Here's what a star currently looks like in Intergalactic Bastionland.
Remember, this isn't space as we know it, so here the usual black void is replaced with wadable dust and industrial smog, golden highways cleared for smooth travel.
The stars themselves are alive, the clue's in the name really, and they impose their philosophy through boons and banes.
But what's a star without some worlds to visit? This one has twelve, so here's a super early draft of number five.
You've got people, places, and an origins section that acts as a rapid-fire lifepath for new characters. Roll three worlds that make up your life before now, where you were born, made, and broken. These each give you a skill and some other stuff. Yes, watercraft is a very niche skill.
LAPRINS A sunken maze beneath a frozen crust.
WORLD PROFILE Class: Ice Giant Atmos: Pale clouds of ice shards Pop: Ten-thousands Surface: Dense crust of blue glass-like ice Market: Corporate Extractor Reqs: Vacc suit
PLACES
1: Lazuli Depot - Low orbit station handling all off-world trade. Corporate brokers from across the system bicker over crystal allocations and trading terms. Also has a nice small coffee shop. Refined crystals (Unstable Mineral, 3F, +1 Sale Value) can be bought here, but supply is starting to dry up until a new vein can be found.
2: The Crystal Mine - Under the maze, pockets of crystals, ripe for refinement. Highly psychotropic in raw form, presenting idealised visions of the future. Miners will sell these on the side (Fragile Ware, 7F, +1 Sale Value). The mine always needs more labour but the work is dangerous, using colossal crustaceans as beasts of burden.
3: The Shark Cage - Heavy bunker, dropped on the crust to monitor the mining operation via a crude mob of hired muscle. Doubles as an extremely feisty bar. Gambling is based around sticking appendages into hyper-cooled liquids (d12 burn per turn).
4: The Maze - A sprawl of trenches deep in the crust-topped ocean, origin unknown. A natural field preserves a dome of air over it. The Maze hates anybody exploring it, sending d6 invisible enforcers (Force 12, 2gd, d8 crush) to repel those who don’t offer proper respect on their visit. Mysterious maze-dwelling people technically own this world.
5: Caleb Tango Memorial Lodge - Dusty old lodge selling gigantic seafood and exploration supplies. Named for the first offworlder to die exploring the Maze. Doesn’t get many visitors. A bored sales attendant amuses themselves by being as unhelpful as possible, knowing they won’t get fired.
6: The Feet of the Elevatrix - An urban sprawl, clinging to the base of the space elevator that connects to Lazuli Depot. Broken miners want out, naive youngsters want in, claiming there’s opportunity to be had when a world hits rock bottom.
PEOPLE
1: Naradutch, Corporate Chronicler Observation 12, Climbing 15, Social Cues 2, 3gd, grey chitin, four long spindly legs, cheerful Concealed pistol (d6 pierce), even more concealed beampistol (d8 burn) Reports to corporate clients through the wire, selling the latest news and gossip.
2: Riff, Head of the Broken Miners Machinery 15, Camaraderie 13, Toil 7, 4gd, rocklike but soft physique, weary growl Mining beam (d10 burn, static), hand pick (d6 pierce), vacc suit Heads up a group of injured miners striving for better work conditions.
3: Martha Shark, Efficiency Enforcer Brutality 16, Economics 10, Fish 8, 3gd, sharklike physique, aggressively self-pitying Tornado gun (d8 crush, blast), electro hammer (d10 burn, hefty), mech suit (A3) Knows the mine isn’t operating as well as it should.
4: Arinther, the First Maze Dweller Mystique 15, Ruthlessness 10, Flowers 5, 5gd, blue and rubbery, immune to cold, obtuse Crystalsword (2d6 burn), power suit (A2) Wants to sell out the mine to a more effective company. Driven by profit.
5: Charto-96, Artifact Hunting Machine Adventure 15, History 6, Explosives 10, 8gd, clanking body, exposed wires, gruff Pneumatic fists (d10 crush each), rope launcher, metal body (A2). Wants to uncover the mysteries of the Maze, and to stop others doing it first.
6: The Master of the Elevatrix Genetics 14, Smalltalk 4, Memory 7, 2gd, long limbs and grey fur Shock stave (d8 burn, long), ceremonial wings (flightless) Controls transit to and from Lazuli Depot. Driven to protect the Elevatrix as his ancestors did.
ORIGINS
Born - Born in the maze, you learned to turn its hazards to your own purposes. Skill: Traps. You are blue, rubbery and suffer no harm from extreme cold.
Made - You ferried ultra dense crystals through channels cleared in the ice. Skill: Watercraft. Sack of ice picks (d8 pierce, hefty), breaker bombs (2d8 crush, blast)
Broken - You were cast into the maze by Martha Shark but found your way out. Skill: Pathfinding. Vision pills (super-enhanced vision, lasts 1 hour, mild hallucinations afterwards)
Elsewhere
I’m tangentially involved in two crowdfunding campaigns that are happening right now.
A Perfect Wife is a supergroup collaboration between Zedeck, Amanda, and Scrap, which will see them flown into the UK for an event in March, which I’ll also be at. The zine itself looks fantastic too.
Beside the Lesser Travelled Road is a system agnostic book of camping locations, which I’ll be contributing too if it reaches its stretch goals.
Coming Soon
Over on Patreon I talk about journeying through space.
As with the trade system, I think any space travel system prompts the question "okay but why?"
You've got niche stuff like "how many hours does it take to get to the moon of this planet" where 99% of the time I don't care, but if you're racing to catch/escape from somebody then it becomes an important roll.
Expect the full post here and on the blog next week.
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I love the concept of dividing the origins between Born, Made, and Broken.