BX MARS A map of Zerzura

This is a map of Zerzura the setting presented in my new book BX Mars. The book is available on Drive Thru RPG  in both pdf and pod hardcover. If you’re interested cover image to the right and it will take you to the listing. Note- you may have to change your settings on Drive Thru to let you view  “adult” material.
And now on to the map:

Click or tap on image to enlarge. 

BX MARS IS LIVE

The wait is over!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/278089/Bx-Mars

You will have to change your settings, because it is the adult section of the site.

Here is an earlier post with a look at the physical product.
http://themetalearth.blogspot.com/2019/06/bx-mars-physical-product-first-look.html

Honor of the Dwarves maps old and new

I think I’ll go in color for a number of illustrations of in HoD. Tangentially here are some old ass maps that I may just go ahead and use.

And the newer but unscanned map of the setting

The bad news: No way in hell can i finish Haunted Islands by holloween. The DTRPG learning curve ate a month of my time. So it’s back the Dwarves for a while. 

WEG Star Wars working towards a star map.

WEG SWRPG’s astrogation rules are the finest I’ve ever seen, but they are not conducive to map making.
Briefly: travel is measured in units of time, as opposed to units of distance. Hyperspace ships travel at near infinite velocity. Travel time is a product of the vagaries of interstellar space such as rogue planets, gas clouds, asteroid fields, space monsters and whatever else one might find in a galaxy far far away. Routes between planets are designed to avoid all such hazards. However, it is possible to take a shorter, i.e, faster route.
Travel times (Standard Duration) to the worlds important to the OG trilogy are presented in the WEG rule book in tabular format, not unlike a train schedule. There is nothing like a star map and no mention of maps at all. However, it is possible to travel without a preset route, and it is also possible to get somewhere more quickly (by using a shorter route) than the standard route. So when Han Solo says he did the Kessel Run in under 12 parsecs, he means he did it fast, and it makes perfect sense.

Moving on to some of the source material for my own games- in the Goodwin/Infantino run of the original Marvel Star Wars comic, in the space between the Star Wars and Empire Strikes back, Han, Luke and Leia are tasked with finding a world to replace Yavin as the rebel base. I love this idea, and I used it in my first SW game- but with no star chart. I feel like such a chart is kind of central to a world search type campaign.
I feel that deciding on routes and when to take chances and where to go next is an important part of player agency.
So my idea for my next game is to provide the players with a chart and a lavishly illustrated planetary encyclopedia and set them off to search an entire 20 system sector for a new base.
Here is my ugly ass proto chart.
The number to the left of the brackets is the standard duration of travel between two worlds the number in brackets is the actual distance between the two systems in parsecs.  (I’ve not finished with these so only a few have brackets). No rule changes necessary, but you can’t always get there from here directly. Sometimes you have to pass through the system with the imperial garrison. Note I have equated one day’s travel with 1 parsec of distance- although in practice it can work out to much less.

Haunted Islands three approaches to race and some arts

As envisioned the islands were intended to be an isolated humans only monoculture, but I don’t like restrictions that inhibit fun.

I racked my brains on how to go about this, but I think I’ve come to a satisfying solution

Race and Class

Three Approaches

1. The citizens of New Urveon are one and all, human and native to the islands. Classes available are listed below. This is what we used when we playtested. 

2. Foreigners from every part of the Dreamlands pass through the port of Stoker and, as such, the individual GM must decide which races and classes to allow.

Note: Although considered equal in the eyes of the law in regards to unpaid debt and other crime foreigners are not allowed to hold office, serve in the military, conduct business beyond trade or own property. They may move freely about the countryside, but should expect to be under the watchful eye of the authorities at all times. 

3. The islands are still a monoculture but exist at the edge of the Dreamlands. Everyone can play whatever race or class they want with no further explanation. I call this the Muppet option. It’s my current favorite. 

