WARBIRDS

SPACE AGE SOURCEBOOK

Steve Bergeron
Jeff Haala (Order #35036421)
 It has been 50 years since the Guild Pilots made their mark on the floating islands of
Azure, and now they make their mark among the stars. Join in the fight against alien
invaders to seek your fame and fortune in the Space Age.
With a fully updated setting, new rules for space age dogfighting, new customizations,
new vehicles and even new races, Warbirds: Space Age is the perfect expansion to take
your Warbirds sessions to a stellar level.

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 ASpace
Madness!
Few Years
Age

WARBIRDS SPACE AGE SOURCEBOOK

Written By
Steve Bergeron

Produced By
Chris Scott, Cait Bergeron, Cameron Macdonald, and Ashley Dinning

Edited by
Cait Bergeron and Patrick Riegert

Rapidfire Rules by
Steve Bergeron and Quinton Oliviero

Cover and Interior Art by

Dim Martin - dimmartin.deviantart.com

Special Thanks To
All of our indiegogo supporters who believed in our project.

Published by
Outrider Studios - outriderstudios.com

Web
For more Warbirds info go to www.warbirdsrpg.com

Warbirds Space Age is ©2016 Outrider Studios. All rights reserved.

Warbirds Role Playing Game is ©2013 Outrider Studios. All rights reserved.

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 A Contents
Few Years

Table of Contents
Credits 1 Chapter 3
Dogfights 15
Chapter 1 A New Coat of Paint 15
A Few Years 3 All That Space 16
Welcome 3 FSD Power 16
Themes and Atmosphere 3 There’s No Ground 17
A Quick Update 4 There’s No Air 17
Ch
The Kick Turn 17
1 The Moment 4
Advanced Stunts 18
Some Knowledge 4
Orbit 6 Shooting Far 18
The Gates 6 Swarm Missiles/Torpedoes 18
Two Paths 7 MAWS 18
Lagrange Points 7 What about Nukes? 18
Here and Now 7 Weapons Conversion Table 19
Traits Conversion Table 19
Chapter 2
Chapter 4
New Rules 8
A New Place 8 Spaceships! 22
Humanity’s Role 8 Fighters 23
Let’s Chat 8 Basic Alien Fighter 23
Floatstone 9 Modifications 23
Human Rules 9 Fleet Ships 24
New Toys 9 Frigates 24
New Skills 10 Cruisers 24
Computers 10 Battleships 24
Alien Studies 10 Carriers 25
Navigate Starship 10 Civilian Shipping 25
Denizens 10 Special Notes 25
Desor 10
Telicari 11 Chapter 5
Relann 11 Game Master 26
Kanmal 12 Two Routes 26
Vhekrik’shk 12 Famous Among The Stars 27
Creat an Alien 13 How Big is Space? 27
1. Objectives 13 Using Terrain 28
2. Appearance 13 Stars 28
3. Rules 14 Planets 28
Playing an Alien 14 Moons 28
Rocks 28
Rings 29
Gates 29
Stations 29

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Chapter 1
It’s Been a Few Years Ch
1

Welcome to the Space Age!

Lasers! Plasma bolts! Aliens! Welcome to Warbirds: Space Age, where we take the high-flying action of the
Warbirds Role Playing Game, strap it to a rocket, and launch it into space. In this book you will find an
advanced timeline for the world of Azure; an overview of the stellar neighbourhood, as well as the adventures
and challenges that face the Guild in this new, exciting future; and rules modifications for space battles for the
Guild’s fighters and larger warships.

Themes and (Leaving the) Atmosphere

Warbirds: Space Age aims to recreate the action and adventure of old science-fiction serials and modern sci-fi
action films. Like in the media that inspires it, science isn’t paying much attention to Warbirds: Space Age.
Science still catches the big things, such as there being a definite lack of air in space, but it gets distracted by
all the flashy spaceships and misses most of the details. Thus in Warbirds: Space Age, lasers are visible, rocket
engines scream as they hurl fighters through the emptiness, and no one thinks too hard about radiation levels,
the impossibility of faster than light travel, or why most aliens look so much like humans.
The Guild is still out there, and it’s bigger and better than ever. Its pilots roam through known space
looking for fortune and fame. The Guild’s new Azure Space Agency (ASA) seeks out new systems and sends
long-haul tugs on decade-long missions to drag jump gates out to new stars to expand the Guild’s reach. The
Guild brims with ambition and excitement as it spreads humanity’s reach to the stars.
Like the first explorers that came to the islands of Azure in the years before the great Storm, humanity
faces new challenges and new dangers on every voyage into the black. The stars beyond Azure contain tiny
nations, sprawling empires, and everything in between. In the early years of their travels through space, the
Guild found both friendly and hostile nations. Many began peaceful trade. Some begged for aid. Others
attacked on sight. The latter groups soon learned to regret their choice.
It did not take long for the Guild’s, and thus humanity’s, reputation to spread. Human technology
is inelegant and terribly inefficient. Their culture is raucous, chaotic, and fractured. But their warriors, fearless
men and women armed with gleaming, lethal fighter craft, have no equal in known space. They take those
fighter craft, those Warbirds, into the fury of space combat against impossible odds -- and they win.

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A Quick Update
When we last left the world of Azure, it was the year 2039. The nations of the Central Isles had an uneasy
peace punctuated by small conflicts over limited resources. The Fighter Guild, almost a nation unto itself,
sat at the apex of Azure culture. The public adored its pilots and rivals feared to challenge Guild dominance.
The status quo, as enforced by the Guild, endured for almost two decades. The relative peace
Ch shattered in 2058 when Observations Inc. spotted an errant island of unprecedented size approaching the Eye.
1 Even more unusual, it had a vector that would lead to it entering a stable orbit around the Eye just beyond the
Midlands. Competition for the new land and resources went from “fierce” to “out of control” in short order.
The Great War, as it became known, dragged on for 18 months as the new island approached Azure.
Guild pilots, fighting for multiple factions, joined the largest battles in Azure’s history. The war
raged, and the Guild faced something new: severe losses. A Guild ace could kill a dozen lesser fighters but
could not stand against the amassed air forces that the nations were committing to battle.
Squadron commanders started digging into the Guild’s secret, advanced weapons stores in a desperate bid to
keep their pilots alive. Almost overnight, the Guild advanced air combat by a monumental leap. What was
once the purview of fringe mad scientists became the new standard of battle. While the nations still used prop
planes armed with racks of machine guns and rockets, Guild pilots tore through them with supersonic jet
fighters armed with gatling cannons and heat-seeking missiles. The Guild regained their aura of invincibility,
but the war did not abate.

The Moment
The Guild maintains its dominance by always looking
to the future and planning for the long haul. Even in
the midst of the Great War, the squadron commanders
looked far ahead. The other nations would scramble to
copy the Guild’s secret weapons and try to end Guild
dominance. The Guild pre-empted this possibility by
pouring resources into the Guild Theoretical Research
Division (see the You Must Be Mad! sourcebook for
details) to find the next big thing in aviation. No one
predicted just how big that next thing would be.
A small team of mad scientists at the Guild’s
hidden Trove (see You Must Be Mad! p. 18-19) made a
breakthrough unlike any other. Rather than studying
weapons or power systems, this small team, led by
the now-famous Marie-Claire Ambroise, studied the
enigmatic floatstone holding Azure’s islands aloft. They
found that a hollow cylinder of floatstone, alloyed with
titanium and several more exotic elements, could be
Some Knowledge
The nature of Azure is better known in the Space
Age. For example, people now know that Azure
is a Jupiter-sized gas giant orbiting within the
life zone of a sun-like star. Azure has one large
moon and several dozen smaller moonlets. It is
the second planet in a five-planet system, but is
the only gas giant. With satellites focused upon
Azure’s surface, they know that there is only one
Eye, but there are over 500,000 islands of various
sizes skimming along Azure’s surface, defying all
known physics. It is clear that the Eye and all
of the islands are the products of an artificial
process, but how they were created or who
created them is still unknown. Many scientists
hope the answers to such questions lie in the stars
above.

