Project overview



 
Reviews
Game highlights
"The Company told you it was going to be a mop up operation. Quick and easy. Communications go down on remote frontier worlds all the time, and it should only take a few hours to fix it. Then back on the drop-ship for a boring ride home.
 
The Zen just got vaporized. The shot ticker on your pulse weapon reads ‘7.’ You’ve got one plasma grenade left, and your helmet HUD shows telltales for 50 unidentified signals closing in on your position. The Ram just charged out of the trench. As he exits the ditch, you can see the Orion has spray painted his armor day-glow orange. The Eridani Swordsaint is meditating. The Phentari is compulsively revving a chainsaw in one set of tentacles and clutching a flamethrower in the other set. The Chatilian empath is whining about how he hasn’t made anyone’s head explode in the last two days, and you have no idea where the Keen scout is because he’s damn near invisible when he changes color. Just another day at the office. Lock-n-Load.”
 
What is Battlelords?
Battlelords is a game set in a dangerous future. An Alliance of Humans and aliens is fighting for survival. The techno-organic hordes of the Arachnids have destroyed worlds and decimated populations as they advance into Alliance territory. Against the backdrop of war, players can take the fight to the 'Nids. Play as soldiers in the Galactic Armed Forces, or as a corporate mercenary working for one of the many mega-corps that control the Alliance from behind the scenes. Feel like something a little more underhanded? Corporate spies and pirates make money the old fashion way... by stealing it.
 
Curious about what it is like to play over-equipped, under-trained, corporate mercs whose employer views them as expendable resources in a galaxy being invaded by a horde of techno-organic monstrosities?
 
Check out our free quick start rules. http://bit.ly/BLQuickStart


The Species
The histories of each species have been detailed and each has unique abilities that help contribute to the Alliance's fight against the 'Nids. Many of the species in Battlelords have been at war with each other in the past and hostility still broils under the surface, but they must put aside their differences to fight a common foe.
 
You can play as a Chatilian so you can read minds and use mental powers. Be the ultimate infiltration specialist as a shapeshifting Mazian transforming to look like a Human, or a tree, or a desk, or pretty much anything else you can think of. If you'd like to go with brute strength, pick a Pythonian and throw someone for distance. Play a cunning and ruthless Phentari and make your enemies suffer. Perhaps the samurai-like Eridani are more your style.  There are 15 different species to choose from!
 
Give your character depth by rolling on the “growing up tables." Roll well and you could find yourself the owner of a starship or and incredible fortune. Roll poorly and you might be labeled an informant with a contract to end your character’s existence. Expand the story with skill choices to fit your goals and equip your character with arms and armor to keep them safe.
 
Choose a path through life in a dangerous future. Be a pirate, a mercenary, an adventurer exploring a rift in space, a spy, or a hero. On the right adventure, it could be all of the above. Write your own stories in a big universe of adventures. The possibilities are as limitless as the stars. 

Game Summary
  • Tactical RPG rules for a military sci-fi setting that depict the gritty lethality of the futuristic battlefield.
  • 15 different highly detailed species to choose from as a character.
  • An expansive, galaxy spanning setting, with limitless potential.
  • Detailed setting information for running a campaign for Alliance soldiers, mercenaries, pirates, spies, and corporate espionage agents
  • Armor ranges from light body armor, to mechanized battle armor, to the massive walking tanks called Ultra Armor.
  • Each suit of armor is highly customizable, with over a 150 options to choose from.
  • Over a dozen weapon systems, and hundreds of weapons to equip your character. Arm yourself with lasers, disintegrators, pulse weapons, grav sheers, grenade launchers, frost guns, and Omega weapons, just to name a few. 
  • You can customize your armor to defend against many weapons, but you don't have the space or money to protect yourself from all of them. Choose your mix of weapons to find the weakness in your opponent's armor.

About Battlelords, Seventh Edition
Battlelords, Seventh Edition is a full color, gloss hardcover tabletop RPG book. It contains rules for character creation, game play, equipment, vehicles, hostile alien lifeforms, spacecraft, sample teams and setting information. All the rules you need to play are in this book. The book is 546 pages with color artwork in a hardback, lay flat, Smyth sewn binding. The cover is shown below. We used heavy weight, glossy paper, to create a book that is as much art book as it is an RPG. The book weighs in at over 5 lbs/2.25 kg!
 
