Galactic Sentience Catalog

The Galactic Sentience Catalog is the latest supplement for the N.E.W. sci-fi role-playing game by EN Publishing. This manual contains over 50 alien races for your science fiction WOIN games. Inside you will find a wealth of choices for your next player character.
Scientists sometimes try to categorise different species in an attempt to create a galactic evolutionary tree; whether such a thing is possible, or whether similar races are products of coincidental independent evolution is unknown. Sentient alien species are divided roughly into the following categories, although there is some argument amongst leading scientists as to the placement of some races.
Avian Races. Some races are able to fly, or are descended from birds or other flying creatures. Avians possess limited or full flight.
Amphibian & Aquatic Races. These races can breathe underwater and have a natural SWIM speed; Aquatic races have a reduced LAND speed.
Crystalline & Mineral Races. While carbon-based life is plentiful, it is not the only option. Crystalline creatures are tough and resistant to damage, do not need to breathe, but are vulnerable to Sonic damage and can be brittle when falling.
Exotic Races. Some races defy categorisation.
Human Races. Humanity is a varied race which has spread throughout the galaxy. Not all humans evolved on Earth, which has led some scientists to support the common progenitor race theory.
Humanoid Races. These races evolved from various native animal species similar to those found on Earth.
Insectoid Races. It's not just mammals and reptiles who make up the species of the galaxy. Insectoids have a natural CLIMB speed and are able to move on walls and ceilings with ease.
Mechanoid Races. Some races come into being via technology rather than biology. Mechanoids share a range of traits, including vulnerability to Electricity and Ion damage, an immunity to mental attacks, a lack of biological functions and a deterministic nature.
Plant (Botanical) Races. Plants are hardy but vulnerable to fire; they are able to ignore difficult terrain.
Reptilian Races. There are many reptilian races in the galaxy. Reptiles are cold-blooded and thus vulnerable to Cold damage.
Also included is the Race-Building Engine, so that you can easily build your own custom alien race ready for play.
The seven species listed in the N.E.W. core rulebook are also listed here - Androids, Borians, Felans, Humans, Ogrons, Spartans and Venetians. It is worth noting that the racial exploits for Humans has changed. The Explorer exploit has been dropped and has been replaced by the Learners exploit, which allows Humans to choose three Universal exploits when creating your character. Normally, starting races must choose two Universal exploits, one of which must be Aim or Feint. Adding extra exploits is always a good thing in my opinion.
The book is fully coloured with illustrations of all the races featured. Running to 60 pages, it was written by Russ Morrissey. For N.E.W. players, I would rate this as an essential purchase.

The Ace of Spades campaign - Take a Chance on Me part 12

The Assassination of Bianca Covin
Having been dropped off near to the Covin mansion, Julia and Danica slipped unseen into the grounds. Storm and Luna remained on The Jack of Spades shuttle. Luna had been able to provide Julia and Danica with valuable information on staff numbers, security personnel and the layout of the mansion. No more than six guards and four staff would be present along with Luna's mother, Bianca, who would most likely be in her bedroom. Due to a very successful ambush, Julia, Danica, Katja and Jeanette had slaughtered most of the opposition they might otherwise have faced.
Four security guards were patrolling the perimeter of the mansion in two groups of two at the front and the back. Danica beheaded two with her sword and Julia slit the throats of the other two with her combat knife. Both women still wore their invisibility cloaks so the guards never even saw their killers. The three staff members and remaining two guards inside the mansion were taken out one by one either by knife or sword. They all died silently. It was a cold-blooded massacre.

It was Danica who first heard Bianca moving about in her en suite bathroom. She was softly humming to herself as she ran her bath with hot water and scented oils. Julia entered the bathroom first, having deactivated her invisibility cloak. She held her Disruptor Pistol firmly in her right hand. Danica followed close behind with her Phaser Pistol drawn and set to Kill.

"Who the hell are you?" Bianca asked indignantly. "What are you doing here? Guards!"
"It's no use shouting for help," Julia said coldly. "Your staff are all dead. Your security guards are all dead. Your husband and his pet Drahzik are also dead. We killed them all and now it's your turn."

