The Modern Dispatch 040 - The Hellcrash Transmission, Podreczniki RPG, The Modern Dispatch
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The
Modern
Dispatch
The Hellcrash Transmission
by Phil Reed
are as common for characters as a plane ride is for
people of our reality.
• Space combat is not uncommon. It’s just another
exciting adventure when the player characters have
to engage the enemy while fleeing from some world
or other.
• The campaign is packed with action. If things aren’t
exploding, how much fun can the game really be?
In other news, the Dayar-Kolnaa Corporation reports
that one of their mining teams encountered a Class
V meteor shower on the spinward side of the Wixxa
Nebula. One starship was lost in the accident. Dayar-
Kolnaa officials have claimed a loss of seven billion
credits – that’s one expensive wreck!
#40
This adventure outline is very rigid and linear in
design. As a site-based adventure, consider this a
dungeon crawl in space more than a work of epic
storytelling. As the player characters are led into the
situation they can do little more than react to their
surroundings.
Content�Manager:�
phil�reed,�chris�davis
Layout:�
Chris�Davis
The Hellcrash Transmission
is a short adventure
outline for futuristic
D20 Modern
campaigns. This is
not a complete adventure but, rather, an outline and
the tools necessary for the GM to expand the material
herein into an adventure that suits his campaign. To
use the material in this PDF you will need both the
D20 Modern
rules and the starship rules from the
SRD or futuristic supplement. SkeletonKey Games’
e-Future Tiles
series will prove useful if you prefer
to use miniatures during your game sessions.
The Hellcrash Transmission
does not feature combat
and is intended for characters of all levels.
The remaining information in this PDF is for the
GM’s eyes only. Players please read no further.
This adventure outline, and the accompanying
material, make some assumptions about your
campaign and will be most useful in campaigns in
which the following statements are true:
Open Game Content
All of the text in this PDF, with the exception of
the product identity, is presented as open game
content. While this means absolutely nothing to your
campaign it does give other publishers permission
to use this material as long as they follow the open
game license (see the end of this PDF).
Requires the use of the d20 Modern Roleplaying
Game, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
d20 Modern and Wizards of the Coast are
trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. in the
United States and other countries and are used
with permission. ‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20
System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the
Coast, Inc. and are used according to the terms
of the d20 System License version 6.0. A copy
of this License can be found at www.wizards.
com/d20.
• The campaign is not a “hard” science setting.
Campaigns that are more space opera/adventure
movie are the intended target for this
Modern
Dispatch
issue.
• Starships are not rare or unusual. This adventure
assumes that space travel is a standard and common
occurrence – individuals either fly their own ships or
ride on passenger ships. Starships and space travel
About the Author
Philip Reed has been working professionally in
the roleplaying game industry since 1995. In that
time he has worked for such companies as Atlas
Games, Privateer Press, and
Scrye
magazine. Today
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Philip spends his days at home running Ronin Arts,
writing and designing new games, and watching
DVDs. To learn more about Philip Reed – and Ronin
Arts – please visit
and
.
starship and enroute to a planet or system – this
adventure is a side-story that should be completely
unexpected by the players. If the player characters
do not own their own starship you will need to
construct an incident in your campaign in which they
are temporarily loaned a ship. In the unlikely event
that the player characters do not possess the skills
necessary to pilot a starship they can be assigned one
with a robotic pilot or crew.
Any transmissions directed at the starship are left
unanswered and sensor sweeps indicate that all
systems aboard the ship are shutdown.
At this point the player characters should move in
closer to investigate. If they fail to investigate, or
the moment they are within 10,000 ft. of the ship
if they do move in closer, all of their sensor and
computer systems red green and then display nothing
but green-colored static. No matter the actions
attempted the starship’s controls and systems are no
longer accessible to the player characters. They find
themselves watching helplessly as their ship docks
with the derelict.
Adventure Summary
The player characters, while traveling through a
lighty-used merchants’ lane, encounter a derelict
starship. As they close to investigate their starship’s
systems automatically shutdown and they’re drawn
to the derelict where their computers – which they no
longer control – initiates a docking procedure with
the unidentified ship. Once onboard they encounter
an alien artifact and must save themselves and their
ship before the artifact destroys them all.
