All posts by Tom

Osiris Under Siege

This is section 4 of the the Ghost Ship Osiris module. In this section of the module, the PCs dock at Outpost Osiris and have to liberate it from the alien robots that have taken control and are exterminating the outpost’s staff. I’ve posted the maps and room descriptions already, this post fills in the rest of this section of the adventure. At the end you can find a PDF of the full adventure section that you can download.

While this section is basically done, it is just a draft for the final module. If you find any issues, or have questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to let me know in the comments below.

Arrival

Approaching the outpost, there is no response to any attempt to contact or communicate with the miners at the outpost.  Power appears to be on and there is nothing preventing the PCs from simply approaching and docking with the outpost.

As you approach the asteroid, you see that it is slowly rotating.  It is about 1.4 km long and 1 km wide, one of the smaller asteroids in the Outer Belt.  The stream of ejected tailings from the mining operation that you followed in ends several kilometers before reaching the base, as if the ore processing has stopped.  The docking bay doors are wide open with light spilling out into the darkness of space. You also see some lights through a few small windows about 50m from the docking bay.

The docking bay is more than large enough to accommodate the Mirage and is located right on the rotation axis of the asteroid.  Unless they try some strange maneuver, docking is straightforward.  There is no gravity in the docking bay at the moment but it can be turned on by a control panel next to the airlock if desired.  Gravity is present in the rest of the base.

As the PCs open the airlock’s inner door, they are greeted by a member of the mine staff, covered in blood, running down the corridor toward them.  Rounding the corner at the far end, is a Pursale combat robot exactly like the one encountered on the Dawn’s Luck. (see this post)  It takes aim at the mine staff member and fires, hitting her squarely in the back.  She collapses to the floor at the PCs’ feet, wounded but not dead. The robot shifts its attention to the PCs still standing.

The robot has orders to eliminate the alien lifeforms and will fight until it is destroyed or has killed all the PCs.

After defeating the robot, the PCs can stabilize the miner.  They learn that she is Kella Rezal, one of the scientists at the outpost.  A few hours after the scavengers left, a number of alien robots emerged from the deeper mine area and began attacking the staff.  She and another staff member had been holed up in the sensor and communications office and when they saw the PCs’ ship approaching, decided to try to reach them.  Unfortunately, they were detected by one of the robots roaming the halls. Her companion was killed as they tried to escape.

She can lead them back to the sensor and communications nexus where they can begin the process of clearing the outpost of the robots.

Clearing the Complex

Pursale Combat Coordinator Warbot

STR:    100        BP:    500
AGL:    60         INIT:    3
CRD:    70         Move:    13, Walking
PER:    65         Frame:    Huge
INT:    65         Docking: 15CU

Programming:  Warrior +0, Marksman +0, Commander +10 (Violent Plan)

Equipment: A/V, IR, motion, vocal, & lifeform scanners, communicator, military grade reflec & ballistic screens, heavy laser rifle, devastator, grenade rifle, comm jammer, 800 EU powerpack, military grade armor, computer link, 4 EMP grenades, 4 tangler grenades, 8 smoke grenades, & 8 frag grenades.

Styled similarly to the combat robot, the coordinator warbot is about the same size as a full grown Pursale.  It has a short squat body with six legs and two arms extending from the sides of the body near the front. Extending up from the front of the body are two long slender stalks, about 1.2 m in length that end in sensor clusters.

The arms end in manipulator hands that have three fingers and a thumb.  The left arm has a built in heavy laser while the right one is sporting a devastator and grenade rifle. The powerpack is built into the body as is the magazine that feeds the grenades to the grenade launcher.

These robots are designed for both front line combat and controlling and coordinating squads of combat robots in independent actions while communicating with a central command if necessary.

The Pursale robots have effectively taken control of the mine complex and are attempting to eliminate the mine staff.  There are a total of 16 combat robots all controlled by a single Combat Coordinator Warbot (see sidebar for stats). The arrival of the PCs and elimination of the combat robot at the airlock  has alerted the warbot to the PCs’ presence and it will begin marshalling its forces to oppose the PCs.

Complete maps of Outpost Osiris can be found in the room descriptions post.  The following sections describe the complex, the initial location of the robots and mining staff, and tactics that they will use to capture and eliminate the PCs.

The PCs should quickly realize that the robots they encounter are not just working at random but are being directed.  A successful skill check (Technician or Scientist) with a -20 modifier for working with alien technology should allow them to identify the communication channel being used by the robots to communicate and track it back to the warbot.  If the PCs attempt to jam the communications, see the section Jamming the Robots’ Communications near the end of this section for details on that process.

Initial Locations of Robots and Mine Staff

Mine Staff

When the PCs arrive, the surviving mine staff are scattered throughout the complex attempting to hide from the robots that are trying to eliminate them.  Of the original 16 staff members only 12 are still alive. Three were killed in the initial foray of the combat robots into the complex and the fourth was killed as she and Kella attempted to reach the Docking Bay and the PCs.  The staff members (both surviving and dead) are in the following locations.

  • Dr. Jamis Grandt (Hm) – Overwhelmed by the situation, Dr. Grandt has hidden himself in the hydroponics lab where he has so far been undetected.  If rescued, he will be able to provide lots of information about the staff and operations but will not have any suggestions as to solutions for the current situation.
  • Kella Rezal (Hf) – Kella is with the PCs and will either accompany them as they move through the complex or will stay on the Mirage.  She doesn’t want to stay anywhere else until she knows that the robots have been eliminated.
  • F’Vothee (Yf) – F’Vothee is hiding out inside the nuclear reactor on the power level figuring that would be one of the last places the robots would search for her.  Unbeknownst to her, in her haste to get into the reactor, she tore a very small hole in her radiation suit and is taking radiation damage (1D/hour – currently has 12 BP left).  If she is not found and treated within a couple of hours she will succumb to radiation poisoning.
  • Hiloo (Nm) – Hiloo is hiding  out in the Mineral Processing Plant (Docking Level).  He has backed himself up into one of the little side maintenance passages and wedged himself under some of the machinery.  The robots are a little too big to enter the maintenance passages directly but are starting to dismantle and destroy the machinery in an attempt to get to him.
  • Reid Esperon (Hm) – Reid had ventured down to the alien ship after Thrawl’s crew left to investigate and was caught by the robots leaving the vessel.  His body is about 2/3rds of the way from the mine airlock on the docking level to the alien ship. He was able to get a warning back to the staff allowing them to attempt to defend themselves or hide.
  • Clese Whayeson (Hm) & Vothi (E) – These two were killed in the Ore Loading Area (Docking Level) trying to defend the airlock connecting the mines to the outpost against the advancing robots.  They managed to destroy one of the robots whose body is in that area with them before they were overwhelmed by the other robots.
  • Petoph Baker (Hm) – Petoph is hiding in one of the robot storage room.  He’s working on trying to activate and reprogram the spare mining robot in that room to use it to attack the invading robots.  If he is not found, he will have the robot ready to go in 2d10+10 minutes after the PCs dock at the outpost.
  • Donio Welley (Hm) – Donio grabbed the blankets off of his bed and is hiding out in the Freezer.  He’s been there for a while though and is starting to succumb to the cold.
  • K’Yuuxan (Yf)- K’Yuuxan is hiding in the gym.  She has turned the lights out and set the area to zero gravity.  She has hidden himself in one of the upper corners of the room. She has a laser rifle and a 50 EU power pack and will fire on any robot that discovers her.
  • Melni (Nf), G’Vorta (Ym), & Taxu (E) – These three are attempting to hid out in the mine shafts.  They have managed to evade the robots searching the shafts for now but are slowly being herded toward capture.
  • Yo’Viltri (Yf) – Her body is in the stairwell between the Crew and Docking levels.  She and Kella were attempting to reach the PCs’ ship when they were caught by one of the combat robots (the one destroyed by the PCs) she was killed as they made their way through the stairwell buying Kella time to escape.
  • Chofa (Nf) – Chofa is hiding in the largest of the mineral storage bays.  She has squeezed herself into one of the shipping containers by removing some of the refined material that was originally in there which is spilled out on the floor.
  • Yuror (E)- Yuror is hiding out in one of the currently unused housing units.  They has barricaded themself into the bathroom with the lights out.

Robots

There are 16 robots currently active and moving throughout the outpost.  They are initially in the following locations but will start converging on the PC’s location as directed by the Combat Coordinator Warbot.  These are the positions of the robots when the PCs dock at the outpost.

  • Mine shafts – there are 6 robots here working in three pairs to search the shafts for the miners hiding there.
  • Stairwell – There are two robots in the stairwell.  One is sitting in the area between the crew and power level.  It is currently just on station watching for anyone to traverse this area.  The second is descending the stairwell between the docking deck and crew deck and is enroute to start searching the recreational areas of the crew deck.
  • Life Support and Hydroponics – A robot has just entered this area to start searching it.  
  • Central housing corridor – There is a robot in the central corridor between the housing units.  It is at the end of the corridor and will break down the door to and enter each room in turn working it’s way up the corridor.  It has already searched the units off the left corridor.
  • Raw Ore Intake – There is one robot in this area that has started to smash and dismantle its way down the maintenance access corridors searching for crew members.
  • Processing Control Center – There are two robots here attempting to dismantle and work their way into the maintenance passages looking for Hiloo whom they know is in the area somewhere.
  • Mineral Storage Corridor – There is a robot about to enter the leftmost Mineral storage area.  
  • Robot Repair Shop and Storage Rooms – A single robot is in this area looking for Petoph Baker.
  • Airlock to Mines – A single robot is stationed in this location to prevent any of the staff moving between the outpost and the mine shafts.
  • Alien ship access tunnel – About half way down this tunnel from the airlock to the ship is where the Combat Coordinator Warbot has stationed itself allowing it to communicate with all of its robots and the ship.

