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  • [worldbuilding] Stargone: A brief overview of the frontier of human space after the war.

    cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32932372

    > Stargone: A brief overview of the frontier of human space after the war. > > The planet Neu Valais was a command hub for the human colonial militia during the war. As human territories were lost to the Cyborg Collective, FTL travel paths to the planet opened up and a CYCOL nodesphere, a massive command ship took a position over the planet. In a desperate attempt to destroy it, and experimental one shot cannon on the ground fired. It hit and damaged but did not destroy the nodesphere. > > ! > > The fight in orbit and on the ground was brutal, with CYCOL attacks creating holes in air defenses to land ground troops to further destroy the air defenses and command centers. > > ! > > Corporate military forces which had been assigned to protect corporate material on loan to the colonial forces and to protect VIPs were ordered to pull out. The corporations saw the fight as a loss. > > ! > > The corporate forces eventually pulled completely off the surface and CYCOL focused on assaulting the deeply entrenched colonial military command centers. > > ! > > But that all happened back in '73 and the war ended not soon after that. > > Everyone knows the ending of the war, so I won't retell it. The surface of Neu Valais an urban wasteland, the nodesphere above it derelict. Some crazies out there looking for scraps. Even some CYCOL out there that were never quite right after they lost the nodesphere. > > ! > > Nowadays, VB-Sierra is the planet that's the big last hub for humans heading out past the stable areas. The corporations even made nice with the Arweli, which rubs some people the wrong way given how the war went, but I guess it's easier to forgive frogs than tin heads. > > ! > > But profit potential is enough to keep the peace, more or less. VB-Sierra's infrastructure is growing every year. Which is amazing for a planet with mutomorph infestation. > > ! > > When the Universal Corporate Council reorganized in '75, the Prosperity Church gained a primary seat as a recognized corporate power. > > ! > > By then, there was a lot of religion going around. > > ! > > But '75 into '76 was a lot of rumbling in the corporate controlled spaces. The colonies had collapsed during the war, leading to their populations flooding into corporate space. Many of them had been put to work, but it was clearly an unsustainable situation. Some groups of displaced colonists had gone on a one way trip to earth, but the results of those trips was yet unknown. Many other colonists, especially military veterans or those with special expertise looked to go back out into the old warzone, what was now thought of as a frontier to make profits in salvaging valuables or surveying for the rebuilding of colonies. > > ! > > What is out in the frontier are a great deal of unknown unknowns. Teams that head out into the frontier are not just seeing what has become of human colonies, but venturing into what used to be Arweli or CYCOL territory and seeing things never before seen by humans. > > ! > > The Universal Corporate Council, UCC, was a collective entity representing the interests of the major corporations. Before the war it was powerful but balanced by the combined powers of the colonies. After the war, it is the only central human political entity remaining. At least aside from possibly earth, but no one really knows what it is like anymore. > > The UCC wants to expand its tendrils into the frontier by directly controlling the new colonies that will be rebuilt. Of course now that there is little external opposition, the infighting among UCC members and executives is in full swing. > > !

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  • Game report: GM-less Traveller

    cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/22318947

    > This is a follow-up to my previous post about setting up for a GM-less Traveller game. We have now had a Session 0 that covered tone-setting and character creation, and last night we played our first session (spoiler: it went great!). I am reporting back to share with you. > > --- > > ## Session 0 > > I am a believer in the concept of a Session 0 so, even though I have been playing games for decades with these guys, I still asked to have one. The main focus was on campaign theme. Since Pirates of Drinax is a sandbox setting, I wanted to make sure we drill down to what we collectively wanted and agreed for the experience to be. > > I am also a Sly Flourish fanboy, and I like his idea of the Campaign One-Pager. I created one for the Session 0, to identify the key ideas and serve as a guide document. The important bits are cut and pasted below in blockquotes, just in case someone wants to reproduce this thing we're doing. > > > CAMPAIGN PITCH > > > > The King of Drinax offers a small band of trusted, resourceful bastards the chance to make their fortune. He gives them a ship and a letter of marque. They are to go adventuring in the Trojan Reach, a lawless region of space wedged between the Third Imperium and the Aslan Hierate. The travellers are charged to prey on shipping lanes and build support in the worlds once held by the Star Kingdom of Drinax, playing the great powers against each other. If they succeed, they will become royalty in the renewed kingdom. If they fail, the stars will be their grave. > > > > TRUTHS > > - The Star Kingdom of Drinax was once a mighty empire that ruled the Trojan Reach, but it collapsed two centuries ago after a devastating war with the Aslan. > > - The Floating Palace of Drinax is now all that remains of the kingdom — an ancient, decaying orbital city ruled by King Oleb and his ambitious court. > > - The Harrier-class Commerce Raider, an advanced stealth warship from Drinax’s golden age, is entrusted to the travellers as a tool to reclaim lost influence. > > - The Trojan Reach is a volatile region filled with independent worlds, Aslan clans, Imperium border outposts, and pirate havens that are ripe for manipulation or conquest. > > - King Oleb’s Charter gives privateers legal authority to raid enemies of Drinax, but it’s a thin veil of legitimacy in a sector where law is often what you make of it. > > - The rise or fall of Drinax depends on how the travellers navigate a tangled web of alliances, rivalries, and ancient grudges — peace, war, or empire are all possible. > > > > PATRON > > > > King Oleb – The fiery, aging ruler of Drinax. A former warrior turned king, determined to restore his fallen kingdom by any means necessary. > > > > MAJOR FACTIONS > > > > - Third Imperium > > - Aslan Heirate > > - General Development Company > > Everything up to this point is more or less straight from the Pirates of Drinax setting, intended to set the stage for the game. After discussing this piece, we focused on what theme we want. As I said above, Pirates of Drinax is a sandbox setting, where pretty much anything is possible. However, I thought it would be beneficial to identify the general theme and feel beforehand, so we have bumpers for where to steer the game as it plays out. For example, I don't find blood-thirsty murderhobo'ing to be fun (as you might do in a pirate game). The three of us discussed our desired themes and came up with the following: > > > THEMES > > - Empire-building > > - Privateering > > - Robin Hood-esque > > - Machiavellian-benevolence > > > > CREW BOND > > > > We all want better lives for the worlds and peoples of the Trojan Reach. Ex. stability, noblesse oblige “obligation of the nobles”, fairness and redistribution of wealth > > With these themes and the crew bond agreed upon, we then set to making characters. Since there isn't a GM, we just shared the duties. If one of us had a question about a thing, the other two served as the GM for that question. We each made our characters simultaneously and stepped through terms together. So, we each did term 1, then went on to term 2, etc. > > With that in mind, we did agree to some house rules at the outset: > > > TRAVELLER CREATION GUIDELINES > > - When you fail on a survival roll, you may take 1 mulligan where you instead succeed > > - Can optionally make multiple characters and choose the one you vibe with the most > > If you are a Traveller purist, the mulligan on the survival roll might make your blood pressure rise. We figured that this game is for us and having that mulligan did help the other guys (I didn't use mine). We also decided on the multiple characters, to help ease the pressure that you'd come up with a 'good' character right away. However, all of us used the first character we made. > > ## Session 1 - Getting started > > With characters made, we scheduled our first game which happened last night. We had a ton of fun! As a reminder, we are using Mythic Game Master Emulator 2e as our referee, so I will be referencing mechanics from that system (I can explain further in the comments if asked). There was some initial clumsiness with navigating how the Mythic rules and Traveller character sheet worked, but it didn't take long to get going. The session took about 3 and a half hours, with about the first hour being spent finishing our characters. > > Here are some quick bullets of the session: > - Scene 1: Taking stock of the Harrier and making repairs. We decided to start after our crew met with the King and received their charge. Most of this scene was deciding what to do about all the damage to the ship and spending ship shares to repair some of it. > - Scene 2: Hunting down Sindalian tech leads. In this scene we started leaning into the Mythic mechanics to ask if our characters knew of any places where we might find salvage that could be used to continue repairing the ship. We had heard rumors or wrecks on the Drinax surface. We decide to fly to the surface to make contact with one of the tribes that lives down there. > - Scene 3: It's a trap! The Mythic mechanic that throws curveballs did so, and we walked right into a military trap, placed by the locals. Considering we were coming here to ask these people for their help, we luckily talk them down and are able to negotiate. > - Scene 4: Turning enemies into allies. It turns out the tribespeople of Drinax are fed up with their station in life and being forgotten. The tribal leaders have formed a coalition to rebel against the King of Drinax and we just happened to be the first people to come down from the palace. We tell the coalition of our plan (recall the themes above) and convince them to help as allies to the cause. > - Scene 5: Living with the tribes montage. Mythic threw us another curveball which we interpreted as the tribes wanting us to live with them for a while, prior to them joining any alliance. We figure this is because they want us to understand their perspective and what they are going through in their lives. We ask Mythic a bunch of questions to learn more about the tribes and flesh out their peoples. > - Next time: Searching for lost tech. The montage scene seemed like a great place to end, so we set up for the beginning of our next session. The tribal leaders revealed that they knew where a Sindalian wreck was, and one of their people could guide us there. They make it clear that this will be a test of our trustworthiness. > > Keep in mind, this was all generated using the Mythic rules. There is no GM and no adventure. We would ask Mythic questions (as you would to a GM), and Mythic would give yes/no type answers. Sometimes we would need more and use Mythic to generate meaning. Meaning comes in the form of randomly generated word pairs, which we interpret as a group. In this way, the story evolved as we played through it. > > ## Takeaways > > - Using Mythic as a GM was clunky at first but generated an interesting and surprising story > - The main downside to Mythic was having to reference a lot of tables for meaning and yes/no answers > - But, I think we also enjoyed the structure and crunch of the Mythic system > - Having 3 minds interpreting meaning was very helpful and likely contributed to the fun factor, as opposed to playing truly solo > - Overall, we all agreed that the game was way more fun than we would have guessed and exceeded expectations

