Cepheus Engine SRD

Welcome to the Cepheus Engine System Reference Document, which outlines the core rules used by a Classic Era Science Fiction 2D6-Based Open Gaming System.

You can get the Cepheus Engine SRD and Vehicle Design System documents in PDF and modifiable DOCX format from DriveThruRPG.com. If you'd like a print copy, Moon Toad Publishing offer the rulebook print-on-demand. The source code for this mdBook version is available on GitHub.

Cepheus Engine and Samardan Press are trademarks of Jason "Flynn" Kemp

Credits

SRD Proofreading: Jeff Hopper

Vehicle Design System Proofreading & Playtesting: Richard Hazlewood, Omer G. Joel, Michael Johnson, Donavan Lambertus, Ian Stead

Conversion to mdBook format: Steve Simenic

Designation of Open Game Content

All of the text in this document is designated as Open Gaming Content, except for the titles of products published by Samardan Press, and the trademarks “Cepheus Engine” and “Samardan Press”.

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Please Note: This Product is derived from the Traveller System Reference Document and other Open Gaming Content made available by the Open Gaming License, and does not contain closed content from products published by either Mongoose Publishing or Far Future Enterprises. This Product is not affiliated with either Mongoose Publishing or Far Future Enterprises, and it makes no claim to or challenge to any trademarks held by either entity. The use of the Traveller System Reference Document does not convey the endorsement of this Product by either Mongoose Publishing or Far Future Enterprises as a product of either of their product lines.

Cepheus Engine System Reference Document, Copyright © 2016 Samardan Press; Author Jason "Flynn" Kemp

Third-Party Licenses

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• js-markov Copyright (c) 2019 Edwin Pratt and is licensed under the MIT license

Introduction

Welcome to the Cepheus Engine System Reference Document, which outlines the core rules used by a Classic Era Science Fiction 2D6-Based Open Gaming System. This Introduction provides you with an overview of what the Cepheus Engine is and how it works, while the later chapters show you how to create characters and embark on your own exciting science fiction adventures.

What Is Roleplaying?

If you are new to roleplaying, you might be asking yourself, "What is a roleplaying game?"

A roleplaying game (sometimes abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting or through a process of structured decision-making or character development. Actions taken within many games succeed or fail according to a formal system of rules and guidelines, such as the Cepheus Engine rules.

A session of Cepheus Engine play is conducted through discussion. One player, the Referee, usually arbitrates any decision based on the rules and presents the setting of the game, while each of the other players plays the role of a single character. Together, the Referee and players create a story, much like the way many of us used to create stories playing games of make believe as young children, except with more dice and more structure.

What Is The Cepheus Engine?

The Cepheus Engine is simply a set of rules for conducting a game based on classic science fiction. Within its pages, you will find rules on creating characters, resolving tasks, fighting other creatures and engaging in huge space battles, building worlds, enjoy the risks of interstellar speculative trading, exploring new worlds, and a host of other diverse activities. Although no rules set can be complete, the Cepheus Engine attempts to provide enough rules to allow you to create almost any science fiction adventure.

The Cepheus Engine is inspired by classic science fiction games from the early days of roleplaying, and shares a lot of similarities with these gaming systems. Material from these older rules sets and those created under the Cepheus Engine are mutually compatible with only a minimum of adjustments required.

To play, you need a copy of the Cepheus Engine rules; several six-sided dice, available at game and hobby stores (you'll need two at a minimum, but more is better); and a pencil and some paper.

The Core Task Resolution System

The Cepheus Engine uses a core task resolution system to resolve actions. Whenever your character attempts any action with a chance of failure, do the following:

1. Roll two six-sided dice (abbreviated 2d6).
2. Add any relevant modifiers (for things like characteristics, skills, difficulty and circumstances).
3. If the result equals or exceeds 8, the action succeeds. If the result is lower than 8, the action fails.

This simple system is used for nearly everything in the Cepheus Engine, with variations based on the modifiers added to a roll and the effects of success and failure.

The Referee

Within the Cepheus Engine rules, one of the players is asked to assume the mantle of Referee. The Referee is the person who will act as an organizer, officiant for questions regarding rules, arbitrator, and moderator for a Cepheus Engine gaming session, or an ongoing Cepheus Engine campaign. The role of the Referee is to weave the other participants' player-character stories together, control the non-player aspects of the game, create environments in which the players can interact, and solve any player disputes.

The Characters

A player character or playable character (PC) is a fictional character in a Cepheus Engine game whose actions are directly controlled by a player of the game rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not controlled by a player are called non-player characters (NPCs). The actions of non-player characters are typically handled by the Referee.

Using the Cepheus Engine rules as guidelines, a player will create a character reflecting the sort of role they'd like to have in the game. The character is usually of a certain race (depending on those available with the Referee's universe) and possesses a unique combination of skills and levels of expertise. The attributes of a character is given as numerical values which can change as the gamer progresses, and characters grow and develop over the course of their adventures.

Characteristics

All characters have certain basic characteristics that define what they are capable of doing. These characteristics are Strength, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, and Social Standing. They each have a numeric characteristic score, averaging 7 for a normally capable human. Higher characteristic scores grant bonuses (+1 or more) on task resolution checks, while lower characteristic scores grant penalties (as low as -2). As part of creating your character, you decide how strong, smart, and tough your character is by choosing the appropriate characteristic scores. See Chapter 1: Character Creation for more information.

Careers

As a part of their development, characters follow certain life paths called careers. The Cepheus Engine provides a variety of career options for characters to pursue, which opens up opportunities for characters to gain skill levels, characteristic boosts and significant mustering out benefits before they enter into play. See Chapter 1: Character Creation for more information.

Skills

Skills represent training in a particular sort of task or knowledge, everything from acrobatic maneuvers to negotiation, piloting a starship, and programming a computer. Someone trained in athletics is able to climb faster and with more confidence than someone who isn't, for example. Skills are measured in levels, reflecting how much training a character has in the skill. When recording skills and their associated levels, the skill name is written first, followed by a hyphen, and then the number of levels that the character possesses in that skill. For example, Gambling-2 means that the character has two levels of Gambling skill.

Each skill level represents roughly two years' worth of education and training in that skill. For skills of an academic bent, you could equate that to an Associate's Degree (or similar two-year academic program) at level one, a Bachelor's Degree (or other four-year program) at level two, a Master's Degree at level three, a Doctorate at level four, and so on. Skill levels act as a bonus on task resolutions rolls when a character attempts an action related to a skill. As your character follows their career, they gain skills. See Chapter 2: Skills for more information on specific skills.

Game Play

Playing a session using the Cepheus Engine rules resembles verbally acting out chapters from a science fiction novel. Game sessions can last from short sessions of an hour or two, up to marathon games covering most of a weekend. The average game session tends to run three to five hours, however. Over the course of a session, the player-characters pursue their adventures. Some resolve quickly, within a single session, while others may take place in multiple acts spread out over several sessions.

Each adventure is like its very own story, consisting of a series of scenes that are explored during play. In general, most scenes are simply the players interacting with the non-player characters and the universe created by the Referee. The players describe their actions, and the Referee describes the results of those actions, in a back-and-forth exchange. Certain kinds of situations, such as personal or space combat, have more structure and more rules to help the players resolve their actions in ways reflecting the abilities of their characters.

Common Cepheus Engine Themes

On-going games using the Cepheus Engine rules are generally designed around a theme. Based in the classic era of science fiction, these rules lend themselves to games following certain common themes, which are detailed in the Common Cepheus Engine Themes table. This is not a complete list of the type of games that the Cepheus Engine is designed to handle; this is simply a general list of common themes for consideration.

Die Rolls

Using the Cepheus Engine, when you have to make a die roll to resolve an action, it will typically follow the core system of a 2D6 roll plus modifiers versus a target of 8+ (read as eight or higher). This is called a check. You always want to roll high on a check. Rolling 12 before adding modifiers (where two sixes appear on the dice naturally) is not an automatic success, and rolling 2 before adding modifiers (where both dice show a one naturally) is not an automatic failure.

Difficulty and Effect

A check's Difficulty is a number set by the Referee that modifies your check result. When no Difficulty is given, the assumed Difficulty is +0. So, for a task with a Difficulty of +2, you must add +2 to the check result. You succeed on a total of 8 or better. The list of Difficulty ratings can be found in the Task Difficulty table.

In some cases, the consequences of a check vary based on how much the check result is above or below the target of 8. The difference between the check result and the target of 8 is called the Effect. If the Effect is 6 or higher, the check is considered an Exceptional Success. When the Effect is -6 or lower, the check is considered an Exceptional Failure. See Chapter 2: Skills for more details.

Opposed Checks

If two characters are opposing each other directly in a task, then the character who obtains the highest Effect wins. For ties on opposed checks, the character with the highest relevant characteristic score wins. If the characters tie on characteristic scores, they reroll.

Trying Again

In general, you can try a check again if you fail, and keep trying indefinitely. Some tasks, however, have consequences for failure. For example, failing an Athletics check while climbing a cliff might mean you fall, which might make it difficult to try again. Some tasks can't be attempted again once a check has failed. For most tasks, once you've succeeded, additional successes are meaningless. (Once you've discovered a computer account's password using the Computer skill, for instance, there's no further benefit from additional Computer checks to determine the account's password.)

Circumstance Modifiers

Some circumstances make a check easier or harder, resulting in a bonus or penalty that is added to the check result. The Referee can alter the odds of success in two ways:

• If a character has help, such as good tools, competent aids or other beneficial circumstances, he receives a +1 bonus to his skill check.
• If a character is hampered, such as having defective tools, incompetent assistance or other negative circumstances, he receives a -1 penalty to his skill check.

Time and Checks

Outside of stressful situations such as combat, performing a particular task often takes a random amount of time, depending on circumstances. For most tasks, roll 1D6 and multiply it by the increment that the Referee provides for that action. For example, breaking a flimsy wooden door down may only require 1D6 seconds, while performing delicate surgery might take 1D6 hours. More information on time increments can be found in Chapter 2: Skills.

During combat, most actions are more refined to a finite period. Some of these actions are considered minor actions, while others are deemed significant actions. More information is provided in Chapter 5: Personal Combat.

Aiding Another

Sometimes characters work together and help each other out. In this case, one character (usually the one with the highest total of modifiers on the check) is considered the leader of the effort and makes the check normally, while each helper makes the same check. The Effect of a helper's check result can provide either a bonus (DM+1 with a successful result, DM+2 with an Exceptional Success) or a penalty (DM-1 with a failed result, DM-2 with an Exceptional Failure) to the leader's check result. In many cases, outside help isn't beneficial, or only a limited number of helpers can aid someone at once. The Referee limits aid as appropriate for the task and conditions.

Types of Checks

There are two main types of checks: skill checks and characteristic checks.

Skill Checks

A skill check determines what you can accomplish with a particular skill (sometimes whether you're trained in that skill or not). It is a roll of 2D6, modified by your levels in the skill, the skill's key characteristic score modifier, and the Difficulty, against a target of 8 or higher. Skill checks sometimes have gradations of success and failure based on the Effect of your check result (how much higher or lower your check result is when compared to the target of 8). When making a skill check, if a character does not have any levels in the required skill, then he suffers a –3 penalty for being unskilled.

Attack Rolls

An attack roll determines whether or not you hit an opponent in combat. An attack roll is essentially a skill check, using your skill levels in combat skills as modifiers.

Characteristic Checks

A characteristic check is like a skill check, but measures raw ability, like strength, endurance, or intelligence. These checks are used when the task is one not covered by an obvious skill, or where the character's innate abilities are the most important influence on the result. To make a Characteristic check, you must roll 2D6 and add the appropriate characteristic score modifier. Characteristic checks tend to be all or nothing (you can either accomplish the task or you can't), although there are sometimes gradations of success or failure.

The Combat Round

When things really start happening in a Cepheus Engine game, time is broken down into six-second segments called rounds, or combat rounds, since they're most often used in fights. A round isn't very much time, just long enough for a character to do something. The types of actions your character can perform during a round are significant actions, minor actions, extended actions, free actions, and reactions. During a round you can do one of the following:

• Initiate or continue an extended action.
• Take a significant action and a minor action.
• Take three minor actions, and forego taking a significant action this turn.

You can perform as many free actions and reactions in a round as you wish, although the Referee may choose to limit them to a reasonable number to keep the game moving. See Chapter 5: Personal Combat for more information.

Pseudo-Hexadecimal Notation

The Cepheus Engine uses a form of pseudo-hexadecimal notation as a type of shorthand in noting specific values of characteristic scores, world statistics, drive type designations and similar design elements. The pseudohexadecimal notation proceeds as normal for values from 0 to 15, but extends beyond F for 15, with G for 16, etc. The Cepheus Engine skips the use of the letters I and O, because they might be mistaken for the numbers 1 and 0. The Pseudo-Hexadecimal Notation table provides a quick reference for converting values for use in Cepheus Engine.

Important Terms

The Cepheus Engine uses certain words and abbreviations throughout the rules system. In order properly understand the Cepheus Engine rules, both players and Referees should become familiar with these terms. The following words, phrases and abbreviations are commonly used in The Cepheus Engine:

2D6: Two six-sided dice, used to resolve all actions in the Cepheus Engine.

Action: A character activity. There are significant actions, minor actions, extended actions, free actions, and reactions.

Adventure: A story created by the Referee and players, comprised of a series of related scenes or encounters.

Attack bonus: A modifier used to measure a character's combat skill.

Attack roll: A skill check used to determine whether an attack hits.

Attack: Any of numerous actions intended to harm, disable, or neutralize an opponent.

Bonus: A positive modifier to a die roll.

Campaign: A series of linked adventures.

Character: A fictional individual in the game. The players control characters, while the Referee controls nonplayer characters.

Characteristic modifier: A modifier determined by the value of the characteristic score, applied as a bonus or penalty to checks as needed.

Characteristic score: One of the six basic character traits -- Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex), Endurance (End), Intelligence (Int), Education (Edu), and Social Standing (Soc).

Check (or Throw): A method of deciding the result of a character's action. Checks are based on a relevant ability, skill, or other trait. To make a check, roll 2D6 and add any relevant modifiers. If the check result equals or exceeds a target of 8 or the result of an opponent's check, it succeeds.

Coreward: An astrographical term indicating the direction of Sagittarius A* (pronounced "Sagittarius A-star", standard abbreviation Sgr A*), a bright and very compact astronomical radio source at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

Credit (Cr): The primary unit of currency used in the Cepheus Engine. For very large amounts of money, the kilocredit (KCr) represents one thousand credits and the megacredit (MCr) represents one million credits.

Critical hit (crit): An attack inflicting extra damage. Critical hits are only involved in vehicular and space combat.

D66: A special die roll generated by rolling two six-sided dice of different colors (or rolling one die twice, noting each number rolled), multiplying the first die by 10 and then adding the second die, to create a number between 11 and 66.

Damage bonus: A modifier used to determine the damage of an attack.

Damage: Harm caused to a character by injury, illness, or some other source.

Dice modifier (DM): A modifier applied to a check.

Die (plural is dice): A small polyhedron, typically a cube, with each side having a different number on it, ranging from one to the number of sides of the polyhedron, thrown and used in gambling and other games involving chance. The Cepheus Engine uses six-sided dice exclusively to create random results during play.

Difficulty: A modifier applied to a check that is assigned by the Referee, reflecting the relative ease or difficulty of a given action.

Dominant race: A sentient species capable of interstellar travel via jump drive technology, and that has used that technology to expand their presence over a significant region of space. Dominant Races typically control a fairly expansive interstellar government, and have settlements and significant populations more than ten parsecs away from their planet of origin.

Dying: Near death and unconscious. A dying character can take no actions.

Effect: The difference between a check result and the target of 8 (i.e. how much higher or lower the result is).

Encounter: An unexpected or casual meeting with someone or something. A large part of the Referee's job is the administration of encounters.

Explorer's Society: A private interstellar travel service which maintains exclusive resorts and facilities at various starports. Several interstellar organizations provide membership to the Explorer's Society as a reward for outstanding service.

Exceptional failure: Any check that fails by 6 or greater (i.e. has an Effect of -6 or worse).

Exceptional success: Any check that succeeds by 6 or greater (i.e. has an Effect of +6 or better).

Extended action: An action in combat that takes longer than a single combat round to complete.

Free action: An extremely fast activity, requiring very little time and effort.

Homeworld: 1) The world that serves as a character's place of origin, usually the world on which the character was raised and which had the most impact on their development during their pre-adult life. 2) The world of origin for an alien species, i.e. Earth is the homeworld for the human species

Jump: A form of faster-than-light movement using Jump drives, which always takes one week to travel a number of parsecs equal to its Jump rating and consumes a vast amount of fuel.

Jump point: A point in space more than 100 diameters out from any nearby celestial body, chosen by a navigator as the point from which a ship will enter into Jump space.

Jump space: The alternate dimension through which starships travel when transitioning from one point in normal space to another.

Lesser race: A sentient species that has not developed jump drive technology on its own. While individuals of the Lesser races can and do engage in interstellar travel, settled populations of any given Lesser Race are rarely encountered further than ten parsecs from their homeworld.

Lethal damage: Damage that can potentially disable or kill a target.

Mainworld: The primary world of a star system; the world represented by the UWP in a list of worlds for a given region of space.

Melee attack: A physical attack in close combat.

Melee weapon: A handheld weapon designed for close combat.

Minor action: An action intended to move a distance or to manipulate or move an object. You can take up to three minor actions per round, at the loss of a significant action.

Misjump: A mishap caused by an inaccurate jump, which results in jumping to a random location with damage to the vessel and potentially the crew. Common causes for misjumps include bad Jump plots, damaged Jump drives, diverting energy into the Jump drive improperly, jumping from within the hundred-diameter limit and using unrefined fuel.

Modifier: Any bonus or penalty applied to a die roll.

Natural: A natural result on a roll or check is the actual number appearing on the die, not the modified result obtained by adding bonuses or subtracting penalties.

Non-lethal damage: Damage that can potentially stun or knock out a target, but does no permanent harm.

Non-player character (NPC): A character controlled by the Referee (as opposed to a character controlled by a player).

Non-starship: A spaceship without a jump drive, and thus incapable of interstellar travel on its own.

Patron: A non-player character who gives financial or other support to a person, organization, cause, or activity. Referees often use patrons as a tool to attempt to engage player characters in adventures.

Penalty: A negative modifier to a die roll.

Player character (PC): A character controlled by a player, one of the protagonists of an adventure or campaign.

Psion: A character with psionic abilities.

Ranged attack: Any attack made at a distance.

Ranged weapon: A projectile or thrown weapon designed for attacking at a distance.

Reaction: An action taken in response to the action of another. You can perform as many reactions as you want per round in Personal Combat, but the number of Reactions that a vessel can undertake is based on Initiviative in Space Combat.

Referee: The player who portrays characters not controlled by the other players, arbitrates the rules, and makes up the story and setting for the game.

Rimward: An astrographical term indicating the direction opposite of Coreward, or directly away from the radio source of Sagittarius A*.

Round: A six-second unit of game time used to manage actions, usually in combat.

Significant action: An action intended to do something within about 3 seconds. You can perform a single significant action per round, or forego it to perform a total of three minor actions.

Seriously wounded: If you have lost at least one point from all three of your physical characteristics, you are considered seriously wounded. When conscious, you cannot move except to hobble or crawl along at 1.5 meters per combat round. You also lose your minor action in combat. You can only regain characteristic points equal to your Endurance DM per day of rest through natural healing. You require surgery.

Skill: An ability to perform a set action, such as navigating a starship, operating a rifle, or programming a computer. Skills are attained in levels (Navigation-1, Computer-2, etc); the higher the level of a skill, the more expertise a character has in that area. Many different individual skills are available to characters.

Small Craft: A vessel under 100 tons, capable of interplanetary travel.

Sophont: A sentient being with a base reasoning capacity roughly equivalent to or greater than that of an average human being.

Spinward: An astrographical term indicating the direction of the galaxy's rotation.

Standard Day: A unit of time that is 24 hours long.

Standard Year: A unit of time that is 365 Standard Days in length.

Starport: A port where interstellar and interplanetary vessels load or unload, especially one where customs officers are stationed.

Starship: A spaceship with a jump drive, capable of interstellar travel on its own.

Target (also subject): The intended recipient of an attack, action, or effect.

Trailing: An astrographical term indicating the direction opposite of the galaxy's rotation.

Trained: Having knowledge of, and therefore levels in, a skill.

Unarmed attack: A melee attack made with no weapon.

Universe: The setting presented by a Referee, in which characters play out adventures and campaigns. A Referee may use a published setting for their adventures, or create their own with the Cepheus Engine rules.

Untrained: Having no ranks in a skill. Some skills cannot be used untrained. Unskilled skill checks suffer a DM-3 penalty.

Vessel: General term used to starships, small craft, or vehicles as a general inclusive group. Most commonly, it refers to any vehicle or ship capable of interplanetary or interstellar travel.

World: A generic term in the Cepheus Engine for any inhabitable celestial body or similar location represented by a Universal World Profile.

Chapter 1: Character Creation

Cepheus Engine characters are rarely beginners fresh from the farm. There is no reason not to play a young and inexperienced character if you like, but since a broad range of skills is important to success in the game most players will want their character to be a little more experienced in the world.

All characters begin at the age of majority, typically 18. Having generated characteristic scores and background skills, the character should begin serving terms in his or her chosen career. Each 4-year term spent in a career gives the character more experience in the universe, generally in the form of skills. Generate the results of each term before proceeding to the next. At the end of a period of service, characters roll for benefits gained upon "mustering out" (i.e. leaving the service). They may then begin adventuring.

This chapter provides complete instructions for the generation of twenty-four distinct career paths.

Character Creation Checklist

1. Characteristics
   1. Roll your six characteristics using 2D6, and place them in order on your character sheet.
   2. Determine characteristic modifiers.
2. Homeworld (Optional)
   1. Determine homeworld.
   2. Gain background skills. Character gains a number of background skills at Level 0 equal to 3 + their Education modifier. The first two have to be taken from your homeworld (based on the world's trade codes or law level); the rest are taken from the education list.
3. Career
   1. Choose a career. You cannot choose a career you've already left except Drifter.
   2. Roll to qualify for that career, as indicated in the description of the career. If this is not your first career, you suffer a –2 DM for every previous career in which you have served.
   3. If you qualify for this career, go to step 4.
   4. If you do not qualify for that career, you can enter the Drifter career or submit to the draft. You may only enter the draft once.
4. Basic training
   • For your first term in your first career, you get every skill in the service skills table at level 0.
   • For your first term in subsequent careers, you may pick any one skill from the service skills table at level 0.
5. Survival
   • Roll for survival, as indicated in the description of the career.
   • If you succeed, go to step 8.
   • If you did not succeed, you have died. Alternately, events have forced you from this career. Roll on the mishap table and go to step 10 (you do not receive a benefit roll for this term.)
6. Commission and Advancement
   1. You begin as a Rank 0 character.
   2. If your career offers a Commission check and you are Rank 0, you can choose to roll for Commission. If you are successful, you are now Rank 1 in your chosen career. Choose one of the skills and training tables and roll on it for an extra skill. Take any bonus skills from the ranks table for this career.
   3. If your career offers an Advancement check and you are Rank 1 or higher, you can choose to roll for Advancement. If you are successful, your Rank improves by one in your chosen career. Choose one of the skills and training tables and roll on it for an extra skill. Take any bonus skills from the ranks table for this career. You can roll for Advancement in the same term that you succeed in a Commission roll.
7. Skills and Training
   1. Choose one of the Skills and Training tables for this career and roll on it. If you gain a characteristic improvement as a result, apply the change to your characteristic score immediately. If you gain a skill as a result and you do not already have levels in that skill, take it at level 1. If you already have the skill, increase your skill by one level.
   2. If your career does not have a Commission or Advancement check, you may roll a second time, choose one of the Skills and Training tables for this career (which may be the same or different from the first table chosen for this term.)
8. Aging
   1. Increase your age by 4 years.
   2. If your character is 34 or older, roll for aging.
9. Re-enlistment
   1. Roll for re-enlistment. If you fail, you must leave this career. If you roll a natural 12, you cannot leave this career and must continue for another term, go to step 5.
   2. If you have served a total of seven terms or more in character creation, then you must retire, go to step 10.
   3. If you wish to continue in this career, go to step 5.
   4. If you wish to leave this career, go to step 10.
10. Benefits
    • If you are leaving the career, roll for benefits. A character gets one Benefit Roll for every full term served in that career. You also get extra benefit rolls if you reached a higher rank.
11. Next Career
    • If you're leaving your current career and your total number of terms in character creation is less than seven, you may go to step 3 to choose a new career or to step 12 if you wish to finish your character.
12. Buy starting equipment
    • Purchase your starting equipment and, if you can afford it, possibly a starship.

