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2012 Frontier Explorer Magazine. The Frontier Explorer name and logo are trademarks of the Frontier Explorer Magazine. Wizards of the Coast, Star Frontiersand their logos are trademarks ofWizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. The Star Frontiersman is a trademark ofDWD Studios. Therights to all material presented here are retained by their original authors and are printed with permission.

Features

Lossend Planetary Brief ............................ 6

Mooks Without Number ............................. 15

CSS N ightwind ................................................. 40

ContentsThe Dralasitic Creed ...................................................... 1You think you understand Dralasites. Are you sure? A

discussion of the core belief system and life

philosophies of the Dralasites.

Crafting a Compelling Character ............................... 4Tips and ideas for making your character moreinteresting and memorable.

Lossend Planetary Brief ............................................ 6Time for a stopover on Lossend in the Timeon system?

Planetary history, points of interest, and local fauna

are described here.

What is War? ............................................................ 13Short story detailing the way the different core four

races view war.

Mooks Without Number Part 1 ............................ 15

Sign on as the crew of the CFMS Venture and travel thespace lanes. The first of several adventures for the

ship's crew.

Planaron Station....................................................... 28Location description of the infamous pirate station

from the Warriors of White Light module and its status

after it was liberated.

CSS Nightwind ........................................................... 30Deck plans and description of Cassidine Development

Corporation's newest paramilitary freighter prototype.

Make a Run For It .................................................... 37You're outnumbered and outgunned. How will you

survive? Scenarios for the Knight Hawks board game.

Don't Go in the Water ............................................. 40The water isn't always your friend. Descriptions of

various ways water can be used as hazards, obstacles,

and plot devices in your game.

About the Magazine................................................. 43Description of the magazine's plans, the website and

basic submission guidelines.

Grymz Guide Comic ..................................... back cover

What's the first rule for taking over the universe?

Issue 1 Summer 2012
http://frontierexplorer.org/http://www.wizards.com/http://www.starfrontiersman.com/http://www.dwdstudios.com/http://frontierexplorer.org/http://www.dwdstudios.com/http://www.starfrontiersman.com/http://www.wizards.com/http://frontierexplorer.org/http://frontierexplorer.org/


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Production Credits

Cover Art: Satellite by Wen-Xaeroaaa (http://wen-xaeroaaa.deviantart.com/). We cropped and rotatedthe image to get it to fit properly on the cover. The

uncropped image in the original orientation isshown above. Clicking on the image links back tothe full original image.Back cover comic: AZ_Gamer

Banner Logo Art: Adam Block/Mount LemmonSkyCenter/University of Arizona(http://SkyCenter.arizona.edu)

Editors: Tom Stephens, Tom Verreault

Layout: Tom Stephens

Full Cover Quote: "Man is an artifact designed forspace travel. He is not designed to remain in hispresent biologic state any more than a tadpole isdesigned to remain a tadpole." - WilliamBurroughs, "Civilian Defense," The AddingMachine (1985)

From the EditorsWelcome to the inaugural issue of the FrontierExplorer magazine. The Frontier Explorer is a fansupported and run magazine dedicated to sciencefiction role playing games and fiction. In its pagesyou will find optional rule systems, equipment,encounters, and more for various RPGs as well asfiction contributed by our authors and thecommunity.

Initially, the focus of the magazine will be the StarFrontiers role-playing game, as that game holds aspecial place in the hearts of the magazine'sfounding editors. In addition, this year is the 30

th

Anniversary of the publication of Star Frontiersand we want to pay tribute to the game. However,as our readership grows and expands, you can

expect to see material for other games and settingsas well. Despite the initial focus on Star Frontiers,many of the articles and topics should be easy toconvert and applicable to other games and/orsettings. Our goal is to provide general resourcesthat are easily adaptable to whatever game youlove.

We have quite a bit to tell you about the plans forthe magazine and the features of the magazine'swebsite. So much so that it won't fit in this smallspace that we've allotted for Letters from the

Editors. Since the details don't fit here, we'vespilled them over into a small article of their own.You can find it at the end of the magazine for youto read after you've enjoyed all the great content inthis issue.

We're excited to bring you theFrontier Explorer. Turnthe pages and beginexploring. We hopeyou enjoy what youfind and will comeback in the future.

- Tom Stephens& Tom VerreaultFounding Editors

Legal The Frontier Explorer is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. TheFrontier Explorer may use the trademarks and other intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast LLC, which is permitted under Wizards'Fan Site Policy.

New Gaming Product:Sci-Fi Sandbox 05 : The EchoInitiativeA RPG resource from OccultMoon, The Eco Initiative was co-

authored by an active member ofthe Star Frontiers Community,Larry More (aka w00t). Checkout the full description on the product page atDriveThruRPG. (List price: $1.99)
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Dralasites, of all the inhabitants of the Frontier, seem tobe hard-wired for philosophy. Their society hasevolved in such a way to ensure the primacy ofphilosophical inquiry and it is self-reinforcing in thatrespect. To understand dralasite philosophy one mustunderstand their society.

Dralasite society has a conception of the family similarto humanity parents guiding the young but itsmuch looser than the human concept. The truefoundation of their society is the social school, calledthe stoa. Social schools are groupings of dralasites thatshare common opinions, beliefs, interests, or humor.The Circle of Debate is the central activity of the socialschool. A dral parent has a strong influence in a youngdral's initial choice of social school. Typically the

parent first presents its young bud to the school itcurrently favors.

Life experience and formal education tend to alter adralasites choice of school. It would be rare for adralasite to have not been a member in dozens of socialschools over the course of its life. Membership isgranted by common consent and rarely revoked. Theseschools typically number about a couple dozenindividuals in active membership. Elder dralasites tendto be the de facto leaders of these schools and when a

leader dies it is not an uncommon occurrence for agroup to divide into smaller groups.

Like human parents the social school takesresponsibility for the young and elderly. In the schoolis where a dralasite will celebrate life events such astheir budding memory, reception of communityspeaking rights (gaining one's voice), and death. A dralin need may turn to its companions in all the schools ofwhich it is a member for help. Typically, it can onlyexpect a little help here and there from any givenschool, thus the value of many school memberships.

Philosophies of the Frontier

The Dralasitic CreedTom Verreault

Authors Note: A lot of collaboration went into thedevelopment of dralasite society in the project forums atwww.starfrontiers.us/node/2945 . This article would nothave been possible without that collaborative processand I am deeply grateful to the host of people toonumerous to mention here who have contributed.

Tom Verreault


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A young dralasite will wander briefly after buddingenjoying their new found freedom and are thennaturally drawn back to their parent seeking guidanceand parenting. This is the time that a dralasite isintroduced to the parent's school for membership.Education is pursued separate from the social school inlarge rounds with professional teachers. A few years

after budding, a drals formal education begins. Youngdralasites advance through progressively formal roundsfor about ten years until they have been deemed bytheir teachers to be educated enough to keep up withsociety. Specialized training, if any, is undertaken afterone's rounds. Dralasites are fond of traveling far, evenoff world if they can work up the means, to pursue theirspecialized training.

It is no wonder that with a whole society focused onstanding in the debate circle that dralasites arephilosophical. The very structure of the social schoolguarantees that each successive generation will have

developed a personal philosophy and defend it indebate for hours.

The foundation of dralasite philosophy is the DralasiticCreed. It enshrines a basic belief that all beings shouldhave their own beliefs and defend them:

The Dralasite CreedI believe in truth and will continually test torefine the quality of my understanding.

I believe in the quality of my ideas and candefend them in the circle of debate.

I believe in the crucible of debate where thecommunity can recognize the quality of mytruth.

Of all things believed by dralasites, this is thephilosophy that is universal to the species.

The Five Appendages is not so much a creed orstatement of belief but almost a set of sacramentsconsidered necessary to the being-hood of the dralasite.It is not required that a dralasite fulfill all of the five

appendages but most do.

The Five Appendages1.The Creed (affirmed before the community

and in the Circle of Debate).2.The Gaining of Voice (acceptance by the

community to speak in the Circle ofDebate).

3.The Stand (done in the Great Circle ofDebate against all comers, though it is not

necessary to emerge with one's philosophyunchanged).

4.The Budding (an important rite of passagenecessary for the preservation of the species- all dralasites are expected to do their part)

5.The Circles End (sometimes a poeticreference to death but in the Five

Appendages it carries the idea of service tothe community in the twilight of ones life).

While the stoa hosts the Circle of Debate, the GreatCircle of Debate is a gathering of several related socialschools. They are not related in any organic sense butrelated by topic or interest and often from differingsides of that interest. A dral that makes the stand in theGreat Circle of Debate attains a special status. It is notexpected that the dral making this stand will emergewith his philosophy and belief unchanged. The mosthighly esteemed emerge with slight refinements taken

from their opponents while the core of their philosophyremains essentially the same.

