Back To The Starship Warden?! - Using Cepheus Engine Rpg & Stars With Number rpg Together - Operators, Thieves, & Tramps

 "They designed the Starship Warden to house, feed and clothe over a million people. To do this the designers outfitted this massive ship, miles long and miles wide, to serve as a home for people offering up quarters and cafeterias, restaurants, and malls all intermingled with a host of features to mimic earth-like conditions, from artificial lakes to fields of crops. Her maiden voyage began with hopes and dreams of a future like nothing humanity had ever seen."

"But that was long ago. There has been no contact between the Warden and Earth for many long years for on the ship something went horribly awry. Radiation leaks, singularity, mutations, madness, what it was, only the inhabitants could say. Whatever it was, her inhabitants, those that lived, dwell in a world of want and despair, and when they were not preying upon one another, they fight beastly mutants, cyborgs, self-aware robotic humanoids and all the other creatures who vie for the precious resources of the beleaguered starship."

"It is your time now. Rise in the chaos of the Warden and bend its apocalypse to your will -- or be ground away in the lonely quiet of deep space."

So we've been tossing around a Fall OSR campaign and with Cities Without Number it doesn't take a genius to figure out that we need to pick up last Fall's campaign. The Warden was launched from the Transplutonian shipyards by a conglomeration of mega corporations. And then the 'Conduit gateway' between Earth and the Clement sector collapsed. The Earth sector corporations and governments have kept the fate of the Warden from the headlines.

 

The Warden has become an urban legend floating in space. The USS Goya was a richman and his party of salvagers attempt to salvage the legendary ship things didn't go as planned. Now the USS Goya has been added to the urban legend. 
The operators are gathering intelligence on the Goya's data from several pirate resources. 

And this brings up the fact that Earth sector agents want to have the PC's heads if anything hits the media. And this is where our party's Cybersneaks are getting in deep already. 
The PC's have uncovered the fact that there are several black technologies aboard the Warden. Advanced cloning technologies, unknown robots, and more mean that there's a gold mine of artifacts aboard the Warden. Most of these are from the Starship Warden book itself. The rest of the artifacts are coming out of the  Mutant Future [BUNDLE] From Skirmisher Publishing

Stefan Wright of Nutech is paying for this expediation & the PC's are going to have to aquire a vessel modified to look unassuming but actually is going to be crammed with some stealthy options. Most likely an  Opportunity-class Light Trader or another Earth sector trader vessel. 

Underwater Matters - More Commentary On The Fate of The Atlantic Star - A Zaibatsu/Hostile Mini Campaign On Colony World Abyss

 

So if you've been following our Hostile rpg mini campaign then you know a variation of the  September Group or Сентябрьская группа's cybercriminal program has been implimented on Abyss.  And this blog entry picks right up from here on the blog.  And since talking with Ian Stead over on social media. I began looking into further underwater resources for old school Traveller. And I remembered a book by  J. Andrew Keith. 
Long time Traveller players will be familar with his name because he did a series of enviromental themed adventures and sourcebook for the old school Traveller rpg. Looking around Different World. com aka Game Lords still sells these sourcebooks. And these resources include 'The Undersea Environment'. Now I'd be an idiot not to look deeper into 'The Undersea Enviroment'. And it clocks in at twenty five pages of very basic equipment, explainations, enviromental hazards, etc;

"The Undersea Environment is a Traveller supplement dealing with the particular problems found in an aquatic environment. Included are specific rules systems designed to simulate underwater activities and hazards, explanations of gear and equipment available for underwater use, and a guide to special events and encounters to aid teh referee in constructing underwater encounter tables.

"Challenge your players to broaden their horizons and enter The Undersea Environment."

And for our adventure goals 'The Undersea Enviroment' supplement adds an extra layer of equipment, & reference for me as a DM. And it's has just enough to really fill in some of the odds & ends for underwater equipment especially for a world like Abyss. Why? Because of the logicistics nightmare of this colony world. 

There are no landmasses to help support a series of industrial scale operations. And this isn't to say that the Abyss supplement isn't any good. Quite the opposite.  There's enough here to to get the DM started. And given that Abyss as a colony world is a logistical nightmare the corporate or outfit is going to have to fly in everything! And fishing fleets, artificial islands, and more are going to have to be the PC's support. 
Combined with Mongoose's Water Vehicles and you've got everything to Abyss going as a campaign for years to come. 

