A New Starship Construction System

I was going to start posting the designs for some new starships for Star Frontiers. However, since I’m building them with my custom starship construction system, I realized that some of the bits of information won’t make sense for those that are familiar with the standard system.

I’ve been working on this system off and on for years but it’s finally at a point where it is usable. While it’s possible to generate all the ships from the standard Star Frontier system, this system is a bit more flexible and allows for a wider range of ship designs. And the ships created can be dropped directly into the existing game alongside existing ships. At least in terms of boardgame statistics. The sizes of the ships are somewhat different.

So before I start posting the new ships, I thought I should at least provide an introduction to this new system. And I’ll do that by simply posting the Introduction section from the new rule system. I’m working on polishing this up and will be releasing it sometime in the future.

Knight Hawks Starship Construction 2.0

This is an alternate ship construction system for the Star Frontiers RPG. While all the components are the same as in the standard Knight Hawks rules, this system takes a more realistic approach to the construction of the starships that is based on the volume and mass of the ship’s components. While the original Knight Hawks system is based on picking a hull size and then limiting what the ship could do based on that, in this system you pick the components of the ship based on what you want it to do and the capabilities and performance you want it to have. The hull size is then just a function of the ship’s systems.

From the perspective of both the Knight Hawks board game and general role playing, the resulting ships are nearly identical to those generated with the original Knight Hawks system. The differences are mainly in size and cost.

The main differences are as follows:

Life support systems have more variety, are more detailed, cost more, and are bulkier than in the Knight Hawks rules. They also scale more realistically as you increase the number of beings supported.
Hulls have more variety and are more expensive. In addition to the standard hull, we introduce three additional hull grades that have varying cost, mass, and hull points. Instead of the cost of the hull scaling linearly with the hull size of the ship, it now scales with the volume of the ship.
Engines are more appropriately scaled. Each engine type and size now has a thrust rating. This, combined with the mass of your ship, gives you the acceleration that the ship can achieve. The engine classes are scaled appropriately to provide proper amounts of thrust to move the bigger ships. The costs are also scaled appropriately to the thrust provided by the engines. Fuel costs also scale with engine size.
These ships are more expensive. This is primarily due to the changes in the cost of hull, engines, and life support. All three of these systems are more (and in some cases much more) expensive than the same systems in the Knight Hawks rules. This was done for a variety of reasons but primarily to make the costs scale realistically with the size and capability of the systems as they grow larger.
Hull size is computed a little differently. While it still scales exponentially with the volume of the ship, it has now been modified so that the hull size and volume are mathematically related instead of being arbitrarily scaled. This has the result of making the smaller hull sizes larger than the corresponding hull size from Knight Hawks while the larger ships from this system are actually smaller than a ship of the corresponding hull size from the original rules. For example, an average HS 1 ship in the new system is 64 cubic meters in volume which is double the size of a HS 1 ship in the original rules. And HS 1 in this system goes up to 216 cubic meters which is nearly half the size of a HS 2 ship from the original. On the other end, an average HS 20 ship in the new system has a volume of 512,000 cubic meters which falls between HS 11 and 12 in the original Knight Hawks system. [Note: This is something I’m not completely happy with and am still working on.] Additionally, there is no upper limit on hull size. You can build your ship as big as you have the budget for.
One final difference is that the definition of a cargo unit has been standardized to a specific volume. This is more realistic than the Knight Hawks system of one cargo unit per HS since in that system you could increase the HS by 2 and double the volume but only increase the cargo capacity by 2 not doubling it even though the ship was vastly larger. This change eliminates that discrepancy. It also means that ships will have tens to hundreds to even thousands of cargo units of hauling capacity. A future work will redefine the cargo tables to give prices and volumes to work with this new system.

Unless otherwise described, assume that all systems are identical to the systems described in the original Knight Hawks rules.

So what will I notice in the new listings

All of the old bits of information about the ships are still there. What has been added are a few new descriptors related to mass, volume, and fuel consumption.

Now instead of just listing the hull size, the actual total volume of the ship is provided. There are two parts to this. One is the overall volume including the cargo areas if any, and the other is the “inhabited” volume, or the part of the ship where the crew lives and works that doesn’t include the cargo hold. For vessels that are not primarily freighters these numbers are nearly identical.