Characteristics

Characteristics measure a character's most basic abilities: how strong, dexterous, educated or intelligent he is. Characteristic scores influence almost everything your character does. Stronger characters can lift greater weights, more dexterous characters have better balance, and so forth.

Characters have six abilities: Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex), Endurance (End), Intelligence (Int), Education (Edu), and Social Standing (Soc). Strength, Dexterity, and Endurance are called physical abilities, whereas Intelligence, Education, and Social Standing are loosely termed mental abilities. Each above-average ability score provides a bonus on certain die rolls; while below average abilities apply a penalty to some die rolls.

The six characteristics for your character are briefly described as follows:

Strength (Str): A character's physical strength, fitness and forcefulness.

Dexterity (Dex): Physical co-ordination and agility, reflexes.

Endurance (End): A character's ability to sustain damage, stamina and determination.

Intelligence (Int): A character's intellect and quickness of mind.

Education (Edu): A measure of a character's learning and experience.

Social Standing (Soc): A character's place in society

Social Standing and Noble Titles

In a Cepheus Engine universe where characters of sufficiently high Social Standing characteristic scores are considered nobility, specific values of Social Standing are often associated with specific titles of nobility. The Titles of Nobility by Social Standing table captures some examples, but actual values may vary from universe to universe. Versions of these titles traditionally given to the female gender are provided in parentheses.

Psionic Strength, the Seventh Characteristic

Within the Cepheus Engine, characters can sometimes have a seventh characteristic score. When a character learns psionics, they generate a Psionic Strength characteristic (abbreviation Psi), which powers their psionic talents. This characteristic cannot be rolled or bought during character creation without the Referee's permission. For more information on this topic, see Chapter 3: Psionics.

Generating Characteristic Scores

Generating characteristics scores is fairly straightforward. Roll your six characteristics using 2D6, and record them in the standard order: Strength (Str), Dexterity (Dex), Endurance (End), Intelligence (Int), Education (Edu), and Social Standing (Soc).

Optional Rule: With the Referee's approval, roll 2D6 six times, and assign the results to the six different characteristic scores based on a particular character concept. For example, if you picture your character as a highly-educated researcher, then you might assign your highest result to Education, and assign your second highest to Intelligence.

Characteristic Score Limits: For player characters, a characteristic score may not typically exceed a maximum of 15, nor may a score drop permanently below 1 except under certain circumstances.

Characteristic Modifiers

Once you have assigned your characteristic scores, you can determine your characteristic modifiers. These modifiers are applied to any check when you do something related to that characteristic. An ability score modifier is calculated by dividing the ability score by three, dropping all fractions, and then subtracting two, so that the average characteristic score of 7 has a DM+0. Thus, a characteristic value of 2 or less has a modifier of DM-2, characteristic values of 3 to 5 have a modifier of DM-1, and so on. The Characteristic Modifier by Score Range table provides a synopsis of these modifiers, already calculated for you.

Altering Characteristic Scores

Over the course of play, your character's characteristic scores may change for the following reasons:

• Aging can permanently lower physical characteristic scores.
• Physical damage, such as from combat, falling, disease or poison, temporarily lowers physical characteristic scores.
• Mental trauma, such as head injuries and psionic attack, temporarily lowers mental characteristic scores.
• Certain medications, psionic enhancements, and other scenarios can temporarily or permanently enhance specific characteristic scores.

Whenever a characteristic score changes, you will need to determine the new characteristic modifier.

On Gender and Race

The core Cepheus Engine rules make no distinctions between different members of the same species, regardless of gender or race. In the realm of classic science fiction literature, heroes came in many different flavors and capacities, and were generally unhindered by their gender or the color of their skin.

Alien species may have additional gender choices that can impact a character's characteristic scores and grant specific abilities or traits based on gender selection. For example, if an insectoid species has four genders (queen, soldier, worker and drone), each might grant different characteristic bonuses or penalties that impact character creation. The definition of alien species lies in the realm of the Referee's powers of creativity, as befits the nature of their campaign and universe.

On Alien Species and Social Standing

Alien species may have different criteria for Social Standing: Caste or Charisma. When dealing with a race that has a different concept of Social Standing, all DMs from Social Standing or its alien equivalent – whether positive or negative – are halved.

The Universal Persona Profile (UPP)

The Cepheus Engine utilizes a concise format to encapsulate data on an individual character's characteristic scores in a manner that, with a little practice, can be quickly and easily read. The specifics of the Universal Persona Profile can be found below:

123456, or 123456-7 for psionic characters

The Explanation

The numbers represent the position of a pseudo-hexadecimal notation of an individual's characteristic scores. These scores are, in order:

1. Strength (Str)
2. Dexterity (Dex)
3. Endurance (End)
4. Intelligence (Int)
5. Education (Edu)
6. Social Standing (Soc)
7. Psionic Strength (Psi)

For example, if a character has the following characteristic scores:

Strength 6, Dexterity 8, Endurance 7, Intelligence 11, Education 9, Social Standing 12

Then the character's UPP would be 687B9C. If the character later tested for Psionics, and ended up with a Psionic Strength of 4, the UPP would then become 687B9C-4.

Universal Character Format

The following format is used to represent a character's basic game statistics in the Cepheus Engine rules.

[Character Name, with rank and/or noble title, if appropriate]	[Character UPP]		Age [Character Age]
[Character Careers, with terms listed in parentheses]	Cr[Character Funds]
[Character Skill List, in alphabetical order, with skill levels listed after skill names]
[Species Traits, if not human; optional]
[Character Equipment, if available; list only significant property]

Here is an example of a system-wide human celebrity that has been entertaining his holovid fans for almost two decades with his heroic action movies:

Bruce Ayala 786A9A  Age 38
Entertainer (5 terms)   Cr70,000
Athletics-1, Admin-1, Advocate-1, Bribery-1, Carousing-3, Computer-2, Gambling-0, Grav Vehicle-0, Liaison-2, Linguistics-0, Streetwise-0
High passage (×2)

Background Skills

Before embarking on your careers, you get a number of background skills equal to 3 + your Education DM (1 to 5, depending on your Education score).

Homeworld Skills

Growing up on your homeworld gave you skills that depend on the planet's nature. You can select any skill that matches your homeworld's planetary description and trade codes. If you came from a planet already established in the Referee's universe, then consult those sources for the planet's description.

Primary Education Skills

A formal education gives you a basic level of competence in various sciences and academic disciplines. Any character may choose from the following list:

• Admin-0
• Advocate-0
• Animals-0
• Carousing-0
• Comms-0
• Computer-0
• Electronics-0
• Engineering-0
• Life Sciences-0
• Linguistics-0
• Mechanics-0
• Medicine-0
• Physical Sciences-0
• Social Sciences-0
• Space Sciences-0

Careers

Characters in the Cepheus Engine do not start at the age of majority and jump immediately into play with only their background skills. Instead, characters gain experience by pursuing one of twenty-four different careers. The random nature of career paths (also known as prior history or prior careers) leads to characters of all levels of experience, and from all walks of life. A character gains more skills the longer they stay in character creation, but not without risk of aging. Player choices will have great impact on the final disposition of a character.

At many points during a career, a character will have to make a throw of some sort. Most of these throws are characteristic throws – roll 2D6, add the DM from the listed characteristic, and try to get a total higher than the listed value. A throw of Int 8+ means 'roll 2D6, add your Intelligence DM, and you succeed if you roll an 8 or more'. A few throws are skill checks, where you add any levels in that skill and the DM from an appropriate characteristic, if specified. For example, a throw of Gambling 8+ would mean 'roll 2D6, add your Gambling skill and the DM from an appropriate characteristic such as Dexterity, if specified, and get over 8'.

Career Descriptions

The following twenty-four career paths are detailed at the end of this chapter:

Aerospace System Defense: Member of a planetary armed military force operating within a world's atmosphere and close orbit. Also known as the "planetary air force".

Agent: Individual that secretly collects and reports information on the activities, movements and plans of a political or corporate enemy or competitor. Also known as a spy or intelligence operative.

Athlete: Individual that has achieved celebrity status for their proficiency in sports and other forms of physical exercise.

Barbarian: Individual from a primitive world (TL4 or less) capable of surviving on their world without support from a technologically advanced civilization.

Belter: Individual that explores asteroid belts in search of mineral deposits and salvageable material for profit.

Bureaucrat: Official in a government department, charged with following the details of administrative process.

Colonist: Individual that moves to a new world or settles in a new planetary colony.

Diplomat: Individual that is appointed by a planetary or interstellar government to conduct official negotiations and maintain political, economic and social relations with another polity or polities.

Drifter: Individual that continually moves from place to place, without any fixed home or job.

Entertainer: Individual that has achieved celebrity status for their proficiency in publicly entertaining others.

Hunter: Individual that kills or traps large game, almost always large terrestrial mammals, for meat, other animal by-products (such as horn or bone), trophy or sport.

Marine: Member of an interstellar armed military force trained to serve in a variety of environments, often carried on board starships as an adjunct to an interstellar navy. Also known as the "space marines".

Maritime System Defense: Member of a planetary armed military force operating within and on the surface of a world's oceans. Also known as the "planetary wet navy".

Mercenary: Professional soldier hired to serve in a foreign military force or perform a specific military action.

Merchant: Individual involved in wholesale interstellar trade, particularly between individual worlds or polities.

Navy: Member of an interstellar armed military force that conducts military operations in interplanetary or interstellar space. Also known as the "space navy".

Noble: Member of an elite upper class, having high social or political status.

Physician: Individual that is skilled in the science of medicine and is trained and licensed to treat sick and injured people.

Pirate: Individual that attacks and steals from interplanetary and interstellar ships in space.

Rogue: Individual that makes their living through illicit means.

Scientist: Individual that is engaged in and has expert knowledge of a science, especially a biological or physical science.

Scout: Member of an interplanetary exploratory service, surveying unfamiliar territory in space.

Surface System Defense: Member of a planetary armed military force operating on the non-hydrographic surface of a world. Also known as the "planetary army".

Technician: Individual that is skilled in mechanical or industrial techniques or in a particular technical field.

Qualifying and the Draft

The Qualification check determines if you can successfully enter into your chosen career. Military careers use Enlistment as the description for this roll instead of qualification. If you fail this check then you cannot enter your chosen career this term. You must either submit to the Draft or take the Drifter career for this term. You suffer a DM–2 to qualification rolls for each previous career you have entered. Once you leave a career you cannot return to it. The Draft and the Drifter career are exceptions to this rule – you can be Drafted into a career you were previously in but got ejected from, and the Drifter career is always open.

Terms of Service

Each step through the cycle of resolving your career path, you will go through a term of service that lasts approximately four years long. This adds four years to the character's age. Each time the character reenlists, or enters into a new career, it is for another term, or four additional years of service.

Basic Training

On the first term of a new career, you gain Basic Training as you learn the basics for your chosen career. For your first career only, you get all the skills listed in the Service Skills table at Level 0 as your basic training. For any subsequent careers, you may pick any one skill listed in the Service Skills table at Level 0 as your basic training.

Survival

Each career has a survival roll. If you fail this roll, your character is dead, and you must create a new one. A natural 2 is always a failure.

Optional Rule: With the Referee's approval, you can keep the character that fails a survival roll and roll on the Survival Mishaps table instead. This mishap is always enough to force you to leave the service after half a term, or two years of service. You lose the benefit roll for the current term only.

Commission and Advancement

Within military careers, a Commission check represents an opportunity to join the ranks of the commissioned officers. In non-military careers, the Commission check represents an opportunity to gain a position within the hierarchy common to your chosen career. Some careers do not have an established hierarchy, as such, and so do not offer Commission checks. A character that succeeds at a Commission roll becomes a Rank 1 officer in that career, and uses the officer Rank table from then on. In addition, you gain an extra roll on any of the Skills and Training Tables for this career. A character may attempt a Commission roll once per term, and trying for commission is optional. A draftee may not attempt a Commission check in the first term of service.

Each career that has a commission check also has an Advancement roll, representing your character's ability to advance with the ranks of your chosen career's hierarchy. If you are Rank 1 or higher, you may attempt an Advancement roll each term. If you are successful, then you move to the next rank and gain an extra roll on any of the Skills and Training Tables for this career. You also get any benefits listed for your new rank. You may only attempt to advance once per term, and you may attempt to advance in the same term in which you are commissioned.

Commissions and advancement are not available in the Athlete, Barbarian, Belter, Drifter, Entertainer, Hunter and Scout careers.

Skills and Training

Each career has skill tables associated with it – Personal Development, Service Skills, Specialist Skills and Advanced Education. In each term you spend in a career, pick one of these tables and roll 1D6 to see which skill you increase. You may only roll on the Advanced Education table if your character has Education 8+.

Because the Athlete, Barbarian, Belter, Drifter, Entertainer, Hunter and Scout careers do not have commission or advancement checks, characters get to make two rolls for skills instead of one every term.

Cascade Skills

Some skills are "cascade skills" meaning that they have specializations – specialized forms of that skill. When a cascade skill is selected, the character must immediately decide on a specialization. Each cascade skill will list one or more specializations that may be chosen from. Upon taking a level in a cascade skill specialization, all other specializations of that skill without skill levels are treated as Zero-level skills. A character may have multiple specializations in a skill, such as Natural Weapons-2 and Slashing Weapons-1, under Melee Combat.

Injuries

Characters that are wounded in combat or accidents during character creation must roll on the Injury table.

Injury Crisis

If any characteristic is reduced to 0, then the character suffers an injury crisis. The character dies unless he can pay 1D6×10,000 Credits for medical care, which will bring any characteristics back up to 1. The character automatically fails any Qualification checks from now on – he must either continue in the career he is in or become a Drifter if he wishes to take any more terms.

Medical Care

If your character has been injured, then medical care may be able to undo the effects of damage. The restoration of a lost characteristic costs Cr5,000 per point.

If your character was injured in the service of a patron or organization, then a portion of his medical care may be paid for by that patron. Roll 2D6 on the table below, adding your Rank as a DM. The result is how much of his medical care is paid for by his employer.

Medical Debt

During finishing touches, you must pay any outstanding costs from medical care or anagathic drugs out of your Benefits before anything else.

Aging

The effects of aging begin when a character reaches 34 years of age. At the end of the fourth term, and at the end of every term thereafter, the character must roll 2D6 on the Aging Table. Apply the character's total number of terms as a negative Dice Modifier on this table.

Aging Crisis

If any characteristic is reduced to 0 by aging, then the character suffers an aging crisis. The character dies unless he can pay 1D6×10,000 Credits for medical care, which will bring any characteristics back up to 1. The character automatically fails any Qualification checks from now on – he must either continue in the career he is in or become a Drifter if he wishes to take any more terms.

Anagathics

While using anagathic drugs, the character effectively does not age – add the number of terms since the character started taking anagathics as a positive Dice Modifier to rolls on the aging table. If a character stops taking anagathics, then he must roll immediately on the aging table to simulate the shock that comes from his system beginning to age again.

The risk of trying to obtain a reliable supply and the disruption to the character's biochemistry means the character must make a second Survival check if he passes his first Survival check in a term. If either check is failed, the character suffers a mishap and is ejected from the career.

The drugs cost 1D6×2,500 Credits for each term that the character uses the drugs. These costs are paid out of the character's eventual mustering-out cash benefits. If the character cannot pay these bills, he goes into debt.

Reenlistment and Retirement

At the end of each term, the character must decide that they wish to continue on their career path or if they wish to muster out. If continuation is desired, the character must make a successful Reenlistment check as listed for their current profession or service. If the character rolls a natural 12, they cannot leave their current career and must continue for another term. If the check is not successful, then they cannot reenlist and the character must leave their current career.

A character that has served 7 or more terms in character creation must retire and cannot undertake any more prior experience, unless they roll a natural 12 during Reenlistment and must serve another term of service.

Optional Rule: The Referee may want to change the maximum number of terms spent in character creation from 7 to something else. For example, the Referee may feel that characters built up to a maximum of 3 or even 4 terms are in the prime of their life, but not so experienced that they won't take up adventuring opportunities as they are presented.

Optional Rule: In some universes, the Referee may elect to totally remove the maximum number of terms spent in character creation.

A character who has served 5 or more terms in a single service receives a yearly retirement pension, even if he or she later becomes an adventurer.

Mustering Out Benefits

Characters who end their careers receive one benefit per term served in which they did not lose benefits. An additional benefit is gained if the character held rank O4, and two for rank O5. A character with rank O6 gains three extra benefits.

Cash Benefits

Up to 3 benefit rolls can be taken on the Cash table. All others must be taken in material benefits. Characters with Gambling skill or who have retired gain +1 on Cash Benefit rolls.

Material Benefits

Material benefits may be characteristics alterations, passages or ship shares. Membership in the Explorers' Society is possible, and subsequent receipts of weapon benefits may be taken as skill levels instead. Note that characters of rank O5 or O6 gain +1 on Material Benefit rolls.

• Courier Vessel: The character considered to be on detached duty with the scout exploration service, and has been granted the use of a surplus 100-ton TL9 Courier starship on a reserve basis. The scout exploration service also provides free maintenance and fuel at any scout base. All other ship expenses are the responsibility of the character. While the character is at liberty to use the vessel as they see fit, the vessel still belongs to the scout exploration service, and thus cannot be abandoned or sold without consequences. In exchange for the use of the ship, the character and the ship are both considered to be available to return to active duty at a moment's notice, should the scout exploration service have need.
• Explorers' Society: The character is a member of the prestigious Explorers' Society. The Explorers' Society will provide members with a free high passage ticket every two months, plus access to the Society's information network and Society-run resorts. This benefit can only be received once; any further receipt of this has no additional benefit. After character creation, characters may purchase membership into the Explorers' Society. A successful application for lifetime membership requires a Routine (-2) Admin check modified by the character's Social Standing, and if accepted, a payment of Cr1,000,000. Failure on the application process indicates the character has been black listed. If a character has been black listed, the Explorers' Society will no longer accept membership applications from them. Membership is non-refundable and non-transferrable.
• Passage: The character has a single ticket of the type named (low, mid, high) for travel on a starship. It is good for one Jump to any destination.
• Research Vessel: A scientific foundation, an interstellar corporation or some other equally affluent patron has granted the character the use of a 200-ton TL9 Research Vessel. All ship expenses, other than annual maintenance, are the responsibility of the character. This ship still belongs to the patron, and therefore cannot be sold or abandoned without consequences.
• Ship Shares: Ship shares may be received as benefits. Each ship share is worth approximately Cr2,000,000 toward the purchase of a vessel. A starship can be purchased for one-fifth of its base value with a 40-year loan attached to it. For every one-fifth of its base value that is paid to the bank in either ship shares or cash, the period of the loan is reduced by ten years. Ship shares may not be redeemed for cash.
• Weapon: The character leaves the service with an appropriate weapon (gun or blade). Once a weapon is taken as a benefit, additional receipts of the weapon may be taken as skill in that weapon instead. An individual is always free to take additional physical examples of the weapons instead of skill levels, if so desired.

Career Tables

• Athlete-Bureaucrat
• Colonist-Marine
• Maritime Defense-Physician
• Pirate-Technician

Final Details

It takes more than a set of characteristic scores and skill levels to create a fun character. By adding some final details at the end of character creation, you might find the experience of playing the character far more rewarding.

Name

At the very least, every character needs a name, preferably one that fits the style of your gaming group and the Referee's universe. Consider choosing a name based on actual "real world" names, on fictional characters or one you've simply made up entirely. If you are stuck, try choosing two of your favorite science fiction characters, and taking parts of each of their names to create a unique name for your character.

Gender

In most games, that means choosing either male or female, but some Referees or universes may offer other options. There's nothing that says you have to play a character of your own gender. Many consider it a roleplaying challenge to try to portray a different gender in a realistic manner.

Appearance

Choosing details such as your character's height, weight, hair color, wardrobe preferences and so forth make it easier to describe your character, which helps everyone visualize your character in their minds as they play. Distinctive features often give your character a way of standing out.

Personal Goals

Time and experience has shown that characters with personal goals are far more rewarding to play in the long run. A personal goal should be something that takes more than a single adventure to resolve. Good examples might include learning the secrets of ancient civilizations, mastering the psionic arts, or securing political power. Personal goals often provide the Referee with an opportunity to develop story arcs based on that character, because the goals inform the Referee about what the character (and presumably the player) is interested in pursuing. It's okay if the character's goals change over time. In fact, that's a great sign of character growth and development.

On Alien Species

Humans are assumed to be the standard species defined in these rules, and thus have no special abilities or disadvantages to distinguish themselves as a species from the basic rules assumptions for characters.

The definition of alien species lies in the realm of the Referee's powers of creativity, as befits the nature of their campaign and universe. This System Reference Document offers the following examples of alien species in an effort to demonstrate common archetypes found in many forms of classic science fiction. Some universes only have humans, while others have hundreds of alien species that characters can encounter. Your Referee is the final arbiter on whether these or any other alien species are present in your campaign.

More specific information on the creation of alien species can be found in Flynn's Guide to Alien Creation, a supplement published by Samardan Press.

Avians

Descended from Omnivore/Hunter flyers, Avians are a small winged sentient race capable of flight on smaller worlds. Avians are a homeothermic, bi-gendered species averaging 1.2 meters in height with a wingspan over 2.5 meters long from wingtip to wingtip, and have a typical mass of around 35 kilograms. The natural aptitude of the Avian race toward exceptional spatial awareness, both conceptually and physically, immediately lends itself to Piloting and Navigation.

Game Mechanics

Avians have Weak Strength (1D6), Notable Dexterity (3D6) and Weak Endurance (1D6). Avians also have the Flyer (9m), Low Gravity Adaptation, Natural Pilot, Slow Speed (4.5m) and Small traits. This winged race reaches maturity at 22, starts aging at 46, stands 105+(2D6×2) centimeters tall, and have a mass of 20+(2D6×2) kilograms.

Espers

Espers are humans or near-human humanoids that have embraced the commonplace usage of psionics. Espers tend to be tall and slender in build, and their aloof and detached nature makes them inscrutable to other humans not of their culture. As a race, they have a tendency to be more mystical or philosophical than other species.

Game Mechanics

Espers follow the standard rules for human characters. In addition, Espers possess the Psionic trait.

Insectans

Descended from Carnivore/Chaser stock, the Insectans are an insectoid race that is hard for most other races to understand. Averaging 1.8 meters in height, and massing around 90 kilograms, the poikilothermic Insectans are very community-conscious, putting the needs of the "colony" before the needs of the individual. They have a very limited ability of individual identity, and more often consider themselves as an extension of the "queen." With improved nutrition impacting intelligence, as well as exposure to other cultures, a growing minority of Insectans have begun to establish a stronger sense of a personal Self, but remain heavily influenced by their communal instincts. Insectans often serve the greater whole of interstellar society in service-oriented roles, depending on their particular gender, those being "worker" (sterile female), "soldier" (sterile female), "drone" (fertile male), or "queen" (fertile female). While there is little in the way of gross anatomical differences between the genders, carapace coloration and bearing help non-Insectans distinguish one from another.

Game Mechanics

Insectans have Notable Dexterity (2D6+2). Insectans also have the Armored, Bad First Impression, Caste, Cold-blooded, Fast Speed (9m), Great Leaper and Hive Mentality traits. Insectans reach maturity at 18 and start aging at 34 (much like humans), stand 160+(2D6×5) centimeters tall, and have a mass of 60+(2D6×5) kilograms.

NOTE: Insectans have a different characteristic score called Caste, which replaces Social Standing. Caste is generated in the same manner as Social Standing. All modifications to Social Standing referenced in the character creation process impacts Caste equally.

Merfolk

Genetically manipulated from pure human stock to life on a waterworld, Merfolk bear less and less resemblance with their genetic ancestors with each passing generation. The changes in skin coloration toward pale greens and blues, combined with the presence of their gills, webbed appendages and a thin layer of protective blubber give the Merfolk a somewhat amphibian appearance.

Game Mechanics

Merfolk possess the Amphibious, Aquatic, Natural Swimmer and Water Dependent alien traits.

Reptilians

Bearing a strong saurian appearance, the Reptilians descend from homeothermic carnivorous chaser stock. Their scales tend to be brilliantly patterned, particularly among the males of the species. Standing approximately 1.9 meters tall, with a mass of 85 kilograms, the Reptilians still bear many of the features of their saurian ancestors. Reptilians are driven by a strong sense of territoriality and a primal need to hunt. After discovering Jump Drive, the Reptilians found themselves with entire new worlds to claim.

Game Mechanics

Reptilians have Notable Strength (2D6+1), Notable Dexterity (2d+1) and Weak Endurance (2D6-2). Reptilians also possess the Anti-Psionic, Fast Speed (9m), Heat Endurance, Low-Light Vision, Natural Weapon (teeth) and Low Gravity Adaptation traits. Reptilians reach maturity at 22, start aging at 42, stand 155+(2D6×5) centimeters tall, and have a mass of 50+(2D6×5) kilograms.