Arts

B/X Mars, physical product a first look

this came today. There are formatting problems with like four- six of the illustrations, but it came through 90% on the fist attempt. That’s a win in this case. Here are some pictures

Monster truck rally announcer voice
“YOU’VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT. 102 PAGES, 120 UNFETTERED ILLUSTRATIONS, MAPS, MAPS AND MORE MAPS TO GO WITH THE OTHER MAPS! FIFTY CREATURES, FOUR NEW CLASSES.”

Front cover

Back cover

I got a book on how to draw mecha

And it got me thinking, about yet another small but complete project hidden at the bottom of this blogs gravity well. (Hey anyone remember the city of Skull, also done. I swear there are like 6 complete projects buried on this blog.) 

This is a representation of something from 2013

RUST: The RPG of Mechanized Military Desperation, character generation.

RUST

The RPG of Mechanized Military Desperation

Long ago, the wars burned off all the good worlds. For millennia, there was nothing to fight over. Peace spread over the stars like a shroud. It was the peace of defeat- the peace of the grave. Resources dwindled. Hope died. Worlds and cultures perished for wont of room to grow and thrive. Lights went out; silence spread and it might have gone on spreading forever as the sentients of the galaxy went down into quiet extinction, but someone found the Spindle instead.

1.0

CHARACTER GENERATION

Player Characters (PCs) in RUST are drawn from all walks of life (against their will, in most cases) and drafted into the military forces of the Andromeda Pact Alliance. Once conscripted, they are used to crew mechs: the giant, weaponized, bipedal war machines that make up the backbone of the APA ground forces on the Spindle.

The APA is engaged in a multi-front, multi-factional war. In the grandest sense, the stage for this war the giant artificial habitat known as the Spindle. On the ground, however, the conflict is comprised of dozens of discrete theaters in as many geographical areas, spread across the length and breadth of the Spindle and the star system contained within in it. That is to say, this one war is actually many wars, none of which are anywhere near resolution.

Despite its scope, the Spindle War is in its early days, and in the rush to get forces on the scene, most (but not all) of the combatants have fielded ill equipped and poorly trained forces. Already, the fighting has grown desperate. Losses have been heavy for most, necessitating the insertion of even more poorly trained troops, thus initiating a disastrous feedback loop.

The game begins in the second month of the war. Player characters in Rust are intended to represent the greenest recruits; play starts with their first day on the job, or not long thereafter.

Character generation has four steps:

STEP ONE

DETERMINE BACKGROUND

For the last two centuries, in the aftermath of the Great Galactic War, the population of the APA has lived spread across thousands of cubed light years of spatial volume, primarily in overcrowded domed cities and space borne habitats. The wars burned all the good worlds away, as they say. People live in what is left. The table below will give a more specific view of the PCs background.

Note: all characters are assumed to be 17-19 years of age; the player may decide the character's other personal details (e.g., eye color).

Roll 1d8 and consult the list below.

1-6. Slacker: You grew up as one of the trillions of dope smoking, stim taking, entertainment consuming, drudge job working, everyday citizens of the alliance. This is the baseline character type and provides no attribute modifiers.

7. Screw: Characters from this background have either ambition or family connections, which secured a better life for them before the war. Screws get 2 bonus points to assign to attributes of the player's choice.

8. Aristocrat: These rare individuals benefit from generations of genetic manipulation. They begin play with two of their attributes at 0 and one attribute at 1. Aristocrats also start the game with a Thunderbolt (side arm). However, if you are an aristocrat who somehow finds oneself as a mechanized infantry grunt, it's a pretty safe bet that someone powerful wants you dead, you're crazy or, at the very least, on the run from something. Aristocrats are always pilots.


STEP TWO

TRAINING

APA Marines do not have choice as to the nature of their training. Aristocrats are always trained as pilots. Commoners (slackers and screws) must roll 1d4 and consult the table below.