You can check out the interior of the book here: http://bit.ly/3aNiXSJ
 
What’s New in the Seventh Edition?
The focus of the new edition is simplifying and standardizing the gameplay without losing the original setting or feel of the game. Some of the highlights are:
  • New Standard Species – New species to highlight the diversity of the setting. The revised genetically engineered, human-rabbit hybrid called the Fott. The Raazet, which are winged insects, and a new species the Keen. The Keen are a gliding tree dwelling species with a chameleon's skin.
  • Updated combat rules – simpler/faster rules for managing automatic weapon fire, faster hand to hand combat, and simplified armor tracking. All of this results in faster play while simulating the deadly nature of combat in the 23rd century.
  • Streamlined skills – standardized skills to simplify game play, while still maintaining that Battlelords "tactical" feel
  • Revised armor mechanics that allows for broader customization of armor, in addition to easier tracking of installed armor options. 
  • Ultra Armor (aka Mecha) included in the core rules.
  • Spacecraft and space combat rules included in the core rules.
  • New artwork!! The artwork will all be in full color.
  • Updated Equipment. We’ve had 25 years since 1st edition to figure out where technology is headed.
  • Antagonists included in the core rules. The 'Nids and their horde are detailed and ready to fight!
  • Revised setting with more information about the Arachnids and a new foe, the promethean Veayan

Stretch Goals
  • "Armor Up!" PDF - $16k - COMPLETE - Our first stretch Goal is focused on adventure hooks and source material. It is the “Armor up!" mission book PDF with 48pp est. of material covering scenarios for Mercenaries & Soldiers. It will include strategies for creating teams to survive in a dangerous future. We will also include some additional pieces of equipment to help teams round out their experience.‭ ‬‬‬‬‬‬The Stretch goal will be light on artwork unless we exceed the $16k threshold. The budget for art will be increased if we exceed $16k.
  • Artists get a Bonus - $17k - COMPLETE
  • "Uncle Ernie's .." (More Alien Creatures) PDF - $18k - COMPLETE - This 48pp (est) PDF “Uncle Ernies catalog of dangerous creatures 2275 ce” will focus on some of the dangerous aliens you may find deployed by anarchists trying to take down the government, allied to the Ak-Nar-Ryn, or maybe just infecting a space ship that made a rift run and is now drifting towards shipping lanes. For those who've been around a while, you’ll recognize some of these guys from Uncle Ernie’s Minions of Doom but rest assured there will also be some fresh faces.‭‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
  • Artists get additional Bonus - $19k 

Add-Ons
Many prior edition (6th Edition) PDFs are available as add-ons. A free conversion guide is available for gamers who want to use 6th edition material in the 7th edition.


Live Plays
Below we’ve listed several places you can watch or listen to Battlelords being played. You can find every review, interview, and play-thru on our links page at http://www.23rdcentury.net/links
 
  • QueueTimes & B. Dave Walters - Battlelords of the 23rd Century,  4-Part Live Play
 
  • Red Moon Roleplaying - Battlelords of the 23rd Century: Last Resort on the Space Resort, 3-part Audio Drama
 
  • Level 1 Geek & Of Dice and Dames - Battlelords of the 23rd Century,  Live Play


Shipping
This project is based in the US, but will be EU/UK friendly. We’ve engaged a company in the UK for fulfillment (GamesQuest) throughout the EU, the UK and Asia-Pacific.
 
 
Risks and challenges
There are a number of risks with any crowdfunded project, especially getting accurate timings for such complex products. HOWEVER, with this project, the book is completed and is ready to print, so we don't anticipate delays being an issue. The book will begin shipping weeks after the project closes, unless we exhaust our supply and need to print more. In that case, the books would ship in about 4 months after the project closes - it takes 3 months to print the book and ship it our fulfilment houses, and couple weeks for them to get organized and start shipping the books to you.  To date, we’ve successfully fulfilled 2 Kickstarter campaigns, including the original run of this book.  In terms of risks to a crowdfunding project, this is about as risk free as you can get. 
 
Battlelords celebrated its 30th Anniversary in 2020! 
Thank You For Your Support!

You can find us on the web or follow us on social media using the links below:

Video Credits
Devious Squrl designs
Narrator: Jim Ream

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