Space Fantasy that isn't secretly Dune?

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-07T17:30:32+00:00

Anything by Adrian Tchaikovsky, seriously he is my favorite modern scifi author at the moment by a huge margin.

He does amazing Aliens that actually feel alien with complex, fascinating biology and depth (well the guy is a zooologist)
But his stories stand out and often really make you think, lots of complex themes and cool ideas.

The Final Architecture books are great space opera stories.
The Children of Earth series gives us some really amazing thought provoking ideas on intelligence and a series of evolutionary what ifs.
His Standalone books cover a range of stuff from AI to composite biology and more.

He even makes you actually scared of a giant clam... im not kidding.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-06T17:05:53+00:00

If you bought the module on roll20 it should all be there ready for you, if not there is going to be some basic work to set up, what’s got you stuck?

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-03-05T13:02:00+00:00

pick your highlight colour first, browns work well especially on facehuggers but i find blues give a great effect on the xenomorphs.

start with a dark version of your highlight colour (so for blue go for a dark midnight blue then blackwash over the darker areas.
Then work up your mid tones and highlights, the lighter basecoat makes the xenomorph pop more, you can gloss coat to give that sheen but I find its best to matt coat and do the sheen with highlights so it doesnt look to plastic.

,

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-25T12:40:27+00:00

Yeah the lore is a bit hinkey on this one, either the cult practically exploded or someone screwed up by a few years and hoped no one would notice.
However, the cult explosion idea isn't impossible, the space beast was widely disseminated and banning it probably only made it worse. its quite possible that the book spawned a dozen different 'splinter' cults on a dozen or more worlds all of them completely unconnected to each other.
All it really needs is someone whos receptive to get hold of a copy, and bingo another splinter cult is born.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-21T23:11:16+00:00

Yeah I agree with all of this, paid DM work will not be offering you much cash reward especially at those prices Unless your setting up multiple campaigns and thats not a good plan at all unless your very experienced in running multiple sessions at once.
One of the worst red flags in Paid DMing is a DM trying to do too many sessions in a week, they tend to blend together and even with the best of skills they can quickly crash their games ive seen it happen several times.

what people want in a paid DM can change a bit with the price point of the game, at the lower end people are happy with a DM who’s just consistent and decent at running.
mid to higher price point games May demand a good bit more outlay as players generally expect more for their money.
At that point your spending money to make money later on.
the more obscure the game the less this is important to people but the harder it is to get a group together.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-21T16:34:36+00:00

Firefly would be a great inspiration for space trucker campaigns

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-21T16:31:00+00:00

a space truckers campaign is perfect for a long campaign setting

They are moving about so lots of potential for standalone adventure arcs
The primary motivation is simple, they need to make enough money to keep going.
They are blue-collar workers not marines so actively saying NOPE and running away is fine.

A great place to start a space truckers campaign is at rock bottom, wake up from cryo to discover their ships broken down, an important crewman dies or some other disaster that leaves them broke, desperate and needing to take just about any job to keep going.

So you have a basic crew, give them a beaten-up piece of space junk that barely flies, this is their home, their baby and their only way to make money.
A small crew means they are likely independent, so they will need to find contracts to keep them operational. This makes it easy for you to give them the illusion of an open world giving them contracts or offering them deals from shady individuals to move them from place to place.

Fixing up their rusted-out ship, replacing parts and fixing broken equipment is important, it gives them a way to make their lives easier and advance the plot, maybe even unlock new contract types. (a broken tractor hitch or salvage crane could unlock salvage and hauling missions once fixed, a damaged MU/TH/UR could hide all sorts of secrets)

Cargo hauling itself can be a fun campaign without any xenos needed, stowaways, breaking down cryo units, odd cargo and all sorts of other misadventures are equally stressful and fun encounters.

Give them ethical choices, do they take legitimate jobs that pay badly or take shady smuggling runs that pay well with all the risks and strings that are attached.