Alien Species Trait Descriptions

Many of the races in this section possess unusual racial traits, which are described below.

• Amphibious: A member of this species is adapted to life underwater as well as on land. It can breathe underwater, or hold its breath for a long period (Endurance×10 minutes on average). Its Dexterity is halved on land.
• Anti-Psionic: Members of this species are innately anti-psionic. The character's Psionic Strength rating always equals zero, and they cannot be trained in psionics. In addition, the character cannot suffer the mental effects of psionics, including telepathy and psionic assault. A species cannot have this alien trait if they already have the Psionic alien trait.
• Aquatic: The alien is adapted to life underwater. It can breathe underwater, or hold its breath for a long period (Endurance×10 minutes on average). If amphibious, its Dexterity is halved on land. If the species is not amphibious, then it cannot operate out of water without mechanical aid or telepresence.
• Armored: The alien possess thick fur, scales, a bony exoskeleton or other natural protection that gives it one point of natural armor.
• Atmospheric Requirements: The species requires an unusual combination of gasses to breathe, and cannot survive in most atmospheres without artificial aid.
• Bad First Impression: Members of this species possess an almost universally unpleasant appearance or physical trait that invokes an instinctive reaction in races other than their own. Most races will automatically have an Unfriendly attitude towards these characters, although this is overcome after an individual has interacted with the character for a few minutes, based on the character's personality and the circumstances of their interaction.
• Caste: Members of this species have a genetic structure for social hierarchy. When dealing with races that use Social Standing or Charisma, all social attribute DMs, whether positive or negative, are halved.
• Cold-Blooded: Members of this species are sensitive to cold climates. If exposed to extreme cold without protective equipment, the character suffers a DM–2 to initiative. The character suffers 1D6 damage for every ten minutes of exposure.
• Engineered: The species has been altered by some external factor to adapt to changed circumstances or a different environment. Medical treatment of Engineered species by a facility of a lower Technology Level than that at which the species was created receives a negative DM equal to the difference.
• Fast Metabolism: Creatures with a fast metabolism require more food than most species, and their life support costs are doubled. In combat, fast-metabolism creatures gain a +2 initiative bonus. Fast-metabolism creatures halve their Endurance for the purposes of determining fatigue.
• Feral: Feral species are uncivilised, regardless of their technological knowledge. Feral species roll Education on 1d6 only.
• Flyer: This species can fly using wings. Characters of this species gain the Athletics skill at Level 0 and can travel at a speed noted in their description. Flying creatures that are aloft must spend one minor action every round on movement or stall and fall out of the air. Winged flight is tiring and can only be sustained for a number of hours equal to the creature's Endurance before requiring a like amount of rest.
• Great Leaper: Members of this species can jump great distances. As a significant action, a member of this species may make an Athletics skill check. If successful, it jumps four squares, plus a number of squares equal to the Effect of the skill check. In addition, members of this species are treated as having the Athletics skill at level 0.
• Heat Endurance: Members of this species do not suffer hourly damage from the effects of hot weather and exposure.
• Heavy Gravity Adaptation: Members of this species evolved on a world with a higher gravity and do not have to acclimatize to high-gravity environments.
• Hive Mentality: Members of this species are driven by a hive mentality, and often pursue actions that support the greater good of their current identified family group, even at the risk of their own personal safety. Characters must make an Intelligence check to avoid risking their own safety when doing so would help their family group. The difficulty of the Intelligence check varies based on the degree of perceived benefit to the family group (this is usually an Average task (DM+0), although circumstances can arise where the difficulty ranges from Routine (DM+2) to Difficult (DM–2).)
• Large: The species is considerably larger than the average for sophonts. Large creatures generally have a Strength and Endurance of 3d6 or even 4d6, and a Dexterity of 1d6. Life support requirements for Large creatures are doubled. Some Large creatures are described as Huge. Attacks against Huge creatures receive a +1 DM to hit.
• Low Gravity Adaptation: Members of this species evolved on a world with a lower gravity and do not have to acclimatize to low-gravity environments.
• Low-Light Vision: Members of this species can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. They retain the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
• Natural Pilot: Members of this species have an innate understanding of multi-dimensional space, and so receive a DM+2 to their Piloting and Navigation checks.
• Natural Swimmer: Members of this species are natural swimmers and gain a +2 DM on all skill checks related to swimming.
• Natural Weapon: The species has a natural weapon, such as claws, a strong bite or a poisonous stinger. Such weapons are usable at Personal range and deal +1 damage. The creature gains Natural Weapons at level 0.
• Naturally Curious: Members of this species are driven by a natural sense of curiosity, and are easily dragged into any adventure. They have to check out everything and always want to know what's behind a potential mystery. Characters must make an Intelligence check to avoid acting on their curious impulses. The difficulty of the Intelligence check varies based on the degree of perceived mystery (this is usually an Average task (DM+0), although circumstances can arise where the difficulty ranges from Routine (DM+2) to Difficult (DM–2).)
• No Fine Manipulators: The species has no fingers or other prehensile appendages, preventing them from easily picking things up, pushing small buttons, reaching into tight spaces, and so on.
• Notable (Characteristic): Some species are notably dexterous, intelligent, tough or strong. Characters from such races have a positive Dice Modifier when rolling for that characteristic (+2 unless otherwise specified), and their racial maximum for that characteristic is increased by the same amount.
• Psionic: All members of the species are Psionic, and may determine their Psionic Strength and talents at the start of character generation.
• Small: Small species generally have a Strength and Endurance of only 1D6, and a Dexterity of 3D6. The minimum size for a sophont is about half that of a human.
• Slow Metabolism: Creatures with a slow metabolism require less food than most species, and their life support costs are halved. In combat, slow-metabolism creatures suffer a –2 initiative penalty.
• Uplifted: This species was originally non-sentient, but has been raised to a higher intelligence by another species. Uplifted races generally become client species of their patron. Two common uplifted animals are apes and dolphins:
  • Uplifted apes have Notable Strength and Endurance (+2) but all other characteristics are Weak (–2). They have the Uplifted trait.
  • Uplifted dolphins have Notable Strength (+4) and Notable Endurance (+2) but Weak Intelligence, Education and Social Standing (–2). They have the Uplifted, Aquatic (fully aquatic, air-breathers) and No Fine Manipulators traits.
• Water Dependent: Although members of this species are amphibious, they can only survive out of the water for 1 hour per 2 points of Endurance (after that, refer to the drowning rules).
• Weak (Characteristic): The opposite of Notable (Characteristic), some species are weaker, less resilient or less well educated than others. Characters from such races have a negative Dice Modifier when rolling for that characteristic (–2 unless otherwise specified), and their racial maximum for that characteristic is decreased by the same amount.

Chapter 2: Skills

Characters in Cepheus Engine games engage in a variety of activities, using their various skills to accomplish the challenges that confront them. Skills and their usage are described in this chapter.

Skill Checks

Skill checks use the core task resolution system for the Cepheus Engine to resolve actions. Whenever your character attempts any action with a chance of failure, roll 2D6, add any skill levels, the appropriate characteristic score modifier, and your difficulty DM. If the result equals or exceeds 8, the action succeeds. If the result is lower than 8, the action fails. The basics of the task resolution system can be found in the Introduction chapter, under Die Rolls.

Task Description Format

Task descriptions can be formally written in a specific format, as follows.

Task Description: Required Skill, Characteristic, Time Increment, Difficulty.

Task Description: Describes the action of the task itself. In print, this is often italicized to help it stand out.

Required Skill: The skill required for the task. Skill levels are added as a positive DM to the check. Unskilled characters suffer a -3 DM if they do not have this skill.

Characteristic: The characteristic modifier that is added to the check.

Time Increment: The time range required to perform the task.

Informal Skill Check Descriptions

Skill checks are also informally written by Difficulty followed by Required Skill throughout this System Reference Document. For example, repairing damage on a starship in mid-combat might be a Very Difficult (–4) Engineering task. When listed in this manner, the Referee gets to choose an appropriate Characteristic to modify the skill check, as well as the time increment involved, if it is not already obvious from context.

Untrained and Zero-Level Skills

Characters can perform some tasks without any training in a skill, using only raw talent (defined by their characteristic scores), but skilled characters tend to be better at such things. Unless the Referee says you cannot, you can always attempt tasks involving that skill even if you have no training in it.

If a character has no level in a skill, then he is untrained and will suffer a –3 Dice Modifier when trying to use that skill.

If a character has zero level in a skill (Skill 0), then he is competent in using that skill, but has little experience. He does not get any bonus from his skill ranks when using that skill but at least he avoids the penalty for being untrained.

Going Faster or Slower

You can choose, before you roll, to move up or down one or two rows on the Time Frames table. Moving up (reducing the time increment) gives you a –1 DM for every row you move; moving down and increasing the time taken gives you a +1 DM for every row you move. Your Referee will help adjudicate any issues that might arise from a change in the time frame.

Multiple Actions

A character can try to do two or more things at once, like firing a spacecraft's weapons while also flying, or disarming a bomb while hiding from guards. For every extra thing that the character is doing, he suffers a –2 DM to all skill checks.

Local Law Level

Some tasks are impacted by a world's local Law Level, as presented in the Universal World Profile. For tasks that are impacted by the local laws, rules and regulations, the usual difficulty for tasks can be found in the Base Difficulty by Law Level table.

Available Skills List

The following is a list of the available skills used in the core Cepheus Engine rules. Referees may add other skills as needed to better fit the universe they have created.

Skill Descriptions

This section describes each skill found in the Cepheus Engine, including its common uses. You may be able to use skills for tasks other than those given here. The Referee sets the Difficulty and decides the results in all cases.

Admin

The character has experience with bureaucratic agencies, and understands the requirements of dealing with and managing them. When attempting tasks like avoiding police harassment, ensuring the prompt issuance of licenses, approval of applications, avoidance of close inspection of papers, etc., a successful Admin skill check (with a Difficulty based on Base Difficulty by Law Level table), will provide a positive outcome to the situation.

Bureaucrats and Administrators: Dealing with administrators and bureaucrats is always a time consuming and tedious chore, which somehow seems to play a common part in Cepheus Engine adventures. No special skills are needed to deal with bureaucrats, but characters with the Admin (or Advocate) skill will be familiar with their ways and find the task much smoother and easier.

The offer of a bribe and a Bribery skill check may also be attempted in place of an ability or Admin or Advocate skill check. See the Bribery skill description for more information.

Advocate

The character is familiar with the general laws and regulations that govern interstellar travel, commerce and relations. This skill does not impart knowledge of the myriad of laws on each individual world, nor does it allow the person to act as an attorney.

Ship Inspections: Typically, when a ship arrives at a new world, it will be inspected by the port authorities to check for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations. It is also not uncommon for patrol ships to stop and board merchant and other ships while in deep space. When such an inspection does occur, the character may make an Advocate check (with a Difficulty based on Base Difficulty by Law Level table) to be found in compliance and pass inspection. If there is anything illegal on board, the character suffers a -2 DM to the check.

Aircraft (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different types of flying vehicles. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Airship, Grav Vehicle, Rotor Aircraft or Winged Aircraft.

Animals (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different aspects of animal handling. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Farming, Riding, Survival, or Veterinary Medicine.

Archery

The character is skilled at using bows and crossbows for hunting or in combat.

Athletics

This skill covers physical fitness and training, similar to that of a trained athlete. This includes acts requiring physical coordination, such as climbing, juggling or throwing; acts of endurance, such as long-distance running or hiking; and acts of strength, such as weight-lifting or bodybuilding.

Aliens with Wings: For alien species with wings, this skill is also used to reflect their ability to fly.

Battle Dress

This skill permits the character to operate advanced battle armor, a powered form of combat armor that enhances the wearer's capabilities in various ways. Ground-based military forces, and numerous mercenaries, are often trained in the basics of battle dress operation. This skill also covers the ability to operate vehicles designed as mechanical exoskeletons.

Bay Weapons

The character is skilled at operating bay weapons on board a ship.

Bludgeoning Weapons

The character is skilled at using bludgeoning weapons, such as clubs, staffs and really big wrenches, in personal combat.

Bribery

The character has experience in bribing petty and not-so petty officials in order to circumvent regulations or ignore cumbersome laws. The amount of a bribe is often based on the level of offense, as outlined in the Bribery Checks By Offense table.

If the bribe is less than the minimum bribe required, the attempt will automatically fail. Characters may offer more than the minimum bribe required and receive a +1 DM for each multiple of the bribe offered. If the first offer is refused, a character may make a second attempt at twice the previous value of the bribe. If both attempts are refused (failed), the Referee should have the character make a Social Standing check, with a Difficulty based on Base Difficulty by Law Level table. If this also fails, the character will be brought up on charges of attempted bribery.

For example, a character trying to bribe an official to ignore a minor smuggling infraction would have to offer a minimum bribe of Cr200. If the character offered Cr400 instead the character could gain a +1 DM on the check. If Cr600 were offered, the character could gain a +2 DM, etc.

Broker

A broker is skilled in locating suppliers and buyers, and facilitating the purchase and resale of commercial goods, as per the Trade and Commerce rules.

Carousing

This skill reflects the interpersonal art of interacting and socializing with others. The character is skilled in the art of small talk and making others feel at ease in their presence in almost any social situation, such as a party, ball, inauguration, bar hopping, etc.

Comms

The character is trained in the use, repair, and maintenance of communications and sensor devices. While anyone can press the button and make a communicator function, this skill is necessary to understand why the device does not work, or how to use the device for purposes other than open transmission. When using sensors, this skill allows the character to interpret the long-range data of a ship's sensors and scanners. Skilled characters can boost an incoming or outgoing signal, create or break a secure channel, detect signals and anomalies, hide or piggyback on another signal, jam local communications, locate and assess potential threats, and analyze complex sensor data.

Computer

The character is skilled in the programming and operation of electronic and fiber optic computers, both ground and shipboard models. Computers can be found on any world with a TL of 8 or higher, becoming exponentially more common at higher technology levels.

A character without at least some computer training might find himself at disadvantage in the highly technical universe of science fiction. Anyone with Computer-0 or better can perform the following without a skill check: Log on to a Datanet, send and receive messages, search for non-classified information, and retrieve data and files. More skilled users can create or break data encryption; mine data effectively; create or break data and network security protocols; and perform other general programming tasks.

Demolitions

This skill covers the use of demolition charges and other explosive devices, including assembling or disarming bombs.

Electronics

The character is practiced in installing, using, maintaining, repairing and/or creating electronic devices and equipment. The character can practice a trade and make a decent living, earning a paycheck for every week of dedicated work. The character knows how to use the tools of the trade, how to perform routine tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems.

Disabling Devices: The character is skilled at disarming alarm systems, picking electronic locks, disabling a malfunctioning robot, or similar tasks involving electronic devices.

Energy Pistol

The character is skilled at using advanced pistol-style energy weapons like laser pistols and stunners.

Energy Rifle

The character is skilled at using advanced energy weapons like laser rifles or plasma rifles.

Engineering

The character is skilled in the operation and maintenance of starship maneuver drives, Jump drives, and power plants. The character can practice a trade and make a decent living, earning a paycheck for every week of dedicated work. The character knows how to use the tools of the trade, how to perform routine tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems. Engineering is particularly important in diverting power to the Jump Drives for a successful transition into Jump space.

Farming

The character can grow and harvest crops and raise animals. This also covers hydroponic farming and clone harvesting for food production, at sufficiently high tech levels.

Gambling

The individual is well informed on games of chance, and wise in their play. He or she has an advantage over non-experts, and is generally capable of winning when engaged in such games. Gambling, however, should not be confused with general risk-taking.

Non-Competitive Games: These are games such as Slots, Roulette, Blackjack, Keno, etc. These games are played strictly against the house and the odds are pretty much constant, as are the payoff values. The character chooses a game by its odds of winning (high, average, low, small or remote) and places a bet. The Referee determines if the game is rigged. The character then rolls their Gambling score. On a success, the character receives the payoff amount based on the amount of their initial bet. House always wins on a natural 2.

Competitive Games: If playing against a group of other players, each member of the game will make their Gambling skill check with the highest roll taking the pot. A character may attempt to cheat during a game at any time by stating his or her intent to cheat and making an extra Gambling check. If any other player in the game makes a successful opposing Gambling check against the character's attempt at cheating they are caught red-handed. Otherwise the player has successfully cheated and takes the pot. If more than one person attempts to cheat during the same round of play, the person with the highest roll wins the pot.

Grav Vehicle

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on air/rafts and other vehicles that use gravitic technology. Grav vehicles have theoretically perfect maneuverability and can hover, but skill checks may be necessary when performing high-speed aerobatics.

Gravitics

The character is practiced in installing, maintaining, repairing and/or creating gravitic devices and equipment. Such items include air/raft lift modules, grav belts, grav sleds, grav tanks, etc. Gravitics skill deals with the technical details of such vehicles; Grav Vehicle skill is required to actually pilot or drive them. The character can practice a trade and make a decent living, earning a paycheck for every week of dedicated work. The character knows how to use the tools of the trade, how to perform routine tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems.

Gun Combat (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different types of ranged personal weapons. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Archery, Energy Pistol, Energy Rifle, Shotgun, Slug Pistol, or Slug Rifle.

Gunnery (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different types of devastating weapons commonly used against vehicles, spaceships and ground installations. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Bay Weapons, Heavy Weapons, Screens, Spinal Mounts, or Turret Weapons.

Heavy Weapons

The Heavy Weapons skill covers man-portable and larger weapons that cause extreme property damage, such as rocket launchers, artillery and plasma weapons.

Jack-of-All-Trades (Jack o' Trades or JoT)

The Jack of All Trades skill works differently to other skills. It reduces the unskilled penalty a character receives for not having the appropriate skill by one for every level of Jack of All Trades. Jack of All Trades cannot grant a skill bonus at higher levels.

Leadership

The character possesses the ability to rally, inspire, organize and direct team efforts to ensure the best cooperation and productivity possible.

Coordinating Effort: Whenever a task requires one or more characters to combine their efforts (i.e. Teamwork; each makes a skill or ability check towards a common goal), the character gains a pool of points equal to the Effect of the skill check (minimum of 1), which can be distributed by the leader to individual team members as DMs (grant a +1 DM per point) on skill or ability checks made toward the common goal.

Improving Initiative: The Leadership skill can be used to increase another character's Initiative. The character with Leadership makes a Leadership check, and the target character's Initiative is increased by the Effect of the check. Making a Leadership skill check is a significant action.

Linguistics

The character can read and write a different language for every level of Linguistics they possess. All characters can speak and read their native language without needing the Linguistics skill, and automated computer translator programs mean that the Linguistics skill are not always needed on other worlds. Having Linguistics-0 implies that the character has a smattering of simple phrases in many languages. In addition, Linguistics can be used to attempt to decipher the general meaning of a preserved specimen of language, such as an inscription or a recorded message.

Liaison

The character is trained in the art of dealing with others, including knowledge of proper protocols, manners of address, codes of conduct and other information needed when dealing with a wide range of societal types. Such a character is quite useful when attempting to negotiate a particularly edgy deal, to convince the Duke's secretary to admit the party into the Duke's presence, help settle a dispute between two opposing groups, or other acts of negotiation and diplomacy.

Influencing Others: The character can change others' attitudes with a successful check. In negotiations, participants roll opposed Liaison checks to see who gains the advantage. Opposed checks also resolve cases when two diplomats are engaged in negotiations.

Life Sciences

This skill represents theoretical and practical knowledge derived from the scientific study of living organisms. This covers a wide range of related fields, such as biochemistry, biology, botany, cybernetics, genetics, physiology and psionocology.

Mechanics

The character is practiced in installing, using, maintaining, repairing and/or creating mechanical devices and equipment. The character can practice a trade and make a decent living, earning a paycheck for every week of dedicated work. The character knows how to use the tools of the trade, how to perform routine tasks, how to supervise untrained helpers, and how to handle common problems.

Disabling Devices: The character is skilled at disabling mechanical alarm systems, picking mechanical locks, or similar tasks involving mechanical devices.

Medicine

The individual has training and skill in the medical arts and sciences, from diagnosis and triage to surgery and other corrective treatments. This skill represents a character's ability to provide emergency care, short term care, long-term care, and specialized treatment for diseases, poisons and debilitating injuries. When treating a patient of a race other than their own, the character suffers a -2 DM.

Melee Combat (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different types of personal melee combat weapons. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Natural Weapons, Bludgeoning Weapons, Piercing Weapons or Slashing Weapons.

Mole

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on vehicles that move through solid matter using drills or other earth-moving technologies, like plasma torches or cavitation.

Motorboats

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on small motorized watercraft.

Natural Weapons

The character is skilled at using their natural weapons in personal combat. Among humans, this includes brawling, martial arts and wrestling.

Navigation

The character is trained in the science of normal and Jump space navigation. The Navigator on a starship plots the course and ensures that the astrogational information required by the pilot and other crewmembers is available when it is needed. This skill includes the ability to determine a ship's new location after a Jump ends, plotting a standard course through normal space, and plotting a Jump route through Jump space. A starship cannot make a Jump safely without a Jump route.

Ocean Ships

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on large motorized sea-going ships.

Physical Sciences

This skill represents theoretical and practical knowledge derived from the scientific study of the nature and properties of energy and non-living matter. This covers a wide range of related fields, such as chemistry, electronics, geology and physics.

Piercing Weapons

The character is skilled at using piercing and thrusting weapons, such as spears and polearms, in personal combat.

Piloting

The individual has training and experience in the operation of interplanetary and interstellar spacecraft. Piloting expertise is necessary to handle such craft, though a check is usually only made when circumstances become challenging, such as due to rough atmospheric conditions or hostile action.

Recon

This skill represents the ability to scout out dangers and spot threats, unusual objects or out of place people. Characters skilled in Recon are adept at staying unseen and unheard.

Riding

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and provide basic, routine care for horses and other living creatures that are trained to bear a rider.

Rotor Aircraft

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on helicopters, hovercraft and other similar craft. Rotor aircraft can hover but may require skill checks to keep steady in the face of adverse environmental conditions.

Sciences (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different types of planetary transportation. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Life Sciences, Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, or Space Sciences.

Sailing Ships

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on wind-driven watercraft.

Screens

The character is skilled at activating and using a ship's energy screens like nuclear dampers or meson screens.

Shotgun

The character is skilled at using shotguns.

Slashing Weapons

The character is skilled at using cutting and slashing weapons, such as swords and axes, in personal combat.

Slug Pistol

The character is skilled at using projectile-based pistols like the body pistol or snub pistol.

Slug Rifle

The character is skilled at using projectile-based rifle weapons such as the autorifle or gauss rifle.

Social Sciences

This skill represents theoretical and practical knowledge derived from the scientific study of sophont society and social relationships. This covers a wide range of related fields, such as archeology, economics, history, philosophy, psychology and sophontology.

Space Sciences

This skill represents theoretical and practical knowledge derived from several scientific disciplines that study phenomena occurring in interplanetary and interstellar space, and the celestial bodies that exist within that space. This covers a wide range of related fields, such as astronomy, cosmology, planetology and xenology.

Spinal Mounts

The character is skilled at operating bay or spinal mount weapons on board a ship. These weapons can be used against other ships or for planetary bombardment or attacks on stationary targets.

Steward

The Steward skill allows the character to serve and care for nobles and high-class passengers. This includes knowledge of concierge duties, housekeeping services, meal preparation and presentation, personal grooming assistance and valet service, and proper social etiquette.

Streetwise

A character with the Streetwise skill understands the urban environment and the power structures in society. A skilled character knows where to go for information, how to handle strangers without offending them, and who can handle activities bordering on the fringe of legality.

Submarine

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on vehicles that travel underwater.

Survival

The character is skilled in the art of survival in the wild, including hunting or trapping animals, avoiding exposure, locating sources of food and fresh water (if available), producing fires (where possible), finding shelter, avoiding dangerous flora and fauna, avoiding getting lost, and dealing with the dangers of hazardous climates (arctic, desert, etc.).

Tactics

This skill covers tactical planning and decision making, from board games to squad level combat to fleet engagements.

Tracked Vehicle

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on tanks and other vehicles that move on tracks.

Turret Weapons

The character is skilled at operating turret-mounted weapons on board a ship.

Vehicle (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different types of planetary transportation. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Aircraft, Mole, Tracked Vehicle, Watercraft, or Wheeled Vehicle.

Veterinary Medicine

The individual has training and skill in the medical care and treatment of animals. This skill represents the character's ability to provide animals with emergency care, short term care, long-term care, and specialized treatment for diseases, poisons and debilitating injuries.

