In August 2025 we politely revived (for a second time!) our April 2022 Hostile Bundle featuring Hostile, the Cepheus Engine SFRPG of deep-space alien horror from Zozer Games. And we added an all-new companion offer, Hostile Hot Zones.
Based on the Cepheus Engine rules (the leading retro-clone of Classic Traveller), Paul Elliott’s Hostile is a gritty retro-future setting inspired by movies like Outland, Blade Runner, and Alien – a universe of harsh planets and toxic atmospheres – claustrophobic space freighters and brutal industrial colonies – ancient horrors entombed on icy moons – killer ETs, perfectly evolved to survive at any cost. Whether you’re a combat-weary veteran or a miner on a grungy corporate star tug deep in the Extraction Zones, Hostile pits you against deadly hazards in an unforgiving void where no one can hear you scream.
Paul Elliott writes nonfiction books on ancient military history (Warrior Cults, Everyday Life of a Soldier on Hadrian’s Wall) and is active in Roman historical reconstruction and re-enactment groups in Yorkshire, UK. He brought this experience to RPGs with the historically accurate 43AD and the sword-and-sorcery Zenobia. In gaming Paul has also written for Fria Ligan (Alien Colonial Marines) and GURPS (Atomic Horror), but he has poured his heart into Classic Traveller and its modern retro-clone, the Cepheus Engine. Hostile, in particular, expands any Cepheus or Traveller game with its supplements for planetary survival, colony building, cargo hauling, and let’s not forget all those killer aliens.
This revived April 2022 Hostile Bundle once again presented the core rulebooks and early supplements for an unbeatable bargain price – an obviously generous and well-meaning gesture. There were four titles in this revived offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $46), including the complete Hostile Rules and Setting corebooks, the Gunlocker weapon guide (that will come in handy, trust us), the Cepheus Handouts, and the Referee’s Screen.
Those who paid more than this revival’s threshold (average) price also got this revived offer’s entire Bonus Collection with eight more titles worth an additional $56 that help build out your pitiless universe:
- Three guides to survival on bad worlds that don’t want you: Explorers, Dirtside, and Colony Builder
- Two bestiaries about entities that really, really do want you: Alien Breeds and Synthetics
- Two full-scale hardware and vehicle guides: Gunboats & Shuttles and Marine Corps Handbook 2215
- A campaign framework well described by its title: Crew Expendable
