Stars Without Number: Back in Black

84,791 credits in the slush fund
Workshop installed in office space in Tenebrous station
Contract of 6 Naval technicians (5000 Cr each signing bonus, 20000 Cr each escrow account)

Lifestyle Costs

2,600 credits per month starting in May (3,000 with anagathics)

Maps

Important NPCs

System Admiral Hanshaw, Tenebrous
Station Governor Icinglass, Tenebrous
King-Elect Tanaka, Tenebrous IV
Planetary Governor Venedictov, Tenebrous IV
Archivist Fenicks, The Black House
Alkaylee, Orion Broadcasting Network, Nyx Cluster
MP Windham, State Parliament, Nyx Cluster
Professor Haley Telestrum, Corsican Federation of Futurists, anti-Academe, met on Nyx Cluster
Dr. Dumont, anti-AI, met on Nyx Cluster, apparently lives on Corsica
Dr. Kazaki Valhalla, Academe contact
Forest, female "spook" in Nyx Cluster

The Setting

Personal Equipment

Characters begin with a compad suitable for adventuring. It has the following capabilities:

Everything that a cutting edge iPhone or Android phone will do, plus much greater capacity in terms of battery life (a week of heavy use) and memory (all of it.) Like those, it is essentially a tiny computer. If you're on-board the ship or close to it, you can easily share data between the two.
The camera has decent zoom and at least HD quality, and you can take 3d photos of smaller things so long as you're willing to manually pan the camera around the thing until your phone tells you it's had enough.
It can tell you if the atmosphere has enough oxygen, and will chirp if that changes. This is not a foolproof way to tell if an atmosphere is safe or not. It will detect carbon monoxide and probably anything that is actually corrosive, but atmospheres can be toxic and still have oxygen, at it isn't sensitive enough to pick up, say, small amounts of nerve gas...essentially, it's not a substitute for real science equipment.
It will give you barometric readings, temperature, humidity, a smoke alarm, etc..
It will warn you if there's unsafe levels of radiation.
It is shock resistant and waterproof.
It has a transponder function that will let your friends find you, if you're still in a condition to turn it on. If you have a comm server, it can be set to give you the direction and approximate distance to the server.
It will automatically link up to any planetary or space station communication network.
If there isn't a planetary network, it can still let you talk to your friends like a walkie-talkie. If your crew has a comm server, the range gets much longer so long as you are within range of it. A comm server is considered sufficient to let you talk to your ship while it is in orbit, so long as you have LOS.
You can receive messages from your ship if you have LOS, even if you don't have a server and can't talk back.
If your ship has done even a basic survey of the planet and downloaded localize data into your pad, it can usually function as an altimeter, compass, etc., and perhaps a GPS.
I assume that if something can be done with an app (like using the camera flash as a flashlight) then you probably have that installed.

Armor and weapons have social implications, and you should consider what you're carrying around with you.

In general, armor is frowned upon more than weapons. Weapons might be worn to dissuade people from attacking you or for self-defense. People who are wearing armor are more likely to be assumed to be looking for trouble. You can get away with an armored undersuit almost anywhere outside of the most civilized places, and even there it's not a problem unless you're going someplace that will have weapon detectors set up (banks, spaceports, government buildings.)
Space stations are almost always a little rowdy, and you can usually get away with a sidearm and an armored undersuit, even if it's obvious you're wearing it. Many places will disallow pistols but allow swords, so monoswords are actually a very popular weapon with spacers
Pistols may be carried openly or concealed based on local custom. I assume PCs with guns have appropriate concealable and non-concealable holsters for them. Long-arms or SMGs are almost never carried openly. Having one "to hand," such as in a rack on an ATV, is just fine on more rustic planets. Actually carrying it around with you will make you look militarized in a way that's likely to make people uncomfortable.

Money

Electronic banking is common within the more civilized systems. However, there is no easy way to transmit financial information between systems. It must be carried by ships using spike drives. Because the mail-ships might take weeks to reach from one end of the State to the other, this isn't practical for anything less than major operations. As a result, physical credit chips are the most common currency. They are released by the central bank in the Nyx cluster, and are in common circulation everywhere that spacers go. They may or may not be accepted on the surface of any given world, and moneychangers at the space ports or stations may charge rates that are more or less ruinous. They come in many denominations, and so a character can potentially carry a LOT of credits. Of course, flashing around a handful of the 100,000 credit chips is a good way to get marked for robbery.

You might think of a credit as being worth five or ten modern US dollars. Yes, skilled spacers are VERY highly paid. A ship can be easily worth millions of credits, and it takes one bad jump for an unskilled Navigator to blow the whole thing up. Also, a spacer is typically not working every day. They work a week while the ship jumps from one system to the next, and then they're off for a week while it loads, unloads, etc.

History of the State

A long time ago, the Terran Mandate ruled a civilization vast beyond comprehension. They had legions of master psychics, impossible science, and Jump Gates that could throw a ship scores of light years in an instant.

Then The Scream came. A psychic shockwave echoed from one end of the galaxy to the other, and it killed the vast majority of psychics (of every sapient species.) It also wrecked the Jump Gates, not that they could have been operated without the Master Teleportationists anyway, and burned out most of the Spike Drives as well.

Whole worlds starved, descended into savagery, or were destroyed. The network of trade and communication collapsed. Without the guidance and expertise of the Psychic Authority, many worlds lost the capacity to reliably train those with psychic talent, and they were left unable to use their abilities safely or reliably.

Centuries passed. Much was forgotten. The location of Lost Terra is unknown. In the midst of the sleeping wreckage of the empire, a spark of light has risen again. A century ago, a highly advanced cluster of worlds known as the Nyx Federation rediscovered Spike Drive technology. Their Primus was a woman who is either brilliantly forward-thinking or merely psychotically ambitious, depending on who you ask. The Primus bent the strength of her whole civilization to regaining mastery over the wilds of space. They found other human colonies that had survived, and using their technological advantages they soon crafted a sort of hegemony, or federation. With the discovery of a long-dead psychic academy, they reconstructed the training regimens that allowed psychics to use their powers without dying or going mad. There is now a healthy and buzzing psychic academy, reconstituted fifty years ago and with growing enrollment every year.

The Nyx Cluster has now become the core of what is referred to as the State. Thirteen systems claim membership, with a varying number of worlds or colonies within each system. For those human colonies that are rediscovered, joining the State is nominally optional, but so far no one has refused too bitterly.

The great ships of years past are still unattainable. But the Nyx Cluster can churn out fighter and frigate-class vessels equipped with spike drives, and they are plentiful enough. A few of the more powerful worlds have a cruiser or three, and Nyx itself has a single Battleship which is widely considered invincible. Not that there is any great need so far for military vessels; no alien powers have been encountered that can stand up to a Human expeditionary force, even if it does only consist of a few cruisers and a double handful of frigates.

The State exists on a model far different from that of the Terran Mandate. Where the Mandate required control and centralization, the State is quietly fearful of a second Scream. No one knows what caused the first, and the risk of a second cannot be assessed. Every system is required to either be self-sufficient in the absence of spike drives, or to be working toward that goal. This requires at a minimum the agricultural capacity to support its population and the ability to manufacture and maintain in-system vessels that could serve any asteroid bases or similar.

There is only a single functioning psi-academy, the Black House. At unbelievable expense, the State is slowly equipping it with psi-shielding that might allow the teachers and students that reside there to survive a second Scream.

The term 'The Black House' actually refers to both the artificial world it is built on and the academy itself. The academy itself is "merely" the size of a large university, and is dominated by a central building that is like a cross between a medieval cathedral and Angkor Wat. The artificial world is a ring approximately three million kilometers in diameter, with an inner surface approximately two thousand kilometers wide. High walls at the edges keep the atmosphere in, and the rotation of the ring provides a normal day-night cycle and 1G worth of centripetal force. The habitable inner area has a surface area approximately 40 times that of Earth, with a normal mix of land and ocean area. However, it does not have tides.

The Black House could not possibly be constructed by State technology, and there is a healthy debate about whether even the Terran Mandate could have built it. The expert consensus is 'no.' It is assumed to be a pre-human relic. It is currently open for colonization, as the human population now consists solely of the Black House and its surrounding community, probably less than two hundred thousand people.

Tech Levels and Psychic Powers in this Campaign

I am setting the game "earlier" in the process of galactic re-conquest than the Stars Without Number default. Pretech items are very rarely available for sale. At the current time, there are NO planets able to manufacture much in the way of Pretech equipment. In some cases this is because the necessary infrastructure and knowledge-base has not been rebuilt, in other cases it is because the manufacture of Pretech requires certain specialized Psychic disciplines. The following is a brief introduction to what you should expect. Please note that some worlds may have either specialties or deficiencies, and so some worlds may have specific areas where they are better or worse than the baseline of their tech level. Nyx's anti-aging services, for example, are substantially more advanced than would be available in a standard TL4 world, and approach TL5 technology.

