SWN Delta Drop

Watch this space.

Bandaluri pirates scream around a moon as a merchant tries to flee. A psychic god of Anchises commands a mob to assault a rival's temple. A Hochog prince shades his eyes with one hand, an ax in the other, as he and his warband watch a gravflyer pass in the distance. The Agate Dominion drops troops onto a planet. A ship descends into a glowing fence from orbit, the atmosphere beyond the fence a churning mass of dust. A half-built cruiser hangs in the gantries of the Hypsipyle Interstellar Drive yards. A shaman with a stone-tipped spear teaches students from across the sector to control their MES-granted powers.

Character Creation

As per the core rulebook (First Edition), with 3 exceptions. 1) Roll as normal for attributes, then assign them in any order you wish. 2) Choose one Background Package, and additionally the Adventurer Package. 3) Choose one Training Package, and additionally the Adventurer Package. You may choose the adventurer package twice in a stage if you wish.

Begin with max HP for your class, including Con mod.

Starting Money

Each character gets 1,200 credits to purchase starting gear with, up to TL4. We are using the expanded equipment lists from Revised.

Pick an item up to TL4. A weapon, armor, a Tech kit, etc. Something that you want to be a signature or vital gear for your character. You get it for free and it's reasonably plot-protected; don't do something foolish like chuck it out an airlock or into a volcano and you'll hang onto it.

One Plot Thing

Pick a plot-driving hook for your character. Maybe you know a secret jump route, or a military officer who needs work done off the books from time to time. Every character needs one connection or relationship that can be used to get information, create complications or hang an adventure off of in a pinch!

House Rules

Up-jumped Weapons

Much of Phoenician technology is transitional, and the common practice of up-jumping is part and parcel of that fact. Up-jumped weapons are simply TL 1-3 weapons platforms built using TL4 materials technology. The effect is that these items count as TL4 for the purposes of overcoming advanced armor or resisting effects. An up-jumped shotgun is not slowed by plate, while an up-jumped knife is capable of wounding even a warrior in powered armor.

Up-jumped weapons cost the corebook prices. TL 1-3 weapons that have not been improved in this manner cost 10% less.

Grenades

Underslung Launchers: Can be fit to rifles, combat rifles, combat shotguns, mag rifles, spike throwers, laser rifles and plasma projecters. If you knew what a shear rifle was, you could hook one up to that too. They have a range of 150/350, add +1 encumbrance to the firearm they are mounted to and have a magazine of 3. Reloading the magazine takes one action per grenade. You can't put a throwing grenade into a launcher, and you can't throw a launcher grenade (well, you can, it just won't hit hard enough to go off).

These are cheap, at 300 a pop. Launcher grenades cost the same as regular ones.

Ricochet: Grenades launched from either a dedicated gunnery weapon or an underslung launcher fly much faster than thrown ones. When they bounce, they bounce further. Misses deviate by 1d20 meters.

Indirect Fire: This, in addition to the blast radius, is what makes up for the deviations and 'soft' damage of launched grenades. When fired, you can take a -2 modifier to the attack roll in order to arc the grenade over hard cover, into a trench, etc in order to place a hit or deviation on a target that would otherwise be safe. There still needs to be a path for the grenade to follow in order for this to work.

Ricochet and Indirect Fire apply to the Multiple Grenade Launcher (MGL).

Keep in mind that grenades can kill your friends, that the enemy gets a Luck Save to halve the damage taken, that the damage does not ignore vehicle armor, that tanks are immune to grenade fire, and that ACs below 6 reduce grenade damage by one for every point they are below it. Grenades can do some serious stuff that other weapons cannot, but they have some significant downsides as well.