Vac Suits, Duct Tape, and Madness - a Trophy Hack

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com

Fenris-77

Small God of the Dozens
Moderator
Joined
Jul 9, 2020
Messages
15,102
Reaction score
48,903
I'm working on a blue collar spacehulk style hack for Trophy where you play a desperate crew of scavengers looting vast alien wrecks. I'm starting at the Trophy Dark level, which means the game is designed for one-shot incursions and is significantly rules light. I have the SRD rules reskinned, and some fluff and the char gen stuff done and I'm starting in on the Incursion rules and a sample Incursion. If this project works out as well as I hopes I'll convert the idea over to Trophy Gold, which supports more granular equipment rules and an ongoing campaign format.
 

Attachments

  • TD - Vac Suits and Duct Tape v.1.pdf
    282.6 KB · Views: 11
Thanks this is really cool. Dungeoncrawling in space is of great interest to me. If the stars are right and I can somehow squeeze in an extra unplanned game session I'll run a playtest and get back to you.
 
Thanks this is really cool. Dungeoncrawling in space is of great interest to me. If the stars are right and I can somehow squeeze in an extra unplanned game session I'll run a playtest and get back to you.
I should have an incursion for this up today or tomorrow to faff about with. Even without campaign play I think I'm going to throw in the equipment rules as well.
 
OK, here's v.2 with all the rules for designing Salvage Runs (my term for Trophy Dark Incursions) and running the game added in. Equipment rules and a sample Salvage Run will be forthcoming over the next day or two. This one is at least fully playable provided you want to cobble together or adapt your own adventure (which is actually pretty easy given how rules light it is).
 

Attachments

  • TD - Vac Suits and Duct Tape v.2.pdf
    332.1 KB · Views: 13
I need play testers for this shit too, so if anyone feels like giving it a one shot, or knows someone who might give a one shot, help a brother out.
 
I noticed this morning that the pdf above has some technical issues. It actually has too many mechanics, as I neglected to remove the Trophy Gold portion of the SRD. The game doesn't have the other bits to make those run yet. Ignore the Hunt Roll, Combat Roll, and Help Roll. I'll get a clean copy up in a bit.
 
Here's the clean PDF with just the Dark mechanics. (this PDF also includes the example salvage run posted separately above).
 

Attachments

  • TD - Vac Suits and Duct Tape TD v1.pdf
    348.8 KB · Views: 11
Last edited:
This is cool. You're working on an incursion right?
 
OK, so for the gold hack I wanted to include a simple setting sketch to get things rolling. I wanted to emphasize the need for the exploration that drives the game, but still leave lots of room for GM and players to add their own details and make the setting their own. Here's the overview:

Vac Suits and Duct Tape is a collaborative story-telling game about a crew of space scavengers exploring vast alien space hulks that are inimical to humans. The game requires one game master (GM) and one of more players to play the motley crew. A session of Vac Suits takes about 3 or 4 hours.

This game tells the story of the blue-collar crew of a scavenger ship as they explore alien wrecks in search of priceless salvage. As they penetrate the hulks they may face not only pirates, alien beasts, and technical hazards, but also the corruption that comes from being too close to thin spots in the fabric of reality. Beings from beyond space and time whisper through these thins, and their voices can drive humans mad. These are not stories of triumphant discoveries of lost technology, but of barely surviving the FUBAR your hubris landed you in. Debts are piling up and you need the money though, so it’s time to roll the bones.

This game takes place in a star system that has been cut off from the Empire of Man by the collapse of its single Void Gate. That catastrophe also expelled several planets worth of debris into the system, some of which settled into various orbits around the system’s two gas giants and their moons, but the bulk of which has settled into a massive debris field that orbits beyond the planets. This debris is overwhelmingly wrecked ships and stations, many built by alien species that humanity has never encountered, and others built by humans but thousands of years old. Some of these wrecks have been somehow fused together into massive conglomerations that scavengers call space hulks. The collapse of the void gate means no more convoys from settled systems, and no more imported parts to repair the existing ships and space stations in the system. The only hope for the settlers of the system is to scavenge technology from the hulks and debris and figure out how to use it to keep the lights on.
 
OK, the Gold Cut of Vac Suits and Duct Tape is ready for eyes and maybe some playtesting. This is the one that has campaign rules and whatnot. All the parts are there, and there's a partial incursion that could be padded out to test things. Let me know what you think.
 

Attachments

  • Vac Suits and Duct Tape Gold Cut Playtest v1.pdf
    633.6 KB · Views: 9
I'd never heard of Trophy until you mentioned it but this looks pretty cool. I like how alien tech is the equivalent of spells - anyone can have them at the cost of corruption. I'm liking the simplicity. I'll try to read it more carefully on the weekend.
 
Yeah, let me know what you think. The rules are fully playable as-is, you don't need Trophy Gold to play. Im going work on a more complete Salvage Run over the next couple of days too.
 
I'd never heard of Trophy until you mentioned it but this looks pretty cool. I like how alien tech is the equivalent of spells - anyone can have them at the cost of corruption. I'm liking the simplicity. I'll try to read it more carefully on the weekend.
It's got a kickstarter wrapping up, but you can get Trophy Dark in this issue of Codex. And Trophy gold here.
 
So after some IRL delays, this game is forging ahead. The rules are in a playable state, and I'm working on some additional bits. I have a dedicated channel on the Trophy Discord and I'd like to start ramping up some serious playtesting. All the current PDFs are pinned in the Discord channel, but I can provide them here to anyone who wants one. I have the Rules, a supplement about ships and ship combat, an adventure, pregens, and a basic character sheet.

I'm going to be running Pub playtests starting as soon as I have reliable internet so anyone who wants to try the game out can ping me and I'll get it arranged.
 
So after some IRL delays, this game is forging ahead. The rules are in a playable state, and I'm working on some additional bits. I have a dedicated channel on the Trophy Discord and I'd like to start ramping up some serious playtesting. All the current PDFs are pinned in the Discord channel, but I can provide them here to anyone who wants one. I have the Rules, a supplement about ships and ship combat, an adventure, pregens, and a basic character sheet.

I'm going to be running Pub playtests starting as soon as I have reliable internet so anyone who wants to try the game out can ping me and I'll get it arranged.
Super sweet!!
 
v3 of the playtest PDF now available. Some useful editing and formatting, plus al the rules from the ship supplement are now right there in the main rules. The file is now too big to attach here, but the downloads are all on my channel on the Trophy Discord. If you need an invite to view that Discord shoot me your Discord super-hero name and I'll get an invite sent.
 
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top