Red Rising
A GENYSYS
Setting Guide
Table of Contents
I: The Core Mechanics
- I:The Core Mechanics4
- Angry25
II: Character Creation
- Apple32
- Angry25
III: Skills
- Apple32
- Angry25
IV
- Apple32
- Angry25
V
- Apple32
- Angry25
VI
- Bangarang42
- Batman33, 126
VII
- Bangarang42
- Batman33, 126
VIII
- Bangarang42
- Batman33, 126
IX
- Bangarang42
- Batman33, 126
X
- Bangarang42
- Batman33, 126
XI
- Bangarang42
- Batman33, 126
I
The Core Mechanics
This book presents guidelines and suggestions for running a tabletop roleplaying-game set in the world described by Pierce Brown in his excellent "Red Rising" book-series. It is assumed that the player or GM wishing to use these guidelines already owns a copy of the GENESYS core rulebook. The setting can be used in other RPG systems, but the GM will have to make their own decisions about character creation, enemy stats, and other game mechanic conversions.
RED RISING
II
Character Creation
The Carving
Choosing your character's birthColor in the Red Rising setting is like choosing your background. The Society operates on a strict caste system organized by color, and relating loosely to the periodic table of elements. In this system, lowColors correspond to common ores while highColors correspond to more valuable metals.
Mechanically, your color has minimal impact on your starting character. This is mostly flavor, so pick the color that you think will be the most fun to tell a story with!
lowColors
Reds
Browns
Obsidians
Pinks
midColors
Grays
Blues
Yellows
Greens
Violets
Oranges
highColors
Silvers
Whites
Coppers
Golds
RED RISING
III
Skills
Choosing Skills
Skills: Choos'em! They be good for you! And so on and so forth, etcetera, etcetra, yadda yadda, blah blah blah and what-have-you.
General Skills
Combat Skills
Knowledge Skills
RED RISING
IV
Talents
Talent Types
There are some different kinds of talents. I'll probably tell you about'em here.
Talent Ranks & Tiers
Also, talents have tiers. And ranks! Ranks and tiers. That's why I like to call this section, "Talent Ranks and Tiers."
Talent Descriptions
I'll probably include a table here of all the talents in this setting. If I have time ... You should probably go look'em up.
RED RISING
V
Equipment
Rarity
Encumbrance
Combat Skills
Item Qualities
Weapon Charcteristics
Weapon Maintenance
Weapon Descriptions
Probably gonna need some tables here, too. One for ranged weapons and one for melee.
Armor
And another table. Again. Some more.
Gear
Probably a few more tables in my future, I'd guess.
Customization & Modifications
Weapon Attachments
RED RISING
VI
Conflict & Warfare
Narrative & Structured Gameplay
Maneuvers
Actions
Defense
Soak
Range Bands
Additional Combat Modifiers
Environmental Effects
Wounds, Strain, & States of Health
Recovery and Healing
RED RISING
VII
Mounts & Vehicles
Starship & Vehicle Weapons
Starship % Vehicle Combat
Stellar Phenomena or Terrain
Taking Damage
Interstellar Travel
Vehicle Profiles
Starship Profiles
Starship and Vehicle Modifications
RED RISING
VIII
The Game Master
How to Run a Red Rising Game
Creating a Red Rising Adventure
Player Motivations and How to Use Them
The Base of Operations
Adjudicating Destiny Points
Running a Full Campaign
Alternate and Optional Rules
RED RISING
IX
The Solar System
Welcome to The Society
The Society is the dominant human government in the Solar System. It has existed for at least 700 years, or 14 generations. Its denizens are separated into different castes and vocations, and called Colors. It is the most efficient and perfect government ever made by man. There are approximately 18 billion humans throughout the Solar System.
Background
Laborers were needed to colonize the foreign planets, and so, an efficient hierarchy was made through genetic and surgical means. However, the Golds, who over generations transformed from normal humans wearing gold uniforms into the physically and mentally superior commanders of the present time,
rebelled against Earth, seeing its tariffs as a drag on Society. Earth lost the war, and the Society came to be the superpower throughout the Solar System.
Government
Based off of the Romans. A small population controls the rest, with the Senate chosen out of these select few.
Military
The Society's forces include at least six fleets of starships. Within these fleets are Gray's, Obsidian's, and Gold's. Some Gold military ranks include Legate, Praetor, Imperator, archImperator, and archLegate.
RED RISING
Dominion
The Society is centered around the Core, Luna, but the reach of the Society extends throughout the Solar System, though no mention was made of exploration of the beyond.
Population
All Colors of the Society are genetically modified humans. Their population currently total around 18 billion, with more than a dozen million being Golds. Less than 1/100 of that are Peerless Scarred. To differentiate their class, they were genetically altered to have different color-coded eyes and hair, with vibrance defining the tiers in each class.
Sigils
All Colors also have Sigils implanted into both wrists and attached to the metacarpus to provide additional identification. Most of them were designed based on the alchemical symbols.
Religion
Though many references are made to the Roman gods, such as the utterance "By Jove," the Society is agnostic/atheist. Their rituals do not consist of praying to the gods, as Golds are considered gods amongst the humans. The Obsidians were taught to worship the Golds as well, to staunch a rebellion.
Economy
Economic activities mainly occur with further planets engaging in trading with the Core. Economics are generally handled by Silvers, most notably Regulus ag Sun, Quicksilver.
