Taken in The Dark - Hostile Rpg & ATTACK SQUADRON: ROSWELL from Zozer Games Session Report Two

 The September Group or Сентябрьская группа is a 'small mercenary' outfit & corporation made up of former mecha pilots and military vets. The September group handles the delicate and descreet operations of thier corporate overlords. 

The September Group or Сентябрьская группа uses mostly the corrupt and criminal within it's organization. These are treated to a micro implant explosive within thier necks or base of thier heads. They may work off several sentence years off of thier rather lengthy corporate prison terms in exchange for certain senistive missions on dangerous or highly secret missions. 
Everything was going very well until 'Rusty' Pauli Romanov secured the tech level 13-14 facility called Dropov #14 Experiment Projects five. This facility provided the seeds of rebellion from the corporate overlords.
Not only was there a cache of 100,000 Cold War era designs on file with the Zero point manufacturing weapons facility. But there were also 40 brand new never tried revolutionary technological exosuits. 
The September group then 'took over' a Colorado class Soviet Space Command patrol vessel  commanded by Colonial Alexander Lexov. Lexov was an old classmate of Romanov. 
Tharisis sent in a 'neogations' team to deal with the situation. They were mysteriously destroyed befor reaching Dropov #14 Experiment Projects five's facility. 
The interstellar area around the facility for close to one hundred light years became impassable as any Tharsis 12B Hyperdrives went heywire within 3 light years of the system. Cause was unknown.  The cause came to light when a large 'white hole' opened up in the nearby star sytem. The September Group's contracts were reneogiated & they were contracted for investigation of the 'white hole'. The group saved a team  of indepenant miners whose contracts were then picked up by the September group. 
The Setember group's investigation of the colony world of Hobart's Hope came with mixed success. There were multiple contacts and fire fights but with what remains classified. The destroyer USS Wellington was turned over to Vegan colony authorities.There is little information on the desolving of the Black Guard or the disolving of the mercenary outfit's role in the formation of 'The September group'. 

Mateland Engineering's assets absorbed by 'The September group' remains questionable at best or as a part of a hostile take over at worst. 

Taken in The Dark - Hostile Rpg & ATTACK SQUADRON: ROSWELL from Zozer Games Session Report One

 

So last night I decided to run a variation of this campaign but set within the our version of the Hostile rpg universe. Now last night my regular six players came to see me to discuss the current stiuation and we sat down to play a bit of an alternative on our regular campaign. This campaign used Hostile, ​MODERN WARFARE, & Zaibatsu. 
So the set up for last night's game involved a Trent class destroyer which one of the cutting edge destroyers in our version of the Hostile universe. The USS Wellington was on it's shake down cruise out near Vega and then went black. No radio signal, transponder, etc.

Now a little about the Trent class;"The Trent-class destroyer is a reaction drive vessel used by the United States Space Navy in the early days of colonization into Clement Sector.  The 1500-tonne destroyer was launched in 2185 to provide security and to protect the United States' fledgling interstellar colonies. The Trent-class was the most capable of the first generation reaction drive interstellar warships." 
This means that it's perfect for use in Hostile. Because it fills in a role of destroyer perfectly as the marines & the corporations  have a number of these in operation. 
The Blackguard were dispatched by Matland Engineering  to the Vega colonies because they went off line at the same time as the destroyer. So what's Matland Engineering's take in this? The Vega colony is the  corporation's investment & they want to know what happened. 

And the players had the choice of investigating the destroyer or the colony? They chose the destroyer. And things got weird fast. They used the docking codes provided to them and found out the destroyer was transmitting very low band radio signals to an unknown source. The player's PC's found equipment, weapons, etc. stacked all over the destroyer. And there were no crew anywhere on the destroyer. The PC's found nothing and it put them on edge as the reactor and power supplies of the destroyer had been rerouted. But for what purpose?  And this lines up with ATTACK SQUADRON: ROSWELL from Zozer Games which  uses the Mongoose Traveller RPG engine. However it's an easy switch over to the Hostile rpg system. 