PC's on Abyss in our Zaibatsu fueled campaign have several 'genetic modifications' to survive in the watery enviroment. Artificial gills, etc. are the order of the day for our party. 
And equipment has got to be modified for the underwater enviroment. Here's where GEAR: General Equipment Adventurers Require from Independence Games comes in extremely handy. The underwater selection of options and armors has got to be on the menu for our players.
Abyss itself as a campaign world has proven to be a really perfect adventure fodder enviroment for players who want thier PC's to do salvage, mining, fishing, and even extreme sports. It's also a crime ridden cesspool perfect for contraband and crime fueled adventure. More to come. 

Review & Commentary On Angry Golem Game's STARS WITHOUT NUMBER - TRADE GOODS GENERATOR 300 For The Stars Without Number Revised Rpg

 "The Stars Without Number compatible Trade Goods Generator contains two 3-pages files.

1st file: This is a canonic trade goods generator useful to generate loot and goods very quickly.

2nd file: The second file is a replica of the first, but it is tuned to work with Suns of Gold Merchant Campaign."

"Trade Goods organized in four categories:

1) Materials & Technological Stuff (100 TRADE GOODS)

2) Warfare (100 TRADE GOODS)

3) Organic, Chemicals & Stuff (100 TRADE GOODS)

4) Extra section from the last update with a wide array of minerals and othe elements."

Once upon a time I had a highly successful Stars Without Numbers Revised /Cepheus Engine rpg campaign. And then a death in our rpg family caused it to implode. Well with recent events my notebooks have been in my hand again. And one of those notebooks indicated Angry Golem Games STARS WITHOUT NUMBER - TRADE GOODS GENERATOR 300. Now with the OGL fiasco interest has been renewed. More on why later on. Let's journey back to the haycon days of our Suns of Gold: Merchant Campaigns for Stars Without Number. There was no worry that Cowards of the Coast was going to take away the livelihood of friends & we were playing for the enjoyment of the game campaign. We've recently had this enjoyment again with the Clement Sector rpg  mini  campaign. 

Our Suns of Gold campaign was set in the Washington sector which is next to the Clement sector separated by the Divide a literal huge expanse of nothing between these sectors. They can receive transmissions but that's it. Or so we thought. The Suns of Gold campaign was full of Scavenger Fleets acting as space borne locusts that gobbled up any trade ships they came across. 
And here's where the Angry Golem Games STARS WITHOUT NUMBER - TRADE GOODS GENERATOR 300 comes in really handy. There are two files full of trade goods perfect to stock trade ships that have vanished into the void. We used a few ancient United Planet Cruisers as investigative craft to investigate these disappearances. 
PC's were really after the goodies that were in the holds of the patched together trade ships. And the thirteen page trade goods generator does a great job for a Suns of Gold campaign. Into every life a bit of rain must fall and fall it will when several pirate groups by John Watts come to call in the Washington Sector. 

How did the pirate factions get to the Washington Sector & why are they there?! What secrets does a possible alliance with the Scavenger fleets hold?! The Angry Golem Games STARS WITHOUT NUMBER - TRADE GOODS GENERATOR is a key part of this. Because it allows me to generate cargos & carryon trade goods on the fly. So that unto itself makes the trade goods generator worth getting for me to get the players interested & hold their interest! 

OSR Commentary - Hostile rpg & The Tau Ceti Affair

This blog post is going pick right up from this blog entry here. 
 Over the last two days I've been going over rpg inventory due to this head cold that has been plaguing me. And with that Zozer just released a brand new video on the Tau Ceti world book. Tau Ceti is pretty much their Avitar like conflict in a small corner of the over all Hostile rpg Zozerverse. 

This video has me asking myself about three things the role of China within our current interstellar  campaign. And what would Tau Ceti mean in the greater scheme of things against the blackness of the current campaign. How would the Chinese megacorporations be reactive with the rest of the Soviet interstellar block within our current Hostile campaign?! Or would all of the above turn to the Khuri menace?! Personally after reading through the material, all of the above seem like very complicated issues in aganist the blackness of space. 

Would the Soviets & Chinese be fielding their own  Indepence Games's Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent-class Destroyers?! The short answer is a resounding yes because of the escalation within instellar space. The military situations are balanced on a knife's edge, the range of exploration is vast, and the unknown lurk's just outside of our colonies's purview. And the situation has gotten weird as the Soviets have asked for our help. 

Tau Ceti is going to add further murkiness to the very dangerous interstellar geo politics of the mega corporate situation. And within our own campaign this world is going to rife for exploitation & bloodshed. The powers that be within our Hostile rpg campaign are using Tau Ceti as a bloody & dangerous chess board with the world situation very cloudy. 

OSR Commentary - Hostile rpg & The Rising ‘Zhuki’ Menace!

