Chincara (Star Smuggler)

One of the images that really captured my setting concept for Stars without Number Wolf Sector was the image from the box of my old Star Smuggler microgame. I made a first attempt to capture this image in blender. The result is the Chincara class trader. In the game Star Smuggler your ship is the Antelope. But I have already used that name. So I picked something similar.

Star Smuggler Box Image of the Antelope

Stars without Number details

The Chincara class is one of the many workhorse traders that first re-opened Wolf Sector to trade between the planets. Built by Guo Jin-Ri Shipyards on Touchdown it has gone through many upgrades and design changes over the years. The one shown here is the Mark IV which is still being produced at the current date of 3200. This despite being limited by spike-1 drive engines.

Chincara Mark IV loading at Lowport - Tusa

Earlier variants of the Chincara were sleeker with a classic triangular shape. Cargo hold expansion followed in Mark II to accommodate the bigger M-Class containers (2). Trader captains hauling the additional weight found the Mark III was difficult to handle in anything but serene atmospheric conditions. The Mark III took care of this problem with the addition of enormous wing extensions that give the Chincara additional lift. The landing problems were solved and the Chincara is perhaps the best landing performing trader in the sector. Unfortunately, the wings also added mass and the jump engines were not updated. The results have been best described by one captain as “wonky” spike jumps. The latest version made minor updates to electronic and computers in an attempt to help with these problems but the original spike-1 engines still limit the effectiveness of the spaceship.

Cargo loading is done from underneath. The large loading tray is big enough to load an M-Class container on its own. Inside the ship and overhead crane unit can position containers. Only 2 M-Class containers can fit safely in the Hold.

Chincara Model in Landing mode

Blender details

I made an attempt to mimic the image from the Star Smuggler box. Below are the results. I imported the box image to get the dimensions of the stern correct and then freelanced the rest of the ship as there are scant details in the game. I suspect the game ship concept is a great deal bigger since the ship has a full, triangular shaped landing craft onboard. The model only took a few hours.  It took much longer to get the planet to look like anything. In the future I will hopefully get better at this. The image texture of the planet came from a random planet generator online.

Final Result of trying to mimic the Star Smuggler Image

Ice Lake Caves

Friday Blue map comes early.  This is a digital version of a map I created years ago for my BX Rules campaign.

The surface of Ice Lake is frozen 6 months of the year and the river that feeds it pours out of a system of caves. The falls is partially frozen and is one potential entrance to the caves.

The players are drawn to the area because of a marauding White Dragon that makes its lair in cave next to the frozen ponds inside the caves.

Beyond the dragon are a series of old caves part of an old refuge.

Ice Lake Caves DM Map

Old 1980's Map

I just stumbled over my original game world map that I called the Borderlands of Kern. This is from 1982. At the time the only gaming products I owned were the Moldvay Basic boxed set (including the Caves of Chaos), Module B3 and the AD&D PHB and DMG.  You can see I borrowed heavily from these products.

The map was the game world of my first campaign for only a few months. The players explored the Palace of the Silver Princess (B3 on the map), and the J2 The Colossal Caves. I did not have hex paper so I had to create it.

Eventually I dropped the places the players had already visited into a much better world map based roughly on the map from a science/fantasy novel called Guardian.

Old 1980's Game World Map

The Flickering Torch

It has been a while since I posted something for a fantasy RPG setting.  Well, I have busy with Blender working on human characters. The end result helps illustrate this dungeon map.

I might write up a dungeon key for this map but for now it is a simple dungeon map suitable for any OSR Rule system.

The Flickering Torch

The Pyramid of Mukamutara has lain empty near the village of Civet for centuries. The pyramid was the tomb of an ancient king forgotten in history. The tomb was robbed shortly after Mukamutara was laid to rest. Over the years almost every item in the tomb was removed. All that remained was an immense statue of a forgotten god in one of the chambers and the broken remains of a stone sarcophagus.

The local shepherds know the stories and many explored the empty chambers when they were young. Recently, the shepherd Raziya noticed a flickering light coming from the entrance. Raziya had explored the chambers many times in his life and he assumed some village youths were having fun. He decided to have some fun and surprise them. Raziya climbed up into the tomb and passed down the passage to the chamber of the statue. Peering around the corner he saw a circle of men in red robes chanting before the statue. He also spotted a opening in the floor before the statue that had never been discovered in the past. He cautiously slipped back out of the tomb and ran back to the village to tell the elders.

The elders of the village of Civet are looking for some brave adventurers to investigate.

Raziya investigates the flickering light

The Dungeon

The pyramid is fairly small. Mukamutara was a king in the distant and ruled over a small, forgotten kingdom. He forced his people into the worship of a death god called Runihura.  His rule was ended when he was killed by his cousin. The worship of Runihura was ended when the king was sealed in his tomb.

Recently, a small cult has formed to worship Runihura again. Lead by a charismatic priest who goes by the name Sethos. He led his followers to the pyramid to worship in front of the statue of Runihura. In a dream he was directed to find the secret entrance to the undiscovered catacombs beneath what was a false tomb.

