Beyond Mere Space Mercenaries - Other Game Ideas and Concepts for Sub-ether and Galaxy Black

So sub-ether 2 probably represents the best (so far) the sort of default assumed game play inherent in Galaxy black[1], namely “zero levels leave their crappy home habitats and get in a starship and wander around, all along (and considerably beyond) the imperial border.  Where imperial means “any expanding colonial power.”  Call it the Federation, call it the Alliance, whatever.  If it’s a high tech stellar power with psi powers and colonial expansion, that’s the imperium.  

Or to put it more bluntly – traditional D&D DCC in SPAAAAAAAAACE

Which is wonderful. But Galaxy Black, thundering bulk that it is, allows for all sorts of other weird SF gameplay.  Here’s some examples -

 

Other Game Ideas and Concepts

 Intergalactic Dinosaur-y  Dinosaurs Mr. Rico, A Whole Galaxy Of Them! 

Thanks to some unexpected Navigator assistance an Imperial Legion has boarded and (somewhat) captured, one of the Aerkeroi[2]; 300+ million year old terraforming factory craft, a vast mobile automated ark that goes to worlds, mass material terraforms them and introduces an artificial ecology before moving on to the next world. An ISA boarding team was able to confirm their “Elder Thing Hypothesis” – linking this to a series of four other known “BDO” class objects known to exist at near to hyperlight velocities moving out of or away from our galaxy.
An intact data sample suggests in fact hat a sixth ark should by now be reaching (X galaxy) and transforming all of 50 million theorized worlds into copies of the Teranayan Mesozoic …
….. and so your ship is being outfitted to travel to this distant galaxy and explore, chart, and colonize those 50 million garden worlds, each of which should have extensive and harvestable higher animal life
Of course, on the far side of that galaxy the Aerkeroi in question is still spitting out worlds. Once there, can they find – and capture – such a prize? A maker on such an awesome scale could be capable of almost anything…..
Ideal for large parties of leveled PCs who should probably be the colony / colonization leaders who should probably have access to most o the gear in Galaxy Black
Plus dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are rad. The mix of pseudolovecraftiana and Cenozoic remixed nonsense should ,make for a fine Galaxy of the Lost type situation.

The Unvisible College

An all Wizard (or Wizards and elves, or Wizards elves, and clerics really, add casters from supplements and variants to taste) game in Galaxy Black would pro’lly look something like the Invisibles, with rival cabals of casters trying to bring about one or more ‘noosphere events’ to rewrite reality … or some other high sounding but ultimately very …. Revelatory (meaning destructive among other things here) goal.
But in broad strokes the Invisibles, say volumes 1-5 of the trade backs)
Or Shade the Changing Man (the Chris Baccalo / Peter Milligan run from the 90s) sadly there is only one collection of this out there that I know and it’s from the weaker early issues.

 

Judges Raid Thine Bookshelves

Easiest way to prep a low prep GB game? Okay this is the smartassed answer so it’s the true one – grab any three issues of one or more of the following 2000ad, Heavy Metal or Epic Illustrated, almost any old Warren or EC sf or horror comic (though in a pinch any horror, F&SF comic will do), find the three most visually interesting stories, stick this on a planet somewhere in the galaxy and hit Go!   Write up stuff as you go based on what you liked from the material and don’t be afraid to riff.  Your own notion of the idea is better than the original idea for our purposes.  Mix this with whatever else you fancy.   Ditch the parts of the concept you don’t like.  Figure out how it fits together as you go.

Don’t be afraid to let player theories become emergent truths.  Especially when theirs is a better idea than whatever bs you had prepared. You can always come back to it if you need to ditch this angle.

