Spotlight on Princess Persevone

"We can't all be Princesses; someone has to clap as I pass by."

There is a long tradition of princesses in space opera: Dejah Thoris, Aura, Leia Organa, Koriand'r. It would not have felt right to not have a space princess in Rayguns and Rocketships. However, when it came to creating one, I wanted to make sure she wasn't just a prize to be won. Princess Persevone ended up becoming one of the most interesting and powerful characters in the game!

Princess Persevone concept by Scott Rogers

3D model by Kaleb Rice

Color guide by Scott Rogers

Princess Persevone is the spirited princess of Vaporia, who has grown weary of her life of palace confinement. She yearns for a life beyond the walls of the floating city and will often sneak away from her bodyguards to pursue adventure. 

To an observer, Persevone appears to be the very definition of a princess: haughty and disdainful - but in reality, she is a strong-willed and resourceful woman to be reckoned with. While she has been trained in the martial arts by the Battlemasters of Vaporia, she refuses to sully herself with combat, believing it is beneath her.

As the daughter (some say love child) of space hero “Rock” Novastar and Her Royal Queen Jillian of Vaporia, the princess shares a complicated relationship with her half-sister, Jesse Novastar. 

Persevone often finds herself kidnapped by Count Ventura, who desires to make her his bride. She is not at all interested in the Star-Pirate Captain and has escaped his clutches time and time again.

Princess Persevone token art

In game, Persevone comes in two forms. In the core game, she appears a token with the following abilities: At the beginning of the game, the Princess is kidnapped. Place her token on the rocketship's hatch. While Persevone is on the hatch, the kidnapper may draw a star card at the cost of 1 action token (no die roll required!) 

Upon being rescued, the princess becomes a crew member of the rescuing team and gains the following abilities: 

• Heal: The princess may heal a crew member (or allow them to ignore one damage) once per phase as a free action. 
•  Act: The princess may man a raygun, cockpit or control panel. Treat this as if she were a normal crew member. 
• Move: The fleet footed princess may move up to 4 spaces per turn.

Princess Persevone captain card art

 As part of the Kickstarter campaign, Persevone gets her own miniature and Captain card, allowing her to be classified as a mercenary captain! She gains several powerful abilities including I Order You to Keep Fighting!: Which allows the player to spend 1 action token to prevent an adjacent friendly crew member from taking 1 damage. This means at the princess's command, a fragile crew member suddenly gains temporary invulnerability from one attack! Another excellent special ability is Fighting is Beneath Me: Where every friendly crew member adjacent to Persevone may make 1 extra melee or ranged combat attack as a free action! The crew members all leap to the defense of their beloved princess!

Hopefully you will find Princess Persevone and all of the other mercenary characters a fun addition to the game! Stay tuned as we spotlight more content from Rayguns and Rocketships!

FUNDED!!!

I don't know if you heard but...

 Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has pledged the Kickstarter campaign. And the rest of you, hop to it, we have stretch goals to unlock!!

The Rayguns in Rayguns and Rocketships

I've been bursting to share this announcement ever since IDW Games first showed me their plans for this super-rad add-on. Check it out! Miniature Rayguns!!! They are so cute, but deadly!

You can add these on to your existing pledge!

It comes with 23 rayguns - enough for all four rocketships!

They are perfectly scaled to the Planeteer crew member miniatures!

So cool!

Keep it up, Planeteers!

The latest report just came in and you've already defeated more Blaarg! Great work! Keep going! WE CAN DO IT! ONWARD TO VICTORY!!

Only YOU can defeat the Blaarg!

A visit to IDW Games!

Hey Planeteers!

Even though I live in Los Angeles, IDW Games is (relatively) close in nearby San Diego for me to come in for a Rayguns and Rocketships related visit.

IDW Games is located above the awesome Comic Art Museum - which is housed in a beautiful Southern California mission-style building. It has a cool collection of original comic book art.

However, I was there to see Rayguns and Rocketships! And on this visit, they had a surprise for me, a production copy of the game!

I was thrilled to see the game finally looking how I always imagined it

Now keep in mind, there are still a few tweaks here and there to be made - THIS NOT THE FINAL VERSION OF THE GAME - but this is pretty close.

The painted cards by Ron Salas are gorgeous!

This board will look even better with tokens and rocketships on it!

This is just one of the token sheets for the game. Note the raygun-shaped 1st player token

The box on the top is the final size - plenty of room to fit the game and (hopefully) expansions!

Needless to say, I was thrilled to see the high-detail miniatures (what final size they will be in still be discussed) and the beautiful card and board art.

The miniatures look amazing on the new rocketship game board!

The Planeteers are ready for action!

A big thanks to IDW Games for hosting me. They are doing an awesome job with the game. I can't wait for YOU to see Rayguns and Rocketships for yourself!

Rayguns and Rocketships Prototype

My brother recently shared these photos of an early prototype of Rayguns and Rocketships from my birthday party from a few years ago. This would probably be version 2.0 of the prototype of the game. Sharp eyes will not only spot the hand-drawn rocketships and star map, but also the four-armed Blaarg captain and the male Astro-Ranger captain!

Thanks to Chris Rogers for the great photos!

Spotlight on Captain Cards: Count Ventura

Anyone who knows me knows I love pirates. But despite my best efforts to not be so predictable, pirates have always managed to find their way in my game designs. However, with Rayguns and Rocketships I knew I had to have pirates in the game. The Star-Pirates Planeteer faction was always a big part of the game from the beginning.

In the Rayguns and Rocketships universe, the Star-Pirates are actually the military who have decided it would be much more profitable to turn to piracy. As a result, they have the strongest rayguns and the skills to use them. They operate from a bolt-hole in the Samadi asteroid belt, where their rocketships emerging to prey on passing merchant and pleasure rocketships.

Count Ventura concept art by Scott Rogers

Count Ventura color guide by Scott Rogers

The Star Pirates are secretly led by Count Ventura, a dashing nobleman who lives a double life as a ruthless pirate. The Count can be found supporting public works and attending gala balls, where he is viewed by all as a charming liar. Count Ventura is inspired by some of my favorite pirates - Captain Hook, Captain Morgan, and space pirate Captain Harlock as well as Prince Barin, as played by Timothy Dalton in the Flash Gordon movie.

As the leader of the Star Pirates, Count Ventura is a deadly opponent who gives his victims no quarter. However, there is one victim whom the Count will always spare - Princess Persevone of Vaporia, whom the Count is infatuated with.

Prototype card shown. All content subject to change.

I wanted Count Ventura's Captain cards to reflect both natures - dashing rogue and ruthless pirate.The first build of Count Ventura features the Count's sword fighting skills in Expert Duelist. The count may re-roll one missed melee combat roll per opponent per turn.The Count's second ability, Ruthless Pirate lets the player sacrifice one Star Pirate crew member to steal up to 6 banked action tokens from an opponent once a game. No victory points are awarded for crew sacrificed this way. Clearly the Count will do anything, even kill off one of his own crew members, to insure victory!

Prototype card shown. All content subject to change.

The second build of Count Ventura gives the player a choice: should I stay or should I go? Master Gunner gives the player a powerful advantage when manning a raygun. And if that raygun should get shot at, the Count can always absorb a hit or two to protect that raygun. However, with Bloodthirty, the Count can immediately join a crew member who has boarded an enemy's rocketship. Is it better to leave Count Ventura on the ship or with his crew? That's for you to decide!

Stay tuned as we spotlight more content from Rayguns and Rocketships!