In addition to the total volume, the mass of the ship, in tons, is provided. Again this has two values, one for the ship with the cargo areas empty, and another for the ship with a full hull (which assumes 2 tons per cubic meter of cargo). The ship’s ADF value is computed based on this full-loaded mass volume. For most ships there isn’t a different between that and the unloaded value. This isn’t true for freighters as unloaded, their engines can move the ship at much higher accelerations.

Finally, each listing provides a values labeled “ADF per fuel load”. This value represents the total number of ADF that can be achieved by fully burning through a load of fuel in all of the ship’s engines and is related to the fully loaded ADF value. These ships are actually more fuel efficient than in the original rules. It takes 1000 ADF to make an interstellar jump (and stop at your destination). Since most ships can run at an ADF of 2 or more, they only need a fraction of their fuel to reach jump speed and thus can make multiple jumps on a single load of fuel as long as they don’t run into trouble along the way and have to do a lot of maneuvering.

Playtesting

These rules are definitely a work in progress. I’m starting up a play-by-post game that will involve a lot of ships and traveling so I plan on testing these rules out extensively during that game.

That’s the basics. For my next few posts I’ll be sharing some ships that the PCs will have the option to buy as their starting vessel in that play-by-post campaign that are designed using this new system.

Expanded Frontier Map

Happy Halloween! In my “State of the Frontier” post last week, I mentioned that I was working on updating an old map that I had created many years (i.e. decades) ago for use as my main campaign map of the Frontier region. Today, I’m posting the (near) final version of that map. Along with a bit of history and explanation.

Background

The original map was hand drawn in the late 80’s on six 8.5″x11″ pieces of quad-ruled graph paper and then taped together. I’ve kept it in a cardboard poster tube all these years when I haven’t actually been using it. Right now it’s rolled up inside out to try to get some of the decades of bend rolled out the other direction.

The map was drawn back before I acquired a personal copy of Zebulon’s Guide to Frontier Space, Vol 1. I didn’t get my first copy of that until 1992, many years after Star Frontiers went out of print. My copy was actually a gift from some fellow role-players.

I had, however, looked at a Zeb’s Guide and its beautiful map at some point before I drew mine. There are too many similarities between the area just around the Frontier in my map and the Zeb’s map to chalk up to mere coincidence. The two most noticeable are the star cluster to the upper left of the Frontier and the neutron star just below it. I would have had zero reason to put a cluster like that (I had four stars and the Zeb’s Guide map had 3) anywhere, let alone there, if I had not seen the published map at some point. And I had exactly the same use for the neutron star system at the location of Lynchpin as the published timeline had. I had a different route to it but the idea was there from a perusal of Zeb’s Guide in a bookstore.

I have now updated my map to better match the map in Zebulon’s Guide as well as included some additional fan created maps of the areas of space the Saurians and S’sessu come from. These changes mainly affect the area below the Frontier and to the right of Liberty system (from the Beyond the Frontier modules).

There are a few differences. Most importantly is the location of the new systems described in the published modules. I place the Rhianna (Mission to Alcazzar) and Starmist (Sundown on Starmist) systems in the locations specified in the modules, not where the Zeb’s Guide map places them. I always thought it was strange that they would move them from the published locations. In truth, only Rhianna was given a general location (inside the loop formed by Cassidine, Timeon, and White Light) but given the way Starmist was discovered (by emergency landing which I took to mean from a mis-jump), I don’t think the Zeb’s Guide location (outside the main Frontier) makes sense for that system and I like mine better (and the system I chose was left off the Zeb’s map completely!). My location for the Belnafaer system (Bugs in the System) only differs by one star from the Zeb’s map and both correspond to the module description. For now I’ve left it where I originally placed it but might move it for consistency. Finally, the location of the Tristkar system (Dark Side of the Moon) is exactly where Zeb’s Guide places it. From the description in the module, the location of the Solar Major system would make a little more sense but since I didn’t actually have this system on my map originally, using the Zeb’s Guide location works just fine.

Second, I don’t have the plague worlds from Zeb’s Guide (the system I choose for Rhianna is actually Zeb’s Delta plague world). On my map they are just unexplored systems.