Watercraft (Cascade Skill)

The various specialties of this skill cover different types of watercraft and ocean travel. When this skill is received, the character must immediately select one of the following: Motorboats, Ocean Ships, Sailing Ships or Submarine.

Wheeled Vehicle

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on automobiles and similar wheeled vehicles.

Winged Aircraft

This skill grants the ability to properly maneuver and perform basic, routine maintenance on jets and other airplanes using a lifting body. Winged aircraft must keep moving forwards or they will stall and fall out of the sky.

Zero-G

The character is acclimated to working and living in micro-gravity environments and freefall. The character is trained and familiar with the use of weapons and combat in such environments. In addition, the individual has been trained in the wearing, care, and maintenance of all types of Vacuum Suits and Combat Armor commonly used in these conditions.

Gaining New Skill Levels during Game Play

A character's Skill Total is calculated by summing the levels of each skill (level zero skills count as zero). A character with Mechanics 1 and Slug Pistol 2 would have a Skill Total of 3.

To increase a skill, a character must train for a number of weeks equal to his current Skill Total plus the desired level of the skill. So, to advance from Piloting 2 to Piloting 3 with a current Skill Total of 3 would take (three, plus three) six weeks. A character may only train one skill in a given week.

The Jack of all Trades skill cannot be learned.

Chapter 3: Psionics

For characters in Cepheus Engine campaigns, psionics covers a broad category of mental disciplines and paranormal abilities originating from the mind. Psionics are divided into five different categories, called talents. These talents are: Awareness, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Telepathy, and Teleportation. The contents of this Chapter are optional. It is up to the individual Referee if psionics is even available, much less how a character may acquire these talents.

Psionic Strength

Psionics are powered by the Psionic Strength characteristic (abbreviation Psi). This characteristic cannot be rolled or bought during character creation without the Referee's permission. To determine a character's Psionic Strength, roll 2D6 and subtract the number of terms served by the character in any career (Psionic Strength diminishes over time unless actively used).

Using a psionic talent costs a number of Psionic Strength points, temporarily reducing the character's total. As the Characteristic DM for all Psionic skill checks is determined by the characters' current Psionic Strength total, it gets harder and harder to use powers as the character's strength declines.

Recovering Psionic Strength Points

Expended Psionic Strength points are recovered at the rate of one point per hour, beginning three hours after the character last used a psionic talent.

Psionic Training

The first step is testing a character's Psionic Strength, which is determined as described above (2D6 – number of terms served). If the character still has any Psionic Strength remaining, he can be trained.

Training requires four months of work, and costs Cr100,000. As part of training, the character may attempt to learn any of the common psionic talents on the Psionic Training table by making a Psionic Strength check. He may attempt the talents in any order, but suffers a –1 DM per check attempted. If a character learns a talent, he gains that talent at level 0.

Psionic Talents

There are several psionic talents, each of which works like a skill for the powers in question. A character trained in the use of psionics may develop his talents over time just as if they were normal skills. Unlike other skills, psionic talents cannot be used untrained. The most common talents are:

Awareness: control over one's own mind and body.

Clairvoyance: perceiving at a distance.

Telekinesis: mind over matter.

Telepathy: reading minds and mental communication.

Teleportation: moving from one point to another instantly.

Each talent grants access to all of its powers – a character with Telepathy 0 can use life detection, read surface thoughts or assault as the situation demands.

Using a Psionic Talent

To activate a talent, the psion must make a skill check using the appropriate talent (Telepathy, Telekinesis, etc), adding his Psionic Strength characteristic DM and any other DMs. He must also spend the listed number of Psionic Strength points if he succeeds, or one point if he fails. If this cost brings him below zero Psionic Strength, then any excess points are applied to his Endurance score as damage. A character with no Psionic Strength points cannot attempt to activate a power.

Using a talent in combat is a significant action.

Many abilities are ranged. The Psionic Range table lists the number of points to project psionic abilities out to a given range – these must be paid as well as any points to activate the ability. Each talent has a different set of costs, with the exception of Awareness – all Awareness abilities apply to the Psion only.

Range

Psionic range costs are paid based on range bands based on those used in personal combat or communication devices. These are defined in the Psionic Range Costs table.

Awareness

Awareness is the psionic talent which allows control of one's own body. Awareness powers never have a range – they are used only on yourself.

Suspended Animation

Personal body activity may be suspended for varying periods of time. A character with Awareness may enter a suspended animation state (similar to cold sleep but without the intrinsic danger of death) by willing himself into it. Such a state continues for 7 days without need for food or water and with minimal air needs. Such a person could effectively travel in a low passage berth without actually undergoing cold sleep and its dangers. Suspended animation may be stopped at any time previous to its duration expiring, provided external stimulus is given to awaken the sleeper (such as a friend or a mechanical alarm).

Psionically Enhanced Strength

Psionic Strength points may be converted to normal Strength points on a temporary basis. The character makes the commitment, reduces his Psionic Strength by a specific number of points, and increases his physical Strength characteristic by that number. In no case may the number of Strength points gained exceed the character's current level in Awareness, and Strength may not be increased beyond the character's racial maximum. Psionically enhanced strength reaches its new level immediately, remains at that peak for ten minutes, and then declines at the rate of 1 Strength point per minute until the normal Strength level is reached. This power works as normal on wounded characters but their Strength returns to the wounded level rather than the normal value. It cannot be used as a 'quick heal'.

Psionically Enhanced Endurance

Psionically enhanced endurance works in exactly the same way as psionically enhanced strength except the characteristic boosted is Endurance rather than Strength, including its lack of healing ability.

Regeneration

Wounds and injuries may be healed rapidly. Strength, Dexterity and Endurance lost to injury, disease, poison or other trauma may be healed by the application of this ability, exchanging one Psionic Strength point to regenerate one characteristic point. Any amount of Psionic Strength may be expended with a single use of regeneration but it may not be used again until all expended Psionic Strength is recovered. Regeneration may also be applied to the growing of new limbs or organs to replace lost ones or to heal unrecovered old wounds suffered prior to psionic training. Regeneration may not be used to counteract aging. Awareness is not capable of affecting others and may not be used for healing or enhancing other characters.

Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is the general talent which allows a person to sense events at some location displaced from the viewer. There are several levels of clairvoyant ability. Clairvoyance abilities allow eavesdropping activities as well as spying and detection-free exploration of situations. While telepathic life detection will determine the presence of living minds in a closed room, for example, sense will determine if a room is occupied or empty. Clairvoyant activity cannot be sensed by others, including by other psionic individuals.

Sense

This is the basic ability to sense things at some point in the distance. A character will become aware of the most rudimentary characteristics of a location when applying this ability. For example, the Referee will give a basic description, without detail: 'a room containing four dogs' or 'an open plain with a tree, and no animals or men present'. The clairvoyant character must state the range at which he is applying his talent, and will generally sense the most interesting or important feature at that range. The Effect of the check determines the level of accuracy and clarity.

Clairvoyance

This specific ability allows actual remote viewing of a situation at some displaced point. Rather than the 'snapshot' that sense gives, clairvoyance allows the psion to observe as if he was there in person. The clairvoyant character must state the range at which he is applying his talent. The Effect of the check determines the level of detail perceived and the duration in rounds the vision can be maintained for.

Clairaudience

This ability is identical to clairvoyance, with the exception that it allows hearing instead of seeing.

Clairsentience

This power combines the effects of clairvoyance and clairaudience. The character is capable of both seeing and hearing a specific situation.

Telekinesis

Telekinesis is the talent which allows objects to be manipulated without physically touching them. Any manipulation is treated as if the person was physically handling the item but physical danger, pain, or other stimuli are not present. Telekinesis includes a limited amount of sensory awareness, sufficient to allow actual intelligent manipulation. The Effect of the check determines the duration of the telekinesis in rounds.

Items may be thrown using telekinesis. Such items use the Ranged (thrown) category when attacking, using the higher of the distance between either the psion and the target or the object's starting location and the target. The amount of damage inflicted by such an object is given in the Telekinesis object; the psion can add the Effect of the attack's skill check to the damage inflicted. If a creature is the thrown object, both the creature and the target take the same damage on a successful hit.

Telepathy

Telepathy is the talent of mind-to-mind contact. It is subtle by nature but can also be used to bluntly crush the wills of those who oppose the telepath.

Life Detection

The most elementary form of telepathy is the ability to detect the presence of other minds. Life detection enables a character to sense the presence of other minds, the number of minds present, the general type of minds (animal, human, and so on) and their approximate location.

Life detection is reasonably sophisticated, and can distinguish intelligent beings from bacteria or unimportant animals in the area. It functions best at detecting intelligent minds. Shielded minds are undetectable (whether the shield is natural or artificial in origin). If an individual whom the telepath knows is 'life detected' he or she will be recognized.

Telempathy

The communication of emotions and basic feelings is accomplished by telempathy. This ability serves well in the handling of animals and beasts of burden but may also be applied as a psychological weapon against humans. Sending of emotions such as love, hate, fear, and others may influence other beings (although not necessarily in the manner desired). Telempathy also allows the emotions and feelings of others to be read by a character. The Effect of the check determines the strength of the projected emotion.

Telepaths will always recognize when someone is using telempathy to bend their emotions but others will not. The change in mood may be dramatic and inexplicable but most people will simply ascribe it to the mercurial nature of human emotions. Shielded individuals are immune to telempathy as they are all other Telepathy powers.

Read Surface Thoughts

The most widely known feature of Telepathy is the ability to read the thoughts of other individuals. Only active, current thoughts are read by this ability, with the subject (if himself not a telepath) unaware of the activity. Individuals with telepathic ability cannot be read due to the presence of their natural shields, unless they willingly lower their shielding. The Effect of the check determines the clarity of the telepath's perceptions.

Send Thoughts

Complementary to the ability to read surface thoughts is the ability to send thoughts to others. Such individuals need not themselves be telepathic to receive such thoughts. Telepathic individuals are normally open to such transmissions, but may close their shields against them if they become bothersome or threatening.

Probe

The application of great psionic strength will enable a telepath to delve deep into the mind of a subject and to then read his innermost thoughts. Questioning can be used in the procedure to force the subject to divulge specific information. The prober can easily determine deliberate untruths told (thought) by the subject. Probe cannot be used against a shielded mind. Again, the Effect of the check determines the clarity of the telepath's perceptions.

Assault

Violence may be dealt by a telepath. An unshielded mind, when assaulted telepathically, is rendered unconscious immediately and the character suffers 2D6 + Effect damage. Unlike normal damage, assault damage is applied to Psionic Strength (if the victim has it), then Intelligence, then Endurance. Psionic Strength and Endurance return as normal. Intelligence returns at the rate of one point per day.

Shield

All telepathically able characters learn how to create a mental shield which protects the mind against unwanted telepathic interference. Shield is automatically in force at all times and requires no Psionic Strength point expenditure to maintain. However, while a telepath has his shield up he cannot use any telepathic powers either. Shield can be lowered to allow telepathic contact or to use telepathic powers – this takes a mere thought (a free action in combat).

Teleportation

Teleportation is a talent which allows effectively instantaneous movement from one point to another point without regard to intervening matter. Psionic teleportation is limited to the movement of the teleported character's body and (for highly skilled teleporters) his or her clothing and other possessions.

Teleportation always involves the movement of one's body to another location. Independent items or other individuals may not be moved. Teleportation involves certain requirements in order to be accurate, and to insure obedience of the laws of physics.

Pre-Knowledge of Destination: A character must always have a mental image of his or her destination before teleporting. This mental image is acquired by personally visiting the location first (or viewing it from a distance), having the mental image implanted in one's mind (by telepathy) by another person who has visited the destination, or by viewing the location through clairvoyance. The key to remember is that someone has to actually view the location – recorded images are not enough.

Energy and Momentum: Teleportation involves serious restrictions on movement in order to assure the conservation of energy and momentum.

On planetary surfaces, teleportation is restricted to jumps of Very Distant range or less. Jumps at Very Distant range involve disorientation for a period of 20 to 120 seconds (2D6×10) after arrival. This restriction results from the law of conservation of momentum: on a rotating planet, two locations will have different rotational speeds and directions. A jump from a point on the Earth's equator to one of its poles would result in a total velocity difference between the character and his surroundings of over 3300 kph, which would lead to a messy death in short order.

Teleporting to or from vehicles travelling at high speed can also result in energy gains or losses. When teleporting into, onto or out of a fast-moving vehicle the psion takes damage as if the vehicle had rammed him at its current speed.

Changes in altitude (actually all movement to locations of differing gravitational potential) will result in potential energy changes, manifesting themselves as changes in body temperature. A jump of one kilometer straight down will result in a temperature increase of 2.5 degrees Celsius; this is sufficient to cause extreme fever, brain damage, and even death. A jump up will cool the body by the same amount, with equally serious results. To be safe, a jump may not involve an elevation change of more than 400 meters, and multiple jumps should not involve a cumulative elevation change or more than 600 meters in one hour. These problems may be gotten around through the use of technological devices: energy compensators, heated suits, and other means. Characters may feel driven to invent such materials, commission their invention, or seek them out from those who already have them.

Psionic Technology

In a Cepheus Engine universe where psionic abilities are possible, the following psionic-related technology may be available, either legally or on the black market.

Inhibitor Drug (TL 9): Psionic inhibitors dampen the brain's ability to generate psychic effects. A character who takes (or, more often, is forcibly injected with) an inhibitor drug suffers a –4 DM to all Psionic Strength checks and cannot regain Psionic Strength points. Each hour the character may make an Endurance check to throw off the effects of the drug with a +1 DM for every previous check. Inhibitor drugs have no effect on non-psionic individuals. The drugs cost Cr500 per dose.

Psi-Drugs (TL 8+): These drugs restore Psionic Strength if taken when the character has already spent Psionic Strength points, or temporarily increase the character's Psionic Strength if taken when he is at full Psionic Strength, as given in the Psi-Drug Effects and Cost table.

A character who takes more than one dose of Standard or Double Psi-Drug, or a single dose of the Special drug must make an Endurance check, with a –1 DM per dose of psi-drug taken in the last week (not including the one just taken). If the check is failed the character falls ill with a serious fever, suffering 3D6 damage and permanently reducing his Psionic Strength by one.

Psionic Shield (TL 12): Any armor incorporating a helmet or hood can be outfitted with a psionic shield, blocking Telepathy. Unlike the Telepathy power shield a technological shield is invulnerable to assault and blocks send thoughts. It cannot be lowered without removing the helmet or hood containing the shield. Cr40,000.

Buildings and vehicles can also be psionically shielded, but this is much more costly, increasing the cost by 10%.

Teleportation Suit (TL 12): This device can be integrated into a suit of armor or worn as a form-hugging body-suit. It rapidly cools or warms the body after a teleport, minimizing the damage from sudden energy gains or losses. The suit costs Cr50,000 and allows a character to jump up to 600 meters up or down in a single teleport, or up to ten kilometers in a single hour when using successive jumps.

Psionic Interface (TL 14): Any weapon or technological device can be outfitted with a psionic interface. A character using a device with a psionic interface can use his Psionic Strength DM instead of his Dexterity DM when using the weapon or device; a character without psionic ability cannot use the device. The character must either touch the device or use telekinesis to interact with it at range. Adding a psionic interface increases the cost of the device by 20%.

Psionics in Society

The Cepheus Engine assumes that there are generally three different mindsets in which a society might view psionics. In generic terms, these categories are called Psi-Hostile, Psi-Neutral and Psi-Friendly.

Psi-Hostile Societies

Humanity fears what it doesn't understand. In Psi-Hostile societies, some precipitating event has brought that fear into the court of public opinion, and as a result, psionics became banned. In the least offensive case, the use of psionics is forbidden and violations are punished as a capital crime. In the worst cases, governments and angry mobs often go on witch hunts, looking for psions and generally lynching, lobotomizing, imprisoning or exiling the offenders. Individuals may even be informants or potential informants, ready to call the local authorities at the slightest hint of psionic abilities in use. Governments in psi-hostile societies will publicly denounce the use of psionics, but it is likely that they might maintain a secret training facility due to the usefulness of such powers in espionage and warfare. In a Psi-Hostile society, even having sympathy for the plight of psionic people can cause an individual to be ostracized.

This type of society is the most commonly encountered in Cepheus Engine campaigns, because the world it creates is closest to the "real world" experiences shared by most Cepheus Engine players, and the rules tend to operate as if this were the standard.

Psi-Neutral Societies

In Psi-Neutral societies, psionics does not have the stigma that they do in Psi-Hostile societies. The general populace recognizes the existence of psions, and considers it just another set of talents one can possess, much like athletic prowess or superior marksmanship. The use of psionics is fairly regulated by law level, as the public is aware that psionics have great potential for abuse, but such a culture generally holds a stronger view of personal responsibility and punishes abusers accordingly. Training in such a culture is easier to come by, but is treated much like a vocational school, in that only those who can pay for it are tested and trained. Psionic technology is more likely to be available in such a society, at the discretion of the Referee. Telepaths figure prominently in major corporate and government negotiations. Teleporters are used for quick and sometimes clandestine courier work. Corporate and foreign espionage require another layer of security to address psionic abilities. The accepted use of psionics in such a culture can cause some dramatic changes.

Psi-Friendly Societies

In Psi-Friendly societies, psions are revered and psionic abilities are often considered a mark of the socially elite. It is likely that children are tested at various points during their childhood, and those with potential are taught to use their gifts from a very young age. Psionics are integrated at every level of society, and may even lead to a highly structured or caste-like culture where the upper classes are comprised of psionically-gifted individuals. These classes may be further stratified based on an individual's psionic strength and/or mastery of psionic skills. Non-psions may even be persecuted as second-class citizens without voting or personal rights, in extreme cases. The actual culture of such a society, like anything else, is ultimately up to the Referee to determine and present.

Chapter 4: Equipment

The following section lists examples of common equipment that adventurers may want. Aside from armor and weapons, each listing notes the object's name and a basic description. The technological level indicates local technology required to manufacture something with the capabilities listed. Price and weight are for an item manufactured by an interstellar society of tech level 10-15; items produced at lower tech levels will probably be bulkier and more expensive. An item with no weight or size given can be carried or worn without difficulty. Additional lines of explanation are given where considered necessary.

Technology Level Overview

Technology Level, also known as Tech Level or TL, is a measure of the scientific and production capacity of a world and the complexity and effectiveness of a piece of equipment.

Higher Technology Levels exist and may appear in some Cepheus Engine universes.

Currency

The Credit (Cr) is the standard unit of currency in Cepheus Engine. Larger denominations include the KiloCredit (KCr; 1,000 Credits) and the MegaCredit (MCr; 1,000,000 Credits).

Armor

Armor reduces the amount of damage a character takes from a hit, based on the type of armor worn. The armor rating for a set of armor is equal to the amount of damage reduced by the armor when you are hit in combat. A hit with Effect 6+ always inflicts at least one point of damage, regardless of the target's armor.

Unless otherwise noted, only one type of armor can be worn at a time. Resolve damage from the outside in – damage that gets through the outer layer of armor is next applied to the inner layer.

TL: The earliest tech level at which this item first becomes available.

Armor Rating (AR): The amount of damage reduced by the armor when an attack strikes the character. When two values are listed separated by a slash, the number to the left of the slash represents the armor rating against all attacks except lasers, while the number to the right of the slash represents the armor rating against laser attacks.

Cost: The cost of the item in Credits (Cr).

Weight: The weight of the item in kilograms.

Skill Required: Some armors have a required skill. A character suffers the usual unskilled penalty when using armor without levels in the required skill.

Armor Descriptions

Ablat (TL 9): A cheap alternative to Reflec, ablat armor is made from a material that ablates (vaporizes) when hit by laser fire. Each laser hit on ablat reduces its armor value (versus lasers) by one, but the armor is cheap and easily replaceable.

Battle Dress (TL 13): The ultimate personal armor, battle dress is a powered form of combat armor. The servomotors vastly increase the user's speed and strength, boosting his Strength and Dexterity by +4 while wearing the armor. Damage to the wearer's characteristics is calculated as normal, but the values from the armor are used for all other purposes such as hand to hand damage or skill checks. The suit has a built-in Model 2 computer running an Expert Tactics-2 program to give tactical advice and updates and is commonly outfitted with numerous upgrades. The suit is fully enclosed, with a six-hour air supply and gives full protection against environmental hazards – including NBC shielding – as if it was an HEV suit.

Cloth (TL 7): A heavy duty body suit tailored from ballistic cloth. The fabric absorbs impact energy and spreads it over the body, which can result in bruising. However, cloth armor is highly useful and versatile – it can be effectively concealed under normal clothing although observers making an Investigate or Recon check at 8+ will notice something unusual.

Combat Armor (TL 11): This full-body suit is used by the military and not generally available on the open market, although those with military or criminal contacts can obtain it without much difficulty. It is issued to troop units and mercenary battalions. Combat armor protects from hard vacuum in the same way as a vacc suit and provides life support for six hours.

Hostile Environment Vacc Suit (TL 8): Hostile environment suits are designed for conditions where a normal vacc suit would be insufficient, such as deep underwater, worlds shrouded in toxic or corrosive gases, extremes of radiation or temperature, or other locales that offer serious physical danger as well as the lack of a breathable atmosphere. HEV suits provide all the life support offered by a normal vacc suit (for six hours) but are also impervious to flames, intense radiation such as that found at nuclear blast sites (decreasing radiation exposure by 180 rads), and high pressure environments like undersea trenches.

Jack (TL 1): A natural or synthetic leather jacket or body suit covering the torso and upper arms and legs.

Mesh (TL 6): A jacket or body suit lined with a flexible metal or plastic mesh that gives it added protection against bullets.

Reflec (TL 10): Reflec armor is a flexible plastic suit with layers of reflective material and heat-dispersing gel. It is highly effective against lasers, but provides no protection against other attacks. Reflec can be worn with other armor.

Vacc Suit (TL 8): The vacc suit or space suit is the spacer's best friend, providing life support and protection when in space. A vacc suit provides a breathable atmosphere and protection from the extremes of temperature, low pressure and radiation typically found in a hard vacuum (decreasing exposure by up to 40 rads), for six hours.

Communicators

Characters separated by physical location often have a need to maintain communications. These examples of communications equipment fulfill that need. Routine use of these devices does not require a skill check. When attempting to overcome interference or use these devices for other purposes, the Comms skill check is used.

Long Range Communicator: Back-pack mounted radio capable of ranges up to 500 km and contact with ships in orbit. Ten separate channels. At tech level 7 reduce the weight to 1.5 kg and it becomes belt or sling mounted.

Medium Range Communicator: Belt-mounted or sling carried radio set capable of up to 30 km range, and contact with official radio channels. Five separate channels. At tech level 7, reduce the weight to 500 grams.

Short Range Communicator: Belt-mounted radio capable of 10 km range (much shorter underground or underwater). Three separate channels. At tech level 7 reduce the weight to 300 grams and it becomes hand-held.

Personal Communicator: A hand-held, single channel communication device. On world with a tech level of 8 or higher a personal communicator is able to tap into the world's satellite communication network and with the proper address, contact any other communicator in the world (for a fee). The channel is private, but not secure and may be monitored on some worlds. Usually network access can be arranged at the local starport for a small fee. On worlds with a tech level of 7 or less, personal communicators will not work.

Computers

The power of a computer is given by its rating (Model 1, Model 2 and so forth), which measures the complexity of the programs it can run. (Storage space is effectively unlimited at TL 9 and above.) Programs are rated by the computer rating they require. A system can run a number of programs up to its rating.

The computers listed here are laptop size. Battery life is two hours at TL 7, eight hours at TL 8, and effectively unlimited at TL 9 and above. Desktop computers offer a slightly greater amount of processing power for the same cost but not enough to make a difference in-game. Desktops become obsolete during TL 8.

Computer Terminal (TL 7): This is a 'dumb terminal', with only limited processing power. It serves as an interface to a more powerful computer such as a ship's computer or planetary network. Terminals range in size depending on their control method – a holographic display terminal can be much smaller than one with a physical keyboard and screen. A computer terminal has Model 0, and costs Cr200.

Hand Computer (TL 7): A hand computer is a portable computer system with considerable processing power. It is more powerful than a computer terminal, and can be used without access to a network. A hand computer costs twice as much as a normal computer of the same TL but can he held in one hand and operated with the other.

Computer Options

Data Display/Recorder (TL 13): This headpiece worn over one or both eyes provides a continuous heads-up display for the user, allowing him to view computer data from any linked system. Because of the transparent screen vision is not obscured while using a DD/R headset. DD/Rs can display data from any system, not just computers – they can display vacc suit oxygen reserves, grav belt status, neural activity scanner results and so forth. Cr5,000.

