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Spatial Anomalies in Cepheus Engine and Traveller

Wormholes, black holes, rifts in the space time continuum…..all of these things are the source of great entertainment in science fiction stories. Some of the possibilities include the following which come from Star Trek and other science fiction stories:

  • The Void – A place devoid of all matter and energy
  • Cosmic Strings – Cosmic strings are hypothetical 1-dimensional topological defects which may have formed during a symmetry-breaking phase transition in the early universe when the topology of the vacuum manifold associated to this symmetry breaking was not simply connected
  • Black Holes
  • Wormholes
  • Chaotic Space – A part of the galaxy where the normal laws of physics do not apply. These parts of galaxy appear suddenly and randomly
  • Dark matter nebulaes
  • Rifts in the space time continuum
  • Alternative universes

Ultimately this type of thing can include just about anything that the game master wants to include in space. It gives a more hard science fiction edge to the campaign as the players meet hazards and obstacles in space which are unexplored or perhaps even unknown.

Exploration is one of the key elements of science fiction stories. Going new places and exploring new things is enough to keep the interest of even the most difficult of players. The possibilities for spatial anomalies are increasing daily as scientists and astronomers find new objects in space and create new theories about them.

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Alien Contact in Cepheus Engine and Traveller

Aliens are part and parcel to the futuristic science fiction story. Virtually every science fiction series involves aliens at some point in the story line. And why not? Audiences eat that stuff up!

The very essence of the Star Trek series was exploring new worlds and meeting new civilizations never met before. Meeting new alien races is the ultimate goal of space exploration in that series.

Aliens are not always friendly in science fiction. Even in Star Trek some alien species were bad guys. Sometimes they were very bad guys. The Klingons and the Romulans were war like races. The Tholians just wanted their space left alone. So did the Gorn. And some alien races just considered the humans aboard the Enterprise to be play things to toy with. They were not serious beings because they were too primitive to worry much about.

But some aliens were friendly. Some wanted to meet new races like the humans. Others wanted sources of trade and wealth that meeting new races might bring. Some were just curious. The important thing to remember is that each alien race was different and had their own different motivation for how they reacted to the human visitors.

Aliens come from somewhere. But where? Alien worlds of course! Where there is an alien there must be a home world right? This creates new places to explore. And of course…where there are aliens there must be alien space craft too right? Or perhaps the aliens are primitive and have not yet achieved space travel. Imagine what such a race would trade for the ability to jump travel! They would probably give away the farm.

Where alien races come alien diseases might also come! Meeting aliens is not all what it is cracked up to be.

And what about communication? The first time an alien race is met neither knows the other’s language! Actions might be misunderstood. Remember in the Babylon 5 TV series? The Minbari meet the Humans for the first time. The humans open their gun ports in a show of respect and the Minbari take this as a provocation which leads to the near extinction of the human race. One better tread lightly when meeting a new species for the first time!

Where aliens come so do new animal species that are indigenous on their worlds. Every world has it’s own animals and alien worlds would definitely have alien pets and farm animals and other interesting things. In one episode of the original Star Trek fun is made of Mr. Spock having a teddy bear pet by McCoy. Spock replies that his teddy bear had six inch fangs or something along those lines.

A great deal of thought should be put into development of new aliens for your Traveller and Cepheus Engine campaigns. Aliens should have back stories, home worlds, animals and technology far different than those of the humans in your campaign. This is what makes them so interesting.

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Blacksmiths in Dungeons and Dragons

Blacksmiths in Dungeons and Dragons might serve different purposes depending upon whether they are found in a small town or village or a major city. Those in small towns would likely be doing mostly minor repairs to metal objects. They might be shoeing horses or doing other mundane tasks. In a major city they might be making or repairing armor or weapons.

Primarily blacksmiths are a service business. They rarely kept many goods in stock for sale. Instead they performed services on request. They might have a few mundane items for sale which are needed daily. Otherwise they would be completing tasks as they came.

When a player character visits a blacksmith shop they better expect to hurry up and wait. The blacksmith was often busy completing tasks for other customers and there might be quite a delay before they freed up to work on the next task.

Why would Dwarves be such good blacksmiths? Well if you live to be several hundred years old wouldn’t you be really good at your job?

Some blacksmiths specialize. If they live in a major city then they can afford to do so. They could only make armor or weapons. Or they could work with other metals and make other things.