The first three Appendages deal with the dral findinghis place in the community but the last two are seen ashis confirming his place in the community. The act ofbudding is a tangible reminder of a dralasitesexistence. Circles End is less tangible in what it givesback but is considered the highest calling of any elderdralasite.

The most widely read of all dralasite philosophy is theConversations with the Mols. Its a written record

(some say fictionalized) between an apprentice and aprofessional teacher. In the conversations the fullscope of dralasite humor begins to emerge in therelaxed style of the conversations. The following issome excerpts from the Conversations with the Mols.

Conversations of MolGeddonConversation 12Apprentice: Mol, what is truth?

Mol Geddon: Truth is Truth.

Apprentice: Yes Mol, but what distinguishes it from alie.

Mol Geddon: Being Truth.

Apprentice: Yes Mol, but how can truth be recognizedfrom lie?

Mol Geddon: There is Inner Truth and Outer Truth.When Inner Truth is strong it recognizes Outer Truth.


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Apprentice: Inner truth? Outer truth?

Mol Geddon: When the Truth that is in yourprotoplasm is strong you can recognize the Trutharound you and thus distinguish it from lie. When liesare strong within your protoplasm you will deceiveeven yourself confusing lie for Truth and your truthbecomes lie.

Apprentice: Yes Mol, but how may I become truth?

Mol Geddon: One must strive to live truthfully. Asfood is taken into the body to fuel continued life sotruth must be lived to fuel the Truth within. Listen wellto this mystery; if you act truthful then you will betruthful. To act truth is to be truth.

Converstation 13Apprentice: Mol does truth ever change?

Mol Geddon: Yes.

Apprentice: If it changes, then how can it beabsolute?

Mol Geddon: Truth is Truth. It flows from finite toabsolute, from temporal to infinite. Truth is Truthregardless of its constituent values. When all valuesreach infinite then Truth is absolute. We move in timeand space, space has three values

Apprentice: Three dimensions?

Mol Geddon nodded slightly: and time has a value.We perceive Truth from the perspective of time andspace, a perspective that has 4 values. When all valuesreach infinite then Truth is of absolute value.

Apprentice: Mol, I I but how can truth changeand still be truth?

Mol Geddon chuckled: That is a different question.

Conversation 25Mol Woosh: Humor is at once irreverent, joyous,mean, spiteful, honest, happy, hurtful, and one hundred

other things.Apprentice: Mol, how can humor be all those things?

Mol Woosh: It is all those things because it comesfrom within a being. It is a window to the innernucleus and is a reflection of the Inner Truth of a being.Some beings laugh out of nervousness that the Truthexpressed in the joke may be the Truth deep withinthem. Some laugh out of mirth recognizing the Truthof the joke as the Truth within them. Some refuse tolaugh lest they reveal any Truth and yet even that canbe a window to their nucleus.

Apprentice: You refer to yazirians?

Mol Woosh: One should remember that when onepulls a yazirians leg do not pull his mane also.

A yazirian priest happened by and said: If you dontget the joke its probably about you.

Whereupon, Mol Woosh laughed uproariously whilethe yazirian scowled.

Tom Verreault


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Role playing games are about playing a character.Characters with depth are more interesting than a flatcharacter. The best characters are compellingcharacters, the one you love to play or love to watchsomeone else play.

Most role playing game rule books typically have rulesfor resolving combat, skill and ability use, and othermechanics. The rules for character creation usuallyrevolve around the choices or die rolls that will helpresolve these game actions. What is not typical in a set

of RPG rules are guidelines to help the player craft acompelling character. This article will explore ideasand strategies to assist players in crafting a memorableand fun RPG character.

In researching this topic I discovered a wealth ofmaterial geared to help writers create compellingcharacters but I quickly realized that there was aproblem with that advice. While characters in roleplaying games and those in fiction both take part in astory, the nature of these stories is quite different. Anovel is the effort of one story teller but a role playinggame is a cooperative narration. A novelist can explore

and delve into one or multiple characters as per hiswhim, but a role player must explore his character inturn with others. Role playing games use theconvention of turns to break down combat and actionto manageable blocks of time. Even if the current gameaction is not being resolved in combat turns, the usualconvention is that each player takes turns in roleplaying.

Since the character will only be on stage for afraction of the game time, presenting a long laundrylists of guidelines to players is unsuitable. Ivecondensed broad advice for the novelist into threepoints. Choose one or more of the followingsuggestions and make a note in your charactersbackground.

The PassionIn most role playing games characters fulfill quests ormissions that are almost always provided by or

assigned by the game master. These quests or missionsare usually fulfilled in one game session or over awhole campaign of game sessions. They are meant tobe resolved and are often the point of the game.Consider giving your character a player assignedquest. This will be the thing that your character ispassionate about.

A character that wants something is interesting. Thusthe first strategy to craft a compelling character is tochoose a passion for the character. This point actually

covers such things as a driving need, desire, ambition,obsession, as well as a passion. Note that this questor need is player assigned with little or no input by thegame master. It is rooted in the character concept theplayer is choosing to play, and, while it might beaccomplished over the career of the character, it equallymight not. For example, if a characters driving desireis to earn the respect of his dead father then he maynever gain a sense of closure simply because the fatheris dead.

Needs are conditions or situations in which somethingis required or wanted. The best way to give a character

a need is to pick one from Maslovs hierarchy of needs:physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, andself-actualization. Physiological needs involve theneed for air, food, sex, sleep, etc. Safety can involvesecurity of body, employment, resources, morality,health, family, and property. Love and belonginginvolves friendship, family, and sexual intimacy. Theneed for esteem involves self-esteem, confidence,achievement, and respect by others. Self-actualizationis about morality, creativity, spontaneity, problemsolving, lack of prejudice, and acceptance of facts.

The SecretA character with a secret is interesting. For examplewhich of the following characters draws your interestmore: a conservative politician or a conservativepolitician that cheats on his wife with prostitutes? Askyourself which of those two politicians has greaterpotential for people to talk about? Role playing gamesare about playing a larger than life hero in dramatic

Role-playing Tips

Crafting a Compelling Character

in a Role-playing game

Tom Verreault


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situations. A hero with a secret is more interesting thana righteous crusader.

The secret does not have to be dirty or immoral but itshould be something that defines the character in someway. In Tolkiens The Hobbit and The Lord of theRings, the hobbits, Bilbo and Frodo, have a secretmagic ring and it is one of, if not the major defining

elements of these characters. In Star Wars and itsrelated sequels and prequels Obi Wan Kenobies secretis that Darth Vader was his apprentice and he failed tokeep him from going over to the dark side. This failureis one of the central elements of the Star Wars saga. Inthe Bible, King David cheated with the wife of one ofhis soldiers and had that man killed to cover it up. Thesecret is revealed when God sends a prophet to KingDavid seeking a decision concerning a man that was ametaphor for David himself. After the king pronouncesa severe judgment the prophet announces, Thou art theman! Its a powerful scene and this exposed secret

becomes the central theme of the rest of his kingshipwith after effects lasting into the coronation of his sonborn from the adulterous affair.

I once read a tip in a role playing blog about requiringplayers to write a secret about their character that onlythey and the game master knew. I implemented this ina game and the results were fantastic. The charactersecrets at play in that game influenced how playersplayed their character and were potential for plot hooksto involve those characters more deeply in the story.

The VulnerabilityCharacters that are vulnerable or compassionate can becompelling. Its also known as save the cat. Infiction, an evil character that can show compassion hasdepth and becomes more interesting. In TolkiensFellowship of the Ring, Boromir is the traitor of theFellowship. Hes become consumed with desire forFrodos magic ring and attempts to take it by force. Hefeels guilt over this and attempts to make amends bysacrificing his life for Frodos friends against themarauding orcs. In the end he becomes a tragic heroand his confession to Aragon leads the reader to feelsympathy for him.

During college I worked full time and went to schoolfull time. When I was at work I generally focused onjust doing my job with half my brain thinking about thenext term paper or mid-term exam. On one occasionwhile talking with a coworker I let my hair down andshared some of my past with her. Her immediatereaction was, Wow! I thought you were a goody twoshoes. By being vulnerable and letting her see a

deeper depth of character I became more interesting toher and I was no longer a two dimensional character.

Give your character a vulnerability or a soft spot. Asoft spot could be for animals. If a character absolutelydetests cruelty to animals he might be unwilling to runover a little fluffy critter even though hes being chasedby an army bent on his destruction. A vulnerability

could be an in ability to risk harm to a person place orthing. In the Firefly television series MalcolmReynolds vulnerability is his crew and ship. Hesdevoted to them and takes threats against his peoplepersonally.

Wrapping It UpChoose one or two of the above suggestions for yourcharacter. You dont have to have one of each and youcan also have two of the same. For example a character

could have two secrets. Once you have done this, askyourself why your character has these idiosyncrasies.What events in his background led to this characterbehaving in this way? Explain to yourself the why andhow your character became who he is. Finally havefun.

