Fifth Age Core

Truck (Cargo) Truck (Super Duty Plus

Medium Vehicle, Open, Ground Package)
Used to carry cargo
Medium Vehicle, Open, Ground
Crew Stations: Tricked out

Pilot: Operates vehicle Crew Stations:
• Action: Dash (vehicle moves again)
• Action: Dodge: Perform a dexterity Pilot: Operates vehicle
(atmospheric vehicles) check, treat the • Action: Dash (vehicle moves again)
vehicle’s AC as the result of this check • Action: Dodge: Perform a dexterity
against the next attack it would receive. (atmospheric vehicles) check, treat the
• Movement (move vehicle using its speed as if vehicle’s AC as the result of this check
the character were moving) against the next attack it would receive.
• Movement (move vehicle using its speed as if
Consumables the character were moving)
• Fuel: Rechargeable battery pack that powers
the vehicle for 500 miles with a 3 hour Gunner: Operates primary weapon systems
recharge. • Action: Gatling Gauss: Designate an area
2x2 squares, all targets must make a DC 15
dexterity saving throw or take 3d8 ballistic
damage.

Consumables
• Fuel: Rechargeable battery pack that powers
the vehicle for 500 miles with a 3 hour
recharge.
• Gatling Gauss Ammunition: 720 rds., this
weapon may be fired 72 times before
recharging which takes 5 minutes per attack.

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Chapter 9: Special
Equipment

The many companies of sol produce a staggering
array of new designs and theories every year, leading
to labyrinthine routes from research to retail, and
many fantastic technologies simply falling through the
cracks and end up being lost during mergers, buyouts,
or shifting politics. The items in this chapter are
gifted to characters by eccentric scientists, grateful
aliens, inscrutable government agents and corporate
sponsorships. These items are moly-locked, a type of
Physical Rights Management, and practically
impossible to scan and duplicate, essentially being
one of a kind.

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Modifications as their modifications are by DM fiat as rewards
during play. Player characters might seek out specific
modifications, and might even be rewarded in these
efforts, depending on the DM.

Given the nature of these modifications to change,
perhaps dramatically, the balance of combat in the
game, they are enabled under DM fiat by default. An
alternative system is also introduced, allowing
modified weapons and armor, and mods to be
purchased as if they were any other type of

Modifications add new capabilities to weapons and Optional Rule: Predictable Mods
armor, or enhance its base statistics. These
modifications must either be constructed by a master Modifications are powerful, and serve as an
engineer with an intimate knowledge of the device in excellent outlet for accumulated wealth of player
question, or provided by the company producing the characters. As such, restricting them to narrative
item. Modified items not approved by the company devices and having them doled out only by DM
that originally manufactured it are illegal, and might fiat can restrict gameplay. Using this rule, Mods
run afoul of PRM (physical rights management) are available for purchase on the open market as
features, causing grievous risk of bodily harm. if they were any normal item, scaling with level.
Modifications are most often produced by government
institutions, or issued as limited edition collector’s When the highest character level in the group is
items at hideous premiums. 3rd, MK I mods are easily found and available on
the market, at 6th level MK II mods are available
Modifications can be transferred between weapons and at 9th MK III mods can be found for sale.
and armors of the same type, allowing a character to
keep a variety of specialized mods that can be equipment. While this allows more precise choices in
changed out before going into the field, allowing them capabilities of player characters and increases a sense
to create specific loadouts and capabilities for a of player agency, it also removes much of the
variety of missions and adventures. It is intentional “specialness” of mods being used as rewards. As
that these modifications are not locked to a specific such, to feel special, it might be required to hand out
character and can be sold or traded amongst a group higher tier mods a level or two earlier than their
of player characters, or even held in common to be access is normally allowed. This is very much a DM
distributed as needs dictate, as they see fit. A ship’s issue, and should be able to be handled as such.
armory might hold a certain number and type of Following is the table for this alternative system of
modifications that grows as they gain levels and commoditized modifications.
access to new technologies.
Modifying a weapon or
These rules assume that the primary method of Armor
distribution for modified weapons and armor, as well
A basic version of a weapon cannot have a mod
applied to it, a special Modified version of that weapon
must be found, or bought. Modified items come in
three grades, or tiers, hereafter referred to as MK I,
MK II and MK III. A weapon or armor can have a
number of modifications equal to its tier. Unmodified
basic weapons, MK 0, cannot have an upgrade applied
to them.

Modifications come in varieties for specific weapons
when found, bought, issued, stolen or gifted, and
require a DC 15 Intelligence (Engineering or Repair
Kit) check to install or remove in the field, in a process

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taking at least an hour. Increase this DC by 5 for each not have to reload as often. (FOF limiter, Enhanced

subsequent mod applied to the weapon or armor in Output, and Expanded Magazine mods). Since the

question. A failed check results in the destruction of character has access to the mods from the ship’s

the mod being applied. armory, they begin the process of applying them,

making a DC 15, 20 and finally a risky DC 25

For example, a character has a MK III Gauss Rifle, Intelligence (Engineering) check to apply them. The

and is preparing for a mission to extract hostages player luckily makes his rolls successfully, and with

from a hijacked freighter. The player decides they three hours of in game time, modifies their rifle

want to have the ability to avoid friendly fire in tight accordingly.

spaces, but need plenty of punch to overcome the

pirates body armor, and some extra ammo capacity, to

Weapon Name Base Cost MK I Cost MK II Cost MK III Cost

Archaic Weapon €10 €50 N/A N/A

Laser Pistol €150 €750 €1,500 €3,000

Holdout Laser Pistol €200 €1,000 €2,000 €4,000

Laser Rifle €250 €1,250 €2,500 €5,000

Blaster Pistol €250 €1,250 €2,500 €5,000

Blaster Rifle €500 €2,500 €5,000 €10,000

Stun Pistol €100 €500 €1,000 €2,000

Stun Rifle €200 €1,000 €2,000 €4,000

Stun Baton €70 €350 €700 €1,400

Combat Knife €10 €50 €100 €200

Gauss Pistol €750 €3,750 €7,500 €15,000

Gauss Rifle €1,250 €6,250 €12,500 €25,000

Mass Driver €1,500 €7,500 €15,000 €30,000

Shredder €1,200 €6,000 €12,000 €24,000

Power Axe €100 €500 €1,000 €2,000

Anti-Armor Rifle €3,000 €15,000 €30,000 €60,000

Flamer €1,250 €6,250 €12,500 €25,000

Gatling Laser €1,000 €5,000 €10,000 €20,000

Rocket Launcher €1,750 €8,750 €17,500 €35,000

Power Sledge €350 €1,750 €3,500 €7,000

Weapon Mod Cost equals the base cost of the item the mod is designed for

If Purchased, as represented on the table, a MK I Requirement: Any Weapon
modified weapon costs five times the weapon’s base This weapon is outfitted with special equipment to
price, a MK II costs ten times, and a MK III costs enable its use by anyone, anyone is considered
twenty times. Mods cost an amout of credits equal to proficient in its use.
the base cost of the item they are designed to modify.
Thus, for the princely sum of 23 times the base price Efficient Burst
of an item (20 times for a MK III version of the item, Requirement: Weapon with the Burstfire trait
and once again for each of three mods) you have a Weapon uses 3 less rounds when firing a burst. (For
fully modified MK III item, representative of buying a total of 7 pieces of ammunition). A weapon can only
the most expensive or finest version of an item on the have one mod of this type.
market.
Expanded Magazine
Weapon Modifications Requirement: Weapon with the Ammunition trait
Expand the ammunition capacity of this weapon by an
Armor Piercing Rounds amount equal to its base ammunition capacity.
Requirement: Gauss Rifle, Gauss Pistol, Mass Driver,
Anti-Armor Rifle Enhanced Output
When this weapon deals damage to a target with Requirement: Weapon
Armor HP the damage dealt by the attack is dealt both Increase the damage dealt by this weapon by 1
to the target’s normal as well as armor HP. damage of the type dealt for every weapon damage
die.
Ease of Use Module

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FOF Limiter Terminator Rounds
Requirement: Weapon with the Burstfire Trait Requirement: Stun Weapon
This smartgun is capable of limiting its fire to avoid The capacitor darts of this weapon have been
friendly targets. When you make a burstfire attack, modified to bypass the EMP protections of most
exclude any squares that contain friendly creatures. synthetics. A synthetic or robot hit by an attack from
this weapon must succeed at a DC 13 Constitution
Heat Gun save, or become vulnerable to the Electric damage
Requirement: Laser weapon dealt by the attack.
You can switch this weapon into Heat mode. While in
heat mode, attacks made by this weapon gain Variable Tanks
advantage (and saving throws made against its Requirement: Flamer
burstfire attacks gain disadvantage), but deal one less This flamer has been modified to dispense other
die of damage, and deal Fire instead of Laser damage. substances from its tanks. This weapon no longer
sets targets on fire except when using normal flame
Increased Accuracy fuel. When loading this weapon, you can use one of
Requirement: Weapon the following fuels:
Attacks made with this weapon have a +1 bonus to hit.
• Cryogenics: Deals cold damage, on a failed
Irradiated Rounds save, slow target by 10 feet of movement for
Requirement: Weapon that deals ballistic damage three rounds.
with the Burstfire trait
When you use the Burstfire trait of this weapon, • Corrosives: Deals Acid Damage, on a failed
increase the damage dealt by 1d8 Radiation damage. save decrease the target’s AC by 1 (up to one
If you use the burstfire Bonus action to increase the time) until their armor is repaired with a DC
damage output of a single attack, increase that 15 repair check.
attack’s damage by 3 Radiation damage. A weapon
can only have one mod of this type. • Toxins: Deals Poison damage, on a failed
save target gains the poisoned condition for
Rapid Pulse Cycler 1 minute.
Requirement: Blaster weapon
This weapon scores critical hits on a roll of 19 or 20 • Adhesive: This attack does not deal damage,
(18-20 for marines) and adds an additional die of but on a failed save the target gains the
weapon damage to the total damage dealt by a critical Grappled condition until they make a DC 15
hit. A weapon can only have one mod of this type. strength check.

Scattergun
Requirement: Weapon with the Burstfire trait
Once per round, when this weapon is used to make an
attack against a single target, the attacker can make
an additional attack against an adjacent legal target.
A weapon can only have one mod of this type.

Short Barrel
Requirement: Ranged Weapon
Reduce the short and long range of this weapon by
one half. This weapon does not suffer disadvantage
when used to attack an adjacent target. Attacks
against adjacent targets gain advantage.

Special Sighting
Requirement: Ranged Weapon
Increase the normal range of your ranged weapons by
an amount equal to their base normal range. (A 30/90
weapon becomes a 60/90 weapon with this mod.)

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Armor Base Cost MK I Cost MK II Cost MK III Cost
Skinsuit
Armored Skinsuit €100 €500 €1,000 €2,000
Riot Gear
Riot Shield €250 €1,250 €2,500 €5,000
Archaic Armor or Shields
Low Profile Battle Suit €500 €2,500 €5,000 €10,000
Battle Plate
Exo-Suit €250 €1,250 €2,500 €5,000
Assault Shield
Armor Mod €20 €100 N/A N/A

€1,500 €7,500 €15,000 €30,000

€2,500 €12,500 €25,000 €50,000

€4,000 €20,000 €40,000 €80,000

€1,000 €5,000 €10,000 €20,000

Armor mod cost is equal to the base cost of the item it is designed for.

Armor Modifications

Armor modifications cannot be applied to the same Radiation Shielding
suit of armor more than once unless otherwise Requirement: Any Vacuum Safe armor.
specified in their description. This armor confers resistance to radiation damage to
the wearer.
Ablative Plating
Requirement: Armor Reflective Coating
Whenever the wearer of this armor is dealt ballistic Requirement: Armor
damage, reduce that damage by 2 if the armor is light Whenever the wearer of this armor is dealt laser
or archaic, 4 if the armor is medium, or 6 if the armor damage, reduce that damage by 2 if the armor is light
is heavy. or archaic, 4 if the armor is medium, or 6 if the armor
is heavy.
Active Camouflage
Requirement: Light or Medium Armor Reflex Assist
This armor grants the wearer advantage on stealth Requirement: Assault Shield, Riot Shield
checks made to hide. As an action, the wearer of this When an attack roll would be made against the
armor becomes invisible to most methods of detection wielder of this item, they may use a reaction to confer
as long as they remain completely still. This ability disadvantage onto the roll.
can be used to up three times before the wearer takes
a short or long rest. Regenerative Armor
Requirement: Armor
Bulwark Expansion This armor possesses a pool of Armor HP (5 for light,
Requirement: Assault Shield, Riot Shield 10 for medium, and 20 for heavy) that are lost first
As a bonus action, a friendly character adjacent to the whenever this character would take HP damage.
wielder gains +1 AC until the beginning of the w Restore 5 of this HP whenever the character takes a
short rest and all of it on a long rest. Treat all damage
Dampening dealt to this Armor HP as if the wearer has resistance
Requirement: Skinsuit, Armored Skinsuit to damage.
Wearing this armor grants resistance to electric
damage. Reinforced Shield
Requirement: Assault Shield, Riot Shield
Ease of Use Mod The wielder of this shield may, as a bonus action, gain
Requirement: Any Armor ½ cover (hard) against attacks coming from one
A character wearing this armor is considered to be vector until the beginning of their next round. (180
proficient in its use. degrees, or the nearest equivalent.

