Worlds in the Ring

Circus is one of the Strange Stars' great wonders. No one knows who built the megastructure (it may even predate the Archaic Oikumene and be pre-human), but whoever it was had mastered technology beyond the reach of current civilization. It's gigantic ring has a radius of 1.9 million km and a width of about 1000 km, giving it a habitable surface area roughly 20 times that of Old Earth. It's rotational period is 24 hrs and it's tilted so that it's inhabitants experience roughly earth-like night and day. It's open to space, but centrifugal force and an upper "mesh" of radiation filtering nano hold a breathable atmosphere in.

In a system bordered by the Zuran Expanse, the Alliance, and the Instrumentality sphere, Circus has long been a center of trade. Its ruins attest to several stages of colonization by the human phyle. Modern, non-wilderness or waste sections of the great ring are a crazy quilt of petty kingdoms, communes, and experimental societies. These are the "zones"--or at least partial zones. The minimum size required of a political body for the term to be used is the subject of controversy. 

The most famous area of Circus is actually a free city--actually a megapolis or ecumenopolis--without a single name. It's most often called Interzone, though it's vast spaceport-adjacent tourist area is known as the Strip. Interzone's boundaries are vague, but including all of it's favelas and industrial parks, it covers an an area only a little less than the surface area of Sol IV (Mars). 

Spacers say there is no law in Interzone, but this is not strictly true. Rather it's a demarchy with minimalist government. The Wise Minds (a group of ancient infosophonts) select via lottery the anonymous rulers of the city--the Tsadikim--from among the populous. A Tsadik may serve for a few days or for a lifetime, based on the real-time evaluation of the Wise Minds. Every Tsadik (with the advice of the Minds) can create new laws at whim, though these must be approved by a majority of the other Tsadikim. Likewise, any Tsadik can supercede the decree of another with the same procedure. Tsadik can settle disputes among the populace themselves or a trial with a judge (this decision too is subject to review by the others).

The only immutable laws of Interzone are "property and self are sacred", "self-defense and common defense are a justification for violence", and "a contract is a contract."

Warlord Wednesday

My issue by issue retrospective will return next week. Today, take a look at these Grell covers for previous issues, without the text or logo:

Here's Travis Morgan's last issue:

And Joshua's first in full costume:

Plus, Morgan in the midst of battle:

As Seen on TV

Catching up on some DVR'ed shows I missed this past week reveals a number of gameable ideas in them without much effort. Here's what a got in a couple of hours yesterday afternoon:

Helix is a science fiction mystery/conspiracy show on SyFy about a team of scientists from the CDC sent to biotech research facility in the arctic to investigate a possible outbreak of a deadly virus. Of course, all is not what it seems: the virus (that sort of zombifies it's victims) is some sort of experimental bioweapon--and people are willing to kill to keep it secret. The setting and situation would work well for an even smaller than usual investigative sandbox. You could always move the base to the Antarctic and make the bioweapon recovered shoggoth material and you've got a great Delta Green/Call of Cthulhu scenario.

Keeping with the somewhat horrific, the last episode of American Horror Story: Coven (which I've mentioned before). The season didn't end as well as I would've liked, but it did have the interesting element of the contest to become supreme (leader of the coven) requiring the completing of the "Seven Wonders" displaying the seven arts of the witches. A competition like that and a series of miracles to perform would make a great guild advancement ritual about magic-users--or the skulduggery around it something for PCs to get drawn into.

For a complete change of tone, we have Space Dandy, an anime airing on Cartoon Network's Toonami.The titular Space Dandy is a pompadoured and none too bright alien hunter who tries (and usually fails) to bring in unknown alien species for cataloging by the government. What Space Dandy does for laughs could easily be done seriously. Hunting new sapient species in an ancient galactic civilization teeming with life (like Star Wars) is a pretty good conceit for a campaign.

Light-Years from Home

Well, not really, but I am traveling. I've updated the Strange Stars Index, though, so it's a could chance to catch up on a transmission you might have missed.

Regular updates to resume this week.

Every Picture Tells A Story

I think everyone would agree that evocative artwork is really helpful in setting the tone and conveying the feel of an rpg world and from the internet I know that a lot of people collect inspirational images in building a new setting, like I do.

It strikes me that given how much the images matter in conveying the setting, that picking new images could be used to give a setting a whole new vibe. A setting makeover, if you will.

Consider the following images:

Both of them are meant to illustrate the same literary work (Edgar Rice Burroughs's Gods of Mars), and they even include identifiable elements, but they have a very different feel. The first, by Manolo Prieto, is a bit phantasmagorical, perhaps even whimiscal. It suggests a Barsoom more akin to fairy tales or the works of Lord Dunsany, maybe. The second, by Michael Whelan, seems much more a place of serious, more sci-fi-ish adventure. I think both GMs and player's would approach a Mars illustrated in the first way somewhat different from the second.

Here's another example. Different versions of the dwarves from The Hobbit:

The first illustration is from a Russian edition of the book. These dwarves look like they've might sing "heigh ho" and hang out with Snow White. The later ones would be more at home in improbable  action sequences.

