Requires the use of the d20 Modern™ Roleplaying Game, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Welcome to Ronin Arts’ Future: Starship 7 –The Cronkite, the seventh in a new series of PDFsfor use with futuristic D20 System campaigns. Thisseries makes some assumptions about your cam-paign; the starship designs in this series will bemost useful in campaigns in which the followingstatements are true:

� The campaign is not a “hard” science setting.Campaigns that are more space opera/adven-ture movie are the intended target for thisseries.

� Starships are not rare or unusual. All of thestarships in this series assume that spacetravel is a standard and common occurrence– individuals either fly their own ships orride on passenger ships. Starships and spacetravel are as common for characters as aplane ride is for people of our reality.

� Space combat is not uncommon. It’s justanother exciting adventure when the playercharacters have to engage the enemy whilefleeing from some world or other.

� The campaign is packed with action. If thingsaren’t exploding, how much fun can thegame really be?

Most of the starships in this series are designedto fill full pages. This is so that you can print thepages – back-to-back if you wish – and drop theminto a binder. This introduction, and the page of new

starship equipment and assorted information, canalso be printed separately and added to your binder.The schematic and silhouette page is designed to beused as a player handout – it’s what flashes up ontheir ship systems when they attempt to ID a ship –and GMs need only give the players the page whenthey encounter a ship from this series.

About the AuthorMichael Hammes has been freelancing in the role-

playing industry since 2001. Starting small, he hassteadily built his repertoire, and reputation, by work-ing for such companies as Ronin Arts, AlderacEntertainment Group, Dark Quest Games, and E.N.Publishing. He is currently trying to balance his writ-ing schedule with his role as stay-at-home father. Tocatch the latest from Michael’s Imagination, pleasevisit www.michaelhammes.com.

e-Future TilesThe Cronkite design is based on SkeletonKey

Games’ e-Future Tiles:Star Command, StarFreighter, and Star Hunter tile sets. While thisPDF can be easily used on its own you will get a lotmore use out of it in your game sessions if you con-struct the ship – at miniatures scale – using theprintable tiles.

To learn more about SkeletonKey Games pleasevisit their website at www.skeletonkeygames.com.

2

THE CRONKITE

Introduction

New rules and ideasTHE NEWS CAMPAIGN

One of the best excuses for hopping from planetto planet is to be part of the Cronkite’s news team (itscrew). In fact, the idea of having the PCs be a part of(or the entire) news team of the Cronkite makes foran excellent campaign background.

But in addition to giving the PCs plenty ofexcuses to fly about the universe and stick their noseinto all kinds of business, such a campaign scenarioalso allows for a very broad range of characters.Virtually every class and advanced class can find aplace on the Cronkite. For instance, the news teamneeds plenty of technical and engineering expertisenot only to keep the ship flying, but also to maintain

the drones, vehicles, and broadcast equipment. Obviously, a competent pilot or two is a must. Someone with medical knowledge will need to

be on hand to deal with the inevitable “accident”.Since many stories occur in hostile environ-

ments, or cause people to become hostile, a coupleof individuals with combat skills are always handyto have around.

Traveling from planet to planet, one sees manystrange things, so someone knowledgeable in thesciences would certainly be handy for interpretingthat alien artifact.

Someone good with people and negotiations isinvaluable for getting into places others can’t as wellas for talking the news team out of trouble.

What would a news team be without an inves-tigative reporter or two to find the stories?

And last, but certainly not least, someone has tobe the sparkling on-air personality that is adored byall the viewers.

So, join the Cronkite’s news team and get readyto make some news!

NEWS DRONEThese little marvels of technology are equipped

with a multitude of the latest microphones and cam-eras including 360-degree view, zoom, night-vision,infrared, and piercing capabilities (which allows thecamera to see through solid objects as a piercingvisor). Naturally, they also have the latest masstransceiver technology for sending data to the shipas well as receiving instructions from the ship.Propulsion in space is by thrusters, while planet-side propulsion is via a forced air system.

News drones are capable of autopilot navigation(i.e. the drone is given instructions to move to a cer-tain location) as well as manual control from NewsDrone Control (see Starship Key).

Once activated, a news drone continuouslyrecords everything it sees and hears using all of itscameras and microphones, even as it travels onautopilot. However, it is incapable of concentratingon specific subjects or areas unless manually con-trolled.

Example: A news drone can be instructed tomove to a certain location and remain there, record-ing everything around it. So, it could be dispatchedto hover near the entrance to a hotel and recordeverything around it (much like a fixed securitycamera), including the emergence of a celebrity on

holiday. However, it would not able to follow thatcelebrity, or even focus in on that celebrity, withoutmanual control.

A news drone has a Defense of 10 and 15 hitpoints and it rolls 1d20+8 on opposed grapplechecks.

NEWS/RECOVERY VANThe Cronkite’s crew uses these two hover vans

as combination recovery and news vans. Actually,their primary purpose is to serve as recovery vansfor any malfunctioning or damaged news drones,and to that purpose are fully equipped as a mobilerepair and recovery station (including winch,portable reactor generator, tools, fusion torch, etc.).

