Chapter 12: Gamemastering
The Gamemaster (GM) is the games
designer, narrator, and the driving
force of the game. If the game is fun
for you and all of the players,
congratulations, thats to your credit.
If it isnt, you might want to make
some tweaks. Being a GM is more
work than being a player, but it can be
very rewarding, and running a game of
Space Dogs isnt as hard as you might
think.
In this chapter the different duties of
the GM are discussed, and some tips
given. If you have been a GM in
another RPG before, feel free to skim
some of this material, though
hopefully you can still glean some
benefits from the tips written here. As
with any other hobby, try to focus on
the aspects which you and your
friends have the most fun with, but try
to at least keep the other parts of
being a GM in mind.
You Will Make Mistakes
If youre a new GM, one of the first
things that you should realize is that
you will make mistakes. And thats
fine. Thats all part of the process of
learning how to do it. But just
because you make a few mistakes
doesnt mean that you cant have fun
while doing it. Just remember that the
first rule of Space Dogs is to make
sure that everyone is having a good
time, and as the GM, youre a part of
everyone.
Every Session as an
Episode
One useful way to think of a
campaign using Space Dogs RPG is to
think of the campaign as a serialized
TV show and of each game session as
an episode. Each episode should be
mostly self-contained, though there
may be an overarching plot and the
occasional multi-part episodes. Also
like a TV show, each session gives you
a bit more insight into the players
characters as they develop and
become fully fleshed out characters,
what they go through changing them
so that they arent the same sorts of
people at the end of the campaign as
they were at the beginning.
Of course, in other ways a Space Dogs
campaign isnt like a TV show at all.
Most notably, a gaming session isnt
scripted. Your players might not do
anything like what you had planned,
and youll have to improvise. A lot of
the time, the direction that the player
take a session will end up being even
cooler than what you had planned,
and theyll almost certainly end up
being more invested in whats going
on. One trick to make this a bit easier
for you is to have your players make
major decisions near the end of a
session so that you have time to take
that choice into consideration of your
plans.
In addition, rather than planning out
exactly what should happen, a lot of
times its better to instead come up
with the obstacles and allow the
players to overcome them however
they can, and there should almost
Chapter 12 - 1
always be more than one way to deal
with any given obstacle. As a simple
example, if the players are trying to
find secret information which an NPC
has. The players could scare him into
telling them. They could trick him.
They could follow him and try to
discover it that way. Or maybe
something else entirely. Seeing the
players come up with something that
you didnt expect can be half the fun
of being the GM.
A Social Contract
You and your players should think of a
game of Space Dogs as having a sort
of social contract. Not that you should
actually draw up a contract (you can if
youre into that sort of thing), but you
should still think about it.
As the GM, youre going to create the
story (or use a prepared adventure),
try to keep the game moving forward,
and try to make the game as fun for
everyone at the table as they can. In
exchange, your players shouldnt try
to tear apart the game and ruin the
fun for everyone else playing at the
table. Thats really all you need out of
your players to be able to start doing
the best GMing that you can do.
Types of Space Dogs
Games
One of the first things that you want to
decide is the type of Space Dogs game
you and your players want to play. If
you want to play a criminal thriller
where they hunt down and help to
convict criminals aboard a massive
hive-station, and your players want to
spend their time charging across the
star-lanes, fighting monstrous aliens
and space pirates, you should figure
that out up front.
Space Cowboys
In this type of game, the players are
heroes in the vein of the 1950s
westerns. Each adventure they show
up on the scene, are pointed at the
villains, and spend the rest of the
adventure fighting them. This sort of
game should gloss over things such as
what if the players do with foes who
surrender and how different aliens feel
towards humanity.
When the players show up, they
should be greeted happily by
innocents, only villains viewing them
with scorn or mistrust. This might be
the sort of game to play when you
dont want to take anything too
seriously and are just looking for a fun
time kicking butt and taking names.
A Dark Future
Humans are viewed with a mixture of
scorn and fear, especially any psychics
who may be a part of the crew.
Humans are the builders enforcers,
forcing all other species into line and
helping them to keep their monopoly
on safe interstellar travel. Most will
admit that the builders have used
humanity to bring a sense of order to
the star-lanes and have helped to
make interstellar trade safer, but at
what cost?