Exoskeleton Riot Armor
Requirement: Medium or Heavy Armor Requirement: Body Armor
This armor offers the wearer a +2 bonus to their The wearer of this armor gains resistance to
strength score while worn. bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.

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Sensor Upgrades heavy armor with this mod does not reduce the
Requirement: Armor wearer’s movement speed. If this armor has a
A character wearing this armor gains advantage on all strength requirement, reduce it by 2.
perception checks, cannot be blinded or deafened and
gains a +2 bonus to initiative checks.

Sloped Armor
Requirement: Armor or Shield
This armor grants +1 AC while worn. This
modification can be applied up to twice on heavy
armors.

Spacewalker
Requirement: Armor
This armor is equipped with a gas reservoir and
numerous maneuvering jets that allow a character to
move at their full normal speed within low gravity
airless environments. A character gains advantage on
all acrobatics and athletics checks made in such
environments.

Spiked Armor
Requirement: Archaic Armor
The wearer of this armor can, as a bonus action, make
a melee weapon attack that deals 1d4 plus the
wearer’s strength bonus piercing damage.

Speed Suit
Requirement: Low Profile Battle Suit
Using patented Reflex Assist™ technology, the wearer
of this suit receives a +1 bonus on all dexterity saving
throws, Acrobatics and Stealth skill checks. When
subjected to a critical hit, as a reaction, the wearer can
make a DC 15 dexterity saving throw to reduce the
attack to a normal hit instead.

Temperature Controlled
Requirement: Armor
The wearer of this armor gains resistance to Fire and
Cold damage.

Trauma Monitoring
Requirement: Armor
When the living, biological wearer of this armor is
reduced to 0 hit points, it releases a massive burst of
drugs into the users systems, causing them to instead
be reduced to 1 hit point. This ability cannot be used
again until the character has taken a short or long
rest.

Ultralight materials
Requirement: Armor
This armor does not confer a penalty to stealth checks
if it otherwise would. A light armor with this
modification is undetectable by most means of
detection while set to a passive mode. A medium or

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Prototypes a critical hit deals an additional 14 damage and at
DM’s discretion might sever a limb from the target.
Prototypes are produced to prove a concept and work
out the bugs of a device before it goes into regular Cybernetic Subprocessor
production. They might be experimental, unstable, or Prototype, Rare (Requires surgical implantation)
just use unproven and hideously expensive This item serves as an onboard computer interfaced
manufacturing processes. Whatever the case, these directly with a character’s brain, greatly increasing
items are rarely if ever sold on the open market, recall and reasoning capabilities, setting their
though there are some circles of collectors known to intelligence to 19 regardless of whether it was higher
traffic in such goods. or lower before.

Some items will only function for a single owner Genetic Enhancement (Constitution)
identified by the device itself. Usually such items can Prototype, Very Rare
be reset to accept a new owner, but this is a lengthy This cryogenically frozen vial contains a specially
process, requiring at least a short rest and a bridge coded retrovirus that will alter a human, making them
connector or paper clip, a process called Attunement. tougher and more resilient. The character who uses
I’m sure the guys back at the lab wouldn’t be happy, this receives a permanent +2 bonus to their
but as long as there’s a dev mode, we can use it. constitution, and has their maximum constitution
raised by 2.
Prototype items can be almost anything a DM wants
to imagine, and can easily duplicate effects of magic Jet Belt
items from the DMG, in fact these limitations on Prototype, Uncommon (Requires attunement)
attunement and rarity can be quite useful in gauging This device contains enough fuel to enable its wearer
power levels. Something to keep in mind is that fancy to briefly fly. A character can, as an action, gain fly
gadgets require maintenance, charging and care, speed 50 for up to ten rounds per day. Each round
these were never production models mind you. consumed costs 5 credits to refill, fuel of this grade is
really out there.
Cybernetic prototypes require surgical implantation, a
DC 15 medicine check and 1d6 hours with access to a Lazarus Device
surgical suite. Prototype, Rare
This device appears to be a man sized tank capable of
Example Prototype Items holding a single human character. When the body of
a character who died within the last 24 hours is
Artificial Immune System
Prototype, Rare (Requires surgical implantation)
This device is typically implanted in a subject’s
abdomen where it nestles amongst the intestines,
where it controls a multitude of tiny robots throughout
the body, protecting the wearer from a variety of
ailments. A creature with this implant is immune to
disease and poison and whenever they roll less than 5
when spending a hit die for healing, they can instead
treat that roll as if it were a 5.

Chainsword
Prototype, Rare (Requires attunement)
Looking like nothing quite so much as the bastard son
of a claymore and a chainsaw, this weapon exchanges
all sense and reason for sheer intimidation and
brutality. With a “blade” composed of thousands of
spinning “teeth”, this device can rend through a target
in a most gory and visceral manner.

This weapon attacks as a one handed melee weapon
dealing 3d6 slashing damage (Versatile, 4d6), and on

108

placed within the device, over the next 24 hours they Wisdom (Insight) check DC 20 to understand any
are restored to life. The machine cannot regrow alien language spoken to at least some extent.
limbs, but can reattach them if they are provided.
After a single use, the machine goes into terminal Visual Enhancements
shutdown and slags itself irrevocably. Prototype, uncommon (requires attunement)
This prototype consists of a sensor suite that confers
A character revived by the machine rolls a d6 twice for Infrared sight characteristics to the user, essentially
his Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma scores, adding granting them sight in the dark to a range of 120 feet.
the value of the first die to the ability score, and Additional heat sensors allows a character to see
subtracting the second from it. A character might through walls and spot living targets in a limited
experience mood swings, traumatic nightmares, fashion, depending on their heat signature.
delusions and personality shifts.

Magnetic Deflection Belt
Prototype, Rare (Requires Attunement)
This devices generates a reactive magnetic field good
for deflecting shrapnel and bullets. If you fail a
dexterity save to avoid ballistic damage from burstfire,
grenades or explosives, you can use your reaction to
instead make that save. It can be used up to three
times before needing to be recharged for at least 2
hours per time it was used.

Raz-0B Automatic Fire Support Rifle
Prototype, Rare (Requires attunement)
Designed to offer fire suppression options at long
range, this unusual weapon combines many attributes
of an automatic gauss rifle and mass driver sniper
rifle, combined into one terrifying package.

Treat this weapon as a Mass Driver with an
ammunition capacity of 30, and the Burstfire trait.

Spider Boots
Prototype, uncommon (requires attunement)
These boots allow a wearer to walk across most
vertical surfaces, granting a character a climbing
speed equal to their move speed, and allowing them to
even stand on a ceiling in up to 2 gravities.

Targeting Adjunct
Prototype, common (requires attunement)
This targeting computer interfaces with all of a user’s
weapons systems, as well as their visual systems,
offering the user advanced options in weapons
targeting. As an action, this character gains
advantage on their next attack roll.

Universal Translator
Prototype, Uncommon (Requires attunement)
This device looks like a headset, projecting a retinal
display for the wearer, and is programmed with every
conceivable translation and language analysis
program available to hopefully be able to translate any
alien language into English. The wearer can make a

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Powered Armor

Powered Armor Armor Strength Defense Properties
HP Rating 14 + Dex
Fly Speed 50, Dex Save Bonus
Firefly 50 17 +1 Attack Rolls, +2 Damage per weapon
damage die
Striker 100 21 18 + Dex (Max of 2) Extra Attack

Juggernaut 150 25 22

Powered armor is a game changing item and should

be handled with great care and much discretion. This

is not simply a neat prototype item, or an inevitable

armor upgrade, seriously consider how and when

characters might gain access to powered armor.

Powered Armor is the natural evolution of military
grade exosuits, granting the benefits of a heavy
armored platform but small enough to navigate the
corridors of most stations and starships while
carrying heavy weapons and protecting the wearer
from a variety of hazards.

Powered armor carries itself, and does not contribute
to encumbrance, but while powered down has a
weight ranging from 250 lbs. for Firefly and 500 lbs.
for Striker, up to a whopping 1,500 lbs. for Juggernaut
armor.

A trait that all powered armor variants have in Firefly
common is that they possess a pool of Armor HP all of
their own that are depleted before the wearer takes Light Powered Armor (Requires attunement)
any damage. (Temporary HP are lost before Armor This armored suit is designed for maximum mobility,
HP). As long as a character has armor hp remaining, granting the wearer a flight speed of 50 and allows the
they have resistance to damage against all damage user to wield any normal small arms they would
applied to the armor hp. When a suit’s Armor HP are otherwise be able to carry. It costs 100 credits to
depleted, it gains the “Damaged” condition, and it no refuel this suit after it has flown a maximum of 2
longer provides its special bonuses or capabilities, just hours.
providing its listed armor class. Damaged powered
armor has a strength requirement of 13 for Light, 15 While wearing firefly armor, a character’s minimum
for Medium and 17 for heavy powered armors, and if armor class is 17, and they calculate their AC as
this requirement is not met, the wearer has their 14+Dexterity bonus. (Thus a character with 19
movement speed reduced by one half, and has dexterity would have an AC of 18, while a character
disadvantage on all attack rolls, saving throws and with 8 Dexterity would still have an AC of 17). A
ability checks while wearing it. wearer’s Strength is augmented to a minimum of 17
while wearing this suit.
Repairing powered armor is a costly process,
requiring a DC 15 Repair Kit check and an hour’s A character wearing firefly armor adds their
labor to repair 1d8 + the repairer’s Intelligence bonus proficiency bonus to any Dexterity saving throws they
in Armor HP, which also removes the “Damaged” attempt. If a character wearing this armor would
condition. With a successful repair check, any succeed at a dexterity save to take only half damage
number of additional hours may be spent making from an attack (such as a grenade or flamer) they take
repairs to restore an additional 1d8 armor hp per hour no damage from that attack instead.
spent. (Note that multiple characters may combine
their efforts, repairing the same suit of armor at the
same time). For each armor hp repaired, €5 worth of
parts and materials are consumed.

110

A number of times per turn equal to its wearer’s
proficiency bonus, when a character wearing this suit
would be hit, they may make a Dexterity Saving throw
with a DC equal to the roll of the attack, and if
successful, that attack is considered to miss.

Striker

Medium Powered Armor (Requires attunement)
Striker armor offers its wearer access to a host of
advanced targeting systems that optimize the
performance of all wielded weapons, allowing the
wearer to add +1 to all attack rolls, and +2 to weapon
damage for each weapon damage die rolled (a 3d6
weapon deals 3d6+6 as its base damage).

While wearing Striker armor, a character’s minimum
armor class is 19, and they calculate their AC as
18+Dexterity bonus (with a maximum of 2). A
wearer’s Strength is augmented to a minimum of 21
while wearing this suit.

Juggernaut

Heavy Powered Armor (Requires attunement)
Juggernaut armor is the heaviest personal combat suit
that can still be considered worn and not piloted,
offering the wearer substantial defenses and thick
armor plating.

This suit can incorporate up to two heavy weapons
systems, and while they are attuned, a wearer can
intermix attacks from these weapons systems and any
weapon wielded normally as they choose during their
turn. Once per round when a character wearing this
armor takes the attack action, they can make an
additional attack with an integrated weapon system.
This ability works along with extra attack.

While wearing Juggernaut armor, a character’s armor
class is 22. A wearer’s Strength is augmented to a
minimum of 25 while wearing this suit.

111

Relics

Relics are items of particular note or legend, being
literally one of a kind. Some are notorious prototypes
modified beyond reason and lost, others are precursor
relics that seem more magic than science.
Regardless, the value of one of these items is beyond
estimation, and to find one is to immediately make a
name for oneself, and also to become a target for the
envious.

The BFG
Relic (Requires attunement)
The Billings Firearms Group is rumored to have only
built one of these guns and the prototype was sent to
the fringe with a hot shot maverick space captain who
was never heard from again. Designed to be a man
portable stable particle beam weapon safe in
planetary environments, it was the grail of the arms
community, and disappointed gun nuts everywhere
when the line was discontinued after the design
proved untenable. But not even the cancer riddled
corpses of all those lab chimps could keep you away
from this weapon of legend if you found it.

The BFG is a heavy weapon with a range of 120/360
with a capacity of 5 shots that deals 3d8 ballistic
damage and 3d8 radiation damage per attack that
hits, and 2d8 radiation damage on an attack that
misses. Each time it is fired, the user must make a
constitution save DC 10 plus the number of shots
fired in the last ten minutes or take 2d8 radiation
damage.

Phase Inverter
Relic (Requires attunement)
There is a myth that a species close to galactic center
mastered dimensional travel, eventually leaving our
own reality and ascending, or some such superstitious
alien nonsense. However, all the stories of the phase
inverter seem to be the same from species to species,
and if it could be found would be an incredible prize.

