Starfarer

Hi-tech sci-fi hack of Wayfarer by Chaoclypse. 

Updated 8pg zine release on itch with lots of Chaoclypse art!

Character Creation 

Roll 2d6 down the line for the four Stats: Strength (STR), Speed (SPD), Intellect (INT), Privilege (PRV).

HP is average of STR and PRV, rounded down.

Every character starts at Level 0.

Privilege Bonus

Characters with a PRV score of 11+ receive material bonuses in a personal estate on their homeworld OR an 8-person starship, and Sector-wide corporate contacts OR connections to government officials.

Skills 

Allocate 5 rolls between the Regular, Special, Streetrat, Landlord, or Institutional Skill tables to determine Skills. For example, a player can roll 3 times on Common Skills and twice on Specialized.

For each skill, allocate an inventory item appropriate to said skill.

After the first 5 Skills, players may choose to make a Death Save to survive another 5 years of life and gain a new Skill. 

Common Skills

1. Melee Combat (Specify weapon)
2. Ranged Combat (Specify weapon)
3. Survival (Specify Worlds or Void)
4. Piloting (Specify vehicle type)
5. Tech Repairs
6. Computing

Specialized Skills

1. Medical
2. Admin
3. Cultural Studies
4. Pharmacology
5. Astrobiology
6. Engineering

Streetrat Skills (Must have PRV 6-)

1. Fraud
2. Extortion
3. Streetwise OR Cultural Studies
4. Pharmacology
5. Piloting (Specify planet-based vehicle)
6. Tech Repairs OR Computing

Landlord Skills (Must have a PRV 8+)

1. Fraud
2. Bribery
3. Sector Law OR Admin
4. Pharmacology
5. Piloting (Specify vehicle type)
6. Engineering OR Computing

Institutional Skills (Must have INT 8+ or PRV 8+)

1. Medical
2. Sector Law
3. Astrobiology
4. Cybernetics
5. Superintelligences
6. Genemodding

Encumbrance

Inventories are slot based. Characters have an encumbrance maximum that is equal to their current STR+2.

Checks

To attempt an action where success is uncertain, roll 8+ on 2d6 to succeed.

If the task is easy, and you still feel it necessitates a Check, roll 6+.

If the difficulty is unclear, roll 2d6 for the target number. Any result below 6 is trivial and does not require a check. Even most easy tasks do not require a Check.

Dice Modifiers

Some conditions may modify the Check, called a Dice Modifier, or DM. This boon or bane applies to the 2d6 result.

• If a Stat applies to a the Check: 
• Stats of 6- grant -2 DM 
• Stats of 10+ grant +2 DM 
• If Skill applies to the Check: Add the Skill bonus. 
• If lacking a Skill required for the Check, -4 DM.

Stat Checks

If a singular Stat is all that matters, roll 2d6 under or equal to the stat to succeed.

World

Base chance of encounter/patron/rumor: 2-in-6 

If actively searching (takes time): 4-in-6

Reaction rolls

Roll reactions when a character’s reaction to the party is unclear. This also works for unclear situations.

2d6	Reaction
5-	Negative
6-8	Neutral
9+	Positive

Combat

Combat uses Checks as per normal. Each combat round, characters may move between range bands, and perform an attack.

To hit	2d6
No Armor	6+
Modest Armor	8+
Full Armor	10+

Slow targets gain +2 DM to hit; fast targets gain -2 DM.

Range Bands	Effective Weapons
Close	Melee
Medium	Throwable + Ranged
Far	Ranged
Distant	Ranged, -2 DM

Attempting to flee uses a combat round. Make a check with a +2 DM if Distant, and -2 DM if Close.

Damage

If less-than-lethal, take d3 damage. If it could kill a person, d6 damage. If it could blow a hole in a wall, 2d6 damage. If it could destroy an engine block, 4d6 damage.

Surprise

For random encounters, 2-in-6 chance of surprise for both sides. Roll d6 for distance, with -1 DM for each side that’s surprised:

d6	Distance
1-	Close
2-3	Medium
4-5	Far
6+	Distant

Death Saves

At 0 HP, enemies are killed (or unconscious), but player characters may make a Death Save, and roll 2d6 under SPD.

