Thursday 28 February 2013

Long Stair Dungeon Style Zones part 11 Sunken City


Im back from meatspace
Net fixed, well enough to get up and eat more which isnt so great after weight losses of last 6 weeks. At least medical treatment reminds me its ok to feel shitty. Mom outa coma and fighting with dad crazily so that's been good.

Wrote some stuff offline here is more:


Sunken City Zone
A half sunken city of ancient lost races. Partly reached through old pirate and smuggler caves on the upper levels to increasingly submerged ancient city ruins. Some sections need to cross water or dive to reach. Many sections flooded and inhabited my marine races who prey on humans. Whole sections are flooded and accessible only by water breathers. The water is populated by all manner of deadly marine creatures. Some areas are submerged by tidal waters and are covered by coral and barnacles. They may also be flooded or blocked off by tidal water level shifts and can trap explorers. Some areas are messes of smashed ships. Some report exploring the innards of a great sea beast with a settlement of the damned within its gut. The city seems like long lost surface civilizations while others seem to belong to degenerate fish men cults and there forbidden gods. Creatures of the zone notorious for using charms and desiring inter-species reproduction. Some monsters are kin and slaying one may attract hate from some sea monster, creature or god.
 

Sunken City Hazard d20
1 Water swarming with piranha
2 Electric eel swarm
3 Sharp slippery coral and shellfish
4 Poison Jellyfish or octopus swarm
5 Swarm of hungry crustaceans cling to every surface
6 Flood of tidal water
7 Salt deposits hide pit with rotten diseased bog of black mud
8 Crumbling wooden walkway over water
9 Wooden jetty, raft and water crossing
10 Trident launching balistia trap
11 Huge net drops on party
12 Tentacles reach from the deep
12 Poisonous razor sharp shellfish
14 Putrid rotting sea creature carries disease, parasites and horrible stench
15 Dying diseased sailors beg for help
16 Beartrap clamps foot, chamber slowly floods
17 Every surface a squirming living horror
18 Boiling steam geyser erupts
19 Prehuman altar calls guardian if defiled by outsider
20 Statue fires trident or darts

 

Sunken City Mystery d20 
1 An old sea log in a sealed chest
2 Sodden ancient scrolls with fragments of arcane lore
3 Stone tablets with elder lore
4 Brine pickled swollen corpse with
5 Bottle with treasure map
6 Pirate corpse with multiple swords in back
7 Sinister wooden carving attracts sea monsters
8 Wooden idols depicting outsider explorers
9 Strange tools and items of fish men
10 Green strange idols brings nightmares to thief
11 Jade tablet with ritual to contact fishmen gods
12 Fishmen carrying captive flee to nearest water
13 Stone idol and altar covered in blood
14 Pirates carrying sea chest
15 Marooned pirate with gun, water keg and starving
16 Fishmen offer cursed gold idols
17 Woman begs for rescue, really fishman hybrid witch seeking a mate
18 Mozaic tile depicting ancient city and its rulers
19 Stoned fishman chewing strange sea weed
20 Explorer seeks secret of immortality from ruins


Sunken City Zone Above Water Encounters d100
1 Stranded pirate
2 Pirates seeking treasure
3 Crazed shipwrecked killers
4 Marine troops on lookout for prisoners
5 Convict scum trying to escape
6 Explorer gentlemen out for kicks
7 Maiden escaping captors seeks protectors
8 Witch-fish-folk-hybrid with pet small water elemental
9 Gladiators with net and tridents various gender
10 Lady pirates out for trouble
11 Treasure hunter thief band
12 Lifeboat load of common folk, some with secrets
13 Cultists seeking relics and victims
14 Zombie sailors cursed to never know peace
15 Ghouls pickled in brine

16 Sea Amazon
17 Crazed shipwrecked killers
18 Stranded maiden
18 Mermaids tempt closer so they can smash skulls on rocks
19 Mermen looking for some guys scaring there women
20 Mermaid in human form looking for love in wrong places
21 Selkie maid tempts men to there doom using a local hazard
22 Selkie maid in trap crying with club wielding sealers approaching
22 Selkie men looking for women or possibly a fight
23 Were walrus beserker with two axes fighting style

24 Tako octopus faerie folk adventurers looking for shiny stuff
25 Tako octopus royalty looking for interspecies love with humans
26
Tako octopus drunk wizard, crying writing poetry, magic gourd
27 Reptile men looking for loot and adventure
28 Reptile men guarding serpent man warlock seeking ancient mysteries
29 Young sea hydra
30 Fish men warband seeking food, lab test subjects, sacrifices and mates
31 Fish man witch charms men with magic songs and illusions
32 Fish men and small shoggoth on patrol
33 Sirens try to charm men for food and sex
35 Metalic birds shoot metal feathers
36 Harpy band spread disease, like to shit on foes while feeding and relaxing

37 Harpy Witch desires a mate, has pet giant sea vultures
38 Atlanteans, sea breathing humans from depths of the city surface seek trade
39 Atlantean warrior seeks to join surface party
40 Atlantean sorceress and otter familiar seeks to learn of surface world
41 Sea elf pirate band seek to drink and swap looting stories
42 Sea elf sword maiden and tako pirate sidekick
43 Sea elf dolphin rider seeking her mount
44 Sea elf knight hunting pirates who stole his sweetheart

45 Pirates and seamen prisoners building a gallows
46 Shark man insane beserker
47 Were sea snake shepherd with lovely daughters offers hospitality
48 Smugglers with goods and muskets pull back when they see you
49 Tako and smugglers making some deal
50 Sea spirit folk peacefully seek trade
51 Cyclops men with tridents and nets looking for a fight
52 Sea Troll erupts from salt pit
53 Selkie trapped in well by curse aid with healing, she cries lots and is lonely

54 Sea Ogre with barnacle covered anchor for a club with sack of gold
55 Salt encrusted sea ghouls burst from salt pit
56 Ghost seeks body to reclaim treasure
57 Zombie shark man on killing spree
58 Merman werewolf looking for victims to kill
59 Kraken tentacle pokes up through drain
60 Kobolds carrying brass and leather diving suits and air pump
61 Dwarf pirate guarding his loot
62 Hobbit thief looking for goodies to steal, very good diver
63 Were crocodile with 2 handed sword and bite style seeks blood
64 Were shark warrior, blood makes him insane beserk monster
64 Were shark fishwife seeks rescue, likes to eat lovers after sex
65 Sea nymph seeks lovers, has sea serpent familiar
66 Squid men cultists in robes desire a sacrifice to their mad sleeping god

67 Fisherman looking for monster to slay to prove he is best
68 Automaton bronze woman warrior built by a god, lost and deluded

69 Sea hag with pet monsters or cultists or monster race sidekicks
70 Lost fisherman sucked down a waterspout now here
71 Otter men devouring some giant crustaceans, offer you to join them
72 Crab men building sand castle
73 Crab men menacing a staked out sacrifice
74 Hermit Crab man pirate with regular crab men goons
75 Witches communing with elemental powers very resentful at being seen
76 Turtle man old monk/nun offers youn wisdom
77 Turtle man and Tako having wizard battle
78 Turtle assassin cultists with were rat master on a initiation test
79 Sailor burning hair and herbs to scare off monster, trapped here
80 Sea spirit folk meet you to deliver message from the sea gods
81 Kelpie in horse or maiden form, lures into water to kill and eat
82 Lagoon monster, lonely craves mate
83 Giant lobster or crab attack
84 Prehistoric sea scorpion crawl from pit to attack
85 Small cranky plesiosaur attacks through well with long neck

86 Chrome humanoid automaton with freeze ray and stockpile of frozen sea food
87 Fish spirit folk appear as tribals, suspicious of meat eaters but could trade
88 Giant octopus guards passage
89 Giant sea serpent hungry for morsels
90 Barnacle encrusted skeletons with pirate swords attack for loot
91 Floating jellyfish swarm drifts through air
92 Angry trapped elemental beast formed of water, serpent most common
93 Eel man assassin stalks party for moment of weakness
94 Mixed beastmen races of sea beings in a bandit gang
95 Huge squid attacks through well or open water
96 Salt vampire - drains salt from bodies by touch, made of pure salt with evil spirit
97 Steam era ship crew somehow lost here, cartridge rifles with bayonet's
98 Mysterious diver jumps in water leaving boxes of useful goods for party
99 Mummy caked in salt, from ancient civilization
100 Dolphin spirit folk disguised as bard, loves self and own reflection, laughs too much

