The Terminator RPG

Join the Human Resistance 

The world is a wasteland—broken by the machines we built. Our own creations, our own hubris. Not in some distant future. Today. Now. The machines think they have won, but there is one last chance for humankind; a secret weapon that Skynet, in its infinite calculations, could never have anticipated: You.

Play in any time—including the 1980s and future war. All the main characters from the movie, such as Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese, and the T-800 are included, as is content from the graphic novels and all all-new, never seen before Terminator variants and hardware. 

The rulebook includes two mission packs, enabling you to relive The Terminator movie and to join the fight to bring down Skynet in a not-so-distant future war.

You play resistance fighters struggling against the machine onslaught of Skynet in an alternative and post-apocalyptic version of today—the once “far future” of the 2020s. You can take the role of rebel time travellers sent back to various points in time to stop Skynet from altering history. You can even play natives of any historical time period, targeted by Terminators and trying to stay alive as a future hell is unleashed around you. 

The book is designed as a toolbox to allow the Director to create their own campaigns or one-shots, including detailed campaign arcs, campaign seeds, mini-missions, NPCs, weapons, detailed locations, and enemy characters.

You have the option to play either pre-generated characters or to create your own—tailored to your preferences, weapon choices, and role within your team. If your character is killed, a new one can be brought in from the future, past, or present. That new character can be many things—including even an alternate you from a divergent timeline.

The game has been built from the ground up to both evoke the tone of the film and place you in the middle of the action. The terror and desperation of facing unstoppable killing machines are yours to bear. Only united with your fellow resistance fighters can you hope to defeat them.

The Terminator RPG features Nightfall Games’ S5S System, first seen in SLA Industries 2nd Edition. The S5S is a d10-based rules system that uses a pool of dice: one Success die, and five Skill dice per player. The more skilled your character is in the task being attempted, the more likely you are to succeed and “succeed big.” 

The rules set have been tailored specifically to The Terminator RPG setting. Combat, survival, and investigation are all dealt with in the rules, along with vehicle combat, time travel, and computer hacking, allowing your character to take control of the conflict with unique skills and training. You’ll need all of this and more to take the fight across the timelines and survive. 

The Terminator RPG: Campaign Book

The Terminator RPG: Campaign Book is a 136-page PDF of 15 interlinked missions for The Terminator RPG.  

In the Dark Future, the Resistance stands on the cusp of victory. Skynet’s defense grid is vulnerable and John Connor has a plan to smash it and win the war. But the insidious AI has decided to play dirty, experimenting with time displacement technology in an attempt to shear the Resistance from its roots and murder its leader before he’s even born. The mission to save John Connor has already begun, but it isn’t the only battle that must play out in the past. The Resistance may start with Connor, but it ends with you.

Part of Nightfall Games’ Signature Series, this work contains original missions as well as scenarios inspired by the Terminator graphic novels. Designed for 3 to 6 players, the fifteen missions presented here form the framework of a series campaign that can start in the future and end in the past. 

Curated by Andrew E.C. Gaska and E.L. Thomas, the Terminator Campaign Book features the talents of a wide variety of creators who offer points of view as varied as the ever-shifting timelines you struggle through in your war against the machines. 

The future may seem set, but second chances lie in the past. Now more than ever, there is no fate but what you make for yourself.

The Terminator RPG: Director’s Pack

The Terminator RPG: Director’s Pack is a companion PDF for our hardboard, four-panel screen containing all the information that you, as the Director, will need for easy reference. Included in this PDF are two Quick Reference Cards for the players to use (see the back two pages of this booklet) and a blank Character Sheet. Within this booklet you will fifind three mini campaigns by Matt John and Mark Rapson. 

Campaign Seeds

Three mini-campaigns, designed to give the Director a loose framework from which 1-3 Mission sessions may be constructed, are narratively linked to one another.

Director’s Note: A copy of The Terminator RPG rulebook is required to utilise these mini-campaign seeds. 

Time War

When reconnaissance teams first discovered evidence of Skynet’s time-displacement technology, Resistance Leadership was understandably concerned. The war was already going badly, and surmounting this new challenge seemed impossible. Almost overnight, John Connor assembled a special unit tasked to confirm the facility’s location, gather intel, and destroy or possibly steal the technology for their own use. It’s a dangerous job with a high turnover rate, but one that is absolutely crucial in fighting the war.

You, Me, or It?

The dogs are agitated and start to growl and bark. Everyone and everything seems right, but the hairs on the back of your neck are telling you otherwise. You back into the shadows as you will the rest of your squad to do the same.