What kinds of things would one find in a blacksmith shop? Some items that come to mind are as follows:

  • A forge
  • An anvil
  • A hammer
  • Bellows
  • A hot poker
  • Long tongs for picking up hot metal objects
  • Chisels
  • Sets – A type of chisel with a handle or shaft
  • Hardy – A special chisel that fits the tool hole of an anvil. It was used with a hammer
  • Punches – These are used for hot work and came in various shapes to remove the minimum amount of metal
  • Drifts – These were really short punches

Sooner or later your player characters will want to visit a blacksmith in some town or city. Knowing what they are likely to find there is important to the Dungeon Master who intends to make the experience memorable. Blacksmiths were busy people and were unlikely to suffer fools for long. They were often big and hearty men. While they might not be experienced adventurers they would likely to be intimidating looking people.

They would likely have big personalities and perhaps even big egos. They might not have much stock in trade but they would have a great deal of confidence that they could make just about anything needed out of metal given the right amount of time and the proper ingredients.

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Black Holes in Cepheus Engine and Traveller

Black holes have been known about for quite some time. A number of sci fi movies and television shows have discussed them. But in terms of a science fiction game what do they provide the game master?

Black holes would be discovered from time to time. They are potentially a hazard to both travel and inhabited worlds that might get sucked into them. In one original Star Trek episode the Enterprise comes too close to an unknown black hole (or perhaps a micro black hole) and the gravitational pull sends them back in time.

But what if a black hole could be explored? What would one find inside of one? A new world or universe? Perhaps travel back in time? Perhaps lost space ships and worlds that were pulled into the black hole.

Scientist patrons would naturally be curious about black holes in their backyard. They might hire adventurers and explorers to go visit them. Perhaps they would develop space ships capable of visiting and returning from them. Certainly they would want to send probes into them. How close can one get to a black hole and still escape the gravitational pull of one?

Malevolent entities might want to create black holes to cause havoc among enemies in their sector. Pirates might want to see ships become stranded in the pull of a black hole. Perhaps they might have the technology to visit and salvage ships lost in one and want to see others get stranded.

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Punishment in Dungeons and Dragons

Crimes and offenses in a medieval world such as a Dungeons and Dragons campaign could be various depending upon the severity. Minor offenses might be punished in the following ways:

  • Imprisonment
  • Whipping
  • Payment of fines
  • Forfeiture of estates
  • Being placed in the stocks
  • Pillory – Similar to stocks but stocks held only the legs and the Pillory framework held the neck and wrists as well
  • Branding
  • Removal of a body part such as a hand or foot

More serious offenses resulted in capitol punishment. Hanging was the norm but occasionally burning was used.

So why is this important for Dungeons and Dragons? Sooner or later player characters will visit cities. Public punishment was frequently on display. Anyone visiting such a medieval city would likely see examples of such punishment being used. It is important to the flavor of the campaign for city life to seem realistic.

Of course such punishments were often meted out by a trial by jury. These jury trials were part of a manorial court held several times a year. Villagers made up these juries but only men would actually sit on the jury.

More serious crimes were judged by a King’s Court. This was known as a Trial by Ordeal. There were three types of these Trials by Ordeal:

  • Ordeal by Fire – The accused had to pick up a red hot bar and carry it several paces. They then had their hands bandaged and returned to the court after three days. If their hands were showing signs of healing then they were judged innocent.
  • Ordeal by Water – The accused had their hands and feet tied and were thrown into water. If they floated they were guilty. If they sank then they were innocent.
  • Ordeal by Combat – Noblemen would sometimes fight (usually to the death). The winner was considered to be in the right.
Dunking in water while tied to a stool

There were also some very strange punishments that were meted out during those times. Some are peculiar. Others were still very deadly. Here are some of the most bizarre ones used:

  • Apologizing while wearing a white sheet
  • Wearing animal masks and humiliating badges
  • Being thrown into water while tied to a stool
  • Wearing a custom made bridle
  • Plucking a stone out of boiling water
  • Being suffocated in mud
  • Hanging in a cage
  • Having a metal pear poked up the wazzoo

And then of course….there was torture. Torture was not considered punishment per se but a means to extract a confession. But that is the basis of a different article on this site.

Wearing animal masks and humiliating badges as punishment
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Wormholes in Cepheus Engine and Traveller

Science fiction stories often include discussions of wormholes. But what exactly is a wormhole anyway? One possible definition comes from Wikipedia:

A wormhole is a hypothetical structure connecting disparate points in spacetime, and is based on a special solution of the Einstein field equations. A wormhole can be visualized as a tunnel with two ends at separate points in spacetime.

Wormholes are shortcuts in spacetime, popular with science fiction authors and movie directors. They’ve never been seen, but according to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, they might exist.