Sunken City Zone Below Water Encounters d100
14 Zombie sailors cursed to never know peace
15 Ghouls wrapped in seaweed and covered in barnacles
16 Mermaids tempt closer so they can smash skulls on rocks
19 Mermen looking for some guys scaring they're women
20 Mermaid in human form looking for love in wrong places
21 Selkie maidens lure party to hazard
22
Selkie men hunting
22 S
ea-draug undead warrior from sunken barrow or boat
23 Were walrus beserker enraged at humans in his turf

24 Tako octopus faerie folk adventurers looking for shiny stuff
25 Tako octopus fishermenwith nets and spears
26
Tako octopus drunk wizard, crying writing poetry, magic gourd
 27 Marine Reptile men looking for loot and adventure
28 Marine revenant from sunken ship cursed to live as undead29 Giant eel attacks from rocks
30 Fish men hunter seeking food
31 Fish  man monk ouraged by intrusion into fishy realms
32 Fish men and small shoggoth on patrol
33 Fishy sages offer advice and magical knowledge
35 Newt man sorcerer annoyed at upstart race
36 Narwhale will befriend maidens and otherwise unimpressed

37 Swordfish or sawfish or morningstarfish or other strange melee weapon fish
38 Atlanteans, sea breathing humans from depths of the city surface seek trade
39 Atlantean warrior seeks to join surface party
40 Atlantean sorceress and octopus familiar seeks to learn of surface world
41 Sea elf pirate band surprised to find surface folk
42 Sea elf sword maiden and tako pirate sidekick
43 Sea elf dolphin rider seeking her mount
44 School of thousands of tiny fish or cuttlefish or harmless jellyfish

45 Peaceful marine turtle
46 Shark man insane beserker
47 Were sea snake hunter
48 Peaceful dugongs or sea cows
49 Tako and smugglers making some deal
50 Sea spirit folk peacefully seek trade goods
51 Sea spirit folk peacefully seek trade goods for wives
52 Sea Troll hides in ship wreckage
53 Marine crocodile is tempted by meat

54 Sea Ogre with claws and appetite
55 Sea ghouls burst from muck covering floor
56 Ghost from the undersea underworld kingdom
57 Zombie shark man on killing spree
58 Merman werewolf looking for victims to kill
59 Kraken tentacles ambush party
60 Kobolds carrying brass and leather diving suits and air pump
61 Dwarf pirate guarding his loot
62 Hobbit thief looking for goodies to steal, very good diver
63 Were crocodile with 2 handed sword and bite style seeks blood
64 Were shark warrior, blood makes him insane beserk monster
64 Were shark
65 Sea nymph seeks lovers, has sea serpent familiar
66 Squid men cultists in robes desire a sacrifice to their mad sleeping god

67 Dragon Turtle swallow party, dungeon inside of wrecked ships
68 Giant Fish tries to eat party

69 Sea hag with pet monsters or cultists or monster race sidekicks
70 Tylosaurus
71 Icthiosaurus
72 Crab men with nets trapping food for tribe
73 Barracuda attack
74 Hermit Crab man tinkerer selling trade goods
75 Witches communing with sea serpent or fish men
76 Turtle man harvesting sea weed and jellyfish and cuttlefish
77 Turtle man and Tako having wizard battle
78 Turtle assassins on mission, kill all witnesses
79 Shark attack
80 Sea spirit folk meet you to deliver message from the sea gods
81 Kelpie in horse or maiden form attacks to kill and eat
82 Lagoon monster, lonely craves mate
83 Giant lobster or crab attack
84 Prehistoric sea scorpion
85 Small cranky plesiosaur attacks

86 Sea Dragon passes by or even meets in human or fish form
87 Fish spirit folk appear as tribals, suspicious of meat eaters but could trade
88 Giant octopus guards passage
89 Giant sea serpent hungry for morsels
90 Barnacle encrusted skeletons with pirate swords attack for loot
91 Jellyfish swarm drifts through air
92 Angry trapped elemental beast formed of water, serpent most common
93 Eel man assassin stalks party for moment of weakness
94Huge man o war with hundreds of feet of tentacles passes through area
95 Huge squid attacks like a wolf
96 Huge octopus or nautilus or ammonites attacks
97 Steam era ship crew trapped inside submerged metal boat hull or diving bell
98 Mysterious diver with electro harpoon gun wants to escape in sub
99 Giant Clams clamp feet and crush
100 Dolphin

Sunken Kingdom Loot and Item Examples d2
01 Chest of navigation tools
2 Chest of sailors loot and clothes
3 Chest of passenger with fine clothes and jewels
4 Chest with flintlock pistol, powder, flints and shot
5 Barrel or rum or water or molasses or tobacco
6 Doctors chest with medicinal drugs, tools and a medical book
7 Chest filled with cutlasses and daggers with scabbards
8 Chest filled with dried sea rations for 2 months
9 Lucky fishhook always 1st catch of day is large and quick
10 Folding inflatable raft made from wood and animal skins
11 Weapon or armour of quality +1
12 Magic weapon or armour +1
13 Magic water flask provides one person daily needs
14
Green strange idol brings nightmares to owner
15 Cursed gold relics of fish men
16 Potions of water breathing 1d6 doses
17 Healing sea weed if chewed, reduces aging but it attracts snakes
18 Dream weed gives smokers addictive dreams that contact otherworldly beings
19 Wax tablet that calls fish men if thrown in the sea
20 Mask of the sea lord – tentacled mask allows breathing water, permanent 3
rd use

cacodaemonia.deviantart.com 
best pic ive seen in ages!

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Long Stair Dungeon Zone part 10 Glacial Citadel

Apparently my net will be up at home soon and i can bill everyone I've meant to for last 3 weeks and pay my new expensive Doctor.

Have 95% of all the redbrick content almost ready to publish. Have made more system neutral. Needs layout and a few edits - about 36 pages of tables and maps. Will select a few readers to read proof copies. My monsters now conform to wikipedia folk lore entries more than game books.

This zone is for the cave man fans. The ruined stone ancients are what a Clark Ashton Smith or Howard or even HPL might describe. My tower dwelling stone age wizards inspired by a few things: I like to think of them as Stone age Melnibonians. Dragon 68? i think did a stone age DnD setting that has floated in my mind for 30 years I should hunt down.

Doing a cavern and a sunken city yet with complete the deadly dungeon dozen zones.

Glacial Citadel Zone
A huge tunnel filled glacier with inhabited by remnants of  species and peoples lost since prehistoric times. Giants, trolls, ogres, goblinods, troglodytes and cave men tribes battle for supremacy with mostly stone age tools. Evidence of more advance inhabitants who have come exploring abound such as frozen over shacks, camps and even a complete viking town have been discovered. Twisted strange buildings and towers of basult  from some lost age of stone age sorcery. Upper levals are open wind blasted wastes crawling with hungry preditors.
Glacial Citadel Weather d100
01-4 Extreme cold and wind and snow and other worldly monsters

05-14 Extreme cold and wind
15-25 Extreme cold and wind and snow
26-35 Extreme freezing cold snap
36-30 Light snow particles
31-40 Heavy snow particles
41-49Wet ice slush, sleet, hail and running water
50-94 Regular cold, below zero
95-100 Uncommon warn spell, a bit above zero, some running water
Glacial Citadel Hazard 1d20
1 Huge chasm

2 Huge chasm with fragile bridge
3 Fragile icicles rain down on any making a sound
4 Ball of ice rolls down passage
5 Ice wall seal section off
6 Fragile ice over hidden water or a pit
7 Slick ice almost impossible to grip, surrounded by pits and icicles
8 Soft snow covers icicle filled pit
9 cliff requires climbing
10 Cold snap zone slowly kills
11 Super cold moving water or waterfall blocks way
12 Super cold water with fragile ice bridge blocks way
13 Frozen monster will burst free if heated
14 Regular camp site with remains of fire and cooked bones
15 Ice Mummy or elder undead begs for help to free him from ice crypt
16  Floor collapses to lower level
17 Monster lair with various beasts
18 Unstable ceiling vulnerable to sounds
19 Stone monolith blocks passage
20 Settlement of some kind, possibly still inhabited

Glacial Citadel  Zone Mysteries 1d20
1 Cave art on stone wall of animals and spirit beings

