One Thousand Items of Salvage For the Frontiers of Space by Joseph Mohr is a role playing game supplement published by Old School Role Playing for use with Cepheus Engine. As such, they are 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 39 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 characters are likely to encounter derelict space ships, debris and wrecks. Such may have items left on board them, and those that are most valuable may have been taken, but that isn’t always the case. Some items may be alien and others may be best left unfound.
Space Treasure explains that this is not a fantasy game where treasures are gained from killing monsters, but the list has items intended to provide the GM with ideas; they are also useful for debris near a crashed ship. Some of the items found are covered in the rules already; all items are given values and for those that already exist, the given values are the ones used. Items may be found individually, or in groups, and may need repair to get them working, or work to remove them from the ship.
Items of Salvage has the thousand items. Each is given a brief description and a suggested value. They range from random junk through to portable items of value to ship components that, though valuable, are hardly easy to extract, and even other forms of transport that have been stored in the ship. Some are definitely dangerous and there are a number of items that are completely new.
Value and Condition explains that some have variable values depending on age and condition, with tables for these.
Engine and Other Star Ship Parts explains these are mostly invented.
Results that Make No Sense explains these should be rerolled or substituted with something that does.
Number of Items Found and Condition of Ship has modifiers for age and condition and then a table to determine how many items are found.
Extraction and Removal briefly looks at this.
Variable Values explains that some values are dependent on the vessel.
Conclusion explains this hopefully gives the GM ideas.
One Thousand Items of Salvage For the Frontiers of Space in Review
The PDF lacks bookmarks and there are enough 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, there are no illustrations. Presentation is adequate.
The supplement has exactly what it sounds like; 1,000 items of salvage. Most are not described in any great detail and the GM is definitely not going to want to use the table entirely randomly, as some items could significantly change the game, due to value or destructiveness, but it’s a useful supplement for most Cepheus Engine games and indeed many science fiction games of that type. One Thousand Items of Salvage For the Frontiers of Space can be found by clicking here.
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