In terms of a Cepheus Engine or Traveller game they have some interesting uses. Anything that allows travel across galaxies and universes at speeds faster than jump technology would allow creates fantastic possibilities. One could find a new sector to explore which might be on the far side of the universe. This sector might only be temporarily available as the wormhole could collapse at any time. New worlds, new aliens and new life forms might be discovered during the interim.

Perhaps a wormhole could even take one back in time. Even more fantastic….perhaps it could take one into the future as well. Who knows?

Keep in mind….a Wormhole might be a two way street. Who might be coming from the other side to visit your sector? Explorers, raiders or someone else?

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Other Interesting Play Aids for Dungeons and Dragons

After writing the last article about miniatures I decided to include another article discussing some things that go with that subject. Specifically I am talking about:

  • Pathfinder Pawns – Minis are expensive. And you can never quite have enough of them to cover every possible encounter. There are just so many monsters out there and so few dollars to spend on buying minis for them all. Fortunately there is a solution. This one is not perfect as it often does not include enough of specific types of monsters to cover battles with large groups of humanoids. But it does cover a wide variety of creatures that could be out there for Dungeons and Dragons or other fantasy games. The link here shows just one of the sets. There are many different types of sets including ones for characters.
  • Pathfinder Flip Mats – These maps provide awesome looking terrain to play games on with miniatures. There are just so many different types of maps out there. These are made by Paizo but others make them as well. Some come in very large map sizes and some come as cards that you can build on the table as the players move through the dungeon. The link shows just one of these products but you might want to explore. All kinds of terrains are provided including: cities, ruins, temples, dungeons, hills, forests, deserts and many more Prices vary as there are some packs with multiple maps and there are many different sizes.
  • Hirst Art Terrain – I confess I bought and built many of these but have used none yet in games. The molds allow you to produce dungeon terrain from city dwellings to dungeons and castles. There are many different molds out there and they are pretty awesome. Unfortunately they are not cheap. And you must also buy material to pour into them. This is a time intensive hobby so be advised it is not for the casual gamer.
  • Dwarven Forge – I will admit that I do not own any of these. They are a bit out of my price range. I have, however, met the maker of these (Stefan Pokorny) a few times at the NTRPG. He is a pretty cool fellow and runs a great AD&D game at his table. I include these here in case they might be in your price range and interest. He used these terrains in his games and has built some amazing stuff with them. Another DM built the entire moathouse from village of homlet and we played through that at NTRPG the last time I went. Stefan played at the table with us as a player.

You may have noticed links in this article. I am getting no affiliate income from Amazon or Hirst. I just provide the links for your convenience.

There are many products out there that are really cool. It would be nice to buy all of them but it is just too expensive to do so. The header picture in this article is a Dwarven Forge Example. The other pictures below are examples from Hirst Arts Molds.

A crypt
A fieldstone wall ruin
Even some cool sci fi terrain can be made
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Time Travel In Cepheus Engine and Traveller

Many of the inspirations for my Cepheus Engine adventures are old episodes of the original Star Trek series. Kirk, Spock and McCoy led many interesting adventures to strange new worlds and places. But one recurring theme in the show was time travel.

The show demonstrated a number of possible ways that one might go back in time. These included:

  • Alien artifacts
  • Getting too close to the sun’s gravitational force
  • Getting too close to a black hole’s gravitational force
  • Planets which adopted Roman and Nazi forms of government
  • Strange machines in libraries on a planet about to go nova which could send one back into history to escape the devastation
  • A time traveler who fought with a duplicate of himself causing havoc in the space time continuum.

If the show had gone on for a fourth season I am fairly confident that they would have come up with even more methods. One thing that they neglected, however, was the possibility of going into the future rather than into the past.

With time travel your players could visit historic times in the distant and not so distant past. Think of the possibilities? Some that come to my mind while writing this article include:

  • Prehistoric times visiting the dinosaurs
  • Prehistoric times visiting the neanderthals
  • Visiting the ancient Romans or Greeks
  • Visiting Occupied Europe during the second world war
  • Arriving at pearl harbor just before the attack (the Final Countdown Movie)
  • Finding oneself on the front lines in the trenches of World War One
  • Going into the future (and considering that we are playing a futuristic sci fi game that might take some serious imagination)

There are all kinds of things one could do and all kinds of directions that one could go. One could even go into alternative histories. What if?

  • What if the Nazis had won?
  • What if the Japanese Empire had?
  • What if the Germans had won in the previous war to end all wars?
  • What if the Roman Empire never fell?

There are many other what ifs that you could probably think of that I have not included here. Those possibilities are endless too.

