zarpaulus

On the Hegemony of D&D 5th edition

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 21:53:28 GMT

A year ago I published Scavenger: Caches and Prizes, a third-party campaign setting for the Traveller system, or rather its' Open License fork Cepheus Engine. I chose that system because I wanted to run campaigns based around salvaging wrecked spaceships and Cepheus has a granular and modular ship design system that lends itself well to breaking ships down for parts. Additionally, it doesn't have ridiculous stat inflation for characters, regardless of which version you use your "hit points" are unlikely to ever exceed 30 and there are consequences to even taking light damage. While your combined characteristic and skill modifiers are likely to stay within the +1 to +3 range through the whole campaign, with +5 being extraordinary. And rolling 2D6 instead of 1D20 introduces a bell curve that mitigates the "swinginess" of single-die rolls while making criticals more rare and thus more dramatic when they happen.

But this spring a crowdfunding campaign to convert Traveller to D&D 5th Edition was funded within minutes of launch. This was part of the larger trend of "5E" conversions that's been going on for the past decade or so. Creators taking advantage of the Open Gaming License and most gamers' familiarity with the system to promote their works. Or GMs getting frustrated with the difficulty in finding players for their favorite games and homebrewing conversions, even when the original system had a shorter rulebook than the 5E PHB.

And this isn't even the first time that this happened, when the OGL was first developed for 3rd Edition there was a wave of both official and fan-made conversions of other games. Including one for Traveller. And they died out swiftly, most D&D players weren't actually that interested in playing a different campaign setting kludged onto their beloved game, and players of the original games preferred the original systems. And then Wizards of the Coast switched to 4th edition which did not have the OGL, finishing the conversions off.

Then the 5th edition was published in 2014 and brought back the OGL, which led to another boom in third-party content and setting conversions. But then Hasbro got a new CEO who took offense at the notion of other publishers making money off their product and in 2022 they tried to rewrite the OGL so that they'd get a cut of all third-party sales. Of course, most small publishers would go bankrupt if they had to pay the rates that Hasbro demanded, resulting in a massive backlash until Hasbro backed down. But the ill will that Hasbro had garnered clearly didn't stick around, as now it seems like every game designer has to keep D&D 5E in mind. It's not dissimilar to how everyone knows Amazon is evil but indie writers need to publish on them because no other self-publishing host has the same reach. Even Renegade, who designed their own “Essence20” system, are switching their games to D&D5.5.

And that's not even why the Open Gaming License was developed in the first place, that document was intended to keep Dungeons and Dragons alive in the event of another publisher going bankrupt. TSR, the company Gary Gygax and his friends founded in order to publish D&D, went under in the 1990s, which would have relegated the game to an out-of-print collector's item until it reached the public domain, if they hadn't sold the property to Hasbro. Or not. As demonstrated by the Old-School Revival movement, you can't actually copyright game rules, and at least half a dozen different publishers have taken advantage of that fact to put out games that are either slight modifications of 1st and 2nd edition D&D, or straight-up copies. With all the cruft and inconsistency those early games had.

Now then, I feel a bit obligated to clarify something, yes, I backed Traveller 5E, I wanted to see how they manage ship design and combat. And I don't care if you try to convert Scavenger to 5E or any other system, I was honestly considering Starfinder but Paizo announced the 2nd edition around the time I was writing and I didn't know what to expect. Now that SF2 is out you might be able to run Scavenger using the vast amount of material just on the PF2 and SF2 wikis, most of the animal-like ancestries should fit if you cut out the more overtly magical feats and heritages. And the Awakened Animal ancestry from Howl of the Wild should cover the rest. Additionally, Stellagama has published a fantasy-oriented version of the Cepheus Engine, Sword of Cepheus, that should be compatible with Scavenger for campaigns on low-tech planets.

But will I ever write a conversion myself, well... Maybe for Shadowdark.

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The Hyades Cluster

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 16:11:14 GMT

The Hyades, the closest star cluster to the original Core Worlds, was naturally an early target of Federation colonization. Even before the Federation Charter was signed, a magsail was boosted from the Alpha-Proxima line towards the Hyades. After the Secession War on Schwartzwelt was resolved the surviving rebels were loaded onto a torchship bound for the Hyades. And as the wormhole network was just reaching out to the second wave of colonies, a linelayer was already bound for the cluster. By the time the Hyades’ stargate was built in 1473 PX, there were already colonies approaching a century old in the cluster.

The high density of small, young stars in the Hyades encouraged the development of a beamferry network unseen anywhere else in the Federation. Voyages between neighboring stars may take less than a decade using booster beams, even “flare-riding” magsails have been known to make such trips in as little as half a century.

However, those very same flares have made it impossible for biospheres to develop except around the very furthest rim stars, and even then they only developed microbial life before colonization. This need for radiation shielding led to the development of a habitat-based “Belter” civilization in the middle Hyades. Many of these habitats have retractable sails, both for station-keeping and to enable them to move to richer fields after depleting the local resources. It’s not unknown for habitats to spend centuries drifting from one booster station to another, never settling down in one place for more than a few years.

Most habitats paid little mind to Federation authority even before the Collapse, treating the Guard as little more than “toll booth operators” to whom they paid their booster fees. Little changed after the Collapse as a result. Some booster stations went offline as their crews fled, some habitats turned to piracy, other boosters stayed operational but under “new management.”

Within 50 years of the Collapse something that a few have called a “new Federation” was formed by the booster stations of the 71 Tauri-Theta Tauri run, mediated by a fleet of sailcraft and nomad habitats, the Hyades Trade League. Not a centralized polity like the Federation, more of a treaty organization, the League consists of hundreds if not thousands of habitats spread across the cluster. Any habitat or ship can apply for League membership and be approved by the combination of a booster station in the League and any other two habitats. League members are obligated to assist one another in times of crisis and are forbidden from armed conflict with other members. A specific term in the treaty obligates League booster stations to decelerate any League magsail that requests their service, and then arrange payment later. Acceleration is notably not obligated except in cases of extreme emergency such as pirate attack or natural disasters like asteroid impacts. The Hyades Trade League has no “capital” but the 71-Theta and Kappa-Upsilon runs have the densest populations of League members. Some have worried about the possibility of a split or even conflict between the two runs.

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Felis et Canis Ch. 3

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 17:07:44 GMT

The Slipstream continued on its path through empty space as if nothing had happened. But onboard, the small crew were making preparations. As the pirate ship began to burn and maneuver closer to the Slipstream, a badger and lion were busy tying a crude armature to the inner airlock.

“Are you sure this’ll work?” Orlando inquired.

Kailyn snorted, “we lost so many men to these things at the pole, they are effective.”

