Captain Aubrey surveyed the deck of the captured sloop. He was amazed that such well run ship could crewed by such a motley gang of men. He turned to the doctor and wondered, 'No man is born into piracy. What were these many fellows before they took up the black flag? Surely they can not all share the same story.'

A survey of past and present space farers gives us a list of the 30 most common and or memorable small star ships encountered across the frontiers of human occupied space.

Bucky Batteries: when you need batteries to last a long long long time

A 100 piece of sci-fi minutia

Where Gods go to Grieve

The Priests of Droven are as near a thing the Dwarf city states of the Ven (Barrier) Mountains have to a central government. They enforce laws, arbitrate disputes, monitor trade, intern the dead and in all ways keep chaos at bay.

'I keep my sanity tied to my hip with very thin thread. Somedays when I am pushing through the throngs of people all staring at tiny screens in their heads or in their hands I start feel that thread slipping. On those days I know that my only salvation is docked at the spaceport. My savior is not some luxury liner or high speed transport filled with perfectly balanced environments and a history of 'punctuality'. This man's spaceport messiah is more often than not a century old craft whose airlock is caked with the mud of a hundred worlds, with a computer programed in a dead language and a captain that makes his living looking for the slimmest trade margins in the most distant stars. When I sign on to the crew of such a craft I feel my thread of sanity tighten. I know that when we break through that blue ceiling we will be passing the soul crushing civilized worlds and heading for the fainter stars.'

-J. Mitchell Overnantuck, Unlicensed Jump Drive Navigator

Ghostchasers are small nocturnal birds that have the ability to see what normal humans and most other animals cannot.

Anger is a great business, people will share it with you for free and if you're savvy enough, you can sell it back to them. The Rage Mages descended from Belligerus's early followers have found that modern world has just as much use for anger and magic as the ancient world.

After she ate the middle part of my wife's body she gestured me out the door. Then she paddled me to the den of the Sage. All the while I stared at her rune marked back, my hand on the hilt of my sword, and I thought of my father and the hens.

'Sivver is the common name given to crystalline parasites, which interact with the nervous systems of carbon based Chordate life forms.'

Definition of the word Sivver provided by the Galactic Scouting Guild's Almanac

'The Sivvers are an alien weapon that turns people into murderous glass sweating zombies.'

Uwell Ofmobile, retired Galactic Scout

All dwarves in the Ven mountains are familiar with this simple game. Though elaborate and colorful game board have been craft, the game is simple enough that you could out line a board in the dirt and play with four handfuls of stones.

Nowadays there is no such animal as a non -combatant

German zeppelin corps commander Peter Strasser explaining that those who provide the materials of war are just as dangerous as those that fight the wars.

An army marches on its stomach.

Napolean Bonaparte

All you need to stop a brain is a bullet.

Giant Robotic spider that loves farming, Buddhism and selling weapons of mass destruction. The cosmic era.

A creation myth that sets up a Job like contest between the gods for the souls men. It explains the origins of monsters, magic, death and demi-humans.

Necromancers have a common answer to most questions. This is a spell that one Necromancer invented in order to answer the question, "How do I get off this ship?".

Beard grooming is a life-long process divided between two schools of thought: harsh mineral treatments or more the natural approach. The popular naturalist approach requires beard-spiders that live off lice, fleas and other small insects.

An annotated play list for Bards, Musical Mages, Sirens, and Supernatural Musicians regardless of time frame or setting.

Even evil gets lonely.

Being the first human to step off the wrung of a ship's ladder and onto the living breathing soil of a new planet spoils you for every other form of thrill or experience. I am not kidding. We have support groups in the Galactic Scouting Guild. Those untouched garden goldilocks worlds are few and far between, and once you land on one...well...there will always be a part of you standing in that airlock and sweating in your encounter suit right before the door rolls open.

-Phelan OverGao, Galactic Scout