This dropped on tumblr and I snatched it up, both expecting great things but also in fear that the scouring eye of Games Workshop might not be far behind.
This is a system light game of being one of the myriad servants who toil in the background, that the Space Marines might fight for the Emperor. After all, someone must ensure all the candles we see in every piece of art stay lit.
Zedeck wrote their thoughts in a neat blog on the genesis of the game, well worth the read. The game itself is 75 landscape pages, bright text on dark background, very much in keeping with what we have seen for in-universe technical read-outs.
Opening cinematic of the Space Marine game by Relic Entertainment
So what is all this stuff you get in the book?
4 pages of lead in - where, who, why - in general
5 pages of 'system' - split around the roles
31 pages making a d66 table of roles
14 pages of major NPCs
37 pages of setting - the Warmask of Gloriana
2 pages of thanks and 'why play this'
So what is in here chunk by chunk?
The two pages of lead in are great if you are familiar with the universe, and let us assume many are, and situate the action nicely. There are five incredibly puissant warriors aboard this ship of 20,000 souls. You are one of the 19,995 who strive to deliver them to their target.
We get the system split before and after the roles. First is three attributes, 3d6 each, d6 hp then d66 for your old role before what you are now. After the roles comes how you act - time passes in 'shifts' and you can move and act per shift. Fights are old school - attacks just hit, you are rolling damage automatically, you have few hp - do not get in fights.
The d66 table of roles is the heart of this - are you a cogitationist or cook, Bailiff or Candlelighter, Servitor-herd or Telepathica Liaison. Each gets two lines of description that captures role and your journey to bring you here. Four bullets of kit fill out who your character. For some of the characters, this place on the voidship is a reward for good service, others have fallen from previous grace to these new duties, solving problems for the Seneschal. You get a table of what potential problems you are sent to solve to get started.
The major NPCs are both faction heads but also inventory - you gain access to stuff through favour of the relevant officers. You gain favour by doing the things they want which may or may not land you in trouble with other officers. Favour earned with an officer unlocks certain services but can also be spent for things ranging from rations to a walker-mounted volkite culverin.
Next we get the voidship itself - the Warmask of Gloriana - portrayed as schematic with 17 locations detailed,. Each location has plot hooks and perhaps some monsters on top of the description of who and what is here. All the problems you could have been given earler link to these locations - some are just difficult to access, others are a bit of a scavenger hunt through the depths of the ship. It is good stuff, with nice descriptions. Even if you know little about the greater universe lore you could work with what you get here. The ship itself is colossal - with a move per 6-hour shift, unless you are doing nothing but dash, it is a four-day hike from the prow to the stern - plenty of room to cram in any other ideas one might have.
The document closes out with thanks and 'why play this' - offering some tonal guidance on when to use this in place of some other one of the games in the same universe that foreground more martially potent characters. This is complemented by the 'inspiration' blogpost above but enough to take to table of itself.
I think Chapter Serf is going to be one of those things that will be a bit marmite - either you will look at this and go 'I do not get it, why are there candles on a starship' or you will, as most I have shown this to, go "ooh, oooh, when are we running it." The light-weight system and deadly combat are just the trick for playing as merely human inhabitants of that grimdark universe - where even on the relatively friendly terrain of your own warship, not even in combat, things are risky and your life is expendable.
Do yourself a favour and grab this, whether just to play as a palate-cleansing one-shot or to leverage for a whole campaign. Then download it, stick it on a USB and air-gap it safely, better yet, print out a hardcopy. Just in case.
For another view see Timothy Linward on WarGamer or Ram's terse recommendation on Save vs Total Party Kill.
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