In the catacomb levels are undead guardians kept behind guards and what remains of the king’s wealth in gold.

Dungeon Key

Space Tugboat

A quick post today of something I have been scribbling away at in Blender for a couple of days. First I refined the design of cargo containers. Now they have nice advertisements on the side and look a lot cleaner I think (below).

The three standard Container Sizes (and a man for scale)

Next I need an orbital tug spaceship to maneuver these containers into and out of non-atmospheric traders.  What I came up with is not very original (below). I like the control cab I created which took most of the work.  I might use it to create something more interesting. This design does not feel entirely practical. Maybe I can come up with some kind of robot arms that still like practical.

Simple Space Tug Design

I also discovered another, much simpler way of creating a star field which I used in this last image. Much simpler, just using nodes against the background material.

Tug maneuvering a container past some debris

Alien Race 2: Illarian

Another alien species in Wolf Sector are the Illarians. I create a quick thumbnail sketch of the Illarians back in March. Today I put a little more thought into them and created a mesh in blender for the concept.

The Illarian

The Illarians

The Illarian’s are a race of near-sighted, furry bipeds. Their homeworld is Mizar the fourth planet circling the dim red sun Edolanus.

Appearance and Biology

Illarian’s average about 1.1 meter in height. They are bipedal. Their hands have an opposable thumb and four other fingers that have sharp nails. Illarian’s are covered bluish fur that is mottled with greens, reds and purples. The patterns are unique to each Illarian. They secrete an oil that makes the fur matted and oily to the touch. Illarian’s have eyes but they are covered with hair. They can see black and white, light and darkness and into infrared spectrum in short distances. Illarian computer screens have high contrast white characters on a blank background. Illarian speech is high is comprised of high pitched hoots and whistles often beyond the range of human hearing. They can learn Terran speech.

History

Illarian’s were a cave dwelling species in their distant past eventually moving to the surface by the time they began mastering simple tools and creating buildings. Human space travellers landed on Mizar and encountered Illarians in 2290.

At first Mizar was placed under quarantine by the Terran Mandate as the Illarians were in an early iron age. But humans were stunned by the intelligence of the Illarians they studied. Illarians quickly grasped advanced mathematics and Illarian scholars were able to conceptualize spike drive travel. By 2440 the quarantine was lifted and trade with Mizar was opened.

The Scream did not adversely affect the Illarians. Their planet is self-sufficient and few Illarians travel off planet. But they did welcome the return of trade to Wolf Sector.

Illarian Warrior with traditional javelin

Psychology

Most Illarians show little interest in leaving their homeworld. But there are a number of Illarians who long for their warrior past who do join crews and journey amongst the planets of Wolf Sector.

Illarians as Player Characters

Illarian strength cannot exceed 14. As noted they have poor vision. They are quick and gain a +1 to DEX. Illarians have no fear of closed in spaces and can fit into surprisingly small spaces. Psychic Illarians are very rare.

Alien Race 1: Chukulak

I created the lizard-like Chukulak for my Wolf Sector setting for Stars without Number back in March. I did it quickly, and randomly using an online alien creature generator. Now that I have actually taken the time to think about it a little and struggle to create one in Blender I am re-visiting them with some minor tweaks.  Mainly, I removed the tail.

Average Female Chukulak

The Chukulak

The Chukulak are a race of small but aggressive reptiles. They are highly intelligent and inquisitive. They are found mainly in their home systems of Azure and Argent.

Appearance and Biology

Chukulak average about 1 meter in height. They are bipedal. Their hands have an opposable thumb and three other fingers ending in a hard claw. Their skin is scales and varies in colour depending on tribal group. Chukulak can see a broader spectrum than humans being able to see well in low light. They have a leathery fin on their head and partially down their spine that are brightly coloured. They require a warm and dry climate. The males and females are difficult for non-chukulak to tell apart. Females due tend to be larger.

History

The Chukulak home world is a hot planet called Attis by human explorers based on a rough translation of the Chukulak word for home. The Chukulak have been an advanced civilization far longer than humans but they advanced slowly due to infighting. Their society is matriarchal with Queens ruling over their own tribe. The Chukulak had visited all 6 planets in their home system and had launched interstellar slow ships to Argent when they were discovered by human explorers.

The Scream caused the Chukulak to fall back to their home world and orphaned a colony on Xenu (Argent 4). Recently Xenu and Attis were reconnected. Chukulak from Xenu are considered a little strange as they have no tribal system allowing interbreeding of all types.

Psychology

Chukulak seem to have a racial inquisitiveness. They love information, puzzles and mysteries. Females have more power in their society and fill most high-ranking roles in government and industry. Companies are arranged along tribal lines. They are not violent by nature but make good soldiers due to their ability to follow tribal orders.

Flavor

Chukulak make good technicians and traders. Most found outside of their home system are actually from Xenu.

Chukulak as Player Characters

Perhaps not ideal as Player characters as Chukulak characters as their starting Strength and Dexterity cannot exceed 14. They make up for this penalty by having better distance and night vision. Chukulak can be any class.

Station Master Maeritiz discovers an infestation of rats