Things That Go Bump in the Spaceship is a role playing game supplement published by Skirmisher Publishing for use with OGL games, specifically 3.x. 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 14-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $0.99 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. Two pages are the front and rear covers, three the front matter, one the Open Game License and one is an ad.
The introductory paragraphs explain that humans have a tendency to make mistakes, and that will continue even when they reach the stars. They give a brief overview of the three monsters covered, and that the monsters are suitable for an interplanetary RPG.
The Balthusian Bilge Rat is a creature, not remotely rat-like, that was found on a strange ship orbiting beyond Pluto. Dormant eggs on the ship have since resulted in a creature capable of beating almost all carbon-based material spreading throughout the worlds. There are stats for three stages of the creature.
The Donner Virus is a virus that spreads easily and turns those infected by it into cannibalistic monsters. No stats are given for the virus; instead, there are stats for an infected human and a template to use on other creatures.
Hunter is an artificial lifeform, supposedly based on a mythical creature, left behind by a precursor civilisation to defend their tombs, treasuries and military bases.
Things That Go Bump in the Spaceship in Review
The PDF is bookmarked with major sections linked. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two-column format and appeared to be free of errors. There are a number of colour and black and white illustrations, one full page in size, that are either tweaked stock or possibly custom. Presentation is okay.
This is what it sets out to be; a bestiary of three new creatures. What does make it stand out, though, is that the three creatures have much more extensive fluff sections than is typically the case; they all have good background, though linked to a primarily Earth-centric futuristic civilisation. They are primarily intended for D&D 3.x, but could be adapted to other systems. Things That Go Bump in the Spaceship is a decent little bestiary and it can be found by clicking here.
Leave a Reply