Superluminary™™ A space opera toolkit for Other Worlds™ WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY Mark Humphreys ILLUSTRATED BY Storn A. Cook EDITED BY Harriet Evans LAYOUT BY Ruben Smith-Zempel THANKS TO Blake Hutchins, Brian Isikoff, Fred Hicks, Justin D. Jacobson, Steve Jones, Paul Newland, Richard Green, Ben Reynolds, Ian Meachin, and Mike Holmes Techno-sorcery developed from an idea by Mike Holmes, used with permission. Copyright© and Trademark™ 2017 Mark Humphreys. All rights reserved. A Signal 13 production FAC 13 5299 Go to www.OtherWorldsRPG.wordpress.com for more! TMA-1 Table of Contents And So It Begins... 4 What Is Space Opera? 6 Crafting a Story 7 What’s in This Book 8 Scenes from a Space Opera, Episode IV: A Message to the Rebels 9 Big Bang Theory 10 What Is the Astrographical Scope of Your Campaign? 10 How Many Alien Races Are There? 12 What Does the Future Look Like? 13 How Does FTL Work? 14 What Other Conflict-Driving Supersciences Are There? 15 What Form Do Special Powers Take? 16 What Is the Team’s Focus? 16 Scenes from a Space Opera, Episode V: Hunter, Prey 17 Heroes of the Future 18 Homeworlds 19 Professions 29 Trademarks 39 Scenes from a Space Opera, Episode VI: Attack Run on Battle Station Copernicus 55 Aliens, Robots, and Other Strangeness 56 Alien Species Templates 56 Robot Chassis Templates 66 Virtual Minds 74 2 Scenes from a Space Opera, Episode I: Prisoners of the Slime People 75 The Weirding Way 76 Psionics 77 The Lifeforce 80 Techno-Sorcery 83 Scenes from a Space Opera, Episode II: Last Days on Volcanis Ultra 87 Brave New World 88 High Technology and Superscience 89 Trading and Commerce 94 Superscience and the Arms Race 96 Hovercars and Spaceships 99 Travelling the Spaceways 106 Bizarre Landscapes 112 Creature Feature 118 Supporting Characters 127 Factions 129 Scenes from a Space Opera, Episode III: Possible Kill Screen 135 Appendix: The Merovinthian Sector 136 Core Worlds 137 Other Factions 140 Index 142 3 1 And So It Begins... Superluminary is a space opera toolkit for Other Worlds. if that weren’t enough we’ll also show you how to han- It is designed to act as a comprehensive supplement dle the different types of conflicts that are likely to come to the main rulebook, giving you enough templates, up in your game, from computer hacking and laserblade worlds, and adventure ideas to fuel just about any kind duels to speederbike chases and massive space battles, of science fiction campaign you can think of – and then as well as giving you a whole stack of random encounter, some! With this book at your disposal you will never be item, and ability generation tables to use as quick inspi- short of inspiration or excitement. ration in an emergency. But that’s not all! The material in this book is still only Science fiction storygaming has never been this excit- a starting point. After all, no one knows what belongs in ing, nor this easy to prepare. So what are you waiting your space opera setting better than you do. So we’ve for? Your trusty old spaceship is fuelled up and ready also thrown in lots of detailed advice on how to go about on the launchpad, your twin-linked magnacoil railguns building your own science fiction universe from the are locked and loaded, and your cyborg co-pilot is giving ground up, from designing your own worlds, empires, you a big metallic thumbs up. Those slimy alien maraud- and subdimensions to fleshing out the many races, ro- ers aren’t going to know what hit ‘em. bots, monsters, and vehicles that go inside them. And as Ready? Three... two... one... ignition! 4 Deciphering Superluminary: A Secret Report Within the Guild How do you use this book? its socio-cultural ramifications. This author has used the material presented here to run a mythic fantasy If you're a GM planning to run a space opera campaign game, a Victorian horror game, and a hard SF wormhole using the Other Worlds system, the answer to this exploration game as well as two interlinked space opera is pretty straightforward. You read through it for games, all with great success. advice on how to run your worldbuilding session and how to structure different types of conflict, you let If you're using Superluminary with some other game your players loose on the template sections during system altogether (heresy!) then the main thing to character generation, and you flip to the random world, translate across is what abilities are. The templates in encounter, and trait tables whenever you need a quick this book give characters a huge number of different shot of inspiration in the middle of an adventure. Ta- abilities, but it is important to note that these are not dah, instant space opera