#UnchartedTravel
Some people roll through here asking about how to best handle alien environments in their game; how do we make up the worlds that our PCs set foot on — where they get up to no-good? There’s plenty of ways of making these planets, and I think one excellent way would be to crowdsource these worlds! I mean, hell, why not, right? Who’s to say that a planet you make up wouldn’t fit perfectly into my game? So, I’m throwing out the hashtag #UnchartedTravel as a place where we can showcase the things we’ve made up that anyone’s heroes could run across on their travels: worlds, locations, individuals… Think of it as a tour guide for the galaxy!
So, for the inaugural entry I’m going to draw people’s attention to Vast & Starlit on Drivethrurpg. It’s a lovely little microgame by Epidiah Ravachol that uses no dice, and is just all about having an exciting conversation about space brigands. It’s pay-what-you-want right now, so you can scope it out for nothing if you’re wary of this. But man there is some solid stuff in there! Such as, for example, its guidelines to making aliens and far-off planets.
You pick a baseline, and the rest of the players tweak, exaggerate, or reverse specific aspects of that baseline. Do this three to five times, and then reincorporate the aspects while discarding the baseline. By way of example, I’ll take it for a spin.
I’ll be using my hometown, Pittsburgh. I’ll be using these five aspects:
1. The area has a unique dialect sometimes called the ugliest accent in America.
2. The City is known for its three rivers and its “golden triangle” collection of bridges.
3. Former steel city, now a booming city for medicine.
4. Pittsburgh has pretty okay public transit… its free anywhere within the city, as long as you don’t cross the river.
So let’s mess with those and learn about the planet Yinza VII!
1. Ugly dialect? Exaggerate! The people of Yinza VII have this weird extra sound-producing organ in their chest cavities that kind of sounds like dubstep through a garbage disposal. They can understand you just fine, but you’re going to need an interpreter if you’re going to make any kind of deal with a Yinzese merchant.
2. Rivers and bridges? Tweak! Yinza VII is known for its Golden Pyramids, strange alien objects left behind by the Yinzese gods (so they claim). It’s hard to argue with them though (language notwithstanding), because water has bubbled up from the soil beneath the pyramids for eons, flowing into three life-giving rivers surrounding the capitol.
3. Steel, then Medicine? Exaggerate! Yinza VII is practically overflowing with medicine — its those pyramids and that water again! Pretty much everything edible or drinkable on this world will treat what ails you, keeping you healthy and young. However, the metals in the soil are of really poor quality, and the people don’t get out into space on their own. They’re stingy about exporting any of their crops, just to give themselves a bargaining chip with the rest of the galactic community.
4. Free Transit? Reverse! Yinza VII is highly strict about the movement of its citizens, for two reasons. One: ensure no one disturbs the Golden Pyramids (except of course for the wealthy and powerful, but ain’t that always the truth?). Two: ensure that the delicate ecological balance that lends rejuvenating qualities to their food and drink is not disturbed. The end result is something resembling a “benign” police state. You’re free to go wherever and do whatever (within the bounds of the law), as long as you can demonstrate you’re not traveling too far afield without your papers or without proper clearance from the powers that be.
So, hey, there’s a planet for you to use in upcoming games of Uncharted Worlds! Yinza VII! World of Golden Pyramids, inexplicable rejuvenating rivers and foods, a populace whose language is impenetrable to offworlders, and a transit bureau with all the enforcement power you’d expect from military police. Does one of your PCs need a medical miracle right now? Can they get the permits to land, or do they run the blockade? Can they get someone to understand what they need? What if a member of the crew is “relocated” by the transit bureau for byzantine reasons, or something from the ship goes missing across the nearest border?
Hope folks enjoyed this example of making a planet the Vast & Starlit way. Seriously, its a fun way to think up weird space opera stuff, should you need it.
(apropos of nothing, I picture the Yinzese as looking like smaller, bipedal versions of that giant pig that shared water with Finn in Force Awakens)
http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/124325/Vast–Starlit
