You are an explorer in a dangerous universe. The enigmatic ruins of the Great Dark are shunned by most, but not by you. You seek them out, delve into their shadowy depths and uncover their secrets. The Blight – the cataclysmic scourge that spreads from the ruins – is your beacon. Where there is Blight, there are artifacts to be found. Ship City is dying, but you and your fellow explorers will do whatever it takes to create a better future. Don your delver suit, step aboard a mighty Greatship and venture down the Slipstream towards the unknown.
Your creed: explore or perish.
Coriolis: The Great Dark Roleplaying Game is a science fiction RPG about exploration, mysteries, and intrigue in a Lost Horizon. A game about Hope and enduring against all odds.
Inspired by 19th century expeditions, deep sea diving and pulp archeology, Coriolis: The Great Dark offers you to join dangerous expeditions, navigate the Byzantine schemes of Ship City, and hunt for the keys that unlock the mystery of the Lost Horizon.
Coriolis: The Great Dark is the second edition of Coriolis – The Third Horizon, Free League’s first science fiction RPG. The rules have been updated and further developed, the setting is new and advances the timeline of the universe.
THE GAME
Coriolis: The Great Dark launches you into a desolate part of space – The Lost Horizon. Here, a fledgling human civilization who fled war tries to stake out a new life in a harsh environment.
You live in the meandering asteroid-metropolis of Ship City, and you are employed by the Explorers Guild to undertake dangerous expeditions. In Ship City, you will take on missions and investigations to help your guild and build your crew’s reputation with the other major players of the city – the Navigators, the Machinists, and the Gardeners.
Delving into the ruins on desolated moons or other star systems in search of resources and artifacts will bring out the best of you and your crew. Together, you will need to overcome physical obstacles, face creatures from the Dark and endure the ubiquitous Blight.
THE WORLD
After a long voyage through space, a diaspora of refugees entered a lone system, naming it Jumuah and settling on a barren asteroid. Converting their armada of ships into a city on its surface and burrowed into the rock, these refugees created Ship City.
Three distinct groups took charge of this colony: the Machinists build ships and keep the vast bowels of the asteroid in shape, the Gardeners grow food and rejuvenate the atmosphere, and the Navigators plan expeditions into the cold space in search of resources.
The first explorers soon found abandoned ruins on far-flung moons. Strange artifacts told tales of a long-lost previous civilization. Unfortunately, not only treasures were found – the ruins were covered in ice-like protrusions and vines. The first explorers were soon afflicted by a strange plague, the Blight, twisting their minds and bodies in bizarre ways.
The Jumuah system was a dead end, but soon the algebraist of the Navigators Guild found hidden routes through space, making it possible to travel to nearby star systems. New ruins were found, as perilous as in the Jumuah system but at least more resources could be harvested.
To travel the star lanes, massive space vessels were needed, and the Greatships were constructed from the detritus of the old armada and the factories of the Machinists.
There is new hope in Jumuah and Ship City. Expeditions are planned to new stars and the Greatships are filled with explorers, prospectors and the like – hopeful of new riches to bring home. A new age of exploration and hope dawns.
YEAR ZERO ENGINE
The rules of Coriolis: The Great Dark are based on the latest iteration of acclaimed Year Zero Engine, used in award-winning games such as ALIEN The Roleplaying Game, Blade Runner The Roleplaying Game, Tales From the Loop RPG, and The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game, but specifically tailored for this new game.
As a core mechanic, you roll a number of six-sided dice decided by the value of your base attribute and your talents. The more competent you are, the more dice you get to roll. Any roll of six indicates a success, and multiple successes trigger bonus effects. Rolls can be pushed, i.e., re-rolled, at the risk of losing Hope that you will ever survive the horrors of The Great Dark.
The Core rulebook includes rules for quick character generation, combat, shuttles & rovers, exploration, and expeditions. The rules are designed to blend seamlessly with the story, and let you focus on your explorer’s endeavors while pushing the themes of the game to the forefront.
The core rulebook features:
- Rules for creating your crew of Explorers, with upgrades such as talents, vehicles, and crew maneuvers to enhance campaign play.
- Rules for delving into the unknown, traveling on Greatships through the dangerous Slipstream, and trekking across wild planets.
- A detailed gazetteer of the Lost Horizon, the eleven systems of the Charted Sphere and the asteroid-metropolis of Ship City.
- The Black Ziggurat, an introductory adventure that will take you deep into an ancient ruin on a distant moon.
- Tools and rules for solo play, making it possible to explore the Lost Horizon all by yourself.
THIRD PARTY LICENCE
As part of the release, Free League will create a new free and open license for third party content for Coriolis: The Great Dark. The previous game Coriolis – The Third Horizon will not be developed further, and the old books will not be reprinted, however an Open License will be created so that fans of the previous game will be able to create and publish new modules. Using these licenses, all creators will have an irrevocable, worldwide, and royalty-free right to freely create, produce and sell content and expansions for both games and their settings.
ABOUT THE GAME CREATORS
Free League is one of the most funded RPG publishers on Kickstarter, raising over $10M across thirty-four successful campaigns including Dragonbane, Alien The Roleplaying Game, Blade Runner The Roleplaying Game, The One Ring™ RPG, Vaesen – Nordic Horror Roleplaying, Forbidden Lands, and Tales from the Loop RPG.
Kosta Kostulas, Nils Karlén and Martin Grip, Free League co-founders, take lead in designing the game with a new version of the award-winning Year Zero Engine created by Tomas Härenstam. Original artwork comes from lead Blade Runner RPG, Alien RPG and Coriolis – The Third Horizon artist Martin Grip and graphic design by Christian Granath.
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