However, as they are the only two land vehiclesaboard the Cronkite, they are often pressed intoservice to transport the ship’s reporters to the sceneof the news and do, in fact, have some very basiccommunications equipment (RF transceivers) thatcan serve as a back-up in case no news drone isavailable.

Crew: 1Passengers: 4Cargo: LInitiative: -1Maneuver: +0Speed: 200 (20)Defense: 8Hardness: 5Hit Points: 38Size: HPurchase DC: 32Restriction: Lic (+1)

3

THE CRONKITE

The Cronkite is nothing more and nothing lessthan a space-faring news station. Equipped with itsown television studio and broadcast equipment, theCronkite can find and broadcast the news at anytime and from any place. And that is exactly what itdoes.

Gathering the news using its complement ofnews drones (either with or without a live reporteron the scene), feeding it live and/or packaging it topaying subscribers (including hundreds of on-plan-et news channels and programs), the Cronkite rep-resents the cutting edge in reporting and is makingits mark on the crowded airwaves.

As a starship, the Cronkite is a decommissionedPL 6 escort ship that was bought by the ship’s cor-porate backers at a good price and refurbished to PL7 standards.

Of primary interest for the Cronkite’s corporateowners are the ship’s mass transceiver, whichallows instant in-system broadcast from its studioand state-of-the-art production facilities (the ship’s

corporate backers were among the first to seizeupon this new technology for multi-planet broad-casts).

Of primary interest for much of the crew are theship’s defensive and offensive capabilities. Unusualamong the defensive capabilities for a civilian shipare a decoy drone launcher and stealth screen(undetectable by even a Class V sensor system),while the ship packs a very healthy offensive punchwith its 4 fire-linked plasma cannon (the ship couldhave been outfitted with military-grade weapons,but those would have been detectable by currentsensor systems and would have led to awkwardquestions).

While these measures may appear to be extremeand unnecessary to outsiders, the crew of theCronkite has a reputation for getting (and surviving)the news when no one else can (which explainstheir healthy profit margins) and these systems areone of the big reasons why.

4

THE CRONKITE

Basic Information

game statisticsCronkite (PL 7)

Type: Ultralight Subtype: Escort Defense: 7 Flat-footed Defense: 5 Autopilot Defense: 7 Hardness: 30 Hit Dice: 15d20 (300 hp) Initiative Modifier: +4 Pilot’s Class Bonus: +3 Pilot’s Dex Modifier: +2 Gunner’s Attack Bonus: +2 Size: Colossal (–8 size) Tactical Speed: 4,000 ft. (7 sq.) Length: 120 feet Weight: 500 tons Targeting System Bonus: +5 Crew: 4 (trained +4) Passenger Capacity: 8 Cargo Capacity: 240 tons Grapple Modifier: +16

Base Purchase DC: 63 Restriction: Licensed (+1) Attack: 4 fire-linked plasma cannon –1 ranged

(28d8)Attack of Opportunity: None

Cronkite Design Specs:Engines: Induction engine, thrustersArmor: CerametalDefense Systems: Decoy drone launcher (4

drones)*, improved autopilot system, improved dam-age control system (2d10), radiation shielding, stealthscreen*

*obtained under questionable circumstances by acrew member with connections to the military

Sensors: Class V sensor array, improved target-ing system

Communications: Laser transceiver, mass trans-ceiver

Weapons: 4 fire-linked plasma cannon (rangeincr. 3,000 ft.)

Grappling Systems: Grapplers

1. Airlock - This is the Cronkite’s entrance andairlock. The lockers contain a number of survivalsuits (at least one per crew member) and other gearpotentially necessary for exploring planets.

2. Cockpit - The Cronkite is a single pilot ship(although many crew members have some pilot train-ing). The cockpit is cramped, reflecting the ship’soriginal incarnation as an escort. In combat, the pilotis also the gunner.

3. Medical Station - The typical standard PL 7medical station, capable of handling virtually anyemergency. A number of crewmembers have medicaltraining and can also consult with the station’s med-ical software suit, Doctor MD v 7.2 (this softwareimproves upon the Doctor MD software described inStarship 5 - The Havamàl by granting a +12 equip-ment bonus to the Treat Injury skill).

4. Bathroom - Fully equipped and very necessary.5. Mess Hall - Still referred to by its military

name, the mess hall features a kitchen, storage (foodfor the crew for two weeks) and a large dining tablethat also doubles as a conference table. The computerserves purely as an entertainment source.

6. Crew Quarters - The only downside to beingon the Cronkite is that this is the only place to sleep.Four triple bunks mean tight quarters and this meansthat everyone from the technician trainee to theanchor have to live in the same area, a fact resentedby almost everyone. As a result, most crewmembershave picked out choice locations in other parts of theship (such as sleeping in the recovery vans, in a ham-mock in the hangar bay, etc.).