Robot Tactics & Timeline

Tactics

The destruction of the combat robot at the airlock has alerted the Combat Coordinator Warbot to the presence of a potential threat.  1d5 turns after the robot is destroyed, it will begin marshalling its other combat robots to identify and eliminate the threat.

The warbot does not have access to the outpost’s camera and security system so it only knows where the PCs are when they encounter one of the combat robots.  It will start by sending the combat robot from the Mineral Storage area to the airlock to investigate the destruction of the combat robot there.

If the PCs are still at the airlock when the combat robot arrives, or it sees them in the corridor, it will engage them immediately.  Otherwise it has a 60% chance per turn to pick up their trail and pursue them.

If a robot encounters the PCs and is destroyed, the warbot will retask the closest robot to that position to resume the pursuit.  If the PCs are making short work of the robots, feel free to direct two or more robots to their location.

It should become quickly obvious to the PCs that the actions of the robots are coordinated and being controls from somewhere.  If they can jam the communications, then the robots will just go about their last assigned task.

If the communications are jammed, the warbot will come out of the access tunnel to deal with the threat directly.  If needed the warbot can summon up to eight additional combat robots from the ship embedded in the heart of the asteroid (provided communications haven’t been jammed).  This gives the referee some flexibility to provide the necessary challenge for the PCs.

Timeline

The PCs can’t afford to take their time once they enter the outpost.  The robots are looking for them and for the mining staff. The longer the PCs take to eliminate the threat, the more of the mining staff will be killed by the robots.  The referee should convey this sense of urgency through the actions of the robots and any NPCs encountered.

The following timeline assumes the PCs do nothing to intervene or are ineffective.  Adjust events appropriately based on the PCs’ actions. All times are given in minutes after the initial encounter at the airlock with the combat robot.

Time (min)Event
3Chofa found in Mineral Storage Bay and killed.
5Petoph Baker found in robot repair shop.
8Yuror found in housing unit and killed.
13Dr. Jamis Grandt will be discovered in the Hydroponics lab and killed.
18Donio Welley will be found in the freezer by the robot that killed Dr. Grandt.
22K’Yuuxan will be discovered in the gym by the robot originally traversing the stairwell.  A short fight will ensue before he is killed.
26The robots will have smashed their way through enough of the mineral processing machinery to capture and kill Hiloo.
35Donio Welley will exit the freezer due to the cold if not previously discovered and start looking for survivors or a new place to hide.
60Melni, G’Vorta, & Taxu finally cornered and killed in the mines.
74F’Vothee  will succumb to radiation induced damage if not found and treated.

Jamming the Robots’ Communications

One option the PCs have for dealing with the coordinated assault of the combat robots is to jam the communications between them and the warbot.  To do this, a successful skill check with a -40 modifier would allow them to jam the communications. However, this check would have to be performed either using the equipment on the Mirage or in the Sensors and Communications room.  PCs with the relevant skills would know where they would have to be to jam the communications. Setting this up takes 1d10 minutes.

If the PCs jam the communications, the warbot no longer has input from the combat robots as to the PCs’ location and can no longer task robots to intercept and pursue the PCs allowing them to move around more freely.

The combat robots themselves will pursue their last assigned task, i.e. searching whatever set of rooms they were in, and then go idle and assume a defensive posture.  They will attack anyone that approaches them them will not actively patrol or seek out engagements.

Even with communications jammed, the warbot will still be broadcasting attempting to contact its combat robots and the PCs can still follow this signal to the warbot if they have thought to do so.

Destroying the Warbot

The warbot is actively controlling the combat robots as an extension of itself during this encounter.  If it is destroyed or deactivated, all robots without a specific target (e.g. the combat robots pursuing s3 and m3 or engaging the PCs) will immediately stop all action.  They will defend themselves if attacked but will not initiate an attack or pursue anyone. Those robots who are already pursuing someone or engaged in a fight will continue their current task and then stop when it is completed.

This deactivation only occurs if communications between the robots are not jammed.  If the warbot is destroyed or deactivated while the communications are being jammed, the robots will not stand down until the communications jamming stops.

Aftermath

Once the PCs have secured the outpost and defeated the warbot, the surviving mine staff can fill them in on the events that occured before they arrived.  The PCs can also send a message back to Nova Vista appraising them of the situation and outcome. If they have not already decided to do so, NVC will direct them to explore the ship embedded in the asteroid (Section 5) and secure it for future study.

Here’s a PDF of the full adventure section including the room descriptions:

GhostShipOsiris-section4Download

The Clarion Calendar

One of the things about sci-fi games that span multiple worlds is that each world has its own length of year and length of day that impact the way the planet operates. And while I’ve been pretty good about initially describing it for the worlds my on-line game has been set in, I’ve not been very good about keeping track of it during actual play.

I got to thinking about this some more as I was working on the Frontier Timeline. I needed an entry for a blank day and decided to make it the birthday of a notable person in the Frontier (Crown Princess Leotia Valentine Leotius of Clarion). And that got me to thinking about the time keeping on that planet.

Another thing that came out of this is the realization that so far, I’ve only really looked at this on planets that have really slow rotation periods. My online game has so far taken place on Pale in the Truane’s Star system which has a rotation period of about 55 hours and on Laco in the Dixon’s Star System which has a rotation period of about 60 hours. Clarion’s is 50 hours, 5 minutes. Which is funny to me since the length of a “Galactic Standard” day is only 20 hours. Maybe some day I’ll work on a system with a period close to that.

So this post is going to talk both about Clarion’s calendar and also about how I went about calculating it. We’ll start with what we know from published materials and work our way to a final calendar.

Stellar Data

From both the Expanded Game rules and the Warriors of White Light module, the star is described as a yellow-orange star. Zebulon’s Guide gives it a spectral type of F7 but that is a yellow-white star not a yellow-orange one. Yellow-orange would give it a spectral type of late G or early K so from notes I have in other places, I’ve assigned White Light the spectral type of K1.

This means that the star is about 72% the mass of our sun. The exact value I assigned is .72155 solar masses (actually I took it to a few more decimal places) or 1.43516×1030 kg.

Orbital Data

Orbital Distance

In the Warriors of White module there is this image of the White Light system:

Based on the scale on the image I estimated that the orbital distance of Clarion was about 93 million kilometers (for reference the Earth is about 150 million km from the sun). This makes sense for a K1 star that is less luminous than the Sun as a habitable planet would have to be closer. The exact value I gave for the semi-major axis of the orbit was 93,027,587 km. That was generated by simply rolling six d10s for the digits after 93. Had the first digit not been low, I might have rolled a d4-1 but I actually rolled a zero so I was happy.

Orbital Period

Now that we have the mass of the star and the orbital distance we can calculate the orbital period of the planet. This can be done simply by applying Newton’s form of Kepler’s Third Law of planetary motion:

Where we have the following:

  • P = the planet’s orbital period
  • a = the semi-major axis
  • G = the gravitational constant
  • M1 = the mass of the star
  • M2 = the mass of the planet (which we’ll ignore here as it is about half a million times smaller than M1)

I’m working in hours since I’ve decided that everyone in the Frontier uses that same unit of measure and it’s equal (for the convenience of us Earthlings playing the game) to an hour here on Earth. So an hour on Clarion is the same as an hour on Pale is the same as an hour on Gran Quivera (Prenglar system) is the same as an hour on Earth.

Plugging everything in in the correct units (left as an exercise for the reader) we get that the orbital period of Clarion around White Light is 5059.77 hours. This means that the “year” on Clarion is just under 253 Galactic Standard days; significantly shorter than the 400 Galactic Standard days in a Galactic Standard year (which is only ~91.3% of an Earth year). Compared to Earth, the year on Clarion is only 211 days long, about 58% of our year.

But we’re not quite done yet as we need to calculate that in terms of the local day.

Rotational Period

This one is easy. The Warriors of White Light module says that the rotation period of the planet is 50 hours and 5 minutes, with is just a little more precise than the 50 hours given in the Expanded Rules and Zebulon’s Guide so we’ll go with that number. I’m just going to leave it as is and not add any extra seconds on to it.

So if we take that value, it turns out that Clarion rotates 101.027 times every year. Or said another way, the year is 101.027 local days long. The fact that it was almost an integer number of days was a happy coincidence. I did not try to make that happen. I was pleasantly surprised when it did.

The Calendar

Okay, now we have everything we need to get the calendar set up. Well, almost everything. There is one more bit we need to do.

Clarion was settled by humans. Who we assume are somewhat like us Earthlings in that they work better on a 20-25 hour day than a 50 hour one. When the humans landed on Clarion, the decided to simply divide the long 50 hour diurnal period into two 25 hour days. They deal with the extra 5 minutes by adding in an hour the “night” period every 12 days and most people get a little extra rest that night.

Each of these 25 hour day periods are divided into a “day” period and a “night” period even though it may or may not be light or dark as one would expect by the name. Like the locals on Laco, they refer to the periods throughout a single diurnal cycle as “day-day” and “day-night” when the star is up and “night-day” and “night-night” when the star is down.

With this set up, there are 202.054 days in the year. They break it down as follows. (From here on out, unless specified, the term day refers to one of these 25 hour periods).

