Friday, January 27, 2012

Welcome to Kepler-22B!


The galaxy is all abuzz at the re-discovery of Kepler-22B, a giant earth analog discovered centuries ago and then lost to all human memory. The magnetic clouds that hid it from detection have now lifted, and a brand new world has been opened up to settlement and exploration!

This blog is going to be an experiment in stocking a sci-fi planet for role playing games. The concept is simple - a map will be drawn and divided into sectors. Each sector will be assigned an overall environment and can be claimed by anyone willing to write that sector up in a manner that lends itself to gaming. Slowly but surely, the planet will be populated with new life and new (or old) civilizations.

The "rules" for participation are as follows:

1. To claim a sector, you need merely contact me (my email address is over to the right - I'm that handsome bearded fellow) and ask for a specific sector. If it is available, it is yours. I will send you a numbered hex map. You then need to provide the following to me, to be posted on this blog:

A. Provide a random event/encounter table for the sector. The table uses 2d6 (i.e. is numbered 2 to 12). Provide a description of the creatures, but no stats.

B. Detail at least 20 notable locations in your sector. These can be interesting landscapes, alien settlements, pioneer settlements, mineral, gas or energy deposits, hunting grounds for unique creatures, copses of weird trees, etc. Anything that could fit into a science-fiction setting (and that gives you a pretty broad brush). If possible, try to use these features as adventure hooks, since rpg adventures is the point of this whole exercise. Feel free to create alien civilizations as you like, but keep in mind that the native civilizations are either (A) fairly primitive or (B) remnants of high technology civilizations.

2. You will own all of your writing and creations, but you have to cede me the right to post them on the blog in perpetuity. Think of the blog as a digital fanzine.

3. The most important rule of all: YOU CANNOT USE SOMEBODY ELSE'S INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY. No Wookies (unless you happen to be G. Lucas), no Starfleet, no Aliens (as in things that want to eat Ripley), no Daleks, etc. The fun of Kepler-22B is that it will be a smorgasbord of original ideas from a disparate group of people. Be creative - have fun.

4. Final thing - if you write something that I'm not comfortable having on the blog, I'm not going to publish it.

And that's the scheme. The map will be up soon, and when it is completed interested parties can contact me to lay claim to a sector. Fair warning - I'm taking a jungle sector and I'm populating it with alien dinosaurs and ruined Preserver Domes. Consider that me "calling dibs".

4 comments:

  1. Can I use a slightly different encounter table than 2d6?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Do you have to start making trouble - right from the start? Okay - yes, you can use a slightly different encounter table than 2d6. I'm such a push-over.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm in. Assign me something random. It's better that way.

    ReplyDelete

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