It is a just a fact that a good science fiction adventure needs a ship. Be it the Discovery from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey to the USS Enterprise in the Star Trek series to the iconic Eagle Transporter in the television series Space: 1999 to the Millennium Falcon in Star Wars to the Battlestar Galactica (new and old television series) to Serenity in Firefly or the Rochinante in The Expanse, a ship is often as much a character in a movie or television series as the ones actors portray. Thus, it should be no surprise that a good science fiction roleplaying game (RPG) should have many ships to choose from. My favorite sci-fi RPG, Classic Traveller, named (but did not show) the Type A Free Trader Beowulf on the cover of the box for the Little Black Books but inside that one ship became the backbone of many adventures over the past four decades of my gaming life.
For players who use the Cepheus Engine game system there are many ship choices. Players can, of course, design their own ships using the rules. Alternatively, players can purchase products with pre-designed ships for use in their adventures. It is through that later acquisition model that three new ship books built using the Cepheus Engine Ship Design System entered my sci-fi RPG collection.
Cepheus moon river with cheetahs
Through Moon Toad Publishing I acquired the Quick Ship File: Rivington Class Battle Carrier & Cheetah Class System Defence Boat publication. This Quick Ship File delivers two ships designed using Cepheus Engine. Like all Quick Ship File products there is no default setting; if you want to use it these ships in a Third Imperium/Charted Space campaign you can but just as easily (and I argue more importantly) they can be used in any Alternate Traveller or homebrew Traveller RPG or Cepheus Engine setting. Rivington/Cheetah comes in at 55-pages and is credited to Ian Stead and Tom Price. The Ian Stead attribution is important for me; Stead has provided many (many!) of the ship illustrations for Cepheus Engine ship writers. Indeed, Stead has provided so many illustrations that—to me at least—his art is what I imagine ships built with Cepheus Engine are “supposed” to look like.
Some might take exception with my viewpoint on the influence of Stead and argue that an over-reliance on one artist’s vision limits the “imagination” delivered to players using Cepheus Engine. That is when I point to the virtually limitless possibilities of the ship design system that Cepheus Engine uses. The subject publication, Quick Ship File: Rivington Class Battle Carrier & Cheetah Class System Defence Boat, is a great example of where imagination and design meet.
The “in-universe” description of the Rivington and Cheetah read this way:
The Rivington Class Battle Carrier is a modified 5000 dton merchant ship with the internal cargo decks removed, designed to carry up to 2400 dtons of non-jump capable vessels up to jump 4.
In this case it comes with 4x 600 dton Cheetah Class System Defence Boats, armed with
triple laser turrets, particle beam barbettes and 50 dton missile bays.
The Rivington Class Battle Carrier is what is known as a “tail-sitter” design with the decks stacked like a building perpendicular to the velocity vector of the ship much like the Rocinante in The Expanse. That alone sets it apart from so many other designs built using the Cepheus Engine ship design system. The Cheetah Class System Defence Boat, on the other hand, is a classic “airplane in space” design where the handwavium of artificial gravity generation leads to a design that is more akin to ships like Serenity from Firefly.
Most importantly, both the Rivington and Cheetah designs have “character” that makes them interesting to me. A Battle Carrier, by design, is an interstellar-capable ship (i.e. equipped with a Faster Than Light—FTL—drive) that carries non-interstellar combat craft (often classified as Boats to denote the absence of an FTL drive). The Rivington is a converted commercial design that probably should not be in any sort of real battle despite its type designation; players need to be careful about bringing a Rivington into combat. The Cheetah System Defence Boat (SDB), on the other hand, is overarmed as most SDBs are given that tonnage on an interstellar ship needed for FTL drives and fuel is not needed by a system boat which often takes that “excess” tonnage and uses it for better drives or more (sometimes lots more) weapons. Woe to the unwary pirate who thinks their equal (perhaps even a bit more) tonnage starship can take on an relatively equal (or even a bit smaller) SDB. Those SDBs, by design, punch above their weight class.
For my adventures I envision using the Rivington/Cheetah combination as a police or mercenary element. Perhaps there is a small cluster of systems with a single core capital and some far-flung colonies (far-flung enough that a Jump-4 ship is needed) along the edge of a polity that is plagued with pirates or another competitor. The world cannot afford to permanently station ships in the colonies (Infrastructure still developing? Newly discovered and claimed?) so instead they invest in (or hire) a Rivington Class Battle Carrier that visits a system bringing the Cheetah System Defence Boats for patrolling.
The Rivington Class Battle Carrier/Cheetah Class System Defence Boat book is, as expected with Ian Stead contributing, well and colorfully illustrated. In addition to the usual ship stat blocks and deck plans the Moon Toad Publishing Quick Ship Files also include a helpful graphical crew manifest. This graphic tells players (and Gamemaster) at a glance who has what role aboard. It is very easy for players to see who they are and for the Gamemaster to track different non-player characters.