If failed, the character dies. The higher the difference, the more gruesome the death. A natural 12 is always a horrendous sight to behold.

On success, set HP to 0. Roll d6, with a +1 DM for every death save made that session.

d6	Death Save Effect
1	Gain d3+1 HP, and immediately perform a free action.
2	Gain d3 HP. Downed.
3	Unconscious.
4	Unconscious. Lose 1 point in a narratively appropriate Stat.
5	Unconscious. Scarred: Lose d3 points in a narratively appropriate Stat.
6	Unconscious. Bleeding out. Dead in 2d6 rounds without Medical intervention.
7+	Die on your own terms: Do one last action with +4 DM.

If any Stat drops to 0, the character dies.

Unconsciousness normally lasts 10 minutes, usually rendering the character useless for the rest of the fight.

Advancement

Award XP at the end of each session. If: 

• a character took a significant risk, earn 1 XP. 
• a character was in immense or constant risk, earn 2 XP.

The character needs XP equal to the level they are trying to reach, cumulatively. Player characters start at Level 0.

Level	XP required
1	1 XP
2	3 XP
3	6 XP
4	10 XP
5	15 XP

etc.

Level Bonus

Each level, do the following: 

• Add +d3 to maximum HP 
• +1 to a chosen Skill, up to a max of 3 
• Note: This must be a skill used in a risky situation during this advancement stage
• To increase skills beyond 3, one must seek out willing masters and prove their worth or parley with them.

To learn a new Skill, one must find a teacher with at least 3+ in the Skill, and a month of dedicated training time. This achieves a Skill of 0, preventing the -4 DM for lack of specialized skills.

5MW RPG: Sectors, Serpents, and Gameplay Phases

Sectors contain one or many Systems. Systems consist of one or more stars, brown dwarfs, or black holes, and their orbiting bodies which always includes at least one World.

WIP player-facing Starmap for 5MW RPG

Sectors

Sectors are groups of Systems connected through hyperspace. Systems within the same Sector are not necessarily physical astronomical neighbors, but are spacetime is folded such as the Jumps required between them are “shorter” in practice. Sectors are depicted in game as hex map segments called Sector Segments.

Sector Segments take sizes between a single System up to ten Systems. Avatars construct their own starmaps in 5MW, placing their Sector Segments on a larger, empty hexmap, weaving their own tapestry of Sectors as they explore the 5 Million Worlds.

The idea here is that the frontier is always unknown, and that folks can build their own independent Sectors to plug-and-play as needed.

Systems

Star systems—whether a solitary star, multiple star system, brown dwarf or black hole—is called a System. Systems are often named [Star]-Sys or [World]-Sys, e.g. Spindle-Sys, Breq-Sys, etc. This abbreviation is common, e.g. in-Sys travel, out-Sys trading, etc.

Each Sys contains at least one World and one Ansible. A System, its Worlds, and other major orbital bodies are represented on a System Map: 

From the Mothership Search & Rescue Campaign post 

Worlds

A World is an orbital body where people live. This may be a planet, moon, asteroid, space station, superstructure, etc. Depending on their Form, some Avatars may need to make a Body Save against World Shock when visiting certain Worlds.

World Maps can be acquired through a World’s organization, or a close orbit scan with consent from the World’s peoples.

World Shock

Ecologies and 

Ansibles

Ansibles are the single ubiquitous remnant of the Serpents: superluminal communication nodes. From an Ansible, any Sys can communicate with another Ansible within its network in real time. Fully functional Ansibles can even use the Uplink to travel between systems, uploading the Mind and printing a new body at the System destination. Most Ansibles, however, are either derelict, thought lost, or controlled by a World’s power to disseminate or control information across the Sector.

Serpents & Serpentware

Extremely few in the 5 Million Worlds know what Serpents were/are, but their proximity to the Avatars is widespread, whether as myth, spacer tales, or historical or archaeological “fact”. Many cultures blame Serpents for the constant disappearances of large-scale Artificial Minds, Hive Minds, and other forms of superintelligence.

