Freelance Traveller

Vacc Suit

reviewed by Timothy Collinson

This article originally appeared in the July 2013 issue.

Vacc Suit. Paul Elliott.
Zozer Games http://zozer.weebly.com
12pp, PDF
FREE

A staple of science fiction settings, the Vacc Suit is often a critical piece of equipment for any well-equipped Traveller. In TL8 or TL9 space settings they become more than vital as survival in the vacuum of space can be on a knife-edge at the best of times. This short PDF is designed as a supplement for Zozer’s Orbital setting (reviewed in Freelance Traveller in March 2013 and in The Journal of the Travellers’ Aid Society, April 6, 2013) and as such limits itself to TL8 and TL9 designs of EVA suits. While Traveller technologies are generally at a much higher level, there are enough worlds where this might be the best tech available that makes this of much wider interest.

Once the front and back covers, two pages of Open Game Licence, the imprint page and a page of preface forewarning of Orbital’s arrival are counted, this PDF has six pages of content. The introduction differentiates between hard and soft suits, gives notes on building your own suit with a page of optional features presented as an equipment list. There are short notes on Hostile Environment Suits, suit colours, living in such suits and tasks for donning them.

The front cover has a NASA image of someone at work in space that surprisingly is a computer rendered image rather than a photo. The back page, in as much as PDFs have the things, is an advert for the (then) forthcoming Orbital with the cover of that volume as its main image.

That’s it. It’s short and to the point and only hints at the quality of Zozer’s more recent larger publications, but at a price point of free and as an introduction to the near Earth, near future setting, it must be worth any Traveller fan downloading it!