Chapter 1 - Introduction

Introduction

Stellar Winds is a vast universe of many races, wonders, magical powers and the never ending struggle between order and chaos. The universe of this game setting is constantly under attack by demons with the soul goal to return what is to chaos. Aside from the saddle yet emanate threat of the havens the small developed partitions of space that wraps it self around the Great Barrier is carved up into various governments and empires. It's among these bounders' space adventures who find them selves living among the material plain live out life. Like all civilizations they seek freedom, enlightenment, knowledge, power, and wealth.

The Stellar Winds Story

The standard year of play is 2333. All the equipments and items mentioned in this book are indigonus to this time. For those who wish to run games in different era's their will be sections that will describe the various era that make up Stellar Winds. However for all games that occurs in Stellar Winds the ideal era is between 2330 and 2390. The first thing to understand about this game is that the universe is a broken one. Ravaged by the effects of the Great Cataclysm that occurred 2000 years ago thus breaking the universe into two major time periods, Pre-Cataclysm and Post Cataclysm.

The Pre-Cataclysm years was vastly advance with technologies that is almost impossible to comprehend and with the abilities far more advance then any technologies in the Post Cataclysm.

During the Pre-Cataclysm years when the gods where still physical icons among the only mortal race in existence, the great battle between demons and dragons waged on. Followers of both Choas and Order fought each other with powerful space crafts powered by angles and demons. It was when the corruption was so wide spread the Goddess of Creation used her power of Genesis to reorganizes chaos to order once more, destroying the Overworld Race and creating what has become known as the Post-Cataclysm era.

This rebirth of the universe has become known to most scholars and mystics as the Cataclysm. Since then ancient technology litters the universe with artifacts, land marks, ancient cities and even lost ships. Many people of the 23rd and 24th century have made it a life long endeavor to seek out these relics burred in the sands of time.

During the post Cataclysm years the universe developed slowly with the new races born from the energy of the Goddess. For creation to occur destruction must be done and so with the eradication of what was old to make way for new.

The years moved on appropriate to all the time lines of the galaxy. All the races begin making there achievements in knowledge and technology eventually allowing them to travel to the stars to create the galactic community.

Whatever the past of each home world is by the year 2300 all the races are aware of each other and space factions have been developed.

The Basics

Theirs a few things that must be understood before jumping into the play of things, the knowledge of demons and gods in the universe is understood to be as real as any religion in present day. However those in the power know the truth of these creatures and of the two gods. So for the common folk religion can be described as anything however they all have a common theme, chaos and order.

Another detail is space travel is pretty common. People travel from world to world with little issue through private ships, or commercial. The galaxy is divided up among galactic governments each have different values and goals. For Example the Confederation is merely an organizations of space police protecting the planets in the union from domestic and outside threats. While the Kiltara Empire seeks to absorbs all the space and planets around them to better their empire. This is explained more in detail in later chapters.

What I need to play

You will need this book which describes The Stellar Winds world and rules. A copy of the Character Sheet, a pencil and scratch paper; graph paper might be useful as well. One or two four sided dice (d4), four or more six-sided dice (d6), an eight-sided dice (d8), two ten-sided dice (d10), a twelve-sided dice (d12), and a twenty sided die (d20). A miniature or something else to represent your character during combat is also helpful.

Dice

All the phrases for role-playing with dice are applied. 2d20 means two twenty sided dice and so on. The d% is a percentile dice. You generate a number between 1 and 100 by rolling two different colored ten sided dice. The first die represents the tens and the second is the ones. (double Zero means 100). You can also add another ten side dye to generate a number between 1 and 1000.

Type of Games

Stellar Winds in earlier editions have been used Internet to connect the gaming community into a game. The First Edition used AIM chat rooms that supported dice string commands. The second generation used the same service but morphed into an Table Top Version using real dice. Both mediums have worked real well. The newest service used now is Skype complemented with a simple Java Program called rpTools.

Skype Voice Chat

Skype voice chat allows to connect everyone in the game into a conference call. From there everyone role plays there characters through voice chat. Speaking, and describing your actions and speaking as your character to interact with the other characters.

rpTools

The second tool allows players to see there tokens, walk around on a grid while you explore dungeons, abandoned space ships, and cities. The program features a dice rolling command with over 100 custom macros for players to save there specific rolls to buttons. These buttons can be color coded and labeled. The Game Masters can upload there maps for players to see and walk around, as well as set scale tokens to the appropriate sizes.

Game Master

When you play Stellar Winds you're participating in an interactive story. Players will take on the roles of heroes. These characters are different then the average person found on the countless worlds of the universe. Heros are the only characters allowed to take the game's classes while non-heros characters are restricted to non-hero classes.

The Game Master is the narrator and director of the game. He controls all the various aspects of the game. He must be prepared to role play the girl who lost her kitty in the tree to the Lord of Nightmares himself.

The Game master sets each scene, keeps the game moving smoothly, and the story interesting. The Game Master should also be familiar with all the rules of this book.

Heros

if you're a player you're taking the role of a character that you will create. It's an essential for you as the player to find ways to keep your character interested and moving along with the game. You create your character with the help of the game rules to follow, according to your own vision of the type of hero you want play. As your character participate in adventures, he or she gains experiences points that helps him or her improve and become more powerful.

Races

Each character created in Stellar Winds has to belong to one race described in Chapter two. There is a very long list of races that belong to the universe each with advantages and draw backs. All of them with unqiue culture and history of there own.

The Core Mechanic

How do you face challanges in Stellar Winds? How do you know if a my weapon strikes a target true or just bounces off a target? How do you fly space ships?

All of these actions depend on very basic, simple rules. Decided what you want your character to do and tell the Game Master. Then you will face the Challenge and roll to see if your successful.

You roll a twenty-sided die (d20), add some numbers and try to hit the target number determined by the GM.

The Core Mechanics
1.) Roll a d20. You want to roll High!
2.) Add all relevant Modifiers
3.) Compare the totals to a target number.
If your check result is higher than or equal to the target number, you succeed. If your check result is lower than the target number, you fail.

Three Basic Rules

In addition to the core mechanics, three principles are at the heart of Stellar Winds game. Many other rules are b ased on these assumptions.,

Simple Rules, Many Exceptions

Every class, race, feats, power, and monsters in Stellar Winds game lets you break the rules in some way. These can be very minor ways: Most characters don't know how to use longbows, but every elf does. These exceptions can also appear in very significant ways. A swing with a sword normally does a few points of damage, but a high-level fighter can use power that can fell multiple monsters in a single blow.

Specific Beats General

If a specific rule contradicts a general rule, the specific rule wins. For example, a general rule states that you can't use a daily power when you charge. But if you have a daily power that says you can use it when you charge, the power's specific rule wins. It doesn't mean that you can use any daily power when you charge, just that one.

Always Round Down

Unless otherwise noted, if you wind up with a fraction as the result of calculation, round down even if the fraction is 1/2 or larger. For instance, this rule comes into play whenever you calculate one half your level: If your level is an odd number, you always round down to the next lower whole number.

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