Another repeat SF bundle - Hostile
Sep. 11th, 2023 07:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ffuturesHostile
https://bundleofholding.com/presents/2023Hostile
This revived April 2022 Hostile Bundle offer once again politely presents HOSTILE, the SFRPG of deep-space horror from Zozer Games. Based on the Cepheus Engine rules (the leading retro-clone of Classic Traveller), HOSTILE is a gritty retro-future setting inspired by movies like Outland, Blade Runner, and Alien – a universe of harsh planets and toxic atmospheres – claustrophobic space freighters and brutal industrial colonies – ancient horrors entombed on icy moons – killer ETs, perfectly evolved to survive at any cost. Whether you're a combat-weary veteran or a miner on a grungy corporate star tug deep in the Extraction Zones, HOSTILE pits you against deadly hazards in an unforgiving void where no one can hear you scream.
Paul Elliott writes nonfiction books on ancient military history (Warrior Cults, Everyday Life of a Soldier on Hadrian's Wall) and is active in Roman historical reconstruction and re-enactment groups in Yorkshire, UK. He brought this experience to RPGs with the historically accurate 43AD and the sword-and-sorcery Zenobia. In gaming Paul has also written for Fria Ligan (Alien Colonial Marines) and GURPS (Atomic Horror), but he has poured his heart into Classic Traveller, and more recently its modern retro-clone, the Cepheus Engine. HOSTILE, in particular, expands any Cepheus or Traveller game with its supplements for planetary survival, colony building, cargo hauling, and let's not forget all those killer aliens.
This revived April 2022 offer once again gathers much of the HOSTILE line for a bargain price – obviously a generous and well-meaning gesture. 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.
Ten percent of each purchase (after gateway fees) goes to this Hostile revival's designated 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 revived Hostile Bundle is US$104. Customers who pay just US$9.95 get all five titles in this revival's Starter Collection (retail value $48) as DRM-free ebooks, including the complete standalone HOSTILE Rules and Setting core books, the Gunlocker weapons guide (it'll come in handy, trust us), the Cepheus Handouts, and the Referee's Screen.
Those who pay more than the threshold (average) price, which is set at $19.95 to start, also get this revival's entire Bonus Collection with eight supplements worth an additional $56 that let you build out your pitiless universe:
- Three guides to survival on bad worlds that don't want you: Explorers, Dirtside, and Colony Builder
- Two bestiaries about entities that really, really do want you: Alien Breeds and Synthetics
- Two hardware and vehicle guides: Gunboats & Shuttles and Marine Corps Handbook 2215
- A campaign framework well described by its title: Crew Expendable
All of this was with the bundle last time with the possible exception of the Cepheus Handouts, which weren't mentioned. I can't actually remember them, but I wasn't told there was anything new. The way these bundles work, anything added should also be added for anyone who bought the previous release.
Last time I said "My impression is a game that works pretty well if your players can live with corporate betrayal, virtually unkillable monsters, and the other tropes of this side of SF. I'm not entirely sure I want to play in that sort of universe at present, but it's well worth a look and pretty cheap." I don't think I need to change any of that.
