We can't stop here. This is Drone Country.

This post is one of a series of posts related to the Digital Dark Age, my space opera blogging project. It uses the free version of Stars Without Number as it's game engine, but is designed to be system neutral. You can learn more by searching the Digital Dark Age Index sidebar, or by searching the Labels.

   

Someone called a halt. What? Shit, no. We can't stop here.

Sargent Adrian Kapinski hated this fucking shit hole planet. It wasn’t that Cygnus was an arid desolate rock. It wasn't the intensity of the heat or the stinging dust that managed to infiltrate every crevice possible. As veteran marine in the Royal Chimeran Navy, the environment was a minor inconvenience. While it unsettled him some to be wandering through the ruins of some extinct alien race, it was what had come out of those ruins that filled him with fear and loathing.

We can't stop here.

The Company had been escorting a team of scientists and archeologists to a specific dig site. Then the first ambush happened. They had lost a lot of good men and women that day. After the second ambush word had started to spread. Drones. They were being stalked and killed by there own fucking drones. An alien virus had somehow penetrated the B-28s firewalls and anti virus programs. Fucking alien viruses.

We can't stop here. This is Drone Country.

Artwork by Ben Mauro

The B-28 “Gorilla” Infantry Combat Drone

The B-28 Gorilla was designed as a scout and infantry drone by the Monolith Technology Corporation. Its gorilla shaped chassis is with a ballistics absorbing armour plating. The armour is coated with an active chameleon camouflage and stealth system making it nearly impossible to see until its too late. The Gorilla sports  retractable crampons that double as combat claws or climbing tools, allowing it climb the face of a sheer rock wall at full speed. The B-28 is armed with a variety of sensors to record and acquire targets. It features a smart CPU, that given time can learn and adapt, as well as administer self healing protocols and repair programs. While weapons can be switched out based on mission requirements, the standard weapon load-out is a gatling bead cannon that fires lithium-deuterium rounds almost frictionlessly and at an extreme velocity, as well as an anti personnel grenade launcher.

B-28 “Gorilla” Infantry Combat Drone Statistics

Armour Class: 6                            No. Appearing: 1-4

Hit Dice: 3                                     Saving Throw: 14

Attack Bonus: +6                          Movement: 30'

Damage: 1d8 claw/claw                 Morale: 12

                2d8 gatling canon

                2d8 grenade launcher  

Note: This post was partially inspired by featured amazing artwork above by Ben Mauro. The name B-28 Gorilla is also credited to him. The statistics are for use with Stars Without Number and have not been play tested. Please feel free to leave your suggestions or comments.

What Space Opera Means To Me

I've been researching books for personal enjoyment, but also to mine ideas for the Digital Dark Age campaign. One thing I've discovered is that the definition of space opera is somewhat subjective. So I figured it might be important going forward to what the term space opera means to me.

When I think of space opera the very first thing that comes into my mind is Star Wars. The Star Wars universe feels huge, anachronistic, futuristic, mystical, ancient, worn, gritty, and epic. It features huge space ships that carry entire armies, space stations that can destroy entire planets, and fleets of small stunt fighters. It has exotic and bizarre aliens that speak a myriad of languages and come from all reaches of known space, yet humans seem to dominate. It has scoundrels packing blasters, next to thugs armed with axes and other primitive weapons. Then there is the Jedi and Sith, two ancient religions that draw on a magical power that seems to be misunderstood by most. Even the nature of the Force is argued between the Jedi Knights. There is good and evil, and the grey in between. There are grand stories of war and political manoeuvring and personal stories or revenge, redemption, and love.

So to sum up what space opera in the Digital Dark Age means to me it's:

1. The science fiction takes a back seat to the fantastic. Faster than light space travel, mystical powers, massive star ships, innumerable alien species that could belong in any D&D setting. Scientific accuracy is ok, but cool ideas take precedence. I guess you could say my definition of space opera would be more like space fantasy.
   
