User summary (compiled from different chapters):
One thousand years in the future, the Tetra-League (an alliance between humans and three alien races) is torn by internal rivalry and threatened by external forces too numerous to mention. Tetra-League citizens are free from the burden of aging, thanks to mortality reduction drugs, but they are also free from the burden of choice; a weapon known as the Pacification Virus rendered them unable to commit acts of aggression or confrontation (many citizens cannot even fend for themselves, and must live in sprawling facilities tended by robot caretakers). Once released, the virus mutated quickly, and now passes from mother to child. Everyone is infected. There is no cure. But some are spared....
Players take the roles of Immunes, those one-in-a-million Tetra-League citizens who are unaffected by the Pacification Virus. Some Immunes serve (willingly or otherwise) as soldiers in the Battle Born, a branch of MACE, the Tetra-League's "Military Assault and Combat Expedition" force (or, as the squads are fond of saying, "Most Anyone Conscious and Expendable"). A Battle Born trooper wears special powered armor called an "EE" Suit, which is so effective it can destroy just about anything, except someone else in an EE Suit. This gives rise to a problem - soldiers that want to survive must learn to use their armor in ways that go beyond the suit’s design....
Era Ten is a Free-Style role playing game which includes optional "Quick-and-Dirty" systems designed to make running adventures easier and more enjoyable. Era Ten can be played alone or as a supplement to enhance any Sci-Fi game system.
Components
- Booklet One: Battle Born (includes core rules, character generation, skills, character advancement, equipment, psionics, starships and ship-to-ship combat, introductory encounters, background material for the Era Ten campaign setting, and a simple mass-combat system covering planetary actions and orbital assaults).
- Booklet Two: Designing Sci-Fi Scenarios (gives extensive guidelines for creating adventure hooks, travel, dramatic encounters, climax, epilogue, aftermath, and downtime; also includes additional background material for the Era Ten campaign setting, as well as hundreds of adventure seeds and locations so the referee is always ready to run a game).
- Booklet Three: Encounters for Sci-Fi Scenarios (expands the process of designing and running adventures and developing a consistent campaign setting; also includes starship design, interstellar travel, landing party encounters, mission complications, and additional background material for the Era Ten campaign setting).
- Era Ten Referee Screen (the product's inside cover is printed with useful charts and info, and is detachable for this purpose).
- Blank Character Sheet
- Combat Summary
- Scenario Worksheets
- Era Ten Glossary of Important Terms
Note: The Era Ten RPG requires a pair of eight-sided dice and a standard deck of playing cards (neither of which are included with the game).
Supplements for Era Ten include:
- Guardians of Sol RPG (equipment and rules for high-tech police investigations in the Tetra-League)
- Independents of S&R Group (hack the matrix or conduct salvage operations on the fringes of known space)
- Cartel Royal (clever rules for designing and running a mega-corporation in the Tetra-League; adaptable to other settings, too)
- Ground Zero (fight tactical-level combat in the Era Ten universe)
Better Games published a wealth of supporting material for Era Ten in Space Gamer/Fantasy Gamer Magazine and also on their Web site.
