Stargrave: Death Vector - Book Extract

What technological horrors await you in the Outlaw Technology Sector?  

Author Joseph A. McCullough explores some of the new rules to enhance your campaigns coming in Stargrave’s latest supplement, Death Vector. 

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At the heart of this supplement are eight new scenarios set in the Outlaw Technology Sector. While they are connected by the setting, which has its own special rules and some new campaign systems as talked about below, they are designed to be played as standalone games in whatever order the players wish. These scenarios are filled with automatons, dangerous technology run wild, and all kinds of new and interesting ways to die. For those who want to ‘stick to the basics’, you can play these scenarios, use the new aliens found in the Bestiary, roll on the new Advanced Technology Table, and ignore the other chapters in the book. 

A horrific combination of dead flesh and advanced cybernetics, automatons were the basic worker drones of the synthetic intelligence that once ruled the Outlaw Technology Sector. 

For those who want to expand the campaign element of the game, however, I created new Space Encounter Tables. I first introduced the idea of space encounters in Bold Endeavour, and I must admit, I’ve grown quite enamoured with it. While these encounters rarely have much impact on the game on the table, they have a huge effect on a campaign, especially from a narrative standpoint. They are the strings that bind otherwise unrelated scenarios together and give colour to the universe. The encounters presented in Bold Endeavour had a very distinct flavour suitable to that supplement. I wanted to present a whole new table full of weird and wonderful encounters that would colour the travels of the independent crews through the ruins of the AI empire and give a few unique opportunities for loot and experience. 

Just one of the situations your crew might encounter in Death Vector. Pray you never have to tangle with a Cyrpent or cross paths with a Rogue AI! 

As I worked on the idea of AI-controlled space, I realized to assert direct control over everything, it needed a vast network of interconnected computers. This is not an original concept, but one that has only played a limited role in Stargrave up to this point. One of the core elements of the Ravaged Galaxy is that it has been so battered that everything has become disconnected. There are lots of computers, and some of them may be on limited networks, but these networks never reach very far. In the Outlaw Technology Sector, everything was once a single vast network. Even though that network has also been shattered, there are still some large chunks in existence, and those pieces hide secrets and dangers not found anywhere else in the galaxy.  

The Network gives new meaning to ‘terminally online’. 

So, for the first time, the hackers of the independent crews have a reason to enter and explore an unknown network. This gave me the opportunity to add a bit of cyberpunk to the game and give the players a little subgame that they can play as part of a bigger campaign. This is the chance for those deck-jockeys to shine, to discover new advanced technology… or to unleash some horrible virus into their ship. 

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Stargrave: Death Vector is out May 29th in the UK and May 27th in the US. 

Get ready to explore The Network with the player aid from our gaming resources page. 

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