“Yeah,” the badger admitted. “But that was in gravity. How do you know it’ll work in null-g?”

“Springs don’t rely on gravity,” she tweaked a spring stretched taut between the lever and a brace.

“Hey,” Jarlan called over the intercom. “Our visitors just cut their drive and switched to cold jets. They’ll be here in a couple of minutes at most. If you want to see them visually, head on up to the bridge.”

Kailyn flung herself across the room to the hatch, and slammed into the opposing wall as a result. More carefully, she reached for the handholds built into the wall and hauled herself into the cockpit. There, Jarlan pointed to a monitor showing a menacing black shape outlined against the stars. Even visually she could make out the ship’s oversized engines on its long, narrow hull. A white canine skull in front of a pair of crossed femurs slowly came into view as the ship rotated.

“I think it’s pretty safe to assume they’re pirates now, don’t you?” Jarlan noted.

“That’s a Corsair-class pocket frigate,” Kailyn identified the craft. “I thought they were all decommissioned?”

“Apparently this one found its way onto the secondary market,” the vulpine replied. “Unless your people are doing some “off-books” work.”

Kailyn snarled, “it was your people who hired pirates to raid our shipping.”

“Privateers,” Jarlan corrected. “And I was considering joining the program but they discontinued it after the war.”

Kailyn continued to scowl at them, but reminded herself that they needed to prepare for combat. She turned back to the ship’s survival locker at the back of the cockpit. Two narrow rifles stood in their racks. “Are those really the only weapons on board?”

Jarlan drifted past her, stopping deftly at the doorframe of the locker and pulling one rifle loose. “The demilitarization team took all the accelerator guns. We’re lucky they added this civvie survival kit.” Flipping the gun around they attached a gas canister to the stock and rummaged carefully through the ammo box. “Better use flechette rounds, they’ll probably be in suits.”

The lioness checked her body pistol, cursing herself for not bringing anything larger.

A soft *thud* resounded throughout the ship. Jarlan returned to their console and flicked through several screens in quick succession. “They’re launching harpoons.”

Kailyn nodded and drifted towards the iris valve. “Any indication which airlock they’ll be entering through?”

“It could be either the cockpit or the cargo bay,” Jarlan answered. “Maybe even both at once depending on how many of them there are.”

“Which would you say is more likely?” Kailyn inquired pointedly.

Jarlan thought for a minute before answering, “the cockpit. They’ll want to neutralize the crew before they start taking cargo.”

Kailyn nodded in agreement. She picked up one of the lever apparatuses and set it on the cockpit airlock. Then she carefully strung a thin wire across the doorway (Recon: 6+2+1=9, Success). Another harpoon thudded into the hull and the three crew/passengers of the Slipstream moved to take up positions around the iris valve on the stateroom side.

Jarlan flipped on a screen in one of the stateroom deck walls and set it to a video feed of the pirate ship as it drew them closer with its harpoon lines. Small objects detached from the Corsair-class and flew slowly towards them. A quick zoom-in showed them to have humanoid shapes. “Guess they’re taking a space walk instead of forcing a dock. I could blast them with the sandcaster before they land.”

“Then their compatriots will just blast the ship full of holes and salvage the pieces,” Kailyn retorted.

“You’re the expert on asymmetric combat here,” Jarlan grumbled in response. A couple minutes later the airlock sounded an alert. A space-suited figure drifted in front of the control panel, an accelerator rifle slung across their front, pulling at the mechanical controls. Behind them, half a dozen more pirates clung to the hull with magnetic grapples. Each of them bearing the same skull-and-bones emblem on their dark blue spacesuits.

“That airlock can fit, what? Three people?” Kailyn inquired.

“Four if they squeeze in,” Jarlan replied. “Let’s hope that trap of yours takes out at least one of them.”

The outer hatch slid open on the screen and the pirate who’d been working on the control panel crawled through, followed by two more. The outer hatch closed again and the hiss of pipes pumping air into the lock reverberated through the ship.

Jarlan, Kailyn, and Orlando carefully arrayed themselves around the hatch, each clinging to a different wall as they brought their weapons to bear. Orlando glanced nervously around, eye settling on Kailyn’s small pistol. “Are you sure you don’t want a bigger gun?” he inquired, gesturing to his rifle.

“This tiny thing has more recoil than your air rifles,” the lion pointed out. “I’ll take one of their gyrojets after we kill the first group.” She checked her magazine one last time. “Really we should all pick up their guns.”

The inner airlock finally opened and a pirate lunged forward.

Initiative:

Trap: 13

Pirate 1: 10

Jarlan: 9

Kailyn: 9

Orlando: 8

Pirate 2: 7

Pirate 3: 4

The spiked lever trap swung into the lead pirate as they ran straight into the tripwire (DMG:5+1=6, -6 Protection=0), knocking them back into the airlock and embedding itself in their suit. Jarlan squeezed off a shot at the pirate (6+4-2=8, Success. DMG: 6+5=11, Knockdown. -6 Protection=5, END 7-5=2). Kailyn shot her pistol at the same pirate (5+3+1-2=7, miss) but missed. Orlando’s shot (3+2-3-2=0) went wild as the recoil sent him reeling.

Another pirate still in the airlock leveled their rifle around their stricken companion, flares shot out of the sides of the barrel as the miniature rocket inside ignited and streaked out at the exposed badger (6+4+1=11, effect 3. DMG: 2+2+1+3=8. END 7-8=-1, DEX 7-1=6). The third pirate followed up on the same target (6+2+1=9, effect 1. DMG: 5+3+5+1=14. DEX 6-14=-8, STR 7-8=dead), skewering him in the chest.

The lead pirate managed to rip the spikes free, tearing out a chunk of their suit in the process. Glaring, they blasted a gyrojet at Jarlan (2+1+1=4), which sailed harmlessly between their ears and ricocheted off the wall behind them. Jarlan shot a flechette in response (2+2-2=2), and immediately ducked under the hatchway. Kailyn popped off another bullet at the front pirate (6+6+1-2=11, effect 3 DMG: 3+2+3=8, Protection-6=2. END 2-2=0, unconscious 1D minutes).

The second pirate launched themself through the iris valve and shot at Kailyn (3+1+1=5), only for it to go wide. The third pirate cranked the lever to close the airlock, shouted “fuck you!” and fired two rockets at Kailyn (4+3+1=8, DMG 2+1+6+1 double-tap=10. END 5-10=-5, STR 12-5=7, unconscious).

