There is a miscellaneous pack of Rob Necronomicon’s art up for sale now at Post-Mort.com, and Drivethrurpg (just search for Postmortem Studios).
This art is available for you to use in your personal or professional projects, subject to the attached license. Rob’s art is especially great if you’re looking for a dark, contemporary, highly graphical feel.
Art by Andrew Arzia
Integrated systems are an armament company based on the frozen moon of Gelida. Colonists there have had to deal with some of the harshest environments in the cosmos, but settled there to explore and to identify the life that exists beneath the icy crust. With every join and module a potential weakness, their environment suits are designed as a single whole with full integrated systems – efficient, but unable to be modified further.
ISEA Squad: Level 12, Cost 35000, EAC +17, KAC +13, Max Dex Bonus +7, Armour Check Penalty -, Speed Adjustment -, Upgrade Slots 0, Bulk L, Comes fitted with Gray Force Field, Mk 2 Thermal Capacitor, Radiation Buffer and Tensile Reinforcement.
ISEA Elite: Level 15, Cost 250000, EAC +20, KAC +16, Max Dex Bonus +8, Armour Check Penalty -, Speed Adjustment -, Upgrade Slots 0, Bulk L, Comes fitted with Green Force Field, Mk 2 Thermal Capacitor, Radiation Buffer & Tensile Reinforcement.
ISEA Specialist: Level 20, Price 2050000, EAC +24, KAC +20, Max Dex Bonus +9, Armour Check Penalty -, Speed Adjustment -, Upgrade Slots 0, Bulk L, Comes fitted with Prismatic Force Field, Mk 3 Thermal Capacitor, Radiation Buffer, Tensile Reinforcement, Backup Generator and Close Combat Computer (Ignore penalties to close combat attacks).
Prismatic Force Field 2 (2), Mk 3 Thermal Capacitor 1 (3), Radiation Buffer 1 (4), Tensile Reinforcement 1 (5), Backup Generator 1 (6), Close Combat Computer 1 (7)
IS Combat Picks
Primarily meant as an aid to climbing and capable of penetrating even Gelida’s super-dense ice, the IS Combat Picks have also become a weapon of choice for some special forces operatives and bounty hunters.
IS Combat Picks, Level 6, Cost 5000, Damage 1d4 P, Bulk L, Special: Analog, Penetrating, Bonus to climbing of +2/+3 (single/pair).
Artist Kyoung Hwan Kim
MoshTec makes weapons and gear for those who want something a little different, a little more stylish, a little more individual. Their model, here, is kitted out with four pieces of popular MoshTec gear.
MoshTec Armburst
MoshTec Armbursts fit a weapon into your armour, leaving your hand free for other things (even holding an additional gun!). Basic sensors and motorised compensators help your aim stay true, despite the awkward placing of the gun! The devil makes work for idle hands, MoshTec makes guns for busy hands!
MoshTec VariMass Buster Sword
The MoshTec VariMass uses patented technology to decrease and increase the mass of your weapon depending on whether you are striking or using it. On a violent stroke it rapidly increases in mass, smashing through armour, cartilage and bone while, at rest, it is as light as a feather!
MoshTec Trans-Species Graft
MoshTec’s advanced bio-synthetic technology now allows you to graft the organs and other appendages of alien species to your own – even if you have incompatible biology or DNA! Simply buy the grafting gel (1500), find a qualified medic, locate a donor and cut and paste! Lagomorph ears here were donated and grafted to our human model, fitting her System: Ears and providing her with a +2 Racial Bonus to Perception rolls that involve hearing!
MoshTec Showskin
You spent all that money on fine clothes or high-tech tattoos, only to hide it all beneath heavy armour plating. What’s the point? MoshTec’s Showskin armour combines light, agile armour plating with a tensile, planar forcefield to provide you with constant protection, while still letting you show off your duds.
