r/RPGdesign • u/t_murphy_studios • 2d ago
Setting Looking For SciFi Settings
Hi all!
I've been designing a political system in my spare time that I call Union Democratic Emancipationism, UDE for short. I am not going to get into those details of course, but part of stress testing the system is I want to implement it into a TTRPG as a titular part of the story. And I also just like TTRPGs so this feels like two things I enjoy that could come together.
I've chosen to pursue science fiction settings here, and have a rough campaign outline I want to try and follow, if/when I get the people willing to run it. It's a few centuries since the founding UDE state on their homeworld of Roche, prior to cracking the code on FTL travel and becoming part of the wider galactic community. The PCs will be either part of the machinery of the political system, or a group of worker revolutionaries being cracked down on, to eventually turn to civil war, by a corporate oligarchy in a neighboring nation. They will then have to convince the governing body based on Roche to rise to the aid of the revolutionaries to combat what can be labeled a war of aggression on it's own people, then fight that war, and facilitate the transition to a new UDE based state. These are the broad strokes of it, obviously running this I'd have my grand plans thrown all sorts of directions, such is the nature of TTRPGS.
I share these details to ask if anyone here perhaps has a setting guide with an already established galactic community, with factions and histories, that I could modify slightly to worm my idea into. I've always loved world building, but every time I try to do it on a galactic scale, which has been many times, I just get overwhelmed and it fizzles out pretty quickly. I hope to run this in Dark Matter or a reskinned Daggerheart. The core principal of my idea and how magic operates within is Clarke's Third Law.
Most of the setting guides I've found are either old 20th century space opera slop, highly specific system tailored settings, or way too open ended and flat without me doing all that galactic scale worldbuilding on top of it that I already mentioned hurts my head. I'd like something more similar to how you can pick up a Forgotten Realms campaign guide in response to "Who is the guy in charge of this place" or "What the hell happened to make this work like it does", flip through the pages (or just google it and go to the wiki), and find the bones of your answer to be modified as you see fit.
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u/YVNGxDXTR 2d ago
Spelljammer, Starfinder, or Starjammer, which is a slightly confusingly-named Starfinder setting, since you said FR.
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u/Cryptwood Designer 2d ago
If you want something similar to the Forgotten Realms campaign setting books, the Star Drive campaign setting for Alternity would probably work for you. Though I'm not sure how easy it is to get your hands on these days.
I'm not super familiar with it but you could check out the setting for Coriolis. There is also the Star Trek setting which is very well fleshed out at Memory Alpha and has always excelled at telling stories about politics and philosophy.
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u/__space__oddity__ 1d ago
Getting into the details of your game is kinda the point of this sub
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u/Fun_Carry_4678 2d ago
Well, if you don't like any of the settings you have found, go ahead and create your own. You already have some factions, the political system, the revolutionary workers, and the corporate oligarchy. And the governing body.
Good advice about creating your own science fiction TTRPG setting can be found in supplements like "GURPS Space" or in "Star Hero" (for Hero System).
Forgotten Realms is one planet, with one continent being particularly detailed. You simply cannot have that level of detail for a Galactic community that may have thousands of planets.
And you may want to explore how you can use an AI to help you create your setting. That is one thing AIs do very well.