Scholar’s Review #88: Dimension Book 6: Three Galaxies

Written by: Carl Gleba

Release Date: March 2004

GENERAL

In the follow-up to Dimension Book 5: Anvil Galaxy, we get a suitably vague entry simply entitled the “Three Galaxies.” Well, that certainly places us in the right mindset to understand the basics of the setting, the premise of this book is entirely cloaked in mystery and intrigue by an unspecified enough cover as well – just a Cosmo-Knight floating in a relatively empty void. Well then, color me intrigued. Thus far the entries in the Phase World setting have certainly not disappointed; certainly, the most recent review of Dimension Book 5: Anvil Galaxy presented a dynamite entry!

This is going to be a review of lists; in some cases, long lists. It’s just the way the book is presentedSo let’s crack on this Dimension Book and have a gander at what the Three Galaxies have in store for us.

GUIDE TO THE THREE GALAXIES

Building on a Vision. Carl provides a few words as a precis to the work we have before us. With the plot, setting and themes provided by C.J. Carella, we now hope to build upon that solid foundation and provide the GM even MORE ports of call or adventure ideas to fold into, or begin brand new campaigns within the Phase World setting.

Space Station Creation Rules. I don’t think that this dynamic can ever get old, particularly when it’s done well. This system builds on the old Mercenary Company Creation Rules (see Rifts Mercenaries) and Travelling Circus Creation Rules (see World Book 1: Vampire Kingdoms). The GM now has a tool that provides a way to create any number of Space Stations, across any systems their Player Characters come across, and use that as a stopping point, or base of operations for any part of the adventure or the campaign. It’s a short section, with big implications for Adventure Design.

Thundercloud Galaxy. In what could most aptly be called an ‘alphabetical tour around the Thundercloud,’ each system provides a series of information data points that provide a GM with some great background and setting points. These are all of them followed by a Palladium staple, a Hook, Line & Sinker for each entry.

• Algos System. Located in the uncharted expanses. Do any of the planets hide anything worthy of discovery?

• Barkohl System. A common haunt for pirates and smugglers due to frequent ion storms. Also provides very handy rules for Ion Storms and Nebulas I thought would have been much better set in it’s own segment as a more universal series of rules.

• Carse System. At the edge of Kreegor space, rumoured to have a base of operations for the Free World Council. Provides rules for comets and meteor showers, and plasma fields. Once again, combined with Ion Storms and Nebulae, this should have been a universal table placed in its own section.

• Dark Web. A Kreeghor hell hole with forced mining facilities. Dozens of defense satellites and a heavy garrison protect the production cycle. No union cards allowed.

• Eden System. A key CCW system and food production hub; also one of the original flashpoints with the Kreegor.

• Fecklar’s Star. Named after the scientist that studied it, an violent faction took over the system and uses it as a base within the Thundercloud. Includes the stats for Fecklar’s Station, based on the Creation Rules at the outset of the book.

• Galamon System. A Splugorth by the name of Roxcryth has set up her base here. She is reaching out to expand her influence, including Rifts Earth.

• Hyrill System. Base of the Hyrill Stellar Corporation, providing terraforming technology to the CCW; it’s a slow process.

• Icarus System. Former CCW mining operation now winding down.

• Junkyard System. Stargazer Corp uses this system to manufacture spacecraft. The shipyards here are massive, and as one could imagine, a system very busy with traffic and heavy security. The HLS provides a great start point for beginner PCs.

• Kalador, Planet of Youth. Part of the Pleasure Federation, most of the planets or points of interest provide some form of specific ‘recreation.’

• Lanator System. Positioned in neutral space between CCW and Kreegor space, and site of the first treaty between the two powers to respect their boundaries.

• Dwarves of Maul. A trinary system, each star with its own small system of planets. Forges weapons from a unique metal found and processed there.

• Nightshade Nebula. Massive nebula in CCW space and site of a massive battle with Kreegor fleets, it hosts the remnants of a gigantic “smart” anti-matter minefield (map of mines lost). Hundreds of scavenger vessels fell afoul to the mines, adding to the debris and attraction for repeat offenders/victims.

• System of Olympia. Basically Greece in space, with Olympic-style events held there.

