Running Joseph Mohr's Rapture A Pay What You Want Adventure For Cepheus Engine With Stars Without Numbers Revised Rpg - One Shot Session Report

 "The travelers are approached by two concerned parents. Their daughter, Jenna, has fallen into the clutches of a strange religious cult known as the Triumphant Lodge of the Rapture. These cultists live together on a base on an asteroid and allow no visitors. They seem peaceful enough but they do not permit contact with relatives. They want their daughter rescued and brought back home safely. " 

So tonight I got a chance to run a Cepheus Engine one shot with Rapture by Joseph Mohr but with Stars Without Number Rpg as the base system. I was able to set Rapture at the edge of Independance Games Earth Sector. The Triumphant Lodge of the Rapture has been gaining ground on world after world. And they are willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve thier goals. 
"While in star port the travelers are approached by a married couple about a delicate mission. Their daughter has fallen prey to a religious cult known in the sector as the ”Triumphant Lodge of Rapture.” Earlier some of the travelers even noticed that some strangely dressed young people were handing out literature that bore this cult’s name on it. These young cultists all wear brightly colored robes and necklaces of flowers and beads. They can be seen all over the star port." 

While the characters weren't interested in kidnapping the couple's daughter but they were interested in what the cult was up too. There are two reasons for this. One was the isolated nature of the cult out on the very fringes of the frontier of the Earth Sector.  The second reason was that number of members of the cult that the PC's ran into on each & every star ship facility within the system tonight. Couple this with the fact that the cult has an asteriod base. And the PC's decided too infilitrate the cult as new members. And take out the cult from the inside out. They became new members & it took them seven days (game time) to work thier way separately onto the asteroid base. 

Once on board the asteriod the PC's came face to face with an armed camp. They weren't armed but quickly aquired weapons from the cultists themselves. And went to work sewing chaos throughout the base. When the PC's found the operation & scale of the cult's operation then it was time to take down the menace to the local colonies. The PC's did kidnap the leader & sabotaged the asteriod base then used the escape pod with the cult leader to the local authorities. They kept the 100,000 credits & claimed the other 100,000 credits for turning the cult into the local military. 

 Rapture by Joseph Mohr but with Stars Without Number Rpg as the base system went very well. Because we  set Rapture at the edge of Independance Games Earth Sector the Old West edge of the Frontier  quality of the Earth sector quality was something that we played up. And this gave the cult an almost horror like edge to them. And plus the fact that the cultists always acted first & without a really good reason made them seem deranged. And there was the fact that they seemed almost pod person like. All in all Rapture by Joseph Mohr took about four hours to complete. 

Beyond The Levels - B4 The Lost City by Tom Moldvay & Stars Without Number Revised

 Growing up in no where city that I did we were lucky to find both Science Fiction & Fantasy paperbacks. This isn't a joke & long before the days of book stores on every corner of the Nineties. And so we had to adapt to the Science Fiction & Fantasy that came from tag sales & Antiqurian book dealers in our area. We literally had a pool book club of nerds who would read Science Fiction & Fantasy every month together. This was one of the sneaky ways that my uncle got us to read Science Fiction  arthurs like Arthur C. Clarke & Isaac Asimov. I myself was prone to far more of Science Fiction's red headed sibling Sword & Sorcery. So in the Summer of '81 when Arthur C. Clarke's 'The City & The Stars' &  'Against The Fall of Night' came into our lives. 