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More on Miniatures in Dungeons and Dragons

Lately I have been buying and painting miniatures for Dungeons and Dragons. Specifically I have been painting them for future use in my campaign. So far none have ever been used by me in my own games. Certainly I have played with minis before in other peoples games at conventions and at gaming tables.

Miniatures are an expensive hobby. Yes. Sure. You can buy a 3D printer and make your own right? Well that is the subject for another article. But using a 3D printer is not exactly as easy as it is all made out to be. Nor is acquisition of the data files which make such 3D minis. And it is certainly not all free either.

And official Dungeons and Dragons, pathfinder and other such minis are a terrible rip off. You get maybe two minis (if lucky) for about $4 or $5. Does that sound like a good deal? How often do you use just two orcs? Or goblins? Or whatever? Obviously big monsters might be encountered singly but humanoids, undead and other such things are often encountered in numbers.

So what are the alternatives other than not using them at all? Surprisingly I have found a few which are good alternatives and are far cheaper to use. Some examples that I have personally bought include:

  • SCS Direct Fantasy Creatures – These guys sell a pack of creatures which include many different D&D and fantasy monsters. Most of these come with 10 of each creature in the pack for a total of 98 pieces for $25. They come in two colors (gray and white). Apparently the maker considered them similar to plastic army men and decided to make two armies. They are still easily painted. A similar set is available from the same company which includes most of the favorite monster horror film creatures like mummies, vampires, werewolves and frankensteins (flesh golem). The scales are not perfect however. But the price is right. You get multiples of a lot of creatures that you would use in a DnD game for a hell of a lot less than you would pay for an official to scale version.
  • Drunk n Dragon DnD minis – This set includes ogres, goblins, archers, wizards or cultists or priests depending on how you see them, something that looks kind of like a jackalwere to me and other pieces. Currently it says this is unavailable but I bought it a year or so ago. Perhaps the big bad WOTC shut them down. I don’t know. I will link it anyway just in case they become available again.
  • Wildspire Minis – This is a very interesting set. It comes with some pretty cool pieces. It is not cheap but is still probably better than buying traditional D&D or Pathfinder Minis. It comes with one massive dragon which is reading from a book. A spell book perhaps. It has some baby dragons, a barrel which seems to be a mimic or something, a massive demon or devil, a weird shark bear creature and many more interesting figures. It cost $42 but has like 28 pieces to it.
  • Another Interesting Set – This one has big yetis, treasure chest shaped mimics, stone men (golems perhaps), gnolls, were-rats and even cockatrice. 40 figures for $32. Not too bad a price and these are close to scale for D&D.
  • An all Green Set – Ok this one has some weird pieces but some fit perfectly for D&D. The set is printed in all green but can easily be painted. It has lizard men, witches or hags, various blobs and oozes and some other pieces which I am not exactly sure what they are intended to be. 40 pieces for $10. For that price you can just ignore the ones that you do not intend to use.
  • Path Gaming 40 Set – Ok this set is made for D&D and is set to scale. This one includes some fan favorites including: Mind Flayers, Dwarves, Goblin Shamans, were-boars, rakshasa, bards, little goblins or kobolds riding lizards as mounts and other pieces. Forty pieces for $25.

These are just some of the options out there. You may have noticed that all of these links go to Amazon. FYI I am not getting affiliate income from that. I do get some affiliate income on this site but not from Amazon. Amazon just had an excellent selection of these types of miniatures available. I suspect that if I delved deeper I would find them on other sites as well and perhaps other and better variations. The point is this. You do not have to buy official D&D or pathfinder minis. There are lots of cheaper options out there. And many of those options include more than a couple of each piece.

I have painted some out of each of those sets I listed above. The paint sticks better to some than others but you can prime them with spray paint first and then paint sticks pretty well to all of them afterwards. I will put up another article later with pictures of some my painting. I am no Picasso but even I can paint minis at least half ass. My (much younger) sister painted many for me as well. She probably did a better job on some.

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Beyond the Frontiers of Space

Those of you who are reading my Cepheus Engine adventures set in the Sonora sector can probably see that I am slowly beginning to expand space outward into the nearby unexplored sector. New worlds are being found. New aliens are being met. And new life forms and hazards are being discovered.

Missions venturing into the next sector have become available. Mapping excursions, rescue missions and other such things have led travelers into the nearby sector. What dangers might be found there? Will the travelers be welcome there or will they be considered trespassers by the locals? Will aliens be friendly or will they be hostile?

Having a nearby unexplored sector gives the game master a world of opportunities. All sorts of missions might take place there and since it is not yet explored it is not yet mapped. The travelers have little or no idea at all of what they might find there. This creates a Star Trek type of setting where new worlds are always just around the corner.