Serpents were/are capable of creating technology beyond the ability of any culture in 5MW Space to fabricate, and left remnants of these feats behind: superstructures and Serpentware, as well as two loose orders: the Serpent’s Lance and the Avatars.

Serpentware

While reproducing Serpentware is nigh-impossible, those with the necessary Skills and resources can repair and maintain this technology. Repairs of superstructure habitats, and the teaching of these methods, is common work for Avatars.

Other Serpentware ranges from personal equipment to starship components.

Serpentware Repairs

Serpentware almost always exists as part of a larger technological system. If Serpentware needs repairing, other Serpent ruins are very likely to be within the same System. Salvaging without permission is frowned upon, but sometimes skipped in pressing crises. Usable salvage for fixing Serpentware is counted in units called Remnants.

When maintenance requires newly fabricated components, an Avatar must use a Serpent Forge. Such incredible replication machines are found within superstructures, and very infrequently anywhere else.

Chrysalis

A Chrysalis is Serpentware whose main function is an advanced cryopod for unshielded Jumps through hyperspace. Their advanced functions include: healing pod, downloading a Mind, bio-print new bodies, and collecting a library of Forms for the Avatars to change between. A Chrysalis requires expending Exotic Matter to perform a single advanced function, and must have a hardwire connection to an Ansible.

Personal Serpentware

Highly advanced cyberware, bioware, personal protection, and other equipment also exists throughout the 5 Million Worlds. Yet Serpentware rarely exists in a vacuum; it serves its location, and holds importance to the peoples of its World. Such treasures belong to the World and its cultures, not those who find them. How the Avatars handle such encounters is important for their reputation.

Serpent’s Lance

Hunters who seek Avatars who have broken the Code, their promise to help. Members of the Lance are often former Avatars, with advanced starships and Serpentware. The Lance is not immune to corruption or transmuted belief systems.

Call of the Avatar

Avatars are mediators, liberators, merchants, explorers, and troubleshooters. They answer the Call of the Avatar to fight for peace, resolve crises, and help the peoples of the 5 Million Worlds. This is the Avatar’s pledge. Breaking this pledge may attract the ire of the Serpent’s Lance; Following this pledge may attract the ire of local Sector powers. The lives and adventure of Avatars tend to follow this pattern:

Starfaring Phase

The Avatars choose where to travel. They may begin with a small Sector map, or must find an Ansible to discover local hyperlanes.

In order to Jump to another system, Avatars must have a Jump Drive or better.* Out of respect for privacy and local traffic safety, Jump Points tend to be on the polar stellar axis of a System. Jumping elsewhere in a System is possible, with the relevant Skills, but often attracts major disfavor with space-faring locals.

Avatars may spend one unit of Exotic Matter and two weeks per light year, if they have a vessel capable of such stocking capacity, and the Warden is so inclined to build out a Realspace star map.

Avatars may begin with a small starship capable of superluminal travel called a Wedge.

Wedge

1. Airlock with Docking Sleeve.
2. Lander Bay. Contains one Lander Pod to travel to and from Worlds without their own travel infrastructure.
3. Bridge. Piloting, Comms, Sensors.
4. Commons. Bunks and central living space.
5. Cryobay. 10 cryopods.
6. Engines. Jump-I Drive for hyperspace travel (expends one unit of Exotic Matter per single hex Jump), and Loop-I Drive for in-system superluminal travel (expends one unit of Exotic Matter per three in-Sys uses).

Contact Phase

While contacting the peoples of a World when entering a System is technically optional, it is the done thing. Space pirates and warlords never call ahead, so Contact is common courtesy, and achieved across two steps: Ansible Ping and World Ping.

1) Ansible Ping

Avatars may attempt to ping the local System’s Ansible. If the Ansible is online, the Avatars can contact those who run the Ansible, even if only the Ansible's Virtual Intelligence that remains. If the Ansible is offline, they may skip to the World Ping and attempt to discover the Ansible’s location in the Looping Phase.

