Review of Far Horizon by Zozer Games

Product's Name:
Far Horizon - A Near Future Mission and Spacecraft for Cepheus Engine

Ruleset: Cepheus Engine/OGL 2d6 Sci-Fi

Author: Paul Eliott
Artist: Ian Stead

Size: 63 pages

Publisher: Zozer Games

Price: $9.90

Grade: 5 out of 5

Space is awesome. Rocket science is awesome. Astronauts are awesome. As children, we dreamed of traveling the stars in a space capsule or rocket ship, wearing a space-suit, visiting all sorts of weird and wonderful alien planets. For me, the most important element of science-fiction is the Sense of Wonder, that sensation you feel when you encounter strange and wondrous scenes, objects, and ideas. Science fiction allowed me to escape the boring school life to far more intriguing places in our imagination. Far Horizon scratches this very itch.

Far Horizon is space exploration. Realistic space exploration - scientists in a spacecraft visiting a rogue planet passing through the outer edges of our solar system. It is 2100 AD and the characters' deep-space vehicle, the eponymous Far Horizon, undertook the first manned mission to Pluto. In 2095, astronomers detected a new planet passing through the Kuiper Belt. Strangely enough, they also found tiny shifts in the planet's trajectory - and have added a visit to that planet to Far Horizon's mission. This world - Tartarus - is a mystery for the players to crack.

This adventure is devoid of combat, yet action abounds. This is an adventure of interplanetary exploration, including all the challenges and threats of realistic spaceflight in a thermal rocket with limited fuel flying through the outer system. This is science fiction at its finest - the characters have to figure out a puzzle of science while exploring an alien planet, all while avoiding the deadly dangers of deep space travel. They have a limited time to explore Tartarus due to orbital mechanics and limited fuel; overstaying can spell slow death in the cold reaches interstellar space.

Far Horizon takes place in Zozer Games' Orbital 2100 hard-science setting, though the setting book itself is not necessary to run the adventure. It focuses on the deep space exploration aspect of the setting rather on its Expanse-style interplanetary politics. It should be very easy to set this adventure in any other hard-science, near-future solar system setting, or run it as a one-off.

The book also provides a detailed overview, including stats, description, deck plans, and excellent renders (by the wonderful Ian Stead) of the Far Horizon deep space vehicle itself; also, it has detailed stats and rules for realistic TL8 and TL9 space suits. These will be useful for a wide variety of hard-science near-future games and are second to none. The adventure also provides pre-generated characters (in Cepheus Engine stats) in case the players lack the setting book.

I heartily recommend this adventure, as it is a very unique and interesting hard-science space-exploration romp.

TSAO teaser: 600-ton Reticulan Abductor

This is the shape of things to come for These Stars are Ours (TSAO), the upcoming new space-opera setting for the Cepheus Engine and 2d6 Sci-Fi OGL games from Stellagama Publishing. Here is the 600-ton Reticulan Abductor!

Little grey aliens from Zeta 2 Reticuli coming to take you at night!

Deck plan and render by Ian Stead.

TSAO teaser: 300-ton Terran Shaka-class Light Military Transport

This is the shape of things to come for These Stars are Ours (TSAO), an upcoming new space-opera setting for the Cepheus Engine and 2d6 Sci-Fi OGL games from Stellagama Publishing. Here is the 300-ton Terran Shaka-class Light Military Transport.

After the War, the Terran Navy decommissioned and sold off many of its ships, as part of the general mobilization of the Terran fleets. The Shaka-class Transport was decommissioned in large numbers and sold as a light freighter or merchant ship – of course after being stripped of most of its military-grade equipment. While unarmed, it is quite easy to rearm, and it remains as rugged and reliable as ever – and thus is a favorite ship of merchants and explorers prowling the frontier.

Deck plan and render by Ian Stead.

