Version 3.0 of Impulse Drive has a lot of changes throughout that should reinforce the style of play it’s designed…

Version 3.0 of Impulse Drive has a lot of changes throughout that should reinforce the style of play it’s designed…

Version 3.0 of Impulse Drive has a lot of changes throughout that should reinforce the style of play it’s designed for.

Originally shared by Adrian Thoen

Version 2.5 of Impulse Drive was finished and stable last week, but I’m not going to release it, because 3.0 is coming soon, and it’s a huge revision.

Version 2.5 had some significant changes for tracking time, one of the underpinning resources in Impulse Drive. The Space Master used Scenes, Episodes, and Seasons to frame events, which is more in line with the space opera TV shows the game is designed to emulate. The Principles of the game tell the SM and the Players alike to think cinematically, and I figured the game should follow it’s own rules.

But the changes didn’t carry over to the player side of the table in 2.5, so I decided to do just that. At the same time I took a look at the other underpinning resource of the game.

Money.

A big motivator for the Crew is their Debt hanging over their head. It’s why they take contracts for dangerous jobs. Like so many other RPGs, money was handled literally, and that had a few issues. The most prominent was that it allowed and encouraged hoarding. Balancing payments so that the Crew didn’t get too much money, or nowhere near enough was a nightmare for someone who is terrible at math such as myself.

To ensure predictability and security, players hoarded money for tighter times. Which entirely rational and understandable, not to mention fiscally responsible.

But the Crew in Impulse Drive are not fiscally responsible. They’re flashy, impulsive, volatile. They might pay the bills and expenses to keep their ship running. They might splurge on some new toys. But anything left over? They blow it living the high life for a few days, or a week. and then they’re broke, and payments are due in another week or two.

While implementing the changes to time and money (which have so many cascading changes echoing through the system.) I’ve also renamed Jobs to Contracts, and I’m reworking them from the ground up with the changes to time and money in mind.

11 thoughts on “Version 3.0 of Impulse Drive has a lot of changes throughout that should reinforce the style of play it’s designed…”

  2. nice ^_^ so Many starship options

    So about that payday. Why have a roll for it? is that just a suggestion, because I should think whether they got screwed, or made out with a little (or a lot) should be left up to the narrative of a GM move or whatever has happened

  3. Good question Mark Cleveland Massengale A lot of the calculation for Payday is done beforehand, when the SM is writing up the Contract. At the moment, it’s a roll to add an element of the unknown. If it doesn’t behave well during play, I’ll modify it from there. It could possibly be broken down into two areas, a rating tells you how many choices you make on Payday by default, and there’s questions at the end of the Contract you ask to determine what your modifier is.

  4. Well, Dang! Now my appetite is whetted for 3.0! When-when-when-when??? 🙂

    I have friends also waiting to see where this goes before we start up a game.

  5. Thanks for the excitement, Carl Walter ! It’s getting closer. Most of the rules changes have been written, it’s just a matter of updating existing files and rewriting explanations to reflect the changes. If all goes well, no longer than a week.

  6. Outstanding! I have 2.4.1 from Drivethru and it has me and some of my cohorts drooling at the possibilities we can see for it. Love the work you have put into it, and cannot wait to actually throw money at a final product when it comes out!

    In the meantime, we’d be happy for more beta editions to peruse, and if all goes well, play!

  8. Gregory Daily Thanks so much for your interest!

    It’s not a kickstarter, yet. I want to get the game stable, played, and promoted for a good 6 months to ensure the kickstarter has good momentum when I launch it.

    If you want to support now, check out the free link on Drivethru RPG at the link below, and share the game around with your friends, and play it. The more people that are excited about Impulse Drive, or aware of it, makes a big difference.

    http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/190933/Impulse-Drive-Preview

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