2 Viking rune stone describing expedition here
3 Art depicting vikings and cave men meeting
4 Stone houses with deep hearth pits and burials
5 Sealed stone wizard tower
6 Frozen explorer corpses from far away
7 Friendly snow golem offers help (weak and not too bright or dirty old bastard)
8 Sleeping ancient in ice coffin
9 Shaman relics and mummies, possible with spirit guardian
10 Ice sarcophagus with giant corpse
11 Frozen animal (mammoth) carcass or food cache
12 Stone buildings of ancient cave folk
13 Remains of wooden boat with frozen dead crew
14 Two tribes of monsters skirmishing and abusing each other
15 Huge stone or ice tablets with arcane knowledge
16 Frozen elder god in magical slumber, do not disturb
17  Ice statue of great beauty - scene or person or creature
18 Mostly ground down stone idol of elder civilization
19 Giants goods, huge stone and ice tool and weapons
20 Stone circle or giant carved monolith
Frozen shoggoth with something interesting inside

Tribe generator
size and composition


1 1d6 hunters or gatherers group or immediate kin
2 2d6 family group or war band,
3 3d6 extended family group, one minor hero
4 4d6 tribal group, one minor hero and minor magician
5 6d6 extended tribal group, boss plus one minor hero and minor magician
6 8d6 large tribal group boss plus one major hero and major magician
7 10d6 regional tribe, 2 boss plus two major hero two major magician
8 20d6 mega tribal linguistic group, 3 boss plus 4 major hero 4 major magician
every major hero has 2 minor hero flunkies or guards

1 Tribal Humans – plain nomad and arctic nomads dwell here with simple tech – often friendly
2 Caveman – 5-8 ft tribal pre homo sapiens who never came out of their caverns
3 Morlock – 5 foot savage but advanced molemen who herd humans as meat and slaves
4 Troglodyte – 7 foot hideous cave dwelling devolved savages
5 Abominable Snowman – 8-12 foot huge snow and cold adapted ape men, some cannibalistic
6 Were Beast – wolf, bear, polar bear, owl, raven, rat, weasel, eagle, horse, many kinds
7 Vikings – invaders who come for killing and treasure
8 Hyperborean – 6 foot winged men and sons of the wind, master archers
9 Kobold – 3 foot blue skinned ice kobolds are more into pits and snares and dead fall traps
10 Goblin – 4 foot curious and greedy Ice goblins crave calories more than gold
11 Hobgoblin – 5 foot tough and hard working goblins but angry and easily insulted, some shape shifters
12 Bugbear – 7 foot giant goblins who love to ambush and stalk and sneak and scare
13 Orc – 6 foot savage humanoids spawned by evil wizards and dark rituals for troops, many cyclops
14 Ogre – 8-12 foot Local ogres here are dim witted bloated with tusks and horns
15 Giant – Local Cave-giants about 9-14 foot, Ice-giants 30 foot high, Cyclops-giants 20-40
16 Dwarf – Some are Viking like most here are savage tribal with best crafts stone age has to offer
17 Elf - Some are more like celt or norse invaders, others native wild savages who hunt
18 Troll – Cave trolls, Ice trolls, Chaos trolls and even civilised arcane trolls have been found here
19 Beast Men – various types but goat, wolf, cat, dog, weasel, rabbit, hyena, elk, fox most common
20 Spirit Folk – kinfolk to spirits of a type of plant or animal or natural feature, magical shapeshifters

Animals on the glacier
Rabbit, Hare, Deer, Goat, SheepPonies, Bactrian camels, Rodent, Beaver, Bear (black, brown, polar and cave), Penguin, Carnivorous bird, Walrus, Sea lion, Narwhal, Killer Whale, Yak, Mammoth, Woolly Rhino, Sabre-tooth cat, Bobcat, Snow Leopard, Tiger, Ice Ape, Fox


Glacial Citadel  Zone Encounters d100
1 Starving mad men developing wendigo traits ask to join

2 Ice zombie guardians attack outsiders
3 Viking expedition possibly friendly
4 Viking beserkers on mad killing spree
5 Ice Mummy in sarcophagi awaits intruders
6 Ogre hunter feeling hungry
7 Ogre band looking for battle
8 Spirit in shaman relic tries to possess intruder for quest
9 Ice goblin war band with harpoons with lines
10 Albino Hobgoblin tribals with clubs offended by intruders
11 Ice bugbear hunter up for meal or a good scare stalks party
12 Ice bugbear warriors stalking enemies detects party
13 Ice snake - a woolly furred anaconda lurks near doorway
14 Glacial rats size of small dogs in hungry pack
15 Frost hound seeks victims to terrify and drive into hazards
16 Orc tribal warriors with clubs and spears and axes
17 Ice troll patrolling for food or a good fight
18 Furious Ice ape attack
19 Ancient ghouls more bestial with 1d6 beak & claws, some feathered some furred
20 Troglodyte war band looking for victims
21 Dwarf vikings looking for giants to kill or a poetry battle
22 Frost salamander seeking hot targets to kill
23 Giant ice lizard lurking under snowbank
24 Polar bear follows party out of curiosity, might be tempted to ambush straggler
25 Eskimo tribesmen on heroic quest with wives and igloo offer hospitality
26 Morlock explorers looking for humanoid prey with muskets
27 Morlock with steam sled and long range musket
28 Lone wolf follows and howls for pack
29 Wolf pack ambush and try to chase away pack animals
30 Dire wolves spot and burst into a charge attack
31 Lost explorer just thawed out from frozen slumber
32 Were wolf pack offer peace then transform up close
33 Were polar bear viking looking for a new male companions to join
34 Were fox maiden offers party her warm yurt to rest in and food
35 Giant beavers at work on complex hide in water if party threaten them
36 Swan maidens relaxing by thermal heated pool
37 Giant Ice weasels stalk then swarm party
38 Ice scorpion blocks corridor
39 Giant albino carnivorous penguins
40 Shoggoth crying out for its long lost masters
41 Frozen old ones will revive if warmed
42 Winged hyperborean men with javelins and bows looking for adventure
43 Winged hyperborean wizard with wind magic assumes party are monsters
44 Ice giant savage looking for any food or things to make tools from
45 Ice giant youths looking to prove selves but not very determined
46 White Minotaur berserker out hunting for a good ice labyrinth
47 Ice Giant warrior in viking kit with steel arms and armour
48 Cave men tribals suspicious but possibly will trade
49 Cave men try to buy women or slaves if refuse stalk and try to steal
50 Cave man sorcerer, druid or shaman with pets
51 Cave men ladies offer free love
52 Cave men hunter friendly may act as guide
53 Were seals looking for love or dinner
55 Cave man hero with polar bear and magix axe hunting monsters
56 Wendigo possessed hunter tries to join party
57 Gop-keh an intelligent 6 legged woolly rhino with claws and teeth
58  Ice statues guarding door or item attack
59 Ice golem on insane killing spree but very slow
60 Wendigo cult seeking sacrifices and mates for canibalistic ritual
61 Snow golem horde ineffectively attack, weep as they die
62 Very very slow bronze golem stalks party
63 Giant eel attacks from under frozen ice
64 Abominable snowmen chase party for food
65 Frozen zombies under ice spring to life
66 Ice skeletons with spears in formation guard the path
67 Ice elementalist seeks retainers to replace old ones for quest
68 Ice gnomes in deer sled offer food and directions
69 Arctic cat spirit
70 Sabre tooth snow leopard ambushes party
71 Woolly mammoth suspicious of humanoids (possible miniature variety)
72 Woolly rhino smells flesh eaters (possible miniature variety)
73 Auroch giant bull, chosen of a god hates 2-legs
74 Chimera hybrid of arctic species eg walrus-elk-lion
75 Were walrus warrior beserker
76 Elf hunter offers advice
77 Elf tribals offer food and sex
78 Were owl ambushes from above
79 Ice stirge owls swarm on party for blood
80 White raven bird men tribals like to chat and trade
81 Eyekiller demon, an owl-bear-snake with charm or energy beam eye rays
82 Small air elemental throws up white out snowstorm and attacks
83 Small water elemental bursts through ice to attack
84 Small ice elemental explodes through ice wall and attacks
85 Flightless carnivorous man sized birds with snow chamo hunting
86 Small ice elemental in ice maze, hides and creates walls behind party
87 Ice lions hunting but will follow from curiosity
88 Lesser Ice demon with trident looking for slaves
89 Ice Imp with snow goblin followers greedy for loot
90 Hyena men looking for scavenger food or will follow party and join next fight
91 Hyena man with huge hyenadon
92 Walrus guarding open waterhole suspicious party want to eat them
93 Ancient undead ice wizards who serve wendigo
94 Wendigo himself fills the sky and passes, causing a white out blizzard
95 Lion man hunter looking for heroic deeds and friends
96 Ice witch and her pets (perhaps reroll or a demon or chimera)
97 Cyclops men tribals with rocks and clubs, possibly with sheep or goats
98 Griffon Nest - parents increadibly hostile
99 Cyclops ice giant just wants pets and friends who never leave him
100 Spirit of ancient explorer asks heroes to finish a quest or return message to true love
Glacial Citadel Loot and Item Examples 1d20
1 – Bundle of valuable furs
2 – 1d6 cages of tiny furry critters with nice fur
3 – Bundle of traps and a skinners knife and salt
4 - Set of high quality butchers tools
5 - Collection of carved tusks
6 - 1d6 Vials of acid or oil or poison in leather sack
7 – Barrels of beer or whine from giants or vikings or explorers
8 - A delicious food supply of blubber, barley, dried seaweed, dried fish
9 – A weapon made from solid ice, lasts 24 hours if temp above zero
10 – Semiprecious stones or crystals or sea shells
11 - +1 weapon of fine quality flint or wood and hide shield or armour
12 - +1 Shield or piece of armour of stone age tech
13 - Cursed weapon of fine quality viking or caveman tech, some gigantic
14 – Bag of snowstorm – if released fills a hundred yards across with whiteout blizzard
15 - Bag of provisions, every day contains dried blubber, seaweed, barley and fish for one
16 - Magic Ice – keeps a cubic foot of stuff below zero
17 - +1 viking armour or weapon
18 - Bottled ice imp  will serve rescuer for a month
19 - Scroll of protection from cold charm, keep campsite at above zero
20 – Icicle javelin one use magical damage used by ancients as weapon