1. Pilot (PLT)

Rank: Commander. The pilot is at the top of the command chain on paper, but it does not always work out that way in the field. The pilot receives a -2 to all PLT job checks and a -3 to GUN job checks and a -4 to all ENG/SWD job checks.

2. Engineer (ENG)

Rank: Lancer. The engineer is second in command. The engineer receives -2 to all ENG and SWD checks, -3 to all PLT/GUN job checks. The engineer is responsible for keeping the ship operational at all times, but especially during travel and combat.

3. Gunner (GUN)

Rank: Sergeant. The gunner is at the bottom of the command structure. The gunner receives -2 to all GUN job checks and -4 to all other job checks.

4. Steward (SWD)

Rank: The steward lies outside the command structure of the crew. The steward receives a -2 to all SWD job checks. It is the steward’s responsibility to keep the ship's life support functional at all times, but especially during combat and travel. The steward has several other responsibilities as well. The steward is charged with gathering data on both the forces of the various enemy armies in the field and the crew of the mech. In regards to the latter it is the specific task of the steward to monitor the loyalty of the crew and report back to the Home Office (the political arm of the ruling oligarchy) as opposed to Allied Military Command (AMC).



STEP THREE

ATTRIBUTE GENERATION

Trapped in their decaying industrial habitats for centuries, it's been a long time since people applied themselves. MACHINES DO ALL THE WORK AND ALL THE THINKING. This is a societal constant, but its impact varies somewhat within the population. Overall though, even the best people society has to offer have lead lives of lazy indolence and are, as a result, soft. No doubt if the means and technology of the past remained to them, the APA would fight the current war with automatons. As it is, they use what is available.

During normal times, attributes would range from 1 to 4, with the high score of 4 being the most beneficial. During the current decadent age, however, scores range from -2 to +2 at the start of play. Attribute scores act as modifiers in job checks and general checks, which will be explained in a later section on task solution.

Slacker characters, yanked from their hedonistic existence in the urb-cubes, thrust through training, and dropped into war, begin the game with a -1 in all four attributes. They may select one attribute to reduce to -2 in order to raise another one to 0.


Screws begin with this same baseline, but have 2 points to adjust attributes, or an attribute of their choice upward.


Aristocrats begin the game with a single attribute at a value of +1 and all others attributes at 0.

THE THREE ATTRIBUTES

MIND: represents intelligence and education

MUSCLE: represents strength, endurance and coordination.

SAND: represents instinct, guts and will.

The combined value of these numbers is the attribute total.



DERIVED ATTRIBUTES

POWER: Represents psionic potency. It is determined by rolling a d4 and adding (or subtracting) the total of the three main attributes. This number acts both as an absolute value and a resource pool.

HIT POINTS: everyone starts with 10 hit points, adjusted up or down by adding or subtracting the pc's attribute total (see above).


STEP FIVE

GEAR

Every character begins the game with a ship suit and a fresher kit. Further equipment is distributed at the time of deployment. What the quartermaster includes in your field kit is always a subject to chance; slackers and screws roll once on the table below, aristocrats and stewards roll twice. Stewards also begin the game with a special kit given to them by the Home Office. All gear is described below. It should be noted that there is no real cash economy amongst grunts; all exchange is based on barter.

Roll a d12

1. Armor: impact coverall, +10 points ablative vs. melee and projectile weapons

2. Sidearm: Stormbolt +1 to hit at shirt range cannot shoot past medium range. Does 1d4x damage. Battery holds 10 charges, plugged in to a mech it recharges at a rate of 1 charge an hour. Roll 1d10 at start of play to see how many charges the battery currently holds. Spent batteries can be switched out for fresh if they are available.

3. Mess Kit/5 day’s food. Includes a preternaturally durable spork, a plastic water bottle, and a plate/bowl than can be used as a skillet.

4. Bottle of whisky and a pack of cigarettes.

5. First aid kit. Stewards are trained how to use these.

6. Entrenchment tool: it's a folding shovel. Can do 1d3 as a melee weapon.

7. Maser rifle old school weapon -2 at short range, +1 at medium, +2 at long. 2d6x damage. Rate of Fire: once every other round.

