13 Xenobiological and Stellar Hazards
By Philip Reed
Published by Ronin Arts
13 Xenobiological and Stellar Hazards is a 9-page pdf (1 page intro/preamble and 1 page OGL) that retails for $1.75 at Rpgnow. I purchased this product with a coupon provided to me from the Ronin Arts as a member of the Future Datastream; I was later given a copy of this pdf to review by Croathian as part of his PDF Review Project.
Bias: I wrote a piece of OGC that was used by the author in the creation of this product. I had no knowledge or input into the development of this product by Philip Reed. I created a piece of OGC indicated by a ** below.
An Overview
This product is broken into four main sections. It begins with an introduction, then moves into information on six stellar hazards, followed by seven hazards, and the OGL which lists three additional products in its section 15.
The Introduction (1 page)
The introduction to this product talks about what is provided in the Future SRD in regards to xenobiological and stellar hazards, namely two each. It indicates that this product requires the d20 Modern roleplaying game as well as the d20 Future supplement (though named indirectly). Finally there is a brief word on the Future: Datastream subscription offered by Ronin Arts and the OGC declaration.
Stellar Hazards (2 pages)
In this section the author provides us with six stellar hazards that are designed to expand the uses of stellar hazards beyond its appearance in the SRD as plot vehicles to expose creatures and characters to the dangers of radiation. The stellar hazards presented in this product are cosmic rays, dark matter clouds, deep space wave, orbital swarm, radio echoes and solar flares. Only 4 of these are new as both cosmic rays and solar flares appear in the Future SRD. In some ways this is a good thing because this document could become a complete hazards reference document for a d20 Future game but this rationale is weakened in the description of dark matter cloud which requires you to reference the Future SRD to explain the specifics of an active scanner search. The other hazards are described below:
Dark Matter Cloud – a difficult detect tactical space sized obstruction in space that can damage spaceships that accidentally collide with them.
Deep Space Wave – a “wave” of particles moving quickly through space that can pierce the hulls of spaceship and lead to dangerous decompression.
Orbital Swarm – represents a world that has a collection of space junk that have been altered overtime to form a swirling barrier of junk that restrict access and egress to a planet.
Radio Echo – Forgotten transmissions that can disrupt a ships sensors.
I think it’s important to note that like in the Future SRD none of the Stellar Hazards possess any challenge rating, however unlike the SRD hazards these inflict a more definite amount of damage. It seems to me some of the stellar hazards (Dark Matter Clouds, Deep Space Waves, Orbital Swarm) deserve to have challenge ratings. The stellar hazards do a nice job of addressing manner “traditional” ideas that feel familiar to fans of space opera shows and science fiction writing, unfortunately this “tradition” make this section very average as well.
Xenobiological Hazards (5 pages)
The Xenobiological Hazards section explains what is meant by a xenobiological hazard, has a cross-promotion for Skeleton-Key Games: Xenomorph Hive, 11 hazards (9 new), a new xenomorphic vermin (from another OGC source) and a new disease. A brief look at the material not from the SRD:
Corrosive Membrane – strands of a corrosive substance that burn individuals destroying their life essence (Con damage) or damaging wood or metal. Corrosive membranes can only exist within symbiosis with Jefferson’s Root.
Cybernetic Slime – a hazard created by the degradation of a damaged cybernetic enhancement. This slime begins as a degradation that may eventually lead to the creature with the damaged cybernetic enhancement being converted into a pool of slime. I’m not really sure how good this mechanic works because the slime does 1 point of ability damage/day but characters heal 1 point of ability damage/day so unless they suffer many other ability damage losses the character will never degrade. I think my cybernetic slime will deal 1 point of ability damage / 8 hours.
Gene Mould – A mould that can grow on an unattended genetic experiment tank.
Gravitational Fog – An anomaly that adjust the gravity by strength or direction for a limited time.
Jefferson’s Root – A plant-like hazard grown from spores that contact a space slime or space slime pool. These roots seem to have limited awareness and can strike out at characters and creatures that come too close. In this way it almost feels like a plant monster (makes attacks [no attack roll, character makes Reflex save), improved grab, Str 20) and not a hazard (though I don’t really like monsters that are non-motile).
Mecha Rot – Another hazard that was first encountered on the same planet as the M.E. Spawn. This rust deals damage to metal while ignoring hardness.
Nanite Slime – a variant of gray goo from the Future SRD, a less deadly but still dangerous hazard.
Space Fog – A fog that deconstructs metallic objects brought into it or damages creatures within it. This is a dispersible hazard.
Space Slime and Pool – A pool variant of the Space Slime.
** New Creature: M.E. Spawn – A tiny arachnid that can spit acid that deals damage to metal opponents and reduces the hardness of metal targets.
New Disease: Gene Fever – A result of the gene mould that does both ability damage and cause genetic mutation (as per the Future SRD)
New Disease: Gray Sickness – disease resulting from contact with the nanite slime.
This section of the product feels stronger than the first because its hazards are not as traditional as the stellar hazards section. The hazards presented in this section cover a wide range of possible environments and present a wide number of types (moulds, fogs, slimes, rust, membranes and plant roots) so one or two should be easy to integrate into any game session.
OGL (1 page)
The section 15 of this product includes references to the d20 Modern SRD, Future Threats: M.E. Spawn, A Dozen Dungeon Hazards and Tome of Horrors II, as well as its own copyright notice.
How’s the Editing/Layout/Design?
The only typo that jumped right out at me occurs in the OGC I created independently and posted to
www.d20projects (should be
fell not
feel. The layout is clean and well organized. The first page has a splash of colour to draw prospective customer’s attention, while the later pages containing no colour to make it easier to print.
What Game is the Supplement for?
This product was written to be used with the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game and the D20 Future Supplement from Wizards of the Coast.
What is Open Game Content?
Taken verbatim: All of the text of this PDF is presented as open game content. While this means absolutely nothing to your campaign it does give other publishers permission to use this material as long as they follow the open game license (see the end of this PDF).
So where do I stand?
I’m torn. Although I’m a fan of the future genre but I have little love for the actual travel from place to place or spaceship encounters and as such the Stellar Hazards (except Orbital Swarm – which seems very Star Trekish to me) and Space Fog will have no home in my campaign. The other hazards I would adopt readily into my game. Since such a fair sized chunk of this product I will have no use for I can only rate this release as a 3 out of 5. As indicated this is heavily influenced by it application to my game and my style of play. In the future, I would easily pick up a Ronin Arts release called 13 Xenobiological Hazards because they will likely fit my campaign and would probably bypass 13 Stellar Hazards because they probably won’t.