To get information from other species,
the players are often forced to resort
to bribery and/or threats. They might
have to follow leads into the grimy
underbelly of cities or stations where
Chapter 12 - 2
the poor scrape out a meagre living on
the scraps of the upper levels.
Enemies who surrender may beg to be
let go, telling sob stories. If they dont
let them go, the players will have to
either execute them in cold blood or
follow up in the courts with evidence
and/or testify against them. Those
they testify against may have friends
who dont want them to testify or who
will want revenge against the players
after the face.
Keep Flying
Similar to many of the more classic
space westerns, the players are
always one step from going broke. The
players likely have their own ship, and
like in a Space Cowboys game, they
often start each adventure in a new
system. However, unlike in a Space
Cowboys game, the good guys and
bad guys arent so black & white, and
the players might not even be too
interested in figuring out the
difference.
In this game type, the GM should have
the players use various contacts that
they have in different systems to help
find them jobs. The jobs may or may
not be entirely legal, such as
smuggling goods past high tariffs, but
probably not anything too immoral.
A Mix
Most games of Space Dogs are going
to be somewhere in-between the
above game types, or even in an
entirely different vein. They are listed
as inspiration, and to use as baselines
from where to plan your own sessions
or campaign. Any mix of them can be
fun. The important thing is to have
everyone playing at the table to be on
the same page before you start
playing so that no one has the wrong
expectations. Even what could be a
great gritty game can end up going
poorly if the players go into it
expecting an over-the-top adventure
romp.
To Ship or Not to Ship,
That is the Question
One of the biggest deciders in how a
campaign is played is whether or not
the players have their own starship.
Without a starship, the players will
obviously be much more limited in
where they travel either being limited
to a single space station or planet, or
having to rely upon passenger liners to
travel between star-systems. This can
lead to interesting challenges as at
least some of the passenger liners
other passengers likely have some
level of distaste or fear towards
humans which could make for
interesting roleplaying opportunities.
The liner might even be attacked by
volucris, immortui, or pirates, and the
players will have to defend the entire
liner from attack, going from deck to
deck fighting off the boarders and
making the other passengers think
again about their distaste for
humanity.
If the players own a starship it will
lead to a different sort of game. The
ship will be a constant drain on their
resources due to fuel and general
upkeep and may force them to take
jobs to keep their heads above water.
More often than not they will be taking
an active role rather than a passive
Chapter 12 - 3
one, as they can often fly away from
local troubles if things get too hairy.
They might be hired to make
deliveries on faraway planets, though
most dont want to deal with human
merchants, so likely theyd only be
hired to do so if the trip is in some way
perilous. They might also be able to
take their ship to investigate places
and things which they would never be
able to hire a ship for, such as
exploring ruins of the ancient species.
Having a ship requires certain skill
requirements to use if effectively, such
as Piloting and Repair: Starships. In
addition, unless you and your players
want to just gloss over much of it,
there will be a certain amount of
planning where to travel and deciding
where to dock their ships when they
get there. The rules for piloting a ship
both through the warp and in-system
are streamlined and shouldnt take the
focus away from the core Space Dogs
game.
Whether or not the players have a
ship, there are a variety of different
sorts of games that you can run, but
you should know what your aim is.
Creating Your World
As the Gamemaster, you are the
creator of your own campaign and the
world that its in. Even though youre
likely setting your game in the
universe of Space Dogs, being your
campaign its your world to fill and
make feel real to your players.
Probably the number one key to
creating a campaign world feel real is
consistency. When your players revisit
a space station they should run into
some of the same characters, and
possibly be recognized in return. They
might become friendly with the local
mechanic at the dock, he and the
crews mechanic trading jibes about
which knows how to wrench a warp
drive better. The mechanic might even
take on his nephew as an apprentice.
That sort of changing campaign world
makes the players feel as though
theyre in a living universe rather than
just a cardboard backdrop which is
only there to spew forth pirates and
monsters for them to fight.
Judging the Rules
When you and your friends gather
around the table to play Space Dogs,
the Gamemaster is in charge of the
game. As the Gamemaster, you are
the final judge on rules within the
game. Good players should recognize
you as the final authority on the rules.
A good GM should know to follow the
rules in this book unless they have a
good reason to do so, and to make
such changes clear to their players
beforehand so that they know the
ground-rules (your games house-
rules) before creating their character
and their strategies.