   
2. It's anachronistic. People wear armour and carry swords and laser or slug firing guns. People have plugs in their heads and arms to access the Datasphere. Clothing tends to be a combination of medieval, victorian, and modern. The look might be old, but the materials tends to be futuristic. Monarchies exist, there are noble houses and lords.
   
   
3. Epic and personal stories. The battle between light and dark, good and evil is clear but there also exists the grey area of those that do horrible things for the greater good, fallen heroes, redeemed villains. It's fun to have bad guys that you know are bad and can kill with impunity, but it's also fun to have moral quandaries that need to be dealt with.
   
   
4. Mystery and Exploration. It's a dark and dangerous time in the universe. There are space pirates, hostile star kingdoms and alien races. The universe is old. Both human and alien empires and civilizations have risen and fallen. The birth place of humanity is an ancient memory, some believe Earth is a mythical place not unlike the biblical Garden of Eden. There are planets to explore, new sectors of space to discover, new aliens and creatures to encounter. Mystical powers and cults exist. There are secret societies and organizations with hidden agendas to thwart.
   
   
5. Space Travel. For me space opera is all about space ships and space battles. Every group should have their own spaceship. In many ways the space ship that your characters have will define what kind of campaign you will run. Obviously not every campaign needs to include space travel but I strongly feel like it's part of the genre. The players could be members of the Imperial Navy, smugglers, a squadron of fighter or mecha pilots. Maybe they are part of an organization of intergalactic peace keepers, like the Jedi Knights. Maybe they work for a private traders consortium, are scientist, explorers, or pirates.
   
   

   While I'm not a huge fan of the new trilogy, this was one of those scenes that I thought captured the essence of what space opera is all about.           

The Digital Dark Age Campaign Project

In my absence from the blog I've managed to get a bunch of reading done. These days I tend to be reading science fiction. I've been really enjoying the “Honor Harrington” series by David Weber. Book 5, “Flag in Exile” is the next one on the docket. I killed the first book of Weber's “Safehold” series  “Off Armageddon Reef” and was completely blown away. It was a fun read, that had a great story and well developed characters. Best of all it really made you think about the role of religion and the nature of humanity. In particular its one of those books that provides so many ideas that would be great in a D&D game. I devoured “March Upcountry” an awesome military sci-fi action novel by John Ringo and David Weber.This is the first book in their “Empire of Man” series. John Ringo's “A Hymn Before Battle” was also fucking fantastic. If your looking for military sci-fi you can't go wrong with Ringo.

As a kid I grew up on movies like Star Wars and Aliens and I loved Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Deep Space 9. Wrath of Khan will always be my favourite Star Trek movie even though the new ones are pretty rad. Yet at some point my love of sci-fi was dwarfed with fantasy. I started playing D&D and I lost interest. Recently that's changed and I've had a hard time being all that pumped about fantasy. At the very least I've lost interest in the traditional Tolkien type fantasy. More and more my thoughts turn to aliens, giant spaceships, psychic powers, and galactic empires. For a while now thoughts of a space opera campaign have been percolating in my mind. Something closer to science fantasy, but weighted more towards the science fiction side. I like the idea of nobles wielding laser swords, and mystical orders of psychics. I envision massive starships that travel faster than light through astral space that can only be navigated by guild pilots whose smoke special drugs.

Since my regular gaming has more or less stopped I haven't had much to blog about. For a while now I've been considering some kind of project to get my creative juices flowing. So I've decided that I would like to revamp my Digital Dark Age campaign setting and present it piece by piece on the blog. At this point I'm not sure what kind update schedule I will have, but I would like to shoot for once a week at the very least. So if this is something you find interesting be sure to check back in.

