(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) Acoes are one of two artificial species in the Orion Arm. However, unlike SADEs, they are organic, not electronic. “Aco” is an acronym of Artificially Created Organism. They were originally designed to be toys and tutors for the children of […]
Tag Archives: covenant
Covenant Game Design: Damage Types and Tech Levels
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) We said last time that we would talk about the types of damage that your character can face in Covenant. Let’s do that now.Your character’s armor has a rating just like their weapons. If they are hit by a weapon […]
Radio Free Covenant: Episode 2 – Fascism and Noodles
So, we’re trying a shorter format that we hope we can get out on a more regular basis. I hope you bear with us through our birthing pangs. For now, join Sean and Sazzy as they talk about: Why fascism and autocracy may be the inevitable outcome of our current politics and economics Why it’s […]
Vocabulary of the Orion Arm: The H’s and I’s
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) The calerre are the founders of both the Covenant and the Old Empire which, after the valka Matriarchy, are the two most ancient civilizations in the Orion Arm. They are vaguely reptilian-looking humanoids with functional wings on their backs and […]
Episode 2 Is In the Can!
Sean and Sazzy’s schedules kept falling out of sync this week. The planets finally lined up tonight, though, and we finally wrapped up recording today. Expect Episode 2 – and our discussion of how to depict fascism and autocracy in an RPG like Covenant – to drop on Tuesday.
Covenant Game Design: Areas and Tactical Movement
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) Last week, we promised that we’d talk about how Covenant handles tactical movement during scenes. Let’s do that now. Before we start, though, let’s narrow down our subject. When I say “tactical movement”, I mean the kind of character movement […]
More on Failing Forward
We’ve talked about Covenant‘s fail forward mechanics, but I want to touch on something more fundamental here: how the Force Majeure (FM) can prevent failed bids from grinding their games to a halt. This was inspired by a post on the RPGdesign subreddit from xxXKurtMuscleXxx entitled: “A new (?) kind of social mechanic“. The rule […]
Vocabulary of the Orion Arm: The E’s through G’s
The chiroptim are some of the latest arrivals in the Orion Arm. They came here through a portal between our timeline and another where bats and humans evolved side-by-side on Earth. “The Crossing”, as they call it, occurred approximately 200 years ago. At that time, the Earth of their timeline was still deep in the […]
Episode 2 Is In Progress
Sean and Sazzy just finished recording the first half of Episode 2 tonight. We talked about how to portray the Covenant’s rivals in the game. These rivals are all either autocratic or fascistic, but there are reasons why they’re autocratic and fascistic, and we want to portray them in as empathetic a light as possible. […]
Covenant Game Design: Size
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) Covenant is filled with sapient species of wildly different sizes, from tiny acoes to hulking valka Matriarchs. We handle that by assigning everything – people, creatures, even gear and vehicles – a numerical size based on their longest dimension. See […]