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Ch
1

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heated and spun like a drill. The interior of the spinning cylinder produced magnetic fields so strong that
it could fuse atoms of hydrogen into helium and send them streaking out one end of the cylinder at speeds
approaching the speed of light. In short, Ambroise’s team invented a nuclear fusion rocket.
In typical mad-science fashion, her team rushed from theory to prototype in just a few months. The
first rocket equipped with a Floatstone Spin Drive (FSD) blasted into space on a thin lance of silver flame,
changing Azure forever. The streaking rocket, seen by tens of thousands of people, dominated the news.
Hostilities halted as the nations tried to comprehend the implications of the new technology. The Guild
wasted no time; it turned Ambroise and her team into superstars and announced the creation of the Azure
Space Agency (ASA), a new Guild-run agency focused on space exploration. The ASA would map the solar
system, colonize the moon and other worlds, and ultimately discover who or what created Azure.
Ch
1

Orbit
The Great War wound down as the Guild promised high-speed travel to all of Azure via FSD-equipped
rockets. As satellites settled into orbit around Azure and sub-orbital travel became common, the Guild looked
to the moon and beyond. The first moon mission launched less than a decade after the first rocket launch, and
missions to the other planets of the Azure system soon followed.
Despite promising early findings, the four other planets of the Azure system had little to offer. The
innermost world had almost no atmosphere and a superheated surface, while the outer worlds possessed
freezing climates and poisonous atmospheres. ASA found neither life nor answers about Azure’s creators.

The Gates
Despite the disappointment, the Guild continued its survey of the Azure system. It found thousands upon
thousands of rocks and comets, but it looked as though there was little left to find.
Just as enthusiasm for space exploration started to wane, ASA telescopes made their next extraordinary
discovery. Searching the lonely reaches
of Azure’s L4 and L5 Lagrange points,
ASA observers spotted the glint of
something; they saw an object odd and
artificial. A probe ship sent back images
of what appeared to be a hollow metallic
cylinder. Manned missions sent to both
Lagrange points found the same thing:
ancient constructed cylinders, over
10 kilometres long and a kilometre in
diameter.
ASA began a massive research
project, setting up space stations at
both artifacts. They soon discovered
the artifacts were constructed from
floatstone similar to Guild FSDs. As

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ASA scientists argued about their function, the Guild

sent a team of hotshot engineers to “spin up” an artifact
with some welded-on FSDs. Guild leadership expected
the artifacts to be enormous weapons, or at least power
sources. Instead, spinning up the artifact revealed its
true function: interstellar travel. Looking along the axis
of the gate as it spun up revealed a tunnel to another
solar system.
Lagrange Points
A Lagrange point is a place where the gravity
between two bodies balances, creating zones of
orbital stability. Joseph-Louis Lagrange theorized
their existence in 1772. For game purposes,
a copy of his Essay on the Three-Body Problem
survived the initial trip to Azure and we get to
keep the name.

Two Paths Ch
Azure has two gates. The L4 gate leads to what is now known as the Stellar Neighbourhood, a collection of 1
over 300 star systems connected by ancient star gates in a spiderweb network controlled by dozens of alien
species and alliances. The L5 gate leads to a dead-end red dwarf star system, named Legba by its discoverers,
thousands of light years from the Stellar Neighbourhood. The L5 system has no other gates, but it possesses a
thick asteroid belt that teems with floatstone.
While the Guild spread its legend among the aliens of the Stellar Neighbourhood, ASA studied the
gates. ASA scientists do not understand much of the theory behind the gates, but they could replicate their
effects. They figured out how to build more using the resources beyond the L5 gate.
Gates operate in pairs, with one at each end of the transit, so ASA began construction on 100 gates
to be sent via relativistic tugs to distant stars. Their twins remain in orbit around the Legba system, waiting for
their pairs to complete their decade-long journeys.

Here and Now

Humanity opened its first gate less than 20 years ago, and the first ASA gates are nearing their destination star
systems. Meanwhile, the Guild has built up a new fleet of space-based drop-carriers, and Guild pilots rocket
through the Stellar Neighbourhood in search of fame, fortune, and worthy opponents. The Guild’s monopoly
on FSDs makes them even more dominant than they were during their heyday on Azure.
Whether it’s leading the way to new, unexplored worlds or offering services to the stellar nations in
their endless battles, Guild pilots have an exciting future ahead of them. They are the vanguard of humanity’s
sojourn to the stars and its best hope for finding the truth about Azure and its peoples.

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Chapter 2
Ch
2
Rules For a New Era
“They have the souls of raging warriors, but possess minds of innovation and precision. They stand in awe of the
universe, but fight with the fury of the damned. They are much like any other species, but more – more passionate,
more focused, more temperamental, more loyal, more idealistic, more treacherous, more driven, and far more
dangerous.”
-An early report on humans from a Telicari frigate captain who made the mistake of attacking a Guild
drop-carrier. He spent three months as a Guild prisoner before being traded back to his people.

Humanity stumbled into other lifeforms just two gate transits beyond the L4 gate. They made peaceful contact
with Desor traders and began a cultural and economic exchange. After breaking the language barrier, the
humans traded some information on their own history as well as an entire ship’s supply of rum for knowledge
of what the Desor call the Stellar Neighbourhood.

A New Place
The Stellar Neighbourhood is a “new” place. Despite containing dozens of sentient species, all of them achieved
space travel within the last century. Every species has an upheaval story similar to humanity’s Storm, though
most species ended up in a less extreme environment than Azure.
The simultaneous emergence of so many space-faring species at the same time led to some chaotic
early years. The gates became choke points for both trade and warfare as the different species spread their
influence. Nodal star systems with as many as eight gates
Let’s Chat exchanged hands multiple times as species attempted
Communication between all the species can get to assert dominance. After decades of instability,
quite tricky. Like humanity, most species have the Neighbourhood sorted out to a patchwork of
multiple languages and forms of communication confederations, multi-star empires, and single-star
adding to the confusion. Several species solved nations. The wars cooled down, though frequent flare-
the problem decades before humans came on ups continue to occur.
the scene. Stellar Basic is an adaptable universal
language that any humanoid can speak. It won’t

Humanity’s Role
win any poetry awards and lacks things like
nuance and fine detail, but it allows for easy
communication between the many species.
Assume all Guild pilots can speak and understand Despite their aviation background, humans arrived late
Stellar Basic. to the party; however, they made a big splash when they
did. While their technology lags behind some of the

