d20 Ronin Arts Future 13 Xenobiological and Stellar Hazards.pdf

Requires the use of the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

13 XENOBIOLOGICAL

AND STELLAR HAZARDS

BY PHILIP REED

In the official future rules for the D20 Modern

roleplaying game there are two stellar hazards and

two xenobiological hazards, hardly enough variety

for any campaign that stretches from one end of the

galaxy to the other. While I have written a few new

hazards for the Future: Datastream subscribers,

and several hazards written for D20 System fantasy

games could be used, it’s my opinion that the over-

worked gamemaster running a futuristic campaign

can always use more hazards to throw at his unsus-

pecting players.

For ease of use the stellar and xenobiological haz-

ards presented in the future SRD are also included in

this PDF. These are in addition to the 13 new hazards

that are included herein.

Inc., and the official future supplement, also pub-

lished by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.. You can find both

at your favorite local game store or online at any

number of roleplaying game vendors. No other Ronin

Arts products are required to use this PDF.

F UTURE : D ATASTREAM

As of the time of publication, Ronin Arts’ Future:

Datastream subscription service is running, intro-

ducing new material for futuristic campaigns five

times each week. For more information on the

Future: Datastream, including subscription infor-

mation, please visit the official forums at

www.d20projects.com.

O PEN G AME C ONTENT

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 per-

mission to use this material as long as they follow the

open game license (see the end of this PDF).

W HAT ’ S R EQUIRED TO

U SE THIS PDF?

In order to use Future: 13 Xenobiological and

Stellar Hazards you will need the D20 Modern

roleplaying game, published by Wizards of the Coast,

ed as open game content, see the Open Game License at the end of this document for more information.

Ronin Arts and the Ronin Arts logo are trademarks of Philip Reed and Christopher Shy. For more information on Ronin Arts, and Ronin Arts’ sister com-

pany, Studio Ronin, please visit www.roninarts.com and www.studioronin.com.

'd20 System' and the 'd20 System' logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License ver-

sion 6.0. A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.

d20 Modern and Wizards of the Coast are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. in the United States and other countries and is used with permission.

STELLAR HAZARDS

D ARK M ATTER C LOUD

Undetectable and rare, a cloud of dark matter –

a type of matter that can only be seen with

advanced (PL 9 or higher) equipment though it’s

effects on gravity can be detected as early as the

Information Age (PL 5) – can have devastating

effects on any starship unfortunate enough to cross

paths with this hazard. Dark matter clouds float

seemingly aimlessly through space, rarely a con-

cern for starships or their crews.

When a starship comes into contact with a dark

matter cloud – most clouds are one tactical square

in size though a few reports of larger clouds have

been recorded in the past – the ship immediately

suffers 4d20 points of damage as the dark matter

particles come into contact with the ship’s hull.

After suffering damage, the pilot must make a suc-

cessful Pilot check (DC 20) when leaving the affect-

ed tactical square – on a failed check the ship suf-

fers another 4d20 points of damage as it pulls away

from the cloud.

A starship equipped with sensors that makes an

active sensor scan (see the Computer Use skill in

the future SRD) over an area of space affected by a

dark matter cloud can correctly locate the cloud’s

position on a successful check (DC 30). Once detect-

ed by sensors the starship can track the clouds

position for 3d4 rounds after which point the cloud

must be reacquired. At PL 9 or higher the DC to

detect a dark matter cloud drops to 20 (or, in cam-

paigns featuring equipment that can see dark mat-

ter, no check is required).

As originally presented in the future SRD, stellar

hazards were designed as a vehicle for subjecting

characters and creatures to the dangers of radia-

tion. In the interest of expanding the flexibility of

stellar hazards, the following new hazards involve

damaging a ship’s hit points, sensors, and commu-

nications gear.

C OSMIC R AYS

Cosmic rays, unlike solar flares, cannot be predict-

ed. Consisting of subatomic particles moving at rela-

tivistic speeds, these rays can penetrate miles of solid

mass (though extremely few get through the Earth’s

atmosphere without colliding with other atoms or

molecules, effectively rendering them harmless). In

space, these subatomic particles can cause severe cell

damage, even genetic mutation.

A BOUT THE A UTHOR

Philip Reed has been working professional-

ly in the roleplaying game industry since 1995.

In that time he has worked for such companies

as West End Games, Privateer Press, and Steve

Jackson Games. Today Philip spends his days at

home running Ronin Arts, writing and design-

ing new games, and reading whatever books

interest him at the time. To learn more about

Philip Reed – and Ronin Arts – please

visit

www.philipjreed.com/php

and

www.roninarts.com.

D EEP S PACE W AVE

Similar to cosmic rays (see above), a deep space

wave is a stream of molecule-sized particles mov-

ing rapidly through space – the source of deep

space waves has yet to be discovered. When a deep

space wave impacts a starship the particles rip

An unprotected creature exposed to radiation

from a cosmic ray shower is treated as “highly irra-

diated” for the purposes of determining the radia-

tion’s effects (see Radiation Sickness in the future

SRD).

STELLAR HAZARDS

R ADIO E CHO

Space, especially regions close to inhabited

worlds, is overrun with radio echoes from the past.

