From the back cover of Terracide:

The Earth is No More

Humanity was struggling to catch up with its alien neighbors when Terra ceased to exist. The attack had been a long time coming; It crossed lightyears of space before impact. Thousands of relativistic weapons swept across the system in a matter of hours, moving too swiftly for anyone to see them coming, try to escape, or to warn anyone else what was happening.

When they struck the homeworld, the surface of Terra became a molten holocaust, and the oceans boiled away into the tortured skies. Every settlement on Luna, Mars, and the Galilean moons met the same fate. Colonies on smaller moons and asteroids simply shattered, vaporized instantly by the impact. In the final hours of the attack, on the fringe of Sol's oort cloud, the last comet-herders were just beginning to figure out something was wrong as they went off the air, one by one. And then it was over.

There were no survivors.

Terracide by Grady Elliott is a gritty, space opera noir. The Earth has been annihilated, leaving only the few million humans who were working in deep space alive. Those who have survived must not only continue the human race, but to discover who – or what – destroyed their home world.

This review is based on comp copies of the Terracide softcover book, and the Terracide PDF, specifically given to me for review by Blackwyrm Games. This is not a playtest review, but is based on a thorough reading of the book, and this reviewer's nearly 30 years of experience with the Hero System.

Terracide is a setting book for Star Hero, part of the Hero System 6th Edition.. The author, Grady Elliot, terms the setting "space opera noir".

What this means, to quote directly from the book:

-- Earth-like worlds are extremely rare. There used to be exactly one – Earth. Now it's gone. Having failed in its efforts to find another Earth, humanity decided to make one. There are several terraforming projects under way, but all are centuries from completion.

-- Aliens are not like us. They aren't even remotely humanoid in appearance, didn't evolve on Earth-like worlds, don't breathe oxygen, and most don't have spoken languages. Dealing with them successfully requires specialized knowledge.

-- Rubber science is not welcome. With the exception of the FTL drive, the technology presented in Terracide is at least loosely based on real-world science. There is no artificial gravity, no reactionless drive, and no ill-defined energy weapons known as "blasters."

-- The laws of physics are in effect. Gunfire in a rotating space habitat will be thrown off by the rotation. "Ramming speed" is 100% fatal in space combat, for both spacecraft involved – no survivors. Psionics is a ploy used by con-men to scam true-believers out of their last credits.

Overall, the setting is a winner. It combines a very interesting background with the author's thorough knowledge of the Hero System. The overall "feel" of the setting, to me at least, is a mashup of inspirations such as Babylon 5,  nuBattlestar Galactica, Firefly/Serenity, and Alien/Aliens. Somewhat gritty, but not "grimdark".  Personal combat can be very deadly, and space combat even deadlier, but there is hope of rebuilding the human race on space stations and through terraforming planets.

The book includes Hero System templates for character genetic background (including nine different genetically engineered genotypes); background templates, which include Terrans, Colonists, Floaters (zero-g modified, such as Bujold's "quaddies"), and Terraformers; and templates for things such as education, military training, government service, criminal backgrounds, and a number of others.  The selection of templates is quite good, and seems to cover a majority of character-types likely to be wanted by players. And of course, being the Hero System, players can make any kind of character they want anyway.

There are also ten pre-generated characters to be used as examples, or to be used as Player Characters if desired. The writeups all seem reasonable, and are illustrated with a picture of each character. The character illustrations are drawn, but are created in Jeff Hebert's HeroMachine. They are nicely done for what they are, and will do in a small-press book such as Terracide,  but HeroMachine instills a kind of "sameness" to the characters. Original drawings would have been better, but I understand that original artwork would probably have been cost-prohibitive for a production such as this. Also included, in the GM's section, are a number of writeups of NPC's, such as security personnel, military crewmembers, special agents, and terrorists. Again, these are illustrated by HeroMachine drawings, but once more, perfectly serviceable.

There are also writeups of representative samples from each of the alien races- Ammonite, Cytherian, Fluorian, Titan and Jovian. The aliens are all very alien, with not a rubber-foreheaded humanoid among them (and are illustrated with original drawings, not HeroMachine). Aliens are not recommended as Player Characters.

A number of types of spacecraft and starships are included, fully written up as Hero System vehicles. There is also a fairly extensive list of equipment, weapons, and weapon accessories, which could also be used for other Star Hero games besides Terracide.

A sample background setting is included- Marathon Free Station, a rotating asteroid habitat in orbit around Groombridge 34B. This station is what reminds me a little of Babylon 5, a "wretched hive of scum and villainy" just waiting for Player Characters to come and adventure.

The final part of the book is a GM's Vault, where the GM can find the answers to some of the big secrets of the setting, such as the background of the Terracide attack, as well as various adventure ideas and seeds.

There are a number of  Appendices- a setting Glossary, a reading list including an interesting variety of science fiction and non-fiction, and an extensive listing of possible spacecraft names, for when the GM or Players are drawing a blank.