8. Gren tangler: This is weapon confiscated from the possessions of captured or slain troop of the gren (reptile aliens) army. A successful attack leaves the target wrapped in a silky sticky net, not unlike a spider's web. A substance known as webaway, which is sometimes found amongst mech supplies, may dissolve this webbing.

9. Emergency Tent. Pressurize; sleeps two; provides adequate shelter in most conditions.

10. Inflatable raft. Holds 6.

12. Roll twice, ignore this result.

A ship suit is a snug coverall like garment that provides an ablative shield worth five hit points total of any kind of damage.

The game begins moments after these items have shoved into your hands, when you find yourself aboard the robot drop rocket, on your way to your mech, headed into the shit.

The Spindle.

Coming for Holloween and (not related) What’s up with Mars.

I’m working on Honor of the Dwarves, but The Haunted Islands is another one on the crest of being done. It’s been play tested even. My wife suggested I get moving on it so I can get it out on time this year.

Mars: waiting on proofs to show up in the mail. That’s it.

And now onto the show:
As many of you know, I am fascinated by Deep Time, and tend to think in geological terms instead of smaller increments. Now just aint that important.

However, I am also fascinated by the 19th century. I’ve always been keen on the scientific revolutions of the period. (Watson got fucked by classism and by Darwin, yo, and we continue to ignore that he got there first). But Jack Shear turned me onto Dickens and I became even more interested in life on the ground.  If you can’t look at the every fucking day horror of it all, compare it to today and find some hope for the future, you have presentism and a victim complex, in short your shit is all fucked up.

The influences of The Haunted Island are for the most firmly rooted in the Anglo-sphere of the 19th century.

Haunted Islands preview

Godzilla King of the Monsters

I Saw Godzilla twice last weekend. It was good and a completely authentic Godzilla movie in every way. If you’re a kaiju fan you’ll feel it when you see it. They get it, right down ti Ken Watanabe’s cheesy ass “the answer is inside you” speech.

I can say the latter because I picked up this the day after seeing it for the second time:

I was also compelled to make the new header, “Mr. Roboto awaits Magmo” 

B/X Mars preview and update

The book is still in DRTPG’s process.
I will offer the following
Adult content version- premium HC (is says color, but it will be black and white) Standard soft cover.
Rated T version: regular soft cover
And pdfs
I can’t say when, but soon.

The rated t-version will have altered and substituted art work.
There are no sexual situations in either version.
The adult version has quite a bit of full frontal nudity.
I have no regrets.

Here’s a faction:

THE HERD 

The Nuphal, large sentient pachyderms, operating as a collective of clans, control overland trade throughout Zurzura and beyond. 

Place of Power The marketplace. 

The Shape of Things If it is a staple of life and cannot be produced within Xards or one of the other settlements it comes to the Dry Sea via nuphal caravan. Famed for delivering goods intact and in a timely manner, the nuphal clan caravans boast an excellent reputation. 

The Herd represents a key link in the highly illegal flesh trade. In fact, the Invisible Hand considers the nuphal caravans the only sensible way to transport slaves. Each clan runs a caravan. Currently, ten clans, each linked to the others through a weak form of ritualized telepathy, walk the sands of Mars. Each caravan follows the same unmarked route, known as the Golden Road at unevenly spaced intervals; a new caravan arrives in Xards without warning a month or two after the departure of the last. But occasionally a year or more will pass between visits.Individual nuphal act as caravan organizers, porters and guards. 

Additionally, the clans employ humanoid agents to further their ends within settlements and mercenaries to guard their expeditions. Despite the Herd’s use of sell swords, nuphal warriors know few rivals in their capacity for destruction, and, although rare, there are powerful Warp adepts among the ranks of the clans.

Goals To buy and sell whatever there is to buy and sell

Whatever there is to buy and sell.

