Mothership Hive Mind Issue 01
Mothership Hive Mind Issue 01
Mothership Hive Mind Issue 01
ISSUE 01
Francis Ha (Order #20405825)
HIVE MIND ISSUE 01 CONTRIBUTORS
Content by members of the AbsurdEntropy, Adam Thornton, Agent Lucy
Mothership Discord Server Wilde, Alexei McDonald, altroubles, Angry
https://discord.gg/uuvxG29 Wombat, antlerrr, ArticleStyx, auto_nom,
b.lickerman, B44L, Bach, Bardaree,
Compiled by Dan D. bluetyson, bmils, boudoo, brett, Burnstuff,
Art by Evlyn Moreau Byers2142, Cheese, Chryton, Coman, Craig
Edited by Jarrett Crader Brasco, DandyMan, DatMatt, desert.racer, DJ
Cleisthenes Cruscellio, Don, dr_max_kurt,
Dstroud, Dukerino, Dune, Engstrom, evilgaz,
First Printing, Gen Con 2019 feb, Fiona Geist, Fish with Legs, FlukeNukem,
Copyright © 2019 Tuesday Knight Games, LLC FORCEspace, Foremole, fragmentation,
http://mothershiprpg.com Fridgeghoul, Fungo, GabrielUY, GalacticNomad,
@playtkg Galgorion, GentlemanRaptor, GrendelFriend,
grog-nard, GroupSoliloquy (Greg Gelder),
Mothership created by Sean McCoy. gunnervi, GUS L., Higgipedia, Ian, Iron and
Carbon, Jack Tatters, jape, Jarrett, Jdaylett,
Jeff, Kaze, Lawful-Lizard, Leto Atreides, Lexi,
Marcus, maxnorth, MellonCollie, mjulius,
MKWrench, mothman, MrHackman, msilver,
Nap5000, nik, nikolaj, NonPlayerCharacter,
Odysseus Jones, Pajejé, Paul ‘Geist’ Gallagher,
Peppermint Bones, ProjectIrregular, quadra,
Scarius, Screamsbeneath, sdndoug, Sean
McCoy, signalstation, Sigve Solvaag, sirius,
Slantio Pink, slugwhale, Spikemaw, Spiraxo
‘Milkboi’, spr-k3737, standardmodel, Strilar667,
_sumler, tableGuardian, Tandy, taran, tehMati,
TemplarRonan, thehuntedsnark, Tryggvassen,
twocalf, tymy, Type1Ninja, wizard, Xanbear,
XanthussMarduk, yougotnick, YourJelly,
Zachary/Starcross.
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1. The Lancelot: Ugly. Deadly weapon systems. The 7. The Attic Widow: A trade ship run entirely by a
captain is a tedious and moral philanderer. secretive order of silent nuns. Painted black. No
one is sure where they get their darksilk wares.
2. Jekyll: A beat-up medical ship. Also known
as The Hyde, a notorious pirate vessel, once 8. Grin at Death: A mortifying reminder of a long
“reconfigured” via custom modifications. concluded war, a mercenary company whose
archivist carries the memories of hundreds of
3. The Castellan: A boxy blockade runner currently their fallen brothers and sisters stretching back
afflicted by a memetic bibliovirus. The crew generations. A strange locus from which to
have slowly constructed their own tonal learn about the universe and a brutally effective,
proto‑language out of the only phrase the unnervingly jovial fighting force. Their distinctive
bibliovirus will allow them to say: “Rejoice and all battlecry is “Grin at Death, the Archive Will
will be reclaimed.” Remember Me.” They’ll pay handsomely for
primary documents about their company.
4. 1A0-2B3: Off-the-assembly-line-new. Doesn’t
even have a name registered in the standard 9. Attending Moistened Heaven (Hexagram 5): an
databases. Bleeding-edge tech. eccentric metadivination, a ship paid for by an
opulently wealthy banker that neddlecasts its
5. The Sloth: Gargantuan automated mining ship. location to a great divination board. Unaware
Crew is only thawed for yearly maintenance of the locations, attitudes or schematics of
duties. They’re really out of touch. other Hexagrams and wholly indifferent to
their agendas. For some reason crewed only by
6. Node-056-870: Information carrier probe childlike Androids with wide smiles. Their necks
utilizing hyperspace for secure FTL are all tattooed with ALWAYS TRUE.
communication and data transfer. It responds to
hails as though it’s reading off a flowchart. 10. A space telescope, pointed out into the
uncharted black. Currently the site of an active
spacewalk protest by the Bliss Finders. They’re
blocking the camera using a big banner with
“MAN WAS NOT MEANT TO KNOW” written on it.