"But who are you? And why?" Bianca wailed in a pleading voice.
Julia did not bother giving her the satisfaction of an answer. She just calmly pulled the trigger of her Disruptor Pistol and shot Bianca between the eyes. Just to make sure she was dead, Danica shot her in the centre chest. Bianca fell backwards and was dead before she reached the floor.

"Job done," Julia smiled at Danica. "Let's get back to the shuttle."
"Indeed. The quicker we can get off planet the happier I'll feel," Danica said sagely.
Julia knew exactly what she meant. They had declared war on The Organisation and eventually "The Big O" would work out what happened here on Golden 4 (Alhambra) and would be seeking vengeance.

Storm flew Danica, Julia and Luna back to The Ace of Spades and then radioed Kimberley to let her know she was coming to pick up her, Celeste and Gwendoline. By the time she had reached the ground based starport at New Xanadu, Kimberley had signed out of her hotel and was waiting for the former UFP pilot.
"What the hell has been going on?" Kimberley fumed. "I made it to the final of the poker contest and was expecting more of a presence from my crew. Where was everyone?"
"Well, it's a long story," Storm sighed apologetically. "Let me take you through the events of the past day."
To her credit, Kimberley never once interrupted Storm as she related what had happened during Kimberley's absence. Afterwards, however, both Kimberley and Gwendoline bombarded Storm with questions, mainly relating to Luna Covin and her parents. Storm answered to the best of her ability but suggested Rebecca and Luna would be able to better inform them.
As the ship's nurse, Gwendoline asked, "How are Jeanette and Katja doing?"
"Apparently they were only lightly wounded," Storm answered. "Judith told me they should both be fully healed after a night's rest. She's keeping them in the medbay for observation."

Soon The Jack of Spades shuttle docked with The Ace of Spades. The departure procedure was swift and smooth. As the ship speeded up for FTL flight, Kimberley realised rather sadly they would probably never return to Golden 4. To her it was a place of happy memories.
As they entered hyperspace, Kimberley was finally able to meet with Luna. Luna was sitting next to Rebecca in the ship's lounge.
"So, Luna, Storm has told me that we will give you safe passage to our next civilised destination," Kimberley said after introductions had been made.
"That's right, Miss Wells," Luna replied. She was clearly in awe of Kimberley, who was incredibly beautiful and had a charismatic presence that was clear to see.
"Call me Kimberley, please. We're very informal on this ship. I have a proposal for you."
Luna looked at Kimberley quizzically, not knowing what to expect.
"How'd you like to join our crew? I can take you on as a space jockey, which will give you a basic understanding of how we work."
Luna's eyes lit up with surprise. "Really? I'd love that. Honestly, everyone here has been so kind to me."
"God bless you, Kimberley," Rebecca acknowledged with a warm smile. "I'm sure you won't regret taking a chance on her."

Conclusion
This scenario was designed by me. I wanted the readers to think that the title, Take a Chance on Me, related to Kimberley's participation in the poker contest but in all honesty that was just the secondary story of the scenario. The primary story and title related to Luna. By the way, there was never any doubt that she would join the crew.
The one thing that I loved the most about this scenario was the amount of dialogue by the crew. I think only Celeste had no dialogue. The dialogue really helped to give insight into the crew's personalities and helped round them out as characters. 
Regarding experience points this was considered a Medium Difficulty scenario so everyone gained 6XP equal to their rank grades. Due to their excellent planning for the ambush, Danica, Jeanette, Julia and Katja counted the scenario as Hard Difficulty and thus gained an extra 6XP. Kimberley for coming second in the poker contest, Rebecca for befriending and supporting Luna, and Luna for securing a place on the crew all passed personal milestones so gained an extra 6XP. Previously, all humans who set foot on a new planet would have gained XP equal to their rank as per the Explorer exploit. However, according to the newly released Galactic Sentience Catalog (review coming in my next post) Humans have lost the Explorer exploit and it has been replaced by the Learners exploit, which allows Humans to start play with an extra Universal Exploit, i.e. three instead of two, one of which must be Aim or Feint. I'm keeping the XP gained by those Humans who made use of the Explorer exploit in my previous two scenarios but for now I'll be adding a free Universal Exploit to all of my human PCs and NPCs. In addition, I'll be advancing Luna from rank grade:3 to 4, to give her more chance of survival in future scenarios and to count for the intensive training she'll receive from the crew in the near future.