Demeanor Herd markets and caravans entice with goods and revelry, and for most provide nothing but a good time. But some who drink and dance amongst the nuphal vanish into their midst, never to be seen again. 

What is best in life?

Finishing things is pretty cool

B/x mars is currently in its actual final stages. DTRPG went down on whatever day I tried to upload this thing, but didn’t see fit to email anyone until later I guess. I spent a day trying to figure out what was wrong with my pdf. @#$%*&, as spider-Man might say.
Now we wait. Waiting is not amongst the best things in life- unless you are unsupervised and have intoxicants.

Starting things is great too. With Mars done I’m returning to Cosmic Tales. Although I guess that’s finishing something too. It’s weird to use the other f-word around here so much.
I’m pretty excited about this. I’m working from enlarged photo copies of my roughs (Email if you want more detail) and it’s lovely. I got the idea from Erik Larsen.

My goals here are https://youtu.be/TQyCLv6eBZU

Anyway, if you have anything you’d like to talk about now is the time to hit the comments. In a month I’m going to be building my cult of personality. It’s going to be all yes men all the time. Yes!

IF ANYONE HAS ANY QUESTION OF BXM NOW IS THE TIME TO ASK. ALSO I’M INTERESTED IN RELEASING A COUPLE OF PDF REVIEW COPIES. IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED IN DOING A REVIEW LET ME KNOW.  SERIOUS REQUESTS ONLY PLEASE.

I’m wearing something slinky and waiting to hear from you- don’t worry though. i’m always unsupervised and I always have intoxicants. “Can’t” is for losers, though, so I like to call them INTOXICANS.
Now, I’m going to put in a floor, which also requires intoxicans.
HARD STOP

BX Mars TOC

I’m waiting on proofs.
Here’s something for you to look at with longing.

Honor of the Dwarves

With Mars complete it’s time to move on.
Here is the first map for my next project,  a vanilla setting book titled  “Honor of the Dwarves”

I’m not sure about this map; it may be destined for the trash.

Anyway, it’s going tot take awhile. I have two months of silent running art practice and study time coming up. I gotta level up before I lose my shit.

The Goshdarn Batman

Golden Age/ Bill finger era Batman was a revelation. I’ve probably read close to 1000 pages of this stuff in the last week or two. It’s gritty; it’s fun; Batman and robin solve mysteries;  escape deathtraps share a bedroom (it was the Depression, nobody had their own room) and all kinds of other shit.

I have also decided that an unwillingness to directly kill other people in masks (the only other people they acknowledge as people) is a fairly frequent, although far from universal, component of the overall super villain profile. In this regard it is not unlike leaving clues to indicate your next crime. Below we have an example of both.

Anyway, these stories are miracles of compression, and, imo, a good example of how to put a comic together if you’re looking to do such a thing.  Also when it is at its best (when Bob Kane isn’t drawing it) I love the art style.
There are thousands and thousands of pages of this stuff. Hoopla has a good chunk of it.
Highly recommended.

Get it done

Getting it done. 

As I close on Mars, my first major RPG product, and with the relatively recent release of Cosmic Tales #1, I have a thing or two to say about getting it done. 

ART

Okay, first things first. You need to decide on an art budget right away. Start saving that money up. 

That’s commitment. Relying on clip art or hoping to provide “exposure” for an artist isn’t going to do it. Maybe you have another way to generate commitment. Use that, but you still need to budget for art and start saving that money. (Just to be clear as far as my motivations go here, I am not currently accepting commissions). 

Yeah, that’s easy for me to say. If I had to pay for BX Mars art we’d be over 4k at this point- if I lowballed it. You’re not really in competition with people who can do both, however, there are only a few of us in the scene- and I’m not even there yet.  

That’s out of the way, except for the part where you pay a guy and he doesn’t deliver. That one goes both ways. Find out who delivers and who doesn’t. Find out who pays up and who does not 

Research is also commitment. 