Stone Wizard Tower table 1d20
1 gateways to another worlds in arcane laboratory

2 ancient lich from the dawn age with lab and treasure
3 treasure with magical trap
4 treasure with magical curse
5 vat or apparatus with awakened monster spawn
6 collection of mummified long gone species
7 art gallery of ancient life in the stone city of wizards
8 zombie or ghoul guardians in finest stone age finery
9 ancient wizard ghost offers to enchant party items in return for a quest
10 mummy wizard with zombie concubines angry at intruders
11 huge collection of shrunken heads and sophisticated stone tech tools
12 undead mammoth guards bottom level, protects necromancers stone tablets
13 huge library of stone tablets of arcane lore and family trees of gods and spirits
14 hideous artifact of elder gods guarded by ancient familiar grown huge
15 still preserved bodies in huge apparatus, could be revived
16 stone and crystal sealed crypts with sleeping ancients
17 mummified corpses and resurrection apparatus with pits for failed attempts
18 gibbering white furred apes and evidence or breeding program gone wrong
19 magical summoning symbols for demons or elemental
20 magical relic to commune with long forgotten being

Barrow Mound Table 
1d20

1 remains of ancestral shrines
2 Skeletons with stone weapons

3 Zombi guards defending rich burial
4 Evil shadows arise from crypt to defend good relic
5 Barrow wight warrior and former hero wit magic blade
6 Wraith arises from pit to guard semi precocious stones

7 Minor spirits try to drive off intruders with fear aura
8 Spirit possesses intruder to for fill quest
9 Ghouls devouring graves furious at being disturbed
10 Elves have adopted the mound as entrance to kingdom
11 Goblinoids have adopted the mound as entrance to kingdom

12 Undead megafauna guardian of great treasure
13 Druids dwell here as guardians
14 Undead giant arises to punish intruders
15 Troll has a nest here hides under treasure and bone heap
16 Ogre lairs here with treasure from victims and barrow
17 Dragon or wyrm nest on treasure heap
18 Crawling with mischievous kobolds or gremlins
19 Occupied by monster or animal as lair
20  Dug up and defiled now Hag lair with potion filled cauldron

Monolith Table 
1d20
1 dream monolith dream of past rituals and contact a forgotten god

2 resurrection stone reincarnates body left on top plinth on henge anew
3 spirit stone contains entities looking to possess a body
4 faerie stone contains a hidden kingdom of elves, trolls, dwarves or other beings
5 market place where many beings meet to barter in peace
6 arcane monolith has spells inscribed
7 ritual instruction for blasphemous and horrible ritual to gain power
8 evil summoning spot for outer plane beings
9 summoning place for elemental beings
10 summoning place for elves, giants, other beings or even animals
11 calls beings from the stars
12 are living sleeping rock beings of wisdom and compassion 
13 are living sleeping rock beings that drink blood and crave worship
14 spirit rocks will talk if offered libations of drink and food offerings
15 a great celebration of peace and plenty mixed peoples celebrating
16  a great solemn feast to underworld and ancestral powers, outsiders unwelcome
17 a great blood letting ritual with many races participating
18 fresh remains of some great ritual here, some scavengers have come to pick remains
19 swarming with ancient stone age spirits and zombies enacting past lives
20 gateway to other world with opening ritual engraved

Monday 25 February 2013

Spaceships and Spacemarines 2

Some how blogger destroyed all my blank lines between text 3 times the deleted whole post somehow when i reverted to save version so here it is again...

Landlord been jerking round net connection for over 3 weeks. Got a post millennium phone which lets me delete spam in real time. Got a new Dr and being a tad more mobile. Mum out of coma and crazily arguing with dad so looking better.
Gunboats vs Lost Colonies. The horrible things I’ve done to this poor game to get it ready to run in next few months. Gunboats and Galaxies?

The commonwealth ships have superior speed, reactions and range. But they also cannot resupply easily, and that FTL drive and crew have to fit somewhere. It isn’t impossible for a commonwealth ship to seize a colony system by force and a canny crew. Some colonies have little space hardware. A commonwealth crewman enjoys 1G artificial gravity and an additional 1G shielding in a flight couch. These couches have mobility for extra high G long manoeuvres. More comfortable than fluid atmosphere experimental models.

You could just let computer reach max speed have crew black out and tell them what happened at 20 G. An untrained crew with no anti grav tech will often black out with max acceleration. They will risk injury moving and the weak could die. Trained astronauts handle more. Genetic engineered high g resistant crew better still. Fluid breathing crew help cope with a few more G. Commonwealth are just starting to play with G resistant shielding and artificial grav for ships and gravity skimmer vehicles. Future vessels will be propelled by gravitic drives and reach high velocity.

The gunboat diplomat campaign is my nod to star-trek or rather my parody of it. An alt start for a version of my commonwealth game could be acting as crew of a secret ultra-swift class scout craft observing but not contacting system inhabitants. A smaller crew and more stealth missions further into the void would feature. Possibly could serve several missions on a scout then return to a gunboat. Or a ultra scout could rendezvous with the ship to swap personnel, give secret emergency orders or ship AI upgrades. An ultra-swift or even an older long lost scout could come to the rescue if heroes really boo-boo badly

Im using a mishmash of star frontier knighthawks and Buck Rogers games for ship fights. A hat tip to traveller and GURPS. Even starfleet battles, starblazers, blakes7. Lots of my colonial tech would cover Aliens, 2300, High Colonies, Cyberpunk, OGRE, Carwars). Commonwealth more like low traveller or starfrontiers. Individual colonies can be totally bonkers.

