• Infinite Stars
• Stellar Reaches
• Freelance Traveller
• Into The Deep

The winner of the category “Best Fanzine” is;

Freelance Traveller.

Freelance Traveller has delivered a new fine issue every month. The page-count may be greater in the other fanzines, but they haven’t delivered 12 issues in 2011.

• The Beast of Karridan’s Hollow
• Spinward Encounters
• 21 Plots Too
• Secrets of the Ancients

The winner of the category “Best Adventure” is;

Spinward Encounters.

Spinward Encounters is a very fine product that I have written about before. If used correctly, it will give you lots of fun over many gaming sessions.

• HIMS The Pretty Penny
• 40-ton Slow Pinnace
• Fat Cat
• Starter Pack

The winner of the category “Best Deckplans” is;

HIMS The Pretty Penny.

HIMS The Pretty Penny is a very good looking deckplan that I have written about before.

• Ley Sector
• Simba Safari
• JTAS #16
• JTAS #23

The winner of the category “Best PDF Re-Release” is;

JTAS #23.

Issue #16 is also a very good JTAS issue, but since this is the Zhodani Base Awards, JTAS #23 had to win.

• Netherell
• Cascadia
• Outer Veil
• A Primer

The winner of the category “Best ATU Product” is;

Cascadia.

There are now lots of new Alternate Traveller Universes. This is a very interesting development. The winner starts small and presents one sub-sector, but it is presented in great detail.

• Robots
• Sword Worlds
• Zhodani
• Spinward Encounters

The winner of the category “Best OTU Product” is;

Zhodani.

Hey, what did you expect?

Image from wikimedia.  Public Domain.

The Patrons You can vote for are:

Baby Boom by Ewan Quibell
Funeral Escort by Cheesy_Nacho
A day at the zoo by Steven Cabral
The Builder by Alegis Downport

Only registered users, facebook fans and participants in the competition may vote on the entries they like the most. Everyone else may still express what they think by posting comments. Facebook fans may only vote if they became fans of the Zhodani Base before Juli 1:st and are real persons.

Send in your votes using e-mail, or vote on on facebook.

The voting ends on November 7:st.

 Image from wikimedia.  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Players’ Information:
The party is approached by a gang of builders (numbering eight including the leader) who need transport whilst on Urnian/Ovdyo; they have won a contract to refurbish a nobles penthouse and party is asked to transport the gang of burly builders to Urnian/Udika, their materials and equipment to site. They have several tons of equipment (enough to fill the PC’s cargo hold to capacity), including tools, heavy plant gear, bricks and other materials.

If the party asks why they can’t use local construction materials, the lead builder replies that the noble has expensive tastes and specified particular materials for the construction. Examples can be presented to the party, eg. special internal bricks that display soothing, coloured patterns when illuminated.

Image from wikimedia.  Public Domain.

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Players’ Information:
The players are contacted at the starport on Urnian/Urnian/Foreven by a person from the Interplanetary Zoo. The players are offered Cr100,000 each and use of a crewed Safari ship. An uncrewed Safari ship is provided if players have their own ship. Payment is reduced to Cr10000 each and a full yard overhaul is done on their ship while away. They are to see the factor on Ronu for mission details. If needed weapons are provided as would be wilderness survival/hunting gear.

Image from wikimedia.  Public Domain.

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Players’ Information:
The group is approached by James Rask, an equerry of House Farkell. He informs the group that they have been recommended by a local government dignitary of high standing that they are reliable people. They are then told of the sad death of his master, Baron von Farkell in a tragic grav vehicle accident that killed him and his pilot. The Baron was an émigré from Frenzie, in the Vilis subsector of the Spinward Marches. The Equerry wishes to hire your group to take the Baron back to Frenzie to be laid to rest in the House Farkell’s mausoleum, along with the Baron’s effects to be returned to his remaining family.

The cryogenically frozen body and goods are to be transported using modified Scout, Type S. The equerry informs the group that on successful delivery of the Baron and his effects, the Scout ship will be signed over to them as payment. Plus each member of the group receives 10 000 Cr. There will be almost guaranteed future employment from House Farkell.

Image from wikimedia.  Public Domain.

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3014 Apinanto E431432-6 Ni Po 303 Na

Apinanto is a backwater system in the Saphi Cluster of Fessor Subsector of Foreven. Overlooked by nearly everyone, even the mainworld is largely ignored because fuel is only available from skimming the Gas Giants.

Nine months ago the only inhabited area of the planet, the Apinan River valley, suffered a drought due to a weather monitoring and control satellite incorrectly changing the evaporation from Clark’s Sea. Following this, and because a number of lost resources were recovered from the river, the Jose Council decided to instigate the building of a railway. This was judged as the most efficient use of resources allowing an alternative to river transport in a time of need. Nearly all the population of Apinanto have been involved in its construction, from sowing the seat cushions for the passenger carriage, cutting and preparing the track route, to casting the tracks and building the engine. So far the railway goes from Clark’s Town to Jame’s Town through the villages of Jimstead and O’Hare’s Drift. For the last month the rail service has run once a week between the towns with the engine pulling a single flat bed carriage carrying goods.

In addition to the railway the drought brought about an additional phenomenon, that of an increase birth rate, and Apinanto’s doctors and nurses are struggling to cope with this additional demand on their services.

The council have also been looking at the data they have obtained from the satellite and have noticed another area of the planet where there is rainfall. About 550 km south of the Apinan River valley is a slight depression in the hills, which eventually become Clark’s Mountains, that has been named the Gratia Basin.