10. A single floppy disk. They won’t tell you 9. Carry out what the crew thinks is a
what’s inside it. simulated VR mission in an unstable,
experimental ship that the crew discovers,
at the most dire moment, wasn’t a
simulation at all.
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1. Sliding doors slide apart too slowly. 7. Last cargo shipment had an infestation of
diminutive facehuggers. They just kind of
2. Water is freezing or scalding. We managed pounce onto your nose and hang off it until
space travel, yet this eludes us. they’re plucked away.
3. Pilot chair doesn’t quite lean back enough. 8. New crew member won’t stop making
‘cockpit’ jokes.
4. Out of premium flavor nutrimush, only
regular flavor nutrimush left. 9. Somebody turned on safe-mode on the
ship computer, so it asks “are you sure you
5. Coffee maker pressurization system really want to do X?” all the time.
cranky and unreliable.
10. Sleep regulatory system refuses to stop
6. Air handler can’t filter out that… stench… condescendingly ask about if your getting
enough sleep until all persons are in bed.
*+1 Stress
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1. MORGAN THE MAGNIFICENT!: MORGAN has 7. Frett the Poisoner: Sells poisoned dart guns
MANY TREASURES to sell you! ALL 100% through a wide array of self-destructing
FUNCTIONAL! Pay no mind to the Android Android dealers. Look for ‘DONT FRETT’
behind the curtain! spray painted on bulkheads at fuel-up space
stations.
2. [REDACTED].
8. The Devil’s Frequency: Provide coordinates
3. Auto-Vend 3000b: Can 3D print plastic, metal, and an item request to the silent frequency.
wood, stone and limited organic material, Requested item will arrive after 2D10 minutes
“please insert plans and press Start to in a black boarding torpedo as long as you are
continue.” within Sol. They will come to claim the debt.
4. Daddy-0(00101): Sells add-ons, or “daddies”; 9. Riggzies’ Repairs: When you have no other
black-market personality or skill soft-ware options and money’s tight, visit Riggzies.
for Androids (Voids Warranty). Will not sell There’s nothing he can’t fix. Prices negotiable,
wet‑ware to flesh-bags or organics. warranty length directly correlated to price
paid. The repair business is a front for highly
5. Honest Earl’s Reliable Guns: He sells the very enriched warp cores. Will only sell them to
best second-hand guns. Some guns have kill those he trusts. Trust can be bought with DNA
scores which up their prices a bit. But hey, at data from the crew.
least you know the gun has killed something!
Why horse-trade for guns when you can get a 10. Crazy Makoto’s Ammo Vendorium: A bunch
better deal from Honest Earl? of repurposed vending machines that sell
bullets by the magazine. Can’t miss them,
6. Button’s Tent: A dog-sized dung beetle they’re the ones with the anime girl art all over
standing on two legs, wearing a polka-dot it and the hyperactive AI with the stutter. The
apron as she tries to juggle her business and identity of the actual Crazy Makoto remains
68 hyperactive children raised on human a mystery.
action movies. A refugee from an allied
uplifted species, she sells things from home
and crafts made from her own quickly
regenerating chitin. She loves edible gifts
and toys for her children. While she cannot
vocalize human speech she has a tape
with phrases that various customers have
recorded for her. There’s always a need for
more!
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1. RELex, Cross, Jesus Dust, Third Eye, Nasal 6. See No Evil: The waste product of genome
Religion: Triggers the neural pathways mapping Bathypelagic Zone fish by
associated with transcendental ecstasy. biopunks, SNE temporarily blinds the user
Tends to be religious in nature. Not and enhances hearing for d10 minutes.
addictive or particularly harmful as a Users risk permanent blindness: roll
chemical but has been the centerpiece of 1d10. On a 1 user becomes permanently
many a cult and corporate religion. blind. Increase by 1 for each subsequent
use during that session. (Second use 1-2
2. Holy Mother: Banned on a number results in permanent blindness, third
of worlds for its unfortunate side- use 1-3, etc). Optional: roll 1d4 and SNE
effects. Addicts cause minor electrical enhances the following: 1. smell 2. touch
malfunctions in their locality which 3. hearing 4. taste.
only get worse the more of them that
are present. The problem is that the 7. H-Bomb: A large capsule taken orally
drug renders them acutely sociable, or as a suppository that emits targeted
causing them to congregate together radiation pulses aimed broadly at major
in ever increasing numbers. Once they nerve clusters, inciting large amounts of
accumulate the trouble starts: each addict pleasurable feedback. Causes wild spasms
is in effect a node in a biological network for d10 minutes before it burns itself out.
that is a hyperspatial portal to The Holy May cause hallucinations. Will definitely
Mother. Unfortunately, she is very hungry. cause cancer.