  • 1 week = 8 days (4 diurnal periods)
  • 1 month = 20 local days (10 diurnal periods)
  • 1 year contains 10 months with two special holidays occurring mid-year (between months 5 & 6) and on the last day of the year.
    • The mid-year day is Observance Day, set aside to remember and commemorate all those who have sacrificed for the survival and safety of the planet.
    • The end year holiday is Landing Day, commemorating the day the original settlers landed on the planet. In many ways it is also a celebration of the ruling Leotus family and is often the day for coronations of new monarchs or other events related to the ruling family.
  • Every 37 years, that 0.027 of a local day catches up with the calendar and they have a leap year. On that year, they add an extra day to both Observance Day and Landing day making each a 2 day holiday. The next such occurrence of the Clarion leap year occurs during FY 69.

Reckoning Age

One impact of the calendar is that people have a lot of birthdays. Because of the very short local year, and the fact that the rate that the settlers grow and mature is similar to us here on Earth, people on Clarion mature much slower than their “age” would indicate. A 16 year old Clarionite is only 9.25 Earth years old. You probably shouldn’t give them the keys to the hovercar.

Because of this, the early settlers established the age of 35 (in local years) as the age of majority on the planet. This roughly corresponds to someone that is 22.13 Galactic Standard years old (or 20.2 Earth years old). There has been a bit of a push in recent years to lower this to 30 local years but the movement has not gained much traction.

Crown Princess Leotia

Which brings me back to what started all of this in the first place – Crown Princess Leotia’s birthday. The Warriors of White Light module contains this little tidbit:

The current king, Leotus XIX, has ruled for 37 years and soon will no doubt abdicate in favor of his daughter, Leotia XX.

If you’re following along with my #SFTimeline posts on Twitter, and reading this on the day the post publishes (Jan 15, 2019), I’m going to spoil a timeline entry for next week:

FY60.017 – Leotia Valentine Leotus, crown princess of Clarion (White Light), celebrates her 32nd birthday (18.5 earth years) #SFTimeline

I’m taking the “soon” in the quote from the module to be within the next decade or so (GST) and have decided that it will probably occur during the 2-day Landing Day celebration in FY 69. I also want Leotia to be young but she will have had to reach her majority by then. So I decided that she is about to celebrate her 32nd birthday.

The abdication might have occurred sooner but by the time Leotia reaches her majority (which will occur on FY61.375, the Second Sathar War will be in full swing and Leotus XIX doesn’t feel that she’s quite up to that task at her young age and so decides to wait until the big celebration in FY69.

Final thoughts

I had a lot of fun working this out. I’ll probably be doing it for more of the Frontier worlds in the future, again probably tied to trying to tie a series of local events into my timeline project. Although I may go do Pale and Laco first as part of my game background.

Have you ever done this for any of your worlds? Do you think it adds to the verisimilitude of the game or is it just too much of a hassle? Is there anything I didn’t explain to your liking? Share your thoughts and ideas below.


Outpost Osiris Room Descriptions

I thought I’d have these done back in November but better late than never.

What follows are the basic descriptions for the rooms on the Outpost Osiris maps that I presented back in the Outpost Osiris post back in October (which I’m reposting here so you don’t have to jump back and forth). So without further ado…

Docking Level

  • Docking Bay – This is the docking bay for the base.  It is capable of holding up to a large size freighter.  The outer doors can be opened or closed from either inside the bay itself or from the Sensors and Communications room on the crew level.  There are separate large pressure doors going to the airlock, the various storage bays, and the refined ore extraction area to allow for direct loading and unloading of ships dock here without having to move everything through the airlock.
  • Airlock – This is the main airlock for the base connecting the docking bay to the rest of the complex. Primarily designed for personnel, it is also the route for getting large equipment (such as the mining robots) into the base.  Because of its size, it takes 30 seconds to cycle.
  • Mineral Storage Bays – These rooms are designed to hold the processed minerals extracted from the asteroid.  Their primary access is through the large pressure doors in the docking bay although they can be accessed via smaller doors from the main hallway.  Each of these rooms acts like an airlock and both doors cannot be opened at the same time.
  • Food Storage – This large room stores excess food stuffs for the life support system after it arrives until it is needed on the crew level.
  • Equipment Storage – This room contains a variety of equipment and machinery that can be used to repair and maintain the systems on the bases, especially the life support system and mineral processing center.
  • Tech Repair – This room is used for repair and maintenance of the equipment on Outpost Osiris.  It counts as an Engineering Facility (RHB p29) for equipment repairs.
  • Robot Repair – Similar to the tech repair room, the equipment in this area focuses on the upkeep of the outpost’s robot workforce.  There is always one or more robots in this facility for maintenance and repair. Like the tech repair room, this area also counts as an Engineering Facility for robot repair.
  • Robot Storage – These rooms house storage and charging facilities for the robots working the mines and maintenance at the Outpost.
  • Mineral Processing Center – This area is loud and full of machinery that processes the raw ore (taken in at area C) and refines it into the raw materials ready for shipment (deposited at area A).  There are various narrow walkways and passages through the machinery to allow for maintenance and repairs. Tailings of unusable ore are ejected out into space from the upper left corner through a series of airlocks built into the system.
  • Refined Ore Extraction – This is where the refined materials are deposited once the refining process is complete.  They are then moved from this area to the various mineral storage bays to await shipment.
  • Processing Control Center – This is the control center for the mineral processing center.  It allows the operators to oversee the refining process and monitor the state of both the material being processed and the machinery itself.
  • Raw Ore Intake – This is the area were the mining robots deposit the raw ore mined from the asteroid to be processed.  It contains a number of large bins and hoppers that move the raw material into the processing center. It is connected to the ore loading area (area H) via a series of airlock chambers.
  • Airlocks to Mines – This airlock provides access to the mine shafts.  The shafts are not pressurized so a vac suit is needed beyond this point.
  • Ore Loading Area – This is the unpressurized area where the mining robots bring raw ore to be fed into the mineral processing center.  
  • Stairwell – This is a stairwell that descends down to the crew and then power levels of outpost Osiris.  It is very rarely used as there are about 50 meters between the docking and crew deck and another 100 meters between the crew and power decks.  It is present primarily for evacuation in case the main elevator fails.
  • Elevator – This large main elevator connects the three inhabited levels of the outpost and allows for the movement of large machinery between the levels as needed.  It takes one minute to travel between the docking and crew levels and two minutes to travel between the crew and power levels.
  • Storage Room – This small storage room is used to hold various spare parts for the robots.

Crew Level

  • Sensors and Communications – This room contains several consoles that control the various internal and external communications and sensors.  There are also a number of windows allowing the occupants to see out into space. From this room all of the security cameras, radios, and other sensors can be accessed and monitored.
  • Offices – These offices are used to conduct the day to day administration of the outpost.  Each contains a desk, some chairs, and a computer terminal.
  • Life Support and Hydroponics – This area contains the life support machinery for the outpost and a large hydroponics lab that produces both fresh fruits and vegetables but also some of the oxygen used throughout the complex.  All of the water and air circulation pumps and filters are located in this area.
  • Dining – This the main dining hall filled with a number of tables and chairs and a large video screen along the left wall.
  • Galley – This is the kitchen where the outpost’s food is prepared.
  • Food Storage – This is a giant pantry containing the unprepared food.  There are a number of shelves and refrigerator units in this area.  When supplies here are low, they are replenished from the food storage bay on the docking level.
  • Freezer – A large walk-in freezer for holding perishable foods long term.
  • Main Computer – This room houses the main computer for the outpost and has, in addition to the computer itself, three terminals for accessessing the software on the computer.  The computer contains all of records on the mining and ore processing activities at the outpost as well as any information collected on the alien spacecraft. With access to the computer, an operator has access to all the security cameras and locks, the life support system, and can control the mineral processing center and robots.  The computer has a level ?? security system.
  • Housing – These apartment are approximately 100 sq meters (1000 sq ft) in size and each have the same floor plan (or mirrors of their neighbors).  The four units closest to the main hall are slightly larger (120 sq meters) and are designed for double occupancy.
  • Theater – This is a large theater and holovid room where the crew and staff can go to watch movies shows.  It is also used for teleconferences with Nova Vista headquarters and meetings of the entire outpost staff.
  • Pool – This room contains a large swimming pool that the staff uses to relax and stay in shape.
  • Sauna – This room contains a sauna that the crew can use on their off hours.
  • Changing Rooms – This area contains a number of changing rooms and showers as well as toilet facilities for use when using the pool, gym, sauna, and steam room.
  • Steam Room – For those that prefer a wet heat to a dry heat, this room provides a steam room for use by the staff.
  • Gym & Track – This large room contains a gym floor that can be used for any number of recreational activities.  The artificial gravity in this area can be adjusted to allow for a variety of different games and sports to be played if desired.  Unlike the rest of the complex, which has a 3m high ceiling, the gym has a 10m ceiling. Around the outside of the gym floor area, there is a running track that is not affected by the changing gravity.
  • Stairwell – This stairwell connects the three levels and can be used in case of emergency or failure of the elevator.
  • Elevator – This is the access to the large elevator that connects the three levels of the outpost.

Power Level

  • Stairwell – This is the stairwell access on the Power Level.
  • Elevator – This is the elevator access on the Power Level.
  • Control Room – This is the control room for the nuclear reactor that powers the outpost.  The room is secured by a level ? lock that only grants access to the technicians that operate the reactor.  It is usually empty as the system is fully automated and only requires checks once or twice a day.
  • Maintenance Access – This is an decontamination airlock that allows access to the reactor itself for any maintenance tasks.  The room contains several radiation suits that allow the technicians to work on the reactor without sustaining radiation damage.  Both doors cannot be opened at the same time and it takes 10 minutes to cycle the system once the inner door has been opened to clear out the irradiated air.  Both doors have a level ? security lock that only opens for the technicians that operate and service the reactor
  • Fuel Loading Access – This door is used to add new or remove spent fuel from the reactor.  It accepts only specially designed fuel canisters that are designed to hold the atomic fuel for the reactor and keep it contained and safe.  It is not large enough for any of the races to enter the reactor.
  • Nuclear Reactor – This is the nuclear reactor proper that powers the outpost and contains the fuel cells, turbines, piping, and heat exchangers that keep the reactor running and the energy flowing.

