This is a sample combat using characters made straight out of the book. President Garratt is making a speech at the inauguration of the Freedom League Memorial. Silverknight is present, representing G.U.A.R.D,

Suddenly an intense wave of freezing cold sweeps across the podium; the President and her aides freeze into solid blocks of ice. *

A group of goons wearing blue jumpsuits spill across the arena, heading for the podium.

Silverknight moves to intercept them and fires his Force Beam when a massive blast of freezing cold hits him, and he is rooted; frozen to the spot and unable to move.

Round 1 – Narrative Combat

Goons x 5 (5)

Silverknight – (Ranged) Force Beam: roll 6,2 = 12 + 24 = 36

Frostorm – (Close) Freeze Gun: Roll 6,6 = 36 + 36 + 5 (goons) = 77

(Silverknight beat Frostorm’s Defence, but he has to take out the goons first. His highest roll is a 6 to he takes down all 6 of them. He was able to use his Force Field to increase his Defence.

Frostorm rolled a Critical Success with his attack though, so this can be judged to be an automatic hit. It would have hit anyway. I judged that Silverknight was frozen into a block of ice. He took 6 damage which I allocated 4 to Fatigue and 2 to Bruises.

Round 2

Silverknight has to escape from the ice – this will use Origins (the Scientific Design of the suit.) I decide this is Difficult, so I need to score 20+. Roll 3,4 = 12 + 18 (Origins) = 30 so success.

Meanwhile Frostorm has to kidnap the President. With all his goons down, he needs a different method. He creates an ice slide off the cliffs down into the ocean – the President (being in a block of ice) will float. ** This will use his Origins (Super Science.) I decide this is Very Difficult so needs to score 30+. Roll 3,5. As a Talented scientist he can modify this to 4,5 = 20 + 4 = 24. This is enough (I think) to get the block moving along the slide towards the cliff edge.

Round 3

Silverknight has a choice – he could try blasting the block to free the President or he could concentrate on Frostorm. Frostorm, meanwhile, blasts Silverknight. Silverknight decides to free the President. ***

Silverknight – Dives into combat and punches the ice block. The one that froze him needed 20+ to break so I’ll use this. Roll 2,3 – Talent is Dive into Combat so modified to 3,3 = 9 + 12 = 21. Just enough to shatter the ice block and free the President.

It also turned the roll into a Double, which means that something else happens. Silverknight chooses Option to Re-roll one die on a future die roll of any type

Frostorm – Freeze Gun (Close – he was next to the block) Roll 2,4 = 8 + 36 = 44. Just missed!

Round 4

Silverknight is in close combat with Frostorm

Frostorm uses his Superspeed (Skating) to get away on an ice slide – 3,6 = 18 + 4 = 22. This is enough to escape but Silverknight gets a parting shot.

Silverknight punches and misses, Frostorm gets away.

Silverknight gains +1 Rep for saving the President.

I didn’t use Character Points in this example combat which ight have changed things

When Paul Elliott (Zozer Games) announced he was working on an update for SOLO (the Traveller/ Cepheus solo rules) I was looking forward to it with real anticipation. SOLO works really well and I used it to run The Currents of Space solo Game for 3 years. I thought that it would be an update and revision, removing Jump Drives and redesigning ship encounters (etc.) to match the gritty, retro-80’s feel of Hostile (and also planet design; something which is often missed is that the planet design system is not the same as in Traveller/ Cepheus; for example you can’t generate a multi-billion population on any of the colony worlds, neither can you generate a Class A starport, the best you can get is a Class B.) SOLO clocks in at 153 pages of excellence, but you do need setting rules and Game-system.

Paul has delivered big-time.

Hostile: Solo is an impressive 230 pages and offers a complete Game-system, task resolution, setting details and six campaign styles. A lot has been streamlined (character generation and world generation) but it is all 100% compatible with the Hostile Rules and Hostile Setting and all of the published setting books. The book is packed with fantastic artwork and plenty of examples. There are design notes and tables to quickly create bases, outposts, space platforms, starships and encounters.

Character Generation – I have put together a crew of 6 to try out a Shipping Campaign (Number 1 in the book – each campaign type has its own section with a set of dedicated tables.) Character creation for all six took 30 mins in total and already threw up some ideas and potential conflicts.) It is a design system rather than a ‘roll lifepath’, but as I said, you can use the full system if you want to.

The PDF is available now on DrivethruRPG, the Softback and hardback comes out in September from Zozer Games.

I’m really impressed with the Game and it will be hitting the table right after the current Game finishes a) Characters – all characters are members of the IATF (International Alien Task Force) and are usually soldiers. They are created using the normal SWADE rules. Certain Hindrances (‘Wanted’ for example) have little value and so are excluded. Everyone gets the core skills at d4 AND Fighting and Shooting. There are some new skills, but not usually available to characters at the start. All characters get a starting package of gear (Kevlar armour, combat knife, assault rifle etc. This can be customised so the team gunbunny can have a light machine gun.) It is also advised that each PC has two characters due to the potential lethality of the missions! The team will also get to define their IATF base. This has starting elements (hangar, command centre, research lab etc.) but then may be expanded by taking Edges bought with points gained by capturing alien technology. b) It is suggested that a standard campaign consists of 20 missions, starting at Novice and proceeding up to finish at Legendary. There is scope for non-standard side missions. Note: Only non-Wounded soldiers may take part in a Mission and soldiers do not fully heal automatically between Missions. One reason to have 2+ characters each! PC’s advance after each Mission, but only if they took part. A Strike Team consists of six soldiers, if there are not enough PC’s then they may ‘double-up’ or take Extras. Mission Generator: Similar to other SWADE Mission Generators, but concentrates in a lot of detail. It uses the card draw system. Okay – let’s give it a go! This is my first Mission, which makes it Novice level in terms of the opposition. Card 1: Ace. This makes it a Terror Mission, the aliens plan to spread as much terror and panic as possible; whilst killing and/ or abducting as many humans as possible. There are five humans at risk; the Strike team must save at least three of them or the mission is a failure.