Tom Verreault


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System DataSystem Primary: Timeon, spectral type: G5

LossendGravity: 0.7

Moons: none

Satellite: armed spaced station- Diamond Station

Primary colonizers: humans

Population Density: Light

Economy: Agriculture & Industry

Government, Policeand MilitaryThe Lossend government is a democracy. At thegrassroots level communities and counties electmayors. Prior to the First Sathar War the electedmayors of Lossend formed a Mayors council andelected a president from among their number. TheMayors Council only met for a few months a year butwas sufficient for the colonys needs as a planetarygovernment.

At the time of the First Sathar War and the organizationof the United Planetary Federation, a proper planet-wide government was organized with a president,legislature, and judiciary. The new governmentorganized a planet-wide police force that is responsiblefor law enforcement, forestry, and wild gamemanagement called the Lossend Ranger Service(Rangers or Lossend Rangers for short). The LRSadministrates the continental game preserve which wasset aside for native wildlife.

The Rangers eventually took responsibility for

interplanetary cargo inspections to prevent ecologicaldisasters from imported flora or fauna that mightdamage Lossends agricultural industry. At the close ofthe Second Sathar War, Tachton donated surplus armedshuttles and fighters to the Lossend government and theLossend Space Rangers were organized as a formalmilitia although they lack truly interstellar capablehulls.

Planetary Brief

LossendTom Verreault

Service Patches for theLossend Rangers

Service patch for the Ranger Service

Service Patch for the Space Rangers

The service patches feature a stylized image of Lossenwith Mt. Spire rising above the planet. The SpacRanger patch has an image of one of the squadron'fighters overlaying the planet.


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A Short HistorySettled by colonist from both Clarion and Minotaurbefore first contact with the vrusk and dralasites,Lossend remained an agricultural outpost till theorganization of the UPF. The farmers first establishedon Lossend followed a philosophy of sustainability andsoft impact on the environment. Changes occurred atthe time of the First Sathar War due to tens ofthousands of displaced refugees, inflationary foodprices, and insufficient food production capacity.Larger farms with more automation began to appearwhich resulted in shifts in the population to fewer farmowners and more laborers.

After the war with greater emphasis on automation, therobotics industry prospered on Lossend. MargretBouvia, a Land Fleet captain freshly discharged fromservice, returned to find her family's farm sold. Usingher back pay she founded Tachton Instruments to meet

the rising demand for automation in the agriculturalsector. Her company has risen to become one of themegacorps dominating the Frontier.

Farming on LossendThe first colonists received grants, materials, andsupport from FARM (Frontier Agricultural ResourceMission). The arrangement meant that the colonistspaid back their "homestead stake" with cheaply pricedfood. Originally it was a win/win situation as theFARM board received food to funnel into populationgrowth programs on Clarion and Minotaur and the

colonist paid off their loan at a fraction of the total cost.The governing board of FARM imposed requirementsconcerning farming practices, farm size, sustainability,and environmental impact that the colonist had tofollow.

The families that colonized Lossend through the FARMprogram were the first wave and socially this carriedclout in the farming communities. Later immigrantsoften populated the laborer class. At the time of theorganization of the UPF (during SW1) a smallpercentage of the Lossend farm owners had paid offtheir loan to FARM and were able to increase theiroperation's size and implement large scale farmingpractices that were a little harder on the environment(but not noticeably so). The slightly elitist FARMboard tried to halt this but had no power to do so,especially in the face of the emergency situation andthe critical shortage of food. It did bar the farmers withoutstanding loans from doing this and the end resultwas that the farms that were able to expand got richwhile those that could not were marginalized as theywere forced to provide food to the FARM board at pre-

war prices despite the inflationary economy. By theend of the war, the fortunes of many first wavecolonists had reversed and their particular social statusonly remained in the minds and hearts of thosefamilies.

By and large, farmers on Lossend are seen asresourceful, hard workers with just a bit of haughtiness

in their character whether they're 1st or 2nd waveimmigrants. By the time of SW2 no one much paidattention to whether a Lossend native was a 1st or 2ndwave immigrant. However, there is a sort of fraternalorganization called the Grange of the Founding Fathers(GFF) that requires that its members be descendants ofthe 1st Wave and that the family has continuouslyfarmed with the original homestead. Naturally thisorganization is smaller every decade with such strictrules and there has been noise about changing them toallow membership to families that no longer have theiroriginal homestead. Typically the GFF is concerned

with social status and the glorious past. It providesexclusive club houses to its members and arranges forcollective bargaining for its members on exported foodprices.

More and more, farming is becoming big business onLossend and there is tension between smaller farmoutfits and larger or corporate run farms. In response,some of the most successful small farms, unable tocompete with large farms mass producing cheap foodstaples, have converted their operations to wineries andbreweries. In this way Sherridan Valley has become

Lossend's Nappa Valley, producing highly prized winesconsumed throughout the Frontier. Lossend'sindependent micro-breweries produce highly prizedbeer and liquors as well.

Margret Bouvia andTachtonMargret Bouvia is a tough as nails CEO and formerLand Fleet captain. With no prior background inrobotics, it is truly surprising that her company nowdominates the Frontiers robotics industry. BeforeTachton reached mega-corp status she aggressivelythrew herself into learning the business, leveraging herknowledge of farming, and her status as a native anddescendant of a first wave colonizer to gain marketshare on Lossend. Pan Galactic Corporation, as thefirst mega-corp, already controlled market share in therobotics industry but its attitude was, "This is ourproduct, take it or leave it." In less than 7 years Tachtonhad come to dominate the market on Lossend and wasbeginning to branch into military applications as wellas file some of the most significant patents in robotics.


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Margret, an experienced leader, had always attractedgood personnel. She recruited a large number of LandFleet veterans to work for her, mostly NCOs and a fewjunior officers. With the combined military experienceand connections her company quickly broke open therobotics market on the military sector which put her ona collision course with PGC.

PGC had been getting its way since the First SatharWar and attempted to simply land mercenaries onLossend and shut down Tachton but the combination ofsolid security personnel backed by a horde of armedrobots caused the mercenary leader to wisely backdown. Next PGC attempted to block Tachton's abilityto ship product off planet but this move failed due tothe perception that PGC had become a bully. A periodof corporate espionage and sabotage went on but theconflict never broke out into a true shooting war.Tachton had succeeded by catering to the customer inevery sector of the robotics market while PGC had

failed through largely attempting to squeeze out thecompetition.

Eventually PGC made peace with Tachton and began topurchase their excellent security and war robots for usein the conflict on Laco. Tachton used the influx ofcapitol to expand the corporation to true mega-corpstatus.

Since that time the company has expanded itsoperations, building infrastructure and facilities thatalso aid the local economy. Mindful of their nearcorporate war with PCG, the corporation has begun

construction on Tachton Station (an armed spacestation in orbit).

The EconomyRobotics are exported to Gran Quivera and sold underlicense by PGC. Tachton is also a major exporter ofmodular automated factories. Robotic farming andfood processing equipment as well as parts are soldlocally as well as being exported to New Pale, RupertsHole, Yast, Inner Reach, Groth, Ken'zah-kit, Kdikit,Morgaine's World, Hakosoar, Circe, and Kraatar

Finished goods are imported from Gran Quivera.Petroleum for plastics is imported from Clarion andheavy duty industrial materials from Minotaur.

Mining is a small but significant percentage of theLossend economy. The mining corporations involvedon Lossend are small and lack mega-corp status. Thelargest, LRM (This needs to be spelled out), is one ofthe few whose operation on the southern continentpredated the formation of the continental preserve.

They continue to work the north slope of Mount Spire

exporting copper and diamonds.There are a few independent resorts as well as a fewowned by the Star Play mega-corp. Tourism hasbecome important to the local economy especially forthe animal breeders providing stock for the organizedsafari hunts.

Lossend exports food to Clarion and Minotaur (both arehigh population worlds lacking in agriculture) and these

Common Agricultural Exports(see Star Frontiersman issue 17)

The native inikfruit is high in starches and nutrient200 million tons are shipped to Clarion anually, 18million tons are shipped to Minotaur, and 50 millio

tons shipped to other destinations. The dried gourds arpainted and decorated and sold as trinkets to tourists anused as a popular musical instrument locally buotherwise do not impact the economy significantly

Chyctoss, originally imported from Morgaine's Worldis an excellant meat substitute. 250 million tons arshipped to Clarion and 98 million tons shipped tMinotaur.

Bacaya Fruit, which is grown on many worlds in thFrontier, is not a significant export but is certainlimportant to the local economy.

Baslic herb is transplanted from Clarrion. The basliplant is grown for both the local economy and for expobut is not a significant export item.

Chale is transplanted from Gran Quivera. It is delectable leafy plant and 300 million tons are exporteannually to Clarion and Minotaur.

Karreega is another transplant from Gran Quivera. It a popular food with vrusk but only a small amount igrown and shipped to Kwadl-kit.

