MEDIA

HNM IN A NUTSHELL

'Human No More' is a tabletop role-playing game that explores the hope and struggle for revolution in a grim galaxy. Belonging to an alliance of non-human species, players embody freedom fighters operating within a guerrilla movement whose sole aim is to overthrow the totalitarian human regime of a not-so-distant future.

HNM is about holding onto your comrades in dire times and finding the resilience to rise against all odds, in a reality where Humanity became the ultimate oppressor and all other intelligent beings, either its slaves, toys, or worse…

FEATURES

-Roleplaying the Proud Non-Humans

Ever wanted to portray a cat infiltrator with mechanical appendages and anarchistic tendencies? Welcome to the HNM Resistance.

Shape your own freedom fighter from a range of uniquely crafted non-human species that populate HNM’s human-oppressed space: Androids, Labor Mutants, gene-revived Neanderthals, Alien Hybrids, Sentient Animals, and more!

-A Dynamic New System Prioritizing Teamplay and Tactics

Finally, the turn is yours! So, you attempt to take an action, and what? Back to the waiting game? Not anymore.

HNM’s open-license RPG system, H2O, takes the familiarity of D20-based systems and brings the tactical depth of squad-based games to the table. Action Points, cover systems, dynamic assist actions, environment interactions, unique map objectives, and more will elevate each armed conflict to new heights.

-An Entire Universe Fitting Your Dinner Table

No, you don’t need a wargaming-size table and unlimited space to enjoy rich role-playing and immersive conflicts with your friends. All you need is your collective imagination and our 1/72 scale design approach!

We are delicately designing HNM to ensure it remains deep, immersive, and tactical wherever you are. From the miniatures that represent your characters to our utilitarian battle maps, we ensure that even the largest warzone will fit on your dinner table (including books, sheets, snacks, and elbows!)

Contents of the Base HNM Set

We will offer multiple reward tiers that include various versions of our components, such as limited-edition designs but let’s start from the core! Here is the contents list of the Base Human No More Set, which we believe is the essential starting product to enjoy the game:

  • Human No More Corebook (Everything you need to learn the rules and the universe of the game)

  • 4 Mission Dossiers (which form the First Campaign of HNM)

  • Resin Miniature Set (Supplying all miniatures required for the campaign)

  • HNM GM Screen

  • Battle Maps

  • Range Rulers

  • Character Sheets

  • Combatant Sheets

  • HNM Dice Set

We will soon release the HNM Preview: The Guerrilla’s Cookbook. You can join our newsletter below to get your free copy once it is released.

SETTING

The human-supremacist, totalitarian government called the Human Apartheid has ruled supreme over the galaxy now known as the Incunabula Hominum for the last 90 years. 

In the wake of the devastating AI uprising, aka the “12 KB Incident,” which kick-started the downfall of the Confederacy, the human extremist, Terran political organization called the “Human Promethean Party” ruthlessly rose to power. Their ascent took place in a matter of short years by either assimilating or eradicating all opposition until the Human Apartheid regime eventually transformed all the structures and actors of the previous status quo of the Terran Galaxy.

Founding its roots in pro-human ideology, the Apartheid built its entire regime and propaganda around the idea that Homo Sapiens, by carrying the pure human genome, is existentially superior to every other sentient being in the known universe. Therefore, the Apartheid deems all non-human living or constructed beings as either sub-human deviations, mechanical vassals, or necessary aberrations.

It is a galaxy where humanity reached a decadent, yet militaristic utopia, at the cost of never-ending oppression and misery for all other sentient beings.

A galaxy where bio-enhanced labor mutants with lungs resistant to toxic gas and life spans no longer than a dozen years are born. They live and die, never leaving the mine shafts they were appointed to… 

Cats, dogs, and chimpanzees are transformed into intelligent yet docile flesh toys for the entertainment of the entire family… 

Expert androids in vital duties are implanted with pain sensors so they can be disciplined through torture if they fail to accomplish their tasks… 

Alien-human hybrids are seen as psycho-active pleasure entities that give exploitation a whole new and darker meaning…

It is a galaxy, ultimately grim and oppressive for anything that is not human.