3. Skum: The brain of a Gaunt, dried in the 8. Warp Juice: Often used recreationally
solar winds of the Galvean System and for its effects as a potent euphoriant
sliced into 2x2cm pieces. Taken sublingual. and stimulant as well as aphrodisiac
Tastes like licking a dumpster (hence the post‑cryogenic sleep by seasoned
name). Causes vivid hallucinations which Teamsters. “Warp Juice, for those
are sometimes terrifying in nature. 2 in 10 occasions when strong coffee just doesn’t
chance of having a bad trip (Panic Check). cut it!”
4. Green Ichor: A hot mess of animal and 9. Night-Night Juice: Spacer ‘artisanal’
plant DNA that would make a truly version of the drugs used to maintain
monstrous chimera if it were cultured. cyrosleep (proprietary blends of synthetic
Instead it is powdered and snorted, opioids, cough syrup, sedative-hypnotics
providing heightened aggression and and essential oils). Popular on mining
focus, insensitivity to pain and the capacity colonies or other places with poor
to continue acting after truly fatal damage. night‑day cycles. Some users claim to be
Outside of being given to child soldiers able to enter the dreams of other nearby
and penal Legions, it provides a strange sleepers, including those in cyrosleep,
euphoria and severely altered vision— which is odd as cyrosleepers don’t dream.
kaleidoscopic fragments of ultraviolet
light and visual sensitivity to wavelengths 10. Strata: Originally developed as a
outside the human visual spectrum. psychiatric aid to help with PTSD by
making new neural pathways around
5. Freeze: Mostly sedative in nature highly memories, though users often relive said
addictive popular on very hot planets. memories while taking it. Mechanical
Makes the user feel as though they are effect: remove 1d10/2 Stress but make a
chilly or even cold. Many of the users are Fear Save or Panic!
found dead in deserts do to exposure, they
do not feel the effects of the heat until it’s
too late.
1. Caleb’s Spitting Cobra: Standard pulse rifle 6. Lucky Punk: a massive 6 shooter utilizing
with blowtorch nozzle welded underneath. a gravity fed cylinder (the barrel is at the
Has enough fuel for four gouts of flame. bottom rather than top of the cylinder
A Critical Failure results in the tanks and the hammer is internal to prevent
exploding right into your chest. jams). Used by private detectives with
rich imaginations, it comes with a carbine
2. Antique Slugthrower Pistol: Similar to its conversion kit that provides a stock and
modern relatives but it accelerates its longer barrel for better aim and range.
projectile ammunition using combustion. Carved in the stock: A DAME TO KILL FOR.
If used in a zero-G environment the
resulting recoil causes the user to rotate 7. Insult2Injury: A shotgun with an integrated
away from the direction of the projectile artificial intelligence that shoots as many
unless braced. Ammunition is incredibly swears as it does pellets. Rips you up
rare but even non-lethal injuries can easily verbally and physically.
end in death if the right medical tools are
not available. 8. “Ninight”: a heavily modified tranquilizer
pistol that injects its sedative into the
3. Laser pistol: Always hits. 10d10damage. trigger finger of the wielder. Sometimes
Slags itself after one shot (user take used by bounty hunters who find
1d10damage and Body Save or lose use of themselves on the wrong side of their
appendage for 1d10 rounds. own weapons. The handle is inlaid with
mother‑of-pearl: COME QUIETLY.
4. Huge Gold AK-47: actually a Chinese Type
51 and it’s gold plated because a gun made 9. BOTSHOT: A modified assault shotgun that
of gold wouldn’t work. It looks showy and fires nanopellets meant for putting down
the grips are textured cubic zirconium. Android resistors. Each pellet is a veritable
petri dish of nanoviruses, Androids must
5. Seize the Means of Production: Made make a Body Save at [-] when shot or
famous by the Labor Uprising on Echo else fall unconscious and begin suffering
November-Prime, this is a jury-rigged major corrosion (death in 1d10 hours).
elephant gun. Two nailgun barrels sit Highly regulated by whatever remaining
beneath a modified laser cutter that government authority there is. Expensive
throws a massive slicing arc. Used by and sought after in the rim colonies.
suicidal and desperate shock troops
amidst the miners to create hull breaches 10. A giant-barreled long gun, blued steel with
and leave their enemies suffocating in the inscription What happens when you
space. Stenciled on both nail box feeds is: make a man-sized hole in a man?
