i've been building a sci-fi fantasy ttrpg called Fragile Empires and after a lot of hard work the full system is finally done — four books, all out now. wanted to share it here since this is the place for original systems and that's exactly what it is. no hacks, no SRD, built from the ground up.
the setting is a fractured galaxy still living in the wreckage of a war that tore reality open. twelve empires holding onto what's left, unstable trade lanes between them, and the Void pressing in everywhere else. you play an independent crew, each pilot running their own corvette, scraping by with never enough of anything — fuel, ammo, time. it leans gritty and survival-focused but it's got a real cosmic/horror underside to it too.
mechanically it runs on a unified 2d6 core — roll 2d6, drop the lowest, add attribute + skill, hit the target number. same resolution for everything: combat, ship combat, hacking, social, surviving the Void. one system, used everywhere.
the part i'm most happy with is how advantage and disadvantage work. instead of roll-twice-take-the-best, you roll 3d6 and convert them — each 6 is +2, each 4 or 5 is +1, anything lower does nothing — then add the total for advantage or subtract it for disadvantage. it gives a nice swingy-but-controlled boost that isn't just a flat number, and it keeps the target numbers stable so difficulty stays readable. it also means advantage actually feels different every time without bogging the table down.
the whole thing is built around pressure over power. success doesn't make you safer, it makes you more visible. heat builds. factions aren't good or evil, they're just survival strategies with different costs.
the four books:
- Core Rulebook — everything to play. 12 species, 8 careers, combat, ship rules, character creation, the dice system
- Void Master's Codex — GM guide, running pressure and escalation and consequences
- The Void Master's Guide to the Galaxy — bestiary, hazards, gear, drop-in encounters
- Echoes of the Void — the full lorebook, twelve empires and the history behind the war
quick note on transparency since it matters to a lot of people here: all the writing, rules, design and worldbuilding are mine, done over years. i used ai tools for the interior art and for help with formatting and layout. that's disclosed on every book's page and i'd rather just say it plainly than have it be a question.
happy to answer anything about the system, the design choices, or the setting. you can find all four books here: https://fragile-empires.itch.io
thanks for reading.