We have now successfully placed one horse in front of the carriage. 

WORKFLOW

First Draft:

You can make an outline or not at the beginning. It won’t mater later. I suggest making an outline between your first and second drafts.

You need to write your first draft from end to end without going back and revising. It doesn’t matter if it’s garbage. It is a natural resource. Think of your first draft as mining the ore. Subsequent drafts draw out the METAL!

Never go back mid draft, no matter how fundamental the change. Make a note- and proceed from there as if you have already made the change. Fix it on your next pass. Frequently- you will want something very different by the time you make your next pass. Any time spent going back is time waisted. Get to the end; go back to the beginning. Rinse and repeat until you cry. Then do it some more. If you think you can do it all in one, tell me about it; I can always use a good chuckle.

Alternately, you can engage of an endless loops of pointless revision within the incomplete first draft. You’ll never finish this way. How can you finish something if you don’t get to the end? You fucking can’t. Have you been sailing for years and never seem to get any closer to the shore? That’s because you’re doing it wrong. 

That’s out second horse. Sometimes, however, it’s also the elephant in the room. 

MINIMAL CONTENT GENERATION  

Two Sentences.

You need to write a thing about a thing, but the well is dry. Write two sentences. Come back on your next draft. The second you put those ideas down they start to cook. Even if they are barely ideas. Expand and refine on your next pass. This is especially useful for list items like spells, monsters. or geographic details. 

Honestly, I suggest following the two sentence rule from end to end on your first draft. When you’re done, you’ll have an outline. Won’t that be swell? 

That’s our third horse. 

Don’t get ahead of yourself. Don’t start planning your KS or fucking around with layout until you have a complete document. I made the mistake of doing the latter. The dwarf kick starter guy did the former. I lost some time. He lost his house. Be careful! And for the love of god, if you can afford it, find some poor bastard to do your layout. 

Four horses. 

You can get ready to roll. 

Additional advice. GTFO social media. Checking to see if someone has upvoted your clever comment 5000 times a day isn’t going to get you there. 

You need a strategy for this. I turn off the wifi, or leave my tablet on another floor of the house. I keep books and comics near where I work on my stuff, so if I need a distraction I don’t drift into  e-fugue. 

Limit how much you share along the way. Previews and such often provide some necessary affirmation. But in the long term, short term gratification is an icky self-indulgent distraction. Further, showing incomplete content, especially if it hasn’t gone through drafts, makes your abilities look like less than they are. 

DO IT NOW!

Initial impressions- the Six Million dollar Man

Six Million Dollar Man

Initial Impressions

Every week or as often as I can manage it, I’m going to blog about Steve Austin, the Six Million Dollar Man (SMDM). I’m going to take a look at the stories; some of the actors that show up; discuss the social relevance of the show- and some of the surprising differences between TV then and now.  

The most important and shocking is that the show is not dumbed down even a little. Yeah that’s right, a 70’s show aimed at ten year olds asks more from you than GOT or even the Expanse. Way more. 

One of the things that struck me immediately as I watched an assortment of episodes scattered throughout the series, were the similarities between Steve’s arrangement with the OSI and the third Doctor’s arrangement with UNIT. 

However, in contrast to Doctor Who and most other science fiction franchises; SMDM skews more towards science fiction than it does science fantasy. Star Trek and Dr who level technobabble are in surprisingly short supply- really they’re absent altogether. 

What you can expect: Discussions of things like planetary conditions on Venus; cogent explanations of plate tectonics; speculation on robotics and space flight-  and not to mention the protagonist himself: Steve is a science fictional artifact, a fantasy projection of what prosthetics might someday be able to do- and in many cases, today, can. The original pilot was made in conjunction with a UC prosthetic research institute. 

The first season of the show is comprised of three television movies; each of the movies is self-contained, but also plays into a combined story. The second two movies are more espionage oriented and the third is the best of the three. The first pilot is a slow burn- I had expectations of action when I went in and was disappointed. I watched it again (i don’t know ) why, and I really enjoyed it.  