CIAO BELLA and
NO, THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.
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5. Overloading the Jump drive and feeding 5. Nothing: they are dead to you now.
the load back into the drive causing it to
go critical and tear a hole in space as it 6. Small recording device with a couple of
explodes. snippets of them singing.
1. Sculpture trash heap: A serene gallery of 8. The Hot Zone: A huge warren of discarded
Leer’s rejected creations. The sculptures radioactive fuel cores and toxic waste.
seem to imperceptibly shift and change Rumours are something lives here as
when not directly observed. scavengers often never return…but that’s
just because it’s so toxic, right…right?
2. Exhumed mass grave: Traditional burial
rites were honored up until the 5th day of 9. Far Side: Escape pod from one of the
Hunger. orbiting ships that tried to land on the
moon. Still sealed. No visible bodies.
3. Native moon landing: A standing obsidian
spear impaling a skull with both piscean 10. Lost Man’s Trench: About 22,000m
and avian traits. Littered with alien deep. The bottom is totally unexplored.
footprints and rocks with broken-off People from Tyrant Beggar have told of
samples. No sign of their lunar lander. terrible sounds coming from the fissure.
Walking through the trench, one can see
4. Funland: Abandoned amusement park fossils of creature’s past, civilizations,
under glass dome with large cracks. Here and geological anomalies. If a sound is
and there colourful lights blink on and off. heard PCs need to make a Sanity Save or
There may be power. The dome may still gain 1d10 Stress and suffer 1d10 Intellect
be airtight. damage. Depending on what they see in
the canyon walls the PCs may need to
5. Tent City: Exiled colonists who survived the make a Sanity Save.
moon waste hide out in scavenged habs.
Plotting to take revenge on the colony that
scorned them in d10 days. Welcoming to
any recent crashlanders willing to help
their cause. All were exiled by Malta.
1. Small island of small caves and tunnels 6. The Colony: A building-sized Gaunt stands
crawling with small, six-legged gliding here, digging up dirt. Its legs are animated
mammals. Mostly harmless unless they by muscle fiber of merged bodies, it
smell fresh blood. Then they’re like furry, tramples on soles of human corpses. A
gliding piranha. deaf choir screams through its teeth of
skulls. It grazes the lands for any and all
2. An immense, rotting carcass floats on the organic material, an attempt to still its
ocean currents, leaving bloody rivers in hunger and replenish its “cells”. The first
its wake. A mating mass of death worms generation of progeny has been born and is
cavort inside the decomposing creature’s ready to leave the safety of its bowels.
heart. They will attack and try to embed It leaves 2D10 Gaunt Walkers in its wake.
into any living thing disturbing their orgy.
7. [REDACTED].
3. Outpost Beta Charlie Zulu 0929483: A
research and observation outpost intended 8. Underneath the oceans lie many ancient
to be a relay link. The interior is choked ruins of cities and civilization. Nothing
with corpses who crudely wired broadcast suggests they were an aquatic species
equipment into themselves. and scans of the planet show there was
ALL HAIL THE NEW FLESH overwhelms all once much less water and more dry land
communication systems within 1 km. available. The exposed islands are literally
just the tips of the tallest mountains. There
4. Buried deep in a rocky sandbar stands a might be some useful relics that could be
rusty shuttle encrusted with purple salts. reached in shallower waters.
Small tentacled creatures jauntily bounce
around the surface of the wreck, wearing 9. The Valley of Ghosts: A huge valley cuts
bleached human skulls and finger bones across a barren plain. Those traversing
atop their strange spineless bodies. the depths of the valley say winds echo
from the walls like whispers, penetrating
5. A ring of land sticking out above the comms systems, noise filters and their
surface of the sea with it’s own brackish very minds. Even though it’s just the wind,
lake. The water is completely black and some swear they hear snatches of voices
looks as though you are staring into from people long dead, telling them things
an abyss. If the water is significantly only they know, whispering dread secrets
distributed two Alpha Gaunts investigate and warnings of things to come.
the disturbance, rising up from the abyss.
