About this project
The first unit to arrive was local Officers Angelo and Kaplinsky, seven minutes after the original dispatch. They secured the area, clearing out the civilians who had yet to flee. In the five minutes in which this took, DFM agents Florin, York, Yoren and Renault arrived. They assisted in clearing out the area and instigated a case perimeter.
Initial investigation revealed one suspected fabricant (SUS-F) holding four hostages in the diner. One hostage was already seen to be dead. Upon approach, the SUS-F shouted that he wanted the officer to step back or he would execute the hostages he held. The officers, upon further observation from a greater distance away, believed they had enough evidence that the suspect was in fact a fabricant. His behavior conformed with classic hostage-taking programming…
-Excerpt from DFM case file 556-447-322
The Game
The Department is a tabletop miniature game set in a near future America where Fabricated Human Simulants, also known as fabricants, walk among us. Players take on the role of agents from the U.S. Department of Fabricant Management, a government department charged with policing fabricants and fighting the increasing instances of fabricant-related terrorism. The Department is meant to be the first tabletop police procedural game that requires no Game Master to play. Players will use sleuthing, investigation, interrogation, and combat to hunt down and stop fabricant terrorist cells.
The game draws heavily on the noir and police procedural dramas and blends in elements of robotic sci-fi. The Department is not cyberpunk: it’s Blade Runner meets Law and Order meets I-Robot meets American Gangster meets Mad Men meets The Maltese Falcon and more.
Where Wargame and RPG Meet
The Department uses the popular Goalsystem, written by Scott Pyle. Building on this proven base, The Department features an innovative, cooperative campaign system where players play scenarios in order to gather a diverse array of evidence points. Players then use these evidence points to acquire warrants, follow up on leads, and finally hunt down the leadership of the fabricant terrorist cell. The campaign constantly challenges players to use their limited investigation resources wisely, as their department’s patience will eventually run out and the players will be thrown off of the case.
While it is meant to be played as a tabletop miniature wargame that requires no game master, The Department can be played without miniatures as a map based tabletop RPG. Our goal is to create a rulebook that allows you to explore the streets of 2060s America your way.
What We Will Produce
And When We Will Produce It.
The Department will be an approximately 150 page full color soft cover A4 sized book chock full of art, fiction, and a complete ruleset ready to play straight away.
We will also be producing a full color PDF as well as a kindle, ebook, and a printer-friendly Pdf version.
Currently, production is on schedule and we aim to release The Department in Q1 2012.
All contributors will be acknowledged in the print and electronic versions of the game.
You can find more information on our official website. www.departmentoffabricantmanagement.com
The Money Side of Things
We’re raising Kickstarter funding to cover our creative costs and an initial print run.
We are a global team working in three countries, but our printing operations will be done in the UK. Please consider adding in the cost of shipping (we recommend $7) for physical items shipped outside of the UK.
If you are a distributor or a store and would like to make a bulk order, please contact joseph.dragovich@gmail.com to discuss a custom donation.FAQ
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The Department is a completely self contained book ready to play on arrival.
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Since GoalSystem is first an foremost a miniature wargame, The Department uses a simple but robust dice mechanic to keep the action going. The Department uses D6's rolled in a pool, where players are trying to get a number of "goals"(4+). We're going for a Savage Worlds approach, where the mechanics have enough detail for RPGers, but be fast enough for wargamers. If I had to compare it to a popular system, I would say it's like a simpler Shadowrun in terms of mechanics.
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The simple answer is that The Department is going to have a load of replay value because it's three games in one.
A. Players cooperate to investigate and destroy a fabricant terrorist cell. This is where the fabricants are controlled by the game by means of dice. Think of this as a free form Arkham Horror game. This is the mode demonstrated in the Sample of Play.
B. As a straight up miniature wargame where one player takes control of a group of DFM agents and the other takes a gang of fabricants to battle it out on the streets of 2060's America.
C. Players can play The Department as a traditional pen and paper RPG with a GM. We'll be providing a long list of NPC's and more detailed rules for social interaction beyond the investigation. While we really like using miniatures in RPG's, there is no need if you don't want to when playing this mode.
Have a question? If the info above doesn't help, you can ask the project creator directly.
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Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on September 16.
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Beat Cop: You will receive an electronic copy of the book. You choose between PDF (color or printer-friendly), ebook or Kindle format.
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Detective: You will receive a signed, numbered edition of the printed book as well as your choice of electronic version.
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2nd Lieutenant: As Detective, plus your choice of either a Department of Fabricant Management t-shirt (shown at left but not finalized) or a signed, numbered A3 sized poster of the cover art.
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1st Lieutenant: As Detective, plus you will receive a t-shirt and a signed, numbered poster.
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Commissioner: As 1st Lieutenant, and our head artist, Dave Powell, will include your portrait into the book’s artwork. You will also receive this artwork as a signed print.
Project By
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Originally Born in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Joe is a freelance game designer whose credits include Goalsystem titles as well as Blue Moon Manufacturing's Galactic War 1.
Joe is currently living Cardiff, UK and has gathered an international team to work on his next project, The Department.
