RULES SUMMARY
Changed Stars is a utopian(ish) science fiction spacefarer TTRPG, in a broadly neo-traditional style. It has a lot of similarities to other traditional science fiction games such as Traveller or Star Frontiers.
Differing from these games, the system puts a fair amount of influence in the players' hands very early on. Instead of using a highly random system such as a single dice resolution method, the game uses dice
pools. Players therefore have a general idea of how risky something is before their character undertakes it. As this is a game that is perfectly willing to kill your character if something goes very wrong,
this will be a relief to gamers who are too used to bad luck killing characters in games like Dungeons and Dragons. The game also has a number of interesting subsystems that I have not seen in this particular
branch of neotraditional gaming before. There is heavy emphasis placed on the environment that players are in. While OSR players and other dungeoncrawler games may be used to that, science fiction players
and those coming from White Wolf games won't be.
At the time of writing, Changed Stars is three hundred pages and I would estimate that two hundred of these are allocated to mechanics or stat blocks. While the character level resolution is fairly simple,
assuming a familiarity with traditional conflict ttrpgs, there are a good number of subsystems and gamemaster tools that are worth discussing. Ultimately, this is a fairly mechanically dense game. So my summary
is going to be leaving some of the mechanical depth and breadth out. I recommend that you buy the game and check it out for yourself to get a full understanding of the rules system.
As per usual, if you already are familiar with the rules of the game or just want to get to the meat of my review, jump ahead to Rules Review. If you want to hear only about the game narrative, jump ahead to
Game Identity.
Changed Stars have multiple different levels of conflict. From largest to smallest: spaceship against spaceship, character against character, drone against drone. While all of these levels use the same basic
resolution method (a dice pool of D6s), the actions that characters can take and the way that they can be harmed vary quite a lot.
Broadly, events are resolved through the use of dice pools. Characters have a pool of D6s with the exact number of dice they have access to varying depending on the character's stat and skill bonuses.
What species they are, what equipment they have and where they are currently located all influence the roll with plus and minus modifiers. Once a roll has been made, the number of 6s are counted. Every six
is a success. For an uncontested (that means nobody tried to stop it) roll, one success is enough and the action is successful. If there are no successes, the action is a failure. In addition to these regular
dice, characters have Edge dice. These are rolled along the regular dice for every single action, adding an element of risk to literally anything characters do. When an Edge dice comes up on a 1, the character
takes a shock. For every dice that shows a 1, they take another level of Shock up to three levels. When a character is in Shock, they suffer penalties to their actions. The exact penalties are determined by
the gamemaster and the player but their severity increases as the level of Shock does. Edge dice are gained through taking injuries, your character pushing their limits or your character performing a Twist.
With Twists basically being special moves that characters can perform to benefit themselves or their allies.
The majority of the game's conflicts revolve around combat. This is true of all levels of conflict. Characters have access to hacking and medical subsystems and all three levels have access to a
utility/survival subsystem. On the character level, the combat most greatly resemblances a traditional game. There are a set number of actions that a character can perform on their turn and turn order goes
from fastest character to slowest with everyone taking a turn. The game also uses a grid system by default, players can use nodes or theater of mind but they probably shouldn't. Combat proceeds and continues
until one side has to stop, through injuries, death or surrender. Characters are able to attack (or move twice), take a movement and take out or put away a weapon on their turn. Depending on what Twists they
have, as well as equipment and other traits, their number of main actions can increase but that's the default set of actions. The number of actions can also decrease if the character has been injured, if they
are boxed into an environment or they were physically restrained in some fashion on another character's turn. Where this combat system differs from similar games is that blocking and dodging are actions in
their own rights. They are classified as reactions so players do not need to expend any of their character's action economy to do so. But these actions have their own Twists and benefits.
The resolution system and the investigation subsystem are simple compared to the combat rules. The combat rules take up a significant portion of the book and have a lot more detail than the investigation system.
While individual combat actions use the same resolution system as the rest of the game, the introduction of penetrative and superficial health along with armor and weapons ratings change the depth of the system
quite a lot. When combat begins, the character (whether player or non player) that started combat takes the first turn. Then, the characters closest to that character take their turns, expanding outwards until
the farthest person. Characters are free to attack, defend, duck, hide or take any action. When taking action, they roll 2D6, add character modifiers and then contextual modifiers. Then the action succeeds,
partially suceeds or fails as expected. So a player has their character attack a monster, they succeed on their roll and the monster takes damage. Where the complications lie in that damage depends heavily on
equipment. What weapon the attacker is holding, what armor (or natural armor) that the defender has, what position the characters are in and the environment they are in.
There are a number of changes to combat at the ship level. First, ships do use their pilots stats when performing actions but they also have their own stats such as Thrust and Hull. These are considered
when performing actions or taking damage. While aboard a ship, even if the ship is in combat, characters can still take individual actions but the ship also gets its own action. Unlike during character level
combat, characters can take their actions in any order as long as the ship they are on is currently taking its turn. When a ship takes its own turn, it can try to get to its destination, it can attack using
its guns, it can move preemptively to try and avoid attacks (which creates modifiers) or it can be repaired which can restore its functioning. The ship also has Components which have their own actions too
and can be targeted individually and destroyed. When a Component is destroyed, its actions can't be performed anymore. These are considered vital parts of the ship which are to be protected. Along with
Components are Hardpoints, which are more "optional" versions of Components that grant additional functionality but aren't generally key to the functioning of a ship.
Combat on the drone level is often a middleground between these two stats. Most drones are operated by a single pilot. Drones generally use their pilot's stats but have their own health and power
and they can also provide modifiers for certain actions depending on their shape and purpose. They don't have Components or Hardpoint but they might have AI which opens them up to hacking or being hacked.
A drone can take many of the actions that a character can and some of the actions that a ship can, once again based on shape and purpose. They are generally used as assistants for combat on the other levels.
In addition to the combat system, there are three distinct subsystems; hacking, medical and survival. Hacking is the most unique of the three. Systems are given their own attributes in the forms of Gates and
Nodes. Gates are locked areas that a character must hack through to proceed and Nodes are key functionality for an electronic system, such as the sprinkler system in a building or the autpilot on a ship. This
has its own risks in the form of unique Shocks.
Medical is likely more familiar to traditional gamers. Characters can become greviously wounded throughout their adventures, both physically and mentally. If they wish to recover, they must seek appropriate
treatment or they may die of their injuries or develop maladaptive coping mechanisms. Other characters with medical skills and equipment are necessary to maintain the overall help of a group as seeking out
alternative sources of healing can become expensive or perilous.
Finally, there is the survival system. Resources in Changed Stars are finite. Even equipment is. Every time a piece of equipment is used, a roll is made to determine if it is used up (if it is a consumable) or
broken (if it is equipment). When it comes to guns and protective gear, the issues with this are obvious. However, it also applies to the gear that characters need to continue living such as spacesuits, food and
a ship's oxygen. Characters must be careful to keep track of their resources, keep a flow of resources and to prevent the theft and destruction of them if they wish to survive their incursions in space. There are
a number of specific rulings for how long a character can survive without a specific resource which players will also have to keep track of.