The wild Clement frontier
Two other ship books I acquired that use the Cepheus Engine design system are from Independence Games and intended for their The Clement Sector/Earth Sector setting. Although The Clement Sector/Earth Sector setting uses ships built using Cepheus Engine, there are two major setting changes that influence ship design. First, the interstellar drive is called the Zimm Drive that takes up the same space and fuel requirements from Cepheus Engine designs but operates a bit differently. Second, the Zimm Drive limits the size of ships; larger ships (above 5,000 dton) simply cannot operate a Z-Drive. Thus, the default setting becomes one based smaller Adventure-class ships. You will not find kilometer-long Star Destroyers in The Clement Sector and if you do they are certainly not interstellar-capable.
Another interesting aspect of Independence Games’ The Clement Sector is that each major Sector or Subsector is themed around a different genre of sci-fi adventure. For instance, the Cascadian Subsector, one of the original four forming The Clement Sector, leans heavily into the Space Western genre:
So Cascadia can be a bit of both frontier and core. The second subsector to be settled and the first to have worlds colonized after the United Nations passed the Independent Worlds Treaty of 2235, the worlds presented here are some of the oldest established colonies in the sector. Most were colonized by private groups often to get away from the nations of Earth for one reason or another. Others were settled to simply try out a political experiment. Still others were colonized by corporations for profit.
The frontier of the Cascadia subsector is where you are find the Type E Pursuit Ship:
The Type E Pursuit Ship is designed to pursue enemy or pirate vessels within the Cascadia system, within potential Cascadian colony systems, or even through the Zimm Point to continue the pursuit. The Cascadia Naval Service use them as patrol vessels and as escorts for Cascadia Colonization Authority (CCA) scout ships.
Always seen in their triple formation, the Type E is a formidable enemy for small naval vessels, pirates, and possibly your characters!
Unlike many ships, the Type E Pursuit Ship is intentionally designed to work in a group. This introduces a different roleplaying game dynamic to adventures; player characters might be a crew on a ship that often cannot “do it all themselves” and creating teamwork across player characters and non-player characters becomes essential. Conversely, player characters may encounter a single Type E Pursuit Ship and must wonder, “Where are the others?”
In terms of the product, the Type E Pursuit Ship is a 36-page book written by Michael Johnson and illustrated by Ian Stead. The Type E itself is a small ship coming in at a mere 36 pages. A welcome part of every The Clement Sector ship book is the fiction, usually written by setting master (and Independence Games owner) Jon Watts. The short fiction pieces are excellent mini-immersive stories that hlep players link the ship to the setting.
Another sector, Ariel, is a place I describe as the far edges of an Old West frontier with a hint of ALIEN thrown in:
Ariel Sector, located to coreward of Clement Sector, is generally regarded to be an empty wilderness by those in Clement Sector. However, Ariel Sector has a variety of small settlements scattered throughout the sector which vary from mining colonies to pirate bases, from trading posts to scientific research stations.
Meet the waldläufers, independent explorers who feel the call of the wild or, as they say, “The Dark Lonesome” where they go to commune with the untamed nature of the worlds of Ariel Sector and escape the constant connection to other people. Encounter those on “The Liar’s Trail” who are wanted for crimes in Clement Sector who have gone to Ariel Sector to hide from the authorities or start a new life. Discover the settlers that have left Clement Sector to find fortune in the mineral wealth of Ariel Sector and the scientists who have found evidence of previous alien life in the sector. Engage with the gunslingers who roam from settlement to settlement showing off how fast they are with a laser pistol.
Ariel Sector sourcebook
The Ariel Sector is where you find the Freedom Class Merchant Ship. The Freedom Class Merchant Ship product is written by Michael Johnson with illustrations by Ian Stead (!) and Michael Johnson is a 49-page book focused on this light Zimm-capable trading ship for use in the Ariel Sector. Another tail-sitting design, the ship is capable of landing on planets. The Freedom Class Merchant Ship book actually delivers several variants; the original reaction-drive ship and a refitted design with a Gravitic Drive (the usual Maneuver Drive from Cepheus Engine/Traveller RPG). This 400 dton small merchant ship is an ideal home for a waldläufer.
Adventuring ships
All four ships discussed above, the Rivington Class Battle Carrier, the Cheetah Class System Defence Boat, the Type E Pursuit Ship, and the Freedom Class Merchant Ship offer up different opportunities for adventure. Given they are all based on a common set of design rules (even if the Zimm Drive is a variation) understanding the ships and running them in a game is easy. The real difference is in how the designs can fit into an adventure. Each design is just unique enough that it naturally leads to adventuring plot hooks. Unlike so many sourcebooks that are simply fluff to fill out some background to your adventuring, these Cepheus Engine ship books are true inspirations for adventure and not mere filler.
Feature image courtesy dreamstime.com
The opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are presented in a personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Navy or any other U.S. government Department, Service, Agency, Office, or employer.
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