The Slipstream continued on its path through empty space as if nothing had happened. But onboard, the small crew were making preparations. As the pirate ship began to burn and maneuver closer to the Slipstream, a badger and lion were busy tying a crude armature to the inner airlock.
“Are you sure this’ll work?” Orlando inquired.
Kailyn snorted, “we lost so many men to these things at the pole, they are effective.”
“Yeah,” the badger admitted. “But that was in gravity. How do you know it’ll work in null-g?”
“Springs don’t rely on gravity,” she tweaked a spring stretched taut between the lever and a brace.
“Hey,” Jarlan called over the intercom. “Our visitors just cut their drive and switched to cold jets. They’ll be here in a couple of minutes at most. If you want to see them visually, head on up to the bridge.”
My new roleplaying game based on the Para-Imperium setting I’ve been developing for over a decade and the Cepheus Engine is finally available in print! The book contains a complete game that is fully compatible with other Cepheus and Traveller products.
Wanna play a wolf-person pirate or a Skiltaire belter? With the modular phenotype designer you can build whatever “race” you want to play.
With an expansive campaign setting that covers thousands of stars you can choose one of four pre-made star systems or roll up your own!
Salvage the wreckage of a fallen Federation or make a living your own way in one of the many successor states striving for the stars!
Go to DriveThruRPG to buy Scavenger: Caches and Prizes for only $30 in print, or get both print and PDF for just $2 more!
The morning after the card game Kailyn strode down the station promenade to the docking ring. Ships were nestled into the two outermost decks of the station’s habitation ring, clamped into adjustable sockets with boarding ramps for loading passengers on the upper deck and cargo on the lower. As she walked, pushing her luggage cart in front of her, she noticed someone dressed as a M’Kusan noble amidst an entourage of servants. Kailyn reflexively turned away, he was a jaguar, not a lion, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t know her pride.
Fortunately he seemed unable to notice anyone hauling their own luggage. Once he passed she was able to focus on the docking bay numbers, E-7, 8, 9, 10… There it was, E-11.
She checked the display next to the airlock to make sure. The Slipstream, operated by Slipstream Shipping, this was it. She tapped the intercom and waited. After thirty seconds with no response she buzzed it again. After just a couple more moments a high-pitched voice crackled through the comm, “yes?”
Kailyn groaned, “passenger waiting to board.”
“What?” the voice on the intercom asked, confused. “Oh, right, the game. Just let me unlock the door quickly.”
She heard some pumping and clanking noises, after about a minute the light on the door turned green and she turned the handle. On the other side of the door she stepped out onto a metal gangplank extended through a clear plastic tube that led to the most dilapidated spaceship she’d ever seen.
I thought it would help to include an example of character creation in Scavenger: Caches and Prizes. Since Horizon’s story takes place in the same time period as the game’s default setting I used her.
A player decides they want a raccoon pilot named Tanya Loter. For characteristics they roll a 9, 5, 7, 6, 3, and 7, they decide to assign the 9 to Intelligence, since flying a spacecraft would presumably require a lot of smarts, giving her a +1 DM to INT throws, 5 to STR, 7 to DEX and END, 6 to EDU, and 3 for SOC, her player’s not that concerned with social standing (577963). The campaign takes place in the Tiere system (Ch. 14), so taking a look at the planets in the system the player decides that the Orbital Alliance of Jord sounds like a good origin point for Tanya. As a Pallene culture she can choose between Aircraft-1, Computer-1, or Streetwise-1 for an upbringing skill, the player decides on Aircraft.
Next, it’s time to design her phenotype. Jord is a temperate Terra-sized world but Tanya spent much of her early life on space stations orbiting the planet. So while her favored atmosphere and temperature are Terran and Temperate, her player chooses a Light gravity to represent the limited access to spin gravity on such post-Federation stations. There is a list of common Procyon traits and Tanya’s player consults it to pick the Climb, Iron Stomach, and Notable (DEX) traits, increasing her DEX to 9 (597963); and picks the Increased Metabolism adaptation in order to compensate for the third trait.
Now for her career. Tanya’s player thinks Navy would help build her piloting skills so they throw INT to qualify, they roll a 7, modified to 8 with the DM, which is enough to succeed. They’re using the basic training variant rule so Tanya gets all the Service skills at rank 0 and then throws 1D on the Specialist table, getting Piloting at rank 1. Advancement is next and a failure, but not that big a deal. Next she throws survival, and comes up snake eyes, fortunately they’re not doing hardcore mode so she just roll on the Mishaps table. With a 4 Tanya is dishonorably discharged from the Navy. Her player isn’t quite ready to start yet, so they try for Belter this time. Qualification is easy enough, for skills they get Piloting again on the Service table, bringing her rank in that skill up to 2. This time they’re successful on advancement, gaining the skill Zero-G-1 and making another skill throw, gaining Engineering from the Specialist table. Survival is close, with a roll of 6 they wouldn’t have made it without the Notable DEX trait.
