• Core Space
  • Sci-Fi

Welcome to Trading Post 5

10th February 2023

Welcome to Trading Post 5

It can’t be all daring escapes, snatching loot, and defying a deadly alien race. Sometimes your Traders just need somewhere to rest, restock, down a few beers, tell tall tales and, well, trade.

Fortunately for them, Daric has established the finest Trade Post in the First Born system on a handily placed asteroid. Sure, it’s also the only post in the system, but don’t say that to the retired Trader’s face.

As frontier settlements always do, the post has drawn in outsiders desperate enough to try their luck somewhere new. Some are there to keep a low profile, others to seek their fortune and there is even an Agent of the Galactic Corps keeping a wary eye on developments in the system. Then there’s Qiog who simply showed up one day. Nobody knows what it wants, or frankly, what it even is.

(There are some clues in the ‘A Growing Business‘ scenario released as part of our regular free Mission Monday scenarios…)

Retired Trader, Daric and his faithful companion, Mixer

Expand your game with the Trading Post 5 expansion

The Trading Post 5 expansion brings a host of new features to your games of First Born. As you’ve come to expect, the expansion comes with it’s own mini campaign that is designed to get the most out of the set. It turns out that abandoned asteroid Daric chose was more occupied that he realised and it’s up to your Traders to secure the Post and repel the threat. So much for a nice quiet break!

In addition to the shops and cargo in pre-fab containers, the set also comes with drop crates that you can call in for a critical resupply of gear mid-mission. These can be a real life-saver late in a mission when you’re running low on ammo and health, or need some new firepower.

One way to do that is to persuade one of the nine NPCs included in the set to do it for you. Of course, some of the NPCs are more friendly than others. The expansion includes hardened Gangers like Yeti, Galactic Corps Agent Zara, a pair of machines and a new auxiliary character in the form of Mixer – with a number of them being available for hire as part of your crew. You probably won’t be surprised to learn that Daric makes an excellent Trader.

The set can also add to games outside of your Core Space adventures, making excellent terrain for games like Star Wars legion, sci-fi RPGs and the wastes of Necromunda.

Get the expansion

Visit our store to get hold of your copy.


Meet the inhabitants of Trading Post 5

DAric and Mixer

Name: Daric Macolan
Species: Human
Age: 67

Daric is that rare type of Trader – a retired one. After losing both legs in a particularly gruesome encounter with the Purge and having to perform self-surgery using what was at hand – a Quell leg and a Purge Devastator leg! – he became a self-styled ‘business man’ and has opened up trading posts in various guises over the years. He is sole proprietor of Trading Post 5 and is like an avuncular rattlesnake, one moment regaling his customers with tall tales, the next dispatching miscreants with the toe of his mismatched foot. Rather than replace the legs with more suitable cybernetics he has maintained them, using a blood filter to keep the Quell leg alive and wiring the Devastator leg into his own nervous system.

Name: Mixer
Species: Genetic hybrid
Age: Unknown

Mixer is a genetic hybrid, part dog, part monkey, part who knows? Although a dumb animal Mixer is very bright and seems to understand many commands. She has a particular loyalty for Daric who rescued her from an illegal gene lab.

Yeti

Name: Kal-Hee-Yet
Species: Kalieh
Age: 106 (unverified)

Yeti is a Kalieh, a species of small, extremely robust creatures known as much for their tall tales as their resilience. They like to embroider facts which makes them persona non gratis in polite society but extremely popular when spinning tales during drinking sessions. Usually gregarious the Kalieh are notoriously temperamental and can switch from laughing and joking to absolute fury within moments. Yeti acts as ship Tech but can double as support as he is considerably stronger than his size implies. His temperament has gotten him into some tough scrapes but his charm has gotten him out of even more. Yeti has no immediate family and is in many ways a drifter, one that happens to find the Trader life suitable for his needs.

Nerida

Name: Nerida Malenky
Species: Human (Mutant)
Age: 26

Although often mistaken for an alien Nerida is a Human mutant. The severity of her mutation is unknown to most as she covers up in public and was most likely to have been caused by her parents living near badly maintained power coils in the slum quarter of a Hive station.

She shrugs off prejudice and has carved a reputation as an able crewman who can take on any role. Excited by the idea of a new and dangerous adventure she has travelled to the First Born system to join any crew hardy enough to risk it all.

XL

Name: XLM-26
Species: Machine (Human origin)
Age: 30-50

The XLM is a heavy duty general purpose unit, designed for lifting and loading. It has a reinforced alloy, pneumatics and chassis, heavy duty motors and strengthened joints. The model came in medium and large sizes with the XLM being the largest humanoid machine for the general market. It was mostly aimed at space stations and farms where heavy lifting was required. At its height hundreds of thousands of units were produced but since the company making them went bust they have become much rarer. They are a solid machine with readily available replacement parts but are quite maintenance intensive.

XLM-26, known only as XL, has been a Trader machine for a number of years. Although it seems to be sentient it has never expressed an interest in its own freedom. However, like many machines it has expressed a distaste for shooting at living creatures. Despite this it will follow orders without question. It has a collection of small kawaii animal dolls that it keeps in a cupboard. No one knows why.

Lohbac

Name: Lohbac
Species: App’a
Age: 40

Lohbac is a captain without a ship or crew after a recent encounter with the Purge. He is from an inhospitable world that has huge oceans and rocky islands and although he has gills he can’t actually breathe underwater, the gills are just evolutionary remnants. He can breathe the standard air in Human habitats but wears a re-breather that gives him a regular whiff of nitrogen. He also has to regularly rub unguents onto his skin to stop it from drying out. He is stronger than the average Human and enjoys the occasional bar fight.

Stilts

Name: Stilts
Species: Machine (Human origin)
Age: Unknown

Stilts was a packing droid whose only purpose was to work 24 hours a day in a large warehouse. A heavy package falling off a high shelf onto its cranium ensured that Stilts would leave that life, wandering out into the night and ending up in the local woods where it stayed for several months. A scrap merchant found it with nearly all its charge depleted and instead of returning it to the warehouse repaired and sold the machine to a passing Trader. Stilts now serves as a staff member at Trading Post 5 and is content to follow all orders, as anything is better than the warehouse.

Zara

Name: Zara Tahmin
Species: Human
Age: 30

Special Agent Zara has been commissioned by the Galactic Corps to be their eyes and ears on developments in the First Born system. She has posted herself at Trading Post 5, and spends her days pretending to drink at the bar but observes all. The local riff raff avoid her although they are aware she has no interest in their petty criminal activities. Daric tolerates her presence as it never hurts to have a well armed militia on hand.

QIOG

Name: Qiog
Species: Unknown
Age: Unknown

A strange mix of plant and animal life Qiog turned up at Trading Post 5 shortly after the Lagrange gate opened and has been there ever since. Believed to be local to the First Born system, no one knows what it wants. Although it seems to understand any language spoken to it Qiog only seems to communicate by physical intimidation. Special Agent Zara keeps a very close eye on it.

Want even more?

If you’re looking to create a bigger settlement you can add our Trader Encampment terrain set which adds even more habs and shops, plus a set of ruined catacombs.