(Don’t forget to contribute to our Patreon campaign or join us on the Radio Free Covenant Discord server! You can also listen to the latest episode of the Radio Free Covenant podcast!) Featured Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech We finished the current draft of the playtest rules yesterday! To celebrate, we’re going to post a updated summary of Covenant’s rules. You can also read …
Tag Archives: rules
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 …
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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 …
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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 …
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 …
Covenant Game Design: Story Control
(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 …
Jeff Treppel: Rules Are for Fascists
I don’t know much about Varg Vikernes, and I definitely don’t know what I can say about him without opening myself up to a libel suit. I know even less about his roleplaying game MYFAROG (Mythic Fantasy Role-playing Game). I do know that some YouTubers like it and that Jeff Treppel of Metal Sucks does …
Covenant Game Design: Failing Forward
(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 …
Covenant Game Design: Ties
(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 …
Covenant Game Design: Incapacitation
(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: …
Radio Free Covenant - A Podcast about the Science-Fiction Roleplaying Game "Covenant" and Urban Fantasy Novel "Crossing the Line" 