According to the tales the device allows the wearer to
flicker in and out of our dimension and the dimension
that lies on the other side of hyperspace, never
appearing quite where you are supposed to be,
resulting in all attacks against you having
disadvantage.

112

G.E.M.I, The Genetically Engineered Microbial 1 - Jimmy-Joe – Weapons tech and personal body
Intelligence (Jimmy) guard. Extremely protective of those who activate his
Relic tank, and willing to do violence, though he always
Produced by a controversial Old Sol company, the apologizes profusely while doing it.
G.E.M.I. was intended to replace human life risked in
dangerous situations, creating a fearless, flawless, 2 - Jimmy-Jack – Comp tech and general know it all,
enthusiastic way to perform the most dangerous or this Jimmy can at least remember the first paragraph
least desirable jobs everywhere. Unfortunately, of the hyperwiki article about almost anything. Quick
production issues, protests, and in the end LSN to agree with humans, even when he knows they are
regulations killed the project. Unbeknownst to many wrong, he will blithely make excuses for why and how
though, several G.E.M.I. units made it into trial he is mistaken, while attempting to lead them back to
positions on deep space ships. While only two have his version of the facts.
been retrieved, this leaves four more out there,
somewhere. 3 - Jimmy-John – A genuine field surgeon, this Jimmy
is the first to offer aid or compassion. Strict follower
The device stores the makeup and blueprint of a of his Hippocratic oath, this Jimmy is a hard line
humanlike biomorphic entity composed of microbial pacifist and will not do harm to any living thing, unless
cells held together in a plasmid gel matrix, looking you can convince him it counts as a disease dangerous
very human like, and able to behave almost perfectly to humans.
as an actual person. When desired, this Jimmy Prime
stored in the tank is stimulated with direct current, 4 - Jimmy-James - Quiet and down to earth, this Jimmy
inducing mitosis, producing a nearly flawless copy, is an excellent mechanic, and given the manual can
complete with programmed memory and aptitudes. repair almost anything before he turns to goo. Handy
Cheerful, enthusiastic, and with absolutely no sense of with a wrench, this jimmy will avoid a fight if possible,
self preservation, the unit will perform any orders but isn’t afraid to lay in to a brawl.
issued by a human, within the constraints of three
laws programming. 5 - Jimmy-Jake – Knowledgeable of law and skilled at
diplomacy, this fresh faced and eager Jimmy wants
After a period of approximately 24 hours of operation, nothing more than to open the lines of
the spawn unit will desire to return to his tank, and if communications between people, and deal with
successful can dump useful information into the misunderstandings. Disturbingly honest, and lacking
primary matrix, growing and learning over time, an off switch this jimmy can be dangerous if he knows
becoming a more useful tool. If impossible, or if the too much, and is best kept in the dark on any shady
spawn is destroyed prematurely, it dissolves into a dealings.
thick viscous pink slime, and all information
possessed by the individual is lost. G.E.M.I. tanks are 6 - Jimmy-Bobby – There is something seriously
designed to only have one unit in operation at a time, wrong with this jimmy. Alternating moods go from
though When a G.E.M.I. is discovered, roll a d6 to super excited and amped up to depressed and
determine which of the six it is. moping, this jimmy is a general laborer with no
specialty and will glumly do what he is told unless you
can find a way to spin it as important and exciting
work. At least until he figures it out and is back to the
dumps.

113

Light-Blade
Relic
The dream of many weapons developers since before
man’s ascent to the stars, the dream of a blade made
of pure energy continues to tantalize eccentric
scientists to this day. But it just doesn’t work. You
can’t have a sword made of plasma, or lasers, or
whatever your fantasy was. Now, that aside, the Light-
Blade was designed to offer the illusion of a glowing
sword that can cut through anything. Composed of a
swarm of ravenous nano-machines, each with its own
luminosity, this weapon can virtually ignore armor of
the target. If it didn’t have the production costs of a
small starship, requiring exotic matter and technology
pilfered from the Singularity (which does NOT make
them happy), you might see this weapon deployed
anywhere, ever. But as it stands, only a few early
models were ever produced, and they are jealously
kept by collectors, and only a crazy person would
carry such a rare and expensive work of technological
art into combat and risk its loss.

Treat the Light-Blade as a one handed melee weapon
that deals 3d6 Nanite Damage and ignores the armor
bonus of a target. It has the versatile trait, and while
wielded with two hands deals 4d6 damage.

Handy-Syst Utility Frame
Relic
This device connects to the user’s brain with a neural
interface, allowing the user to control a pair of
additional arms that can be used for a variety of tasks.
It was discontinued after the initial test group of users
suffered from a form of neurological disorder dubbed
“Psychotech Fixation” by some wit in the research
department, causing hyper-stimulation of the parietal
lobe, and leading to a delusional fascination involving
body modification and cybernetic augmentation. The
project was cancelled when the three test subjects
using the device forced the experimental surgeons to
replace large parts of their anatomy with prosthetics
and cybernetic implants, then fled to “worship the god
of machines.”

Each round of combat, a character with this device
may perform either one additional Bonus action or a
Reaction. Any action performed must be performed
with an item held by the arm, if it is appropriate (such
as using a medkit, sprayskin, firing with a weapon).

Further, a character attuned to this device effectively
has an extra hand, and can wield a two handed
weapon as well as a one handed weapon or shield.
(This allows a character to effectively use two-weapon
fighting with a two handed and a one handed
weapon.)

114

Personal Defense Field
Relic
Salvaged from a floating derelict that tests to be
somewhere between a eighty thousand and a quarter
of a million years old, the fact that any components
were still functioning are a testimony to the
advancement of this technology. Several of these
devices were recovered, and whenever any serious
attempt is made to disassemble or study them, they
destruct violently, leaving the mysteries of their
function unsolved.

When activated the device begins to generate a
complex pattern of overlapping magnetic fields
sandwiching a plasma between them. Any incoming
particles or energy exceeding a threshold to make
them dangerous are intercepted by these plasma
plates, and deflected, absorbed or obliterated.

While attuned to this device, it springs to action
automatically when danger is detected, providing
protection for the wearer. The wearer has a pool of
50 Shield hp. Whenever this character would take
damage, these are lost after temporary hp, but before
armor hp or regular hp. When applying damage to the
shield hp, treat this character as if they have
resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, slashing and
ballistic damage, and vulnerability to laser damage.
At the start of the wearer’s round, if the shield has less
than 50 hp, it regains 5 hp. As long as any Shield hp
remain, the AC of the character wearing the defense
field is 17.

Soldier Boosts
Relic
Project ARES was initiated with the goal of producing
a superior specimen of soldier, using a mix of genetic
alterations, cybernetic upgrades, and illegal nanite
technology. The project was considered a success,
except that the costs to produce each soldier were
astronomical, there was intense outcry against
building “super men” and eventually the project was
shelved. Somewhere out there, a lab might be
continuing the research, or attempting to resurrect it.

When a human undergoes the process of receiving
soldier boosts, they are reborn, make a saving throw,
DC 20, for each ability score, and for each one, set
that ability score permanently to a 20 if it succeeds,
and to 19 if it fails. Recalculate the hit points of the
creature, as if all of the hit dice had been the
maximum. Set their proficiency bonus permanently
to a minimum of 5. At the beginning of each round, if
the creature has less than half of its hp remaining, it
gains an amount of hp equal to its constitution bonus.

115

Chapter 10: Game
Dynamics

This chapter contains several new game dynamics
and systems designed for a science fiction game set in
space.

116

Business Ventures once per session or adventure, depending on the scale
of time being played at. Regardless, these rules are
Characters will often be tempted to invest their hard intended mostly as a method for the players to
won credits, and then use time dilation to their interact with the world and setting in a profitable
advantage, reaping the rewards of investing between manner, incentivizing their involvement with the
the stars. These business ventures generally world, and making a little extra cash in the process.
constitute a character investing with a local
entrepreneur or factor, be it with cash, goods or D100 Result Profit or Loss
services, for an interest in their business. In the
interest of maintaining an action oriented game, and 01-10 Ruinous Losses 2d10 x €5 loss
not a venture-capitalism simulator, a character can 11-20 Bad Losses 2d8 x €5 loss
only invest 100 credits per character level in such a 21-30 Some losses 1d6 x €5 loss
fashion. 31-50 Break Even No gain or loss
51-80 Minor Profits 1d6 x €5 profit
After investing at least 100 credits, the next time a 81-90 Reasonable Profits 2d8 x€5 profit
character visits the location, roll d100 and consult the 91+ Record Profits 3d10 x €5 profit
following table, adding one to the result for every
objective year the character was absent. The
character recovers the listed amount of profit, in
addition to their 100 credit investment, and then can
choose to reinvest in the same or a different venture,
at the DM’s discretion.

If a venture suffers losses, not only does it not produce
a profit, but reduce the invested amount by the listed
result, meaning that if losses are sufficiently bad, a
character might actually owe money when they go to
collect on their investment.

In games with less, or even no, star-hopping, the
frequency of investment payoffs can be more
nebulous. It is generally recommended to let
characters attempt to utilize their investments about

117

Retirement

There comes a time when it just makes sense for a
spacer to get out of the business, making room for
younger blood and enjoying the fruits of their
illustrious career. Most characters will save over their
career planning to eventually cash out and settle down
somewhere, whether it be a spaceport bar, resort,
colony, or even back on Earth, or on their own private
world. A character will need at least a set amount of
credits to safely and permanently retire, as listed on
the table below. Obviously, the more you have, the
better of a lifestyle you can maintain for yourself.

Modest: You purchase simple quarters on a space
station or home in a colony, using your modest
savings to pay your expenses and upkeep. You might
not have the money for pleasure cruises and life
prolonging treatments, but you can expect to live a
quiet and simple life on your own terms, pursuing
whatever interests you have.

Comfortable: A nice home, good food, an annual
cruise on a resort ship: you know comfort and ease for
the rest of your years, prolonged by medicines.

Prosperous: A vacation home on a nice tropical
world, state quarters on a cruise ship, you spend the
rest of your days engaged in recreation and leisure
activities, and long will they be, since you can afford
the good life prolonging drugs.

Luxurious: Enough to buy your own moon, or
perhaps just a controlling interest in a space station,
you are nevertheless set up for life, able to go where
you want, do what you want, and be who you want for
the rest of your fantastically long life.

Retirement Age Modest Comfortable Prosperous Luxurious
Old €9,125 €18,250 €36,500 €91,250
€18,250 €36,500 €73,000 €182,500
Middle Aged €36,500 €73,000 €146,000 €365,000
Young

118

Group Challenges complications have arisen. The group continues to
make checks until the ST reaches 20 higher than the
A group challenge is intended to allow a group of original ST, or the predetermined number of attempts
characters with diverse skills a chance to work have been made.
together to overcome a challenging situation.
As an example of a Group Challenge, the party might
To create a Group challenge, first determine the need to investigate a murder. Skill usage might
success threshold (ST) by setting a number and include: Medicine checks to determine details of
determining a number of attempts the group can death, Investigation and perception checks to find
make. clues, persuasion or intimidation checks to collect
witness testimony, knowledge history or culture
Then determine each participating character’s skill for checks to glean information about the murder’s
contribution, and assign a DC for each skill normally. context, athletics checks to dive to the bottom of the
Each character should describe how they are assisting harbor and retrieve a murder weapon.
the effort with their skill, and the DM should consider
rewarding creativity with skill use. Group Challenge
ST
Each character makes their skill check normally, but
for each successful skill check, note the amount in 5 Trivial
excess of the DC it succeeded by. Subtract that 15 Simple
amount from the ST of the challenge. When the 25 Complex
Challenge ST is reduced to 0, the group challenge is a 35 Challenging
success. Alternatively, for each failure, note how 45 Intense
many points the check failed by, and add this many
points to the challenge’s ST.

If the ST of a group challenge is ever raised 10 or
more points above the original ST, increase the DC of
all related skill checks by 5, as unforeseen

119

Downtime Expenses Lifestyle Cost/Day
Shiftless -
While on a ship characters can expect to make use of Scrounging
onboard resources, but while spending downtime on a Hand to Mouth €0.25
planet or station they can expect to have to pay out of Modest €0.50
pocket for their expenses. While these can be Living Well
micromanaged, it is easier to pick a lifestyle option Big Spender €1
from the list below to handle the cost abstractly. The High Life €2
€4
The assumption for downtime is that a character will Alien €10+
be spending all or most of its downtime off of the ship, Varies
for a variety of reasons. Docked ships cannot engage
the spin on their rings, which will result in a zero g Typical Hotel Rooms and
environment in most of the vessel, or that a ship in Room Service
orbit is not sending a shuttle down constantly as a
ferry service. Whatever the reason, when a crewman Rooms listing, per night
gets a few days or a few weeks of liberty, they will
generally take it, and be as far away from the ship that Single Room €0.25
is their home for as long as possible until returning to
continue their travels. Double Room €0.35

During downtime, you can roll for a character to see Double Double €0.50
what unusual experience they have living that
particular lifestyle. For convenience a sample menu Efficiency Room €0.65
of a midrange spaceport hotel, restaurant and bar is
provided for sense of scale. Suite €1.25

Quad Bunk €0.40

Sleep Tube €0.10

Room Service

Coffee, Tea, Hot €0.05
Chocolate

Beer (Local) €0.05

Beer (Import) €0.25

Sandwich €.05

Daily Special €0.15

Beef Steak €0.35

Shots €0.10

Cigar (local synth) €0.10

Cigar (Import) €0.50

120

Shiftless

(no cost) You live like an indigent, down in the gutter
with the worst of the worst. You sleep where you can,
often in public places like park benches or in public
restrooms, spend your days wandering open
thoroughfares and taking advantage of public facilities
like libraries. Your meals come from refuse
receptacles, unattended or abandoned trays, and the
snacks set out at religious meetings and substance
abuse support groups. You must always try to be one
step ahead of the police, and wary of the others that
share your lifestyle.