Production values on Terracide are pretty good. I have a few minor quibbles. The text in the printed book is black type on a gray graphic background, which makes it somewhat difficult to read. This is alleviated in the PDF, which includes the complete book in full color (with black type on a pale bluish background), plus a printer-friendly version that eliminates the background and page borders. Some of the art is pixelated, especially the starmaps (which, by the way, are actual near-Earth stars), and could probably have been improved by either using a higher DPI resolution, or by redrawing them (they obviously were taken from screencaps from a stellar mapping program.). Also, the starmaps have route lines that are coded red and blue in the full-color PDF, but in the printed book, which is black-and-white, there is no visible difference in the lines. There are also a few "see page XX" errors.

I think this is a good production of a very good setting, and could prove quite entertaining, especially for those players that enjoy "hard" science fiction, and nittty-gritty life on the edge of the deep black.

Overall, I rate it an 8 for a very interesting setting, lots of great writeups, and tons of story potential.

Looks nice indeed - a setting designed for grittier, less metaphysical (which was my main issue with the series, or rather the, imo, poor handling of it) Battlestar Galactica. The only tidbit is that I think FTL in itself discards it as hard sci fi . But I'm nitpicking.

Well, one definition of science fiction says it alright to accept 1 impossible thing. Other than the FTL, it's really the best I've ever seen anyone do "hard science" SF in the HERO System (and as I mentioned in the review, I've been a HERO gamer for nearly 30 years).

Fair enough. Still, FTL is a big no - no in hard sci - fi, much more of a no - no then for example, artificial gravity (which can be achieved with fast spinning of the spaceship, actually). Care to say a bit more about the aliens, though?

I think the reference to artificial gravity referred to "grav plates", etc.  The thing about spinning the ship is that it's really size dependent (smaller ship=faster relative spin) and limits the shape of the ship to something with a stable center of balance. If it's even a bit out of whack, the ship would tear itself apart, calling for supermaterials to compensate for this, and yet another impossible thing to allow.

Spherical or cylindrical stations or ships are the best to do the spin-gravity thing.

Constant accellration in a linear direction will give it too, for most of a trip. The ship would have to flip over mid route and brifly make everything weightless.

All things considered, having FTL drive be the impossible thing to buy into seems smart. At least you can have plots that traverse systems without your enemies dying of old age on you because of a difference in ship speed of .01 c.

Quote from: Rincewind1;514876Fair enough. Still, FTL is a big no - no in hard sci - fi, much more of a no - no then for example, artificial gravity (which can be achieved with fast spinning of the spaceship, actually). Care to say a bit more about the aliens, though?

Well, I would contend the second no-no would be Aliens as there is no proof of Aliens as of Yet for Hard Sci-Fi....Instead of the Earth being destroyed by Aliens, they could have made it a GRB (Gamma Ray Burst) or something else.

Quote from: Rincewind1;514876Care to say a bit more about the aliens, though?

I second this question. That's what would make me interested in this book (but also the genetic backgrounds).

How serviceable could it be for non-Hero gamers?

Quote from: boulet;535250I second this question. That's what would make me interested in this book (but also the genetic backgrounds).

How serviceable could it be for non-Hero gamers?

None of the alien species in Terracide are of the "bumpy forehead/pointy-eared" variety. They aren't humanoid oxygen-breathers from earth-like worlds. Their biology and psychology is portrayed as being completely different from humanity. (No alien PCs.) Each alien species has a fairly detailed write-up useful for any game in the main Aliens chapter. The Hero System info for each one is listed in the GM's Vault section. Very briefly:

Cytherians: smallish, short-lived, native to worlds with extremely hot, superdense atmospheres. Partly silicon-based, reproduce by fission.
Fluorians: Fluorine-breathers native to very hot worlds; they have a limited form of racial memory. The closest thing to "human" in the galaxy; bipedal and they have a spoken language, but still extremely alien.
Ammonites: rather large, cold-natured ammonia breathers which resemble the extinct terran mollusks of the same name. Difficult to get along with, but not overtly hostile.
Titans: Overtly hostile. Methane-breathing tentacled blobs massing 50 tons. Social darwinists who consider property rights subject to personal strength. Not very numerous, but dangerous due to possession of advanced nano-tech.
Jovians: Gas-giant dwellers, several kilometers in size, who have mastered bio-engineering and adapted their own bodies for space travel. Nearly god-like in power and intelligence. Do not piss them off.
Keepers: Cryogenic He3 creatures living on the dark sides of tide-locked worlds in dead star systems; their entire species is quantum-entangled. They trade in information across the entire galaxy.


The write-ups for Genetic Upgrades are brief, but shouldn't be too hard to convert to another system based on the information given. I recently wrote them all up for Savage Worlds.

And I'll be running a Terracide/Savage Worlds demo or two at GenCon.

I'm glad Xavier revived this thread. Sounds like a great setting!

The backstory sort of reminds me of Eclipse Phase, with Earth getting destroyed and spacers being all that's left of mankind.

Love the hard SF angle.

I'm also happy to hear that it's getting a Savage Worlds version, SW is criminally underserved in the SF department (especially hard SF). Though I'd much rather see a Mongoose Traveller version -- how hard do you think it'd be to pull off a MongTrav conversion by oneself?