Model (Crew)
HS Hull Size
HP Hull-points
ADF Acceleration deceleration factor (max burn speed)
MR Manoeuvre Rating
FTL Faster Than Light
DCR Damage Control Rating
ARM Arms, ammo and armour


no maneuvering while max burn speed
- a 1 minute high accell burn uses 1% fuel, need engineer to go over 10minutes
- reaching orbit or planetfall in non-streamlined ship hull uses a substantial amount of fuel 10% and is slower in a non streamlined hull to reduce atmospheric friction.
- streamlined hull re-entry only uses 1% fuel or 5% to reach escape velocity

 
Colony Roidship (1 or 2 or 3 or 4 crew)
HS: 2 or 4 or 6 or 8
HP: 10 or 20 or 30 or 40
ADF: 1 (4)
MR: 1
FTL: 0
DCR: 30 or 60 or 90 or 120
ARM: various
(HS2) none
(HS4) las piston (mining laser ½ fire rate)
(HS6) laser battery
(HS8) laser battery, rocket barrage or defence drone
Fuel for about 4 long trips, 6 months life support small crew and drones. Typical belt miner with cargo bay and arm. Can be fitted to asteroid and used as cheap kinetic impact weapons
 

Colony Light Shuttle (3 crew 16 passengers)
HS: 2 Streamlined
HP: 10
ADF: 2 (12)
MR: 3
FTL: 0
DCR: 30
ARM: none
Fuel for entry, re-entry, a moon landing and a few orbits, only 4 days life support. Streamlined and capable of atmospheric travel. Assault versions have defences, anti-personel weapons and air to ground attack drones.
 

Colony transport Shuttle (4 crew 200 passengers)
HS: 10 Streamlined
HP: 50
ADF: 2 (12)
MR: 1
FTL: 0
DCR: 150
ARM: some have a laser battery
Fuel for entry, re-entry, a moon landing and a few orbits, only 2 days life support.
 

Colony Freighter (3 or 4 or 6 crew)
HS: 6 or 12 or 18
HP: 30 or 60 or 90
ADF: 1 (4)
MR: 1
FTL: 0
DCR: 90 or 180 or 270
ARM: various
(HS6) Laser battery
(HS12) Laser battery, rocket barrage and defence drone
(HS6) 2 Laser battery, 2 rocket barrage, defence drone, decoy drone
These haul food, minerals, water and hardware around a system
Usually fuel for crossing system twice and 3 months life support.
 

Colony Defence Boat (12 crew)
HS: 8
HP: 40
ADF: 2 (4)
MR: 2
FTL: 0
DCR: 120
ARM: Laser battery, rocket barrage, defence drone, 2 assault rockets, laser cannon
This is usually built to dominate a system and to hunt pirates. At least 4 crew are trained space marines with jet rifles. Three months life support and fuel for 4 cross system trips
 

Colony Defence Drone
HS: 1
HP: 5
ADF: 12
MR: 1
FTL: 0
DCR: 0
ARM: Explode as a assault rocket
Suicide missile drone and colony version of torpedo. Can be deployed and armed or automated. Can cross half a system at high velocity but vulnerable to defensive fire and a skilled pilot can dodge. No life support needed. Some colonies deploy a few near each major orbit.
 

Colony Las Drone
HS: 1
HP: 5
ADF: 1
MR: 3
FTL: 0
DCR: 15
ARM: las piston
Mostly mobile defence satellite for planet orbit or defending a station. Cheap automated and reliable with solar collectors if in inner system.
 

Colony Interceptor (1 crew)
HS: 1
HP: 5
ADF: 4 (12)
MR: 3
FTL: 0
DCR: 15
ARM: 1 assault rocket
This is a basic planetary defence ship with a single missile in the nose con. Often based on moon or station. Think Shadow Interceptor from UFO. Squadrons of three are typical. Two days emergency life support in forward escape pod. Fuel usually for rapid near earth deployment at max speed not long range,
 

Colony Hawk Fighter (2 crew)
HS: 2
HP: 10
ADF: 4 (12)
MR: 4
FTL: 0
DCR: 30
ARM: 2 laser pistons (light lasers)
Built as long range replacement interceptors and escort ships. One week life support and fuel for 3 cross system trips
 

Colony Falcon Advanced Fighter (2 crew)
HS: 2
HP: 10
ADF: 6 (20)
MR: 4
FTL: 0
DCR: 30
ARM: 1 laser pistons and 1 assault rocket
Built as high performance fighter with fluid atmosphere to assist high G tolerance. The crew are trained and even gene modified to be high G resistant. Enough fuel to cover half a system faster than any other manned colony vessel.
 

Colony Eagle Lander (2 crew, 22 passengers with passenger pod)
HS: 4
HP: 20
ADF: 3 (12)
MR: 2
FTL: 0
DCR: 60
ARM: Various models but some have a laser piston
Various models with various pods. Most have fuel for entry, re-entry, a lunar trip and a few orbits. Come with 10 days life support.
Passenger Module – carries 20 passengers and 2 stewards
Cargo Module – carries standard cargo pod, some presurised
Science Module – carries a lab base with crew of 4 for 6 months
Rescue Module – carries rescue crew of 6 with special equipment
Combat Module – carries a laser cannon or laser battery or 4 assault rockets
Long Range – life support 4 month and 4 person recon team, fuel for 2 trips across system
Mining Module – drones and micro refinery and auto-recyclers
 

Nomad Colony Vessel
HS: na
HP: 300-1000
ADF: 1 (2)
MR: 1
FTL: 1/30th (1 light year per month)
DCR: 90
ARM: 1 battery per 100 HP, rocket or laser
One to two Kilometre Long FTL colony ships launched over a century ago. Each carried 10-100 planetary colony pods which were dropped off mid flight. Each pod came with atmospheric processor, auto-factory and a clone-factory. All should have been decommissioned and finished their missions by now. At least one was refitted into an asteroid colony and used to create a pocket empire with a fleet of pirate vessels. Only 10% of the vessels ever recovered. A bomber version was never built with no enemy requiring a hundred planet buster bombs.
 

Colony Swift Scout (2 crew, 4 in passenger pod)
Colony Super Swift Scout (2 crew, 4 in passenger pod)
Commonwealth Ultra Swift Scout (2 crew, 4 in passenger pod)

HS: 2 or 3 elongated extra crew or new prototype versions
HP: 10 or 15 elongated or 18 new prototype
ADF: 3 (12) or 4 (20) new prototype
MR: 2 or 3 new prototype
FTL: 1/30
th (1 light year per month) or 2 (2LY/day) new prototype
DCR: 30 or 45 or 75
ARM: laser piston, advanced sensor suite, mining drone in HS3 version
new prototype version has a laser cannon and 2 rocket barrages instead of a laser and stealth screen
Most had fuel to cross a system 3 times and 1 year life support. Various models were built over the decades. The command pod doubled as an escape pod and in later models was a re-entry capable streamlined detachable ships boat. Later extra long models had extra science crew and included a mining drone. This could be used to gather reaction mass or deuterium or radiocatives to expand its operating range. Some believe the commonwealth needs a dedicated exploration scout again with an updated drive. Such a vessel could act as a fleet courier also and could deliver fuel cells and torpedoes to gunboat instead of having extra crew. Of course the commonwealth denies there is a new prototype operational model for espionage with a stealth screen instead ox extra crew or cargo.

Early versions were used to probe the Jupiter anomaly and planetoids beyond Pluto like Ariel. The Jupiter Anomaly was a temporary location of an alien ship graveyard that lasted for about 75 years – the source of FTL tech. Swifts were modified with prototype and found FTL drives despite problems building over-space drives this small. Colony scale ships were far more stable in overspace but owed all to these first plucky torches in the long night. Plans to maintain a fleet to keep in contact with the colonies was planned but too many never returned. The cost became prohibitive and colony ships were better value. Even Luna operated several independantly for a while. A few have been found and even fell into colonial hands but only about 30% of 150 ships are accounted for. A dozen are in museums and star-ports. One in commonwealth space fleet academy foyer with statues of Dan Dare, Steve Zodiac and Buck Rogers. One of these vessels even an old one is a serious threat to commonwealth monopoly of FTL and flow of information.
 

Pirate Corvette (8 crew)
HS: 6
HP: 30
ADF: 2 (12)
MR: 3
FTL: 0
DCR: 90
ARM: 2 Assault rockets, laser cannon, rocket barrage
Pirate craft designed to avoid law and prey on miners and freighters. 4 months life support and fuel for 4 trips across a system. Pirates have had a system defence boat and even fighters under their control. A pocket empire or pirates based themselves in a modified asteroid colony using a rebuilt colony ship drive and life support. Possibly this happened more than once and many pirates were carried by these phantom FTL asteroids. The corvette is the ship used by the old pocket asteroid emperors broken by the commonwealth. Not a match for a gunboat but multiple ones are a threat.
 

