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 …
Continue reading “Vocabulary of the Orion Arm: The E’s through G’s”
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. …
(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 …
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) Last week, we talked about how a character can fail forward in Covenant – that is, how they can succeed with consequences or fail with benefits. Failing forward is one kind of story control in Covenant, but not the only …
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) Bids aren’t simple pass/fail affairs in Covenant. Instead, it follows the recent roleplaying trend of allowing characters to fail forward – that is, to let them succeed even if they’re incapable of doing so, but with consequences. Characters can usually …
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) So, characters in Covenant spend Discipline to make bids and accomplish things. This Discipline represents a raft of things: their money, their mental and physical health, their social standing, and more. This begs the question, though: From where does a …
(Don’t forget to tune in to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) If your character can spend and lose Discipline, it stands to reason that your character can run out of it. So what happens when they do? Before we get into that, let’s review how you can lose Discipline in Covenant: …
The thk’kok are, after the valka, the most numerous sapient species in the Orion Arm. They are also unique in the sense that they did not evolve any kind of vocal cords. Instead, they communicate via clicks and glottal stops. As a result, they have a hard time communicating with other species. Some thk’kok receive …
(Don’t forget to tune in to this week’s episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) So, your character can spend their Discipline on Covenant to make bids and accomplish tasks. How do they regain that spent Discipline, though? And if Discipline represents (at least in part) their physical and mental health, then how do they …
(Don’t forget to tune in to this week’s episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) I said yesterday that I’d talk about how Covenant measures game time – that is, the time experienced by the PCs within the game. Game time is important, because it governs how often characters can use their abilities and regain …
Radio Free Covenant - A Podcast about the Science-Fiction Roleplaying Game "Covenant" and Urban Fantasy Novel "Crossing the Line"