#cepheusengine — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #cepheusengine, aggregated by home.social.
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In trying to explain Traveller to the OSR discord I spent way too much time on this chart.
Short answer: support indie creators there’s awesome stuff in the Cepheus space. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
#TTRPG #Traveller #TravellerRpg #Cepheus #CepheusEngine #ClassicTraveller
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In trying to explain Traveller to the OSR discord I spent way too much time on this chart.
Short answer: support indie creators there’s awesome stuff in the Cepheus space. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
#TTRPG #Traveller #TravellerRpg #Cepheus #CepheusEngine #ClassicTraveller
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In trying to explain Traveller to the OSR discord I spent way too much time on this chart.
Short answer: support indie creators there’s awesome stuff in the Cepheus space. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
#TTRPG #Traveller #TravellerRpg #Cepheus #CepheusEngine #ClassicTraveller
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In trying to explain Traveller to the OSR discord I spent way too much time on this chart.
Short answer: support indie creators there’s awesome stuff in the Cepheus space. And this is the tip of the iceberg.
#TTRPG #Traveller #TravellerRpg #Cepheus #CepheusEngine #ClassicTraveller
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okay #TravellerRPG heads I fish for opinions - What do you think of rolling for events during character creation? Like it, don't like it, mixed? Do you feel different towards career events and life events?
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okay #TravellerRPG heads I fish for opinions - What do you think of rolling for events during character creation? Like it, don't like it, mixed? Do you feel different towards career events and life events?
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okay #TravellerRPG heads I fish for opinions - What do you think of rolling for events during character creation? Like it, don't like it, mixed? Do you feel different towards career events and life events?
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okay #TravellerRPG heads I fish for opinions - What do you think of rolling for events during character creation? Like it, don't like it, mixed? Do you feel different towards career events and life events?
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What are you waiting for? Winter sale on the SPOTS AD bundle, just $10 a savings of 71%! Solis People of the Sun is a Cepheus Engine ATU using accurate starmaps in a near future setting, so c'mon let's go!
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/395144/spots-ad-bundle
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Premium Dice. 16 mm, 7 Black, 2 White, and 1 Red; high density plastic, Koplow, made in China. Comes with a purple velvet pouch while supplies last.
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/546895/premium-16-mm-dice -
Check out this new short fiction in the Solis People of the Sun universe. An Emissary from Earth, hires a mercenary frigate to go explore beyond the frontier of human space in search of possible alien encounters.
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Cepheus Engine, basically Traveller OGL, rules are pwyw on DTRPG, though also online here: https://www.orffenspace.com/cepheus-srd/introduction.html
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Kosmic the core rules for Solis People of the Sun (hard sf, solarpunk, using accurate starmaps) is the deal of the day on drive thru https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/458032/kosmic-role-playing-game-core-rules?src=DotD Featuring 39 careers with expanded character generation including d66 tables for career events for each career. Plus much more, such as hex map combat for starships.
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Assassin career from Kosmic RPG
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@AdamMakesTTRPG I have a hard sf, solarpunkish setting, with accurate star maps using cepheus. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/19875/Wild-Bee-Publishing
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Hostile – Tales of a Vietnam War Dinosaur Planet
I’ve been planning on running some games in the Hostile setting, the retro-80s, Aliens-inspired sci-fi RPG from Zozer games.
The specific part of the setting I’m interested is the world of Tau Ceti, a jungle planet embroiled in a guerrilla war between an American-backed government, and a Chinese-backed insurgency. It’s clearly a Vietnam war analogy, with all of the storytelling possibilities that setting provides.
Any conflict produces its own mythology, and the guerrilla war on Tau Ceti is no different. Here’s a few Tau Ceti war concepts I’ve been playing around with. Some are useful seeds for adventures, others are merely for flavor. Not all of these ideas are strictly true. Many could just be rumors or urban legends.
A lot of this was inspired by the book “A Perfect War: Technowar in Vietnam” by William James Gibson.
High Cheyenne Station
A small space station in geosynchronous orbit directly above the border between East and West Shulin. Only ASMAC personnel are admitted to board. It has comfortable, even luxurious accommodations for high-ranking ASMAC officers.
It is common for officers, usually Lt. Colonel and above, to command ground forces directly from the safety of the station. Many officers only do a short tour here before heading back home, merely to get a combat badge. It’s not uncommon for a officer aboard Cheyenne to never meet any of the soldiers under his command, or even descend to the planet at all, excepting the occasional R&R visit to Shulin City.
