Space Dragons
In a biologically uninteresting case of convergent evolution, xenobiologists have discovered that most Garden worlds of sufficient age develop similar apex predators: large flying carnivores with scales. Depending on local conditions and available minerals, these animals will often preferentially consume and metabolize metals such as iron, copper, aluminum, or titanium into their bones, scales, horns, and teeth.
Space Dragon
Large +3
Hits 120
Speed 50m (flying)
Skills Athletics (strength) 3, Survival 3, Stealth 1
Attacks Claw/Claw/Bite 7D
Traits Large (+6)
Behavior Hunter, Pouncer
Posted in Creature, Traveller, Uncategorized by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Gamma Complex
In a distant age, at the edge of the galaxy, on a planet named Voek ( UWP: D525A76-6), industrial facilities in the wasteland churn out power generators, spaceship parts, and other machinery for the Grand Imperial Duchy of Abiodun.
Overview – Gamma Complex* is a city-sized science-fiction role-playing setting where a monopolistic corporation, criminal syndicate, royal family, communist dictatorship, or other totalitarian group controls every aspect of life for the residents of the technocratic, massive, hyper-efficient habitable Complex. In the below case it is presented as part of the Skein Reach setting.
Posted in Campaign Setting, Location, Lore / Worldbuilding, Region, rules agnostic, Science-Fiction, Traveller and tagged Class of 198X, ClassOf198X, Paranoia, Skein Reach by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Marzoxians
The inhabitants of Marzox 2, a metal-rich jungle world on the Empire’s border with the Skein Reach, are a bipedal reptilian race with great size and strength, but a metabolic reliance on warm temperatures. Their planet was purged of life by an Imperial Bombardment Fleet when the planetary resistance refused to submit to the Imperial Crusade sent to pacify the planet.
Their Strength and Agility attributes are both +1 during character creation, and their Social attributes are -2 due to their status as refugees from a rebellious and heretical planet.
They stand an average of 2 meters tall, though they measure closer to 4 meters in length from snout to tail, and weigh an average of 80 kilograms. They are hermaphroditic when need be, but in their society on Marzox 2 they mainly reproduced sexually within complex cyclic social cultures which took macro-environmental factors into consideration.
Marzoxians are most comfortable in a humid environment of 30 degrees Celsius, but are comfortable (if slightly spastic) up to 45 degrees.
When in environments colder than 20 degrees Celsius without special clothing such as a vacc suit Marzoxians suffer a -1 DM to all rolls.
Below 10 degrees Celsius Marzoxians must make Endurance checks to take any actions, with an additional -2 DM to the Endurance check per 10 degrees colder.
Posted in Race, Traveller and tagged Skein Reach by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Review: Starship Geomorphs
Robert Pearce‘s new Traveller suppliment Starship Geomorphs is a huge new resource for science-fiction gamers, filled with beautiful illustrations, hundreds of starship deckplan geomorphs, and most importantly, really good suggestions for using these modular maps in your home game. Designed to be used to quickly generate starship and spaceport maps, these geomorphs also provide inspiration when designing deck plans for new ships.
Representing three years of painstaking work, this beautiful 185 page book is a great resource for any science-fiction role-player, and he’s made it available as a free download! I recommend it highly to any sci-fi gamemaster, or anyone who wants to design starship interiors.
Included in the free guide are instructions for printing these maps out to use in your home game for both 15mm and 25mm scale miniatures.
This wonderful resource also includes maps for areas one doesn’t usually see in deckplans, like recreation areas, many different common areas, shopping areas, arboretums, viewing galleries, and even agricultural spaces. I will definitely be using these to build out starports and megaships in my Traveller game.
Posted in Editorial, Review, Science-Fiction, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Captain Liv & The Sable Tiger
Captain Liv is a rough-around-the-edges, lusty human woman with the hard-nosed independent attitude common to the free traders of the Skein Reach. She flies the Sable Tiger, a custom GM 210 that can cover two parsecs in a jump.