Tech Level 0 is approximately neolithic. This is pretty rare for human civilizations, because almost any colony that manages not to go extinct will at least retain the knowledge to work metal.
Tech Level 1 is medieval-ish. This is substantially more common than neolithic worlds, and there are worlds in the State that are still essentially at the level of Imperial China. Worlds like this can usually scrum up enough wealth to import T4 goods for the very wealthiest, and of course they can send their psychics to The Black House. This means that they may very well have an Immortal Emperor (anti-aging drugs) with a cadre of sorcerous viziers (trained psychics.) It is also not entirely unusual for them to still have access to recorded knowledge far above their tech level, or to have access to bio-engineered crops that make farming much easier.
Tech Level 2 worlds almost always have full knowledge and awareness that they came from the stars, even if the Scream originally knocked them down to TL0 or 1 and they had to claw their way back up. TL2 worlds have technology ranging from the very best of the ancient world or Renaissance to an upper limit comparable to the US in the 1950s, although of course culturally they could run the full range of human history, and beyond.
Tech Level 3 worlds are pretty similar to the modern day, give or take a few decades. TL3+ indicates there are a few areas where they have substantial knowledge and understanding in at least a few fields, enough that they can provide goods and services at that level. Also, they typically do manage to import a fair amount of TL4 goods, at great expense, of course.
Tech Level 4 worlds are signified by having access to fusion power and spike drives, which are the signature achievements of this level of tech. Also, most of the technology you can find in a Cyberpunk 2020 or Shadowrun book is at least theoretically possible here (although since this isn't actually a cyberpunk milieu, some of it is inappropriate and it isn't really intended as a focus, anyway.) The only system in the State that is a true, full-blown Tech 4 society is the Nyx Cluster.
Tech Level 5 is pre-scream technology. TL5 Technology requires incredibly sophisticated techniques and often materials that have properties not available in normal matter. This paramatter or exotic matter must be crafted by psychics using disciplines lost to the Scream. There are a VERY few items of pretech than be manufactured in limited quantities in the Nyx cluster, but actually finding it for sale is difficult. More likely, TL5 items must be recovered and restored to working order. Even that requires jury-rigged tools, as the equipment to work on TL5 equipment has also usually been lost. The upper edge of TL5 equipment are the lost and destroyed Jump Gates that made the vast size of the Terran Mandate possible.
Tech Level 6 is crazy bullshit. The Orbital ring that The Black House is built on is TL6. Human civilization even before the scream only ever made a few TL6 items, and never in mass quantities.

Spacer Culture

Any PC with a spare Culture/0 slot might well consider spending it on Spacer, since spacers are the people you will have lots of contact with. There are spacers everywhere in civilization, since civilization by definition consists of the places spacers can get to. Spacers deny that there is any such thing as spacer culture. This is because spacer culture is often more about things and spaces than about [whatever people think culture is 'about'], because spacer culture is "just a common-sense reaction to living in space, not anything about mythology or rituals or taboos," and because denying that their culture is really a culture is a thing that people like to do.

Spacer culture is transmitted through, and takes its name from, the Spacer's Bible. This is a document that dates back to the Terran days, and has been expanded upon with commentary (and commentary to the commentary) over the centuries since then. The definitive edition pre-scream was known as the Little Blue Book, and it often was possessed in the form of an actual book with pages. It is now an app that is kept on the compad of almost anyone that spends much time outside of a planetary surface.

The Spacer's Bible is full of charts and useful data about how to maintain a vacc suit, how much oxygen a person needs in a given period of time and how long it will take them to deplete a given number of cubic feet of atmosphere. It has introductions to how pay should be calculated for different crew members and how votes should be conducted. It defines the standard division of duties on a vessel. It gives standardized answers to every kind of practical question, so that everyone knows the hand signals you use if comms go out, and how to secure lines if someone has to go out for a spacewalk across the hull. Even if you do not have any medical training yourself, the Spacer's Bible will give you a quick practical rundown on what a radiation leak will do for you, at least in terms of how quickly it will kill you.

It also has many practical pieces of advice and wisdom about how to conduct yourself aboard a ship. Spacer culture, and the spacer bible, was developed by people who had a lot in common with sailors and roughnecks. It is ruggedly practical and designed to function in times of high stress and pressure. It is intended to function as a lingua franca for people who might come from very different backgrounds.

Spacer Culture has as many tenets and practices as any other culture, but the following are major strains that run through it.

Spacer culture comes from an acknowledgment that the lives of everyone on a ship depend on each other, and also that people in potentially tight quarters such as a ship or a station must get along.
Spacers are egalitarian, but elitist. People on a ship can be divided between Crew and Passengers. Crew are spacers and are useful. Passengers are not spacers and should ideally be in cold sleep. Harassment or (non-playful) insult of either passengers or crew on the basis of almost anything other than proven competence and usefulness is a dreadful breach of etiquette. You don't want to insult the religion of someone you may be stuck in a can with for the next month.
Hygiene is a matter of serious concern. Spacers typically shave their heads for hygiene reasons, including women. Men may have their facial hair permanently removed for the same reasons. Some spacers (again, men and women) may keep wigs so that they don't stand out so much when they go planetside. All serious spacers have a small hygiene kit, and know how to maintain hygiene when there is limited water available.
Spacer culture is very much concerned with things and spaces. A spacer knows how to use and interpret the signals that differentiate between public and private goods and areas, when to speak to someone and when to come back later. In tight quarters, spacers will usually converse shoulder-to-shoulder rather than face-to-face. A spacer knows the rules for using airlocks and vacc suits, regardless of whether they have any technical skills that let them actually understand those things.
Spacers can be as boisterous and frivolous as anyone else when planetside or when in a truly huge space station. But when on a vessel, spacers will be quiet and at least nominally sober. Yelling across a space vessel without a good reason is a breach of etiquette. The typical starship crew will be equipped with earpieces linked to their compads that let them communicate across the ship.
A vast pay differential between the highest-ranked person on a ship and the lowest qualified spacer is extraordinarily unusual. Of course, apprentice/unqualified swabbie types might be paid almost nothing but room, board, and training.
A spacer is expected to be able to keep their chin up and a stiff upper lip.
Spacers would not have thought Ripley was being a bitch for trying to enforce quarantine procedures.
Spacers know how to stow their things. Spacers do not wear clothing with no space for tools. Spacers do not like clutter, things must be secured in the proper place when not in use.
Spacers consider it acceptable for crew members to be asked informally to segregate themselves from each other.

The Academe

The Academe is sort of a meta-university. It's a research rather than teaching institution, but it's research is practical in many ways, rather than theoretical. So, it can also be seen as a kind of think tank. People who are already accomplished in their field might apply or be invited to join the academe; or they might start being groomed for membership and pushed toward accomplishments. The central advancement mechanism of the academe is original research. That is, you have to go out and do something, and you have to write up a good solid report on it. And you need to learn new things to put in your report. The whole point is to add to the sum total of human knowledge.

Unfortunately, humanity is not always ready for all this knowledge. So, this research is often not published externally. The Academe sits on lots of information, and they dole it out when they think it's time for people to know it. They are currently engaged in a huge drive to regain pre-scream levels of technology, and so most of their findings on that subject (for example) are released publicly. However, they also need to make sure that any recovered artifacts don't fall into greedy and selfish hands that won't share them. So they keep a tight lid on leads to locations of pre-scream tech, for example.

There are times that this is vitally important. For example, the Golden Empire is jealous of advanced psychic training techniques. They really don't like it that the State steals away their best young psychics and gives them a better life that isn't under the thumb of the Emperor. So, if you manage to get down there and kidnap away young psychics, you definitely want to hide where you did it! Otherwise the Golden Empire might do things like hold their family hostage and torture them to get them to return. So, it is important for people doing practical research into psychic recruitment techniques to carefully document what techniques worked and what did not, and then to keep that information from becoming public knowledge (just as an example.)

The best way to get into the Academe is to make inroads with people who are professors of it, and get some leads on topics to investigate. If your "research" is good, you'll gain status and be asked to join, or at least gain status and maybe another mission or two to prove yourself.

Learning more about the Academe would make a great leveling Research Project. It's surprisingly shadowy despite being an academic organization.

Please don't get the impression that they own education, either! The Black House is pretty closely married to the Academe, but every other field of study is primarily managed via normal planetary university systems or corporate research or whatever. The Academe is a (relatively) small organization that sort of sits on top of everything else.

What you need to do in order to make inroads in the Academe is find a full professor who is willing to take you on as a student assistant, and then bring that person information and stuff. You can actually bring the whole party in as a research group, although they'd technically be interdisciplinary. The major barrier to being taken seriously as a full grad student is that you need to have at least one appropriate skill at 3, and some associated skills at 1 and 2. I don't want to come up with a complete list of what skills are acceptable, but no class is barred from joining just because they don't want to waste points on out-of-class skills. For Warriors, the most common way in is a combo of Tactics & Leadership. Experts have scads of options, Psychics are somewhere between the two.