 

Existing resources you may already have in your gaming library

Star shrine of the Seamother
Shrine of the Kuo-Toa becomes a dandy God level for a passing starship of aqua-galactics; shove the temple complex deep inside a starship, change literally nothing else. Blibdoolpoolip makes a nasty ship’s goddess, and moreover has been written up ..somewhere online. (the only link I had was a g+ link, damn that stings)

 

Dwellers inside the Forbidden Worldship
For that matter, have the PCs find an old starship adrift, orbiting a hot young star in a system teeming with life. When they board break out Dwellers of the Forbidden City In my experience you can run it pretty much as is with a few obvious exceptions – just placing it inside a hollowed out asteroid, riffing off the old Star Trek episode The World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky, running with the backstory that it was a Quetzal era generation ship that was long ago overthrown by servitor beings on board.
Once Sub-ether 3 drops you can even have the Forbidden Worldship serve as the secret asteroid base of the White Sun but now I’ve said too much….
(and as I’ve said elsewhere you can do this exact thing even better with B4 the Lost City[3]. Just on the off chance any of you might have scored a copy of THAT recently.)


Because you own Sailors on the Sunless Sea (right?) - Stick the chaos temple atop the sunless sea on a body like Europa or Ceres and get a VERY different sunless sea. Space is littered wit the vacuum packed ruins of dead civilizations……

---

[1] Maybe more accurately it’s what I feel most people will do with it out of the box.

 

[2] The Arkeroi  - 300 mya elder thing terraforming device/craft/BDO;

Maybe such things are large (VAST) mobile automated arks, that go to worlds, genesis effect them, and then introduce an artificial ecology

Much of it might be Terran derived at least in part.

 

[3] I find the statblocks in B/X era adventures to be plug and play levels of usable for DCC, just add and remix as you go.  Which does bring to mind that you could also combine these ideas and run the Asteroid of Dread. Have fun with it whatever you do!

The Orphangrinder’s Crew (Sub-ether 2 support article)

 The Orphangrinder’s Crew

The Crew of the Maenad “raiding yacht” Fleshgarden

 While the proper name of Sonja’ s vessel is the “Queen Sonja’s Flesh Garden,”  more than a few maenads of other vessels smirk and call it the Orphangrinder. 

Sonja’s reputation, such as that she has one among the other captains, is of one who is perhaps overly fond of adopting strays.  Sonja has non-Maenads serving on her ship, which is not unheard of on a maenad ship (where each Captain makes the laws ultimately) but she has many of them.   Several others, especially – at present – many of the officers she considers her “command staff” may be Maenads but were all ‘recovered’ (as she likes to say) from settlements and situations not of a maenadic aspect.

Her XO was taken as a child and raised in the imperium as a slave; for many decades he was molded into a brainwashed intelligence asset for a noble of one of the great houses; In the last two decades he has sought freedom, but only in the last ten years has he known Sonja. 

 

“You can be a knife, or you can be a bloody wound.

I am the knife.”

Free Download - the Orphangrinder's Crew 

Get Sub-ether 2 HERE

 (opens Drivethru link in new window)

Sub-ether Crossroads Sale!

 

“I went down to the crossroads tried to flag a ride

Down to the crossroads tried to flag a ride

Nobody seemed to know me, everybody passed me by”

 

3 different paths to the stars

Bring your DCC RPG characters

Your shell shocked Noir survivors from Sub-ether 1

Your Mutants

Your Manimals

Leave your world

Until August 20 at midnight

To celebrate the release of the second ish of Sub-ether both issues are 33% off at Dreaming Gynoid’s online store.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/323568/Subether-2

Drive thru sale on both sub-ether 33% off to celebrate new issue

TEST UMLAUT LIVES IN ETERNITY

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Also available at our store

Sub-ether 1

The Book of Scarlet Abomination

both for DCC !!

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HAPPY GAMING!

Sub-ether 2 Orphans of the Black

  

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Recycle your zeros,

it’s the imperial way.

The Wind and the Stars

The Wind and the Stars

//i:code:ref essay/ideology/truth/speculative/ISA hosting Node 11.1fw

“Gravity and Light: the many generations of space gods and their effects upon-”

(Taken from the introduction)

-         Dr. G.J. Haber, visiting lecturer on experimental alchemy and paratypical psychiatry)

The mariners of old had the wind and the stars to guide them, for those whose desire to expand, to know, to explore, exceeded their technology.   It us ultimately from these people the Imperium hails its foundations and continuations. Without them, we have no civilization.

In the pre-stellar era, a given technological civilization has few opportunities to leave their world and fewer still to do so under their own means.   For those who brave this, most final of void-oceans, only the gravity keys between the worlds of their solar system and the positions of the great celestials themselves, the bright stars, the galactic medium itself, and other, distant but visible galaxies and phenomena. 