Card 2: The Terror site is a suburban area of South America. The abandoned 2016 Olympic facilities of Rio de Janeiro spring to mind.

Opposition: The Terror site is the toughest Mission and there is likely to be quite a lot of Aliens. 5 card daws on the Novice Table gives: - 2 Robosnakes 5 Probes 2 Writhers 7 Grey Alien soldiers 5 Knids (insect-like creatures)

Ok, this is a tough Mission as a start; but would certainly start things off with a bang!

My first thoughts are to place the aliens in the disused indoor swimming venue where they have set up a laboratory. They are kidnapping local residents to experiment on and the Knids and Writhers are roaming wild, killing and eating anything they come across.

I would start the PC’s in media res, they have infiltrated the venue where there are five hostages that they have to rescue. Me being me, I would have the PC’s believe that they were just Special Forces going up against terrorists and only as the Game progressed would I reveal the aliens.

All of this was done as I wrote this; it hasn’t been tweaked to make it fit. In fact, I like it so much that it will probably be my opening Mission.

Here is also an example in the book of a Season Mission, generated like the one I just did.

c) All of the aliens and creatures are described and fully statted for SWADE. There is also a player’s page for each type, to be read AFTER they have met the alien. This contains some info from soldiers, scientists and civilians about the alien; it may not be 100% accurate!

d) The book finished with useful weapons charts, a character sheet, a Base sheet and an index.

There are no off-time rules or anything like that, SWADE handles these quite well anyway and as the authormentions at the start, this Game is emphasises the struggle and the battle – if you like, it is X-COM.

Highly recommended and I can’t wait to get it on the table.

This is what Mindjammer needed – a well-thought out and designed adventure. Sarah has taken the adventure outline out of the CR and expanded it into a full adventure in four parts; plus giving a lot more detail to the world of Olkennedy. Throughout the text are references back to the CR; when read in conjunction this gives a good insight into adventure design and how to run the adventure. The adventure itself is in four Episodes; each Episode is in a sandbox format; following the initial Hook each section of the Episode is presented with several options for the PC’s to follow. Basically, a civil war is brewing on Olkennedy; the PC’s can take sides or try and remain neutral (unlikely). Also; there are several sub-plots which they can get involved in. One thing is obvious – Sarah does not think small. This is not a series of minor encounters like “Go and steal an item off an important person”. Instead, the actions and events are on a planetary scale; with PC’s making decisions and taking actions that can affect entire cultures and economies. Space opera on a grand scale; but all cross-referenced within itself and to the CR to make it easy for the GM. I am writing a set of adventures for Mindjammer; having read “Hearts and Minds” I am revising some of my basic concepts. This has set the bar very high indeed and I expect that subsequent adventures will raise the bar even higher.

The latest adventure for Beasts and Barbarians, written by Marek Golonka. The adventure describes a setting (the city of Dalaxium in the Iron Empire), and opens with an overview of the city. There is a lot jammed into 16 pages, with several interesting NPC’s and potential encounters described (the section on Games is interesting and easily usable elsewhere in the Empire.) There is a section on rumours (some false, some true). Again, a lot has been put in just a few pages. All NPC stats have been grouped at the back of the book, making them easy to findThe main adventure is similar to a lot of TV shows, it starts off with a situation but this rapidly evolves into something else. There are stats for using Tattered Banners if you have that supplement.The plot is scripted but there is no sense of railroading; in one or two instances it may be better for the PC’s to let something happen so they can get a grasp on what’s going on. However, if they wait too long, then they may find that the chain of events is now unstoppable. I am looking forward to running this with my group. Highly recommended.

When reading Robert E Howard, I was always impressed by the way he could cram more into 30 or so pages where many authors need a whole novel (reference Shadows over Zamboula). Well, in this adventure, Umberto Pignatelli has pulled off the same trick. On a read through, from the word go I was hooked. The scenario is deep and intriguing, but never so that the GM has to keep track of dozens of pieces of information. Also, where other published adventures would be ending, this is just the beginning of this one - I was amazed at how it ends. I cannot recommend this product highly enough - five stars does not do it justice.

At first glance you may think “only ten new monsters? Not much of a bestiary.” But you’d be wrong. Included in this volume are not just monsters, but several NPC’s who are perfect for long-running villains, plus a new cult – Disciples of the Black Temple. All are fully written up and each has a detailed scenario attached. These are exceptionally well-written, one of them, Tukomal’s Jaghza / Hosts actually caused a shiver of (fear, loathing?) when I read it. They capture the gritty, raw feel of the 1930’s pulps perfectly.