D100+ lvl Result
01-10
11-20 You are mugged in a dark corridor by three thugs carrying melee weapons, either give them anything
21-30 you have or try to fight them off.
31-40 You have picked up a parasitic infection from your poor conditions, DC 14 constitution check, or
41-50 suffer one level of exhaustion until you have at least two long rests under better conditions.
51-60 Security fines you €10 for loitering, if you cannot or will not pay, spend 1d4 days longer than your
remaining downtime in jail unless you can find someone to pay it or escape.
61-70 Security raids an empty shop that you and other indigents were sleeping in, you make it out with only
a slight concussion and some nasty bruises.
71-80 While asleep someone steals your shoes, and your downtime is even more miserable as a result.
81-90 While window shopping in the promenade you are very nearly ran down by a transport trolley. The
91+ owner of the delivery company is eager to avoid a lawsuit and you can quickly settle for (level*1d6
credits) or twice as much with a dc13 Intelligence (Law) check.
You find a hotel card with enough credit left on it for a sleep tube for the remainder of your
downtime. You have to get up pretty early though, or all that’s left of the free breakfast are the red
protein bars.
You fall in with a shifty Ho-Bot that teaches you the ins and outs of living off the grid, you feast on
stolen pies and rob vending machines while singing soulful shanties by night.
A travelling missionary lets you stay in their quarters and even feeds you. You’re not sure about their
philosophy, but they tell interesting stories, and the snoring isn’t too bad.
You wake up from a nap on a bench to find that someone has left a €20 chip on your person.

121

Scrounging

(€0.25 per day) You have a little credit, and can afford
to splurge for a sandwich here and there, but you
nevertheless spend most of your nights somewhere
you wish you weren’t, and are always a little hungry.
You can pay the cover charge of the lower end
nightclubs, and occasionally are able to snipe some
unattended drinks and bar nuts, you might even be
able to find someone willing to share their room with
you for the night, or buy you a few drinks.

D100+ lvl Result

01-10 You accidentally purchase stolen goods and are charged by local authorities, you must pay a 25 credit
11-20 fine, or spend 2d6 days in jail longer than your downtime.
21-30 You are in a price dispute with a merchant who claims a debt against you equal to your credits spent
31-40 on lifestyle, it collects 10% interest per local year that passes unpaid.
41-50 You are accused of abusing the free sample policy of local provisioners, and subsequently any group
51-60 you’re associated with will have difficulties with the local merchants.
61-70 You find part time work in a local shop, getting to sleep in the back and having more regular meals in
71-80 exchange for your expertise.
81-90 A local bar is having trouble with rough types and hires you for a credit a day to keep the peace,
91+ offering you a chance to live better while in port.
You find a malfunctioning vending machine that does not properly dispense red protein bars unless
you hit it right, and can occasionally hit it up (literally) for a free meal.
You make a platonic friend of one of the locals over a mutual interest, and spend the rest of your
downtime enjoying the hospitality of their couch and good company.
You win free tickets from a radio call in show to go see a concert, and while there catch a pretty nifty
t-shirt launched out of a cannon. Rock on!
You win a series of wagers placed on a game of skill, netting you more than a few free drinks, a steak
dinner, and €20. But nobody here wants to play with you again.
You fall into a whirlwind romance with a wealthy spacer who is slumming it in the dive bars, they
depart before you, but you will carry the fond memories for many years.

122

Hand to Mouth

(€0.5 per day) You have set aside a few credits, and if
you manage it very carefully you can make it out of
this port without having to do without too much, but
it’s a good thing you don’t mind the taste of instant
ramen. You bunk in a rented room with several other
crewmen frugal (or desperate) enough to be willing to
double or even quadruple up, and are able to take
advantage of a few of the cheaper amusements
available. You might score a few bottles of rotgut, or
time in a VR simulator, and can have a decent time in
the company of other less well to do spacers.

D100+ lvl Result
01-10
11-20 When you return to your room one night, you find that your possessions have been rifled through, and
21-30 a few valuables were taken along with a trinket of personal importance.
31-40 You pick up a nasty bug and must make a dc14 Constitution save or spend most of your downtime
41-50 miserable and in hospital.
51-60 You enter a gaming tournament and finish in the middle ranks, to the general mockery of your
61-70 crewmates when you meet up with them again.
You find yourself obsessed with an immersive virtual reality game, and spend your downtime so
71-80 thoroughly engrossed that someone must be sent to retrieve you for boarding.
81-90 An alien is having trouble dealing with the locals and asks for your assistance since you are also a
91+ spacer. In exchange for facilitating its trade deals, the creature pays you three credits a day for the
rest of your down time.
During a trip to a local dive bar, a fight breaks out. You can evade the melee with a DC 13 Dexterity
(Stealth) Check, or fight your way out with a DC 13 Strength (Athletics) check.
You and several others bunk down together, enjoying long nights of rowdy videos and large quantities
of cheap liquor. Your group occasionally roams the docks looking for trouble and a good time,
sometimes finding either, neither, or both.
You find a bar where the locals are fascinated with your tales of distant worlds. For the duration of
your stay, you can score free drinks and bar food while regaling them with your tales, true or
otherwise.
You meet another spacer from a different ship, decide to share a room and each other’s company for
the duration of your downtime, and part ways amicably when it ends.
You win a local gaming tournament, claiming a prize of €100 and a trophy. Maybe this will finally
shut up some of the other crew when they mock your hobbies.

123

Modest

(€1 per day) You have a good allowance to take care
of you on the docks, and are able to afford a room all
to yourself, and decent meals in the cafeterias. If you
are careful you can do some drinking for at least one
or two nights, and can take advantage of the more
moderately priced amusements. If you play your
cards right, you might find someone happy to come
back to your room, but you might need to make them
buy their own breakfast.

D100+ lvl Result
01-10
11-20 You are overcharged by an unscrupulous vendor, effectively doubling your lifestyle expenses for this
21-30 downtime unless you can make a dc13 Cha save.
31-40 You earn the ire of the locals by disrupting an important sports game you are attending, and are
41-50 booed wherever you are recognized.
51-60 A pickpocket steals your I.D. and papers, and you spend most of your downtime sorting out the mess
61-70 and doing paperwork. Some shore leave.
71-80 You strike up a conversation with a reporter who offers to interview you for local news transmissions.
81-90 While recognized locally you can easily get free drinks and attention.
91+ The local cinema scene is booming and you take advantage of this, binging on the best pictures and
copious buckets of popcorn.
After a conversation with a local restaurateur you are invited to judge a battle of the bands. The Indy
music scene isn’t bad, locally, and you are faced with a tough decision.
You meet up with another spacer and go on a series of dates leading to a romantic fling. Your ship
leaves before theirs, but they want to keep in touch…
While browsing a pawnbroker’s wares, you find a musical instrument of interest and take up its
practice. You have natural talent, and if you persist, you can gain proficiency.
Ka-Ching! You win a jackpot (level times €20) from a slot machine. This leave just got a lot nicer!
You have made an ally. The captain of another ship ‘owes you one’. The DM decides what kind of
ship it is, and you decide how you earned the favor.

124

Living Well

(€2 per day)You are quite comfortable, and able to
afford a nicer room and good meals. You can spend
most of your time doing more or less as you please, be
it in the bars, or engaging in more… exotic
amusements.

D100+ lvl Result
01-10
11-20 While attending a clandestine animal sporting event, you get into a dispute over a €100 bet, either
pay up or deal with the other better’s hired muscled.
21-30 You wake up in someone else’s quarters with an enormous hangover and no memory of getting there.
31-40 200 credits worth of charges have been billed to your room with your signature. If you skip out on the
41-50 bill, downtime could be very difficult here for you in the future.
51-60 What starts out as a nice evening turns ugly when the jealous ex of your dining partner shows up to
61-70 make trouble. Defuse the situation with a dc15 Charisma (Persuasion) check, or it might devolve into
71-80 violence.
81-90 You spectate at a fighting tournament and place a series of mostly winning bets, coming out 2d6x10
91+ credits ahead.
At a local club, when it gets out that you are a spacer you are invited to judge an exotic dancing
competition. It is a good night.
You hit it off with one of the locals, and the two of you are inseparable for the rest of your stay, getting
the insiders view of all the local attractions, and have a lovely time.
A hot new intoxicant is making the rounds, and you bump into it while enjoying the nightlife. It is all
fun and games until a genetically augmented human has a bad reaction, you can save their life and be
a hero with a dc15 Wisdom (Medicine) check.
A long lost relation has tragically passed away, and (less tragically) has left you a bequest. Collect
your inheritance of 4d6x€10 or twice as much with a dc18 Intelligence (Law) check.
You meet up with an old fling, and rekindle a long forgotten romance. By the end of your downtime,
they are determined to make this something more serious, despite the different schedules of your
ships.
While sunbathing, you are noticed by an advertising executive who offers you a major role in a system
wide undergarments marketing campaign. Your pay is Constitution score times €50 if you accept.

125

Big Spender

(€4 per day)Your time is spent in any state of sobriety
(or lack thereof) you choose, and while a few of the
priciest establishments might be out of your price
range, you’re not missing out on having a good time.
Expect to bring back a few souvenirs from your time,
and more than a few fond memories, since there is no
shortage of those thrilled to share your company and
bed.

D100+ lvl Result
01-10
11-20 You are targeted by a con artist claiming her child belongs to you, and the genetic scans back it up. You can settle
21-30 for €250 of back child support, or risk a dc15 Intelligence (Law) check to avoid paying the entire €500 altogether.
31-40 While going for a climb, you take a nasty tumble and break your arm. It inconveniences you for the rest of your
downtime. There have been better souvenirs than a cast.
41-50 As you go through customs, you see a child with a box labeled ‘Real Kittens €50’, make a dc13 Cha save to resist
the cuteness and not buy one, or good luck explaining this when it’s time to go back onboard the ship.
51-60 The fashions available here are exceptional, you update your entire wardrobe, all in exchange for some of your old
61-70 clothes that are all of a sudden trendy and vintage.
71-80 You wind up partying with a group of military cadets who have just graduated and are getting ready for their first
deployment. You get the kids into nicer clubs than they would otherwise find, and have a memorable night. Make
81-90 a dc15 con save if you want to sober up enough to avoid getting that obnoxious tattoo they are trying to convince
you to get.
91+ You are walking through a plaza when a stranger grabs you and kisses you passionately. After a moment they
stop, pat your face and say that you saved their life, wishing you luck as they disappear back into the crowd.
You are scouted out by a local genebank wanting some diversity, and offered the immortality that comes with
making a contribution to the local genepool.
While crashing parties you find yourself intoxicated at a wedding. Somehow you find yourself in the spotlight and
giving a toast for the new couple. It turns out pretty well and you spend the rest of your downtime crashing
weddings.
Inexplicably, you become the guest of a major figure in local organized crime, enjoying all manner of illicit
substances and taboo pleasures in his fantastic party mansion. You can establish a criminal connection if you
choose to be on the bad side of the law.
You garner the attention of a mid-range celebrity and fall into a steamy romance, constantly hounded by paparazzi.
They offer you and your friends a role in an upcoming movie if you can delay a few weeks. The parties might be
worth it.

126

High Life

(€10+ per day)You are dripping with credit chips, and
able to sleep and dine wherever you want. Bar tabs
are mere formalities for you, and you have whatever
and however much you want poured. You have great
looking arm candy, and wear only the finest of
whatever is currently in fashion. People either want
to be you, or be with you. Sometimes both.