It is the wind and the stars all over again. 

While the stars have not changed, for the most part, the wind is now the interlocking forces of gravity within a solar system, at least until gravity is recognized as the enemy.

The common mytho-historical image of the cosmonaut struggling against the universe is not our best guide to these people. No, those first explorers who lack even fusion technology, are more akin to those who sail the currents of island chains in canoes made of local vegetation, fashioned with their bare hands. They who in the span of years will colonize an area over a thousand times more vast. 

To those first, those earliest of star sailors to emerge from the home worlds of our ancestors, there were always the lord of light and mother space, the goddess of gravity. The gender roles are not important but among many clades those are the tendencies. There is of course a third force underlying all of this but only many thousands of generations selection bring that particular need about.  

But it is the holy dance of light and gravity of which I now speak. Sometimes twins, or siblings.  Often lovers, many times enemies.   It is only through a logical understanding of the fundamentals of both and how they intersect that makes those first voyages possible…for the survivors. For these are the Gods of the Lucky Ones, of the hundreds that lived when millions were sent out.  Those who survived, made more, thrived, and then kept going.  Those who forgot the truths of light and gravity stopped expanding, and likely died out but their epic voyages of expansion were over.  

Those who persisted those are the spacers.  Those who gave up, those are the Ketraxians, the Maenads, the Friggians, the Saurids, the Vroids. 

It may help to remember that that selection process goes on today.  All of you are from worlds, member worlds of the imperium yes but now you are in imperial service. You are among those selected to later return to the stars and the process begins anew, if you thrive in imperial service then the imperium thrives, and your descendants will challenge the stars anew, raising up their own gods.

In these later generations perhaps we should find a psychopomp to raise up, to remind us the lessons of entropy.

Light, gravity and entropy, so still like the stars, the wind, and salt.

VIRTUES! Potent champions of order and light for your DCC games

There is a flash of blue and gold shine fading in the green afterglow of translocation and a great and celestial being has appeared before you.   Behold Amethystianhfel the Hammer, Throne of Exterre Ashtereth, Queen of Heaven and Commander in Her Celestial Legions.

A great strange higher planar being, one of the Higher Virtues or Angels.   Their material form seems to combine the features of many birds and other things besides.   The mighty being pulsates with an inner sapphire light, giving her blue skin a purplish hue when she engages in any celestial activity.  (Indeed, She seems transparent to most mortals who are pure of heart.) 

The majority of her body combines the features of a finch, a peacock, and a night preying bird, such a larger species of owl.   She is also quite large and sports a double set of blue and gold wings. In the higher Sub-ether or other planes these wings can spread to a span of 90’ to facilitate rapid trans planar flight.

She is at least somewhat made of light and so understands and can impart wisdom on photonics and other physics esoterica to the right scientist.

She bears a gold rod that is her badge of station as a high servant of Exterre; in some worlds it acts fully as a rod of rulership and can be loaned to (especially deserving) mortals as such in a pinch. In most worlds however, she will not part with it, as to do so would be to call into question her loyalty.  Likely much of her essence is presently bound up within it as befitting a high Servant of Exterre.

In times of active celestial warfare, she can call upon 200 lesser virtues and easily 5d12 least Thrones into an active fighting force within “three days and nights.

Further, as a high Throne in the service of Exterre, she bears three keys, part of the number of Her thrones that serve as binding agents for the ifrit and djinn that have been bound into her service, which presently number into the thousands. ”

In combat against the forces of evil or, especially, the forces of the Unmaker,  Amethystianhfel has been known to appear in the following form.

Amethystianhfel the Hammer (1): Init +10; Atk weapon +14 melee (1d16); AC 28; HD 14d12; hp 98; MV 90; Act 1d26; SP many; SV Fort +9, Ref +9, Will +9; AL Lawful.
Hammering force of the Star Queen’s Herald In an atmosphere, Amethystianhfel has been known to wield a tremendous, but invisible, beam of pure force, used like a sword or mace.  It can strike any opponent in 70 feet  Each strike inflicts 98 points of damage on Chaotic, evil, or any other designated opponents. Anything slain by it is immediately reduced to  puddle of inky green and black smoke which then visibly evaporates with a scream.   Anything of Chaos slain by this use of force will not return.

