Chapter 1.1: Playing Morlencir Adventures

Morlencir Adventures is a game about a civilian crew carrying enough Imperial authority to help where the Empire's ordinary systems cannot. One player is the gamemaster. Everyone else plays a member of the crew. Together you describe what happens, call for Tasks when an outcome is uncertain, and follow the consequences of the crew's choices from one commission to the next.

A session is one gathering at the table. A commission may fit in one session or continue across several.

You need two or more twenty-sided dice for each player, a shared record of the gamemaster's Threat, and character sheets. The rules use d20 for one twenty-sided die and 2d20 for two. Low results are good. Chapter 3.1 explains the complete Task procedure.

The Table

Each player controls one main character. A player may also operate a Companion or Supporting Character when the rules bring one into a scene. Players decide what their characters attempt, speak for them, and spend their own Momentum.

The gamemaster presents the commission and the people, places, hazards, and opposition around it. They set Difficulty, state consequences before a roll, operate adversaries, and spend Threat. The gamemaster prepares pressures and interests. The crew supplies the plan.

Everyone is responsible for the tone of play. Before the first commission, agree on subjects the game will leave out and on a simple way to pause or revise a scene. A player may call for a break or move the scene away from material they do not want to play through. No mechanical reward depends on enduring unwanted content.

The Campaign Loop

A campaign repeats one working cycle.

1. Mission offers a commission. The gamemaster states the objective, Directives, known limits, expected Tier, and immediate reason the work needs a crew.
2. The crew prepares. Confirm the Mandate Assets supplied for the work, choose Prepared Assets, set Focus Loadouts, review the Mandate, and decide why these characters accept the commission.
3. Play the commission. The crew moves through scenes. Tasks resolve uncertain actions. Social Conflict handles resisted requests. Extended Tasks handle work that needs progress under pressure. Personal Conflict and Starship Conflict apply when events turn violent.
4. Debrief. Review Service, Judgment, and Craft. Award Standing, resolve immediate consequences, and record Traits or relationships that will continue.
5. Begin again. Mission offers work suited to the crew's record, or the crew brings Mission a problem it has chosen to pursue.

Chapters 2.1 through 2.6 define commissions, authority, commission profiles, and Standing. Chapters 3.1 through 3.7 contain the common rules. Chapter 4 builds characters. Chapter 5 builds and operates the crew's ship. Chapter 6 gives the gamemaster adversaries, commission preparation, and a complete starting commission.

What the Dice Decide

Dice answer uncertain questions with meaningful consequences. They do not decide whether a player feels persuaded, whether consent exists, or what a character believes in the privacy of their own mind. The rules can establish what someone knows, what pressure they face, what an offer costs, and what follows from refusal. The person controlling that character decides the character's choice.

State the possible consequence before a roll. A player should know whether failure means lost time, discovery, damage, a closed opportunity, or another concrete change. Where failure would change nothing and the character can simply try until they succeed, give them the result and move forward.

Starting Play

For a first campaign:

• Agree on the campaign premise, expected tone, safety boundaries, and how the table will share supporting characters and rules decisions.
• Choose the crew's broad purpose and review the Charter, commission Mandate, and starting Directives together.
• Build the crew through Chapter 4.7 or use direct creation.
• Give each main character one signature Companion, if wanted, under Chapter 4.4, and establish any important relationships among the crew.
• Create a Scale 3 inventory vessel through Chapter 5.1 and choose its Translation Profile.
• Begin at Standing 0, record one Prepared Asset, and note the Mandate Assets supplied by the first commission.
• Play Chapter 6.3, The Relay at Edrin's Reach, or build a Tier 0 commission brief through Chapter 6.2.

The first commission should leave room for every character to show what they do. One hard decision is enough. The campaign will supply the rest.