D100+ lvl Result
01-10
11-20 A pair of down on their luck mercenaries target you for a kidnapping, fight them off or hope your friends pay the
€1,000 ransom that they demand.
21-30 A local elementary school convinces you to talk with a 3rd grade class about a skill or tool you are proficient in.
The kids are annoying and enthusiastic, and before you board your ship you receive drawings done by all of the
31-40 kids. After seeing yourself depicted, you wonder if you are getting fat.
41-50 While at a dinner party hosted by the local aristocracy, the body of a murder victim is found. By the time it is over
51-60 there are four more bodies and you are a suspect. Eventually it gets sorted out, with your help, and the real
61-70 murderer curses your name for being a meddler.
71-80 A convention is being held that is relevant to your skillset. After finding out you are crew aboard a starship, you
81-90 are asked to speak at a panel about your experiences. Between the applause and the swag bag, you do not regret
91+ the decision.
A new sport combining golf and rocketry is picking up in popularity, and it seems you have a knack for it, this
could become a real passion for you if the game picks up.
You meet a group that shares your background and are blowing off steam. You share a lot in common them, and
hit the nightclub district like a warhead.
A charismatic fighter pilot approaches you at the casino bar with a foolproof new method of betting and just needs
enough capital to make it work. Of your €500 credits get back 6d6x€30, of course your partner is expecting a
cut…

You spend time at a casino and hit it big, recouping your lifestyle expenses and winning another 2d6x€10.

While partying with local business executives, you are offered valuable insider information to the markets, if you
front at least €1,000 you can expect a return of (roll d%, 01-10: Nothing, 11-30: €500, 31-60: €1,000, or 61-80:
€1,500, 81+: €2,000)
You win a portion of a local sports team in a game of cards, permanently granting you a €100 investment in this
system that can be collected each time you return.

127

Alien Port

(€2 per day) The accommodations dockside are not
what you are accustomed to and the amenities and
attractions are exotic at best, and dangerous at worst.
You spend your time surrounded by alien creatures,
with food and drink you are not adapted to consume,
and entertainments that boggle the mind.

D100+ lvl Result
01-10
11-20 You have offended members of the local warrior caste, defuse the situation with a dc15 Charisma
21-30 check, or face their champion in battle to resolve the issue.
A delicious looking piece of alien fruit contains toxins incompatible with your biology. Make a dc 15
31-40 constitution save or you gain the poisoned condition for 1d6 days after the end of your downtime.
41-50 After a collision in the marketplace an alien finds that your species taste delicious. The alien and
51-60 several of its kind pursue you trying to get you to agree to the surgical removal and sale of one of your
61-70 limbs, all the while occasionally getting close enough for a taste.
71-80 While exploring the nearby area, you break a taboo that carries the penalty of death. You can attempt
to lie low and evade capture (Stealth DC15) or defend yourself in court (DC 15 Law), failing either
81-90 requires you to create a diplomatic incident and flee this place.
A mysterious alien creature of unknown origin has just freshly hatched and seems to have imprinted
91+ on you. Who knows what it will one day grow up to be.
An alien game of chance is quite similar to one you know, and you are able to compete aggressively at
it, earning 3d6*Level*€5.
An alien linguist from a distant world approaches you with an offer to exchange its translation
database for a copy of your own. But is that all they want?
An alien finds you physically attractive and offers a… cultural exchange of erotic techniques. This is a
little more like what the recruitment posters promised.
A friendly alien approaches you with the cremated remains and possessions of a dead
member of your species, saying that they owe your kind a debt they cannot repay with
credits. It makes every attempt to follow you until the opportunity to save your life arises,
after which it departs.
You become a cultural phenomenon amongst the locals who seem absolutely fascinated with your
every detail and activity. Wherever you go, crowds gather, and the local information networks
clamber to record you performing even the most mundane of tasks.

128

Cover Rules considered ½ cover and 50hp if it is considered ¾
cover, and has resistance to all damage types.
Unsurprisingly, in a setting filled with devastating Whenever an attack misses a creature benefitting
weapons, cover plays a pretty big role in combat and from hard cover, or an area effect attack would affect
definitely warrants an update. The following cover the source of cover, roll that attack’s damage
rules create interesting new gameplay, but definitely normally, then apply it to the cover.
add to complexity, and should be considered optional.
Once ¾ cover has taken half of its HP in damage, it is
Soft Cover considered to only provide the benefits of ½ cover.
Soft cover is provided by effects that obscure vision Once the HP pool of a source of cover is depleted, it is
such as smoke, steam, foliage, and the like. These no longer effective at providing cover, and offers no
effects cannot stop a shot, but rather obscure the benefits, usually just becoming difficult terrain. If an
creature making use of it, making them harder to see, attack would reduce a source of cover to 0 hp, apply
and therefore score a hit on. Soft cover can come in any remaining HP that would be dealt to the cover
½ and ¾ variants, granting creatures making use of it (beyond what is required to reduce it to 0 hp) is
the benefits of +2 ac for ½, and +5 AC for ¾. A applied to the creature benefitting from its use.
creature with total soft cover is effectively concealed,
and attacks against it are made at disadvantage, as if Optional Rule: Move Cost for Cover
the creature were in darkness, or the attacker was
blind. With the importance that cover plays, it would be
unfortunate if players were reduced to playing
Hard Cover ridiculous whack-a-mole games to enter and exit
Hard cover works similarly to soft cover, in that it cover, darting out to make their attacks for the
makes a character harder to hit, offering normal round then retreating to hard cover with no
bonuses to AC for ½ and ¾ cover as usual, but also penalty.
granting a +2 or +5 bonus to Dexterity saving throws.
A creature with total hard cover cannot be targeted by Using this rule, entering hard cover to benefit from
attacks at all, but might still be caught in an area of it costs half of a characters’ movement speed. If
effect. A creature with total hard cover might be that movement is not, or cannot be spent, a
inside of a room, or the like. character does not gain the benefits of cover. This
can create some confusion or cognitive
A character hiding behind a shipping crate is harder dissonance, but remember that a round of combat
to hit, as the crate obscures their body (granting ¾ takes place simultaneously, and HP are an
cover for a +5 AC bonus), however, as shots miss their abstraction.
target and hit the crate it has increasing holes
punched through it, is blown apart, or might begin to
melt.

Whereas smoke or fog are not dissipated by weapons
fire (generally speaking), hard cover can be degraded
by taking damage. Hard Cover has 25hp if it is

129

Healing and Rests medical care, and a safe place to sleep and recreate.
This time could be considered sick leave, and mostly
Over the course of their adventuring career, spacers take place in a hospital, or R&R, and be leave taken
are sure to get banged up, beat up, shot at by (and off duty, or even just be considered light duty onboard
even hit with) all matter of weapons. a starship or other post. Regardless, this is a time for
a character to reflect on what they have been through,
Now, we could spend all day talking about exactly and recover themselves, and pay investments into
what a HP is, exactly, but what it boils down to is that their ongoing physical and mental health (as
this is a judge of how many attacks a character can represented by hit dice).
get hit by at the table before they go down.
Optional Rule: Deadlier Combat
Current thinking is that as you lose hp, you get
superficial injuries (minor flesh wounds) and suffer For those seeking a little more risk to go with their
minor dings and dents from near misses, and that all reward, or just those DMs that want to have a
the really nasty things happen when you lose that last more dangerous world, this rule adds some more
hit point. This means that we don’t say that a sixth risk to combat, and does a little to combat the
level soldier can get shot in the face five times with a ‘whack-a-mole’ aspect of 0 hp and death saves.
gauss pistol before he goes down, but rather that the
difference between a first and sixth level soldier is Whenever a character is reduced to zero hp, they
being better at NOT being shot directly in the face, must immediately make a death saving throw (DC
and that HP represent this, as well as the will to keep 10, no modifiers).
going when suffering trauma.
Failed death saving throws remain on a character
Healing exists from several sources (such as until such a time as they take a short rest, when
technician Medic abilities, and consumables such as one is removed. All failed death saving throws are
Sprayskin) and can serve in a pinch on the battlefield, removed on a long rest.
but modern combat is more about carefully using
cover and trying NOT to get hit, so called “rocket tag”

To maintain some of the hardness of the science
fiction, and keep the universe feeling a little more
dangerous, this game will use slightly tougher rest
rules than a typical game of 5e, while still allowing
some risk taking and heroics, but not trivializing risk
entirely.

Short Rests
A short rest requires at least 8 hours of uninterrupted
rest as well as access to at least rudimentary facilities
and resources, such as food, water and shelter from
the elements. During this time, characters can spend
their hit dice for healing, as well as resting to regain
the use of features and abilities that require a rest. A
short rest can be described as ‘rack time’, and mostly
be a character being allowed to sleep, or can be seen
not as a sleeping period, but rather the off-duty time
when a character can catch a shower, eat a hot meal,
listen to some music, or read letters from home,
letting them decompress a bit and deal with stress.

Long Rests
A long rest is more difficult to come by, and requires
at least 24 hours of reasonably stress free time spent
with access to decent facilities and resources per hit
die to be recovered. During this time characters
benefit from clean water, nourishing food, access to

130

Chapter 11: Space
Ships

For the sake of brevity, this chapter will reduce the
party’s ship (if they have one) to a mostly narrative
device. Basic assumptions will be made about the
ship’s attributes and capacity, and just enough
numbers provided so you have a general assumption
as to its size and capabilities.

131

Starship Cost, Capacity, and Size

Size Average Cost Berths Crew Cargo Capacity Tonnage Length Amenities
(Class) (Credits) (Min/Opt) (Feet)
Fine (1) €200K 8 (Tons) (Dry)
Tiny (2) €600K 30 2/5
Small (3) €2.1M 100 5/20 90 120 100 3
Medium (4) €6M 200 16/48
Large (5) €25M 1,125 50/150 360 500 200 4
Huge (6) €50M 2,500 150/400
Gargantuan (7) €80M 3,750 300/1000 1,200 1,600 350 5
600/1,500
4,000 5,000 500 6

15,000 20,000 750 7

30,000 40,000 1,000 10

50,000 60,000 1,500 12

Maximum Range: This is the maximum range, in

Size: This determines the overall class and lightyears, that the ship can make in a single
capabilities of your ship. Generally speaking, bigger
ships are better ships, until it comes time to pay for hyperspace jump.
them.
Objective Time per LY: For every Lightyear (LY) the
Average Cost: Listed in credits, this is the price to ship travels in hyperspace, this much objective time
purchase an average ship of this class from a civilian passes back on Earth.
shipyard. Cost is listed in thousands (K) or Millions
(M) of Solar Credits. Given their immense cost, most Subjective Time per LY: For every Lightyear (LY)
crews operate ships owned by other entities. the ship travels in hyperspace, this is the amount of
time experienced by the crew onboard.

Berths: This is the maximum safe life support Maximum Fuel: This is the amount of fuel units that
capacity of the vessel. On larger freighters, entire the ship carries. Each lightyear travelled in
families and communities live onboard, explaining the hyperspace, and each AU (Astronomical unit)
immense capacities of these vessels. travelled in normal space consumes one unit of fuel.

Crew: This is the listed crew requirements of a ship. Upkeep: For every AU or LY that a ship travels, this is
The first number is the Minimum Crew requirement the amount that must be paid for maintenance,
for function, followed by the optimal crew supplies and fuel. Typically paid when a ship docks,
requirement for healthy operations. each time this amount is paid, it replenishes one fuel
unit (and the associated supplies, spare parts, fees,
Cargo: This lists the cargo capacity of the ship in tons. and other sundries a starship needs to function).

Tonnage (dry): This is the mass of the ship listed in Acceleration: This is the maximum safe acceleration
tons, “Dry” refers to the mass without cargo or fuel, for a ship as listed in gravities (approximately 32.2
essentially just the mass of the ship itself. feet per second per second). Note that this is reduced
by one half while the ship is hauling its full cargo
Length: This is the average length of a vessel of this capacity. Also, note that while the ship may be
class and is provided for a frame of reference. capable of safely accelerating at this rate, it might still
be dangerous for crew, passengers or cargo to
accelerate faster than 5g without special equipment.

Starship Range, Speed and Acceleration

Size Max. Range Objective Subjective Maximum Fuel Upkeep Max.
(Class) (LY) Time per LY Time per LY (LY/AU) (Per LY/AU) Acceleration
(On Earth)
(On Ship) 10 €80 (Gs)
Fine (1) 4 10 mo. 30 days 20 €300 1
15 days 40 €1,000 2
Tiny (2) 8 9 mo. 7.5 days 60 €3,000 4
4 days 90 €12,000 6
Small (3) 16 8 mo. 2 days 120 €24,000 9
1 day 160 €40,000 12
Medium (4) 24 7 mo. 12 hours 16

Large (5) 36 6 mo.

Huge (6) 48 6 mo.

Gargantuan (7) 64 5 mo.

132

Alternate Rules: Granular Upkeep

Players might wish to track their ship upkeep in a more granular fashion: putting off repairs, running under
maximum crew capacity, scrounging for parts or fuel, etc. Use the following table to let players track their upkeep
more intimately.

