TTRPG Roll 24-38 ~ Chasing drugged Cepheus phantoms with Scoundrels of Brixton SU1: Phantoms of Unov

“O mischief, thou art swift to enter in the thoughts of desperate men!”

William Shakespeare

Phantoms of Unov is the third installment of the Scoundrels of Brixton series of adventure booklets designed for players using the Cepheus Engine roleplaying game system. The Scoundrels of Brixton setting is a bit different from the usual Cepheus Engine standard; instead of adventuring in a subsector of space covering parsecs between planets, Brixton is a single system with multiple planets for adventuring…and each planet is a different sort of underhanded danger.

Phantoms of Unov continues the adventures first found in Scoundrels of Brixton: SD1 Under a Hard Sun (2023) and SD2: The Clean Hands (2024). Phantoms of Unov is published by RPG Ramblings, created by designer Jeffrey Jones, written by Adam Kovac , and the cover illustrated by Kevin Sardinha. Some additional artists are used, notably Ian Stead for the starships. All three products are short—48 pages—of adventure inspiration.

Cepheus vices

Suffice it to say that if your Cepheus Engine adventures are more in the flavor or “scum and villainy” or “skirting the edge of the law” you will likely find Phantoms of Unov to your liking.

Part of the “charm” of the Scoundrels of Brixton series is that the locations are often as colorful as the characters. In the case of Unov you have a hellish planet that makes movement painful, if not deadly.

Good cop

Phantoms of Unov is very easy to incorporate into nearly any roleplaying game (RPG) campaign that uses the Cepheus Engine or other Traveller roleplaying game engines. The Scoundrels of Brixton supplements draw on the Cepheus Engine core rules and make few—if any—changes to game mechanisms using special rules or exceptions.

• Locations are based on the Universal World Profile. Characters are obviously built with the core character generation rules and weapons are as found in the core rulebooks.
• While some new material is introduced, such as the illegal recreational drugs found in Phantoms of Unov, they act as expected using core game mechanisms.
• Ships, illustrated by Ian Stead with deckplans by Robert Pierce using Quick Deckplans 2: Expansion Pack by DSL Ironworks, are again built in accordance with the core rules; there are no “exceptions” made to get the ship designs to work.

As should be expected in an RPG adventure of criminal syndicates, there are many organizations used in Phantoms of Unov. Here credit must be given to the designer, authors, and developers for creating believable organizations. Granted, several basically “pick a trope” and run with it but it works.

Bad cop

While no product is perfect, let it be known that Phantoms of Unov has no issues that should be a showstopper to your enjoyment. If you are a lover of full color pages you might be disappointed; beyond the covers the interior material is printed in greyscale. While the core adventure in the supplement has plenty of plot hook material, the four missions at the end for continued play are, in my opinion, a bit weak.

Kickoff a new high

While the above descriptions of Phantoms of Unov may look like spoilers, I assure you there is plenty more to the adventure than what is seen above. Phantoms of Unov is on many ways an evolution of the Scoundrels of Brixton series where the substory is not what one would seemingly expect…in a very good way. This evolution of storytelling makes Phantoms of Unov much more than just an setting sourcebook. More so than SD1: Under a Hard Sun and SD2: The Clean Hands, Phantoms of Unov is a true leap to high adventure in ways simple criminals—or player characters— may not expect but most assuredly will enjoy.

Phantoms of Unov is presently fulfilling its Kickstarter campaign with the digital copies delivered and the dead-tree version coming in the next few weeks. It is not too late to pick up these relatively inexpensive adventure supplements. For just a bit of a Cepheus hit one can get hours of an RPG high (adventure).

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Feature image courtesy RPG Ramblings

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