Language & Culture

All PCs receive at least two languages at generation. English, a second language of their choice (One of these two should be the most common language on their world of origin), a number of languages equal to their intelligence bonus, and the most common language of any world for which they have at least Culture 0.
Superior maintenance of written records and standard reference works has done a lot to stave off the worst of linguistic drift, although of course there are dialects everywhere. For this reason, most languages in wide use are the very close descendants of modern languages. Also, it's much more fun to have characters using languages we know than it is to make up a dozen with no pre-existing cultural connotation for the players. Because it's fun, we'll also assume that at least some cultural traces of Earth cultures survive in those civilizations that have inherited their languages.
The languages most common in the State cluster are: Mandarin, English, Hindustani, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, French, Afrikaans. There are also a few worlds with their own offshoot languages.

Common Starship Models

The following are some of the workhorse starship models of the State. The first generation craft were fairly experimental, as humanity was rebuilding its knowledge of how to scratch-build starships. As time has gone by, the innovators (The Reef and Nyx) have developed 2nd and later third generation craft. None of these hulls were configurable, the craft were built with all systems integral and later might be subject to some difficult and expensive modification.

Humanity is now in the middle of the third generation of starships, and the new development is configurable hulls. These are the by-the-book craft, where you buy a hull and can install anything you like in it. Most navies and corporations do not have access to the new craft yet. They're flying the standard models or something close to them. Note that only one of these vessels has any TL5 components. There are only two Eris-class deep space cruisers in existence.

Set, 1st-generation Fighter
- Speed 4, Armor 4, 7 HP, 1 Crew, 5 AC.
- Sandthrower, Atmospheric Configuration

Horus, 2nd-generation Fighter
- Speed 4, Armor 5, 8HP, 1 Crew, 5 AC.
- Spike Drive 2, Sandthrower

Osiris, 3rd-Generation Interceptor Fighter
- Speed 5, Armor 5, 8HP, 1 Crew, 4 AC.
- Spike Drive 2, Reaper Battery

Huginn, 1st-Generation Shuttle
- Speed 1, Armor 0, 10HP, 1/16 Crew, 9 AC.
- Extended Life Support, Extended Stores, Atmospheric Configuration

Muninn, 2nd-Generation Shuttle
- Speed 2, Armor 0, 12HP, 1/20 Crew, 9 AC.
- Extended Life Support, Fuel Bunkers, Spike Drive 2, 2 tons cargo space, atmospheric configuration.

Kali, 1st-Generation Militarized Frigate
- Speed 2, Armor 2, HP 16, Crew 1/6, 7 AC.
- Atmospheric Configuration, Sandthrower x 2, Fuel Bunkers, Extended Stores

Hermes, 1st-Generation Non-Militarized Frigate
- Speed 2, Armor 0, HP 12, Crew 1/4, 8 AC.
- Atmospheric Configuration, Fuel Bunkers, Extended Stores, Ship's Locker, 100 Tons Cargo Space

Ares, 2nd-Generation Militarized Frigate
- Speed 3, Armor 4, HP 20, Crew 5/20, 7 AC.
- Atmospheric Configuration, Sandthrower x2, Fuel Bunkers, Spike Drive 2, Armory

Odysseus, 2nd-Generation Non-Militarized Frigate
- Speed 2, Armor 1, HP 16, Crew 1/6, 7 AC.
- Atmospheric Configuration, Fuel Bunkers, Extended Stores, Ship's Locker, 100 Tons Cargo Space, Spike Drive 2, Advanced Nav Computer.

Koschei, 3rd-Generation Militarized Frigate
- Speed 2, Armor 10, HP 40, Crew 10/40, 7 AC.
- Plasma Beam, Reaper Battery x2, Spike Drive 2, Atmospheric Configuration, Armory, Fuel Bunkers, 40 tons cargo space.

Edmund Fitzgerald, 3rd-Generation Non-Militarized Frigate
- Speed 3, Armor 2, HP 20, Crew 1/6, 6 AC.
- Atmospheric Configuration, Fuel Bunkers, Ship's Locker, Armory, 160 Tons Cargo Space, Spike Drive 3, Advanced Nav Computer.

Fenris, 3rd Generation Militarized Cruiser
- Speed 1, Armor 15, HP 60, Crew 50/200, 6 AC.
- Spike Drive 3, Armory, Ship's Locker, Workshops, Fuel Bunkers X3, Spike Inversion Projector, Plasma Beam x2, Flak Emitter Battery x3, Ship's Bay (Typically contains a shuttle), Extended Stores.

Eris, 3rd Generation Deep Space Explorer
- Speed 1, Armor 15, HP 60, Crew 50/200, 6 AC.
- Spike Drive 3, Armory, Ship's Locker, Fighter Bay (typically contains a shuttle), Workshop, Hydroponics, Fuel Bunkers x3, Precognitive Nav Chamber, Emissions Dampers, Survey Sensor Array, Cargo Lighter, 400 Tons Cargo Space, Charged Particle Caster x3, Sandthrower

Inanna, 3rd Generation Colonization Vessel
- Speed 1, Armor 10, HP 50, Crew 50/3050, 7 AC.
- Hydroponics, Advanced Nav Computer, Cargo Lighter, Drop Pod, Fighter Bay (Usually carries a shuttle), Spike Drive 3, Extended Med Bay, Fuel Bunkers x2, Fuel Scoops, Ship's Locker, Workshops, Cold Sleep Pods, 3000 tons cargo space.

Odin, 3rd Generation Battleship (Unique.)
- Speed 0, Armor 20, HP 100, Crew 200/1000, 4 AC.
- Spike Drive 3, Hydroponics, Fuel Bunkers x2, Ship's Bay: Frigate (Typically carries an Edmund-Fitzgerald class non-militarized frigate), Armory, Ship's Locker, Workshops, Hardened Polyceramic Overlay, Lightning Charge Mantle, Spike Inversion Projector, 2x Charged Particle Caster, Spinal Beam Cannon, Plasma Beam, 4000 tons cargo space.

List of systems in the State

You may assume there are thoroughly charted drill routes between each adjacent system.

The Navy

While not a star system, this is the most convenient place to list the State's current military assets.

Battleships: Odin.
Cruisers: 2 Militarized, 2 non-militarized
Frigates: 8 Militarized, 6 non-militarized
Shuttles: 15
Fighters: 15

Nyx Cluster

The Nyx Cluster is the center of the State. In practical terms it is capitol of a loose federation of the known human worlds, and has hegemonic influence over some of them. The precise demarcation between the State and the government of the Cluster is not entirely well-defined, a source of frustration for the systems that have been strong-armed into it. It is referred to as a "cluster" because it has so many inhabited worlds, all with a single central government. The Cluster contains two Earth-like worlds, a dozen major moons, and probably a score of large asteroid colonies and space stations, with an approximate population of 6 billion humans and a double handful of AIs. It is by far the most wealthy and powerful system in the State, and it is relentlessly attempting to regain the ability to manufacture pretech goods.

The Nyx Cluster is the only solidly TL4 civilization in the State, and they use this to maintain their influence. They are capable of producing drugs and treatments that reverse the aging process. A seventy-year-old member of the political or economic elite can be rejuvenated to a biological age of 30. The cost for this treatment tends to be phenomenally high - and usually payable in favors and influence as well as more mundane currency. It is administrated, in fact, by a branch of the government, and is not normally available on the market.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 04.04
Government: Constitutional Republic
Laws & Restrictions: Possession of personal weapons requires a license; armed starships must dock at spaceports rather than planetside. Slavery is outlawed, indenture is restricted.
Population: 6B
Languages: English, French
Technology: TL4, specialization in medical and anti-aging.
Fleets: 1 Militarized Cruisers, 2 non-militarized cruisers, 4 militarized frigates, 5 non-militarized frigates. 10 non-militarized shuttles, 10 fighters. Nyx has full NIFP protection and is fully equipped with space stations. Their ships are usually third-generation.

Trade

Supply & Demand: Medical -2, Military -1, Luxury +1, Pretech +2.
Goods: 1. Postech Housewares. 2. Postech Medical Supplies. 3. Small Arms, Energy. 4. Drugs, Recreational. 5. Parts, Postech Industry. 6. Parts, Starship Maintenance. 7. Tools, Medical Equipment. 8. Tools, Astronautic. 9. Tools, Industrial. 10. Clothing.
Trouble: As per cosmopolitan worlds.
Friction: 3
Notes: Pretech goods are nearly unavailable for purchase. The Nyx government will pay handsomely for recovered pretech artifacts. Nyx is the primary source of anti-agathics, and their Dethanatonic clinic is capable of actually reversing the aging process (at phenomenal expense in some combination of money and favors.)

Golden Empire

The Golden Empire is a system of only one inhabited world, mostly TL1. It imports higher TL equipment whenever it can sneak them past customs, and ruthlessly keeps it under Imperial control. Aesthetically the world of the Empire is similar to Medieval China, and seems to have based its post-scream and collapse culture on those records purposefully. Mandarin is the most common language (although the educated elite also learn English.)

