Micronauts

Space Opera Role-playing

1. The Story So Far

1.1 Twenty Three Hours to Save The Earth

Micronauts is a role-playing game of Space Opera heroics, machiavellian archvillany and tenacious sidekicks who just wont die. It is designed to be adapted to any Space Opera background from Battle Star Galactica to Flash Gordan, but the basic rules contain templates for the Micronauts universe, as depicted by the 1970's Mego Corporation toy line and the series of licensed Micronauts comics, written primarily by comic guru Bill Mantlo and drawn initially by master artist Michael Golden. Background material on this universe can also be found in the bargain bins of every comic shop in the Western world, and is excellent inspiration for Space Opera games.

Space Opera is always over the top. It combines the unfettered fantasy of a pulp science fiction background with the episodic melodrama of a daytime Soap Opera, and features heroic rescues, diabolical betrayals and implausible surprises, along with wildly unrealistic battles between implausibly competent heroes and hordes of apparently ill-trained cannon fodder.

1.2 Leave Your Realism at the Door: The One Rule

An important aspect of Space Opera is that it is not even remotely realistic. A giant in heavy armour can fly with just a small backpack with wings; melee weapons are just as useful as blasters in almost all situations, and a villain will never kill the heroes outright when they could imprison them and place them in an implausible life or death situation.

There is only one rule in Micronauts:

The most dramatically appropriate outcome is always preferred.

Everything else is just a suggestion.

1.3 Game Requirements

To play Micronauts you will need a large number of polyhedral dice, some paper, pens and a playful spirit.

This game has been designed for use by players with several years of role-playing experience. This is not because only such players will enjoy the game, it is merely that only such hardcore gamers have sufficiently large collections of dice.

The dice used in the mechanics are:

D4 D6 D8 D10 D12

Anyone who is already confused is advised that since this game assumes a vast horde of polyhedral dice, it also assumes some familiarity with role-playing terminology, and explanation of largely elementary terms is left as an exercise for the dedicated student.

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