Quote from: The Butcher;544887I'm glad Xavier revived this thread. Sounds like a great setting!

The backstory sort of reminds me of Eclipse Phase, with Earth getting destroyed and spacers being all that's left of mankind.

Love the hard SF angle.

I'm also happy to hear that it's getting a Savage Worlds version, SW is criminally underserved in the SF department (especially hard SF). Though I'd much rather see a Mongoose Traveller version -- how hard do you think it'd be to pull off a MongTrav conversion by oneself?

Glad to hear you're interested in Terracide.

At this point it's just in the planning stages so I can't say much about SW/Terracide. As for other hard SF, I've heard that Red Brick has a SW license now, so there may be a SW version of Blue Planet soon. :cool: If you'd like to see a SW/Traveller conversion, I think SavageHeroes.com has four of them. (Classic, not Mongoose)

I still say they should not have included Aliens as there is no proof of aliens so its not HARD SCI-FI.  They should have went with maybe genetically altered humans at most and thats about it.  I don't understand why every Sci-Fi game has to include Aliens of some sort, I'm currently running a SWN series and I have dropped the notion of aliens altogether its all humans and thats it.

Quote from: flyingcircus;547127I still say they should not have included Aliens as there is no proof of aliens so its not HARD SCI-FI.  They should have went with maybe genetically altered humans at most and thats about it.  I don't understand why every Sci-Fi game has to include Aliens of some sort, I'm currently running a SWN series and I have dropped the notion of aliens altogether its all humans and thats it.

There is also no "proof" that fusion-propelled spacecraft will ever be possible.

Or interstellar travel.

Or that Mars will ever be terraformed.

Or that suspended animation/hibernation will be safe for humans.

Or... a long list of other things that have yet to be "proven."

Fortunately, that's not the definition of Hard SF most of us are using; "proof" has absolutely nothing to do with it. There are a number of definitions for Hard SF, but it's particularly worth noting that none of us are using the definition "SF tropes of which flyingcircus personally approves." I'll be sure to let you know the moment anything changes.

Have fun.

Quote from: Xavier Onassiss;547221There is also no "proof" that fusion-propelled spacecraft will ever be possible.

Or interstellar travel.

Or that Mars will ever be terraformed.

Or that suspended animation/hibernation will be safe for humans.

Or... a long list of other things that have yet to be "proven."

Fortunately, that's not the definition of Hard SF most of us are using; "proof" has absolutely nothing to do with it. There are a number of definitions for Hard SF, but it's particularly worth noting that none of us are using the definition "SF tropes of which flyingcircus personally approves." I'll be sure to let you know the moment anything changes.

Have fun.

A) Who needs fusion when they have already developed ION Drive, More economical anyhow not to mention less deadly to the crew.

B) Interstellar travel is always possible no matter what, even at sub-light.  

The British Interplanetary Society produced a detailed study into precisely the idea of sending an unmanned spaceship to a nearby star (Barnard's Star ) called Project Daedalus. See here for details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Here are some of the figures they came up with:

Overall length: 190 metres
Propellant mass first stage: 46,000 tonnes
Propellant mass second stage: 4,000 tonnes
First stage empty mass at staging: 1,690 tonnes
Second stage mass at cruise speed: 980 tonnes
Engine burn time first stage: 2.05 years
Engine burn time second stage: 1.76 years
Thrust first stage: 7,540,000 newtons
Thrust second stage: 663,000 newtons
Engine exhaust velocity: 10,600,000 m/s & 9,210,000 m/s
Payload mass: 450 tonnes

The time to get to destination was about 50 years.

C) Fuck Mars.

D) Hibernation who needs fucking hibernation.

and E) So what....

And I approve this message.

Quote from: flyingcircus;689656A) Who needs fusion when they have already developed ION Drive, More economical anyhow not to mention less deadly to the crew.

B) Interstellar travel is always possible no matter what, even at sub-light.  

The British Interplanetary Society produced a detailed study into precisely the idea of sending an unmanned spaceship to a nearby star (Barnard's Star ) called Project Daedalus. See here for details:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Here are some of the figures they came up with:

Overall length: 190 metres
Propellant mass first stage: 46,000 tonnes
Propellant mass second stage: 4,000 tonnes
First stage empty mass at staging: 1,690 tonnes
Second stage mass at cruise speed: 980 tonnes
Engine burn time first stage: 2.05 years
Engine burn time second stage: 1.76 years
Thrust first stage: 7,540,000 newtons
Thrust second stage: 663,000 newtons
Engine exhaust velocity: 10,600,000 m/s & 9,210,000 m/s
Payload mass: 450 tonnes

The time to get to destination was about 50 years.

C) Fuck Mars.

D) Hibernation who needs fucking hibernation.

and E) So what....

And I approve this message.

...which has fuck-all to do with your previous point, if you ever had one to begin with. Changing the subject is a great way to deflect attention away from the fact that you've got nothing.

Quote from: Xavier Onassiss;689762...which has fuck-all to do with your previous point, if you ever had one to begin with. Changing the subject is a great way to deflect attention away from the fact that you've got nothing.

Oh well, there's no proof you're human either. lol.