MNKRM #0 BASICS
Welcome. I’ll be brief. 1000 words for your sci-fi horror game, new issues every month. Tables, monsters, micro adventures. Subscribe for more and consider supporting for just $5 USD a month.
Until next time,
D G Chapman
1D5 BUGS
1 RELOAD BEETLE. Bioengineered to weave one bullet shaped cocoon each night and lay its sterile, explosive eggs inside. Docile, happy in a pocket. Feed a morsel of human flesh once per month.
2 SHIPWORMS. +1 per journey: 1 Slight smell / 2 Superficial holes in clothes / 3 Long, pale, skittering in unlit corners / 4 Infestation / 5 Vaccsuits chewed through. Only known cure is a ship’s cat.
3 WHITE MOON CICADA. Tough shell, highly prized. When it molts the discarded carapace can be collected, but the adult imago is highly aggressive. [C:60 Bite 1d5; I:30; W:2(5), 20AP]
4 BLOOD GRUB. Little black pustules that burrow and sit under the skin, excreting soothing toxins as they leech. Playing host caps current health at 10, but you won’t Panic or gain Stress if hurt.
5 THE BUTTERFLIES. Psychic disorder caused by excessive jump travel, fluttering lights in peripheral vision. They keep you company. Permanent +1 minimum Stress, [+] Saves vs possession.
COCHON NOIR
Satellite hangout of the Blackside Breakers’ Union, teamsters infamous for criminal affiliations. Safest place in the system if you’re on their side. The station is a loop, 5 connects back to 1.
NO COPS / NO FIGHTING / NO BUSINESS EXCEPT UNION BUSINESS
1 DOCK. Fuel stink, engine smoke. Always busy. REGULARS: 1 Goldo Khan, android captain of the freighter Mind’s Eye. Gambling problem / 2 Grease, void urchin. Follows sheepishly, hopeful for work / 3 Ron. Lives here, listens. Likes exotic snacks and Lucky Star cigarettes. / 4 Willick Forrest. Cleans your hull without asking, charges later / 5 Mama Bonsu. Never leaves her cruiser, White Witch. Tells fortunes. 10cr for a pithy aphorism. For 1kcr and fresh entrails she can find anyone, anywhere.
2 ALLEY. Food stalls hem the crowds with noise and savoury steam, each cart dressing up the same instant noodles with their own secret twist. The secret menu item Dead Pig Special is a call with the boss himself, an eyeball prosthetic comm served in a bowl of broth. Distorted voice, no names. He has jobs for crews not averse to working outside the law, just tell the casino he sent you.
3 CASINO. Incongruously clean and calm, black leather and tastefully dim lighting. Run by Nixie Delavohr, the boss’s right hand. Eyepatch and evening gown, difficult to impress. Her cyborg croupiers display bare, tattooed torsos and do not speak. [C: 60 DealBreaker hands 2d5; I:55; W:3(19)]. BLACK MAMBA: 4 suits 1-10 or 1 suit for novice game. Draw up to five cards. Dealer draws two, shows one. Score is total, last digit if 10+ (eg 13=3). Hit 20+ and lose. SIMPLIFIED: One roll per night, 33% chance to win, crit to win big. Speed + rimwise to cheat, fail and get banned or worse.
4 LOUNGE. Giant disco ball. Old, mismatched sofas soaked in cigarette smoke. Lively chatter, jukebox playing worn cassettes. The drink is smuggled rum cut with synthetic citrus, or something sweet from a can. No water. RUMOURS: 1 Nah, nobody knows who the boss is. Or where. Why, who’s asking? / 2 Ever seen the White Witch in port? The pilot is a fortune teller / 3 You didn’t hear it from me, but… If you want to talk to the boss, go to the alley and ask for the Dead Pig Special. Better not waste his time though. / 4 I heard Ms Delavohr needs a crew for some top secret union job, straight from the boss. Honestly though… She’s kinda scary. / 5 Pantheon grunts keep showing up and making trouble. Nobody’s sold the boss out yet, but the bounty is getting bigger. [C:75 SMG 2d10; I:50; W:3(15) 5AP]
5 GARAGE. Sparks and shouts and the heavy whirs and clangs of industry. Blackside breakers are among the best in the outer rim. UPGRADES: 1 The Groucho. Switch to fake callsign and back, 50kcr / 2 “Duckie”. Modded escape pod, jettison to take 1 hit for ship, 10kcr / 3 Blast Milk. Proprietary fuel cocktail, highly explosive. [+] to one Thrusters check, failure deals -1 Hull, 1kcr / 4 Anti-Rad System. Detects radiation leak, seals with foam. 50kcr, 1kcr refills / 5 Lag Projector. Leaves an after-image behind when jumping, enough to confuse sensors until it quickly fades. 100kcr.
COLD STORAGE
Illegal long range scans of the ice planet Ymotsk show something trapped underground. A preserved exobiological sample could be worth a fortune, but Ymotsk is property of Pantheon Security and they’re not sharing. Investigate the site, secure the asset, get out before you get caught.
1 SITE. 50km from the planet’s north pole. Temperatures average -50C. Dress warm. Biting, howling wind and whirling snow. Each time the players move between locations mark a tally. At 10 a Pantheon enforcer drone arrives to disable escape routes. [C:75 Autoturret 3d10; I:75; W:5(10)]
2 CAVE. Scans lead to shelter, a dark crater in the snow. Iced over within, chasm visible through the frozen ground. Huge cracks in the cave walls like tunnels.
3 TUNNELS. Twisting fissures radiating out from the central cave. Dead ends. In one, a mummified body in vaccsuit. “PISCES” patch. Flare, lighter, Lucky Star cigarettes.
4 CHASM. Beneath the ice in the upper cave. A corpse, killed trying to climb the frozen crevasse. Boarding axe 2d10[+], rope, pilot’s jacket.
5 DEPTHS. 100m down. The wreck of the Pisces, shot down over Ymotsk in a Pantheon coverup. Not the alien you were hoping for, but its black box holds corporate secrets worth 100kcr.
1D5 BNW RECS
1 FRANKENSTEIN 1931
2 GODZILLA 1954
3 BLAME! 1997-2003
4 RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN 2018
5 THE LIGHTHOUSE 2019
SPONSOR
ADSPACE. Three interconnected pamphlet adventures. Death game, slum crawl, moon war. Chapman, Condrey, Vaupen. Available for download.