Coming Next

The next thing up for this adventure is the completion of the section involving the outpost. This includes bios of the staff, their location when the PCs arrive, and where the robots terrorizing the outpost are located and their tactics. I made some progress on that over the weekend and will continue working on it and get it posted as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can expect another post from my starship construction system if I don’t get it finished this week.

It’s also been requested that I do a post on how I actually created the Duergan’s Star system map so that might show up before I finish writing out the rest of this section of the Ghost Ship Osiris adventure.

As always, let me know if you have any questions or thoughts in the comment section below.

Laco Sand Dragon

It turns out this is 50th post on the site. I can’t believe I’ve already had that many posts since I started this back in May, just over eight months ago. I hope to be able to keep at least that rate of posting going into the future if not increase it. We’ll have to see how it goes. Regardless, I hope you continue to enjoy the material presented. Thank you for your support of this endeavor.

In this post you get a little critter I developed for my on-line game. Depending on when this drops, my players may not have actually encountered this little creature yet but they will soon. Depending on the size of the pack, the appearance of the sand dragon could be a small nuisance or a major threat to the party.

Laco Sand Dragon

  • Type: Small carnivore
  • Number: 2d5
  • Move: Fast (80m/turn)
  • IM/RS: 7/65
  • STA: 50
  • Attack: 60
  • Damage: 1d10 claws & bite
  • Special Attack: None
  • Special Defense: None
  • Native World: Laco – desert, mountains

Description

The Laco Sand Dragon is a small (60 cm long), four legged reptile that hunts in small packs throughout the desert and mountain regions on Laco.  They tend to be dull green, tan, or brown in color to blend in with their surroundings.

The sand dragons are cunning and fast and will use subtly and deceptive tactics to aid them in their hunts. The pack hunts as a group and will focus their attacks on a single creature or maybe two in an attempt to bring them down quickly.  They prefer to hunt solitary targets but will go after groups if necessary.  When going after a group they will single out a target that the majority of the pack will attempt to bring down while the others engage the rest of the group to separate and distract them from the primary target.

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY59.368 – FY59.394

Here is the next set of events from the detailed Frontier timeline. This covers the events that will eventually be considered the start of the Second Sathar War, namely the activation of the Glass Pyramid on Laco broadcasting a signal into sathar space as well as the activation of the sathar artifact on Volturnus calling the eventual sathar fleet to the Zebulon system.

The data presented in this blog post cover only the new dates but the downloadable document at the end is cumulative over all the timeline posts up to this point.

Date (FY)Event
59.368 An enclave of sathar, ostensibly survivors from the Great Sathar War, found and eliminated on Pale. Based on intelligence gathered, it is believed that there may still be other enclaves on the planet. Citizens are warned to be alert.
59.369 Initial investigation of the “Kraatar Incident” completed. Those responsible for the severe Vist’Lat actions shown to be under some sort of cybernetic control by Legrange. Vist’Lat cleared and restored to Commercial Council.
59.370 The Streel interstellar shuttle, SCSS Laco Purveyor, shot down while landing on Pale. Origin of blast unknown. A skirmish over the downed shuttle results in over a dozen mercenaries dead but no loss of Streel forces or the injured shuttle crew.
59.371 News from investigations on Pale indicate that the new breed of Quickdeath was bred by local, long-time exotic creature supplier and bounty hunter, Trey Mulden, for unknown reasons. Mulden’s location is currently unknown. If seen, call Star Law immediately.
59.372 Several research institutions and zoos across the Frontier, expecting quickdeath shipments from Mulden, received multiple examples of the new variety. Forewarned of potential issues, most were contained but word had not yet reached Clarion and one handler was severely injured trying to contain the unexpected extra creatures.
59.373 Despite efforts of the Family of One (FoO), data on the newly discovered brown dwarf is now available. The FoO reaction to the news fuels speculation that the K4 star is Yazira, the “lost” yazirian home system.
59.374 The Cassidine Development Corporation’s new prototype paramilitary freighter, the CDCSS Nightwind, goes missing on its maiden voyage.
59.375 A small freighter, operating under a Streel charter, is attacked and destroyed in the Dixon’s Star System.  Crew escapes in lifeboats and are rescued.  Streel claims attack was by PGC vessels.
59.376 StarPlay releases the newest holovid movie in the Hawc, Star Law Ranger franchise.
59.377 UPFS Admiral Clinton completes its refit. As the remaining ships in SF Nova come out of refit over the next two days, the strike force prepares for another tour of the Frontier.
59.378 The governments of Kawdl-Kit (K’tsa-Kar) and Ken’zah-Kit (K’aken-Kar) sign a mutual trade and defense agreement.  It is expected that the Zik-Kit (Kizk’-Kar) government with join the trade alliance in the near future.
59.379 The General Overall Development Corporation unveils the Yazira Dome on Hentz. This massive, 100 square kilometer habitat is claimed to enclose a biome identical to that on the lost Yazirian homeworld.
59.380 Strike Force Nova, after completing a long refit in Prenglar, departs for a tour of the vrusk loop of the Frontier.  First stop, Cassidine.
59.381 Spacefleet dispatches several ships (1 AC, 8 F, 2 LC, 2 DD, & 2 AS), designated Patrol Group Virgo, from Prenglar to Dixon’s Star to help put a dampener on rising Streel-PGC hostilities.
59.382 A Vrusk-owned shopping complex on Kidikit (Madderly’s Star) is destroyed by the explosion of several bombs.  Many beings injured but no fatalities. The Kraatar Liberation Corps claims responsibility.  There is concern over rekindling the Free World Rebellion tensions.
59.383 Despite budget delays and squabbling over the need for upgraded defenses, Fortress Kidikit (Madderly’s Star) reaches the 75% complete milestone.
59.384 Tensions in Dramune on the rise as Outer Reach industries continue to ignore and violate Inner Reach trademarks and patents.
59.385 Astronomers on Hargut (Gruna Goru) claim to have detected artificial signals from a system several light years beyond the Frontier. They begin organizing a petition to request that the UPF send and exploration mission.
59.386 Galactic Task Force mercenaries, working under PGC direction, attack three Streel archeology sites on Laco. Two are captured while the third is successfully defended by Streel personnel. Streel personnel at the captured sites are not harmed but evicted from the sites.
59.387 Glass Pyramid on Laco begins glowing with an unidentifiable energy source. After 20 minutes of increasing brightness, it releases a beam of energy nearly vertically. Beam consists of both electromagnetic energy across the full spectrum and subspace signals.
59.388 Unmarked Streel ships attack the KSS Dawn’s Glow hijacking cargo. Crew is left on immobilized ship to effect repairs and await rescue.
59.389 Subspace signal from Great Pyramid received in sathar space.

SF Nova arrives in Cassidine.  It will be in system for 9 days exercising with Task Force Cassidine.

A raid on a PGC dig site by unknown forces results in one dead and one PGC scientist captured. The PGC scientist, a former Streel employee, is later released and identifies the assailants as Streel employees.
59.390 A message, transmitted by an artifact left on Volturnus (Zebulon) is received at a sathar listening post alerting then to the space-faring activity in the Zebulon system and the detection and penetration of the artifact by technologically advanced races.

A subspace message is received on Pale from the presumed lost Second Volturnus Expedition explaining the sathar and pirate presence in the Zebulon system and warning of imminent attack from sathar forces. Immediate assistance is requested.

PG Virgo arrives at Laco and takes up patrol duties around the system.

A raid on a PGC records vault on Laco results in the loss of all backup data related to the Glass Pyramid activation. Suspected corporate espionage by Streel but no concrete proof exists.
59.391 Streel sub-orbital shuttle shot down on Laco. Assault scouts from PG Virgo are sent to investigate. Injured crew taken to Tyrell’s Landing.
59.392 Fighting breaks out between PGC, Streel, and CDC forces near the site of the downed shuttle over a newly discovered Tetrarch ruins site on Laco exposed by a recent landslide.

After several days of discussion, the sathar decide to send a “cleansing” fleet to Volturnus.
59.393 After deliberations between the Pale Government and the Council of Worlds about the message from the Zebulon system, UPF Patrol Group Virgo cuts its time in Dixon’s Star short and departs Laco for the Truane’s Star System on its way to Zebulon.
59.394 Sathar attack fleet (1 AC, 8 F, 2 HC, 2 LC, 6 DD, & 2 FF) depart sathar SCC#5 for Volturnus

Here’s the compiled file:

DetailedFrontierTimelineDownload

Let me know if you have any thoughts, questions, or comments on any of the events in the timeline.

State of the Frontier – Dec 2018

Happy New Year’s Eve! I thought about doing an “end of the year” recap but decided that I’ll save those types of retrospectives for the anniversaries of the site going live, so you’ll see that post in late April/early May. For this post I’m just going to look at December.

Looking Back

If you look back at my State of the Frontier post from November, you’ll notice immediately that I only finished half of what I had hoped to do, namely the PGC Records Vault adventure location. I actually got exactly zero work done on the Ghost Ship Osiris adventure.

There were a couple of reasons for that. First, the records vault project ended up taking a lot more time than I had anticipated. As I’ve said before, it always surprises me how much work it takes to turn my notes and ideas in to a finished form that I feel is usable by others. Maybe I’m putting to much detail into things. You’ll have to let me know.

