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What makes it interesting?
The Conestoga Rover is one of a series of deck and ship plans released by Blue Max Studios for their forthcoming Black Desert series. These plans are also useful for other hard(ish) SF games like Transhuman Space and Eclipse Phase and may be useful well beyond those settings as well. So, what is a Conestoga Rover? Or more easily, a Conestoga?The Conestoga is a hard SF mix of the covered wagon that settled the American West (thus the name), and a high tech RV/trailer home. The history of the Conestoga is that it came about as part of a scheme by an eccentric billionaire to provide off-planet housing for families that ran robot miners. Since each Conestoga had enough information to build another Conestoga, plus a advanced fabricator that allows a good start on building one, it didn't take long before they became ubiquitous and found in a wide variety of settings - from the Moon, to the Asteroids to Mars. Plus, in the less inhabitable regions of Earth after World War III.
Conestogas are also mobile platforms on 6 sets of legged wheels allowing it to cross a wide variety of terrains, either by walking or wheeling across the landscape. It is also cramped. To me it looks you'd be living in a short length of sewer pipe with the rest of your family and minimal privacy. Granted teleoperation and virtual reality can help ameliorate it, but it still looks cramped. But since they are so common, it is a likely that a character in the Black Desert setting would have grown up in one.
Conestogas can also be linked to each other using air locks creating larger mobile vehicles/habitats. It also gives me some ideas for sci-fi trailer park... This contributes to where the Conestoga really shines as a concept. That is how they are used in microgravity locations to make habitats with spin. Two or more Conestogas are linked together and to an arm as part of a larger habitat, complete with hydroponics, reactor, etc., etc., inside a cylidrical cavern carved out in inside the asteroid. Only one Conestoga propels the habitat with the other vehicles motors kept in reserve. The product itself provides a small over view, but issue one of Open D6 Magazine has a much more detailed set of plans for such an asteroid habitat.
Thoughts
Now, while I love the concept and the creativity behind it, its not perfect. First, the author makes mention of several variants, but provides only floor plans for a short ranged rover. I keep thinking about how it could be used as a troop carrier in a hostile environment and keep coming up short. Second, the information on the Conestoga only mentions that its powered by batteries, but nothing about likely sources of charging. With the habitat its obvious that it can draw from the reactor, or larger solar panels. Without either of these, how do they get charged? A solar panel coating the exterior of the vehicle? A smart panel that follows the sun? A towed reactor? These are important questions for a hard SF game and need to be answered because the Conestoga is intended to be a long term habitation and exploration vehicle.Finally, the worst of the design is that the vehicle maps lack the airlock mentioned in the write up. This is crucial for combining the Conestogas and their versatility. In fact, its essential for the use of the Conestoga as a shirt sleeve habtiat in the setting. I've corresponded with the author, Ray McVay, about this and he's promised some errata. since its a .pdf product, pushing out the errata and changes shouldn't be any problem and I look forward to seeing it.
Final Verdict
Its a good product worth the five dollars I spent. I give it four stars for style because of the drawbacks I found. I give it a five for substance due to the ideas involved.Help support RPGnet by purchasing this item through DriveThruRPG.