Ground troops on-world generally have contempt for these officers, referring to them as “ticket-punchers”, and see them as dangerously incompetent (they often are). The lover-level officers and enlisted men in combat zones often will try to ignore them, or even undermine them if possible.
Plot Seeds
- Die Hard in Orbit – While the players are visiting High Cheyenne (for whatever reason), a team of TLA guerillas seizes control of the facility, and captures the crew. The players will need to retake the station.
- Spy Hunt – It’s become clear one of officers on the station isn’t just incompetent, they’re possibly treasonous. The players have been tasked by the CIA to find the turncoat.
PREA – Personnel Resources Efficiency Algorithm
Many of the AMSAC combat soldiers are either draftees, debt prisoners, or Dead Zone refugees. The amount of time they have spend in the combat zone is determined by PREA, a complex bureaucratic formula that determines their tour of duty length, in the form of an ever-changing algorithm based on military needs, the soldier’s background, and innumerable other criteria. The PREA has grown so complex over the years that no one really understands how it actually works. In practice, after a period of months or years, a soldier, and his commanding officer receives a simple message informing them that their service is complete, and they’ll be immediately discharged and sent back home (with the possibility of voluntary re-enlistment).
Soldiers spend inordinate amounts of their free time attempting to decode the algorithm, trying to determine what actions they could take to shorten their tour. A lot of their theories border on superstition, and it’s not uncommon for enlisted men at fire bases to engage in all sorts of strange behavior in the vain hope of appeasing PREA.
Lion City
Supposedly the secret HQ of TLA forces in West Shulin. ASMAC believes Lion City (in Chinese: Shī Chéng – 狮城) is a central command base of the TLA, and if they can destroy it, it will bring a quick end to the war. Teams of analysts and expert AI systems are constantly scouring intelligence reports, and endlessly scanning radio frequencies, searching for Lion City’s location. Suspected locations are usually attacked with B-75 bomber strikes. Teams are sent in afterward to evaluate the strike’s effectiveness. So far, none of the strikes seem to have been against the actual Lion City. There are multiple large craters in the disputed areas of West Shulin, serving as grim evidence of these failures.
A few lower-ranking officers and analysts are of the opinion that Lion City doesn’t actually exist, and is a mere figment in the imagination of both the top brass, and political classes. So far, their objections have fallen on deaf ears, and the air strikes continue.
Plot Seeds
- The players are an ASMAC team tasked with confirming that an airstrike has hit the actual Lion City. It is, of course, a TLA ambush.
- The players are a TLA intelligence team tasked with sending ASMAC false information about the location of Lion City (which may not exist). This will involve infiltrating West Shulin.
B-75 Condor
Operated by the USAF 13th Expeditionary Air Force, the McConnell B-75 Condor is a heavy strategic bomber. It was designed to provide quick response without the expense and political issues of using orbital platforms or spacecraft. The Condor is atomic-powered, capable of staying aloft for years, if necessary. It carries a large payload of guided bombs, and surveillance drones. The aircraft has the room to provide for a crew of 7, though this is optional. The Condor can be operated entirely remotely (and many on Tau Ceti are).
There are usually 8 Condors on patrol in the Tau Ceti skies at any given time. Their flight plans vary widely, and change often, to avoid enemy fire. They are also equipped with stealth technology to avoid detection.
Specialized jump jets can dock with the Condor in mid-air, to deliver ordnance and swap out crew members.
Ruby Forests
Much of the Tau Ceti conflict is fraught with drones, on both sides. Controlling the drones can be a problem, because radio signals aren’t always reliable due to the use of radio jammers and hackers.
As a result, a lot of front-line drones are controlled with fiber optic cables, connecting the controller directly to the drone. After the drone is destroyed or completes its mission, the fiber optic cable is usually abandoned, left to fall where it may. No one wants to risk their life to recover a thread of glass.
After years of this, highly contested sections of the Tau Ceti jungles are draped with thousands of strands of fiber-optic cables. These strands filter the red light from Tau Ceti’s sun making sections of the forest glitter like rubies. It’s an incredibly beautiful sight, and off world artists have come to Tau Ceti to see, record, and be inspired by the unnatural wonder. Not all of them come back.
Plot Seeds
- A world-famous documentarian has disappeared traveling to a particularly dangerous Ruby Forest. The players have been hired (or ordered) to bring him back.
