Fragged Empire is a post-post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting where your people are just now returning to space following a century of hiding during the aftermath of a galactic war where the Nephilim and their X'ion master successfully defeated the Archons and their servile nations. It's a universe that leans heavily into themes of cultural tension and exploration, with a dash of transhumanism, nation-building and a hope for a better future.
RAG-TAG will see you and your friends take on the role of a character from one of eight core species who join together to form a rag-tag band of misfit mercs that pilfer the corpses of ghost ships, explore ancient ruins, respond to SOS signals, fight pirates, defend frontier colonies, hunt monsters and explore uncharted worlds! Those of you who survive will do so through cunning, grit, teamwork and luck.
RAG-TAG is a new and fresh way to enjoy the Fragged Empire RPG, offering an alternative rules-light, punchy and dramatic rule system to the much loved and award-winning Fragged Empire 2nd edition that was released last year. If you are a fan of Fragged, OSR, Mothership, MÖRK-BORG or other such art-heavy and rules-light games, you are going to LOVE this project!
RAG-TAG may be used in place of the Fragged Empire 2 rule book.
PCs are created by selecting a "Species + Subculture" (ie: Kaltoran Rascal) and a" Vocation" (Ace, Boffin, Merc, Parasite, Space Wizard or Technician). This will also give you your starting items and a list of potential Abilities.
Skills start at 1d4 and can be upgraded to d6, d8, etc... up to d20. Starting from die quality d10, you will specialise a skill (ie: Language under Culture). There are no Attributes, only Skills. A typical Skill Roll target is 4+.
Gain XP and Credits; XP upgrades Skills and Credits buys new equipment or unlocks a random Ability (based on your Species + Vocation choice).
GMs perform NO rolls (PCs roll a Defence Skill when attacked).
GMs use Plot Dice to track events and points of tension (count down to a threat, count down until a task is complete, track NPC health, etc...).
Random loot charts!!! Trivial Loot, Common Loot, Fancy Loot, Mundane Weapons or Exotic Weapons.
Roll on a FRAGGED table if your PC suffers 4 Body or Stress damage, possibly resulting in their death/retirement or an unexpected outcome. RAG-TAG can be a high lethality!
Rejected by their Archon creators as inferior, the Corporation (formerly known as Vargarti) have grown to see the Great X’ion War as a liberating event that freed them from an existence of insignificance and irrelevance. Discarding their racial identity, they are now eager to prove themselves through the continued success of their powerful free-market society.
Family first!
Kaltoran
Born with the genetic memories of their ancestors, Kaltorans are an innately gifted and flexible species. They are eager to make a new future for themselves and their families, though they struggle with the genetic memories of not only the Great X’ion War but the extreme measures taken by their post-war ancestors to survive in their underground pit cities beneath the oceans of Kadash.
The thic guys and girls of Fragged!
Legion
A physically imposing species that was hastily created by the Archons to fight their losing war against the X’ion, the Legion now struggle to create a stable society and to find meaning without a war to fight. In recent times the Legion have formed a close economic relationship with the Corporation, acting as enforcers for hire... but are they once again becoming the warrior-servants for another master species?
We really like gooey tech!
Nephilim
The term Nephilim is broadly used to describe the millions of genetically engineered monsters that were created by the X’ion to fight the Archons and their creations during the Great X’ion War. Once the Archons were exterminated the X’ion abandoned the Nephilim, causing most of them to become little more than primal beasts.
But those on the planet Eden maintained their minds under the rule of the Devwi-Ich, the commander who oversaw the destruction of the Kaltorans and Legion in the sector during the Great War. While the Eden Brood are publicly no longer loyal to X’ion and seek peace with the other species, their primal society is still deeply violent and addicted to genetic perfection.
Are we robots with human consciousness, or humans with robot bodies?
Palantor
During the Great War, the Archons believed they were adapting Human-created software to produce the mechanical horrors known as Mechonids, but in truth they were ham-fistedly warping ancient and sentient digitized Human minds into sociopathic killers. Though the Great War has ended, the Mechonids continued to harvest these minds to create more of their own. In doing so, they have forced these digital beings - known as the Palantor - to flee back into a physical existence that they have not experienced for over three millennia. The Palantor were once gods of a digital realm, but are now food for the insane Mechonids. If they are to survive as a people they must defeat their great foe and build a place for themselves in this new era.
All praise to the All-Being!
Remnant
Betraying their Archon creators, the Ursai sided with the invading Nephilim during the Great War. But this was all for naught as the Ursai themselves were in turn betrayed by the Nephilim and accidentally exterminated themselves (and their Nephilim attackers) using an ancient Human weapon that was known as the Deatomiser.
This would have been their end if not for the arrival some fifty years later by the god-like entity that is known as the All-Being, who raised millions of Ursai from the dead. These Ursai became a new people: the Remnant, spiritually focused and forever seeking the true nature of the All-Being, working to learn why they, traitors and failures, were brought back to life.
Space hippies with anime energy attacks!
Twi-Far
The space-faring, nomadic Twi-Far inhabit bodies formed from two independent, sentient species: the Archon-created Twilinger and an energy-based creature of unknown origin that is called a Faren. To escape their selfish Archon masters during the Great War they have remained out in the deep dark of uncharted space for a hundred years, only just now returning after being pursued by a brood of gigantic Nephilim slavers called Oni.
Just... so... hungry...
Zhou
The Zhou were created during the later years of the Great War by the Archons to be a devastating biological weapon that could consume all organic matter on a world. The Zhou of the planet Praid have pushed themselves beyond this design and are struggling against their unquenchable hunger to coexist alongside the other species.
Most adventure will start in the Haven system.
Haven System
No other known system has rebounded from the devastation inflicted by the X’ion War like Haven. Once the capital system of the ancient Kaltoran nation, it is now home to numerous species and cultures. While life is tough for most and none know if peace will remain between the species, many see Haven as the great hope for the future.
The system is ideal for habitation. The sun, Esh provides rich but gentle warmth to her planets in a wide goldilocks zone. The number of terraformed worlds is high, and the habitable biomes are diverse. The worlds and asteroid belts are resource-rich, and the legend of Haven’s crowning economic jewel, the gas giant Makor, was so great that it reached the distant Corporates on Varsphere. They uprooted their entire civilization to claim it as their own and re-name it Alabaster. An action that would lead to the awakening of the surviving Nephilim of Eden, Kaltorans of Kadash, deadly Mechonids, Palantor of Setzer’s Comet and attract the attention of the distant Legion of Cerberus, Remnant of Kumba, nomadic Twi-Far, and marauding Oni.
All backers will receive a code that will allow you to order an at cost Print on Demand book from DriveThruRPG. RAG-TAG is designed to be held and used at the table during play, so making use of this would be a great idea!
RAG-TAG has an open third party licence that allows others to freely make use of my rules to make and sell their own products! I will also give people graphics to brand their creations so everyone can see it is part of the RAG-TAG ecosystem.
I'm going to speak plainly, I don't like to focus on stretch goals as they can cause production bloat/delays, unreasonable expectations, low-quality add-on products and encourage artificial marketing (ie: creators removing features just so they can add them back in).
While this campaign does not have a focus on Stretch Goals, I understand it would be encouraging for you to know how I hope to spend some of the additional funds that we may raise. Most will go to supporting future projects (just as my past projects funded the production of RAG-TAG), but if we raise lots of extra funds I would be keen to upgrade RAG-TAG art, insert more NPC antagonists, add in the Tolatl playable species, spacecraft rules, and maybe add in a new Revelry charts for random events/activities between missions.
Unlocked so far:
Tolatl as a playable species (with 3 subcultures).