Canny, she knows when to hold ’em and when to fold, when to run, and when to fight. First Mate “Seargent Mac” is a humorless retired Imperial Space Marine, who lost a leg in a crusade against the lizard people of Marzox 6b and now mostly gets around with the help of a grav belt. Jack is friendly and sociable, knows the basics of all of the Sable Tiger’s systems, and fills in wherever needed. They are often on the lookout for good crew, whether it is stewards to attend to their passengers, gunners to operate the turrets, engineers, sensor operators, or even some new lover picked up in starport and whisked off to grand adventure among the stars.
Cpn. Liv was born Lavinia Thunxzon on Johnston’s World, and got her start flying with her father on his free trader the Tortise, running the planet’s agricultural goods to Aroura Station. After seven years the Tortise was shot down and plundered in the Archeron system. Her father was killed, she was badly injured, and the remains of the Tortise were scrapped by the pirate flotilla.
Pressed into service, Liv proved herself a capable crewmember who was good with a blade if need be. The next eleven years were spent in incredible adventures in space, living outside the law, warring with other gangs and pirates, gaining friends and killing enemies, until she gained the trust and friendship of Grgrz, the massive, ruthless reptilian pirate admiral leading the underground resistance to the Empire’s Crusade on Marzox. She was given Captaincy of the Sable Tiger to run supplies past the Imperial blockades, and was there at Marzox 6b when the Imperial Bombardment Fleet arrived and the Crusade was ushered to a bloody victory on a scorched planet. The resistance in tatters, Cpn. Liv fled in the Sable Tiger rimward, back to the Skein Reach.
Since then the Sable Tiger has been on the run in the Skein Reach, laying low, running the old agricultural cargo run from Jhonston’s World to Aroura Station, and doing odd jobs in other remote destinations in the Reach.
Cpn. Liv
Merchant (Free Trader) rank 1
Rogue (Pirate) rank 1
Human Female, age 34
CHARACTERISTICS
STR 6
DEX 11 (+1)
END 6
INT 8
EDU 5 (-1)
SOC 3 (-1)
SKILLS
Astrogation 1
Broker 0
Carouse 0
Electronics 0
Gun Combat (Energy) 1
Gunner (Turret) 1
Mechanic 0
Melee (Blade) 2
Persuade 0
Pilot (Spacecraft) 2
Stealth 1
Steward 0
Streetwise 1
Tactics (Military) 1
Vacc Suit 2
EQUIPMENT
Saber (3D damage)
Laser Carbine (4D damage)
Hostile Environment Vacc Suit (+12 Protection)
Sable Tiger (customized GM-210)
Built on a powerful Galactic Monopoly modular chassis, this sleek ship is packed to the gills with speed. Wrapped in a custom superdense armored hull, the Sable Tiger has the maneuverability and toughness to blast past blockades, returning fire along the way.
Hull 200 ton (Standard, Partially Streamlined – 80 Hull Points)
Armor 4 (Bonded Superdense – 6.4 tons)
Jump 2 parsecs (10 tons)
Thrust 6G (12 tons)
Power 210 (TL 12 – 14 tons – Basic Systems 40, M Drive 120, Jump Drive 40, Sensors 2, Weapons 12)
Fuel 70.6 tons (uses 20 tons per parsec jumped)
Fuel Scoop
Fuel Processor (1 ton – processes 20 tons / day)
Bridge (3 tons)
Computer 15
Sensors – Military Grade (2 tons – power 4) – Radar, Lidar, Jammers
Armaments – 2 x double turrets (2 tons) with:
– beam laser (power 4), sandcaster
– pulse laser (power 4), pulse laser (power 4)
Staterooms 6 (24 tons)
Common Area (5 tons)
Cargo Capacity – 50 tons
Cpn Liv and the Sable Tiger in your Game
Cpn. Liv and the Sable Tiger could be friends, enemies, contacts, allies, or anything else to the players in your Traveller game. Perhaps the Sable Tiger needs crew for some desperate and audacious job? Or they’ve been hired to follow the players and collect a bounty? Or they swoop in to help in response to the player’s distress call? Or they’re rivals, going after the same thing as the players?
