Warp Lords Core Rulebook (Artless Beta)
Warp Lords takes place in a sci-fantasy multiverse where eccentric and selfish gods raise their followers until they ascend to godhood themselves. It's a game where genre¸ tone¸ and power level can vary wildly from game to game or even within a single session. It encourages players to get creative and find unusual solutions to their problems. The rules are just as flexible as the setting. Warp Lords uses the unique Blackjack Grenade Engine as its core system. It uses a d12 roll under system for unopposed skill checks where rolling your stat is a critical success (blackjack) and pools of exploding d12s for opposed contests (grenade). Character progression uses a single pool of experience points (XP) to purchase abilities or upgrade stats. This system lets players only take the skills they want so they can create their concepts easily without having to wait 15 levels and being bogged down by unwanted extra class features. Want to be a time-stopping mad scientist? You can do that. Want to be a giant spider that only has the power to give people clammy hands? You can do that. Want to be a normal human fighter? You can do that and be good at it too. For you power gamers¸ there are many odd combinations of skills and abilities that grant absurd power in your specialization. Warp Lords is not meant to be a perfectly balanced game and that's the point. If you want to dump all your resources into doing a specific thing you should be the very best at it. Warp Lords is simple enough for new players and GMs to pick up¸ but offers enough depth and unconventional combinations to keep more experienced players engaged. Combat is uses a dynamic action system with no set order¸ so no more waiting 40 minutes for your turn only to miss and have nothing to do for the next 40 minutes. Warp Lords also features simple rules for creating custom character options. This makes it easy to homebrew new skills¸ races¸ and classes for your players. Many of the skills in the book started out as custom content created during playtesting. Some quotes from playtesters: "I wonder if it would be a benefit to market warp lords as 'the most breakable tabletop roleplaying game of all time.' If you're someone who likes that about games¸ it rewards you for coming up with dumb combinations." "I love the large amount of races." "Relatively easy to pick up and play given the mechanical adaptability." This is an artless beta version. Rules are formatted and have been playtested for years (some sections more rigorously than others). Rules will be updated periodically. When we do¸ a notification should be sent to anyone who has already purchased a copy along with patch notes. We're releasing this version to build a player base so we can fund a full art version and a print run later on. Includes character sheets¸ a sample bestiary¸ and index.