• Pentarken System. A CCW cruiser was exploring the system and attacked by what’s been identified simply as “The Artefact.” System remains off-limits and patrolled to enforce it. Statistics for “The Artefact” reinforce the rumours, with the sizeable exception of the range for the Main Cannon - honestly?

• Quintos System. A CCW colony and caretakers of the Paratee; links to the True Atlanteans.

• Rascallion System.  Deep in CCW space, run like a corporation with the CEO of Rascallion Stellar Technologies in charge. On the main planet, people live in one of 24 arcologies; the environment is wrecked, import of food is critical, and not always reliable. Hope you have premium shares in the company.

• Shandara System. One of the oldest colonies of the Thundercloud Galaxy, now quarantined due to rampant runaway nanite plague. Sounds like a great place to introduce Splicers!

• Ty Corridor. Location of a stable wormhole connecting Kreegor space with FWC space.

• Ulterra System. System deep within and heavily supportive to the Kreegor.

• Veripin System. A critical strategic asset to the Kreegor. Heavily laden with natural resources, host to its finest shipyards, and home planet to the Kreegor’s supportive ally the Skaa. A prime target for the FWC.

• The Witch’s Cauldron. A proto system with the unique feature of ley lines and frequent ley line storms throughout the system. Also the site of the unique material called Stardust, a metallic alloy that amplifies magical energies.

• Xeres Beta. Xeres Alpha went nova, caused the binary stars of Beta to shift orbits. Instead of a collision nova, the stars merged, the shockwave critically changing all planetary environments.

• Yinshazi System. Within the Bushi Federation. Honestly, just take 1980’s burgeoning Japanese electronic manufacturing, slam some Shinto-ism in there for good measure, and put into space. Honestly, I half-expected Suzuki, Panasonic or Yamaha to be mentioned.

• Zeta Epsilon Colonies. A CCW colonization effort has broken down into a series of small city-states battling each other for resources. Under blockade to stop gunrunners and smugglers from inflaming the negotiations for settlement/peace.

The Corkscrew Galaxy. In yet another ‘alphabet tour’ of the galaxy, another series of entries provides a GM a clear list of entries to draw upon for adventures, base campaigns around, or use as background within the games you’re running at your table.

• Aviary System. A system with three gas giants being exploited for resources.

• Cacadia. In unclaimed neutral territory, home to the Nixie. Otherwise, typically a waypoint between travel from both other galaxies.

• Dust Bowl. Kreegor planet of little interest to them; the FWC however, use this to their advantage.

• Exile. Close to the Void Gulf and typically last stop before ships attempt the traverse.

• Fydra Beta Shipyards. Secret manufacturing shipyards for the Kreegor. Provides the strategic secrets to their production capabilities. The enormous shipyard station is detailed, as per the Space Station Creation rules.

• Garlack Gul Cluster. A black hole cluster and navigation hazard within Kreegor space.

• Hunter System. Home to Safari Inc, where the planets’ indigenous species and monsters are hunted for sport. Includes the Sapphire Cobra

• Necrosis System. Home to the Necrols. Not much to see here, move along.

• The Pirates’ Expanse. A massive nebula (3 light year’s across) with prot stars forming within. Gaps of clear space within form great hide-outs.

• Stratos. A CCW world and home to the silicon-based lifeforms, the Strata.

• Titanis System. In the heart of the CCW, and home to the mega-giant HI-Industries. A major industry center; no corporate espionage here at all…..

• The Void Gulf. A region between arms of the galaxy, with 150 stars connecting the two. Unfortunately, FTL drives get… quirky. A table for every 5 light-years travelled is not favourable. – like, at all!

• Windscape System. Just outside the UWW, home to myriad underworld leaders and infamous for sale of information.

Anvil Galaxy. Once again, a bit of a tour of several systems of note within the Anvil Galaxy to add to any GM’s stable of choices to exploit for Adventure Design.

• Andropelous System. Popular vacation retreat destination within the Pleasure Federation. Resort-central.

• Cray-Lon Expanse. Hidden within this massive void are the Galactic Tracers’ Guild, a sort of headhunter/bounty hunter system the CCW would love to see disappear.The Guild Station is presented (Space Station Creation rules), as are a pair of notable Tracers.