I found it absolutely impossible to dislike Steve. i want him to come over for dinner and bong hits. 

I’ll talk about the first of these movies next week.

We have the technology, if you’d like to watch along. The entire series is available to stream for free  NBC dot com or, alternately, the DVD’s are really cheap. 

Star Wars: it’s not a dungeon crawl- it’s a ship sprint.

Alas as all good things must, my Star Wars game has ended. Sooner than I would have liked, but that’s how it goes.

However, in the last few weeks, as missed play sessions stacked up, I did a shit ton of prep, and I created a system for infiltrating a functioning imperial facility.
We’re not looking to map or explore methodically. It’s Star Wars you run around fro awhile, take some lifts, talk to your droid and find the Falcon.
Your player need a Droid for this kind of thing. It’s like a space smart phone and gen x hacker kid rolled into one. Also I am convinced that R2 D2 is a minor god of mischief.
If you give them a droid it should be the one with a bad motivator from IV, R5 D4, because that’s how SW works.

Here we go. This station below is a product of budget cuts in the wake of the demise of the original Death Star. It is a mash of Imperial and Separatists (The enemy of the republic during the Clone Wars) technologies. It lies at the center of a great ship’s graveyard hidden in a cloud of interstellar dust and infested with giant catfish like space monsters.

Now that we have our simple cutaway, or schematic if you want to do something a little more in depth- although I don’t advise it. .
Next I created two decks of cards.

One deck is for architectural features and gets reshuffled every time you draw from it.  The other deck is encounters and locations.  I have as yet to come up with a scheme for how frequently to draw cards. But i’m thinking really frequently

Once a card from the second deck is drawn , the list of encounters is consulted. Eh after this, the card is  replaced in the deck or discarded. If it’s location/encounter that is singular, discard; if it’s Storm Troopers, put it back in the deck. You should have multiple ST cards in the deck, btw.  Here are the card  listings. 

Ship invasion rules 

Two card decks

Architecture. Some basic architectural features 

Encounters and rooms (often with encounters too)

Some listings get more cards because they are more likely to occur. Some encounters are one time things and can be removed from the deck once they occur. 

Start

Floating in space the characters do not have enough mass to pass through the air barrier and bounce back into space. The only way in is through an EVA access door. Two techs are near the door fixing something or other;  door is sealed. And requires a key code. There are two doors one has tech s the other does not. 

Once inside the characters are confronted by a lift. 

The lift comes out in the  scrap yard. 

Assume that two troopers stand guard over anything even minimally important. 

Access Tube I

Drunk technician. Apologetic. Thinks the PC’s are officers on an inspections. Belligerent.

Tube is just for climate control system maintenance. Shaped like a cheeto, shorth ladder leads to anotehr access tune with a long adder. Mostly conduity and pipes ends with a right angle crwl space, opens on Wampa Pens.

Access tube 2

Unoccupied leads to core shaft. Mostly conduits and utility boxes. A few computer stations  here and there, but all engaged in local functions. 

Armory [restricted. Difficulty 15]

Storm trooper weapons and armor. 10 dormant battle droids. 10 thermal detonators. 2 troopers inside playing cards on thermal detonator box. If the alert has been given they will be outside the door, and demad that anyone approaching identify themselves. 

Remove from deck.

Barracks

Off duty men having a raucous party. They give no fucks about the alert! If the PCs are dressed as Storm Troopers they will invite them inside. And hand them drinks. Some are in armor others are wearing pod racing paraphernalia.   Some drunk dude will stat shit with them, and demand to know who they are. He’ll accept any answer. Or forget he asked the question. Oh have a laugh. 

If the PCs leave someone will try to get them to stay- the big race game is about to start.  

“Get back in here, it’s started”

“Now that’s what I all pod racing!

