Corsairs of Terra

A campaign wiki for the Stars Without Number game Corsairs of Terra.

Characters

• PC Name Here, played by SuperGamera.
• Jason Julio Vaughn, played by Colombus.
• Hiram "Geno" Genovese, played by Mr. Kent.
• Yamauchi Hiro, played by The Wyzard.
• Rimus Ardlenna, played by Black Adder LXX
• Frederico "Rico" Pelaez, played by Black Adder LXX

Persephone

The Persephone is a modified Free Merchant with +5 maximum Power.

Free Merchant Hull: 0/15 Power, 0/15 Mass

• Speed 3
• Armor 2
• AC 6
• HP 20/20
• Crew 1/6

• Atmospheric Configuration: 0/15 Power, 2/15 Mass
  • Lets the ship take off and land on the surface.

• Ships Locker & Armory[/B]: 0/15 Power, 2/15 Mass
  • Costs no power and mass, gives us a big cache of equipment.

• Extended Stores: 0/15 Power, 4/15 Mass.
  • Doubles the duration of our stores. Unquestionably vital for exploration.

• Fuel Bunkers: 0/15 Power, 5/15 Mass.
  • Lets us make more than one jump. Also vital for exploration.

• Fuel Scoops: 2/15 Power, 7/15 Mass
  • Lets us refuel in systems where fuel isn't normally available. Pretty important.

• Spike Drive 3: 6/15 Power, 11/15 Mass
  • We go faster.

• Advanced Nav Computer: 8/15 Power, 11/15 Mass.
  • +2 to follow charted drill routes

• Sandthrower: 11/15 Power, 12/15 Mass
  • 2d4 damage. Double damage before applying armor when attacking Fighter-class vessels.

• Sandthrower 2: 14/15 Power, 13/15 Mass
  • 2d4 damage. Double damage before applying armor when attacking Fighter-class vessels.

• Cargo Hold: 14/15 Power, 15/15 Mass
  • 40 Ton Capacity

The ship is mapped out on google drawings.

• Lower Deck: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1WIqMzXI93yHJBFtZTpjnEcLgIhX-7574uxoBHd6ppQA/edit]
• Upper Deck: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1W89sUZpa0QOWqey9bo70mekz-Gl4boERzA8ROnSvw48/edit

PbP Rules

1.) GM rolls all dice

2.) Please make sure, wherever possible, that your IC posts are moving the game forward. I would much rather have a terse "Conan agrees with Spaceman Spiff's course of action" post than three paragraphs of observation and deep thoughts that don't tell me what your PC is doing next.

3.) If you've got a short OOC comment relevant to your IC post, go ahead and put it in a sblock. Otherwise, let's keep OOC comments in the OOC thread.

House Rules

1.) The cost of food, clothing, and shelter The GM automatically deduct a number of credits each month, as per the Lifestyle Costs rule, corresponding with the PCs' level. Lifestyle Costs rules can be found on p. 44 of the Core Rulebook.

This will apply even if the PCs spend the month onboard a ship. Think of it as the cost of food, books, games, holovids, recreational drugs, pleasure droids, etc... to while away the time on a long interstellar journey.

Level 1-3: 450 cr (equivalent to the "Common" lifestyle quality)

Level 4-6: 750 cr (equivalent to the "Good" lifestyle quality)

Level 7+: 3,000 cr (equivalent to the "Elite" lifestyle quality)

2.) Custom Technology Every PC begins with a custom compad called a PRISM (Personal Research and Intelligent Scanning Mechanism). The PRISM is the game equivalent of a radio, TV, iPhone (with data plan), and digital wallet all in one. Note that most of its functions work only within a modern comm grid.

Off planet, the connection will work if the PCs ship is in orbit or closer, and on the same side of the planet as the PCs. Otherwise, the standard rules for compads are in effect (can reach other compads within one km, 30 km if a Comm server is in operation).

The PRISM has a limited artificial intelligence and can perform some tasks at the same skill level as the PC (e.g. searching for information, hacking an accessible network).

3.) Character Creation There is a rule on p. 11 that says: "Some training packages also have skill listings that allow you to select any specialty for Combat, Culture, Profession, Tech, or Vehicle skills. You may choose such skills as you like, but you cannot duplicate a skill already on the training package list."

I am assuming that there's a typo here, and that it should read: "Some BACKGROUND packages also have skill listings that allow you to select any specialty for Combat, Culture, Profession, Tech, or Vehicle skills. You may choose such skills as you like, but you cannot duplicate a skill already on the training package list."

The way I interpret this rule is that if the training package says, for example, Vehicle/Space and the background package also says Vehicle/Space, you get Vehicle/Space 1.

However, if the training package says Vehicle/Space and the background package says Vehicle/Any, you cannot select Vehicle/Space twice and must choose a different Vehicle specialization for the background package.

Sector Map

System Details

Sol System - Eight planets and a substantial asteroid belt. Original home of the Terran race.