Lurine, a transplant from Minotaur, is a major export ithe form of liquor. It is shipped throughout the Frontiebut Lurine liquors from Lossend sell poorly oMinotaur. Its used in whisky and brandy but thLossend Liqueur Company has become quite successfumarketing a flavored line of Lurine Liqueurs for dessertand coffee and tea mixers. Popular flavors are IniLiqueur (Red), Grawbello Liqueur (deep orange), anMaccatta Liqueur (Bright green in color). NoteDralasites despise Maccatta Liqueur and any fooprepared with it.
http://www.starfrontiersman.com/http://www.starfrontiersman.com/


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two planets have been its major trading partners sinceits founding.

EnvironmentLossend is an ideal world for an agricultural colony. Itsfertile prairie and plains were easily converted tofarmland and the 70 hour day enhanced growing cycles.

Large tracks of the planet are also pine forest, thoughthe Lossend Pine bears little resemblance to the Terranpines.

The southern continent, Fallow, has been designated acontinental preserve for native Lossend flora and faunadue to radical changes in the ecosystem fromimportation of a wide variety of plants and animals.Fallow is dominated with forest but its most strikingfeature is Mount Spire which has the distinction ofbeing the tallest mountain on any planet in the Frontier.The north slope of Mount Spire has proven to be rich in

diamonds and a number of small corporations andcompanies have mining operations that predate theorganization of the preserve.

Inhabited sites on Fallow include a handful of licensedresorts, a small number of 2-4 man ranger stations, anda science station studying the Lossend ecosystem.Lossend Resorts Ltd owns the license for the resort atthe foot of Mount Spire and caters to climbingexpeditions and Losso-dragon safaris.

The wypong is an animal at the center of muchcontroversy on Lossend. An intelligent primate likeanimal, it was originally miss identified as a sapientspecies but this status has since been disputed. Livingin bands of 20-30 individuals they are consider pests byfarmers. Some farmers have advocated eradication ofthe wypong in farming areas, especially after thecreation of the continental preserve. The government,under pressure from animal rights lobbyists, has had todeclare the creature protected. This means that one ofthe principle responsibilities of the Ranger Service is tomanage the wypongs in agricultural districts.

Lossend BeastiaryImported Game & DomesticatedAnimalsPeckenThe pecken is a 4-5 kg flightless bird, geneticallyengineered to effectively digest Lossend's insect life.(Looks and tastes like chicken.) Its an excellent sourceof protein as well as the eggs it lays. The pecken isextremely cost effective for farmers as they will gorgeand grow fat on insects with only minor amounts of

feed to round out their diet. A local chain restaurant,Lossend Fried Pecken (LFP), has recently expanded itsoperation to extra system locations at Port Loren,Clarion Station, and Minotaur. More are planned fornext year but the company is branching into corporaterun Pecken farms to support the increased demand.

GenquineThe genquine is a genetically engineered Equine stockfrom Clarion that has adapted well to the Lossendenvironment. When the colonist arrived on Clarion itwas discovered that their cloned horse stock easilybecame sick and experienced a high mortality rate.Geneticist developed this genetically engineer horsestock called genquine that proved resistant to theadverse Clarion environment. The first farmers onLossend brought the genquine with them for musclepower. Latter it was determined that the Terran horsewould do well on Lossend as well. Some ranchers use

pure cloned horse stock but most use genquine or mixbred genquine and horse stock. They're powerful,smart animals and many farmers keep them fortransportation even if they have electric vehiclesavailable. Despite Tachton's recent debut of the robotichorse; the genquine and Terran horse breeds remainpopular methods of transportation in the undevelopedareas of both Lossend and Clarion.

LoxxenThe loxxen is a genetically engineered bovinedeveloped specially for the farmers on Lossend. Notterribly bright, it can be ill tempered and dangerous.They grow big on Lossend's Parie Grass.

Native SpeciesThe LossodragonHigh in the cliffs of Lossend's Mount Spire live theclosest thing to the dragons of human mythology everto be found. These two meter long six limb beastscome complete with a horned tail and wings. Thoughnot capable of full flight these dragons are adeptgliders. They use their powerful limbs and strongclaws to scale the cliff faces of Mount Spire and wait

upon outcroppings for their prey to pass below. Theythen leap from their perches and extend their forelimbs, stretching out the wings attached between theirfore limbs and spine. Their wings are adeptly built toallow hurtling dives which they arrest at the lastmoment when they grapple their prey with their fourhind limbs. The wings are strong, bound by a networkof ligaments and muscles attached to a radiating set ofwing bones. Dive speeds nearing 90m/s have beenachieved by their powerful outstretched wings.


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Lossodragon

TYPE: Large Carnivore

NUMBER: 1

MOVE:

Slow (10m/turn) walking

Very Fast (90m/turn) diving

IM/RS: 6/55

STAMINA: 125

ATTACK: 55 ground70 air

DAMAGE: 4d10

SPECIALATTACK:

Dive and knock out 35% RS check forno knock out suffers regular damage

SPECIALDEFENSE:

n/a

NATIVEWORLD:

Lossend/ Timeon System

The lossodragons have exceptional eyesight and use itto spy other avian creatures and large grazing animalsfeeding upon the slopes of Mount Spire. Their foureyes allow them to watch the ground below with theforward pair and the sky forward with the upper pair.However, their night vision is poor so they seldom huntin the dark.

Lossodragons mate for life but are only found together

during mating season. They are mammalian andtypically give birth to twins each year. Occasionallytriplets will be born. The pups are no more than 15 cmlong at birth and are totally dependent upon theirmother for survival. Typically, only one of theoffspring survives to adolescence and leaves its parents'perch. Additionally, adolescent life for lossodragons isdangerous and about half of all adolescents are killedby predators when the dragons are vulnerable on the

Lossodragon wing and skeletal structure.Eric Winsor


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lower slopes when they have descended too far downMount Spire. Only full grown adult lossodragons aresafe on the lower slopes.

The Lossend government is well known throughout thefrontier for its planetary conservation and wildlifemanagement. Lossend has successfully established abig game industry in balance with their wildlife

conservation. Lossodragons are the crowning jewel ofLossend's big game industry. Hunting tags forlossodragons are the priciest and are most rare on theLossend Game Department hunting list.

The WypongThe wypong (Polyhedron Magazine #18) are semi-intelligent omnivorous ape-men. They troop in groupsnumbering up 20. They lack a language but userudimentary vocalizations that convey alarm,aggression or curiosity. They do exhibit tool use withthe principle example being very crude bows and

arrows amongst the smartest of them but most justthrow stones. They have a universal fascination withair vehicles and seem to worship them. Recentresearch has suggested that this is tied the wypongsrelationship to the lossodragon which does prey onsmall unattended wypongs, carrying them away.

Wypong

TYPE: Medium omnivore

NUMBER: 20-30

MOVE: Slow

IM/RS: 5/50

STAMINA: 20-100ATTACK: 55

DAMAGE: 2-10 (fists or thrown stones)

SPECIAL ATTACK: n/a

SPECIAL DEFENSE: n/a

NATIVE WORLD: Lossend/ Timeon System

Their relationship with the farmers on Lossend hasbeen tragic. Viewed as pests and vermin, troops thathave destroyed crops and orchards have been wiped outby outraged farmers. Due to their unpleasant odor, the

slang term for a wypong is skunk ape or skunk monkey.This name has also become a serious insult in Lossendsociety. The wypong is now protected and the LossendRangers are responsible for their management. TheRangers employ capture and relocation as well asputting down overly aggressive wypongs.

The average stats for a wypong are RW: 55, Move 45,PS 3, IM 7, RS 65, STA 65

Tools: Bow and 8 arrows (crude) or thrown rocks

Note: the original presentation of the wypong inPolyhedron 18 was of a primitive sapient race, wechosen to present them more as an intelligent animallike a chimpanzee or gorilla. Ive left in the primitivebow and arrows from the canon article but for myself, Iwould limit them to thrown stones. Ive provided thestats above from the original article and provided a

standard creature stat block below, use one or the other.

Places of InterestLossend's Star Port: Dawn'sLandingWhen the joint agricultural mission from Clarrion andMinotaur landed on Lossend they named the siteDawn's Landing after the hot shot Royal MerchantMarine pilot who first landed here. Pilot Lt. Dawn

Winters' landing craft suffered a catastrophic failurethat should have crashed her ship but somehow shemanaged to land saving the equipment and engineerson board the shuttle. Unable to lift off, Lt. Wintersorganized the engineers and kicked and cajoled theminto overcoming the obstacle of leveling the locationand setting up a landing field. The site was not theintended location for the first star port on Lossend butnecessity required that it be used in the early days ofthe colony. There has always been discussion ofbuilding another star port but the political will and evenmore importantly the financial will is lacking. The

Medical Services Organization runs a small hospital atthe star port.

O'Donnal's StationO'Donnal's Station is a thriving but moderately sizedcity a kilometer away from the star port. Its main streetis lined with general stores, saloons, barber shops,trading posts, equipment repair shops, and stables. Amajor component of the city's economy is the foodprocessing and packaging business (for export), theanimal trade (local), and a proper air field for helicopterand air cars forcing tourist to pass through town before

departing for their resorts. There is a small governmentrun clinic.

