Void Madness
A Sci-Fi Epic Adventure TTRPG designed to facilitate any length of campaign from short single Missions to longer multi-year spanning campaigns: Filled with exploration, action, mystery, fun, and its fair share of terror and soul-crushing dread.
No creature was made to withstand the existential horror brought about by life in The Void. Players will create their own unique crewmember and join up to explore and survive the many wonderous and terrifying dangers existing in the Void.
Your sanity will be constantly on the brink of breaking as you attempt to balance pushing yourselves further into adventure, attempting dangerous tasks, and performing unique special abilities. An inability to maintain this balance, means you will succumb to The Madness and go Void Mad. Leaving you a murderous husk of your former self, and the next enemy your crew must stop.
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"It's all fun and games until it's time to kill your friends!"
How to Play Void Madness?
Starting a Game
​​Players will Create their Crewmembers: selecting their name, crafting a backstory, picking from the 4 available Lineages (Race, Species or Ancestries in other popular TTRPGs), and selecting your starting Archetype and Focus (Class and Subclass in other popular TTRPGs) each with their own feel, expertise, and special abilities.
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The Madness Engine​
They Madness Engine operates off of 4 Primary Stats (Body, Mind, Charm, and Talent) which represent the major aspects of a character's abilities. Body: Represents a person's physicality, resilience, and strength. Mind: Represents a person's knowledge and problem solving. Charm: Represents a person's force of personality and how intuitive they are. Talent: Represents how well trained someone is as well as overall reflexiveness.
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Each Skill is further broken into corresponding Skills. These Skills will make up the bulk of rolls that Characters will make and apply to aspects of the game such as: Combat, Exploration, and Social Interactions.
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Player Crews will explore a galaxy crafted, curated, and populated by NPCs (Non-Playable Characters) that are made and fleshed out by the Mission Commander or MC (Dungeon Master, Game Master, or Director in other popular TTRPGs). MCs can choose to build their game world from scratch or utilize the deep lore, universe, and missions created by Failed Exile Games.
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Rolling Dice​
A summation of play will be as such: The MC will describe a situation, The PCs (Player Characters) will advise what they would like to do in that situation, The MC will designate a Type of Check (Selecting which Stat or Skill closest represents the desired action) and assign a Target Number or TN (DC in other popular TTRPGs), Players will Roll 2D6 (2 6-Sided Dice) and add or subtract the associated Stat or Skill Bonus.
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Degrees of Success​​
Void Madness does not deal in strict Success or Failure and instead has Degrees of Success. By rolling and meeting the TN you Succeed, providing the desired result. Rolling and exceeding the TN by 3 or more is a Vital Success, and is met with an even better result than originally planned. On the other end, failing to meet the TN by 3 or less is a Near Success, meaning you either succeed with a cost or fail with reduced consequence. Failing to meet a TN by more than 3 is just that, failure, and you do not achieve your desired outcome.
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Overloads and the Overload Pool​
Additionally when rolling, if the number rolled on the dice is a 6 (the maximum possible roll) you can choose to roll another D6 and add that to the roll this can keep being done as long as a 6 is rolled, this is called Overloading (Often referred to as Exploding in other popular TTRGPs). Overloads in Void Madness are unique since all PCs have what is known as an Overload Pool. If a Player rolls a 6 they can either roll another dice to keep adding to the roll or Pocket that Overload (Adding it to their Overload Pool) to use it for later; this provides players with a pool of potential to aid them on future important rolls.
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The Madness Meter and Going Void Mad​
The cornerstone of The Madness Engine is the Madness Meter! As you play Void Madness there is a constant creeping force that permeates the psyche of adventurers. This Madness is an ever persistent threat and increases in a variety of ways: Through prolonged interstellar travel without respite on a Planet or Large Space Station, through enduring and surviving extreme stressful events, though pushing beyond trying to pull success from failure for yourself or allies, and through the utilization of your powerful Special Abilities inside or outside of combat. Players will always be balancing and weighing the cost that adventuring will have on their deteriorating sanity. In the end, if or when, you inevitably succumb to The Madness and go Void Mad; Characters will become monsters, fueled with murderous intent, no longer able to decern friend from foe, who are compelled to attack and kill everything and everyone near them. But don't worry if you go Mad, your friends can fight to save you, reducing your LP or Life Points (HP or Hit Points in other popular TTRPGs) to 0, will give them a chance to reduce your Void Madness level and bring you back to your senses.
Archetypes of Void Madness
Similar to many other popular TTRPGs, Void Madness also possesses further Character Customization by allowing Players to select between 4 different Archetypes (Classes) with Each Archetype being further broken into 2 Focuses (Sub-Class). These Archetypes and Focuses each have a unique aesthetic and playstyle with each specializing in different aspects of life in space and possessing powerful special abilities and techniques that will help Players create their own unique and powerful space adventurer.
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The Development Team is always striving to further elaborate on the base that we have with the Base Game and are ever working to expand the current archetypes with more Special Abilities and Techniques, as well as brainstorming new Archetypes and Focuses. We are excited to see the communities favorites and what creative Archetypes and Focuses you can create.