My uncle had found a box of God knows how many paperback copies  of these two Arthur C. Clarke novels at a tag sale. And we kids read them cover to cover?! Why because my uncle took parts of these two novels and combined them with B4 The Lost City By Tom Moldvay. Bearing in mind that this long before other products were on the market combining Science Fiction & Fantasy. 
Our party was transported to Tom Moldvay's Lost City but there's far more boiling below the surface. The trick here is to get passed the cult,  Zargon,  & into the lower levels to activate the computer's A.I. & then the city's immortals. This makes total sense if you've A. read the book and B. then dealt with Zargon in the lowest levels of B4 especially with the Wiki entry on 'The City & The Stars'; "The City and the Stars takes place (at least) two and a half billion years from the present —ten rotations of the Galaxy since the apparition of the human species in the novel—(one rotation of the Solar System around the galactic center (galactic year) is equivalent to 220 - 250 million years), in the city of Diaspar. By this time, the Earth is so old that the oceans have gone and humanity has all but left. As far as the people of Diaspar know, theirs is the only city left on the planet. The city of Diaspar is completely enclosed. Nobody has come in or left the city for as long as anybody can remember, and everybody in Diaspar has an instinctive insular conservatism. The story behind this fear of venturing outside the city tells of a race of ruthless invaders which beat humanity back from the stars to Earth, and then made a deal that humanity could live—if they never left the planet.

In Diaspar, the entire city is run by the Central Computer. Not only is the city repaired by machines, but the people themselves are created by the machines as well. The computer creates bodies for the people of Diaspar to live in and stores their minds in its memory at the end of their lives. At any time, only a small number of these people are actually living in Diaspar; the rest are retained in the computer's memory banks.

All the currently existent people of Diaspar have had past "lives" within Diaspar except one person—Alvin, the main character of this story. He is one of only a very small number of "Uniques", different from everybody else in Diaspar, not only because he does not have any past lives to remember, but because instead of fearing the outside, he feels compelled to leave. Alvin has just come to the age where he is considered grown up, and is putting all his energies into trying to find a way out. Eventually, a character called Khedron the Jester helps Alvin use the central computer to find a way out of the city of Diaspar. This involves the discovery that in the remote past, Diaspar was linked to other cities by an underground transport system. This system still exists although its terminal was covered over and sealed with only a secret entrance left." 
Each of the player's PC's in our B/X Dungeons & Dragons Advanced Dungeons & Dragons hybrid game were 'Uniques' regardless of PC class. We solved all of the Myst style puzzles, dealt with weird technology, and more. 

So what does any of this mean for an OSR game such as Stars Without Number Revised ?! The campaign ideas that my uncle laid down are still valid. This is easily true of the Dead Names supplement which could be used to lay the adventure foundation for a pre Scream or Fall of Mankind mega city as campaign location. 

If we marry some of the ideas between Dead Names & Skirmisher Publishing's Quantum Flux then we've got the start some killer Science Fantasy levels for B4. Remember many of the levels of B4 are blank & can easily be customized for the type of campaign both the players & the DM is looking to do! 

Quantum Flux:Unique Superscience Artifacts, pairs really well with Angry Golem's Stars Without Numbers Equipment Database for creating some really nasty & well thought out artifacts for such a campaign. 

OSR Write Up For the Roboskull Mark II For Stars Without Numbers Revised rpg

 From beyond the furthest reaches of the moons of Saturn on a planetlet base comes the Roboskull mark II marking the return of the Red Shadows terrorists! They have languished since the early Eighties out beyond the frozen rings of Saturn! But now the Red Shadows are back marauding colony after colony within the Sol system. 

Roboskull Mark II 

Packaging Art by the Legendary Ian Kennedy

HP: 9 Power: 5/1 free AC: 16 Mass: 2/0 free Armor: 5 Crew: 1/1 Speed: 5 Hull Class: Fighter Crew Skill: +2 NPC CP: 4 Weapons: 4 Reaper Battery (+4/3d4, Clumsy) on each wing, Eye Mounted  mini plasma beams Plasma Beams (+4/3d6, AP 5), Two chin mounted Laser Turrets (+4/1d4,) Back Skull Mounted Laser (+4 2d4 Clumsy), 5 Mini missiles 2d4 Inside Mouth, Anti Personal Plasma Field +3 2d4 Breath Weapon)  Defenses: None Fittings: Spike Drive-2 Atmospheric Configuration Cost: 305K base price, 30,000 maintenance, 43,800 yearly crew cost for 1 pilot optional navigator 

Cryo Brainwashing Pod System in rear. 

The Robo Skull Mar II is a highly effective surgical strike marauder class ship & acts as a mobile base for the Red Shadow interstellar pirate organization. These units are able to deploy 6 to 8 smaller assassin  skull drones. 