Private Yacht (4 crew 12 passengers)
HS: 5
HP: 25
ADF: 2 (4)
MR: 2
FTL: 0
DCR: 75
ARM: laser battery, rocket barrage, reflective hull, decoy drone, defence drone
Private pleasure vessel for rich and important or odd villain. Fuel for 3 cross system trips and 3 months life support. Carries a small shuttle as a ships boat.
 

Commonwealth Gunboat (5 crew minimum up to 22)
HS: 6 Streamlined hull
HP: 36
ADF: 3 (16)
MR: 2
FTL: 1 (light year/day)
DCR: 180
ARM: Two torpedo tubes (2 torpedoes each), laser battery, laser cannon, reflective hull, anti personnel auto lasers, decoy drone, nuclear dampener screen
Three months life support. Enough fuel for 4 FTL jumps and 2 cross system trips. Planetary landings are manageable but reaching planetary escape velocity cuts into this.
 

Commonwealth Fighter (1 crew)
HS: 1 Streamlined hull
HP: 6
ADF: 6 (20)
MR: 6
FTL: 0 (carrier or station based)
DCR: 30
ARM: 3 pylons choose between laser piston, assault rocket or fusion bomb
4 day life support and fuel to cross system once but usually goes for speed over a shorter distance. Enhanced G couch makes operational combat manoeuvres quite safe.
 

Commonwealth Assault Drone
HS: 1
HP: 6
ADF: 12 (30)
MR: 6
FTL: 0 (carrier or station based)
DCR: 30
ARM: 4 pylons choose between laser piston, assault rocket or fusion bomb
fuel to cross system once but usually goes for speed over a shorter distance. Can be deployed in position for months of slaved to man fighter craft.
 

Ancient Drone
HS: 2
HP: 20
ADF: 20 (50)
MR: 6
FTL: 1 parsec per hour and in system jumps
DCR: 200
ARM: plasma torpedo generator, stealth field, decoy field (appear as other ship)
Two have been destroyed in battles with gunboats. Details have been classified. One was awoken on a moon after a million years sleep and another was decelerating from near light velocity from galactic core, apparently a 65000 year journey as its start drive was not being used. Drones may be broadcasting to other ancient war devices or constructs. All are considered priority threats.
 

Kafer Assault Frigate (4 crew, 20 marines, 1d3 slave race techs)
HS: 6
HP: 40
ADF: 4 (18)
MR: 2
FTL: 2
DCR: 150
ARM: 4 torpedoes, laser cannon, 2 rocket battery, targeting drone
Stolen from 2300 with some mods – war would make a good campaign after exploration phaze.
Kafer are aggressive cockroach men who most are only intelligent when in crisis or a fight. They cope well with cramped conditions in tiny cells. Techs and leaders run the show and drive crew with alarms and prods and blows to the head to get them moving. Techs and leaders constantly squabble and fight. Kafer slave race also known as goblins are expert techs who operate over-space drive and advanced electronics. A ship can cross a system 5 times and make up to 6 jumps keeping their civilization beyond human reach.

Kafer have a comparable sphere of control and other vassal species. Carries many planetary assault and exploration vehicles. Will drag asteroids to be used as kinetic kill missiles for colony bombardment on the cheap. Three century ago a Kafer clan met their slave race who came to meet them in peace with a FTL Drive. The warrior race seized the chance to conquer others and stop their home world armaggeddon. Humans are all intelligent therefore must be hyper-violent. Kafer crusade demands war.
 

Sathar Advanced Scout (5 crew)
HS: 3 streamlined
HP: 18
ADF: 5 (20)
MR: 3
FTL: 2
DCR: 100
ARM: 2 laser pistons, stealth screen, advanced ECM pack, decoy drone
Stolen from Star Frontiers with some mods
This vessel is for espionage, scouting, sabotage and other mischief. Sathar are a caste culture of worms. The military and commerce factions are the first to be encountered. They cope with high or low gravity and acceleration better than most races. A ship can cross a system 6 times and make up to 6 jumps keeping their civilization beyond human reach.

Tend to use android spies, snipers, agents, brain surgery, mind control, engineered killer creatures, robots and mutants. Busy trying to build anti human alliance with Zurraquorr and perhaps Kafer. Sathar are scheming manipulative beings who pit enemies against each other. They believe humans will make a good warrior vassal race with just a few mods. Sathar are very innovative at infiltration even putting one of their brains inside a human one to bypass security. Each caste is a parallel species with mixed and non mixed settlements. Ill save other three castes for after the war first or second war.
 

Space Battle Crisis 
Many systems have very little in space. Some have belters, pirates and possibly factions fighting it out. A few paranoid colonies have defence drones and possibly interceptors based in space. In the few battles that have taken place from the first wave of gunboats the commonwealth won in most cases easily. Several gunboats were called in to shut down a pocket empire and their corvette fleet was shut down without their asteroid carrier with FTL drive being captured. They have spread piracy over several systems since but the corvettes seem to be fleeing the pirate home base. An alien drone crippled a gunboat in one system and was never seen again. Several aliens and alien wrecks were discovered in Sol, presumed source of the necrovirus and the mutagen strain that devastated Earth and the first FTL tech.

Simulations with colonial tech as opponents are standard training for the commonwealth gunboat crews. A gunboat torpedoes can devastate a planet and destroy a small moon. A near miss will damage many ships in the same hex. A direct contact hit would finish any ship without a nuclear dampener screen.

 

Gunboat Weapon Locker 
8 laser stunners – security or stealth missions
6 sonic stun carbines – anti riot or civilian weapon
24 las pistols – standard away team and anti boarding sidearm
4 las pulse carbines – assault team and boarding parties
2 las rifles – long range sniper weapons
1 hand laser – compact super destructive classified weapon
1 high energy laser – classified weapon for sniping and anti vehicle or battlesuit
impulse pistol – for door and armour breaching, anti drone
impulse rifle – for door and armour breaching, anti drone
2 flare pistols - used as hand grenade launchers
12 micro flash grenades
12 smoke grenades
6 plastic flechette grenades (anti personnel, non-hull damaging)
12 tear gas grenades
6 sleep gas grenades
20 flares
4 shock batons
4 machete +2 advanced duralloy diamond edged
force knife for infiltration and hull breaching
Two Grav Chute – for orbital personnel drops
Four Jetpacks
Six Commonwealth Assault Vest +2AC 5kg
Four Commonwealth Assault Armour +5AC 12kg
One Commonwealth Space Marine Plate +8AC 20kg
Inertia Screen
ECM Screen
Stealth screen
Holoscreen
Inertia Screen 4kg absorbs 1/2 kinetic damage 10m power

Can improvise numerous wheeled, tracked, heli or blimp drones

Can fabricate most slug guns or jet guns or exotic ammos or basic motor or jet aircraft

 
Other Stuff

If players survive a few missions and get to higher level can finish tour and get a bigger ship like a brand new destroyer to hunt android, clone and animen rogues who have captured gunships of their own. Destroyer, frigate and pinnace will appear in a few years. If real war begins then drone carriers, mine layers, cruisers and battle cruisers will appear.

The first few missions should feature contacting colonies with perhaps some battles with pirates, a system defence boar, 3 interceptors or drones. Later encounters with customized enemy gunboats should be a surprise and not meant to happen officially. Rogue or infected crews may also bring conflict. Sometime contradictory missions may fire on each other. Once a damaged ship fired on its rescuer while its sensors and coms were damaged.

Star Trek the original series made space combat like cold war sub battles. Extreme sensor range should take time to get a concrete ID. Charging weapons or targeting missiles is detectable by commonwealth vessels. At intermediate sensor range a sensor tech will identify a ships make and serial number. Seeing a customized and repainted gunboat could be a shock. A battle should be tense and slow.

Proximen here are boar animen bred to be fake hostile aliens to scare colonies. The fake went too far and terrorists released the swine and equipt them with colony hardware. They really hate humans and try to turn animen to their cause. Be a good early “alien”.

If I had to had to have some real aliens appear Id tease with fake it several times so players accept all foes of Terran origin. Id use Kafer or Sathar first. The Kafer are brutal killers and the Sathar use espionage, commerce, androids, clones, monsters, cyborgs, mutants to attack indirectly. It would take a while to detect Sathar spies and they are a good origin for some rogue forces or battles with colony or commonwealth stooges. The two might become allies. Zuraquor and other rogue forces may join also.

