The sun sinks below the horizon. Crooked shadows cast by the buildings fall on the streets like a funeral shroud, and reality melts where it is too dark for us to notice the silhouettes of creatures and other worlds.

Kultists, get ready to roam the streets of Metropolis and marvel at the terrors lurking the areas of our world where the veil is thin.‎ We aim to launch the Kickstarter campaign for the new sourcebooks and scenario collections on February 3rd. Sign up here to be notified of the launch: https://bit.ly/kult2025

While learning Traveller I came across this video where he explains how to use a ruler to keep track of distances relative to other ships.

I liked the idea, but found a 20-inch ruler, just up to long range, a bit impractical. So I created this tracker.

I used black background and neon colors because I thought I would be playing with a VTT, but in the end I've only played in person. So I also have this PDF, in Ledger/Tabloid (11" x 17"). I don't think you'll find a printer that's able to print up to the very edge, so I'll let you decide if you'd rather scale it below 1" per square or just accept cropped stuff on the edges.

This was just a test I made while trying to get the hang of the Cosmorgapher3 addon for CC3+.

Basically I just took Seth Skorokowsky's map (linked in the comments of his Flatlined review) and tried to retrace it.

A trope, a seed

Back in the 90s, my GM ran a "Thieve's guild" adventure for D&D. You know the drill: something's going on in town, the PCs track a trail and find a secret entrance to a dungeon, they realize there's a thieves' guild creating the trouble, they deal with it and get the treasure. Then I found a few fan-written "thieve's guild" but had no resemblance to my friend's, just the main concept. Years later, while trying to wrap my head aroung Mage, I asked a friend what would be the "thieve's guild" equivalent for Mage (he said it was "defend a node"). I now call these "seeds", or maybe tropes (but I wouldn't call them that for a long while).

The milk run

Fast-forward to just a few years ago... I had discovered Shadowrun and felt dry with ideas for getting started. I googled for a while and came up with a reddit post recommending a "Milk run". Basically, have the crew tasked with snatching something from someone (the post suggests swapping briefcases), most likely a courier, and then just let them see how they go about it.

Perhaps you have to let them figure out how to track the mark or maybe give them a nudge. They get to decide if they want to do it stealthily or forcefully. Maybe the police arrives. Maybe the courier is armed and trained. And of course, maybe the patron never intended to pay them after delivery anyway.

Do you have any go-to seeds you like to use for SciFi games?

Image by ttrpg.network/u/roflo1, based on milk in a bottle, Matt Bango, CC0 and Bol, Petit déjeuner, Muesli.

I created this as a prompt for a small one-on-one adventure for Traveller. A very simple adventure where the player found a gig where she was tasked to go scoop hydrogen from a gas giant.

This was also my first attempt at drawing a ship.

cross-posted from: https://ttrpg.network/post/13455043

Might as well cross-post this here.

Back to the map: I created it over a year ago, but hadn't shared it on Lemmy. As with many Traveller maps, a square is meant to be 1.5m (close to the 5ft used in most fantasy genres).

This space station design was commissioned, to the lowest bidder, by a local planetary government much to the horror of the IISS. And it shows that is was done on a budget. Sure, the comms are prefectly suited for a relay station, but it often feels like a death-trap. Just ask any of the employees.

Made up of four general-purpose modules glued together, and then fitted to accomplish it's purpose, any outsider would think everything should work fine. However, many bottom-credit decisions were made and it might be just a matter of time until something goes wrong.

For instance, the original design had a fourth spoke for an additional docking module, but it was scraped from the implementation and now this station only has a single docking port, usually occupied by the emergency escape pod. Mind you, the pod can seat 2 sophonts and the station has 4 or 5 regular employees (though it can house up to eight at a time), so any real emergency would lead to drawing straws.

The escape pod itself is also bare-minimum, with only a 1G M-drive (and no J-drive). The two lucky survivors would arrive at the closest port after 4.5 days (just as much as the pod's life-support will last autonomously).

If that's not enough to label it a death trap, just consider that most of the life support systems are phisically located in the station's center module, but only the docking module could be properly isolated in case of a hull breach.

In case you don't know yet, Bundle of Holding has a few SciFi bundles going on..

Traveller 2024 + Traveller sectors

The Traveller 2024 update includes: Traveller Core Rules 2022, MGT Companion Update 2024, MGT Adventure Class Ships, MGT Small Craft Catalogue, MGT Robot Handbook.

Traveller Sectors has two tiers.. Core Collection: MGT Sector Construction Guide, MGT World Builder's Handbook, The Third Imperium, MGT: 3 Core Adventures- Frontier Collection: MGT Sector Construction Guide, MGT World Builder's Handbook, The Third Imperium, MGT: 3 Core Adventures.

GURPS 3E Core + Transhuman Space

GURPS 3E Core includes: GURPS Basic Set 3E Revised, GURPS Classic Compendium I + II-

Transhuman Space Classic also has two tiers: Earth-lunar collection: Transhuman Space Classic, Transhuman Space: Personnel Files, 4 near-Earth Transhuman supplements, Singapore Sling. Beyond collection: Spacecraft of the Solar System, 3 Transhuman sourcebooks, 2 Transhuman Space adventures, Transhuman Space: Changing Times.