Pathfinder Beginner Box: Session 3

I managed to finally get another game of the Kids Pathfinder Beginners Box in. Hopefully we should be chucking dice again soon. This time I tried something new. The last few times we played it became obvious to me that there was just information overload for the kids. The character sheets just have too much information scattered all over them. This has the effect of causing the game to grind as everyone searches and guesses at what numbers to add. Hell I even found myself looking over the character sheets trying to figure out where the hell something was. As a veteran of 3e I found this particularity frustrating. In fact I think this was part of the reason it took me so long to want to run the game again. This time however I took a bunch of index cards and wrote on the most relevant information on them. I threw out skills and now use ability checks. The most important information for me was Ability modifiers and excluded the actual ability scores. In addition I included attack and damage rolls, saving throws, AC, HP, XP, and initiative scores. I also told the players they only needed a d20 and what ever damage dice they required. This reduced the amount of time searching for the right dice. I also dumped feats and most class based abilities, since most people forgot they had them anyway. I kept, flanking, sneak attack, and charging

The result was that we had a much better session. I couldn’t believe how many encounters we blew through. The index card character sheet worked great. The only thing I think I would change would be damage dice. There was still a certain amount of “Which one do I use? ” that I found frustrating. I think from now on all weapons will use a d6 for damage and the type of weapon heavy or light, will provide a flat bonus to damage. Same thing with AC. It will be either heavy or light. I'm at the point where I find the billions of modifiers and rules exceptions grate on my nerves. I love the core ideas behind the d20 system, just not the excess of minutia of detail that typically comes with it. Honestly if I played with people who knew the rules and enjoyed crunch I would totally go whole hog, but at this point even the Beginner Box is too much for the level that the kids are at to make the game actually enjoyable to play.       

The new character sheets. Each  of the wizard's spells are on a separate card. 

It's a Trap Tuesday! Family Guy Edition

Seeking Tranquility

I've wanted to run an Eberron campaign ever since it was first released so many years ago. The problem was I couldn't think of a way of doing the setting justice. It was obvious that this wasn't just another D&D world like so many others. Eberron had a tone to it that wasn't typical of the pseudo medieval Europe or the swords and sorcery feel of Conan. I was excited by the fresh take on fantasy it offered but daunted by what I was supposed to do with it. Today I think I have a much better idea of how I would run a campaign set here. Perhaps if 5e proves interesting I'll run it one day with that system, if not theres the possibility of Savage Worlds. Anyway below is a possible campaign model that mashes Eberron and Firefly that gets my gaming engine in high gear.



     

Tranquility

An Eberron Dungeons & Dragons Campaign

Tone

Pulp action and adventure

Role of the Heroes

Your characters are all natives of the kingdom of Cyre. Once you fought for your nation and the man beside you during the Last War. Two years ago, on what is known as the Day of Mourning, the still mysterious event that destroyed Cyre in one horrible day signalled the end of a century of war and transformed the once proud kingdom into a dangerous nightmare land known as the Mournlands. Homeless and country less, you and your closest comrades became something more than just brothers in arms, you became family. Today you and your adopted family crew the “Tranquility”, a old Fire Sprite class of cargo airship. The Tranquility represents freedom. Freedom to choose your own path. Freedom from the horrors of the Last War. A chance to do some good. While she is constantly in need of maintenance, you and your crew mates do whatever it takes to keep flying the in the skies of Eberron.   

The Hell's Attic Campaign Model

"Yesterday, here in the middle of the City, I saw a wolf turn into a Russian ex-gymnast and hand over a business card that read YOUR OWN PERSONAL TRANSHUMAN SECURITY WHORE! STERILIZED INNARDS! ACCEPTS ALL CREDIT CARDS to a large man who wore trained attack cancers on his face and possessed seventy-five indentured Komodo Dragons instead of legs. And they had sex. Right in front of me. And six of the Komodo Dragons spat napalm on my new shoes."

-Spider Jerusalem

Summary in Brief

Apocalyptic ultraviolence and survival horror in the far future. In other words Imagine the spawn of the aborted mind fetuses of Lovecraft, Tarantino, Hunter S. Thompson, and William Gibson congealed into a chilled monkey brain dessert served by cannibal werewolf woman of the SS.

Campaign Background

Theres a place in the far future in the Tempest System called Hells Attic. You can check in but you can never check out. Unless its in a body bag, then you could check out at just about any time in this war zone. The PC's take on the role of under world scum trying to survive in a dog eat dog world. Everyone has an angle. There is no law and some times the light burns brightest in the darkest of places.