Review of Ship Files: Polixenes Class Courier

Product's Name: Ship Files: Polixenes Class Courier

Ruleset: Cepheus Engine/OGL 2d6 Sci-Fi

Author: Michael Johnson
Artist: Ian Stead

Size: 25 pages

Publisher: Moon Toad Publishing

Price: $3.99

Grade: 5 out of 5

This product is a high-quality ship book. While the background material is not as expansive as in some of the Clement Sector books, for example, this book provides a highly detailed and highly useable starship which you could easily insert into any Cepheus or Traveller campaign. The 100-ton Polixenes Class Courier is, essentially, the good ol’ Scout/Courier, but in a more elegant “airframe” form. It has two variants. The main difference between them is fuel storage, with the longer-range one capable of 2-Jump-2. I wonder why it doesn’t have Jump Drive B to provide it with Jump-4 capabilities if it already has the fuel for this (I guess that this is a TL11 design?). Each variant gets a deck-plan in the book itself, and the regular variant also gets a color deck-plan. You also get the deck-plans and ship record sheets in separate, ultra-high-res JPEG files for your own printing.

Everything gets wonderful renders, including several paint-job variants of the ship and an Air/Raft it may carry (in its regular variant, that is). This also includes full Cepheus Engine ship (and air/raft!) stats and ship record sheets.

All in all, this is an excellent book. I now wonder, will the author publish his Terran Union setting itself in a later book? It sounds interesting...

Highly recommended!

Review of Ships of the Galaxy: Vegas-class Light Freighter

I was kindly given a complimentary copy of Ships of the Galaxy: Vegas-class Light Freighter by Blue Max Studios. Here is my review of this product.

There are literally dozens of sci-fi and space-opera trader-ship designs floating around the Internet, both commercial and fan-made. The Vegas-class Light Freighter does stand out among them. Why? Because unlike the large number of "aircraft-type" trader-ship designs with the engines at their "back wall", the Vegas is a "tail-sitter" - it's engines are under the "floor". The entire ship layout is thus unique among its many competitors, as its deck plans and overall structure are very interesting and a refreshing change.

This book describes a 300-ton trader-ship for the 2d6 Sci-Fi OGL/Cepheus Engine/Mongoose Traveller sci-fi rules. It includes all the regular material - ship stats and deck descriptions. However, it also features an economic analysis of the design showing how it will be profitable when ferrying cargo and passengers even without speculative trade. It also has some very nice "fluff" allegedly written by the "Skipper" - a "professional" stowaway of sorts.

The book features 3D renders of the ship and its nine decks from an isometric POV. It also comes with a booklet providing more traditional top-down 2D deck-plans. The author has obviously made the art and deck-plans with a relatively simple 3D modelling program, and they are not as "slick" as those in other ship-books, but the design itself is, as I have said above, very interesting and would be enjoyable for players to explore.

I have several minor criticisms of this product:

1) The page background sometimes makes the text slightly difficult to read. It is still readable, but a paler background would probably make it better.

2) The table on p.2 - which is repeated in the deckplan booklet - has some irregular alignment of its text.

3) The Asimov quote on p.5 and decks 02 and 00 of the deckplan booklet are slightly pixelated and blurred.

The Bottom Line:

If this was a "regular" trader-ship book with an "aircraft-type" layout, I would have given it a score of 3/5. However, the design's uniqueness and coolness factor warrants a 5/5. Highly recommended for adding some variety to the star-traders of your sci-fi campaign.

RATING: 5/5

Civilian Starships - Compatible with Stars Without Number!

Stellagama Publishing proudly presents:

Civilian Starships

Compatible with Stars Without Number!

The Stars Without Number(TM) science fiction role-playing game has a wonderfully simple starship design process based on installing Fittings into a few standard hull types, but the books lack a comprehensive list of basic ship designs for quick use by a GM or players. Given the assumed setting of most SWN games, it isn’t surprising that standard ship designs would not be common. Each world or small interstellar state would most likely have unique designs that meet their unique needs. However, we have found that it is often a lot easier to have some basic designs to start with that can be modified to fit a given situation rather than designing each ship from scratch every time. There are essentially no civilian designs for starships for SWN. This product hopes to help solve this problem.

