''Burning Empires'' is a tabletop

science fiction Science fiction (often shortened to sci-fi or abbreviated SF) is a genre of speculative fiction that deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts. These concepts may include information technology and robotics, biological manipulations, space ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

, designed by Luke Crane and published by The Burning Wheel in 2006. It is based on

Christopher Moeller Christopher Moeller (born May 1, 1963) is an American writer and painter, specializing in fully painted graphic novels. Moeller's signature creation is the '' Iron Empires'' science-fiction universe, comprising three fully painted graphic novels ' ...

's two critically acclaimed '' Iron Empires''

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

s, ''Faith Conquers'' and ''

Sheva's War ''Sheva's War'' is a five-issue fully painted limited series graphic novel published in 1998. It was the final title to be released under the short-lived DC Comics imprint Helix. Created, written and painted by Christopher Moeller, the story is ...

''.

Reception

It was awarded Best Licensed RPG of 2006 by

Ken Hite Kenneth Hite (born September 15, 1965) is a writer and role-playing game designer. Hite is the author of '' Trail of Cthulhu'' and '' Night's Black Agents'' role-playing games, and lead designer of the 5th edition of '' Vampire: the Masquerade''. ...

, and the

Origins Award The Origins Awards are American awards for outstanding work in the gaming industry. They are presented by the Game Manufacturers Association (GAMA) at the Origins Game Fair on an annual basis for games released in the preceding year. For example, t ...

for Best RPG of 2006.

The core book is a

digest size Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine, but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately . It is also a and format, similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes evolved from the printing ...

d, 656 pages, hardcover book in full colour, including almost 400 pieces of artwork. ''Burning Empires'' builds on the ''

Burning Wheel ''The Burning Wheel'' is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game independently written and published by Luke Crane (game designer), Luke Crane. The game uses a dice pool mechanic (using only standard six-sided dice) for task resolution and a charac ...

'' game mechanics, while adding in new rules such as: * World Burner * Technology Burner * Infection mechanics * Firefight * Psychology * Alien Life-Form Burner The game builds on some of the sci-fi elements and scene structure from an earlier

supplement, ''Burning Sands: Jihad''. The game fiction assumes a race of sentient wormlike creatures called Vaylen which infect humans and take over their brains. This infection happens on a massive scale, eventually taking over whole planets in the process. The phases of a ''Burning Empires'' campaign are infiltration, usurpation, and invasion, and these correspond to the stage of the Vaylen infection on the planet. Typically, the GM or Game Master will take on the role of the Vaylen invaders, while the players will take the role of mostly humans, who are trying to actively stop this invasion.

Reviews

* ''

Pyramid A pyramid () is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as trian ...

References

External links

* {{official, url=http://www.burningempires.com/ Indie RPG Awards winners Indie role-playing games Origins Award winners Role-playing games based on comics Role-playing games introduced in 2006 Science fiction role-playing games

Reception

Contents

Reviews

References

External links