Player units will all be terran; the Night Brood are only available to the referee or with the ref’s permission. When selecting your units, keep in mind the unit structure rules below and your ship availability rosters.

Players will be given sufficient points to purchase a combat force, including gunboat and escort craft and full personnel. Noncombat support personnel are free, as they have basically no combat value. You are supplied with sufficient support personnel to keep your force operational.

Each player will be issued a set of blank Turn Activity Sheets, Duty Rosters, and a blank set of Carrier Rosters. One copy each of the Duty Roster and Turn Activity Sheet must be turned in to the referee each turn (barring suspension of game play for finals, etc.). Once all sheets are turned in, the next turn begins. Each turn should take one week or less of real time.

Duty Rosters simply state what your allocations of troops will be for the turn, up through the Movement Phase.

Turn Activity Sheets are to keep track of what went on recently.

Carrier Rosters are very important; they represent the distribution of your forces. Each squadron has its own carrier, and therefore its own Carrier Roster.

Players will decide at the beginning of each turn what they will do for their activities for the turn, by stating what each Element of their force is doing (moving to Sector A14-2.3, scouting Sector C32-4.2 for Grub activity, etc.), and submitting it on the Duty Roster. This may take some planning with the referee.

Once everyone has submitted their Duty Rosters, the referee will carry out your troop movements on the campaign map and calculate mission results. He will then report your mission outcomes to you, including letting you know when you have encountered enemy forces and engaged in combat. Should you choose to break off an engagement and retreat from battle, you should say so now. If you choose to engage in battle, the referee can either calculate your success for you, or you can set up a time to play out the battle using the miniatures rules.

Any battles to take place are then played out using the SD:TNM miniatures game. Such games are the focus of this campaign’s play. For miniatures battles, you will need to secure, from either your own collection or from the referee, sufficient miniatures, dice, record sheets, and star maps for the game. A copy of the Next Millennium rule book, Space Junk, and any house books being used would also come in handy.

Battle results are noted, and recovery processes are set in motion. For this step, the victor of the game should retain all record sheets, to find out what is recovered from scavenging.

The turn ends; everybody notes their activities for the turn on the Turn Activity Sheet, and hands it in to the referee.

Each player will begin play with $10,000 worth of ships and crew. All ships must be drawn from your roster or custom designs. BPVs and house rosters may be found in various source books. Note that one Cash Point ($1) is equal to one crew skill point or one ship BPV point. Starting Cash Points may be spent on the TPVs of all of your ships and their crews. You may purchase extra crew, for use as replacements later. You may also purchase reserve, crewless ships for use later. Up to $1,000 may be retained as your starting Cash Pool.

Each player will also begin play with $4,000 to be spent on satellites, outposts, and mines (from Space Junk), reserve ammunition or parts in the form of Replenishment Points, and pilot Luck points. Any Cash Points remaining are added to your Cash Pool. Note that any of your squadrons may draw from the Cash Pool, regardless of location, because it is an abstract credit network.

You will receive a number of Cash Points each turn from planetary holdings and your military superiors, based on performance of your unit. Note that starting purchases are not influenced by the Merchant Wares Cost Table; they are made at basic, book value. Each player may have up to three custom designs, but may only start with 1 of each since they are prototypes (these do not suffer from Poor Mechanical Reliability).

You may purchase as many crewmen as you like; if you purchase extras, you’ll have a reserve in case of crew deaths. If you purchase fewer than required, you’ll be unable to field all your ships at once, but you can still rotate your crews around to fly ships suited to particular battles. Note that if you purchase starting Luck for a pilot, it may not exceed his starting Piloting skill value.

Escort crew (gun or torp room) skills are purchased as a whole – you do not have to pay for each crew member’s skill seperately.

Each squadron will have one squadron carrier, a mobile base the size of a very large Escort. Basically unarmed, squadron carriers are only used to transport their fighter contingents. They rely on the unit’s Escort-class vessels and the fighters that they carry for protection, in addition to their own armor plating. Each squadron carrier will have the following, in addition to a full set of fighter bays:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Replenishment Points

Replenishment Points represent the spare parts that every starcraft requires to maintain and repair itself. They may only be purchased using Cash Points at the time of unit creation or from merchants (or worlds designated as having supply depots) during play. Each RP costs 5 Cash Points and can be built/procured at any space dock. Each occupies 1 unit of cargo (5 slots).

