Publisher Edge Studio has confirmed that their RPG adaptation of Twilight Imperium is “finally making it to market”, after “production delays and problems with shipping and transportation” held up the release. ‘Embers of the Imperium’ adapts the setting from the space opera board game Twilight Imperium: Fourth Edition to use in the Genesys RPG system.
Twilight Imperium has a well-deserved place on our list of the best space board games and best strategy board games. Players forging empires through military might, research, and politics, like the best 4X games on PC. Its detailed setting has evolved across editions of the game, providing a solid foundation for an RPG.
In Embers of the Imperium, players will “take on the role of the Keleres, special agents empowered by the Galactic Council to seek out and destroy threats so big they threaten the entire galaxy”, according to Edge Studio. Twilight Imperium has a huge range of competing races and factions, like the Xxcha Kingdom – turtle people – or the Emirates of Hacan – space lions – and if they all make it into the game there should be plenty of diversity when it comes to picking your character.
Anyone who has played a game of TI4 will know that the Galactic Council is not a particularly cohesive body, and Edge Studio says that “most of the time, your hardest task seems to be convincing those various factions that these looming galactic threats are more of a danger than their neighbouring star-faring civilizations”.
Some lucky fans may already have their hands on copies of the book, according to a post on the Edge Studio blog from March 27. The firm adds that the remainder of “the books are currently somewhere in the Atlantic, and will be arriving in stores both in the US and the rest of Europe in the next couple of months”.
The Genesys system is Edge Studios’ rules engine. It employs a custom RPG dice system to add extra drama to rolls beyond success and failure. It powers the Star Wars RPG – among the best tabletop RPGs out there – and it will be interesting to see what another sci fi RPG does with the same core rules.