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Orbital 2100

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Orbital 2100 is a science fiction setting for Cepheus Engine and other Classic 2D6 SF games. It has a realistic (TL 9) feel that is set within our own solar system. The Earth us locked in a Cold War with the people of Luna. Both face off,  400,000 km apart, threatening mutual annihilation whilst they compete to colonise the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Older colonies such as Mars and Mercury are independent and caught up in this struggle for solar system supremacy. Spacecraft use nuclear thermal rockets and create gravity by spinning pods or centrifuges, this is spaceflight as envisaged today!

In keeping with the near-future and hard-science fiction themes, role-playing campaigns focus on real people doing real jobs. The game has rules, technology and advice to allow scenarios based around deep space haulage, asteroid mining, salvage, rescue and exploration.

Should the referee and players decide to stick with the default campaign premise for Orbital, then the player characters will be spacers, the rough and tough crew of a deep space vehicle owned by a corporation that leases its spacecraft out to agencies, individuals and corporations. Like the crew of a salvage or heavy lift ship today, the characters will find themselves engaged in diverse, challenging and dangerous jobs with every mission. 

One month may involve dropping a cargo of habitat modules into the Martian atmosphere, a few months later it could be salvaging a robotic drilling rig in the asteroid belt that has come to the end of its useful life. The emphasis is on ‘being in space’, working in space and dealing with all of the challenges that operating in the solar system throws at them. The referee can put all kinds of obstacles in the way of PCs, making the outcome of a mission always uncertain. It will be ingenuity, resourcefulness, skill and bravery that will see them right in the end – or alternatively, asphyxiated, frozen, irradiated, boiled, depressurized or out of a job!

Requires the use of the Cepheus Engine or other Classic 2D6 SF rules-set. 

Orbital 2100 features:

  • History of events up to 2100 AD and the causes of the Cold War
  • Organisations; 35 corporations, crime gangs, NGOs and agencies
  • Guidance on creating suitable TL 9 characters
  • Rules for designing and operating deep space vehicles
  • Rules for designing orbital craft and launch rockets
  • Hardware and how it works; from vacc suits to rovers, lunar landers to mass drivers, airlocks, oxygen mining units and plenty more
  • Habitats, space stations, outposts and O’Neill colonies
  • Ways to Die in Space
  • How to Establish a Colony
  • Rules for striking it rich as a Belt miner
  • UWP stats for all significant bodies in the solar system
  • Complete write-ups for all the planets and main moons
  • How to run a game of Orbital; what do characters do?
  • NPCs and plot ideas
  • Alien ruins on Mars, SETI transmissions ... 
  • Reviews of movies, books and online resources that add to the game

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Reviews (2)
Discussions (9)
Customer avatar
Jared K August 07, 2023 12:03 pm UTC
Hey Paul, I saw that a few months ago, you mentioned that a rewrite of Orbital 2100 with bookmarks and rule updates might come around sometime this year. Is that still the case?
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Customer avatar
Paul E September 04, 2023 8:17 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
We are holding off for now while Mongoose decide what they will do with their open licence. Orbital might end up a a Mongoose Traveller supplement or as a stand alone game using the tried Hostile rules.
Customer avatar
Julen M December 06, 2022 12:36 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi there

To play this game and its "expansions", like Far Horizon or Outpost Mars, alone? The SOLO module for Ceheus made by you is the correct thing to use?
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Customer avatar
Paul E December 06, 2022 5:01 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
To play Orbital 2100 and its supplements, you will need a copy of Moon Toad’s Cepheus Engine OR Mongoose Traveller 1st edition (the black cover).

Solo is a solo add-on for Cepheus, or any version of Traveller out there!
Customer avatar
John A January 09, 2022 10:51 am UTC
PURCHASER
Disappointed the 239 page PDF isn't bookmarked at all.
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Customer avatar
Paul E December 06, 2022 4:59 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I think a rewrite, with included rules and fully bookmarked will be something for later in 2023.
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Customer avatar
John A December 20, 2022 6:59 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Cheers Paul, it does make a big difference.
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Customer avatar
Paul E December 20, 2022 7:04 pm UTC
PUBLISHER
I definitely agree. Orbital was one of my earlier books and bookmarking was something I did not know how to do at the time. I've since learnt exactly how to do it efficiently.
Customer avatar
Antonio M February 26, 2019 6:24 pm UTC
PURCHASER
Hi Paul.

Do you foresee to keep on expanding the Orbital 2100 setting some time in the future?

Thanks!
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Customer avatar
Paul E September 06, 2019 10:12 am UTC
PUBLISHER
In a way my later setting HOSTILE is the Orbital setting, 125 years later ... but with the caveat of hyperspace and anti-gravity.
Customer avatar
Jimmie R I April 05, 2018 7:06 pm UTC
Does "Orbital" include the "Far Horizon" material or are these two different things?
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Customer avatar
Jimmie R I April 06, 2018 7:11 pm UTC
disregard the above (can't delete the post for some reason)
Customer avatar
Michael H April 03, 2017 3:21 pm UTC
Is this a complete game or is the Cepheus Engine required too?
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Customer avatar
Ian S May 04, 2017 4:58 pm UTC
PURCHASER
CE is required to play this (which of course is PWYW)
Customer avatar
Pierre S March 17, 2017 9:37 pm UTC
I played with a group that used the previous version (with Mongoose Traveller rules). It is a great setting, a grinding pre-FTL and even pre-Gravity drive setting where it takes months to get to the outer planets. Emphasis is on ensuring survival supplies, maintenance and guarding against disasters while in deep space. Add to this the tensions as the Earth government and its rival the Lunar government carve up colonies across the whole solar system.
Customer avatar
John K January 20, 2017 11:32 pm UTC
PURCHASER
I've been trying to reach Paul to find out how to use the 50% discount for having purchased the previous version. Does anyone know if he's away from his email? Thx
Customer avatar
Nicholas C January 08, 2017 9:39 pm UTC
does anyone know how much this version differs from the original Orbital book?
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This title was added to our catalog on September 18, 2016.