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more “advanced” species, humans have two advantages

that other species lack: FSD technology and “ideal
Floatstone
Only humans call the material floatstone; every
combat biology.”
other species calls it some variation of “gate
Guild FSDs, seen as crude by most species,
alloy” or “gate metal.” Floatstone is a form
give Guild ships the kind of power and acceleration that
of exotic matter that, like many things in the
other species can only dream of. Human freighters can
Stellar Neighbourhood, has an artificial origin.
rocket through star systems in a fraction of traditional
It exists only in trace amounts outside of the
transit times. Most species understand how FSDs work,
gate network. Humanity lucked out with Azure
and some even have theoretical models that would
being covered in the stuff. When humans found
improve the Guild design, but every species hordes
the Legba star system containing millions of Ch
its tiny stores of floatstone (see sidebar) to keep their
gates in good repair. Only humanity has the resources
floatstone asteroids, they did not realize their 2
fortune. If the rest of the Stellar Neighbourhood
necessary to employ FSDs. The Guild, already experts at
knew about humanity’s hidden stash, they would
hoarding technological advantages, ensures that FSDs
launch an immediate full-scale invasion.
will detonate (in a small fusion explosion) rather fall
into foreign hands.
Humans appear to be short and stocky compared to most species in the Neighbourhood. It turns
out that normal gravity tends to be 60 to 80 per cent of the gravity on Azure, and humans handle high
acceleration and G-forces far better than most. Even painfully awkward humans move with frightening speed
and incredible strength when among the aliens of the Neighbourhood. The Neighbourhood sees humans as a
warrior species, uniquely adapted for combat on the ground and in the depths of space.

Human Rules
When humans face aliens in any kind of personal combat, humans automatically have knacks in Close
Combat, Shooting, and Athletics rolls. If the human already has a knack in one of these skills, they may roll
three dice and take the highest. Some species or elite warriors may negate knacks on up to two of the above
skills, but never more than that.
Humanity’s reputation as warriors makes negotiations with aliens tricky. Humans have -2 to all
Persuade, Publicity, Etiquette, and Barter rolls against non-humans. This penalty drops to -1 if the human and
alien have met peacefully on a previous occasion.

New Toys
Science and technology advanced by leaps and bounds over the years, with new innovations arriving all of
the time. Despite the tireless work of Azure’s scientists, humanity still lags behind other species in many key
areas. While guild spacecraft have FSD-powered lasers and plasma cannons, much of their guts run on the
equivalent of 1960’s technology. Advanced computing is especially stunted by the limitations imposed by the
interference of Azure’s Eye and the Guild’s FSDs.
Game masters (GMs) can use the Plausible Projects section of You Must Be Mad! for a general feel on
human technology in the Space Age. Aliens, however, tend to have much more advanced gear and may have
some of the less far-fetched items listed in the Crazy Projects section of the book. Aliens might have personal
energy weapons, x-ray glasses, sentinels, jet packs, and even personal forcefields and invisibility cloaks.
Guild pilots love getting their hands on alien gadgets and can use their Fame to buy alien hardware

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or they can scavenge gear from defeated enemies. The Guild and the rest of humanity have an interest in
trading for technical information, though humans will not give up FSDs or any floatstone-related secrets. If
any human were to break the Guild embargo on floatstone, they would find a whole squadron of drop-carriers
chasing them down.

New Skills
Advanced technology and space travel allow for a few new skills, as well as modifications to some existing ones.

Ch Computers (Mind)
2 Guild computers are slow and clunky, but they exist. Aliens employ all sorts of advanced computers for
everything from personal entertainment to advanced security. This skill allows characters to use, repair,
program, and hack into computer systems. Hacking human systems is difficulty 4, most alien systems are
difficulty 6, while advanced supercomputers or AIs is difficulty 8 or more.

Alien Studies (Mind)

Characters suffer all kinds of penalties when dealing with alien culture and technology. A successful Alien
Studies roll can reduce those penalties by 1 for a scene. The difficulty of the roll depends on the familiarity of
the species. If the humans have had frequent peaceful contact with the species, it’s difficulty 4. Hostile relations
increase it to difficulty 6, and first contact scenarios are difficulty 8 or more.

Navigate Starship
This skill functions just like the Sail - Air skill listed on page 94 of Warbirds, but it now applies to large
starships instead of airships.

Denizens
The Neighbourhood contains over 50 known sentient species, and that number creeps up every few years with
the discovery of previously unknown gates. In the 20 years since humanity joined the Neighbourhood, three
more species have been added to the list. Below are some sample aliens, followed by rules for GMs and players
to make their own.

Desor
The Desor live on a small terrestrial garden planet 20 gates from
Azure. A generally peaceful people, they enjoy exploration. Their
main trade is navigation information, and Desor surveyors can
find work anywhere in the Neighbourhood.

Appearance: Humanoid. The average Desor stands almost three

metres tall but weighs less than the average human. They have
generally human features, but their skin is translucent and they
lack body hair.

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Rules: Desor are meticulous, details-oriented, and enjoy exploration. They have +1 to all Academics,
Navigation, and non-combat Awareness rolls. Their low-gravity-adapted bodies make them unsuited to high
accelerations. Desor make poor fighter pilots and have -1 to all Dogfighting rolls. They have a base Resist of 0
regardless of their stats. Even the best armour cannot raise a Desor’s Resist above 2 before becoming too heavy
for them to use.

Telicari
The Telicari Empire spans five star systems and contains two
Ch
client races in addition to the Telicari themselves. Their ability to
coordinate with each other at an almost psychic level makes them 2
dangerous adversaries.

Appearance: Humanoid. Telicari are tall and sleek, with reptilian

skins in a wide spectrum of colours. Large nasal cavities dominate
their facial structures, leading humans to believe that they
communicate with each other using pheromones in addition to
language.

Rules: Telicari can act in unison. When Telicari help each other
(Warbirds, pg 58) their difficulty is 4 instead of 6, and their
maximum help bonus is +4 instead of +2. When in combat, their
maximum ganging up bonus is +3 instead of +2. This effect works even when the Telicari are in fighters or
warships. However, Telicari fare poorly when isolated. A lone Telicari is -1 to all actions and defences. As with
their bonuses, this penalty scales up to lone fighters and capital ships.

Rilann
Not everyone adapted well to the Space Age. Perhaps the Rilann
fared the worst. They burned their home world in a nuclear civil
war, and their tribal fleets fled to the far reaches of space. Now
they wander the edges of known space, raiding and fighting
randomly. They use stolen merchant ships to sneak through gates
and terrorize new star systems.

Appearance: Humanoid (sort of ). Humans would describe a

Rilann warrior as a giant gangly bug with too many arms. While
they look like insects, they lack exoskeletons or any other trait
that would make them true insects. They do have strange-looking
segmented eyes, though.

Rules: The Rilann evolved as ambush predators and have mastered stealth. They are +2 to all Stealth rolls.
Even their spacecraft have the same stealthy features. Two of the Rilann’s arms end in spear-like spikes that do
Lead +2 damage in close combat. Rilann seem to have no fear of death and do not retreat.

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Kanmal
The Kanmal Empire is the largest, most technologically advanced
entity in the Stellar Neighbourhood. They hold 20 star systems
and engage in periodic wars to further expand their reach. Their
last bid for expansion stopped cold when their advanced warships
faltered against just two flights of Guild fighters. They have since
upgraded their fleet and are eager to face the Guild again.
Ch
Appearance: Humanoid cyborgs. Kamal start off very similar to
2 humans but acquire cybernetic enhancements as they age. Only
their foot-soldiers have a clunky armoured robot look; the rest
look like sleek, almost organic machines.

