Metascape uses a quirky and unusual resolution system, which takes a little while to get used to. Some players, especially those who dislike or have problems with mathematics, may find it a little cumbersome, but the inclusion of doubling tables makes it much more convenient. In fact, even the math whizzes in my gaming group use the tables for convenience. One player made an extended doubling table for those open-ended situations with multiple 16s.

The system can make combat very brief, or a long tedious affair, depending on the opponent. An ordinary unarmoured Anthropos or kurg will quite likely die very quickly (especially against experienced characters). A tough horak takes quite a bit longer. In fact the combats in my group against horak tended to go a bit like this:

ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding ding SPLAT!!

The 'ding' is where the player rolled low and failed to penetrate the creatures AR, causing no damage at all. The 'SPLAT' is where the player rolled a result of several thousand and killed the thing with one blow. The combat was long and tedious, as the horak couldn't hit the player either.

In non-combat situations, high rolls and a liberal application of Luck points can make the players succeed in almost anything they try. I once had a player try to seduce an NPC. I deliberately made it almost impossible by setting the difficulty at 100. He rolled a result of several thousand. She is now a major NPC and a serious plot hook for that player's character.

However, there is an issue with fumbles. It is actually very easy to roll a fumble (a '1' on both dice). The chance is greater when you are rolling a d6 than with a d10. Therefore the chance is greater when rolling a 6H than a 10L. It is this disproportionality that causes the problem. Fumbles occur a lot more often than they should. When rolling a d6 the chance is almost one in ten.

What I do is rule that a double 1 is an automatic failure, and only occasionally throw in a 'bad thing' for dramatic effect. Most fumbles can be countered by judicious use of luck boxes anyway.

The challenge when running Metascape is in presenting actual danger to the PCs. Using a combination of high rolls and luck points, the characters can survive anything up to and including a building falling on them. The solution I have found is to redirect the focus of the game away from combat.

If the danger comes from the consequences of their actions rather than from the threat of being shot in the head, the essential tension of the game is maintained.

For example, in one game I hade a massive Sorce-based weapon that was the focus of a civil conflict on a mining planet on the outskirts of the Guild. The weapon was planted there by the Empire in order to provide a beachhead to an invasion. The player characters fired the weapon, thereby sending the required signal to the waiting Imperial fleet (and its Sorce-adept commander) and triggering the invasion.

If they had not decided to fire the weapon, the Imperials would not have been able to invade. Of course, I knew that they wouldn't be able to resist firing the weapon - I had set it up that way. But it was their option and their decision. As a result of that decision, the Empire invaded Guildspace. If they hadn't fired the weapon, I would have been forced to find another opportunity to stage the invasion.

Threat, tension, danger, but no direct combat. No chance of the PCs getting physically shot in the head. Terrible consequences for the Guild and Dha, but no injury. That is the way to run a Metascape game, especially with high-rank characters.

One character (Drake Kerns, the Marine) has his skill with a Blaster Pistol almost into the Vehicle range. He virtually never misses. If he does miss, he spends a Luck box. This particular character has done some truly amazing things in his time. His blaster pistol is stored in a palmstore. He once drilled an Imperial guard between the eyes before the guard even knew he was in danger. Then he got Nish over the second guard and drilled him too before he could react.

Shortly thereafter, he was fired on by a mBari with a disk macrocannon. He failed his Def roll, but succeeded at his AR. He wasn't wearing his Marine Armour at the time. From across the hangar he shot the mBari, then succeeded in using the shuttle's tractor beam to steal the macrocannon and add it to his collection of heavy weapons.

This is the stuff that great sagas are made from. The Metascape system allows for this, at the expense of real danger to the characters. Forget realistic simulation, the Metascape system is cinematic. I can almost hear the triumphant orchestral soundtrack.

This brings us to another advantage of the Metascape system. It rewards GMs and players who can think on their feet. The system is always throwing up unpredictable results, such as the seduction referred to earlier, and a GM who expects that everything will go as they predicted is going to get a nasty surprise. Like the time the team injected laughing poison into the nutrient intake of an Imperial Cybertank-X.

The true strength of the system therefore is its ability to provide a structure for great storytelling. It makes no claim to realism, but it doesn't need to. Realistically, Drake would never have dinged that macrocannon. But he did. Taking out two guards before they can react is pure space opera.

This, then, is the hallmark of the Metascape system: High drama, extreme action, tense situations - all the things that make a great science fiction movie. All it requires is an imaginative storyteller with an ability to improvise. Because the unexpected WILL occur.