Finally, while I don’t normally use the MegaCorp systems in my campaign I’ve included them for completeness. I’ve also redrawn the nebulae in the Frontier region to more match the ones drawn in the Zeb’s Guide map and added in the Rim planets.

On the side of fan produced materials, I’ve added in the locations of the Saurian and S’sessu worlds from maps published in issues 4 and 16 of the Frontier Explorer and adjusted my map accordingly.

The New Map

So with that introduction, here’s the updated map.

Expanded map of the Frontier Sector with the systems from Zeb's Guide, the modules and some fan creations added in. — Updated map of the Frontier. Click for the full-sized image.

The smaller blue box is the area covered by the original Frontier map and the large blue box is the area covered by the Zeb’s Guide map.

This is very much a “player-facing” map. It doesn’t contain secret jump routes (with the exception of the one between Truane’s Star to Cassidine that I forgot to remove 🙂 ) that are known to the UPF, MegaCorps, pirates, or the sathar. If I was using it for my game, there are even parts of this map that I would not use (i.e. the MegaCorp planets, and S’sessu and Saurian space) at least not to begin with as those are discovered in game. I’ve set the map up with all these bits and pieces on separate layers so that I can turn them on and off as needed.

The map extends more upward from the Frontier than down because the Vast Expanse, an area that I consider to be fairly devoid of stars, is “down” and exploration is easier (due to shorter jump distances) in the “up” direction. You can see the much lower density of stars in that direction. It gets even worse going further off the map.

While I still have some small tweaking to do on this map, mainly with labeling, it is completely usable.

Future Work

While this is a completely functional map, it’s not super pretty. One of the things I’d like to do is give it a color makeover so it looks more like the maps that my star sector generator program produces. Those maps look like this:

However, that might have to wait for a while. Although when I get to it, it will make a pretty awesome poster.

The actual next step is to work out the logistics of the Second Sathar War and the sathar assault on the Frontier. The sathar are out there on that Extended Frontier map although I didn’t show their systems and jump routes. Given that I know know all the jump routes, I can start figuring out how long it would take for them to maneuver and launch offensives and resupply their ships from their starship construction centers. Some exploration by the UPF and well placed raids could significantly influence the outcome of the conflict.

If you have any thoughts or comments on the map, let me know.

Update: Just saw today that the RPG Blog Carnival topic for November (hosted by Nuketown) is “All These Worlds …”. My post was a day early (and I didn’t know the topic or I might have waited) but it’s close enough that I think it applies. So this post is part of this month’s blog carnival and I might have some more related posts in the coming weeks.

Alyssa Tinett

I had intended for Alyssa to play a larger role in the Death at Rosegard adventure when I ran it for my group. But, like many of the things GMs put into their adventures, the party didn’t really take an interest in her. I used her for the first role she was supposed to play and then I forgot about using her later on. So it is at least partially on me.

Alyssa is the daughter of Larroy & Camryn Tinett, the village’s vet and computer specialist respectively. Her maternal grandparents also live in the village, Steven & Janie Hite. She is very intelligent, inquisitive, and adventurous. She is also an only child.

Alyssa Tinett

Picture of Alyssa in shorts, shirt, and shoes. Her hair is in a ponytail and she has a sword at her side. — Sketch by Danae Stephens

Physically, Alyssa is about 137 cm (4’6″) tall and weighs about 32 kg (70 lbs). She has long brown hair that reaches her mid-back which she typically wears in a pony tail. She has green eyes, and a light tan complexion.

She has her mother’s interest in computers and has picked up quite a bit of experience helping around her mom’s shop.

Alyssa is curious and friendly and a xenophile, very interested in the non-human races of the Frontier. As such, she likes to visit the Streel mine compound and talk to the staff there. She has befriended the resident geologist, a yazirian named Talnor Malon, who has been teaching her how to sword fight, probably against her parents wishes.

Note: If any of my players are reading this, they may notice that I describe Talnor here as a geologist. In the game when I ran it I made him the roboticist but that was a mistake I made when introducing him and just went with it (as it really doesn’t affect the game much at all). He was supposed to be the geologist and I just read my notes wrong.