Art by Wonbin Lee
CoCo – The Corporate Cooperative – is a democratic corporate power with independent sovereignty over a number of corporate stations and facilities. They consider themselves an interstellar state, but many disagree. What is unusual about them is that all their employees are also considered citizens and, upon joining CoCo are given a number of shares in the company. Everyone shares in both its successes and its failures and members are permanently wired in to the company ‘chatter’. While CoCo maintains no standing military, it is alleged to have many ‘Q-Ships’ and its corporate operatives are found in many places, engaging in industrial – and conventional – espionage. Their gear is highly sought after and civilian versions are sold by CoCo to cash in on this popularity.
CoCo Body Suit
A jet black, microweave body suit with built in energy-dissipation and storage panels, the CoCo body suit is a good compromise for modern protection.
CoCo Carry System
Level 1, Cost 250
This intricate set of webbing uses various technological tricks as well as good design and a computerised weight-balancing system to help you secure your gear in the best possible way. This – which can be combined with a backpack – allows you to carry an additional 1 bulk of equipment, as though your strength were one higher. When built into armour (1 upgrade slot) it can carry 2 bulk of equipment and counts as a quick release sheath for any weapons attached to it.
CoCo Shadow Pistol
A simple projectile pistol which uses compressed gas to fire its projectiles, relatively quietly, and with an adaptable barrel which can fire any small-arm calibre round, or even ball-bearings or similar junk.
Level 6, Cost 6000, Damage 2d4 P, Range 50 ft, Capacity 12 rounds, Usage 1 (has a built-in compressor), Bulk L, Special: Analog.
CoCo Family/Stranger Networking
A pair of head implants, closely resembling small, folded ears, these allow you to connect wirelessly with CoCo data systems and to wirelessly hook up with other CoCo members within 100 ft. Indeed you must have this implant to join them. The antennae are constantly updated with CoCo information, fully encrypted, and as a safeguard are capable of delivering a lethal charge to traitors, straight to the cranium.
System: Brain, Level 5, Price 3000, Special: Wireless connectivity (you can also connect, wirelessly, to non-CoCo systems at a distance of up to 25 ft, Unit Cohesion: See below.
Unit Cohesion: If multiple people are connected via these implants they can share telemetary and communicate silently over a secured signal. This provides a +2 bonus to Perception and Initiative for everyone who is connected.
CoCo also produces a version of this cybernetic for the general public outside of their company. It can do all the same things but without access to CoCo secure lines, and it costs twice as much.
June is going to be Starfinder Month here on the Postmortem Studios blog. I’ve been thinking of doing a Machinations of the Space Princess conversion and some rules modifications for the game and that’ll be the core of what I do this month. I’ll take some suggestions too though, so if you have a picture of a cool spaceship, alien or some sci-fi gear you’d like to see statted up for MotSP or Starfinder (or both), comment with a link to the image below!
This month’s content is going to be free for everyone, sometimes – however – I paywall what I write other than a preview. If you want to support me you can do so for as little as $1 a month on Patreon or 1 token a month on Minds.com.
Starfinder has a believability problem when it comes to equipment. The level-limits on items make no goddamn sense and throw you out of your immersion. Why shouldn’t you be able to pick up that Caldarian Fusion Cannon and fire it just like anyone else? Now technically, you can, but this is used as a way to guide treasure, gear and everything else in the game. It’s certainly heavily implied that you shouldn’t go far outside these bounds, because of game balance.
The monetary limit goes a good way to controlling this as the more expensive items are beyond the reach of starting characters. Still, there has to be a better way to do this.
I think there is.
The kinks still need to be worked out, but modifying the bonuses available from certain gear seems to be the best way to about things. The way this would work is that when using gear at a level higher than yourself, you can, but you don’t have the full capability to use it that those of greater experience do – just like a layman might be nonplussed on what they’re supposed to do when handed any other piece of technical gear.
If you’re lower than the level of the equipment, say a weapon, you would get a lesser bonus or lower damage compared to someone of sufficient level. This also gives you a way to acclimatise and grow into weapons and devices – somewhat similar, if you will, to the way you acclimate to your cybernetics in Deus Ex, unlocking new capabilities as you develop.