The Golden Empire is an exceptionally fertile world which managed to retain numerous genetically engineered crops through the Silence. Even with only primitive farming techniques it produces a large surplus. It manages a few valuable exotic agricultural products, and also attempts to trade in slaves (although the State does its best to stamp this out.) Further, the Empire produces an unusually high number of psychics for its population (for which there is no apparent explanation), although they are by no means numerous.

The State is currently attempting a Prometheus Project on the world, which has been partially successful. The Emperor cooperated and allowed it to continue, until he had sufficient TL2 capacity to tighten his grip, and then began to stonewall the project. He has been resisting all further efforts to spread greater technology, because he fears it will end his rule. He doesn't dare have open military conflict with the agents of the State, but there is currently a heavy shadow war and layers of intrigue between the Emperor, the various nobles, and the NGOs administering the Prometheus Project.

Trade to and from the Golden Empire is not discouraged, per se, but cargo will be inspected thoroughly both coming and going. The State maintains a geosynchronous space station with a beanstalk lifter. Atmospheric craft are NOT allowed to land on the planet. All persons and cargo must go through customs at both the top and bottom of the beanstalk, and they are deadly serious about what you may or may not take with you.

The State thus has tacitly interdicted the Empire. They will not allow the Empire to gain any spaceflight technology, or full membership in the community of worlds, until they take on a less tyrannical form of government (Ideally, a puppet emperor. Is that less tyrannical, really? The State thinks it probably would be.) They also have nuclear-equipped gravity rods on the station, and can obliterate the Golden Empire with button-pushes whenever they want to. However, the loss of life resulting from the ensuing crisis of instability would kill millions. The Emperor, the Nobles, and the State are all aware of these facts. It's really only a question of how much blood will be shed in the process of civilizing this world.

The Emperor himself is allowed a single unarmed shuttle equipped with a Spike drive, but refuses to submit himself or his diplomats to State Customs via the Beanstalk. For that reason, it sits unused on the station.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 04.02
Government: Tyrannical Empire, with meritocratic bureaucracy
Laws & Restrictions: State-imposed embargo on technology in or out. Planetary society is tyranny, whether anything is illegal or not depends entirely on the sufferance of the empire. Expect any goods above TL1 to be seized, with or without compensation.
Population: 3B
Languages: Mandarin, English
Technology: 2.999B TL1, 1M TL2.
Fleets: 1 Non-militarized shuttle. 1 Geosynchronous station with beanstalk that terminates near Imperial Capital, space-side customs controlled by the State. No NIFP protection, no extraplanetary facilities.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Agricultural, -1 Sapient, +1 Postech, +2 Military.
Goods: 1. Slaves. 2. Clothing. 3. Livestock, Common. 4. Livestock, Gengineered. 5. Metawheat. 6. Housewares, Basic. 7. Metal Ingots, Common. 8. Native Artwork. 9. Tools, Basic Hand Tools. 10. Pretech Junk (!).
Trouble: As per Tyrannical Worlds.
Friction: 5.
Notes: Trade is heavily restricted. Have a plan, friction can be modified downward and price substantially upward with the application of Adventure.

Wolf

Wolf is a TL3+ world that is part of the influential "core" of the State. Their heavy industrial capacity reaches TL4 in some areas, although their ability to manufacture TL4 goods in other areas is limited. Outside of construction and starships, their technology is TL3 (and even for Starships, they tend to import rather than manufacture the electronics and computer equipment.) The most common language here is descended from English and is barely recognizable, but it is so heavily dialected that outsiders cannot understand it without Culture/Wolf 0. It had heavy crossbreeding with some of the norse and germanic languages common here before the Scream, and they all intermingled during the long Silence. The natives are almost universally able to communicate in standard English as well. There are also a few areas of the planet where Russian is dominant.

Wolf is a slightly colder world than Earth-normal, but plentifully fertile for its inhabitants (the world is considered fully colonized, but only about two billion people live there. They like their space.) There are also substantial colonies elsewhere in the system. Wolf is a highly rational and clear-headed society, even if the people there do tend toward melancholy and contemplation of moral and philosophical dilemmas. There are heavy strains of Norse, Scandinavian, Germanic, and Russian culture running through it. They are not expansionist or militaristic, precisely, but they do believe in self-defense. They can manufacture vehicles of up to Frigate class easily with their own shipyards, and can manufacture Cruisers with difficulty.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 05.04
Government: Scandinavian Social Welfare, Mix of Parliament & Direct Democracy, Vestigial Monarchy.
Laws & Restrictions: Personal weapons require licenses which are easily available. Armed ships are allowed on-planet at the discretion of the authorities.
Population: 2B
Languages: Wolf Dialect, Russian, English
Technology: 1.5B TL3, .5B TL4, Prometheus project due to end in two years, specialty is heavy industry.
Fleets: 1 Militarized Cruiser, 2 Militarized Frigates, 5 Non-Militarized Frigates, 8 non-militarized shuttles, 8 fighters. 2 Beanstalk-equipped geosynchronous stations for full planetary defense, full NIFP protection. Numerous asteroid and other extraplanetary bases. Wolf has mostly 2nd-generation craft, but is beginning to manufacture 3rd-generation and configurable hulls.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Survival, -1 Astronautic, +1 Consumer, +2 Mineral.
Goods: 1. Colonial Materials 2. Colonial Supplies 3. Fusion Plants 4. Postech Building Material 5. Parts, Starship Maintenance 6. Tools, Astronautic 7. Tools, Industrial. 8. Small Arms, Projectile 9. Small Arms, Energy Weapons 10. Metawheat.
Trouble: As per industrial worlds.
Friction: 3
Notes: Home of Spacekea prefab colony kits. There are several specific items purchasable here that are not available anywhere else.
- Spacekea Black Box Fusion Core. 50,000cr to purchase, takes up twenty tons. This requires its own building to be set up in, but is ruggedized and completely enclosed. It can be maintained by natives if they can read, and requires only water as a power supply. Gives enough electrical power for 5,000 homes or one factory. Does not come with its own electrical grid.
- Spacekea Prefab Villa: Takes up 10 tons of cargo space, costs 50,000cr, and includes its own integral fusion power supply. Constructs a habitation and small workspace for 25 people. Rated to last for over a century if properly maintained. Includes hydroponics for scrubbing atmosphere and water, but not for food.
- Spacekea Prefab Manor: Takes up 30 tons of cargo space, costs 150,000cr, and includes all amenities and features of the above Villa. Constructs a generous habitation and workspace for 50 people. The manor is lightly fortified, and it comes complete with tools, supplies, survival and exploration gear, rugged housewares, fabrication equipment equivalent to a workshop, a small armory and basic medical facilities.
- Nuke Snuffers, Slingshot Scout Vehicles, Rimworlder rifles, all per the Suns of Gold book.
- Larger prefab colony facilities are available through special order, including prefabricated spaceports.

Anumati

Anumati a system focused around a single world. Anumati has slightly less surface area covered by water but its continents broken up into much smaller pieces. There are around a dozen landmasses in the size range between Greenland and Australia, and none larger. The common language is Hindustani. Their world is slightly warmer than Earth normal and is subject to occasional severe storms, but no major tectonic upheaval. The system has a wealth of asteroids with rare elements in them, and Anumati is therefore unusually wealthy. There are probably three billion inhabitants in the system.

Anumati is TL3+. They have excellent ability to manufacture personal and computer goods, and also medicine. Essentially, the cyberpunk package. However, their heavy industry and starship manufacturing capability lags behind. They can manufacture fighter and shuttle hulls on the surface, but must import spike drive parts and cannot build frigates or orbital facilities with any ease. They have a space station and a large fleet of in-system craft, but cannot sustain much in the way of interplanetary ambitions with a paltry fleet of five frigates (purchased and negotiated from other worlds.)

Anumati bristles at its lack of capacity, but doesn't have a strongly unified government. The megacorporations that rule it are unwilling to unite in common interest and continually squabble and make underhanded attacks on each other. The State is somewhat reliant on this state of affairs to maintain Nyx supremacy.