 For me reading through the Hostile rpg is like returning home after a long absence. Why because of the fact that there's so much more to the game then simply another gritty Alien rpg knock off. Because for me Hostile is about exploration, expansion, and more in the face of adversity the likes of which mankind hasn't faced since the age of Exploration. The frontier aspect of the vast blackness of space within Hostile holds lots of potential. There isn't anyone coming to help you within the vastness of space. 

Hostile is a 'lived in' universe that I know & understand this goes a long ways to helping me run a game set within this universe. So over the last couple of years that Hostile and 2d6 Cepheus Engine rpg's have been within my life there's been some excellent experiences at the table top level. Player's PC's are the blue collar guys & there's a tendency for players to get attached to said PC's even though they might not be alive for far too long. 
Mixing & matching various 2d6 Cepheus Engine rpg resources with Hostile has both been very rewarding. Yet in some instances frustrating for players not used to the modular nature of  2d6 games. The easy of these rpg supplements simply being moved into play with some backstory has been interesting to watch as each DM molds Hostile into the game they want and need. 

We recently used Indepence Games's Historical Ships of Clement Sector 1: Trent-class Destroyer. The Trent Class Destroyer is cutting edge within our version of the Hostile universe. The ''Trent Destroyer' is perfectly suited for being a warship within our version of the Zozer universe ; "The Trent-class destroyer is a reaction drive vessel used by the United States Space Navy in the early days of colonization into Clement Sector.  The 1500-tonne destroyer was launched in 2185 to provide security and to protect the United States' fledgling interstellar colonies. The Trent-class was the most capable of the first generation reaction drive interstellar warships" 

 These for us are the most dangerous warships that the corporations that our players are working for can man. The military situations are balanced on a knife's edge, the range of exploration is vast, and the unknown lurk's just outside of our colonies's purview. And the situation has gotten weird as the Soviets have asked for our help. This is because we've used Zozer Games Kosmos 68 to help fill in some of the gaps within our campaign. 

The alien menace within Kosmos 68 is truly alien to humanity and actually a variation of the life forms within Zozer's Alien Breeds. In our campaigns these alien life forms are expanding & have wiped out a number of the Soviet & Americn corporate colonies. This has forced both East & West to pool resources to investigate the issue. Even with psionics the Soviets are still in the dark about many of the alien's abilities & even motives. Humanity is up against the unknown here

Back To The Starship Warden?! - Using Cepheus Engine Rpg & Stars With Number rpg Together - 'Shiny, Let's Be Bad Guys!'

So we've been all over the map when it comes to thinking out some of our Fall campaign scheduling. And it's been months since we got a chance to do one of our favorite campaigns. A combination of Stars Without Number & Cepheus Engine.You can read more about that over here. 

 And then over the last course of a couple of days we each got an update saying that Troll Lords was going to drop the Starship Warden for an update or reboot to it's Amazing Adventures rpg line. And so the Warden is on sale over at Troll Lord games.  And we've still got a full on game campaign going set in our version's univere of the Warden. 

And we were not playing the 'good guys' but space pirate mercenary adventurers and we had a blast. We swapped out the starship rules of Stars Without Number revised for Cepheus Engine rpg system. We managed to escape the Warden (just barely after getting our foot in the hanger and almost getting eaten alive by mutant scum) and our party literally left. 

We had 'The Space Patrol' on our behinds and managed to lay low for a month or so running piracy jobs for the criminals at Old School Role Playing's Pay What You Want Trading Post. 

And we ran whatever crap piracy jobs we could on the Frontier's edge. 

We ran afoul of space wizards, reticullan royal cults, and had a blast. And we also used Independence Games Skull & Crossbones to help fill in some of the criminal  background of our sector. And we also had more background with the Goya as a part of the story of the Warden. 

We had three DM's taking turns running this campaign and it was going gangbusters but what we really wanted was to return to the Warden! But scheduling conflicts caused all kinds of issues & we got two new players who caused drama and the game took a nose dive. But now the players & the DM's are on board for the return to the Warden. 
Cepheus Engine players hate mixing this campaign  with Stars Without Number as the Stars Without Number players hate this out in the inner webs. Tough titties we were having a blast with this. And so are returning to the Warden soon. More action coming up! 

There are five things happening right now for our party: 

1. We've got a bounty on our heads for the crew of the Goya which the authorities think we murdered for 50,000 credits
2. The party managed to piss off a Reticulan cult and they want us dead.
3. Several pirate gangs and groups want us to join after we pumped weapons into their pipe line to keep our hacker alive. 
4. The corporations gave us three side jobs but wanted the coordinates for the Warden. The party managed to cover their tracks. 
5. The party hates wolfoids most of all.