Stats

STR/STA: 25/25
DEX/RS: 45/45
INT/LOG: 60/65
PER/LDR: 60/60
Skills: Computer – 1, Melee (sword only) – 1

In The Adventure

Introduction

When the PCs arrive in town, there will be a party going on at the city center and the PCs will be flagged down by one of the mine staff and escorted inside to join the celebrations.

The event is a birthday party for Alyssa who is turning 12. When the PCs enter, she will be seen across the hall in a pale blue summer dress. Despite her feminine attire she will be engaged in a mock sword fight with a boy that looks to be a year or two older and a few inches taller than her. She is also winning. Any yazirian PC will notice that she is wielding her sword as a yazirian would wield a kha’dan (yazirian honor blade).

When Alyssa notices the PCs, she will let out a loud squeal of excitement, abandon the sword fight, and race over to talk with the PCs, especially the non-human ones. She will be full of questions and youthful curiosity but her questions will be very intelligent.

Regular interactions

As the PCs investigate and interact with the town, Alyssa will tail around with them if they let her. She will mostly stay out of the way but will try to strike up conversations when they are not busy and will provide information if asked. She received a short sword from Talnor as a birthday present and will be conspicuously wearing it whenever she is out and about.

Up until now she has typically gone by the nickname “Ali” and most of the townspeople will call or refer to her by that name. However, now that she’s 12, she wants to go by her full name and will always introduce herself as Alyssa and correct anyone that calls her Ali. The exception to that are her grandparents, they still get to call her Ali.

Leaving Town

When the PCs leave the village, she will attempt to hide in the back of their explorer. Unless the characters are explicitly looking or being careful to prevent it, she will not be discovered until they are many hours away from town. For each hour of travel, there is a 5% cumulative chance that she will be discovered (i.e. 5% after one hour, 10% after 2 hours, and so on).

Because she ranges round the town and mine so much, she won’t be missed until near the end of the day that the PCs leave. At which point, if they haven’t discovered her and let the village know that she is with them, they will get a call on their radiophone asking if they have seen her. At which point she will accidentally give herself away in the back of the vehicle.

Alyssa has dressed and packed for an adventure. She is wearing jeans, shirt and boot, and has a backpack containing a jacket, 2 liters of water, 4 days of travel rations, an all-weather blanket, a compass, a pocket tool, and a change of clothes. She also has a chronocom and the short sword she received from Talnor on her birthday.

She wants to have an adventure and will do anything she can to convince the PCs to let her stay with them. The referee should play up her excitement, desire to explore and learn, and willingness to help the PCs anyway she can to try to convince them to keep her with them as long as possible.

Further Interactions

What the PCs do with her is up to them. Depending on when they discover her and where they are at, they can return to the village delaying what they were working on or can decide to keep her with them.

Returning her home will result in a severe scolding for her from her parents and profuse thanks to the PCs for keeping her safe. The longer they keep her with them, the less profuse the thanks will be, however, as her family will be worried about her.

On the other hand, if the PCs keep Allysa with them, she will be obedient and helpful, although very curious and inquisitive about what they are doing. She realizes she is there only at their whim and wants to stay on the PCs’ good side. It’s up to the referee to decide on the final responses and repercussions from the village and Streel for whatever course the PCs choose.

The Village of Rosegard

Originally, I had planned to have one more Mapping Rosegard video here that covered adding in the labels for the roads and making the black and white version of the map you’ll see below but for some reason, the audio didn’t record, only the video. Since I didn’t want (or really have the time) to do a voice over, and it’s not that important of a topic, I decided just to drop it. Also, it is something I can easily cover in a future series.

So instead, you’re getting the post that I had originally planned for the beginning of next week, the final maps along with the write-up on the town proper.

Rosegard

History

Rosegard is located about 400 km northwest of Point True. It was founded shortly after the Great Sathar War as part of the resettlement effort initiated by the Pale government. It originally consisted of six human families that set up homesteads in the valley using the agriculture subsidies the government provided to encourage development of farming to supply food for the population. Over time, the small village has grown to include 13 families, many of the additional families are children of the original settlers that went away to school and then returned.

