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1 This game is intended to be played loud. 2 Space Cowboys Phil Stroud 2020 3 Copyright © 2020 by Phil Stroud. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal. First Printing: 2020 Space Roadie Games [email protected] This work created using the BRP Open Game License. BRP Open Game License v 1.0 © copyright 2020 Chaosium Inc. Basic Roleplaying © copyright 1980–2020 Chaosium Inc.; Authors, original rules: Greg Stafford, Steve Henderson, Warren James, Steve Perrin, Sandy Petersen, Ray Turney, and Lynn Willis; developed by Jason Durall, James Lowder, and Jeff Richard. Basic Roleplaying and the BRP logo are trademarks of Chaosium, Inc. Used with permission. Cover image by NASA, warped and chopped by Phil Stroud. Used with permission. Character art by Jeff Preston http://team-preston.com licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. Warped and chopped by Phil Stroud. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ or send a letter to: Creative Commons 444 Castro Street Suite 900 Mountain View, California, 94041, USA All other art by NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute, warped and chopped by Phil Stroud. Used with permission.. [email protected] Contents Dedga Seti Blues.......................................7 Places.......................................................70 Glossary....................................................8 Running the Game....................................75 Introduction..............................................9 Encounter Tables......................................76 Characters................................................12 World Creation.........................................80 Gigs..........................................................16 Bucko’s Star-Barn (D5).............................82 Skills.........................................................18 Illium (J1)..................................................83 Skill List....................................................21 Dixon’s Respite (H8).................................84 Powers......................................................26 Fenris (F7)................................................85 Combat....................................................32 Frosty’s Pit Stop (K4)................................86 Gear.........................................................34 Glima (K6)................................................87 Cybernetics and Gene Freaks....................41 Kadesh System (A7).................................88 Spot Rules................................................42 Modla (C5)...............................................89 Work.........................................................45 New Texas (B2)........................................90 Starship Basics..........................................47 Oran (G1).................................................91 Starship Combat.......................................48 Parellis System (I3)...................................92 Starships...................................................49 Sagras Taal (G4).......................................93 Vehicles....................................................52 Sienna (L4)...............................................94 Structures.................................................53 Vogel System (G8)....................................95 Monsters...................................................55 Zalmon System (D4).................................96 Organizations............................................67 Index........................................................97 5 Space Cowboys came to life when I started a sci-fi campaign, and ended up writing so many of my own rules that the set became a new game. I run picaresque adventures about roguish wildcatters making their way in the frontier of explored space. The spirit of the game embraces randomness, both in character creation and in the tables used by the GM to determine encounters, results, people and jobs. Let the dice be oracles, final judges who cannot be tampered with through meta-currency or dissociated mechanics. Space Cowboys has an optimistic tone. There is no evil empire, no apocalyptic earth-destroying event. Independent planets and cities, plenty of money to be made. This can of course be supplanted with whatever you like with very little work, maybe some adjustment of the random tables. Faster-than-light (FTL) travel exists, but most systems are at least a couple weeks apart. This leads to a disconnected area of space over which inter-planetary governments have yet to sustain a hold. The game setting I use is the Conesta Rho sector: a barely explored, mostly empty area on the far side of a thousand-light-year wide pulsar. Isolated from most other civilized regions, the occupants have developed a do-it-yourself, independent attitude. But that’s my game, you’ll make your own. Have fun. -Phil Dedga Seti Blues A wet ring of tepid water gyrates slowly on the dash as reverb-soaked guitars jangle through the stuffy cabin. Yogi and the crew had been in the black for 27 standard days straight now, and they’re coming into port for a week’s vacation. He remembered being a child and driving towards the Shoehorn Mountains on Parellis 5. Thinking how they seemed to loom eternally in the distance, driving forever but never getting any closer. Yogi wipes a greasy brow, shoves a cheap pastry into his mouth and programs in another astrogation update. The Mike Drive shudders and the inertial dampeners strain as the Goodnight Lovin enters sub-luminal speed. A klaxon begins shrieking. Somebody’s in trouble, a distress beacon sounds off. It’s only a twenty minute ride away. “We’re too close to ignore that and get away with it. Let’s ride.” He hits the thrusters and heads towards the signal. Nigel straightens his mustache and cravat, retrieving his plasma pistol from its locker and shoving a fresh energy cell into the butt. Paddy tries to hail the ship, a small corsair spinning like a dog chasing its tail. “Paddy, you got anything on sensors?” he asks the technician working the screen furiously behind him. “Quiet as an acid ant pissing on cotton” answers the short, stocky cyber-bear. “If they’re still alive in there, they ain’t tellin me about it.” Yogi grunts. “Nigel, you got your ears on?” The thickly-built gentleman with the posh accent rings back “Ears on and eyes open.” Yogi grabs the sticks and begins docking procedures. The delicate docking procedure takes 30 minutes to complete as the spinning corsair’s speed proved difficult to match. Finally the airlocks met, their large magnetic plates locking tight as the thick rubber cowls slid together. The crew steps outside the confines of the Goodnight Lovin’ for the first time in over a month. It’s warm inside the ship, and the condensation on the outside of his visor tells Paddy that there is still atmo in the hold. “First thing, let’s get the lights on and find any survivors.” Everyone nods in agreement and files behind the bulky Saurian charging down the starboard corridor. Later, Var would curse himself for missing the obvious signs of Brain Mold infestation that had appeared near the power junctions. Those black streaks would have been all he needed to know. Thumping against the bulkhead draws Var and Paddy into the mess hall, which looks like a launch boat had just plowed through it. Chairs and tables destroyed so thoroughly as to leave sawdust all over the floor, and spatters of blood throughout. Var yells out “Contact Starboard” and the team swarms on his position. A final turn before the bridge leads to the bunks where Paddy suddenly motions to hit the deck. A smoke grenade emitting a noxious odor flies over his head, but Paddy makes a diving catch to contain it and hurl it back toward that hall. Var rolls toward the corner of the doorjamb, getting his angle just tight enough to get a bead on the light fixture in the room and shoot it out. Screaming and coughing emerges from the hall moments later, and two large men with the beaks of herons charge out, wild eyed and spraying hot bolts of plasma so fast their guns overheat. The crew of the Goodnight Lovin act with laser focus, dropping the two with an equal amount of shots. “Can’t believe you guys came along.” a weak voice echoes through the coughing. “Let us come out, we’re no threat. We’ve been held hostage.” [TO BE CONTINUED] 7 Glossary Atmo: The atmosphere, gravity field, air and weather of a planet. Credits: Electronic currency, carried on credcards or in banks. KCr is a Kilocredit, one thousand Credits. MCr denotes a MegaCredit, worth one million credits. Credits are confirmed by banks and balances are transmitted through the mail system. A credcard can transfer funds to another card anonymously. Cybernetics: Electronic and mechanical enhancements to the organic body. Dirtside: The surface of a planetary body. Solid ground, terra firma. Distress Signal: Cry for help from a ship’s transponder or distress beacon. Most systems require captains to respond, and forbid fakers under pain of law. dTon: Displacement ton, a 14 meter cube. Used to measure ship capacity. Just say “ton”. FTL: Faster-than-Light travel, enabled by the Mike Drive and essential to the economy of Conesta Rho. Gene freaking: Viral gene therapy that can radically change the genome of a living