5 hours ago
Friday, June 27, 2014
Hall of Fame
Thanks to Jay at Exonauts! for pointing this out: Leigh Brackett got inducted into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame this year, along with the Frank Frazetta, Olaf Stapledon, Stanley Kubrick, and Hayao Miyazaki. Stellar company, indeed!
Thursday, June 26, 2014
In the Light
Art by Nico |
The civil servants of the Polity were it's most common face. Many were volunteers; others were drafted. They administered the noospheric fora (where members could petition the lords) and the Polity controlled hyperspace network, collected tolls, and handed out encryption keys for it's use to members. Through these measures the Polity effectively controlled interstellar trade and exerted soft power to shape planetary governments.
Not all it's power was soft. Polity membership made a sophont or a world subject to the justice of the Radiant Lords--justice meaning anything the lord in question felt would further the needs of the Polity and by extension humanity. They had a strict code and seldom acted rashly, as actions determined to be in error by review of their fellow lords carried harsh penalties, but they wielded great power and acted decisively--even brutally--when necessary. The lords all appeared baseline human, but their nervous systems were linked to their swift sophont ships, their brains modified with psybernetics (1), and their bodies enhanced. Each acted as a combination law enforcer, spy, advisor, and diplomat. When real war was needed, lords' code required they withdraw, and Hannibal Early was summoned.
In an effort to keep the peace, the Polity prohibited the export of irrational memeplexes such as religion between cultures. It was this prohibition that brought it into the conflict with the emerging Instrumentality of Aom and ultimately led to it's dissolution.
(1) It's believed that the psi-research NGO the Phaidros Group was involved with the Polity inception. If so, they abandoned it before it's final fall to begin their colony on Smaragdoz.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
Wednesday Comics: What's Next?
Last week was the concluding chapter of Starlin's Metamorphosis Odyssey. A natural choice for my next comic to get into would be the Dreadstar graphic novel, but I thought I'd ask you guys.
Should I go on to that or to a different series? Something more purely fantasy or a more recent series?
Monday, June 23, 2014
The Sisters of War
Appearance & Biology: As the name would imply, the entire Sisterhood is female (though excessive male hormones have led to some being androgenized). They are genetically derived from baseline humanity; all Sisters are cloned from less than a hundred genotypes, but they are further modified for certain caste functions. Most appear as roughly baseline humans, but their are hypertrophic muscled shock-troops, vacuum-adapted space-sisters, and ambigenitaled comfort sisters.
The most heavily modified Sisters are perhaps the queens (or "mothers"): macrocephalic beings, whose vast brains allow them to monitor every aspect of hive function.
Society: Only one Morrgna hive exists currently, a moon-sized artificial habitat with a single queen, but in previous times the Sisterhood was more expansionistic and sent out war wombs to generate hives on numerous worlds. Most of these were destroyed in conflict with other cultures; some fell to inter-clade strife.
Stats: The Morrgna Sisters have the same stats as baseline humans, though based on caste, their actual stats may vary wildly.
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Free RPG Day is Over, but...
...There's still some free and low-dough cool stuff to be had. "Like what?" you ask. Well, there's Clatterdelve, a free old school mini-adventure from your friends at Hereticwerks. While you're there, check out the other free stuff in the widget on the right hand side.
When your done there, stroll over to Tim Shorts's Gothridge Manor Patreon page and pledge what you like to support his series of mini-adventures. If you don't already know Tim's work from The Manor 'zine, you should probably check that out, too.
Friday, June 20, 2014
Strange Stars Covered
Over the past few of months, I've teased with art from the upcoming Strange Stars Setting Book, which is going to be a full-color, fairly art heavy (for an indie product, certainly), systemless intro to the setting that I've been chronicling on the blog. It's companion, the system book, I may have only mentioned once. I've said it is planned to be art-free and "just the data"--but that doesn't stop it from having a cool cover. Or two:
The book is envisioned as flipbook style, like the old Ace Double novels. Lester B. Portly and I thought it would be cool to have both covers be homages (and it allowed us to use the same gorgeous cover illustration by Eric Quigley in two cool ways). On the left is the cover for the Stars Without Number compatible side and the right is the Fate Compatible side (written by that FATE SF guru John Till). Both books will feature pretty much the same stuff: the game translation of most of the species, factions, and places presented in the setting book.
Stay tuned for further updates. We're hopping to get both books to you in early Fall.
The book is envisioned as flipbook style, like the old Ace Double novels. Lester B. Portly and I thought it would be cool to have both covers be homages (and it allowed us to use the same gorgeous cover illustration by Eric Quigley in two cool ways). On the left is the cover for the Stars Without Number compatible side and the right is the Fate Compatible side (written by that FATE SF guru John Till). Both books will feature pretty much the same stuff: the game translation of most of the species, factions, and places presented in the setting book.
Stay tuned for further updates. We're hopping to get both books to you in early Fall.
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Hwuru Revue
Art by Waclaw Wysocki |
The hwuru evolved from arboreal insectivores. They have small, beak-like snouts (like the Terran echidna) and extendable tongues to aid in snatching up arthopods or their larvae in hard to reach places. Hwuru can’t swallow anything very large and must have bulkier foodstuffs made into a mash before they can consume it. Most hwuru have a mild dependence on chaoofsh a chemical attractant released by the trees native to their world. When off-world, they tend to wear a breathing apparatus to deliver this chemical.
Culture: On their native world, no hwuru have advanced beyond the Iron Age, and most live in tribal societies that use stone tools. Interaction with starfaring civilizations has afforded hwuru the chance to leave their planet, and they are sometimes found among the stars where their physical traits make them useful as hired muscle.
Stats: hwuru have a minimum strength of 12. There are no known psychics among them. Their bone claws do 1d4 damage. They all natively possess a background skill at climbing, for which they get a +1 due to their claws.
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