Hammering snap - On arrival or with a snap of it’s dozen fingers everything aligned with Chaos and Evil must beat a DC 28 Ref save or be thrown prone by a wave of instant concussive force radiating out from the Virtue.  Any servitors of chaos or evil will be deafened for 1d5 rounds thereafter; any objects or materials dedicated to or tainted by chaos or evil will shatter or, if appropriate, smoulder and burn in the aftermath of this effect. This extends to non-magical and low tech mundane apparatus used by the forces of chaos; ex.  the chaos champion is on his ass and deafened yes, but all of his non-magical gear just shattered to powder;  Any undead or spectral entities in the area of effects are returned to the grave or banished into the near Sub-ether, as appropriate, no saving throw.   This extends to a full radius of up to 28 yards from the Virtue.

LESSER VIRTUES

The 4 Lesser Virtues (there may be 3 other, Greater Virtues:  Hope, Light, and Charity, though a higher rune is required to call upon them)

Justice

Knowledge

Motion

War

Those in the service of the forces of Law, including it is assumed all clerics of the Imperial Church in Galaxy Black, are trained in the runes and spirit pathways by which these agents of order may be invoked or called to the mortal plane….and the means by which they may be embodied into material objects to serve in the fight against chaos. (Calling a lesser virtue requires a second or third level spell, much as invoking one of the Great Virtues requires fourth or even fifth level clerical magic.)

Justice virtues may be embodied into books, rods, or any demonstrable implement of justice or civilization.   If you can swear an oath on it, it’s appropriate for embodiment.  Many Justice virtues exist in the service of Leviathan.

Knowledge virtues may be embodied into media of almost any variety, holograms, headware or brain implants.  Knowledge virtues are known for exacting pact conditions to accept embodiment – often the embodiment being a short term or limited duration during such a time as the Virtue will pass on what it knows though it could involve the virtue being bound as a book and left on a lower tech planet where those who could benefit could find it or something similar.

War virtues of course may be embodied into weapons or armor.  

Most war virtues are it is said in the service of Exterre Ashtereth

Weapons and armor so embodied do not chip, wear or break.  They are functionally immune to the rigors of entropy.   Weapons always inflict maximum possible damage. There is no variation (and no possibility for critical hits either).  Envirtued armor have been known to survive their wearer’s destruction. 

Virtues of motion do not like to be embodied, it is contrary to both their nature and their purpose.   They would much rather simply take that which has called them to their destination and back than ever be held in one place like that.  

Virtue of Justice  (1, on higher planes 1 or 3): Init +7; Atk weapon +11 melee (11 + 11d3); AC 26; HD 11d8; hp 77 each; MV 90’; Act 1d24; SP Wheels of Justice, celestial traits; SV Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +7; AL Lawful.

Wheels of Justice Turning Swiftly – attempted deception in the virtue’s presence requires a DC 17 Will save, failure indicates the speaker is now on fire, taking 1d4 hp/round until they recant their untruth.

Those in the service of Law who have abused their authority in the Virtue’s presence must immediately succeed at a DC 26 Fort save or take 44 points of damage a round until they fall before the Virtue and recant. Many are the wicked who find themselves functionally struck dead by the arrival of such a being.

The virtue knows what you have done, whatever you have done, immediately on entering their presence. Act accordingly.

At its discretion, the Virtue may bring those who died from grave misjustice back to life.  It has been known to abduct war criminals and mass murderers when summoned into such a being’s presence.  Be careful in summoning Justice, for the virtue’s commitment is total.

Celestial traits - Virtues of Justice appear in their own form as something like a series of spheres or discs spinning together, generating friction and fire when they come into contact.   To mortal eyes they commonly chose any number of obvious Justice symbols from the noosphere as appropriate.

Virtue of Knowledge  (1, on higher planes 1-2): Init +7; Atk weapon +11 melee (11 + 11d3); AC 26; HD 11d8; hp 55 each; MV 180’; Act 1d24; SP Cosmic awareness, command of knowledge, celestial traits; SV Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +7; AL Lawful.

