NOVA
Designer: Spencer Campbell | Publisher: GilaRPGs
The sun exploded, and humanity is struggling to hold onto what is left. Your job is to don an exosuit, known as a Spark, and dive into the dark remnants of the earth, hoping to find technology or anything, really, that can help us in our current sorry state. Not quite as bad as Brexit, but it’s undeniable close.
NOVA is a rules-lite game with a combat speed that runs at lightspeed. The Sparks have various combat abilities that player characters can trigger using Fuel - avoiding even rolling dice. Defeated enemies drop Fuel, providing the demand for a delicate dance; keeping enough fuel to keep your Suit powered up but also keeping those attacks flying. Unlike many games, the combat is built for real time action; choose your response; the enemies respond; immediately another player does something; go go go! It’s specifically designed so that a player’s turn is not spent analysing all the best options. If things stop being frenetic enough, the GM is encouraged to skip player’s turns and let the next opposing action take place – a violent flip-the-table approach to many group’s play styles.
Where NOVA really messes with expectations is that the stats in this fairly simple framework are not the normal strength/intelligence/speedat-eating-hotdogs equivalents. Instead of any link to physical attributes or abilities, NOVA asks the GM to interpret actions through a “Sun”, “Moon” and “Stars” lens; an abstraction of your character’s entire approach to situations. So the “Sun” attribute involves powerful, emotional, sweeping or destructive actions, whereas “Moon” refers to reactive, quick, nimble, effective actions.
Personally, I think Spencer Campbell is one of the most innovative designers in the modern RPG scene, and NOVA is one of my favourite projects he’s published, both for setting and for the revolution it causes in a player’s approach to problem solving and roleplaying. Plus it looks stunning, with vibrant art and a punchy, colourful layout. The GM guide is detailed but not overbearing, and for a 70 page booklet, it manages to have nine double page spreads of Spark types, the same again of enemies and factions, a sample mission, and mission and location generators.
Just reading through is enough to leave you out of breath – and rightly so, when a game of NOVA can be played through in just an hour!
CHRIS LOWRY