This means that as a GM, you will
need to know the rules. You dont need
to memorize every rule, but you
should have a general understanding
of the rules and where you look within
the book for a relevant rule.
Sometimes something comes up in-
game which isnt specifically covered
in the rules. In that situation, it is up to
the GM to decide how it should be
resolved. Generally you should try to
extrapolate from rules which you find
for similar situations, and once you do
make a ruling you should be
Chapter 12 - 4
consistent the next time that the same
situation comes up, making it your
tables house-rule.
Teaching the Game
Though not always the case, it is
sometimes the GMs job to teach new
players how to play Space Dogs. This
can be a lot of fun. Teaching people
how to play gives you new players and
lets you to help them become great
roleplayers and enjoy the
awesomeness which is Space Dogs.
How you teach someone how to play
Space Dogs will vary quite a bit
whether or not they are new to RPGs
in general or just new to Space Dogs.
However, in either case there are
some things which you should keep in
mind.
Character creation: As the GM
you need to know the character
creation rules well so that you
can help new players build their
characters. The character
creation rules for Space Dogs
arent super complex, but
almost nothing is worse in an
RPG than realizing in your third
game session that you built
your character wrong. No
matter whether the changes
make your character weaker,
stronger, or just different, it
feels off to have to change your
character to fit the rules after
already having played them for
some time. Though if youre all
new, you should feel free to
start playing with the sample
characters.
The players need to know:
New players shouldnt
have to worry about learning all
of Space Dogs rules before
playing. While its a plus if each
player knows how their own
character works (how to move,
vitality/wounds, grit, and how to
use skills) most rules can be
learned during play. As a
general rule if the players know
how to use whats on their
character sheet then theyre
ready for play, and everything
else can be learned on the fly
during play.
The GM needs to know:
As the GM, you need to
know the basics of how to play
Space Dogs. As long as you
know the rules the game can
move forward. If a player isnt
sure of a rule, have them tell
you what they want their
character to do, and you can
explain how the rules for it
work. Explain during play and
try not to slow down the game
too much when you do so. For
example, if a player wants to
get through a doors electronic
lock, you can explain that they
need to use their Hacking skill,
rolling d8s equal to their skill
plus their Dexterity &
Sharpness. After a time or three
the player should be able to
pick up on it and similar rules.
Balancing at the Table
Game balance is about keeping the
player characters of your crew
relatively equal in power and game
presence. A well balanced game
shouldnt have one character totally
dominating the game, either in
combat or just in a dominating table
Chapter 12 - 5
presence, always having the right tool
for the job. This can most easily
happen when one player has a greater
knowledge of the rules than the
others, or if one of your games house-
rules has gone awry.
To a lesser degree, game balance is
also about making sure that the crew
isnt too strong for the challenges they
face to be threatening, but also so that
the crew isnt stomped into the ground
in every fight. The Threat Guide has
some tips for designing encounters,
but it isnt a perfect system, and it
doesnt take into account the exact
make-up of your players crew and
how they want to tackle challenges.
However, every challenge that the
players face shouldnt be the same
level of difficulty. Sometimes it can be
fun for the players to be able to win a
fight with ease, especially if its
against the same sorts of foes which
were giving them trouble earlier in the
campaign. Or on a skill challenge, it
can be fun to be able to hack a
system, making it willingly spew forth
all of its secrets. It helps the players
feel like the hardcore space privateer
they are. On the other hand,
sometimes it can be fun for the
players to encounter things which are
difficult if not impossible to overcome.
The galaxy is a big place, and it can
make it feel less real for your players if
every possible foe is tailored just for
them. In addition, even a deadly
challenge which is virtually impossible
to deal with in a head on conflict
might still have a place in your game.
A fleet of immortui marauders
shouldnt be charged at guns blazing,
but the players escaping to warn The
Armada of them can be a different sort
of victory.
***
Balancing the Game: Exo-
Suits & Mecha
If any of the players characters get an
exo-suit or a mecha to jockey, they will
inherently be more powerful than they
would be without them. This is a core
building block of the games design, as
what would be the point of piloting a
mecha if you it didnt make you both
bigger and badder? In general terms,
jockeying an exo-suit doubles a
characters combat ability, while
jockeying a mecha multiples it by four.
While certainly not a perfect variable,
and one which varies by their
opponent, its still handy.