Cosmic Awareness – the virtue of knowledge can call upon information from the Noosphere at will.  It is tied to the knowledge base and experience pool of both its patron Deity and all those who have died in Her service.

Command of Knowledge – the Virtue can order Noosphere creatures in vicinity into its service with a reasonable chance of success.   The Virtue can understand, control, and manipulate data within storage media at will.  You cannot lie to a Virtue of Knowledge.

Celestial traits - Appearing in some of their native planes as a ‘walking lantern’ – a sort of gas light mount waking on eight artificial limbs each of a differing progress level and material.

Virtue of War  (1, on higher planes 1-3): Init +7; Atk weapon +11 melee (11 + 11d3); AC 26; HD 11d8; hp 66 each; MV 600; Act 4d26; SP celestial traits; SV Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +7; AL Lawful.

Call for War – At will, the Virtue of War may utter a metacelestial call to battle, sounding like a warbling bugle call that vibrates all reflective surfaces;  either  (Lesser call) 1d12, (Great Call) 5d12, or (Revelatory Call) 1d100 celestial beings will arrive responding to the call within 1d3 rounds. 

Engine of Virtuous Destruction – when engaging in battle a War virtue will elicit a thundering word of purpose.  In a cone shape (1x3x9) that can extend as much as 9 kilometers about 5 and a half miles) along it’s longest axis. ANY structure that shelters evil or chaotic beings in that area of effect is reduced to rubble.  Any structure that shelters the innocent, the virtuous or those caught in the crossfire is immune to this effect and in fact will find that all doors and portals sealed, so as to prevent the destruction of innocent life in conflict.  (Mortals seeking entry into such a place will likely find the doors open but one day, only to allow them ingress.)

Engine of Visceral Destruction – Up to three times a day on the mortal plane, a Virtue of War may unleash it’s primary war power;  a blast up to 700 yards long and 70 wide that inflicts 24d10 on all structures, devices, items, relics, and servitors of chaos and evil. When used for any purpose short of true conflict with a major demon, devil, or the like, the Virtue may find themselves later held accountable in the Courts of Law.   Summoned or conjured creatures of chaos and evil may be driven off the material plane if they survive (DC 26 Fort save to resist).

Celestial traits – in it’s native form as a complicated set of horns and cones arising out of a common single point, accompanied by the beat of powerful wings, equal in strength to a heavy helicopter taking off.    To mortals or on the mortal planes takes on all manner of appearances; almost all involve four wings, a central horn or trumpet, and many mouths or jets which spew sound and light as waste products.

When in conflict with the proper forces of chaos and evil, be they demons, great devils, primordial terrors, or outsider things of uncreation, their weapons always hit, and they may choose the amount of damage inflicted from what is available.   They may always critical on such a critical at will, thought the result must be determined as usual.

Virtue of Motion  (1, on higher planes 1-3): Init +7; Atk weapon +11 melee (11 + 11d3); AC 26; HD 11d8; hp 55 each; MV 180,000; Act 1d24; SP Cosmic understanding of physics, caress of total motion, celestial traits; SV Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +7; AL Lawful.
Cosmic Understanding of Physics – the Virtues of Motion often were responsible for the creation, articulation, or maintenance of the celestial deeps of various prime material planes in the ages of old and in some rare universes today this is still so. Nonetheless they understand these things in the way that a programmer would …and know how to get around them.  

Functionally this is a sort of pure motion or speed based force that allows for suspension or ignorance of physics and natural law, but which does not violate that law’s integrity.  When they have agreed to take someone somewhere that mortal is briefly endowed with a variation of this ability – they can run in mid-air, stand on the ceiling, and other sense defying impossibilities so long as they understand and believe that they can do so.  Their max. speed int his instance is limited by their INT where not superseded by the Virtue’s own rate of motion.  

The Momentary Caress of Total Motion - The Virtue’s primary attack form when confronted with hostility (and it doesn’t just leave which is its most likely response) is to impart the tiniest fraction of the universe’s total fraction of motion and energy onto the target for fractions of a microsecond. Damage is imparted immediately on the slightest of touch contacts.  Damage has been known to resemble injuries sustained in system ship crashes

Celestial traits - Virtues of Motion appear as a token of respect, still, for one round on arrival. Thereafter they are best described as a high energy blur of motion at all times.