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  • www.humblebundle.com Humble RPG Bundle: Roll Big or Go Home RPG Megabundle

    Get the most epic tabletop role-playing game bundle ever with hot games from top publishers like Magpie Games, Renegade Game Studios, Green Ronin Publishing, and more!

    Humble RPG Bundle: Roll Big or Go Home RPG Megabundle

    Several Sci-Fi RPGs included in the bundle.

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  • [Traveller/Cepheus] Knife Party - new adventure

    Wild Bee Publishing just released a new adventure for their Cepheus setting, Kosmic. It's called Knife Party and it's discounted 37.5% now, 60+ pages going for $5.

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  • TripTech Game Jam [Mothership]

    Last month, Graham Richardson (Lionhearth Games) organized the TripTech Game Jam, where contestants would create Tripanels (you know, the form factor of those pamphlets that fold in three) for Mothership.

    Anyway, all 39 submissions are listed at the bottom of the page:

    https://itch.io/jam/triptech-game-jam-052025

    I found out about this jam thanks to this video by Dave Thaumavore in which he talks about the experience of being part of the jam and then shows off a few of the tripanels.

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  • Neon Navikea - typical dry cargo freighter by zalmon

    cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/64486374

    > https://bsky.app/profile/zalmon.bsky.social/post/3lggugbe64s2n > > More at source

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  • Cosmophobia [in Spanish only] 🇪🇸

    A nice freebie for spanish-speaking (spanish-reading?) sci-fi genre enthusiasts. Of course, you can still browse it, enjoy the art and get inspiration even if you can't read spanish.

    https://grapasymapas.com/cosmophobia

    "A role playing game themed on Sci-Fi and corpoorate horror"

    Edit: There's another Sci-Fi game in the same site, but with less horror, called Vieja Estrella:

    https://grapasymapas.com/viejaestrella

    The whole site is devoted to providing free RPG stuff in Spanish in a very English-dominant hobby (though they also have their fantasy offering in Galician, French, Basque, Portuguese, and Catalan). Most of their stuff has very simple mechanics and a very old-school vibe.

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  • Sci-Fi Bar

    Welcome to a local space bar known for its cheap drinks, good food, and warm environment full of people. This place is frequented mostly by locals, although it's not uncommon to spot travelers sitting at the bar.

    This dive bar features a large bar table, booths for dining, pool tables, and a stage for performers. There is a storage area at the bottom left, and a kitchen, office, and restrooms near the top right. This map pack features 3 unique variants, including a modern dive bar, a 1920's prohibition-era bar, and a cyberpunk bar.