Anumati is also home to the Merpeople - victims of Mandate-era genetic engineering who were redesigned to survive underwater. There are enough of them to stay healthy and avoid inbreeding, but the rigors of spaceflight are difficult for them to survive and so they are bound to this world.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 03.04
Government: Corporatocracy
Laws & Restrictions: Almost anything is legal so long as you buy an expensive license. Be aware of differing megacorporate jurisdictions.
Population: 3B + 10M Merpeople.
Languages: Hindustani
Technology: 1B TL4, 2B TL3, Prometheus Project due to be complete in 2 years, specialty is personal electronics and cybernetics.
Fleets: 2 Militarized Frigates (1st and 2nd Generation.) 10 Shuttles (1st & 2nd Generation), 8 Fighters (1st Generation.) No 3rd-generation craft. 2 Beanstalk-equipped geosynchronous stations (neither exceptionally good, but they have them), and full NIFP protection.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Consumer, -1 Medical, +1 Postech +2 Astronautic
Goods: 1. Cybernetics. 2. Housewares, Postech. 3. Medical Supplies, Postech. 4. Tools, Postech Medical. 5. Small Arms, Projectile. 6. Recreational Drugs. 7. Metal Ingots, Rare Alloys. 8. Exotic Jewels. 9. Entertainments, postech. 10. Clothing.
Trouble: As per Savage World.
Friction: 4 for outsiders.
Notes: Ruled by corrupt megacorporations, who are not overly fond of competition. Anumati cyberclinics will do cybernetic implantation and similar procedures at half price, including a number of procedures that are illegal or unavailable elsewhere. Medical tourism is not uncommon. There are rumors of merchants that deal in sapients, although this is close enough to Nyx that the business stays underground.
- Cybernetics are a new good not listed in Suns of Gold. They are TL4 to manufacture. They cost 50,000cr per unit, and have the types of Postech, Medical, and Biotech.
- Entertainments are an adjunct to housewares, and specifically mean personal electronics, music, movies, TV series, toys and games, etc. They will typically have a tech level equal to the society that creates them. Postech Entertainments cost 10,000cr per unit, and have the types of Cultural, Consumer, and Postech.

Abaddon

Abaddon contains a dozen utterly lifeless and uninhabitable worlds that contain the ruins of human or other civilizations, and the Black House. Probably all of humanity in the entire State together could move to the Black House and live there comfortably, but there is a bit of superstitious dread regarding the system. Probably because no one has any clear idea of what rendered all those worlds uninhabitable. The State, for reasons of its own, has been pushing a colonization attempt on The Black House, with mixed success. There are a few tens of thousands here, but little more. The lifeless worlds and asteroid fields provide many opportunities for mining, the vast landscapes of the Black House contains unlimited space for agricultural projects. But people simply do not want to live here.

There are currently rumblings in the State government to consider dotting the landscape of The Black House with penal colonies, or settlements for political dissidents. The Nyx Cluster's relatively tolerant democratic government doesn't feel the need to persecute its own dissidents, but if the lesser civilizations in the State feel the need to do so, then why not turn a problem into an opportunity?

Every common language is in common usage here, and English is the universal tongue. Classes at the Academy are taught in English, and if a new student arrives who does not speak it, they are taught in short order. Psi education is available up to Level 6 disciplines. Some characters have knowledge and power in excess of that, but they are rare and their abilities secret. They are usually simply referred to as The Masters, and their precise identities are concealed. The students do not know which of the teachers have attained the rank of Master. Allegedly, all of them are in cahoots with the State's intelligence apparatus.

Abaddon does not have its own government beyond the purely local (which is dominated by the academics.) It has non-trivial planetary defense capability, but generally no more than a couple frigates in the system. It has very little manufacturing (a black eye considering the State's emphasis on self-sufficiency) and by itself would probably quickly drop to a TL1 status. However, its close connection to Nyx and sponsorship by the State means that TL4 goods and equipment are available there.

There are currently no more than a few hundred students studying at the Black House. The supply of psychics in the State is extremely limited.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 05.03
Government: Geniocracy (Psychics)
Laws & Restrictions: Personal sidearms are allowed. Traffic control is relatively strict, persons attempting to approach the Black House must have a valid reason for doing so.
Population: 60k, 500 Psychics.
Languages: Officially English, all languages spoken to some extent.
Technology: TL4, some TL5 Psitech, unsustainable.
Fleets: 1 Militarized Frigate (3rd generation), 5 non-militarized shuttles (2nd Generation.) No station, spaceport is a bit ad-hoc other than serious landing control. There are planetary defense weapons, and full NIFP protection.

Trade

Supply & Demand: ???
Goods: ???
Trouble: ???
Friction: ???
Notes: ???

Corsica

This was one of the first systems recontacted by the Nyx Cluster after they regained Spike Drive technology. Corsica had a strong intellectual culture and a number of Corsican thinkers and politicians became very influential in the burgeoning State. For that reason, Corsica has influence well above the range of its actual power. It is currently agitating for a space station and other facilities, which the State does not wish to provide at the moment for budgetary reasons, and which no one on the private market is able to.

Corsica is considered very tourist-friendly, and is certainly able to market itself that way. It is probably the most popular travel destination in the State for the kind of people who are able to travel for pleasure. It also has very little restriction in the way of customs, and people are generally allowed to bring any TL4 goods they would like.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 03.02
Government: Social Democracy, Parliamentary System, very populist.
Laws & Restrictions: No weapons allowed, all other goods are fine. Armed vessels must use a special restricted spaceport. Strong tradition of intellectual freedom. Will actually arrest people for "crimes against humanity" committed off-planet.
Population: 2B
Languages: French, Spanish Dialect
Technology: 1.5B TL3, .5B TL2. Prometheus Project to TL4 begins soon.
Fleets: 1 Non-Militarized Frigate (3rd Generation), 5 non-militarized shuttles (2nd Generation), 10 militarized fighters (1st Generation.) Full NIFP protection. A few extraplanetary facilities, but no real station.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Cultural, -1 Livestock, +1 Medical, +2 Tools
Goods: 1. Clothing. 2. Fine Liquor. 3. Small Arms, Projectile. 4. Metawheat. 5. Native Artwork. 6. Livestock, Common. 7. Parts, Basic Industry. 8. Postech Building Material. 9. Tools, Basic Hand. 10. Housewares, Basic.
Trouble: As per Cosmopolitan World.
Friction: 2
Notes: Corsica is an incredibly easy place to do business, and they'd like to see more of it. Unfortunately, they're in kind of a backwater. They are seriously interested in anyone that can open up a trade route to rumored worlds out beyond their system.

Inari

Inari is a TL3 world with no particular technological specialties, and a population of four billion. The common language is Japanese, and there is an unusually strong Buddhist tradition in several areas of the planet, despite the secularizing influence of contact with spacefaring civilizations. They were roughly at the height of 1950s-era technology when Contacted, and are now beginning the slow crawl toward TL4 capacity. There is a lively debate in the planetary government about what area (if any) of TL4 technology they should concentrate on developing first.

Inari is most interesting for its wildly varied biosphere, and the current belief is that it was seeded with life from many different worlds as part of some Mandate-era experiment (or accident?) Even now, Inari has an unusual reliance on domesticated wildlife and a highly sophisticated agricultural system built on dozens of exotic plant and animal products.

They don't seem terrifically excited about expansion in and of itself, and are actually slightly insular. Their primary motivation to bootstrap up is so that they cannot be pushed around, which has produced some conflict in the State as to whether they should be allowed to be insular.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 02.05
Government: Constitutional Theocracy.
Laws & Restrictions: Weapons are disfavored and must be justified. Violence is heavily restricted. Planet is effectively an enforced vegetarian state, do not attempt to import meat.
Population: 4B
Languages: Japanese
Technology: 3.999B TL3, 1M TL4.
Fleets: 5 non-militarized shuttles, 2nd Generation. Full NIFP Protection. No stations.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Agricultural, -1 Livestock, +1 Postech, +2 Mineral.
Goods: 1. Livestock, Common. 2. Livestock, Gengineered. 3. Livestock, Luxury Pets. 4. Metawheat. 5. Native Artwork. 6. Fine Liquor. 7. Parts, Basic Industry. 8. Postech Building Material. 9. Clothing. 10. Tools, basic hand tools.
Trouble: As per agricultural world.
Friction: 4
Notes: The animals bred here are for byproducts only. They get really serious if people start selling animals for meat.
- There is one TL4 good that Inari makes, and they make the best in the State. They can produce unparalleled hydroponics systems.
- The Laughing Buddha Modular Hydroponic Farm weighs 20 tons when packed for transport, and costs 100,000cr. It includes four modules, each of which requires roughly half of a barn worth of space when put together. Each module is enough to feed 75 people once it is running continuously. Setup requires the addition of a great deal of water and biomass, which should be easily available in most environments, and a continuous (but not necessarily high-intensity) power source. The hydroponics facility requires maintenance from someone with Tech/Medical or Science skills and access to the manual.

The Reef

Some huge disaster befell this system before or after the Scream, and it was uninhabited when first discovered. It has no remaining planets, only vast fields of more or less huge asteroids and a few bodies that were formerly probably very large moons. The common language is English, and the appropriate culture skill is Spacer.

The Reef is the greatest colonization success story, and one of the first ones. The mining and heavy industrial opportunities here were top notch, and there were a few artifact habitations that were still partially intact. The system is now a network of hundreds of major habitations, up to the size of small cities, and countless smaller ones, all sustained by hydroponic technology and space industry.

As an almost entirely spacefaring society, the Reef is TL4 and has a substantial navy.