Tachton CityTachton City is the corporate headquarter of TachtonIndustries on Lossend. It has a better star port thanDawn's Landing (though reserved for company craft),research labs, factories (mostly robotic), a companyarcology for corporate personnel, and support facilitiesfor its operations. Its called a city more for its sizethen its total population. What is of note is that


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Tachton City is a show case for automated living.There is a conference center and major symposiums onrobotics and AIs are sponsored by Tachton. Thecompany sponsors a youth camp and a modernuniversity for the youth of Lossend. Tachton also runsa small but very advance hospital here primarily for thebenefit of employees. If there was a disaster or

emergency, Tachton security personnel would assistand the hospital city would be provided free in theinterest of public relations.

Sherridan VallleyThe Sherridan Valley is a major wine producing center,with idyllic environmental conditions for thecultivation of grapes and other fruits used in the winemaking process. Some of the wineries have begun tooffer tours and resort like accommodations. For thepast five years, the Grape Harvest Festival has grownsteadily in popularity and dramatically increased the

tourism revenues for the wineries in the valley.

Diamond HarborDiamond Harbor is the largest town on the southerncontinent. Fishing and mineral refining are theprinciple industries of the town. The Lossend Rangersmaintain a station here attached to the government

clinic, which is the only medical help available on thecontinent. Diamond harbor is an active shippingterminal (ocean going) and air field. By default, it isthe gateway to the southern continent.

Mount SpireMount Spire is the largest mountain in the known

planets of the Frontier. It is located on the southerncontinent of Lossend and is the epicenter of mining andresort activities on Lossend dating back to before thecreation of the nature preserve. The home of thevaunted Lossodragon, it is a dangerous place due to thepredators, rock slides, and avalanches.

Suggested AdventureSeedsHere are some suggested adventure seeds that could

take place on Lossend.

Safari!Big game hunts are big business on Lossend. A varietyof animals have been imported to hunting resorts on themainland and Tachton, in conjunction with Star Play,has developed robotic big game to placate individualswith a desire to not hurt real animals. The roboticsafaris are not as popular as the real safaris but are goodfor beginning hunters as safety protocols are used toprevent injury to hunting parties. Characters visitingLossend can spend their layover taking a safari or as a

hunting guide. If a license can be obtained for theLossodragon, hunts on the slopes of Mt. Spire are alsopossible.

Hired by Mining InterestMining interests will hire guns for hire to escort raw orrefined ore against the possibility of hijackers.Characters may be hired for general security at miningsites on the slopes of Mount Spire.

Join the Ranger ServiceCharacters may join the Lossend Ranger Service andfunction as a general purpose planet wide police force,game warden, and environmental police.

Space Rangers!Who doesnt want to be a Space Ranger? Charactersmay join the fledgling LSR militia inspecting cargos,interdicting smugglers, or fighting pirates.

Tom Verreault


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Since the UPFS Lockbox was now in a parking orbitaround Laco while they waited for clearance to land, itsCaptain, Kynthicakuk Xxizt made his way to thegalley. Being an experienced spacer he found he madethe trip faster in zero-g then if they had been underthrust. Still, he was not surprised to see two of his crewalready there getting third meal together. His wife andtheir pilot, Zyblict, had warned him and everyone thiswould probably happen.

Moving to the

table and slippinghis eight feet intothe holding straps,the Captain hit thecomm button onthe wall andannounced.Everyone exceptfor Boom Boomreport to the galleyas soon as yousecure yourstations. We willhave a crewmeeting and thenthird meal.

Killing the commhe started to gethis thoughts together on what to tell the crew whenthey arrived. It was company policy, and his own, tokeep everyone informed as much as possible. It lookedlike the Pan Galactic officials would not have the starport secured enough for them to land for at least twodays. The Lockbox might be an armed and armored

merchant transport but he wasnt going to let any strayround injure his ship or crew. Besides, while thesupplies they carried were necessary, they were notvital at the moment.

Looking across the cabin he watched his twocrewmembers that were now acting as cooks. Theyazirian, Marine Nabu Boon, was grasping the ceilingrungs and keeping an eye on the enclosed water boilerwhile the human, Laser Gunner William Telrog, wasstirring something by shaking an enclosed bowl. He

was doing a pretty good job considering he only had hisVelcro shoes holding him down.

Wild Will, as the crew usually called William, noticedhis captain looking at him and said, Sir how long arewe gonna be stuck up here before we can head back?

The Captain said, I will cover that at the crew meetingbut it will be a couple days before we can land.

Trapper, as the crew usually called Nuba, said, Acouple of days

with almost norisk since theydont shoot atships of non-

participantcompanies shouldbe fun.

The Captain said,We wont betaking chances soyou, Wild Will,and Boom Boom

will be on dutyand on call thewhole time we areorbiting. You,Trapper, andMouck will be

ready for any boarding attempts. That is once you twofinish third meal.

Wild Will chuckled a little and said, Oh well, I guessWar is Hell.

At this Xxizt wondered. Being an armed merchant

meant he was a usually assigned cargo heading intodanger zones. He had heard that saying before fromhumans but was not sure what it meant. Well nowmight be a good time to learn. He asked Wild Will,What is this Hell you compare war to.

Wild Will stopped shaking and said, Well Captain,Hell is the place someone who has done evil in theirlife is sent to when they die. It is a place of neverending torment and grief. A place without hope.

Frontier Fiction

What is War ?Philip Campanaro

AZ_Gamer


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Humans compare war to Hell since both are sohorrible.

At this Trapper let out a laugh. When he finished hesaid, That is not what we yazirians say. We say War isGlory. It is only in battle that a yazirian can defeat theirlife enemy and win a place of honor.

Captain Xxict clicked his mandibles together as hethought about what his crew had said.

Realizing they were both looking at him, he answeredtheir unasked question, To the vrusk, War is Profit.

Both of the crewmembers looked at him incredulously.He just continued, When two groups fight they bothneed many things. Many things they would notnormally buy or buy on a large scale. After the battlesare done they must rebuild that which was lost and theybuy more things. During all this a vrusk can makemuch profit for their company.

Both of the gunners were a little shocked at this but nottotally surprised. After all they did work for the vruskcompany The Safe Delivery Service. They knew thevrusk liked to make credits but did not realize how farthat went. It was the loud voice from the door whichbrought them out of it.

Now that is just a silly idea, we dralasites know thetrue meaning of war, came from Chief EngineerBocuo, who in his Zero-G form looked like a ball withfour limbs set at even points around him and his eyeclusters in the middle. Some of the crew thought helooked silly but as Bocuo said, it was the best way tomove in zero-g.

The Captain twisted his head toward his friend andsaid, Then please go on and tell us what does warmean to the dralasites?

Swinging and almost bouncing himself into a seat at thetable, Bocuo waited a moment and then said, war isanother form of debate but with a bad ending for thelosers.

Now the vrusk, human and yazirian stared at thedralasite. They had all known

dralasites had had wars in their history but like mostnever thought of why they fought. Finding out it wastheir debates getting out of hand was unnerving.

The rest of the crew began to arrive and as greetingswere said the little exchange ended.

As they seated themselves one final thought would notleave Captain Xxicts mind. What do the sathar thinkof war?

STR FONTIESNETCON 2012

Sept 14-15, 2012

Are you interested in refereeing or playing in one

or more on-line Star Frontiers games? Do youwant to connect with other members of the StarFrontiers community directly instead of just viathe forums? Or maybe you just want to listen inand see how others play. Here's your chance.Register to participate in the Star FrontiersNetCon 2012.

A follow-on event to the successful Virtual Con heldback in March, SF NetCon 2012 is a day and a halffocused on getting together as a community andplaying Star Frontiers, in whatever flavor you like.

There are nine potential game sessions starting Fridayafternoon/evening and running all day Saturdaydesigned to accommodate almost any schedule. Signup for as many or as few as you'd like.

Want to referee a game? Great! Once you'veregistered, you can set up a game in any of the sessionsthat work for you.

Looking to just play? Browse the schedule and gamedescriptions and sign up for the ones you like.

We look forward to seeing everyone on-line andplaying Star Frontiers in September. Just like with theVirtual Con, participants in NetCon 2012 are eligible to

purchase one of the limited edition Star Frontiers 30

th

Anniversary commemorative patches (pictured below).Details are provided at registration.

To find out more and register, visit the con site at:

http://starfrontiers.info/NetCon
http://starfrontiers.info/NetConhttp://starfrontiers.info/NetConhttp://starfrontiers.info/NetConhttp://starfrontiers.info/NetConhttp://starfrontiers.info/NetCon


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The overall concept of this adventure is that theplayers characters have signed on as crew for amerchant vessel travelling around the Star Frontierssetting. In particular the ship is a Cappellan FreeMerchant. The former crew has been detained bypolice and the captain is forced to replace them so thathe can complete a contracted delivery. The campaignidea is that the player characters are simple merchantcrewmen making a living shipping goods. They are notlooking for excitement but somehow excitement andadventure seems to find them. Mooks WithoutNumber is the story of how the player characters

signed on to a CFM ship and the events that followed.