awesomeness! The only trap mini packets of rules and exceptions that anyone has 1: And So It Begins... to avoid here is treating the material in this book as to remember. Instead, they are simply adjectives – canon rather than just one way to do things; if your idea flexible descriptors that you can apply as circumstance of what abilities a cargo freighter or a space zombie modifiers to an existing roll whenever you see fit. For should have is different from mine, then please go right example, a character's Reckless Curiosity might help ahead and use yours! This extends to the players as well. them to hack into that tomb world supercomputer, but Obviously cargo freighters and space zombies just work their Naive Sense of Honour might make it harder for a bit differently at your end of the universe than they them to lie to the space cops about it afterwards. In do at mine. Remember that this book is intended to this way an Other Worlds character sheet can actually support your creativity, not replace it (that's one reason sit entirely alongside another game system and work in why there isn't a fixed setting). parallel. Generally you will just use one or two adjectives at a time, enough to add a bit of colour to a particular If you're using Other Worlds to run a campaign in some roll without overwhelming it, but with the most dramatic other genre – especially heroic ones like pulp, fantasy, and important conflicts of your story you might go all in or superheroes – then you should find that the material and use absolutely everything that's relevant. That's fine. in this book is very easy to carry over. Often this is just The purpose of this is so that we get to know as much a matter of deleting prefixes like space– or laser– from about the character's personality, relationships, and a few abilities and then giving the template a new name upbringing as we do about their strength, toughness, – Telekinetics become Force Mages, Rarefied Mystics and cool powers – and moreover that these things become High Elves, and Utility Grav-Sleds become come out at the table by being constantly vocalised Atlantean Sky-Chariots, for example. Campaigns set rather than just staying on the page. This repetition and in the near future or that just want a harder edge to reincorporation is at the heart of the game and is the their science fiction can simply ignore or tone down key to making your characters and your stories truly some of the more fantastical elements and dwell a little come alive. longer on the practical details of the technology and 5 What Is Space Opera? Good Against Evil When we talk about science fiction in this book we are In a space opera the bad guys wear black and the good mostly talking about a particular sub-genre called space guys wear white (metaphorically, if not literally). With- opera. Space opera tends to be the most popular sort out a clear distinction between the heroes and at least of science fiction and encompasses such classics asStar some of their foes you rob the players of the moral high Wars, Dune, Flash Gordon, and Babylon 5. So, what distin- ground and therefore the opportunity to be truly hero- guishes space opera from other kinds of science fiction? ic. That’s not to say there’s no room for more ‘morally complicated’ characters – indeed, genre archetypes like the grizzled mercenary or the cynical smuggler can pro- Story and Adventure over vide a useful contrast to the usual moralising – just that Scientific Realism they should be the exception rather than the norm. Let Story and adventure are really the bywords of space op- the heroes be heroes and let the villains be villains! era; as long as it makes for an exciting story, just about anything goes. The only real limit is your own imagina- Exploring the Infiniverse tion. Scientific realism, by contrast, is not usually much The universe is a wondrous place indeed, full of mys- of a concern. The protagonists of a space opera routine- teries and strange powers, and the protagonists of a ly break the laws of physics by travelling faster than the space opera rarely stay in one part of it for long. There speed of light, using strange mental powers, and jump- is a whole galaxy full of single-environment worlds out ing backwards and forwards in time – and the stories are there, each stranger than the last, but all of them just all the more fun because of it. Don’t let worries over be- waiting to be explored, pacified, and then stripped of all lievability and verisimilitude spoil the flow of the action natural resources by a party of brave space adventurers or the thrill of the chase; special effects take precedence in their beaten-up old cargo freighter.