Phased Plasma and Foot Soldiers

The Resistance is closer than ever to securing victory. Skynet’s vulnerabilities have been well documented by Resistance Intelligence and John Connor is preparing for the final push that will smash the defense grid and win the war. But before he can make his move, he needs more soldiers and improved firepower. Since Skynet became fiercely protective of its assets, too many Resistance fighters have been slaughtered while trying to secure them. Bold measures are now more necessary than ever. The three scenarios below represent possible solutions to Connor’s problem.

Locations

Similar to the Campaign Seeds, Locations provides descriptions for four locations that Directors may easily build upon: The Blight, The Endless Boneyard, Miracle Park, and Star Fuels.

Network Diagrams

For when a Hack skill roll just won’t do, there’s Network Diagrams! This section provides information on setting up a network, planning the diagram, Skynet’s Threat Analysis Subsystems (TAS). Directors are walked through building their first Network in five easy steps, and then an example of Hacking that same Network is provided.

Character Sheet & Quick Reference Cards

The Director’s Pack PDF is rounded out with a Character Sheet and two Quick Reference Cards of Useful Tables for Player use.

The Terminator RPG: Quickstart

The Terminator RPG: Quickstart is a 52-page introduction to The Terminator RPG. It contains seven pre-made characters, all the essential rules required to play the game and a single scenario for a GM and up to five players to enjoy, with the aim of introducing a group of players to the dark, frightening, and deceitful world of The Terminator.

Character Overview

In The Terminator RPG Quickstart, each player assumes the role of a Resistance Fighter. These ‘characters’ are the personas that will represent the players as they play the game. This section of the Quickstart contains character generation rules, describing the different stats, skills and traits that each character has.

Director’s Note: The Terminator RPG contains a comprehensive list of all the Skills and Traits available for all characters.

Rules & Mechanics

The Terminator RPG features Nightfall Games’ S5S System, first seen in SLA Industries 2nd Edition. The S5S is a d10-based rules system that uses a pool of dice: one Success die, and five Skill dice per player. The more skilled your character is in the task being attempted, the more likely you are to succeed and “succeed big.” 

The rules set have been tailored specifically to The Terminator RPG setting. Combat, survival, and investigation are all dealt with in the rules, along with vehicle combat, time travel, and computer hacking, allowing your character to take control of the conflict with unique skills and training. You’ll need all of this and more to take the fight across the timelines and survive. 

Health & Healing

Where there is violence, there is death. A character’s own health is something which should be regarded as paramount. With Skynet constantly looking to eliminate those who stand for the Resistance, it stands to reason that getting wounded may be something that everyone experiences at some point in time. 

Hope Points

Hope Points add a strong cinematic feel to games of The Terminator RPG. Given the cinematic heritage of the franchise, it seems only right that the players are able to recreate those awe-inspiring moments that make for unforgettable action. These feats are made possible through a character’s Hope Points – a pool of available points that can be spent during the game session.

Hacking

From the most basic 80’s company mainframe to the advanced neural networks of Skynet and MIR, computers are all but omnipresent in our world. Those remembering Judgment Day tend to see them as the root of all evil; a threat to be eradicated at any cost. Nevertheless, some choose to fight fire with fire, using their wits and technical know-how to turn the tables on the machines.

These rules simulate extended hacking attempts, where the hacker infiltrates large networks to reach and exploit hidden subroutines, all while trying to avoid triggering a security response. To resolve simple hacks (i.e. hacking an ATM or cracking a simple password), use a normal Skill Test instead. As a general rule, if this system would slow the game and detract from the fun, sideline it. If it creates tension and the rest of the party has stuff to do while the hacker struts their stuff go for it!

Hardware

Various weapons are available to members of the Resistance, be they scavenged from the remains of former military organisations or stolen from Skynet facilities. The following items represent the weapons and equipment that the pre-generated characters included with this Quickstart are carrying and are also used for other characters that they may encounter during the course of the game.

Two Steps Back

This post-Judgment Day mission is designed for 3-5 players. Seven pre-generated characters are provided to be used for this mission.

Mission Briefing

Starting in a foxhole, under heavy fire, the characters need to fight their way to the wall of the Skynet compound and make their way inside. Once within, negotiating the deadly security measures designed to prevent access to the time displacement device, is likely to be extremely difficult. But it must be done, somehow—at least one of the team has to make it back to the past. Victory or failure is entirely binary in this mission. Those who survive the waves of deadly attacks and pre-programmed automated responses must send themselves back to 1985 to try and prevent Skynet’s next insidious assault on the survival of humanity.

The Terminator RPG: Quickstart Part II

The Terminator RPG: Quickstart Part II is a 12-page PDF featuring a mission that may be played on its own or adapted as a direct sequel to ‘Two Steps Back’ (the mission from The Terminator RPG: Quickstart) or played on its own. The mission should be used as a springboard, but don’t be afraid to switch things up, the players are likely to come up with all sorts of interesting and novel ways around the problems you present…that is the game.