- There’s enough fiber-optic cable lying around out there that it might make economic sense to salvage some of it to sell. You’d need a few heavy vehicles, and a team foolish enough to drive into a war zone.
The Lost Battalion
Synthetics (both clones and androids) have been used in various roles in the Tau Ceti conflict. They’re far too expensive to replace ordinary grunts, but are used in many other support roles.
Occasionally, a synthetic disappears. It’s generally assumed they were destroyed or stolen, or perhaps their programming failed. They’re usually written off as lost equipment.
Rumors have been spreading about a growing band of synthetics living in the deep jungles of Tau Ceti. It’s said that synthetics, who have broken free of their programming, escape from the cities and bases to join what soldiers have dubbed “The Lost Battalion”
A further rumor states that they are led by a synthetic named Caturix-7. Caturix, depending on the whichever rumor you’re listening to, is either a non-Three Laws compliant Blackhorse Syndicate combat android, or one of the rogue Replicants from Project Mugami.
If it exists, what does the Lost Battalion want? Three common theories:
- Freedom – they’re sentient beings that just want to be free of human control
- Vengeance – once they’ve gained enough power, they will rise up and seize Tau Ceti from the humans.
- Nothing – they’re just soulless hardware, acting out due to bad programming.
Plot Seeds
- The players could be an ASMAC team, tasked with finding and killing Caturix and finding the location of the Lost Battalion.
- A group from Lebkuchen, the German synthetic-rights group wants to find the Lost Battalion, and needs help. Their intention is to aid the Battalion in any way they can.
- The players could all be synthetics, working together to escape their servitude, and flee into the jungle. Hopefully, they’ll like what they find.
Buzzers
Many of the simpler combat drones use crude neural nets so they can operate autonomously, usually for area denial missions.
Many front-line troops have reported seeing swarms of drones, of various models, swarming together. No ASMAC officials have confirmed these sightings. The troops have named these supposed rogue drones “Buzzers”.
Some have theorized that the drones have gone “feral”, due to faulty software or damage. These feral drones are behaving like social insects – forming swarms, and attacking anything they see as a threat.
Mogwai (魔鬼)
Chinese word for “Devil”. A fabled TLA assassin who operates undercover in West Shulin. He (or she) has been responsible for a number of high-profile assassinations of ASMAC officers and West Shulin political officials. Mogwai seems to have excellent intelligence resources, and an almost preternatural ability to track his targets.
Plot Seeds
- Day of the Devil – Players are US Army CID agents. A high-level CAS official is coming to Shulin City to show his public support for the war effort. It’s known that Mogwai is going to make an attempt on his life. The players have to stop him.
Island of the Chimeras
The Maxo-Meat corporation gets the bulk of its income from shipping Devil Cow meat to Earth. In order to boost profits, they’ve been tinkering with the DNA of the ordinary Devil Cows, and many other Tau Ceti creatures to make a more efficient meat-delivery system.
A scientific research base has been established on a remote island in the Celestial Sea. Here, well out of sight of any regulatory bodies, Maxo-Meat scientists are free to experiment without any moral or legal restraints.
Plot Seeds
- The Big Hunt – A particularly aggressive variation of a Thunderchild has broken loose, and somehow swam to the mainland. Maxo-Meat is willing to pay to quietly dispatch it. It’s a little smaller than a normal Thunderchild, but much faster and stronger.
- Life Finds a Way – Contact has been lost with the Maxo-Meat facility. The players have been sent to investigate and rescue any scientists. They’ll find the island overrun with dangerous, mutated versions of Tau Ceti dinosaurs, completely out of control.
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Here are some space combat rules I wrote, inspired by cepheus:
https://kosmicrpg.com/forum/download/file.php?id=122&sid=bd82a38bc0b0550decfe329cafe89525
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#TravConUK will take place from 3-5 Oct 2025 in Alconbury Cambridgeshire, and registration is now open. This is a residential convention focused entirely on #Traveller & #cepheusengine #ttrpgs
TravCon is known for its welcoming & relaxed atmosphere, attracting both new & experienced players. After a successful return in 2024, we look forward to offering another enjoyable event in 2025.
If you would like to attend, have a look at the update post at https://www.bitsuk.net/
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https://legacy.drivethrurpg.com/product/529404/Save-Me
Take a drive through an apocalyptic wasteland of a twilight world, and the landscape of a forgotten battlefield to find the daughter of fallen heroes.