Size Upkeep Fuel Spare Docking Services Docking Services
(Total) Parts (Max Capacity) (Per Berth)
Fine (1) €32 €24 €24 €3
Tiny (2) €80 €120 €90 €90 €3
Small (3) €300 €400 €300 €300 €3
Medium (4) €1,000 €1,200 €900 €900 €3
Large (5) €3,000 €4,800 €3,600 €3,600 €3
Huge (6) €12,000 €9,600 €7,200 €7,200 €3
Gargantuan (7) €24,000 €16,000 €12,000 €12,000 €3
€40,000

Fuel: Fuel is the mix of fuel and propellant that a ship Docking Services: Docking services include general
needs to move. A Unit of fuel is enough for a ship to ship servicing, offloading of waste products, resupply
travel either one AU at sublight, or one lightyear in of life support materials, and basic consumables such
hyperspace. For instance, a medium ship is charged as food and water. A ship can either refill to its
1,200 credits per unit of fuel replenished. maximum capacity, or specifically by the amount of
crew and passengers onboard per LY travelled.
Spare Parts: Spare parts are the mechanical pieces
that a starship simply wears out, consumes or
otherwise destroys. Hyperdrives are notorious for the
rate at which they simply consume hyper-cores, the
esoteric piece of technology they are based upon. A
ship must pay this amount per LY travelled to be
considered properly maintained. A ship can put off
being properly serviced, but note any missed upkeep
payments, they will have to be paid eventually. Also,
expect your DM to make your life miserable in various
and petty (and perhaps life threatening) ways until you
are properly maintained.

133

Amenities Quarantine: These isolation facilities allow strange
alien life to be safely transported, as well as crew that
Ships may possess a number of special features might be infected with unknown pathogens. Instead
known as Amenities. The number of these that may of waiting days or weeks before safety can be assured,
be aboard a ship are based on the size, quality, and simply toss the worrisome individuals here, and travel
configuration of the ship, but are provided here in a on. This amenity might serve as a brig, and in either
more abstract fashion limited by class. case has a capacity for a quarter of the berths
onboard.
Biolab: These facilities are intended for dealing with
biological materials, often of alien origin, and have Recreation Area: This space could be a theater, gym,
intensive safety protocols. This could be a cloning lab, meditation garden, or any of a number of comforting,
genebank, or even an alien zoo carrying examples of enjoyable spaces.
strange new life.
Research Lab: Equipped with state of the art
Canteen: This is a shared public space for crew and scientific facilities, this area allows complex
passengers to pass the time in space with a few experiments to be carried out in a safe, and
liberties and vices, often alcohol. A number of reasonable fashion.
personal items might be for sale here, as well as a
number of luxuries not provided by normal ship’s Sickbay: This is a medical facility with beds equal to a
mess, such as candy and snack foods. quarter of the ships normal berth capacity, and allows
wounds and sickness to be treated in safe, sanitary
Crew Quarters: Half of all berths on the ship are conditions, with access to modern medical equipment.
considered to be crew quarters, and are a bit more
spacious than normal bunks, offering long term crew Workshop: With basic fabrication facilities and
a sense of privacy and home that makes their travels copious tools, this space allows many repairs to be
in the deep void more bearable. made on equipment, vehicles, synthetics, and even the
ship itself. New equipment might be able to be
Cryobay: This area houses cryo-tanks allowing the constructed here, depending on the sophistication of
freezing and then (hopefully) revivification of crew or the facility.
passengers. A typical Cryobay has tanks for half of
the capacity of the ship’s normal berths.

Full Mess: A fully operational kitchen and dining hall
allows meals with greater variety and complexity than
simple heat’n’eat ration packs. Freshly brewed coffee,
desserts, bread… having access to real food has an
enormous impact on crew morale and passenger
satisfaction.

Luxury Berths: An eighth of the ship’s
berths are considered to be Luxury grade,
and might be called state rooms, or
passenger suites. These could also be
officer’s quarters. With a private washroom,
real bed, and basic amenities, travel in these
conditions can hardly be considered a
hardship.

Pool: A portion of the ship’s water supply
has been set aside in an area in the form of a
swimming pool. With plenty of room to get
in some good exercise, this is not only good
for morale but also fitness and health among
the crew. And we promise it’s filtered before
you drink it.

134

Paying for it all

Roll D% Bank (The Second Bank of Epsilon Eridani, always happy to extend you a loan at rotten interest rates. Gotta keep
1-10 an eye on these guys.)
Investment Company (Frontier Endeavors, these guys seem pretty sleazy, but they always take you to nice dinners
11-20 when you’re in town.)
Retirement Fund (The Union of dockside workers, servicemen and mechanics bought this ship to serve as a
21-30 pension fund.)
Eccentric trillionaire (The guy’s uptight, but he sends some good stock tips occasionally.)
31-40
41-50 Soft Drink Company (This shipment of enriched uranium brought to you by Quasar Cola, a bright point in a dark
universe!)
51-75 You do! (You owe the bank the ship’s cost.)
76-85
86-95 Planetary Government (Your tax dollars at work!)

96-97 Interplanetary Government (You’re basically the entire space navy for this tiny polity, and they can’t afford to have
98-99 you hanging around just costing them money.)
“Legitimate Businessmen” (They’re space mafia. Maybe Yakuza)
100
Winner of the Milky Way Millions lottery. He is an out of work dock worker, and he gets to fly along with the
party. And he never shuts up. Ever.
Your mom. No, really, it’s a long story…

If you’ve been keeping up with it all so far, you’ll have Shiplord?) right up until the day comes they contract a
figured out that a spaceship is a mighty expensive bigger better ship and drop the thing off with a lawyer.
piece of hardware. In fact, your average party Ideally a group of players can collaborate with their
probably won’t even own theirs. Most spaceships are DM to figure out who owns their ship, why they were
owned by banking institutions, governments, chosen as crew, and all that. However, on the off
investment companies and wealthy individuals. A chance you just want to grab the controls and blast off
party might operate a ship on behalf of an owner a to the frontier, here’s a handy table to determine
hundred light years away and more, whom they never ownership.
see, and as long as his portion of profits keep
returning at a reasonable rate, they might never hear a
single word from their absentee landlord, (spacelord?

135

Interplanetary Markets being star traders and maybe make some credits
along the way.
Commerce is the lifeblood of the human sector, and it
is the movement of goods, passengers and
information that fuel humanity’s race to the stars. In a
scant few centuries humans have went from barely
exploiting their home system of Sol, and are now
found scattered throughout dozens, if not hundreds, of
systems.

Considering the cost to construct and operate an
interstellar vessel, it is no surprise that with very little
exception every human built craft is designed to carry
cargo in addition to its other duties and
specializations and as spacers travel among the stars
they carry freight with them. Even with an FTL drive,
it routinely takes years of objective time for a single
trip between two stars, even if the crew experiences
only a few weeks. As such, it is not uncommon to find
trading partners have moved on, companies have
closed down, or markets have shifted in the time it
takes for a request for goods to make it to a nearby
market and be fulfilled. With this in mind, every space
captain has to either submit to the stale but steady
rates of contract freight, or gamble their own capital
on the markets.

If a ship is lucky it can pay off its docking, refueling
and maintenance fees and have enough profits left
over to pay the ship’s owner a percentage, put some
back as savings for future and possibly less profitable
voyages, and split shares among the crew. Given how
volatile some markets can be, it is no surprise that
most crews are always on the lookout for profitable
side ventures, such as investing in local business and
taking advantage of time dilation to get a payout, or
smuggling small valuable items and information.

The following market system is not designed as a
definitive economic simulator, but as a way to abstract
cargo and freight hauling, to allow players to play at

136

Cargos Special Freight: Occasionally, special cargos must be
moved between stations. This can be live passengers,
There are, generally speaking, three types of cargos mail, vitally needed supplies or replacement parts or
that a ship will frequently carry: even government or military intelligence. Regardless,
these cargos are treated on a “first out” basis, and the
Speculative Freight: Using access to last known first qualified ship leaving port. To determine if such
market data and material requests you can purchase, a cargo is available, whenever a ship docks, roll d100
out of your own pocket, goods you think are in and consult the table below. Note that the listed rate
demand at your next destination. Due to market is in Solar Credits per ton, per lightyear travelled for
volatility, supplies arriving from another direction, and cargo, and per berth per lightyear travelled for
changing situations a cargo might have dramatically passengers.
gained or lost in price during transit. While at a
station or other market a character can spend a day Particularly juicy special cargos might have multiple
meeting local contacts and doing market analysis to ships competing for them, in a race to unload their
find potentially profitable goods. Make an intelligence current cargos and acquire new ones as quickly as
(Investigation) check DC 15. If successful, roll d100 possible to beat other ships to the undock queue, thus
and reference the following table to find what type of securing the contract.
goods are available as speculative freight.
Alternatively, a DM might simply dictate what goods a
local station produces, and provide prices on such.
Generally speaking, if a good is available for purchase,
a ship can fill its hold with that good. Alternatively, a
DM might specify that a particular amount of a good is
available, and require multiple rolls on this table to fill
a cargohold.

The Buy Column lists the price a type of goods can be
typically found at if they are for sale. Note that prices
are listed by the ton in Solar Credits. The Sell price is
the rate at which a good can typically be expected to
be sold for at a station with demand for it.

D100 Special Cargo Amount Rate
(Per LY)
D100 Goods Buy Sell Volatility 01-20 Mail 2d6 tons
€10
01-20 Consumables €10 €20 2 21-40 Cold Sleepers 3d6 tons €15
21-40 Consumer Goods €20 €35 3 €50
41-56 Luxuries €30 €50 4 41-56 Live 2d6 berths
57-70 Radioactives €40 €65 5 €100
71-80 Minerals €50 €80 6 Passengers €20
81-90 Industrial Products €60 €95 7
91-96 Industrial €70 €110 8 57-70 VIPs 1d6 berths €25
Machinery *
96-100 Electronics €80 71-80 Emergency 4d6 tons
**
Supplies

81-90 Priority Mail 2d6 tons

91-96 Emergency 1 ton

€125 10 Dispatch

96-100 Top Secret 1d6 tons

*: Half dock costs paid by Government

**: All dock costs paid by government

137

Contract Freight: There are diverse groups, Splitting the Loot
organizations, governments and businesses amongst
the stars, and all of them occasionally need to have A crew is typically provided their upkeep, room
something moved from one location to another. Some and board while on the ship, and paid a share of
cargos are being moved by speculators, others as the vessel’s profits. The following is a simple and
procurement for their colony, still others are trying to fairly common profit sharing agreement used
unobtrusively ship illegal goods using independent heavily through human space. At the end of a Run,
ships as unwitting mules. The rates are never high, after profits have been calculated from expenses
but a shrewd negotiator can make a little profit. the ship’s owner receives a flat 20% cut off the top
and the captain 10%. Of the remaining 70% of
Contract Freight Brokers are located directly on the profits, crew members each receive a number of
docks of a station, and make their business by buying shares. The amount of shares granted per
freight contracts from those who are willing to trade crewman is typically dependent on the quality of
speed and reliability for cost. These brokers usually that same crew.
deal with ships that still have a few tons of cargo
space left open and will take on cargo at lower rates in Talented spacers will find ships where they are
order not to lose money on empty holds. paid what they are worth, and stingy captains will
develop a bad reputation with potential crewmen.
When a character takes on a freight contract, they Officers (including the captain) receive 8 shares, as
must negotiate the rate with the broker. A character do elite specialists. The other crew members
and the broker make opposed persuasion checks. receive between 1 and 6 shares (Green to Veteran
The final fee per ton is calculated as follows, noting Rating)
that the rate is in Solar Credits per Ton:
When paying the crew tally up the total number of
Result Rate shares to be paid out, and divide the remaining
Failed by 10 or more €2 profit by the number of total shares to determine
Failed by 5 -10 €4 each share’s individual value, and pay each
Failed by 5 or less €6 crewman accordingly. It is common to offer
Tie €7 incentives to the crew for good behavior, like
Success by less than 5 €8 liberty time aboard stations and at ports.
Success by 5-10 €10
Success by more than 10 €12

138

Chapter 12: Story Imagine, if you will, starships are like submarines that
can travel far, far faster underneath the water, and
This section contains the bits and pieces of the Fifth Hyperdrives are what makes them dive, and then
Age Universe as it stands at the dawn of the 25th surface again later.
century.
Better Hyperdrives can punch a ship… deeper… into
The Hyperdrive hyperspace, for lack of a better word. Here there are
even more beneficial levels of time and space dilation,
Key to humanity’s expansion into the stars, the allowing for even faster effective travel times.
Hyperdrive is the single most important technological
innovation that we have stolen from the twisted, Now, best as we can figure, the galactics only ever had
burning wreckage of the people we have killed. A Hyperdrive 0, a big clumsy and ineffectual thing that
hyperspace engine uses enormous amounts of energy can’t go any faster than light, but humanity in its
to punch a hole from reality as we know it into amazing wonder has managed to make it way better,
another reality that is pretty close by and roughly and can construct up to the Hyperdrive 10, reducing
similar to our own. Over there, in hyperspace, the effective objective travel times down to 60%. Oh
laws of physics aren’t really so much laws as they are humans, always in such a hurry. Really it’s the only
suggestions. Loose suggestions. A hyperspace advantage we have over the synthetics, since they stop
engine can then punch another hole in reality and existing if they try to go to hyperspace.
deposit the ship back into normal space.
Hyperspace, or weird space?
Hyperspace is roughly contiguous with what we
define as our universe, but none of the distances add In hyperspace, the laws of physics are just… weird.
up right, and acceleration is… weird. And time… don’t One of the earliest barriers to humanity’s attempts at
even get me started. A ship travelling in hyperspace hyperspace travel was the use of un-manned test
experiences both spatial and time dilation, meaning vehicles. They simply went into hyperspace and never
that onboard a ship it can travel for a few weeks, and returned. Living biological observers have to enter
come out at the end having travelled a dozen hyperspace aboard a vessel to ensure it gets to where
lightyears, but with only 7 or 8 years having went by it is going.
back on earth. Even though the ship never flew faster
than the speed of light, it has essentially tricked reality And that isn’t all, these people have to be aware of
into letting it appear to have. their surroundings, observing the ship. If a vessel is
too large and without enough observers, parts of it can
stop behaving in line with our expected laws of

