Disclosure:

Give me a dystopian future peppered with 80s analogies and Easter eggs, like Earnest Cline’s, or give me the dark and beautiful gloom of George Orwell’s,. What can I say? Give me hope, or give me misery. With the, you get a role-playing game that offers a dystopian future on a cosmic scale that bridges the gap between these two types of desires.The setting is thousands of years in the future. Humans have reached beyond their terrain origins and colonized the Milky Way, but earth is lost to the ages. Alien biology exists, though nothing sentient has been discovered. Advances in technology have paved the way for interstellar travel. Through the development of human cybernetic enhancement, the pinnacle of innovative achievement was the creation of immortal, human-like robots known as Synthetics.Inhabitants of the galaxy struggle from fallout of a 1000 year war. A conflict caused by the spread of a powerful mutagen virus, and the collective –galactic overreaction to stop it. As the attempt to neutralize the P-Virus was in part the cause of The Millennial War, the motive (why), faction or persons involved in unleashing it, remain a mystery. Stopping the virus set world upon world. Once thriving metropolises, even those only rumored to have been exposed, were obliterated by their neighbors. Entire cultures were lost and many of the galaxies premier centers of learning and technology (waiting for the player characters to rediscover) among them.In the wake, human survivors endure on the fringe of the known space. For all that was destroyed, the galaxy remains somewhat bound by Jump Gates, which enable interstellar travel.Player characters will be navigating their own spaceship via these gates taking the role as Sharpers, independent space mercenaries and smugglers for hire. While life (upon after effects of galactic war) is cheap, survival is not.Character creation with Synthicide utilizes one of four templates, which players choose a handful of customization (mechanically speaking) options. The strengths and weaknesses of each character are emphasized with Attributes and Aspects, which are further modified by a Genetic Legacy (Pure Human), mutagen infection, or cybernetic enhancement.Mechanically, Synthicide is defined as a game of three systems: Roleplay Actions, Battle Actions, and Resolve & Cynicism. Roleplay Actions & Battle Actions are pretty standard RPG Stuff, which detail the mechanics for Attribute + (if relevant) Aspect checks, and the sequences of (initiative, turn order) battle. Resolve & Cynicism is a fate or luck system. Characters accumulate a limited amount of Resolve through heroic action, and Resolve points can be spent in order to gain specific situational advantages. Cynicism is accumulated by violence and cruelty. For the most part, Synthicide assumes a heroic type game, but also offers some alternates to this, if your player group is more… Well, into cynicism.The book features a detailed chart of the Milky Way Galaxy (Jump Gates), and includes deck plans of three different classes of ships. Ship to Ship combat has a unique approach, but if you’re looking for a ruleset fixed on blast rules and blowing enemies to heck, you won’t find it with Synthicide. Ship to ship combat is more like something out of a high seas adventure (grappling hooks & ram techniques) as weapons have been outlawed, by a largest and most powerful faction in the galaxy (and the settings main antagonist) the Thranaxist Church.Full page black and white illustrations head off each chapter and are nothing short of excellent. The art throughout the rest of book, though admittedly it’s a bit sparse, is equally good. The text is large and easy to read in standard double column format. The PDF includes a hyperlinked Table of Contents. I have the hardcover and the PDF. Both are more than decent as to layout.is an impressive and somewhat gritty RPG. The setting elements include a double handful of planetary locations and brief entries on a good number of galactic factions. The setting is presented in my favorite sort of way, with a good amount of detail, yet enough left to the imagination for GM to make it their own. Adventure sections of this book include more than a dozen seed adventures and a number of useful tables for generating planets and more adventures. The system is simple, with rolls decided by a single d10 and any potential modifiers. If you’re in the market, it’s hard to go wrong picking this one up.The review includes affiliate links. Synthicide was provided free of cost for the purpose of this review.