I thought it would be fun to do the Space Opera in the style of presentation of the Known World (later Mystara) in Isle of Dread: A highly derivate, briefly described setting that was easy to understand but vague to allow the DM freedom to make it their own. I didn't have time to come up with a map, but here are the large political entities.
United Federation of Worlds: A multiple species union of planet governments organized to promote peace, justice, and mutual prosperity.
The Imperium: The largest revival to the Federation is a fascist and oppressive human-supremacist state. It boasts a powerful military, including a large army of clone soldiers.
Kurgon Horde: Once a group of factionalized, spacefaring humanoid raiders, a new Emperor has emerged among them, claiming the mantle of the mythic First Emperor and forging the disparate tribes into a single nation. Once merely a menace to border settlements of the Federation and the Imperium, the Kurgons now pose a more significant threat.
Outlaw Expanse: A lawless region of spaces, kept so due to its function as a buffer zone, but also due to the bribes paid by its Syndicate crimelords. The region has a whole is a melting pot of various species, the some of the crime syndicates are single species in nature. Illegal commodities in other regions of the galaxy such as slaves, certain addictive drugs, and some cybernetics are available here.
Corporate Zone: Another border region whose only government is large, economic powers. The Corporates are constantly engaged in small-scale conflict and espionage as they jockey for power against one another. Their R&D facilities, with no fear of government regulation or oversight, turn out exotic weaponry and dubious consumer goods that sometimes find their way into other regions via the black market. There are rumored to be an unusual number of Precursor ruins in the Zone, some of which contain biotechnologies that the Corporations have been able to exploit.



3 comments:
Nice! I used Isle as a sci fi adventure — spaceship crash on an alien planet. Never thought of using the known world as the setting.
This is cool!
If I needed a generic space opera setting these days I'd probably just use the range of StarSector Atlas books from the actual FGU Space Opera TTRPG. Full of easily-recognized cliche elements that hardly need explanation to any scifi fan, and almost anything you could want is in there somewhere - and if something's missing, they are slowly releasing more of them, so odds are it'll show up eventually. The crunch:fluff ratio is low enough that you don't lose much by using a different game engine with them.
I like those but their genericness skews a bit literary and so not has immediately apprehendable as filmic franchises.
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