Another issue was the holiday season. All the extra activities that go on this time of the year definitely cut into the time I have to spend on these projects. I need to remember that fact for future years and either build up a backlog of posts, plan lots of small things, or just accept the fact that I’m not going to get much done in December.

The final struggle I have with getting the Ghost Ship Osiris project done is that on a fundamental level it doesn’t call to me as strongly as some of the other projects. While I’m a fan of FrontierSpace, it just doesn’t hold the same place in my heart as Star Frontiers. So it’s often easy for me to put that project on hold when a Star Frontiers related one pops up. And it just goes to show that I’m not really doing this for the money since of all the projects I’m working on that one is a commercial project that will generate some revenue.

I have managed to keep the Star Frontiers timeline going as posts from @StarFrontiers on Twitter. That project will continue foward for several more years regardless of what happens otherwise. I’ve been having fun with that. Some of the posts this last month were activities from the online game I’ve been running. Unfortunately, the December sessions of that game fell victim to holiday activity conflicts and the timeline has caught up and passed the players so unless they manage to get in a some serious time jumps, their activities won’t be showing up any more.

Looking Forward

So what is coming up in January? We’ll start the year off with an update of the timeline, posting all the events of the last month which include the first of the events occurring in sathar space.

Then I’m going to buckle down and work on Ghost Ship Osiris. I’m all caught up on my Star Frontiers projects, or at least they are at a good stopping point so I can focus on this. At the very least, I want to finish the room descriptions and describe what happens when the PCs arrive at the outpost for the first time. I don’t think I’ll get much past that in January as I start teaching a class at the local university that will take up some of my free time.

While I’m working on the Outpost Osiris description, I won’t have much to post until its finished. In the intervening time I have a little critter I cooked up for my on-line game that I’ll be sharing. Additionally, several people have expressed interest in seeing more of my starship construction system so I’ll be posting bits of that for people to comment on as well.

I’m sure something else will come up to distract me but I’ll try to keep to this plan and only add more stuff rather than swap things out. I might actually get my play by post game started this month but we’ll have to see. If you have any thoughts or ideas as to things you’d like me to work on and post here, let me know in the comments below.

PGC Records Vault – finished

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Season’s Greetings. Here’s a post just in time for you to enjoy as you’re snuggled up to your fireplace on Christmas Eve.

In my first post about the records vault, I provided the maps and room descriptions, then I posted a few robots that also make an appearance although I didn’t specifically call them out as part of this project. In this post I provide the rest of the information about the records vault as well as a PDF with the complete write-up of the location.

In this post we’ll add in the details on the staff, the main computer, how to get “official” access to the vault, and how the vault and its staff respond to external or internal threats or problems. Let’s get started.

Gaining Access

In order to gain access to the data in the records vault, a person or organization needs to file a request with the PGC headquarters on Laco, located in Point Glass. The request includes the dates they desire to visit, the number of people to visit the vault, and the research topic. If the request is granted, the requestor is given an appointment date and an access code that will allow them through the outer gatehouse.

Once inside the main building the visitors’ ID are checked by the security guard at the front desk and then on of the archivists are called to escort them to the research room. Each visitor is given a unique passcode to access the computer terminals. This code is keyed to the level of access (typically just public although private/full access is available to PGC employees) which determines which data in the vault they have access to. It is also used to record the queries in the system so that PGC can track who is searching for what information and the type of queries being performed.

The main computer only contains an index of all the data stored at the vault and provides an interface so that the user can search for the type of data they are looking for. Once found, the actual data is then requested. Once the request is submitted, one of the two data retrieval robots (area 6) is activated, goes down to the vault, retrieves the requested data cubes and brings them up, and places them in the data portals in the computer room (area 8). It takes 7-10 minutes from the time the request is submitted until the data is available. Once the data cubes are in place, the computer informs the user that the data are available and the researcher can begin searching and looking through the actual data for the information they need.

If a researcher has any questions, problems, or difficulties, they can page one of the archivists who will come over from their office (area 4) and attempt to help the researcher.

Repeated queries about classified/locked information may trigger the user to be locked out of the system. This typically only applies to queries on PGC corporate details and operations or some restricted Tetrarch data when using a public access account.

Robots

There are three types of robots at the records vault facility that help keep the facility running:

  • sixteen S-037 Security Robots
  • four M-022 Maintenance Robots
  • two G-092 Data Retrieval Robots

The details on each of these types of robots were given in the previous post. I’m not going to repeat them here.

Staff

The records vault nominally has a “daytime” staff of 10 PGC employees: the vault administrator and administrative assistant, two security officers, a roboticist/technician, and five researchers/archivists. In addition to the base staff, there are often outside researchers working with the data stored in the vault. The facility can accommodate up to six visitors.

During the “night” shift, there are just two security guards at the facility.  You can just reuse the stats for Nameer and Erich or create similar characters if the PCs decide to try a night raid on the facility.

Note:  Skill are taken from the “A Skilled Frontier” skill system published in Star Frontiersman issue 9 as that system provides some actual skills for the archivists to have.

Zat’zra K’tar

Vault Administrator/Lead Archivist

Vrusk, Male

STR/STA: 50/50   DEX/RS: 55/55   INT/LOG: 40/40   PER/LDR: 55/55

Skills:  History 4, Environmental 3, Politics 2, Computer 1

Equipment: chronocom, notebook, pen

Zat’zra is probably not the best of administrators or researchers which is probably why he’s assigned to this relatively out of the way records facility.  But that suits him just fine.  His administrative duties are light and he can spend his days working on his research.  He rarely leaves his office (area 3).

Weldon Tindal

Administrative Assistant

Human, Male

STR/STA: 30/30   DEX/RS: 50/45   INT/LOG: 55/55   PER/LDR: 45/45

Skills:  Law 2, Pop Culture 2, Persuasion 1, Projectile 1, Air vehicles 2, Literature 1

Equipment: chronocom, needler pistol, 2 needler clips

Weldon is bored out of his skull with his assignment here.  He has very little work to do as the facility is small and Zat’zra rarely has any assignments for him.  He can often be found in the break room chatting with whoever is in there.

Nameer Olnar

Head Security Officer

Yazirian, male

STR/STA: 45/45   DEX/RS: 65/65   INT/LOG: 75/75   PER/LDR: 50/50

Skills:  Beam 5, Melee 4, Unarmed combat 1, Thrown 1

Equipment:  chronocom, laser pistol, sonic stunner, sonic sword, 4 tangler grenades, albedo screen, military skeinsuit, power beltpack, 4 powerclips

Nameer is a career security officer and takes his assignment very seriously.  He considers any boring day a good one since there were no threats to the facility under his care.  While he takes his responsibility seriously, he also tries to keep the security requirements as much out of the way of the staff working at the vault as possible.

Erich Melchor

Security Officer

Human, male

STR/STA: 70/70   DEX/RS: 55/55   INT/LOG: 30/30   PER/LDR: 55/50

Skills: Beam 4, Unarmed Combat 2, Medic 1, Projectile 1, Technician 1

Equipment:  chronocom, laser pistol, electrostunner, albedo screen, military skiensuit, power belt pack, 4 power clips

Erich couldn’t be happier with his current assignment to man the front desk at the records vault.  Nothing ever happens and his busiest times are first thing after arriving and right before leaving for the day when he has to check all the visiting researchers in and out of the facility.  The rest of the day he typically spends reading or watching holovids at the front desk.

Pluami Krennta

Roboticist/Technician

Yazirian, female

STR/STA: 40/40   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 60/60   PER/LDR: 35/35

Skills:  Robotics 4, Computer 3, Technician 2, Enviromental 1

Equipment:  chronocom, techkit, robotcom kit, pocket tool, toxy-rad guage

While she doesn’t consider the records vault to be a plum assignment, Pluami can’t complain about the level of work or availability of interesting projects.  There are just enough robots at the facility that she has some maintenance that needs to be done each day alongside keeping the complex’s power system running in top shape.  When she does have some free time, she likes to peruse the vault’s vast data sets looking for interesting robotics and tech data.  She has starting looking through all the Tetrarch data for anything that might be robotics related and can often be found talking with Gh’dzz looking for new bits of data.

Kodub

Archivist

Dralasite, female

STR/STA: 35/35   DEX/RS: 35/35   INT/LOG: 55/55   PER/LDR: 35/35

Skills:  Economics 4, Philosophy/Theology 3, Law 1, Computers 2

Equipment:  chronocom

Kodub asked to be assigned to the records vault as she felt it would give her the best access to all the data she was interested in researching.  Not particularly interested in the Tetrarchs themselves, she studies how the presence of the ruins has shaped the economic structures on Laco.  She works out of the office on the main level (area 4).

Abigail Zemke

Archivist

Human, female

STR/STA: 50/50   DEX/RS: 55/55   INT/LOG: 55/50   PER/LDR: 45/45

Skills:  Space Science 4, Law 2, Pop Culture 1, History 1, Melee 1

Equipment:  chronocom, pocket tool, sonic knife w/powerclip

Abigail is a Laco native and grew up around the Tetrarch ruins at Point Glass.  She was always fascinated by the space motifs found in the ruins and works at the records vault studying the astronomical and physical data found in the ruins in an attempt to nail down the time period that the planet was occupied by the Tetrarchs.  She will be assigned as the PCs liaison when they arrive at the facility and has on office on the main level (area 4).