The Invaders or Swarm ( as the players dubbed them)  are essentially  a hive mind invasive species of entities that have taken over the Reticulans. These are & are not the same aliens as 'Terra Arising''s Reticulans.  Ten thousand years ago the Swarm took over a good portion of the Reticulan empire & completely branched off from it. 
And this resulted ATTACK SQUADRON: ROSWELL from Zozer Games version of the Reticulans! 

And I ran the entire game session like the Wellington was a giant huanted house. And the only thing that the player's found were a few nic nacks left by the Swarm. And there's very little to go on. But what awaits them below in the Vega colony is for next week. There were bonuses for the artifacts from Matiland Engineering. 

OSR Commentary On The Hostile Rpg & Round Rigel's Moon A Part Of The Military Action At The Shoulder of Orion - The Chess Pieces Move Into Place

 One things that one does to be a dungeon master is to look outside of the norm and over weekend I was talking with some folks about ecology. Specifically, planetary ecology &  that brought our attention back to our 'Shoulder of Orion' Hostile & Cepheus Engine rpg campaign going on. And this brought my personal attention back to the Dirtside rules by Paul Elliot.  Why?! Because the planetary wilderness is as much of a character in our games as the war. Today's blog post picks up right from here. 

The corporate powers have made their move. The 'Shoulder of Orion' action has moved to the star Rigel and if we look at the Rigel wiki entry; "Rigel is a blue supergiant star in the constellation of Orion. It has the Bayer designation β Orionis, which is Latinized to Beta Orionis and abbreviated Beta Ori or β Ori. Rigel is the brightest and most massive component – and the eponym – of a star system of at least four stars that appear as a single blue-white point of light to the naked eye. This system is located at a distance of approximately 860 light-years (260 pc) from the Sun." 
Because Rigel is a blue supergiant that has exhausted it's outer core, the systems around it are perfect for the fast moving, loosely put together, and easily deployable 'Gypsy attack ships'. There is very little to these ships except for a cockpit, ion engine, and weaponry. These ships are perfect to go up against the big boys in this case Historical ships of the Clement Sector's Trent Destroyer.  

The Trent Destroyer is literally the cutting edge of corporate interstellar mayhem and fielding one costs large amounts of money. Why field a few of these artillery pieces into the war?! The fact that Betelgeuse is also on the field of war & that star means resources folks. The action however is going to be starting planet side on one of the minor planets of Rigel first. The planetary action is going to be man to man with soldiers going up against each other with the alien wilderness playing it's part. 

Parley Around The Table - Session Report Two - Stars Without Numbers Revised/Cepheus Engine rpg Hybrid Campaign

Alright so let's dive back into the deep end of hyperspace for a moment. We'll pick this blog post up right from here.  Why? Because back when we were running Stars Without Number rpg one of our player's PC's sacrificed himself to save the rest of the player's PC's from a hyperspace beast. He was sucked into hyperspace & never seen again. Robert's character has been trapped in hyperspace since 2014 in our current Cepheus Engine/Stars Without Numbers Revised rpg campaign. Will Robert comeback? Shrug, I don't know but his PC's spectre has been casting a huge shadow across the current campaign. His PC is currently trapped in a hyperspacial corridor around a gas giant out in the outer edge of the galaxy. So for the moment Franklin is sitting on the shelf literally. 

The Fall of Man set mankind back to pre FTL but the climb back has been leaps & bounds. Are there aliens?! Yes & no, mostly these are pre & post mankind having been modified into client races. And this brings up the fact that the PC's have had to fallback onto their mega-corpation patrons from last year. And so after selling one ship they've had to buy their own Harbinger, a multi-purpose freighter from their former patrons. The experience was ummm humbling to say the least. 

And the PC's are wondering if they could pull a miracle out of their collective rearends!Now facing down  three Trent Class Apex destroyers  the players have decided to parley. And surprisingly the destroyer captains said yes. 

The captains were more then happy to parley & wondering who the Hell was poking around this God forsaken outpost. They were wondering if the players were pirates and since their letters of commerence were in order. The explained about professor Franklin being stuck in hyperspace and all three captains laughed because of the amount of radiation that was bombarding the hyperspace gate point. 