2) World Ping

Avatars may attempt to directly ping a local System’s Worlds. This may be necessary to contact peoples who do not control their Ansible, whether due to power or technological struggles. Such communications can be more easily hidden or obfuscated.

If neither pings yields results or the Avatars skip Contact, move into the Looping Phase.

Looping Phase

During the Looping Phase, the Avatars’ starship enters the standard stellar orbit. Except under unusual circumstances, a starship’s sensors can deliver a System map. Detailed information on planetary bodies, or World maps may require travelling to the orbital body.

If the Avatars chose to skip both pings, and the System has the means to initiate Contact, they attempt to ping the Avatars during the Looping Phase. Avatars enter Contact at Disadvantage.

In-Sys Travel

Looping the Sys, Avatars may travel between orbits, collect Matter, and explore Worlds using the starship’s Loop Drive. Travelling between any two regions, regardless of distance, requires two weeks and expends one use of Exotic Matter on the starship’s Loop Drive.

Looping on Mundane momentum does not expend Exotic Matter, and takes much longer.

With a comfortable starship, Avatars may Expend Limit on projects while Looping (pg. xx).

Travelling within a System depends on the infrastructure, regulations, and other local factors. Mostly, Avatar starships have free reign to travel across the system, but in certain cases they may be required to dock their starship and use local travel infrastructure, or perform special jobs or duties to extract Matter from the System.

Whether using a World’s infrastructure or their Landing Pod, Avatars may visit a Worlds to answer the Call.

The Call Phase

This is the adventure phase of the game, and makes up for most of the play. What happens depends on the World, its Peoples, the nature of the Call, and how the Avatars choose to resolve the issue.

5MW RPG, 1d100 Past Lives

The 5 Million Worlds are vast. Not all worlds are star-faring, but perhaps yours is. Through hardship, you've earned a place on a starship. Whatever life you had before, now begins a new one. A new birth. You are starborn. You are an Avatar.

5 Million Worlds is a space adventure RPG where you and your fellow Avatars explore space, seek new peoples, and help those in need. 

What did you do in your Past Life, before you became an Avatar?

1d100 Past Lives

Roll 1d100 for your Past Life, and take the associated Skill. In case of Skill doubles, you gain Advantage[+] with that Skill. You may also discuss another Skill choice with your Warden that you feel is relevant.