This is actually a sunken super volcano, 10. On an island about 1k wide lay the
still active, and a hive mother of the remnants of a small shack village. In a
Gaunts has made it her home and she has cave on the peak of the island there’s a
2d10 Alpha Gaunts as protection. cave containing a book made of human
leather. The book contains every nightmare
had by a small crew of humans who crash
landed here 140 years ago. The reader gains
2d10 Stress, must make a Panic Check and
gain 5% Intellect as they now understand
a little bit more of the pitiful and horrible
truths of humanity.
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3. Termites.
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1. The Jones Family: 2 adults, 3 kids. The 1. Always idly holding on to something with
Jones Family has been displaced from one hand/foot/limb as if in zero-G.
their home by a recent megacorp mining
operation. 2. Asking about the meteorite forecast when
they are asking if it rains.
2. Lucky Jameson: Proprietor of Lucky
Jameson’s Yes-Meat Buffet. It’s all real 3. The keratin in their nails curdles and
meat, guaranteed! has the coloration of pulverized pearls;
the enamel to their teeth is equally
3. [REDACTED]. luminescent.
4. Old Lady Willow: No one really knows what 4. Can’t handle quiet. Silence means there’s
she does. She just always seems to always a hull breach.
know the gossip.
5. Compulsively secures loose objects.
5. Phillipa: Weird but has all sorts of good
shit in hydro hidden away in the abandoned 6. Difficulty and confusion drinking anything
out-of-code sections of the station. without use of a straw.
6. Jim “the Jim” Stensen: Security officer. 7. Startled spacers from old company days
Nice mustache. Definitely seen his share. will call out “Mother” to ask for status.
Man of few words.
8. Fixes normal clothing with duct tape just
7. Hyperion Byrd: A 7’ tall Android with like it does with the spacesuit.
a sharp grin and unreasonably long
fingers. He sits in the corners of dimly 9. Discoloration and callouses at elbows,
lit bars, fingers steepled, muttering neck and knees from vaccsuit chafing,
half‑remembered coordinates to himself. lubricant and degrading seal material.
8. Zu: A friendly creature much like a dog 10. Constantly talking to themselves while
made of mucus with no defined physiology. doing tasks, brought on by extended time
It is animated and affectionate but periods with minimal social contact.
scanners indicate consciousness.
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4. Roberts the Pirate Dread: He is the 9. Delbert von Richthofen: Some say he is a
scourge of the spacelanes. Once was a combat ace distinguished in the last war
member of the intergalactic protection while others believe him to be simply a
force but thought they were too soft on cargo freighter captain. Some bartenders
crime. Now he hunts down any hint of claim to see him every day, others say he
piracy and destroys it! A real downer at is just a story. Anecdotal reports have one
the pub… thing in common: Delbert always refuses
to go into cryosleep during jumps.
5. Mikel Schumjagger: 5-times winner of The
Ultima Thule Cup, sits on his droid‑chair, 10. Elizabeth “Nasty Grandma” Hawkins: Lost
sipping his drink from a straw. Dare to you her left eye and half her teeth in a fistfight
him what happened? with an Android thirty years ago. Has
worn the same leather jacket for the past
6. Eric Batty, Captain of the Lamentine: decade. It smells. She’s kind to children,
During every expedition Eric is known for known for her sense of humor and never
an undertaking that ends in tragedy., yet he takes her bounties alive. Turned sixty last
survives. Rumor is that he is cursed. He’s week. She’s not willing to die before her
very quiet. Bit of a heavy drinker, this one. ex-wife Dolores “Eye-Gouger” Fields.
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5. 1d10 corpses: People with bodies to hide 9. Dunny Franko: A red-nosed space tramp
(and there are quite a few of those in with big wet grey eyes and a comical
space ports) find the labyrinthine mazes of fuzzy beard under his bald pate. He knows
freighters pretty great for their purposes. thousands of stories, would never hurt a fly
25% chance the killer didn’t exit the ship and is willing to sell you his “treasure map”
before it took off – you have to cut it in exchange for passage. The map leads to
pretty close to avoid being picked up on a lagan of long haul freight… at the center
pre‑takeoff checks. of a small smart minefield backed by
autonomous war drones.
