Hostile Rpg One Shot Session Report - Adapted 'And the sun shined brightly' By Joseph Mohr 'A Pay What You Want' Adventure For The Cepheus Engine Rpg

" Lasened IV is an agriculture planet on the edge of the Sonora sector and unexplored space. Scientists have been carefully watching the central star in this system as radiation levels and solar activity have increased substantially over the last few decades. It is believed that a Supernova is imminent."

"Just about anyone who could afford passage off this world has left it already. Those who remain are diehards who wish to go down with their world and those who just could not afford to buy passage. Perhaps a few remaining people just waited to long. In any event those who remain have become desperate to escape their fate. Images on the nightly news have shown people mobbing arriving space craft and clinging to their hulls as the ships take off again. Chaos and anarchy seem to be taking hold there."

"The Sonoran Protection Society is a charitable foundation which is offering CR 10,000 per person rescued from Lasened IV. They have been advertising for anyone with a ship to take their offer and save people from certain death" 

 So tonight for the first time in almost close to a week this head cold backed off enough for me to slip into DM Steve's Hostile rpg Tuesday night game.  We had 'And the sun shined brightly' By Joseph Mohr run tonight. Our adventurers were the crew of the Lazarus a Colonial Frieghter who our crew was working for the Hong Kong based  Kung corporation. The Lazarus was a part of a Colonial Frieighter fleet. And DM Steve is a bit of a sadist, I say this with all due respect. Several rolls on our part confirmed that something wasn't right with the primary star.  We landed in a field about 200 miles away from the starport just to be on the safeside. 

  The Kung corporation is a part of  'The Sonoran Protection Society' & it wants it's argiculture workers  back. As we landed on Lasened IV & immediate knew something was up. The population around the starport was almost rioting & marines were holding back as many citizens as they could! We immediately refueled & prepped. We spoke to the colony's governor & his staff things were degrading  rapidly around the colony! 

We got the marines on the horn & then scheduled control & crowd flow to get everyone on board the outgoing ships. Grabbing colonists to board the ship was going to be our biggest problem as well organizing the whole affair. This was a logicistical nightmare as DM Steve several complications our way. These included saving a few stray important VP's, dealing with landing gear repairs, volitile cargo, and ugly underworld issues. We could almost hear the ticking clock in our heads. 

In tonight's Hostile game several pieces of Hostile technology & how it works came from the Hostile Technical Manual. Which was used as a player handout during tonight's one shot. 

We didn't have long & everything was going well, except for the marines getting a bit frisky with the colonists in preventing several riots. We had to smooth things over with the colonists leaders. Tick,tick, and then the surface of the star had more activity upon it! 

Despite all of the complications & events we lifted off quite nicely along with the rest of the fleet with the marines on board! The whole affair came off with out a hitch even though the situation on Lasened IV reached a boiling point.

 'And the sun shined brightly' By Joseph Mohr  'A Pay What You Want' Adventure For The Cepheus Engine Rpg Is Available Here 

 Lasened IV was a mess in tonight's game as the situation around the star began to deiteriate rapidly. The ships were fueled but we only had half of the colonists aboard that we needed. And informed the marines that our naviagator had detected things worsening on the star's surface. Two of the six ships were full up. And we had them lift off. Tick, tick, tick Two more riots & a hospital near our ship had a fire. We never left the ship much to DM Steve's plans & events. 

OSR Hostile Rpg Commentary - Exploring In The Gardens of the Dead

 While some of the stuff for the Hyperborea rpg is shelfed for a day or so with the holiday we've been discussing among ourselves the revamped Hostile rpg and the New England Boi's campaign. And the fact is that any issues with Xeno life forms is going to be super rare. And this goes hand in hand with the explaination of the Fermi paradox in our own universe. 

If we look at the Fermi paradox & the fact that in the billions of light years from our own corner of the Milky Way then we may be sitting right in sector after sector of an intergalatic  alien grave yard. And it brings up a point that a friend of mine brought up to me tonight, 'The aliens may not be picking up the phone because their dead. And the phone's been off the hook for eons'. 
If we're looking into Hostile's Explorers title then we could well have a party of explorers who run into more then a few planets were the aliens have seemingly abandoned the planet or planetary system. But there could incredible technologies left behind by these civilations. And there in is both the value & the danger. 