While there is no shortage of technology in the village, it is still primarily an agricultural center. Most of the actual agriculture work is done by robots but supervised by the towns inhabitants. The technological specialists in town keep the robots, vehicles, and computer systems running to manage the farm production. Every week, trucks arrive to pick up crops to take into the larger population centers to sell.

About 18 years ago, one of the villagers was up exploring in the mountains and discovered a vein of gold that had been revealed by some recent erosion. Lacking the infrastructure to properly mine the valuable resource themselves, the village brokered a deal with Streel (formerly known as Streele Mining before the war) to lease the company the rights to the mine. The mine proved to be more lucrative than either party imagined and is still active to this day.

The village’s income from the mine amounts to several million credits every year. That money is held in trust and used to maintain the village infrastructure, pay for primary and secondary education for all of the village youth, and other expenses as needed.

There is a very good relationship between the workers at the mine and the city. In addition to providing additional revenue to the village, the mine employs the village’s technical workers (the technician, roboticist, and computer specialist) to help assist with work at the mine in addition to their own staff. The mine staff also takes advantage of the medical facilities provided in the village. Reciprocally, the village invites the mine staff down for any town activities and has integrated them as part of the community. The youth often go up to the mine to see operations there and the mine staff often come down to teach mini-lectures in the village school.

Inhabitants

Original Homesteading Families

These are the senior members of the community who originally founded it. Their houses are located around the circular loop at the north end of town. These families primarily work the agriculture portion of the village’s activities.

Genio & Kathy Washy – Genio is the town mayor. They have two older children living at home. They live in the home on the same plot as the General Store. Kathy is a horticulturist and is responsible for tending the rose hedges in the central part around the gazebo. It is these rose gardens that gave the village its name.
Martin & Jenne Lexand – They have two children living at home. They live in the home on the same plot as the Technician shop/Garage.
Steven & Janie Hite – They have three kids living at home.
Matthua & Julie Colly – They have three kids living at home.
Jon & Jessa Smeson – They have a single child living at home
Reme & Kayelyn Marte – The youngest of the original settlers, they still have four children living at home

Newer Families

These families are younger, many of them being the older kids of the earlier settlers. Their houses are built around the block on the west side of town.

Rickern & Mikaela Bennez – Mikaela is the second child of Jon & Jessa Smeson and the town’s roboticist having studied at Pale University. Rickern helps manage the Smeson farm. They have three children.
Mese & Braealyn Washy – Mese is the oldest child of Genio & Kathy Washy. They run the town’s General Store and have three kids, ages 17, 14, & 12 who also help out at the store when not in school.
Larroy & Camryn Tinnett – Camryn is the daughter of Steven & Janie Hite and is the town’s computer specialist having studied at the Triad Institute of Technology. Larroy is a veterinarian and works with the village doctor. They have a single daughter, Allyssa, age 12.
Rickey & Ilana Cooker – Rickey and Ilana met Camryn at school and she convinced them to move to Pale when she returned home. Ilana is the town doctor and also has some veterinarian skills. Rickey helps work the Hite farm with his in-laws. They have four kids.
Benjoe & Abbil Leray – Benjoe is a childhood friend of Rickern Bennez and became enamored of the quite life in Rosegard when visiting one year. Both he and Abbil are teachers and work at the village’s school. They have five children
Joshua & Miya Welley – Josh and Miya are the newest members of the village and the only ones that didn’t have an immediate connection when then arrived. As the village grew, the need for a city clerk arose and Miya was hired to handle the administrative affairs of the growing village. She works in the City Center handling a wide variety of tasks for the town. Joshua is a teacher and works with the Leray’s in the town’s school.
Mikkel & Danielle Lexand – Mikkel is the son of Martin and Jenne Lexand and is the town’s technician running the garage/tech shop in town. Danielle helps out on the Lexand farm. They have one child.

City Buildings

General Store

This building contains a wide variety of goods that are used regularly by the small village. While a lot of the supplies are foodstuffs and farming supplies, there are a number of small high tech wares as well. Larger items, such as robots, most weapons, and vehicles, have to be special ordered in from Point True but the store has access to the full Streel and PGC catalog and anything ordered will arrive in 2-4 days.