At about the half-way point of their journey the
starship’s sensors beep a detection alert. The
adventure has begun.
Detection and Malfunction
The unidentified starship is detected at the very edge
of the ship’s sensor range. A DC 20
Computer Use
check indicates that the ship is an ultralight courier.
A second DC 20 Computer Use check brings the
unidentified ship into focus – hand the players the
ship’s illustration (see the end of this PDF).
Aboard the Derelict
Once docking is complete the player characters
find themselves looking down an access tube into a
dark, quiet starship. The air is breathable and smells
stale, old, as if it has been left stagnant for centuries.
Personal scanners detect an unusual power source
deep within the derelict.
Adventure Setup
In order to run this adventure as written the player
characters need to be in possession of their own
Foreshadowing
If you wish, you can foreshadow this adventure with the following rumors, overhead when the player
characters are onboard a starport, visiting a cantina, or are otherwise amongst feller star travelers. To use
these rumors have the player characters make a
Gather Information
check and consult the following table.
The characters overhear all of the rumors up to and including the result of their roll.
6. Engineering
The docking tube connects to the ship’s engineering
station. The characters can descend into the ship
using ropes or whatever other means they may
possess. None of the derelict’s systems are active so
the gravlift that would normally transport characters
and cargo into this section is inoperable.
Rumor Gather Information Roll
The Dayar-Kolnaa Corporation recently lost a starship on the spinward side of the Wixxa
Nebula.
10
Within this room the characters will find several
storage lockers filled with tools and equipment – all
state-of-the-art but the circuits of computerized and
electronic equipment has friend rendering them
worthless – and terminals that display the same green
static the player characters saw onboard their own
ship.
Survivors the Class V meteor shower that hit the Wixxa Nebula reported the Dayar-
Kolnaa Corporation had picked up an alien artifact.
15
The alien artifact was lost when the Dayar-Kolnaa ship was lost.
20
The artifact was an unstable, alien power source thousands of years old.
25
The lost starship is still out there, intact and waiting to be salvaged.
30
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3. Storage
A large door in the ceiling is used to load and remove
cargo from this chamber. At this time the door is
frozen in place and welded. Whatever happened to
the ship the crew thought it in their best interest to
seal the large cargo bay door.
A corpse is slumped against one of the terminals.
Once an elderly human man, the corpse is now a
charred pile of flesh and bone. Scanning the corpse
registers high radiation and the same unusual power
signature that radiates from deeper in the ship.
There’s nothing of value on the corpse.
Various crates are scattered across this area, all of
which have been smashed open and are spilling their
contents – circuit boards and storage devices – across
the hold. One wooden five foot by five foot crate lies
in splinters in one corner of the hold. Scanning the
crate registers the highest levels yet of the unknown
power.
A door in this room is jammed open and will not
close.
2. Datacenter I
Other than a corpse this room is identical to the ship’s
second datacenter (Area 5). The corpse was once a
human female roughly thirty years of age. Her body
is fried much like the corpse found in Area 6; even
the strange power signature radiates from her body.
The Alien Artifact
The artifact was a large statue that an ancient,
millions of years old god-like entity had
possessed. The entity, immortal, incorporeal, and
blessed with unfathomable power, has existed
since the beginning of time and frequently
moves between vessels. The entity exists only to
collect knowledge and information even though
doing so destroys whatever it has come into
contact with.
5. Datacenter II
The
Hellcrash
-Class courier design features two
datacenters, each of which is a massive electronic
library and communications center. Whatever
information the starship carries during a mission
is hidden within the ship’s datacenter – by burying
information within information it’s better hidden
than it would be attempting to encrypt it and place it
on its own system or disk. As a security measure the
datacenter completely erases all stored information
during any sort of power failure or information
warfare attack.
The door connecting to the cockpit (Area 1) has been
blown out by an explosive device – twisted metal
fragments litter the floor in this area.
Sensor readings in this room indicate that the source
of the unidentified power is directly ahead, through
the twisted cockpit door.
After the crew of the Atlantis brought the statue
onboard the entity broke free of its crate and
quickly infiltrated the ship’s computer system.