The Ace of Spades campaign - Take a Chance on Me part 11

The Ambush (continued)
Turn 2
Julia saw the Drahzik "running" towards her, not realising this was just his normal speed.
"Bloody hell! she exclaimed, "The bugger's fast! This'll slow him down."
This Drahzik had a basic Move score of 12". If he made two Move actions in his Turn he could cover 24" of ground! No one on the board was anywhere near as fast as him.

She calmly fired her microwave sniper rifle and hit the Drahzik in the centre of his face, knocking him down and killing him instantly as she fried his brain.
She spent 4d6 of her 6d6 to hit the Drahzik, keeping the other 2d6 to increase her damage by +1d6. She rolled a 15, beating the Drahzik's Ranged Defence of 14 by 1. She then spent one of her LUC dice to increase her damage by a further +1d6, giving her 6d6+7 to roll. She scored an impressive 40, which dropped the Drahzik to -6 Health, killing him.

She switched targets to Thug#1 and incredibly missed!
She gained a +1d6 to hit for being on higher ground. This gave her 7d6 to hit so she held 2d6 back to increase her damage. However, she only rolled a 17 to hit, which did not beat the Thug's Ranged Defence of 18. It just goes to show, even a master sniper can miss sometimes.
"Goddammit!" she swore, "I should have gone for a body hit instead of trying to blow his head off."

If Thug#1 thought this was his lucky day he was wrong. Danica hit him with a Mind Blast that exploded his head and did the same to Thug#3, taking out two of the previously wounded Thugs, whittling their numbers down to three.
She rolled 4d6 to hit both Thugs and rolled 17 and 15, beating their Mental Defence scores of 10 with ease. She used 1d6 from her to hit dice and her bonus +1d6 for being on higher ground to increase her damage by +1d6 on both targets. She rolled 18 and 21 points of damage which killed both Thugs by reducing their Health scores to -9 and -14 respectively.

Katja fired twice at the unwounded Thug#7.
Katja added +1d6 for being on high ground to her 6d6 attack dice to hit him, but suffered a -2d6 penalty because of the hard cover provided by the stretch limousine the Thug was hiding behind. With rolls of 20 and 19, she hit twice. Rolling 4d6+4 plus 2d6 LUC dice she scored 22 and 24 points of damage, which were reduced to 16 and 18 for the Thug's Kevlar Overcoat SOAK of 6. This dropped him to -4 Health, killing him.

 Thug#5 keeled over and died in seconds as he lay on the ground, bleeding out from two gut shots.

Rebecca aimed and fired her Phaser Pistol at Thug#5, who was very badly wounded. One good hit would kill him but unfortunately she only clipped him and he remained standing.

Her +1d6 bonus for aiming was cancelled  out by a -1d6 penalty for range. She rolled 5d6 to hit and scored a 18, exactly what was required to hit him. Rolling 2d6+3 for Kill damage she scored a 12, which was reduced to 6 because of his SOAK score of 6. His Health score dropped to 2 - so close to death but not enough.

"I'll finish him off, Becky," Storm said confidently as she took aim with her Phaser Pistol, which was also set to Kill.

Her scores were identical to Rebecca's. She hit with a roll of 19 and rolled 11 for damage, which was enough to send Thug#5 into negative Health at -3.
"I told you I'd get him," she playfully mocked Becky.
Rebecca responded by blowing her a raspberry. 

With just one Thug left alive, Jeanette wanted vengeance on him as he had wounded her in the leg.

Two hits from her Laser Sniper Rifle put Thug#4 down for good.
"Pay-back's a bitch, you asshole!" she sneered triumphantly.
She gained a +1d6 bonus to hit for being on higher ground, giving her 6d6 attack dice. With rolls of 25 and 27, she easily beat his Ranged Defence score of 18. She spent two LUC dice to increase her damage to 5d6+2 and rolled 22 and 26, which was reduced to 16 and 20 because of his SOAK:6 Kevlar Overcoat. 36 points of damage dropped him to -6 Health, killing him.
The slaughter was over. Ten members of The Organisation lay dead, including a high ranking gang lord and a Drahzik Manhunter. The crew of The Ace of Spades got off lightly with only Jeanette and Katja picking up minor wounds.