These are considered to be a different form of RP from those in Escort-class vessels’ fighter bays, and as such are not interchangeable. Escort Replenishment Points are for rapid reloads, while campaign RP’s are more compact, but not self-loading.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You should choose a faction, a unit name, motto and insignia, and possibly a color scheme. These will help to add flavor to the game. Each faction’s ship roster can be found in Rules of Warfare, Fighter Tactics Manual, or Rules of Warfare II plus any later source books. All factions have access to all outposts, satellites, and the Dain unless barred from such by weapon selection.

Available factions are ASP Technocracy, Data Sphere^*, Draconian^*, Espan, Hibernian Freehold^*, House Colos^*, House Devon/Primates^*, House Red Star^*, House Tokugawa^*, Kashmere Commonwealth, Luches Utopia^*, Q’Raj Void Protectorate, Sigurd Archdiocese, Sunrunners, Unkulunkulu Archipelago^*, Yoka-Shan Warworld, and Universal Night Watch. Those factions marked with ^* do not have their own house book at this time.

If you’re gonna play the game, it helps to know how.

1. Roll for Echelon Missions - Echelon missions are missions assigned by your military commanders; the referee will roll this for you and inform you of the results. Note that specific units may be requested by command staff. Roll percentile dice 4 times, there is a 10% chance to receive an Echelon Mission.

Echelon Missions Table: Roll 1d6

2. Select Unit Missions - Simply assign your troops to do whatever you wish them to. This need not be a set mission type. For example, if you wish to know what is in a particular campaign sector, send a pair of Pit Vipers to scout it. Simply moving from one location to another qualifies as a mission. Note that all troops must be given a mission, although it may be to simply continue repairs or remain stationary until given further orders.

3. Assign troops to Missions - Decide which troops are going where to kill whom. You need to note mission assignments on the Duty Roster for the turn. Mission assignments should include starting location on the campaign map, destination, cargo, crew and ship allocations, and mission objectives. You will need to fill out a Duty Roster for each squadron in your wing every turn. If you do not turn in a Duty Roster, your troops will be considered inactive and simply holding positions for the turn.

4. Submit completed Duty Rosters - Turn in your filled-out Duty Roster sheets to the campaign referee. He will then reference all missions being carried out by all units in the campaign. Players will be notified by the referee if they need to show up for battle; otherwise, the referee will provide a list of mission successes and failures for each player.

Combatant Reference Formula

Once you have the minimum ratio, find the nearest die size and roll. In this example, 1d100 should work nicely. Any roll of 01-67 is a victory for the larger force, while any roll from 68-97 means that the smaller force wins. Any other roll is ignored.

Alternately, you can determine a less-precise ratio by dividing each side’s TPV by 100 and rounding to the nearest whole number. Then simply roll an appropriate die. Exceptionally large forces (a 25,000-point coalition force versus a 10,000-point Wing, for example) may require divisors larger than 100 for this method to work properly.

Retreat Success

When one force attempts to retreat from another, there are two factors to take into consideration. The first is speed. The second is personal interest. If a superior force chooses to flee in the face of a single fighter, the fighter pilot will probably simply turn around and go home, glad to avoid tangling with an Escort-class vessel. However, personal interest should be fairly obvious during the campaign’s game play.

Speed is also relatively simple. Just compare the speed of the retreating force with the speed of the pursuing force. If the fleeing unit is faster, it gets away cleanly. If the pursuing unit is faster, it will catch up and force combat. (Note than any craft with translight drive will automatically be able to retreat from non-translight craft with a 100% chance of success.) If both units have the same speed profile on the campaign scale, compare their speeds using the game book entries on the craft. If they are still identical, compare the Piloting skills of the best pilot in each force. The highest value wins. If they are still the same, make a piloting roll for each unit and compare results. The highest roll wins. If a tie is rolled, reroll until one die rolls higher. Luck may not be spent on these rolls.

When one force attempts to sneak past another, total the following modifiers that apply to the sneaking force and roll 2d10. If the roll result is greater than the totaled modifiers, the force has successfully bypassed its opponent. If the result is less than or equal to the modifier total, they have been detected.

