Steven Ross

Interceptors! Immediate Launch!!!

2023-04-07T06:06:57Z

I had planned to post this on the first of April, but things didn't work out. I’ve decided to stat up the most unlikely threat in anyone’s Star Trek Adventures campaign… The Interceptor from Gerry Anderson’s UFO. The following fluff text is my attempt to fit this Dinky little craft into the STA Timeline.

An Alternate Timeline.
A relic of the Eugenics War and World War III, The Interceptor was designed and build by the firm Anderson Aerospace for the US Air Force and NATO as a single manned defence platform to protect Western assets on the Moon and in Earth orbit. As such it had to be light and simple enough to be transported and assembled in orbit or on the Moon. To that end, Anderson went with a simple pod design that incorporated a nose mounted launcher for the Genie IV Nuclear missile. A pressurised ejectable cockpit was included to allow the pilot to work in a shirt-sleeve environment, increasing crew comfort on long deployments. While the Interceptor missile could targeted and launched using the onboard systems, the standard practice was to have targeting and missile timing handled by the Interceptor’s command base using their computers along with real-time data from their sensors, the Interceptors and various detection satellites. Suffice as to say this limited the Interceptor to real-time communications range with their home base.

Game Use.
The Interceptor is meant to represent the kind of threat that could be presented by a pre-Warp spacefaring society. Individually, the Interceptor is not much of a threat. The danger comes from their being multiple Interceptors coordinated by a Command base with a complex space detection network.

Moon Base Interceptor © Gerry Anderson.1970

Mood Lifter

2022-09-22T14:14:10Z

Do you remember?

So Anyway My Friend Seemed to Think Somethings Wrong.

2022-03-02T21:41:18Z

Hi,

So a friend of mine seems to think there is a problem post-dating entries.

I Ain't Dead! ... Just Really Sore.

2021-08-11T18:42:05Z

So anyway, Last Wednesday I fractured my right arm just below the shoulder, picking up a glass of water... X-Raying me they found a mass of soft tissue weakening the bone. I don't know yet, but there's a good chance it's cancer. So since then I've been through a Guided Biopsy and a Full Body Bone Scan and am sitting here with my arm in a sling waiting to hear the results.

Mira Furlan Dead at 65

2021-01-22T14:51:26Z

I was saddened to hear last night actress Mira Furlan has died.
https://twitter.com/FurlanMira/status/1352421126496894976?s=20

Happy New Year Everybody

2020-01-01T05:10:23Z

Happy New year everyone! May your 2020 be better then 2019! :)

Visit to the Urologist.

2019-08-26T20:52:15Z

Two years ago, (Late November 2917, to be exact), I had surgery to remove an 11 inch tumor that was wrapped around my right kidney, along with said kidney, my appendix and the surrounding fat tissue. Since then, I've been seeing my urologist every six-months to go over test results. As of today, I'm still cancer free, and my kidney function is reported to be excellent. I have one more appointment in six-months and then he's switching me to once a year...

CUE THE MUSIC!!!

Creating a Starship for the Star Trek Adventures RPG

2018-06-18T02:24:38Z

Hey Folks!

Since I'm planning down the road to run a campaign using the Star Trek Adventures rpg. I figure I had best do up the player's ship...

Without further ado...

Step One: Choosing the Spaceframe.

For my purposes, I went with a Constellation class. (Because four Nacelles are better then two.) The Spaceframe gives me...

Systems
Comms 08, Engines 09, Structure 08.
Computers 07, Sensors 09, Weapons 09.

Departments
Command -, Security +1, Science -.
Conn +1, Engineering +1, Medicine -.

Scale 4

Weaponry
Phaser Banks
Photon Torpedoes
Tractor Beam (Strength 3)

Talents
Extensive Shuttle Bays
Improved Warp Drive

Step Two: Mission Profile
Basically, what job was the ship equipped, and crewed to do...

Since I had a particular Constellation in mind, despite the missions the rule book said the Constellation class were usually assigned, I went with the Multirole Explorer...

That gives me...

Departments
Command 02, Security 02, Science 02.
Conn 02, Engineering 02, Medicine 02.