Education
Depending on social caste and rank, different members of society receive different levels of education. For example, a Blue pilot would be trained in flying starships and spacefaring theory from a young age, but a Red laborer who would have no use for that would not. An Obsidian would be trained to fight and battle, but an Orange would be learning about gears and mechanisms. It all depends on what their color does (Reds mine, Obsidians fight, etc)
Culture
Each Caste has their own unique culture, even having different beliefs or religions, most obvious amongst the Reds and Obsidians with the Old Man and revering the Golds as gods, respectively.
Entertainment
As in modern society, the rich and affluent often entertain themselves with lavish parties, courtesans, or semi-barbaric sports at lower classes' expense. Those who indulge in these pleasures are called Pixies and are looked down upon by other Golds who consider themselves above such things. In the lower castes, entertainment becomes more simple. The Reds are shown to enjoy dancing, almost as if its in their blood.
Language
Most citizens speak and write in midLingo, with the lowest classes somewhat literate, with the possible exception of Obsidians. Obsidians were stripped of all technology except Stone Age-level knowledge, and apparently they can speak Icelandic. Golds and some higher-tiered Colors also learn the ancient languages of Latin, Arabic, Chinese, English and German, among others, as part of history and culture.
RED RISING
Organizations
- Sons of Ares
- Outriders
- Praetorian guards
- Howlers
- Boneriders
- Olympic Knights
- Intelligence Bureau
- Securitas Intelligence
- The Valykyrie
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X
The Institute
The Houses
House Apollo
House Ceres
House Diana
House Juno
House Jupiter
House Mars
House Minerva
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XI
Adversaries
Adversary List
RED RISING
Images
Sang Han
Chris Rahn
Raphael Lubke
Kieran Yanner
RED RISING
Gerald Brom
Slawomir Maniak
Slawomir Maniak
Geoffroy Thoorens
Geoffroy Thoorens
RED RISING
Geoffroy Thoorens
Geoffroy Thoorens
RED RISING
Genesys GM Binder Theme
Header 1 should be used to create chapter titles (like above). The first letter of the next text block will be capitalized just like this automatically! Headline 1 and Headline 2 both also span both columns. If you separate
your text above a Headline 1 or Headline 2 with a blank line in the editor it will automatically shift the contents of everything after the blank line to the second size.
Headline 2
Headline 2 denotes major sections of the chapter. Whenever you need a header inside a chapter, this should be your go to!
Headline 3
Headline 3 is simply a 2nd layer of denotation you can use. Any time you need to separate out different ideas underneath an H2, use this.
Headline 4
This is to be used inside the "Notes" with the bottom row underlined. More information on this later.
Headline 5
Headline 5 is simply a 3rd layer of denotation you can use. Any time you need to separate out different ideas underneath an H3, use this. Note, that this is usually the deepest level of denotation you should use. If you are doing a considerable list, consider using Headline 6 instead.
Headline 6
Headline 6 is used to create lists that require significant detail. It is most notably used to list talents. This is a bottom tier header, meaning there should never be any headers "underneath" it in the document.
You can start a new column like this by using the \columnbreak command.
Type Faces
There are many different type faces. Underlines can be created with the HTML <u></u> tag, while the rest can be done with markdown.
- Bold
- Italics
Strikethrough- Underline
- Super
- SuperScript
- SubScript
- Internal Link
- External Link
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3
You can create a "Note" box like this with <div class='note'></div>. To create the dice and their symbols
<span class='symbols'>a, h, f, s, t, d</span>
will create your symbols, while
<span class='setback'>b</span>
<span class='boost'>b</span
<span class='difficulty'>d</span>
<span class='ability'>d</span>
<span class='challenge'>c</span>
<span class='proficiency'>c</span>
will create your dice. Please note, these currently require you to download and install the "EotE Symol" and "Genesys" fonts on your own, currently.
Chart of Examples
| ROLL | RESULT |
|---|---|
| a or t | Recover 1 strain. Add b to next check by yourself or ally. |
| "Subheader" is a tr class | |
| aa or t | Perform an immediate free maneuver (still max 2 per turn). Add b to next skill check by opponent. |
| aaa or t | Negate enemy defense. Ignore environment. Damage a target's gear/limbs. Gain +1 defense for 1 turn. |
You can use markup to create tables just fine, normally, but you do need to build the table in HTML if you want to use a "Subheader" row (such as a weapon table). Unforunately Markdown doesn't support applying a class to a table row!
You can also create an index for your document (and with a little bit of formatting, use this to create a table of contents as well!) The title page for index is just a Headline 2, wide, and centered. The code for the letters and rows is below:
<span class="index-letter">A</span>
<ul class="index">
<li><span>Apple</span><span>32</span></li>
<li><span>Angry</span><span>25</span></li>
</ul>
This will automatically space the dots for you, so no worrying about counting them out! You can see the example on the next page.
GENESYS
Index
A
- Apple32
- Angry25
B
- Bangarang42
- Batman33, 126
GENESYS
Practice
Safe
Homebrewing
People love to flex their creative muscles while composing new homebrew content. More often than not, the inspiration for you homebrew comes from another source. Sometimes significantly. Other times just as a spark.
What is important for the community is that you share your sources of inspiration. This back cover can serve as an easy to find, easy to read place for you to do just that.
So go ahead, remove this chunk of copy and tell everyone who inspired you.
Cover Art: Skiorh
When you're ready to share with the community, don't forget to mark your document as public so people can find it in the GM Binder Search
More Credits
Maybe you have so many people to give credit to that you need a bit more space. Well, you can use this column to do exactly that!