Free League Publishing is back again with another space-themed RPG in Coriolis. Instead of a Western or cyberpunk setting. Coriolis gives you a middle eastern vibe and one that is fresh totally left field for me.
The Third Horizon
As I mentioned the main theme of Coriolis is inspired by the Middle East. This is right down to fashion, food, and myths. The story itself is a war between the Firstcome and the Zenithians, who are descendants of the second wave of colonists.
The Coriolis is the central Hub of the Third Horizon. It’s a large space station that was built from an old arkship. Think Babylon 5 or Star Trek: Deep Space 9. Coriolis is split into three regions. The Core, the Ring, and the Promenade. Each area serves the players as places to buy goods restock, and play out missions
Create, Play, Have fun
Creating characters is fun and pretty standard. First, you need to choose what group and concept you will belong to. Each group has a sub-concept/Talent that you will use for extra stats on different actions.
The Group concepts are:
- Free Traders – willing to travel anywhere in the system for whatever will make them some money on Horizon.
- Mercenaries – The muscle of the Factions, bought by the highest bidder and mostly hated by the populace because of their heavy-handedness.
- Explorers – are truth seekers who refuse to settle for the Bulletin’s oversimplified version of reality.
- Agents – infiltrate criminal organizations to assassinate whoever the Factions want to disappear.
- Pilgrims – Travel around the system looking for Holy sites to get work or to Entertain the masses.
Secondly, you get to pick the ship that will need to suit your group’s needs going forward. It doesn’t really matter what you do you will owe someone money. This is where a rich and important benefactor comes in. He will bankroll you but only if you give more back. On the flip side, you will gain a nemesis who will hamper you and your group at every turn.
Last but not least is your actual character creation. If you have played any other TTRPG you will be familiar with all of the options you are given. There is your background, upbringing, concept/job, followed by name and appearance. There are numerous tables that you can use in the Rulebook to help if needed.
Space never looked so good
This whole review is based on the PDF Kickstarter set. In this set, you received as always loads of add-ons and supplements to get you started. You will receive:
- Core Rulebook
- Battlemaps
- Character creation sheets
- Spaceship sheet
- System sheet
- NPC sheet
- Mission Sheet
- The Last Cylade and GM resources
- Emissary Lost
All of these are beautifully put together and easy to navigate. The artwork in Coriolis as with all of Free Leagues offerings just fits the mood of the game. Well, they don’t win all these awards for anything.
If you like sci-fi settings in your TTRPGs then I would recommend giving Coriolis a spin. Its setting is different but the gameplay will be familiar so what else do you want?
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