Technician/Garage

This is where Mikkel keeps all the village’s vehicles and equipment running. It has room inside to work on three vehicles at any one time. It is a fully equipped and modern repair shop and any Technician skill checks performed using this area gain a +10% bonus.

City Community Center

This large building consists of two stories, unlike all the other buildings in town. The lower level is a large gathering hall used for town activities and celebrations. The upper level contains the city offices where Miya works as well as the village’s central computer system. There are also half a dozen guest rooms that function as the village’s inn when they have overnight visitors. While most of the rooms can be used by any race, one of them is specifically appointed with furniture designed for the Vrusk anatomy. Across the street to the north, and directly east of the building are large grass fields used for outdoor activities as well.

School

The village’s school is where the younger kids spend their day getting their primary education. It is divided into several small classrooms where specialized classes can be presented dependent on age and ability level. Because of the small number of children in the village, there are not really “traditional” classes and each child has a workstation where they receive individual and tailored instruction based on their needs and interests. The school is very high tech and state-of-the-art. A lot of the village’s mine revenue has gone into its education facilities. As such the children in the village are often smarter and sharper than would be expected for their age.

Computer/Robotics Shop

Mikaela and Camryn share this building to work on the villages computers and robots. While the building is mostly given over to tech space to work on the various agriculture robots used by the village, there is also some space given over to computer repair as well. This building also houses a backup computer system for the village. If PC’s are looking for computer or robotic parts, they are more likely to find them here than at the General Store. The facilities here are top notch and any computer or robotics repair or upgrade attempts receive a +10% skill bonus.

Doctor’s Office

This small office has a small operating room, and three patient rooms in addition to the foyer and waiting area. Dr. Cooker has a small office here as well. The building is designed for patients of the core four races and while they do handle veterinary duties, those occur on location outside the office. Like the other areas in the town, the facilities here are of an higher than average grade and all medical checks made in the facility gain a +10% skill bonus.

Alternate maps

In addition to the main map above, I created one with no labels and another one in black and white. These two maps are presented below.

No Labels

Final full color map with labels removed — Final map with the labels removed. Click for full sized image (~6MB)

Black & White

Black and white version of full map with labels — Final Rosegard map in black and white (with labels) – Click for full sized image (~2MB)

And that’s it for Rosegard for now. Next up I’ll be shifting gears back to the Ghost Ship Osiris module and you’ll be getting some information on the star system the adventure takes place in.

Mapping Rosegard – Part 4

In this segment we finish up the map by adding in some small details such as driveways, a fence around the school yard, a scale, and then add in the labels on the public buildings. The earlier videos can be found here: part 1, part 2, part 3.

With the map finished we export the final finished version.

I will be doing one more video related to this map and then will post the final map for everyone to use if they wish.

Mapping Rosegard – Part 3

In this segment, I show how I add in the textures for the lawns, asphalt for the road, farm fields and some gravel paths and borders around the grass to keep the lawns and the farm fields separate. I also add in a couple trees (more will get added later.

You can check out part 1 and part 2 if you haven’t watched them yet.

I’ll finish up the landscaping before recording part 4 where I’ll add in the labels and any finishing touches to the map.

Mapping Rosegard – Part 2

This is part 2 of the video series outlining the creation of the final Rosegard map. If you haven’t watched it yet, here is part 1.

In this segment, I create a custom pattern to use for the roof tiles of the buildings and then create a few of the buildings in the town to show how it will be done, including one of the buildings around the loop at the top of the map that is not aligned NS-EW like the others.

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions below.

Mapping Rosegard – Part 1

This is going to be a multipart video series showing how I use Inkscape to turn my hand-drawn sketch of the Rosegard village map (the map shown in the Outline of the Death at Rosegard Adventure Project) into a final polished map.

It will probably be full of fumblings, mistakes, and other ramblings as I get back up to speed with using Inkscape as well as get used to narrating out loud what I’m doing, as I’m doing it. This is my first foray into this type of presentation so be patient.

In any case, here’s the first video:

I’ve created an Expanding Frontier playlist as part of my YouTube channel. Feel free to bookmark it or just watch for new posts as I make them here.

Please let me know what comments or suggestions you have in the comment section below.