7. Studio - This is where it all happens. Whenlive, the director/producer, technical director, and pro-duction assistant sit in the three forward chairs andattend to the production equipment (including theproduction and editing software and remote-con-trolled cameras) while a reporter sits at the news desk.When not live, the news desk is linked to the ship’sdatabase and is used by the reporters to do researchwhile the producer and assistants use the productionfacilities to create the various news programs that arethe hallmark of Channel 635.

8. News Drone Control - This large room isdevoted to controlling the Cronkite’s news drones; thecontrols for each drone are in front of each monitorand are usually controlled by crewmembers under thedirection of the director/producer or the technicaldirector. Feeds from individual drones are displayedon the various monitors even as they are stored in theroom’s massive database for later review, editing, ordeletion.

9. Communications - The ship’s communicationsystems can be monitored from the three fore com-puter stations while the ship’s engineer uses the aftstation to monitor the ship’s engineering and drivesystems.

10. Multi-Use Bays - These bays are used to storethe news drones and news/recovery vans when theyaren’t in action. Several crewmembers have alsostaked out areas in these bays as personal space.

5

THE CRONKITE

Starship Key

Adventure hooksBROADCAST NEWS

All’s fair in the broadcast game when theCronkite’s team goes head-to-head with rivalEyewitness News in a race to be the first to broad-cast the latest discovery by the famous xenobiolo-gist Dr. Nagesh’s from the remote planet MY-53.Sabotage, signal jamming, and even combat arebound to happen, and that is before the news teamsreach the planet. Once on the planet, things willonly get uglier.

STOP THE PRESSESSometimes, you see things that you shouldn’t

see. In this case, either one of the Cronkite’s probeshas recorded something it shouldn’t have, or mem-bers of the Cronkite’s news team were live in thewrong location at the wrong time. Whatever thecase, someone doesn’t want this discovery to go onthe air and they don’t care if they have to wasteeveryone on the ship to keep things quiet.

WHAT HAPPENED?While filming a nature documentary on a jungle

planet preserve one of the camera probes has gonemissing. It was working just fine and then it wasgone. Analysis of the recording shows some tanta-lizing hints, but nothing conclusive. So, it is up tothe Cronkite’s hard working recovery team (thePCs) to go get the camera drone and bring it back tothe ship.

What exactly happened to the camera drone isup to the GM. Here are some possibilities:

� A savage local creature mistook the drone forprey; the recovery team will make a nicedessert.

� Aliens (known or unknown) have a base inthe area. It could be a relic from an ancienttime, or active. Whatever the case, the base’sdefenses knocked out the probe; the recoveryteam will have to avoid the same fate.

� Someone is performing illegal genetic (orother) experiments in a secret laboratory andthe probe got a little close for comfort; therecovery team will make excellent experi-mental subjects.

� It’s a routine malfunction. Unfortunately, theenvironment planet-side is more hostile thanthe recovery team anticipates.

6

THE CRONKITE

Open Game LicenseOPEN GAME LICENSE Version 1.0aThe following text is the property of Wizards of the Coast, Inc. and is

Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc (“Wizards”). All Rights Reserved.1. Definitions: (a)”Contributors” means the copyright and/or trademark own-

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4. Grant and Consideration: In consideration for agreeing to use this License,the Contributors grant You a perpetual, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusivelicense with the exact terms of this License to Use, the Open Game Content.

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15 COPYRIGHT NOTICEOpen Game License v 1.0 Copyright 2000,Wizards of the Coast, Inc.

Modern System Reference Document Copyright 2002-2004, Wizards of theCoast, Inc.; Authors Bill Slavicsek, Jeff Grubb, Rich Redman, Charles Ryan, EricCagle, David Noonan, Stan!, Christopher Perkins, Rodney Thompson, and JDWiker, based on material by Jonathan Tweet, Monte Cook, Skip Williams, RichardBaker, Peter Adkison, Bruce R. Cordell, John Tynes, Andy Collins, and JD Wiker.

Future: Starship 7 – The Cronkite, copyright 2004 Michael Hammes.Published by Ronin Arts www.roninarts.com. Based on SkeletonKey Games’ e-Future Tiles sets – www.skeletonkeygames.com.

Future: Starship 7 – The Cronkite is copyright © 2004 Michael Hammes. All text in this book is designated as open game con-tent. You may not distribute this PDF without permission of the author. d20 Modern™ is a trademark of Wizards of the Coast,Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is used with permission. Wizards of the Coast® is a registered trademark of Wizards of theCoast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and is used with permission.

7

THE CRONKITE

TOP VIEW

SILHOUETTE VIEW – FRONT

CRONKITEModified Escort

8

THE CRONKITE

DECK PLAN

CRONKITEModified Escort

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1. Airlock2. Cockpit3. Medical Station4. Bathroom5. Mess Hall

6. Crew Quarters 7. Studio8. News Drone Control9. Communications10. Multi-Use Bays

9

THE CRONKITE

These camera drone and hover vancounters may be used with maps andminiatures that use a 1” = 5’ scale.These vehicles are designed to fitthrough the Cronkite’s bay doors.

The larger drones are sensor dronesfrom Starship 5 – they are includedhere as a bonus.

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