All have common Celestial traits –

Immune to disease and the ravages of aging or time.  Functionally immune to effects of entropy.   They are immune to the effects and special attacks of undeath and the dead. 

None of them can be compelled to act against their nature

Attempts by mortals to banish them from the material plane must beat their AC as a spell check DC (26).

They understand all mortal material languages instantly.

All may appear as basically anything to mortal eyes.  Unintelligent & non-sapient sensors cannot record their motions or detect them without exotic apparatus.

Also, remember their age. They have, almost certainly, really have, seen it all before.  All of it. Even that.

“This article is reproduced in Apocrypha Obscura – Transmissions from the Dreaming Gynoid, available  (drive thru link)  

  and (itch.io link) 

Juves Gone Wild - a short funnel set in Umbra City

He was, they thought, some buzzhead.  A drunk, or maybe a spice nut.  Whatever.  Some strange rando was called out on a ‘disorderly & disobey’ and pulled into the SecFor Compassion House for some ‘cool down time.’

The weird movements inside him started a few hours after he arrived on world, Maleth Noir, armpit of the old Imperial core.   IT didn’t seem so bad at first. But the sweating.  Some reaction to a local pollen perhaps, or maybe climate control – they used force field climate control here he read – sometimes seemed to trigger a reaction.

By that first evening his skin felt like it could and very well might dismount from his flesh and crawl about on his own.  He hit some Pharm and went to get a drink and that’s when the movements…inside began.

The E-district was already filling up at the SecFor briefing house that morning; a crystal convention brought a delegation of 100 filthy credited merchants from Dulcinea and their associated entourage. Some of the visiting crystal spiders were having problems with the stationary holograms and so the pods were filling up fast. So, they rotated the guy down to Umbra city, let it be their problem.  He looked sick on the capsule to the transporting officer but sleeping.  They liked it when the perps were sleeping. Quiet.

The dreams were terrible, constant nightmares about cannibalism and being consumed from within by dozens, hundreds of tiny creatures. And the burning, so hot, he felt as though were on fire.  Sweat beaded like molten silver across his brow, both in dream and awake.  A kind of distorted time warp of a fever dream came over him.  He was being eaten.  He was being consumed from the inside out by hundreds of tiny gnawing lifeforms, that he could already feel violently moving about within him.  NO ROOM  And they would be idle and then one would panic and then all would scramble about trying to find a way out.

Paralyzed by and full of fear, he did not even recognize when he came to wake, or why the officer was speaking so slowly but loudly. Or his response. He was just…angry. And strong.

He could now dimly recall a thought, an almost afterthought, from the moment he stepped off the shuttle in Sky city – a … doubt? No, regret? Was it something he had eaten?   Inhaled.   Fucked?

Whatever it was he couldn’t recall, memory obscured by the tearing sounds of meat and the wicker bending of uncared for and soft bone, and the constant movement now. IT did not stop. And there was more of it.

Whatever he did, it was obviously something he should not have done.

They beat him when he turned violent.  IT was obvious they took it too far immediately. He tapped out. For a moment the five officers exchanged glances and looked at the shine on their boots.  Finally, one of them took some initiative and they got the body…the suspect to a secure holding at the far end. Leave him there until the end of shift and let him sleep whatever off. All with a quiet prayer to the Status Quo.

Hours later, at close of shift, the hack looked in on him, but was almost immediately summoned away. Some upstairs stiff had ordered a round up of undesirable juves for some reason. Right now, tonight.  And he remained. Though she swore, later quite literally, swear in the deposition embossed with the seal of Leviathan, that she thought something large in his chest seemed to have been moving around, perhaps she said under his tunic.

As the juves were sorted and loaded no one came calling or to pay attention. No one heard the screams, the terrible screams, as the now nameless and horribly doomed off worlder felt their flesh tear apart, their skin split wide open, and their throat tear open from the inside as the first dozen or so space rats chewed and gnawed their way through his flesh.  His own fingers tearing at his chest, clawing now first tearing shirt, then skin, and then digging through flesh, meat under his fingernails until he hit bone.   His ribcage now exposed, contained a hundred screaming, squeaking, squealing off-world rats, somehow, impossibly, transported through customs inside his body.

