Another Bundle - Stellagamus Cepheus

[ffutures]

Some SF RPGs based on the Cepheus Engine, a Traveller-like system. I think I've seen some material for it before but don't remember much about it.

Stellagama Cepheus

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Stellagama

This Stellagama Cepheus Bundle offer presents These Stars Are Ours and other SFRPG ebooks from Stellagama Publishing based on the Cepheus Engine, the leading retro-clone of Traveller. In the 23rd Century the United Terran Republic has finally gained its freedom from the gray aliens of the mighty Reticulan Empire. Explorers, star traders, and soldiers head out into the cosmos for adventure. This bargain-priced bundle gives you rulebooks, supplements, and adventures -- everything you need for your own campaign of high-action space opera.

This all-new offer complements the one we launched two days earlier, Gamelords Traveller, with vintage 1980s supplements and adventures by the prolific brothers J. Andrew Keith and William H. Keith Jr. (Secret Gamelords Traveller promo link.)

We provide each title complete in .PDF. Like all Bundle of Holding titles, these ebooks have NO DRM (Digital Restrictions Management), and our customers are entitled to move them freely among all their devices. (By publisher request, the DriveThruRPG versions of these files are inobtrusively watermarked.)

Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this Stellagama Cepheus offer's pandemic-related charity, Direct Relief. Direct Relief sends protective gear and critical care medications to health workers, with emergency deliveries to medical facilities across the US and to regional response agencies across the world.

The total retail value of the titles in this offer is US$68. Customers who pay just US$7.95 get all three complete, current rulebooks in our Starter Collection (retail value $37) as DRM-free ebooks, including the Cepheus Deluxe core rulebook (retail price $10), TSAO: These Stars Are Ours (retail $15), and The Space Patrol (retail $12).

Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $14.95 to start, also get our entire Bonus Collection with seven more supplements and scenarios worth an additional $31, including six TSAO books -- Liberty Ship (retail $4), Signal 99 (retail $4), Wreck in the Ring (retail price $4), UFOs (retail $4), Uranium Fever (retail $6), 50 Wonders of the Reticulan Empire (retail $4) -- and the handy how-to guide Piracy and Privateering (retail $5). All of these support the TSAO setting and also adapt easily to any starfaring campaigns using the fast and flexible Cepheus rules.

This is interesting, but it feels like a game that tries a little too hard to emulate its predecessor. It owes a lot to Traveller in concept and systems, although the settings are different, but unfortunately that feels quaintly old-fashioned today. Lots and lots of tables, relatively little on actual role-playing. Art is a very mixed bag ranging from computer-generated spaceships to fairly crude sketches. There are a reasonable number of female characters depicted, and some of them are actually wearing sensible clothing. A few unfortunately fall into the big boobs / big guns / tight spacesuit camp, which doesn't actually make much sense if you're trying for realism. Having said that, it's a fairly cheap offer and you do get a reasonable amount for your money.