The lioness was knocked loose from her perch, a hole in her shoulder streaming blood. Jarlan watched her drift, then turned to Orlando, hanging limply in the air, and then to the pirate on the stateroom deck aiming their rifle at them. Ears drooped and tail tucked between their legs, Jarlan dropped their rifle and let it drift away. “I surrender.”

The pirate behind Jarlan lowered their rifle, “you surrender huh? Was that spike thing your idea?”

“No,” the vulpine claimed. “But I’m the captain, you’ll need my bio-signature to transfer the ship to your control.”

“I’m sure our hackers could unlock it eventually,” the pirate’s hand drifted towards a revolver at their hip.

“This was a military ship, if you try hacking in the servers will wipe themselves and you won’t get our data.” Jarlan objected.

The pirate paused, “what data.”

Jarlan glanced over at Orlando’s limp body, and Kailyn was bleeding but still twitching. “If you let me treat my passengers and drop us off safely, I’ll give you the coordinates to a Federation wreck.”

—

Kailyn blinked, her eye was having trouble focusing on the multi-colored figure in front of her. Were they friend or foe? She began to tense her claws before recognizing their voice.

“Oh good you’re awake,” Jarlan exclaimed with relief. They waved a medical scanner over her body. “I was starting to worry that I’d lose both my passengers.”

The lioness noticed an ache in her shoulder and tried to turn to look, but a sharp pain stopped her short. Kailyn fought through the fog of pain as she realized the implications of Jarlan’s comment. “Wait, what happened to Orlando?”

The vulpine’s ears drooped, “he… didn’t make it.”

“Damn,” the lioness tried to look around the room, it resembled her own stateroom, but the walls were adorned with posters depicting the star system, across which a pristine courier ship like the Slipstream but thirty years newer streaked, followed by the D’kaarjy company logo. “Is this your cabin?”

“Yeah,” Jarlan admitted. “The pirates wanted us in one place while they…” they made a sweeping gesture.

Kailyn started to growl in frustration at Jarlan for surrendering, but another thought rose to quash it in despair. They’d been doomed from the start, there had never been any way for them to prevail. And now she couldn’t even achieve an honorable death. All she had to look forward to now was an undignified execution or ransom back to her pride. “Did they say what they planned to do with us?”

“I offered to give them the coordinates to that wreck Orlando spotted,” Jarlan explained. “In exchange for our lives.”

As Kailyn considered what they could do next, the cabin’s wall-mounted monitor came on and the scarred visage of a hyena with a crude prosthetic eye appeared. “So, while we’re loading our new cargo, how about we discuss what’s going to happen to you two?”

Kailyn lunged towards the screen, provoking a twinge of pain in her shoulder. “And whom might we be speaking to?”

The hyena snarled in response. “Captain Yrar of the Meteor Reaver, and you’d be wise to show me some respect missy! Seeing how I literally hold your life in my hands.”

She heard a click off to the side and carefully turned to see a pirate standing in the doorway, a short-barreled revolver held in their spacesuit’s glove. Kailyn studied the gun for a few tense moments, evaluating how effectively it might kill the both of them before she could do anything. Maybe she could take the pirate out if she sacrificed Jarlan, but then the other pirates would kill her for sure. She had no choice but to concede, for now. “My apologies.”

“Well,” Year nodded. “I’ve been thinking of what exactly to do with you. We normally don’t take prisoners, too much trouble you know.”

“We had a deal,” Jarlan protested. “I give you the coordinates and you let us live.”

“Those were the terms,” the pirate replied. “But how do I know whatever is in that wreck is actually worth your lives? So allow me to make a small amendment.”

Kailyn slowly turned to glare at Jarlan again.

Yrar continued, “we take all your cargo, leave you two on your ship with Smokey there,” their guard tapped on the doorframe. “And when we get to the wreck you can test it for defenses. If you live I’ll let you sign on to my crew or dump you in an escape pod, your choice.”

Jarlan stared anxiously at the screen, “what do you mean by “test?””

Yrar let out a disturbing chuckle. “So, it turns out that those coordinates you gave us weren’t exactly unknown. You see, there’s this little Belter legend. Ever heard of Jin’s Fall?”

Jarlan’s ears shot straight up, “that’s where we’re going?”

“Guess you should have done your research,” Yrar grinned, showing a set of metallic teeth. “Captain.”

“What?” Kailyn inquired with trepidation. “Is Jin’s Fall?”

“Just some space myth,” Jarlan tried to reassure her.

“Oh, it’s no myth,” Yrar interjected, holding up a weathered memory chip. “I happen to have a first-hand recording of their last transmission. How about we give it a listen?”

There was a click as he slotted the chip into his console. A few moments later a burst of radio static came over the line.

“I’m approaching the structure,” a soft voice called amid the static. “It looks like an unfinished habitat. There’s this big hole in the ring but it doesn’t look damaged. I don’t see any docking ports, maybe I can tether myself in the hole.” After several agonizing minutes of silence Jin spoke again, “almost in there, just…”

They were cut off by the sound of several large objects crashing around, followed by a long, wordless scream. After another crash the recording cut out entirely.

Yrar laughed again, “all that was found of Jin’s ship were a few little bits of scrap.” He popped the chip out and flipped it about in the air. “So, do you agree to my new terms or shall we toss you out the airlock now?”

Jarlan seemed frozen with indecision. Kailyn knew that it was a bad deal, but maybe they could still iron out a few of the fine details…

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Felis et Canis Ch. 2

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 15:26:26 GMT

The morning after the card game Kailyn strode down the station promenade to the docking ring. Ships were nestled into the two outermost decks of the station’s habitation ring, clamped into adjustable sockets with boarding ramps for loading passengers on the upper deck and cargo on the lower. As she walked, pushing her luggage cart in front of her, she noticed someone dressed as a M’Kusan noble amidst an entourage of servants. Kailyn reflexively turned away, he was a jaguar, not a lion, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t know her pride.

Fortunately he seemed unable to notice anyone hauling their own luggage. Once he passed she was able to focus on the docking bay numbers, E-7, 8, 9, 10... There it was, E-11.

She checked the display next to the airlock to make sure. The Slipstream, operated by Slipstream Shipping, this was it. She tapped the intercom and waited. After thirty seconds with no response she buzzed it again. After just a couple more moments a high-pitched voice crackled through the comm, “yes?”

Kailyn groaned, “passenger waiting to board.”

“What?” the voice on the intercom asked, confused. “Oh, right, the game. Just let me unlock the door quickly.”

She heard some pumping and clanking noises, after about a minute the light on the door turned green and she turned the handle. On the other side of the door she stepped out onto a metal gangplank extended through a clear plastic tube that led to the most dilapidated spaceship she’d ever seen.