Death Junkie
The Galaxy is a Dangerous Place, and you meet that danger, with even more danger. Death Junkies are just as their name implies, individuals obsessed with death, whether they’re dishing it out or trying to beat it at every chance possible; death is never too far away. You are a combat expert meeting problems head-on with Fists, Blades, and Bullets. It’s a Dog-Eat-Dog Galaxy and you’re hungry!
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Focus:
Berserker - A melee fighting expert, driven by rage and adrenaline to tank hits and deal out bone breaking damage.
Master Blaster - A ranged weapons expert that delights in picking off their targets at range with either one well placed shot or a hail of indiscriminate fire.
C.R.A.S.H. Team
In a Galaxy where death is around every corner, some people chase it down and others chase it away. The C.R.A.S.H (or Combat Rescue, Aid, Sterilization and Healing) Team is the latter. When you’re on a desolate planet fried by a Plasma Bolt, bleeding out from an alien creature's serrated claws, or freezing to death and low on Oxygen. C.R.A.S.H Team members are there to get you out safely and patch you up so you can get back out there and keep earning credits…to pay back your medical bills.
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Focus:
Trauma Team - Experts in the medical field. Masters of battlefield triage and psychological medicine. Highly sought after for their life saving skills and a treasured member of any crew.
Rescue Team - Experts in retrieval and protection. The most selfless spacers you will ever meet. They put themselves in harms way to ensure that everyone makes it home.
Techno-Wizard
In a time when technology can accomplish almost anything that one can imagine, a master of that tech is a force to be reckoned with; and you are that force, a Techno-Wizard. Instead of relying on brute force or skill with a gun, you use the tools and gadgets around you extremely well which makes you terrifyingly effective in just about any situation involving tech which, to be honest, is every situation.
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Focus:
Techlock - Expert Mechanics and Tinkers, they have a deep understanding of systems and weapons and know how to get the most out of them.
Mechnomancer - Obsessed with tiny machines, these talented engineers are on the cutting edge of micro drone technology utilizing their tiny companions to a devastating degree.
The Gambit
It’s not all about what you can do, it’s about who you know and what they owe you. The Gambit is exactly that; a charming, devious, conniving, and manipulative rascal who can talk their way into and out of any situation that arises, and you hate how much you end up liking them. Sometimes the best weapon in any given situation is a sharp mind and a quick tongue…or a bullet to the back of the head when you have them distracted.
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​Focus:
Double-Cross - They live their lives in the shadows using any and every underhanded trick in their arsenal to come out on top. Moving silently and striking when unseen is how they prefer to fight.
Scoundrel - Masters of persuasion and manipulation. They utilize their own natural charisma and specialized sonic and olfactory manipulation devices to get in a targets head and twist it.
Lineages of Void Madness
Void Madness at this stage of development only allows Players to create a Character from the Human Species. The Human Species is broken into 4 Playable Lineages: Standard Human, Cyborg, Hybrid, and Void-Born. Each Lineage has it's own unique aesthetic and mechanical advantages and disadvantages, as well as additional ways to further customize your character.
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The Development Team is hopeful that through development we will be able to further expand this list of playable Lineages to include the other diverse alien species that populate (and appear in) the universe of Void Madness.
Human
The most prevalent lineage of the United Federation. Humans were considered the Apex Species of Old Earth and have maintained a level of control and majority through the UF's expansion into the Void. They are versatile and adaptable.
Void-Born
The youngest branch of the Human Lineage. Stories of little grey men and alien abductions stringing as far back as Old Earth have since been proven mostly true. As the now confirmed Greys have been both visiting and experimenting on humanity for centuries. This experimentation led to the discovery of humankinds perfect genetic pliability creating the first ever alien-human hybrid and the creation of the Void-Born. Possessing a mixture of Human kinds versatility and hardiness with The Greys' increased mental capabilities and still unexplained telepathic abilities.
Cyborg
Cyborgs started their lives as a Standard Human but through choice or necessity have incorporated or replaced their human organs and extremities with cybernetic parts. A Divisive group comprised of innocent survivors and hardened criminals at an almost equal rate. They are known for being both highly customizable and quick.
Hybrid
Descendants of Humans back on Old Earth that choose to have an elective cosmetic procedure that spliced their DNA with that of different animals. While originally thought to be reversible it was discovered it was not and the procedure was outlawed. Hybrids vary between human presenting with minor animal features to fully anthropomorphic animal. The people that got the procedure and their descendants have benefitted from their animal traits but were often persecuted on Old Earth and into the new UF colonies.
Design Your Ship
No Epic Space Adventure is complete without the perfect ship to call home and Void Madness is no different. At the beginning of your game after Players have created their characters the next step is designing your home amongst the stars as a group.
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Void Madness has 4 different Classes of Ship:
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The Quick and Agile: Clipper
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The Popular and Versatile: Cruiser
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The Fast and Large: Corvette
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The Powerful and Imposing: Frigate
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The Mission Commander will help guide Players in the selection of the appropriate ship to work for the game. No matter what Class of Ship is chosen the next step is customizing the ship: Name, Aesthetic, and General Interior Design are up to the Crew; but the most important bit of customization lies in the Ship Modules.
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Ship Modules allow Crews to include aspects to the ship that have a direct mechanical benefit to gameplay. Do things train Skills, Reduce Void Madness Accumulation, Increase Healing, Imprison Characters, Experience Hyper Real Augmented Reality with a Holo-Room, and much more!
