Most power is drawn from the stars, stored in condensed stellar fragments, commonly called frags. These double as a universal currency for major transactions.
Low-power devices can be powered by a single frag indefinitely, consuming its energy slower than it passively recharges itself. High-power devices like ships utterly consume entire frags.
SUITS AND HELMETS
Only one suit and one helmet can be worn at once. They grant an Armour score and may cause attacks of a certain type to be Impaired. Powered suits require a frag to function. Static suits only offer protection when stationary.
Enviro Suit: Made for extreme conditions Battle Suit: A1 Mesh Suit: Impair Pierce Hard Suit: Impair Crush Rad Suit: Impair Burn Cloak Suit: Impair non-Blast Ranged, Static Flak Suit: Impair Blast Ranged, Static Kinetic Suit: Impair Melee, Static Power Suit: A2, Powered Titan Suit: A3, Powered, cannot run
Boats can be flown by a single pilot, typically with a few support crew. They are built for in-system travel.
Ships require dozens of crew under a captain. They can use gates to travel to neighbouring systems.
Arks are rare, colossal craft, requiring hundreds of crew. Their drives can jump to neighbouring systems without need for a gate.
MACHINES
Any piece of technology able to think for itself is classified as a machine. If you aren’t sure, ask them. They’ll let you know.
They typically fall into one of three types.
MAINFRAMES: The largest, most advanced machines. They are very good at knowing things and getting modules to work together, but lack any real capability of their own.
MODULES: Due to a collective pact, modules each fill a specialist role, and no one module can do everything. Spacecraft tend to have an array of modules working under a mainframe. They are typically portable but lack mobility of their own. Often they’re built right into a piece of equipment.
MOBILES: These machines are mobile and independent enough to essentially function as people. With sapient life being so diverse this is seen as unremarkable.
Many work for the joy of being useful, while others demand their share of the frags. This is a source of much inter-machine tension.
COMMUNICATION
The most suitable method of communication depends on the distance, urgency, and secrecy of the message.
PINGING: Machines can ping each other for an instant line of secure communication. These reach anywhere within a world and its orbit, provided you know the code for the desired machine.
THE WAVE: A hum of wireless broadcasts riding on a star’s emissions. Signals are sent to the star, then back out to the rest of the system. Signal delay is a number of hours equal to the total of the broadcast and receiving world numbers. So a message sent from World 3 to World 4 takes 7 hours. Wave communications are open to anybody receiving on that frequency.
THE WIRE: An underspace network sending text communications between worlds, even between systems. Only mainframes really know how it works. Wire messages have a 24 hour delay, regardless of distance. The wire is only accessible from worlds and orbital stations, not spacecraft. Most charge a fee for use.
Elsewhere
Dice Goblin looks at running a Tactical Espionage Action game.
MAC Attack’s preview pagehas a new trailer showing off even more of the fantastic artwork from Amanda Franck. Here’s a little peek.
Coming Soon
Over on Patreon I talk about making a living in space.
What's it like trading goods among the living stars?
MONEY AND POWER Small currencies aren’t tracked in the game. Major transactions use stellar fragments, commonly called frags, both a universal currency and key to space travel.
Expect the full post here and on the blog next week.
Thanks for reading Bastionland Presser! Subscribe for free to receive new posts straight into your inbox.
Very interesting stuff and perfect to know for my sci fi games. 😊
Holy shit, Amanda Franck rocks.