Assassin Skull Drones AC 14, Hit Points 10 - 
 two eye socket mounted laser weapons Laser Pistol 1d6 100/300 

Mouth mounted Plasma Projector 2d8 50/100

Each Robo Skull Mark II is piloted by a 5th level Wolf Trooper Pilot who is psionically linked to the Red Shadows Reaper A.I. back at the Red Shadows head quarters! 

Note that this write up is not meant as a violate of the copyright nor trade mark of Roboskull LLC nor the holders of the Roboskull Mark II trademarks. But this is a homage to the current Roboskull Mark II kickstarter! 

More Free Sword and Science Fantasy Fiction - 'The Tree of Life ' by C. L. Moore From October 1936 issue of Weird Tales magazine

 

"A gripping tale of the planet Mars and the terrible monstrosity that called its victims to it from afar -- a tale of interplanetary space hero Northwest Smith."
Grab it right here. 

Most of you might be thinking that this blog entry is going to be where we dive deep into C.L. Moore's Northwest Smith  Mars.   If we look at 'The Tree of Life ' by C. L. Moore more closely there's a lot going on below the surface. 
 The actual danger comes to PC's who don't understand that the Lovecraftian Martian plant described in the story is actually a part of a much greater danger on Mars & elswhere. The plant life described in the story is similar to plant deities of Mars decribed by both Leigh Brackett & Clark Aston Smith. For CAS it was his story, 'The Dweller in the Gulf' is one where one of the ancient gods of Mars shows the upstart humans that not everything is gone on Mars. This entity might be similar to the occult cosmic entity found in Seedling of Mars and Vulthoom .  And as Boyd Pearson says in his article on Eldritch Darkness 'Cycles of Clark Ashton Smith'; "While The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis and The Dweller in the Gulf would of been equally effective stories had they been set on earth Seedling of Mars and Vulthoom utilised the 'alien invasion' motif popular in the pulps at the time However, theses did not contain your typical alien invasion scenarios Vulthoom was an alien 'god' (plant like) who came to mars when humans "were still the blood-brothers of the ape," and now wishes to move to Earth Vulthoom's plot is only temporarily foiled by being put back to sleep for a thousand years The plant thing in Seedling of Mars has better luck in that it does get to take over the earth" 

• Dweller in the Gulf, The (1933)
• Mnemoka (1955) Fragment
• Vaults of Yoh-Vombis, The (1931)
• Vulthoom (1935)

Seedling of Mars or The Planet Entity [plot by - E M Johnson] (1931)[An alternative background to the proceeding 4 stories] 

So what does any of this have to do with 'The Tree of Life ' by C. L. Moore? Everything there are very dangerous occult forces on Mars. Divine forces that work in various cycles of life & death just as some Earth life forms do according to the weather. And this plant entity encountered by Northwest Smith might simply be an extension of the former pantheon of Mars. And in point of fact these alien entities might be tied to Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoomian plantmen. And in point in of fact these plantmen could be extensions of the Lovecraftian plant gods on Mars. 
But these types of entities are not just found on Mars. There are a literal ton of these plant monsters scattered throughout the Pulps. So it would be quite easy to add these monsters to your favorite OSR games! 
These plant gods & alien entities are the great survivors & are able to survive just about any disaster that might befall Mars and this includes a small nuclear war. 

The plantmen below is from Michael Whalen's Barsoom covers & used without permission. 

Cylon Raider Mark I Adapted From Battlestar Galatica 1979 For The Stars Without Numbers rpg

 Starting in 1941 on Caprica the Cylon A.I.'s emerged as the result of the human population uncovering the remains of the original reptilian Cylon serpent men's computer systems. Humanity leap frogged ahead during this time period after the Thirteen Colonies adapted  the technologies of the Cylon empire. This included some of the left over relic Cylon warriors. Things quickly turned sour during the Sixties during the first Cylon wars when the relic Cylons, the newly manufactured Cylon A.I.'s hooked up with the still thriving Cylon Empire during the early Sixties. The resulting turmoil resulted in the infamous Late Cylon Wars. This war nearly broke the back of the thirteen colonies. 