Let’s take, by way of example, the Corona Laser Rifle from the corebook.
This ‘requires’ a level of 6, does 2d6 F damage, a burn of 1d6 and has a capacity of 40 charges.
If you’re lower than level 6 we could impose a -2 penalty to hit, and depending what level you were we could reduce the damage.
You’re better off using a n00b rifle (Azimuth) up until level 5, but you can use the higher level weapon – at a penalty – until you’re a more battle hardened veteran.
Armour, in a similar way, could retain any penalties but lose effectiveness until you learn how to wear it properly, higher level armour being more technical and requiring more involved wearing and set-up.
Taking Freebooter Armour II as an example,
At level 6 it is at full effectiveness providing +6 EAC and +8 KAC with a Max Dex bonus of +5
If we apply similar by-level reductions you end up with…
And so on.
Of course, this is maths heavy and involves a lot more record keeping, so simply tossing out the Level-limits wholesale, even as a guideline may work better.
When designing encounters it also seems like a good idea to stretch the equipment and gear of the enemy by an amount equal to the APL. So, if you’re in an Epic battle against CR 6 Stormtroopers (NPC troops across D&D compatible products tending to range from level 1-6 based on the old follower mechanics) they might be expected to have level 9, rather than level 6 gear.
EG: Plasma swords instead of duelling swords, Aphelion sidearms and rifles instead of Corona sidearms and rifles, and their heavy weapons trooper might have an advanced X-Gen in place of a tactical one and so on.
Gorean weapons and armour are limited by the restrictions of the Priest Kings. They correspond to a roughly medieval level of weaponry with a more primitive approach to armour. Crossbows are ubiquitous though conventional bows have become more popular in recent years, despite being seen as a weapon of the lower castes. Swords, spears and shields form the bulk of weaponry for most and across civilised Gor that sword is the gladius and the spear and shield are used in a phalanx.
Exotic weapons are much more rare, but include such oddities as the whip-knife of Port Kar and venom-capped golden teeth used by merchants.
The Priest King enforcement of weapon laws is peculiar, perhaps done to protect themselves, perhaps to maintain a ‘state of nature’ on Gor where fighting takes strength and skill and personal, physical capability beyond the ability to push a button or pull a trigger. Perhaps this is also the reason for their constrictions on armour – though it does not apply to helmets.
Occasionally someone will create a more complex weapon, such as a firearms or cannon. When this occurs, or when high technology weapons are smuggled to Gor they are destroyed by ‘the flame death’, an energy weapon wielded by the Priest Kings from an orbiting network of ships and used to strike down those who break their rules.
Despite this, the Kur have had some success smuggling different weapons to Gor and hiding them from the Priest Kings. Mostly these devices are hidden and only used within and in the defence of their own compounds (blaster weapons, explosive dart throwers and so forth) while others are used by the ‘native Kur’ including repeating crossbows.
The Priest Kings themselves have access to the Flame Death and to disintegration weapons as well as the terrifying ability to manipulate gravity itself. The very reason the Kur are so wary of assaulting the inner solar system directly.
It’s always a balance in games between granularity and ease of use. When it comes to weapons you need to balance the desire for different weapons to have advantages and disadvantages with the desire not to have everything become too burdensome.
I want to emphasis the skill of the character over the worth of the weapon, so bonuses will primarily come from character skill and development. A lot will come down to roleplaying, the description of the weapon and how it works.
A silent weapon, for example, may have no game mechanic effect but when used it’s not going to make any noise and so isn’t going to alert any guards (provided you manage to take someone out in one shot).
Standard weaponry is unlikely to stray beyond the -1 to +1 range of bonuses.
A friend of mine, Tim, has long argued that damage ranges on weapons should include a ‘1’, allowing for a full range from glancing blow to deadly hit and that’s been weighing on my mind while I’ve been restructuring my notes for MotSP and I think there’s merit to it. Weapons are, then, likely to have damage ranges from 1d4 to 1d12.