From what she could tell it was a basic wedge-shaped vessel designed for space and atmospheric flight, but with what looked like fifty to a hundred years of micro-meteor punctures and blast-scoring she wouldn’t trust it on re-entry. Upon reaching the end of the gangplank she pressed the button on the corresponding airlock and waited. A couple seconds later the outer hatch closed behind her and she heard the hiss of escaping air. She waited patiently, until her ears popped.

Kailyn’s muscles tensed, was the old ship leaking out into space? Or perhaps the Kaarjan had changed their mind about taking on mysterious passengers? Mask! Where was her breather? She tore into her bags, throwing neatly folded clothes aside in her frantic search. Finally, she found it– a small muzzle-mask with filters and a small air bottle good for ten minutes. Just as she began to strap it on and open the bottle, the inner hatch opened.

Jarlan, seated in a half-reclined acceleration chair, turned to face her. “Welcome aboard the Slipstream.” They paused and took a look at the mess in the airlock. “Did you forget that D’kaarjy’s air is thinner than M’kusa’s?” they asked with a chuckle.

“I thought,” Kailyn gasped. “That you lived in domes and caves?” She took her mask off and adjusted the settings to compress the ambient atmosphere instead of drawing on the limited bottle.

“The higher the air pressure inside,” Orlando, the badger they’d played with the previous night, stepped out from behind Jarlan’s chair. “The faster it leaks out. A lot of Belter habs use Kaarjan air, it feels like I’m breathing soup on this station.”

Kailyn forced her mask back on, compressors whirring. “I’d hope that my stateroom has individual environmental controls at least.”

“Yeah,” Jarlan replied. “But there’s no airlock so expect your ears to pop every time you open the door.”

“Hmmph,” Kailyn bent down to scoop her scattered clothes back into her bags. As she was forcing in a once carefully folded dress she realized something. “What are you doing here rockhound?”

Orlando grinned at her, “the captain wanted to hear more about that wreck I spotted. Looks like I’ll be coming with you two. We were just negotiating my share.”

“And searching for cargoes,” Jarlan added. “Our funds are a bit thin at the moment. We’ll need to buy fuel and other supplies if we’re going scavenging.”

Kailyn drew in a breath through the compressors. “In the meantime would you mind showing me to my cabin?”

Jarlan nodded and stood up, leading her to a meter-wide iris valve in the floor. They pressed a button next to the hatch and it expanded open, revealing a ladder to the next deck.

Kailyn stared down the passage as Jarlan began to climb down. “How am I supposed to get my luggage down there?” she inquired.

“That’s easy,” the canid answered. “We’ll strap it down in the cockpit until burn’s done and then float it over.”

The lioness crouched down, holding her skirt close to prevent them from seeing anything. “And how long will the burn take?”

“That depends on how heavy you’d like to be,” Jarlan explained. “We can do five hours at 1G, ten at half a G, or two and a half at 2G.”

Kailyn glanced back at her four bags, each massing about twenty kilograms, containing all the possessions she could take with her when it was clear she’d worn out her welcome at the pride’s compound. “Five hours will be fine. I’m coming down so I can see the room, kindly refrain from looking up.”

Jarlan made a show of jumping off the ladder and spinning away from it. As Kailyn took hold of the rungs they added, “that outfit isn’t too practical for null-g you know, sure you don’t want to change?”

The lioness let out an annoyed growl, bunching up her skirts as she climbed down. The bare deck plates of the second deck were no more impressive than the hull of the ship. But at least it was clean. In fact, the only signs of wear and tear she could see were a row of pock-marks in one of the walls that looked suspiciously like low-velocity bullet dents. “Captain,” she thought. “Was this a warship?”

“Recon/courier,” they answered. “I served on a similar, but slightly newer ship during the Belt Brushfires of ‘98. What about you? Have you ever served?"

Kailyn stepped gingerly off the ladder. “I believe you’d call me a “ground-pounder.” I fought some insurgents at M’kusa’s south pole but the only time I’ve been on a ship bigger than a shuttle was the passenger transport to L4.”

Jarlan nodded and turned towards another iris hatch in one of the walls, stepping around some recessed handholds in the floor. “Here’s your room, be advised that in the unlikely event of a planetary landing everything will be rotated ninety degrees.”

Kailyn followed, the room was sparsely appointed, but she didn’t have that much experience with spaceship accommodations to begin with. The canid gestured to a sleeping bag hooked onto the wall, “bed’s here.” They pointed to a set of cube-shaped drawers in a corner, “wardrobe,” a disturbing set of hoses and what looked like a plastic sleeping bag, “lavatory and shower,” and finally to a panel clipped to the opposite wall, “and desk. There’s some extra ties in the drawers, be sure to secure everything before takeoff.”

“When is takeoff?” Kailyn inquired.

Jarlan’s ears drooped, “that would depend on when we find a cargo.”

“If it’ll be that long,” the lion suggested. “May I request that you help me bring one of my bags down now so I can change? You can pass it down the hatch and I’ll catch it.”

“Alright,” Jarlan turned and climbed the ladder back to the cockpit. Their fluffy tail swished as they rose. Kailyn self-consciously looked away, and tried to focus on her comm-watch. (Dice roll: 5+4+1(Soc)+1(Liaison), success). She found the contact info for one of her old classmates and shot her a quick message before Jarlan called down for her. “Which bag did you want?”

“The chartreuse one with three compartments,” Kailyn called back. She stepped out and glanced up at the hatch, trying not to think about the Kaarjan’s tight jumpsuit.

Jarlan dragged a yellow-green suitcase into view, “this one?”

“Yes,” Kailyn answered. With confirmation Jarlan knelt down and gently lowered the case into the hatch, groaning with the effort. Once it was within reach the lioness easily took hold and carried it into her stateroom.

Half an hour later she’d changed into a loose pair of pants and blouse and climbed back up the ladder to the cockpit. Jarlan and Orlando were pouring over a set of orbital charts. “Sure, it’s closer than Enki, but we have no idea if there’s any fuel there,” the canid said.

“There are plenty of ice asteroids in the area,” the badger retorted. “This ship does have fuel processors, right?”

“Yes, but that’ll mean another week with Miss Mysterious on board, not to mention that whatever cargo we might be hauling will take up space we could use for salvage.”

“If I were to state my preference,” Kailyn added, prompting the badger to leap up with a start. Jarlan only flicked an ear at her. “I would like to go straight to Enki.”

“That’s fair enough,” Jarlan replied. “Now if only we had…” they paused as a notification popped up on the monitor. The Trade House of Kohl needed eight tons of unrefined lanthanide ore transported to Enki, they were offering 16,000 credits for the job.

