Last week, I crowed enthusiastically, our agreement with Basic Action Games to make BASH-Sci Fi the official system for Knights-Marshal of the Commonwealth!

So, a few days ago, I received from Chris Rutkowsky, of Basic Action Games, the working files for the proposed Ultimate BASH-Sci Fi. I am currently in the process of digesting them in order to see how KMotC will be affected. So far, things are looking great, and I anticipate my writing being faster and better for having access to the Ultimate Edition.

Having said that, KMotC will not exactly be the Ultimate Edition of BASH-Sci Fi - at least not in its entirety. There are reasons for that, which i would like to touch on below:

Knights-Marshal of the Commonwealth is a setting specific book which uses the fully evolved iteration of BASH- SC Fi, tailored for our setting. So you won't see all of the material you would see in Ultimate, which is designed as a toolset to build your own setting. You won't find anything that you won't use for KMotC. What you will find is the history of the Commonwealth and its races, rules for character generation, advantages and disadvantages, weapons, tech, ships, worlds, laws and customs, aliens and planets, all fully realized for Knights-Marshal. In KMotC, we have done the heavy lifting of campaign building for you: used a great ruleset to make a campaign come alive, and given you something you can play/use 'right out of the can', so to speak.

This approach means Knights-Marshal of the Commonwealth works as a great reference volume. Instead of having to flip through pages of Ultimate, wondering what is 'Approved for KMotC', you can rest assured that if it is in our KMotC line, it has the seal of approval.

Because KMotC is a specific setting, we have tailored BASH-Sci Fi for that experience. We have made adjustments to the core rules to fit our setting. generally this is because something that we are doing in KMotc is intended to function differently than the default rules in Ultimate. This might be a rules sub-set, like the mechanics of Faster-Than-Light Travel in The KM Universe. Or it could be an alternate interpretation of a standard 'bit' of sci fi - like the Organosynth advantage below, which replaces the Cyborg advantage in BASH-Sci Fi.

Below are a few things that will probably be a little different in Knights-Marshal of the Commonwealth. Of course, you can use these in whatever BASH game you want:

Alien – This advantage allows you to play an alien. It could be one of your own design [if the GM allows], one from the BASH-SF book, or one of the aliens already described in the KM setting. If you design your own, this Advantage grants you access to the Alien powers to design your races abilities. Otherwise take a look at  the appropriate template or description for what you get and what you need to do. And give a look to the appropriate Alien write-up in ‘Races of the Commonwealth’. You will need to work with the GM to fit your new alien and its culture into the setting. When you note this advantage on your character sheet, put the name of the alien race next to it, so everything is clear.

Beneficial Mutation – you may purchase a single power from the Alien list in BASH-SF. This power is not, of itself, enough to mark you as abnormal, except possibly when in use. If you wish, you may choose the Mutant Disadvantage, to reflect the fact that your appearance is abnormal or disturbing.

Organosynth – You are partly synth in make-up, either by design or because of surgery in the past. You gain +5 Soak and may purchase powers from the Mechanical Powers list. Whenever you suffer damage, compare each of the damage dice d6s separately against the number of points you spent on Mechanical Powers.

• If each die is equal to or below that number, your cybernetics take the damage and you must be repaired rather than healed [the damage is still marked off from your starting Hits, like any other damage] AND you must choose a single power that is rendered inoperable until you can have it repaired.
• If one of the dice is equal to or below that number, you may either suffer the damage to your cybernetic parts [as above] or choose a single mechanical Power to lose until it is repaired, suffering no damage to your Hits.   
• If each die are above the number of Power Points you have suffered damage to the organic part of you.

Note: No matter where the damage is dealt, Wound Threshold penalties are applied as normal.