Per TPAC in the sneaking force +2

Per MPAC in the sneaking force +3

Per Escort in the sneaking force +5

Per Squadron Carrier in the sneaking force +10

1. Ship Recovery - Salvage tugs work to find usable parts and ships in the aftermath of battle. You must have been the victor to claim salvage, unless the other side(s) waive their right. A salvage operation will locate any relatively usable ships and return them to you. You may then repair them and put them into active duty during the Repair & Reload Phase. If more than one battle has been fought by a squadron in the same turn, you must decide which two the squadron’s salvage tugs will be sent to scavenge. Each tug may scavenge one battlefield. Salvage tugs return to their squadron carriers at the end of the Recovery & Cleanup Phase. They may be dispatched to any sector within a ten-light-year radius of their squadron carrier. Only ships with a remaining Drive of three or higher are salvageable. Only spare parts will remain from any other ships.

2. Life Pod Recovery – Use the rules in the books for survival – all surviving pods can be found.

3. Cargo & Item Recovery - Your salvage tugs will also recover cargo and scrap components, for use by the repair bays. Your salvage crews will find enough bits and pieces to give you Cash Points that total one tenth of the BPV of all terran ships destroyed in the battle. Note that Night Brood ships and items may not be recovered.

1. Tally Experience - This campaign system uses the optional experience rules from SD:TNM. Pilots and gunners may raise their Piloting or Gunnery skill by one point if all of the following apply at the end of a battle scenario:

Crew Experience Conditions:

2. Calculate Unit Performance Award and Resource Gains - If your unit wins or loses a battle, it gains resource awards as rewards from the higher-ups. Subtract the TPV of units that you lost from the TPV of units that you destroyed. The result / 2 is the number of Cash Points that go into your Cash Pool. Note: if the number is negative, you have been penalized by your superiors for poor performance. They don’t actually dock you money, they just make it harder to get what you need for a while; regardless, if the number is a negative, you must subtract it from your winnings in other battles this turn – 0 is the minimum gain for the turn.

You will also gain 20 Cash Points from each system or asteroid belt you control (plus an additional 20 from your capital system) and 5 Cash Points from each terrain (except wormhole) you control.

3. Calculate Luck - This campaign system uses the optional Luck rules from SD:TNM. Luck points are accumulated by pilots for inflicting damage on enemy vessels. A pilot may only collect Luck points for delivering damage using cannons and missiles that he fires (or torps, if the pilot is in a SPAC fighter). Luck stat totals are adjusted immediately after the points are gained or spent. Luck points are gained as follows:

Luck points may be spent to influence circumstances affecting the pilot’s ship, at your discretion, during combat. Note that a critical hit or attack can only be influenced by Luck once. In case of a reroll, the new result stands. No further Luck points may be spent to force additional rerolls. Any reroll of attack dice must be forced before the exact results of the attack’s damage are determined (e.g., before critical hits are rolled for). Luck may be spent as follows:

• Force an opponent to reroll one attack die (your choice): -1 Luck
• Force a reroll of a critical hit result: -2 Luck
• Force an opponent to reroll two attack dice (your choice): -3 Luck
• Automatically dodge one incoming torp, even after a dodging attempt or after firing a point-defense weapon system. Your choice which torp is dodged, but your current drive must be greater than 0: -5 Luck
• Inflict a second crit roll on a critical hit to an enemy: -10 Luck

1. Damage Control Repairs - As it is being returned to the squadron carrier’s hangar bays, a fighter’s damage control systems will begin working to repair it. These repairs are permanent, and will remove the effects of crits. Roll 1d10 for each ship that survives the battle; if the number falls within it’s damage control success spread, it receives that many points of free repairs. These will repair any effects except the loss of crew or ammunition. Only one damage control roll may be made per craft after any given battle.

2. Repairs – Every Cash Point will repair one damage box (but not what is in the box or intrinsic armor). 1 Cash Point will repair one box’s intrinsic armor. 5 Cash Points will repair a crit. Drive, DR, and Escort PDBs are repaired by subtracting the cost of the remaining system from the cost of the original/new system. Weapons cost 2/3 of their book value. Crews are "repaired" by replacing them. Torps and ammunition must be purchased specifically while the Cash Point expenditures for repairs listed above are in the form of RPs.

3. Routine Maintenance - Every starcraft requires some routine maintenance to retain full battlefield condition. One to three Cash Points must be spent on each operational ship at this time, to keep it fully functional. If a ship has not entered combat since its last routine maintenance session, it is exempt from this rule. SPACs cost one, TPACs cost two, and MPACs cost three. Note that any fighter that has participated in combat but that does not undergo this maintenance will suffer from Poor Mechanical Reliability (in addition to low starting ammunition) the next time it enters combat. Ammunition and torps are purchased specifically as such while the maintenance Cash Points are in the form of RPs.

