The Novels

Rob Engleman has spent all of his seventeen years on a small island, safe from the dangers of the alien world around him. Yet he is not content to live the simple life of an island farmer. When a mysterious boat is found drifting near his island, Rob will take the opportunity it presents him to leave his home and venture into the menacing unknown.

What's New

A 52 page collection of characters for the game-master to use in Planet Archipelago. Includes three characters from the novel series by B.A. Simmons along with a wide collection of good guys and bad guys and gals to give the players a challenge.

A glint of gold flashes in the setting sun. This starts this adventure. 19 illustrated pages that can be located on any tropical or sub-tropical island the game-master desires. Playtested at L.T.U.E. Now available for download for $3.50 

About US

Planet Archipelago is a traditional table-top role play game and Novel Series. The Novels are written by B.A. Simmons. The game and game art are designed by Steve Simmons. The game is a skills based rather than class or level based RPG. Designed to be played with a copy of the rules, a 20 sided die, percentage die, and six-sided die. Along with paper and pencil. This game was originally designed for play by middle school students in an after-hours club. 

The game has no magic or occult references and the only religions in the game are fictional designed by the author for the game.

The game is a medieval- science fiction game, so characters in the game may find technology that appears magical but in fact has no magic and is simply technology that is not understood by the player characters.

The Game session is controlled by the person called the game-master. They control the weather based on the season of the year as well as the non-player characters and all creatures. The players create one or more fictional player characters which they control to problem solve different adventures presented by the game-master.
The author believes that there is valuable social and citizenship skills that can be taught and learned by playing this type of game as opposed to a computer games where the child/student plays against a machine devoid of face to face human contact. 
Playing the game promotes: Reading, problem solving, math skills, record keeping, consequences for personal choices, team work, social interaction skills and the value of enterprise.

In the game, player characters may obtain money by seeking adventure, looking for lost treasure, hiring out their skills to an employer or becoming a merchant buying low and selling high. when this is combined with alien creatures(monsters) and alien races of creatures there is lots of room for both learning, fun and adventure.

Steve Simmons The game designer is a retired educator having worked in a one-room school in the backwoods of Montana to teaching at a major state run University. He began designing role play games for classroom use in creative writing and for an after school latch-key club for middle school youth some 30 years ago.

His son B.A. Simmons is an English Teacher in a urban Jr. High School. He now runs an after school gaming club that plays Planet Archipelago.

The First human colonist to the planet from Earth called these native creatures to the planet Archipelago "dwarves" because they were found living underground. They are now called Duarf with the changes that have happen in the human language since the first colonists arrived.

These distant cousins of the Duarf are called Quillian by the humans. They are more primative and live on floating villages in the open ocean and in the sea of grass area of the planet. They are tempermental, today they might trade a valuable pearl for a copper knife and tomorrow eat you.

The Ferlie of Planet Archipelago are also aliens to the planet. They arrived more than four generations before the humans did. They are a high technology culture that hides the technology so that it looks like "magic" They tend to look down on humans as childish brutes who lack in culture and intelligence. The original colonists called them fairies due to their wings and ear shapes the word has morphed over the years into Ferlies.

The Falcon Empire still controls Alimia, so the Engleman boys must continue fighting to free it and themselves of this menace. As new allies join the resistance, new distractions appear to test loyalty and love. New challenges present themselves as the stakes are raised ever higher. What sacrifices must be made to ensure freedom and, ultimately, peace?

The Hellhound Consortium looks to keep the tide of war in their favor, but the Falcon Empire is digging in for the long haul. While Rob seeks support for his leadership of the consortium, talk of making peace with the empire sews strife among his followers. The dangers of Planet Archipelago seem to conspire against them, threatening to destroy their fragile alliances.