    Check out the full map pack here.

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  • Shadowrun Bundles: Sixth World Essentials & Sixth World Shadows

    There's a Bundle of Holding for Shadowrun 6E: https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2025SR6Essentials

    The Starter Collection includes: Shadowrun, Sixth World Core Rules - Berlin, No Future (Sixth World version), and Neo-Anarchist Streetpedia.

    The Bonus Collection includes: Firing Squad, Street Wyrd, Double Clutch, Krime Katalog, and Gun Rack

    EDIT: There's also a bundle called Sixth World Shadows... https://bundleofholding.com/presents/SixthWorldShadows

    Starter Collection includes: The Sixth World Companion, Shoot Straight, and the cyberware and Matrix rulebooks.

    Bonus Collection includes: Shadow Cast, Emerald City, Astral Ways, Null Value, and Wild Life

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  • Sci-Fi Gang Hideout

    Tucked away along some road is a tiny barbershop, which seems to attract seedy clients and suspicious individuals. Most people seem to avoid this barbershop, straying clear of its doors and the rough-looking men standing outside. This place is actually the hideout of a notorious gang that runs a large part of the city. Watch your step when entering this place!

    This building includes two floors. The first floor is comprised of the barbershop, some storage rooms, and a bar/lounge area for gang members.

    The second floor includes beds, a computer/control room with cameras to monitor the premises, and a grow room that includes the merchandise. This map pack features modern & cyberpunk variations, along with two alternate hideouts of weapons dealers and organ harvesters.

    Check out the full map pack here.

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  • Traveller Mayday Bundles

    cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/18431306

    > These are a few bundles that are ongoing in celebration of Mayday... > > Mongoose Traveller 2E includes: Mongoose Traveller 2E Starter Set, MGT Companion Update 2024, and Central Supply Catalogue Update 2023 in the basic tier. On the extended tier: High Guard Update 2022, Traveller Vehicle Handbook 2E, Six Traveller 2E Referee Briefings, and Traveller 2E Referee's Screen Update 2024. > > Pirates of Drinax includes: Pirates of Drinax (MgT 2E) and 3 MgT 2E Reach Adventures in the basic tier. And in the extended tier: MgT 2E Drinaxian Companion, MgT 2E Shadows of Sindal, and 3 more MgT 2E Reach Adventures. > > Free Trader Beowulf includes This is Free Trader Beowulf only. > > Traveller Imperium Tour includes: The Traveller Book, The Traveller Adventure, 6 Traveller starship plans, S12 Forms and Charts, Classic Traveller Facsimile Edition, and Classic Traveller Orientation Pack in the basic tier. And the extended tier includes: 8 Traveller Alien Modules and 5 Third Imperium guides. > > FASA Traveller includes: ISCV King Richard + Action Aboard, 5 FASA Traveller adventures, and Starport Hotel Complex for the basic tier. The extended tier includes: Sky Raiders trilogy > FCI Consumer Guide, 4 FASA Traveller Deck Modules, and FASA Adventure Class Ships 1-4. > > Gamelords Traveller which includes: Pilot's Guide to the Drexilthar Subsector, 3 Gamelords planet environments, 3 Gamelords planetary adventures, and 3 Gamelords adventure anthologies in the basic tier. And for the extended tier: 9 Cargonauts supplements and 8 Marischal Folio. > > Anyting I missed? > > Edit (May 2nd) - Traveller5 bundle includes: Traveller5 Core Rules 3-Book Set, T5 Starships & Spacecraft deck plans, and T5 Gazelle-Class Close Escorts

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  • Thoughts on "This is Free Trader Beowolf"?

    cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/18308254

    > With mayday around the corner, offers are starting to pop up. One such is this Bundle of Holding which includes This is Free Trader Beowolf (and only that). > > And yes, the discount is good. But I do try my best to only buy stuff that I actually want/need. Sometimes I even succeed ;). > > So I come here asking for your opinion. > > Is it worth it? Do you love it?

