Angels Above & Demons Below - Hostile/Kosmos 68 Game Session Report Two

 This blog post is going to pick right up from this session on May 14th here on the blog.  Having gotten the Soviet's robot memory banks picked clean the PC's find out that the PC's may have been exposed to a necrovirus! 

The PC's had to deal with a street contact between them and the underworld corporates that represented the syndicates on Abysss. So the Soviets in last night's games left behind a surprise in the form of a necrovirus aboard the wreckage that the PC's explored which meant dumping a ton of gear for decom & disposial. And the PC's have been dealing with a rather shady character named  Baosheng, a veteran Snakehead operating in the Off-World colony of Abyss. Dealing with the PC's hackers the design of the necrovirus is actually a  Chinese corporate creation left behind to discredit the Soviets on the colony world. It also hints at a possible all out war! During last week's game the players felt as if they were going up against  the Soviet SSB. And they actually were! Thier street samurai hired bodyguards reported to them that they were being cased out! At stake on Abyss is the fact that the Russians months ago have entered the fray on the side of the Chinese corporations as mercenaries.
High above Abyss sits the Orca a corporate Rokke Class Research Vessel that belongs to the head of the Science division of the Matsuyama corporation. No one is sure why he's there and his vessel is several technological levels above other Hostile starships. The vessel & her crew are all hand made and hand picked.  
Suddenly the PC's and the Soviets were surround by the corporate forces of the Matsuyama corporation! Both camps were escorted aboard a shuttle and whisked up into the bowels of the the Orca a corporate Rokke Class Research Vessel. Cloths were stripped and burnt, weapons were decomtaminated, and the PC's were checked over. 15 hours later the PC's were given the all clear!! 
 

The Chinese corporate forces had set up both the Soviets & the PC's. The PC's noticed that the shuttle they had ridden in was being hosed down as well. They were taken too the head of the the Science division of the Matsuyama corporation. And the Soviet psychics were allowed into the conference. Both sides were given information packs in order to avoid a interstellar corporate incident. They were told that the Colony worlds were burning and  the Matsuyama corporation wants to buy thier contracts in order to head off a mini interstellar war on Abyss. There's far more going on here then meets the eye.  

Angels Above & Demons Below - Hostile/Kosmos 68 Game Session Report

 Tonight our group got together for a round of our Hostile/Kosmos 68 game campaign where we found our party on Abyss doing a bit of black OP's against the Soviets. 

High above Abyss sits the Orca a corporate Rokke Class Research Vessel that belongs to the head of the Science division of the Matsuyama corporation. No one is sure why he's there and his vessel is several technological levels above other Hostile starships. The vessel & her crew are all hand made and hand picked. 

At stake on Abyss is the fact that the Russians months ago have entered the fray on the side of the Chinese corporations as mercenaries. No one is sure why the Russians are there except to shore up support for the Chinese criminal sydicates and act as ore pirates. 
So our little party's mission is to figure out how deep the Soviet influence runs. We're serving aboard two submarines while running interference on largest island city. Our runners are plugged into the local grid while we've hired local street samurai to act as bodyguards. 
The players in tonight's game felt as if they were facing down the Soviet SSB & think that there might be far more going on below the waters of Abyss. During tonight's game the party almost bought it when some of the local wildlife decided to give them a bit of a scare and turn. 

What the player's PC's found tonight didn't help thier love of the Soviets in our Abyss campaign. The PC's were able to find a bouy that the Soviets had left behind in Chinese controlled terrority. They dived on the spot with thier submarines and found a Soviet wreck on the bottom. What they came across is a wreckage of submarine sitting on a deep underwater reef. And in tonight's game they recovered the remains of a Soviet robotic unit. The party's technician was able to do a brain & memory bank recovery. And now the party is on it's way back to port to bring the memory bank into a cybernetic expert in the capital city. Meanwhile  corporate eyes are watching from above! 

Corporate Wars, Hit Squads, and Corporate Cover Ups - Kosmo 68 & Hostile Rpg Crossover Game Campaign Commentary- Session Report Six

 Tonight's game picked right up from here on the blog.Back on Earth our group of street samurai go into full assault and started quietly doing corporate assassinations. They began to get justice against the underbosses who had orderred thier asssasinations. 

The party in tonight's game recovered many of thier files. The Tanaka corporation's data centers were raided by our 'heroes' & they took out the servers. 
Several lightning raids were made on the various safehouses throughout downtown Toyko. And at least two of our PC's were taken out by return gunfire. No matter the players had two other operatives waiting in the wings. 
And then the hammer came down as a corporate  Chinese hit squad came in. There was some serious fire power brought to bare as a mini cannon carved up one of the party's safe houses. 
What's at stake?! The plans for a brand new energy weapon that could unlock lost technologies from before the 1st Recession. And the rumors are that the party is now on the radar of at least four major corporations. And the Soviet technologies & failed colony locations are at the heart of it. This all gets traced back to Allard Electronics funneling food back to these 'failed colonies' being fostered by the Soviets. Allard Electronics is stepping into the big boys pond. Why?! Because of the facts about Xoldin & other failed colonies should remain buried by the mega corporations.

