Incursion

Incursion Introduction

One night, while you were out camping by yourself, you saw a strange light through the trees. "No, it can't be!" you say to yourself, as you see a saucer shaped space craft hovering over a clearing. Grabbing your digital camera you walk up taking pictures, telling yourself that you'll be famous, be a millionaire, that you're about to make first contact...

That's when you're hit with a stun ray and pass out. You hazily remember an alien face looking at you speaking an alien language in a comforting manner, then you went to sleep.

Suddenly you're wide awake, lying naked in a glass tube in a large room with a curving wall. Other people are present, all of whom are in various states of undress. Their skin is a bright fluorescent orange and they are completely hairless as far as you can tell. A quick look confirms that you are the same color and you are also completely hairless, not even eyebrows. A look in some reflective metal shows that you also have a barcode across your forehead.

Two small grey colored aliens with black, almond shaped eyes hand you an ill-fitting jumper and then a large bug hands you a weapon.

The bug then buzzes in fractured English: "Quickly! You muzzz help uzz take over the Ardanna Nuu! They don't know that we have wakened you from your zztaziz zleep! Take ziz gun and help uzz be free!"

Game System

Currently I'm looking at using both d20 Modern as part of the d20 Incursion Playtest and Savage Worlds with some modifications for my personal Homebrew. The Savage Worlds mods will be listed here, as the d20 Incursion rules will be part of the Official Tri Tac Games Release.

This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for purpose of this product.

Starting Characters

Savage Worlds

Characters start out as Novices and then have the option to increase their skills or attributes up to 4 progression "bumps". After you create your Novice character, roll a D4x5. This will give you between 5 and 20 experience points, which must be spent in 5 point increments. This can result in your character starting out as Seasoned, but more often than not, your character will be a Novice with some experience under his or her belt.

I will allow one couple in play at first. You can also have a Significant Other stuck in a stasis tube, waiting to be decanted.

Hinderances

Initially, you cannot buy the Enemy or Wanted hinderances. These can be earned during the game, either taken voluntarily, or awarded by the GM. If the GM awards either of these to your character, you do not gain any benefit from receiving them.

d20 Modern

Characters start out at either 1st or 2nd level. No restriction on classes, except for Magic Users. In this version I'm running, Magic does not exist. Psionic characters are allowed.

Equipment (All systems)

Only buy equipment that you would have on you for a camping trip or driving out on the back roads at night.

Character Background

Work up a reason why your character was out by themselves and add that to your character's history. Also work out some background for your character, you never know if it might come into play in the future.

Galactic Races

Incursion Aliens

All beginning characters will start out as humans, but as the game continues, there is the chance for the players to create a character who is a member of an alien race. The list of alien races written up using Savage Worlds rules are on the Incursion Aliens page. d20 Modern versions are not available for the public at this time.

New Skills

Performance (Spirit)

Performance is a catchall skill for the various types of entertainment. This skill must have a focus, such as Performance (Singing) or Performance (Newsreader). The skill can be taken multiple times for different focuses.

New Edges (Savage Worlds)

Dealing with Aliens

One factor that was prevalent in the original version of Incursion, was two statistics: Ability to Deal with Aliens and Alien Technology Use. Both of these dealt with how well humans could deal with alien technology and with aliens themselves.

Ability to deal with aliens

The ability to deal with aliens is more than "Are you a xenophile or xenophobe?" but more of your ability to adapt to alien customs and environments. This ability is more of an edge when you have to face non-human beings without squirming or feeling uncomfortable. You can still hate their guts, but you know which eating utensil to use when eating protoplasmic sludge.

In Savage Incursion, Ability to deal with Aliens is a new edge that the characters can take, after they have their first encounter with aliens. This comes into play because Savage Incursion includes a new hinderance for aliens: Temperament.

Temperament is how aliens react to other species. This is represented by a reaction table modifier value, that ranges from -4 to +4. Temperament replaces the alien's Charisma when it is dealing with humans when making a rolls on the Reaction Table, (Pg. 114).

Ability to deal with Aliens

Requirements: Novice & exposure to Aliens

The character is comfortable in situations where they must deal face to face with humanoid and non-humanoid aliens. Purchasing this edge replaces your Charisma when making Reaction Table rolls (pg. 114) when you deal with aliens and gives you a +1 on your reaction table roll. You can take this edge a total of four times for maximum bonus of +4 on Reaction Table rolls when dealing with aliens.

Alien Technology Use

So you bought this thing that a Groomlouch merchant claimed was a nice bit of kit. It's supposed to do something... Though the merchant was not that specific, but he did give you instructions in how to use it... In an odd Groomlouch dialect that the translator can't read. However, it does make a pretty light when you push this one depression...

Alien technology can be, well, alien. Sometimes it's so alien that it's of no use to a human or humanoid alien. But how do you know that? Some items will be kind of obvious in how you use them, others will be a puzzle. Some will be impossible to use. Any tech made for the Teb race will be impossible for a human to use, unless you use dentist picks to get at the buttons and switches.

To figure out what an item is, it depends on who made it. Items made by humanoids will be the easiest to determine, while items made for non-humaniods will be the hardest to determine. To figure out an object, you have to make either a default Smarts roll, or a Knowledge (Alien Tech) skill roll, plus an hour's worth of study, to figure out what the item does. Use the following table to determine the modifier to your roll to figure out what a piece of alien technology is and what it does:

Species type	Modifier
Humanoid	-1
Near Humanoid	-1 to -3
Non-Humanoid	-4
Machines and Androids	-1 to -4

Into this, we introduce the new edge: Alien Technology Use

Alien Technology Use

Requirements: Novice & exposure to aliens or alien technology

For some reason, your mind is wired differently than other folks. You've always been good with technology and figuring out how something works. Alien tech is just another puzzle to you and you can figure out what something is in half the time a normal person can. This edge gives you a +1 to either your Smarts roll or to a Knowledge (Alien Tech) skill roll. This edge can be taken a total of four times for a maximum bonus of +4.

This may be the first new edge you take, since the first bit of alien technology you have to figure out is the ship you're on, the Ardanna Nuu.

New Hindrances (Savage Worlds)

Phobia (Minor or Major)

A "phobia" is an irrational fear of a specific item, creature, or circumstance. Whenever a character is in the presence of the source of his phobia he suffers a -2 penalty to all trait tests. Minor phobias are directed at items, creatures, or circumstances that rarely occur or are easily avoided (e.g., flying, heights, magic, etc…). Major phobias are directed at items, creatures, or circumstances that are common and difficult to avoid (e.g., dirt, large crowds, open spaces, etc…).

Zero-G Sickness (Major)

The character gets sick when operating in zero-g. The character constantly throws up and becomes dizzy. Treat him as Fatigued whenever he is in zero-g and not restrained in some way.