Axel Pullen Red Age Preview 2022

Red Age

A ROLEPLAYING GAME OF RUST & BLOOD

CREATED BY AXEL PULLEN, BASED ON LASERS & FEELINGS BY JOHN HARPER 1

Playtesting Eva Bonnevits, Tom Greefhorst, Eden Leslie, Leonore Lichtveld, Esmee Plomp, Jayanti Sewnath, Hannah Verhoeven, Thimo van Vliet, Martijn Welles and Anouk Willems Proofreading/Editing Mahad Ali, Joris Habraken, Anne van der Hooft, Noortje Kappetijn, Eden Leslie, Monique Post, Thomas Richter, Martijn Welles, Anouk Willems and Sterre van ‘t Wout Thanks to Nanda van Dijk, Renske van Dillen, Annemarijn Ingelaat, John Harper, Christian Roth, Tahmina Ziai, Peter van de Zanden and all my wonderful classmates, friends and family who helped me throughout this project Print: Drukwerknodig.nl Paper: Typefaces: Caslon Antique, Evil Empire, Forum, Benegraphic, Daybreaker,

RED AGE Text, Illustrations and Layout created by Axel Pullen SewGobo@gmail.com @SewGobo on Instagram artstation.com/sewgobo Rules based on LASERS & FEELINGS created by John Harper onesevengames@gmail.com onesevengames.com Lasers & Feelings is licenced under a CC BY 4.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/).

The rules of Lasers & Feelings were altered to better match the world of Red Age.

IN AN AGE LONG FORGOTTEN, humans crossed the great ocean of stars to make a new home on a distant world; the Red Planet.

MARS. When they arrived, they worked tirelessly to shape the planet in the image of their old home. They changed its atmosphere and brought water – and with it, life - to a previously barren world.

Before their project could be fully realized however, their civilization vanished.

A terrible disaster struck the First Ones which cut them off from Earth.

Their cities would be reduced to ruins and their work left unfinished. The events of the Fall have been lost to time, yet there is one fact we can be certain of: This was not the end for humankind on Mars Much of the knowledge of the First Ones has been lost and their great terraforming project may never come to fruition. To be a human in these trying times means learning to adapt to the grim world that is your home.

In the centuries after the fall new cultures would arise. From the great dust plains of Cerberus, to the heights of the Tharsis Montes and the icy hell of the Planum Boreum. They would find ways to adapt, fight over scarce resources and forge empires that would rise and fall.

It is the age of blood & swords, THE RED AGE.

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What is a Roleplaying Game?

A roleplaying game is an interactive storytelling experience where the participants work together to create an adventure guided by the rules of the game, but limited only by your imagination. While the protagonist characters of your story can succeed in their goals, there is no real way to win. The aim of the game is to tell a compelling story where spectacular failure can still lead to an entertaining tale.

To play this game all you need is a copy of this book, a group of four to five people to play with, three six-sided dice (d6s) per player and something to take notes with. You can play the game in-person around a table or through online call services like Discord or Zoom.

All but one of you take on the role of the main characters of the story.

You are known as the Players, hence your characters are called player characters. You speak for your character, create their desires and ambitions and decide on their actions.

The other participant, the Storyteller, does not play a character of their own. Instead, you create the story and guide the others through it.

You build the setting, take on the roles of the supporting characters and describe the challenges and situations the players find themselves in.

In this book you will find a description of the grim world of the Red Age, covering its different cultures and environments, which can provide inspiration for your stories and characters. You will also find rules for playing the game and help for the Storyteller to create and run an adventure.

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Table of Content

Mars in the Red Age................. 7 Red Empty...................................................................8 Garden of Ancients.....................................................12 Polar Wastes................................................................16 Ruins of the Old Ones..............................................20

Playing the Game................... 23 Who are you?..............................................................24 Players: Create Your Character..................................24 Players: Create Your Tribe.........................................25 Players: Connection Table..........................................26 Everyone: Roll the Dice..............................................27 Storyteller: Create the adventure................................28 Storyteller: Run the Adventure...................................28

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Mars in the Red Age

Red Empty

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THE GREAT DESERT that spreads across the surface of Mars goes by many names, but the most common is the RED EMPTY. A fitting name, for there is not much more to be found than the sand, rock and rust which gives the desert its characteristically orange-red colour. It is a land of vast swathes of silent nothingness.

Occasionally, and violently, disturbed by tremendous dust storms that would rip skin from bone, if one would be caught in them unprotected.

Most tribes that dwell in the Red Empty are nomadic. They migrate along with the rain and live off hunting, gathering and their livestock.

For water, they either catch rain or take it from temporary rivers. Still, outside of a few oases, water is scarce and a constant source of conflict.

THE OASES

There are a few areas within the Red Empty where water can always be Life in a hostile land like this is found. difficult, but not impossible and it Naturally, these are coveted places speaks to the resilience of life that even and any tribe who succeeds in in a place like this, it will find ways claiming one will erect a to exist. An ecosystem has taken form stronghold near it. In time, these upon the dust sea. strongholds might grow into towns One that humans are also a part of. and even cities.

The desert is home to hundreds of tribes who have developed their own cultures and ways to adapt to their environment. Nonetheless, they share a few common characteristics.

The oasis city-states can extend their influence beyond their own borders, setting up trade routes and demanding tribute from neighbouring tribes. Thus, effectively becoming regional powers.

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Life is cheap and blood flows freely across the desert sands. Tribes raid each other constantly for supplies and materials or try to conquer the stable water sources.

These wars are brutal with prisoners rarely taken, for those are just more mouths to feed. Better to recycle the bodies for their water.

THE BRONTARU The Brontaru are one of the many tribes of the Red Empty.

Recognizable by their horned helmets and septum piercings, which makes them look like the image of their furious bull god Taru, Lord of the Storms. His stomping hooves cause the dust storms and his charge across the heavens brings thunder, wind and rain, or so the Brontaru believe.

The Brontaru are notorious for their war chant called the Barritus. It starts as a low murmur and builds op to a deafening roar with stomping feet and sounding horns followed by a mass charge into the enemy.

Under the leadership of their warlord, the Red Angel, the Brontaru have conquered the oasis city of Krateradun and assimilated surrounding tribes into a federation. Time will tell if this might be the beginning of a new empire among the shifting sands.

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With few to no natural features that can provide defences, one has to rely on their own battle prowess for protection. This has given rise to a strong warrior culture among the people of the sand and rust.

The leaders of many tribes are warlords who have secured their position through battle and maintain it by bringing victory and spoils to their warriors. Failure to do so will lead to desertions or challenges to the Warlord’s leadership.

Warlords that are especially successful may even gain a form of divine status among their people and are viewed as a chosen of the gods or even a god themselves. To cement their status, warlords will go by colourful epithets like: the Lady of the Bloodied Sands, the Old Dog, or the Ogre.

These nicknames help to easily identify them among the many different tribes of the Red Empty.

The Red Empty is a land that is constantly shifting, be it the dust that makes up its soil or the people that live among the dunes. Tribes rise and fall, an oasis can be discovered where a new city will grow and an unknown champion might suddenly find themselves in command of hundreds of warriors by winning a fateful duel.

There is glory and opportunity to be had amongst the red sands for those with the means and will to take it.

‘When people have no water, they will drink blood.’

- A Common saying in the Red Empty

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