In some instances starships stumble across areas of

space in which intense radio echoes have near-cat-

astrophic effect on the starship’s sensors and com-

munications gear. A typical radio echo is a line of

disruption 10,000 ft. wide that stretches complete-

ly through a star system – any starship that passes

through this line of disruption suffers the adverse

effects of the radio echoes.

A starship’s sensors are reduced by two cate-

gories of effectiveness when inside a radio echo

stream. If this reduces the sensor’s category below

Class I the ship effectively has no sensors until it

leaves the affected area of space.

Example: A starship equipped with a Class VI sen-

sor array is treated as possessing a Class IV when

subjected to the effect of radio echoes.

Starship communications systems – excluding

a drive transceiver, ansible, or any other PL 9 or

higher equipment – are completely worthless

when the ship enters a radio echo stream. This

includes the starship’s internal comm. systems.

Radio echoes can be detected with a standard

active sensor scan (see the Computer Use skill in

the future SRD). When encountered the starship’s

comm. system is filled with thousands of commu-

nications from the past, all of which are overlap-

ping each other making it impossible to under-

stand anything received by the ship’s comm. sys-

tems.

through the ship’s hull, creating millions of molec-

ular holes that breach the starship’s hull (fine size

hull breach, see Decompression in the future SRD).

A starship equipped with sensors that makes an

active sensor scan (see the Computer Use skill in

the future SRD) over an area of space affected by a

deep space wave can correctly locate the wave’s

position on a successful check (DC 20). A deep space

wave is a line 5,000 ft. wide stretching through an

entire star system. A starship equipped with a par-

ticle field is immune to the effects of a deep space

wave.

Unprotected characters and creatures that are

exposed to radiation from a deep space wave

shower are treated as “moderately irradiated” for

the purposes of determining the radiation’s effects

(see Radiation Sickness in the future SRD).

O RBITAL S WARM

Around once-technologically advanced planets

that have experienced an apocalyptic event, leav-

ing them reduced to the Stone Age (or other PL

below the Information Age), there is frequently a

debris field littered with long-forgotten, malfunc-

tioning satellites, spacecraft, and orbital stations.

As the centuries pass, much of this debris falls to

the planets surface and is destroyed. Sometimes,

though, gravitational and galactic forces act in

unexpected ways to create a dense swarm of debris

that continuously orbits the planet, hampering any

attempts to enter or escape the planet’s atmos-

phere.

A world surrounded by an orbital swarm

requires six Pilot checks (DC 20 + 2/PL of the world

before the apocalypse) anytime a starship enters or

exits the planet’s atmosphere. On each successful

check the starship suffers 2d8 points of damage

from debris; on each failed check the starship suf-

fers 2d20 points of damage.

An orbital swarm could be cleaned up, though it

would require months of work. There have been

reports of weapons that can generate an orbital

swarm around a planet though those reports are as

yet unsubstantiated. If they were true, a military

armed with such a weapon would hold a signifi-

cant strategic advantage over an enemy world.

S OLAR F LARE

Solar flares release tremendous amounts of

electromagnetic energy (including harmful ultravi-

olet rays and X-rays), as well as highly charged pro-

tons and electrons. The effects are comparable to a

radioactive blast from one hundred million billion

tons of TNT (compared to the 20,000-ton equiva-

lent blasts that destroyed Hiroshima and

Nagasaki). Fortunately, while solar flares aren’t

rare, they are predictable.

An unprotected creature exposed to radiation

from a solar flare is treated as “severely irradiated”

for the purposes of determining the radiation’s

effects (see Radiation Sickness in the future SRD).

XENOBIOLOGICAL HAZARDS

In addition to facing dangerous creatures and

harsh environmental conditions, space explorers

must occasionally contend with xenobiological

hazards – nonsentient forms of life that are, by

their very nature, menacing and dangerous with-

out being openly adversarial.

Xenobiological hazards are treated more like

traps than creatures. They have Challenge Ratings

(CRs), and heroes earn experience points for surviv-

ing or overcoming them. A xenobiological hazard

might be a pool of corrosive slime or a patch of

mold that feeds on the warmth of nearby life

forms. It’s not deliberately predatory, just danger-

ous by nature.

Additionally, space explorers may also

encounter non-living hazards (typically unusual

fogs).

E -F UTURE T ILES :

X ENOMORPH H IVE

Four of the hazards in this PDF – corrosive

membrane, Jefferson’s Root, space slime, and

the space slime pool – are depicted in

SkeletonKey Games’ e-Future Tiles:

Xenomorph Hive tile set. You can use the

Xenomorph Hive tile set to create a minia-

tures-scale alien environment into which

your players must descend, possibly to never

return. To learn more about SkeletonKey

Games, and their e-Future Tiles series –

please visit www.skeletonkeygames.com

or www.starbaseprime.com.