This leads to the question of what
happens if some of the PCs are in
mecha and some arent. Now, using
either exo-suits or mecha will be
limited by area. They cant jockey a
military grade exo-suit into a crowded
station bazaar without causing a
panic, and many ship & station
corridors would be too small for a
mecha to stand upright much less
maneuver freely. If you do end up with
your players having a mix of infantry
and mecha in any given battle, make
sure that the players with infantry
characters dont feel overshadowed
and make sure that they realize that it
is the mecha which is allowing that
character to be so powerful on the
battlefield.
There may end up being situations
where all of the PCs are piloting exo-
suits and/or mecha. You can run a
campaign where most of the combats
are done when all of the PCs are
jockeying mecha. If you do that
though, make sure that the foes are a
Chapter 12 - 6
threat to the players. While it can be
fun occasionally, dominating battles
without being challenged can get old
fast. If nothing else, when piloting
mecha its hard for your foes not to
know that youre coming, and knowing
that, intelligent foes will have
something ready which will let them
do more than scratch a mechas paint.
On the other hand, it can feel a bit
frustrating to your players if every
combatant they go up against
suddenly has their own mecha or even
a rocket launcher, AM rifle, and/or
power hammer every time they jack-in
to a mecha.
However, like with everything else,
your players are unique, and you
might have to try a couple of different
styles of play before finding what
works best at your table.
Enemy Morale
One of the things which is different
about running a Space Dogs game in
comparison to other RPGs is the
morale rules as explained in Chapter
17. Most enemies which the players
fight will likely break and run from
them rather than fighting to the last
man. This is a lot of fun and helps
make the enemy and the whole game
feel more real rather than just being
targets for the players characters to
hit. However, it can make running a
game session a bit trickier.
For example, when the PCs board a
Primeval ship, they have an initial
combat just as they board with four
krakiz. After taking down a couple of
the foes the Primevals break, two run
in one direction, one runs in another,
while the PCs are able to corner the
last so that he surrenders. As the GM,
you have to keep to see that the one
ran into a closet where hell hide for
an hour, likely doing nothing until after
the fighting is all over. However, the
other two ran towards where another
Primeval unit with their pride leader is,
and she can regroup them and they
will join their unit. Because they ran in
that direction, the fight with that unit
will be that much harder.
Now, as GM you dont need to worry
too much about keeping all of the
Morale rules perfectly. The important
thing is that youre consistent so that
the players actions can have an
impact upon the outcome. In the
above example, if the PCs had been
able force all of the krakiz who got
away to run towards a corner of the
ship, the pride leader wouldnt be able
to get any of them to regroup for an
hour.
It should also be noted that the Morale
rules, or at least their effects, are the
reason that enemies dont always
attack en masse whenever possible.
Theyre generally not stupid, and they
know that their units might break
quickly. Therefore, they are usually
better off attacking in waves, with
locked doors and automated turrets
slowing down the boarders and giving
them time to regroup when needed.
Crafting Your
Adventures
One of the most difficult and
rewarding parts of being a
Gamemaster is creating adventures
for your players to have. After you and
your players have decided upon the
general type of Space Dogs game you
want to play, youll need to come up
Chapter 12 - 7
with the specifics. For obvious
reasons, this isnt something that you
should talk out with your players. After
all, whats the fun in not being able to
surprise your players with the
occasional twist?
To start with, you might want to run
Repel the Boarders, the prepared
adventure in the back of this book. Its
designed specifically to be a good
start for new players and veterans
alike, throwing them in the deep end
of the setting and giving players a
taste of several core pieces of the
Space Dogs universe. Repel the
Boarders can make a good opening for
your own Space Dogs campaign. More
prepared adventures are planned for
the future, and they may well be
published by the time you read this.
Whatever the reason, you may well
find that there are no prepared
adventures which quite fit the sort of
campaign you want to run. In that
case, youll want to craft your own.
You should feel free the draw heavily
on the style of the prepared
adventures or perhaps draw on any
experience you might have in other
RPG game systems, creating a style of
adventure all your own. Some of the
best adventures can draw heavily from
a movie, TV show, or book, though
youll likely want to change it enough
so that any of your players who may
have read or watched the same thing
dont guess whats going to happen.