There are exceptions to the above of course. Exotech (pronounced Ex-Oh-Tek) are the relics and leftovers of past, advanced civilisations. They’re the ‘magic items’ of this universe and so they can break all the normal conventions.
Ammo I’m not so sure about. It can be a pain in the arse to keep track of so either ignoring it or abstracting it are options. How do you feel about keeping track of ammunition? Do you like to track it down to the last bullet or would something like an ‘ammo save’ after each combat suit you better? An automatic weapon would have a low ammo save, while more precise, single shot weapons would have higher ammo saves (roll under not to spend a ‘mag’).
I’ll include how weapon saves would work in the weapon lines below:
Example Weapon Line:
Burning Hand-Beamer, Accuracy +1, Damage 1d8 (heat), Range: Short, Ammo Save: 10
Burning Hand-Pulser, Accuracy +0, Damage 1d6 (heat), Range: Short, Ammo Save: 15
The Legend:A copper for the tale of a skald great shieldmaid?
*Clink*
May your horn never be empty of mead and your bed never bereft of men. Your tale for your coin…
In years before when this was still a virgin land, pure as the peaks of ice, fresh as a new-caught bondsmaid, the great pine forests in the foothills of the Worgstead mountains were haunt to a terrible beast. Eich Halgarr, hetman of Shadhalla sent many of his huscarls to slay the beast that was preying on the farmers and steaders but none prevailed. Their bodies found crushed and caged in the roots of the ancient pines.
Soon no man would venture into the woods and no hero would take up the cause. Shadhalla fell into despair and poverty and the people began to leave. Only the Eich and his most faithful remained, tilling their own soil like common folk.
From the east came a ship, seeking new lands of their own but finding the place occupied and being men of honour they took up the Eich’s hospitality and neither the Eich nor his closest told the tale of the beast in the forest. Instead, hoping for a hero they offered a hero’s price if one from the ship would fetch them wood from the forest, to repair their ailing hall.
Hroth, the one who cut the wood for the ships, a woodcutter of note back in his home, took up the challenge and with his axe he took to the forest to cut the wood that the Eich demanded.
It was not long until the beast found him. A great, trollish thing of sap and bark, of stone and wood. The pain of the forest made flesh in vengeance against those who would cut its ancient trees. It bellowed and Hroth bellowed back at it. It reached for him and he hew at it. He was not a warrior, he did not seek to fight it. Rather he sought to fell it, and therein stood his victory.
Even as it smashed at him and bloodied him. He picked himself up and he cut and cut and cut, hewing at the same spot on its great leg until it was cut clean through and the beast fell, fell long enough for him to bury the axe between the beast’s eyes.
Hroth returned and was heralded as a champion. What remained of the wealth of Shadhalla was given to him and the Eich’s daughter was promised him to wed.
Hroth was angered by the trickery. He took the girl and the gold aye, and the Eich’s head too. Claiming for himself the lordship of Shadhalla. They say his axe remains there, all these years later, in the lost treasury of Shadhalla the Great, the City Hroth built until the ice came. It bears the scars of his battle with the beast of the forest… and that deed remains a part of the metal’s soul… so they say. A rare weapon, made great by a rare man.
Hroth’s axe is a simple woodcutting axe, but the blood and sap of the creature that he slew has indelibly left its mark upon the blade. The axe cleaves through wood, stone – and metal – as easily as it cuts through flesh.
Hroth’s Axe: Great Axe 1d10+1 Damage, +1 bonus to attack. Anyone and anything attacked with Hroth’s Axe is considered to be unarmoured. That is, they only get an AC of 12+Dex Bonus. For monster, remove half of whatever AC they have over 12 rounding up.
EG: AC12=12, 13=12, 14=13, 15=13, 16=14, 17=14, 18=14
Postmortem Studios 