Alpha Section: Runningthe AdventureReferees Campaign NotesThis adventure is what is known as a Big ShipCampaign. A big ship campaign is where a ship isdetailed to the Nth degree and players are crew orpassengers who end up having adventures in the courseof the ships journeys. A great explanation of Big Ship

campaigns can be found in the old Polyhedronmagazine issues # 21 Take Command of a Titan and#22 Of Great Ships and Captains. (Ed. Note: A copyof these articles can be found in the Polyhedron

Archive downloadat the Port Loren Public Library on

the starfrontiers.uswebsite.)

This adventure is only a kick off and the above namedarticles should prove invaluable to a referee running aBig Ship campaign. In case a referee is unable to

locate copies of a these articles, the following advice isprovided to help a referee continue the adventure.

1. The number one rule is to not actually destroy theship or make it a big floating lifeless hulk as thatpretty much ends the campaign. The threat of theships destruction is good but the possibility of itreally being destroyed means an end to thecampaign.

2. The ship is often in the background of theadventure but should not be completely relegated

to the role of taxicab.3. Mutinies in the real world are actually a very rarething. Captain Kleevor, as a CFM captain, holds areserve commission in the Rims Navy known asthe Flight and his ship has the legal status asauxiliary warship and by default is part of theFlights merchant marine service. If the playercharacters decide to mutiny and make off with theship, United Planetary Federation authorities (bothStar Law and Space Fleet) will be obliged to huntthem down due to treaty provisions. The playerswill quickly find themselves without any sort ofsafe haven to hide within the Frontier.

4. Kleevor is the Captain and provides somestructure for the adventure but should not make allthe decisions. He is no Captain Ahab or Bligh.The player characters can possibly take over theship after a period of apprenticeship and Kleevorcan be moved out by having the CFM appoint himto its governing board back on Faire. A refereewill need to look for opportunities to delegateauthority and leave the PCs to sink or swim ontheir own merits (as will occur in this adventure).

5. Non-commercial adventures can be introduced byhaving the ship chartered by a university totransport its scientists and equipment or the shipcan be recalled by the Flight to support a militaryoperation.

6. The focus for a merchant ship campaign of thissort is going to be exploring the Frontier andpossibly a little beyond. A referee will find thatcompiling files on systems visited and NPCs metwill greatly ease his work load. During the courseof this adventure the player characters will visittwo planets and meet a number of non-player

Adventures

Mooks Without NumberPart1 Tom Verreault

Mooks Without Number is a serialized adventure thatwill be run over the course of The Frontier Explorersfirst year. The scope of the magazine is such that fulllength modules fit best if broken into serializedinstallments. In following issues you can expect thecomplete adventure as well as the deck plans of aCapellan Free Merchant ship. If you plan to play in thisadventure it goes without saying that you should

probably stop reading now.
http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5640http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5640http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/3437http://www.starfrontiers.us/http://www.starfrontiers.us/http://www.starfrontiers.us/http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/3437http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5640http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/5640


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characters that the referee should recycle and useas contacts and plot hooks over the course of thecampaign.

To Zebs or Not to Zebs , Thatis the QuestionThe oft debated controversy of Star Frontiers

is whether the Zebulons Guide materialshould be treated as canon. This adventure ispredicated on the crew being hired by theCapellan Free Merchants which were firstintroduced in the Knight Hawks supplementand then expanded upon in the ZebulonsGuide partial revision. Ill not debate themerits of using some of the Zebulons Guidematerial here. In this adventure CaptainKleevor is presented as an ifshnit and hisship having ties to the Flight which is allZebs Guide material. Referees that dont

want to use the Zebulons Guide materialcan easily make Captain Kleevor a humanand ignore any other reference to any otherZebs Guide material that turns up.

Captain Kleevors ship , TheVentureThe Venture is a Capellan Free Merchant ship andenjoys certain advantages. First and foremost is itsstatus as auxiliary merchant marine for the Flight. Thisposition means she must be equipped with atomicdrives and receives government subsidies for fuel. Her

captain holds a reserve naval commission and the shipcan be activated for active duty at any time though thisis actually an exceedingly rare occurrence.

The Capellan Free Merchants is accorded mega-corpstatus but in actuality it is an association of independentbusiness men like Kleevor. Their one iron hard policyis mutual protection and an extreme response to attacksagainst its members. Thus any CFM ship can expecthelp from any other CFM ship in the vicinity.

Since full deck plan for Kleevors ship will not appear

until part 3, the adventure will need to be run with anabstracted deck plan (see the accompanying crosssection of the ship, p24). Characters can travel fromone area of the ship to another and performapproximately one action in ten minutes. Thisabstracted movement covers traveling to the ships

elevator and using it to reach another

part of the ship and access a piece ofequipment or computer console. Howlong attempted actions take is a matterfor the referees judgment but gamemasters should be flexible and err onthe side of the players if its a closecall.

HARM rocket battery ammunition wasdetailed in the Star Frontiersman issue#17, its name stands for HypervelocityAnti-ship Reaction-drive Missile. It isspecialized ammunition for rocket

battery and assault rocket weaponsystems that is designed to shred hullson small craft making a HARM hitalmost a guaranteed one shot kill on afighter craft. The ammo performs

identical to the original ammo for the system firing itexcept that the rocket battery's advance damage tablemodifier is increased (from -20 to -30). The Venturestarts this adventure with the standard rocket batteryammo loaded in the weapon and two sets of palletizedHARM reloads (total of 12 salvos) stored in the cargohold. RB (HARM): LTD/RA 3/ DTM -30/HDR 2d10

Note: if using the basic game rules for Knight Hawksencounters simply rule a HARM hit on a fighter as anautomatic kill otherwise there is no change.

Kleevor Needs a CrewThe former crew were involved in a bar room brawl atPort Loren. Weapons were drawn and numerousopponents were wounded as well as responding policeofficers. The crew has been arrested and charged witha host of charges. Kleevor has paid for lawyers andattempted to secure their release but to no avail.

He has delayed making a contracted run toTimeon/Lossend as long as possible but now mustreplace his crew and make the delivery. He has posteda classified ad on the info net and will interview thePCs at Dinzas Antiques, the business establishment ofanother Capellan Free Merchant.

This adventure was designed with a fan article fromStar Frontiersman issue #11, Spacer Skills Revisitedin mind. Its very much a beginning level adventure

CFMSDawn Trader-class light freighter

HS: 5 HP:20 ADF:3 MR:3 DCR:40Max Crew: 14Weapons: LC, LB, RB (HARM) x6Defenses: RH, MS(x1)Engines: 3 Atomic "B"

Attached cargo shuttle: Capitol

Tom Verreault
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and starting player characters with first level spacerskills and the canon pre-requisites listed in the KnightHawks rules book ramp the adventure up to high levelplay immediately. As a referee you can of course useany rule set or rules conversion you desire but itsstrongly recommended that you use a graduated systemof pre-requisite skills similar to that discussed in the

sited Star Frontiersman article.This module will assume that player characters areessentially starting characters with up to three skills andone of those being a space skill and the others are pre-requisites, all at the minimum levels described in theSpacer Skills Revisited article. If a spacer skill onlyrequires one pre-requisite skill then a player will be freeto choose any other skill at level 1.

If the party is small, Kleevor can cover the positions ofpilot and astrogator. The ship can easily accommodate1 to 3 gunners though finding an RPG character willing

to shoot weapons has never been difficult. The crewshould also have at least one engineer and if twoplayers are interested in playing tech characters arobotics tech could come in handy. A large party withall the spacer positions covered can accommodatecharacter concepts that dont have actual spacer skillsbut until the party is over four in number the playersshould consider covering all of the spacer skills at leastonce.

Kleevors ContractNormally Captian Kleevor would have arranged for

more bulk freight to fill his hold for the run to theTimeon system. However, with his crew in jail heshad to pass on several cargos. The current contractpredates the bar brawl and is only a few small crates.He has delayed the delivery as long as possible butmust complete it now or else he incurs penalties andwill suffer a loss of reputation. It does not sit well withhim to essentially abandon his former crew but there isstill a banknote to pay on his ship and the hummacrewmen have been in more than a few legal scrapesthat hes been forced to bail them out of.

The contract is essentially a gun run but there is

nothing illegal about the business deal. Pirates havebeen extorting food from farm settlements on Lossendin the Timeon system and one such settlement hasdecided to defend itself. Kleevor took the deal toprovide weapons (all of them are legal) for twice theirworth in grain and an agreement to fill his cargo holdone time at a discounted price. He plans to offload thefood at Laco in the Dixons Star system where demandfor food is high. If his former crew had not been

arrested, he would have realized a high profit from theventure but now will just barely operate above a deficit.