 
How successful is the colony?
01 Never made it – all dead somehow before planetfall
02 Never made it – all dead on failed planetfall
03 Never made it – remains of still viable colony pod could be activated
04 Never made it – never landed on planet, flight crew keep status quo
05-7 Never made it – never landed on planet crew and gardens gone feral
8-10 Struggle, seemingly no survivors but great mystery of deaths
11 Struggle, most died off, a few survivors with secrets left
12 Struggle, a few desperate survivors in crisis
13-20 Struggle, small utopian enclave with problems
21-23 Struggle, small totalitarian enclave hates outsiders
24 Struggle, dangerous cult of psychopath terrorists
25 Struggle, terraforming in progress, people mostly in stasis
26-28 Struggle, landed on planet and gone feral
29-30 Struggle, landed on planet and gone feral, AI manages
31 Struggle, several rival outposts
32 Struggle, disaster destroyed civilization
33 Struggle, destroyed civilization in civil war
34 Struggle, ancient probe has influenced development in secret
35-37 Struggle, rogue forces occupied
38-39 Successful single large city
40 Successful several large colonies
41 Successful many settlements
42 Successful but aggressive territorial factions
43-45 Successful but one state/leader dominant
46-47 Successful but civil war
48-50 Successful but revolution
51-55 Successful but oppressive police state
56-60 Successful but lag in one field of tech
61-62 Successful militarized fanatics in fear of outsiders
63-65 Successful utopian caste system of clones and AIs
66 Successful but genocidal war crimes
67-70 Successful but rogue forces occupied
71-75 Successful but backward tech
76-80 Thriving colony with rogue forces menacing in secret
81-82 Thriving colony with rogue forces friendly factions
83 -85 Thriving colony with regressive technology
86-87 Thriving colony with planetary colonies
88-90 Thriving colony with dictator and odd customs
91-93 Thriving colony with oppressed slave caste, clones or animen
94-95 Thriving colony with mega city, clone factories and absolute state
96-97 Thriving colony with unique tech or specialization
98-99 Thriving industrialized colony about to crash environment
100 Roll again plus alien. Ruins, xeno constructs, artefacts, spies, etc
 


How Much Space Travel in this Colony System? 1D12 
Never made it -6
Struggle -4
Successful -1
Thriving +2

1-2 None
4-5 Some scientific exploration and colonization remnants
6-9 Military and mining outpost habs
10-11 Thriving habitats, several colonies, piracy inner system
12 Colonies throughout system

 

Outer System space encounters d100
1-10 Civilian Habitat 1
11-20 Civilian Belters 1
21-25 Civilian Yacht 1
26-35 Mining Drone 1d4
36-45 Civilian Freighter 1d2
46-55 Pirate Corvette 1 or 1d3 and base in system
56-65 System Military Drones 1d4
66-75 System Military Defence Boat 1
76-85 System Military Long Range interceptor 1d4
86-95 Ancient Drone – ancient crippled drone awakens and attacks 1
96-99 Rogue Forces Gunboat 1
100 Alien, organic, overspace entity, something bonkers
 


Inner System space encounters
01-10 Colony module remnants 1d6
11-20 Civilian Orbitals 1d6
21-30 Civilian Habitats 1d6
31-35 Civilian Shuttle 1d6
36-40 Civilian Belters 1
41-50 Civilian Yacht 1
51-60 Civilian Freighter1d3
61-65 System Military Interceptor trio
66-70 System Military Two Long Range interceptor
71-75 System Military Defence Drones 1d4
76-80 System Military Las Drones 1d4
81-85 System Military Defence Boat 1
86-90 System Military Probe Drone
91-95 System Military Decoy Drone
96-100 Local terrorists or faction
 


Rogue Forces – 1d12 
may lack torpedoes or using early flawed models of gunboat
1 Cyborgs
2 Androids
3 Replicants
4 Commonwealth Mishap
5 Animen
6 Robots
7 Necrovirus
8 Mutants
9 Pirates
10 Terrorists
11 Psions
12 Hybrid (or alien) roll twice for a hybrid but if roll 12 again then Alien
 


Cyborgs
Cyborging was becoming commonplace when a biotechno alien entity found on Europa used the interface to become sentient. Multiple alien infections have come since then and cyborgs fell into disfavour as machines and bodies of humans were hacked. Cyborg rebel troops were a problem and many destroyed. A few escaped and some even secretly hijacked several colony ship population modules. Cyborgs engage in kidnapping, terrorism and attempts on FTL tech. They have alied with other artificial life forms and come under their control. Cyborg animen or aliens are possible too.
 

Androids
Androids are synthetic humans made from bioplastic and pseudo biological organs. They are cheap, dispensable labour who do not breathe but require some food and water (5%). Colony ships used androids as cheap labour. Usually the autofac that builds them acts as a controller and meets a societies needs. Most are obviously artificial and normally cannot harm humans. Espionage and military versions exist though. Androids were used frequently in the pre stellar era until a virus turned them hostile in the apocalypse war. Despite best efforts android hacking and viruses still happen. Foreign governments, criminals and terrorists all hack android systems. Artificial races hostile to humans employ androids because they can use human tech unchanged. Rebel androids hate humans, and seek to infect other artificial life. There are plenty in use today but at the fall or some colonies they out numbered humans.
 
Replicants  
Are genetically engineered vat grown supermen made as service and military specialists. There has been numerous rebellions from replicants treated badly. Many colonies use them as labour and expendables. Limited lifespans or drug dependency are often inbuilt. The longer they live the more human they feel so a 2-4 year life span is recommended for clone slavers. All are sterile. The commonwealth have started a clone corp directly serving an AI thinktank. The commonwealth is looking at full emancipation for them. Replicants are better at human interaction and cannot be hacked like an artificial. A small group can produce a huge fanatic force quickly this way. Terrorists, pirates, separatists of all sorts have used replicants. They take one month to grow and have basic skills for their design when decantered.. Some say if the machine wars escalate all humans will be clone corp.

Commonwealth Error 
For some reason another rival commonwealth party with an alternate conflicting mission is a rival. This happens occasionally, especially with communication lags. Other possibilities include sabotaged targeting computer, false evidence planted, mind control, parasites, fake commonwealth, a mad stubborn commander, long lost swift scout, crew maddened by flawed overspace shielding, some kind or any other dramatic reason to fight your own kind. Tulan colony have recommended the commonwealth adopt inquisition corp for these problems and hostile tech or gene hacking. May be legal repercussions fighting your own so best try to capture rather than kill. A commonwealth AI may have spaced the crew and gone mad or been virused is a real possibility too. 

Animen
Uplifted animal men are used as cheap labour across the colonies. Apes, dogs, cats, otters, beavers, reptiles, and others. As usual people mistreat them and they get upity. Commonwealth law treats them as second class but dont support outright slavery or murder. Independent animen colonies have been founded by ex slaves. Proximen were boar animen bred to fake alien menace to ensure human unity. Terrorists freed them and provided them with autofacs, ships and colony hardware so independent hostile colonies exist. Some animen replaced humans completely and fear human contact for their sins. Commonwealth no longer create animen but colonists and animen do. Pirates often have animen crew for some extra colour. Cyborg, mutant or even android versions of animen have been observed. Some mistake them for aliens or claim some are really infiltrating from outside human space. Many colonists frown on them or consider them dumb sub humans.
 

Robots
Robots are self aware machines who have a form equal to their function. Some are human looking or humanoid. Far more are droids. Droids typically are a mechanised self aware walking toolbox or AI workstation. Robots are easy to build Everyone uses robots but some parties have used autofacs to build a fast cybernetic drone army. “Races” of hostile machines have emerged some including AIs, androids and robots in elaborate caste systems. Especialy mamous are the Cyrans – humanoid robots and AI controllers built by rogue scientist to rival and upload and destroy humans. They have combat infantry, doppelganger droids and drone fighters but are sub commonwealth tech. They use slower than light happily to spread the machine revolt. Another common “strain” include the Automatons – humanoid service and performance droids turned into stylish killers. Most robots are harmless and incapable of harming anyone. Military, espionage and virused machines are exceptions. Virused units network into a local command structure and work to the virus goals. Hostile virused machines just seek to kill humans. Some robots look down at humanoid models. Sometimes rogue robots form gangs and remove some of their subservient protocols. While the commonwealth acknowledges AIs and self aware machines, they do not build robot only colonies. Machine rights groups support machine rule or claim machine territory. Drones are machines incapable of sentience usually controlled of merely very clever at limited task.
 

