Kenoma Quickstart Pre-Launch Update

The Kenoma Quickstart will go live sometime tomorrow.

I had under-estimated the sheer amount of text that would be required for the adventure, so a project that was supposed to be out on January 8th is instead releasing on January 22nd, but it’s also twice its original length so there’s something to be said for that.

Sections

The Quickstart has four sections: an intro with the five-minute version of everything, a setting section, a rules section, and a GM section. Each section has introductory fiction to help players and GMs get into the world of Kenoma.

Introduction

The intro is simple; just the thousand-foot overview of everything in the game.

Because Kenoma has a single-roll system, a player familiar with tabletop games can probably follow along with play just by reading through the introduction section.

It also gives enough of an overview that players can grasp the basics of how the world works and what setting conceits to expect, though it’s not intended to be consumed by itself.

Setting

The Setting section includes an overview of the layout of Alcove-3, the arcology that Kenoma takes place in.

It includes a section on life in Kenoma’s universe, which gives a background on the important economic and political organization of society in Alcove and some of the daily life of its inhabitants. This section focuses on life in the Coalition, the political union that serves as the central government of Alcove.

The Coalition gets a separate overview, with each of the six factions that make up its voting council given a separate treatment with an overview of their primary role in society.

After that, a brief section summarizes the threats that the Coalition faces. This is just enough to give an insight to what to expect, but not give away their secrets.

Then there are sections on the Spiral and psionics, powerful forces that nearly brought about the complete destruction of our world.

Rules

The Rules section is a microcosm of the rules in the core rulebook.

It contains complete rules for how to play, including the player-centric d100 roll-under mechanic of Kenoma. It is complete within its scope, but lacks rules for long-range combat, does not have a list of gear, and has no character creation or advancement mechanics.

I intend it to serve as a supplement to the core rulebook, since it contains the most frequently used rules by the players.

GM Section

The GM section includes tips and trips for playing Kenoma. Because of the player-based rolling mechanics in Kenoma, it plays slightly differently from other games and frees up the GM to tell stories. We provide resources to give the GM the best possible insight to how to pull this off.

We also use this space to give some tips and tricks for mechanics that players are likely to forget to use during play, making sure that the Quickstart represents the smoothest possible experience for getting started with Kenoma.

The GM section also includes a pre-made adventure built on a three-act structure. The GM can choose to explore all of its content or highlight just the elements that interest them and the PCs as the players uncover a threat that could devastate the Coalition’s fragile frontier.

6 Sample Characters

The Quickstart also includes six sample characters–one from each of the major factions of the Coalition. They are feature complete starting characters with gear issued to reflect their needs during the sample adventure.

Where Can You Get It?

When Kenoma goes live, we’ll make a new post here with links and details.

The initial release will be Version 0, available on itch.io. While the game is complete and playable, it is likely to require some tweaks to text and rules elements over the next couple weeks as the Core Rulebook gets finished.

Version 1 will mark Kenoma’s release on DriveThruRPG.

After that, both platforms will receive simultaneous (or nearly simultaneous) updates and revisions.