• The Elemental Lands. The UWW controls a system where a planet rife with ley line and nexus points reaches out into the Elemental Planes of Air and Fire, occasionally others.

• Firestorm Nebula. Site of the first battle between the CAF and the Intruders. Plasma fields of the nebula are highly unstable.

• Harkon Rift. Three dead worlds and the Harkon defense platform orbit a star made out of a Rift. The Defense Platform is presented.

• Malcore System. Major depository of magic within the UWW. Security is exceedingly attentive and layered. Massive use of Techno-Wizardry.

• Nova Cluster. Unstable region of space under study by the CCW and UWW.

• Obsidian Cove. Rumoured training ground for Dark Coven and Spell Thieves.

• Ramos. One of the few independent systems within the UWW. Interesting tie to Rifts Earth.

• Tigress System.Weekly race for fast ships through system obstacle course. Once a year, they hold a Formula-1 style event with the best pilots across the Three Galaxies vying for the prize. I guess go watch Days of Thunder (if you’re a Tom Cruise fan) or F1 (if a Brad Pitt fan)?

OCCs & RCCs. A series of new Classes, introducing a new faction within the Three Galaxies, the Free World Council (FWC), from the United Worlds of Warlock (UWW), and some independent RCCs.

• FWC Ground Trooper. Your basic grunt, fighting against the Kreegor.

• FWC Technical Specialist. Your basic technical specialist with MOS choices.

• FWC Insurrectionist. Mix between a Military Specialist and Wilderness Scout.

• FWC Medic. Like on the tin, a medic.

• FWC Air/Space Corps. Like on the tin, space pilot.

• UWW Obsidian Spell Thief. Specialists in breaking into guilds to steal spells. Presents with some of the familiar LLW abilities, but some unique and intriguing ones as well.

• UWW Space Warlock. Lend support to squads of UWW marines, ship support and other roles.

• UWW Techno-Smithy. Engineers of the UWW Navy. Basically a space-faring TW.

• Necrol RCC. The latest in a threat to the Three Galaxies; a rising scourge with a fervor to cleanse the galaxies of all species using technology. You know, small tasks.

• Necrol Warrior. The bulk of the Necrol forces.

• Necrol Witch. Warrior-shaman and typical squad leader for the Necrol Warriors.

• Necrol Worker. Versatile and selfless workers supporting the cause.

• Nixie RCC. An arachnoid race just now exploring into the Three Galaxies. Thy have an interesting method of spacecraft production, LOL.

• Paratee RCC. Intelligent slug-like organisms from Quintos, they are essentially a benevolent symbiote (think Stargate’s Goa’uld, but nice about it).

• The Skaa RCC. Serpentine species from Veripin that have fallen under Kreegor rule over 300 years ago.

• Strata RCC. A bizarre species of organic/inorganic silicon that once fought back a Splugorth slave invasion and joined the CCW to further solidify their independence.

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Monsters of the Three Galaxies. To be fair, given that we’re talking about a game set to span across three whole galaxies, one would expect a spectacular amount of latitude for a GM to come up with and create anything and everything for the PCs to engage with as an enemy. Just one galaxy would provide that kind of flexibility; three of them? The galaxies are your oyster. That said, if you’re looking for some examples, here’s a few:

• Sapphire Cobra. A massive serpent beast with a cunning hunting style.

• Solar Leech. Worm-like creatures living in the vacuum of space, they use batlike wings to sail solar winds for food. The “artificial energy” of spacecraft reactors is a delectable delight.

• Space Coral Creature. Call a spade a spade, it’s the space slug the Millenium Falcon escape from in the asteroid field during Empire Strikes Back.

• Void Zombie. An interesting method for zombie creation; begin ritual, sacrifice victim into the void of space, recover victim, complete ritual.

• Demon Planet. A thing of legend, it’s basically a planetoid-sized monster with a mouth over a thousand miles wide. This is an incredibly complex entry, with psychic impacts if captured/crash landing on the planet, the creature’s defense mechanisms, and creatures that act as an active immune response system. Basically, a demon hell-scape. A very interesting entry, though one I’d be hard-pressed to fold into any campaign.