6. Jojo Companion Robot: This 1.5m tall robot
is the definition of uncanny valley. From a 10. Lieutenant Cork: Tall, strong, handsome,
time before Android synaptic mapping, this confident. Strongly desires to save
rudimentary companion robot was meant civilians from incredible peril. Uses
to help long haulers avoid getting lonely revolvers exclusively; two-handed
on long journeys. Its manufacture was weapons are beneath him. Will attempt
discontinued after many reports of jealous, to get into leadership positions by acting
possessive behavior resulting in murder. as though he is already the leader. “As
This unit appears to be lonely and in need Lieutenant Cork, I command you to __.” Is
of a new “friend”. a terrible leader. Is not a lieutenant. Will
commit major blunders under pressure…
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1. Auditor B-08: You can call him Bob for short! 4. Mr. Snrub: A balding man who shows up after
An Android who has come to inspect your completed contracts or windfalls and offers
ship to see how well it holds to company to assist with “investing” your pay or offers a
procedures ranging from safe cargo follow-on job that seems to run counter to
storage to hyperspace jump protocol. Gives the last job. You could SWEAR he’s just the
friendly‑ish reminders to stick to compliance same executive from the previous job but
upon seeing even a minor infraction of wearing an almost definitely false handlebar
code. Skin and suit are a water-repellent moustache.
and heat‑resistant synthetic composite
specifically designed to repel hot coffee 5. Ms. Bosun: A lackey from the financial dept.,
thrown into his face (that, may I remind you, handing out new guidelines and goals for
is also an infraction that must be resolved operational costs and efficiency. Will give
through an appropriate HR representative!). not-so-helpful tips on how to meet them or
will state mandatory compliance if you fail to
2. Mx. Bland: Behind a high grade avatar meet the goals often enough. You don’t need
holoscreen (The Mx. Bland Mk IV) it’s hard to all that fuel for a simple mining expedition,
say much but they are prompt, their suits a do you?
stunningly oppressive grey and shoes worth
only as much as 1/3 a marine powersuit. 6. Sir: Sir is officious, unfailingly polite and
Bland is harried and seems unhappy but utterly unflappable. Their jimmies are never
they are efficient and always have money on rustled. They wear a suit sharp enough to
offer. A fixed amount, seemingly picked at cut and always perfect shoes, no matter the
random, though they insist it’s the actuarially occasion. They deliver horrible news, always,
determined fair wage plus 10%. Bland needs but with such consummate pleasantness
things done for their Insurer/Firm/Syndicate/ and absolutely sincere empathy that it
Corp/Free Navy. Bland is pleasant and creates disorienting cognitive dissonance.
understanding but Bland has no leeway, is They are very very sorry, and worst of all
disposable, knows no more details and can they mean it.
hire someone dumber but meaner if you
won’t take the job. Be good to Bland and as 7. Dammit Janet: Janet is a pleasant, smiling
they grow, so will you… youth of about twenty-five with almost
eerily wholesome Aryan good looks. They’re
3. Complaint Box: A black box with a red line the type of kid fiction writers unfailingly
across one face and a keypad on the top. describe as ‘coltish’ and ‘winsome’. Janet
Type in your complaint and the box will is generous. Suspiciously and unfailingly
explain in a clear and concise manner why generous, with time, money, help, even a
your complaint is stupid and you shouldn’t listening ear. If asked why, Janet freely and
have bothered submitting it. cheerfully explains that the idea is to create
an enormous emotional and material debt in
the crew so that when they’re called upon to
repay the favour they can’t possibly refuse.
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1. Hans and Buck Duo: Brothers trying 1. “HOLD FAST”: Usually in Gothic capitals,
desperately to be suave. tattooed one letter per knuckle or toe.
Limited by tradition to those that work
2. Eden: Can fix anything, you just may not ‘outdoors’ and best applied involuntarily
like how he sourced the parts. (but affectionately) to anyone who has
worked as a rigger for more than a couple
3. Anderson: Steady hand and stable. Until of voyages. Having this tattoo without
the drugs run dry. the various calluses and discolorations
associated with regular vacsuit use is
4. Michael: Demoted upper management likely to result in the loss of two fingers
desk jockey. Soft hands but great at telling (making the tattoo “OLD FAT”) if one
others what to do. frequents portside bars.
5. Katrina: Union fixer and scabstomper. 2. “S9L”: Usually inked on the upper shoulder,
Carries a huge wrench named Bessie. this spelling of Sol replaces the letter
0 with the number 9 after Pluto was
6. Hyde: Bedraggled alcoholic that has reintroduced as a planet. This tat is
survived more jumps than he can common among spacers born in the Sol
remember. system. The tat is earned with membership
into the Sol Spacers Union.
