Spes Magna Games

On Elanor, the Eugenics Commissars needed a durable race that could survive underground for long period of times. Gengineering resulted in the malgrandegulos, a stoic race famous for their love of both money and combat. Instability in the malgrandegulos genome has resulted in the speciation of a new race, the koboldo.*

Appearance and Biology: This race tends to be squat, broad, and heavy. Males are seldom taller than 5 feet and weigh on average 150 pounds. Females are somewhat shorter and lighter. A malgrandegulo’s arms reach to just past his knees, and they are usually well-muscled with powerful shoulders. Malgrandegulos tend to have short, bowed legs that cause them to move with a rolling gait. This race tends to be hirsute; facial hair is ubiquitous among males and common among females. Earth tones dominate malgrandegulo eye and hair color, but many malgrandegulos watch their hair go gray to white by middle-age. Skin color ranges from ruddy to bronze.

Psychology: The malgrandegulos share strong common psychological traits that often make them difficult to tolerate. Status among malgrandegulos is almost universally measured by the successful accumulation of wealth and by demonstrated martial prowess. While it might seem as if these traits would lead to widespread double-dealing and violence, the malgrandegulos have learned to hide their true intentions behind facades of bland, patient gentility. A malgrandegulos seldom says what he means. Instead, he remains vague, noncommital. At the same time, he takes stock of what he sees and hears, making careful mental notes about the possible true intentions of others. These elaborate charades of respect and civility between malgrandegulo individuals and groups can go on for months, even years. Then, when the time judged right, the machinations are revealed, and to the victors go the spoils.

While malgrandegulos plot revenge for offenses real or imagined, outright blood feuds are rare. Since status is gained by financial and military success against rivals, malgrandegulo social norms strongly reinforce a stoic attitude about defeat. When one is bested, the sensible thing to do is acknowledge the winner’s superior cunning and strength. Of course, any self-respecting malgrandegulo will also plot ways to get even…eventually.

Flavor: A malgrandegulo is an honorable schemer, and many who manage to leave Elanor for the wider sector find themselves in diplomatic service or public relations. Everyone knows that a malgrandegulo can’t be trusted farther than he can be thrown in normal gravity. At the same time, malgrandegulos tend to excel at saying no more than what needs to be said, if that much.

A malgrandegulo’s love of wealth and martial prowess may also lead him into more aggressive occupations. Companies of malgrandegulo mercenaries tend to be both well payed and feared, and quite a few wealthy people employ malgrandegulo bodyguards. Some companies, especially those involved in the mining industry, recruit and employ malgrandegulos as both workers and security personnel.

Racial Traits: Malgrandegulos move up 45 feet per round (rather than 60 feet). Although slow, a malgrandegulo is built for portage. He can have up to four additional items can be carried ready or eight additional ones stowed at the cost of becoming Lightly Encumbered, and having his base movement slowed from 45 feet per round to 30 feet per round. A further two items can be carried ready or four stowed at the cost of becoming Heavily Encumbered, with base movement then reduced to 15 feet per round.

Malgrandegulos are good at spotting traps, unsafe cave formations, slanting passages, and new construction while underground. Malgrandegulos gain a +1 bonus to Perception skill checks to detect such things. Malgrandegulos use neither magic nor psionics. They are, however, resistant to magic and psionics, gaining a +4 bonus to saves against such effects.

A malgrandegulo’s natural vision is equivalent to low-light goggles. Consequently, malgrandegulos have difficulty with normal levels of illumination. Without protective lenses in such conditions, malgrandegulos suffer a -1 penalty to sight-based Perception skill checks and a -2 penalty to saves against attacks that blind or disorient via bright light.

A malgrandegulo character must have at least a 13 Strength and 13 Constitution, and he cannot have higher than a 14 Charisma. They cannot be wizards or psychics.

* Most koboldo newborns are destroyed at birth, but a substantial number of malgrandegulos have refused to cooperate with imperial racial sanitation codes. As a result, many of Elanor’s deeper subterranean places are infested by koboldos.

Tags: planetary tour, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

Another one from the xenobestiary for Tiamat’s Throne, my Stars Without Number-inspired setting that mixes fantasy elements with the sci-fi.

Bellatrixian Plague Fungus
Armor Class: 10
Hit Dice: 1/2
Attack Bonus: NA
Damage: special
No. Appearing: 3d4 troops per victim
Saving Throw: 15+ (see below)
Movement: 5 ft.
Morale: NA

Bellatrix was founded as a gengineering research outpost by the Meteor Alliance, a long-defunct corporation. The planet’s minimal biosphere was believed to be an ideal location for genetic manipulation of microorganisms, including the wide variety of alien microbial life that still manages to thrive in the planet’s waterless, inhospitable conditions. Today, Highbeam Multistellar runs Bellatrix’s corporatist government, and the gengineering research continues.

One of the more horrible results finding its way from HM’s gengineering labs to the Imperial Navy is the Bellatrixian plague fungus. Weaponized spores secure within shielded missiles can be deployed from orbit with near-perfect precision. These missiles disintegrate above the target areas, dispersing the weaponized spores into the atmosphere. The spores then drift and gradually settle due to atmospheric currents and gravity.