Why do I say danger?! Because of the fact that tonight's sinster conversation among the players & dungeon masters the fact is that the Xeno's of Hostile are fairly unknown. The could be theoritcally anything or anyone. The guidelines within Explorers say that the sky is literally the limit. World after world could be generated and no two would be alike. And there could be this fact that in Hostile the universe is generated by random charts and the fact that the universe is always trying to kill you. Add into the fact the universe wants your party & you dead.

Exoplanets are no different, they may also harbor far more A.I. relics then previously thought. The aliens that we've been harboring for may actually have been wiped out by left over A.I.  god things & thier relics. This leaves far more on the table then previously thought. Would we as PC's even remotely recognize an alien battle field and its left over alien weaponry or their  effects. There may be fare more going on a wastland style planet then we were previously expecting. What the Hell I'm I talking about here?! The fact that some of the xeno life forms in the Hostile setting book may well be bio weapons but would we even recognize those??! And would we even known an alien dungeon if our PC's blundered into it. 

There maybe aliens that don't consume food,or that we don't recognize a weapon pointed right at a  human's head. The point is that these creatures are alien for a reason & may not conform to our human standards at all. And this is one those obvious statenents that conforms to so many aspects of the the Fermi paradox. The fact that having human perspections might hinder our search for extraterristrials. But our group tonight thought that Hostile's Explorers is a key book for this style of a campaign. 

OSR Thoughts on Zozer Game's Godstar & Opportunities For Plunder Among the Stars

 Godstar rpg bothers the Hell out of my brain because it allows the Cepheus Engine rpg to create a unique setting & sector all of its own. This a very baroque sector steeped in it's own internal politics & to a certain degree it is fascinating because of its holy star. But whose the Devil then?!

Is there hordes of desert dwellers who are proficient in dark magick waiting in the wings of Godstar fueling the coming tide of revolution?! Barbaric! has thoughts of dangerous & desert hardened babarians armed to the teeth with space craft wreckage daggers just waiting to take down Utani Sand Men in the darkness.

In my own Hostile/Cepheus Engine rpg hybrid campaign setting with its Talon Sector the Million Sun Empire is cut off from our own part of the galaxy by a barrier of psionic energy that will fry any foolish enough to cross it. But it leads to the question if  Aurelia is the focus what else is there within the sector itself. Earth is a distant memory & races such as the Gaugamelans lead one to speculate as to the real agenda behind the Million Sun Empire. But the real heart of the setting is in the star ships of Godstar. Each of the Baroque star craft of Godstar are actually space carriers which could be closer to the concept seen with the Guild heighliner of the DUNE universe.

Still from 1984's Dune 

This has huge implications for the nature of instellar trade & the family houses or trade guilds within the God Star setting for smaller tramps & trade ships. Don't pay your taxes to the Million Sun's empire & your going to have a space carrier on your door step. And you'll have smaller troop transports on your planetary backside. 
The smaller tramp & trade ships of the original Traveller game suddenly make a whole lot more sense especially those operated by smaller corporations & guild outfits. 

And the sheer scale of this coupled with the concept of hyperspace makes Zozer Games Hostile craft not out of the question either. The Colonial Frieghters are the long hauls of their interstellar niche. Even though Hostile isn't a part of this setting trade is going to be the underpinning to even a God star campaign setting.. 

The one thing that occurs to me with this style of a campaign is the fact that its going to be a trade & economic driven game campaign. Even with psionics & even magical abilities goods & services will be the driving force & focus behind such a campaign. What does this all mean?! It means that there is opportunity for plunder as well! 
Once again we are reminded that opportunity breeds plunder. There will be countermeasures to the force screens of the larger Godstar star craft & this is going to breed opportunities for space viking situations. 

Will be seeing a situation where not unlike the ancient silk road there will be knight ships accompanying cargo vessels for the long hauls?! Or will this be a question of opening up further trade roots for vessels plying their trade across the starlanes?! Piracy and Privateering seems to be a perfect supplement to add in here to balance the opportunities for enterprising players & DM's.