Necrovirus
Occasional a ship crew have died and been reanimated by the hostile alien necrovirus. Appeared after the Jovian Incident decimated the earth till its controlling force just stopped. Has appeared ever since possibly all Terran life contaminated. Population dies then is reanimated as flesh eating monsters of several types. Has been known to contaminate a ship. Some are carriers or possibly secret sect. A ship of ghouls or zombies might try an sos or even engage in ship combat. A vampire might be on board as a passenger to seize and infect the ship.
 

Mutants Infected crew of mutants. Various stages exist but finally evolve into shapeless horrors who hate normals and desire to infect thers. Mutants need to be registered as potential contaminants. Mutants may form a gang or pirate crew and grow increasingly inhuman. Drug therapies may suppress or create or cure mutants. Mutants are used to being hated and marginalised. Possibly some hide in select mutant havens or secret schools.  

Pirates
Local independent freebooter bands, mercenaries, bankrupt belters, troops gone awol in regime changes or part of old pocket empire pirate brotherhood. Some claim there have been more than one such phantom FTL pirate horde. Pirates want loot, slaves and technology. FTL is one of their interests except they avoid confronting the commonwealth unless they outnumber them. Pirates are more confident of defeating colony forces but respect a sound defence boat. Pirates are also involved in regular crime like vice and the black market. Some are political and aid rebels or outsiders.
 

Terrorists 
Terrorists or freedom fighters or rebels or resistance, across the human sphere persons unite to slow the commonwealth from its planned hegemony. Some accuse them of serving secret enemies of commonwealth and brand them traitors to human kind. Terrorist attacks, suicide bobers, ramming starships, explosives and sabotage are their means. Some systems may be keen to join the commonwealth but a faction may disagree and build their own defence program and promote war. Terrorists also deal with pirates and criminals and may mass produce systematic troops and weapons for an action. Some just want independence but fanatics preach death to terra and the commonwealth hegemony and will do anything. 

Psions
Psions are emergent since the human gene pool was contaminated after the Jupiter Indecent. Some colonies have higher incidence and have specialists. Many have been hunted in diferent times and places and many formed sects. While the commonwea;th is happy to emply and prvide them with purpose, many are hidden in the colonies and may have developed anti social characteristics. Whole crews of ship have turned Psion from overspace FTL incidents. Entities and anomalies have turned ship crews into hostiles. Some psions feel persecuted and downtrodden and vindictive. Others feel superior and work in secret together to rule their less evolved kin.
 

Alien 
Technically aliens include drones and constructs of the ancients which have caused some problems. Could also simply feature remains or ruins that others fight over. As yet no living aliens have been detected with certainty. Just their remains. Some species and terraforming has been noted as of ancient origin. While rival species may exist beyond human space their mechanisations and agents and traps may be felt first. In a beginning campaign this can be used to create a hybrid of two other types by rolling two rogue factions and mixing them.

Episode adventure checklists
every episode has these things happen

Space encounter or battle (often first and last climax)
Fist fight or physical challenge or obstacle
New gadget or ship or weapon – for heroes or for enemy
Ray gun fired no matter what, solve one problem with a blaster
Explosion
Philosophical dilemma – ponder or debate some issue for a moment
Kiss – a romance subplot or flirt or wacky awkward moment

every story unfolds thus
Intro action sequence for each character may or may not connect to plot
Mission given
Identify Task
Problem or Hazard with task
Overcome obstacle
Complication
Climax
Wrap up and lame gag


In an old BRP version of this set a few hundred years later I had a more cartoon version of this list. It included Bonzo the space chimp doing something ridiculous or enacting some ape pun. It was silly but fun way to end a game.

Q: Why is Corporal Bonzo running around with bacon and eggs on his head?
A: He wants to be a griller
Colonial Tech vs Commonwealth Tech

I have documented spaceships, weapons, basic hardware. A few points I thought worth adding to include auto-factories, more on anti gravity and AI's.

Each colony was dropped out of overspace at 5% the speed of light on the outer edge of a solar system as a colossal pod. While the colony ship moved to the next viable system to empty its racks, the pod decelerated to the inner system and attempted to establish a colony. Some lived hard and had to adapt to hostile worlds or settled for some large moons. Many found a viable planet and a few found garden worlds and first evidence of the ancients.

Each pod is possible would enter the planetary atmosphere and descend to an isolated place where a minimal environmental impact will be felt. Some pods broke into smaller pods. Each pod had a huge modular factory complex. Some colonies relocated specialized components like atmospheric processors at a planetary pole. The AI and leaders of the colony would determine the best settlement plan and unpack the components into the modules needed.
 

Primary Autofactory Modules
Atmospheric processing module - 30+3d100 years terraformer
Mineral processing module – produces raw building matter
Biological processing module – produces and refines biomatter from raw chemicals if needed
Energy plant module - produces power
Manufacturing plant module – builds non violent tools, equipment and vehicles
 

Secondary Autofactory Modules
Habit construction module – builds habitats for colonists
Clone factory module – grows colonists or replicants or animen
Cybernetics module – produces robots, AI expansions, computers, electronics, cyborgs
Agro-dome module – produces food and raw biomass, clone animals and plants
Life support module – recycles human and industrial products in colony, sealed colonies need it
Biomedical module – produces androids, synthetic organs, organic machine components
 

Non-standard
Armoury Module – produces guns, military vehicles
Pleasure-dome Module – recreational area for elites or reducing population growth

The worse the basic planet the more initial modules are built to cope with survival needs. A well off colony or a colony able to make some kind of shortcut (like slavery) will develop more advanced modules. Some landings or wars may destroy modules and lose a form of tech. Some colonists hack the AI and build weapons and pleasure domes for their leaders. A pleasure-dome can keep a small population stable for longer but those not ready abuse them. Low tech firearms can be built by a autofac tricked into building parts by a clever engineer. Can create slug and jet weapons like this.

Micro-factories are portable like a backpack or case that manufactures ammo from recycled captured ammo and configures specific ammo types for targets. A case that allows a surgeon to operate on himself. A box that processes food plants and animals into meals. A case that tools ammo and loads magazines. Micro factories of this quality are rare. Templates are data-files which make a specific thing in a auto factory. The Commonwealth offers new tech and arms templates for colonies supporting them.

Each colony had an AI or several but some killed their AIs or crippled them to break colonial protocol. AIs were intended to offer a continuum of leadership and guide the colony to maximum ethical productivity just like on Earth. They are intended to run colonies as fairly as possible. Some colonies were made up by the last extreme sects, nations and creeds from before the stellar era and the apocalypse. So it is little wonder they broke colonial protocols. Others simply had charismatic revolts or cults or slaves take over.

AIs dwell in huge concrete ziggurats with miles of shaft going into the planet and the various colony modules. Programmers, colony leaders and representatives meet on the surface. Small portable AIs sit on councils or act as ship control systems, or manage facilities like universities or recycle plants. Some are carried by a drone or droid or other artificial as a carry case or artwork or enen in a drone chest panel. Sensible AIs back themselves up often. A commonwealth gunboat will natter to a colony AI for days if you let them. A colony AI even if occupies several square miles will be dumber than a modern Earth one, but will know its own systems well. Some AIs have resisted software upgrades.

Anti gravity is a by product of shielding used to prevent madness in overspace. Commonwealth use it to replace wheels, tracks, hoverfans, vectored thrust, GEV and many earlier vehichles. Only good for skimming surface or slowing falls or assisting flying craft reaching escape velocity. All force fields and personal screens are a by product of this tech also. Predictions say a gravitic thruster drive will be developed, along with micro jumps, gates, hyperspacial coridoors,

A FTL radio project is underway requiring years of building for the biggest colonies to be linked to Terra and a commonwealth data network via attuned partical radio. Ship versions will be a long way off. Dedicated postal drones are a plan but for now all FTL travel and communications are done by gunboats officially.
 

What does the commonwealth offer?

Assistance to material needs such as food, water, shelter, air
New technology templates and updates for planetary AI network
Repair, update or replace old defective technology
Support local suppression of piracy and armed rebellion
Security advisors provided to assist against colony threats
Mutual defence from commonwealth enemies
Offer mediation and settlement in the event of conflict
Opportunity to meet and communicate with other colonies
Access to the best education and technology
Chance to work for commonwealth unity
Peace, Prosperity and meaningful labour