“Well,” Jarlan noted. “That would cover our fuel costs at least. Wonder how they got my contact info though?”

“You’re welcome,” Kailyn stated. She started to back down the ladder as Jarlan simply stared back at her in astonishment.

—

It took only a couple hours for the station’s freight transports to load up the cargo hold, that deck being open to vacuum and mostly automated. Once the hatches were locked down Jarlan invited Kaily back up to the cockpit for launch.

As she entered the cockpit and closed the iris hatch behind her the canid spoke into their radio. “Slipstream to L4 traffic control, requesting a flight path to Enki.” Covering the microphone they turned to Kailyn. “Better strap in, this station turns fast.”

The heads-up-display on the windshield showed a spinning wheel overlaid with colored wedges. Almost half of the wheel was red, with two large slices of yellow to either side and a thin slice of green between the yellow wedges. A blinking dot raced around the edge of the wheel, passing from the red to yellow just as the lion took her seat and began fumbling with the restraints. She was still trying to fasten the harness when the dot on the screen hit the green wedge, Jarlan slammed a button on their console, and the floor dropped out beneath them.

Through the synthetic sapphire windshield the docking bay receded and the rim of L4 station’s habitation ring gradually came into view.

“Cleared docking space,” Jarlan explained. “Beginning flip and burn.” The ship turned slowly away from the retreating station. Kailyn realized that she was weightless, nothing holding her down but the harness in her chair. The cold stars outside stopped rotating around them and the pilot announced “burn in 3… 2… 1!”

Gravity returned with a rumble deep below their feet as liter upon liter of pure liquid hydrogen was pumped through the Slipstream’s fusion reactor and the resulting superheated gas was vented out the rear. “Maneuvering complete,” Jarlan stated. “You’re now free to move about the cabin.” They pointed to a countdown on the HUD, “but remember that we’ll only have gravity for the next 4 hours and 53 minutes. After that we’ll be spending nearly 2 weeks in null-g. If there’s any business you’d like to get done I suggest taking care of it sooner than later.”

Kailyn unclasped her harness and stood, uneasy in the thrust-simulated gravity. “Very well,” she said. “I suppose I’ll try that thing you call a shower.”

—

Once the Slipstream had expended 40% of its available reaction mass Jarlan gently eased off on the flow until it was cut off completely. The passengers felt themselves gradually grow lighter until they were floating. But even though they could no longer feel it, they remained cruising at over six hundred thousand kilometers per hour. With no air resistance or gravity nothing would slow them down but an equal expenditure of fuel now.

For the first week Kailyn spent almost all her time in her stateroom, only occasionally venturing out into the third-deck galley for meal packs. Jarlan on the other hand drifted about the cockpit playing games on the computer or watching holo-dramas. One day, just short of halfway through their voyage, Jarlan noticed something on their radar screen. A small blinking dot flying along on an unusually straight path. They floated over and highlighted the object, then pulled up its projected course. A dotted line showed that it would cross paths with the Slipstream in less than an hour.

“Orlando,” Jarlan called into the intercom, “please come up to the bridge.”

Less than a minute later the badger flung himself through the hatch. “What’s going on?”

The fox pointed to the screen. “What do you make of that?”

Orlando read the info on the object headed their way. “It’s going too straight to be just a rock. There’s a chance their navigator just screwed up, but…”

“You think they could be pirates?” Jarlan suggested.

“Pirates?” Kailyn’s voice called out from behind the two of them. The lioness collided with the back of their seat a moment later.

Orlando glanced in her direction. “It’s possible, but not a guarantee. Try radioing them first.”

Jarlan nodded and directed a tightbeam in the other ship’s direction. “Unidentified ship, this is the Slipstream. Your course is taking us a bit too close together for comfort.”

Kailyn’s eye narrowed and her ears flattened. “Does this ship have any weapons?”

“Just a small sandcaster,” Jarlan answered.

“It might be a good idea to toss some sand in their direction if they don’t answer,” Orlando added. “It could help encourage them to change course.”

Jarlan stared at the clock, five minutes after their message went out they pulled up the turret controls. (3+2+1(Int)+0(Gunnery): Success) An expanding cloud of reflective silicate grains blasted out of the Slipstream’s turret towards the other ship.

(6+1+1(Gunnery)-2(Sand): Miss) For several seconds it seemed like the other ship hadn’t even noticed. Then an alarm blared and the word “RADIATION” flashed red on the monitor.

“Seriously?” Jarlan exclaimed. “We’re getting a stellar flare now?” They looked for the source of the radiation. Their sand cloud was lit up on the monitor, spewing rads in every direction. “The sand? How is that possible? Did they shoot a particle beam at us or something?”

Kailyn growled, “particle beams are restricted to military ships.”

“Like inner world laws mean anything in the Belt,” Orlando interjected. “They might have captured a warship, or even salvaged an old Federal wreck. But I have heard of pirates blasting a ship with rads and towing it off while the crew are puking their guts out.”

“Well that’s just great,” Jarlan groaned. “What are we supposed to do now? I doubt we can outrun them.”

“We’ve got enough reserves for a quick boost,” the badger suggested. “If we dump the cargo they’ll probably go after it instead.”

“That cargo was entrusted to you,” Kailyn snarled. “If you give it up without a fight you’ll never do this kind of work again.”

“How would I fight back?” the fox replied. “That ship is twice our size, it could hold a platoon of espatiers.”

“But we’d have the home field advantage,” the lioness answered. “We play dead, wait for them to board, and ambush them. A small force with the right force multipliers can eliminate a much larger group.”

“You’re crazy,” Orlando retorted.

Audience decision: Should they try to run or fight?
Vote on Patreon or Ko-Fi.

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Felis et Canis Ch. 1

Sun, 28 Sep 2025 17:52:06 GMT

“I can give you… twenty thousand,” the broker concluded.

Jarlan raised an astonished eyebrow behind their visor. The lenses provided a real-time analysis of the broker’s facial expressions, he didn’t seem to be deceiving them, or the equine was just so accustomed to this that it didn’t even register on his face. Jarlan on the other hand barely restrained themself from shouting their disbelief. “That won’t even cover my fuel costs. This is pure iridium!”

“Well, that’s the risk of prospecting,” the equine broker shrugged with his giant ears.

“I’m no miner,” Jarlan objected. “I bought it at Enki.”

“Ah,” the broker replied non-apologetically. “I’m sorry, I thought you were offloading from a 100-ton craft?”

“Yes,” Jarlan explained patiently. “Scout/courier configuration, not prospector.”

“I see,” the broker gave a heavy snort. “Most ships hauling ore that small are miners, you need a ship at least twice that size to make a profit off of speculative trading.”