The resulting Cylon war lasted well into the late Eighties when the Shattering fractured the Cylon Empire. Local Cylon forces continued to advance the Cylon A.I. systems along the original serpent men machine languages. This allowed the Cylons to produce millions of classic Cylon raiders with slaved three brain neural connection.
 

Cylon Raiders Mark I's are still a common sight along the edges of the galaxy where their Cylon bases are still an issue.  The Cylon A.I.'s dreams of empire continue to this day with the Cylon bases emerging from hyperspace around colony worlds from time to time. 

Cylon Raider Mark I

HP: 10 Power: 5/1 free AC: 16 Mass: 2/0 free Armor: 6 Crew: 1/3 Speed: 6 Hull Class: Fighter Crew Skill: +2 NPC CP: 4 Weapons: Laser Battery (+4/3d4, Clumsy),Cylon Plasma  Torpedo (+1 3d4 ) Defenses: None Fittings: Spike Drive-3 Atmospheric Configuration Cost: 305K base price, 15,250 maintenance, 43,800 yearly crew cost for 3 pilot

Gun Star One From The Last Star Fighter Film 1984 For The Stars Without Numbers rpg

 
Christopher Shy's incredible Last Starfighter artwork used without permission & from here.  Visit the man's artstation site  for some fantastic artwork.


The Gunstar series of fighters were developed by the Star League going back several centuries. The Star League itself has endured for more then a thousand years with all of the local intergalactic alien races formalizing into a democratic union ages ago.


 The star league was led by Ambassador Enduran, whose son Xur became central to Xur incident. The Star League was born shortly after the formation of the Great Barrier, a field of energy that surrounds many star systems. For many hundreds of years, the Starfighters defended the Star League against outside threats. Then the cults of Xur grew especiially during the Shattering. Earth was not formally in the Star League until Earth's champion Alex Rogan (see file on Rogan, Alex) was  victorious over Xur & the Kudan Armada . The Star League consists of hundreds of systems and planets across several hundred light years, species homeworlds and colonies. It's capital is Rylos, while Earth is now formal member.

The Gunstar series of star fighters were put into operation after Gunstar one was used as a successful protoype during the Xurian war with the Kudan empire. The gunstar has seen action in almost every major conflict within the Terran & Star League's sphere of influence. The following star fighter is based on gunstar one the historic star fighter serving as the basis for all further gunstar star fighters going forward. Gunstar One has greater range, more power, slight weapons modification, deflective plating, and is equipped with the experimental Death Blossom weapon.

Ship Data	Gunstar
Race	Rylans
Type	Military
Crew	2 (one Navigator, one Gunner)
Role	Space Fighter
Weapons	three forward-firing laser-guns (two fuselage-mounted turrets, one ventral turret), two aft rearward-firing laser-gun turrets, Photon Bolts, Particle Beams, Death Blossom

Gunstar One Series Star Fighter 



HP: 10 Power: 5/1 free AC: 17 Mass: 2/0 free Armor: 5 Crew: 1/2 Speed: 4 Hull Class: Fighter Crew Skill: +2 NPC CP: 4 Weapons: Multi focal laser  three forward-firing laser-guns (two fuselage-mounted turrets, one ventral turret) 1d4, two aft rearward-firing laser-gun turrets 1d4, Photon Bolts 2d4, Particle Beams 3d6, Death Blossom 3d10 Usable Once per mission,  Defenses: None Fittings: Spike Drive-4  Atmospheric Configuration Cost: 405K base price, 25,250 maintenance, 63,800 yearly crew cost for 1 pilot & navigator 

The Viper Series Mark II Star Fighters From Battlestar Galatica 1979 For The Stars Without Numbers rpg

 The Viper Series Mark II star fighters  were recalled late into service  into service late in Cylon Incursions around the Thirteen Colonies Earth Alliance's space. The mark II were immune to many of the Cylon A.I. weaponry. They possess little of the more sophisticated electronics or A.I. vulnerable systems of later Viper variants.  
The Viper Series Mark II's were used extensively throughout the wars with the Cylons.

