Ever start putting together notes and writing something but never quite finish it and then along comes a better version of what you were writing? Yeah. I’ve done a bunch of notes for doing horror with the Quantum Engine just never finished. Well, I don’t have to now. Quantum Dark is out.

And here we are. Let’s start with basics. The Quantum Engine is rules variant for Cepheus which is old school Traveler basically. There’s not stats just skills and resolution uses a 2d6 mechanic. That’s the basics of the game mechanics.

Quantum Dark borrows some of the new mechanics for Barbaric 2E. Your Lifeblood/Stamina (like HP) are determined by your Physical Skill rather than randomly. Choose a Trait and you’re good to go. Being a Horror RPG, it has rules for Psionic Abilities and Occult skills. The are good but I think the Psionic Powers are a little too powerful for a horror game but it’s rules light system to it’s easy to hack.

The bestiary is a little light but the classics are there. And there’s plenty of rules and guidelines for making your own monsters. Like I said before, I wish they would reformat the monster stat blocks rather than just having a run-on line of text.

The default setting is modern era. So that basically means anything from early 20th century to near future. You can easily mix it with Quantum Starfarer and have horror in space. Or mix it with things from Barbaric for ancient and medieval. And you could easily do for pretty much any historical era with very little work on the GM’s part. I can easily see using it for things as diverse as Solomon Kane, Bone Tomahawk, Twin Peaks, or Event Horizon.

Definitely, a good addition to your RPG library. Go ahead and check it out at DrivethruRPG.

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Yes, I know. I haven’t written about anything Cepheus in a long time. Trust me. There’s lots of stuff on my to-do list. But this ain’t about my lack of discipline. It’s about the newest offering from Stellagama Publishing, Quantum Starfarer!

So what’s this little gem? And I mean little. Like the other offering for Cepheus Quantum, Quantum Starfarer takes the classic 2d6 Sci-Fi engine (AKA Traveller) and boils it down to the most basic and easiest mechanics. Cepheus Quantum comes as two “Sheets”. Sheet One has every thing for characters (including psionics) from generation to combat while Sheet Two covers starship creation and combat. I did notice there’s a little goof there. The Ace Trait gains a +2 bonus to gain Edge in vehicle combat but nowhere does it explain what “Edge” is. I believe that this should be for Vehicle Initiative.

Also, reducing it down to only a couple of pages there’s a few things that some might say are missing. Most notably alien races and equipment. These aren’t that big of an omission since you can grab up the Quantum SRD as PWYW.

So what is this even good for? Well, it’s to introduce new players to the basics of the Cepheus Engine, and prefect for a quick pick up game or a convention game.

You can grab this little PDF up for the low cost of $1 (as of this writing) over on DrivethruRPG.

Thanks for stopping by and roll those dice out there.