The first of them screeched with chaotic delight as it wrecked it’s way up his throat, wiggling through is screams out of his mouth with a loud CRACK, unhinging his jaw.  Behind the first. A dozen more scurried out now the bore hole.

Squeaky Doom had come to Maleth Noir.

Juves gone wild / Squeaky Doom Comes to Noir  -a funnel for 12 juves caught in a SecFor round up.

Download the funnel pdf here

Download your zero levels here 

What is Maleth Noir? Find out here (drivethru link)

Fight Fires! Aid Recovery!

Fight Fires and help the aftermath recovery!   Help your fellow Earthlings!

Unsure about Sub-ether?  Want to do some good?  Well look no further

Sub-ether no. 1 is part of Drive thru’s Australian firefighter’s bundle 

The bundle containing Sub-ether is here but they are all very worthwhile; it's about the giving folks. Every penny, quantis, and imperial credit thrown at this  bundle goes directly to

DisasterRelief & Recovery – the Australian Red Cross

 And 

BushfireEmergency – World Wildlife Fund of Australia

Sub-ether submissions

So you want to write for Sub-ether or Galaxy Black?

Send me a proposal!  

A few suggestions

Think Big – High Concept, Big Ideas, don’t worry about translating them into anything epic or equivalent; also don’t be afraid to lean on really enormous high concept.  We’ll find a way to sell it.

Allow for Heroes – but Don’t Assume Them; don’t discourage people from doing the right thing.  That’s part of why some people play these games. But don’t Make them heroes, don’t insist on heroism, and don’t assume you and the players will always have the same idea of the Right Thing anyway.

A bit of Cheek – a side of grimdark is fine but it needs a bit of cheek;  don’t take the piss, that sends folk away, but always keep this all in perspective. This is for fun, it should be fun.  Let fun in.

Imperial grunge; Anything Galaxy Black sooner or later will need an extra coat of grottiness, what I like to call the Imperial Grunge.  It is always appropriate to “2000ad it up!”

Sub-ether 2 and 3 are mostly full;  Currently looking for space variants, new races, new classes, and shorter adventures or funnels; bit any good idea will be considered.  Send any proposals to dreaminggynoid@gmail.com and we'll talk. 

Cross town Monstrosity (Umbra City - Maleth Noir)

Sometimes you need that high level encounter for the whole group.  Sometimes you need a threat that can destabilize the whole place (however temporarily) and sometimes you need a Big Damn Monster for the PCs to slay, all nice and public like, to get the neighborhood/city/authorities/whomever on their side (Big Damn Heroes[1]). 

Like the city being invaded by a tribe of mutants or a few of the other wider ranging encounters in Sub-ether #1, this is one of those encounters.

An all-points bulletin hits the comms traffic; city districts are being placed into lockdown preventing travel between them and the largest scramble of hex spinners anyone has ever seen just dispatched overhead…heading for the Shades.

A cancer mage was cornered at the Reccie-works and called up some abomination to cover their escape.  So, there’s a monster raging out of control at the surface street level of the Reclamation works (section Gamma). And oh yeah, there’s a cancer mage running lose in the city.  

Just another day-cycle, right?

The monster at the Reccieworks will not be stopped, certainly not by the SecFor   Whether this was the sorcerer’s plan or not in the first place, they called up some kind of ... dreggu golem,

Dreggu Golem (1): Init +2; Atk flailing slam +8 melee (1d8+3 + see below); AC 17; HD 11d8; hp 40; MV 20’; Act 2d24; SP Skin that runs and flows like wax, Toxic touch; SV Fort +8, Ref +2, Will +2; AL C.

Skin that runs and flows like wax – the at once seemingly waxy, slippery, pudding-like surface covering the creature is in fact’s it’s skin and muscles, and it is hungry with necrosis, death, and incredibly regenerating, throbbing, pulsing LIFE.  Skin to bare surface contact results in 1d6 hp damage from chemical action and the loss of several layers of skin as the golem’s body attempts to absorb and eat the skin and muscles of those it comes into contact with.  This is in addition to and cumulative with Toxic touch below.  