Danica, Julia, Katja, Kyran and Luna congregated next to the corpse of Darius Covin.
"I'm glad he's dead," Luna said with all honesty. "He was an evil bastard and I hope he rots in Hell!"
"Amen to that," Kyran said, "If you hadn't rescued me I know he would have tortured me so badly that I'd beg him for death. Thanks, Julia."
"Yeah, thanks, Julia," Luna added. "Indeed, thank you to all of you. I owe you big time."
"Ah, think nothing of it, kid," Julia smiled affectionately at the teenager. "It was the right thing to do."
"What she said," Katja added.

Meanwhile, back at the pink limousine, Jeanette limped over to join Judith, Rebecca and Storm.
"I picked up a leg wound, Judith," she said apologetically. "Can you fix it?"
"Of course I can." the elderly surgeon replied. "Here, let me apply this spray dressing until we get you back to The Ace of Spades."
"We did it, Storm," Rebecca said, sounding surprised. "I can't believe we pulled it off."
"Well, we do have a good crew, Becky," Storm said proudly. "Never doubt what we can do."

As the other five walked back to the pink limousine, Luna held back a few paces to speak privately to Julia.
"Julia, I have a big favour I want to ask of you," she spoke hesitantly.
"Go ahead and ask away," Julia replied.
"I know you're a bounty hunter and an assassin," Luna admitted. "I want you to take a contract out on my mother. I can't pay you much but I know you hate The Organisation as much as I do. If you refuse, she'll take over from my father and it'll be business as usual. Please, Julia, do this for me."
"It makes sense, Julia," Danica who had exceptional hearing chipped in.
"Since when did you become so bloodthirsty?" Kyran asked, half joking.
"This has nothing to do with being bloodthirsty, Kyran," Danica replied, "It is simply the most logical course of action. It will create a vacuum in The Organisation's infrastructure and let's them know that wealth and power are no protection against an assassin's bullet."
"I totally agree, Danica," Julia replied without a moment's hesitation. "So, what sort of fee were you thinking of, Luna?"
"Er, I don't have much left." she said as her face turned red with embarrassment, "What say ten credits?"
"It's a deal," Julia surprised her by agreeing without argument or hesitation. "Put it there."
She offered Luna her hand and they shook on the deal.
"I'll do it now," Julia decided. "Danica, do you want to join me?"
"Gladly," the Venetian replied.
"I can come as well, if you like," Katja offered.
"Uh-huh," Julia shook her head from side to side. "You're wounded. You go with the rest of the team. I'll ask Storm to fly us in via our shuttle. Luna, you're coming with us to give us directions and advice on the mansion's layout and security measures but once we land you stay in the shuttle with Storm. Agreed?"
"Sure, Julia," Luna acknowledged. "I'll do precisely as you say."
"Okay, let's go," Julia ordered. "Once we're done we'll pick the rest of you up, return to The Ace of Spades then go and collect Kimberley, Gwendy and Celeste."

The Ace of Spades campaign - Take a Chance on Me part 10

The Ambush (continued)
Turn 1
Julia was the first to react. With deadly precision she pointed her Transfarer P43 Microwave Sniper Rifle at Darius Covin and snarled, "Die, you bastard!" before pulling the trigger.

She hit him in the chest and he crumpled to the ground, screaming in agony before dying messily in a pool of vomit.
Julia rolled 6d6 to hit Darius and scored a 23, beating his Ranged Defence score of 21. She also rolled 23 for her damage, easily killing The Organisation ganglord as he dropped to -14 Health.

She swiftly switched targets to finish off the wounded Thug#2. She hit him in the stomach and he dropped down next to his boss.
She rolled a 20 for her to hit roll, which beat his Ranged Defence score of 18. For damage she rolled 27, killing him as he dropped to -10 Health.

 The Drahzik effortlessly jumped up onto the building next to him.

Taking a running start he easily jumped the gap to the next building. He was clearly going after Julia, wishing to engage her in close combat where he would have a significant advantage. The problem with his ranged weapons was that they were designed for close range attacks.

Danica used her psionic Mind Blast to kill Thug#8, who was still reeling from her first Mind Blast.
She used 3d6 of her 5d6 attack dice to hit Thug#8 and kept back 2d6 to give her a +1d6 bonus to damage. She gained a +1d6 bonus for being on high ground and thus rolled 15 to hit against his pitiful Mental Defence score of 10. Rolling 4d6+2 for her damage she scored a 17, which reduced his Health score to -6.