Mercury - Rumor has it that the Mandate had a couple of bases on Mercury, deep in the bottom of craters at the poles so as not to be exposed to direct sunlight. The research was supposedly into fusion-based weaponry, harnessing the power of Sol. No one knows if the bases are still operational, post-Scream.

Venus - Home to a couple thousand scientists and atmo-miners in orbital bases, Venus' atmosphere is too hostile for colonization. Note: Atmo-miners collect rare chemicals from the upper atmosphere of the planet.

Terra (aka Earth) - Terra is a shadow of its former self. Global warming, due both to the effects of 19th-22nd Century industry and a series of nuclear exchanges right after the discovery of the spike drive, has caused the complete meltdown of the polar ice caps. Flooding, subsequent loss of arable land, warfare, and a mass exodus of colonists off-planet has left the global population at about one billion. Once you leave Terra, the Mandate rules, but on Terra, there are five major political entities.

• Pan-African Confederacy - Main language is Bantu, multiple political parties dominated by Nigerians and Egyptians, control all of Africa.

• America, Inc. - Main language is Spanglish (formal combination of English and Spanish), corporations are the government, control all of North, Central, and South America

• Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere - Main language is Mandarin Chinese, government is a bureaucracy with Emperor at its head, control all of China and eastern Russia, plus the remnants of Japan and Asian island chains.

• Holy Roman Union - Main language is German, government is a theocracy with the Pope at its head, controls eastern and western Europe, including European Russia.

• United Council of India - Main language is Hindi, government is a democratic republic, controls south Asia from Thailand to the Middle East, and north to Kazakhstan.

Luna (aka the Moon) - Home to roughly 20 million colonists. Most of the civilian cities are at the poles, where lunar ice deposits make permanent colonies possible. The Mandate has a number of military bases on the dark side of Luna.

Mars - Home to about 50 million colonists. Pre-Scream terraforming (and before that, atmosphere-forming) enabled Martian colonists to live on the surface of Mars without vacc suits and actually grow food in Martian soil. The massive engines, powered by heat captured from rising magma, are mostly self-healing, which is good since they are of a pre-Scream tech level and no one really understands how they work or how to build more.

Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. Phobos has a couple hundred miners. Deimos has a Mandate military base and is off-limits to civilians.

Jupiter - Being a gas giant, there are no colonists on the planet itself. Each of its Galilean moons, however, have small settlements with populations numbering in the low thousands. Europa, in particular, seems the most promising due to its extensive ice layer.

Saturn - Like Jupiter, there are no colonists on Saturn itself. There is a sizable atmo-miner community on Titan, Saturn's largest moon, and rumor has it that the Mandate is conducting experiments on creating life in Titan's methane lakes.

Uranus - The coldest planet in the system, there are no known settlements on Uranus, although it's suspected that the Mandate has some sort of early warning system installed on one or more of its 27 moons.

Neptune - An ice giant like Uranus, Neptune is also barren of human colonization. Triton, Neptune's largest moon, has a Mandate military base where civilians are forbidden.

Alpha Centauri System - First system colonized by Terrans, contains four planets, all naturally capable of supporting human life.

Tiberius - The first planet settled by Terrans outside of Sol system, Tiberius is home to about 250 million Terrans. It is the breadbasket of the system, supplying the vast majority of the foodstuffs for all Terran settlements. Domestic issues are handled by a democratic republic system of government, while the Terran Mandate supersedes any local authority when it comes to issues of security and space travel. The official language is English, which is not coincidentally the official language of the Mandate.

Crohn - The second planet settled by Terrans outside of Sol system, Crohn is the industrial backbone of the Mandate and the ex-Sol colonies. Here you will find the only shipbuilders capable of making military-class warships, as well as the Mandate's central HQ. You'll also find a number of "company towns" dedicated to this manufacturing enclave or that mining On Crohn, the Mandate runs the domestic gov't, which can be somewhat accurately described as a enlightened dictatorship. Fleet Admiral Viktor Kurnikov is the current Director of the Terran Oversight Board, making him the most powerful man in the galaxy. Hindi is a popular second language on Crohn, due to the number of original colonists having arrived on ships launched from Indian base stations.

AC Gamma - The third planet discovered in the system, AC Gamma (or just 'Gamma') is currently unoccupied. The atmosphere is notoriously unpredictable, with the land constantly ravaged by storm systems hundreds of kilometers wide. There are rumors of ruined alien cities planet-side that pre-date even the Armada races but few have risked the trip and even fewer have returned. The Mandate strongly discourages civilians from making landfall but it's not actually prohibited.

AC Delta - The fourth planet discovered in the system, AC Delta (aka 'Delta' or 'D-Train') is officially unpopulated but there are a number of small settlements led by Terrans who wanted to avoid the control of a central government. They are a mix of cultists, religious extremists, mad scientists, and adventurers (think 'extreme outdoorsmen'). The Mandate also uses the planet for training some of its more elite troops. While no exhaustive guidebook has been written on the planet, its native flora and fauna are notoriously unfriendly, if not outright lethal, to the unprepared visitor.