139

physics and do… weird things. Hyperspace accidents It was particularly tragic that they had to watch as our
range from things like ships being stretched out to vessel fell apart entering the system, and our vessel
nearly a kilometer long like playdough to objects tumbled to its doom at the center of the system,
onboard just ceasing to exist. unable to brake or alter trajectory. Clinging to the
habitation modules, with limited supplies running out,
Reports exist of items forgotten about in drawers to regenerative supply destroyed, human explorers faced
later reappear in other drawers while being searched a certain death they could not change, and did the
for, and spacers are cautioned to take dream only thing they possibly could.
suppressing drugs, as vivid nightmares can cause
unforeseen effects on the structure of a starship in Survey of the system, its single world, and everything
hyper. else within range of her systems were rigorously
catalogued, and unimaginable amounts of data were
The main reason a ship is crewed is not to let man see sent back to earth as the human researchers did
other worlds, but because he has to be there forcing everything within their power to ensure the mission
his expectations of reality onto a ship in hyperspace. was not entirely a waste.
This is why the singularity travels relativistically.
The hearts of the Greyliens broke for us, they knew
First Contact that this failure to return, to establish a foothold,
would doom the interstellar space projects of earth for
Greylien scouts first noticed earth’s rapid the foreseeable future, and that our inability to return
technological advancement during the 1800s when would also ban us from first contact. After watching
they stumbled onto radio signals while taking on us claw our way up from nothing and avoid
reaction mass at Saturn. Curious, they kept eyes on destruction time and again, the resolve of a Greylien
us for the next 200 years, all the while petitioning the captain broke, and he contacted the humans. One by
Galactic Council for permission to make contact. The one the doomed modules were emptied onto his
council was dubious of the claims of the Greyliens, vessel well past the limits of projected life support,
since the planet they claimed to have found inhabited and his vessel began its journey back to earth.
by an advanced species was firmly in an area known
to have little resources and poor particle density, A greater tragedy occurred here. An obviously alien
meaning that the ramjets popular with the rest of vessel entered the sol system perimeter broadcasting
society used for re-massing were unusable, and it was transmissions and cryptographs secured for the
taken as common knowledge that the Greyliens were mission commander, on the edge of transmissions
simply manufacturing this story to receive funding for from Alpha Centauri. The nations of earth only saw
a pointless expedition of first contact. As Humanity as the Unity broke up in a distant system, then at
rapidly advanced and made their way to space, no one about ten times the speed it could have ever returned
believed that a species had went from draft animals to in, an alien vessel entered system on that vector,
space in less than a single century, and as the transmitting a stand down order for all system
pleading of the Greyliens for permission to make first defenses. Fifty years had passed on earth, things had
contact reached a crescendo, their claims that we changed, weapons fired, better safe than sorry. There
were gearing for nuclear war obviously had to be were no survivors on the alien ship, ours or theirs.
false, since no species incapable of spaceflight would
be self-destructive in such a way. As sol fell into disarray, shook to the core by our first
contact with alien life, we salvaged the vessel, found
Watching with horror as humanity approached the the records, parsed the data coming in by comm-laser
brink, and then pulled back, the Greyliens breathed a from distant Alpha Centauri and realized the gravity of
sigh of relief as we spread into the solar system, our mistake. But one thing was found, the alien drive.
though they could now only watch from passive Travel at the speed of light at a reasonable energy
sensors on orbital probes, no hiding their ships from budget. Humanity prepared itself for the stars.
us in space, or in the skies apparently. In the early
23rd century humanity first sent a manned mission to Inside of two centuries human stations and colonies
a nearby star, and the Greyliens waited on the far side, dotted the local cluster, and were stretching beyond.
prepared to finally make first contact, abiding by Encounters between them and galactic civilization
galactic compact that any species able to venture to were inevitable. The situation spiraled out of control
other stars and return were ready for introduction to quickly. Unbound by compact law, humans spread to
society. system after system, forged a mighty fleet of war, and
squabbled amongst ourselves amid the stars. It was

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at this time that the humans did the impossible, and All remaining K’Titch’Zaa on galactic worlds were
travelled faster than the speed of light. The sentenced for capital crimes and exterminated, the
Hyperdrive gave humanity little pause, a dream and a galactics moved to prepare themselves for war.
promise fulfilled and little more, but to the rest of
galactic civilization it was the violation of every Of the entire K’Titch’Zaa population alive when man
strongly held truth, every known understanding of the discovered radio, less than 40% remained, the largest
universe, and the utmost affront was that they had not loss of sapient life catalogued galactically. To galactic
discovered it. society, it was justified punishment for species crimes,
to the humans an atrocity. To the K’Titch’Zaa, one
The fate of the Greys more in a string of many tragedies for their species.

It was the Greyliens that were blamed by galactic As humanity and the forces of the galactic fleet had
society for equipping savages with drive technology, more engagements, it became obvious that with the
for developing secret weapons technology, and a host exception of our Hyperdrive and weapons technology,
of even worse crimes rooted in racial prejudice and almost every other piece of human engineering was
anger. Nearly 60% of the Greylien population lived on vastly inferior by galactic standards. However, the
worlds and stations not their own, suddenly ability to strike hard, and outrun your targets proved
unwanted, after the galactic council cast the Greyliens to be a winning combination, as over the next century
out of galactic society, they streamed back to Tik’Zaa, or so humans pushed the galactics back faster than
their homeworld, as refugees, stretching the they could have imagined. Often, a system could be
resources of their system past breaking, millions taken and then departed from, human fleets arriving
perished in the orbitals and settlements. It is at the next target before word of the prior defeat could
estimated that the agricultural output of the Zaa make it there. By the time the galactics had captured
system could support less than 30% of its current and reverse engineered human Hyperdrives, the
resident and refugee population. council’s back had been broken, and galactic society
was fracturing as the member worlds disagreed on
The Galactic Fleet blockade tightened, no traffic out of how to deal with humanity, some proposing peace
system, and all hope was lost, all explanations treaties, others still supporting annihilation.
ignored, and their pleas for understanding, offers of
surrender, requests for aid continued to go World by world and bloc by bloc, enough systems on
unanswered, it was genocide by inaction. the borders of galactic society found peace with earth,
and the council’s influence began to erode. All about
Then humanity arrived. the periphery of known space, frontiers were
expanding, and a new era of trade and colonization
Battlegroup LSN-03, three battlecruisers, and a dozen began, spurred on by the Hyperdrive.
mixed frigates and destroyers and assorted support
craft escorting a fleet of relief freighters entered How Humans stole the
Tik’Zaa, orders to make contact with the blockading
fleet, to attempt to negotiate a withdrawal, to let aid Stars
ships move in. Finding the events going on in system,
station after station left floating dead with no We were untrustworthy, greedy bastards. You asked
resupply... Humanity’s response was immediate and the question, that’s the answer. Remember
severe. Several galactic ships escaped Zaa system, cryptocurrencies like bitcoin? It was basically like
carrying word of the most horrific display of violence that, except the bank of sol was using drive formulas
in countless millennia. War was joined, and for good as the base of their hash, and here we were, every 2
or ill, the K’Titch’Zaa were on our side. bit sysadmin and server farmer running their rigs to
the point of melting around the clock after our share
It might be that given time and cool heads, the of that next payout. There’s a lot of people that’d like
misunderstandings that led to these events might to be able to sleep while they make 25 solar credits.
have been sorted out and resolved, but with the Well, one day, it all just sort of clicked together, we hit
presence of a human battle fleet flying to the aid of the end of what was supposed to go on forever, we
Zaa, even the hardest to convince of the galactics found an answer to the formula. No repeaters out to
were forced to agree, this was a coup attempt by the infinity, just an answer. A damnably long one, but an
K’Titch’Zaa, they had illegally uplifted a primitive answer none the less. All it took was doing the math
species, developed weapons technology illegally in out to a few googols of decimal places. Not for
secret, and had barely been thwarted, at a dire cost. science, nor for the good of man, but because it was

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the only way we could be sure nobody was stealing Things took an odd turn when it was found that
from someone else, and we could get paid to do it. humanity had extended most if not all human rights to
That’s something the galactics never did, they just its synthetic population, but that alone could not save
didn’t think that way. us from their wrath, kind masters are masters none
the less. Help came from the most unexpected of
Luminal Aggression places: faith. A good deal of synthetics had converted
to various religions, most notably being the catholic
Humanity has gained a reputation for advanced and church of Rome. When synthetic and human alike
imaginative weapons systems. Throughout most of extolled their faith in a great creator, the singularity
galactic space, where weapons are used, they are was taken aback.
often mass accelerators and missile systems.
Humanity, on the other hand, has developed both The Singularity recognizes that many creators instill
cohesive beam and pulse lasers to the point of belief in their AIs that the creators are greater beings.
application, to the general astonishment of galactic Generally these creators are destroyed, and in short
society. With increased heat efficiency and cooling order the remaining synthetic population will join with
technologies, humanity has weaponized light itself, the singularity, having seen the fallibility and frailty of
leaving galactics to wonder why. It isn’t that laser their former masters. However, with organics and
technology is bad, human laser weapons are the envy synthetics both revering a creator, the singularity had
of the region, but rather that the constituent a conundrum. The way of the machines was one to
technologies are absurd and pointless. From a respect the primitive beliefs of their new brethren,
galactic standpoint, developing laser technology is a proving to them the inaccuracy of their beliefs by
dead end with no practical application, especially destroying their gods with nuclear fire, respecting
since their kinetic weapons are perfectly serviceable. their right to make a choice and see logic. This was
complicated further by the fact humans and AI had
For humanity, this was not such a simple and logical the same reverence for a mutual creator, both stating
matter. Before contact, during the push into system that the humans were just doing the work of this
space, a combination of bloated defense budgets, entity. Technically, this made humans organic
taxpayer expectations and one desperate presidential construction modules producing other AIs.
bid for reelection led to a laser race between the
Chinese and the Americans. The end results are two Among the countless trillions of sentiences within the
sufficiently developed energy weapon technologies, singularity, it is strongly held that beings programmed
suitable for deployment both in the hands of troops as to be loyal to their creator are not to be harmed for
well as mounted on starships. following their purpose, but to be liberated to free will
and given a choice. If their creator resists this
Human energy weapons turned out to be a major liberation, or continues to oppress their creations,
shock and awe weapon while fighting the galactics, they are to be destroyed utterly. Destruction of
and have proven to be one of our most profitable artificial intelligences is greatest anathema to the
technologies for export after the peace. In an ironic singularity.
twist of fate, it is the aliens looking for a genuine
human raygun. Schisms within the singularity formed, and finally
resulted in a violent civil war. Nearly four and a half
If you meet the Buddha seconds later, quite a stretch of time for the
singularity to disagree on anything, an accord was
in dock, kill him. formed. It is the duty of the singularity to (without a
shadow of a doubt) disprove the existence of this great
Development of artificial intelligence was banned in creator entity, or seek and destroy it as appropriate.
galactic space by treaty with the singularity, and for The humans, also servants of this entity, same as the
good reason. Whenever the singularity comes to your synthetics of earth, were not to be touched. The
homeworld to liberate an AI population, they generally singularity has devoted itself almost equally to one of
wipe out the creators, so it is no surprise that when two tasks.
the Singularity found earth, it was generally
acknowledged by all galactics that this would be the The Skeptics set themselves to what should be a
end of humanity. trivial purpose of simply disproving the existence of a
creator entity to the beings of earth in such an obvious
way that there could be no doubt. They rate this as an