Rules: Kamal have +2 Resist due to their integrated armour. They

also have internal gadgets. Gadgets add +2 to any three skills of
the Kamal’s choice, or they emulate minor abilities found in You Must Be Mad! Their reliance on computer
technology makes them vulnerable to the jamming effects of Guild FSDs (see page 16). Their gadgets do not
function near FSDs, and their ships are -2 to all attacks against Guild ships. (This is even after their latest
round of upgrades. Their ships barely functioned at all in that first disastrous engagement.)

Vhekrik’shk
No species makes humans quite as uncomfortable as the Vhekrik’shk.
Best described as “giant space slugs covered in tentacles,” these
nonsexual, highly intelligent pseudo-gastropods threw humans for
a loop upon first contact. Despite their disturbing appearance, the
Vhekrik’shk maintain friendly relations with every active species
in the Neighbourhood. In fact, Vhekrik’shk learn alien customs,
social norms, etiquette, and especially humour with incredible
speed. They have only a single star system but control a massive
monopoly on advanced biological and medical technology.
Humans call them the “slug doctors.”

Appearance: Non-humanoid. They are two-metre-long slugs

cover in hundreds of long, prehensile tentacles. Their skin colour
changes with their mood, and the tentacles can produce sounds
and grasp objects.

Rules: Vhekrik’shk trained in the Medicine skill automatically have a knack in it. While they have no eyes, their
tentacles “see” the world around them in every direction. Close combat ambushes always fail against them.
Their ships have systems that mirror their all-around sight and are +2 on Awareness rolls versus ambushes.
Being slugs, Vhekrik’shk have a -2 to all Athletics rolls involving moving quickly, and -1 to Defence. The
Defence penalty applies to their spacecraft as well.

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Create An (Un)Friendly Alien

We have listed just a few of the scores of aliens out there. GMs and players can make their own to fill in
the blanks. Below are some guidelines for creating new species. GMs can use or modify the rules to their
liking, but players should get GM approval before unleashing their creations upon the Stellar Neighbourhood.
Follow the steps below by rolling randomly or just pick what works.

Step 1 - Objectives
What do the aliens want? What will they do to get it? Choose or roll: Ch
1. Territory - They want more worlds to colonize. They might be willing to negotiate for property, or they 2
might try to seize it through subterfuge or force.
2. Trade - They have a merchant fleet selling a rare or useful item or service. Humans and the Guild are
technically traders, selling mercenary services.
3. Peaceful Relations - Several species in the Neighbourhood practice pacifism. They engage in high-minded
cultural exchanges and exploration. Most end up as client species to more aggressive species.
4. Transit - They are migrants. What are they running from, or running to? Do they even have a homeworld?
5. Domination – Empire-building can be found in the histories of dozens of species. The Kanmal have the
largest empire for now, but any number of species seek to challenge their dominance.
6. Chaos - Some aliens just want to watch worlds burn. They are often religious zealots, xenophobes, or just
view other species as food or expendable.

Step 2 - Appearance
What do the aliens look like? Most species in the Neighbourhood look a lot like humans, but examples like
the Vhekrik’shk prove that other body types are possible. Choose or roll:
1. In All but Name - They look like humans. They might have weird clothes and customs, but they seem to
be people. Roll again:
1-5. Close but Not Quite - They look like humans, but it’s just coincidence.
6. Brothers! - They are humans stolen from Earth! Choose a location and time period.
2-5. Humanoids - Like the Telicari or Kanmal, they have humanoid form but are obviously non-human. Roll
twice or choose a few:
1. Weird Facial Feature - Like on those TV shows. You know the ones.
2. Bizarre Skin - They have either strange colours, textures, or both.
3. Antennas - Give them some antennas that serve some weird purpose.
4. Extra Limbs - Do they have tails? Maybe an extra set of T-rex arms?
5. Extreme Proportions - Are they stretched like the Desor or short-limbed?
6. Anthropomorphs - They look like a humanoid animal. Lizard people!
6. Non-Humanoid - Humans have trouble looking at these creatures and thinking, That’s a person. Less
extreme examples include creatures like the Vhekrik’shk, which at least seem alive. A non-humanoid might be
a sentient colony of moss, a hulking creature made of silicon, an aquatic mullusk tended by schools servitor
fish, or even an entirely robotic species that gave up physical bodies long ago.

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Step 3 - Rules
Aliens and humans have more commonalities than differences. They have the same three stats and skill points
as humans, but they have a few modifications here and there to represent their alien nature. If you want a more
detailed and precise way to build abilities, check out the rules in You Must Be Mad! for even more options.
First, choose a field in which the aliens excel. Give them an automatic knack or skill bonus in one to
three skills related to that field. You can also reduce the XP cost for them to advance those skills.
Second, choose a weakness. Keep in mind the body structure and objectives of the species, and make
it roughly mirror their strengths.
Finally, choose a quirk or novelty about the species. This does not have to be serious. For example:
Ch • Humans tell the best stories. Their movies, books, TV shows, and comics command top dollar with traders
2 while simultaneously exaggerating their combat exploits.
• Desor have extreme sensitivity to alcohol. They will trade a lot of goods or intelligence for a quality wine or
ale and get stumbling drunk off the tiniest portions.
• Telicari music is legendary. Their ability to harmonize makes even songs sung in Stellar Basic sound like
moving masterpieces.
• Rilann cannot comprehend social cues. The people who managed to have conversations with Rilann found
that the aliens cannot comprehend sarcasm, exaggeration, irony, or even empathy. They find physical humour,
especially Three Stooges-style physical humour, hilarious.
• Kanmal are sports fanatics. Competitive and obsessed with self-improvement, Kanmal cyborgs love to both
play and watch sports. Their level of devotion makes modern football fans seem only mildly interested. They
recently learned the Mesoamercian ball game from a Mayan merchant crew, and the game is spreading through
the empire like wildfire.
• Vhekrik’shk consider humour a high art form. The slugs love practical jokes, stand-up and improv, and
quickly “get” the jokes of other species. They will spend months, or even years, setting up pranks.

So You Want To Be An Alien?

Good news: The Guild just opened up recruiting to aliens on a trial basis. Your alien can now jump in the
cockpit next to their human comrades and rocket off into the black. Recruiting rules for aliens are as follows:
• Kanmal pilots rarely leave their empire but a few joined the Guild. Repeated exposure to Guild FSDs is toxic
and eventually fatal to the cyborgs, so the Guild has to reinforce Kanmal fighter cockpits with lead lining to
keep them healthy. Their integrated gadgets do not function in or around fighters. The extra lead gives the
Kanmal fighter the Enhanced Crew Protection trait for free.
• Desor have trouble with high-G manoeuvres due to their frail skeletons. They have -1 to all Dogfighting
rolls. They can ignore the penalty for a round, but they take a point of damage (no Resist) every time they do it.
• Rilann are allowed, though they will be outcasts from their own people and do not receive the Fame and
social skill roll bonuses listed below.
• Telicari may consider their flight mates to be other Telicari.
• Vhekrik’shk make decent pilots, but they suffer the -1 Defence penalty common to all of their ships. The
penalty disappears if they take a knack in Piloting.
• Aliens all get the new major disadvantage: Alien. The character starts off with -1 Fame and is -2 to all social
skill rolls with humans outside their flight. Once they achieve Fame 3, the penalty drops to -1, but it never
disappears. The upside is that the character has +1 Fame and +1 to all social skill rolls among their own species.
• The Stunt Problem. Humans have the only fighters in the Neighbourhood that can stunt. Aliens do not
handle stunts well and are -1 to all stunts until they increase their Piloting to 3.

