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 Contents
Introduction................................................... 1
The Station...................................................... 1
Living on Torus One...........................................................................................2
Groups of Power..................................................................................................3
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Places of interest..................................................................................................3
Characters................................................... 4
Jobs........................................................................................................................4
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Traits......................................................................................................................5
Wounds.................................................................................................................5 aldo ojeda campos
Character creation...............................................................................................5
Experience............................................................................................................6
The rules........................................................ 6
Checks...................................................................................................................6
Opposed checks...................................................................................................6
Adventures................................................... 7
The Referee...........................................................................................................7
Adventure seeds...................................................................................................7
Non-player characters.........................................................................................8

Torus One RPG was written for the 24 Hour RPG Competition - Little
Spaces, hosted at http://www.1km1kt.net and http://www.thefreerpg.com

Torus One by Aldo Ojeda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-
Commercial Share Alike. Mexico, 2012.
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Introduction The Station

Welcome to Torus One! This is where you’ll work and live. Here, your job will When the Alliance of Free Planets was formed, Torus One was built as
be keep things running smoothly. If there’s a problem, you’ll have to go and fix neutral ground where negotiations could take place. Here, the fate of entire
it. A rogue AI causing troubles? A riot on the streets? A malfunctioning sink? systems is decided by the ambassadors and diplomats of the planet members
Yep, those are all your duties. of the Alliance.

Vacations? Haha, that’s funny, now start working! The strategic position of Torus One also makes it an important center of
commerce. Goods from all over the galaxy can be found here. Many mega-
Torus One RPG is a science fiction role-playing game, where all the action corporations also have representatives on the station. In fact, some of the
happens in a crowded ring-shaped space station with a circumference of big decisions mentioned before are influenced by this corporations.
1609 meters (that’s 1 arcane-mile, for the uncivilized). Here, players will
not be diplomats, space marines or romanticized scoundrels. Instead, This space station was created by a highly advanced civilization, the Kee-
they’ll be the workers that do all the stuff that happens in the background. tonians. It orbits around a jovian planet, spinning to create artificial gravity.
Uninteresting, you say? That’s because you haven’t been in Torus One before. Torus One has a radius of 512 m, a circumference of 1609 m and is 200 m
width. The sides of the ring are covered by a structure of hexagonal plates of
the very resistant, almost invisible vibro-glass, also protecting the interior
from radiation.

At the center of Torus One is a hub, with an Iridescentium reactor that

generates the energy to power up the station. As a secondary residue, a soft,
clear light is emitted. This emissions are programed so that they imitate the
day and night cycles of the Kee-tonians planet: starts with four hours of
purple dim light, followed by eight hours of bright white light, then four
hours of pinkish light and eight hours of darkness.

Docking on Torus One is no easy task. The station has various piers on the
external hull, but spins so fast that only the most experienced pilots can
dock.

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Living on Torus One Docks

Central Hub

Torus One is home to about five thousand people from dozens of planets.
Humans are only 3% of all its inhabitants (no, Earth is not the most important
planet of the Alliance. Sorry, human-centrics). Many of the people living
here work at the Administration; many others work as miners on the near
Tannhauser Gate. A few people work as diplomats of the Alliance of Free
Planets and less work at the little base of the Space Taskforce, the police of
the Alliance.

The official language of the Alliance of Free Planets is Haplorhinian,

you better speak it fluently!

Most of the people on the torus live on eight story buildings; on apartments
of 20 square meters (having big families is not a very good idea). Around
these habitational buildings are many other structures for leisure and
entertainment. Not that most workers enjoy a lot of free time, but there are
holo-cinemas, parks, restaurants and bars.

For moving from one place to another are many automated hover-taxis
(if you really can’t walk a few meters) transiting Niven Avenue, the street
that runs through all Torus One. On their shift, workers can also drive the Vibro-glass structure
Administration hover-carts. Niven Avenue

Economics The Alliance uses the Interplanetary Commerce Currency

for trading between its member planets. There is no physical coin
for this currency, it only exist as digital money. Every citizen of the
Alliance has a small device (the size of today’s credit card), used for
transactions. The money is not in the device, it connects to your bank
account whenever you make a transaction. For quick reference, the
popular soft drink Slurm costs 1 ICC unit.