C ORROSIVE M EMBRANE (CR 2)

These long, flesh-like strings stretch across

objects, slowly growing to fill entire areas if they’re

left unchecked. A patch of corrosive membrane

springs from the shell of a character or creature

that was completely devoured by a patch of

Jefferson’s Root (see p. 5). This foul hazard has a

symbiotic relationship with Jefferson’s Root: a cor-

rosive membrane patch shrivels up and dies within

2d6 minutes of being separated from a patch of

Jefferson’s Root.

A single 5-foot corrosive membrane patch deals

1d2 points of Constitution damage per round (+1

point of Constitution drain for each adjacent

Jefferson’s Root patch) while it devours flesh.

Against wood or metal, a corrosive membrane

patch deals 1d3 points of damage per round, ignor-

ing metal’s hardness but not that of wood. It does

not harm stone.

An injection of sporekill or 5 or more points of

cold or fire damage destroys a 5-foot corrosive

membrane patch.

C YBERNETIC S LIME (CR 3)

This black-colored slime is a mixture of artificial

and organic fluids, brought into existence when a

cybernetic component is damaged and left unre-

paired. One week after suffering damage, there is a

15% chance that an unrepaired cybernetic compo-

nent will fill with cybernetic slime, inflicting 1 point

of Constitution damage to the character for each

day the problem is left untreated. A character that

is completely consumed by the cybernetic slimes

(and character reduced to a Constitution score of 0

or lower) is forever lost, leaving behind a 5-foot

patch of cybernetic slime. Curing a character of

cybernetic slime – before it kills him – requires

that the damaged cybernetic component be

repaired and then five successful Treat Injury

checks (DC 15), each check requiring a full day dur-

ing which time the victim may do nothing but rest.

When touched, a 5-foot patch of cybernetic

slime deals 2d4 points of acid damage per round

XENOBIOLOGICAL HAZARDS

while it devours flesh. On the first round of contact,

the slime can be scraped off a creature (most likely

destroying the scraping device), but after that it

must be frozen, burned, or cut away (dealing dam-

age to the victim as well). Against wood or metal,

cybernetic slime deals 1d6 points of acid damage

per round, ignoring the metal or wood’s hardness.

A character with cybernetics that comes into

contact with a patch of cybernetic slime must

make a successful Fortitude saving throw (DC 15)

or the character is stunned for 2d4 rounds, during

which time the slime devours the character’s flesh.

A patch of cybernetic slime is destroyed if it suf-

fers 10 points of fire or electricity damage in a sin-

gle attack.

N EW D ISEASE :

G ENE F EVER

This terrible disease strikes the victim’s

genetic structure, tearing away at the victim’s

very genetic identity. Gene fever is dangerous

and in several systems most that are subject-

ed to it, if the authorities learn of the sickness,

are quarantined and never released from iso-

lation.

Type: Inhaled/Contact (DC 20).

Incubation Period: 2d4+1 minutes.

Initial Damage: 1 Str and 1 Con.

Secondary Damage: 1d4 Str, 1d6+1

Con, and the victim gains 1 random mutation

drawback.

E NDOTHERMIC M OLD (CR 2)

Endothermic mold feeds on warmth, siphoning

heat from anything around it. A patch of endother-

mic mold is red-brown in color and 5 feet in diam-

eter, and the temperature is always cold in a 30-

foot radius around it. Living creatures within 5 feet

take 3d6 points of nonlethal cold damage. Fire

brought within 5 feet of the mold causes it to

instantly double in size.

A 5-foot patch of endothermic mold is

destroyed if it takes 5 or more points of cold dam-

age.

G RAVITATIONAL F OG (CR 1)

This harmless looking cloud of fog, a dull gray in

color, hangs suspended a few feet above the

ground. Encountered only on small planets and

large moons with a toxic atmosphere, a gravita-

tional fog is a bizarre gravitational anomaly – the

fog adjusts the world’s gravity (if it is normal) by

one step in a random direction (determine once for

each fog encountered) in the squares it covers and

those adjacent to it. On a low- or high-gravity

world the fog shifts the affected area’s gravity to

normal.

A gravitational fog cannot be dissipated – high

winds, artificial or natural, have no effect on the

fog. The only thing that can be done is to wait for

the fog to cease to exist on its own; a gravitational

fog patch – most are a 20-foot cube – has a natu-

ral lifespan of only 4d6 hours.

G ENE M OLD (CR 3)

This dull gray-green mold is sometimes created

when a tank holding a genetic experiment – usu-

ally in a thick, liquid-like substance – is cracked and

the genetic material leaks, pooling on the ground

beneath the tank. If left alone for 1d6+1 days the

substance begins to grow, forming a 5-foot square

patch of genetic mold. If disturbed by any means

(touch, wind, etc.), a patch of genetic mold releases

a cloud of spores that are toxic to any character or

creature that the spores come into contact with. All

characters and creatures within 10 ft. of the mold

must make a Reflex save (DC 20) or be subjected to

Gene Fever (see box).

Fire destroys a patch of gene mold.

J EFFERSON ’ S R OOT (CR 5)

These thick, heavy tentacles were named for the

explorer that first reported their existence (and,

coincidentally enough, was the first reported

human to be killed by the hazardous plant-like

creature). The source of Jefferson’s Root is

unknown, though it is known that they grow from

spores that drift silently through space. Whenever

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