During the design of these civilian ships, there were several additional Fittings that we felt would have helped us, so below the designs you will find a list of new Fittings, aimed at Civilian ships such as would be used by player characters. This product also details six “standard” ship designs created using the core rulebook and the Skyward Steel supplement, both available from SineNomine Publishing; additionally, there are six ship designs including new Fittings defined in this publication.

included are:

- Clarified starship operation cost rules.

- 6 civilian starship designs using core-book fittings.

- 6 new starship fittings.

- 6 civilian starships utilizing the new fittings.

Get it HERE!

Traveller Book 2 Expansion part #1 - additional fittings

Traveller Book 2 is my favorite ship-design system for Classic Traveller, or for any edition of Traveller for that matter - simple, elegant and interesting, especially if you add in the computer and software rules which allow you to trick out your ship to a great degree. The main charm of this system comes from two things - the great customability of the ships with its Lego-type plug-and-play construction method, and its end result - an entire starship described in one paragraph of plain English. Another strength was that of the small-ship universe which keeps ships at the player character scale of things. Later Traveller ship-design rules, while adding many more options and much bigger ships, also make the design process as well as the result much less elegant.

However, the LBB2 rules do have several weaknesses, such as a very limited list of potential ship fittings, as well as a combat system which gets cloged when too many turrents are firing at once. Another weakness is that there is no way to load a ship with significant munitions other than filling it with fighters, as there are no military weapons heavier than what is available to civilian turrents in Book 2. In a later post I'll detail the (slightly) variant ship combat and weapon rules. An excellent source of inspiration for those could be found in TBread1999's excellent Book 2 House Rule Thread on the Citizens of the Imperium boards.

So here I'll post a short series of articles about simple expansions to the Book 2 design process. The main design principle of these articles is that they shouldn't invalidate any design created by the standard Book 2 design process and that the main KISS spirit of Book 2 should be preserved. This first installment presents several non-weapon ship fittings for your use in Book 2 ship designs; all are ready to drop into any Book 2 design with as little additional rules as possible.

Factory (TL7): A shipboard factory usually produced one product or a series of related products; the types and amounts of raw materials needed for production are left for the referee's discretion. A astandard factory module requires 10 workers, displaces 100 dtons and costs MCr50. At TL9+ the worker requirement is reduced to 5 and at TL13+ to 1 - a single operator of the now-automated factory.

Partial Hydroponics (TL8) displace 2 tons and cost MCr0.25 per person they support. This kind of hydroponic gardens include a limited variety of plant life and usually serve as both decorative-recreational facilities and a source for fresh fruit, vegetables and spices. they also assist the life support system by producing some foodstuffs as well as helping recycle air and water; the monthly life support costs of any person supported by Partial Hydroponics is reduced by 50%. Partial Hydroponics require 2kg of additional nutrients, seeds and spare parts (costing Cr300) per month per person they supports. 

Full Hydroponics (TL8), which are full-scale closed-circuit shipboard biospheres, displace 4 tons and cost MCr1 per person they supports. They include a diverse selection of organisms ranging from bacteria and yeast to higher plants and animals, and are capable of providing all the life support and food requirements of any person supported by them; such persons do not have to pay any monthly life-support costs at all. Full Hydroponics require 1kg of nutrient replacements and spare parts (costing Cr200) per month per person they supports.

Laboratory (TL7): a basic laboratory space has no significant cost and any tonnage available may be assigned to it. However, laboratory equipment is expensive, from MCr0.025 per ton for very basic facilities up to MCr1 or even MCr2 per ton for advanced reasearch tools.

Mass Driver (TL8): a large magnetic rail-launcher designed for slinging cargoes over interplanetary distances. A mass driver is too slow and inaccurate to be used in ship combat, but may be used to bombard planets. A mass driver requires a crew of four, displaces 25 dtons, and costs MCr26.