On the data that the party has intercepted is information about Steele Defiance and it's efforts. Information that the Soviet high command & it's corporate allies wants to remain hidden. 
The player's PC's have already been reported dead by the corporate media outlets and that serious charges were pending against them according to these same outlets. 
Can the players PC's hope to survive into the next several weeks?! Next time the Zhuri and the Allard Electronics sponsored explorers! 

The players PC 's have made contact with Kusma (Kusya) Konstantika Zorin: Leader of Steel Defiance

Hi Tech Ninja & Assassination Raids - Kosmo 68 & Hostile Rpg Crossover Game Campaign Commentary- Session Report Two

 Let's pick up where we left off here. So we've been toying with the idea that back on Earth is the fact that the data from ten years ago is finally reaching Earth from our other Hostile party of 'adventurers'. The data from Allard Electronics  is causing all kinds of issues for our gang of criminals. Kaizu our blind street samuari masseuse/hitman did a number on the Takama gang in a daring daylight one man raid. The dice were with him today. He managed to recover some of the terraforming technology data that the Soviets had shared with Allard. A rival corporation having this data could be catastrophic to Allard & it's partners. 

Meanwhile the rest of the gang got hit by hi technological ninja. And they just barely managed to survive by escaping thier safehouse. And then they managed to survive by blowing it up to cover thier trail frying all of the ninja inside. 

They gang made contact with thier bratva contact & made in roads to switch to thier new safehouse. Here the PC re equipped for that night's raid

 The terraforming technology comes straight from
the https://kosmos68com.wordpress.com/ here. 

The street war went on as our 'heroes' went on a full blown hit raid against the tanaka corporation who had ordered the hit.Thier hacker shut down power for one block and then the team went to work! We lost two of our warriors on the raid as they got taken down by tasers & shot gun blasts. The rest of the teams fared much better and burnt the corpes of thier comrades so they couldn't be traced back to Allard Electronics. 

Nexttime we pick up out in the Soviet sector with Michael Brown's Afterday filling in for our failed colony that we'll be visting in the Hostile leg of the game coming. up. 

Hit Squads & Failed Colonies, - Kosmo 68 & Hostile Rpg Crossover Game Campaign Commentary

 This blog entry is going to tie in with this blog entry here.  The streets of Japan are awash with blood as new corporate data has been illegally been 'liberated' from the Soviets. And thier not happy at all. Can your street warriors smuggle it too the right corporate parties?! 

 

What if the hotest commotidy back on Earth of Hostile is the fact that the Soviets are battling for thier colonies continued existence. What if the Soviets classifed information on the Zhuk lifeforms hit the street. The corporations would be climbing over themselves trying to get that information & thier street hustler & criminal parties would be climbing over themselves to get that information. And this was the basis for a meeting tonight to discuss with my fellow DM's a newer Zaibatsu Rpg mini campaign. 

The idea is that Allard Electronics transmissions have been intercepted by certain mega corporate information brokering houses.The street hustlers got a hold of this info. And now Soviet street samurai & assassins are looking to kill the information quite literally. 

The kosmos68com.wordpress.com/ goes deeply into the state security & spies in this section. 

Is this situation actually far more explosive then the corportations far more explosive then thier letting on?! 

Could the entire Outworld sector be in actual danger as the interviews with General Turov recently  within Soldiers & Sins magazine proports. 

As street warriors are dropping like flies. The streets of Toyko are awash with blood. And this ties in with the Soviets providing the American corporations intel on the menace coming thier way. The real issue is the fact that that the A.I. horrors that the corporations have been afraid of for decades has been encountered by the Soviets. The American corporate entities are afraid of the PR nightmare that could happen if the failed colonial history & abandonament. These failed colony worlds have been modeled   Michael Brown's Afterday & Stellagama Publishing's Cepheus Atom.

This plays into the latter issues that we see Earth sector & Clement sector campaigns. 