At this point Tanya’s player is ready to go adventuring. They lost their Mustering Out Benefit throw for the Navy term but they still get one for Belter. The dice come up 6, meaning Tanya starts out with a 40-year old Prospector.
As you may have noticed from following my Kickstarter, Scavenger: Caches and Prizes successfully funded in April. Since then I’ve been working on the rulebook, writing rules and systems and commissioning illustrators. I attempted to get a playtest started, but then I started a new day job which was second shift, when most people play TTRPGs.
So I’m opening Scavenger up to public playtesting, you don’t have to be familiar with the Para-Imperium setting or the Traveller system to GM but it would help. If you’re interested contact me on Discord.
To fill out the rest of this post, here’s some of the illustrations I’ve received so far:
A couple weeks ago I launched the Kickstarter for my Para-Imperium tabletop roleplaying game, tentatively titled Scavenger: Caches and Prizes.
I’m trying to raise just $2,500 in order to commission illustrations, I’ve already bought a few as you can see in the campaign.
For rules I’m using the Cepheus Light system published by Stellagama Games and derived from Traveller.
I’ve developed modular rules for developing parahuman characters with a system of genetic traits and metabolic adaptations to compensate for those traits. And modified the world generation rules to make it easier to build multi-planet star systems.
If this all intrigues you, go and back it! You can even commission a cameo of one of your characters from the artists in the final book.
Horizon stood in the back of a dusty bar, designer cannabis smoke wafting over from the nearby booths. Her leukosynths neutralized the THC, and various other intoxicants in the smoke, but the smell covered everything, and she didn’t want to cut off her sense of smell in case she needed it. Not trusting her smartsuit’s camouflage after the fueling station incident, she’d covered herself in heavy clothes, bleached the fur on her head and tail, and even adjusted her metabolism slightly to pad out her torso and thighs.
How late is Shawn? Horizon silently asked.
“Surprisingly,” Samantha answered. “He still has three minutes left before our designated check-in time.”
Horizon sighed and approached the bar. You can prevent me from getting drunk, right? She flagged down the bartender and ordered a large dark beer, paying for it immediately with a swipe of a paychip. As she drank, she swore she could swear she felt the microbots in her stomach burning away the alcohol. She was about halfway done with her drink when a text message appeared in the corner of her eye.
Shawn: Found them, they’re headed your way. Leopard in a blue coat.
Horizon: Did you tell them to speak to an arctic fox?
Shawn: You don’t really look that much like a fox, but yeah I have him your description.
After years of fiddling with the Para-Imperium or Parahuman Space setting, I have the bones of a roleplaying game set in the setting using the Cepheus system.
Tentatively titled Salvaged Heroes: Wreckage of Empire, this game takes place in the post-Federation era, just like Horizon’s story. The default assumption will be that your characters will be scrappers hunting for shipwrecks and abandoned bases containing valuable technology or resources. Your character options include a jaded spacer, a grizzled ex-soldier, a curious scientist, a bored oligarch’s child, or even a technomage wielding technology beyond anyone’s understanding. The party may even have a ship, which they can customize using Cepheus’ tried-and-true ship-building system.
The Cepheus system is an OGL fork of Mongoose Publishing’s first edition of Traveller, the modern version of one of the oldest sci-fi RPGs. It uses a simple 2D6 system where most checks are made by rolling two six-sided dice and adding your characteristic and skill modifiers, typically succeeding on a total of 8 or higher. Instead of having “classes” and “levels” your character’s skills are primarily determined by a “Lifepath” system in which you roll to determine their life experience and training up to the start of the adventure. This means that PCs start out with a bit of seasoning and are relatively competent in the areas of their expertise.
That said, like in many “Old-School” games, combat is lethal. Most PCs will only be able to survive one or two hits without heavy armor. In the older editions of Traveller PCs could famously die during character creation, though at most you’ll only wind up with some expensive prosthetics in Salvaged Heroes (unless you want to play hardcore). In the course of your adventures you might also discover Federation medical technology that can increase your survivability.
After finding your first FedTech wreck your campaign might head in a variety of new directions. You could be like Horizon and become super soldiers, drafted into an interstellar invasion. Or you might be Federation survivors newly awakened from cryo-stasis, seeking to make a way for yourself in the strange new world you’ve discovered. Perhaps you’re residents of a primitive world trying to build a functioning spaceship so you can leave. Or you’re indentured employees seeking a way to escape your corporate masters. The possibilities are endless!
Changes from the SRD: To fit the Parahuman Space setting, I had to change some things in the Cepheus System Reference.
Parahumans: Traveller/Cepheus assumes humans or human-like characters, with aliens generally included as a kludged-in afterthought. I’ve developed a system where players can build their own parahuman or xenosophont characters out of a set of Genetic Traits and Metabolic Adaptations. You’ll even be able to add or remove traits with sufficiently advanced technology.