4. Heal Crew in Medbay - Injured crew recovered from battle are taken to the squadron carrier’s medical bays for treatment. One turn later, he will be ready for active duty. There is no cost to treat injured crew; this is an automatic ship function.

Note: Ammunition and torps must be purchased specifically as such. Torp costs and slots can be found in Fighter Tactics Manual (you must buy the specific speed variant you want). Ammunition costs and slots can be found in various books. Missiles cost 1 point and 1 slot per 10 missiles.

1. Total Cash Pool - Recalculate how many Cash Points you have in your Cash Pool.

2. Fill out Turn Activity Sheet - Note all unit activities for the turn on your Turn Activity Sheet, including mission success or failure, unit survival, equipment purchases, and how many campaign Victory Points you have so far (see Victory Conditions).

3. Wrap Up - Unrecovered life pods and lifeboats are lost, miscellaneous actions occur.

Third Flight

He cut his forward motion, spinning the fighter on its axis by feathering his right thruster. The segmented, spiny Grub ship moved into his targeting crosshairs, but suddenly disappeared from his display.

"Dammit!"

As the word left his mouth, he caught the Hatchling reappearing on his directional sensors, immediately behind him. Not interested in dying, Julio pushed his ship into overdrive, streaking away from the bug.

He eyed his damage readouts, noting that while he was a little slower than he’d like, the rest of the damage was basically superficial. On the other hand, the Muckworm had taken a beating. While it was, in fact, incredibly fast, the damned thing had no armor to speak of, and his splatterguns had chewed it to bits all along the port flank. His last blast had slowed it by nearly a quarter, and had apparently crippled its drone launcher. Pity he didn’t have any torps on his Night Hawk. Oh, well.

He cut the fighter into another spin, turning to face the Grub craft. By his count, it was out of jump pods. He shoved the throttle full open, and aligned his crosshairs.

Too late, he saw the faint mist of a spore mole volley streaking toward his ship. The football-sized projectiles began latching onto the hull and cockpit canopy, secreting an enzyme to eat through the hull.

Julio was going to die.

Screaming his native Yoka-Shan war cry, he pushed the drive further, beyond safety regulation limits. His target was in perfect position: just a few more seconds, and he’d have the range for a sure kill.

A faint hissing sounded in the cockpit as the microbe spores released by the moles began to eat through the inertial buffers. The hissing rose to a steam-whistle sound, and then the cockpit was full of tiny motes, each holding the promise of death.

They began eating through his vacuum suit, and he could suddenly feel a million scalding pinpricks in his chest. His vision darkening, he pulled every trigger on the stick, screaming in defiance as the Muckworm disintegrated into so much scrap.

* * *

Julio opens his eyes, seeing only the darkness of the simulator pod. Pulling the wraparound visor off, he sighs. Third time this week, and Commander Marcus is probably just waiting for me to get my ass out of here, so he can chew it off. Wonderful. Just great. A hollow thud disrupts his thoughts, and he forces himself to respond to the knock by opening the pod hatch and stepping out. There, in the glaring light of the training deck, he can see the scowling form of his drill instructor.

"Too bad it was just a simulator fight," he mutters under his breath. There are fates worse than death at the hands of the Night Brood.

The campaign map covers an area of 70 by 50 light years, divided up into zones that are five by five light years (ie. the map is made of of 10x14 zones of 5x5 hexes). This can easily be represented on two Armory 16mm hex pages or similar. Each zone will have 1-7 systems (max{2d8/2-1, 1}) and 0-3 terrain (1d4-1). Locations of systems are determined by rolling 2d10 (one for horizontal and one for vertical) and dividing each by 2. Terrain is determined randomly as per Space Junk but with the initial d10 roll replaced by a d100 roll referencing the table below. Asteroids will replace one of the systems in the zone; Planetary Effects "modify" an existing system; other terrain is placed randomly in the same fashion as systems.

Each quadrant (5x7 group of 5x5 zones) is labeled A-D. Each zone in a quadrant is numbered 1-35. Each hex in a zone is represented by a horizontal and vertical coordinate (both 1-5). Therefore, any hex can be represented as <letter><zone #>-<horizontal #>.<vertical #> (ie. B23-3.5 would be the bottom hex in the third column of the 23^rd zone in the B quadrant). Only one battle may take place in any given sector at any given time, although any number of units (and sides) may participate in the battle.

Starcraft not equipped with translight drives may only move one space per turn, and they may not enter combat or perform any other action during the turn of movement, as the move takes the entirety of the turn.