Within seconds it had gathered all of the
information the ship carried and then moved
to the crew. All told, less than twenty seconds
passed from the instant the entity left the statue
until it finally settled in the corpse of a just-
killed crew member. The ship has been floating
out here for weeks during which time the entity
grew lonely. It has tried many times to lure
other ships within its sphere of influence but,
unfortunately for the player characters, it was
unlucky in its attempts – until now.
1. Cockpit
Entering the cockpit the player characters discover
four more corpses, one of which is glowing a dull
green. Investigating the cockpit the player characters
will find some personal weapons and equipment, an
assorted number of credsticks, and other personal
effects. Any character that moves within 5 ft. of the
glowing corpse feels a strange sensation wash over
him and must make a DC 20 Willpower save or drop,
stunned for 2d4+2 rounds.
Signs of a struggle, including laser fire marks and
shattered computer systems, are all that can be found
in this room.
The door opening into Area 3 is jammed shut. A DC
25 Strength check is required to break the door open.
If attacked, the door has Hardness 15 and 20 hit
points.
4. Fire Control
Connected to the ship’s storage compartment (Area
3, see below), this is the gunnery station. A crew
member in this station can fire the ship’s single laser.
In addition to gunnery duty this cramped chamber
was also used as a secondary storage hold: assorted
personal equipment is scattered throughout this area.
A character that succeeds this Willpower save finds
himself in communication with the source of the
ship’s problems, an entity that had existed within the
alien artifact (see box) that the
Atlantis
had picked up
just days before the ship and crew went dead.
Once the player characters boarded the ship the
entity grew scared. For the first time since its
birth it was unable to leap free of a spent vessel
to a new one. Something has changed within the
entity and it now sees its death is close at hand.
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The entity is a god-like being that is dying. The
player characters, in communicating with the being,
prove to it that it is now no more powerful than a
mortal. The entity communicates with one or more
of the player characters for a few rounds, answering
questions cryptically and asking several of its own,
after which it realizes that its time is at an end. The
entity begs them to remember it and its knowledge
and then fades to nothing. Any player characters
that were in communication with the entity will hear
it speaking in their mind for weeks to come – any
Knowledge checks for 2d6+4 days following the
contact with the being are made with a +4 awakened
bonus (see below).
retain ownership of the
Atlantis
– dealing with the
aftereffects of this short adventure could be a series
of adventures as they attempt to repair the ship and
stay free of the “evil” corporation’s clutches.
Type:
Ultralight
Subtype:
Courier
Defense:
11
Flat-footed Defense:
9
Autopilot Defense:
8
Hardness:
20
Hit Dice:
9d20 (180 hp) (currently 50 hp)
Initiative Modifier:
+2
Pilot’s Class Bonus:
+3
Pilot’s Dex Modifier:
+2
Gunner’s Attack Bonus:
+3
Size:
Gargantuan (–4 size)
Tactical Speed:
4,000 ft. (8 sq.)
Length:
45 feet
Weight:
90,000 lb.
Targeting System Bonus:
+2
Crew:
6 (trained +4)
Passenger Capacity:
0
Cargo Capacity:
11,000 lb.
Grapple Modifier:
+12
Base Purchase DC:
55
Restriction:
Licensed (+1)
For more ideas on using derelict starships in your
campaign, including a large number of possible
disasters and complete statistics and a key for a
multi-level starship, see Ronin Arts’
Future: Starship
13
available now at
and e23.sjgames.com.
Hellcrash-Class Template
(PL 7)
The
Hellcrash
-class template can be applied to any
PL 6 courier or escort ultralight or light starship. The
starship’s design specs should be adjusted as follows.
Hit Dice: Increase
by +1d20.
Engine Upgrade:
Induction engine (tactical speed
+1,000 ft.).
Sensors Upgrade:
Class IV Sensor Array, Improved
Targeting System.
Special System Upgrade:
Atmospheric streamlining,
nanite shielding.
Crew:
+2.
Passenger Capacity:
Reduce to 0.
Cargo Capacity:
+2,000 lbs.
Awakened:
A character that comes into contact with
a god-like entity may be blessed with insight into
the universe. This is represented as an awakened
bonus. Awakened bonuses are temporary though they
frequently last for several days.