Trey Mulden, Bounty Hunter and Breeder

This article was supposed to come out last week but work intervened and I was severely lacking in free time to get it finished and published. Sorry about the delay.

Trey was born on Lossend in the Timeon system. He came to Pale as part of the liberation force in the Great Sathar War. He participated in a few skirmishes with remnants of the sathar force on the planet but primarily was involved in efforts to eradicate the sathar bio-monsters. Like all members of the liberating forces, he was offered full citizenship if he stayed after the war. Trey decided to accept the offer and remained on Pale.

In the post-war years, he worked a variety of jobs to assist in rebuilding Point True but quickly became disenchanted with the work in the city. Deciding to put his wartime training to use, he joined a bounty hunting group that continued to search out and eradicate the sathar bio-monsters. While most of those he started with either gave up the hunt or became prey to the very creatures they were hunting, Trey excelled at the work and enjoyed it.

Trey has been hunting the sathar monsters for decades now and has been quite successful making a comfortable living from the bounties collected. However, in the last ten to fifteen years, the number of monsters has begun to dwindle, either because of successful hunting or some other process. Either way, Trey was beginning to seen his income drop to levels that he felt was unacceptable.

Rather than embark on a new line of work, he decided on another path. He had often joked with his companions that it would be easier to catch a few breeding pairs and raise their kids for the bounties instead of trying to hunt them in the wild. As his income began to drop, he decided to try just that.

Setting up a remote outpost in the mountains NW of Point True, Trey captured a number of the sathar creatures and instead of killing them for the bounty, began breeding them and raising them. Thus he could kill one of the captive creatures and collect the bounty whenever he needed additional income. He also began offering a live capture service to those who wanted live specimens to study. Since owning and breeding the sathar creatures was illegal, he has kept his operation in the shadows.

For decades he had been in contempt of the creatures as aberrations and was more than happy to hunt and kill them. That attitude persisted for the first few years of his captive breeding program. It was just a source of income. He even continued to hunt wild creatures in addition to collecting the bounties on his bred creatures. However, about six to seven years ago, his attitude toward the creatures changed. He no longer saw them as aberrations or with contempt but rather as amazing creatures with positive qualities. While he still bred the creatures and killed some for their bounties, he no longer hunted wild creatures and began to increase the number he raised, releasing those he didn’t kill for bounties into the wild.

Always fairly reclusive, he has become even more so since he started his breeding program and especially so since he started releasing the sathar creatures into the wild. He has had little direct, personal contact with anyone in several years beyond delivering proof when needed of his kills to collect the bounty income that supports him.

Trey Munden

Human, male, age 63

STR/STA: 55/45
DEX/RS: 55/55
INT/LOG: 45/50
PER/LDR: 30/30
PS: +3, IM: +6, Ranged: Beam 70%, Projectile 50%, Melee: 53%

PSA: Military
Skills: Projectile weapons 5, Melee weapons 2, Beam weapons 2, Technician 2, Environmental 3, Medic 2

Equipment: Military Skeinsuit, Auto pistol w/ 4 clips, autorifle w/ 4 clips, sonic sword w/ 2 clips, chronocom, toxy-rad guage, sungoggles.

GM Notes

Trey Munden’s change of attitude toward the sathar creatures is not an artifact of his close association with them through his breeding program. Rather it is due to an encounter he had with an actual sathar during one of his hunting expeditions. The sathar caught him unaware and successfully hypnotized him. Upon learning of his already existent breeding program, the sathar shifted his mindset about the creatures and set him on a path of breeding more and releasing them into the wild. Trey has no recollection of this encounter and firmly believes that the ideas and actions he has taken over the past few years are completely his own.

He is directly responsible for the creation of the lesser quickdeath. It was partially intentional, and partially a side effect of the selection of quickdeath to kill and turn in for bounties. Each year he would select the largest of the quickdeaths to kill as the size of the quickdeaths for which he collected the bounties figured somewhat into his reputation. Because of this, he was often breeding smaller and smaller specimens. After his encounter with the sathar, this became even more deliberate and focused. The larger pack behavior of the lesser quickdeath is due to the fact that they were raised together and naturally formed those bonds.