So instead the captains cut a deal with the players PC's to take valuable mining equipment from Apex's gas giant mining operation to one of their other colony holdings! From possible fight to charter in the flip of the dice. Apex literally gassed up the PC's ship & they've asked the New England Boi's to meet them at the colony using a hyperspace skiff. 

The Uninvited Guests Apex At The Table - Session Report One - Stars Without Numbers Revised/Cepheus Engine rpg Hybrid Campaign

 After cutting deals at one of the scummiest alien bases in the galaxy.The player's PC's received a signal from the outer edge of the galaxy. And so they spent the better part of 5 weeks in hypersleep. The head cold I have continues to play havoc with my head & sinuses. On the plus side, we've been able to take a hiatus on our current Stars Without Numbers Revised/Cepheus Engine rpg Hybrid Campaign.  Currently we've updated our current campaign by having the PC's exploring an abandoned base on the outter edges of the galaxy. For this we're using Moontoad Publishing's  Scout Base 947 Adventure. 

In the depths of the base are the remains of an A.I. copied from the mind of a historian & socialist played by one of our players back in 2014. Robert's PC is a clone and is still unsure if he's the master clone or simply another copy. Mega corporations have used clones of this historian in their own games and to create other A.I.'s. For the moment he is nameless & Robert's PC seemingly parished sacrificing himself to save the rest of his party. So how is an A.I. copy running a base on the edge of the galaxy. 

And that's when three Trent Class Apex destroyers showed up! These three belong to the Apex megacorporation. And the PC's have no truck with Apex a spectre outta of the past! 

To Be Continued! 

Review & Commentary On Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent-class Destroyer By Michael Johnson For The Clement Sector rpg, Cepheus Engine Rpg & 2d6 Old School Science Fiction Rpg Campaigns

 "The Ships of Clement Sector series presents a ship from the rich history of Clement Sector.

"The Trent-class destroyer is a reaction drive vessel used by the United States Space Navy in the early days of colonization into Clement Sector.  The 1500-tonne destroyer was launched in 2185 to provide security and to protect the United States' fledgling interstellar colonies. The Trent-class was the most capable of the first generation reaction drive interstellar warships."

"Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent comes co mplete with beautiful views of the Trent as well as full deckplans and statistics to make your use of the product simple, easy, and fun.  The book also comes with deck plans and views of the ship's boat and work pod.  Also included are adventure seeds to help Referees get their characters involved with the action immediately.  Though designed specifically with our Clement Sector setting in mind, the Trent could easily be used in any science fiction setting" 

Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent - class Destroyer By Michael Johnson is one of those books that you as a DM don't think that you'll ever need & then you start to read through it. And the Trent is a perfect ship to use as a hyperspace 'wreck' in my upcoming campaign. When the wormhole from Earth collapsed not every starship escaped their fate. At least this is how is going to be in my upcoming Clement sector campaign. So what makes Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent class Destroyer By Michael Johnson an excellent Clement Sector book?!  Well other then the tight writing, excellent layout, fantastic blue prints, and diagrams of the Trent?!? 
Well the Trent is about as close as I've seen to a historic war starship with all of the classic hall marks. The Trent is a beast from another time and its a planet killer without a doubt. And what strikes me about the Trent is how well its developed from its history, background, type, and its time period in the Clement Sector. The Trent might as well be a time capasule from another time period. A relic of a less civilized time period as it were. The Trent class Destroyer is stop gap star ship that marks the end of the Earth era as it were. 

The Trent class Destroyer historically has its analogy in my humble opinion as the 'iron clads' have had in the Amrerican Civil War. The Trent class destoryer marks a point in history where everything for the Earth Sector & the Clement sector changes. 
And then everything changes for star ship design changes in volumes acrosss the board and there is so much about the Trent Destoryer that up points it as a beast of history for the Clement sector. Is the 39 page overview & book Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent class Destroyer By Michael Johnson good & proper on the table top level?! In my humble opinion definitely! This is strong recommend to grab this one! 
Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent-class Destroyer By Michael Johnson For The Clement Sector rpg, Cepheus Engine Rpg & 2d6 Old School Science Fiction Rpg Campaigns Available Here.