The Role of the Characters

Who you are: You are the outcasts of a society who no longer needs you. You've been trampled over by a stampede of grotesque dystopian nightmares called progress. Your the product of a of society that has systematically dined on your corpse and then spat your balls out.You are the losers, who can never get or hold down a real job and whose only prospects are having nothing left to lose. Your left with the choice to fade away or burn out in a blaze of glory. The only question thats worth answering is will the Underhive of Prospero swallow you whole, leaving no trace of your existence? Or do you have a plan? A plan to get rich or die trying?

What you do: Anything you have to. A better question would be what don’t you do. Murder for hire ? Sure. Rescue a CEO's daughters from the clutches of drug dealers turned revolutionary? All in a nights work. Hunt down a insane doctor's latest escaped human centipede project. Pfft, please, how about something a little more challenging? Survival is paramount. Everything else is gravy. A good day is the one you don't die. Your a criminal. Well you'd be a criminal if there were cops down here. Theres just the law of the jungle and the survival of the fittest. Between the booze, bullets, and blow you live. You live like tomorrow might never come.

Where you do it: The Mega City of Prospero is a massive relatively clean and pristine city. It is an architects wet dream. It is the city of the future. Skyscrapers defy gravity, clean energy powers the city and the maglev trains run on time. The body looks healthy. But deep below the pristine sheen of glass and the white gloss of synth-marble and perma-crete lies the festering cancer that is Hell's Attic. This sprawling hive city crawls with all manner of people, monsters, assholes, and other undesirable or just plain unidentifiable things. If the metaphysical Hell of religion actually existed then the Attic would be the next closest thing short of actually dying first. In fact I'm pretty sure the Biblical Hell is probably a lot nicer.

When yo do it: Whenever the fuck you want. Welcome to the 26^th century mother fuckers. Party like it's 2513, because it is, in fact that year. Hey maybe your luck will pick up and next year will be better. For the time being shit is pretty well fucked.

Why you do it: For the rush. Because you want your money for nothing and your chicks for free. Because it seemed like a good idea at the time. Because sometimes We're dicks! We're reckless, arrogant, stupid dicks. And the Film Actors Guild are pussies. And Kim Jong Il is an asshole. Pussies don't like dicks, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes: assholes that just want to shit on everything. Pussies may think they can deal with assholes their way. But the only thing that can fuck an asshole is a dick, with some balls. The problem with dicks is: they fuck too much or fuck when it isn't appropriate - and it takes a pussy to show them that. But sometimes, pussies can be so full of shit that they become assholes themselves... because pussies are an inch and half away from ass holes. I don't know much about this crazy, crazy world, but I do know this: If you don't let us fuck this asshole, we're going to have our dicks and pussies all covered in shit!

The 10 Traits of an Hells Attic campaign

1. Everyone has an agenda. Once you figure this out you'll suffer a lot less heartbreaks.
   
2. Theres some fucking weird shit in the Attic. Seriously. Fucking. Weird. Shit.
   
3. Sometimes your enemies are your only friends. Poor you.
   
4. Sometimes the real monsters are human. Sometime the monsters are really nice.
   
5. Never trust a mutant, and defiantly never feed one after midnight. You've been warned.
   
6. Tin foil hats will stop the psychics from reading your thoughts . If you believe this your really fucked.
   
7. Always have a plan B and a roll of duct tape. Plan B being bullets. Theres very little bullets and duct tape cant fix.
   
8. Information is power. Always check your sources, then check em again.
   
9. Never join a cult. Well join a cult if you want. Just don't be surprised when you find yourself tied up and on the receiving end of a strap-on conga line.
   
10. When in doubt get a really big gun that holds a lot of bullets. Preferably silver bullets.

Special thanks to Noisms at his Monsters and Manuals blog for this post that motivated me amongst others of his on CP2020 to write write this post. Thanks man, love your blog, you rock! As Happy Harry Hard On says Stay Hard everyone.