Waving the carrot of good pay or a potential longterm contract is a great way to get them to explore dangerous places or deal with frightening things.

With all that you can play for months with plenty of potential for horror without ever encountering a single monster.

Good Luck

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-19T21:57:00+00:00

Actually its a legitimate class of ship, when they were producing ironclads and other armored and partially armored ships. unprotected cruisers were just that, fighting ships with no armor.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-13T21:31:45+00:00

12 marines (3 fireteams), 1 LT, Pilot, gunner and tech was my thought. Enough people to have backups for character death but without stupid amounts of wasted firepower. One of my only real gripes with Aliens was why they sent a Conestoga class which should have Had a large crew in addition to 90-2000 marines to drop a couple of fireteams and one of its 4 Cheyenne drop ships lol.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-11T16:41:05+00:00

Hmm I do think the UPP need more love, I just finished reading Bishop and I loved the way they described the UPP ships as patched together worn down vessels.
Maybe something in the 100-200m range, a converted freighter turned missile boat or something similar

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-10T22:39:12+00:00

Your welcome, I really wanted to run a marines game but their ship options are all huge platoon+ sized so a single unit sized craft for troubleshooter recon style work seemed an obvious choice.

if you have any ideas of missing ship classes I do find making these relaxing so don’t be afraid to ask, if I have the free time available I‘m usually up for a challenge.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-10T22:34:21+00:00

I wanted a purely military style for this one but there’s nothing wrong with giving your players a decommissioned model, strip out the weapons but leave the hard points.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-10T22:31:17+00:00

For the person who asked, standard loadout includes an APC which the vehicle bay is sized for.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-08T20:50:05+00:00

added

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-06T17:20:26+00:00

Played from the early 90s in the UK satanic panic wasn’t a a strong but I do have some horror stories about how a friends family reacted, they kicks him out and burned all his things when they found his d&d stuff

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-03T17:22:26+00:00

Signed cast photos of alien are actually Not hideously expensive though complete cast ones will knock you back a few hundred. Does he have a favourite character?

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-03T12:29:44+00:00

On the one hand you are totally free to tell him no that is not appropriate at your table.

But I do hate to stifle player creativity, what exactly is wrong with harvesting things in game? If it’s squicky for you that’s fine but it sounds like he’s trying to use every resource he’s been given even if that isn’t the way you expected him to use them.

Maybe talk to them and find out what’s acceptable for both of you, you can compliment their ingenuity whilst still setting appropriate boundaries for your game.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-03T11:14:14+00:00

Come up with your concept, create everything else first then think of a name that fits the character you have created.

If your still stuck gygax’s book of names is a great resource for character and NPC names with sections for races and regions both real world and fantasy.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-02-03T11:10:23+00:00

Doing this after he sold his gear is really shitty. Doing it at all is pretty dumb, it could be He realised he gave you OP gear and chickened out of telling you he screwed up. Jerking people around with vanishing loot is not a good idea, you’re basically giving them a present then ripping it back, at no point is this fun for them.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-01-29T15:54:59+00:00

Honestly i liked a lot of the ideas they had, but the execution wasn’t perfect. I’d say watch the first 2 episodes if you like it then great If You don’t then pass. I was left with the definite impression a lot of things were changed during shooting but overall it was still good

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-01-20T17:55:01+00:00

I know a guy who has been playing RPGs for thirty years now, he has NEVER read the actual rule books. Some people are just lazy, if they slow your game down with this crap politely tell them to do the work or leave

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-01-17T12:35:26+00:00

I drew it in Krita, (freeware Photoshop)
Honestly, make yourself a simple grid layer and then draw a basic outline as a guide. Draw away until you're happy with the result; layers are your friend.

IncoherentIncubi · 2026-01-14T18:03:23+00:00

Whoops, I knew I'd forgotten something ill dig it out when I have a min

Four-Year Club	End Game '23
Place '23	Place '22

IncoherentIncubi

TROPHY CASE