Ore Refinery (TL8): a refinery capable of processing most compounds found in planetoids into semi-refined raw materials which can easily be shipped to other locations. It requires 1 worker, and costs MCr6 per 10 tons of refinery size.

Shipboard Hospital (TL8):  while any starship has a fully-functional medlab subsumed in its stateroom tonnage which is enough for most emergency operations (and counts as a "medical facility" for healing wounds), a full-scale hospital can treat less common afflictions and perform particularly complex operations. A hospital module displaces 8 tons,  costs MCr5 and houses up to two patients with complete life support facilities. Each additional patient capacity adds 2 tons and MCr0.5. It is a fully-fledged hospital, complete with laboratories and extensive imaging systems, allowing complex medical procedures such as cybernetic implantation and giving a +2 DM to all medical tasks. A Shipboard Hospital requires one doctor per 8 patients (or a fraction thereof) and one nurse or medical technician per 4 patients (or a fraction thereof).

Workshop (TL7): A small workshop capable of fabricating several kinds of spare parts and repairing equipment. Its exact capabilities and raw material requirements are left for the referee's discretion. A workshop requires one skilled worker and costs MCr5 per 10 tons of workshop space.

[Alkonost] Liberator-class Frigate

Hull: Frigate
Power: 15/1 free
Mass: 15/0 free
Hardpoints: 6/4 free

Cost: 5,685,000
Budget Points: 28
Annual Maintenance: 3
Annual Payroll: 6
Total Annual Cost: 9

Hit Points: 40
Crew: 10/80
Speed: +2
Armour: 10
AC: 7

Weaponry: Charged Particle Caster (+3 to hit/3d6+1, AP 15, Clumsy)
Defenses: Hardened Polyceramic Overlay (-5 incoming AP)
Fittings: Spike Drive-3, Armoury, Atmospheric Configuration, Boarding Tubes, Drop Pod, Extended Stores, Lifeboats, Ship's Locker
Standard Crew: Captain (usually Commander), Astrogation: 3, Communications: 3, Deck: 8, Engineering: 3, Medical: 3, Supply: 2, Weapons: 3, Marines: 34. Total: 60 Crew.

First produced in 3185, the Liberator-class Frigate is now the mainstay of the Liberation Fleets, completely supplanting the aging Zoriya hand-me-downs from the Alkonost Republic. Built on Laana, these ships exemplify the Liberation Worlds' aggressive naval doctrine: strong anti-frigate and anti-cruiser offensive capabilities combined with a full Marine platoon for boarding actions and groundside operations. The Liberator's main weakness is against large numbers of fighters, but when operating defensibly in a Liberated Worlds system, Type-81 Interceptors are usually available for an anti-fighter role.

[Alkonost] Type-81 Interceptor

Hull: Fighter
Power: 5/2 free
Mass: 2/0 free
Hardpoints: 1/0 free

Cost: 255,000
Budget Points: 1
Annual Maintenance: 0
Annual Payroll: 1
Total Annual Cost: 1


Hit Points: 8
Crew: 1/1
Speed: +5
Armour: 5
AC: 4

Weaponry: Sandthrower (+3 to hit/2d4+1, Flak)
Defenses: None
Fittings: Atmospheric Configuration

Standard Crew: 1 Pilot. Total: 1 Crew.

As the Incunablis Machine Empire makes extensive use of fighter-based harassment tactics, it is not surprising that the number one enemy of the Empire, the Liberated Worlds, has produced a fighter specifically designed to kill other fighters - in a word, an interceptor. While almost totally ineffective against larger military craft, the Type-81 Interceptor can make short work of any Incunablis Fighter. These cheap spacecraft are mass-produced by the Liberated Worlds, and stationed on many local outposts, mines and stations as a countermeasure to fighter harassment attacks.