The Shattering severed the supply lines between the thirteen colonies & the Earth. The Viper programs suffered horribly even as the Cylons continued to press the advantage of a vulnerable Earth. The  Mark II Viper series rose to the occasion proving time & again to be able to be put into a wide variety of theaters of military  operation & roles. A highly flexible star fighter the mark II is still being produced & exported today across the galaxy. The opening of old routes has allowed the market for the Mark II Viper to expand. 



Colonial Viper Series Mark II

HP: 10 Power: 5/1 free AC: 16 Mass: 2/0 free Armor: 6 Crew: 1/1 Speed: 6 Hull Class: Fighter Crew Skill: +2 NPC CP: 4 Weapons: Laser Battery (+4/3d4, Clumsy), Dorsal storage bay for 8 x HD-70 Lightning Javelin missiles (+3 /3d4,Clumsy) Weapon hardpoints for mounting missiles / munitions pods, etc. under the wings Defenses: None Fittings: Spike Drive-3 Atmospheric Configuration Cost: 305K base price, 15,250 maintenance, 43,800 yearly crew cost for 1 pilot

The Colonial Viper From Battlestar Galatica 1979 For The Stars Without Numbers rpg

 The backbone of the Colonial Fleet, the Viper star fighter series has seen action on all  of the fronts of the Cylon wars against the Thirteen Colonies. The origins of the Viper lie with the Caprican Air Force Viper jet, which in service for some time before 1942.  It is presently unknown if the spaceborne iteration which fought in the Cylon War was another series of craft with the same name, but the Mark II was in service by the midway point of the war. After the 1981 Galatica Earth alliance the Viper series mark I saw a distinguished service record during the Earth Cylon wars. 

The Shattering changed all of that. With the 13 Colonies cut off from Earth the Mark I was put back into service. The Cylons continued their relentless assault on Earth sector space. The series one continued to see service in the outlying areas of Earth  space. The reason is simple the series one Viper fighters are cheap to produce, parts are readily available, & the fighter is a back bone of Earth's colonies. 

Colonial Viper Series Mark I 
HP: 10 Power: 5/1 free AC: 16 Mass: 2/0 free Armor: 6 Crew: 1/1 Speed: 6 Hull Class: Fighter Crew Skill: +2 NPC CP: 4 Weapons: Laser Battery (+4/3d4, Clumsy) Defenses: None Fittings: Spike Drive-3 Atmospheric Configuration Cost: 305K base price, 15,250 maintenance, 43,800 yearly crew cost for 1 pilot

The Thunder Fighter Space Craft Adapted From Buck Rogers In The 25th Century 1979 For The Stars Without Numbers rpg

 The Earth has only recently recovered from the one two punch of the Holocaust five hundred years ago & the Shattering.  The Shattering has only recently abated & Earth has regained contact with its former colonial empire's holdings. This includes the Draconian Empire which has for the last four hundred years filled the power vacuum left by the Earth. Earth's Interstellar Defense Forces needed a fast, reliable, & cheap galactic fighter in 2490. What it got was the classic Thunder star fighter. This was a craft created in part by the A.I. of Earth's Defense Directorate & an international team of top space craft designers. 

The entire flight & suite of the Thunder star fighters were under a slaved A.I. system that acted as a secondary pilot, navigator, and even co pilot for the craft. This would later prove to be the undoing of the Earth's Defense Directorate during 'The Draconian Incident' of 2491. The Thunder fighter were easy pray for the 'Draconian Fighter Space Craft' masquerading as interstellar space pirates. This led to the Earth fighting a quick guerilla campaign against the Draconians. The Thunder star fighter were key in this campaign over the ten year cold war with the empire. 