Starcraft with translight capability may move as many spaces on the campaign map as their Light Years Per Day (LY/D) rating, rounded down.

Wormholes are present on the campaign map; they may be used to move larger distances, with no lag time. Entering a space containing a wormhole costs one LY/D of movement, as normal, and it costs another to enter the space at the other end. When attempting to enter an unstable wormhole (type 3), there is a 10% chance that the wormhole will currently be closed – in which case, you cannot enter the wormhole this turn. Also, when entering an unstable wormhole (type 3), there is the usual 1d6 roll (see Space Junk) for each ship/carrier – you can lower the chances to a 1d12 roll (with 7-12 being safe) by "spending" 3 LY/D of movement instead of 1 (ie. you’re spending more time trying to time the fluctuations). Each time you enter a shifting wormhole (type 4), the destination will be determined randomly. Whenever traversing an unexplored or shifting (type 4) wormhole, all ships must stop in the exit hex to recalibrate instruments.

In order to retrieve supplies and units that you purchase during campaign play, you’ll have to dispatch a cargo shuttle or ship mover to the purchase site on the campaign map. If your squadron carrier is already present in the same sector as the purchase site, this is unnecessary. Note that purchases using your Cash Pool funds may be made to and from anywhere on the map; your primary constraint is shipping distance and time. This shipping takes place during the Scenario Phase, to allow fighters and warhounds to be sent as armed escort. Supply runs may take multiple game turns, depending on the distance to the nearest supply depot or merchant unit.

Satellites and Minefields cannot be detected from outside their system. Whisper Outposts cannot be detected except by Escorts outside their system.

Hostiles Range is the range at which a unit can detect hostile units and/or capture unclaimed systems and terrain. Terrain Range is the range at which a unit can detect systems and terrain (but not capture them). To capture a system owned by another player, you must have a unit in the system.

This is one of the major objectives of any unit, especially the UNW. To destroy a Night Brood clutchworld, at least 3,000 BPV of ships must:

1. eliminate all Grub planetary defense forces
2. spend two full campaign turns in the infested system, eliminating all other signs of Hatchling life. A 6,000-point force only needs to spend one turn in-system, and a 9,000-point force need not remain in the system beyond the current turn.

Elimination of any given clutchworld has a 10% chance to attract Grub attention.

You only know what exists in a sector if you have a sensor capable of monitoring it. You may also ask other players and NPCs, what is present; however, you have no guarantee that such information will be accurate.

There are quite a few Night Brood present in campaign space. You have a 5% chance of encountering them in any sector that you enter. Such a force will rarely exceed 500 points in cost; there will be 3d4 Grub ships, of types rolled on the Night Brood Ships Table below:

Night Brood Ships Table

• Ammo As Cargo [Warhounds]
• Asteroid Debris [Space Junk]
• Asteroid Demolition [Warhounds]
• Attacker Chooses Crew Hit [Operation: Dry Dock]
• Automatic Misses
• Buying Torp Speed Variations [Fighter Tactics]
• Concealed Weapons [Kashmere]
• Damage Control
• Damage Control Gunnery [Warhounds]
• Decoys
• Drive 0 turns
• Destroyed Starcraft Debris
• Easing Target Speed Restrictions
• Emergency Launch [Warhounds]
• Escort Crew Quirks [see below]
• Escort Explosion And Debris [Warhounds]
• Experience
• Firing Multiple Weapon Systems
• Hiding Behind Escorts [see below]
• Lifeboats [Warhounds]
• Life Pods
• Minefields [Space Junk]
• Mine Laying [Space Junk]
• Mine Sweeping [Space Junk]
• Pilot As Copilot [UNW]
• Pilot Luck
• Pilot Luck (Purchased)
• Planetary Placement and Effects [see below]
• Point-defense anti-torp Weapon System
• Point-defense Weapon Systems vs. Missiles
• Poor Mechanical Reliability – only when called for in the rules
• Replenishment Points as Cargo [Warhounds]
• Replenishment Points as Repair Points [Warhounds]
• Salvage [Warhounds]
• Sideslips
• Terrain [Rulebook & Space Junk] – only when fighting in a hex with the given terrain
• Time Limit

For each enemy ship destroyed, you gain Victory Points on the Ship Kill Awards Table below.

The Optional Rules checklists above list several rules as being in this book. Here they are.

by Stephen R. Wilcoxon (http://www.citilink.com/~wilcoxon/rpg/sd/)