About Cpn. Liv
I whipped up these characters when the Travellers in my Monday game got rescued from Archeron 4, where they had become stranded. On the spot I came up with Cpn. Liv of the Sabre Tiger, Sgt. Mac, and Jack, her crew. The above stats were generated with the new version of Traveller (Mongoose v2).
Original stats from my campaign notes:
Captain Liv – Lavinia Thunson, captain of the Sabre Tiger (fast trader), St 8, Dx 9, En 6, In 8, Ed 6, So 3.
Sabre Tiger crew – Mac (ex imperial trooper), Jack (the friendly one), Zack (mechanic), Hailey (Mechanic), and Cookie (steward)
Posted in Character, Science-Fiction, Starship, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Space Opera – Season 3 – Deepest Darkness
Having crossed the length and breadth of the Skein Reach
nurtured a nascent Droid Uprising
faced off against, and robbed
the Imperium, and the Ragranok Krew
made enemies innumerable
and killed many
and in the process saved many from death and from fates worse than death
the motley crew of the starship CALAMITY
navigate ever coreward
following the impulses of a strange cyber-brain
and a pieced-together map from a lost star empire
past dead star after dead star
attended by tiny chunks of rock
(each gathering sufficient hydrogen from the bright strands of bright, colorful nebulae to allow refueling)
find
nestled in the glare of a deadly pulsar
a blank globe
of deepest darkness.
Posted in Lore / Worldbuilding, Science-Fiction, Traveller, Uncategorized and tagged ale break, Skein Reach, worldbuilding by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Claw Claw Bite #19
Claw Claw Bite magazine proudly presents issue 19, 74 pages of content for your Traveller, Starfinder, or other sci-fi RPG. All for FREE! Click here for your copy.
Gritty space opera with fast starfighters, towering mechs, blazing plasma-swords, bizarre psionic powers, strange aliens, and a new campaign seed complete with a fully-detailed subsector known as The Skein Reach.
Posted in announcement, Science-Fiction, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Lord Jukt and the Dark Star
Lord Alfrex Jukt is an Imperial noble, exiled from the sector capital at Abilon by the Duke. His cruel, violent disposition has led him to take up piracy and to claim rulership over the barren world Siolax.
Alfrex was born to Lady Emdade, the Duke’s great-niece, and though he had no inheritance to speak of he was educated in the finest schools on Abilon. His sharp mind earned him a place in the Imperial bureaucracy, where he began work as a clerk. His able leadership and contacts made during travel to the interior of Imperial space saw him rise through the ranks until he was supervising Imperial logistics for Subsector 6 of the Skein Reach.
Unfulfilled by the life of an administrator, at age 30 Alfrex left government service and began traveling the spaceways, determined to find his fortune. He took on a crew of lowlifes, modified his star yacht for raiding, and looted the trade lanes that he had previously managed.
Injured several times in the course of leading boarding parties, Jukt eventually lost his yacht in battle and spent a few years wandering space before returning to the Duke’s capital and convalescing at the university there. Starting to feel the effects of age, Alfrex sought out anti-aging drugs, and managed to procure a few years worth by stealing them from the Duke’s personal supply.
Now, at the helm of a newly stolen fast trader, Jukt hunts the spacelanes neat Siolax. Ruthless and intelligent, a favorite tactic is to set mines in orbit around Archeron’s gas giant. When ships approach for refueling, the mines damage them and the Dark Star swoops in to attack.