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Groups of Power Underground economics Jobs at the torus are not well paid. If you
want to make extra earnings, there are many other groups and people
The Alliance of Free Planets The Alliance doesn’t rule over Torus One. willing to hire you for some missions. Businessmen, gangs, bankers,
Ambassadors are in charge of the things that happen on the planets outside everyone wants something. If you do their dirty job, they’ll pay you.
and don’t usually care for what’s going on inside the station (except when
they don’t have hot water on the tub). But still, many of these diplomats are
the richest people on Torus One and are always preferred on any place; they Places of interest
don’t even have to make any line on the offices of the Administration!
The Alliance building The headquarters of the Alliance of Free Planets is
The Administration Now these are the people in charge of Torus One. an enormous building. Not many people have access to its interior, where
A small part of the budget of the Alliance goes to the Administration to important decisions are made on carpeted rooms.
keep things running. Most of the people of Torus One work here, as clerks,
guards, mechanics, janitors and other infrastructure jobs that no one cares The Administration building All the offices of the Administration are on
about. Above all, it’s the Director of the Administration and his Board. this building. If you don’t have light on your apartment, fill out form LG-
015a, go to the last door to the right and wait for your turn. If you want to
open a business on Torus One, fill out form CG-008c, go to the next door to
Kee-tonians The mysterious inhabitants of planet Kee-ton are the
your left and wait for your turn.
most respected persons on the galaxy. They are the corner stone of the
Alliance and many call them “the benefactors”. There are just about a
Saint Clarke Hospital Chances are, you’re going to get hurt on your work.
dozen of them on Torus One, but whenever one is at sight, silence is
Saint Clarke Hospital, with its many healing droids, is the place to go.
made. The kee-tonians are capable to communicate with machines and
are covered by an adaptive body armor that responds to their thoughts.
Ambassador’s Town An exclusive area where all the ambassadors and rich
people live. Their flats are larger than the average; streets are wider and
cleaner and have many gardens.
Yaa’tol For every market, a sub-market grows. The Yaa’tol is an
interplanetary mafia, trading illegal substances, technology and weapons.
Herbert’s Park The largest park of Torus One, 200 meters by 200 hundred
The Administration and the Alliance knows about them, but prefers not
meters, with lakes and many exotic looking plants.
to interfere with their business on Torus One because, sooner or later,
everyone will need something from them.
The Marketplace The biggest market on the station, here you’ll find products
from all the galaxy; spices, robots, weapons, Qo’noS wine, you name it.

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Ninja Taco Robot People from all over the galaxy come to this famous
restaurant-bar. The perfect place to recruit people searching extra earning Characters
and adventure within the torus.
Each player, with exception of the Referee, will take the role of a single
The under-ring Beneath the surface of Torus One is a series of service character, the protagonists of your adventures in Torus One RPG. Your
tunnels and underground structures, known as the under-ring. Here light- character will have a series of characteristics, written down on your character
sensitive beings live along criminals and the homeless. sheet, that will represent her abilities and limitations.

Jobs

Jobs are the main attributes of your character. They represent her skill sets
and her capabilities. Jobs are ranked from 1 to 5, the higher the number, the
higher proficiency.

Clerk A true bureaucrat, you spend most of you work time behind a desk
and you know how to treat people (that usually means keep them waiting
until they are completely desperate).
You use your clerk ability when you:
• Talk to someone
• Gather information
• Archive documents

Guard You keep this place in order, or at least you try. You received basic
weapon training and you want to believe you’re some kind of police.
You use your guard ability when you:
• Stun someone
• Self-defend
• Stand straight for a long period of time

Tech You are the one keeping this whole place running! Without you, Torus
One will surely fall apart. I mean, who else can clean those pipes?

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You use your tech ability when you: Wounds

• Use strange looking devices
• Fix something You character is capable of resist limited amounts of damage. Whenever your
• Break something character is injured, as a result of falling, being attacked or other hazards,
you take one wound. If a character takes four wounds, she is incapacitated
Work at Torus One rotates frequently, so you character has some experience or falls unconscious until at least one wound is removed through healing. If
as Clerk, Guard AND Tech. the character takes a fifth wound, then she is dead.

Traits Character creation

In Torus One RPG, you are encouraged to play an alien individual. Why To create a character for Torus One RPG, you’ll need to follow two simple
play a human when you can be anything! Traits are unique characteristics to steps and fill out the character sheet (form CS-001a of the Torus One
your species that make you exceptional. As with jobs, traits are ranked from Administration, provided at the end of this document. For further questions,
1 to 5 and grant you special abilities. take a turn and ask the nearest representative of the Administration).

Examples First, think of a concept for you character. Answer yourself questions like
• Extra appendages this: from what planet is she from? How does she behave? How does she
• Comes from a high gravity planet look like? Does she have fur, scales or a slime body? Is she a robot, an
• Gelatinous body anthropomorphic dog, a blue, bald, highly evolved plant? Remember, you
• Telepathic powers can be anything, as long as it moves and interact with the other characters.
• Natural armor
• Membranous wings Secondly, distribute 12 points among the three jobs and any number of traits
• Small sized you may want. Remember, no score can be lower than one or go higher than
• Eidetic memory five.
• Can chew and digest anything
• Biotic abilities
Can I be a human? If you insist in playing a human, you can do so. But
Your character can have as many traits as you want (two is a good number). don’t expect to have many traits, unless your character has cybernetic
You use a trait whenever you think you can take advantage of it in a situation. enhancements. For example, “Gaiacard implant”. Because, let’s face it,
Earthlets are pretty boring.