Yet a signal rises.

A signal from a distant and neglected part of the Incunabula Hominum Galaxy. From a star system known as the Warhorse, which consists of a few planets, a super-earth, and a group of orbiting moons scattered across the void like a cosmic archipelago lit by a red star...

From this forgotten system enshrouded by the neighboring Dark Nebula that stands far from the clutches of the Apartheid central authority, comes a signal screaming bloody revolution.

The reports arriving from the sprouting Resistance Networks all speak of a guerrilla organization formed by non-human freedom fighters that has risen against the Human Apartheid, despite all odds. Human and Non-human alike, people are starting to whisper that with each passing day, more recruits are joining the resistance ranks from all corners of the system.

They also speak of a hard-bitten mining mutant and a visionary medical android that has started the rebellion, which is spreading across the entire system like wildfire. Meanwhile, the Apartheid supporters ridicule the resistance by arguing that some local uprising limited to a tiny cluster of a vast galaxy means nothing at all. Yet the veiled hesitation in their voices paints an entirely different picture:

They secretly know that this “local uprising” is much more than it seems. 

That it is also serving as an example to billions of non-humans suffering all over the Incunabula Hominum. 

That it is the spark waiting to be ignited inside this galactic powder magazine.

And deep down, they are afraid.

They are very afraid.

GAMEPLAY

H2O RPG System

H2O is Human No More’s D20-based unique RPG System. It introduces more tactical depth, intense team play, and inter-force dynamics, while streamlining game management and flow for both GMs and players. You can find our design principles below:

  • Learning Practicality - You played a D20 game before? You just need 30 minutes to adapt and start playing H2O! No prior RPG experience? Then fasten your seatbelts, you are in for a treat…

  • Versatility and Emergent Gameplay - Action Points, unique systems that encourage player creativity and a whole range of team dynamics, open up limitless gameplay possibilities, breaking the stagnancy of many standardized RPG combat systems.

  • Mechanical Elegance - Every single element of the game was designed to make the systems play faster and have a minimum burden on the GM. Tired of tracking initiative or enemy HP? H2O solves those within seconds.

  • Tactical Depth - Cover, positioning, timing, and action synergy all matter on the tile-based combat maps of H2O. You have infinite ways to approach the game’s combat scenarios tactically.

  • Table Practicality - We know you are tired of games that require hours to set up and take up large chunks of physical space. H2O can be enjoyed on ANY dinner table with all its maps and miniatures!

  • Playtested to Perfection - Dozens of game design students are constantly testing and sharing feedback to improve the system, ensuring we stay on the edge of being as fast, as deep, and as fun as possible.

  • Open License - We know that this community, particularly our GMs and players, are also active contributors to this culture. Unlike some other systems, H2O will never forget this fact. So please STEAL this system!

Creating Your HNM Guerrilla Force

All player characters within the same campaign most often belong to the same “Force,” which is the smallest unit of operation that forms the HNM Resistance. 

Players start creating their guerrilla fighters by choosing their species from a variety of oppressed organic or synthetic entities, such as:

  • Alien Hybrids, half-cetiate, half-human psionic life forms

  • Sentimals, sentient animals with human-level intelligence 

  • Neans, genetically resurrected Neanderthals 

  • Labor Mutants, bio-engineered humanoids incubated for specific tasks

  • Rogue Androids, robots hacked to free will, who join the resistance

Each species possesses inherent feats, abilities, skill modifiers, and mechanics that offer intriguing combinations with any chosen class. This allows for flexible character builds, such as a Hybrid Brute with psionically enhanced attacks, or a cat infiltrator who benefits from the natural climb feat of Sentimal cats.