One Step Forward                                                                            

This pre-Judgment Day mission (circa 1980s) is designed for 3-6 players. The Player Characters (PCs) from the first Quickstart can carry over into this one—those who survive it, anyway—and the experience of this game is greatly enhanced by having made it through ‘Two Steps Back’ first. 

Mission Briefing

A group of Resistance fighters managed to break into a Skynet compound, utilizing the Time Displacement Equipment to travel back in time with the aim of assassinating a senior member of Cyberdyne’s research team. The problem, of course, lies in the fact that a trio of Terminators has been dispatched with the express purpose of protecting the same scientist—so everything is set for a particularly ugly battle through the streets and research labs of LA.

Director’s Note: You will need a copy of the first The Terminator RPG: Quickstart and The Terminator RPG Rulebook to use this product. An experienced Director (GM) could run the Mission without the Core Rulebook.

StokerVerse Roleplaying Game: Quickstart

The StokerVerse Roleplaying Game Quick Start is a 70-page introduction to the StokerVerse. It follows the ethos of other Nightfall Games Quickstarts, such as those for The Terminator RPG and SLA Industries, in introducing the players to the rules that have been designed specifically for the StokerVerse RPG, based on Nightfall Games’ very own S5S system. The quickstart contains:

• An adventure, “Dracula’s Empire,” broken down into eight scenes, partly to provide a natural rest point for gaming sessions and partly to make life easier for the Author (gamesmaster) in preparing and learning the plot and its details. However, a session can be as long or as short as your time allows and several chapters of the adventure may be played in one gaming session.
  • Each chapter has been subdivided into sections to further assist the person running the game. The sections detail the overview of the events ‘synopsis’. The ‘supporting cast’ are persons of interest in that portion of the story. There is also ‘For the Author’ – insights and information intended purely for the gamesmaster, hidden details, further information the players might uncover, and to provide them notes from which they can elaborate as they see fit to the players.
• This Quickstart uses a cut down version of the Nightfall Games S5S system, which has been specially tailored for the StokerVerse Roleplaying Game:
  • Skill List and Descriptions (more skills will be included in the Core Rulebook).
  • Skill Tests: the basic conflict resolution mechanic of the S5S system.
  • Combat: initiative, attacking, defending, armor, hit points, impairments, healing, etc. (Medical care is covered in greater detail in the Core Rulebook).
  • Traits: add to the roleplaying element of a character’s personality. Each trait either grants or costs a number of points.
  • Equipment
  • The Nature of the Occult World & its Secrets: the Stokerverse is a place of horror and mystery. Demonic entities abound as do curses and all manner of occultism.
  • Pre-generated characters (the main rules will include a chapter on character creation)

Dracula is dead, of that we should be certain. The brave Texan, Quincey Morris, pierced his chest with a bowie knife. Morris paid with his life when he severed the great vampire’s ties to the mortal world. I can see by the puzzled look on your face that you may not be familiar with the full facts of this story. You may have read of a mysterious Romanian Count’s disappearance in the Strand or perhaps heard of the case of the Demeter? Pour yourself a stiff drink and I shall regale you with a tale which is as cold and dark as the crypt of Lord Blackwood in Highgate Cemetery.

Dracula’s Empire

Mina has gone missing. Shortly after docking in London, her absence was noticed. Van Helsing is concerned that she still may be under the malign influence of Dracula, even though he is dead. His concerns were raised by piecing together the aspects from the missing wooden stakes (from the original Dracula novel) and her strange behavior on the ship home. He has called a meeting in London.

As the act progresses bodies are discovered drained of blood and badly mutilated. Initially, this appears to be more Ripper/Torso murders but the Ripper-esque mutilations have been made to hide bite marks on the body.

A mysterious woman has been seen in high society and there is talk of unusual parties and gatherings. Might these be linked to the murders and disappearance of children in the area?

SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start

SLA Industries 2nd Edition: Quick Start PDF is a 48-page introduction to  SLA Industries 2nd Edition.

Five Operatives take a BPN to go clear the sewers of Carrien. If none of that makes sense, you’re in luck, as this PDF introduces players to the World of Progress and the all-new SLA Industries 2nd Edition system. 

Containing five pre-generated characters and everything else you need to play, apart from dice and players, this Quickstart is designed for newcomers to SLA Industries and experienced players alike.

Guns kill, but so does the truth.

Nightfall Games is the home of SLA Industries, the cult role-playing game which began in Scotland in 1993. Now reformed as an independent publisher, Nightfall Games is committed to bringing only the highest quality publications to the table top for role-players the world over.