Gliprell Anthor

Archivist

Yaziran, female

STR/STA: 35/35   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 55/55   PER/LDR: 40/40

Skills:  Environmental 4, Psycho-social 3, History 2, Literature 2

Equipment:  chronocom

Gliprell is at the records facility studying Laco’s flora and fauna and how it has interacted and reacted to the presence of the Frontier races on the planet as well as the populace’s reactions to and interactions with the native life.  Her office is down in the records vault (area 5) as she is constantly accessing new data cubes and is not quite patient enough for the retrieval delay working on the main level.

Gh’dzz Kl’tak

Archivist

Vrusk, male

STR/STA: 50/50   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 65/65   PER/LDR: 50/50

Skills:  Literature 4, Robotics 2, Law 2, Xeno language (Tetrarchs) 1

Equipment: chronocom

Gh’dzz works out of the main level office (area 4) and is slowly researching the Tetrarch language.  His specific interest is literature and poetry but without understanding the language, it is kind of hard to tell what the writings are about.  Despite his main focus on literature, he also has an interest in robotics, specifically in task automation and keeps his eyes open for instances of that in the Tetrarch artifact data.

Yk’rtz T’tk

Archivist

Vrusk, female

STR/STA: 40/40   DEX/RS: 45/45   INT/LOG: 65/65   PER/LDR:70/70

Skills:  Structural Art 4, Visual Art 3, Environmental 2, History 1

Equipment: chronocom

Yk’rtz plays right into the stereotype of a vrusk art fanatic, animatedly interested in all forms of physical and visual art.  She works out of an office on the records vault level (area 4) where she is constantly reviewing the various artifact found across the planet.  She also studies the impact of these artifacts on the art produced by the residents of Laco looking for Tetrarch influences in modern culture.

Main Computer

The vault’s computer is housed on the main level of the complex (area 8) and can only be accessed by the research room (area 7). The computer is level 4 (115 FP) and has the following programs:

  • Analysis – 4
  • Communication – 1
  • Computer Security – 3
  • Information Storage – 5
  • Installation Security – 4
  • Language – 4
  • Life Support – 1
  • Maintenance – 1
  • Robot Management – 4

The installation security program controls the gate house, the door locks, all the security cameras, and the sonic stunner turrets throughout the compound. It does not control the security robots. It can issue orders but cannot disable them.

Similarly, the robot management program controls the maintenance and data retrieval robots but cannot control or disable the security robots, they are designed to operate independently of the main computer.

The computer itself does not contain the archived data. Rather the information storage program contains a giant, detailed index of the data archived at the site. The data are stored on data cubes that can be plugged into ports and then accessed via the various computer terminals throughout the building.  One of the main roles of the archivists at the site is to keep this index updated as new data arrives each week.

All terminals in the building are connected to the main computer and grant access based on the passcodes supplied when logging into the program. Visitors only have access to the analysis, information storage, and language programs while the base staff have access to the programs needed to perform their functions.

The defeating security subskill can be used at any terminal, but the bypassing security subskill can only be employed on the main computer itself in area 8. Any failed attempt to use either of these skills immediately locks the terminal and notifies the security officers.

Threat Response

The exact response to any sort of threat will depend on the location and nature of the threat itself, some common possibilities are provided in this section. Any intruders captured will be detained, questioned, and transported to the PGC headquarters at Point Glass for further processing.

For the purpose of threat response, authorized personnel are the regular vault staff, whose visual, biometric, and id card information are stored in the main computer and robots, and visitors holding/wearing a special passcard only available from the PGC headquarters in Point Glass and used by visiting PGC personnel. Authorized visitors are those issued a visitor badge at the security desk (main level – area 1a) upon arrival. Anyone else is considered unauthorized.

Exterior threats

A common, low-level threat is a vehicle attempting to gain entrance through the gatehouse without a proper code. In this case, the main PGC compound in Point Glass is contacted to verify that there is not some mistake. If the visitor’s bonifides can be established, they are allowed to enter. Otherwise, they are simply turned away and asked to exit the gatehouse and leave the area.

If an air-vehicle (aircar, jetcopter, etc.) attempts to land in the compound, they are warned away unless proper clearance codes are provided before approaching within 1000 meters of the compound. At the 1000-meter range they are warned that deadly force will be used if they do not alter course. If the vehicle does not veer off, the robots in the guard towers will all open fire at 500 meters with the heavy lasers set to 20 SEU (maximum) damage in an attempt to down the intruding vehicle.

A similar response will occur for any land vehicles that attempt to approach the compound by any means other than the main access road.

If any group designated as hostile by the security officers or the vault’s installation security program are visible inside the compound or are attempting to escape, the robots will use their weapons to attack the intruders using their weapons in an attempt to get them to surrender. Beings will be attacked using a 5 SEU damage setting while vehicles will be attacked using a 20 SEU setting. Fleeing parties will be attacked both inside and outside the compound until out of range.

Main level threats

If an authorized visitor is found wandering the halls, one of the security officers or archivists will come find them and offer them assistance and remind them they are only allowed access to the restrooms, the break room, and the research room. A second offence will result is a stiffer warning, and a third offence will result in them being escorted from the complex.

If the security cameras detect unauthorized personnel in any of the offices, the robotics lab, or the computer room, the security officers will respond immediately and attempt to subdue the intruders. If necessary, they can call on the security robot from the hallway to the elevator (main level – area 11) and from the hallway (area 3) or robot storage area in the deep vault (area 12). Note that it will take at least 5 minutes for robots to come up from the deep vault due to the elevator travel times unless a data retrieval robot is currently down in the vault, in which case it will only take 3 minutes.

If any unauthorized personnel penetrate the security lock (main level – area 10), both the security robot and the stunner turrets will immediately engage the intruder with their stunners attempting to subdue them. If stunning is not effective, the robot will switch to its laser weapon set at 5 SEU to encourage surrender and will fight to kill if the target does not surrender.

Deep vault threats

Any access to any portion of the deep vault by unauthorized personnel will be meet by an immediate response from the robots and stunner turrets. Like the security hallway on the main level, stunning attacks will be employed initially but if they fail, the robots will switch to deadly force. If the three robots already in the halls are deemed insufficient for the task, the six extra robots in area 12 will be activated and sent to assist.

Final Thoughts

This took a lot longer than I thought it would. And ended up being a bit bigger than I expected as well. It started as two pages of maps in my notebook and five paragraphs (including the combat robot stat block) of description. In the end the PDF file (attached below) is 16 pages long.

I ran my group through the location using the five paragraphs of notes. If any of them are reading this, they have probably realized by now that I completely forgot about the security robots inside the complex. It would have made their life a bit harder. The staff details are really the only bit I added after the fact. I knew they were all their but didn’t have details on any of them when I ran the game. Everything else was in my head if not written down when they went through the vault.

I hope you enjoy the location and the details provided and can use it in your game one way or another. As always, feel free to leave comments, questions, or suggestions below. Here’s the PDF with the full write-up.

Pan Galactic Records VaultDownload

Some PGC Robots

I haven’t gotten quite as far along in finishing up the Records Vault writeup as I’d like so the final version will have to wait a week. However, I did get the details on the robots found in the facility all written up so I’m presenting them here. Feel free to use them in your games

PGC S-037 Security Robot

The S-037 is a fairly typical security robot designed around a humanoid body.  It is capable of going anywhere one of the Frontier races can go.  It has a built-in sonic stunner and can carry and use any standard weapon.  It can respond to voice commands from authorized personnel and is capable of independent action within its mission and functions. 

The S-037 is designed to be a failsafe security system and will continue to function even when other security systems have been disabled.  While these robots have a computer link to share information with the facility’s computer, they cannot be deactivated via the computer’s robot management program if present. 

Level:  4
Body Type:  standard, two arms
Movement:  legs, 90 m/turn (max)
STA:  100
Attack:  70
IM:  7
Programs: Security Lock, Restrain, Attack/Defense, Computer Link
Equipment: Inertia Screen, power backpack, laser rifle, built-in sonic stunner, 4 tangler grenades
Cost: 13,950 cr.

The laser rifle and inertia screen are powered by the power backpack while the sonic stunner is powered by the robots internal Type 1 parabattery.  It uses the sonic stunner and tangler grenades by default but will switch to its laser rifle if seriously threatened or commanded to by an authorized person.

PGC M-022 Maintenance Robot

The M-022 is designed to do basic technical maintenance on buildings and equipment as well as janitorial duties.  Designed around a standard body with wheeled movement, the M-022 is a relatively small, boxy robot with two long manipulator arms and a sensor cluster in its “head” which is mounted on a flexible “neck”.

It can perform basic maintenance and assist a technician with their repair skills (granting a +10%) bonus on buildings and vehicles.  In addition, it is programmed for janitorial work to assist in keeping its assigned facility clean.  The M-022 can respond to simple voice command from authorized personnel but is typically controlled via the facility’s main computer.

Level:  3
Body Type:  standard, two arms
Movement: wheels, 60m/turn (max)
STA:  100
Attack:  60
IM:  6
Programs: Security Lock, Self Defense, Computer Link, Maintenance (1)
Equipment: techkit tools
Cost: 12,250 cr.

PGC G-092 Data Retrieval Robot

This small robot is designed to retrieve and transport data cubes within a computer facility.  It is built around a standard body with wheeled movement and two long (2m) manipulator arms.  In addition, the upper portion of its body can be raised on an internal hydraulic lift to allow it to reach high locations in the storage vaults, extending its height up to 3 meters.  Built into the top of the robot’s body is a “cradle” that allows it to carry up to four large data cubes in addition to carrying cubes in its hands.

The G-092 is really a mobile extension of the of the facility’s main computer and is only controlled via the computer’s robot management program.  It does not respond to voice commands and has no way of communicating other that via the computer.