The population of the reef is uncertain, but probably close to a billion.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 04.03
Government: Local Town-Hall Democracy plus system-wide Cybersynacy, effectively a client state of Nyx.
Laws & Restrictions: Weapons are restricted to shipboard-appropriate. Strong physical security measures.
Population: 1B
Languages: English plus others
Technology: TL4
Fleets: 1 Militarized Cruiser, 2 Non-Militarized Cruisers, 4 Militarized Frigates + 5 Non-Militarized frigates, 10 Shuttles, 15 Fighters. Mix of generations. Without any real planets there is little need for space stations per se. Copious docking bays and all other services are available here.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Mineral, -1 Tool, +1 Luxury, +2 Livestock.
Goods: 1. Fusion Plants. 2. Metal Ingots, Common. 3. Metal Ingots, Rare Alloys. 4. Tools, Astronautic. 5. Tools, Industrial. 6. Parts, Starship Maintenance. 7. Housewares, Postech. 8. Colonial Materials. 9. Clothing. 10. Parts, Basic Industry.
Trouble: As per industrial world.
Friction: 3
Notes: Purchases are exceptionally easy here. Sales are by-the-book difficulty without local contacts.

Sisters

This system contains the worlds of Antillia, Thoth, and Utu. All three are earthlike worlds with a TL of 0 or 1, depending on what part of the planet you land on. They tend to be plagued by voracious megafauna, which have never been successfully wiped out due to the large areas of wilderness. None have a unified planetary government, or even a body of governments. These three were clearly terraformed worlds, and their biospheres are simply not that old. As such, they lack the fossil fuels that would have allowed them to maintain or increase their tech levels without support. Each planet has at least one civilization that kept records and remembered. On each world, there were at least a few who had read the oldest books, and knew that their people had not come from there, and that there might be other humans out among the stars. On Antillia, the common language among the most educated is Spanish. On Thoth, it is Afrikaans. On Utu, it is Arabic. These were the languages that the oldest books had been written in. So, while they may have been dead languages at the time contact was re-established, they were quickly made use of. In all three cases this resulted in the most advanced culture on the planet being the point of contact with starfaring civlization, but since each world has something like a billion people on it, that isn't an overwhelmingly large contact to have.

The State is currently trying to slowly unify these worlds under a single government per planet, preferably one that is under State control, without having a humanitarian disaster or otherwise completely losing control of the situation.

This presents much different challenges to those of the Golden Empire. The Empire is unified, but has a powerful and cunning leadership who oppose the State's hegemony. The Sisters have no unification, but also no organized or unified opposition. It is largely a case of playing one faction against another faction of the same planet, but not doing so with such vigor that the grav tanks have to come out to prevent a crime against humanity. It's like walking a tightrope with a balancing pole occupied by angry cats.

Dealing with worlds such as these is stretching the resources of the State in a way that the Golden Empire doesn't, and the State presence in this system is arguably much too thin.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 03.05
Government: Various Primitive
Laws & Restrictions: Purely local
Population: 1B/1B/1B
Languages: Spanish, Afrikaans, Arabic.
Technology: 1.5B TL0, 1.5B TL1. That is the natural TL, no Prometheus Project has begun yet.
Fleets: 2 1st-generation Non-Militarized Shuttles per world, total of 6.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Agriculture, -1 Livestock, +1 Tools, +2 Postech.
Goods: 1. Clothing. 2. Drugs, Raw Materials. 3. Housewares, Basic. 4. Livestock, Common. 5. Metal Ingots, Common. 6. Metal Ingots, Rare Alloys. 7. Metawheat. 8. Native Artwork. 9. Slaves. 10. Tools, basic hand.
Trouble: As per primitive world.
Friction: 1d4+1 for each world, determined randomly the first time you visit.
Notes: The economic character of the three worlds is pretty similar.

Towers

Towers is a black sheep in the community of worlds. They sit on the edge of the State and joined it reluctantly. They have a dozen frigates, all armed, but no cruisers, two geosynchronous stations with beanstalks that are in mediocre working order, and partial NIFP protection. They are actually only partially TL4, there are areas of the planet where TL4 goods and services are not yet commonly available. Psychics are illegal, and there are hotly contested covert programs to help psychics escape from this world. The most technologically advanced areas of Towers are actually the Hives, which are habitable megastructure arcologies. Millions of people can live in a single Hive. There are still wide ranges of the planet that contain imiscible plant and animal life, and there are constant efforts to drive those species extinct.

The dominant language is Russian. Towers has a strong interest in technological advancement, and will pay for alien or pretech artifacts if they are functional. Towers is not a particularly egalitarian place, and there are small groups of people with absolutely phenomenal wealth and power. There are probably more people here that individually own starships than anywhere else.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 07.04
Government: Nepotocracy
Laws & Restrictions: Highly Repressive
Population: 4B
Languages: Russian
Technology: 2B TL3, 2B TL4, Prometheus Project estimates 5 years to full TL4 status.
Fleets: 5 Militarized Frigates (1st and 2nd generation.) 10 Non-Militarized Shuttles.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Military, -1 Low Tech, +1 Luxury, +2 Sapient
Goods: 1. Clothing. 2. Metawheat. 3. Parts, Basic Industry. 4. Tools, Basic Hand Tools. 5. Small Arms, Energy Weapons. 6. Small Arms, Projectile Weapons. 7. Housewares, Basic. 8. Tools, Industrial. 9. Postech Building Material. 10. Tools, Astronautic.
Trouble: As per decadent world.
Friction: 5.
Notes: Not really a safe place to do business at all. However, it deviates strongly from the State standard, and so it may be possible to purchase things here that are unavailable elsewhere...
- Balrog Laser Pistol: This is a bulky, inaccurate laser weapon preferred by thugs and degenerates all across Towers. It has a range of 50/100, deals 2d4 damage and takes two Type A energy cells. It has a magazine of 12 and is capable of burst fire. 600cr.

Blue Heaven

This is, in fact, a remarkably beautiful world. The Scream and the Silence hit it extremely hard, and it was apparently not fully colonized at the time. It has very slowly increased its population, civilization, and tech level on its own ever since hitting bottom. There are now around a billion people on this world, and it is generally a low TL2. The locals can make antibiotics, steam engines, factories, telegraphs, and firearms, but internal combustion engines and radio are not universally available.

It's viewed as a sleepy backwater, and that is a fairly accurate impression. The two largest governments on the planet have each been given a pair of spike-drive equipped shuttles, and State personnel to maintain them. There are no space stations, but space ports exist in the sense that there are large clear areas near several major cities, with port authorities to count crates and write your name down on a list. Remarkably, there are no current trade restrictions. The governments here value a laissez-faire approach to things, and the State has largely respected this local practice. Blue Heaven is attempting to bootstrap itself up to TL3 without government intervention, by letting market actors hire outside experts and outside businesses set up on the planet. They are suspicious of the way the State provides training for Psychics, but willing to tolerate it since they don't have a better option.

Large areas of Blue Heaven have a wild west atmosphere, and visitors are encouraged to carry sidearms and wear suitably low-profile body armor (the armored undersuit is an incredibly popular accessory for visitors.) Merchants will usually find ready buyers for outside tech, especially of the long-lasting and easily maintained variety. The problem is that the locals do not usually deal in Credits, because they barely have any. The bigger problem is that finding anything from Blue Heaven that is worth selling somewhere else is an enormous challenge. The current fashion among speculators is to buy up large amounts of real estate, on the assumption that it will become worth more as the planet develops.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 06.05
Government: Minarchy
Laws & Restrictions: Whatever.
Population: 1B
Languages: English, Mandarin
Technology: TL2. Prometheus Project begins this year.
Fleets: 4 non-militarized shuttles, 1st Generation.

Trade:

Supply & Demand: -2 Agriculture, -1 Sapient, +1 Tools, +2 Military.
Goods: 1. Drugs, Raw Materials. 2. Housewares, Basic. 3. Livestock, Common. 4. Metawheat. 5. Native Artwork. 6. Slaves. 7. Small Arms, Projectile Weapons. 8. Tools, Basic Hand Tools. 9. Fine Liquor. 10. Pretech Junk.
Trouble: As per a savage world.
Friction: 1
Notes: It is basically a western movie every time you land here.

Gabriel

A system that roundly rejected standard naming conventions, the major inhabited planet is called Gabriel's Tear. It has an earthlike climate but is an ocean world, with only perhaps 20% of the land surface area of ancient Terra. The population is small, only half a billion people, many of which live in floating cities. Civilization here dropped to TL0 or 1 at some point during the Silence, and the silence-era civilizations built many huge monuments and monoliths during that time. They are considered cultural treasures and access to them is restricted. The system has a wealth of rare minerals, and the people take naturally to space mining, so it is considered a zone of substantial economic opportunity. Gabriel's Tear is currently TL3 with a major language of Afrikaans. The government has historically been a system of city-states, each one focused on one of the islands that make up the world's limited land-area. They have now created a sort of UN to handle extraplanetary affairs, but it is weak and the nations often compete with each other to undercut it. The State is slowly gaining more of a hold here by playing one nation against another. Three nations have currently been bribed with the use of spike-drive equipped shuttles.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 06.03
Government: Federation of democratic city-states, strongly technocratic.
Laws & Restrictions: Varies by individual polity.
Population: .5B
Languages: Afrikaans, French, Arabic
Technology: TL3
Fleets: 6 non-militarized shuttles, 1st Generation.

