A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Civilian Space Ships of the Frontiers of Space Volume One

Civilian Space Ships of the Frontiers of Space Volume One by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result.

The supplement is available as a 29 page Pay What You Want PDF from DriveThruRPG. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter and three the Open Game License.

The opening paragraphs explain that the Sonora sector – as the title suggests, this is set in the Frontiers of Space – has all kinds of commercial ships in use, and that this supplement contains details of many such ships.

The rest of the supplement is taken up by descriptions of the ships, twenty in total. Each follows a standard format, with their stats, tons for the hull and other important elements and costs for the various systems and parts, as well as maintenance and life support costs on a monthly basis, followed by a general description of the ship. The ships have a wide variety of uses, some more legal than others, from garbage scows to colony ships to medical ships. Just because these are civilian ships doesn’t mean they aren’t combat-capable; some are certainly capable of fighting off pirates, albeit not going head-to-head with a dedicated military vessel.

Civilian Space Ships of the Frontiers of Space Volume One

The PDF lacks bookmarks and is long enough with enough different sections that these would have been useful. Navigation could be better. The text maintains a single column format and appeared to be free of errors. Bar the covers, there are no illustrations. Presentation could be better.

Though this may be aimed at the Frontiers of Space, ships are easy enough to drop into any setting, making these generally useful. Perhaps the biggest problem with the supplement is that there are no deck plans, something that is useful to have for Traveller-compatible ships. Civilian Space Ships of the Frontiers of Space Volume One is a useful supplement and it can be found by clicking here.