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Experience
The rules
After every game session, players win an experience point (XP). After some
time, they can use these points to improve their jobs. The cost in XP to Whenever the characters are attempting something difficult, risky or want
increase in one point a job is equal to twice the new value. Just look at the to add some excitement to the game, players will roll dice to know if they
table below. were successful on their actions.

New value Cost Checks

2 4 XP
3 6 XP When you want to overcome an obstacle, you must do a check. Roll a six-
4 8 XP sided die and add the score of the pertinent job or trait. If the final result
5 10 XP is 7 or higher, you succeeded in your attempt. If not, the check is a failure
and you do not accomplish what you were trying to do. The player and the
You usually can’t use experience points to increase you traits (tentacles don’t Referee will then decide what happens next.
tend to spontaneously grow), unless there’s a really good reason to it or is
part of your biological life cycle. Complex actions Some actions are more complicated than others and take
more time to solve. For example, decrypting a security system or fixing a
broken robot. To overcome these actions, you will require more than one
successful check. With every failed roll, complications may arise.

Opposed checks

If you are trying to succeed over another character, you must do an opposed
check. This means that both players will roll dice, adding their characteristics
to their rolls. The higher number wins the check.

Attacks If one character is attacking another one, the same rules for all
opposed checks apply. After the outcome is decided, the winner of the check
deals one wound to the loser character.

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Adventure seeds
Adventures
The dignitary An important diplomat has arrived to Torus One. There isn’t
Imagine that you’re walking on a very populated city of narrow alleys, a lot of budget, so the players will be the ones protecting him. But everyone
with busy people going in every direction; and not any kind of people, but wants the dignitary dead, what secret is he hiding?
EVERY kind of people. Then you’ll start to imagine Torus One. This space
station might be a confined space, but is full of adventure! Here, players will The plague There’s a bug plague on Torus One and is causing lots of troubles.
have the opportunity to create and live compelling sci-fi stories. The players have to stop the plague, but the bugs are growing and eating
everything! they’ll have to hurry before the whole station falls apart.
The Referee
The lost artifact An ambassador has lost an artifact of utter importance
The Referee, sometime called Omniscient Being or game master, is the and the players will have to find it. But who stole it and why? Why is this
one in charge of running the game. His job is to create the adventures that apparatus so important?
players will live and to handle any characters encountered along the story.
He describes the scenes and will decide with the players what happens after Robot rebellion Robots are on strike, claiming that their rights are not being
a failed or successful check. respected. In fact, they have no rights. Now robots claim a fair salary (they
are not even paid!) and accident insurance. Players will have to negotiate
Here are some recommendations for the Referees: with the robots, frak! maybe they’ll join them on the strike.

Simple enough When creating a story, create simple scenarios. Players Conflict between friends Political tension has appeared among many
will complicate things for you and will go to unexpected places and do planets of the Alliance. The players are caught in between as ambassadors
unexpected things, always. And that’s a good thing. ask them to sabotage the plans of the others.

Brief, evocative descriptions When describing a scene, just describe it with The terrorists Four bombs have exploded in the past week. Now the terrorist
one or two evocative adjectives and add the general outlines to give an idea group behind the attacks has threatened to put a bomb on the Alliance
of what’s going on. Let the character ask and fill in the blanks accordingly. building. The players will have to stop the terrorists.

Meaningful rolls Rolling dice is fun, but only make the players roll if what Uneasy alliance A new cartel is introducing a very addictive drug to the
happens after the check is interesting, no matter if the action was succeful streets of Torus One. The players will have to choose the lesser evil and join
or not. If it breaks the pace of the game, keep things moving. the Yaa’tol to stop these new smugglers.

Dead kee-tonian A kee-tonian has been assassinated and the players have
to find the responsible of it. But the adaptive body armor of the kee-tonians

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makes them especially difficult to kill. Whoever killed him is very skillful
or powerful.

The heroes A warrior species has killed all the members of the Space
Taskforce on Torus One and now they took over the place. Is the turn of the
players to liberate the space station and be the heroes.

Non-player characters

More than five thousand persons live on Torus One and many others come
to visit and do business. They come from very different planets and most
of them are really strange looking. Amorphous sacks of tentacles, human-
sized insects, furry squirrels, sentient fungi and so on.

These characters don’t have characteristics, only when needed. Their

characteristics, as with player characters, go from 1 to 5 and represent
their main attributes and professions. For example, a military feline species
might have a Warrior characteristic; a merchant can have the “trust no one”
characteristic.

Most of the secondary characters can only take one or two wounds before
falling unconscious. More resistant and dangerous antagonists can take
four or even more wounds.