Level:  2
Body Type: standard, two long arms
Movement: wheeled, 60m/turn (max)
STA: 100
Attack:  50
IM: 5
Programs:  Security Lock, Self Defense, Computer Link
Equipment: none
Cost: 7500 cr.

PGC Records Vault – part 1

While I had planned on presenting this all at once, I’ve decided to make this a two-parter (or maybe more).  Mainly because it turned out to be a bit bigger than I was anticipating.

I used this location in my on-line game.  For the game, all of my notes consisted of these three maps, and five paragraphs of notes including a partial stat block for the security robots.  Just writing up the room descriptions has ballooned to around 7 pages without the maps.  And I still need to write up all the stats for the robots and NPCs.  I always forget how much additional work is required to take something from your notes and transform it into something usable by others.

So this will take a bit longer than I had planned but in the end you’ll have a fun little location your characters can raid if desired.  In may game this was set on Laco but you could have another of these records vaults anywhere you want in your campaign.

For this part, I’ll be presenting the maps and room descriptions.  The other details will come in later posts.

Pan Galactic Records Vault on Laco

Nestled in the mountains to the northeast of Point Glass, the Pan Galactic Corporation has a records archive dug deep into the mountain to protect backups of all the data gathered by the company on Laco.  The vault houses hundreds of thousands of data cubes containing copies of data collected over the past 80 years of the company’s presence on the planet.  Content ranges from details on the Glass Pyramids, to data on local flora and fauna, to records from archaeology sites, and even detailed weather and climate data.

While parts of the data can be had at various locations around the planet, the only place where every bit is stored together is at the records vault and at PGC headquarters on Gran Quivera.  Because of this, PGC does allow a limited number of researchers access to the unclassified data in the archives.

 Exterior Compound

The main entrance to the vault is a structure built into a sheer cliff face in the side of the mountain. Surrounding this main building is a high (5m) wall topped by six guard towers.  Entrance through the wall is by a large gatehouse structure.  Inside the wall is the main building, a garage, and a power plant. A schematic of the external compound can be seen in the map below. 

1 – Gatehouse, wall, and guard towers – The gatehouse is a large enclosed structure with doors on each end.  It is easily large enough to accommodate an explorer or hover or ground transport.  Inside the gate house are several security cameras as well as a computer-controlled laser rifle, sonic stunner, and grenade launcher filled with doze and tangler grenades (10 each).  The weapons are connected to the complex’s power plant and have unlimited ammunition.

To enter, the outer doors open, the vehicle enters the gatehouse, and then the outer door closes. The driver is queried for passcodes for entrance via a terminal on a movable arm that adjusts for the height of the vehicle.  Once supplied, the inner door opens allowing the vehicle to proceed. 

If no proper codes are presented, security personnel in the main building are alerted.  If no threat is detected, the outer doors will re-open allowing the vehicle to exit.  If, on the other hand, the vehicle or occupants are deemed a threat, the outer doors do not re-open and the security personnel can use the weapons in the receiving area to disable the vehicle and incapacitate the occupants.

The outer wall of the compound is constructed of reinforced plastisteel and stands 5 meters tall and is a meter thick.  It is built into the mountain and completely surrounds the vault complex.

The guard towers stand an additional 5 meters over the wall and have access ladders on the inside of the wall.  Each tower contains a heavy laser operated by a level 4 security robot (see stats below). The heavy laser is powered by the compound’s power plant but also has a100 SEU powerpack as backup and can fire both inside and outside the compound.

The robots will respond to any threat against the compound and attempt to disable any vehicle deemed to be a threat that is attempting to leave the compound or escape from the gatehouse.  The robots are nominally controlled by the compound’s main computer but all PGC staff can override the computer commands.

For combat purposes, the walls, doors, and towers are considered to have 300 structure points.

2 – Garage– The garage is a single large building with two double doors on each end.  Any vehicle that can make it through the gatehouse can easily fit inside.  In addition to parking space, there is also a small work area with tools for field repairs and a small desk.

Whenever a vehicle is admitted into the gatehouse, the compound’s technician and robotics expert comes out to the garage to greet the arrivals and get their vehicle situated into a parking area and hooked up to recharge its parabatteries.

There are typically at least 3 vehicles here at all time:  two aircars and a ground car, all bearing the Pan Galactic Corporation’s corporate logo.  In addition, there could be up to five other private vehicles if researchers are visiting the facility.

3 – Power plant – This is the complex’s power source. It is a small generator situated over a natural geothermal vent.  The location of this vent was a major factor in selecting this location for the vault. It is a Type III generator capable of supplying up to 2000 SEU/hour,more than enough to power the complex. In addition, there are solar arrays on the roof that supply an additional 250 SEU/hour during the daylight hours.

The doors closest to the gatehouse provide maintenance access to the generator itself.  The other doors also provide maintenance access but are also the entrance to a small control room allowing the technician to monitor the status of the generator.

4 – Main vault building – This is the main vault complex.  There are windows on the side of the building on either side of the door.  The building is about 4 meters tall and built into the side of the mountain.  It extends dozens of meters into the mountain and then descends hundreds of meters into the bedrock of the area.  It is described in detail in the next section.

Main Level

This is the main level of the records vault where most of the staff and all visitors spend their time.  Every room on this level, including the hallways, have at least one security camera and an intercom panel.  Locations of the security cameras will be given in the room descriptions.  Unless otherwise stated, the intercom panel is located right inside the door.

1 – Main Entrance – This is the main reception area for the vault.  The room is well lit and relatively spacious.  It is divided by a desk (1a)behind which sits one of the vaults two security guards.  To the left and right are double doors that lead further back into the complex. These doors have level 3 security locks that key to the ID badges of the PGC staff.  There is another door behind the security desk.

When visitors arrive, the security guard calls back to one of the archivists who then come out and take the visitors back to the Research Room (area 7). 

1a – Security Desk – This is the work location for one of the two security guards on duty.  The desk is a about 1.2m in height and the guard sits on a raised chair behind it and has a computer terminal to work on.

Access to this area is via a door into the breakroom (area 2).  This door also has a level 3security lock.  The only way to get directly between the main entrance and the area behind the desk is to climb over the desk, there are no openings.

2 – Breakroom/Kitchenette– This is the main communal area for the complex.  It contains several tables and chairs as well as a refrigerator & freezer, oven and range, sink, microwaves, storage cupboards, and several vending machines. There is a security camera mounted in the lower right corner of the room (closest to area 8).

3 – Office –This office contains the desks for the two office staff and the computer &robotics technician.  The half of the room farthest from the door is separated by a wall and door into a private office for the vault’s administrator. The other two desks are in the main area. The door to this room is a level 2 security lock and the door to the administrator’s office has a level 3 lock.

Each desk has a computer terminal with access to all the information in the systems main computer.  The bypass security skill cannot be performed on these terminals.

There is a security camera mounted over the door to the storage room (area 3a) and an intercom panel right inside the entrance.

3a – Storage –This storage room contains a variety of office supplies and small electronics and computer parts.

4 – Office –This office contains four desks in an open plan.  The desks are for the security officer not manning the front desk (area 1a), and three of the site’s research librarians and archivists. 

Each desk contains a terminal that connects to the vault’s main computer.  Like the terminals in the other office (area 3), these terminals have full access to the computer’s systems.  In addition, the security officer’s desk has a second monitor that contains feeds from all the various security cameras around the complex.

4a – Storage –This storage room has a level 4 lock that keys only to the two security officers’ and the site administrators badges plus their fingerprint.  Inside is a small weapons locker containing

  • 6 doze grenades
  • 6 tangler grenades
  • 2 laser rifles
  • 10 power clips
  • 2 sonic stunners
  • 2 electrostunners
  • 2 power beltpacks

5 – Restrooms– This room contains three restroom stalls that cater to the anatomy of the various Frontier races.  In the outer room are several sinks and paper towel dispensers.  There is a camera in the outer area to the right just in side the door that can see the sinks but not into the restrooms proper.

6 – Robot Storage/Workroom – This area is the robotics storage and maintenance room.  Along the wall are recharging and storage bays for eight robots.  Typically, six of the bays are occupied by four maintenance robots and two data retrieval robots.  Occasionally, the other two bays may be occupied by security robots.  The center of the room is a workspace for repairing and maintaining the site’s robots.  There is the equivalent of a robotcom kit scattered throughout the room. 

The door to his room has a level 2 lock that is keyed to the badges of the site administrator, the security officers, and the technician.  It will also open automatically for any of the site’s robots entering and exiting.  The security camera in this room is mounted in the corner opposite the door above the robot recharging bays.

7 – Research Room – This room has six desks with computer terminals along the walls.  Each terminal provides access to the computer limited by the passcode provided. This is where visitors to the vault spend their time working on their research.  The entrance to this room from the hall is not locked.  The security camera is located in the upper right corner of the room.

8 – Computer Room – This room houses the vaults main computer as well as a number of data cube ports allowing more data to be connected as needed.  The computer itself is arrange around the outer walls of the room and there are a dozen pedestals in the center of the room that can have data cubes set into them. There are two terminals to allow direct access to the computer in this room.

The door to this room has a level 4 security lock that only opens for the site administrator and the computer technician.  It will also open for either of the two data retrieval robots when they are bringing data cubes from the vault to be placed on the various pedestals in the room for the researchers to access.  The room contains two security cameras: one in the corner near the door and the second in the opposite corner.

9 – Hallway –This is the main hallway of the vault that connects the various rooms.  It has two security cameras located in the corners near the Robot Storage/Workroom (area 6) and the Computer Room (area 8)that can see everywhere in the hall.