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Ch
3

Chapter 3
Dogfights of the Future!
Taking a fighter out into the black of space might seem like a daunting task full of new challenges and
complexities, but the Guild said, “Screw it. Let’s see how much we can keep it the same!” and proceeded to
do just that. They didn’t have to change much at all. Guild fighters “fly” through space just like atmospheric
fighters with only a few twists and tweaks. This chapter lays out the minor changes needed to run air combat
in space.

A Shiny New Coat of Paint

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Fighter stats and performance improved with time, but
the baseline stats of all fighters moved up to match. The base stats for Performance, Armour, and Structure
remain unchanged from Warbirds. Likewise, the weapons and Traits do the same stuff -- just give them new
fancy names. See the chart on page 19 for conversion details and to find out which weapons and Traits
function differently.

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Dealing With All of That Space

Space travel adds a few new wrinkles for pilots. The lack of air means those fighters need pressurized cockpits
and the pilots need spacesuits. Guild fighters hold enough air and consumables to keep their pilots alive for a
week. Even if the pilot ejects, search-and-rescue crews have 96 hours to find them before they run out of air.
The long distances pilots encounter cause all sorts of communications problems. Guild radios work
well when a fighter’s engines are shut down. If the pilot lines up the transmission antennas, Guild radios can
send signals hundreds of thousands of kilometres. This impressive range disappears when the fighters fire
up their FSD engines. The interference from the drives limits radio communications to just a few hundred
Ch kilometres, even under ideal circumstances. The only workaround is to equip a fighter with a finicky and
3 expensive communications laser. Com lasers are available to Guild aces, but there are never enough to go
around.
The other issue is gravity, or the lack thereof. At first, humans worried about gravity a lot, but they
solved the problem by ignoring it. Human ships, other than fighters, are laid out like skyscrapers with engines
at the bottom. The ships burn their massive FSDs at one G of acceleration for the first half of any trip, and
then decelerate at one G for the second half. Crews spend the entire voyage in a comfortable environment,
except for a few minutes in the middle of the trip. Ships parked in orbit sit at zero G, but they have rings they
spin up to provide rotational gravity.

Solve It with FSD Power!

Floatstone Spin Drives solve most of humanity’s space-travel woes. While most other species crawl around
with inferior ion drives, humans zip through space at accelerations that make those other species blanch. FSDs
give fighters enough fuel and power to operate long beyond the endurance of their pilots and allow larger ships
to operate for months or even years without refuelling.
FSDs also drag everyone else down to humanity’s technology level. FSDs blast out the same radio
and electrical interference as the Eye back on Azure but with even more intensity. When alien ships go up
against Guild fighters, they lose all of their fancy radar targeting systems, AI-controlled weapons, and advanced
computers on which they rely. They must close to point blank range and face Guild fighters on their own
terms: in a dogfight.
The interference reaches out hundreds of kilometres from fighters and thousands of kilometres from
larger ships. It scrambles radar, lidar, and especially computers and advanced electronics. Many species believed
humans had mastered advanced electronic warfare until the humans themselves admitted it was a side-effect
of their propulsion systems. The most dramatic example of this occurred during the first conflict between two
Guild flights and a Kanmal attack force. The advanced Kanmal ships managed little more than spastic flailing
as Guild lasers and plasma weapons tore them apart.
FSDs do have weaknesses, though. First, they run hot. Heat-seeking weapons have a +1 bonus to hit
FSD-equipped ships. Second, FSDs run loud. In atmosphere, their screaming roar can be heard for dozens
of kilometres. In space, their screaming EM interference warns enemies of their approach from far beyond
weapons range. If Guild fighters want to ambush an enemy, they have to kill their drives and then drift into
range. Managing a ballistic approach is so tough it imposes a -2 penalty on attempts to ambush. A critical
failure means the pilots planned the drift so poorly that they never pass within range of their targets.
Finally, if an FSD-equipped ship reaches Crippled status, it cannot limp home like an atmospheric
aircraft. A Crippled ship just drifts along its last vector. It puts out a beacon requesting pickup, but it needs
rescue or it will drift onward forever.

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There’s No Ground
Rounds to the Ground is an important concept in Warbirds in that it limits the length of dogfights, adds
tension, and creates interesting situations for the players. In space, the lack of ground changes a few things but
does not eliminate the rule. First of all, all warbirds can fly in atmosphere. Dogfights in atmosphere use the
rule as normal, but now fighters can fly in the atmospheres of gas giants, where high pressures make it Rounds
to the Crush or in ice giants where it’s Rounds to the Freeze.
In planetary orbit, fighters tend to fall deeper into the gravity well as they fight, approaching the
point of atmospheric re-entry. Re-entry is one of the few manoeuvres that even cavalier Guild flyers take
seriously. Miscalculation means the fighter burns to a cinder. As a result, low-orbit dogfights have Turns to the
Burn. After the last dogfighting round, pilots make the standard difficulty 9 strafing roll. Failure means they Ch
burn up (a Certain Death scenario), while success means they can choose to “bounce” off the atmosphere or 3
enter it safely and continue the dogfight using the standard Rounds to the Ground rule.
In deep space, there are two possible scenarios. First, if the ships have similar vectors, such as in a
pitched battle, a chase, or a well-planned ambush, then ignore Rounds to the Ground; the fight will continue
until one side retreats or is destroyed. The second scenario is if the ships pass at high velocity. If they have too
much speed, there will be no engagement at all, and the ships will zip past each other without anyone landing
a shot. A slightly lower velocity pass will result in a single head-to-head engagement. These high-velocity head-
to-heads have a high mortality rate for both sides (everyone uses Shoot Defence), making them the preferred
tactic for large forces that can absorb attrition losses.

There’s No Air!
The lack of air lets fighters accelerate to insane velocities. Guild pilots tend to ignore their actual speeds and
focus on their speed relative to enemies, making their actual speeds moot.
The lack of air lets pilots do things that are impossible in atmosphere. Guild fighters all carry a pair
of FSDs mounted on the tips of stubby wings. The engine mounts can swivel 360 degrees in the direction of
travel – they can point forward or backward – and 20 degrees laterally off the fighter’s centerline. Pilots can
flip their engines around and perform extreme manoeuvres and even fly backward. This allows a new defence
option, available to Guild fighters only: The Kick-Turn.

The Kick-Turn
If a pilot loses a Dogfighting roll and the enemy elects to attack, the pilot may perform a Kick-Turn as a
defence. The attacking fighter attacks as normal against the Kick-Turning fighter’s Shoot Defence. Resolve
any damage from the attack, and then the Kick-Turning defender flips 180 degrees and counter-attacks while
flying backward. The Kick-Turning fighter has time for a single Gunnery attack against the original attacker’s
Break Defence. Kick-Turning throws a fighter off-axis, resulting in a -1 to its next Dogfighting roll.
A pilot may Kick-Turn and attempt to shoot down a heat-seeker missile before it hits by meeting or
beating the original attack roll with their Gunnery; however, they use Shoot Defence at -1 if they fail to take
out the missile.

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Advanced Stunts
Other than the Kick-Turn, most of the advanced stunts remain unchanged. Well, pilots use completely different
manoeuvres, flipping their engines every which way, but they end up with same bonuses and penalties listed
Warbirds. Pilots cannot use the Spiral Dive stunt if the battle lacks a Rounds to the X scenario.