Tenebrous

This is the civilized jumping-off point into the PCs' claimed sector. The two primary points of interest are Tenebrous III and IV. Tenebrous IV is a massive Terran Mandate space station. It was long-dead when discovered, and all human life in the system had in fact apparently been extinguished in the aftermath of the Scream. People still occasionally find long-mummified bodies in out-of-the-way corners of the station. State engineers have it up and running again, although they don't entirely understand all of the pretech systems. The PCs have a lease on a landing bay and some light industrial/office space.

Tenebrous III is a planet with a burgeoning colony. The wreckage of the pre-scream settlements have been picked thoroughly clean. At this time there are five colonies scattered around the planet, essentially one in the most hospitable part of each continent. The science of terraforming is still badly understood, and this planet is considered a testing-ground for the field. Biologists are regularly introducing species that are more harmonious with human civilization, and attempting to manage the ecological destabilization that results from adding a few dozen invasive species.

Very much a wild-west atmosphere.

Vital Statistics

Coordinates: 06.06
Government: Elective Monarchy (temporary)
Laws & Restrictions: Highly Libertarian
Population: 100k
Languages: Various. English is the official language of government and port control, Arabic is heavily represented planetside
Technology: TL4, unsustainable.
Fleets: None surviving. Currently occupied by rotating Naval detachment.

Trade

Supply & Demand: -2 Luxury, -1 Agricultural, +1 Postech, +2 Military.

Survey Claim Map & Notes

Oneiros Beta

Guild of Cartographers Map

Revised Sector Map

Notes: This map is made to conform to SWN's hex system. The routes are identical in terms of what points are accessible, but there may be times when the drill route is one hex longer or shorter. Use this map in all cases. A yellow dot indicates a single star. A red dot indicates a binary system. A blue dot indicates a trinary system. The black star in the upper right is a black hole. A ring indicates that there is a jumping-off point to a different sector. The ringed star system in 04.09 is Oneiros Beta, which has a drill route to the State sector.

System List

Black House contract re: Oneiros Beta

Within the next calendar year, the adventurers and the Black House will engage in a joint expedition to an alien colony that is within the bounds of the adventurers' sector claim map. In return for an introduction and guide services, and for the non-exclusive right to recruit psychic talent from the habitat (and with no other rights to economic exploitation), the Black House will provide the adventurers with a number of services.

One, transport for up to ten persons on the initial expedition, to and from, which may be expected to take at least three months. Two, an official report on any possibly-extant mecha facilities from the Mandate era, including any available navigation information. Three, up to two hundred hours of research by qualified researchers per year for the next five years (this means that you can ask for some grad students or a professor to find out about X topic, and they'll work on it. Results are likely to be dependent on a skill check by the NPC.) Four, secure work and living space at the Black House, and warehouse space at the spaceport, for the next ten years, with an option to renew for an additional ten year lease at 75% fair market value (FMV.)

The adventurers maintain rights to all salvage of Unconventional Technologies*, and are given a fee equal to 20% of the FMV of any such items removed from the habitat by the Black House or its agents, if they do obtain any items from the habitat or its inhabitants.

The contract is non-assignable and non-transferable. The expedition will begin from the Black House, and the adventurers are to send word through standard State courier services two weeks before they begin making their way to Abaddon to embark on their next expedition to Oneiros Beta. The adventurers are responsible for transporting any of their own chosen passengers (the technicians, essentially) to Abaddon, after which time they will become the responsibility of the Black House.

(*) This is an actual legal standard in the State. It includes basically anything that can't be reproduced and obtained on the market, so anything TL5 basically.

House Rules

Characters & Character Generation

After first level, characters gain double hit points.
New PCs start out one level below the lowest-level PC who has gained at least one level in the course of play.
Hit Points: I reroll a character's entire pool of hit points each time they level. You take the new result if it is higher. If the new result is equal or lower to your current result, you instead gain one hit point.
A character may reroll their entire pool of hit dice by spending one week on vacation, doing nothing of note (including travel!) In this case, the new result must be taken even if it is worse.

Character Advancement

Characters gain XP mostly by making money as adventurers. Every 5 credits worth of loot, salvage, valuable data, etc. that the PCs take back to civilization and sell is worth one XP. XP is pooled and divided between the characters evenly (excepting that Rook receives only half a share.)
As noted in the recruitment thread, characters gain double skill points on leveling. Please note the separation between class and non-class skills!
When a character gains a level and spends skill points, they must deal with the training time and cost. They should consult the table in the character advancement chapter, and add together the training cost for all skills they are training. Spend this amount. For every five hundred credits so spent, training takes one week. Training must be done at a venue where training of that type and level is available. When leveling, players should post their advancement plans and I'll inform them of any skills that will require time at different venues.
While training, players can specify one skill they are raising to 1 or higher to use for a research project. This is a skill roll that can be rerolled using an Expert's unique power, to determine things like useful information, lost/proprietary drill routes, blackmail material on NPC's, etcetera. The GM always has the right to veto a project and request that you pick another one.

Weaponry

Weapons are -2 to hit against armor that is higher TL. Weapons are +2 against armor that is 1 TL lower, and usually ignore armor that is 2 or more Tech Levels lower.
Spike Throwers are intended as assault weapons, to take out unprepared enemies in confined spaces. Note their very poor range. Additionally, they perform poorly against armor. When attacking an enemy with good armor (Combat Field Uniforms or better), or any vehicle with an Armor rating, they deal only half damage. Damage is halved before applying Armor. Armors of less than TL4 will not usually be able to resist Spike Throwers in this way.
Void Carbines are intended to allow assaults on spacecraft, so that the crew can be killed while leaving the spacecraft intact. They rip vacc suits like the Suit Ripper on page 35. They are considered suspect weaponry, but are not a capital offense if a person is otherwise authorized to be armed.
Mag pistols and mag rifles are the signature military technologies of humanity. They tend to mitigate the effects of cover. They subtract 2 from the armor rating of anything that can be damaged by non-gunnery scale weaponry (and that's at TL4, they may ignore the armor rating of objects below TL4.) They usually overpenetrate through hard cover, and penalties to attack targets behind cover are lessened unless the cover is extremely tough, if the attacker has a means of accurately determining the location of the enemy. They will also blast neat holes through enemies; mag rifles or pistols are not limited to killing one enemy per shot when attacking a horde or swarm.
Grenades are a topic of some concern for player characters, for obvious reasons (Hint: It's because player characters like to blow things up.)
- Each Readied grenade takes up 1 encumbrance by itself.
- Grenades deal 2d6 damage.
- When stowed, grenades can be carried in packages. A package of grenades contains 3, so you can get three stowed grenades into one package for one encumbrance. However, it takes one round to remove the grenades from the package in addition to the round to un-stow them.
- Under no circumstances can grenades or grenade launchers be carried through civilization without repercussions.
Grenade Launchers can be equipped along with an appropriately modified firearm. They use combat/gunnery.
- A grenade launcher adds one encumbrance to the encumbrance value of a longarm.
- Thrown grenades and grenade launcher grenades are not interchangeable. You must specify which one you are carrying.
- They fire rounds which arm at 20 meters, and will not explode until they have flown at least that far (but beware ricochets...) and are pretty much direct-fire weapons with 50/150 meter ranges. Unlike thrown grenades, these detonate on impact rather than on a timer! The actual projectile can be fired out to 400 meters by arcing it, but they're wildly inaccurate at this range. I suppose under some circumstances you could find a use for that, but it wouldn't be any good for trying to pick off a specific enemy or group of enemies.
- Underslung grenade launchers have an internal magazine of three grenades.
- Launched grenades, unlike regular grenades, are loaded with high explosive warheads. They ignore the Armor of and can damage soft-skinned vehicles such as passenger cars. This is yet another reason you cannot use them anywhere outside of a war-zone.
- Also unlike thrown grenades, launched grenades deviate by 1d20 meters. Yes, they can bounce back at you.
- Using them inside a space ship may also be a bad idea. Just a thought.
- They're actually pretty expensive. You guys have enough money that it won't be an issue, though. If we haven't added an Armory to the ship then we will at the next opportunity, and that will cover it.

Melee & Ranged Weapons

Longarms are the weapon of choice for most large-scale infantry actions, but other weapons have their uses. Specifically, melee weapons have an advantage in melee combat.
Longarms cannot be fired into a melee without the risk of hitting the wrong target. If you are in melee with no other allies, and are attempting to fire a longarm at opponents who are in melee with you, you must take a penalty of -2 to hit, and opponents will receive +2 to hit you. On second and subsequent rounds of attempting to use a longarm in melee, you will automatically lose initiative.
Pistols can be fired into a melee safely if the pistol-wielder is part of the melee. They do not receive a penalty to hit, but melee-armed enemies will receive a +2 bonus to hit the pistol-wielder.

