Judgement Day 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 21 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 mention the rise in tensions between the Olonsean Empire and the Ilsunsi Directorate in the Sonora sector – the adventure is set in the Frontiers of Space – as several other adventures recently have. It then explains that in the neighbouring unexplored sector a wide swath of space has been cleared of planets. This is because of a strange asteroid-like object that is moving under its own power, is heading to the Sonora sector and seemingly destroys planets. War ships from various factions have been dispatched, but the characters are approached by a scientist who believes that the asteroid is an unmanned ship and he has a bomb that can destroy it.
Patron gives details on them.
Complications are the various things that can go wrong; one, of course, is that many armed ships from factions that do not like each other are heading to the same area.
Lasend is a farming world that appears to be the planet killer’s next target.
The Gathering Fleets gives details on the various warships being sent there by the various factions; these look to reference The Frontiers of Space: Ships of War.
The Planet Killer gives a description and history of the device, its weapons, interior and robots that can be found.
The Anti-Matter Weapon has details on the bomb the characters are to plant.
Damage from the Fleets looks at potential problems should the fleets arrive before the characters are finished.
Resolving Fleet Combat with the Planet Killer has some brief rules on this; the planet killer will easily destroy attackers.
Landing on the Asteroid explains where and how to land.
Timing looks at how things will play out.
The Path the Planet Killer will Take is what happens next if it isn’t destroyed.
Mission Completion Objectives are what’s needed to succeed.
The final page of content has a map.
Judgement Day in Review
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 some minor errors were noticed. Bar the covers and map, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
There’s a definite feeling that this planet killer was inspired by the one from the Star Trek TOS episode, “The Doomsday Machine”. This is a straightforward, but not easy, adventure, and if the characters mess up, war might break out and more planets get destroyed. Which would cause some serious problems. Judgement Day can be found by clicking here.
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