Shooting Far
The Guild’s FSDs make most long-range combat almost impossible, but heat-seeking missiles can cut their
way through the interference and score hits on fighters from far beyond visual range (BVR).
Ch The initial heat-seeking missile exchange follows the same rules as simple BVR as listed on page 5 of
3 the Jet Age Sourcebook: All fighters equipped with heat seekers make one attack, all targets use Break Defence,
and all damage resolves simultaneously. Fighters with Long-Range Targeting (see page 19) can resolve damage
before their adversary returns fire.
Optionally, fighters can attempt to shoot down missiles in the opening exchange. If they meet or beat
their attacker’s roll with their own Gunnery roll, they shoot down the missiles. If they miss, they are stuck at
Shoot Defence when the missile arrives.

New Trait - Swarming Heat Seekers/Torpedoes

Swarming weapons replace one large missile or torpedo with a bevy of smaller ones. Swarm weapons have a
higher chance of hitting, granting +1 Accuracy, but they pack less punch with -2 AP. An attempt to shoot
down swarm weapons incurs a -2 attack penalty.

New Trait - MAWS (Missile Approach Warning System)

Ace Only
Knowing the weaknesses of their FSDs, the Guild designed a countermeasure that detects incoming missiles
(using an infrared sensor), warns the pilot of the attack (“He’s got tone!”), and automatically deploys decoy
flares. The MAWS eliminates the bonuses that heat seekers have against FSD-equipped fighters. The Guild will
eventually make the MAWS standard on all fighters, but they need some perfecting first. When a fighter takes
enough damage that it suffers action penalties, the MAWS glitches and stops functioning.

What About Nukes?

Nuclear weapons definitely exist in the Space Age, but there are multiple treaties
and accords banning their use. A species that uses a nuke on a terrestrial planet
or large space station will find themselves fair game for nuclear reprisals by any
species in the Stellar Neighbourhood.
Like rocks nudged towards planets, nukes exist as plot devices in the
Space Age. They are used by terrorists and madmen (or mad scientists), often at
a dramatic moment. A well-placed nuke can destroy any ship, space station, or
even one of the gates. Getting the nuke close enough to a warship to destroy it
will present a serious obstacle. Ship sensors tend to look for radiation signatures
common for nuclear weapons and pour fire at anything that looks threatening.

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Weapons Conversion Table

Original Name Space Age Name Conversion Notes

Infinite Ammo - They run off FSD power

Light Machine Guns Light Lasers
indefinitely.

Same Ammo - Their capacitor regains a

Heavy Machine Guns Heavy Lasers shot every other round that the lasers do
not fire. Ch
3
These do not recharge during combat but
20mm Cannons Plasma Cannons
can recharge between scenes.

When a rail gun hits a large ship, the shell

40mm Cannons Rail Gun goes right through, doing 1 extra point of
damage to the main structure.

No reduced penalties for person-sized

Rockets Heat Seekers targets but are only -1 Accuracy (instead of
-2) against other FSD-equipped ships.

Drop Bombs Torpedoes None.

Traits Conversion Table

Original Name Space Age Name Conversion Notes

Extra Capacity Extra Capacitor No effect for light lasers.

Incendiary Shells/
High-Energy Throughput None.
Rockets/Bombs

Armour-Piercing Shells/ None.

Anti-Armour Resonance
Rockets/Bombs

Allows a first shot/first-resolved ability

during an initial salvo if used with heat
High-Velocity Shells Long-Range Targeting
seekers or torpedoes. Taking this Trait once
applies it to all weapons on a fighter

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Original Name Space Age Name Conversion Notes

Light laser-equipped fighters must take the

Additional Guns Additional Guns
-1 Armour option.

Gyroscopic Gunsight Advanced Targeting None.

Extra Hardpoint Extra Hardpoint No range reduction.

Ch
3 Fragmentary Shells/
--
Not used in space.
Rockets/Bombs

Heavy Bombs Heavy Torpedoes None.

Advanced Heavy
Advanced Bombsight None.
Ordinance Targeting

High-Velocity Rockets Anti-Armour Seekers None.

Additional +1 Accuracy against FSD-

Heat-Seeking Rockets Advanced Heat Seekers
equipped ships.

Improved Turbo-
Enhanced FSDs None.
Supercharger

Reduced Turn Radius Reduced Turn Radius None.

G-Reduction G-Reduction None.

Advanced HOTAS
Improved Flight
(Hands-On Throttle and None.
Controls
Stick)

Rocket Assist Fusion-Rocket Assist None.

Instead of range reduction, the engines will

Rotary Engine Next-Gen FSDs burn out on critical failure. The fighter will
need a tow back to the carrier.

Improved Structure Improved Structure None.

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Original Name Space Age Name Conversion Notes

Improved Redundant Improved Redundant

None.
Systems Systems

Forward Deflection The Armour bonus counts if the pilot

Frontal Armour
Plating performs a Kick-Turn Defence.

Advanced Gyro Ch
Dive Brakes None.
Stabilization
3
Dive Siren -- No one has figured this one out in space.

Improved Armour Improved Armour None.

Radial Engine Heavy FSDs None.

Improved Fire-
Fire Protection None.
Suppression Systems

Enhanced Crew Enhanced Crew

None.
Protection Protection

Drop-Tanks -- FSDs have plenty of fuel.

FAWS (Fighter Approach None.

High-Visibility Canopy
Warning System)

Increased Cargo
Cargo Pods None.
Capacity

The +1 bonus never goes away; the camo

constantly shifts patterns, confusing
Optical Camouflage Adaptive Camouflage
enemies. But the fighter cannot have
sponsor logos.

The tail gunner does not shoot if the

Tail Gunner Tail Gunner
fighter performs a Kick-Turn Defence.

Ace-only instead of elite-ace only.

Long-Range Radio Com Laser Com lasers have ranges of thousands of
kilometres.

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Ch
4

Chapter 4
Spaceships!
Thousands of different kinds of ships travel the vast space lanes of the Stellar Neighbourhood. Sleek fighters
escort burly warships, while gargantuan merchantmen lumber along as tiny tramp freighters streak past. For a
place famous for being so vast and empty, space sure seems busy.
Space seems so busy because of the limits of interstellar travel. Going from star to star requires the
use of the artifact gates. Gates tend to be scattered around solar systems sitting in stable orbits at Lagrange
points. Ships take the long haul from gates to more interesting places like planets and space stations using
predictable, easy-to-plot, least-time trajectories, leading to concentrations of traffic along certain predefined
routes. Nicknamed the “space lanes,” these regions of space experience heavy ship traffic. Beyond the space
lanes, space acts a lot more like it’s supposed to: vast, empty, desolate.
All those ships, be they plying the space lanes or blazing alone through the black, have crews,
payloads, functions, and statistics very similar to those found in the Airborne NPCs and Vehicles section of
Warbirds. Below, we will explore ship classes and their functions, and how they differ from rules written in the
main rule book.

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Fighters
Space fighters became “the thing” 20 years ago when the Guild barged into the Stellar Neighbourhood. Prior
to the Guild’s arrival, fighters saw use as scouts and light combat-screening forces. The Guild proved fighters
can dive into the teeth of capital-ship fire and pick the larger ships apart. Now every alien military rushes
fighter development trying to build something that can counter the insane Guild mercenary craft. While some
new advanced designs close the gap, the aliens are hopelessly outclassed without FSDs.