Tech Levels: Traveller generally assumes that artificial gravity and faster-than-light travel will be discovered long before (Tech Level 9) cybernetic and genetic augmentation (TL 11). Biotech is central to the Para-Imperium, while gravity control doesn’t appear until very late in the Federation’s reign and FTL is flat-out impossible, so I shifted the former down to TL 9 (near future) while the latter is at TL 12. Prototype FedTech can go up to TL 13 while some advanced successor states (such as the Ronkalli) and the Destroyers can reach TL 15.
Rockets: By default Traveller ships use reactionless drives based on gravity control to maneuver at sub-light speeds. Since I moved gravity control up to TL 12 the majority of spaceships in Salvaged Heroes use nuclear reaction drives. Traveller has rules for reaction drives, but they use a lot of fuel, with most ships only capable of carrying enough for a few hours of thrust. But while writing an article on sub-light travel for the Journal of the Traveller’s Aid Society (keep watch for JTAS #17 this coming year!) I realized that spaceships could coast for the majority of an interplanetary voyage, taking about as long as a typical interstellar voyage in Traveller and using comparable amounts of fuel. And if you’ve seen The Expanse you’ll know that a single star system with nuclear propulsion may have dozens, if not hundreds, of populated planetoids.
If a star system is still too small for your players, they can re-discover a wormhole to another system. Or salvage a prototype ship with gravity drives capable of relativistic travel, it might take years to reach another star from the perspective of those left behind, but it’ll only feel like weeks to the characters on board.
Keep watch for Salvaged Heroes: Wreckage of Empire, coming to Kickstarter in 2025 (hopefully).
The large-scale multi-ship battles seen occasionally in interplanetary warfare are almost unheard of when the combatants are located in entirely different star systems. The main reason is simply the orders of magnitude difference in travel time and cost. Starships using reaction drives require many cubic kilometers of reaction mass just to get up to the speeds where ramscoops are effective, while gravity and warp drives require unfathomable amounts of energy and matter just to build.
Therefore, would-be interstellar invaders tend to adopt one of two strategies: The WMD approach is usually only effective against technologically inferior opponents, but if they pull it off a single starship can conquer a star. A G-Drive ship can dance around a fleet of reaction ships, slicing them to ribbons without even taking a hit, while even the least r-drive starship is a colossus compared to system ships. The power of their drives, combined with the purpose-built weapons that civilizations capable of building starships can design, means that almost any starship can lay waste to a defenseless star system in a matter of weeks.
Of course, if the invaders want to capture the biosphere intact (which most do, as it tends to be the most valuable part of a star system), they can’t simply throw nukes and c-bombs everywhere. Which means that the ship’s crew has to negotiate the tricky task of persuading the local governments to surrender with minimal devastation. Even if they succeed in this task, the resulting political arrangements tend not to last long. The elites and masses of such worlds tend to resent “quisling” leaders and efforts to depose them are soon to follow.
As such, worlds conquered by WMD use tend to acquire a growing number of radioactive craters as their overlords periodically reassert their rule, assuming the natives don’t somehow get hold of the technology required to shoot them down. This is less of an issue for nomadic “pirate” lords who only care about collecting their tribute and moving on, but for would-be emperors this is a bit of a hassle.
Hence the second approach: Subversion. This can also be accomplished by a single ship, but they tend to be more subtle in their methods. Using (comparatively) stealthy craft, agents are delivered to the system’s habitats where they infiltrate the population. These agents then make contact with the local discontents (there always are some) and attempt to recruit them.
To assist in this mission, agents are trained in a variety of disciplines ranging from hand-to-hand combat to megastructure engineering and meme hacking. They also tend to be equipped with the best nanofabricators that can fit in their ships, which can be large enough to build other spaceships or warmechs, in order to supply their fifth column with weapons, armor, and augmentations. These “gifts”, naturally, come with backdoors the agent can use to retain control. Remote-triggered explosives, gene-locks, even integral AI controls hardwired to obey direct orders from the agents.
Once the “revolution” seizes control they establish a government that passes outwardly as independent, but is in truth a puppet of their new “allies” from another star system. Their taxes are disguised as “trade” or “investments”, even “foreign aid.” Eventually the populace of such states figures out they’ve been conquered, but by then a substantial fraction of said populace has decided that they prefer living under their overlord’s thumb and the usual result is a civil war rather than complete secession.
House Ronkall’s paladins are particularly insidious. Their blood-bourne assemblers construct bionic augmentations in the infectee’s body, including an AI controller in their own brain that compels them to use their augs to fight criminal activity in their home polity. Helping endear themselves to the population, until the order to take over comes out. A single paladin can arrive on a planet butt-naked and infect a critical mass within just a couple short years.
The Para-Imperium 