She made a second Mind Blast attack against Thug#5 and severely wounded him.
She rolled a 14 to hit and 22 points of damage, which reduced Thug#6's Health to 8.

Katja reacted less than a second after her partner, Danica, and put the burning Thug#6 out of his misery. One shot from her Galactic Concepts KRH16 Disruptor Rifle was all it took to kill the mook.
She rolled a 25 to hit from a 7d6 attack roll, (adding the +1d6 bonus for being on high ground) beating the Thug's Ranged Defence score of 18. For damage she rolled 4d6+4 and scored a 20. This was reduced to 12 due to the Thug having SOAK:6. Even so, it was enough to kill him as he dropped to -9 Health.

She targetted another Thug, firing once at Thug#3 who hadn't been hit so far. Her shot hit him high in the chest near his right shoulder - a nasty wound but not a kill shot.
This time, Katja only rolled 5d6 to hit and kept 2d6 to increase her damage by +1d6. She scored a 20 and hit. Her damage roll came to 27, which was reduced to 21 because of the Thug's SOAK:6 score. This reduced his Health to 9.

"Grab cover, everyone!" Storm commanded. She opened the front door of the limousine and hid behind it.
Rebecca moved a few step to make use of the cover provided by a handily placed dumpster. She drew her Disruptor Pistol and selected the Kill setting.

Jeanette fired her Laser Sniper Rifle with the High Damage upgrade twice at the Drahzik, hoping they'd be enough to kill him. Although both shots did land on target they only did minor damage.
She rolled 5d6 twice to hit, which was increased to 6d6 because of her being on high ground. She rolled 24 and 22, easily beating the Drahzik's average Ranged Defence score of 14. Rolling 4d6+2 for her damage she scored 17 and 17. The Drahzik had a SOAK score of 9 so the damage was reduced to 8 and 8, reducing its Health of 50 (!) to 34.

At last the Thugs were able to react although their numbers had been severely reduced with three of their force dead and another two seriously wounded. Thug#1 took aim with his 9mm Slugger Rifle at Julia and fired.

He missed! He cursed loudly.
He had an attack score of 5d6 which was increased to 6d6 because he took time to aim, but this was reduced by -1d6 because of the range. Slugger Rifles have a Range increment of 20". Julia was 22" away. She was also behind soft cover so that reduced the Thug's to hit score by a further -1d6. He decided to add a LUC dice to bring his score back up to 5d6. He rolled a 19, which did not equal or beat Julia's Ranged Defence score of 21. So he missed.

Thug#3, whom Katja had wounded spun round and snap-fired his Slugger Rifle at the blonde-haired scout. He scored a wound on Katja's left arm.
His 5d6 to hit dice was reduced to 4d6 because Katja was in soft cover. So in order to guarantee a hit he spent 2 of his 3 LUC dice, bringing him up to 6d6. He rolled a 23, which did indeed beat Katja's Ranged Defence score of 21. His slugger rifle did 2d6+3 ballistic damage and he rolled a lowly 9. Katja only had SOAK:4, so her Health of 36 dropped to 31. It was just a scratch to her.

 Thug#4 aimed and fired at Jeanette. "I'll knock you off that perch, you bitch!" he growled.

He didn't but he did wound Jeanette in the right leg.
He added +1d6 to his 5d6 to hit score for aiming but lost -1d6 for being out of short range. He rolled a 19, which easily beat Jeanette's Ranged Defence score of 14. Rolling a 12 for damage, Jeanette's SOAK of 4 reduced this to an 8. Her Health of 32 dropped to 24.

Thugs#5 and #7 both aimed and fired at Danica and neither one of them wounded her although Thug#7 came close but he failed to penetrate Danica's highly expensive DE76 Ninja Machine Molecular Mail Body Armour.
Thug#5's +1d6 bonus to hit for aiming was negated because of Danica being in soft cover. He rolled 5d6 to hit, hoping to beat the Venetian Scout's Ranged Defence score of 19. Sadly, for him he only rolled a 17 - a miss. Thug#7 fared slightly better. He spent a LUC dice to boost his chances of hitting to 6d6. Sure enough, he rolled a 23 - good hit. Rolling 2d6+3 for damage he scored a 10, which failed to beat Danica's SOAK score of 14.