“So what would you suggest I do?” the vulpine grumbled.

“Trade up for a bigger ship for one.”

“I can’t,” Jarlan sighed. “I don’t actually own the Slipstream, it’s leased to me through the D’Kaarjan naval reserve program.”

“In that case I might suggest looking into secure courier jobs,” the broker advised. “Since you have a courier after all. Or maybe find a few passengers more interested in speed than comfort.” He set his tablet on the table and tapped at the figure displayed on it with a thick finger. “Now are you going to take this offer or not? I’m sure you’ll need the credits for whatever you decide to do.”

With one last grumble of disappointment, Jarlan thumbed their acceptance of the payment.

—

An hour later the multi-colored fox was sitting alone at the spaceport port on M’Kusu L4, sipping at a straw-bana daiquiri as the money from their sale of the iridium disappeared into their debts.

They thought about what the broker had said. They’d left the service hoping to make it big as an independent trader, but if that ship of theirs was too small what could they do?

As they considered their options Jarlan’s eyes caught on a small group playing cards at one of the tables in back. A badger, a deer with a fair-sized rack, and a feline with a tawny coat and their back turned to them. Maybe a little game would help them make up their mind?

—

Kailyn of the Lion clan dropped her cards on the table and swept up the pot without comment. She’d been hoping the rockhound and customs official before her might offer some amusement, but so far they’d been a boring disappointment.

“Excuse me?” Kailyn spun around at the sound of somebody walking up behind her. Her eye focused on a canine or vulpine of some kind with bright purple and reddish fur. At first she thought they were female based on their body shape, but she recalled that those from D’Kaarjy could be a bit more “flexible” with their gender presentation than was traditional on M’Kusa. And they couldn't look more stereotypically Kaarjan if they tried.

Kailyn’s diplomatic training took over. With little intonation she said “how may I help you?” in passable Anglic.

The canid flinched away from her, “oh, sorry, I was just wondering if you had room for another player.” Their eyes were hidden behind an opaque visor but their face angled slightly away from the left side of her own face.

“Do not worry,” Kailyn commented, tapping her eyepatch with a claw. “It wasn’t one of your countrymen who did this.” She gestured towards the table, “care to join us?”

“Thank you,” the canid said with some hesitation, taking a seat. “My name’s Jarlan 576A75, they/them, what’s the ante?”

“Kailyn,” she introduced herself. Adding “she/her” with a slight grumble.

“Toblan,” the deer added, gesturing to a chip kiosk in the middle of the room. “Buy-in is 1000 fuel credits minimum, ante is 10.”

“Orlando,” the badger stated as Jarlan stepped up to the kiosk and flicked the funds over from what was presumably an AR display. “So which company you with?”

Jarlan perked up as they collected their chips. “I’m actually the majority stakeholder of Slipstream Shipping.”

“Slipstream…” Toblan thought, scrolling on his tablet. “That’s the courier that unloaded a quarter ton of iridium right?”

Jarlan’s ear twitched as they admitted “yes.”

“That’s it?” Orlando inquired. “I thought those scouts had almost as much cargo space as prospectors did?”

“About 18 tons,” Jarlan replied. “And four staterooms.”

Kailyn shuffled the deck loudly and started dealing cards. “I’m sure their business decisions are very interesting, but shall we get started?” She flicked a chip into the pot and picked up her cards, the Ace of Blades and King of Staves, an idea starting to form in the back of her mind.

—

Jarlan glanced at their Ten of Blades and Three of Credits, trying not to show their disappointment. They reminded themself that at this point the hand could go either way. They bet 10 credits, the badger and deer called but the lioness hesitated.

“You seem pretty sure of yourself,” Kailyn suggested as she raised to 15.

The fox mix felt their tail reflexively curl under their seat. They tried to straighten it and called. Orlando called as well but Toblan folded.

Kailyn drew the flop: 4 of Blades, 2 of Staves, and Aces of Staves. Jarlan stiffened, they had basically nothing. But they couldn’t let the others know that. They picked up 15 credits worth of chips, but after a moment’s thought they only set down 10 in the pot.

“Not so confident now, corpo?” Orlando suggested, raising to 20.

“I suppose one needs to know when to play it safe in the speculative trade business,” Kailyn called.

Jarlan flicked another 10 credits into the pot without hesitation. “Don’t count me out yet.”

—

Kailyn drew the turn: The Universe, after the river the game would be over. She did a quick count of her chips, she easily had close to 2,000 credits on her side. A decent haul, but still nowhere near enough to get her out from under her pride’s shadow. Maybe she could talk them into starting a new game with a fresh buy-in, or maybe…

“It looks like this is the last hand,” she suggested. “So how about we make things a little interesting?”

Jarlan perked up an ear in her direction. “What do you have in mind?”

Preparing to set her plan in action, Kailyn said, “you have a ship, and I want off this station, but I’m not desperate enough to risk a trip in cryo.”

The canid’s ears rotated in consideration. “So, if you win I take you wherever you want to go? What if I win?”

Kailyn pushed the rest of her chips into the pot.

Jarlan glanced from their chips to the pot, then nodded. “Deal.”

Orlando tossed his cards in, “if that’s the case I’m out. Interesting game though.”

—

Jarlan tensed as Kailyn drew the river. They were totally unprepared to take on passengers, but at least they’d only be down a couple dozen credits, plus the expense of life support and fuel. Still, there could be a slight chance, wasn’t there?

The lioness slapped down the 9 of Staves on the table. With a sigh Jarlan showed their hand, “Ace and 10 high.”

Kailyn’s good eye flicked to their cards to her own hand. “Well, that’s a shame,” she noted with audible disappointment before flipping her cards over. “Pair of Aces.”

Jarlan sighed as Kailyn cashed in her chips and started looking up vectors out of L4. “Okay, fine, where are we headed?”

“Anywhere but here,” Kailyn replied, her comm unit buzzing as the funds transferred to her account. “Or M’kusa.”

Jarlan’s ears flattened suspiciously. Why didn’t she want to go back to her homeworld? Was she some kind of fugitive? They shrugged, if she tried anything on the trip they had control over the life support and were used to a thinner atmosphere than the M’kusan. “Well, do you have any suggestions?”

“Actually,” Toblan chimed in. “I know of a small group headed to some new habitat in the Castellan Trojans, I’m sure they’d pay a decent amount if you’re taking passengers anyway.”

“On the other hand,” Orlando suggested. “If you’d like to take another risk I spotted a decent-sized wreck about… 2/3rds of an AU out from Enki during my last trip out. Captain didn’t think it was worth the fuel to go check it out though.”