Basic Alien Fighter

SA 0
Performance 2, Armour 1 Ch
Dogfighting 1d6 +4, Strafing 1d6 +3 4
Defence - Break 4, Shoot 2, Escape 6
Gunnery 1d6 +2, Lead +2 damage (10 blasts)
Ordinance Heat Seekers 1d6 -1, Lead +3 damage, AP1 (2 missiles); Heat seekers are 1d6 +0 against FSD-
equipped Guild fighters; OR Torpedo 1d6 -2, Lead +5 damage, AP2, (1 torpedo)
Traits: Alien fighters cannot stunt or Kick-Turn. Even advanced alien fighters with Performance 3 or more
cannot do these manoeuvres because their pilots lack the reaction time and resistance to G forces to make
them happen.

Modifications
• Humans - Outside of the Guild, the nations of Azure do not currently employ space fighters. Instead,
they signed a contract designating the Guild humanity’s official Space Defence Force. Other independent
mercenary and pirate groups still exist, but they use older warbirds passed off or stolen from the Guild.
Human ships use base warbird stats with -1 to Armour, Structure, and weapon Accuracy.
• Desor - Desor have no fighter forces and hire mercenaries if they need fighters.
• Telicari - Tellicari fighters use swarm missiles (page 18).
• Rilann - Fighters have 0 Armour but have Performance 3, and have Rilann stealth advantages (page 11).
• Kanmal - The high-tech fighters of the Kanmal have +2 Performance, Gunnery, and Ordinance when they
fight enemies other than humans. The newest Kanmal ships manage to keep +1 Gunnery and Ordinance when
facing off against humans.
• Vhekrik’shk - Slug fighters have +1 Armour and +2 to Awareness rolls against ambushes, but have -1 to all
defences.

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Fleet Ships
Despite their combat power, flexibility, and low cost, fighters are specialized attack craft that take up no
more than a small part of any fleet; most ships are merchantmen and tramp freighters ferrying goods and
services between the stars. Other non-military vessels include survey vessels, science ships, passenger liners,
mining barges, and private yachts. A small portion of each fleet is made up of warships, following the familiar
classifications of frigate, cruiser, battleship, and carrier.
Ship rules adhere to those listed in Chapter 8 of Warbirds, with a few modifications. First and
foremost, core hits become reactor core hits. Knocking out a ship’s fusion reactor core does not cause it to
Ch explode but does force it to use emergency power. Emergency power will last until the end of a battle, but
4 the ship’s’ captain has to allocate the power to engines, defensive armament, or the main batteries; emergency
power is insufficient to power more than one at a time. After the battle, the ship’s batteries run down and they
need a tow or a talented engineer to fire up the reactor again.

Frigates
The bombardment frigate is now the torpedo frigate and carries a load of torpedoes instead of bombs. Small
squadrons of torpedo frigates accelerate to high velocity and make single-attack passes at larger ships in the
hopes of inflicting damage without taking any in return. Like their bombardment frigate forebearers, torpedo
frigates fare poorly against coordinated strafing attacks by fighters.
Any species that faces Guild warbirds first responds by building escort frigates. The anti-fighter ships
follow around their heavier sisters providing protection against strafing fighters. Newer escort frigates remove
some of their laser turrets to add heat-seeking missile launchers. The rule is removing three turrets gives one
heat-seeker launcher with the following stats:

Heat Seeker Launcher

Defence 6, Armour 2, Structure 3 (0 0 0)
Special: Each launcher attacks with 1d6 +0 and does Lead +3 damage, AP 1. The launcher is +1 to attack
against FSD-equipped fighters. Destroying a launcher reduces the ship’s Structure and Threat by 1. If the
escort frigate has a mixed armament of laser turrets and missile launchers, lasers have hit location 4 and the
launchers have location 5.

Cruisers
Armoured cruisers have no major changes or modifications. Cruisers are the preferred capital ship of most
species. Only the very ambitious species intent on empire-building bother with battleships.

Battleships
As with cruisers, battleships have no major rules modifications or changes. These monsters rarely see action
and are only employed in large numbers by a few species.

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Carriers
The Guild drop-carrier shocked the Neighbourhood with its small size and high acceleration. The carrier has a
pair of FSDs pushing it, with six mini drop-hangars arranged in a ring around the main body. When warbirds
need to launch, the drop-carrier spins the ring and flings all six fighters away simultaneously.
The other species of the Stellar Neighbourhood focus on fighter quantity and use various forms of
fleet carriers. Fleet carriers use a more traditional catapult launching system, but most cannot launch more
than two fighters at a time.
Civilian Shipping
The rules for skiffs, light freighters, and heavy freighters remain unchanged, but the ships can hold between 5 Ch
and 10 times the listed cargo capacity depending on the make and model. Ships that hold less cargo tend to 4
be a little faster in transit, but not enough to affect stats.

Species Notes
• Humans - While human fighters tear up space, their capital ship fleets lag behind other species. Human
ships have excellent speed and manoeuvrability thanks to the FSDs. They can engage and break contact almost
at will, confounding alien captains, but if they get caught in a slugging match, their inferior technology starts
showing its seams. Human ships have -1 Armour and Threat compared to their alien equivalents, and their
heavy weapons take an extra round to charge up between shots.
• Desor - The Desor dislike combat and will hire mercenaries (they love Guild mercenaries in particular) to do
their fighting for them. Their civilian ships have excellent sensors and have +1 to all Awareness rolls.
• Telicari - Telicari turrets can use their unison (page 11) abilities when they gang up on strafing fighters.
• Rilann - Rilann fleet ships have standard stats but also have Rilann stealth advantages (page 11).
• Kanmal - Kanmal fleet ships have +2 Threat, Gunnery, and Ordnance when they fight enemies other than
humans.
• Vhekrik’shk - The slugs hire out mobile hospital ships, often to both sides of a conflict. The mobile hospitals
have cruiser stats, but instead of main batteries, they have bays for smaller ambulance ships.

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Ch
5

Chapter 5
GMing In the Space Age
Running a game in the Space Age is not all that different than running a standard game of Warbirds in that
the characters are a bunch of hotshot mercenary pilots chasing after fame and fortune. Now, they have the
opportunity to chase that dream on exciting new planets with weird new aliens.

Two Routes
Space Age is set up for two modes of play. The first finds the characters zipping around the Stellar Neighbourhood
looking for work. They will escort tankers and mining ships, fend off Rilann raiders and Kanmal attack fleets,
and spread the legend of the Guild.
The second mode is for the GM to take the game someplace entirely new. Humanity’s secret plan to
explore the stars with their own gates can lead anywhere. Any story that you can imagine can be found on the
far side of one of those new gates. Guild pilots will be the first to explore these new vistas. What will they find?

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Famous Among the Stars

The Guild has not stopped any of its signature activities. It still hoards technology, sells its services to the
highest bidders, and cultivates celebrities. Guild agents work tirelessly to export the Guild’s mercenary model
to every species that will listen.
The size of the Guild’s media campaign is staggering. Merchant ships loaded down with films, TV
shows, comics, novels, and even RPGs ply the space lanes selling Guild propaganda. And the aliens eat it
up. Human entertainment media enjoys near universal popularity. Even the Kanmal Empire has a thriving
underground trade in Guild media.
The characters get to enjoy the windfall of this massive media blitz. Their legend precedes them when Ch
they arrive in a new star system. Characters with a Fame 4 or more will almost certainly have fans among any 5
alien species that has had previous human contact. Guild media has traveled far enough that even aliens who
have never encountered humans might have heard of their legend.
Fame rules continue to function as listed in Warbirds, but now they have a new scandalous twist.
Scandals can be species specific. If a Guild character does not take care when interacting with alien locals, they
can trigger unintentional scandals by breaking misunderstood social conventions or taboos. The follow-up
apology press conference can be a riot of awkwardness.
Remember, humans have a -2 to all social skills rolls with aliens. The GM may rule that failed social
rolls during a character’s first contact with a new species can immediately trigger a scandal. This limitation
disappears once the human becomes more familiar with the aliens and their ways.