Battle Droids

Patrol of 10 marching down the hall.

20 Boarding Pods 

Long, narrow tech- crowded and ring shaped passage. Crammed with 20 boarding pod docks. A3 M4, Grumpy belligerent astromech doing repairs.  Wearing a restraingin belt. Will ignore characters unless they get in his way. Will attempt follow them out of the room but is blocked by the restraining bolt. If they take it off he will follow and commence to assist them. 

Control

One of the few places with complete computer access to ships systems. Usually two guards two tech. 

Bio-Weapons [Restricted]

The domain of Doctor Ogmus Kryne. 

Door open on a lobby like space. Reception droid (protocol droid; two ultimate Battle Droids.  lobby like space.

Two lifts one up, one down. 

The upper lift leads to the wampa, rancor pens. 

Down lift leads to:

White, creepy sterile lab. Drains cut into floor, slightly stained with blue. Lined with tanks and transparent plastic jars full of murky fluids and familiar unsettling shapes and masses. One of the jars has a rancor head in it. 

Glass door leada out to a room lined with compurers and hooked into jars of fluid and huge bacta tanks. Quit droids scuttle over the machines like spider.

The doctor is in, before anyone can properly identify the occupants of the tanks, he steps out from the shadows. The warbest follows behind. 

It is a rancor with a machine-like attachment to it skull. 

The doctor laughs and welcomes them to his lab. He is mildly curious before the alert, but will attack on site after the alert. 

He’s hella creepy.

Carrier Deck One 

Main deck. Lots of techs and roughly 40 troopers on guard. Another 100 are marching around the bay in formation.work crews are everywhere fixing things and putting other things back together. 

A dozen imperial shuttles; 50 tie fighters. The Distant Hope in the process of being dismantled and searched. The dead body of the original pilot is on a repulser lift stretcher in front of the ship. Several men in sickly green lab coats and filters masks built into their faces. 

Storm troopers mill around the outside of the ship. 

High chance of discovery. 

Carrier Deck Two

Mezzanine above the landing bay. Twenty meters up; runs all the way around the landing bay, except the space side. Multiple lifts and stairs. At least two control rooms. 

Lots of troopers and techs. Officers too. 

High chance of discovery. 

Command Station

Officer controlled security kiosk. One officer 10 troopers.  Unusual behavior is likely to lead to discovery. 

Control Room

Ship wide computer, system and facilities access. 1-3 empty. All sealed. 

Detention Block

Security kiosk with corridors lined with cells branching off it. 

Discovery 

Someone recognizes that their armor is damaged

An officer asks for papers.

Darth Quell

The sith lord shows up.  

Droids 

Separatist battle droids patrolling the hallway.  

Droid Rm

Storage and recycling. 10 imperial astromechs in wall rack. Lots of droid components.  

Sleeping guard. 

Engine room

Noise wall! Cavernous open space. Hundreds of trooper and techs. Catlwals and sup decks and control pits everywhere. Allkinds of building and reparing and welding. Noisy as fuck. 

Immediate confrontation. This is a high security area. 

Escape Pods [10]

See boarding pods.

Farm

A full level filled with farming fields and artificial light. Ag droids everywhere. Speeders near the lift. 

Gunnery

The ion cannon control room. 

Dozens of techs. Grimon Pitt, Military Archeologist. Darth Quell, reptilian lord of the Sith.

Med Bay

Several Too one b med droids. State of the med bay depends on what has been going down.  

Meat farm 

Rows and rows of meat vats. Droids tending the vats pay no mind to the pcs. 

Security Kiosk 

Octagonal kiosks in the  center of a 4 way intersection/lift bank.  It’s presence indicates on or the other. 

. 

Storm Troopers

4-24 (4d6)

Behavior dependent on intruder alert status. 

Torpedo Room

 Racks of Torpedos

Torture 

Empty awaiting clients

Two men in green robes with mandoid attachments working on a horrible looking machine

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