10 – Security Lock – This room functions as an airlock to secure access to the vault.  Both doors contain level 3security locks that key to any of the site’s staff.  The doors will also open for any of the site’s robots.  Only one door may be open at any time and must be closed to open the other door.  This is a mechanical design and not electronic and cannot be bypassed.  Each door takes two rounds to open.

11 – Hallway –This long hallway extends from the Security Lock to the elevator that descends to the data vault proper.  It has a pair of armed security cameras as shown on the map. Each camera has a sonic stunner connected to the vault’s power grid and cannot run out of ammunition unless the power is shut off.  Additionally, there is a security robot sitting in the center of the hallway that will attack any non PGC staff that enter this restricted area.

12 – Elevator –  This large elevator connects the upper main level to the lower vault.  It takes two minutes to traverse the 200 meters between the two levels.

13 – Stairwell– This is a long flight of stairs that runs parallel to the elevator shaft connecting the upper and lower levels allowing for access and escape from the vault level in the case of a power loss or malfunction of the elevator.  It’s not so bad going down but coming up is a bit of a climb.

Deep Vault

This is where the records are actually stored.  This level is located 200 meters below the main level and is dug into the mountain’s bedrock.

1 – Elevator– This is the elevator access on the lower vault level.

2 – Stairwell– This area is the bottom of the long stairwell from the upper level.

3 – Hallway –This large hallway connects all the offices and data vaults on this level with the elevator and stairwell.  There are a number of security cameras armed with sonic stunners placed throughout this hallway to cover all the various locations. Like the ones in the hallway on the main level (area 11), they are connected to the vault’s power grid and controlled by the main computer.

In addition to the security camera turrets, there are three security robots that rove about the hallway patrolling the area.  These robots will attack anyone who is not a member of the PGC staff immediately attempting to incapacitate them.

4 – Office –This office contains a desk with a computer terminal.  In addition, there are four data cube port pedestals along the wall near the door. A security camera is mounted right above the door.  These offices are used by the PGC researchers working with the data.  They have direct access to the data in the vaults and do not have to wait for the robots to retrieve the data cubes.  They are also used when working on sensitive PGC classified information so that the data does not leave the vault area.  This office is currently being used by one of the vault staff.

5 – Office –This office is identical to area 4 although rotated 90 degrees.  It is currently in use by one of the PGC staff.

6 – Office –This office is a mirror image of area 5 and is currently unoccupied.

7 – Restrooms– Similar to the restrooms on the main level, this area is for use by the researchers working down in the vault.

8 – Data Vault 1 – The data vault room, unlike the rest of the complex, has 4m high ceilings instead of the standard 3m height. Most of the room is taken up by a compact shelving unit to maximize the storage space.  All the shelves in this room move on a series of tracks on the floor and access is only available to one set of shelves at a time.  A control pad on the side of each shelf allows for access, causing all the shelves to move to open up a walkway where needed. It takes 30 seconds for the shelves to move once activated.  They can also be moved by the main computer

On any given shelf there are rows of filing boxes that are coded and labeled.  The labels contain both a barcode, an alphanumeric code, and a short description.  In each box are the data cubes containing the data specified by the barcode.  A box will typically have from one to five data cubes inside.

There are four security cameras in each room, one in each corner.  They cannot see down into the open passageway between the shelves but can see everything in the area on either side of the shelves.  The doors to this room are protected with a level 2 lock that keys to any of the site’s staff and will also open for any of the site’s robots as well.

This vault is used to store all data related to the flora and fauna of Laco.

9 – Data Vault 2 –This vault is identical in construction to Data Vault 1 and holds all data related to the geology and climate of Laco as well as any astronomical data related to the Dixon’s Star system.

10 – Data Vault 3 –This vault is identical in construction to Data Vault 1 and holds all the socio-political data about Laco, such as information on the culture and other corporations, and all PGC corporate data.

11 – Data Vault 4 – This vault is identical in construction to Data Vault 1.  This data holds all the collected information on the Techrachs and related sites that have been collected on the planet.  The data on the Glass Pyramid activation will be stored in this vault.

12 – Security Robot Storage – This room is a storage and recharging station for the security robots in use around the complex. There are ten charging stations here. There are six security robots in the charging stations that can be activated by the main computer if a threat is detected.  The door to this room is locked with a level3 security lock that is accessible only by the site administrator, the security officers, and the roboticist.  The door will open automatically for any of the security robots.

Closing Thoughts

If you’d like a PDF version of this location, you can download the file linked below.  I’ll post updated versions of this as I add to it in later posts.

Pan Galactic Records VaultDownload

As usual, if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, let me know in the comments section.

Detailed Frontier Timeline – FY59.346 – FY59.367

I had hoped to get the records vault up this week but I’ll do that next week.  In the mean time, here are the first three weeks of the Detailed Frontier Timeline as posted by the @StarFrontiers account on Twitter. 

Dates are in the YY.DDD format with the digits before the decimal being the year since the founding of the UPF and the numbers after the decimal being the day of that year.  There are 400 standard days in a year so the current events presented are coming at the close of of FY59.

FY Event
59.042 First Volturnus expedition leaves Pale
59.346 Second Voltrunus expedition leaves Pale for Zebulon system.
59.347 Jack Legrange murdered on Kraatar. Rioting breaks out in Gozzorf City. (Fulborn-McKoy prize in bio-engineering)
59.348 Broadcast claiming responsibility for the Lagrange murder by the Vrusk Protection Force is released.
59.349 Vist’Lat, the employer of Legrange’s assassins, fires and forcibly evicts all Human workers from corporate offices and housing.
59.350 Medical Services Organization issues an alert that Ixiol, a new drug previously confined to Inner Reach, has begun appearing in other systems in the Frontier.  Users develop a deep yellow tinge to their skin or carapace.
59.351 * Strike Force Nova arrives in the Prenglar system for its annual maintenance and refit.  UPFS Admiral Clinton moves immediately into drydock for maintenance.  It will be tied up for 26 days.

* Vist’Lat expelled from the Commercial Council on Kraatar – “The council feels that much of the recent unrest can be attributed to VL’s policies. Its latest move to sack its human workers and evict them from their homes in untenable. The council cannot condone or accept this behavior.”
59.352 Funeral announced for Jack Legrange to occur in 6 days (59.358)
59.353 Vist’Lat shuts down all spaceport operations effectively cutting Kraatar off from the rest of the Frontier.
59.354 Contact lost with second Volturnus expedition.  Suspected pirate activity in the Zebulon system.  Pale government officials begin investigation into possible leak of jump data.
59.355 Rumors leak about a secret Spacefleet starship research and training center in an “unexplored” system within the Frontier.
59.356 * Attack by KLC troops on monorail headed to Quazzt’s Depression where Legrange’s funeral is to be held.  Train crashes. Rescue teams dispatched

* Legrange’s funeral moved forward and held today.  Body is cremated, not a common practice on Kraatar
59.357 Survivors of train crash arrive in Quazzt.
59.358 WarTech unveils its new line of “Ke” laser weapons to be available in the new year.
59.359 Missile launched from Kraatar’s moon, Setarz.  It self-destructs en route. 
59.360 Information released by the Kraatar government reveals that the missile contained a bio-weapon designed to kill all vrusk on the planet.  Also revealed is that Jack Legrange is still alive and orchestrated the unrest on Kraatar and faked his death.  Unfortunately, the team that was able to stop the missile and gather the information were not able to capture Legrange and he is currently at large.
59.361 Based on information obtained from Artemis Base, Ral’Ik’Ka security forces stop a planned uprising by the KLC on the surface of Kraatar.  The planet returns to an uneasy peace.
59.362 Astronomers on Histran (Scree Fron system), release news of the discovery of a previously unknown brown dwarf approximately 100ly from the Frontier. Its motion indicates that it had a close encounter with a K4 star some 175 years ago.  Initial news of the discovery is quickly suppressed by the Family of One.
59.363 Sathar cybernuk creature (Frontier Explorer #6) discovered on Pale with cyber implant. It was thought that the nuks were confined to New Pale.  The cyber implant seems to be of recent construction and not a relic from the war.
59.364 Pan Galactic unveils a new “Thunder” line of hoverbikes with nods to early PGC models. Old-time bike enthusiasts praise the antique styling coupled with modern safety features but others complain that the bikes live up to their name and are too loud.
59.365 TransTravel’s newest luxury starliner, the TTSS Destiny, emerges from the starship construction center at Gran Quivera. It will begin a “Grand Tour of the Frontier” starting with a run to Truane’s Star in a few days.
59.366 New breed of quickdeath discovered on Pale. Descended from creatures released during the Great Sathar War, this new variant is smaller but travels in packs unlike the solitary or pair hunters of the original strain. 
59.367 With both Strike Force Nova and Task Force Prenglar in the Prenglar system, Spacefleet begins a series of training exercises to last until the UPFS Admiral Clinton completes its refit.

The events presented will either be specific events I have in the timeline, events from my various campaigns happening during this time, or fluff pieces to provide some background and color to the Frontier on days when no significant events are happening.  This first bit of material only involves events happening in the Frontier.  As the timeline progresses, there will also be events happening in sathar controlled space.  I’m still debating where to put those into the published tweets and include them in these posts.

In addition to posting the timeline as a table here on the blog, I’ll also be providing it as a PDF that can be downloaded.  In future posts, the body of the post will only present the new material since the last post.  The file, however, will always be the cumulative timeline starting from the beginning.  Here’s the first installment of that:

DetailedFrontierTimelineDownload

Feel free to let me know if you have any comments, questions or suggestions below.  Do you want to see the sathar related events as well?