[Alkonost] Incunablis Fighter

Hull: Fighter
Power: 5/1 free
Mass: 2/0 free
Hardpoints: 1/0 free

Cost: 305,000
Budget Points: 2
Annual Maintenance: 0
Annual Payroll: 1
Total Annual Cost: 1

Hit Points: 8
Crew: 1/1
Speed: +5
Armour: 5
AC: 4

Weaponry: Reaper Battery (+3 to hit/3d4+1, Clumsy)
Defenses: None
Fittings: Atmospheric Configuration

Standard Crew: 1 Cyborg Pilot. Total: 1 Crew.

The Incunablis Machine Empire does not use its fighters against enemy military craft. Rather, it uses them against under-defended enemy strategic targets such as remote asteroid mines and research stations, forcing the enemy to spread out its fleet over many disparate locations in an attempt to stop these harassment attacks. The common tactic used with these fighters is to Drill an Incunablis Carrier into the oort cloud of a system, then send its fighters, who have a long endurance due to the use of cyborg pilots, to harass targets all over the system, before returning to the Carrier and Drilling out. While ineffective against armoured military ships, the Incunablis Fighter's Reaper Battery is not limited by ammunition and is perfectly suited for killing "soft-skinned" civilian targets.

[Alkonost] Zmey-class Missile Frigate

Hull: Frigate
Power: 15/3 free
Mass: 15/1 free
Hardpoints: 6/5 free

Cost: 4,965,000
Budget Points: 25
Annual Maintenance: 3
Annual Payroll: 3
Total Annual Cost: 6

Hit Points: 40
Crew: 10/40
Speed: +2
Armour: 10
AC: 7

Weaponry: Torpedo Launcher (+3 to hit/3d8, AP 20, 20 Torpedoes in Magazine)
Defenses: None
Fittings: Spike Drive-3, Atmospheric Configuration, Ship's Locker, Armory, Lifeboats.

Standard Crew: Captain (usually Lieutenant Commander), Astrogation: 3, Communications: 3, Deck: 5, Engineering: 3, Medical: 1, Supply: 1, Weapons: 3, Marines 8. Total: 28 Crew.

First built in 3178, the Zmey-class ("Zmey" is "Dragon" in Russian) Missile Frigate replaced the old Zoriya's general-purpose patrol-boat design with an attack-centric design, using powerful torpedoes as its primary weapon. While having less "legs" than the venerable Zoriya, the Zmey is much more effective against cruisers and capital warships, as its torpedoesare  capable of penetrating heavy armour. This design proved its worth in the Sicarii campaign of 3188, where it excelled in taking out the heavily-armoured Incunablis frigates and cruisers. Unlike the Zoriya, which was designed for individual patrol missions as well as large-scale naval combat, the Zmey operates almost exclusively in squadrons organized to target armoured enemy ships.

[Alkonost] Zoriya-class Frigate

Hull: Frigate
Power: 15/0 free
Mass: 15/0 free
Hardpoints: 6/3 free

Cost: 5,590,000
Budget Points: 28
Annual Maintenance: 3
Annual Payroll: 3
Total Annual Cost: 6

Hit Points: 40
Crew: 10/40
Speed: +2
Armour: 10
AC: 7

Weaponry: Plasma Beam (+3 to hit/3d6, AP 10), Flack Emitter Battery (+3 to hit/2d6, AP 10, Flack)
Defenses: None
Fittings: Spike Drive-2, Armoury, Atmospheric Configuration, Extended Medbay, Lifeboats, Ship's Locker, Extended Stores, Fuel Scoops, Boarding Shuttle

Standard Crew: Captain (usually Lieutenant Commander), Astrogation: 3, Communications: 3, Deck: 5, Engineering: 3, Medical: 2, Supply: 1, Weapons: 4, Marines: 8. Total: 30 Crew.

The Zorya class of multi-purpose Frigate, designed in the 3120's, was the mainstay of the early Alkonost Republic's fleet. While lacking modern protection or heavy weapons, it had, nonetheless, long-range and long-duration capabilities, enabling it to cater to the young Republic's varied and often conflicting naval needs.

