Update for the Week of September 17, 2021

(Covenant’s playtest rules are out! Download a copy now and tell us what you think! If you like what you see, think about becoming a patron!)

Featured Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

We’re still transcribing our notes on the Archimedean Confederation! Find out more below the fold.

Here’s what we want to talk about this week:

• The Archimedean Confederation
• The game mechanic of the week, stunts and shortcuts
• How to become a playtester

ARCHIMEDEAN CONFEDERATION

We’re still transcribing our notes from our notebooks to index cards. Once we’re done (and we’re not sure when that will be, hopefully within a month), we’ll use them to create an index card file, which we’ll then use to write up the Archimedean Confederation’s summary.

Here’s the notes that we transcribed this week:

• Rho Security Solutions, the largest mercenary company in the Archimedean Confederation
• The founders of the company-states, who are known, creatively enough, as the Founders
• Artificial intelligence in the company-states
• The economics of the company-states, especially how they’re propped up by Dominion investors
• Slavery by the indigenous states, some of which have traditions of slavery
• The cultures of the indigenous states and company-states
• The shanty towns around the company-states
• The gangs inside the company states
• The demographics of the company states
• Slavery by the company-states, who hide it behind contractors and other means
• Slavery by outsiders, who are usually discharged soldiers who can’t adapt to civilian life

GAME MECHANIC OF THE WEEK: STUNTS AND SHORTCUTS

You may want to boost your character’s bids or give it extra effects. Or you may not have enough discipline to succeed at a bid and are willing to take some penalties to do so. When this happens, you can use stunts and shortcuts.

Stunts make the effects of your character’s bids more powerful or add extra effects. There’s a cost, though. Each stunt imposes 1 disadvantage on your character’s bid.

Some of the effects of stunts are:

• Dealing more damage with an attack
• Imposing disadvantages or effects on your target
• Adding features to a crafted item
• Increasing the number of targets affected by the bid

Shortcuts, on the other hand, make your character’s bids easier. Each shortcut adds 1 advantage to your character’s bid. The downside is that each shortcut also makes your character’s bid less effective.

Some of the effects of shortcuts are:

• Dealing less damage with an attack
• Imposing disadvantages or effects on your character
• Adding flaws to a crafted item

BECOMING A PLAYTESTER

Have you downloaded Covenant’s playtest rules yet? Did we mention that they’re free? If not, do it now! They’re free! All we ask is that you tell us what you think about them. You can send your feedback in two ways:

• Email us at radiofreecovenant@gmail.com
• Join our Discord server

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That’s about it for now. Talk to you next Friday!