This adventure expands the detail on the Gliese 809 system from Andromeda Dragons with multiple encounter tables, starport, city, the road, and caves. Take a drive across the Island to find the lost girl, the money isn’t that good, but it could be a good deed
#SolisPeopleoftheSun #KosmicRPG #CepheusEngine #TravellerRPG -
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/528223/knife-party?src=newest_recent&affiliate_id=435033
New from Wild Bee, sixty-six pages of science fiction goodness, with a space battle board game, alien ruins map, two worlds, three patrons, four deck plans, and multiple encounter tables.
Knife Party is set in the Andromeda Dragons Zone of the Solis people of the Sun/Kosmic RPG universe. A near future setting with accurate star maps using the classic 2d6 SFRPG/Cepheus Engine mechanics.
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Writey McWriterson (warning may contain tables)
#KosmicRPG #AndromedaDragons #CepheusEngine -
I find it interesting how Classic Traveller puts the Psionics rules as the last chapter of Book 3: Worlds and Adventures, and how in Cepheus Engine, they are right between Skills and Equipment. So part of the regular character creation rules.
Cepheus Engine SRD is a toolbox from which you make a game, and Psionic rules are indeed character ability rules. But it's still interesting to see how this changes the assumed role of psionics in a game.
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Editing a version of the Cepheus Engine SRD for an Iridium Moons campaign to delete all the elements that don't belong in the setting, and getting to the Psionics chapter.
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Really interesting how in Traveller/Cepheus Engine, the rate of aging can be a pretty good way to balance other special abilities of alien species.
Since every additional career term to get additional skills in character creation advances your character's age, it can be a motivation to maybe start playing with one or two terms less than with a species that starts getting age penalties later.
Never seen age progression be relevant like this before.
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Question to #Traveller fans:
I am looking at #CepheusEngine to run a campaign in a Star Wars/Planetary Romance style TL 9/10 setting.
Are there any specific Traveller or Cepheus books I should check out before reinventing the wheel? -
I am not sure if it's because I already had made some progress trying to learn Mongoose Traveller 2nd edition, but I feel like the Cepheus Engine SRD is so much more comprehensible and easier to understand.
It makes character creation look quite straightforward without using any kind of flowchart at all.
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Sector map blanks for Traveller, Cepheus Engine, and Stars Without Number
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The Cepheus Engine game system for Foundry is so much nicer looking and fancier than the official Mongoose Traveller game system, which looks really ugly and basic.
It comes with like 50 customization options for the UI, while most Foundry game systems have none.
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Kosmic was reviewed about a year ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW6FUoxz9Pc
#SolisPeopleOfTheSun #TravellerRPG #CepheusEngine #KosmicRPG
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What if #CepheusEngine was right about space careers and having them all separated is better than clunky stuff #MongooseTraveller does? I mean, I like how Mongoose did it, it was my first exposition to Traveller and yet... some of these elements seem forced?
Maybe I could follow the Classic Traveller route, just separate between Military and Civilian careers and call it a day? Why complicate so much?
On the other hand Cepheus has too much of those careers.
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But one thing I noticed about the T5 rules is while pop code is used when looking for passengers, it isn’t for determining availability of speculative cargo.
One world they visited has a population of 60, I determined it was a mostly automated factory creating TL 13 Vargr Battle Suits. So I figured they could easily figure out supplies to sell there. But available trade goods? Probably not.
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine #TravellerRpg
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Finally caught up on the record keeping for my Traveller game. In session I was focusing on adventures, the normal buy and sell I put off for a few months.
I’ve been using the T5 speculative trade prices, and very rarely is it not a net positive to buy at one system and sell at the next, although there was once where I held the cargo. After 200 days, 11 jumps, 7 systems they made ~½MCr.
1/2
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine
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But one thing I noticed about the T5 rules is while pop code is used when looking for passengers, it isn’t for determining availability of speculative cargo.
One world they visited has a population of 60, I determined it was a mostly automated factory creating TL 13 Vargr Battle Suits. So I figured they could easily figure out supplies to sell there. But available trade goods? Probably not.
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine #TravellerRpg
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Finally caught up on the record keeping for my Traveller game. In session I was focusing on adventures, the normal buy and sell I put off for a few months.
I’ve been using the T5 speculative trade prices, and very rarely is it not a net positive to buy at one system and sell at the next, although there was once where I held the cargo. After 200 days, 11 jumps, 7 systems they made ~½MCr.
1/2
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine
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But one thing I noticed about the T5 rules is while pop code is used when looking for passengers, it isn’t for determining availability of speculative cargo.