The Rise of A.I., & Failed Colonies, - Kosmo 68 & Hostile Rpg Crossover Game Campaign Commentary

 Bare with me here because we pick up from here on the blog. Over the last couple of days there's been something that's been bugging me and that's the Soviet robots with Kosmos '68. Over on the https://kosmos68com.wordpress.com/ site there's a great article about robots & cybernetic lifeforms in the USSP here.  My question becomes why would the USSP be using clunky advanced robots when the US corporations are running slick android bordering on full blown cybernetic human beings or life forms?! And yes, I know its a conceit of the Soviety style of design & Science Fiction genre's focus esspecially of the Kosmos '68 cold war setting. And it got me thinking about the rise of A.I.. And  how it's possible that in the one hundred & twenty five years between Orbit 2100 & Hostile something rather nasty happened. 

Maybe it's no accident that the Soviets don't use Androids and thier ilk. And perhaps the Soviets are so gun shy about A.I. that it drove them to start investigating alternatives such as psionics. And the fact is that the Americans & the rest of the world have sorta learned. And the answer to this comes from Japan within the Hostile Setting book;"With controlled immigration from within the Asia-Pacifi c region, and renewed focus on automation, robotics and artifi cial intelligence technologies to increase productivity, Japan was looking boldly into the future. As China entered its time of crisis and First Recession began to bite, Japan was able to show leadership in the region and formed the Asia Pacifi c Partnership in an attempt to weather the storm. China had lost its lead in the region – Japan once again dominated the Far Eastern area." Between this time & the Second Recession A.I. flourished but it was short lived because of the Oil Crisis of the Second Recession; "Oil was desperately needed, not for fuel, since most vehicles ran from hydrogen fuel cells and power-stations were fusion-based and required helium-3. Petroleum was needed by the plastics and the chemicals industries. Bioplastic was in use, but its reliance on vegetable matter grown in fi elds that could otherwise be used to feed starving millions, meant that oil, tried and tested over centuries and understood by all chemical engineers and plant designers, remained the primary choice. Now oil reserves on distant moons and on harsh planets would have to provide a source for that oil. The Oil Crisis of 2200 initiated a Second Recession lasting for 15 years. Some colonies and outposts were temporarily abandoned due to cost-saving exercises." All of this history can be found on page 15-16 of the Hostile Setting book. This peroid is when A.I.'s life forms and minions step in. And for a bit it looked grim but then the rise of A.I. was cut short by the lack of raw materials. Colonies were literally abandoned on certain back water worlds. And this got me thinking about Hostile's shift from the cybernetic into the bio technological. These 'abandoned' colonies had me thinking about Michael Brown's Afterday & Stellagama Publishing's Cepheus Atom.

And yes, Stellagama Publishing's Cepheus Atom is based on Cepheus Quantum rpg system. It's really not that hard too cross them over. That being said it would stand to reason that the Soviets  & the Americans would be very gun shy of anything smacking too much of the fully sentient A.I. intelligence. 
Once the A.I. genie was out of the bottle the rapid rise in colony disasters only came to a halt with the Earth & her colonies being abandoned. There might still be colonies out there where exotic A.I. indused cybernetic life forms are the rule not the exception. 

And this goes back into something that our group discussed tonight. Have all of this history simply be swept under the rug by Earth's corporations & the USSP?! In a short answer yes. Long answer is that there may be still functional colonies still struggling out in the void. 

And there may be cybernetic lifeforms that have adapted & become another menace in the darkness to plague PC's. Now that  Transdyne Cybersystems and Haruna Biolabs have cornered the market within Synthetics. Events are moving to expose some of the hidden blunders made during the days of the Second Recession. And with that exposure comes the increasing horrors that lurk in the darkness.

On the Soviet side the  Special Purpose Fleet (SPF) & the MiningRegulatory Agency Base organization on the American corporate side are responsible for the exploration of the sectors. The leadership of these organizations know that the cybernetic life forms are still out in the Black. What they don't know is where they are. 

This is where Stellagama Publishing's Cepheus Atom comes in very handy. There's already a number of warbots & other cybernetic lifeforms that can give even the hardest marines pause. The Rise of A.I. events leads up to the real cybernetic horrors  & that's next generation synethics that are living out in the void. We encountered these horrors within our own Tanhauser gate mini campaign. We would later on encounter these horrors within the Earth sector & Clement sector campaigns. 

OSR Review & Commentary On The Hostile Rpg rules pdf By Paul Elliot From Zozer Games For The Hostile rpg & setting or Cepheus Engine rpg or Your Old School 2d6 Science Fiction Rpg's

"Welcome to the gritty, retro-future universe of HOSTILE which now expands with its own, dedicated rulebook. Based on the Cepheus Engine, these Rules add in the realistic combat rules from Zozer Games’ popular Modern War game, as well as setting-specific rules from some of the eighteen HOSTILE supplements. When combined with its companion book, the HOSTILE Setting, you will have a complete, stand-alone, retro-future sci-fi game. Please look out for the HOSTILE Double Shift Bundle which gives you these HOSTILE Rules as well as the HOSTILE Setting book, at a 20% discount off of the listed price.