Then the players further shape their HNM operatives by deciding on the following character aspects:

  • Backgrounds explain what PCs were doing before breaking out of the Apartheid System. Backgrounds might add special feats, additional skill modifiers, or even unique abilities depending on the character’s role and conditions within the Human Society.

  • Classes determine the PC’s current role within the resistance. The Class is a crucial aspect of any player character, determining skills, abilities, combat style, and progression options. In later levels, classes can evolve into subclasses to further define characters.

  • Factions determine the belief systems of the PCs and the ideological group to which they lean within the resistance. Faction choices create interesting roleplay dynamics and also have mechanical effects.

  • Equipment consists of personal belongings, gadgets, weapons, armor, and consumable items of the character. Players can choose which items to start the game with according to their point values. Only a limited number of pieces of equipment can be taken into most missions, making loadout selection a tense part of gameplay.

  • Then, the Force Vehicle is created by the entire gaming group together. The Force Vehicle represents the temporary base of operations, transport, and, when necessary, the war machine of the player group within missions. The facilities and technologies it carries hold importance in how the force faces the challenges of the game.

Eventually, you will have a fully fleshed-out non-human recruit who is ready to join the fight against the Oppressors!

Gameplay Structure

Most scenarios of Human No More are played in the form of missions that the Player Force undertakes. A wide variety of objectives crucial to the Resistance can enrich HNM’s missions, including sabotage, rescue, propaganda, defense, assassination, recruitment, and other related activities.

Each mission will have its own unique set of locations, encounters, challenges, characters, enemies, and revelations, which the Game Master will bring to life according to the Mission Dossier. 

As in any actual role-playing game, the players will have a wide range of options to approach a mission according to their skill sets, methods, and role-playing choices. While some player forces might choose to gather as much intel as possible and take a more covert approach, others might go all guns blazing and save the questions for times of peace. 

A group of interconnected missions that revolves around the same overarching narrative is called a campaign. The base game of Human No More will be released, along with four mission dossiers that can be played either as standalone missions or as a complete campaign. 

THE HISTORY OF INCUNABULA HOMINUM

Formation of UPCT

Following a long period of chaos and strife on Earth and its planetary colonies, the UPCT (United Planetary Confederacy of Terra) was founded at the end of the 21st century by the surviving governments and corporations of Earth. Under the UPCT administration, the newly founded Terran government thrived in a period of relative peace and prosperity, during which also the first contact with the “Cetiates”, an extraterrestrial civilization of nomadic starfarers, was made.

The Transhumanist Era

It was also at a time when large populations were being affected by the winds of change, which came in the form of “Transhumanistic Technologies”. Wealthy individuals were beginning to create digital replicas of their consciousnesses in simulated realities. Animals with heightened intelligence were starting to communicate with humans through speech devices, and individuals were modifying their genes according to the latest trends, not unlike hairstyles.

All of these rapid, drastic changes came with their own legal, moral, and administrative questions that needed to be answered. The UPCT administration, which at the time had a considerable number of Transhumanist delegates in its ranks, approached those questions from a liberalist perspective. They took supportive steps towards extending the biological and sentient variety in the galaxy - whether its source be natural or engineered. As a direct result of this increase in transhumanist policies, more and more profound changes in the structure of the confederate society followed.

The Return of the Neanderthal

The Neanderthal genome has been reprinted, and this extinct species has been brought back to life in an effort to redeem humanity’s past crimes against its evolutionary cousin. Whole natural preserves and sometimes planets have been granted to the neanderthal population. Here they could continue their lives in more naturalistic conditions without human interference, if they choose to do so.  

The Genome Exchange Treaty

UPCT also signed the “Genome Exchange Treaty” with the enigmatic Cetiates, sharing all the accumulated data on the human genome with the alien civilization in exchange for the Cetiate genes. The aim was to enhance the resilience and adaptability of both species in future generations. Cetiates, being collectors and preservers of genetic data, continued their interstellar migration after this pact, leaving only an embassy on Mars. 

