More Then Just A Pretty Ship - The Rockwell Harbingers From Crew Expendable For The Hostile Rpg

 The Rockwell Harbingers  is in point of fact the supply ship of the lone colonies in the blackness of Hostile. There's no magic 'E' type planets in Hostile & space travel is extremely expensive so the  Rockwell Harbingers  series of space craft are more then just a sign of home. These ships are the blood line for the colonies & they've also been one of the main suppliers of adventurers in our Hostile campaigns. 

If there is a Hostile adventurers starship then this is it because of the fact that  Rockwell Harbingers in the HOSTILE setting are akin to the Beowulf Free Traders of the 3rd Imperium OTU setting. But not in the way that your thinking, the Rockwell Harbingers bring supplies, colonists within hypersleep, and the infrastructure that interstellar colonies depend upon. The supply lines that the Harbingers keep open is key & this makes corporate warfare within interstellar space all that more ugly. 
Take out a Harbinger & you are declaring war on another corporation's holdings & it takes a very long time to launch another one of these ships. Because colonies are going to starve if the interstellar infrastructure is gone. And this could actually be one of the reasons why the PC's are brought in. And this has been something we dealt with recently when I got a chance to play instead of being behind the screen. And recentlt when we got a chance to take a look into the colony building process with Colony Builder the role of the Harbinger came into it's own in spades. 

War in Hostile is completely ugly for any of the corporations involved & various police actions, battles, and dust up's are more then just a write off or loss. These battles have far reaching implications for a Hostile campaign. Coroorate states don't just go to war with each other but generations of colonists who are coming down the pike. Never forget that while xenomorphs are terrifying the true investiments that the megacorporations have is in the future generations of colonists. 

Legend of the Dutchman - The Hostile Rpg & Dragon Magazine issue #51 A Part Of The Military Action At The Shoulder of Orion

 This post is going to pick right back up from this blog entry here So today DM Steve came over to help out with putting some air conditioners in at Casa De Fabiaschi and since he's one of the players in our  'The Shoulder of Orion' campaign. I let it slip between beers that the Dutchman had been sighted  within the  'The Shoulder of Orion'  at Mu Orionis. Now Steve goes outside and calls everyone to tell them. What they don't know is that a hundred years has passed at 'The Shoulder of Orion' due to  time dilation. The crew of the Einstein a Rockwell Harbinger is made up of veterans of 'The Shoulder of Orion' conflict  And whom DM Steve is a part of is now on their way to the Dutchman. And it's simply another angle to the 'The Shoulder of Orion' battles which to current game is current events. But to the crew of the Einstein is hundred year old history. But who cares about 100 year old information?! 

Remember Carter Burke from Aliens the guy who got the wild cat miners killed? He was acting on Ripley's intelligence about the Space Jockey ship looking for his big payday. And the crew of the Einstein is no different except there's a lot more going on here. That ship has information on a whole array of unexplored planetary systems out on the bleeding edge of space. 
But there are other interested parties in the Dutchman including the Space Force. So it's going to be a question of who get's to it first. And then there's the question of the computers aboard the Dutchman. These were taken specifically from Dragon magazine issue #51's article 'In Defense of the Computer' by  Paul Montgomery Crabaugh. Why use an ancient Traveller article!?  Because I want the players to have to deal with 100 year old technology that will cause headaches! 

Crew Expendable features  the Rockwell Harbinger & for the crew of the Einstein this ship has been home for over a year now. And it's a tight little family of a crew that has deep connections to 'The Shoulder of Orion' campaign setting. Two of the crew are synethitcs for the eight man crew and are obsolete combat andies. The captain is also a veteran of the Adam program who mustered out with a Harbinger in his background. The others have a stake in the Dutchman as well for varying reasons. Will the Dutchman's A.I. know about the Einstein?! Most likely with the various sensors on board. 
The legend of the Dutchman blew up with the players making up rumors about the survey ship. Here's ten rumors about the Dutchmen: 

1. The Dutchman has been in hyperspace longer then any other survey ship & has been to otherside of the galaxy or else where. 
2. Hell rides with the Dutchman & to see it is bad luck & you will die in 10 days from the sighting. 
3. There are aliens watching the Dutchman and it's now spying on the human race watching for what we're going to next. 
4. Time runs funny around the Dutchman & she can yank a ship right outta of hyperspace.
5. The Dutchman is home to a radical terrorist organization or cult that worships some dark alien menace only they know about. 
6. Treasure flows in the hold of the Dutchman her captain made a deal with the Devil.
7. Anyone who comes in contact with the data from the Dutchman's computers goes mad! 
8. A family of corporate heads has secrets in the Dutchman's computers that they want hidden & they'll kill anyone who finds out their secrets. 
9. The whole starship is now a living alien thing that plies the space ways for starships to consume them whole! 
10. Aliens are now in control of that ship and she sails the damned winds of alien stars to see her is death! 

 

Hyper Space Beasties & OSR Commentary On Crew Expendable by Chris Elliott From Zozer Games For The Hostile Rpg

"A campaign supplement detailing the nuts and bolts for haulage crews to ship cargoes to destinations. It is not a set of ‘space trading’ rules, but more about the process of getting the goods where they need to be and meeting the deadline – the adventure is developed along the way. Includes a 1000 ton starship, NPCs, rules for interstellar haulage and plenty more background on the companies and routes employed shipping good between the stars. Available from Lulu.com in print format."

 Crew Expendable by Chris Elliott From Zozer Games For The Hostile Rpg has been on my mind since reading through the alegisdownport wood press blog. Hostile is on a completely different scale then say The Clement Sector or even These Stars Are Ours when it comes to The Cephesu Engine rpg. Crew Expendable really puts the idea of haulage into the wine blackness of space & its a very scary proposition in many ways. The idea of interstellar infrastructure in Crew Expendable has the quality of the vastiness of the universe. 
But is Crew Expendable's starships actually treading on where the the monsters are?! Are we actually looking at the right universe?! Is hyperspace actually the domain of instellar monsters that we can hardly understand? Every once in a while a Rockwell Harbinger ship goes missing. Would anyone actually notice? Think about how much automation is used aboard these ships. 

These starships require a pilot, a navigator, a ship’s doctor (or medic), an engineer or two, and a sensor operator. And with the frontier so close hyperspace is the great unknown in many ways. Mankind might night have as good a grasp on hyperspace as they think. Take a look at this Brown university explaination of hyperspace. 
These hyperthetical hyperspace  beasts could be made from exotic matter that we hardly understand. These beasts might not even count as life as we know it. But instead actually be energy lifeforms that swims through the undercurrents of the undereality of hyperspace. 

These hyperspacial lifeform might convert anything from our universe into easily devourable energy. And because of the very nature of starships carrying such energy reserves in hyperspace which could attract these monsters. This opinion is based on this article on Space.com
Game stats might not be necessary instead using rolls & description to avoid being converted into a beast's snack. These beast might be active while the crew is in cryo sleep and only when exiting back into our universe find some vital ship system missing. 

Right now Zozer Games Hostile is a part of the Bundle of Holding promotion available until about the 4th of May.