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P-O "BeRKA" Bergstedt is the Zhodani Ambassador. :-) BeRKA started the Zhodani Base in 1994.
Aliens, Reviews, Science Fiction

A Call To Arms

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Another interesting book with interesting aliens that I have recently read is A Call To Arms by Alan Dean Foster.

Some of us may remember Alan Dean Foster’s terrible Star Wars book The Splinter of the Minds Eye. But it was a long time since I read that book. What I still remember about it was that it didn’t really fit into the Star Wars canon very well. So maybe it was just that problem and it may not have been that poorly written.

Anyway, I decided to give his “The Damned” series a chance. A Call To Arms is the first book. The cover looked cool, but it turned out that the aliens in this book was quite poor warriors. Most aliens was quite poor at most things. They were like 0-points aliens from GURPS Aliens. All aliens had disadvantages. No aliens was good at warfare.

The reason given for the aliens to be bad at warfare was that an advanced race would (normally) have to abandon all sorts of violence to become an advances race. This is something that would normally happen in the race’s prehistory. This is a quite interesting idea.

The problem was that there was a big interstellar war going on… A race called the Amplitur wanted all other galactic races to join what they call the Amplitur Purpose. A number of races think this is a bad idea and has formed what they call the Weave. Neither side has any good soldiers. Then the Weave find the Earth… This is just the start of the book.

A Call To Arms

The book is really good and the different races are well describes. The plot is interesting. I think there are lots of ideas that can be mined for your Traveller setting here. This may even inspire you to come up with a new Traveller setting.

This book is the first one in The Damned Trilogy. I will try to find and read the other two.

Adventures, The Base, Traveller

And the winner is…

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It was quite difficult to pick the winners of the 76 patrons contest this last year of the contest. There were 11 good entries to choose from.

But one Patron stood out from the rest. It was written in a very inspiring way. It may have missed the brief a bit since it may seem unethical (but the PCs should believe that they are stopping a crime, so it really isn’t unethical). It also may seem a bit copied from the Firefly episode “The Train Job” and using ideas from “Johnny Mnemonic” but it could also be played in many different ways. Anyway, I think it was the best one! The winner is Hypercognitive by Michael Brown. Well done and Congratulations!

Second place goes to Idol of the Space God by Roland Volz. It is a very fun idea that could be expanded into many related adventures using this church and/or the idols as a theme.

Third place goes to Hewitt’s Hog Rides Again by KJ Potter. Recovering that mortar and the military aspect of this and/or additional adventures using this makes this an interesting Patron.

  1. Hypercognitive (by Michael Brown) $100
  2. Idol of the Space God (by Roland Volz) $60
  3. Hewitt’s Hog Rides Again (by KJ Potter) $40

Trophy

Other winners are Marcus Maximus ($ 15) for being the most productive contestant.

Alegis Downport for writing the Patron that attracts most SPAM comments ($ 5).

Flynn for including his own name ($ 5).

Ron Smith for an excellent campaign starting Patron ($ 5).

Aza, for almost cheating but still writing a cool adventure ($ 5).

Finally Jim Vassilakos for his very interesting Patron in the Foreven sector and for including the Zhodani in option 5 and 6 ($ 10).

All winners will be contacted. All prizes are Gift Certificates at DriveThruRPG.

I want to say a big Thank You to all contestants!

This was the last Zhodani Base 76 Patrons contest. Unfortunately we only have 73 Patrons now. I have to write 3 Patrons myself. I have some ideas… But if you have an idea and want to help, then please contact BeRKA.

Adventures, Traveller

11 new Patrons this year

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In the final 76 Patrons contest we received 11 entries.

This years entries:

  1. Sir Robert Williams, Knight (by Flynn)
  2. Idol of the Space God (by Roland Volz)
  3. The Cousin (by Ron Smith)
  4. Madama Butterfly (by Aza)
  5. The Sylan Extraction (by Jim Vassilakos)
  6. Affluenza (by Marcus Maximus)
  7. Hearts and Minds (by Marcus Maximus)
  8. The Hidden Cache (by Marcus Maximus)
  9. Technical Support (by Alegis Downport)
  10. Hewitt’s Hog Rides Again (by KJ Potter)
  11. Hypercognitive (by Michael Brown)

GasGiant-11
Now I have a lot to think about. I will announce the winner in a few days. Until then, please comment, like and share. Tell us which entry you like the most and why! Both here and on other sites.