These ships excelled at breaking the power of the piratical Chornaya Armada during the Coreward Police Action (3127-3128) as well as in many smaller interdiction and counter-piracy campaigns in the 3120's, 3130's and 3140's. The Zorya-class frigates started to show their relative weakness, however, in the Incunablis War (3151-3180), where the Zorya's weapons were relatively ineffective against the well-armoured Machine frigates. These ships were relegated to a secondary role in 2178, many of them supplied to the fledgling Laanese navy after the 3174 Liberation. In the 3180's, they were gradually phased out of service and supplanted by the far more modern Zmey-class Missile Frigate. Today a few ships of this class are still active in the hands of mercenaries, independent world navies, corporations, and, unfortunately, a few well-off pirates.

[Alkonost] Mul-class Corsair

Hull: Free Merchant
Power: 10/0 free
Mass: 15/0 free
Hardpoints: 2/1 free

Cost: 790,000
Budget Points: 4
Annual Maintenance: 0
Annual Payroll: 1
Total Annual Cost: 1

Hit Points: 20
Crew: 2/12
Speed: +3
Armour: 2
AC: 6

Weaponry: Reaper Battery (+1 to hit/3d4, Clumsy)
Defenses: None
Fittings: Spike Drive-1, Atmospheric Configuration, Fuel Scoops, Ship's Locker, Armory, Extended Life Support, 200 tons of Cargo Space

Customary Crew: Pilot/Engineer, Gunner and 4 Pirates; potential for up to six captives

The anarchic bandit of the Upper Alkonost Cluster (Rusalka and Domovoi) were some of the first to recognize the full potential of the cheap Mul-class Merchant mass-produced by the Sirin Orbital Shipyards at the dawn of the 32nd century. These criminals, rascals and trouble-makers quickly acquired a significant number of such Traders, and, using chop-shops in their bases in the Rusalka Belt, modified them into fully-fledged corsair craft; their weak Multifocal Lasers were replaced by much more intimidating Reaper Batteries, armories wee installed, and their crew capacity was doubled to allow for a gang of four pirates to be carried, as well as up to six captives.

By the mid-3120's, these pirates have amassed so many of these ships that they could created the Chornaya Armada, or Black Armada, a huge pirate flotilla which terrorized nearby worlds. This was too much for the Restored Alkonost Republic, which sent its navy in 3127 to put an end to this threat. While most of the Chornaya Armada was wiped up by the Republic Navy, this set of modifications is highly common in the hands of pirates, smugglers, criminals and even honest merchants in search for a ship with a bigger gun and a larger passenger capacity.

[Alkonost] Mul-class Merchant

Hull: Free Merchant
Power: 10/1 free
Mass: 15/0 free
Hardpoints: 2/1 free

Cost: 720,000
Budget Points: 4
Annual Maintenance: 0
Annual Payroll: 1
Total Annual Cost: 1

Hit Points: 20
Crew: 1/6
Speed: +3
Armour: 2
AC: 6



Weaponry: Multifocal Laser (+1 to hit/1d4, AP 20)
Defenses: None
Fittings: Spike Drive-1, Atmospheric Configuration, Fuel Scoops, Ship's Locker, 240 tons of Cargo Space

Standard Crew: Pilot/Engineer (who also controls the laser) and up to five passengers






The venerable Mul (meaning "Mule" in Russian) was the first mass-produced civilian starship in the Alkonost Republic, allowing for the first time for the small trading companies to reach out to the stars without the need for a significant government subsidy. It was produced in relatively large numbers between 3100 and 3141, becoming the staple of commercial shipping within the Alkonost Cluster, from Iele through Alkonost to Poludnitsa. While having a large cargo hold, it was only capable of carrying a small number of passengers, and was unable to reach stars outside of the Alkonost Cluster. From the 3140's and onward, it was gradually supplanted by the superior Konya-class Light Merchant, which, while having a much smaller cargo capacity, was nonetheless capable of much longer drill distances and had a larger passenger capacity. Despite this, the old Muls are still in use in the more backward systems of the Alkonost Cluster, and several were transported by the means of bulk freighter to worlds outside the Cluster.