Data Wafer (TL 10): The principle medium of information storage is the standard data wafer, a rectangle of hardened plastic about the size of a credit card. A TL 10 data wafer is memory diamond, with information encoded in structures of carbon atoms; more advanced wafers use more exotic means of data storage. Cr5.

Specialized Computer: A computer can be designed for a specific purpose, which gives it a Rating of 1 or 2 higher for that program only. The navigation computer on a starship might be only a Model 1, but it could run the Expert Navigation/3 program because it is specially designed for that task. A specialized computer costs 25% more per added Rating. In addition, when working out how many programs the computer can run simultaneously, the program that the computer is specialized for does not count against that total.

Computer Software

A character can use any high-rating software at a lower rating, to a minimum of the lowest rating shown.

Programs above Rating/1 cannot be copied easily, as they require a non-trivial amount of bandwidth to transfer.

Drugs

Medications often supplement the direct medical attention of a trained health professional. The following drugs are commonly encountered in Cepheus Engine campaigns.

Anagathics: Slow the user's aging process. Synthetic anagathics become possible at TL 15, but there are natural spices and other rare compounds that have comparable effects at all Technology Levels. Anagathics are illegal or heavily controlled on many worlds. One dose must be taken each month to maintain the anti-aging effect – if the character taking anagathics misses a dose they must make an immediate roll on the aging table as their body reacts badly to the interrupted supply.

Anti-Radiation Drugs: Must be administered before or immediately after (within ten minutes) radiation exposure. They absorb up to 100 rads per dose. A character may only use anti-rad drugs once per day – taking any more causes permanent Endurance damage of 1D6 per dose.

Combat Drug: This drug increases reaction time and improves the body's ability to cope with trauma, aiding the user in combat. A character using a combat drug adds +4 to his initiative total at the start of combat (or whenever the drug takes effect). He may also dodge once each round with no effect on his initiative score and reduces all damage suffered by two points. The drug kicks in twenty seconds (four rounds) after injection, and lasts around ten minutes. When the drug wears off, the user is fatigued.

Fast Drug: Also known as 'Hibernation', this drug puts the user into a state akin to suspended animation, slowing his metabolic rate down to a ratio of 60 to 1 – a subjective day for the user is actually two months. Fast drug is normally used to prolong life support reserves or as a cheap substitute for a cryoberth.

Medicinal Drugs: These medications include vaccines, antitoxins and antibiotics. They range in cost from Cr5 to 1D6×1,000 Credits, depending on the rarity and complexity of the drug. Medicinal drugs require the Medic skill to use properly – using the wrong drug can be worse than doing nothing. With a successful Medic check the correct drug can counteract most poisons or diseases, or at the very least give a positive DM towards resisting them. If the wrong drug is administered, treat it as a Difficult (–2 DM) poison with a damage of 1D6.

Medicinal Slow: A variant of the slow drug. It can only be applied safely in a medical facility where life-support and cryo-technology is available as it increases the metabolism to around thirty times normal, allowing a patient to undergo a month of healing in a single day.

Metabolic Accelerator: Also known as 'Slow Drug', this drug boosts the user's reaction time to superhuman levels. A character using slow drug in combat adds +8 to his initiative total at the start of combat (or whenever the drug takes effect). He may also dodge up to twice each round with no effect on his initiative score. The drug kicks in 45 seconds (eight rounds) after ingestion or injection and lasts for around ten minutes. When the drug wears off, the user's system crashes. He suffers 2D6 points of damage and is exhausted.

Panaceas: Wide-spectrum medicinal drugs that are specifically designed not to interact harmfully. They can therefore be used on any wound or illness and are guaranteed not to make things worse. A character using panaceas may make a Medic check as if he had Medic 0 when treating an infection or disease.

Stim Drugs: Removes fatigue, at a cost. A character who uses stim may remove the effects of fatigue but suffers one point of damage. If stims are used to remove fatigue again without an intervening period of sleep, the character suffers two points of damage the second time, three points the third time, and so on.

Explosives

The Demolitions skill is used with explosives – the Effect of the Demolitions skill check multiplies the damage, with a minimum of ×1 damage for an Effect of 0 or 1. Explosives are not legally available on any world with a Law Level of 1 or greater.

Plastic: This generic, multi-purpose plastic explosive is a favorite of military units, terrorists, demolition teams and adventurers across known space.

Pocket Nuke: Hideously illegal on many worlds, the pocket nuke is actually the size of a briefcase and so is too large to fit into a grenade launcher.

TDX: An advanced gravity-polarized explosive, TDX explodes only along the horizontal axis.

Personal Devices

Characters often possess any of a number of personal devices, such as those described in this section.

Bioscanner: The bioscanner 'sniffs' for organic molecules and tests chemical samples, analysing the make-up of whatever it is focussed on. It can be used to detect poisons or bacteria, analyse organic matter, search for life signs and classify unfamiliar organisms. The data from a bioscanner can be interpreted using the Comms or the Life Sciences skill.

Densitometer: The remote densitometer uses an object's natural gravity to measure its density, building up a three-dimensional image of the inside and outside of an object.

Electromagnetic Probe: This handy device detects the electromagnetic emissions of technological devices, and can be used as a diagnostic tool when examining equipment (+1 DM to work out what's wrong with it) or when searching for hidden bugs or devices. The Comms skill can be used to sweep a room for bugs.

Hand Calculator: Allows the user to perform mathematical calculations quickly.

Hand Computer: The 'handcomp' provides services of a small computer, plus serves as a computer terminal when linked (by its integral radio, network interface jack, or by other circuit) to a standard computer.

Holographic Projector: A holographic projector is a toaster-sized box that, when activated, creates a three-dimensional image in the space around it or nearby – the range is approximately three meters in all directions. The image can be given pre-programmed animations within a limited range and the projector includes speakers for making sound. The projected holograms are obviously not real so this device is mostly used for communication. The TL 12 version can produce holograms real enough to fool anyone who fails an Intelligence check (made upon first seeing the hologram), at double the cost, and the TL 13 version can produce holograms that are true-to-life images, at ten times the cost.

Inertial Locator: Indicates direction and distance traveled from the starting location.

Magnetic Compass: Indicates direction of magnetic north, if any exists.

Metal Detector: Indicates presence of metal within a 3 meter radius (including underground), with the indicating signal growing stronger as it gets closer to the source.

Neural Activity Sensor (NAS): This device consists of a backpack and detachable handheld unit, and can detect neural activity up to 500 meters away. The device can also give a rough estimation of the intelligence level of organisms based on brainwave patterns. The data from a neural activity scanner can be interpreted using the Comms, the Life Sciences or the Social Sciences skills.

Radiation Counter: Indicates presence and intensity of radioactivity within a 30-meter radius. The indicating signal will grow stronger as it gets closer to the source.

Wrist Watch: Allows the user to tell time. At teck level 9, can be configured to multiple worlds, as well as standard time, and allows the user to configure alarms based on specific times.

Robots and Drones

Robots are iconic to science fiction. This section describes the robots and drones commonly available in a Cepheus Engine campaign. A robot has an Intellect program running, allowing it to make decisions independently, while drones are remote-controlled by a character with the Comms skill.

Robots and drones operate in combat like characters but take damage as if they were vehicles. They have Hull and Structure characteristics instead of an Endurance characteristic, and an Endurance DM of 0. Any robot running an Intellect program has an Intelligence and Education score. Drones have neither. A robot's Education characteristic is representative of the information programmed into it and even low-end robots can have high Education scores. Most robots have Social Standing characteristics of 0 as they are not social creations but there are some exceptions, usually high-end models running advanced Intellect programs. Drones do not have Social Standing but in cases where they are used to engage in diplomacy or other social intercourse the operator can use his own Social Standing score.

Cargo Robot (TL 11): These simple, heavy-duty robots are found in starport docks and on board cargo ships. Cargo drones can be constructed as low as Technology Level 9 but their utility is extremely limited until the invention of Intellect programs.

• Strength 30 (+8), Dexterity 9 (+1), Hull 2, Structure 2
• Intelligence 3 (–1), Education 5 (–1), Social Standing 0 (–3)
• Traits: Armor 8, Huge, Specialized Model 1 computer (running Intellect/1 and Expert (appropriate skill)/1)
• Weapons: Crushing Strength (Natural Weapons, 3D6 damage)
• Price: Cr75,000

Repair Robot (TL 11): Shipboard repair robots are small crab-shaped machines that carry a variety of welding and cutting tools. Specialized repair robots may run Expert Engineering rather than Expert Mechanics.

• Strength 6 (+0), Dexterity 7 (+0), Hull 1, Structure 1
• Intelligence 5 (–1), Education 6 (+0), Social Standing 0 (–3)
• Traits: Integral System (mechanical toolkit), Specialized Model 1 computer (running Intellect/1 and Expert Mechanics/2)
• Weapons: Tools (Natural Weapons, 1D6 damage)
• Price: Cr10,000

Personal Drone (TL 11): This is a small floating globe about thirty centimeters in diameter. It is equipped with holographic projectors which can display the image of a person, allowing a character to have a virtual presence over a great distance.

• Strength 2 (–2), Dexterity 7 (+0), Hull 1, Structure 1
• Traits: Tiny, Integral System (comm, audio/visual), Integral System (grav floater), Integral System (TL 11 holographic projector)
• Price: Cr2,000

Probe Drone (TL 11): A probe drone is a hardened version of a personal remote, armored and carrying more sensor packages. They have an operating range of five hundred kilometers, and can fly at a speed of 300 kph.

• Strength 3 (–1), Dexterity 7 (+0), Hull 3, Structure 3
• Traits: Armor 5, Integral System (comm, audio/visual), Integral System (grav belt), Integral System (TL 11 holographic projector), Integral System (every sensor available at TL 11 and below)
• Price: Cr15,000

Autodoc (TL 12): An autodoc is a specialized, immobile medical robot, which is often installed inside vehicles or spacecraft.

• Strength 6 (+0), Dexterity 15 (+3), Hull 1, Structure 1
• Intelligence 9 (+1), Education 12 (+2), Social Standing 0 (–3)
• Traits: Integral System (TL 12 medikit), Specialized Model 1 computer (running Intellect/1 and Medicine/2)
• Weapons: Surgical Tools (Slashing Weapons, 1D6 damage)
• Price: Cr40,000

Combat Drone (TL 12): Combat drones are little more than flying guns mated to a grav floater and a computer system. The drones must be piloted with the Comms skill but attacks are made using the appropriate weapon skill. Combat drones loaded with Intellect and combat Expert programs (making them autonomous combat robots) are illegal on many worlds.

• Strength 12 (+2), Dexterity 10 (+1), Hull 4, Structure 4
• Traits: Armor 9, Integral System (grav floater), Integral Weapon (any)
• Weapons: Any gun
• Price: Cr90,000, plus the cost of the weapon (the Integral Weapon upgrade is included)

Servitor (TL 13): Servitor robots are expensive humanoid robots who are programmed to act as butlers or servants to the nobility. Some servitor owners reprogram their robots with Expert Carousing or Expert Gambling to better suit their lifestyle.

• Strength 7 (+0), Dexterity 9 (+1), Hull 2, Structure 2
• Intelligence 9 (+1), Education 12 (+2), Social Standing 7 (+0)
• Traits: Computer/3 (running Intellect/1 and Expert Steward/2 – servitors also have Expert Liaison/2 and Translator/1 available should they be necessary)
• Weapons: Robot Punch (Natural Weapons, 1D6 damage)
• Price: Cr120,000

Robot and Drone Options

Armor: Armor can be increased by 5, which increases the drone or robot's cost by 25%.

Integral System: Certain devices can be built into drones or robots by increasing the cost of the device by +50%. Popular choices include toolkits of different kinds, various sensors, or mobility upgrades like thruster packs or grav floaters.

Integral Weapon: Any suitable weapon can be added to a drone or robot, at the cost of Cr10,000 + the cost of the weapon.

Sensory Aids

The following aids provide enhance a character's physical senses.

Binoculars: Allows the user to see further. At TL 8 electronic enhancement allows images to be captured; light-intensification allows them to be used in the dark. Cr750. At TL 12 PRIS (Portable Radiation Imaging System) allows the user to observe a large section of the EM-spectrum, from infrared to gamma rays. Cr3,500.

Cold Light Lantern: A fuel cell powered version of the electric torch, but will last 3 days with continuous use. Produces a wide cone of light up to 18 meters away with a radius of 6 meters at the end of the beam. Also capable of producing a tight beam of light up to 36 meters away with a 1 meter radius or be used to illuminate a 10 meter radius.

Electric Torch: The common flashlight. It is battery powered and will last for about 6 hours of continuous use. A torch produces a wide cone of light up to 18 meters long with a radius of 6 meters at the end of the beam. Later TL models have adjustable beams allowing them to also produce a tight beam of light up to 36 meters long, with a 1 meter radius, or be used to illuminate a circle of 10 meter radius.

Infrared Goggles: Permits the user to see exothermic (heat-emitting) sources in the dark.

Light Intensifier Goggles: Permits the user to see normally in anything less than total darkness by electronically intensifying any available light.

Oil Lamp: A lamp clearly illuminates a 4.5 meter radius, provides shadowy illumination out to a 9 meter radius, and burns for 6 hours on a pint of oil. You can carry a lamp in one hand.

Torch: A torch burns for 1 hour, clearly illuminating a 6 meter radius and providing shadowy illumination out to a 12 meter radius.

Shelters

Whenever characters are not indulging in the creature comforts of civilization, they need shelter, such as the items described in this section.

Advanced Base: Modular pressurized quarters for 6 persons and capable of withstanding anything less than hurricane force winds. Offers excellent shelter from precipitation and all but the most extreme of temperature ranges. Requires 12 man-hours to erect or dismantle. There are 16 modules, each, 1.5m wide by 1.5m long by 2m high that can be organized into any layout required. Dismantled and ready for shipment, the advanced base weighs 6 tons. The cost includes life-support for six people for 7 days.

Basic Life Support Supplies: Basic life support supplies (waste reclamation chemicals, oxygen supply, CO2 scrubbers, etc.) necessary to support one person for one day in an enclosed, pressurized environment, such as a pressure tent or an advanced base.

Pre-Fabricated Cabin: Modular unpressurized quarters for 6 persons and capable of withstanding light to severe winds. Offers excellent shelter from precipitation, storms, and temperatures down to -10º Celsius. Requires 8 man-hours to erect or dismantle. There are 16 modules, each, 1.5m wide by 1.5m long by 2m high that can be organized into any layout required. Dismantled and ready for shipment, the cabin weighs 4 tons.

Pressure Tent: Basic pressurized shelter for two persons, providing standard atmosphere and conditions, along with protection from precipitation, storms, and up to strong winds. There is no airlock: the tent must be depressurized to enter or leave it.

Tarpaulin: A heavy hard-wearing waterproof fabric made of canvas or similar, for outdoor use as a temporary shelter or protective covering against moisture. Measures 4 meters long by 2 meters wide.

Tent: Basic shelter for two persons offering protection from precipitation, storms, and temperatures down to 0º Celsius, and withstanding light to moderate winds. Larger, more elaborate tents capable of sheltering more people, higher winds or colder temperatures weigh and cost more.

Survival Equipment

Survival equipment helps the character stay physically alive and able to take action, even in the most unusual of environments.

Artificial Gill: Extracts oxygen from water to allowing the wearer to breathe for an unlimited time while submerged under water. Functions only on worlds with thin, standard, or dense (type 4 through 9) atmospheres.

Cold Weather Clothing: Protects against frigid weather (-20º Celsius or below). Adds a DM+2 to all Endurance checks made to resist the effects of cold weather exposure. Reduce the weight by 1kg for every 5 TL.

Combination Mask: A combination of both filter mask and respirator, which allows breathing of very thin, tainted atmospheres (type 2), plus all atmospheres listed under filter and respirator masks.

Environment Suit: Designed to protect the wearer from extreme cold or heat, the environment suit has a hood, gloves and boots but leaves the face exposed in normal operations.

Filter Mask: A filter set that allows an individual to breathe tainted atmospheres (types 4, 7, and 9). Also protects against the inhalation of heavy smoke or dust.

Oxygen Tanks: A complete set of compressed oxygen tanks, which allow independent breathing in smoke, dust, gas, or exotic (type A) atmosphere. Two tanks last 6 hours. Refill of proper atmospheric mixture for race cost Cr20.

Portable Generator: This is a heavy-duty portable fusion generator, capable of recharging weapons and other equipment for up to one month of use.

Rescue Bubble: A large (2m diameter) pressurized plastic bubble. Piezoelectric layers in the bubble wall translate the user's movements into electricity to recharge the bubble's batteries and power its distress beacon, and a small oxygen tank both inflates the bubble and provides two person/hours of life support. A self-repairing plastic seal serves as an emergency airlock. Rescue bubbles are found on both space vessels and water craft as emergency lifeboats.

Respirator: A small compressor that allows an individual to breathe in very thin atmospheres (type 3).

Swimming Equipment: Includes swim fins, wet suit, face mask. Protects against the effects of cold (5º Celsius or below), along with improving speed and maneuverability underwater; add DM +1 to all Athletics skill checks in these situations when wearing proper swimming equipment.

Thruster Pack: A simple thruster pack gives the user the ability to maneuver in zero-gravity. A Zero-G check is required to use a thruster pack accurately. Thruster packs can only be used in microgravity environments and are only practical for journeys between spacecraft at Adjacent range.

Underwater Air Tanks: Equivalent to oxygen tanks but designed for use underwater. Two tanks last 6 hours. Refill of proper atmospheric mixture for race and expected depth cost Cr20.

Tools

Technical skills require specialist tools of various kinds.

Electronics Toolkit: Required for electrical repairs and installations. This kit contains diagnostic sensors, hand tools, computer analysis programs (at appropriate tech levels) and spare parts.

Engineering Toolkit: Required for performing repairs and installing new equipment. This kit contains diagnostic sensors, hand tools, computer analysis programs (at appropriate tech levels) and spare parts.

Forensics Toolkit: Required for investigating crime scenes and testing samples. This kit contains diagnostic sensors, hand tools, computer analysis programs (at appropriate tech levels) and spare parts.

Lock Pick Set: Allows picking of ordinary mechanical locks. Lock pick sets are illegal on worlds of law level 8+; on such worlds the cost rises to Cr100 or more.

Mechanical Toolkit: Required for repairs and construction. This kit contains diagnostic sensors, hand tools, computer analysis programs (at appropriate tech levels) and spare parts.

Medical Kit: This medical kit contains diagnostic devices and scanners, surgical tools and a plethora of drugs and antibiotics, allowing a medic to practice his art in the field.

Scientific Toolkit: Required for scientific testing and analysis. This kit contains diagnostic sensors, hand tools, computer analysis programs (at appropriate tech levels) and spare parts.

Surveying Toolkit: Required for planetary surveys or mapping. This kit contains diagnostic sensors, hand tools, computer analysis programs (at appropriate tech levels) and spare parts.

Vehicles

In classic science fiction, characters rarely travel on foot. Vehicles play a big role in Cepheus Engine games. All vehicles have the following traits:

TL: The lowest Technology Level that the vehicle is available at.

Skill: The skill used to drive or pilot the vehicle.

Agility (Agi): How easy the vehicle is to drive, expressed as a DM to the pilot's skill check.

Speed (Spd): The vehicle's maximum speed.

Crew and Passengers (C&P): How many people the vehicle can carry.

Open/Closed (O/C): If the vehicle is open or closed.

Armor: How much armor the vehicle has. Damage sustained by a vehicle is reduced by its armor.

Hull: The number of hits the vehicle can sustain to its Hull before being disabled.

Structure (Struc): The number of hits the vehicle can sustain to its Structure before being destroyed.

Weapons (Wpns): What weapons the vehicle has, if any, and what fire arcs they are in.

Cost: How much the vehicle costs.

AFV: A heavily armored ATV, known as an Armored Fighting Vehicle, equipped with a triple laser turret. The lasers use the Energy Rifle skill, do 4D6 damage each using the Ranged (rifle) range modifiers, and one, two or three may be fired at the same target with one attack action.

Air/Raft: An open-topped vehicle supported by anti-gravity technology. Air/rafts can even reach orbit (taking a number of hours equal to the world's Size code) but passengers at that altitude must wear vacc suits. They are ubiquitous, remarkably reliable and flexible vehicles.

ATV: An enclosed, pressurized all-terrain ground vehicle. The vehicle is capable of floating on calm water, and has a suite of built-in sensors and communications equipment (usually a laser transceiver) making it ideal for exploration. An ATV has a hardpoint for a turret, but does not come with a weapon normally.

Biplane Aircraft: A primitive form of aircraft with two pairs of wings, one above the other. This vehicle can only transport 100kg of cargo.

Destroyer: A fast maneuverable long-endurance watercraft built for military action, intended to escort larger watercraft in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller powerful short-range attackers. Powered by a fusion power plant, the destroyer carries deck-mounted turrets capable of firing major. Cargo capacity is limited to 40 tons, mostly used to carry ammunition.

G/Carrier: A grav carrier is effectively a flying tank, and is the standard fighting vehicle of many military forces. The turret-mounted fusion gun is a vehicle-mounted version of the TL 15 FGMP and uses the same 'serious firepower' rules. Advanced containment systems mean that it does not leak radiation with each shot in the same way as the man-portable version. Like the air/raft, the G/Carrier can reach orbit (taking a number of hours equal to the world's Size code).

Grav Belt: A grav belt resembles a parachute harness, and is fitted with artificial gravity modules allowing the wearer to fly. The internal battery can operate for a maximum of four hours before needing to be recharged. At TL 15, the battery can operate for 12 hours before charging. Options cannot be added to the grav belt.

Grav Floater: A grav floater is a forerunner of the grav belt, a platform upon which a single person can stand and be carried along. It cannot achieve any great speed but can, like an air/raft, achieve any altitude up to orbit (taking a number of hours equal to the world's Size code).

Ground Car: A ground car is a conventional wheeled automobile.

Helicopter: An aircraft that derives both lift and propulsion from one or more sets of horizontally revolving overhead rotors. It is capable of moving vertically and horizontally, the direction of motion being controlled by the pitch of the rotor blades. The helicopter can carry 500 kg of cargo.

Hovercraft: A vehicle that travels over land or water on a cushion of air provided by a downward blast, the hovercraft is only usable on words with a Thin atmosphere or thicker. The hovercraft has 3 tons of cargo space.

Motor Boat: Watercraft using hydrofoils to achieve exceptional speed and performance. The hold of the vehicle can accommodate 10 tons of cargo.

Small Steamship: A watercraft that is propelled by a steam engine. The steamship has a cargo capacity of 50 tons.

Speeder: Capable of high speed transit across a planetary surface, the speeder is a streamlined grav vehicle with a limited cargo capacity of 100kg. This vehicle only takes an hour to reach orbit.

Submersible: A watercraft designed to operate under an ocean's surface. Submersibles are often used as transport between domed cities on waterworlds and other planets with large fluid oceans. The submersible can carry 30 tons of cargo.

Twin Jet Aircraft: A fixed-wing aircraft propelled by jet engines, often used to transport cargo. The hold has a cargo capacity of 5 tons.

Vehicle Options

With the exception of on-board computer, each of these options can only be taken once on a given vehicle.

Autopilot (TL 11): An autopilot has a Model 1 computer specialized to run Intellect/1 and an Expert/1 in an appropriate skill and specialty. This will be in addition to any other computers installed. An autopilot is often mandatory on cheaper commercial models. In many areas (primarily urban) they are required to be in use. Higher Law Level polities may require a slave modification to the autopilot for centralized and/or emergency traffic control. Cr3,000.

Enclosed: This modification turns an open vehicle into a closed one. It costs 10% of the base cost of the vehicle, reduces Agility by 1 and top speed by 10%.

Extended Life Support: A vehicle which is sealed can be equipped for extended life support, which increases the duration to 18 hours per person. Costs another 10% of the base cost of the vehicle.

Heavy Armor: Increasing the armor of a vehicle by 5 adds 25% to the cost of the vehicle.

High Performance: A vehicle can be made into a high-performance vehicle, increasing its top speed by 20%. The vehicle costs 50% more.

On-board Computer: Adding an on-board computer costs the same as a hand computer.

Sealed: This option can be added to any closed vehicle (it is included in the ATV, AFV, G/Carrier and Speeder). The vehicle can be sealed and provides life support for its passengers and crew for two hours per person. This option adds 20% to the cost of the vehicle.

Style: Allows a vehicle to be customized to the buyer's wishes. Costs Cr200 to Cr2,000.

Weapons

A small selection of the weaponry available in a Cepheus Engine campaign can be found in the tables below. The Law Level of a world will limit the availability of certain weapons.

Melee Weapons

A number of melee weapons are described in the Common Personal Melee Weapons table. Each column is described as follows:

Cost: Price in Credits (Cr) or 1000s of Credits (KCr).

TL: The minimum tech level required to manufacture such an item.