Your Campaigns
Timeline
As of this books publishing, the
default setting is in the year of 2087,
reflecting the endpoint of the current
timeline. Future adventures and
supplements will reflect that, that is in
no way a requirement for your own
campaign. You should feel free to set
your game anywhere on the timeline
that you want, playing a historical
campaign. However, if you want to
follow the timeline rather than
deviating from the standard Space
Dogs setting entirely, there are things
that you should avoid putting in your
game.
2070s
Council of Mothers: The
Council of Mothers was only
founded near the end of this
decade. Human psychics didnt
even have the veneer of being
united as they do in the present
day of 2087. Human psychics
should be much rarer in
general.
Prototypes: Many of the
weapon systems which are
relatively common in the
present day didnt in the
2070s, or if they did they were
just prototypes and should be
far rarer, sometimes running
into technical difficulties.
2060s
Alien mechas: Alien species
besides the builders only began
to have mecha in any numbers
in the 2070s, though even then
they were only used
sporadically. If you have your
players encounter any alien
mechas at all, they would have
to be experimental prototypes.
Communities:
Communities which are
Chapter 12 - 8
 human centric only began in the
mid-to-late 2060s as there
became enough humans in the
galaxy to support such. During
this time period and earlier,
nearly all humans live on
Armada bases, or in the nearby
areas.
Cybernetics: Human
cybernetics were not created
until the early 2060s. While the
berlichs were using cybernetics
well before humanity ever
reached the stars, humanity
was still using prosthetics, albeit
ones which had been improved
greatly from a combination of
humanitys own increased
technology and mixing in the
few crumbs of builder tech
which humans have begun to
crack. Though of note, there are
no rules for human cybernetics
in this book, they are planned in
a future supplement.
Human psychics: The oldest
recorded psychic was only 11
years old when the 2060s
began. If you still want to have
human psychics, you would
have to be playing in to latter
part of this decade, and the
psychic would be a teenager. In
addition, they would be even
more of a rarity and social
outcast than psychics in the
present day of 2087.
Moreaus: The moreaus only
became a known quantity in the
early 2070s. If you want your
game to include them, they
would likely still be under the
control of their creators, and
few if any of them would be
adults. Perhaps the players
could become one of the driving
forces in setting them free,
though the moreaus are just as
wary of humanity as they are
every other species, having
almost a sort of sibling rivalry
with Earths favored child.
2050s
Colonies: The colonial boom
didnt begin until the 2060s, so
new colonies will be rather rare.
Unlike later colonies, the
colonies and other settled
planets that exist are almost all
dominated by a single species,
with rules and/or laws denying
any position of authority to
other species.
Human psychics: There are no
human psychics at all until
2056, so they are unplayable.
Merchants: While the
merchant class began to take
advantage of humanity as
security and guards, there was
considerably more reticence to
hire them, especially in the
early 2050s. Even if its not real
reticence, a merchant might
realize the difficulty of a human
crew landing a job, bargaining
hard to get their protection at a
discount.
Ruins: As there are few
colonies pushing the boundaries
of the starlanes, there are fewer
newly discovered ruins of the
ancient species to explore.
Likely any around would have
been at least superficially
looked over by previous
explorers, though the dangers
might have killed them and/or
driven them off before they
were able to look at much more
than the surface.
Chapter 12 - 9
 Veterans: In the 2050s all
players will be veterans of the
armada. The oldest humans
born in space would still be
children during this decade, and
therefore every human will have
had a rank in the military.
2040s
Armada: Until the mid-late
2040s, all humans out among
the stars were a part of the
armada. Any campaign set
before then would have to be a
military campaign. Rather than
being a tiny part of larger
actions, the players might be in
the crew of a small patrol
starship, primarily based in the
outlying areas. The players will
have a chain of command
amongst themselves, and they
will commonly be the first
humans which any aliens that
they meet have ever seen in
person. If the campaign takes
place early enough, they may
even run into out-of-the-way
systems which still havent
heard of humans or The
Armada. They might instead be
part of security aboard a large
space station.
Mecha: The players
will likely not have access to
any mecha or exo-suits. In
addition, weapon systems
specifically designed to counter
them such as the AM rifle will be
just as experimental and rare
than the mecha themselves.
Space Dogs: There were
no Space Dogs throughout the
bulk of the 2040s. The first
letters of marque were written
up on 2049. While some
humans were hired as security
before they officially given
letters of marque in the late
2040s, they werent trusted in
the same way and they had no
legal authority beyond being
citizens of the starlanes.
Chapter 12 - 10