the Solar System in UWP format. The real gems are found in  the extensive flavor text. Again, lots of great adventure seeds are found here.

Running Orbital is in effect the Referee’s section. I found this section a bit weak. It starts out with four different campaign types, seemingly ignoring the fifth one found in the character generation “select a campaign” at the beginning of the book. This chapter also introduces Secret Agendas and Status, character concepts that I strongly believe should be included in the character generation chapter and not buried here (p. 218-221). The section ends with a look at Aliens (again, nice adventure seeds).

Resources is the Orbital 2100 version of Appendix N; the inspirations for the setting. Good movie or reading list material here, although I can’t believe Paul didn’t mention  Atomic Rockets or the Encyclopedia Astronautica!

Overall, this is a good setting. I have always liked playing in a grittier, harder sci-fi setting like Orbital. I really appreciate the changes Mr. Elliott makes from the Cepheus Engine basic rules. If I have a criticism, it is that I wish Zozer Games had taken the opportunity to relook at the layout of the book and move some items around (especially Secret Agendas and Status) to make these distinguishing character features more prominent and not bury them near the end of the product.

If one is looking for a 2d6-based science fiction setting that can be adapted for The Expanse, Orbital 2100 is a very close fit. To avoid legal entanglements Mr. Elliott is obviously very careful with references to The Expanse with only three mentions in the entire book (one of which is The Expanse entry in Resources). The Expanse has its own spacecraft technology and combat vision, best shown in the episode “CQB”, but a moderately resourceful referee can probably make the adjustments necessary to capture an Expanse-like narrative. At the very least the Orbital 2100 spacecraft design sequence can make DSV’s with NPF in a tail-sitter configuration, and Mag Boots are found on p. 86!

Orbital 2100: A Solar System Setting for the Cepheus Engine Game. Copyright (c) 2016 Samardan Press, Author Jason “Flynn” Kemp.

Cepheus Engine: A Classic Era Science Fiction 2D6-Based Open Gaming System. Copyright (c) 2016 Samardan Press.

“The Traveller game in all forms is owned by Far Future Enterprises. Copyright 1977-2015 Far Future Enterprises.”