Monday, January 20, 2014

Confederation Chronicles: Review and Restart

In 2012, I tried to create a campaign setting that would be based on much of the material available from Sine Nomine's RPG line titled Stars Without Number, but inspired by some favorite SF properties from live action and animated TV series.

In 2013, I tried to restart that work, but failed.

So, here I am again. As a counterpoint to the fantasy campaign I'm working on called Border Wardens, this is to be my Science Fiction work.

Review

Since it's been quite a while since that initial burst of activity, I need to refresh my memory.

In "Confederation Chronicles: A Campaign Premise" parts 1 and 2, I decided that I was going to riff off of the Battlestar Galactica concept -- a fleet of ships trying to find their way home. Unlike that show, or the other inspiration show (Andromeda), they actually come from a stable part of the Imperium: a self-sufficient cluster of worlds and systems that survived the mysterious disintegration of their galaxy-spanning Empire.

And they've been charged to find a stable path of travel along linked routes back to the Throneworld.

In "Confederation Chronicles: A Mobile Base of Operations -- Part 01", I explore the benefits of a self-sufficient, ridiculously powered ship being available to the PCs, with Blake's 7, Andromeda, and Farscape as inspirations.

In "Confederation Chronicles: A Mobile Base of Operations -- Part 02", I look at how dialing back the power levels and scale might affect the setting, while looking at the other campaign elements shows like Battlestar Galactica, Robotech/Macross, Firefly, and Starblazers/Space Cruiser Yamato dealt with life on a ship.

In "Confederation Chronicles: A Mobile Base of Operations -- Part 03", I decide on the Stars Without Number source material I'll be using to build the campaign's traveling fleet: the Imago Dei and the Bruxelles-Class Battlecruiser sourcebooks in the Mandate Archive series.

I was all set to talk about inserting the PC roles in the campaign, but I stalled -- briefly posting on possible inspirations from the excellent Gumshoe-powered RPG by Pelgrane Press: Ashen Stars -- but not really following through.

But maybe it's time to dust off the notebooks and get back to work on this project.


2 comments:

That's my side of things. Let me know what you think, my friend.