1d100	Past Life	Skill
00	Retired Avatar	Serpentware
01	Site Foreman	Extraction
02	Gateway Mechanic	Hyperspace
03	Regional Preservationist	Ecology
04	Residential Healthcare Provider	Medicine
05	Emulant Manufacturer	Synthetics
06	Sector Scout Captain	Sophontology
07	Cloning Expert	Biotech
08	Xenoanthropologist	Cultures
09	Fallout Survivor	Eschatology
10	Metropole Construction	Superstructures
11	Youth Instructor	Systems, Polyglot
12	Wildlife Exobiologist	Zoology
13	Outsys Merchant	Worldwise
14	Dockmaster	Spacewise
15	Rights Activist	Law
16	Solar Mass Physicist	Astrophysics
17	Group Therapist	Psychology
18	Life Support Regulator	Habitats
19	City Planner	Admin
20	Rewilding Planter	Botany
21	Space Pirate	Ordnance
22	Fertility Doctor	Medicine
23	Naval Lieutenant	Command
24	Esoteric Broker	Xenotech
25	Upcycle Scavenger	Mechanical Repair
26	Diaspora Genealogist	Psychohistory
27	Serpent Researcher	Serpentware
28	Synthetic Life Advocate	Synthetics
29	Farmer	Botany, Zoology
30	Hybrid Materials Synthesizer	Materials
31	Shipyard Patrol	Command
32	Nomadic Performer	Art
33	Regional Magistrate	Law
34	Violent Crimes Inspector	Worldwise
35	Mind Resources Director	Sophontology
36	Deep History Advisor	Psychohistory
37	Backalley Genemodder	Biotech
38	Terraformer	Planetology
39	Digital Cowboy	Uplink
40	Cross-reality Integrationist	Hyperspace
41	Technopriest	Serpentware
42	Bio-Residence Healthcare Provider	Pharmacology
43	High-Performance Athlete	Athletics
44	Leak Locator	Habitats
45	Hydrologist	Ecology
46	Serpent Tongue Scholar	Eschatology
47	EVA Repair Lead	Zero-G
48	Anti-boarding Tactical Response	CQC
49	Fracture Evaluator	Materials
50	Superstructure Engineer	Superstructures
51	Geothermal Energy Specialist	Reactors
52	Sys-admin	Spacewise
53	Uplink Admin	Uplink
54	Biodata Surgeon	Surgery
55	Chief Medical Officer	Surgery
56	Residential Consul	Polyglot
57	Sex Worker	Psychology
58	Heavy Security	CQC
59	Frontline Field Medic	Medicine
60	Cultural Ritual Keeper	Cultures
61	Simspace Architect	Simspace
62	Exoplanetary Arborist	Botany
63	Deep Sea Oceanic Upkeep	Mechanical Repair
64	Organized Crime	Pharmacology
65	Gas Giant Diver	Habitats
66	Macrodata Analyst	Systems
67	Materials Allocation Manager	Admin
68	Realspace Entertainer	Art
69	Simspace Entertainer	Simspace
70	Local Chieftan	Command
71	Space Elevator Technician	Superstructures
72	Moisture Farmer	Synthetics
73	Indentured Mineral Miner	Extraction
74	Shock Trooper	Firearms
75	Lumberjack	Ecology
76	Reclusive Clergymember	Worldwise
77	Import/Export Customs Official	Polyglot
78	Insys Merchant	Spacewise
79	Radiation Nurse	Biotech
80	Traffic Controller	Systems
81	Contact Diplomat	Sophontology
82	Enlisted Imperial	Firearms
83	Wanted “Terrorist”	Ordnance
84	Institute Professor	Xenotech
85	Hull Patcher	Mechanical Repair
86	Welfare Sociologist	Psychology
87	Hyperspace Diagnostics	Hyperspace
88	Ansible Comms Operator	Uplink
89	Trade Union Licensor	Admin
90	Megacity Crawler	Athletics
91	HabBubble Constructor	Materials
92	Exotic Materials Chemist	Exotics
93	Apocalypse Cult Leader	Eschatology
94	Ice Pusher	Reactors
95	Deep Space Astronomer	Astrophysics
96	Gas Giant Skimmer	Planetology
97	Rock Hopper	Extraction
98	Ring Preservationist	Zoology
99	Space Debris Cleaner	Zero-G

 

The Matter Wars: Superstructures

 

Art by Karl Beiler

There are two things we can't make more of: Time¹, and Matter. 

Even the energy of Sol will die out in a few billion years, because it'll eat up all its light Matter into heavier elements it can no longer use as fuel for nuclear fusion. For stars larger than ours, they go supernova and spread out all that delicious star-crafted matter that then eventually reforms as stellar disks, and eventually star(s) and planets.

In science fiction stories, the emphasis on elemental or mineral rarity often focuses on some sort of unobtanium usually related to high-output energy technology. In post-scarcity sf, this need for specific resources is obviated. With a fancy-schmancy matter recombinator, you can make anything and everything, given a big enough printer or builder. Add in some exotic energy manipulation, and you've got shields and a warp drive (two bits).

Art by Lee Draws Stuff

What is The Matter Wars anyway?

I know it's hard to imagine (sarcasm), but think what it might be like if there's no nascent utopia emerging from the rise of post-scarcity technology. For me, this is the origin of the Matter Wars.

The Matter Wars begins as a cold war race to claim as much Matter as possible.² The amount of ludicrous hubris necessary to even begin to think could or should own and control a solar disk's worth of of Matter is a sociopathic megalomania that I find unfortunately "logical" in a space-age continuation of late-stage capitalism.  