New Weapons

Some pistols are designed to be concealed. They will usually have less range and ammunition capacity, but in return can be hidden beneath normal clothing. Costs are the same as for the larger version. Some worlds allow open carry but not concealed carry; Culture/Traveler 0 and access to a planetary data network will be sufficient to forewarn PCs who think to ask the GM what the local weapon laws are. For double cost, these weapons will defeat TL3 security scans and can only be found with a pat-down search. Even then, the dedicated PC might find ways of hiding them.
- Concealable Mag Pistols have a four round ammunition capacity and a range of 20/40.
- Concealable Laser Pistols have a seven round ammunition capacity and a range of 50/100.
- Concealable Thermal Pistols have a four round ammunition capacity and a range of 15/30.
Sniper Rifles
- Laser Sniper Rifle: +1 to hit, 2d10 damage, add your combat/energy skill to your damage rating if you take at least one round to aim. Range 2000/4000. Has an enormous scope with low-light capability. Gets 5 shots from a Type A power cell. 4 Encumbrance, takes two rounds to fold from a briefcase-sized case out to the firing configuration, or one round to fold back. Fires from a bipod mount.
- Railgun: 3d8 damage, add your combat/projectile skill to your damage rating if you take at least one round to aim. Range 1500/3000. Enormous scope with low-light capability. 3 round magazine. 5 encumbrance, takes two rounds to fold out from a briefcase-sized case out to firing configuration, or one round to fold back. Fires from a bipod mount. Loud.

Swarms

Swarms are a mechanical way to represent fights with very large groups of enemies.
A swarm's Strength is equal to the number of creatures in the swarm.
A swarm's HP is equal to the average HP of a member of the swarm.
A swarm's other stats, such as AC, Movement Rate, saving Throws, et cetera, remain the same.
- An attack that deals less damage than the swarm's HP has no effect
- An attack that deals damage equal to or greater than the swarm's HP reduces its strength by 1. Some weapons listed below can reduce strength by more than one per attack. For each multiple of the swarm's HP, Strength is reduced by one, up to the limit of that weapon.
- Bursts of automatic fire can reduce strength by up to 3.
- Area effect weapons deal double damage and do not have an upper limit on the amount of Strength they can remove, so long as in the referee's judgment the area could include that many creatures. Reductions to damage from a successful save (The Swarm only makes a single save) or from having a low AC (as in the case of grenades) is applied before doubling.
- Suppressive fire weapons deal double damage instead of half damage, and have no limit on how much they can reduce enemy Strength. If the swarm is under hard cover, they can make a save as normal.
- PCs with combat/primitive or combat/unarmed, who are using those skills, may make a number of melee or unarmed attacks equal to their skill rating +1 if the swarm is in melee with them, and they are using that type of attack.
- A group of enemies must have Strength at least double the number of PCs to be considered a swarm. They only make one attack per PC (Ranged or melee, as appropriate.) However, for every full multiple of the PCs number their strength is (double, triple, quadruple...) the swarm's attacks gain +1 to hit and damage.
- A swarm with Strength equal to at least four times the number of PCs may deal 1d4 damage (with no bonus) to PCs who are in powered armor or the equivalent, even if their weapons would normally not be able to affect an opponent in that type of armor. This still requires a successful to-hit roll.

Madness & The Black House

I don't really like the way that the base rules absolutely fry someone for using psychic powers untrained. So, instead, I'm ruling that untrained use of psychic powers accumulates Madness. If you're careful, you can get away with it for a while. A lot of incoming students do; they may have been using their abilities in secret for a time before the agents picked them up. It's a lot less of a problem than it used to be, but it still happens.

A great deal of what happens in the first year or two of Psychic training is attempting to undo the accumulated Madness of the worst cases, or at least help the students to deal with it. The education of psychics tends to be heavy on history, culture and religion for exactly this reason; many students take comfort in mysticism (although its discouraged if it becomes excessive.)

They also often are given pets to take care of. It's therapeutic. The Black House gets weird some times.

Talk Show Rules

Okay, these are going to be the rules for the talk show.

As always, creativity is rewarded. Also, these are going to be subject to what is going on in the fiction, and the results may be tilted or reinterpreted in that light.

Pre-Game

You need to be able to make a decent presentation of yourself. This can be seen as basically a wardrobe check. You can use an appropriate skill (Leadership, Business, Any Culture/World* skill if you are going to dress like a person from that world), modified by Wisdom, to dress like a person who belongs on television. If you hit at least a difficulty seven, you manage to present yourself appropriately. If you fail the check, you will receive a -1 to every check you make until you succeed at a check.

If you hit at least a twelve, you will gain a +1 to any one check you make during the show. You must declare you are using this bonus beforehand.

Rounds and Players

There will be three rounds, each representing about a half hour of air time. During each round, three members of the party and three NPCs may take an action. The three NPCs are Alkaylee and two expert commentators. No PC may act two rounds in a row; therefore each player character will act twice. Rook acts as part of your group and will also act twice. You can kibbitz as much as you want in the OOC thread, because Delan's telepathy will allow you to coordinate your actions.

The following actions are available. Other actions might also be available. There is some flexibility in what skill is used, but please don't try to just always push towards using your highest skill.

What's your agenda here?: This action can be used against any participant who has acted at least once already. It is a perception check with a difficulty of 7. Success gives the party information about the purpose and likely subsequent actions of another participant. If Delan uses this action, her Empathy power gives her the option of using it against every NPC. In this instance, they will make a saving throw versus mental effect instead of her making a Perception check. The amount and type of information obtained will depend on the NPC's emotional state and what action they are attempting that round. This action always takes place at the end of a round.

...but you aren't entitled to your own facts!: This action uses an appropriate knowledge-type skill. History and Tactics are the most obviously useful, but this is another area where creativity will be of great assistance. This action starts at Difficulty 7, and allows the establishment of a common ground of fact, which must be within reason. No later action can that rests on incompatible premises can be successful. This action can be countered by later uses of the same action; each subsequent use to alter the same factual landscape increases the difficulty by one. Facts which are not closely related or incompatible can be established without reference to each other's current difficulty. (For example, an Tech/Astronautic argument about the quality of Chittik vessels and a Steward argument about the effects on the State's coffers may indicate contradictory conclusions about the best course of action, but the facts themselves are not in contradiction.)

Rhetoric: Once facts are established, a character can use Persuade to push the audience toward a conclusion. This will fail if the facts are later controverted. Build your argument on solid premises!

Conclude: If Rhetoric was used successfully during a prior round, and has not been countered, then a use of Leadership can effectively seal the deal so far as the audience is concerned.

Challenge Credentials: With this check (probably based on Persuade), you can compel another character to reveal the skills they have that are relevant to the discussion. This action will automatically succeed if the target has failed a check in the prior round. A character who has had their credentials challenged receives a -1 to all checks until they succeed on a check.

Establish Credibility: With this check, using an appropriate skill, you demonstrate that your group has credibility. Everyone on your side gains a +1 to their checks on the next round of actions.

Question Credibility: If you have already determined another party's agenda, you can reveal it and attempt to argue that they're too biased. If successful, everyone with that agenda will be at -1 to any future actions relevant to their agenda, unless they can manage to shake off the accusation of bias.

Build Reputation: This action allows the user to gain temporary Reputation (or some other benefit) from an outside organization or group by self-promotion or promoting the agenda of that organization or group. This will have effects that only apply outside of the combat, and those effects may vary wildly.

Provoke: This action may be taken in a round after an opponent has failed an action. The opponent may contest it with a roll of their own, but if the target loses the roll then they are removed from the show and may no longer act. The target may decide if they storm off, lose it and have their mic cut off, or what.

Straw Man: The user of this action may (within reason) dishonestly impute a position to a target who has used ...but you aren't entitled to your own facts! in the prior round. The straw man must be a reasonable corollary to the facts the target established. If successful, that person must either accept that position or lose their next action to disclaim it (automatic success.)

Note: Culture/World specifically means a world, it does not include spacer, traveler, criminal, et cetera.

Style Guide

The style guide is a set of expectations for the players and, to a lesser extent, me. Reading it is fairly mandatory.

Back in Black: Style Guide.

Stars Without Number: Back in Black

Contents

Adventurers

Companions Lost and Killed

The Ship and Vehicles

Loot and Salvage / Cargo Hold

Custom/Unique Items

Slush Fund & Assets

Lifestyle Costs

Maps

Important NPCs

The Setting

Personal Equipment

Money

History of the State

Tech Levels and Psychic Powers in this Campaign

Spacer Culture

The Academe

Language & Culture

Common Starship Models

List of systems in the State

The Navy

Nyx Cluster

Golden Empire

Wolf

Anumati

Abaddon

Corsica

Inari

The Reef

Sisters

Towers

Blue Heaven

Gabriel

Tenebrous

Survey Claim Map & Notes

Guild of Cartographers Map

Revised Sector Map

System List

Black House contract re: Oneiros Beta

House Rules

Characters & Character Generation

Character Advancement

Weaponry

Melee & Ranged Weapons

New Weapons

Swarms

Madness & The Black House

Talk Show Rules

Style Guide

Thread Index

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