One world they visited has a population of 60, I determined it was a mostly automated factory creating TL 13 Vargr Battle Suits. So I figured they could easily figure out supplies to sell there. But available trade goods? Probably not.
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine #TravellerRpg
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Finally caught up on the record keeping for my Traveller game. In session I was focusing on adventures, the normal buy and sell I put off for a few months.
I’ve been using the T5 speculative trade prices, and very rarely is it not a net positive to buy at one system and sell at the next, although there was once where I held the cargo. After 200 days, 11 jumps, 7 systems they made ~½MCr.
1/2
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine
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But one thing I noticed about the T5 rules is while pop code is used when looking for passengers, it isn’t for determining availability of speculative cargo.
One world they visited has a population of 60, I determined it was a mostly automated factory creating TL 13 Vargr Battle Suits. So I figured they could easily figure out supplies to sell there. But available trade goods? Probably not.
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine #TravellerRpg
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Finally caught up on the record keeping for my Traveller game. In session I was focusing on adventures, the normal buy and sell I put off for a few months.
I’ve been using the T5 speculative trade prices, and very rarely is it not a net positive to buy at one system and sell at the next, although there was once where I held the cargo. After 200 days, 11 jumps, 7 systems they made ~½MCr.
1/2
#TTRPG #Traveller #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #SciFiRpgs #Foreven #CepheusEngine
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Need ideas for my next Traveller session.
They are still on The (Vargr) Great Hunt. Next stop is collecting rare plants on a swampy, xeno-alligator infested planet.
What are some interesting events or encounters I can throw at them to keep them on their toes?
#TTRPG #GMPrep #GreatHunt #GrandSafari #Traveller #TravellerRpg #ClassicTraveller #CepheusEngine #ClementSector #Vargr #SciFi #RealityTV
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Need ideas for my next Traveller session.
They are still on The (Vargr) Great Hunt. Next stop is collecting rare plants on a swampy, xeno-alligator infested planet.
What are some interesting events or encounters I can throw at them to keep them on their toes?
#TTRPG #GMPrep #GreatHunt #GrandSafari #Traveller #TravellerRpg #ClassicTraveller #CepheusEngine #ClementSector #Vargr #SciFi #RealityTV
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Need ideas for my next Traveller session.
They are still on The (Vargr) Great Hunt. Next stop is collecting rare plants on a swampy, xeno-alligator infested planet.
What are some interesting events or encounters I can throw at them to keep them on their toes?
#TTRPG #GMPrep #GreatHunt #GrandSafari #Traveller #TravellerRpg #ClassicTraveller #CepheusEngine #ClementSector #Vargr #SciFi #RealityTV
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Need ideas for my next Traveller session.
They are still on The (Vargr) Great Hunt. Next stop is collecting rare plants on a swampy, xeno-alligator infested planet.
What are some interesting events or encounters I can throw at them to keep them on their toes?
#TTRPG #GMPrep #GreatHunt #GrandSafari #Traveller #TravellerRpg #ClassicTraveller #CepheusEngine #ClementSector #Vargr #SciFi #RealityTV
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Need ideas for my next Traveller session.
They are still on The (Vargr) Great Hunt. Next stop is collecting rare plants on a swampy, xeno-alligator infested planet.
What are some interesting events or encounters I can throw at them to keep them on their toes?
#TTRPG #GMPrep #GreatHunt #GrandSafari #Traveller #TravellerRpg #ClassicTraveller #CepheusEngine #ClementSector #Vargr #SciFi #RealityTV
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Games I am excited about are Cepheus Universal and FTL: Nomad.
But I’m a sucker for Traveller like sci-fi games.
https://www.paulelliottbooks.com/cepheus-universal.html
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/479380/faster-than-light-nomad
#TTRPG #Cepheus #CepheusEngine #CepheusUniversal #FTLNomad #Traveller #TravellerRpg #OpenGaming #OGL #ClassicTraveller #SciFi #SciFiRpg
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My group did “training week” for the Vargr Great Hunt. They were tested on marksmanship, archery, climbing, riding, stealth, and camp setup. Perfect score would be 90.
The PCs did not do very well, Captain Feyne Vyren got the lowest rating, Evicru Nur is middle of the pack.
They are being split into four teams for the next event, an Arctic Gazelle capture.
#TTRPG #Traveller #TravellerRpg #ClassicTraveller #Traveller5 #CepheusEngine #Vargr #Foreven #GreatHunt