Talents
Out of the five possible talents for this profile, I chose Rugged Design.

Step Three: Refits

Ok, the player's ship was built in 2285 and it's now 2371, so we can safely say she's been around the block a few times. According to the rulebook, every full ten years between when a ship enters service, and the current campaign date, the ship gets a refit that improves a system by +1 to a maximum of 12. No system can be improved by more then +2. Given the ship's history, I gave it eight refits (It should only get seven, but given the background I'm setting up, I felt I could justify one more). The refits were in 2295, 2305, 2315, 2325, 2335, 2345, 2355 and 2368.

This gives her...
Comms +1, Engines +2, Structure +1.
Computers +1, Sensors +2, Weapons +1.

Step Four: Adding it all together.

Ok what we finally have is...

Traits
Federation Starship
Long Serving
Renowned

Systems
Comms 09, Engines 11, Structure 09.
Computers 08, Sensors 11, Weapons 10.

Departments
Command 02, Security 03, Science 02.
Conn 03, Engineering 03, Medicine 02.

Talents
Extensive Shuttle Bays
Improved Warp Drive
Rugged Design
(According to the book, a ship should have a number of talents equal to it's Scale so I've added Improved Impulse Drive)

Scale 4.

Resistance (Equal to Scale) 4.

Shields (Equal to Structure + Security) 11.

Power (Equal to Engines) 11.

Crew Support (Equal to Scale) 4.

Weapons
Phaser Banks (Damage is equal to Scale + Security + 1 because they're in Banks) 8 Challenge Dice, the Banks also get the Medium Range category and phasers have the Versatile 2 Quality.

Photon Torpedo (Damage is Equal to the torpedo's base damage of 3 + Security) 6 Challenge Dice, they get the Long Range category and have the High Yield Quality.

For the finished product...

Click Here

CanGames 2018

2018-05-10T14:44:59Z

Hi folks just so you know, this year's CanGames I'm running Star Trek Adventures by Modiphius Entertainment.

Originally the scenario was to be Through a Forest Wilderness, It has now been changed to...

Adrift
On route to Dourap IV to help with a d’kar fever outbreak, the ship encounters a subspace anomaly which disables warp drive and leaves the ship drifting at high sub-light speed toward the Klingon border. The crew must fix the ship and deal with intercepting Klingons, while trying to determine what is responsible for the ship’s problems.

The time is May 19th at 2:pm, about four hours.

Cabalosians: A Centaur Race for Star Trek Adventures

2017-12-28T02:39:40Z

Cause someone dared me to ... I did a Centaur race for Modiphius Games Star Trek Adventures rpg. Aside from changing the racial and planet names, I have also altered the Hard Kicker Talent to be more in line with similar Talents used with other fan created races. I added the second illo because a friend suggested that the first one didn't seem very warrior-like. Spacial thanks to Joshua Brumley On the Star Trek Adventures Google+ community for comments and suggestions, and Stephen Birks on the same community for the name idea.

I present you the ~~Centaurians~~, Cabalosians based loosely on the Centaurs from A Centaur's Life.

CABALOSIAN

ALL ERAS OF PLAY
Cabalosians are an intelligent quadruped race native to the mountains and hills of Caballus. A class M world bordering Andorian space, near Coridan. At one time their world was occupied by the Orions and many of their people in the Northern lowlands were enslaved along with various other races captured in Orion raids. The Cabalosians of the Southern mountains, of had a warrior culture akin to the ancient samurai of Earth, waged a long war with the Orions raiding deep into the North and freeing many slaves, who in turn joined their army.
Eventually, with weapons supplied by the Andorians, the Cabalosians liberated their world. The two races maintain good relations and on the Andorian’s recommendation, Caballus joined the Federation in 2163. Cabalosians value service, duty and honour and many serve in Starfleet where they gained reputation as fierce shock troops in the Klingon War.

EXAMPLE VALUE: Service is its own form of honour.

ATTRIBUTES: +1 Daring +1 Fitness +1 Insight

TRAIT: The Cabalosians are a quardriped race, their horse-like lower torso is covered in a soft fur, and they have a horse-like tail. Their upper torso is humanoid except for large donkey-like ears that give them excellent directional hearing. Their hair and ear fur match the colour of their fur and tail. Cabalosians are bigger then humans, standing around two meters tall and can run very fast, averaging 100 meters in nine seconds. Being a mountain people, they are capable of high jumps and have high tolerance for cold.