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  • www.cyborgprime.com Traveller RPG Mayday Mayday 2025 Official Event Page

    Join us April 26-May 1st, 2025, for the 7th Annual Traveller RPG Mayday Mayday Event!  Enjoy interviews with content creators, check out 3D combat dem

    Traveller RPG Mayday Mayday 2025 Official Event Page

    cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/18302792

    > Welcome to the 7th Annual Traveller RPG Mayday Mayday celebration—a virtual convention dedicated to all things Traveller! Whether you love classic campaigns or modern expansions, this event celebrates the rich history and future of the Traveller universe.

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  • ALIENS concept art by Syd Mead.

    cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/62610395

    > https://bsky.app/profile/humanoidhistory.bsky.social/post/3lnskcv7id22e

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  • The Zhodani Base - Free PDFs
    zhodani.space Free pdf-files

    Free Traveller Rules Cepheus Engine (pay what you want) Mongoose: Book 0 There are free pdf-files all over the Zhodani Base that you can download. They may be difficult to find. This is a page to c…

    Free pdf-files

    You may already know this if you play Traveller, but in case you don't, The Zhodani Base is a webpage devoted to Traveller and other Sci-Fi games.

    The linked page is a curated repository of free PDFs.

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  • Space: 1999 - Quickstart

    Modiphius will be releasing a new game called Space 1999, "coming this spring".

    Apparently there was a board game by the same name. Anyone know it?

    There's a quickstart available at DTRPG.

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  • Power Core [battle map] - 2minutetabletop

    2-Minute Tabletop has released a Sci-Fi map called the Power Core (the image used as thumbnail is a zoomed-in portion of the core itself). You can get the full map here:

    https://2minutetabletop.com/power-core-battle-map/

    In case you don't yet know about it, 2-Minute Tabletop is a site where a few creators (originally just the one) create battlemaps for TTRPGs. Most of the maps are free, with paid option for mutiple variants.

    You do have to get an account to download even the free versions (usually a zip with PDF and high-quality JPEGs), or you can just view the medium-sized preview on the webpage.

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  • Space Bar Battlemap

    *Bright flashing lights, the sight of people dancing shoulder to shoulder, and the smell of off-world substances permeate this nightclub. In the city that never sleeps, this club is a haven for all sorts of people, from seedy street men to mid-level executives. * This map features multiple rooms including a VIP lounge, security room, the club manager’s office, and a smallerf bar area. The main room features a large circular bar with disco lights, surrounded by places to sit.

    This map pack includes Nightclub & Adult Club variants, including versions without lights. All patrons get access to gridded/ungridded and high-resolution maps.

    Check out the full map pack here.

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  • Orbital Trouble: d12 Space Outpost Hooks
    www.roleplayingtips.com Orbital Trouble: d12 Space Outpost Hooks - Roleplaying Tips

    Had some large blocks of “waiting time” on the weekend, so I started noodling on what might make space outposts interesting. Why? I’m a sci-fi RPG noob, aiming to run my first game when things settle down a bit over here. And I’m not very familiar with the details and tropes of the genre. So, […]

    Orbital Trouble: d12 Space Outpost Hooks - Roleplaying Tips

    cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/59305590

    > Orbital Trouble: d12 Space Outpost Hooks - Roleplaying Tips

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  • USCSS Nostromo Ship from Alien (1979)

    cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/27100781

    > ! > > ! > > ! > > ! > > ! > > ! > > ! > > > !

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  • Oasis Island

    Another test I wanted to make.

    Not quite happy with the result, I find it a bit "meh". But I do intend to use it later in a collage of sorts.

    This is a location we played a few years ago (the place where my "milk run" unfolded). though back then we used theatre of the mind. But as I was staring at a blank canvas for this test I wanted to make, I decided to give it a go.

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  • Papercraft shuttle - Crooked Staff Terrain

    If you're into papercraft, this might appeal to you.

    This youtuber usually does a lot of fantasy stuff, but this time we got a Sci-Fi shuttle.

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  • Downport landing pad

    Just a small test I wanted to try out, but I thought I'd still share.

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  • My Traveller Campaign Legendkeeper

    Hi all, I do not have much to add, besides I am running a MgT2 Traveller game right now and made my own sector, To track everything I have set up a legendkeeper to share information with my players. There is also a ton of GM stuff in there but it is hidden and invisble. I thought this might be fun or inspiration for others too. edit I have no idea why the Link says "Attention required Cloudflare", link works fine.

