Let There Be Light – Creating Worlds Part 1

In the beginning, less is more!

The principle of Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS), definitely applies here.

When starting out in your own brave new world of an over-arching sci-fi background, the biggest favour you can do for yourself to begin with is to keep it nice and simple.

Just sketch out the background – briefly.

Where is the campaign going to start? Planet, space station, escape pod, starship?

Name that place – a good starting place is always on the surface of a planet. So come up with a planet name.

Planets will either have continents or will be one big ball of rock, or gas – don’t start your campaign in a gas giant!

Which continent are you starting on? Name it.

For example, I call my planet Colon, the continent is Dysenteria.

What is happening on the planet? Does your storyline pitch factions against factions or is it a small-scale skirmish campaign where you and your crew have temporarily found themselves and are looking to make some money?

So, in my background, the planet Colon was once part of a vast human galactic empire that collapsed into civil war and the empire has receded to the home planets.

The planet Colon is at the arse end of the once mighty galactic empire, and as a result, has itself fractured into divided and fractured enclaves and factions, and barely functioning infrastructure across the continent of Dysenteria.

Why is there fighting?

Parts of Dysenteria are rich in rare minerals etc. The different factions are competing for control of these.

Also, the one space elevator in the continent Dysenteria (being large continent that straddles the equator) is no mans land, and whoever gains control of this and holds it, will ultimately win the control of the planet as there are significant orbital assets waiting to be seized.

However, the surrounding land of the space elevator and related space port buildings, landing pads, and runways are constantly contested by all of the factions and is a real hot zone. It is extremely hazardous to venture anywhere near there.

This is a simple open-ended explanation that can easily be built upon for smaller and larger battles and campaigns.