Beta Section: Makingthe DeliveryGetting Under WayThe players will report to the star port and help load theunmarked crates form a secure holding facility toKleevors cargo shuttle. A pilot PC can copilot theshuttle with Kleevor.

Any curious player with military background, securitybackground, or familiarity with weapons can make anINT check to realize that the packing crates remind himof some shipping containers that occasionally are usedfor weapons. Treat any character with more than oneweapons skill as having enough familiarity withweapons to make this check. The crates have coded

locks that will require a technician to defeat if theplayers desire to look inside. If anyone wants toattempt that action they will have to wait till after theship is underway for Timeon, but Kleevor will beaware of the attempt unless elaborate precautions aretaken to disable monitoring devices. For the contentsof the weapons shipment see Listing A (p21).

Once aboard the CFMS Venture, there are a host ofchores and maintenance that needs to be done as theship gets under way. Kleevor will assign these to theparty and allow them to handle getting it done. Hes

already computed the jump to Timeon but will spendtime on the bridge refining his data while piloting theship and brooding over what he feels is a betrayal of hisformer crew.

After a 10 hour shift Kleevor will hold a meal foreveryone. This is the time when the players can quizKleevor and learn something about the job they are on.In fact, once per day it will be Kleevors habit to host ameal for the crew. The ship will be on automatic and ifanything happens an alarms will sound.

This activity can be simulated at the RPG gaming tableas the meal/chat will happen early in an adventure andmany RPG gaming sessions have snacking at thebeginning of the session before the game really getsgoing. The informal snack time can be used for thisrole play meal and cover background details on theadventure.

The trip to Lossend will take about 6 standard days.However, the player characters only have 3 workingshifts with which to square away the ship. CaptainKleevor will want to run drills for two days whiledecelerating in Timeon system given the possibility of


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who might be lurking in that system these days. So thecrew will lose two days to drills and the last will be lostto the time spent getting underway and arriving atLossend.

Galactic Standard time is 20 hour days with a 10 hourwork shift the norm. Players may opt to use up to 2hours of their off time per day to try to get more done.

Their first voyage with the Venture will involve lots ofwork. The old rocket battery ammunition need to bepulled from the weapons magazine, disarmed andpalletized before being replaced with the new HARMrockets that are designed to shred star ship hulls andpotentially be a one shot kill on fighter craft. Someonehas taken all the robots apart and was doingmaintenance on all of them at once which means noneof them can assist with any physical labor till they areput back together again. In addition there is a royalpain of a job requiring vacuum suits fixing a leaking

seal on the cargo hold hatch.Have the players compute their total available workinghours: 30 hours times the number of player characters.This is the budget of work hours they have to completethe chores and maintenance tasks. Listing B (p21)gives the list of chores and their total work hours toaccomplish. The exact list of tasks depends on thenumber of player characters in the crew. It is entirelypossible that the players may not get everything doneand it will be important to note what was not finishedfor later portions of the adventure, particularly if itimpacts the ship in combat.

Experience Points: Getting UnderWayThe actions and decision made during this phase of theadventure will have their benefits or hindrances latteron when combat erupts so no experience need be givenfor doing chores. If players go to lengths to learn detailsabout the weapons deal or other details before Kleevorreveals the details at a meal then award 1 bonus EXPwhen experience is awarded for Beta Section.

A Day Late and a Credit ShortIn Lossend orbit the Venture will be placed in a parkingorbit assigned from the space station. Kleevor willremain with the ship while the PCs will take theweapons crates in the shuttle, Capitol, to DawnsLanding and rent a cargo variant jet copter to deliverthe arms to the farming village. They have thenecessary credit drafts to rent the copter and purchasethe extra grain from the farmers. They may also useweapons from Ventures small arms locker (see ListingC, p21). The PCs mission is to complete the deal or no

one is getting paid. In other words their pay will bedeferred till the next completed delivery of which noneare currently lined up without the expected grain.

Unbeknownst to Kleevor is that he is a little too late toreach Lossend and his customers have been forced topay the extortion and that the Lucky Devil piratescommitted rape, pillage, and burned the farming

settlement to the ground anyway. The farm settlementcannot be raised by radio (if the PCs try) and Kleevorwill instruct the PCs to complete the deal but be ontheir toes.

At the farm settlement the PCsfind the moldering ruins of theburnt out settlement and bodieseverywhere. A young humanboy can be seen working on aheavy duty robot body thatlooks shot up. His name is

Keyvan and hes a level 1roboticist. Hes attempting toget a shot up heavy dutyequipment robot to work toplow a mass grave. He is sonumb to his experiences thathe will simply stare at the PCscopter expecting to be killed and welcoming it. He cantell the PCs what happened and answer some questionsbut will doggedly focus on getting the grave dug. Hesexhausted and characters with medical or psycho-socialskills will realize he needs sleep.

Keyvan, older sister, Mim, is married to the leader ofanother co-op like farm settlement 30 km north of thislocation that would be the best place for the PCs toleave him and possibly find a buyer for their guns.

Striking A DealBarlos Post is a repurposed mercenary base from theaborted corporate war between PGC and TachtonIndustries (See included map). The mercenary baseused to be identical to the town map on the back of thePort Loren poster map except the farmers recycled thefencing to protect important crops from wypong

depredation. The fence posts remain as they were setinto ceramacrete and the farmers have not yet investedenergy into digging them up. The watch towers alsoremain and sport spotlights to drive off any nocturnallyprowling wypongs that the community's dogs will alerton with barking.

Barlo James and his wife Mim lead the co-op thoughthe community is democratic in governance. Its justthat Barlo is a forceful personality and most everyone

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will follow his lead. The communitywill welcome the PCs and the news ofthe other settlements demise willshock them. Some of the men will tellBarlo that they should have bought

weapons to defend themselves butnow what can they do if the piratestake the grain AND kill everyone.

Barlo is actually aware of what theother settlements deal was and willnegotiate for the same deal with thestipulation that the PCs teach themhow to use the weapons. He will askfor four weeks training but settle fortwo weeks knowing the pirates willshow up in about a week. Barlo islooking to have the PCs present when

the pirates do show up on the theorythey will probably fight just to savethemselves. After the PCs strike thedeal, each character has a chance todiscover this fact each day they are inthe village. Have each character makea PER ability check. Success meansthat they have learned of the timing ofthe pirates' arrival. If they learn of theimpending arrival of the pirates, Barlo

Map Legend, Farming OutpostThe map above is designed for the referee's use. It shows the startingpositions of the pirates in the "Storm Breaking" Section as well asidentifying numbers for the various buildings. Basic descriptions of the

buildings and locations are given below. Gray buildings are two stories.

#1 Dormitory sectioned off internally for families to have privacy

#2 Tool Shed

#3 Grain sheds

#4 Livestock pen


#6 Communal kitchen and cafeteria

#7 Barn with internal loft and second story doors opening south andnorth as well as an obscured floor hatch to a root cellar

#8 The Common an open field used for community events &meetings

#9 Warehouse and storage

#10 Food processing equipment and offices (videocom radio locatedhere)

#11 Workshop and power generator (petroleum fuel for generator)



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will hold them to the deal. If they consultwith Kleevor, he feels responsible for theother farmers' deaths and will tell them thatthey cannot get the grain if these farmersare dead.

Every 2-3 days that the PCs are in thevillage, there is a 50% chance of something

happening from this table or by referee fiatone or more things from this list willhappen that week. Roll 1d5 and consult thelist.

1. Twelve and eleven year old boyswere taunting a wypong bythrowing sticks and rocks at it.The wypong responded by beatingone of the youths unconscious and the others fled.If there is a medic in the PCs party he can treat theyouth but if not the PCs can join the farmers in

running off the closest pack of wypongs or tracking(provided someone has that skill) and killing thespecific wypong that did this. Note that thewypongs are protected and indiscriminant killing ofthem will bring in the Lossend Rangers. Thisencounter can lead to a role play encounter withLossend Rangers concerning activities involvingthe wypongs. A wypong that attacks a human orother sapient creature may be put down but justkilling wypongs will likely lead to 1000 Cr finesper creature killed. They are easily run off withsonic weapons.

2. Two Lossend Rnagers show up and questioneveryone about the destroyed farming settlement.3. A lossodragon is killing livestock. After two nights

of its predation something must be done. Itsimpossible to track which will require guardsposted to watch for it during the night.

4. Jet copter circles the compound and thenflies away.

5. One PC makes a connection with thefarmers hes training, roll 1d5 to determinehow many of them are now level 1 atthe weapon they were training with.

Storm BrewingThe players are in essence roped intodefending the farm settlement and mayhave little time to prepare. There are 12adult combatants, both men and women, andfive non-combatant adults and 12 children. Anycombatant farmer is effectively 0 level with aranged weapon but due to hard work andexperience working with farm tools they are

effectively 1st level with melee weapons. Eachfarmer will be able to scrounge either: a knife,

a machete or an improvised pole arm.Farmers' (RW 20, M 40, PS 3, IM 3, RS30, STA 40) equipment is drawn fromthe weapons shipment, Listing A.