Plague fungus spores quickly germinate in any organic medium, and the fungal mycelium spreads through tissues for 1d4 minutes after exposure (a Physical Effect, Evasion, or Luck save made with a -4 penalty avoids spore infestation). Affected living targets suffer 1d4 points of damage every five rounds as the fungal mycelium invades tissues. The spreading fungal mycelium manifests itself in physical symptoms that include pain, nausea, and a growing network of dull pink “threads” visible in the dermis.

After the fungal mycelium stage, the transition to mushroom primordia and then to growing mushrooms occurs within another 1d4 minutes. This process rapidly destroys tissues, inflicting 1d4 points of damage per round (no saving throw). A single victim (almost certainly dead by the end of the plague fungus’s initial life cycle) typically sprouts 3d4 troops of mushrooms. These mushrooms reach full maturity in another 1d4 minutes, at which time each troop swells and bursts, releasing a cloud of spores in a radius equal to 5 feet per troop.

At this time, the plague fungus’s life cycle starts over again at the fungal mycelium stage.

There is little that can be done to save an infected target. A Tech (Medical) check made with an appropriate array of anti-fungal medicines can stop the plague fungus’s life cycle. Doing so, however, is not easy (difficulty number 10). Biopsionic powers may also be helpful, but halting the fungus’s life cycle requires purge toxin. Psychic succor can heal damage, certainly, but this doesn’t stop the fungus’s life cycle, and biostasis is completely useless.

Tags: monsters, planetary tour, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne

My Stars Without Number-inspired setting mixes fantasy elements with the sci-fi.

Castoran Zombie
Armor Class: 8 (or better)
Hit Dice: 2
Attack Bonus: +3
Damage: 1d6 (unarmed) or by weapon
No. Appearing: 1d20 (or more)
Saving Throw: 14+ (see below)
Movement: 20 ft.
Morale: NA

The dead tend to not stay dead on Castor, and the shuffling horrors called zombies are the planet’s most common undead menace. Zombies are walking corpses with a hunger for living flesh. They decay in their undeath, albeit not as quickly as an actual corpse would. Regardless of their state of decay, zombies are not easily mistaken for the living.

Zombies are seldom armed or armored, at least to any great extent. These monsters lack human intelligence, operating almost entirely on an instinctual level. They can make use only of the simplest of tools, but even then not often using them for much more than bludgeons. Of course, some zombies may happen to wear armor or have a melee weapon in hand. Since zombies are undead creatures, they cannot be affected by attacks that require a living body or mind. This includes diseases, poisons, many psionic powers and spells, et cetera. Zombies simply ignore the effects of such attacks. Zombies also never make morale checks. Attacks which damage the body are less effective against zombies since their bodies do not suffer pain, shock, blood loss, and so forth. Such attacks inflict 50% normal damage (round down) unless the attack roll is a natural 20, in which case the attack inflicts full damage as normal.

Castoran zombies occasionally have different stats that make them more dangerous. Some zombies can move at normal human speeds. Others carry terrible infections communicable by bite or scratch. The rarest zombies have human intelligence (but still remain immune to effects that require a living mind) and the ability to mentally command lesser zombies.

Tags: planetary tour, Stars Without Number, Tiamat's Throne, undead

Yet another Stars Without Number xenobeast:

Denebian Ripper
Armor Class: 5
Hit Dice: 6
Attack Bonus: +6/+6/+6
Damage: 1d6/1d6/1d8 (claw/claw/bite)
No. Appearing: 1d3+1
Saving Throw: 12+
Movement: 40 ft.
Morale: 10

Denebian rippers roam Deneb’s ice fields and tundras, claiming huge tracks of wilderness as their hunting grounds. These man-sized predators possess exceptionally keen senses of sight and smell. A ripper’s vision extends into the infrared portion of the spectrum, and it can detect as little as a pint of blood up to a mile away if downwind of the source.

Despite their reptilian appearance, rippers are warm-blooded, being more closely related to a predatory flightless bird than a lizard. They have unusually high body temperatures (average 115 degrees Fahrenheit) and thick epidermal scales covering highly insulative fatty tissues. Consequently, rippers are comfortable in low temperatures that would rapidly kill an unprotected human.

Rippers are voracious, and they must consume large quantities of protein and fat to maintain their metabolisms. During Deneb’s brutal winters, when prey is even scarcer, rippers turn on each other. This seasonal cannibalism helps ensure only the most fit rippers survive to reproduce.

Tags: monsters, planetary tour, Stars Without Number

My first xenobeast for Stars Without Number:

Adharan Ghost Moth
Armor Class: 7
Hit Dice: 1
Attack Bonus: +2
Damage: 1d4
No. Appearing: 1d4+1
Saving Throw: 15+
Movement: 15 ft., 45 ft. fly
Morale: 8

Adharan ghost moths hunt in pairs or small packs. These insectile predators average about three feet long, and their wingspans are about twice that. They crawl slowly on the ground, but fly with impressive speed. A ghost moth attacks with its spike-tipped proboscis. This appendage can dart with blinding speed to a range of 10 feet. The proboscis can inject a crippling venom (Physical Effect or Luck saving throw to avoid).

Adharan Ghost Moth Venom: Toxicity 8, Interval 30 seconds, Virulence 2. At each interval, the victim suffers 1 point of damage. Two failed saving throws means paralysis for 1d6+4 minutes.

Tags: monsters, planetary tour, Stars Without Number