Encountering Munden

As part of the Death at Rosegard adventure, the PCs will not directly encounter Trey. However, they will have an opportunity to search his breeding compound, recently deserted, and learn about his activities. If the Referee wants to add additional encounters or the PCs want to chase him down, he provides an additional side adventure that they can engage in.

The Lesser Quickdeath

Here’s another critter that the PCs are going to have a run-in with while investigating at Rosegard. It’s a variation on a Star Frontiers classic.

Image showing head, neck, and tentacles of the quickdeath — Quickdeath by Don Freeman

Lesser Quickdeath
Type:	Medium Carnivore
Number:	2-4
Move:	Very Fast (120 m/turn)
IM/RS:	8/75
STA:	100
Attack:	60
Damage:	4d10 bite, claws
Special Attack:	Poison dart S10/T3, (RW 60, 10/20/30/40/50), attacks extra creature with maw (10 points damage)
Special Defense:	Immune to needler weapons; ½ damage from laser or projectile weapons, 70% chance will remain unseen until within 100m
Native World:	Sathar attack monster bred on Pale – all terrains

Description

The lesser quickdeath is a smaller version of the full-size quickdeaths which were originally released on Pale during the Sathar War and encountered on Volturnus. Where the full-sized quickdeath is about 5m long, the lesser quickdeaths are only about 3m in length. While individually smaller and less powerful, the lesser quickdeaths hunt in packs of 3-4 creatures instead of the solitary or breeding pair nature of the full-sized creatures.

While not as fast as the full-sized version (max speed is only 72 kph instead of 100 kph) they otherwise resemble their larger ancestors. Its great legs resemble those of a jaguar. They maintain the claws on their legs, keeping them razor sharp. These claws are used to attack prey and for climbing. Three sets of smaller, tentacle-like limbs which end in suction cups grow from the quickdeath’s sides. These limbs are used to catch unwary prey and stuff the victims into the quickdeath’s digestive maw. Any creature in the maw takes 10 points of damage until it frees itself (as if breaking free from a hold).

The quickdeath has a long, flexible neck that ends in a snout and large mouth. It has four eyes which are mounted on retractable stalks near the top of its head. The creature’s brain is located at the base of its neck. When the quickdeath strikes, it retracts its eye stalks making it nearly blind. With a successful attack, there is a 50% chance it will actually strike something other than its intended target if that object is roughly the same size as the target and within 2 meters of the target’s position.

The quickdeath also has a long, whip-like tail that can fling a poisonous dart once every four hours. It typically uses this dart as it first engages in melee to strike a secondary, more distant target if one exists.

The quickdeath’s hide is covered by a moist, reflective armor provides excellent camouflage making it nearly invisible until it approaches within 100 meters. Ouickdeaths are constantly on the move, seeking to appease their hearty appetites.

The female can lay hundreds of eggs each year, typically burying them deep in the sand or soil. Egg caches can contain up to 50 eggs (4d10 + 11). The first young hatchling eats the remaining eggs as its first meal, and then sets out to begin its lifelong search for more food.

Ouickdeaths are not native to Pale. The Sathar used advanced genetic manipulation to create them from a common type of cat found throughout the universe. During the invasion of Pale, they released hundreds of these in the area around Point True to terrorize any survivors outside the city. These lesser quickdeaths have only recently been sighted in the areas north and west of Point True in the last couple of years. Originally thought to be adolescents, examination of recently killed specimens show them to be a fully grown subspecies.

GM Notes

There are still many full-sized quickdeaths on Pale. You can use the normal stats for those from page 19 of SF0: Crash on Volturnus for other encounters on the planet. However, the full-sized versions do not figure into this adventure.

The lesser quickdeaths are a newly bred version of the larger creature. They have been bred by a former bounty hunter and recently released into the wild. He originally was simply breeding quickdeaths as a “safer” way to collect the bounties on the creatures. However, about 10 years ago, he had an encounter with some sathar on Pale and was converted to their cause. He has been working on this new version of the creature since then and has been releasing them into the wild for only a couple of years. The lesser quickdeaths are currently only found in the areas around his breeding facility.

Currently there are only about 50 lesser quickdeaths on the planet but their numbers are slowly growing and their range on the planet is increasing.