The creature is slippery that attempts to hold fast or grab onto the creature do so a step down on the die chain.  

Toxic touch – the touch of the screaming creature carries with it a death sentence. A successful Fort save (DC 21) must be made to avoid this fate.  On a successful slam attack or any direct skin or body surface contact with the creature, the skin at once infects, mutates, and tries to consume that which it is in contact with.  Functionally this is combined chemical attack/alteration that inflicts 2d6 hp damage, and 2d3 points of ability damage.  On a failed save this also imparts a rapid acting regenerative cancer to the victim, metastasizing in 1d6 progressions and killing the character in 1d3 months.   ON a successful save, the afflicted still takes damage but can save to recover half of the ability damage (Fortitude DC 16) a day later. Further, while the character needs to be seen at a trauma facility, they are not imparted with immediate toxic death, though there is a 2% cumulative per passing sidereal that this will become so.

Mutants and Variants gain a +4 against this effect as their systems are hardened against even supernatural cancers.  Non-organics struck by this effect still incur the physical hp damage but suffer no ability damage and no chance of cancer.

Roleplaying Hints:   KILL ME I AM IN PAIN!!!  There is nothing left to be reasoned with. It just wants to die.   Kill it.   It is constantly making noises of raging pain, but all is too distorted to make out. 

The creation of a desperate cancer mage; this could only have happened at a Reclamation Works where someone (or more likely several someones) have been … recycled.  Soul fragments those “reclaimed” while living now dead summoned and infused into the semi-organic runoff from the Reanimators (dreggu) now shaped by poisonous will into a doughy roughly person shaped raging monstrosity.  

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[1] especially if they are a bunch of DCC characters someone magicked up to deal with the problem.  While this won’t likely make them Noir’s version of the Avengers all by itself it will def. get them noticed and looked at favorably by many. 

Values of Electronic Warfare

Certain characters and devices are listed in Sub-ether #1 with an EWV; what is this cryptic number?  It is their Electronic Warfare Value.  

In an age of smart matter and relatively available Fabricator technology, especially in the core, everything is networked.  Across a variety of systems and relays and micro-transceivers.   When everything is networked, everything is at least a little smart, and so many of the coreworld population are mechanized, it is not surprising how common it is for that technology to be hacked.   From guns, to computers, to cyberoptics, all of it can be hacked if it can be remote accessed at all.   To simulate that, the following simple but highly invasive rule is presented.

Give all mechanicals an Electronic Warfare Value;  they can add their class and int bonus to this as well. Some classes also give an EWV bonus;  urban confiscator may just add their level.   Some cybernetics can give organics a base EWV as well. 

Note that Being and Class EWV bonuses are stackable.

All gear that is electronic and networkable gets an EWV as well; that’s the DC the hacker would need to affect that device.  This can be an enemies’ smartgun, or their onboard computer.

Gear EWV DCs should range from relatively low (10 to hack house appliances, 20 to hack an enemies’ weapon in combat, and up)

Some items will lack an EWV completely, having n/a or (*) where *denotes a particular value; this indicates that the item cannot normally be hacked but if somehow the computing elements on board could be hacked this would be the DC to hijack them.

Yes in theory you can hack another mechanical but it’s BAAAD form and also their defenses are higher than most tech. Esp. if leveled.

Gear can come in hardened varieties, which is ‘hack resistant’ increasing the DC by 2 for effectively doubling (at least) the equipment price

Assume that whatever the Imperial government uses is basically super hardened which is +3 DC

Just remember, Cybernetics can be hacked.

This WILL change the feel of the game CONSIDERABLY but if everyone is on board it balances out some of the super tech that the authorities will use on you whether you have done anything or not.....and could also be dangerous if you have any Mad Thinker types in your group.  :)   It''s your game, do with it as you please. 

Much more about he EWV and specifics as to it's use will appear in the new rules section of Galaxy Black.  Until such a time as you have a lengthy list of equipment with EWV targets, use the above and wing it. :) 
Any unusual or notable uses of this in your game?  Drop a line to dreaminggynoid@gmail.com and tell us all about it.