TALENTS: The character has access to the following talents:

HARD KICKER
REQUIRMENT Cabalosian or Gamemasters permission.
Cabalosians are very strong and tend to use their hooves in close quarters fighting. Your Unarmed Strike Attack adds the Vicious 1 Damage effect. Also your hooves don’t have the Non-Lethal quality.

MOUNTAIN FOLK
REQUIRMENT Cabalosian or Gamemasters permission.
Cabalosians are very agile and high jumpers. Reduce the difficulty when jumping to or from a platform or ledge by 1.

YABOSAMI
REQUIRMENT Cabalosian or Gamemasters permission.
Cabalosians practice a dynamic form of Zen archery using a longbow called a Yabo. The Yabo is a ranged weapon with the following profile: Ranged, 4Δ Piercing 1, Cumbersome.

Picture from the anime, “A Centaur’s Life” is the property of Haoliners Animation League, picture from the manga is the property of Kei Murayama

I Live

2017-12-22T21:42:03Z

Well I’m back from seeing the doctor about the pathology report. A little background before that though…
Back in August, while down at GenCon with jkahane I had stomach problems and spent one morning pissing blood. I was pissing blood clots by the time we got back to Ottawa. It goes without saying, I saw my family doctor the next day and he scheduled a CT scan.
The CT scan showed an 11-cm mass on my right kidney and my doctor referred me to a Urologist at the General Hospital who saw me in late September. He said the results meant a 90% chance that it was malignant and scheduled another CT scan and made the arrangements for me to have surgery.
On the 21st of November, went in for surgery, they removed the kidney, the mass, the surrounding fat and while they were cleaning out the lymph nodes, they found something on my appendix and took that out to be safe. A week later I went home and have been recovering since.
Today I saw the Urologist again and go the pathology report…
The Cancer was Stage 3 and had invaded the surrounding fat tissue, but shows no sign of having spread. What was found on my appendix turned out to be just scar tissue. Suffice as to say, I have additional appointments over the next six months but everything looks good.

Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day

2017-09-19T13:52:35Z

Arr, this be talk like a pirate day, so here be my tale...

Awoken in the wee hours yesterday by the Sawbones ta talk o'my CT scan. I see him an he tells of a mass on me starboard kidney. That be enough to scupper me day on it's own. Get summoned ta work, be a long drive, evening mostly well, ceptin me bilge let go and I ended up in the head cleaning me undies. Damp undies be no fun to wear...

Get back to port an find I caught a cold...

Ey, things can only go up from here...

Stuff I'm selling at CanGames 2017

2017-05-01T16:13:31Z

Fantasy HERO.

A fantasy setting for the HERO system.

Incursion RPG.

Abducted by a UFO and lost in space.

GURPS High-Tech.

A weapons and equipment book for Second Edition GURPS.

Atlantis the second age RPG.

A sword and sorcery RPG based on the classic game setting.

Parsec RPG.

SF RPG.

Psionics the next stage in human evolution.

Troubled psychic youth verses shadowy conspiracies.

River of Heaven RPG, Reunion and The Last Witness.

SF RPG and two adventures.

Terra Primate RPG, Armageddon the end times RPG and Eden Studios Presents.

For Unisystem games.

Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition

Rulebook for the Savage Worlds RPG.

Doctor Who: Time Lord.

The BBC Books version by Ian Marsh & Peter Darvill-Evans.

Call of Catthulhu Deluxe and the Worlds of Catthulhu sourcebook.

The rules light RPG where cats save the world and the humans just open the tuna!

Angel Directors Screen.

Usable with the Cinematic Unisystem.

For the Champions RPG:

*The Olympions (The Olympion Gods for your superhero campaign.)
*Golden Age Champions (Masked Mystery Men vs the Nazi menace.)
*Atlantis (The lost city for your superhero campaign.)

Heirs to the Lost World RPG.