The Thunder Fighter Space Craft 

HP: 9 Power: 5/1 free AC: 16 Mass: 2/0 free Armor: 5 Crew: 1/1 Speed: 6 Hull Class: Fighter Crew Skill: +2 NPC CP: 4 Weapons: Reaper Battery (+4/3d4, Clumsy) Defenses: None Fittings: Spike Drive-2 Atmospheric Configuration Cost: 305K base price, 15,250 maintenance, 43,800 yearly crew cost for 1 pilot

The Draconian Fighter Space Craft Adapted From Buck Rogers In The 25th Century 1979 For The Stars Without Numbers rpg

 The Draconian empire arose from the shattered remains of Earth's former colonies. The Draconian Empire  were one of the most powerful of the post Earth dynasties left after the events of the Shattering. The Draconians  were with mere decades of taking control of the Terran corridor of space. This was accomplished by the flexible Draconian fighters which could fufill any number interstellar battle profiles, The Draconian fighter could fufill the role of pirate raider craft, small harrying attack craft & even battle cruiser defender. 

The Draconian Fighter Space Craft From Buck Rogers In The 25th Century 1979

Draconian Fighter 
HP: 9 Power: 5/1 free AC: 16 Mass: 2/0 free Armor: 5 Crew: 1/1 Speed: 5 Hull Class: Fighter Crew Skill: +2 NPC CP: 4 Weapons: Reaper Battery (+4/3d4, Clumsy) Defenses: None Fittings: Spike Drive-1 Atmospheric Configuration Cost: 305K base price, 15,250 maintenance, 43,800 yearly crew cost for 1 pilot

Beta Max Black - War Among The Stars - Stars Without Numbers & Cepheus Engine Rpg Campaign Dungeon Master Workshop Session Report #2

 Through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
  Past the wan-mooned abysses of night,
I have lived o'er my lives without number,
  I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright.

I have whirled with the earth at the dawning,
  When the sky was a vaporous flame;
I have seen the dark universe yawning
  Where the black planets roll without aim,
Where they roll in their horror unheeded, without knowledge or lustre or name.

I had drifted o'er seas without ending,
  Under sinister grey-clouded skies,
That the many-forked lightning is rending,
  That resound with hysterical cries;
With the moans of invisible daemons, that out of the green waters rise.

I have plunged like a deer through the arches
  Of the hoary primordial grove,
Where the oaks feel the presence that marches,
  And stalks on where no spirit dares rove,
And I flee from a thing that surrounds me, and leers through dead branches above.

I have stumbled by cave-ridden mountains
  That rise barren and bleak from the plain,
I have drunk of the fog-foetid fountains
  That ooze down to the marsh and the main;
And in hot cursed tarns I have seen things, I care not to gaze on again.

I have scanned the vast ivy-clad palace,
  I have trod its untenanted hall,
Where the moon rising up from the valleys
  Shows the tapestried things on the wall;
Strange figures discordantly woven, that I cannot endure to recall.

I have peered from the casements in wonder
  At the mouldering meadows around,
At the many-roofed village laid under
  The curse of a grave-girdled ground;
And from rows of white urn-carven marble, I listen intently for sound.

I have haunted the tombs of the ages,
  I have flown on the pinions of fear,
Where the smoke-belching Erebus rages;
  Where the jokulls loom snow-clad and drear:
And in realms where the sun of the desert consumes what it never can cheer.

I was old when the pharaohs first mounted
  The jewel-decked throne by the Nile;
I was old in those epochs uncounted
  When I, and I only, was vile;
And Man, yet untainted and happy, dwelt in bliss on the far Arctic isle.

Oh, great was the sin of my spirit,
  And great is the reach of its doom;
Not the pity of Heaven can cheer it,
  Nor can respite be found in the tomb:
Down the infinite aeons come beating the wings of unmerciful gloom.

Through the ghoul-guarded gateways of slumber,
  Past the wan-mooned abysses of night,
I have lived o'er my lives without number,
  I have sounded all things with my sight;
And I struggle and shriek ere the daybreak, being driven to madness with fright.
Nemesis  (1917) 
by H. P. Lovecraft

So yesterday around about having a meeting with DM Greg & his wife (who murdered his PC) gave me a whole lot of  Mongoose Traveller material including Chthonian Stars rpg pdf a setting book from Wildfire. And its old news going back to 2012. 