Lord Alfrex Jukt – 44 year old human male, captain of the Dark Star
Noble (Administrator – Supervisor) 3 terms, Rogue (Pirate – sergeant) 4 terms, Drifter (rank 1) 1 term
Attributes: St 6 Dx 7 En 7 In 10 Ed 11 So 8
Skills: Admin 1, Advocate 0, Astrogation 1, Athletics 0, Carouse 0, Diplomat 0, Electronics 0, Engineer 2, Flyer 0, Gun Combat (energy) 1, Gunner (turret) 3, Investigate 0, Leadership 1, Melee (blade) 3, Persuade 0, Pilot (medium) 2, Recon 1, Stealth 1, Streetwise 1, Vaac Suit 0
Equipment: combat armor (with combat medikit, grav belt, psy shield, armor 17), lightsword (4d6 AP 8), laser rifle, laser pistol
Dark Star – armored Type A3 Fast Trader
Tons: 200 – Streamlined
Hull: 4
Structure: 4
Armor: 4
Jump: B – 2 parsecs
Manoeuvre: D – thrust 4
Power Plant: D
Weapons
triple turret: beam laser x 3
triple turret: particle beam, missile launcher, sandcaster
Cargo: 48 tons
The Dark Star is usually commanded by Lord Jukt, crewed by hard-bitten mercenaries, and carrying at least one APC, combat walker, and starfighter in the cargo hold.
Posted in Character, Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Session Recap – Commissioned
Last night on Space Opera – Droid Uprising, the Travellers accepted a commission from the Confederation of Planets to join the CoP Irregulars and help protect travel and trade near Aurora Station. With their a simple supply run under their belts the crew of the Calamity took a far riskier job: reconnaissance of the Imperial fleet assembling for exercises at Hawkings.
On their way to Hawkings the Travellers picked up a derelict on their sensors. A closer scan showed it to be a 100 ton Free Trader with its engines completely destroyed and eighty tons of basic machinery in the cargo hold. After refueling at the nearby gas giant, the crew sent over Dan Zig and a drone to check things out.
Soon, the trap was sprung! The notorious pirate Lord Alfrex Jukt’s ship the Blackstar, which had been waiting nearby, powered up weapons and demanded that the Calamity shut down all systems and surrender their valuables. Never ones to run from a fight, the Travellers brought their weapons to bear and engaged the foe. Glittering lances of deadly light and refractive countermeasures filled the darkness of space with an awesome and beautiful display of power.
Nearly matched, the Blackstar and the Calamity did severe damage to each other’s hulls before Lord Jukt decided to cut his losses and jump away. Left as salvage for the victorious Travellers were the hulk of the Free Trader and a Quarterhorse mech that was ejected when the Calamity put a hole in the Blackstar’s cargo bay.
The crew spent five days repairing their hull with parts from the wreck before making the jump to Hawkings to tally the Imperial fleets. There, arrayed in orbit above the Imperial starbase known as The Watchtower, were the 427th Imperial Expeditionary Fleet: a Colonial Cruiser, two Imperial Corvettes, two Patrol Corvettes, two Close Escorts, and a half-dozen Scouts.
The crew of the Calamity laid low and refueled at the gas giant before setting a course to pass near The Watchtower and get better readings. As they crossed the star system more ships jumped in behind them at the gas giant – a portion of the local Duke’s fleet.
When the Calamity got closer to The Watchtower the larger fleet sent a Scout to intercept the Travellers, ordering them to stop for inspection. When these orders were ignored the fleet sent a Close Escort to intercept, burning hard at 6G. Severely outgunned, the crew decided that their scans of the Imperial fleets were sufficient and jumped away before the Escort got them in weapons range.
What awaits the Travellers on their journey back to the Confederation of Planets base on New Iraneous? Tune in next week to find out on Space Opera – Droid Uprising!
Posted in Traveller by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.
Mantid Drug – “Bug Love”
Designed by a rogue xeno-bio-chemist in the coreward part of the Skein Reach, this drug stimulates a mantid’s endocrine and reproductive systems, creating euphoric sensations in the user.
Mantid use it by smearing the paste on their thorax, where they draw the chemical pheromones into their respiratory system.
Side effects include friendliness, often verging on the inappropriate, and stimulation of the egg-depositing organs, causing fluid and sometimes eggs to be released involuntarily.
Posted in Science-Fiction, Traveller, Uncategorized by Adam A. Thompson with no comments yet.