A table-top role-playing game set at the fringe of contact between the Old and New Worlds in an alternate history in which the Aztec Empire never fell.

HERO Syestem Rulesbook

For the 4th edition rules.

Horror HERO

Horror settings for the HERO system.

Western HERO

The Wild West setting for the HERO system.

ROBOTECH: The Masters Saga Sourcebook (manga size)

The manga sized source book for doing a Southern Cross Era campaign in ROBOTECH.

#RPGaDAY #31: Best Advice

2016-08-31T18:36:47Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

31st: Best advice you were ever given for your game of choice?
Hmm, over my time as a gamer, I've been given a metric butt-ton of advice. Sadly much of it I've ignored. I don't remember who said it to me, but I guess I'd have to go with "It's only a hobby... It's only a hobby".

#RPGaDAY #30: Gamer Cave

2016-08-30T21:14:14Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

30th: Describe the ideal game room if the budget were unlimited.
I don’t know, but possibly something involving Virtual Reality.

#RPGaDAY #29: Anywhere?

2016-08-29T15:00:25Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

29th: You can game anywhere one Earth, where would you choose?
Catherine’s bar, on the fictional island of Saint Marie. It just looks like a pleasant relaxing environment in which to game. And there’s snacks! ;)

#RPGaDAY #28: You Haven't Read WHAT!?!

2016-08-29T02:29:13Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

28th: Thing you’d be most surprised a friend had not seen or read?
Well I have a friend who’s fairly well read. I’d say I’d be very surprised if he hadn’t read a classic like the Lensmen series or the Viagens Interplanetarias series.

#RPGaDAY #27: The Strange Places We Play

2016-08-27T15:29:14Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

27th: Most unusual circumstance or location in which you’ve gamed?
The Darkroom at my high school between exams. I was running short games of Star Wars the first edition D6 RPG by West End Games. The neat bit was I found ways to integrate the red light and the timer buzzer into the sessions.

#RPGaDAY #26: Hobbies

2016-08-26T21:50:06Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

26th: What hobbies go well with RPGs?
Being able to tell a good story, reading, the ability to research information from a variety of sources. Drawing sometimes helps too.

#RPGaDAY #25: Of Good Character

2016-08-25T21:19:33Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

25th: What makes for a good character?
I’d say a good backstory, some interesting personality quirks, of course all of this is dependent on having a player able to play that character.

#RPGaDAY 24: Gift Time

2016-08-24T15:06:15Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

24th: What is the game you are most likely to give to others?
Hmm, I think that would depend a lot on who I was giving it to. As a gift, I’d want the game to reflect the interests of the person I was giving it to. If it was a child it would be something cute like Golden Sky Stories. For anyone else, it’s going to depend on the person.

#RPGaDAY 23: Worst Luck

2016-08-24T14:53:57Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

23rd: Share one of your best “Worst Luck” stories?
Gamewise, that would have to be an incident that happened in Universe. We spent the whole previous session preparing for this very tricky docking and boarding operation. Especially the person playing our pilot. We had everything planned perfectly … and we collided with an asteroid on the approach, and were forced to spacewalk the rest of the way with most of our gear gone.

#RPGaDAY #22: Seemingly Random

2016-08-22T15:44:36Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

22nd: Supposedly random game events that keep recurring?
I can’t think of one off hand. Since there are only two players in the group, there’s a 50% chance that anything that happens, will happen to my character.

#RPGaDAY #21: Funniest misinterpretation of a rule in your group? Not!!!

2016-08-21T23:05:21Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

21st: Funniest misinterpretation of a rule in your group?
While we’ve certainly had misinterpretations I can’t think of anything funny. So as an alternate;

What are good ways for the group to support the host on game night?
Be awake, alert, bring food, be ready to play, help set up…

#RPGaDAY 20: Most Challenging and Rewarding

2016-08-20T16:58:30Z

Continuing to add my own answers to the #RPGaDAY questions, hosted by BrigadeCon. Here is the latest question...

20th: Most challenging but rewarding system have you learned?
I’d have to say that would be Skyrealms of Jorune. The early editions of the game had a very confusing set of rules, this combined with the glossary made it a bit of a challenge. But the world of Jorune made the effort more then worth it.