But what we'd do is cut this setting back a bit by using Zozer Games Hostile rpg to run this setting but there'd be a few changes to boot  as suggested by Greg & Cathy: 

• Bring in psionics into the mix 
• Make adjustments to the Lovecraftian entities fit the setting we've been running so far. 
• Concentrate on both Earth side as well as other areas of the solar system.. 
• Use what's come before in our already established Eighties fueled campaign that's on going. 

And this brought up an pivot point in the Cepheus Engine/Star Without Numbers campaign of the Talon Sector . Earth has been cut off & fallen way down the technological ladder here cut off by massive psionic storms. Its been suggested by Greg that these aliens may know far more then their letting on to the Earthers. And this brought up our old Nineties campaign Dark Conspiracy rpg which will work with our Hostile rpg system. So in one fell swoop we've got two monster options as well as a slimmed down PC generation. The entire back catalog of DC material is available for sale on Drivethrurpg. So there's a lot of campaign notebooks to sort through. 

But there are plans within plans here as old ideas & new systems clash, we're still ironing out the details but campaign plans are moving ahead. One of the first things to deal with is the unexplored back adventure we had in DC about the Martian colonies that were cut off by the psionic storm. 
For this we're gonna be using Outpost Mars & going to be having a bunch of adventures on Mars coming up. 

For the Martian exploration we're gonna be using Roughnecks again & picking up right from the lower technology threshold. Mars isn't as unexplored as it might seem. There have been certain rumblings on social media but that's about it. More as this develops... 

The Talon Sector is starting to come together well, & that's thanks in part to the free resources from the Dark Conspiracy fan site here. 

Beta Max Black - War Among The Stars - Stars Without Numbers & Cepheus Engine Rpg Campaign Session Set Up Mark II

 This blog post is going to pick up right from last night's session report. Because game events have been heating up. 

The player's PC's made it back with the A.I. from the mecha from last night's game after Greg's marine Private Strawberry Shortcake was pushed infront of the M.A.R.K. 13. This was done  by his wife Cathy's character so the rest of the party could escape. RIP Shortcake your sacrifice will not be in vein. Greg was being a dick & holding up the game. He got in his wife's way & she took matters into her own hands for the party. No one went back for his dog tags because they were too busy escaping in the marine's ship. A bunch of Imperial marines had to land to do clean up after the events on Parson's hammer. 


And this blog post  is going to pick up in the Talon sector & marine head quarters  which crosses over into this blog post here.  The marine's tech com department is going over the A.I.'s life history & comes across several star maps of  sectors of space that have been closed since the psionic storms have kicked up. The A.I. brain  knew the hyperspace time space corridors needed to open up several 'lost' sectors of space. This is where we'll be using Star Without Number Revised for the Talon sector material . These are some of the sources  to convert back & forth between Cepheus Engine & Stars Without Number'. 

Here's some of my sources: 
Stars Without Number Vs Original Traveller 

Mixing Traveller & Stars Without Number 

Traveller vs Stars Without Number 

The Earth Empire is hotly interested in those sectors because they've been cut off for so long from the interstellar scene. The Pan Asian Coalition agent among the marines has already turned her copy of the AI over to her employer. But in New England a small & very aggressive company is already  hellbent on making contact with the former colony worlds during the Earth Empire's greatest period. This could be very bad indeed as the Million Star Empire could rush in & take over 'The United Planets' without a second thought. Could psionics be having visions about the Godstar?

"Within the Million Sun Empire sits a desert world orbiting a sentient star: god-himself-the Godstar. Pilgrims flock to it with their offerings. The Godstar's oracles gives out advice, formulae, prognostications and strategy. It is a holy world. But war forced industrialisation on the planet Aurelia, causing social tension and conflict.

A new noble house, House Pelinor, has been granted the fiefdom of Aurelia, but it has many enemies: the local Utani Sand Men, the priests of the Church of the Godstar, the rival House Arakan that it deposed, local crimelords and even the Skygazers, those wandering mystics who claim to speak with the Godstar as they meditate whilst staring up at the blazing disc. They have paranormal powers."

