2300 AD
Core RulebookBest For
Groups who want career-shaped crews exploring a politically divided interstellar frontier where starship operations and hard-science constraints drive missions.
Core Mechanic
For a task, roll d10 and add modifiers from applicable skills and characteristics; meet a difficulty target from 2 for Simple to 18 for Impossible to succeed. A natural 1 fumbles, while failed checks use a separate roll to determine whether the character may retry or suffers a mishap. Hasty, hazardous, uncertain, and cooperative tasks modify time, failure risk, information, or group participation without changing the core check.
The core task check is straightforward: roll d10, apply skill and characteristic modifiers, and meet a difficulty target. Depth comes from career construction and tactical combat. Starship engineering and world generation add separate procedures that meet the character rules in expedition play. The Referee must coordinate characters, vessels, and generated environments during preparation.
- Free to tryNothing freeNo free rules or starter
- Get it nowSold newIn print or as a legal PDF
- ✓IndexFind any rule by page number
- ✓GM guidanceA chapter on how to run the game
- ✓Examples of playRules shown in action at the table
- ✓Quick referenceCheat sheet or summary tables
- –Cross-referencesRules rarely point to each other by page
4 of 5 book tools found in the core book
Highlights
Career terms turn pre-play service into skills and organizational ties, giving each crew member a practical history that feeds later missions. Space combat uses hex movement and signature-based detection, making maneuver and sensor discipline as important as weapon range. Linked world-generation and mapping procedures build planets down to regional terrain, giving exploration campaigns playable locations instead of setting prompts.
Considerations
Character creation can end when a turning-point roll fails, leaving a concept in its current career before the player intended. Combat routes each hit through location and damage-type tables, adding several lookups to a fight. The future history assumes a World War III and French hegemony, so campaigns are tied to a specific 1980s vision of the 24th century.
Third-Party Publishing
Rules license All Rights Reserved
Original noncommercial fan works for 2300AD, including websites and fanzines, subject to notice, notification, attribution, and limited-quotation conditions; paid use and rulebook rewrite or republication are excluded.
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