Wgt: Weight in grams (g) or kilograms (kg).

Range: The range category for this weapon.

Damage: The damage a weapon inflicts.

Type: Type of damage inflicted – (B)ludgeoning, (E)nergy, (P)iercing or (S)lashing.

LL: The Law Level where the weapon first becomes illegal.

Common Personal Melee Weapons

Bayonet: A small knife-like weapon similar to a dagger, frequently attached to a rifle. When not attached to a rifle, the bayonet performs as a dagger.

Blade: A hybrid knife weapon with a heavy, flat two-edged blade nearly 300mm in length, and (often, but not always) a semi-basket handguard. Because of the bulk of the handguard, it is generally carried in a belt scabbard. Blades are as much survival tools as weapons, and are often found in emergency kits, lifeboats etc.

Broadsword: The largest of the sword weapons, also called the two-handed sword because it requires both hands to swing. The blade is extremely heavy, two-edged, and about 1000 to 1200mm in length. The hilt is relatively simple, generally a cross-piece only, with little basketwork or protection. When carried, the broadsword is worn in a metal scabbard attached to the belt; less frequently, the scabbard is worn on the back, and the broadsword is drawn over the shoulder.

Cudgel: A basic stick used as a weapon. Easily obtained from standing trees or through the use of an unloaded long gun such as a rifle or carbine (laser weapons are too delicate to be used as cudgels). Length: 1000 to 2000mm.

Cutlass: A heavy, flat-bladed, single-edged weapon featuring a full basket hilt to protect the hand. The cutlass is the standard shipboard blade weapon and sometimes kept in lockers on the bulkhead near important locations; when worn, a belt scabbard is used. Blade length varies from 600 to 900mm.

Dagger: A small knife weapon with a flat, two-edged blade approximately 200mm in length. Daggers are usually carried in a belt sheath, or less frequently concealed in a boot sheath or strapped to the forearm. Daggers are usually as much a tool as a last-resort weapon of defense, and worn constantly. Each weighs 250 grams; that weight, however, does not count against the weight load of the character as the weapon is worn constantly and comfortably.

Foil: Also known as the rapier, this weapon is a light, sword-like weapon with a pointed, edged blade 800mm in length, and a basket or cup hilt to protect the hand. Foils are worn in scabbards attached to the belt.

Halberd: A two-handed pole weapon having an axe-like blade and a steel spike mounted on the end of a long shaft. Length: 2500mm.

Pike: A two-handed weapon with a pointed steel or iron head on a long wooden shaft. Length: 3000 to 4000mm.

Spear: A weapon with a long shaft and a pointed tip, typically of metal, used for thrusting or throwing. Length: 3000mm.

Sword: The standard long-edged weapon, featuring a flat, two-edged blade. It may or may not have a basket hilt or hand protector. A scabbard to carry the sword may be attached to the belt, or to straps (or a sash) over the shoulder. Blade length may vary from 700 to 950mm.

Ranged Weapons

Common Personal Ranged Weapons

The Common Personal Ranged Weapons table lists the ranged weapons commonly available in a Cepheus Engine campaign. Each column is described as follows:

Cost: Price in Credits (Cr) or 1000s of Credits (KCr).

TL: The minimum tech level required to manufacture such an item.

Wgt: Weight in grams (g) or kilograms (kg).

RoF: Rate of Fire. The number of rounds that may be fired during a significant action in the format: Single Shot / Burst Shot / Automatic Fire.

Range: The range category for this weapon.

Dmg: The damage a weapon inflicts.

Type: Type of damage inflicted – (B)ludgeoning, (E)nergy, (P)iercing or (S)lashing.

Recoil: Lists if the weapon has recoil when fired.

LL: The Law Level where the weapon first becomes illegal.

Common Ranged Ammunition

The Common Ranged Ammunition table describes the cost of ammunitions and power packs for certain ranged weapons. Each column is described as follows:

Cost: The cost of a full magazine of standard ammunition or power pack for a weapon.

TL: The minimum tech level required to manufacture such an item.

Wgt: The weight of a full magazine or power pack for a weapon.

Rounds: The number of rounds the weapon may fire before it must be reloaded or recharged.

Accelerator Rifle: Designed specifically for zero-g combat, the accelerator rifle fires a specially designed round which upon leaving the barrel is accelerated by a secondary propelling charge. Normally the rifle fires bursts of three rounds per pull of the trigger, but may be adjusted to fire single rounds.

Advanced Combat Rifle (ACR): A progressive development of the assault rifle.

Assault Rifle: A lighter and less expensive version of the automatic rifle.

Automatic Rifle: A highly refined and tuned version of the rifle, capable of full automatic fire as well as semi-automatic shots. Normally, the automatic rifle fires bursts of four bullets for each pull of the trigger. It may be switched to semi-automatic fire at the end of a combat round, after all firing, in which case it is treated as a rifle until switched back to burst mode. Ammunition and magazines are identical to those used for the rifle.

Auto Pistol: Also referred to as a Semi-Automatic Pistol, Automatic Pistol or just a Pistol, the auto pistol is a basic repeating handgun. One cartridge is fired for each pull of the trigger. Auto pistol ammunition is interchangeable with submachinegun ammunition (although magazines are not). Preloaded magazines may be inserted into an empty pistol, but require a reload action to complete.

Body Pistol: A small, non-metallic semiautomatic pistol designed to evade detection by most weapon detectors. One cartridge is fired for each pull of the trigger. Pre-loaded magazines may be inserted into the pistol when it is empty, requiring a reload action to do so. Body pistol ammunition is not interchangeable with the ammunition for any other types of guns.

Bow: A stout but supple piece of wood carved to a specific shape and strung with a piece of cord, string or gut to increase tension. The string is pulled back and released to hurl an arrow long distances with surprising force. At higher technology levels, bows are modified with additional strings and pulley systems to add accuracy and power.

Carbine: A short type of rifle firing a small caliber round. A magazine containing ten rounds is inserted into the underside of the carbine ahead of the trigger guard or behind the handgrip (this configuration is referred to as "Bullpup", and in some localities carbines may be referred to as Bullpups), and one round is fired with each pull of the trigger. Replacement of an empty magazine takes a reload action. Carbine ammunition is not interchangeable with any other type of ammunition. In essence, a carbine is a short rifle, firing a cartridge of smaller, lighter caliber. A sling usually allows the carbine to be carried on the shoulder, out of the way.

Crossbow: A horizontal bow set into a mechanical firing mechanism and stronger-than-normal pull, crossbows are very powerful weapons that are very time consuming to reload. At higher technology levels, crossbows are built with crank and pulley systems that make the weapons easier to reload, even self-loading at TL9. Reloading a TL2 crossbow takes 6 minor actions, at TL4 this is reduced to 3 minor actions.

Gauss Rifle: The ultimate development of the slug thrower, the gauss rifle generates an electromagnetic field along the length of the barrel which accelerates a bullet to high velocities. The round itself consists of a dense armor piercing core surrounded by a softer metal covering, ending in a hollow point, giving the round excellent stopping power and good armor penetration.

Laser Carbine: A lightweight version of the laser rifle, firing high energy bolts using current from a backpack battery/power pack. The laser carbine fires a 2mm beam of energy, aimed by integrated optic sights. The power pack is capable of producing 50 shots before it requires recharging. Recharging requires at least eight hours connected to a high-energy source. The laser carbine is connected to the power pack by a heavy-duty cable.

Laser Pistol: A pistol equivalent of the laser carbine, though still dependent on an external power pack.

Laser Rifle: The standard high energy weapon, firing energy bolts in the same manner as the laser carbine. Heavier, the laser rifle is also capable of longer sustained action, and is somewhat sturdier. The power pack can provide 100 shots before recharging. As in the laser carbine, the laser rifle is connected to the power pack by a heavy-duty cable. Power packs are not interchangeable between the two weapons, however.

Revolver: An early handgun, the revolver fires 9mm bullets with characteristics similar to those used by the automatic pistol but not interchangeable with them. No magazine is used: six cartridges are inserted into the revolver individually. Reloading takes two combat rounds, or one combat round if the individual foregoes the benefit of evasion.

Rifle: The standard military arm, firing a 7mm, 10 gram bullet at a velocity of approximately 900 meters per second. Longer and heavier than a carbine, it is also more effective. Standard equipment includes provisions for attaching a bayonet and telescopic sights, and a shoulder sling. A twenty-round magazine is attached to the front of the trigger guard, and one round is fired with each pull of the trigger. Replacement of the empty magazine requires a reload action. Rifle ammunition may also be used in automatic rifles; rifle and auto rifle magazines are interchangeable, and weigh the same.

Shotgun: The basic weapon for maximum shock effect without regard to accuracy. The shotgun has an 18mm diameter barrel and fires shells containing either six 7mm bullets, or one hundred and thirty 3mm pellets. In each case, the projectiles weigh a total of 30 grams. Velocity for the projectiles is about 350 meters per second. A cylindrical magazine containing 10 shells is inserted under the barrel and parallel to it; cartridges are then fed automatically into the shotgun for firing. Reloading consists of replacing the cylindrical magazine and takes two combat rounds. One shot is fired for each pull of the trigger. Magazines measure approximately 350mm long by 20mm in diameter and are quite clumsy to carry. Shotguns are equipped with a sling for carrying.

Snub Pistol: A low velocity revolver designed for use shipboard and in zero-g environments.

Submachinegun (SMG): A small automatic weapon designed to fire pistol ammunition. Magazines holding 30 cartridges are inserted into the weapon forward of the trigger guard or in the pistol grip, depending on the design. The gun fires a burst of four rounds per pull of the trigger. Replacement of an empty magazine requires one combat round. Submachinegun ammunition (but not magazines) is interchangeable with autopistol ammunition. Most submachineguns are equipped with slings for ease of carrying. Some are small enough to be carried in a shoulder or hip holster.

Ranged Weapon Options

The following options are generally available for certain ranged weapons.

Folding Stocks: Carbines, rifles, and shotguns can be equipped with folding stocks which make it possible to reduce the overall length of the weapon by 300mm.

Grenade Launcher: An underslung RAM grenade launcher can be added to any rifle. This grenade launcher has a magazine of one grenade, cannot fire on automatic and takes four minor actions to reload.

Gyrostabilizer: Stabilizers can be added to any weapon with recoil, reducing the recoil penalty by one point (to DM-1).

Intelligent Weapon: This adds a Model/ 0 computer to any weapon. The TL 13 upgrade adds Model /1 to any weapon, for Cr5,000.

Laser Sight: Integrated optics and laser sights give an extra +1 DM bonus to any attack that has been aimed. At TL 10, x-ray lasers and improved display technology removes the tell-tale 'red dot' of a vislight laser. Cr200.

Laser Telescopic Sights: Electronic sights combining the capabilities of both electronic and telescopic sights. They are still rather fragile.

Secure Weapon: A secure weapon requires authentication in some fashion (scanning the user's DNA or iris patterns, entering a password, transmission of an unlocking code from a comm) before it can be fired.

Shoulder Stocks: It is possible to produce a shoulder stock which may be attached temporarily to a pistol or revolver, resulting in a crude carbine arrangement and some greater accuracy at longer ranges. When firing a pistol or revolver equipped with such a stock, treat the weapon as ranged (shotgun). The overall length of the pistol is increased by the length of the stock, and the pistol cannot be holstered. Attaching the stock (or detaching it) requires five combat rounds.

Silencer: A silencer can be added to any slug thrower with ROF 4 or less, masking the sound produced by firing. (–4 DM to detect.)

Telescopic Sights: High-quality telescopic sights for attachment to weapons, for increasing their accuracy, especially at longer ranges. A weapon equipped with such sights gains an extra +1 DM bonus to any attack that has been aimed. Telescopic sights are delicate, however, and may be jarred out of alignment by any violent action (such as being left untended in a moving truck, a close explosion, or being dropped) on an 8+ on 2D6. When the sights go out of adjustment, the firer will always miss.

Grenades

A grenade is a small explosive device designed to be thrown by hand (treat as Ranged (thrown) for Difficulty by range) or launched from a grenade launcher (treat as Ranged (shotgun) for Difficulty by range). A number of grenades are described in the Common Grenades table. Each column is described as follows:

Cost: Price in Credits (Cr) for a case of six grenades.

TL: The minimum tech level required to manufacture such an item.

Wgt: Weight per grenade in grams (g) or kilograms (kg).

Damage: The damage a weapon inflicts.

LL: The Law Level where the weapon first becomes illegal.

Aerosol: Aerosol grenades create a fine mist six meters in radius that diffuses lasers but does not block normal vision. Any laser attack made through the mist has its damage reduced by 10. Laser communications through the mist are completely blocked. The mist dissipates in 1D6×3 rounds, although high winds and other extreme weather can sharply reduce this time.

Frag: The damage from fragmentation grenades decreases with distance from the blast:

Smoke: Smoke grenades create a thick cloud of smoke six meters in radius, centered on the location of the grenade. This smoke imposes a –2 DM on all attacks within or through the cloud (doubled for laser weapons). Smoke dissipates in 1D6×3 rounds, although high winds and other extreme weather can sharply reduce this time.

Stun: Stun weapons, such as stun grenades, are non-lethal and do not inflict normal damage. A character within six meters of a stun grenade detonation must make an Endurance check with a negative DM equal to the damage (after armor is subtracted). If this Endurance check is failed the character is knocked unconscious. If the Endurance check is successful, the character is unaffected by the weapon and the stun damage is ignored.

Heavy Weapons

Common Heavy Weapons

Heavy weapons are man-portable and larger weapons that cause extreme property damage. Common Heavy Weapons table lists the heavy weapons commonly available in a Cepheus Engine campaign. Each column is described as follows:

Cost: Price in Credits (Cr) or 1000s of Credits (KCr).

TL: The minimum tech level required to manufacture such an item.

Wgt: Weight in grams (g) or kilograms (kg).

RoF: Rate of Fire. The number of rounds that may be fired during a significant action in the format: Single Shot / Auto

Range: The range category for this weapon.

Damage: The damage a weapon inflicts.

Recoil: Lists if the weapon has recoil when fired.

LL: The Law Level where the weapon first becomes illegal.

Common Heavy Weapon Ammunition

The Common Heavy Weapons Ammunition table describes the cost of ammunitions and power packs for certain heavy weapons. Each column is described as follows:

Cost: The cost of a full magazine of standard ammunition or power pack for a weapon

TL: The minimum tech level required to manufacture such an item.

Wgt: The weight of a full magazine or power pack for a weapon.

Rounds: The number of rounds the weapon may fire before it must be reloaded or recharged.

FGMP (Fusion Gun, Man-Portable): It includes a gravity suspension system to reduce its inertia, making it easier to use than the PGMP (minimum Strength 9) and fires what amounts to a directed nuclear explosion. Those without radiation protection who are nearby when a FGMP is fired will suffer a lethal dose of radiation – each firing of an FGMP emits 2D6 x 20 rads, which will affect everyone within the immediate vicinity.

Grenade Launcher: Grenade launchers are used to fire grenades over long distances. Grenades for a grenade launcher are not interchangeable with handheld grenades.

PGMP (Plasma Gun, Man-Portable): It is so heavy and bulky that it can only be used easily by a trooper with a Strength of 12 or more – usually attained by wearing battle dress. Every point by which a user's Strength falls short is a –1 DM on any attack rolls made with it.

RAM Grenade Launcher: Rocket Assisted Multi-purpose grenade launchers have a longer range and are capable of firing up to three grenades with a single attack. This uses the rules for firing on full auto; unlike other automatic weapons, a RAM grenade launcher cannot fire in burst mode. It takes two minor actions to reload a RAM grenade launcher. Grenades for a RAM grenade launcher are not interchangeable with handheld grenades.

Rocket Launcher: To counteract the recoil of the weapon, a rocket launcher channels exhaust backwards in an explosive back blast. Anyone up to 1.5 meters behind a rocket launcher when it fires takes 3D6 damage from the burning gasses. Vehicle-mounted rocket launchers lose this side-effect as a vehicle is a more stable firing platform than a person. It takes three minor actions to reload a rocket launcher.

The rockets presented are high-explosive models. Do not add the Effect of the attack roll to their damage but apply that damage to everything within six meters of the impact point. A rocket that misses has a 50% chance (4+ on 1D6) of detonating upon impact with the ground (6 – Effect meters away in a random direction). Otherwise it will miss completely and leave the battlefield without striking anything or detonating.

Chapter 5: Personal Combat

Personal combat is a common means of resolving conflicts. This chapter provides detailed rules for personal combat.

Personal Combat Checklist

Personal combat in the Cepheus Engine is cyclical. Everybody acts in turn in a regular cycle called a round. Generally, combat runs in the following way:

1. The Referee determines which characters are aware of their opponents at the start of the battle. If some but not all combatants are aware of their opponents, the combatants that are aware of their opponents are considered to get an automatic 12 on their initiative roll, giving them an Initiative of 12 + Dexterity DM.
2. Any remaining combatants roll initiative. All combatants are now ready to begin their first round of combat.
3. Combatants act in initiative order.
4. When everyone has had a turn, the combatant with the highest initiative total acts again, and steps 4 and 5 repeat until combat ends.

Range

Personal combat is divided into a series of range bands. These are identified in the Personal Combat Range Bands table.

The Difficulty of any attack is based on the weapon type and the range of the attack, as per the Attack Difficulties by Weapon Type table.

Starting Range

When a combat begins, the Referee must decide the starting range that separates the groups of combatants. For combat in tight quarters, such as inside an office complex or starship, or within an underground tunnel system, the starting range is usually Short. The range for outdoor encounters is usually Medium, although open areas such as prairies, deserts, open roads and ocean surfaces make it easier to see at a distance, so Long or even Very Long range would not be inappropriate. Total darkness reduces starting range to Short or less. Partial darkness restricts starting range to Medium or less.

Initiative

If the combatants are all unprepared for combat, then each rolls 2D6 and adds their Dexterity DM to determine starting Initiative. Initiative determines the order that characters act in, but it can also be spent to react to events. If some of the combatants are ready for combat and some are not, such as in an ambush, the prepared characters are considered to get an automatic 12 on their roll, giving them an Initiative of 12 + Dexterity DM. Characters that are aware of a group, and that group is unaware of them, may elect to avoid conflict entirely.

Characters that have the Tactics skill may make a Tactics check and add the Effect of this check to the Initiative of everyone in their unit with whom they are in direct communication.

The Combat Round

Each combat round lasts around six seconds of game time. In a combat round each character gets a minor action and a significant action. Actions are taken in descending order of Initiative. If two characters have the same Initiative, the character with the highest Dexterity goes first. If they are still tied, then characters act simultaneously. When a character acts, he takes all his actions at once.

Once everyone has acted a combat round is over and a new round begins. Initiative is not re-rolled but is dynamic, and may be adjusted up and down by actions taken during a round.

Dynamic Initiative

During the course of a round a character's Initiative score may be changed by reactions and hastening. Any changes affect your Initiative for one round only – either the current round if you have yet to act or the following round if you have acted already. Reactions reduce your Initiative in order to allow you to defend yourself from attacks. Hastening your action lets you act sooner but at a penalty to your roll.

At the start of each combat round a character may declare that he is acting hastily. This gives him a +2 bonus to his Initiative for that round only but all his actions receive a –1 DM. A character can only hasten once.

Minor Actions

Minor actions are actions intended to move a distance or to manipulate or move an object. You can take up to three minor actions per round, at the loss of a significant action.

Aiming

A character that spends a minor action aiming at a target gets a +1 DM to his next attack on the target, as long as the character does nothing except aim until he makes his attack. A character may spend multiple actions on aiming, gaining a maximum aiming DM of +6 if he spends six minor actions on aiming.

Aiming for the Kill

Specifically aiming for a kill works exactly like regular Aiming, but does not add to the character's DM to hit the target. Instead, the character gains a bonus of +2 to his damage equal to the number of minor actions he spends Aiming for the Kill. He cannot dodge, duck, or move while aiming. He also loses his Aim bonus if hit or distracted. The maximum bonus obtainable from Aiming for the Kill is +6.

Changing Stance

A character can change to any one of the three stances – prone, crouched or standing – as a minor action.

Drawing and Reloading

The time taken to draw a weapon depends on its size and ease of use. The number of minor actions to ready or reload a weapon is listed in the description of each weapon. Most weapons take one minor action to draw and another minor action to reload, but some weapons are especially fast or slow.

Movement

The character moves up to six meters. When using a square grid for modelling the combat, each square should measure 1.5 meters to the side. This means that the average character moves four squares on his turn. Difficult terrain, such as rubble, mud or thick under-brush can halve a character's movement, allowing him to move only three meters per movement action. Crouching also halves movement.

Miscellaneous

The Referee may permit a character to perform a skill check or other action as a minor action if the use of the skill does not require the character's full attention or complex physical actions.

Significant Actions

Significant actions are intended to do something within about 3 seconds. You can perform a single significant action per round, or forego it to perform a total of three minor actions.

Minor Actions

A character can take two minor actions instead of a significant action.

Miscellaneous

A character may make a skill check or do something else as a significant action when such an action requires the character's full attention, concentration, complicated physical actions or some combination thereof. Any skill check with a time interval of 1-6 seconds is simply considered a significant action during combat.

Attack

The most common significant action is an attack. The basic attack action is trying to injure a foe with a melee attack or a ranged weapon. The attacker declares his target, and the foe may choose to react. The attacker then makes a skill check, and if successful, deals damage to his target. The actual Difficulty of this skill check is determined using the weapon type and the range of the attack, as given earlier in this chapter under Range.

The standard skill checks used in making an attack are:

Melee Attack: 2D6 + appropriate melee combat skill + Strength or Dexterity DM (attacker's choice)

Shooting Attack: 2D6 + appropriate gun combat skill + Dexterity DM

Thrown Attack: 2D6 + Athletics + Dexterity DM

Coup de Grace

A character can use a melee weapon to deliver a coup de grace to a helpless opponent that is within close range. They can also use a ranged weapon to do so, provided they are adjacent to the target. The attack automatically hit and the opponent dies.

Reactions

Reactions are actions taken immediately in response to the action of another. The more time a character spends reacting, the longer it will be until he acts himself. Each reaction lowers Initiative by 2 and applies a –1 DM to all skill checks until the following round. There is no limit to how many times a character can react in a round but a character can only react once to each attack and the penalties from reacting are cumulative.

A character can only react to attacks that he is aware of.

Dodging

A character who is being attacked may dodge, giving his attacker a –1 DM and giving himself a –1 DM on all skill checks until the next round. If the character is in cover or has an obstruction to duck or dodge behind, the DM to hit him is increased to –2.

Parrying

A character who is being attacked in melee can parry, applying his Melee skill as a negative DM equal to the attack roll. A parrying character also has a –1 DM on all skill checks until the next round.

Other Actions

Other types of action can take place during personal combat.

Free Actions

Some actions are so fast they do not even qualify as a minor action – shouting a warning, pushing a button, checking your watch, and so on. A character can perform as many of these free actions as he likes in a turn, although if he performs several the Referee may require him to spend a minor or even a significant action on his various tasks.

Extended Actions

Some skill checks will take longer than a single combat round to complete. Make a Timing roll for the task and then work out how many six second combat rounds it will take to complete. A character engaging in an extended action cannot do anything else but can abandon their action at any time and return to the normal Initiative order. A character who is hit by an attack while undertaking an extended action must make an 8+ roll using the skill in question with a negative DM equal to the amount of damage the attack causes (after armor). Failure indicates that this round's work does not count towards the completion of the task. Failure by six or more (an Exceptional Failure) ruins the task and the character must start again.

Delay

A character does not have to act when his turn comes up in the Initiative order. He may act at any later point during the round, even interrupting another's actions to do so. When he acts, his Initiative is set to the count on which he acted. If the character has not acted by the end of the round he may choose to act first in the next round, effectively giving up his actions in the previous round in exchange for an Initiative advantage. His new Initiative is set to one higher than that of the current first person in the order. When multiple characters are delaying and all wish to act first in the following round, their Initiatives are all set to the same score and they act in Dexterity order as normal.

Special Considerations

The following are special considerations in Personal Combat.

Battlefield Comms

Communications technology is a vital part of the battlefield. If a character is not in communication with the rest of his unit and his commander, then he cannot benefit from Tactics or Leadership. Characters that benefitted from Tactics at the start of combat and are later cut off from their commander have their Initiative lowered by the same amount it was boosted at the start of combat. Unlike other Initiative modifications, this lasts until combat ends or communication is re-established. There are several methods of communication:

Direct: This covers hand signals and verbal communications.

Hardlinks: Hardlinks are wires or other physical connections, and cannot be jammed.

Radio: Radio communications allow communications as long as the radio signal can get through – they can be jammed or blocked by local conditions.