So next time you think your bored with your setting, maybe your just bored with how your conceiving your setting. New visuals maybe just help.

Warlord Wednesday: Dragon's Lair

The Warlord is dead! Long live The Warlord! This is my issue by issue examination of his adventures. The earlier installments can be found here...

"Dragon's Lair"

Warlord (vol. 4) #14 (July 2010) Story by Mike Grell; Pencils by Chad Hardin; Inks by Hardin & Wayne Faucher

Synopsis: The so-called dragon that Shakira assures them isn't, sends our heroes scrampling for cover after Joshua sticks an arrow in it. Joshua's hiding place isn't quite good enough, and his sword hand gets seared by a fiery blast. The beast retreats, but the new Warlord's hand looks pretty bad:

At the same time, Tara feels intense pain and wonders if something is going wrong with the pregnancy. Jennifer checks on her only to get pushed away by a mystic blast from the baby in Tara's womb! It appears Joshua's sister to be can feel his pain.

Joshua and friends return to the old blacksmith. Joshua needs a new sword forged: one that can stand the heat. He brought the large piece of metal that shielded him back in the cave for that purpose. McBane thinks it's something from meteorite.

Joshua collapses with his injuries. While Alysha tends him, McBane helps the blacksmith at his forge. Joshua's hand begins to heal at an incredible rate. Alysha and McBane can't believe. Shakira is more jaded and says: "It's just magic."

Back in Shamballah, Tara's pain is gone. Jennifer explains that her daughter is healing Joshua. Tara is suprised to learn it's a girl. Jennifer says that as her half-sister and Joshua's full sister she shares traits of both them. Then, Jennifer senses something that suprises her...

Meanwhile, Joshua's hand is almost completely healed, whcih is a good thing because the blacksmith has completed the sword:

He also had enough metal to make a gauntlet, greaves, and a shield. The blacksmith asks Joshua what he wants on his shield but we don't hear his answer. Meanwhile, Alysha has been kidnapped by the father of last issues sacrificial "victim." He's taking her to the dragon.

Joshua and McBane trail them to the cave. They go in: Joshua with his new sword and armor and McBane with an AK-47.  Going deeper than before into the "dragon's" lair, they find it isn't an asteroid at all, but a space ship. They also find Alysha and her kidnapper:

The man begs to be killed and Alysha obliges him--but the shot brings the alien running. Joshua puts an area through it's searchlight "eye" and McBane lobs a grenade at it. The creature keeps coming. Joshua sends his friends away, and goes into battle:

The two fight. Joshua manages to damage it's flamethrower mask. With the mask off, the alien reveals it can speak. It calls Joshua (and his people by extinction) primitive and makes an interesting claim:

Joshua promises what happens next won't be an accident. He vaults over the creature's head and delivers a blow to the back of his neck. At his friends' urging, Joshua runs out the door that is irising shut to meet them.

The alien is apparently dying, but wants to strike one last blow. He pushes some buttons on a console, that send a beam of energy up from a group of step pyramids out of the polar opening and into space. He also apparently sets his ship to self-destruct. Our heroes get our just in time.

On the outer world, a couple of astronomers track a signal leaving the earth and shooting out toward Orion. E.T. has just phoned home!

Things to Notice:

• Joshua adds some metal to his Warlord outfit.

Where it comes from: 
I would be surprised if alien visitors have never been mistaken for dragons before, much in the same way they've been mistaken for gods, but I don't know of a specific story. Marvel Comics' Makluans fit the bill, I suppose

Starships in the Strange Stars

Though the spacecraft of the Strange Stars vary a lot in appearance and use, most of their systems are fairly standardized. Some of this similarity is due to the exchange of technologies through trade, but there is another reason. The level of technology across the known galaxy is lower than in ages past; many ships currently in use are the products of previous civilizations or at least built from parts scavenged from ancient vessels.

One example of a lost technology is superluminal drives. The vast majority of modern craft are sublight vessels that utilize the hyperspace network to short-cut interstellar distances. The most advanced current civilizations have a rudimentary understanding of the science behind some FTL travel methods, but they are are currently unable to build them. Some researchers have noted that the ancients made use of these other methods rarely, suggesting there was something that made the hyperspace network preferable.

The salvage of ancient derelicts or wrecks is an important (and lucrative) activity. Gravity generators and inertial suppressors are only two of the important technologies than many civilizations are able to exploit, but not necessarily manufacture themselves. Intact data systems are a particularly spectacular find. There is always hope of engineering schematic files executable in modern nanofactories.

New or improved weapon systems always find an enthusiastic market. The holy grail for salvagers would be one of the twelve great battleships of the Archaic Oikumene. These vessels were the size of cities and all possessed of sophont minds. Some of these great ships (like Terrible Swift Sword and Leviathan Smiles) are known to have been destroyed. Others (notably Achilles' Last Stand, Fearful Symmetry, and Conspiracy of Ravens) have disappeared completely from history, possibly restructuring themselves into vessels of different types.