I don't know how many roleplayers are on this board; if you're not a gamer, feel free to ignore, or ask questions.
I never expected this! While it's not a full game, I think what you get is worth the six bucks it's currently going for on RPGNow.com.
The included adventure is quite basic but the game also includes rules on building characters, so this is effectively a "lite" version of the game and not just a demo, which could be used in a pinch for a campaign (with a bit of work on the gamemaster's part). It doesn't look too friendly to those new to the Honorverse, but the rules are similar to some common ones and not too hard for new players to understand, I think.
I like that there are a couple dozen character templates included, with everything from executive officer to yeoman.
There is a template for "genetic slave," but lifespan is 30 years. One, I don't remember that from the books, though it does make sense (maybe prolong counteracts it and that's why ex-slaves can join the navy without having to worry about a short career?); two, it says to roll 4 six-sided dice to see how many years the character has left. So potentially you could be playing a six-year-old, which makes no sense. I'd ignore it and assume as long as the character has prolong he's fine.
Interestingly, the game recommends running multiple characters to avoid splitting the party, so that there's always someone who can come along; if your tac officer, for example, has to stay on the ship, you can play a Marine grunt in the away party. The character sheets are pretty barebones, so it doesn't sound like too much of a hassle, and I like the potential for building up the crew and its background. One of the things I enjoy about games set aboard ship (such as Firefly and Star Trek) are having the ship itself as a character, and the crew nonplayer characters can be an important part of the story -- different from a typical game where the party is just the half-dozen players and completely independent. You are not limited to playing RMN, either -- there are civilian templates and I can see a Havenite campaign working too.
Rather than the typical rule zero (What the GM Says Goes) the game mechanism allows the players to narrate their own failures. I'm not sure how well this would work, as I've never played the free-form, cooperative types of games where this is regular practice (except diceless ones).
Combat and skill use are of low-to-typical complexity, using a dice pool -- say, a skill of 1 six-sided die plus an attribute of 2D, leads to rolling 3D6 against a given difficulty number (or opponent's defense, if in combat). Bonus dice are given for equipment, or removed if the character is injured or the weapon can beat his armor.
Rules are a bit crunchy. As a newbie gamemaster myself, I prefer a simpler "storytelling" way of playing, but I like the effort as it is so far. No treecat rules yet though... This looks like the full game will be out in mid 2016.
). There was work done on an RPG when Ad Astra controlled the license, but Final Sword seems to building on this work and taking this project in its own direction.
). 