Buffalo Heavy Transport for Star Smuggler and Other Science Fiction Games

On page two of the Star Smuggler rules comes some sage advice. "Gamemasters of science fiction role-playing games may wish to use this as an adventure or campaign guideline (with appropriate rules adjustments to suit their own RPG system)."

It is now time for some adjustments.

This is the Buffalo Heavy Transport. It tops out at 290 CU.

The Buffalo has some rather interesting quirks. The boat bays are mounted topside of the ship meaning that replacement boats must be flight ready. The boat bays also have enough room for the boat plus skimmer, usually deployed on the boat. The centerline bay is meant for ingress and egress and also has sufficient space for single skimmer. A ramp deploys out the bottom of the ship. The port and starboard bays are big enough for a tank or a ship's boat. Crew quarters are shown in their spacious configuration and can be further partitioned for more crew. This ship has no hidden compartments. Pilotage is so spacious, players must purchase one stasis unit per chair (3) to protect everyone in the space. The Buffalo has 8 hypercharges and can take 15 hits before being destroyed.

If you would like to incorporate this into Star Smuggler, I have pricing and other information here to mix into e001 and e036.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 076 – March 16th.

We get to start rolling at the prison. We get 5 rolls today.

We get 3 offers to hire bodyguards, the much needed stasis units and our final roll is “no more rolls”. Mission accomplished!

Ok, so what did I have? In the crew quarters, I had 8 one CU Stasis Units. I am converting these to four 2 CU Stasis Units per ship. I also move some of those 1 CU stasis units to Engineering and the Alicorn’s Turret. All of the remainders, I scrap. So far as I know, there is no way to sell a Stasis Unit.

The cost of this operation, not counting the lost units was 1,200 secs.

I have 166,783 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Dragons Gonna Drag Added to the Reading List

Over on the right column, I added another blog: Dragons Gonna Drag. I feel like that should have an exclamation point. In Justin Stewart's latest post, he talks about "Official House Rules". I love house rules, while he is talking about B/X and I play a fusion of B/X and AD&D, I dig a lot of what he says. 

One of my long time annoyances is the spell "Read Magic". What the heck, didn't the wizard go to school for something? Why make this a spell? Mr. Stewart nails it will his house rule on this. Personally, I just ignored the whole spell but this method is better. 

I have a feeling I am going to have some free time on my hands, so it's time to update that reading list. Join me!

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 075 – March 15th.

Ok, we are moving the fleet to orbit and heading off to Uruskop.

There is a quirk with getting certain supplies in certain places. For most areas, a roll of 2 is Stasis Units. There is only 1/36 chance of doing that at a spaceport or other place known for Stasis Units. Prisons are the best place with a 1 in 6 chance. They use them to store prisoners, which kind of makes sense. Uruskop is the closest planet with a prison.

As we enter the system, we hear a clunk on the hull. This is e414 and is one of my favorite events. A robot craft of some sort affixes itself to the hull. If an engineer goes out there to remove it, there is a 1 in 6 chance of discovering that it is a shuttle craft of some sort. It's cool ride, you can't mount weapons but it's far more stylish than the hopper.

This ship is super dangerous. There is 1 in three chance that it will explode and kill an engineer. A 3 in 5 to kill anyone else. We roll in the middle and do not find the super cool shuttle craft. In fact, we don’t understand any of it and simply pry it off the hull. I figured Duke is acting as benefactor lately, not a boss or pirate so he risked himself with the engineer to no effect.

We land at the prison and are rush by a horde of escaped prisoners. We take off again to avoid them. The rules don’t say we can do this, but they are unarmed and want to steal our clothes. I’m not shooting them over boots. If we hadn’t been landing, I would have played it differently.

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe nothing.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.

Cargo of note:
1 Boat guns, TL-2,
4 CU Status Unit (e103),
120 Side Arms, TL-6.
7 Side Arms TL-1, 1 TL-3 Side Arm, 1 TL-4 Side Arm
2 TL-4 heavy hand weapons with explosive effects,
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
4 Doses of pheromones (e009) in Duke’s pocket,
and the ship is fueled with 5 hypercharges.

1 Alicorn starship with TL-1 Guns. We owe nothing.
1 Hopper with TL-2 Boat guns,

Cargo of note:
5 Military U-suits (e044)
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
130 Side Arms, TL-6.
and the ship is fueled with 5 hypercharges.

I have 167,983 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Strictly (Duke) Springer - Day 074 – March 14th.

The gambling area has a strange assortment of goods available, in addition to gambling.

Duke and Emily are off with the crew to gamble again. I was hoping to get side arms or heavy side arms, but e071 it is.

I’m not doing tables again today. Only Duke and Emily are gambling. After more than a dozen games, we walk out with a cool 180,000. Since the deal with the team was 1% of all profits, each crewman receives 1,800 each. That leaves Duke and Emily with 163,000 in gambling profits. I forgot to do this yesterday, but the crew made out like bandits anyway.

On our way out, we get jumped by 4 guys with TL-6 side arms. The combat is short and brutal as we are toting heavy side arms with explosive rounds on a planet with no air. Emily goes down unconscious  but suffers no hits. Duke, Left and Bones are all hit for 1 point of damage, which isn’t much of a problem.

We walk off with our winnings and the 4 TL-6 side arms, which the crew distribute among themselves.

1 Antelope starship with TL-5 Guns. I owe nothing.
1 Hopper with boat guns, TL-3.

Cargo of note:
1 Boat guns, TL-2,
4 CU Status Unit (e103),
120 Side Arms, TL-6.
7 Side Arms TL-1, 1 TL-3 Side Arm, 1 TL-4 Side Arm
2 TL-4 heavy hand weapons with explosive effects,
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
4 Doses of pheromones (e009) in Duke’s pocket,
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

1 Alicorn starship with TL-1 Guns. We owe nothing.
1 Hopper with TL-2 Boat guns,

Cargo of note:
5 Military U-suits (e044)
5 TL-1 Heavy Hand Weapons,
130 Side Arms, TL-6.
and the ship is fueled with 6 hypercharges.

I have 167,983 secs. We are wanted in the Palatek system.

Since I didn't do tables, let me share my character sheets. Duke and Emily's cash in combined in the total above.