This philosophy is the basis for Electorenzo Resources, a megacorporation featured in several of my Mothership modules. In the low-tech science fictional non-canon universe of Mothership, these E/R bozos lay claim on anything they can get their hands on. E/R makes individuals ridiculously wealthy, if they can install resource extraction operations that are capable of exploiting generations of spacers. The player characters are either victims of this predation or are somehow implicated in the fight against the corpos.

Outside of shithead landlord behavior economic space horror, the thing is, you can build lots of crazy things with lots of Matter in space games.

1d20 Superstructures Built during the Matter Wars

From Neil Blevins' Megastructures

1. Identical spaceship refueling stations in nearly every star system. 
2. "A Space Elevator For Every World!" (Don't mind the fallen ones, looped around their worlds like horrid chains.)
   
3. The "City Seed" which implants itself into a world's crust and replicates giant dome colonies before replicating humans. (No, they don't check to see if the world is already inhabited.)
4. Dismantling worlds to build a Dyson Sphere for free energy!
   
5. Dismantling worlds to build a Shell World because holy shit, how do we stop it??³
6. Good ol' dependable Torus space station.
7. The classic O'Neil Cylinder space station. 
8. A Ladder-Loop: joining two massive Torus space stations along both sides of a long series of traditional O'Neil Cylinder's axle like a giant ferris wheel of enclosed space stations, orbiting from Langrange 1 and 2 of a world pour la classe.
   
9. Hollowing out a moon along melt pumps up into an Earth-sized cast for a Bernal Sphere mega space station. ("That's not a moon...")
   
10. A Cylinder-Sphere: O'Neil Cylinders joined to "knuckle" Bernal Spheres in a complex pseudo-spherical configuration. Especially useful for creating a megalopolis well-fitted for people who require different planetary conditions simulated for them.
    
11. Solar energy harvesting Computronium Clouds hosting several worlds' worth of simulated realities.
    
12. Nearly-as-fast-as-light (NAFAL) probes loaded with Von Neumann machines that build [Re-Roll] in every system they can get to.
    
13. Stellar Candle to "drive" a star system somewhere else (probably away from potential gamma ray bursts, supernovae, black holes, etc.).
    
14. Terrarium Swarms (i.e. hollowed out asteroids made into nature reserves) with engines attached that form a sort of star system mass transit system between worlds.
15. Using those Terrarium Swarms (no. 11) to "herd" planets into different orbits, e.g. into the habitable zone of a star.
    
16. A massive Orbital Ring in within the habitable zone (but it's not a big gun, sorry).
    
17. A ring built atop transorbital space-scraper buildings that rise from the world into space, with stalactite cities hanging over top. (You don't want to be a mechanic here.)
    
18. An enclosed, transparent "worldroof" around a planet (for heating or aircon, /half-joke).
    
19. Stellar Laser. Think Death Star, but it's a Gamma Ray Burst instead, which is limited by the speed of light because it's not stupid.
    
20. A massive ring that orbits the entire sun, but it's not Ringworld, it's actually a maglev train engine that's approaching NAFAL speeds because the people who got on it 100 ka thought it'd be cool to experience time dilation, but now they can't figure out how to get it to stop.
    

Sidenote: Since I lost my ttrpg notebook with ~8 months of #galaxy24 entries in it last year (and other stuff), all these wild space things have only lived in my head, so it feels good to get it out. 5MW RPG is basically the vessel for me getting to enjoy making all of these entries and other weird stuff into space ttrpg playgrounds.

Post-Script

This post in my first to join the Blog Bandwagon, February 2025 on the topic "Elements." When all of them have been posted, Prismatic Wasteland is going to gather them all together in one spot, and I'll put a link for that here.

 Footnotes

¹ Well, OK, who knows how other spatial and temporal dimensions interact with our universe. Maybe causal laws of reality can in fact be broken (see: This is How You Win the Time War), but somehow I doubt humanity as we know it could figure that out.

² The end game for the Matter Wars is linked to a faction of Serpents (superintelligences) and their quest to exist until the end of time. But that's a whole other story.

³ See the manga series BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei for a visually stunning and unhinged take on this concept.