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  • Beowulf (tactical map)

    The last entry from my backlog. And it's kind of a low-effort one, I'm afraid.

    The ship itself is provided as a template in the Cosmographer3 addon to CC3+, and I'd already done a couple of macros that automatically change the colors for the Scout.

    Still, hope you find it useful.

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  • Classic Traveller (facsimile edition) is free today

    I’m pretty sure it’s slashed to $0 every now and then. If you don’t own it yet, you might as well add this museum piece to your collection.

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  • Star Trek: Alpha Quadrant -- Free Traveller/CE rules for the ST universe by Steven J. Ege
    archive.org Star Trek Alpha Quadrant : Steven J. Ege : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    A free OGL unofficial fan-made Role Playing Game set in the Star Trek Universe

    Star Trek Alpha Quadrant : Steven J. Ege : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

    cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/55842471

    > These are some high quality, fan-made rules for Cepheus Engine (and so based on the Mongoose Traveller SRD) covering various Star Trek shows up until 2017 (TOS, TAS, TNG, DS9, ENT).

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  • Coriolanus System

    Here I did the same than the post from a month ago: I used https://www.travellerworlds.com/ to generate a new star system, and then drew it with CC3+.

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  • My attempt at Death Station

    In case you're not familiar, Death Station is an adventure for Traveller.

    As many more have done so, I gave it a try myself, mostly because I wanted a large map to place on the table.

    Little did I know that the free 2D Deck Plans for the Core Rulebook includes a science station I could have used. Oh well.

    I also have a couple of PDF versions. One without labels/numbering: http://rpg20.com/Death%20station.pdf and with labels: http://rpg20.com/Death%20station_labels.pdf

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  • Come on over to Traveller
    ttrpg.network Traveller - The TTRPG network

    Discussion of the various incarnations on the Traveller RPG by Marc Miller, et al.

    Traveller - The TTRPG network

    For fans of Traveller specifically.

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  • Streets of Mos Eisley

    In the post where we're listing all the Sci-Fi games we could come up with, there's a distinct lack of PBTA games. And I get it... there's probably too many to list.

    But even if I have my Sci-Fi needs fulfilled (perhaps for the moment, and for the most part) there are a few games that I'd still like to play some day. This is one of them.

    Why? Because it's straight and to the point. I tell myself that one of these days, when I think of a plot for a Star Wars Worlds one-shot adventure, I can grab this and get rolling in 5 minutes.

    A lot of people dislike PBTA, but I actually find it valuable. I think PBTA is particularly good at short adventures and one-shots. For longer campaigns? Not so sure. One of my favourite (non-scifi) games, Kult (!kult@ttrpg.network), uses PBTA in its newest version. They did try to think ahead to advancement for longer campaigns, but would it be enough for a regular multi-year group? I don't know.

    Just from this small post, there's so much I'd like to ask anyone reading: Do you have a PBTA game you love and/or play? Have you tried this one? Do you know another overlooked Star Wars game (such as Never Tell Me the Odds)? Do you love/hate PBTA? Have you used PBTA for long campaigns?

    Anyway, Streets of Mos Eisley can be downloaded from here: https://sentientgames.wordpress.com/2012/12/28/star-worlds/

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  • Scout (tactical)

    This is the completion of what I had in mind for the "tactical map". I must say, I didn't come up with the concept, nor the color palette. I got that from an image I downloaded from somewhere... But I don't remember where. Maybe the Traveller Discord?

    Anyway, the main image is very much tied to the M2E version of Traveller, but back when I made this image I hadn't fully commited to one ruleset (I'm both a heavy houseruler and heavy improviser).

    So here's one for Cepheus Engine:

    !

    And here's one for Cepheus Deluxe:

    !

    The Range tracker doesn't make sense for CD rules, but it looks cool and I didn't know what else to put there. :)

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  • To railroad or not to railroad?

    User Monomyth posed an interesting question on the Traveller discord that I wanted to replicate here:

    > hi team, just a quick discussion based question with no right answer; if youre running a game, and the players decide to veer off course into something completely out of left field (such as going to a planet you do not have prepped), is it appropriate to come up with some "delaying issue" so you can have it ready for next session?

    Transposing to other settings: what do you do when the players go off-script?