HOSTILE  is a gritty, near future roleplaying setting that is inspired by movies like Outland, Bladerunner and Alien. It is a universe of mining installations, harsh moons, industrial facilities, hostile planets and brutal, utilitarian spacecraft."

Welcome back and tonight we've got some Cepheus Engine goodness with the revamp of the Hostile Rpg rules pdf. And its awesome! Paul Elliot goes back into the Hostile rules & peels back the layers of the Hostile rpg engine. This 2d6 set of rules compliments the retro future horror of the HOSTILE Setting. Paul Elliot takes full advantage of the Cepheus Engine rpg rules set to gear the Eighties science fiction horror rules to actually be playable. The Hostile Rpg rules compliments the HOSTILE Setting with bells on and Ian Stead's artwork really sets off the intergalactic campaign setting. The Hostile Rpg rules  takes full advantge of the 239 pages of gaming goodness. 
The Hostile Rpg rules  tweaks the career paths, details, and rules to create a coheriant whole system that is excellently playable. The devil is within the details of the world of Hosile & the rules reflect this in spades. The 2d6 rpg rules take the Hostile material and boils it within the juicies of the game to reflect the details put forth in the Hostile setting book. What the rules do is to take the Hostile game into the murky terrority of its own take on the Cepheus Engine rules. It does this by leading the players into the path of their PC's. And the rules have that late Seventies & early Eighties Science Fiction movie asthetic. This is a brutal, lived in, and downright dangerous universe and the rules reflect this. Your party are not heroes or adventurers but spacers doing the jobs that few are going to want to do. Needless to say that the  Hostile Rpg rules reflect this and yes you can die rather badly in PC generation. 
But that's to be expected, having played Hostile for many months now & gone through quite a few characters myself. Hostile is a dangerous game where space can & will kill you if it can. You can get an injury quite nicely and there is sometimes no coming back from that. 
The  Hostile Rpg rules reflect the retro future technologies, devices, weapons, etc. & this set's up the infrastructure of the game. And the rules  does it very well. The system is refined standard 2d6 Hostile but its edited very tightly. The survival rules are done nicely,doing the job of planetary exploration, mining, taking on space walks, the whole package of the Hostile rules are so well done. 

What makes the Hostile Rpg rules pdf so good is the internal consistency of the Hostile rules. The 2d6 done by Zozer Games is done excellently & Paul Elliot has an easy writing style that makes this an easy rule book to get through. If it was me then I would rush to grab a physical copy of  the Hostile Rpg rules pdf today! 

You can find the Hostile Rules PDF Right Here 

Quick Commentary On Zozer Games Hostile Setting Book

 "HOSTILE is a gritty, near future roleplaying setting for the 2D6 Cepheus Engine rules that is inspired by movies like Outland and Alien. It is a universe of mining installations, harsh moons, industrial facilities, hostile planets and brutal, utilitarian spacecraft. And out here the Unknown is real – it is horrific: there are rumors of the disturbing side-effects of hyperspace, of ancient horrors entombed on icy moons, and of monsters – killer aliens, perfectly evolved to survive the hostile wastes of space – at any cost. "



So I might have accidently bought the new Hostile rpg setting book last night. The pdf just jumped into my cart. What are the new changes to the Hostile setting book?! Well according to Paul Elliot of Zozer Games from the Cepheus Facebook group; "Only new full colour starmaps, some skill changes on the career tables, shorter skill descriptions and a couple of new robots and drones. The intent wasn't to rewrite the book, but to clean up alot of typos, and create a spiffy new layout that will form a lovely new layout with bookmarks and index." 

Get your copy of the Hostile setting book here. 

Our group of Hostile players has been on hiatus while storm damage is being cleaned up and this baby is in our grubby little hands. Now that the Pdf is in my hands there's a few changes already that have been pointed out. The layout is tighter, the print easier to read, and the information is tightly packed. And everything works nicely with the already published Cepheus & Hostile universe which is a huge plus for us! 

What does it mean for the Cepheus Engine/Hybrid game that we've got in progress?! Not all that much infront of the screen. Behind the screen its gonna mean a whole lot according to what we've been reading about the Hostile rules book when it hits the ground. According to Paul there are some changes;" It won’t be a reprint of CE with nice pictures, it is rewritten with sections taken from some key Hostile supplements and worked in. Plus new rules and the core combat rules from Modern War tailored to the Hostile setting." 

This also means that Hostile is gonna be fully compatible with Modern Warfare meaning that you can run Modern War as the colony forces for on the ground war! Rebellions, colony suppression, brush fire wars, etc. are all going to be far smoother now. 

Get your copy of the Hostile setting book here!