Steel Tempest

Steel Tempest is a tabletop RPG powered by Charge, a stripped down version of the Blades in the Dark system

Tempest used to be an peaceful planet, another growing colony on the human frontier. Then a survey team found the Anomalies, artifacts of unknown provenance that violate the laws of physics. Every CorproState arrived looking to unlock the power of the Anomalies, and the Interstellar Confederation imposed a quarantine to prevent the Anomalies from getting out. Corporate rivalries turned into clashes turned into hostilities turned into war.

That’s where you arrived. You’re a jockey, an elite mercenary piloting a customized war machine called a frame. You take contracts from MercNet, fighting a fragmented war where strategy and objectives are secrets held by your paymasters. A contract may see you shooting at former allies or defending a fortress you once attacked. You fight for money, for pride, for escape from your ghosts, because you can’t imagine anything else.

Mostly you fight for the thrill of victory in the glow of your frame’s interface.

• You are mercenaries fighting for control of strange alien Anomalies on a war-torn planet
• You have a powerful war machine called a frame, which you control through your interface  
• You carry out contracts posted on MercNet by CorproStates

This 25 page game book includes all the rules you need to generate a band of mercenaries and their frames, and run through battles with primary and secondary objectives, with tables for 36 locations, 20 situations, and 10 contacts and bystanders.