Jarlan considered the two options, passengers were basically guaranteed income, even with the one flying for free. But they were unsure about letting random people wander around on their ship. They knew they should be dismissing Orlando’s suggestion out of hand, but a wreck… Even a few salvageable spaceship parts could be worth millions, and if it was a Federation ship…

Audience Participation: If you'd like to vote on whether Jarlan should take passengers or go after salvage: subscribe to my Patreon here:

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Car Totaled,

Wed, 17 Sep 2025 00:15:50 GMT

On the 6th some teenager rear-ended me on the highway, and this week my insurance finally declared my ten-year old Kia a total loss. I have a new (used) car now, which'll add another $300 to my monthly bills.

Any help, whether it's through Ko-Fi, Patreon, or buying my various books would be appreciated. Scavenger: Caches and Prizes is available on an ebook on Itch, DriveThruRPG, and an array of other ebook sites including the "Zon" but print is still giving me issues.

Additionally, Joanna: Ghost Hunter will be coming back soon, volume 1 is still available on Fenris.

Lastly, I'm preparing a new serialized story starring my new characters Jarlan and Kailyn in a "solo" Scavenger campaign. I'm considering adding some audience participation element where backers will be allowed to decide on some of their actions.

What do you think of that suggestion?

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Scavenger Character Creation Example

Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:05:45 GMT

I thought it would help to include an example of character creation in Scavenger: Caches and Prizes. Since Horizon's story takes place in the same time period as the game's default setting I used her.

A player decides they want a raccoon pilot named Tanya Loter. For characteristics they roll a 9, 5, 7, 6, 3, and 7, they decide to assign the 9 to Intelligence, since flying a spacecraft would presumably require a lot of smarts, giving her a +1 DM to INT throws, 5 to STR, 7 to DEX and END, 6 to EDU, and 3 for SOC, her player’s not that concerned with social standing (577963). The campaign takes place in the Tiere system (Ch. 14), so taking a look at the planets in the system the player decides that the Orbital Alliance of Jord sounds like a good origin point for Tanya. As a Pallene culture she can choose between Aircraft-1, Computer-1, or Streetwise-1 for an upbringing skill, the player decides on Aircraft.

Next, it’s time to design her phenotype. Jord is a temperate Terra-sized world but Tanya spent much of her early life on space stations orbiting the planet. So while her favored atmosphere and temperature are Terran and Temperate, her player chooses a Light gravity to represent the limited access to spin gravity on such post-Federation stations. There is a list of common Procyon traits and Tanya’s player consults it to pick the Climb, Iron Stomach, and Notable (DEX) traits, increasing her DEX to 9 (597963); and picks the Increased Metabolism adaptation in order to compensate for the third trait.

Now for her career. Tanya’s player thinks Navy would help build her piloting skills so they throw INT to qualify, they roll a 7, modified to 8 with the DM, which is enough to succeed. They’re using the basic training variant rule so Tanya gets all the Service skills at rank 0 and then throws 1D on the Specialist table, getting Piloting at rank 1. Advancement is next and a failure, but not that big a deal. Next she throws survival, and comes up snake eyes, fortunately they’re not doing hardcore mode so she just roll on the Mishaps table. With a 4 Tanya is dishonorably discharged from the Navy. Her player isn’t quite ready to start yet, so they try for Belter this time. Qualification is easy enough, for skills they get Piloting again on the Service table, bringing her rank in that skill up to 2. This time they’re successful on advancement, gaining the skill Zero-G-1 and making another skill throw, gaining Engineering from the Specialist table. Survival is close, with a roll of 6 they wouldn’t have made it without the Notable DEX trait.

At this point Tanya’s player is ready to go adventuring. They lost their Mustering Out Benefit throw for the Navy term but they still get one for Belter. The dice come up 6, meaning Tanya starts out with a 40-year old Prospector.

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Looking for Playtesters

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 16:15:39 GMT

As you may have noticed from following my Kickstarter, Scavenger: Caches and Prizes successfully funded in April. Since then I've been working on the rulebook, writing rules and systems and commissioning illustrators. I attempted to get a playtest started, but then I started a new day job which was second shift, when most people play TTRPGs.

So I'm opening Scavenger up to public playtesting, you don't have to be familiar with the Para-Imperium setting or the Traveller system to GM but it would help. If you're interested contact me on Discord.

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Temp Job Kicking My Ass

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 02:14:44 GMT

As some of you might know, in July I lost my regular job of the past twelve years when the company ran out of money to pay my department with and laid everyone off.

Since then I've been trying to get a new job, unfortunately my last job used extremely proprietary software and everyone else doing something even remotely like it seems to be using LLMs. While the Biotech type jobs I actually studied for in college will give me an interview, and then pick someone with a more recent degree or non-academic experience in the field. I tried DoorDash and Instacart for a few months and even opened commissions for short stories.

Somehow I got offered a seasonal job at H&R Block helping people file their taxes, which pays almost as much as my old job, but only lasts until mid-April (taxes are due April 15th in the US, for those who don't have to deal with this byzantine nightmare). The first few weeks nobody was coming in and all I had to do was call up past clients asking them to make appointments, then people started receiving their W-2s.

For the past week I've been seeing clients back to back for hours at a time, working six days a week, about to start a 13-day streak with no days off. And I was originally assigned to an office just 8 miles from home but it's behind schedule for renovations so they had me bouncing between three of the other offices in the area for a while before assigning me to an office 21 miles away that takes half an hour to reach when traffic cooperates. Fortunately I was able to convince my manager (one of the few times I'm in the same office as her) to get rid of the split shifts that had me in two different offices on different sides of town in one day.

And then there's the clients, the majority of mine so far have been single mothers, caretakers of permanently disabled people, or both. I'd like to be able to help them, but half the time I wind up telling them they owe the government money, and H&R Block charges them $300+ on top of that.

I'm not going to ask for commissions, because I won't have time to write them, but if you can chip in to my Patreon or Ko-Fi or buy one of my published books every little bit will help. I've burned through most of my unemployment insurance already and I don't have any other jobs lined up. I was hoping to launch a Kickstarter for my Para-Imperium RPG later this year, but after receiving the first sales report for the print edition of Joanna: Ghost Hunter I don't think I have the fanbase to sustain such a venture.

As always, you can find all my links at Carrd: https://zarpaulus.carrd.co/

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Comic now in print: Joanna: Ghost Hunter

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 01:35:31 GMT

https://fenrispublishing.com/product.php?id=1074

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The History of Parahuman Space

Fri, 22 Nov 2024 22:52:58 GMT

I've been working on this setting for over a decade now and I'm making a lot of progress on an RPG using the Cepheus system right now.