If the characters continue to fail their Willpower
saves the entity talks to them directly. They do not
gain the awakened bonus to Knowledge checks
but
they do have a few seconds of interaction with the
being before it ceases to exist.
Attack:
Laser +0 ranged (6d8)
Attack of Opportunity:
None
Standard PL 7 Design Specs:
Engines:
Induction engine, thrusters
Armor:
Polymeric
Defense Systems:
Autopilot system, damage control
system (1d10)
Sensors:
Class IV sensor array, improved targeting
system
Communications:
Laser transceiver, radio
transceiver
Weapons:
1 laser (range incr. 3,000 ft.)
Grappling Systems:
Grapplers
Special Systems:
Atmospheric streamlining, nanite
shielding.
Concluding the Adventure
Once the player characters have dealt with the alien
artifact – either by communicating with the artifact
or through the help of the GM – the
Atlantis
and
their own ship reset. The
Atlantis
is in terrible shape
and in no condition to fly on its own but it could be
towed to the nearest starbase or planet. If you do
not want the players to keep the
Atlantis
members
of the Dayar-Kolnaa Corporation will be awaiting
at whichever destination the player characters chose
– the corporation will pay handsomely for the return
of the ship. Of course, there’s a very good chance
the player characters will do everything possible to
Hellcrash-Class Courier (PL 7)
This
Hellcrash
-class courier, identified only
as
Atlantis
, was constructed three years ago by
an unidentified corporation. The
Atlantis
is an
experimental starship design used in exploring
nearby systems. The
Atlantis
typically operates with
an escort or corvette but was separated from its
companion during a brutal meteor shower. The ship
is now a derelict, floating in deep space, its unusual
cargo constantly transmitting a bizarre alien signal.
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New Starship Special
Systems
While defensive, weapon, armor, engine, and various
other types of starship systems are easily classified
there is a selection of items that do not fit neatly into
an existing category. For simplicity, unusual systems
that defy categorization in the existing areas are
presented here, as special systems.
To build a special system from scratch, a character
must succeed at a Craft (electronic) check (DC
30) and a Craft (mechanical) check after investing
60 hours in its assembly. A character without an
electrical or mechanical tool kit takes a –4 penalty on
the appropriate skill check. The character must also
make a Wealth check against the system’s purchase
DC.
Installing a special system requires a successful Craft
(mechanical) check (DC 30) after investing 30 hours.
A character without a mechanical tool kit takes a –4
penalty on the skill check.
Different types of special systems are detailed below.
Minimum Ship Size:
The minimum size the starship
must be to use this type of special system.
Purchase DC:
The purchase DC of the system.
Restriction:
The level of license required to purchase
the system legally.
Atmospheric Streamlining (PL 6)
Smaller starships can be constructed to operate
efficiently in a planetary atmosphere. Such ships
feature wings and maneuvering foils and are designed
more like an aircraft than a starship. When flying a
starship outfitted with atmospheric streamlining in a
planetary atmosphere, the pilot of the starship gains a
+2 equipment bonus to Pilot checks.
Maximum Ship Size:
Only light and ultralight ships
may use atmospheric streamlining.
Purchase DC:
10 + one-half the base purchase DC
of the starship.
Restriction:
–
SkeletonKey Games
The
Hellcrash
-Class starship’s deckplan (see the
end of this PDF) was created using SkeletonKey
Games’
e-Future Tiles
product line. While the
information in this adventure is perfectly usable
on its own you can use SkeletonKey Games’
tile sets in order to construct a miniatures-scale
version of the
Hellcrash
-Class courier. For more
information please visit
.
Nanite Shielding
As nanocolonies and nanoviruses become more
common, starship designers strive to protect their
creations from nanite attacks. Nanite shielding is a
special system of nanocolonies that operate together
to protect their host starship from nanovirus attack
and infection. A starship outfitted with a nanite
shield resists all nanite attacks 50% of the time. This
is a highly experimental system limited to military
use. Few starships have been outfitted with nanite
shielding and most citizens of the galaxy don’t even
know that the equipment exists.
Maximum Ship Size:
No maximum.
Purchase DC: 25
+ one-half the base purchase DC
of the starship.
Restriction:
Military (+3).
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