7. Kazuya Kobayashi: He can wield anything
while space-walking. 3. A nebula on the upper part of the chest.
Depending on the colour it symbolizes how
8. Mel “Gin” Nelson: Not many engines the first long haul went. Purple means it
he hasn’t seen. Seen quite a few bottle went smooth while black means lose of
bottoms as well. life on the trip. If a person has a Nebula
with a Zodiac sign inside of it it means they
9. Unit 07: Beat-up Adroid the size of a child, are a pirate.
all the better to fit through crevices.
Begrudges work but ultimately helpful. 4. An empty five point star on the back
of the spacer’s primary hand. Indicates
10. Race Catah: One armed and eating KFC. participation in a manned voyage to
Eye patch hides an enhanced eye. Race an unvisited system (spacers argue
built his own robotic prosthetic left arm. incessantly over whether the first
Ace at Jury Rigging and Engineering, really manned voyage to a system previously
bad at ordering ciders. scouted by unmanned probes counts).
Surrounding the star with a circle indicates
participation in the first manned voyage
to an unvisited system that contained a
life-bearing world. Very rarely the space
between the star and circle will be filled
in, meaning that the life-bearing world was
settled by colonists (again, spacers argue
over the details – do outposts such as
research stations count, or should it only
apply to permanent colonies?).
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1. The Wreck of The Salinger: Luxury pleasure 2. The Red Screams: Colonization efforts,
yachts come in two models: boringly especially under-funded charitable or
luxurious or mindbogglingly fast. Some religious efforts, are a natural laboratory
rich Company exec gave their heir one for disease. Plague, typhoid, Hercules virus,
of the first category and said heir hired ebola and all the regular ills of humanity
no less than twelve different underworld have doomed millions. The Red Screams
mechanics to Jury-rig it into one of the were something special, though the
second. Too many cooks spoiled the soup charitable efforts of the Merchantman’s
and in its first race against other members Fund, Tyson and Khan of Mumbai and the
of the thrillseeking elite an accidental Stellar War Relief Fund packed no fewer
button press fired its thrice-upgraded then 40,000, likely almost 55,000, refugees
Jump drive which not only scattered it from the spires and habs of New Mars
but also every other ship in the dock into fleeing civil war into a motley collection of
a neighboring star system. Needless to rented, loaned and owned ships as densely
say there were no survivors and the new as possible as hab after hab lost life
graveyard fleet was in too close an orbit support to bombings, terror hacks and debt
to its new primary for easy recovery. seizure. None of the ships reached their
The stardock they abruptly left, once a destinations. The plague was already loose
prosperous locale with a reputation for in the spaceport camps. The Red Screams
Company-friendly seediness, lost its rep, mutate rapidly, its lethal symptoms vary,
clientele and a good chunk of its docking but is known by the lung bursting coughs,
bays from the incident, has fallen on hard apocalyptic visons and lung incubation.
times. There’s rumor of a Jumpspace 55,000 died in the cramped holds of
curse across the whole station, which those vessels and the disease lingers
nonetheless hasn’t stopped gamblers there. Its existence known only from the
moving in to test the odds against the lost ship’s mad raving transmissions of
one surviving business on the station: howling coughs interspersed with religous
casinos. As for The Salinger and its motley maunderings. Several outbreaks among
fleet? No one’s been able to salvage it scavengers who have discovered innocent
on account of the blistering heat and the looking derilects have also spread the
frankly ludicrous amount of automated plague and at some stations any cough or
security paranoid heirs fit their ships with. evidence of apocalyptic preaching is taken
You are, of course, welcome to try… as an excuse to refuse docking or even to
open fire.
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2. Recent biting habit really getting out of 7. To figure out which one is the real one and
hand! which is the clone/spy/RoboFriend!
3. Black veins slowly creeping up their 8. Because you can’t control the hunger
extremities after the last shore leave! anymore. They’re safer hidden from you!
4. After a night of carousing at the pleasure 9. The first letter of every sentence in their
planet Young came back with a grotesque latest geological report reads:
growth on their upper lip that started I AM NOT IN CONTROL!
growing, and growing…!
10. It’s not your friend, it’s a clone/
5. Keeps saying “moist”! doppelganger/evil version from another
reality. D10 Spacer Superstitions and
Rituals!