"I wish I had my Phaser Pistol with me," Kyran grumbled.
"Say no more," Luna said with a cheerful smile. "Becky stuffed one down the back of my belt. It's for you."
"I love you guys," Kyran smiled back at the young teenager as she extracted the pistol and switched it to Kill setting.

Taking Storm's advice to find cover, Judith moved to behind the limousine and crouched down out of sight of everyone. She was unarmed and a pacifist so there was no way she was going to take part in such a deadly gunfight.

The Ace of Spades campaign - Take a Chance on Me part 09

The Ambush
Being invisible and in position to ambush Darius Covin and his thugs, Danica, Jeanette, Julia and Katja were able to get the drop on the bad guys.
In order to access the Ambush Turn half or more of the group must succeed in winning an opposed task roll - in this case their AGI scores verses Darius's (the leader of the opposition) INT score. Darius rolled a 14, Danica also rolled a 14, Jeanette rolled a 15, Julia rolled a 17 and Katja rolled a 16. Clearly, the crew had succeeded, so they could all perform one free action. All ambushers acted simultaneously.

 From atop her tower, Jeanette fired her Laser Sniper Rifle at Thug#2.

She hit him, wounding him badly.
She had 5d6 for her attack roll and gained a +1d6 for being on high ground. Thug#2 had a Ranged Defence of 18 (as did all eight Thugs) and Jeanette scored a 22 on her to hit roll. Her rifle did 4d6+2 Heat damage and she rolled 19. All of the Thugs were wearing Kevlar Overcoats with a SOAK of 6, so he took 13 points of damage, reducing him from 30 Health to 17.

Julia fired at Darius Covin, hitting him in the stomach with her Microwave Sniper Rifle. He doubled over in absolute agony, fighting the urge to vomit.
Julia had 6d6 dice to hit and gained another +1d6 for being on high ground. She rolled 7d6 and scored a 27 which easily beat Darius's Ranged Defence score of 21. For damage, she rolled 4d6+7 and scored a 27, which ignored Darius's SOAK score of 5 because of it being radiation damage. Darius's health of 36 dropped to 9.

Katja opened fire with her Disruptor Rifle at Thug#6 and set him on fire, seriously wounding him.
She had 6d6 attack dice and gained a +1d6 for being on higher ground. She decided to spend 2d6 of that to increase her damage by +1d6. She rolled a 22 to hit, scoring three sixes, which made it a critical hit. This automatically inflicted the Burning Condition on the Thug, meaning he'd take 1d6 damage (which couldn't be soaked) every turn until he put the fire out. She rolled 5d6+4 for her heat damage and scored a 27. Thug#6 had SOAK 6 so took 21 points of damage reducing his Health to 9.

Danica mind blasted Thug#8, inflicting excruciating pain on him. He felt as if his brain was melting and feared his head would explode at any moment.
Danica's Mental Blast to hit score was 5d6 and she gained a +1d6 bonus for being on high ground. The Thugs only had Mental Defences of 10, making them very easy to hit. So, Danica used 2d6 to gain a +1d6 damage bonus and rolled 4d6 to hit, scoring a 14. Her Psi Blast did a total of 4d6+2 damage and she rolled 19. Psionic attacks ignore SOAK so Thug#8 was reduced to 11 Health.
The ambush could not have gone better. All four targets were seriously wounded. The one downside of the ambush was that their Invisibility Cloaks ceased working once they made their attacks, thus  revealing their positions to the enemy.

Turn 1 began with everyone rolling their Initiative dice to determine who went first in the ensuing combat. I list them here from highest score to lowest. Note that I only rolled once for the Thugs. Turn 1 was so long it will appear in my next post.

1. Julia = 30
2. Drahzik = 26
3. Darius = 24 (wounded)
4. Danica = 22
5. Katja = 21
6. Rebecca = 21
7. Storm = 21
8. Jeanette = 20
9. Thug#1 = 19 
10. Thug#2 =19 (wounded)
11. Thug#3 = 19 
12. Thug#4 =19
13. Thug#5 = 19
14. Thug#6 = 19 (wounded)
15. Thug#7 =19
16. Thug#8 = 19 (wounded)
17. Kyran = 12
18. Luna = 10
19. Judith = 6