    I can summarize some answers we’ve got on that server, but I don’t want to prime your answers from the start.

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  • I've been working on a new/custom sci-fi RPG system for the past year or so

    Just putting this out here to share some of the work I've been doing and to create some content for this community. Also because I'm not quite ready to share the full thing with larger groups.

    I've mostly been creating a system for fun, and to exercise my art/design chops. I've got the base rule book done, but I was wanting to create a "pack in" adventure to go with it, which i have yet to start.

    I'll include some screen shots as I go along and give some of the details around the setting and system. The title I'm currently running with is "Stellar Knights of Pendragon" and it is a sci-fi RPG based off of the myths of King Arthur.

    Stylistically, I'm trying to make the book look like something from the 16-bit/SNES Era of video games, mostly because I'm pretty ok at pixel art (and not much else), but also because the concept sounds like something you'd see on the sega genesis or SNES

    Cover Page:

    !

    Table of contents:

    !

    For a lot of the art, I tried to base it off of existing cover art/images from popular video games of the times, as you'll see (some are pretty obvious tracing/reinterpretation of famous images)

    For the game system, I tried to go with a fairly simple resolution mechanic that lends itself to a lot of depth when it comes to including character powers and abilities. The basic mechanics are that everything is an "opposed" check, where characters roll 4d6 + bonuses against a target number/DC. Every 5 points you beat the DC by is one success. Opposition successes cancel out your successes on a 1-for-1 basis

    So for example, combat is roll 4d6+stat+skill for your attack, vs a "target" number of the enemy's armor and the enemy gets to make an opposed defense check. If the enemy's armor is, say, 15, and your roll a total of 20, you have achieved 2 successes, but if the enemy rolls 1 success on their defense, it reduces you to 1 success, which represents the amount of damage you deal.

    There's also something similar to advantage/disadvantage called banes and boons.

    !

    As stated above in the screen shot, the reason for a 4d6 resolution mechanic is partially because its novel, and in addition getting together 4d6 to play can happen virtually anywhere and doesn't require specialized dice to play.

    !

    The setting takes place in space (duh) in a nebula. You can see the write up below, but the basic idea is that the gasses and all in the nebula cause psionic powers to be extremely common in creatures living within the space gas. Psionics obviously take the place of any sort of magic in this setting, as i'm a big fan of psionics in general. I just think they're fun.

    !

    The king arthur stand in (Named Artur, which is barely a play on the name) is essentially an evil, paranoid, ruthless despot bent on dominating the galaxy, forming a large army akin to something like the empire in star wars.

    !

    "Knight's Armor" in this setting is also effectively something akin to power armor, and there's rules for spaceship combat, though do note that it largely follows the same resolution mechanics.

    !

    The game is class based, and each class has a list of skills you can be trained in and "knacks" you choose that give you character extra powers/abilities

    !

    monster stat block:

    !

    That's kind of a very quick write up around how the game works, there's obviously a ton more details to both mechanics and setting, since its about a 50 page PDF, which was approximately my goal for the length of the document. I didn't want it to get too long.

    What do people think about this premise/idea? Anything you'd like to hear more about? Anything that sounds off-putting to you? I'm open to all feedback, positive or negative.

    When it's done, I'll probably post about it, but also put it on my itch.io and on my drive thru RPG account. Note that i generally release everything i put out for free, so i'm not planning on charging anything for it.

    Character sheet:

    !

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  • Range tracker

    While learning Traveller I came across this video where he explains how to use a ruler to keep track of distances relative to other ships.

    I liked the idea, but found a 20-inch ruler, just up to long range, a bit impractical. So I created this tracker.

    I used black background and neon colors because I thought I would be playing with a VTT, but in the end I've only played in person. So I also have this PDF, in Ledger/Tabloid (11" x 17"). I don't think you'll find a printer that's able to print up to the very edge, so I'll let you decide if you'd rather scale it below 1" per square or just accept cropped stuff on the edges.

    1
  • My attempt at the hauler from Flatlined

    This was just a test I made while trying to get the hang of the Cosmorgapher3 addon for CC3+.

    Basically I just took Seth Skorokowsky's map (linked in the comments of his Flatlined review) and tried to retrace it.

    0
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