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1. Most spacers are superstitious about EVAs. 4. Cats are almost universally prohibited
It’s common to see a laminated picture on spaceships and space habitats by
stuck next to the suit lockers that they corporate regulations and yet are almost
ritually touch, punch or kiss as they get universally present. Not as personal
ready to spacewalk. This is referred to as pets (though that does happen, too) but
“The Effigy of St. Elmo” or “Elmo” by most as “working” animals - this despite the
crews. The icon is not usually religious in fact that rodent problems are relatively
nature and who is actually depicted in that rare in space habitats. The corporations
image will tell you a lot about the culture turn a blind eye to this in a way they don’t
of the boat. Examples include portraits of towards personal pets as many spacers
Laika, William Daniels, Elmo the Muppet refuse to board a ship or station that
and Steve Miller. doesn’t have its own Cat.
2. It’s a common superstition amongst older 5. Some boats have a preferred soundtrack
spacers that wearing patches on the they play when entering planetary
right side of your suit is bad Luck. Nobody atmosphere for a planned landing. It is
knows the origin of this myth but some typically raucous often with a lot of guitar
claim that the low quality vacsuits of the but this is highly variable.
early interstellar age meant that poorly
attached patches could rip off part of the 6. “I knew this old spacer once, back when
vacsuit if they got snagged on something, I first started out ridin’ ships for repairs.
and this was more common for patches Did that ‘shave-and-a-haircut’ drumming
on the right-hand side. Such flaws in vacc on every engine he was fixing. Fuel pump
suit design have been fixed longer than the broke? He’d patch it, do the tappin’, damn
old spacers have been alive, so it’s unclear if the pump didn’t work better than new.
why the superstition persists. Drive system malfunction? He’d tinker
with it, get it running, do the tappin’, the
3. In space no one can hear you shoot. drive never EVER hiccupped again. Suit
Some crews find this discomforting got a leak you can’t find? He’d find & fix it,
after being weaned on years of fictional do the tappin’, and the suit squeezed out
entertainment where things go BOOM. As another 10% efficiency. Weirdest thing I’d
such, some fighting ships have installed seen back then. I tried it once, after I left
audio FX subroutines in their offensive/ that ship & moved on to the next. Electrical
defensive AIs. This means they hear, system shorted out, fixed it best I could,
through the ships speakers, satisfying Damn circuits nearly took my arm off
WHOOMSH sounds whenever the fire their when they blew. Learned then every ship
cannons, or DAKKA-DAKKA-DAKKA if they has it’s own little good-luck ritual.”
are using ship-to-ship Slug throwers. The
sound effects have no practical tactical 7. Zero-G workers from the Vaerun system
value but several crews won’t leave port were originally fed diets high in cow milk
without them. concentrate. Since the extinction of the
milk cow and advancements in bone
densifying processes they no longer need
dairy but the custom to gift new members
of a crew with a synthetic version of cow’s
milk has persisted. Consider it a bad omen
and a culture shunning to not receive a
glass bottle of milk upon arrival to your
quarters in any Vaerunian ship/station.
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8. When a body is lost to deep space, 1. FEAR NOT THE HUNGERING DEAD FOR
whether through accident, funeral or SUCH IS JUST SELF PITY IN WAITING.
execution, their vacsuit (or a spare) is
tied to the exterior of the ship, their name 2. FOR A GOOD TIME CALL 8675309.
painted across the faceplate and a prized
posession placed inside. While the suit 3. DON’T TRUST THEM.
remains attached, no one may speak ill of
the departed for fear of a revenant. When 4. ITS IN THE WATER.
it is discovered the suit has detached,
their second funeral is held and they 5. NICHOLS ISN’T NICHOLS.
are considered to be truly dead. Older
spacers like to tell stories of the vacsuits 6. GROW. CONSUME. INHABIT. DESTROY.
tearing their way into the ship and through
the crew to avenge slights - but that’s 7. YOU NEED TO BURN THEM OFF.
obviously impossible.
8. CALIBAN IS COMING.
9. Never return directly to your bunk or
freezer straight after interaction with an 9. THE GATE IS OPEN.
Android as some spacers believe they’ll
carry some synthetic juju back to their 10. YOU ARE NOT HERE.
berth which will adversely affect any
technology that they own. Many will go via
the galley or to another crew member’s
bunk first. Some believe that bad Luck can
be mitigated by demanding the Android
in question refrain from making direct
eye contact while the spacer slaps them
sharply on the forehead three times in
quick succession.
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