Laser: Two characters with tight beam lasers are in communication as long as line of sight exists between a character and another friendly laser-comm equipped character.

Masers: These work just like lasers, but can cut through smoke and aerosols.

Meson: Meson communicators cannot be jammed or blocked, but cannot be used while a character is moving.

Battlefield Conditions

Certain battlefield conditions affect ranged attacks:

Darkness: Low light gives a –1 DM to ranged attacks. Complete darkness gives a –4 DM. Light penalties can be avoided by using sensors to target instead of the naked eye.

Smoke or Fog: Smoke gives a –1 DM to ranged attacks by obscuring the target; especially thick and impenetrable smoke gives a –2 DM. These penalties are doubled for laser weapons.

Extreme Weather: Driving wind, rain, snowstorms and so forth give a –1 DM to ranged attacks from poor visibility and a –1 DM to ranged attacks from environmental interference. Sensors can be used to avoid the visibility penalty.

Battlefield Sensors

There are several types of sensors.

Bioscanner: Bioscanner 'sniffers' detect airborne pathogens and hazardous chemicals.

Infra-Red (Heat): Infra-red sensors detect warm bodies, and negate concealment from smoke and soft cover, but can be jammed by strong heat sources.

Densitometer: An outgrowth of gravitic technology, a densitometer can scan an area and plot variable densities, effectively creating a three-dimensional map of all objects.

Electromagnetic Detectors: These sensors can detect unshielded high-power electrical devices, such as gauss weapons or transmitters.

Laser-Assisted Targeting: A low-powered laser is reflected off the target, giving targeting data to the firer.

Light Intensification: Light intensification technology magnifies visible light, negating the penalties for darkness or low light.

Motion Sensors: Can detect motion within range.

Neural Activity Sensor (NAS): A combination of highly sensitive EM-detectors and psionic theory, NAS detectors pick up on the brain activity of living beings and classify them according to amount and complexity, giving a rough idea of the intelligence of subjects.

Blind Firing

Blind firing works exactly like any other form of firing (including automatic), but it always treats the firer as having Level 0 in that weapon's relative skill. Additionally an extra die is thrown when firing, but before any calculations are made the highest die (or one of the highest, in case of a tie) is removed completely. Any successful attack(s) needs to then have a die rolled to randomly choose which eligible target in the firing line is hit – whether friend or foe.

Burst Fire

Weapons that fire a burst of 2, 3, 4, 10, 20, or 100 rounds may improve the attacker's odds of either hitting a target or inflict additional damage. The attacker must decide whether to spray the target, increasing the chances of scoring a hit, or to fire a precise, grouped burst in the hope of inflicting greater damage. Either sort of burst fire is considered a significant action.

Cover

Any sort of low wall, undergrowth, convenient rocks or other objects can serve as cover. Attacks made on characters who are behind cover suffer the negative cover DM on the Cover Modifiers table below. Crouching or prone targets can claim cover one step higher on the table. If a character in full cover is crouching or prone they are impossible to hit but cannot return fire.

Explosions

Grenades, rockets and other explosives affect an area. A character caught in an explosion may dodge at the usual Initiative cost. A character that dodges an explosion may reduce the damage by 1D6 if he just dodges or by half if he dives for cover. A character that dives for cover ends up prone and loses his next significant action.

Extreme Range Firing

Any weapon that has the ability to fire into the Distant range band (including ranged(Rifle), ranged(Assault Weapon) and ranged(Rocket) attacks) can potentially strike targets even beyond, so long as the firer can see the target. Weapons fired at this extreme range do so using the modifiers for Distant range with an additional DM of –2. Only characters with at least three levels of skill in the weapon may fire at extreme range. To fire at extreme range, characters must be stationary and prepared to fire from some kind of rest (tripod, tree limb, bunker embrasure and so on). Vehicles must be stationary for weapons to be fired at extreme range from it. Energy-based weapons (lasers, PGMPs, and so on) inflict half damage (round up) at this extreme range.

This can be combined with Aiming for the Kill (above).

Fighting in Zero Gravity

When fighting in zero gravity, a character's skill levels are limited to lower of the character's Zero-G skill and the appropriate combat skill. For example, if a character has Laser Pistol-2 and Zero-G-1, then the character shoots with an effective skill level of 1, since his Zero-G skill level is lower than his Laser Pistol skill level. Characters without Zero-G skill are treated as unskilled in their attack, because of the disorientation. In addition, characters using weapons with recoil suffer a DM -2 on attack rolls when fighting in zero gravity conditions.

Firing into Combat

If a character is firing a weapon at a target that is at Personal range to another combatant, then the attack suffers a –2 DM. If the attack misses, roll 1D6. On a 4+, the attack hits the nearest other combatant to the original target.

Grappling

A character can attempt to wrestle or grab another person instead of hitting him. The attacker must move to Personal range and beat his target in an opposed Natural Weapons skill check. If he wins, he may do any one of the following:

• Continue the grapple with no other effects.
• Disarm his opponent. If he succeeds by 6+ he can take the weapon away; otherwise it ends up on the floor.
• Drag his opponent up to three meters.
• Escape the grapple and move away (as if with a normal movement action).
• Inflict damage equal to 2 + the Effect.
• Knock his opponent prone.
• Throw his opponent up to three meters for 1D6 damage.

Throwing an opponent always ends the grapple. With any other option the winner can choose to end or continue the grapple as he sees fit. A character in a grapple cannot move nor do anything other than make opposed Natural Weapons skill checks. Each time an opposed check is made the winner can choose an option from the above list.

Panic Fire

In order to call upon Panic Fire, a character must be using some form of small arms slug thrower. Panic fire uses all remaining rounds in the weapon, and hits are resolved as if the weapon were being fired using the Burst Fire rules for damage (not for accuracy). There is a DM –2 penalty to hit.

Shotgun Spread

Any shotgun loaded specifically with flechette rounds can be fired like a common round at a single target up to Short range, using the standard statistics for the weapon. If firing at a target or group of targets at Medium or Long range, the frag shell has its damage reduced to 2d6 but gains a DM+1 bonus to hit, and can hit not only the target aimed at but also anyone (friend or foe) in Personal range with the initial target.

Suppression Fire

Suppression fire works by having the character actually target the areas surrounding the target; a wall, a tree or even the ground at their feet are all perfectly suitable. The impact of the character's attacks are often enough to give pause to a potential attacker. The firing character rolls his shooting attack as normal, except with a –2 DM for trying to hit cover and nearby objects to the target(s). This attack action also uses up double the normal amount of ammunition per attack. Failures are treated as normal misses. Success means that the firer has hit close enough to the target to force them to duck away, stalling their next action by adding an initiative penalty equal to the Effect of the attack. Suppressed targets also receive a DM-1 penalty to any skill checks that they try to perform in both the current and following combat round.

Automatic fire can be used for Suppression fire, but no target can be affected twice by Suppression fire on the same action. The target must be allowed to take one action before he can be suppressed again. If multiple hits are used upon the same target, the highest Effect takes precedence.

There are some situations and instances that can make a target so unshakeable that they do not care about Suppression fire, and will not be harried by it. Some of those exceptions are found on the list below.

• Vehicles, or targets fully enclosed in vehicles
• Zealots
• Mechanical or android targets
• Targets wearing full Battle Dress
• Suicidal targets

Stance

A character can be standing, crouched or prone.

Standing: A standing character uses the normal rules.

Crouching: A crouching character moves at half speed but can make better use of cover. If a crouching character is in cover, consider it one row lower on the Cover Modifiers table. For example, if a character is crouching behind a waist-high wall, he is considered to be at 3/4 cover rather than 1/2 cover.

Prone: A prone character cannot make melee attacks or dodge. He may make improved use of cover like a crouching character and he may still parry melee attacks. All ranged attacks targeting him suffer a –2 DM penalty. At Close range, the penalty is reduced to +0; a prone character being attacked at Personal range grants a +2 DM to attacks against him.

Tactics and Leadership

The Tactics skill can be used to give an Initiative bonus to a whole unit at the start of combat. The unit commander may make a Tactics check, and everyone in the unit may increase their Initiative by the Effect of the check.

The Leadership skill can be used to increase another character's Initiative. The character with Leadership makes a Leadership check, and the target character's Initiative is increased by the Effect of the check. Making a Leadership skill check is a significant action.

Thrown Weapons

There are two kinds of thrown weapons: the first kind strike a single target and do damage from the force of their impact, such as throwing knives or a thrown rock. These use the normal rules for ranged combat. The other kind of thrown weapon is a grenade or other explosive projectile that inflicts no damage from impact but typically delivers a harmful payload. The first kind of thrown weapon adds the Effect of the Athletics check to its damage. The second does not.

If the attack fails the projectile scatters in a random direction for (6 + Effect) meters. This is usually only important if the projectile explodes on or after impact.

Damage

Each weapon lists the damage it inflicts as a number of D6. Add the Effect of the attack roll to this damage.

The first time a character takes damage, it is applied to the target's Endurance. If a target is reduced to Endurance 0, then further damage is subtracted from the target's Strength or Dexterity (of the character's choice). If either Strength or Dexterity is reduced to 0, the character is unconscious and any further damage is subtracted from the remaining physical characteristic. If all three physical characteristics are reduced to 0, the character is killed.

Once a character has taken damage, any damage from subsequent attacks is allocated to any of the three physical characteristics as the character so chooses.

Armor

Armor reduces damage by the value of the armor. A hit with Effect 6+ always inflicts at least one point of damage, regardless of the target's armor.

Fatigue

A character can become fatigued in numerous ways, such as staying awake too long, over-exerting themselves or even using certain medications. A fatigued character suffers a –2 DM to all checks until he rests. The amount of rest needed is 3 – the character's Endurance DM hours. If a character suffers fatigue while already fatigued they fall unconscious.

Unconsciousness

An unconscious character may make an Endurance check after every minute of unconsciousness – if successful, he regains consciousness. If he fails he must wait another minute and can then try again with a +1 DM on the check for every check previously failed.

Injury and Recovery

Injured characters are either wounded or seriously wounded. A character is considered seriously wounded if he has lost at least one point from all three of his physical characteristics. As soon as one of his physical characteristics is restored, no matter how, he is no longer seriously wounded.

Seriously wounded characters who have somehow avoided unconsciousness cannot move except to hobble or crawl along at 1.5 meters per combat round. They also lose their minor action in combat.

Wounded characters heal naturally and can also benefit from medical care. When characteristic points return from healing, players may choose which characteristic regains the points and may split healing between characteristics if they wish.

Natural Healing

An injured character regains a number of characteristic points equal to his 1D6 + Endurance DM per day of full rest. If the character continues an active lifestyle he only heals a number of characteristic points equal to 1 + Endurance DM per day. Characters with a low Endurance DM (quite possibly from injury) may degrade (lose more characteristic points) over time if they are unlucky or cannot (or will not) rest.

A seriously wounded character only regains characteristic points equal to his Endurance DM per day of rest, which means that the character may never heal naturally and will even get worse if his Endurance DM is currently negative.

Medical Treatment

Natural healing is not the only way to recover damage. Characters can also seek out medical treatment.

First Aid: Applying first aid restores a number of characteristic points equal to twice the Effect of the Medicine check. Points restored by first aid are divided as desired among all damaged physical characteristics. First aid must be applied within five minutes of the injuries being received to be fully effective. A character can still benefit from first aid up to an hour after their injury but they only receive a number of characteristic points equal to the Effect of the Medicine check. Performing first aid on yourself is a Difficult (–2) task.

Surgery: A character that is seriously wounded (after first aid has been applied) requires surgery. Surgery restores characteristic points just like first aid but if the check is failed the patient loses characteristic points equal to the Effect. Surgery requires a hospital or sickbay. Once one characteristic is back to its maximum level the patient can benefit from medical care. Surgery does not benefit characters that are not seriously wounded. Performing surgery on yourself is a Very Difficult (–4) task.

Medical Care: Medical care restores 2 + the character's Endurance DM + the doctor's Medicine skill in characteristic points per day, divided evenly among all damaged characteristics. Medical care requires a hospital or sickbay and for the patient to undergo full bed rest.

Healing and Mental Characteristics

Other than Psionic Strength, characters may also suffer damage to their Intelligence or even their Education. Unless otherwise specified, each mental characteristic heals at the rate of one point per day.

Vehicles in Personal Combat

Combat in and on vehicles is much the same as ordinary combat. The differences are as follows:

• Unlike people, who are mobile and maneuverable, careful track must be kept of which way a vehicle is facing. Vehicle-mounted weapons – and armed passengers, to a lesser extent – are restricted to certain fire arcs.
• Vehicles are considered to move on the driver's Initiative. The driver must spend a minor action every round to keep control of the vehicle under normal circumstances – a straight road or simple maneuvers – or a significant action to navigate obstacles, conduct evasion or pursuit, or dodge incoming fire.
• Attackers gain a +1 DM to hit most vehicles because of their size.

Closed and Open Vehicles

There are two main types of vehicles: open and closed.

Closed Vehicles: Closed vehicles grant cover to the occupants – unless the description mentions otherwise civilian vehicles grant ½ soft cover and military vehicles full hard cover. Only a few people in a closed vehicle can shoot out, depending on the number of windows or other firing ports and the internal space available. Unless the description mentions otherwise up to two people can fire into each arc from a civilian vehicle and one person in each arc in a military one.

Open Vehicles: Open vehicles grant no cover to the passengers. Any passenger in an open vehicle can shoot (or otherwise attack) in any direction.

Vehicle-Mounted Weapons

Weapons mounted on vehicles are limited in what directions they can fire. A weapon mounted in the front arc, for example, can only fire into a 90° area in front of the vehicle. Weapons in turrets can fire in any direction.

Collisions

When a vehicle collides with something else everything takes damage. Roll 1D6 for every 10 kph of the vehicle's speed (round up). This is applied as damage directly to anything hit and, if the thing struck is solid enough, also to the ramming vehicle. Any unsecured passengers in a vehicle damaged in a collision take the same damage and, if possible, are thrown three meters for every 10 kph of speed. Secured passengers (those wearing seatbelts or something similar) are not thrown anywhere and take one quarter damage.

Vehicular Actions

These are all significant actions that the driver of a vehicle can take when his turn in the initiative order arrives.

Evasive Action

Vehicles are not typically maneuverable enough to dodge as a reaction. Instead, the driver may declare that he is taking evasive action when his turn arrives. He makes a skill check (skill determined by vehicle) and the Effect acts as a –DM to all attacks against the vehicle or its passengers. The Effect also acts as a –DM to any attacks made from the vehicle as well. This lasts until the driver's next action.

Maneuvering

A driver or pilot can maneuver his vehicle without making a skill check. This allows the vehicle to avoid large or obvious obstacles, to get where it is going, to move out of one fire arc of an enemy vehicle and into a different one, or to change the fire arc that a single target is in.

Ram

Deliberately driving a vehicle into someone or something requires a significant action and a successful skill check (skill determined by vehicle). Rams are affected by dodging and evasive action as normal. The Referee may grant bonuses to a ram attempt or declare it automatically successful if the target is particularly large.

Stunt

With a significant action and a successful vehicle control check the driver or pilot of a vehicle can do pretty much anything it is possible to do in his vehicle – stand a car up on two wheels, perform stunning aerobatics in a jet plane, or skim a speedboat over a low sandbar. A stunt can be used to put a single target into one additional fire arc for one round, to set up some other skill check using the rules for task chains, to achieve something that would normally be difficult or impossible in your vehicle, to achieve up to three maneuver actions in one go, just to show off, or anything else you can imagine.

Weave

In an environment with many obstacles, such as an inner city or tight underground caverns, a driver or pilot may choose to weave his vehicle in and around the obstacles at high speed in order to evade pursuit. The driver chooses a weaving number, as low as one or as high as one per 20 km/h of speed (round up), and must then make a skill check (skill determined by vehicle) with the weaving number as a penalty on his roll. If he fails, he has woven into an obstacle and crashed. If he succeeds, any pursuers must choose a weave action on their turn and make their skill test at the same penalty with the same consequence for failure. Alternatively, they can choose to break off pursuit and either give up or try to reacquire the target later.

Vehicle Damage

Vehicles have a Hull value and a Structure value, which measure the vehicle's structural integrity. When Hull is reduced to 0, the vehicle starts taking damage to its internal systems. When Structure is reduced to 0, the vehicle is reduced to scrap. Vehicles also suffer damage to onboard systems as they take damage.

To determine the effects of an attack on a vehicle, first determine how much damage the vehicle suffers as normal. Many vehicles will have one or more points of armor that reduces the damage. Consult the Vehicle Damage table to determine how many 'hits' the vehicle suffers. Each hit is then applied to a particular location on the vehicle. Double or Triple hits count as two or three hits on the same location.

Vehicle Hit Location

Hull

Reduce the vehicle or drone's Hull by one. If a vehicle runs out of Hull, further Hull hits become hits on the same row of the Internal Damage table (if a vehicle) or Structure hits (if a robot or drone).

Structure

Reduce the vehicle or drone's Structure by one. If a vehicle runs out of Structure, it is destroyed. If the vehicle is destroyed by an attack that reduces it to a negative Structure score it explodes, doing 4D6 damage to everyone within six meters (including the occupants) and 2D6 damage to everyone within twelve meters. The occupants of a closed vehicle cannot dodge or dive for cover from this explosion but the occupants of an open vehicle can.

Armor

Reduce the vehicle's armor by one.

Drive

First Hit: Reduce movement by 10% and apply a –1 DM to all vehicle control skill checks.

Second Hit: Reduce movement by 25% and apply a –2 DM to all vehicle control skill checks.

Third Hit: Drive disabled.

Further drive hits count as Hull hits.

Weapon

Choose a weapon or device randomly for each hit.

First Hit: The weapon or device suffers a –2 DM to all checks related to its operation.

Second Hit: The weapon or device is destroyed.

If no weapons remain to be destroyed, further hits on this location become Hull hits.

Sensors

First Hit: The vehicle or drone suffers a –2 DM to all Comms checks to use sensors. For drones and robots, this also applies to Recon checks.

Second Hit: The sensors are destroyed, blinding the vehicle or drone.

Further Sensor hits count as Hull hits.

Power Plant

First Hit: The vehicle or drone loses one round's worth of actions.

Second Hit: The vehicle or drone's movement is reduced by 50%.

Third Hit: The power plant is destroyed, disabling the vehicle and inflicting 1D6 Hull hits on it.

Limb

Choose a limb randomly for each limb hit.

First Hit: The limb suffers a –2 DM to all checks related to its operation.

Second Hit: The limb is destroyed.

Further Limb hits count as Hull hits.

Passengers

Choose a passenger randomly for any passenger hit. The passenger takes damage equal to the damage inflicted on the vehicle. If all the passengers are dead, further passenger hits become Structure hits.

Cargo

Any cargo present is hit and may be destroyed. If no cargo remains, further cargo hits become Structure hits.

Cockpit

The pilot of the vehicle is hit, and takes damage equal to the damage inflicted on the vehicle. If the pilot is dead, further pilot hits become Structure hits.

Computer

First Hit: The vehicle's computer system is disabled. A drone or robot with a disabled computer system shuts down for 1D6 rounds.

Second Hit: The vehicle's computer system is destroyed. A drone or robot with no computer system is completely disabled.

Further Computer hits count as Structure hits.

Repairs

Damage to a vehicle or drone falls into three categories – System Damage, Hull Damage, and Structure Damage.

System Damage

A damaged system can be jury-rigged back to functioning, but it will stop functioning again after 1D6 hours. Repairing a damaged system requires not only an Average skill check (using the appropriate skill as determined by the Referee, such as Electronics, Engineering, Gravitics, Mechanics) taking 1–6 hours but also a source of spare parts. The spare parts can come from a scrap yard, a workshop, systems on another vehicle, or can be taken from other systems on the same vehicle. When taking spare parts from other vehicle systems, each 'hit' of damage provides enough spare parts to make a single repair check.

The Passengers and Cockpit systems cannot take hits to provide spare parts, although cybernetic parts might be able to provide enough spare material to repair minor damage.

A destroyed system costs 2D6×10% of its original cost to repair, and cannot be repaired using spare parts. It requires a full workshop and specialist materials.

Hull Damage

Hull damage can be repaired with a Mechanics check taking 1–6 hours and consumes one 'hit' of spare parts.

Structure Damage

Structure damage can only be repaired in a workshop and requires 10–60 hours per point of damage. It costs 20% of the base cost of the vehicle per point repaired. No skill check is required.

Ground Force Weaponry against Starship-scale Targets

Gaining a DM +4 bonus to hit anything on the starship-scale, ground force weaponry must divide its damage by 50 before comparing it to a starship-scale target's armor. Because a single weapon will, obviously, be unable to punch though armor it is possible for multiple weapons to all target the starship simultaneously, and the cumulative effect can inflict damage. Every additional ground weapon beyond the first can add half its damage dice to the total before dividing the total by 50 in order to calculate damage.

Chapter 6: Off-World Travel

Characters in science fiction don't live in a single village on a single planet all their lives. Instead, their stories often take them out of a planet-bound existence and out into the stars. Adventurers in Cepheus Engine games are no different. They will travel to different worlds, seeking out new, exciting and hopefully profitable activities to pursue. Therefore, it is important to develop an understanding of off-world travel. Off-world travel can take one of two different forms, interplanetary travel through normal space and interstellar travel through Jump space. This chapter explores both facets.

Interplanetary Travel

All ship operations, including interstellar flights, involve some sublight maneuvering. Ships making short interplanetary flights usually accelerate halfway there, then reverse thrust and decelerate the rest of the way. The Common Travel Times by Acceleration table offers rounded values for common travel times.

For Referees desiring more accuracy in their numbers, use the formula:

where T is time in seconds, D is distance in meters, and A is acceleration in m/sec2

Interstellar Travel

Interstellar flights require the use of Jump drive. Jump is also often used for long-distance flights within a solar system, where the real-space transit time would be greater than the 1-week Jump time. A ship can only safely Jump when it is more than one hundred diameters distant from any object. Gravity can cause a Jump bubble to collapse prematurely, bringing a ship back into normal space early. To enter Jump, a vessel needs a properly aligned hull Jump grid, a suitable set of course vectors (called a Jump Plot), and a working and properly fueled Jump drive.

The Jump grid allows the Jump field to properly form around the ship and protect it from Jump space. A damaged or misaligned grid can cause a ship to misjump, or to suffer Jump Intrusions while in Jump space. In the worst-case scenario, a ship with a damaged drive or a distorted grid may be destroyed at entry or breakout.

A Jump Plot is also required. A Jump Plot can be created by a navigator using the ship's computer. In addition, all Class-D and better starports can provide pre-calculated jump plots for any populated worlds within jump range for Cr1,000 per jump number. Each jump course tape provides the jump plot necessary to perform a jump from one specific world to a specific destination, and become increasingly less reliable as they get older.

Creating a Jump Plot is an Easy (+4) Education-based Navigation skill check taking 1D6 kiloseconds, modified by the Jump distance (thus, a Jump–4 gives a –4 DM to the check). If the check is failed, then the navigator must plot the Jump again, or the starship suffers a misjump. A Jump cannot be made until the navigation calculations are complete. Jump Plots can be created in advance, but quickly become out of date.

When the ship is ready to Jump, the engineer must properly divert power to the Jump drive. Firing the Jump drive is an Average (+0) Education-based Engineering check taking 10–60 seconds. The Effect of this check aids the Jump Success roll.

All normal Jumps take roughly one week (148+6D6 hours), and are subject to random variations in the point of emergence. The older a plot is, the more variance there is in the actual Jump performance. Thus course tapes tend to err on the side of caution, and give emergence points a long way out from the destination world.

A Jump carries the vessel a number of parsecs equal to the Jump number. Jumps of less than one parsec (less than three light years, or one hex) are possible, and count as Jump–1 for the purposes of navigation and fuel expenditure.

Jump Success Roll

Roll 2D6 and add the following DMs. If the result is 0 or less, the ship misjumps. If the result is 8+ the Jump is accurate. Any other result is an inaccurate Jump. If a Jump was made using a bad Jump Plot, the ship automatically misjumps.

• + the Effect of the divert power Engineering check
• –1 per month that the Jump Plot is out of date (such as when using older Jump course tapes)
• –2 per Jump drive hit
• –2 for using Unrefined fuel
• –8 if still within the hundred-diameter limit at the time of Jump

Jump Failures and Misjumps

When a starship suffers an inaccurate Jump, the vessel emerges from Jump in the wrong part of the target star system, requiring 1D6 days travel through normal space. When a starship misjumps, the ship ends up 1D6×1D6 parsecs in a random direction.

In both cases, the emergence is extremely hard. The vessel takes the equivalent of a critical hit from the discordant transition. In addition, everyone aboard the vessel suffers severe headaches, nausea and even nosebleeds for several hours before and after the ship emerges from Jump space.