Notable Equipment. Highlighting some new advancements in Personal Screening Equipment (PSE), these new devices provide tools for Player Characters to better get through skill checks and handle various tasks. Everything from a personal scanner with a variety of options, to the dozens of applications an engineering scanner may provide, or a medical one. Not much here, but enough to get a GM to lend a hand to the Players as required.

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Notable Galactic Weapons. For the tech-geeks out there, from page 111-onward we’ve pretty much got nothing but tech entries. This specific section though, provides the following:

• Draygon Industries. A new Corporation branching out from their successful expansion onto The Center; a series of weapons and body armor.

• Strata Crystal Tech. Crystaline weapons considered “stealth” weapons because they aren’t made of any of the normal materials weapon scanners search for.

• Necrol (Organic) Living Technology. An interesting series of entries that initially presented like Splugorth’s Bio-Wizardry parasite. Once you get to reading the entries though…. Entries start from close-combat weapons and scale up to a full-blown Command Carrier.

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Spaceships. A very interesting and incredibly informative section. It basically gives the GM (and to some extent Players) a cheat sheet on capital ships and ship design within the Phase World setting; realistically any Palladium Books space/space opera/science-fantasy setting.

• Point Defence Weapons. What they are, with various full-entry examples you can plug-and-place into a capital ship of your own design.

• Light Weapons. What they are, with various full entry examples.

• Medium Weapons. What they are, with various full entry examples.

• Heavy Weapons. What they are, with various full entry examples.

• Magic Spacecraft Weapons. What they are, with various full entry examples.

• New Spacecraft. We get over a dozen new entries, many of which are generic models that could be used in any setting, for any empire, interstellar or galactic power. Apart from a few named entries, it’s like these entries filled out the background spacecraft requirements for a Battlestar Galactica fleet shot. Very nice.

100 Cargos of the Three Galaxies. This is actually a really neat idea, and something the GM can really sink their teeth into. The table is exactly as advertised: 100 entries of various cargo that could be found/salvaged, with a suitably wide variety of options.

IMPRESSIONS

Current Review (9/10). One could be excused at reading this review and simply excluding this book because of the laundry list of entries. You, my dear reader, would be doing yourself a distinct disservice. This book comes packing a walloping amount of information. Much like it’s predecessor Dimension Book 5: Anvil Galaxy, this book “feels” much weightier than its 160-page count would suggest. This is an absolute dearth of information that a GM could absolutely sink their teeth into. They don’t even have to use all the entries, but referencing them in your games provides your Players a richer, more immersive atmospheric of the game state. This was also where my initial skim through the book put me in a bit of a quandary for the review. Is this a strictly GM-only kind of book, or is there enough to draw the Players’ interest into buying this book as well? As I wrote this review, I can say my evaluation actually evolved as we progressed. For sure, the initial sections are GM-focused, but as we move through the other segments, things definitely become more Player-focused.

While the Space Station Creation Rules is followed by 48(!) systems, with planets of note and key information provided to allow a GM to built upon. These are EACH of them followed by a Hook, Line & Sinker (HLS) to give the GM something to work with. With a few notable exceptions, these aren’t necessarily set in stone. Combined with the 100 Cargos Table at the end of the book, the GM is not left for wanting in terms of adventure idea material. The book also builds on the world building of the Phase World setting by introducing a couple of new power blocs to either align for, trade with, or compete against. If there is one thing Palladium Books have knocked out of the park, it is presenting a rich and imaginative series of books to support the Phase World setting. The artwork within also deserves some note, as it draws from a wide stable of styles. They each bring illustrations that really support the pieces; I think it fair to say that Kent Burles really shines through with his numerous pieces throughout, but Michael Dubisch pieces for the Necrol entries were superb.

For those that ae looking to get into the Phase World setting, I’d say this is definitively a high-water mark entry, and one of the earlier books I’d recommend right after getting Dimension Book 2: Phase World. The variety of information presented gives both Players and GMs something to work with, but more importantly it gives key insights into the adventure design possibilities the Three Galaxies setting as a whole can give your table. While I’m certainly a Rifts-first GM/Player, the entries for Phase World have really been on point and been some of the best products Palladium Books has put out. Dimension Book 6: Three Galaxies certainly fits that latter description.

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