Members of the Pan Asian Colition know the ancient threat  of the Church of the Godstar's armies. They have their own psionics looking into certain ruins out among the asteroid fields along the border of the psionic storms. Places where the Memori Empire pirate fleets have been waiting for blood. And along those same fields miners & prospectors move among the debris, asteroids, & worldlets. There are secrets among those fields. Deadly secrets waiting & dangling using Zozer Games Roughnecks. 

The New England Bouys have just picked up a corporate sponsor in last night's campaign session but that's a blog post coming up. 
Meanwhile the Earth Empire is still relatively cut off from the rest of the universe. How did things get this way?! This was caused by Dr. Hans Reinhardt taking the secrets of antigravity & certain aspects of gravity drive FTL with him when he stole the USS Cynus. 

 Dr. William Weir, followed in the footsteps of Reinhardt  & everyone knows of the second greatest space disaster  in history  with the U.S.S. Event Horizon. Its only a matter of time before the interstellar scene heats up. 

Unblinking eyes watch from the shadows & there are already whispers among the scientist & sorcerer classes among the Greys. And there are those members of the Akira Cosairs who follow the ways of the Varta who know some of the horrors that wait for our heroes. 

Bet Max Black - Stars Without Numbers & Cepheus Engine Rpg Campaign Session Report - Escape from Sador One Shot

 Tonight's Stars Without Number & Cepheus Engine Rpg fusion game one shot  was anything but serious. Tonight's session  took place within the Talon sector. The PC's awoke aboard  the tyrannical warlord & space pirate  Sador's war ship the Hammerhead. Sador is a minor pirate warlord who rules over the Malmori empire with his eye on the Talon Sector. He's been expanding his 'empire' by incorporating other star systems with the threat of the Hammerhead & his steller converter.The stellar converter turns small planets into miniature stars. 


 Yes tonight's adventure was a rip of erm homage to Roger Corman's Battle Beyond the Stars film from 1980. Sador was going to sell the PC's into slavery on Cha'alt for some extra coin for his war effort. The PC's in tonight's game were a homage to the Eighties cultclassic films  they included: 
Lt.Elmer Fudd marine
Forrest Gump - psionic marine now deceased..
Lt.Dann - Marine
Tom "Iceman" Kazansky - space ship pilot
John McClane - Space Law marshal
Jennie Grey - Psionic
Richard Thornburg, an unscrupulous TV reporter For CCS instellar space news agency
Stella Star: a young smuggler,psionic
Sador had kidnapped, captured, & put everyone into stasis for sale into slavery on Cha'alt. The PC's goal was simple escape from Sador and find their way off of his ship. The action started when a guard took Lt.Elmer Fudd's beer & the psionic Forrest Gump attacked a Malmori mutant psionic inquistor. 

Forrest died rather badly from a botched roll & things slid down hill from here as the PC's freed themselves. And four PC's died in the at the hands of Sador's elite troops while getting to an A.I. ship named Eliza. And while the player's PC's did manage to get to the battle cruiser & escape. The players want a more serious game involving Sador & the Malmori empire. 

The Malmori forces & Sador himself were done using Stellagama Publishing's  Piracy & Privateering book. And then extrapoliating from there for other bits & pieces of Battle Beyond The Stars plot for tonight's adventure. 

And they made it out alive! Found the ship but four PC's died tonight. This was supposed to be a convention style one shot adventure. And it provided me with several interesting obeservations : 

1. My hunches about both Stars Without Number & the Cepheus Engine rpg systems mix & matching of systems works very well. 
2. PC's have to work towards a very solid common goal or have a common grounding within a one shot adventure framework
3. Many of the tool boxes books of Stars Without Numbers works very well. 
4. Classic sci fi films really bring a good time to the table top 
5. Balancing random encounters isn't totally necessary the players deal with them as they play. 
6. OSR philosphy works best during play session situations. 

Events in tonight's one shot adventure are pre 'Battle Beyond The Stars' film.. So for the Cepheus Engine Rpg  & Stars Without Numbers books that are currently being used in tonight's game session: 

Hostile rpg campaign setting 

Hostile Technical Manual
Dead Names: Lost Races and Forgotten Ruins
Piracy and Privateering

The Space Patrol