Review & Notes Concerning the New Battlecruiser Mandate Archive for Stars Without Number

Over the week I ordered  The Stars Without Number Rpg & like any new role playing game I began to look into the various free support products out there. This one practically jumped into my printer on its own. According to the blurb on Drive Thru Rpg : 

The Bruxelles-class battlecruiser was one of the mainstays of the ancient Terran Mandate, a regular sentinel along the ragged borders of the core and the deep colonial wilderness of the frontier. Its fearsome guns brought peace to squabbling worlds and rebuked raiders and alien interlopers with radioactive fire. When the Scream washed over the human empire, countless Bruxelles-class ships were left lost and isolated on the fringes of human space. Many died in vain attempts to get back to Old Terra, but a few such corpses still linger in the dark between worlds, waiting for some reckless soul to drag them back to a bright and terrible life.

This free Mandate Archive gives you the details on the Bruxelles class of battlecruiser- its history, function, standard crew complements, and statistics for the free Stars Without Number role-playing game. A half-dozen plot seeds are also provided, each one revolving around this ancient engine of war. Finally, several examples of pretech ship weaponry are given with which to terrify the feeble heirs of the Mandate’s lost glory.

The Mandate Archive series is a free introduction & touch stone series from the imagination of Sine Nomine Publishing & Author: Kevin Crawford. You can take a look at it over on their website right Here
 The free little piece of game material serves as both touch stone & introduction into the world of Stars Without Number. The pdf wastes absolutely no time  giving you fluffy crap game material. Instead it launches right into the background & history of these battlecruisers. Make no mistake these aren't lightly armed little star ships. These are predators cruising the dark interstellar spaces between the stars & their more then capable of dealing death to anything that crosses their paths. 
Each section breaks the star ship down into easy to read sections. One by one the layers of these war machines of the stars are revealed. 
  Operational Parameters - This is section gives a description of the ship itself with design, lines, quick intro into weapons, etc. Its solid & easy to read. 

The Culture of the Ship gives a brief history, the tactics of that history, & the final fate of many of the ships themselves.
The section marked Ship's Compliment goes into crew compliment, officer duty & division, & finally the bare essentials of the Bruxelles. Using the ship gives some great ideas about this class of star ship as the focus for an adventure. There are several fast opinions & options available to the DM.
The Ship's Interior goes over the ship's interns from stem to stern. The ship's technology & how this will effect adventures. Easy to understand & a quick read. 

Ship's Statistics & Weaponry offers the DM the perfect opportunity to customize their own Bruxelles class ship with cool weapons, a slightly different compliment of both crew, as well as equipment.. There's even a random ship's flaw chart that will allow you keep your players guessing by varying the fatal damage done to these bad boys during the Scream.
 The Ship's Plot Seeds are adventures themselves offering endless ideas for using these doomsday weapons from the stars as part of your campaign. 

Using This Material In Other Games 

These bringers of death from beyond the pale could be used in any number of science fantasy games. The stats, background, etc make this an easy fit. The trick of course is not to make the ship not simply another treasure to be acquired but the focal point for an entire adventure.
The weaponry can easily unbalance a game unless the Dm is prepared to deal with this style of gaming.
Gone are the days when Dm's were struggling with lame concepts & interstellar rodeo clown cars. This is a star ship & she's all yours to use. The retro clone style of Stars Without Number means that you don't have to learn 86  different rules for using this class of space craft.
The material serves as an introduction into the world of Stars Without Number. However there is no reason why these ships might not make an appearance in your old school game.
 For a game like Carcosa these ships might have crash landed within the planet itself leading it too be one more dungeon & the advanced technology of these monsters is far too great a lure to leave alone. In a post apocalyptic world  such as Mutant Future these battle cruisers might offer the only hope to an already battered planet. They might provide a means of escape, a treasure trove beyond imagining or an unpoluted resource of genetic material. The only hope for an otherwise hopeless future. In a D&D style world they may be the source of foul forbidden technology ala Expedition To the Barrier Peaks. For a game like Terminal Space these ships may be a prize beyond humanoid understanding. A legendary ship of golden, god like technology offering a trip of damnation & redemption for whomever finds her. These ships may be used for a Robotech style alien invasion game where the invaders barely understand the technology that they employ. Only an intact battle cruiser can offer any hope of understanding the incredible weapons being hurled against the player's planet. 
In closing this is a free pdf & packs lots of bang for your buck into a free product. You could do much worse out in the world then downloading & using this great resource for the game.