In addition there is any reasonable

amount of material and equipmentavailable on the farm at the refereesdiscretion if the players ask for specificitems. Players should be rewarded fortrying to devise stratagems against thepirates. Simple stratagems will havemore success and complicated ones aremore likely to fail.

There are no robots at this farm and if the heavy dutyrobot is recovered from the other farm it will need 5hours to restore it from 5 STA to 250. However, each

failed repair roll reduces the maximum STA points by50. It is only level 2 and programed for commonfarming tasks. To use it in combat it will need to bemodified to mount a weapon, have an Attack/Defenseprogram installed and its mission and functionsrewritten.

Provide players with the map of the settlement (p22-23)and allow them to arrange the defenders. If they neverdiscover that the pirates will show up when they arestill there then allow the player to arrange their PCs andrandomly place farmers. Mim is a combatant but shewill defend the non-combatants with a sonic stunner.

This leaves Barlo and 10 other farmers to defend thesettlement with the PCs. Once the PCs and farmers arein place the players will control the farmers for thebattle. The players can also divvy up the arms

shipment among the farmers but cannot use itthemselves.

Experience Points: BetaSection

Award 1-3 EXP for the players' performancesince arriving planet side. Take note of

whether they did the minimum at the

destroyed settlement and how hard abargain they drove with the farmers (1EXP). The CFM believes strongly ina deal being good for both parties.Reward good role play with the

farmers and discovering that thepirates will arrive within the week (1EXP). Finally reward good preparation

for the pirates arrival (1 EXP).

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Listing A Contents ofWeapon ShipmentThe weapon shipment that the players aredelivering consists of the following items:

10 Sonic stunners

2 cases of 20 SEU clips- 50 each case 5 semi-automatic rifles (same as auto-

rifles but no burst fire)

10 empty clips and 1500 rounds ofammo

1 case of 20 dose grenades

1 case of 20 smoke grenades

25 military skiensuits

Listing C Contents ofVenture's Small ArmsLockerThe Venture's small arms locker containsthe following items. The contents areoptimized for repelling boarders withoutdamaging the ship.

1 grenade rifle

20 smoke grenades

20 tangler grenades

20 dose grenades 3 Electro Stunners

3 Needler rifles 9 full Needler rifle clips 2 laser rifles

1 heavy laser

2 power belt packs

1 power backpack

30 power clips (20 SEU)

5 electric swords

Note: crew members are responsible fortheir own defenses and any weapons theydesire beyond these.

Listing B Needed ShipMaintenance and ChoresThe following is a list of tasks that need to be completed onthe Venture. Each task is listed with the number of workhours needed to complete the task. The exact task listdepends on the number of PCs with additional tasks being

added for larger groups.

Required Tasks Store crates brought up from Port Loren and get

oriented to the Venture 8 work hours

Inventory and store the former crews personal effectstill they can be transshipped at Port Loren 4 workhours.

Clean ship, must be done immediately to make up forit not being done in a while 8 work hours

Maintain a clean ship (could be done automatically byrobots if they are put back on line) 2 work hours per

day. Finish maintenance on and reassemble 4 robots. Doing

this will save on cleaning the ship and save 5 hours onstowing the rocket battery ammo 10 work hours.

Pull, disarm, palletize, and stow old rocket batteryammo 20 work hours.

Run diagnostic tests on all of the new HARM rocketbattery ammo, fix technically issues with individualrockets, upgrade the gunnery programs for the Harm,load the rockets, and test the system 40 work hours

Re-align all the targeting hard ware and software forall weapons mounts (a -3% deviation has crept into the

targeting systems) 10 work hours per weapon for 30total.

Clean and check all of Ventures small arm weaponry 8 work hours

If 4 or more PCs add:

Environmental Breakdown on the crew deck- norunning water or fresh air for this deck till fixed 10work hours

Leaky cargo bay doors 10 work hours.

If 5 or more PCs add:

Micro meteor holes the ships and damages the radartotal repair is 10 work hours

Nozzle indicator on the masking screen system readsred. Diagnose fault 8 work hours. (Its strictly a faultin the wiring.)

If the robots are brought back on line, they can assist withmany of these tasks at the referee's discression as long as atleast one PC is involved in the process.


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All decks are 2.5 m in height and typical deck spacingis 1 m between decks. The spherical bow section (decks1-5), as well as the engines, gimbal 90 degrees whenthe Venture is operating near, or landing on, a planetary

surface. Full details for the decks of the CFMSVenture will appear in a future issue of the FrontierExplorer.

CFMS Venture Deck Layout


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Gamma Section: StandYour GroundStorm BreakingTreat the top of the town map as north. The LuckyDevil pirates have two hover trucks, one hover car, two

cycles and a jetcopter at their disposal. All of thevehicles, except the jetcopter, approach from the South,but split up to surround the town. Truck 1 halts on theSouth side, truck 2 in the common after entering fromthe north side, the hover car halts on the North side justoutside the common, and the two hover cycles halt onthe West side. The jetcopter is a short distance awayand will arrive in 1d5 combat turns.

Hover Truck 1: 6 pirates (RW 35, M 35, PS 3, IM 4,RS 40, STA 40) skiensuits - 3 with autorifles andmachetes and 3 with gyrojet pistols and electric swords

Hover Truck 2: 6 pirates (RW 35, M 35, PS 3, IM 4,

RS 40, STA 40) skiensuits - 3 with autorifles andmachetes and 3 with needler rifles, 2 smoke grenades &2 frag grenades

Hover Car: Ramirez (RW 60, M 60, PS 3, IM 4, RS 40,STA 50) skiensuit, albedo screen, power belt, laserrifle, sonic sword plus 3 pirates (RW 35, M 35, PS 3,IM 4, RS 40, STA 40) skiensuits - auto pistols andvibroknives

Hover Cycle 1: 2 pirates (RW 35, M 35, PS 3, IM 4, RS40, STA 40) skiensuits - autopistols & 2 frag grenades

Hover Cycle 2: 2 pirates (RW 35, M 35, PS 3, IM 4, RS

40, STA 40) skiensuits - autopistols & 2 frag grenadesJet copter (armed with 2 rockets and heavy machinegun): Crew of 2 (RW 35, M 35, PS 3, IM 4, RS 40,STA 40) skiensuits - sonic stunners plus 4 yazirianjumpers (RW 35, M 35, PS 3, IM 4, RS 40, STA 40)skiensuits - gyro-jet pistols, 2 smoke grenades, swords

Ramirez is the leader and will look to talk first but if hesuspects something is up he will be quick to resort toviolence. The jet copter will come in looking for highvalue targets (vehicles, combat robots, the watch

towers). After making two attacks with vehicleweapons in the turn it shows up, the copter willmaneuver to the center of the town just a few metersabove the roofs of the buildings and the 4 yazirian

jumpers will deploy gliding to roof tops in pairs. Once50% (12) of the pirates are down, roll againstRamirezs LDR (45%) to see if they break and scatter.If Ramirez is down, roll against 20% to see if theyscatter. Once 75% (18) of the pirates are down theybreak and scatter.

If the players have taken a hand in organizing thedefenses they will learn of the trap door in the barnleading to the root cellar where the farmers plan to hidethe children and other non-combatants. If the playershave organized the defense then the non-combatantswill begin the encounter already there. If the PCs have

not been organizing the defense then groups of childrenand women will be running for the root cellar when thepirates show up.

Note: if the PCs failed to clean and check Venturessmall arms there is a 10% that one of the weaponsbeing used by the PCs from the arms locker will jam,misfire, or malfunction at a critical moment.

The Farmers RemainAfter a successful defense of the village, Mim, a level 1medic, will assist the PCs medic (if there is one) in

patching the wounded up. The farmers will make goodon the deal providing discounted grain at a great priceto fill Ventures hold. The PCs will receive someluxury items from the farmers that may be sold orbartered for full value in a market on another planet: 2cases of quality Lossend wine (6 bottles each case withindividual bottles worth about 100 cr. apiece) and 10cases of dried fruit (about 100 cr./case). It is commonpractice with the CFM to allow crews to indulge in sidedeals as long as it doesnt interfere with the shipsbusiness.

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Lossend Rangers will show up after the fact toinvestigate and question everyone. If thebattle is a close thing a pair of Rangerscould show up to save the day for thePCs but only if they are well and trulyon the verge of death.

If the PCs and farmers are taken out,

the PCs can be taken captive afterbeing rendered unconscious. They willreceive medical help from Mim oncethe survivors are rounded up. Thepirates plan to kill everyone butLossend Rangers will show up anddrive them off. If the PCs are rescuedby Lossend Rangers there will be noluxury items offered by the farmerthough they will sell grain to Venturescrew at the agreed upon price.

Two privateer vessels will blast off from

Frontier Explorer 1

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