Two Against Dark Space Characters

A week ago I mentioned a few ideas that I had for Four Against Darkness variants. I realized that if I ever wanted to develop them, I needed to start with one. I had to make a decision, and the winner was . . . Space Templars.

Over the past week I have been jotting down ideas to convert 4AD to a sci-fi setting (or, more specifically, to my sci-fi setting). I am also planning to use 2 characters instead of 4. To distinguish this variant from the parent rules, I have dubbed it as Two Against Dark Space.

My first challenge was to convert my existing Space Templar characters to 4AD rules. In some cases, it should be pretty straightforward - warrior = soldier, cleric = physician, wizard = scientist, and a rogue =, well, a rogue. However, my characters don't translate directly. Rugen is a Templar (sort of like a Jedi knight) while his companion Tee is an android. How should I define them? Here is what I came up with:

• Templar – a mystic warrior like the Jedi. It will be a Warrior sub-class
• Armed with a laser sword (slashing 1-hand weapon)
• + Level to attack
• + Level /2 to defense (using mystic powers to deflect attacks)
• May only use light armor
• Does not use firearms – as a result must spend first turn closing with the enemy, if they have firearms
• LP = 6 + Level

• Android – a human-like artificial life form. Because of its contruction, it should do well in battle but also have excellent cognitive skills
• Armed with a laser pistol
• + Level to attack
• + Level /2 to defense (due to titanium construction)
• + Level to solve puzzles or riddles (like a Wizard due its large database and processing power)
• Can repair itself for D6 lps once per adventure
• LP = 4 + Level

I think it would be logical to make the android even more powerful (e.g. better defense and more life points) but I don't want the class to be too overpowered. I think these characters are a little more powerful than the base classes, but I'm fine with that because I'm only using 2 characters. I'm also giving each character 3 stimpacks or repair kits (i.e. bandages) each to help balance the game.

Because my characters have previous experience (using different rules) I decided to start them out at level 2.

I was now ready to move onto the encounter tables, which I'll discuss in my next post.