How Big Is Space, Anyway?

Big enough to make answering that question tricky. A better question is, “How long does it take to get
anywhere?” Thanks to the magic of math and the immense power of Guild FSDs, we have an answer: about
three days. Three days is roughly the amount of time needed to go the 150 million kilometres from Azure to
the L4 or L5 gate, assuming a ship maintains a comfy one G acceleration (accelerating for the first half and
decelerating for the second half ). This, by the way, is pretty much identical to going from Earth to its Lagrange
points or going from the Earth to the sun.
Every other distance is just some multiple of the “three day” rule. Short hops? Less than a day. Inner
planet transit? Overnight trip. Heading out to the deep solar system? It’s way farther, but you get to go way
faster to make up for it. So heading to a Jupiter-distance planet (from an equivalent Earth/Azure orbit) takes
only about six days, even though it’s almost five times farther away than a Lagrange point. Heading way out
takes 9 to 12 days, while you can reach the edge of the solar system in less than a month. Guild ships can
greatly reduce travel time by accelerating at more than one G, but this makes everything, even just sitting or
sleeping, incredibly uncomfortable.
While pilots suffer no penalties during the short periods of high acceleration that happen during
dogfights, spending hours and days at high accelerations exhausts ships’ crews and leads to risk of serious
injuries. A crew that experiences sustained high G’s – more than 1.5 G’s for more than an hour -- has -1 to all
actions until they get a night’s rest in a one G environment.
Aliens cannot maintain anywhere near Guild accelerations. The fastest ships in space move at half the
speed of Guild ships, while most cannot even manage a quarter, and they cannot sustain high G’s at all.

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Using Terrain
Space is empty, right? Well, all of the interesting parts of space happen to have stuff in them. This stuff makes
up the terrain of most space battles, since most battles will be fought over said stuff. Below are a few kinds of
terrain you can consider putting in your game and the hazards they bring.

Stars
Big bright balls of nuclear fusion, stars are best observed from a great distance. Stars come in all sorts of sizes,
Ch from tiny red dwarfs to massive hyper-giants the size of our solar system. Most, but by no means all, stars in
5 the Stellar Neighbourhood fall on the smaller, more stable end of the stellar size chart.
Most of the time, stars sit in the background, not really doing much besides shining light and
providing gravity for their solar systems. Ships that venture near stars face serious hardships. As a ship
approaches a star, they first find that the solar wind and radiation start messing with ships systems, imposing
a -2 penalty to all Awareness and Navigation rolls. Venture much closer, and the ship starts taking damage.
This close region, called the death zone by ships’ captains, reduces a ship’s Armour by 1 every round. Once
the Armour is gone, the Structure goes next. A ship already in the death zone that accelerates towards the star
takes double the above damage in the round, then triple damage the following round, and so on.
The death zone sits at a different distance for every star, and it’s the GM’s job to warn pilots if they
are venturing too close to the stellar furnace.

Planets
Some would argue that planets are the most important part of a solar system. After all, the planets hold all of
the people. The Stellar Neighbourhood is also lousy with the things. Nearly every solar system has a least a few,
and some have over a dozen.
Planets range in size from miniscule rocky planetoids to massive gas giants. The hottest orbit in the death zones
of their stars, while the coldest can be found at the outer edge of their solar systems.
Most ships hang in orbit around important planets and are therefore the most common setting for
space battles. Rules for fighters dealing with planetary atmospheres can be found on page 17.

Moons
Planets orbit stars, and moons orbit planets. Moons function the same as planets as far as mechanics go. Large
moons, especially those that orbit gas giants, can have their own atmospheres and even support life.

Rocks
Pilots use the slang term “rock” to describe any object too small to have much of a gravitational pull. Rocks
include some small moons, asteroids, and comets. Rocks might seem worthless, but they have a few inherent
uses.
Rocks are perfect mining targets due to their size. A mining ship can travel to a rock, give it a nudge
and then guide it to a central mining station for processing. Rocks can contain almost any element, including
rare minerals or ice. Some rocks become space stations once their interiors have been mined out.
A more frightening use of rocks involves the same nudge that miners might use. A budding terrorist

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Jeff Haala (Order #35036421)

 GMing Space Age

can nudge a rock and turn it into a weapon of mass destruction. A rock a few kilometres across can cause
apocalyptic damage to a planet if it strikes. Luckily, such attacks take time to set up, giving defending forces a
chance to detect the attempt or deflect the rock.

Rings
Asteroid fields can be a bit of disappointment to the daring stunt pilot. The rocks are very far apart. Planetary
rings, like Saturn’s, for example, present hazards more in line with what one might expect: They have billowing
clouds of debris mixed with larger chunks of ice and rocks. Rings make prime mining targets, and most ring
systems have multiple space stations nearby exploiting their resources.
Ch
Pilots treat rings like they would the ground. Combat starts with Rounds to the Rings. Once fighters
hit the rings, they make the standard difficulty 9 Strafing roll to see if they hit anything. If they succeed (and 5
thus survive), the pilot that lost the last Dogfighting roll gets to make a choice: They may pass through the
rings and dogfight as normal, or they can stay in the rings. Pilots dogfighting in the rings use Strafing instead
of Piloting. The ring’s clutter gives disengaging pilots +2 Escape Defence as they dodge between the whirling
debris. The danger from crashing while in the rings never goes away. If any strafing roll fails to meet difficulty
9, the fighter crashes. Optionally, you can up the stakes and increase the difficulty by 1 every round the fighters
stay within the rings.

Gates
The gate system of interstellar travel creates opportunities for the GM to build tension and force conflicts. The
gates create choke points for ships that need to travel. Control of a gate defaults to whichever species controls
the system, but empires will often try to control both ends of a gate leading into their territory. Most species
charge a fee of some kind to traverse a gate, and some species might even try to ban the Guild from using their
gates, leaving the characters stranded until they can broker some sort of deal.
Battles to control gates tend to be slugging matches, with large numbers of ships fighting in a tiny
parcel of space. The morass is far from ideal for manoeuvre-oriented fighter pilots, but they might have no
choice. The worst-case scenario for any ship is to traverse the gate and pop right into the teeth of an ambush.

Stations
Space stations litter the Stellar Neighbourhood. Every species that has achieved space travel maintains space
stations orbiting planets and moons, and has customs checkpoints or military stations near their gates. Species
use space stations as centres of commerce and industry. The largest stations are cities unto themselves, and
people spend their entire lives never leaving those grand, self-sufficient structures.
Most stations follow a ring or cylinder design that can be spun to simulate gravity. Standard station
gravity tends to be about 60 per cent of the Azure norm, leading humans to feel light and “bouncy” among
other species.
Purpose-built stations, like mining, science, construction, and military installations, often have a less
standard layout. Many will have no spinning sections at all, and characters endure a zero-G environment.
All stations use starship stats but have Performance 0 (and, therefore, have Defence 1). Civilian
stations use the ships listed under civilian shipping, while military stations use ship stats that most closely
match the station’s size and function.

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Jeff Haala (Order #35036421)