Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

"Dark Nova" is a sci-fi pen-&-paper roleplaying game set in the 24th century. Mankind has set foot amongst the stars, and discovered they are not alone. With a rich setting, nine races and thirty occupations to choose from, the DNRPG uses a unique system that hearkens back to the Golden Age of RPGs to create an immersive game for veterans and novices alike.

This is just the first release by this independent group, and more is on the way, a expansion book "Dark Nova: Fortune and Glory DNRPG Expansion" is set for later this year and further away is the tabletop minis for both ground combat and space combat

Come visit us at our site "http://darknovagames.net/"

There is a very limited number of launch books available that includes a random ship print signed by the author and me (Artist) and is 5 dollars off cover price due to first run misprints, its minor but its still there.

Jeffrey Agussoekarno
Dark Nova Games: Lead Artist

Thanks for posting!

Quick question: what do you mean by "hearkens back to the Golden Age of RPGs"?

its based on/around 2nd ed D&D, its easier to play all around. Character creation is straight forward and not a maze of options ten miles long. but for a more indept answer i will go drag the author over here when he pops online

Charts, man, fething charts. All over the god-damned place.

Also, here's some Dark Nova Art:

What are the base mechanics like?

What's the 'elevator pitch' for the setting?

Knocking out some of these questions-

The Dark Nova RPG uses a game mechanics system that veers away from the MMO-on-paper systems that are cropping up today. It puts the imagination back in the hands of the players and GMs rather than have micro-managed rules for every conceivable event or issue. This gives the GM a lot more leeway to develop their own house rules, but also gives them enough background data, optional rules sets, and guidelines to keep them from being overwhelmed.
It is- being based on a series of novels of the same name- very setting-heavy, with fully fifty pages of nothing but setting, history and background material. In a way, it is both a rules set and a campaign setting rolled into one.

Base mechanics are similar to old-school AD&D, as Jep mentioned- you roll a d20 against a target number for attack rolls, and if successful, roll variable die types and quantities to determine damage. Skills are determined by rolling a set of dice against a target number as well, with a great deal of variation in results ranging from simple success/fail to degrees of such. There are nine races and thirty character occupations (classes) initially, though we are also added three new races in the Fortune and Glory expansion. It is not a politically-correct game where everything is fair, because reality is anything but, however there are limitations on the extraordinarily powerful character classes and races. There are races that have incredible strength, others with incredible agility, etc., but they also require exceedingly high raw ability score rolls to acquire them. We have also discovered in playtesting that the tech-level is such that even the biggest bad- can die quickly in a world with advanced energy weapons, so charged particles and hyper-velocity weapons are the great equalizer. Tech setting is high, with advanced nanotechnology, genetic engineering, energy manipulation technologies (including gravitic), etc. There is no magic nor anything supernatural in the game, per se, though there are psionics.

If you have any more question, fire them off and Jep can let me know, or pop on to the forums we just set up and fire them off there

I wonder if this is connected in anyway to the new range of 54mm scale miniatures released by Andrea Miniatures, also called the Dark Nova range......?

If not, I wonder if we're about to see an almighty clash of between these guys and Andrea Miniatures (this assumes that Andrea may release something to support their miniatures line, which they haven't done so far!)

Actually, no, we're in no way related to the miniature line. Dark Nova was originally a series of novels I am writing, but has been in production for several years now. Their use of the name is merely a coincidence, as we haven't even begun to develop our miniature wargame rules (and our minis are being produced by Reaper Minis here in Texas), and ours will be 28mm as opposed to 54mm.

That being said, I really like the look of Andrea's minis, and I would encourage players to pick them up as character minis (though there are no miniguns in the Dark Nova RPG).

Update: We have sold out of our First run of Dark Nova RPG book, and will get our 2nd run going by the end of the month, with less mistakes than the first run. sorry for any delay on getting you our RPG books...