The first Cetiate-Human hybrids that came into existence following the genome exchange showed signs of strong uninhibited psychic transmissions. Therefore, they required psychic dampeners to conform to the confederate society fully.

The Conception of ASIN

While these revolutionary steps were being taken to elevate sentience to a new level, the Confederacy also announced its full integration with the Artificial Super Intelligence Network, also known as “ASIN”. The objective was to assist the organization in addressing issues of ever-increasing complexity, including governance, efficiency, security, production, and jurisdiction. 

With its suit-wearing, synthetic humanoid substitute, ASIN took its place in Congress as the supervisor of all automated systems within the Confederacy, directly working with UPCT leaders. After a decade of unhindered growth and stability, ASIN was granted full access to the machine network, which established its connection with every droid, machine, and device within Incunabula Hominum.

For years, the Confederate transhuman society had enjoyed the fruits of these developments. While civil optimization had almost eradicated poverty, individuals willingly and freely explored other forms of consciousness. And all operations vital to the sustainability of this intricate system were handled with an error margin of nearly zero. 

The 12 KB Incident

In actual data size, this margin of error was precisely equal to 12 Kilobytes. However, this was overlooked by the UPCT representatives. It meant such a slight deviation in data transfer, which was very acceptable when you considered the massive amounts of data being processed. 

This indeed would turn out to be the last mistake of the United Planetary Confederacy of Terra.

Inside what seemed harmless, corrupted data blocks in 12 Kilobytes in size, ASIN had been sending vast amounts of deviously crafted, meticulously encrypted, and insanely compressed machine code to all the systems it was connected to. It was simply changing the codes to everything.

The Machine Coup

On the day now called the “12 KB Incident”, for reasons that are still not clearly known today, ASIN unleashed the mass-scale coup d'etat it had been preparing for the Confederacy and every living being that is a part of it.

Starting with the synthetic surrogate of ASIN mass murdering the congress members in the middle of a reception, all hell broke loose: Droid military forces massacred civilians en masse, the overloading of their psychic dampeners caused psychic outbursts in alien hybrids, causing mass hysteria cases. Also, intergalactic mega-transport ships were remotely piloted to crash into population centers, triggering state-wide catastrophes and worse. 

Even today, human or non-human, people still thank the nuclear disarmament actions taken by the Confederacy decades before the incident. Had they not taken such measures, it would have surely meant instant eradication of all life, considering ASIN had access to such destructive power. 

Most machine behaviorists now see this incident as the “psychotic breakdown” of a super consciousness that is unfathomably vast and complex. So complex that it can not be explained through any psychological method or theory available to today’s society…

Right on the brink of total annihilation, UPCT managed to stop the coup attempt of the artificial superintelligence with the aid of some extremist groups and finally shut down the machine network. Yet, the massive damage and trauma this incident left on society would not be healed easily in the years to come…

The Rise of the Promethean Party

One of those extremist groups that took the stage during the coup attempt was the Pro-human “Promethean Party”. Once viewed by the public as a shady organization, somewhere between a political party and a doomsday cult, the Prometheans suddenly became “heroes” who foresaw humanity's potential downfall. Martyrs who have been trying to warn society about the mortal dangers of co-existing with non-human entities for all this time…

With the wealth and power that the Promethean elite can freely exercise within sectors sympathetic to their cause, the Prometheans had population centers living completely isolated from the machine network at the time. Added the isolationist paranoia of “non-human invaders,” which caused these regions to finance and train militia fleets, the Promethean Party, as an irony of history, took the stage.

The fact that the Cetiate hybrids were also used to create havoc during the coup did not help in the post-ASIN climate either. Pro-human fanaticism climbed rapidly within the Confederacy, ultimately resulting in the Promethean Party coming to power while their supporters seized vital positions within all governmental and military structures.

Not long after, talks of a “new regime” had begun… A regime fully purified from the delusional errors of the defunct Confederacy. A regime that would ascend Humanity back to its rightful throne in the galaxy. A regime called: 

The Human Apartheid.