I thought I might share a broad overview of the setting's history that I wrote up for the RPG.

Timeline:
Most calendars in Parahuman Space are oriented around the launch of the first parahuman-built starship as the start of the exodus from the clade’s system of origin, Sol. On the Georgian calendar the year 0 Post Exodus (PX) would be in the early 22nd century AD. So the Federation would be founded in the 32nd century AD and collapse in the 45th century, or roughly the year 4600 AD.
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National Game Design Month

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 20:26:47 GMT

Instead of NaNoWriMo this year I'm participating in National Game Design Month and working on a tabletop RPG based on my Parahuman Space setting.

The rules are based on the Cepheus Engine, an open content fork of the long-standing sci-fi RPG Traveller. It's a fairly simple system reminiscent of the "most popular RPG" save that you roll 2d6 instead of 1d20 and you never get bloated with hit points, you stay a squishy mortal the whole campaign (I recommend some armor). You can read the full system reference document on this site but the final Parahuman Space RPG will include all the rules needed for play.

The RPG assumes campaigns set after the collapse of the Federation, and instead of the typical tramp trader or mercenary campaigns seen in Traveller the default campaign will be based around salvaging wrecked starships.

AKA "space dungeons."

Think Hardspace Shipbreaker or Lethal Company rather than Elite: Dangerous.

So far I have the character creation and skills chapters, which I've attached to my most recent Patreon post for patrons. I needed to come up with a system for genetic modification of parahuman characters, but the skills are mostly unchanged from the SRD save for removing all references to gravitic vehicles. I also set career mishaps to non-lethal by default ;) I intend to leave the Combat chapter mostly unchanged as well. Psionics, though, will be replaced with Technomagic while the Equipment chapter will need extensive work for augmentations.

Originally, I was planning to use a more "rules-light" system titled Faster Than Light: Nomad for this project, but the step system that used for building spaceships was not as conducive to tearing them apart for spare parts.

Eventually I intend to bring this project to Kickstarter, I'm hoping that if even if you decide not to subscribe to my Patreon you will throw a few bucks my way once it launches.

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Interstellar Warfare

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 19:15:22 GMT

The large-scale multi-ship battles seen occasionally in interplanetary warfare are almost unheard of when the combatants are located in entirely different star systems. The main reason is simply the orders of magnitude difference in travel time and cost. Starships using reaction drives require many cubic kilometers of reaction mass just to get up to the speeds where ramscoops are effective, while gravity and warp drives require unfathomable amounts of energy and matter just to build.

Therefore, would-be interstellar invaders tend to adopt one of two strategies: The WMD approach is usually only effective against technologically inferior opponents, but if they pull it off a single starship can conquer a star. A G-Drive ship can dance around a fleet of reaction ships, slicing them to ribbons without even taking a hit, while even the least r-drive starship is a colossus compared to system ships. The power of their drives, combined with the purpose-built weapons that civilizations capable of building starships can design, means that almost any starship can lay waste to a defenseless star system in a matter of weeks.

Of course, if the invaders want to capture the biosphere intact (which most do, as it tends to be the most valuable part of a star system), they can’t simply throw nukes and c-bombs everywhere. Which means that the ship’s crew has to negotiate the tricky task of persuading the local governments to surrender with minimal devastation. Even if they succeed in this task, the resulting political arrangements tend not to last long. The elites and masses of such worlds tend to resent “quisling” leaders and efforts to depose them are soon to follow.
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A Rat in a Maze, Ch. 1 (Korps)

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 03:08:16 GMT

CWs: Violence, gore, amnesia, mention of dronification and brainwashing

They jolted to awareness as their ears were filled with the blare of sirens. In a frenzy they looked around, the first thing they noticed was that they sat, unclothed, on a metal table, illuminated by flashing emergency lights. A slight tightness about their throat drew their hand up to feel their neck, their fingers walked along a thin plastic band wrapped around their throat. Their hand continued to move up and down their neck, their collarbone felt normal, if muscled, on the left side, but on the right their fingers encountered something metallic and rigid. They tried to angle their head to look down at the abnormality. They saw thin white fur, turning translucent on their shoulder to show a barcode tattooed into their skin. Closer to their collarbone was what looked like a steel cable, disappearing into their fur towards their front. They probed the cable with a finger, confirming that it was the metallic object they’d felt before, and found a second cable up above it and just out of their sight.

A flash of motion caught their eye and they turned to see a white-furred mouse, maybe rat, with blonde hair sitting on a similar table to their own. They lifted their right hand, and the rat lifted her left, a few more experimental motions confirmed their growing suspicion. They were staring at a mirror, she was the rat, that was what she looked like.

Aside from a desk and a couple chairs off in a corner bearing a bundle of pink cloth and a few medical implements on top the room was empty, almost aggressively so. She swung her legs to the side of the table and set her feet on the floor, feeling cold sterile tile beneath her toes. She pushed herself up and stood before the mirror, examining herself. The first thing she noticed was her eyes, bright purplish-pink irises that shone with a faint light. The second was a pink plastic tag that dangled from her left ear, but she couldn’t make out any markings on it. Her gaze wandered downwards, there was another barcode tattoo on her left breast, hanging over a six-pack of rock-hard abs. Her arms bulged with just as toned muscles. A hairless and scaled tail drooped from her back.

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How FTL is Intertwined with Worldbuilding

Fri, 20 Sep 2024 18:20:40 GMT

One of the most important, but divisive, features of a science fiction setting is space travel. It determines the scope of the story, where the characters can go and how easily. Realistically, space travel is very difficult and expensive, but in many stories one can commute from one end of the galaxy to another. Space travel might as well be magic the way it is presented in those stories.

Now magic systems have been debated six ways to Sunday, they’re a highly contentious issue among writers. They’ve been unofficially classified into “hard” and “soft” magic systems, with advocates for both and neither. Since the terms “hard and soft” already have their own baggage in sci-fi, we’ll use the terms “defined” and “open” instead.

Like hard and soft magic systems, defined and open space travel exists on a spectrum rather than a binary. The more defined a space travel system is, the more limitations are imposed on the system and the fewer opportunities the writer has to introduce something unexpected. While a more open a system is the fewer established limitations there are and the more potential there is to introduce new features.

In longer-running franchises space travel might become more defined or open as characters experiment with FTL or new writers introduce new ideas. As an example, Star Trek’s warp drive was initially rather open but the writers established a speed limit while also leaving the possibility open for introducing faster methods of travel. This made the story of Voyager possible, a precursor system transported the Voyager to the far side of the galaxy, where they had to rely on the speed-limited warp drive or find a new way to get home.
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