Starship Operations

Standard procedures exist to govern how a starship goes about its business and handles emergency situations. Under normal circumstances, a ship will not deviate from these procedures. A captain whose vessel ignores standard operating procedure will usually have to explain himself to a patrol vessel or the local port authority.

Ship's Passage

A ship must provide sufficient accommodation for its crew; normally this means one stateroom per two crewmembers (this is termed double-occupancy). Any remaining stateroom space may be used to carry passengers. Passengers cannot share accommodation with crew, with the exception of working passage. Normally, one passenger per small stateroom and two per large stateroom room can be carried.

Passenger travel can be classified into five overarching categories – high, middle, low, working and stowaway.

High Passage

The best method of travel is called high passage, which involves first class accommodations and cuisine. High passengers have the services of the ship's steward, entertainment and complete attention to their comfort. There is a baggage allowance of up to 1,000 kilograms. High passage costs Cr10,000 and provides food and lodging for 1 person for a distance of 1 jump. Double occupancy is allowed at a discounted rate of Cr16,000 (Cr8000 per passenger). Each level of Steward skill (including level 0) allows the steward to effectively look after two high passage passengers on board a ship (so a character with Steward 2 could care for six passengers).

Middle Passage

In order for starships to fill their staterooms with passengers, middle passage is offered on a standby basis, in the event that not enough high passages are sold. While middle passengers occupy staterooms normally similar to those occupied by high passengers, they do not receive the service or entertainment accorded the higher paying passengers. In addition, the quality of the cuisine is rather low. Baggage totaling 100 kilograms is allowed. A middle passenger may be 'bumped' and the stateroom taken by a late arriving high passenger; the middle passenger's ticket is returned, but no other compensation is made. (The middle could then buy a high passage and 'bump' another middle passenger, if the extra cost seemed worth it. Middle passage costs Cr8,000 and provides food and lodging for 1 person for a distance of 1 jump. Double occupancy is allowed at a discounted rate of Cr13,000 (Cr6500 per passenger). Each level of the Steward skill (including level 0) allows the steward to care for five middle passengers.

Low Passage

Transportation while in cold sleep (suspended animation) is possible at relatively low cost to the passenger. The passenger is placed in a low passage berth before the ship takes off, and travels the entire journey in a state of suspended animation. He does not age, and requires very little life support. Unfortunately, the low passage system involves some intrinsic dangers to the passenger, and he runs some risk of not surviving the voyage. Therefore a qualified medic should always be in attendance when reviving passengers from low berths. When a passenger is revived from cold sleep, they must make an Easy (+4) Endurance check; failure means that the passenger dies during revival. If a medic is present, the medic may assist the passenger with an Education-based Routine (+2) Medicine skill check, as per the Aid Another rules. Low passage costs Cr1,000 and includes a 10 kg baggage allowance; many commercial cryoberth units have a built-in baggage compartment.

Working Passage

A starship captain with a crew shortage may hire an individual to fill the vacant position, paying not money but passage in return. Working passage may not continue for more than three jumps, or the individual is considered to have been hired for standard salary. In order to be hired for working passage, the individual must have some expertise in the position for which he is hired. Baggage totaling 1,000 kilograms is allowed.

Stowaway

A stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vessel in order to travel without paying and without being detected. Unnoticed by the captain, crew, port officials and customs authorities, stowaways may gain access to a vessel with or without the assistance of port personnel. Once on board the ship, stowaways often hide in empty containers, cargo holds, maintenance shafts, crawl spaces, storage rooms, engine rooms, unused staterooms, and behind false panels. Stowaways risk imprisonment or heavy fines if caught, as it is considered a crime in most jurisdictions. If caught at the destination world, stowaways may be deported. Should this occur, the travel costs for the stowaway's return to the previous world visited, per the ship's logs, can become the obligation of the ship's owner or captain. Because of this, most commanders do not take kindly to any stowaways they discover aboard their vessels, and have been known to space them.

Standard Operating Procedures

Most commercial starships follow a simple schedule, spending one week in Jump space and one week in normal space, taking care of business. Once a ship emerges from Jump space, it travels to the destination world, where passengers disembark, old cargo is unloaded and new cargo replaces it, the crew performs routine ship maintenance and refueling, new passengers come aboard the vessel, and then the starship travels to a Jump point in preparation for entering Jump space and traveling to the ship's next destination.

Non-commercial starships typically follow a similar schedule. Without the obligations of passengers or cargo, however, these vessels can choose to travel much faster. The week in-system can be reduced to simply refueling by the quickest means possible and then making the next Jump.

When a vessel first emerges from Jump space, the first course of action is to scan normal space for potential dangers. Once the commander determines that the vessel is safe, the navigator then determines the ship's location in normal Space and plots a course to the ship's destination in-system.

The commander may want to skim a local gas giant for free fuel. If so, the pilot achieves orbit and skims the "surface" of the gas giant for fuel. Scooping a gas giant for fuel takes 1D6 hours per 40 tons of fuel. When the fuel tanks are full, the pilot can then take the ship back out to a Jump point to leave for the next system, or travel to another destination in-system, such as a local world.

If the commander wishes to visit a local world, such as the mainworld, the pilot follows a course laid out by the navigator to the destination. After arriving at the world, the pilot achieves orbit and then proceeds to either the orbital starport or surface starport. Once docked at the starport, the vessel unloads any high passengers, followed by mail, middle passengers, cargo and finally low passengers. The ship refuels, if needed, and renews its life support. If the ship's owner or captain is interested in speculative trading, they then sell off speculative cargo and buy new cargo to replace it, if they find any good deals. In addition, the commander or purser addresses all ship's business, including paying the ship expenses.

While on planet, crew members may explore local areas of interest, hire new crew to fill any available positions, and even take on the occasional odd job.

When the commander determines it is time to depart, cargo handlers load all cargo into the vessel. Low passengers are then put into cryoberths. High passengers are then escorted to their staterooms, followed by mid passengers, if any staterooms remain available. Finally, vessels with a mail contract load up on outgoing mail. Income is collected and placed into the ship's accounts.

After getting clearance from starport control, the pilot takes the ship into orbit. The navigator then plots a course through normal space to a Jump point. As the pilot takes the vessel to the Jump point, the navigator works out the Jump plot. Once at the Jump point, the engineer diverts power to the Jump drive, and the ship enters Jump space.

Along the way, the vessel may encounter other ships. Gas giants are often used by pirates to attack unsuspecting vehicles, so system defense boats are prevalent in the region. Patrol vessels may hail a ship as it travels to and from the Jump point. Port authorities may perform a customs inspection before allowing a ship to dock at the starport. Other ships, civilian and military, commercial and non-commercial, may be travelling in and out of the system.

Starship Expenses

The primary expenses for a starship are the ship's mortgage or debts, crew salaries, fuel, life support, port fees and routine maintenance.

Mortgage or Debts

If the crew is paying off debts on their spacecraft, then these debts must be paid each month. The standard terms for a ship mortgage are paying 1/240th of the cash price each month for 480 months (40 years). In effect, interest and bank financing cost a simple 120% of the final cost of the ship, and the total financed price equals 220% of the cash purchase price. Ship shares are treated as reducing the cash price of the ship, and so reduce the monthly cash payments.

Crew Salaries

All starships and space vessels need a crew of some kind. Small craft like shuttles normally just have a pilot (and usually a copilot). Larger ships, and especially those using Jump drive to travel between the stars, need a larger crew. At a minimum, a starship will need:

• Pilot: A qualified Pilot to maneuver the ship. A Pilot makes Cr6,000 per month.
• Navigator: Someone to create Jump Plots and navigate the ship. On small ships, this job is often doubled up with the Pilot's duties. A Navigator makes Cr5,000 per month.
• Engineer: Someone to maintain the ship and operate the drives. Larger ships may need several engineers and technicians to back them up. A Chief Engineer makes Cr4,000 per month.

Other crew positions exist:

• Master: A vessel's Master, or Captain, is responsible for the vessel and the safety of everyone aboard. A Merchant who receives the Starship benefit at mustering-out will hold this position. Aboard a small ship, he will usually have another job, such as Pilot or Navigator. The pay due to a ship's Master can vary. Assume a standard of Cr6,000 per month, or the salary of highest-paid job he is qualified to do. Many merchant ship owners take a cut of the ship's profits instead of a salary.
• Medic: Ships that carry passengers must have a qualified medic. All vessels should have some form of medical assistance available. A medic makes Cr2,000 a month.
• Purser: Commercial ships often employ someone to look after the accounts and supplies. This is the purser's job. It is often doubled-up with other duties. A purser is often paid a cut of the ship's profits rather than a salary; a standard salary would be Cr3,000 per month.
• Gunner: Armed ships must employ gunners to operate the weapons. Salary is Cr1,000 per month.
• Assistant Engineers and Technicians: Technically adept people can assist the Engineer in maintaining the ship and operating her drives. Salary is Cr1000 per month.
• Cargo Handlers, Deck Hands and Security: Some ships employ personnel to carry out these duties. While not essential to the operation of the ship, these people are useful to have around. Salary is Cr1000 per month.
• Stewards: While anyone can be assigned to look after the passengers and cook everyone's meals, professional stewards are useful in ensuring the passengers enjoy their trip, and thus that the ship stays in business. Salary is Cr3,000 per month.

The basic living expenses of crewmembers during their shipboard duties are considered paid out of the ship's overheads. Note that salaries are generalized and can vary considerably depending upon circumstances and special arrangements.

Fuel

Refined fuel may be purchased at any class A or B starport for Cr500 per ton delivered at the starport. If fuel must be ferried out to a ship, add Cr100 per ton to the cost. Refined fuel may also be obtained by running unrefined fuel through a Fuel Purification System installed onboard a ship. Refined fuel decreases the chance of a problem occurring with a ship's power plant, maneuver drive, and Jump drive.

Unrefined fuel is available for Cr100 per ton from any class A, B, or C starport delivered at the starport. If fuel must be ferried out to a ship, add Cr100 per ton to the cost. Unrefined fuel is also available for free from the following sources:

Water

On worlds with a hydrographic rating of 1 or higher, a ship may land near an open body of water or ice and pump fuel into their fuel tanks for free. Using water as fuel in this manner is considered to be running unrefined fuel. Note that many worlds may not allow ships to land and fuel for free, preferring to control the availability of fuel from the starport only, thus earning the revenue from the operation.

Gas Giants

Streamlined ships equipped with fuel scoops may dive into the upper atmosphere of a gas giant and fill their tanks with unrefined hydrogen. Larger ships may use streamlined fuel shuttles to ferry fuel loads back to the main ship as needed to refill the tanks. Scooping takes 1D6 hours per 40 tons of fuel. There are no fees associated with 'skimming' a gas giant for fuel, but these are also often the favorite point of attack for pirates. Fuel skimmed from a gas giant is considered to be unrefined.

Life Support

Each stateroom on a ship costs Cr2,000 per month, occupied or not. This cost covers supplies for the life support system as well as food and water, although meals at this level will be rather spartan. Each low passage berth costs Cr100 per month.

A spacecraft with power can sustain life support for one person per stateroom for one month comfortably, and for six months at a stretch (number of staterooms × 5,000 person/hours). Without power, this drops to two weeks at most.

Life support supplies can be purchased in bulk. One ton of life support supplies will provide 20 passengers or crew with life support for one month, at a cost of Cr54,000. One ton of luxury life support supplies costs Cr72,000, and covers the same number of people for the same amount of time.

Port Fees

It typically costs Cr100 to berth for 6 days in a starport, and Cr100 a day thereafter.

Routine Maintenance

A ship needs maintenance, which costs 0.1% (1/1000th) of the total cost of the ship per year and requires a shipyard. Maintenance should be carried out each month. If maintenance is skipped or skimped on, roll 2D6 each month, with a +DM equal to the number of months skipped. On an 8+, the ship takes damage to a random system. Roll on the System Degradation table for the number of hits. Repair supplies cost Cr10,000/ton.

Starship Revenue

Starships generate revenue by carrying passengers, cargo, mail and charters. Goods taken on in orbit are delivered when placed in orbit around the destination. Goods taken on a planetary surface are considered to be delivered when off-loaded on the surface of the destination world. This custom applies to cargo, passengers, and mail.

Bulk Cargo

Ships will commonly pay their way by transporting cargo in bulk. This is on a flat-fee basis per ton of cargo. A ship's accounts are credited with Cr1,000 per ton of cargo, upon delivery. For any given destination world, roll on the Available Freight and Passengers table to find out how many tons of freight are available. A ship may choose to remain in port and see if new cargoes present themselves; roll again every 3 days. If desired, players may determine how much freight there is for every destination, and then choose where to go based upon profitability. The number of passengers must be determined at the same time as cargo; if a ship remains in port waiting for freight, passengers will find another ship, and vice versa.

A ship without the capacity to carry all the available freight or passengers can take some of what is available, up to its total capacity.

Passengers

For any given destination world, roll on the Available Freight and Passengers table to find out how many passengers are available. A ship may choose to remain in port and see if new passengers present themselves; roll again every 3 days. If desired, players may determine how many passengers there are for every destination, and then choose where to go based upon profitability. The number of passengers must be determined at the same time as cargo; if a ship remains in port waiting for more passengers, freight could be shipped out on another ship, and vice versa.

Mail and Incidentals

Merchant ships may receive mail delivery contracts, usually as an adjunct to their established routes. Five tons of ship cargo capacity must be committed to postal duty on a full time basis, the ship must be armed, and a gunner must be a part of the crew. The starship is paid Cr25,000 (Cr5,000 per ton of postal cargo area) for each trip made, regardless of the actual mail tonnage carried. Such tonnage will not exceed 5 tons per trip. Roll 1D6-1 for the number of actual tons of mail, though the ship receives the Cr25,000 fee whether there is anything to carry, or not.

Other ships may be approached to deliver private messages, at times through the ship's owner or captain, and at times clandestinely through a crew member. Private mail is usually intended for delivery to a specific point (such as an Explorer's Society resort, or to a bar owner in the starport), and is generally accompanied by a Cr20 to Cr120 honorarium. The Referee should decide if a private message to is awaiting transmittal, and determine randomly which crew member is approached to carry it. Serving as a carrier for private mail also serves as an introduction to the recipient as a dependable, trustworthy person.

Charters

Vessels are often chartered by commercial or private concerns. The reasons vary: private transport, standby cargo capacity for a priority load, special or "discreet" deliveries, etc. The standard price to charter a non-starship is Cr1 per ton per hour, usually with a twelve-hour minimum. Charter price for a starship is computed based on its capacity. Starships are chartered in 2-week blocks; the charge is Cr900 per ton of cargo hold plus Cr9,000 per high passage berth and Cr900 per low passage berth. The owner pays all overhead and supplies a crew.

Speculative Trading

A trader with cargo space available and free capital with which to speculate may seek out suitable goods to buy and sell. A complete Trade and Commerce system is presented in Chapter 7: Trade and Commerce.

Miscellaneous Topics

The following topics relate to aspects of starship operations that might impact an adventurer's experience over the course of a Cepheus Engine adventure or campaign.

Airlocks

A ship has at least one airlock per 100 tons. The average airlock is large enough for three people in vacc suits to pass through at the same time. An airlock takes ten seconds to cycle. Under normal circumstances, airlocks are locked down from the bridge and require a Very Difficult (–4) Engineer (electronics) check to override. An unlocked airlock can be triggered from outside. Airlocks generally have vacc suits, rescue bubbles and cutlasses in a ship's locker nearby.

Ships with cargo space have cargo hatches, allowing up to 10% of their cargo to be transferred at any time.

Distress Signals

A distress signal indicates that a person or group of people, vessel, small craft, or other vehicle is threatened by grave and imminent danger and requests immediate assistance. The use of distress signals under other circumstances is against most system and interstellar laws; in fact, most jurisdictions have large penalties for false, unwarranted or prank distress signals. Given the vastness of interplanetary space, help is hard to come by. Therefore, most interstellar and interplanetary governments mandate that the commander or master of any vessel that detects a distress signal is legally obligated to either respond and offer assistance or contact the authorities to report the signal.

Some pirates have been known to use false distress signals to lure other vessels into a trap. This behavior has created significant mistrust of distress signals among civilian starship commanders, but interstellar law still requires that assistance be rendered if authorities cannot be reached within a reasonable time period. In the event that the commander of a vessel is unable or unwilling to respond to such a call, they are required by law to officially log their reason for not doing so into the ship's logs. Such commanders can be held accountable for their decision, and can pay a fine on some worlds that could exceed Cr1,000,000 (or MCr1), as well as serve time in prison.

Docking

Two spacecraft may dock if they are close together and neither ship attempts to resist the docking maneuver. Many airlock designs across charted space are compatible; for incompatible airlocks, ships extend flexible plastic docking tubes that adapt to the target airlock. Docking with another vessel is a Routine (+2) Piloting task taking 1–6 minutes. If one ship is drifting or unpowered, the difficulty rises to Difficult (–2).

Boarding

Hostile boarding actions are safest when the enemy ship is crippled, in which case it is a standard docking procedure. If the enemy ship is still moving, then the prospective boarders must match the target's velocity and dock with it (a Difficult (–2) Piloting task), or else just land on the hull and either make their way to an airlock or cut through from outside.

Landing

Any ship with a standard or streamlined hull may land on the surface. Unstreamlined ships suffer a –2 DM to any Piloting checks made in atmosphere while a ship with a Distributed hull suffers a –4 DM to any Piloting checks, and is likely to take severe structural damage if it lands. Landing at a starport is a Routine (+2) task for most ships taking 10–60 seconds.

Most ships have landing gear, allowing them to touch down 'in the wild', which requires an Average (+0), Difficult (–2) or even Very Difficult (–4) check, depending on local conditions. Non-distributed ships can also land on bodies of water without sinking. Failing a landing roll means that the ship has landed improperly or even crashed.

Ship Security

The primary goal of a starship's or vessel's security measures is to protect the safety of the ship and crew. Particularly on frontier worlds and lawless backwater planets, starships are at risk to a number of factors, including hijackers, piracy, sabotage, subversion and terrorism. Ship security exists on multiple levels to prevent this from happening. These can be grouped broadly into the categories of physical security and cybersecurity.

Physical Security Systems

Physical security systems for vessels are generally intended to deter potential intruders (e.g. warning signs); detect intrusions and monitor/record intruders (e.g. intruder alarms and internal monitoring); and trigger appropriate incident responses (e.g. by security personnel or the ship's crew in general). Numerous systems have proven useful.

Physical barriers such as airlocks act as the outermost layer of security. They serve to prevent, or at least delay, attacks, and also act as a psychological deterrent by making intrusions difficult. Even within the ship, bulkheads and panels can be locked to limit or slow access. The means of authorization for different locking systems is captured in the Restricted Access Security table. It should be noted that the ship's computer can open or close any non-mechanical lock remotely, as well as report on a door's status.

Ship security systems can detect intrusion detection through a variety of means. Cameras, accessible to any authorized personnel, monitor public areas. Internal sensors such as motion detectors in key traffic areas and life support detectors (for unexpected changes in oxygen levels) provide additional methods of detecting intrusion.

Cybersecurity

The security of a ship's computer is only as good as the Security software that's been installed. All starships come with Security/0 installed, but a wise ship's owner will invest in more advanced security programs, whenever possible. Most vessels run Security/2 programs, at a minimum. The Cybersecurity Tasks table outlines the difficulties of certain tasks that might be attempted by hijackers and pirates. All tasks require the Computer skill.

Security Measures

Security measures on board a starship activate when an intrusion or emergency has been detected. These measures include internal alarms, artificial gravity control, tranq gas and the venting of atmosphere.

Internal Alarms

If an alarm is tripped (hull breach, fire, door being forced open, alarm button pressed) it will alert the crew. The location of the alarm will be shown on computer displays. The average passenger ship has several crew trained in combat; military ships will carry marines. Some vessels will even have security robots who respond automatically to alarms.

Artificial Gravity Control

It is possible to alter the artificial gravity on board. Reducing gravity to zero will limit actions to the level of a character's Zero-G skill. Gravity can also safely be increased up to 3G.

Tranq Gas

Some ships carry tranq gas canisters in the air vents, which can be released automatically. These flood a compartment with gas that forces an Endurance check each round, with a –1 DM per previous check. Any character who fails the Endurance check is knocked unconscious.

Venting Atmosphere

If a compartment is connected to an airlock, then the air can be vented from that area. Characters in that area must make a Strength check to hang on and will also begin to suffocate. Internal doors on a ship are airtight, so portions of the ship can be selectively vented, dependent on the ship's floor plan and the relative positions of airlocks.

Planetary Travel on Other Worlds

On-planet, and in civilized areas, regular services may be available for a few credits, allowing characters to ride to their destination aboard anything from a rickshaw to a maglev bullet train. In the course of their adventures, characters may ride aboard steam ships, dirigibles, submersibles, grav speeders or atop living mounts. Costs are fairly negligible for such travel. Assume a basic cost of 1D6X5 Credits per day of travel.

If the characters wish to use a vehicle of their own, this cost is not necessary. However, a suitable vehicle must be available.

Characters and the Law

In each of the situations listed in the Potential Law Enforcement Encounters table, roll 2D6 and add the listed modifiers. If the total is lower than the planet's Law Level, the characters are investigated or challenged by agents of planetary law enforcement.

Check means that the characters' travel documents and identities are checked, either by a police officer or guard, or electronically by querying the characters' comms. A successful Admin or Streetwise roll can allay suspicion, but if this check is failed, the planetary authorities move on to Investigate.

Investigate means that a detective or bureaucrat probes deeper into the characters' backgrounds. If the characters have a ship, it will be searched. They may be followed, or have their communications tapped. They may also be questioned closely.

Finally, Combat means that the police show up ready for a fight. Their response will generally be proportional to the threat posed by the player characters; if the characters are just making trouble in a bar, then most police forces will just use batons, tranq gas and other non-lethal weapons. On the other hand, if the characters are in Battle Dress and firing PGMPs at the palace of the planetary governor, then the police will show up with the best weapons and armor available at the planet's TL (or even a few levels higher).

Arrests and Sentencing

Characters arrested for a crime will face punishment, determined by rolling 2D6+DMs on the Sentencing table. For crimes involving smuggling banned goods, the DM is equal to the difference between the planet's Law Level and the banned goods in question. Other crimes have a set DM, per the Sentencing Modifiers by Crime table.

A character with the Advocate skill may attempt to reduce the severity of sentencing by making a check. If successful, reduce the Sentencing DM by the Effect of the check.

A result of Exile means that the character must leave the planet immediately and never return. Fines for smuggling goods are per ton of goods seized – gun running can be an extremely risky proposition.

Chapter 7: Trade and Commerce

As outlined under Starship Revenue in Chapter 6: Off-World Travel, a vessel can easily haul cargo for a flat rate, without having to engage in speculative trading. However, for those merchants willing to take the risk, speculative trading can prove to be a very profitable enterprise. This chapter provides a simple speculative trade system for use in Cepheus Engine campaigns, for those interested in such pursuits.

Speculative Trade Checklist

Speculative trading follows a basic procedure. The following checklist outlines the various steps in the speculative trade procedure.

1. Find a supplier
2. Determine goods available
3. Determine purchase price
4. Take goods to new world or market
5. Find a buyer
6. Determine sales price

Find a Supplier

The first step in the process is simple: find a supplier with something to sell. Characters can search for multiple suppliers, but there is a –1 DM per previous attempt on a planet in a given month.

Finding a supplier: Broker, Education or Social Standing, 1D6 days, Average (+0).

Finding a black market supplier: (Illegal goods only) Streetwise, Education or Social Standing, 1D6 days, Average (+0).

Finding an online supplier: (Worlds with TL 8+ only) Computers, Education, 1D6 hours, Average (+0).

The size of the Starport provides a bonus to finding a supplier. Class A starports give a +6 DM, class B starports give a +4 DM and class C starports give a +2 DM.

Determine Goods Available

Goods are divided into two categories of goods – Common and Trade Goods. Common Goods can be purchased on any world. Trade Goods can usually only be found on a world with a matching trade code. The amount of each type of goods available is limited – the tons column on the Trade Goods table determines how many tons of a given type of goods is available for purchase.

A given supplier has all Common Goods available and 1D6 randomly determined goods. Roll D66 on the table to determine the goods available, ignoring results 61–65 unless dealing with a black market supplier. If you roll the same type of goods multiple times, then the supplier has extra amounts of those goods available.

Some goods are illegal, and can be purchased only through a black market supplier. A black market supplier has whatever illegal goods match his world's trade code, as well as any randomly rolled illegal goods. Other goods may be legal on some worlds, but not legal on others (such as personal weapons and armor, which might be restricted on a world with a high law level). The Referee should adjudicate such situations as they occur.

Common Goods