The players have made their way to Apinanto for some reason, and they are currently at Apinanto Down. The council approaches the players for help and while the PCs may wish to do so the council can offer little in payment. Their stocks of grain and alcohol are dangerously low due to the drought. They offer a waiver of the landing fee, which is their only real source of off planetary income, and food and lodgings will be free for up to a month if the PCs wish to stay.  If the players really are heartless there is about a ton of wood that is earmarked primarily for railway sleepers to extend the railway but also for a passenger carriage, which has a base price of Cr 1,000. There are a number of jobs a party with a grav vehicle, small craft or access to advanced technology could do:

Moving doctors and nurses. As those who are due start to give birth in greater numbers the call on the 15 doctors and 60 nurses of Apinanto increases significantly. The majority of the medical staff work in Clark’s Town Hospital, with only a handful in general practice in other areas. The amount of pregnancies mean that the mothers can’t be brought to hospital as would normally be the case so home births are now the rule.  While river transport would normally cope there isn’t enough of it and it isn’t quick enough to move the doctors and nurses to the places they are needed. The players will need to set-up some type of communications to co-ordinate and prioritise the medical staff and use their high speed transport to move them to where they are needed, while still providing cover for those patients in hospital. If the party has medical staff of their own the hospital will be happy for any help they can get, either covering shifts at the hospital, delivering babies or just acting as a mobile spare.

Civil Engineering. The railway needs to progress further up the valley and the sides of the gorge protrude into it a few miles west of Jame’s Town. The Council would like to tunnel through, and while they have the means and expertise to do so they would require a considerable amount of time in which to do it. They know that the application of advanced technologies will be able to considerably speed up the process. If the players have the means they would like them to assist.

Surveying. While the Council has a scan on the planet that they received when trying to deduce the cause of the drought they would like a more detailed one of the Gratia Basin. They will ask if the Players would transport a specialist along with ½ a ton of topsoil, ½ a ton of organic fertiliser, and significant grass and weed seeds to the basin where they wish a more detailed scan to be done and where the specialist will direct the depositing of the cargo for its best effect.

Image from wikimedia.  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Generic license.

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The idea is that a referee can use this (or the other books in this series) in his/her own universe to save some time when a more detailed world is needed. The referee can then change anything (e.g. the name of the planet or the UWP) to fit a planet in his/her own universe.

The planet Megara has a UWP of C9887B7-D. If you want to match it with a planet in the OTU, then maybe the planet Dakar in the Ilelish Sector is a good match. Dakar has a UWP of B9887BB-A. Any planet with a star-port between A-E, size 6-9, atm 8, hydro 8, pop 7-8, gov B, law 7-C and tech-level 6-D would probably work fine. It is actually impossible to create the UWP of Megara using classic rules. The tech-level is too high. But nothing in this pdf suggests that the tech-level must be this high. There is a maglev train, but that might be imported.

In this pdf, there are descriptions of the system with an image of the gas giant, and an overview image of the system. There are some general description of the planet Megara, and an isodecahedron map. Then there are some more specific descriptions of the planet and the people and cities and politics, and of the big herd animals called Betas. Finally there are a few adventure hooks.

What I would have wished for would have been some more detailed adventure hooks, an image of the Betas (and animal encounter tables), some notes on gas giant refuelling (since the gas giant is within the 100 solar diameters from the sun) and maybe some notes on the seasons due the the eccentric orbit.

There are also some other problems with this pdf. I hope Gypsy Knight Games (and other publishers) will learn from this constructive criticism and avoid such problems in the future.

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As a referee, you might think that only four adventures for each subsector makes this product a bit overpriced. But if you are playing in one of the two most popular subsectors (Regina or District 268), then it would be easy to lead your PCs into the five adjacent subsectors. Then you would have 24 useful patrons to play, and for Regina five extra Amber Zones, and for District 268 nine extra Amber Zones. If you play in any of the Vilis, Lanth, Sword Worlds or Lunion subsectors, then you can use 36 patrons if you let you PCs travel into neighbouring subsectors.

The problem with this book is that the layout is quite bad, and that there is no proper index. An index is something that would be very useful if you want to plan to integrate any part of the book into your campaign.

There are a few nice images in the book. I like the one with a Bwap and a Vargr on page 33. This image is probably meant to illustrate the patron at Jesedipere at page 16. As I said, the layout is quite bad… In this image you can spot the Serenity in the background. Maybe also in the image on page 27. That was a nice Easter egg. LOL!

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It is the second deck-plan of about 20 that they have planned to release. I hope they do the Shivva Patrol Frigate.

You can also get an air/raft in the same style for free.

The scale is 25 mm/square. The side of a square is 5 ft.  This fits a number of counters, card board heroes and miniatures nicely. But it doesn’t match the classic scale exactly (but close enough). It also makes the deck-plan of the ship quite large. The ship is fitted within 19 pages that you have to assemble yourself. It would have been nice if there was a hi-res image-file includes as well, so you could print it out on a large printer/plotter.

There are lots of details in the images. This is very nice compared to the standard classic deck-plans. Now you can see how everything will fit, and where all the rubbish will end up… Have a look at the engineering work station below.

The need for deck-plans has always been there. In my group, and in other groups that I have played in, we have always used deck-plans. Even though there might not be any combat within the ship, it is always nice to see where your character lives and works. If there is combat within the ship, a deck-plan is a must.

Combat can be solved using standard traveller rules, or using special on-board rules like Snapshot.

Even though this is a very nice product, I will not use it. The reason for this is that my group is quite tainted by what the March Harrier from the Traveller Adventure looked like. The March Harrier is a type R. (The classic type M is a 600-ton Subsidized Liner.) There are a number of elevators in this ship. Where is the Launch? This is not the same ship. It doesn’t match the March Harrier. But for a new group it would probably be very nice to have this pretty deck-plan on their gaming table.

This is what I think a classic type R should look like.