Showing posts with label Battle Beyond The Stars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Battle Beyond The Stars. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 3, 2021

OSR Commentary - Dark Conspiracy & The Origins of the Malmori Empire in The Talon Sector Campaign For The Cepheus Engine Rpg

 Gotta love gamers, since yesterday their have been numerous folks now jumping on the Dark Conspiracy train. Well today we're gonna talk about the origin of the Malmori Empire within my modified Hostile/Cepheus Engine rpg  campaign. The campaign's version of the Malmori empire was born out of several  books Hostile's Crew Expendible, Synethtics, Darktek, More G3G book, & These Stars Are Ours campaign setting book. The Malmori Empire is a race of space pirates under the control of the warlord Sador. They've been the 'big bad' since the campaign's inception but actually their a red herring in every sense of the word. 



When the Reticulan empire fell their humanoid clone worker race was left to its own devices but they were completely purposeless. Their Gray masters had left them many of their own devices but the ancient  Malmori were vulnerable to the whispers of far darker voices from between the stars. So they took up to the stars again mining & generally behaving in the fashion that they had under their master's yoke. The Malmori were cloned from ancient peoples of Earth eons ago taken in one of the many Reticulan raids on Earth. 
Soon came mankind spinning out among the stars with planetary colonies & taking control of many of the Malmori mining terroritories. Shades of the 'Pirates of the Ancient Mediterranean' ; "the decline of the Seleucid Empire in the 2nd century BCE and ended when Pompey the Great (l. c. 106-48 BCE) defeated the Cilician pirates at the Battle of Coracesium in 67 BCE when, actually, Egyptian records substantiate piratical activities in the Mediterranean centuries earlier and Roman accounts report its continuance for centuries afterwards. " Many of the alien species encountered were actually mankind genetically modified by the Reticulans. The Malmori were an early attempt & were perhaps made with a modified genetic flaw. Their organs & body parts would break down after the 20 year mark. 


A Malmori warrior whose battle/medical suit keeps him intact against the hostil effects of a planetary atmosphere. 

The warlord Sador was a part of the elite cast & could live up to two hundred years with organ & limb replacement. The Malmori were made using the rules & guidelines found in Zozer Games Synethtics book. But these clone armies are flawed because the clones were force grown using the cloners found in the Darktek book.



 This particular band of Reticulans had fallen under the sway of dark forces & so too were the Malmori. Since the advent of the psionic storms they have had no further contact with humanity. But they retained many of the star ships left by their Reticulan masters. This included several stellar converters used for harvesting the cores of planets or converting stars into highly unstable radioactives for processing.
 

 Only recently have several Habringer cargo carriers  started to go missing along the border with the Human Empire have the corporations noticed the return of the Malmori empire. Patterns indicate that there may far more going on here as entire crews have been missing or harvested depending upon the rumors. The Reticulan empire is particuarly silent upon the mattter for moment. Weaponry & tactics of the Malmori  come straight out of the More G3G book. While some of the technologies of the Malmori themselves are left over Darktek equipment used by their twisted Reticulan empire former masters. TSAO: 50 Wonders of the Reticulan Empire  represents another branch of the Reticulans who have not fallen under the thrall or yoke of the dark masters of the far darker Greys.  Star Law is only coming under the suspision that the Malmori are becoming a problem once again. What's really been helpful here is Piracy and Privateering in fleshing out aspects of the Malmori Empire. Are the Malmori victims of circumstance or have they become tools for something far more dangerous?! 





 

Friday, January 15, 2021

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: