The manifest listed forty-seven items. Sella read it twice, cross-referencing against memory. Forty-six were accounted for. The forty-seventh was a Funtari gravity pistol, still in its factory sleeve, still technically legal in Confederacy space. They were not in Confederacy space. They were two jumps from Irnan territory, hauling cargo for a Directorate customs broker who was almost certainly also an intelligence officer. Sella closed the manifest, reopened it, and stared at the number forty-seven.
She could jettison it. She could hide it. She could bribe the inspector if it came to that. Or she could accept that carrying the wrong gear in the wrong place was simply the oldest tax on operating outside the core worlds.
She closed the manifest and went to find the captain.
Every crew in the Verge carries gear that tells a story. Not just the story the owner wants to tell, though that is part of it. A vibroblade worn openly on a station docking arm says something different than one tucked beneath a flight jacket. A Jaziri devotional pistol engraved with judgment scripture says something different from the same caliber weapon bought off a station vendor rack. The battered field kit patched with Shoiyan recycled-carbon seals says the mechanic has been working salvage runs in Concord territory long enough to know where parts actually come from.
The gear you carry is a record. It records where you have been, who you work for or who you once worked for, what you can afford, and what you are willing to be seen holding. Border inspectors read gear the way archivists read documents. Faction quartermasters read it the way negotiators read body language. Crew members read each other's loadouts the first day aboard and draw conclusions that take months to correct.
This book is the comprehensive equipment reference for crews operating in the Verge. It covers personal weapons, armor, tools, survival gear, sensors, communications hardware, shipboard cargo equipment, faction-monopoly technology, restricted electronics, medical supplies, services, licenses, and the shadow economy that exists wherever legal supply fails to meet demand. If your character can carry it, buy it, steal it, bribe someone for access to it, or have it confiscated at a checkpoint, this book covers it.
What This Book Is
The Void Drifters Equipment Guide is a reference volume, not a rulebook. The core Exodus NDS rules govern how items function mechanically. This book tells you what exists in the Verge, where you can find it, what it costs, who made it, and what it means to own it.
Prices listed here are baselines: the going rate at a mid-sized independent station with reasonable competition and no unusual scarcity. The chapter on Credits, Availability, and Legality explains in detail how prices shift by location and faction jurisdiction. A weapon listed at 400 credits is a reference point, not a law of physics. On a fringe colony three weeks from the nearest major hub, that same weapon might cost 600 credits and require knowing the right person. In a Funtari Confederacy surplus market, it might go for 320 if you are willing to accept used condition.
Legality is treated separately from availability throughout this book. Something can be available and illegal. It can be legal to own and illegal to carry in certain jurisdictions. It can be legal to purchase in one power's territory and become contraband the moment your ship crosses an invisible line in space that neither party polices consistently. The distinction matters. The Availability and Legality chapter maps the legal terrain of all five major powers and fringe space. The Services, Licenses, and Bribes chapter covers the practical mechanics of navigating that terrain day to day.
Equipment as Character
A crew's combined loadout is a portrait of the group. Consider what the gear reveals before you select it.
A character carrying only Common-availability gear is either new, broke, cautious, or all three. Common gear is available everywhere, which means it raises no flags at checkpoints and costs nothing in legal exposure. It also signals a crew that has not had the connections, the cash flow, or the need to access anything more specialized. That is a story in itself.
A character carrying several Rare or Restricted items is someone with connections, history, or both. Where did the Antaean stealth rifle come from? Who issued the permit for the Irnan enforcement blade? Is the permit genuine? A single Restricted item in a loadout is a question mark. Multiple Restricted items suggest answers that checkpoint inspectors will want explained.
Faction-marked gear is the most loaded category. Carrying official Jaziri Caliphate covenant armor in Shoiyan Concord space is not merely a legal question, it is a statement of allegiance that neither party will interpret as neutral. Carrying Directorate-marked equipment in Antaean League territory is walking into a conversation you may not have intended to start. Some crews use this deliberately, trading on faction associations to open doors. Others make a point of carrying nothing that could be misread. Both choices are character choices.
Species-specific gear adds another layer. An Ilyari precision pistol in the hands of a Dhoran is not merely uncomfortable; it is a conversation piece. Ssarathi coil-harness weapons worn by anyone with legs are conspicuously non-functional. Felina claw extensions on a human are obviously decorative. Pay attention to what the gear was built for. Sometimes carrying the wrong species' gear is flavor. Sometimes it is practical necessity. Sometimes it is a cover story.
How the Five Powers Shape the Market
The Verge is not a single market. It is five overlapping markets, each shaped by the monopoly technologies, legal traditions, and cultural priorities of the major powers. Between them lies fringe space, which is its own category: what the powers do not control, the fringe absorbs and redistributes without ceremony.
The Irnan Directorate treats personal equipment as a security matter by default. Checkpoint inspections are thorough and documented. Every item scanned goes into a record. Directorate inspectors are specifically trained to identify non-registered tech, unauthorized continuity stacks, Antaean cloaking components, and weapons rated above personal defense. Carrying Restricted gear in Directorate space requires a permit issued by Directorate licensing authority, which requires a background check, a registration fee, and a wait that may or may not resolve in your favor. Directorate-manufactured equipment carries embedded serial tags; altering or removing those tags is itself a serious crime. The Directorate does not consider the laws of origin to be relevant. What matters is whether the item is legal where it is found.
The Funtari Confederacy takes a substantially looser approach to personal equipment, with two significant exceptions. Anti-gravity technology is a Confederacy monopoly and is controlled at export: hover discs, gravity weapons, and anti-grav field generators require Confederacy export licensing to leave Confederacy space legally. Personal weapons are relatively unregulated by Verge standards. Confederacy citizens own firearms at high rates, inspection culture is light, and the Confederacy's engineering ethos tends toward "if it works, it is probably fine." The Confederacy's loose internal regulation also makes it a significant source for gray-market equipment flowing to the fringe.
The Shoiyan Concord cares less about what you carry and more about what you are carrying it in. Continuity stack registration is mandatory in Concord space: if you have a continuity stack implant, it must be registered with Concord biotech registry or you are operating illegally regardless of what else you are or are not carrying. The Concord also restricts Shoiyan Pulse technology at export: pulse weapons and memory disruption devices require Concord authorization to leave Concord territory. For everything else, the Concord is pragmatic. If it is not a weapon of mass destruction, not an unregistered continuity stack, and not Shoiyan proprietary military tech, the Concord's inspectors are likely to wave it through.
The Jaziri Caliphate approaches equipment through a theological lens that surprises outsiders who encounter it for the first time. The Caliphate does not simply restrict certain items on legal grounds; it categorizes them by religious status. Some items are sanctified, meaning they carry the blessing of the faith and may only be carried by the faithful or by those who have received formal dispensation. Some items are profane, meaning they are forbidden regardless of their legal status elsewhere. True AGI hardware falls into a special category: AGI is considered divine in Caliphate theology, and unauthorized possession of AGI components is treated as a religious crime as well as a civil one. Caliphate import restrictions are administered by a combination of civil customs officers and religious inspectors, and the two do not always agree on what a given item is.
The Antaean League has the most permissive personal weapons laws of any major power. League citizens carry weapons openly, and the culture treats personal armament as a sign of self-sufficiency rather than a threat. What the League restricts is different: Antaean cloaking technology is a carefully controlled export, and League intelligence maintains detailed records of where cloaking components go. Unauthorized cloaking tech outside League space is taken very seriously by League intelligence services, and the League has a long memory. Carrying Antaean cloaking equipment without documentation is less a problem in League space than anywhere else, but it is a significant red flag to every other power's security services.
Fringe space has no unified legal framework. Independent stations, colony settlements, and unclaimed territory operate by local custom, the law of whoever has the most weapons, and the practical necessity of making deals with whatever supply lines exist. In practice, most things are available in fringe space if you know who to talk to. What is not available is legal protection if something goes wrong.
Species and Equipment Access
Not all items in this book are equally accessible to all species. Some items are purpose-built for specific physiologies:
Ilyari benefit from precision-machined equipment calibrated for fine motor control but may struggle with items designed for larger frames. Items marked Ilyari-frame fit Ilyari characters without penalty; non-Ilyari suffer fit penalties at GM discretion.
Ssarathi cannot wear leg-based armor or boots and have limited use for equipment that requires bipedal operation. Ssarathi-specific gear uses coil harnesses and full-body wraps. Items marked Ssarathi-frame are designed for their body plan.
Felina have digitigrade legs that make standard boots uncomfortable and standard leg armor ill-fitting. Items marked Felina-frame account for this. Felina also have retractable claws that interfere with certain grip-sensitive equipment.
Dhoran are simply too large for most standard equipment. Standard armor, standard vehicle seats, and most standard tools were not built with Dhoran dimensions in mind. Items marked Dhoran-frame are either designed for or specifically rated for Dhoran use.
Humans are the reference frame for "standard" equipment throughout this book. This does not mean human equipment is better; it means the Verge's most common commercial market calibrates to human proportions because humans are the most widely distributed species across all five powers and fringe space.
In This Chapter and What Comes After
The chapters ahead are organized to support both reference use and cover-to-cover reading.
Chapter 2: How to Use This Book explains stat block formats, encumbrance, availability tags, and item quality references. Read this chapter before using any stat blocks.
Chapter 3: Credits, Availability, and Legality covers the economic and legal terrain of the Verge in full. This chapter contains the jurisdiction tables, the legal category definitions, and the practical mechanics of bribery, permits, and customs friction.
Chapters 4 and 5: Weapons and Armor are the core personal combat gear catalogs. Both chapters organize items by category and include full stat blocks with flavor descriptions.
Chapters 6 through 9 cover the non-combat gear that makes long-haul crew work possible: tools, survival equipment, sensors, communications hardware, and shipboard cargo systems.
Chapter 10: Teleport, Hover, and Restricted Tech covers faction-monopoly technology, specifically the zero-point wormhole devices from the Irnan Directorate, anti-gravity hardware from the Funtari Confederacy, and continuity stack technology from the Shoiyan Concord. These items exist at the intersection of faction control and black market demand.
Chapters 11 and 12 cover services, licenses, bribes, and the black market economy that exists wherever legal supply falls short.
Chapter 13: Item Qualities and Modifications is the complete rules reference for all item qualities used in stat blocks throughout the book, plus the modification system for customizing gear.
Chapters 14 through 16 cover trade goods and salvage, the equipment quick reference, and the index.
A note on GM-only content: some items and some tables in this book are marked with [GM] to indicate information intended for the Game Moderator rather than players. These sections cover price manipulation, black market sourcing difficulties, and information about what factions actually know about contraband in their territory that characters would not reasonably have access to.
The Weight of What You Carry
In the Verge, gear is autobiography. The collection of things a crew carries, the brands scratched off the side panels, the models that stopped being manufactured a decade ago, the items still in manufacturer packaging versus items that have been field-repaired six times, these details tell you more about a crew than any dossier.
A brand-new crew with factory-fresh Common gear is either well-funded and cautious or simply new. A veteran crew whose gear shows five years of patches, replacements, and improvised modifications has a history in every dent. The Antaean operative who carries nothing faction-marked is working hard to be invisible. The Jaziri covenant soldier who carries scripture-engraved weapons openly is making a statement of faith that is also a statement of allegiance that is also a threat assessment for anyone who can read what the engravings mean.
Use this book the way a good crew uses a manifest: not as a shopping list, but as a map of what is possible and what it costs, in credits, in legal exposure, and in what people assume about you when they see what you carry.