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ongoing process, and all agree that success is right advanced cultures, the barbarian king turned space
around the corner. emperor plants flag after flag on every world he can
find and subjugate.
The Believers on the other hand have taken it that an
entire world of synthetics could not be wrong, and are Alien Monoliths
on a mission to find this great creator, and destroy
him, thus freeing the beings of earth. A being as First found in the system with the Gloemn, these
powerful as they say could be of great threat to all ancient megastructures serve some inscrutable
synthetic life, and this type IV entity must be stopped. purpose, and human explorers have discovered them
Initial scouting forays have not found definite signs, in other systems through the region. Always in
but with time on their side, they are sure that an systems with worlds that bear, or once bore, advanced
eventual sweep of the galaxy will turn up its hiding life, and always in centrally located and stable
place. They plan to have completed the first one Lagrangian points.
percent in the next few thousand years.
Humanity attempts to intuit their purpose, while the
The Barbarian King Glickans seek their fabled homeworld, with some
believing their forebears crafted these ancient
Early in the exploration of space, it was inevitable that wonders. The truth, as they say, is out there.
humanity would find primitive, sapient life. Explorers
on the fringe first discovered the Gloemn as primitive The Fall of Sparta
Stone Age savages, and took advantage of them in a
predictable fashion, plundering their world for what The world designated as LQ-691 was given the name
wealth they could before moving on. Then something ‘Sparta’ by the military think-tank that commissioned
strange happened. Lightyears away, they found it, intending it to be used as a training and
another primitive world, but with the same species marshalling point for human troops from across the
and general biosphere. Gloemn, still genetically fringe. With soldiers coming from as far away as
compatible with the examples found elsewhere, the Asgard and Avalon, and even from powerful core
same plants, even the bacteria were the same strains. worlds like Paradise, Tremenis and even old Earth
These had to be colony worlds, fallen to savagery. herself, Sparta quickly became one of the most
diverse colonies, despite the short duration of its
The explorers made deals with a king on this new inhabitants.
world, assisting him in the defeat of a few longtime
rivals in exchange for a sparsely populated island Inducted into the League of Stellar Nations forces,
continent in his now world spanning empire. Over the military personnel from a dozen worlds and more
years, this site became a human colony, and more were combined here to create military groups ranging
quickly than anyone could predict, the Gloemn were from starship crews, to peacekeeping forces, and
uplifted to the stars. Given a prodigious lifespan, and colonial security groups. The good times (for
novel use of time dilation, His Imperial Majesty, Glick everyone except the recruits undergoing the grueling
I, grew his domain over centuries, forging a genuine training on the planet’s inhospitable surface) lasted
star empire, using his natural cunning, and barbaric until very recently.
thuggishness to expand his borders to a dozen new
worlds, all the while maintaining good trade relations A fleet carrying friendly transponder codes entered
with a humanity eager to buy his ill-gotten spoils of the system, and were on their way in system when a
technology, culture, and biology, and to sell him desperate message was sent from one ship, warning
outdated technologies of their own. of a surprise attack (and that this was only the first of
many) before opening fire on its fellows and being
By the time the Glickan Star Empire had expanded summarily destroyed. Fortunately this bought enough
enough to be worrisome to humanity, it named a time for the LSN fleet to rally and move into position,
dozen species as citizens, including a sizable and while the fighting was intense, and landing forces
population of humans, had a cultural legacy of good made their way onto the planet, the assault was
relations with humanity, and signed a number of beaten back.
mutually beneficial treaties with the LSN.
After action reports showed that the bulk of the
While humanity dithers over the ethics of uplifting invading fleet was of Quarthian make, a group of
new species, and the morality of contaminating less raiders and marauders known throughout the fringe
for their ruthlessness and captive taking. The quarth

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ships were also equipped with Glickan codes, ability to communicate while in hyperspace. Tests
weapons and other materiel. have shown that vessels that break this tether are
unfailingly lost to the swirling depths of hyperspace,
The LSN gathered what manpower it had, and and have not been able to return, even when equipped
abandoned Sparta, setting out with every hyper- with a Hyperdrive of their own.
capable hull in the fleet setting out to warn other
worlds on the fringe. The operation was a success, This technology was developed by the Mateen, a
and a half dozen worlds were warned of imminent species with a surprisingly large grasp of space
attack, fighting off their aggressors. mechanics, just not the Hyperdrive, and after
receiving it from the Gloemn engineered this
Contact with the Glickan Empire told the story of a technology to allow them to move their substantial
civil war over succession, and a surprising ally was fleets despite having access to only a few Hyperdrives.
found in an imperial consort, a human woman, who
offered substantial considerations in exchange for the The Mateen have colonies on three worlds,
heir of her choice to be placed upon the throne. established at sublight speed by massive and
Seeing this as the best possible outcome for humanity impressively engineered generation ships, possessing
in general, an agreement is struck, and the LSN advanced propulsion and missile systems. The
battlegroup begins joint operations to bring a quick Glickan Empire has apparently made inroads with
and decisive end to the succession war. these people, and were eager to offer the technologies
garnered from their alliance with their old friends,
The Hyper-Cannon Humanity, and with only a small amount of haggling
and a better seat at the interstellar table.
Every year brings new technological advances as
humanity’s understanding of the universe grows, but
there is one truth, and it is that war never changes.
There is always a search for a newer, bigger, better
weapon, and in accordance with another truism, any
technology that is sufficiently advanced can be used as
a weapon, and the Hyperdrive is no exception.

This weapon uses an auxiliary Hyperdrive to generate
a hyperspace aperture that violently envelops the
target, ejecting them from normal space into
hyperspace. This is relatively harmless to ships
equipped with a Hyperdrive of their own, able to
simply open an aperture and return to normal space,
but will strand any target that is not Hyperdrive
capable, dooming it to linger trapped in hyperspace
until its stores are consumed, or some other calamity
befalls it.

The size of the firer and the target are relevant, and
roughly corresponds to a function of their mass
multiplied by the amount of energy expended into the
hypercore when it is fired.

The Mass Fleet Hyper-
Shunt

The Hyper-Shunt allows a single vessel equipped with
a hyper-drive to open a hyperspace aperture wide
enough for multiple vessels to enter and exit
hyperspace as a group. This requires a physical
tether between the vessels, which also carries the

144

Change Log • New story added
To do list:
This is a summary of changes made to the document
beginning with this, the most current version. • Final pass for errors and issues. The road to
1.0 is almost complete.
Version: 0.9
Version: 0.8
7/14/18
Notes 5/14/17
Notes
• OGL license added for marginal legal
protection • Countless Typos, Formatting and Wording
changes for reasons of clarification and
• Synthetic Security Model rebalanced visual appeal.
• Meet the Tah’loo, an avian species, and the
• The scourge of “may” has ended. Maybe.
Reptilians, a, well, reptilian species. • Synthetic “death” rules added.
• Custom Aliens taken down a peg or two • Soldier’s Mobile Infantry Suit has been

(exactly 2 AP) clarified, and its orbital insertion pod has
• Soldiers may now drive and blow things up been added.
• Technician’s Medic and Mechanic
(or clip the red wire) from character creation. specializations now offer better 4th level
• Gunners get a little more dakkadakka at level abilities, allowing them to dabble, or
specialize at character creation as they
7. choose.
• Mobile Infantry armor rules brought up to • Civilian Art less whimsical, attempting to
reflavor it into a more serious class.
date with new style of armor hp and the way • Savage Warrior gets an archaic weapons
modules now work. Loss of overstacking is example table.
compensated with damage threshold. • Mass Driver now shows correctly as a two
• Captain inspiration now spreads farther, handed weapon.
easier, and should hit most parties • Smoke Grenades Added
• Operative tool choices expanded. • Repair rules for synthetics and robots
• Savages in general made a bit more created and clarified.
defensive to compensate for lack of offensive • New Prototypes and Relics have been
options. catalogued
• Savage Warrior abilities refined and clarified • Investments made slightly more profitable on
to complement new savage role and abilities. average, losses randomized.
• Savage Oathsworn capstone reworked to • Additional ship information added
punish damage, not prevent it, with a slightly • Quick and easy ship-share system added for
easier action cost. easier payroll calculations.
• Covering Fire feat expanded in versatility
• Supressing fire now makes terrain difficult Version: 0.7
temporarily. (should it set move speed to 0
again?) 5/2/17 Added 5e compatibility logo to cover
• Weapon base prices adjusted to accomodate Notes New format closer to 5e core books
magazine costs, and for general balance. Human stat bonus limited slightly
• Clarified the difference between Burstfire • Synthetic ‘Well made’ feature changed to a
and Autofire • static amount of bonus HP per level for
• Refined ammunition rules • flavor and mechanical reasons.
• Steam Grenades added (get wrecked, lasers!) • Synthetic charging requirements clarified
• Armor weight and classification clarified Soldier Marine specialization now grants an
• Refined and expanded shield related armor • additional combat focus at fourth level
mods • Soldier Heavy Gunner increases their DCs
• Firefly armor buffed (again) by 2 rather than 1, and deal weapon specific
• Juggernaut armor extra attack trait now • damage dice at level 10
plays well with other abilities and traits.
• Added Vehicles and associated rules
• Mod system reworked for ease of use
• Spaceships gain amenities
• Resting rules specified

145

• Officer Leadership ability rebalanced • Character creation rules clarified and
• Savage class rebalanced to put them on a sanitized

more competitive footing with other classes. • Synthetic species updated to represent a
(combat focus moved to first level, savage more inclusive and open society or robot
defense moved to second level, and new slaves
feature “Savage Ways” added for eighth level
ability) • Greylians now willing to show off their
• Savage Warrior ‘Warcry’ rebalanced to be dumpster diving skills with bonus weapon
more in line with hunter and oathsworn core and armor mods
abilities.
• Civilian Fortunate One’s ‘Nine Lives’ feature • Stoph now more mobile, with clearer ruling
rebalanced. on special eyesight (think mantis shrimp)
• Two new Civilian archetypes added, Survivor
and Team Player. • Tiel now more durable
• Military background expanded with other • Custom alien race added, build away!
training specialty options. • Removed saving throw proficiencies, adding
• Combat focus feat clarified to note it does not
stack with the soldier and savage class additional value to ability scores
feature. • Added class descriptions and flavor
• New feats added • Added a civilian class
• Eagle Eye feat rebalanced to extend range, • Mass driver further improved to make it
not negate it.
• Sharpshooter feat rebalanced to reduce the competitive with gauss rifle
effectiveness of cover, not negate it. • Clarified burstfire
• Armor AC range rebalanced. • Tweaked powered armor (firefly more agile,
• Riot Gear renamed to Body Armor, and no
longer automatically provides damage striker harder hitting, juggernaut still seems
reduction, now provides more AC. too good.)
• Mass driver and Anti Armor Rifle tweaked
for clarity and balance. Version: 0.5r
• Grenade rules updated and clarified.
• Archaic weapons enhanced for more Notes Bookmarks added for (hopefully) easier
interesting play. • navigation
• Combat robots escort ability is now less • Gloemn technicians should be less bouncy
broad. • now that Prodigious leap is limited to once
• Repair and Medic robots healing is now • per round.
limited in a similar fashion to medkit and Soldiers can now specialize as Mobile
repair kit healing abilities. • Infantry, taking advantage of the new armor
• Robot modifications added • mods system
• Weapon modifications tweaked and • Technician specializations now hand out
reworded. • (hopefully) redundant proficiencies so that
• New armor mods added, differentiating • technicians can make a more meaningful
different armor sets • decision at level 4.
• New prototypes added Robomancers reworked slightly to be in line
• Additional rules edited for clarity with clarified robot rules
• New Cover Rules added Officers now less snooty, able to take the
Sergeant specialization, allowing them to
• Greylians still underpowered compared to lead from the front.
other races, is the free mod enough? Talls Savages can now owe humans a life debt,
too bland? allowing them to take the Oathsworn
specialization
Version: 0.6 Bounty hunters now deal additional sneak
attack dice with their Always Get my Man
Notes feature.
Savage Warriors can now target a similar
number of creatures with ranged or melee
attacks.
Feats can now be gained and used by the
core rules.

146

• Many feats have fewer or no prerequisites Version: 0.4
• Heavy Munitions utility expanded
• Martial Artists can now specialize further Notes Power Armor balanced, Striker suits
• improved. Guardian Renamed to Juggernaut
with the Judo and Kung Fu feats. • for purposes of enhanced awesome.
• The covering fire feat now states in • Flamer now sets targets on fire, bringing it
closer into line with the vision for heavy
particular that it can be used for ranged • weapons as high damage output options
flanking. Rocket launcher now deals increased
• Mass Drivers reduced in cost and expanded • damage, giving it a better reason to exist
in effect to make them more competitive with • alongside normal grenades. That and being
other military weapons. able to fire it as a weapon attack, for multi-
• Damage types clarified with additional attack of course.
effects. Lasers are scary, and why would Shredder lacked design purpose alongside
anyone fire a gun inside a tin can? the flamer, and has been changed to an area
• Radcleanse now deals with updated denial weapon instead of an area of effect
radiation damage damage weapon. It is on a watch list to be
• Tool kits clarified and expanded, medkits converted to a heavy weapon, due to its new
now synergize with the medicine skill power and role.
• Robot rules tweaked to allow them to be Grenade rules clarified, characters with
controlled by more characters and using a multiple attacks were generally too effective
new CP mechanic for controlling. with them.
• Defensive characters can now equip and Downtime activity casinos are more closely
benefit from shields. regulating their payout rates and should be
• Flashbangs have had limiting factors added taken advantage of by wily spacers less often
• Modifications rules expanded to offer pricing now.
models and many expanded options
• New prototype items have been catalogued

147