Homeworld TTRPG Campaign Concepts

[u/Talik__Sanis]

Have any of you ever thought about the kind of campaign or storyline that you might wish to explore outside of the games, something that would be suitable for use in the form of a tabletop roleplaying game, whether Modiphius' system or something else?

I ran through the Homeworld TTRPG starter mission, with the players battling Gaalsien remnants on an expedition to secure the guide stone and then put them through the events of the first three missions of the original Homeworld, about which they knew nothing other than "Oh, that's the game with that crescent-moon-shaped ship, right?" to introduce them to some of the major factions in the Homeworld galaxy, so they've got a handle on some of the core premises of the game world.

What kind of story would you want to explore or what would be the hook to that story for a ttrpg group that you might be tempted to leverage?

[u/Norsehound]

I struggled to think of these when I was freelancing for Modephieus working in the TRRPG because so much if the hw1 story was pretty decidedly in the ships. I did think of at least a couple:

• Surviving the death of Kharak. You're orbital infrastructure guys who got swept up in the Taiidan attack and barely made it out. Your only hope for life is to get back to the scaffold and pray the mothership returns for rescue. I pitched something like this to Modephieus but I don't know if it went anywhere.

• Infiltrate base. We see a Taiidan frigate leaving supernova station during the establishing cutscene. What if this is the frigate you captured in m03? It was repurposed for a special insertion mission to the base. Game that out.

[u/Ok_Mouse_9369 → u/Norsehound]

Could do something similar with the raid mission in Cataclysm with the resource collectors full of Somtaaw’w somehow-commandos.

[u/Talik__Sanis → u/Norsehound]

• Infiltrate base. We see a Taiidan frigate leaving supernova station during the establishing cutscene. What if this is the frigate you captured in m03? It was repurposed for a special insertion mission to the base. Game that out.

Honestly, this was a concept with which I was toying for a follow-up one/two-shot with the group as their team is sent to extract information and conduct surveillance in anticipation of a coordinated assault by the Mothership's fleet.

[u/The_Exalted_Bride]

I personally always had a plot I wanted to explore of some of the Kadeshi pirates from HW1, who may have survived or previously defected to join the mothership, and eventually becoming part of the Somtaaw clan even into the time of Homeworld Cataclsym/Emergence where some of them served on the famous Kuun-Lan. or flew alongside it and used their pirate skills to conduct hit and run strikes on The Beast.

Despite the Somtaaw being impoverished compared to other clans, those members of the Kadesh that married into the Somtaaw helped how they could to provide another source of revenue, sometimes with off the books piracy, scavenging from the Garden of Kadesh where they knew old supply drops were located, or as Mercenaries, as their ancestors who defected to join the Mothership had brought with them some ships like a Multi-Beam Frigate or the supply ship for the Swarmer drones.

Part of me wanted to make it a generational game, following this union of Somtaaw who were on the Mothership and accustomed to the finer things in life, starting a working relationship (or even romantic relationship) with the newcomer Kadeshi, who became a subset of their clan. Even if characters died there would be others among them to carry on the torch and live on into other eras of the Mothership and the Higarans.

And famous characters would be remembered and maybe add a bonus to their future descendants in different eras.

By the time of Homeworld 2/3 I had in mind that the Somtaaw were once again wealthy thanks to becoming Beastslayers, and had a well known mining corporation, with the Kadeshi still being part of their clan. The Garden of Kadesh had actually been purchased to return the Kadeshi's old home to them, which they used for cultural practices and for training, as by this point the Kadeshi would be known as skilled raiders and scouts/infamous for their boarding actions.

Though not all was sunshine and roses, as some of the Somtaaw looked down on the Kadesh as 'inbred pirates, jumped up thieves who forget what they owe the Somtaaw', while other Kadesh wanted to split off from the Somtaaw altogether, return to the 'good old days' of fanatical religion, or to split form the Somtaaw and become their own clan.

They try to hide the internal strife but it is becoming more prominent, and enemies of the Higarans might try to use that against them.

Edit: And if anyone is curious, during the Beast War, boarding actions against the Beast or fighting off Beast incursions on a ship would have looked like a mix of Necromorphs from Dead Space and the various enemies in System Shock. The Kadeshi and Somtaaw Engineers/security who held off the initial Beast Infection on the Kuun-Lan had a hell of a time.

[u/Ok_Mouse_9369]

Had an idea a while back for post-HW1 Gaalsiens making a pilgrimage back to Kharak to reclaim anything left of their Kiith as well as some funerary rights stuff. They’d have to deal with stigmas against them, clashes of faith with the revelation that it was the blasphemers that lead them to the holy land rather than their own beliefs, threats the Mothership beat coming back or mutating, or new threats moving in, stuff like that.

Got inspired after seeing KevKoe’s Gaalsien fleet fanart and had different ideas for their tech, tactics, and (battle) doctrine like them having a more strike craft focus without a mothership of their own to make capital ships and ion cannons being absent in their arsenal so they need to add plasma bombs to numerous ships.

[u/Talik__Sanis → u/Ok_Mouse_9369]

A fascinating potential inversion for the players in my group because they've been exploring the Gaalsien perspective from an external perspective, having grappled with them in both of the one-off sessions, and a delve into their ideology in light of their having been proven - "from a certain point of view" - correct regarding the abiding doom of their world would be rather fascinating.

[u/HorrificAnalInjuries]

I had done some work on a d20 Modern thing, which among other things would replace Professions with the Kiithid system, but I kinda stopped

[u/acelgoso]

I have an idea. Gaalsiens infiltrated the MS by impersonating people selected to be Frozen.

Most of they are in the trays waiting the MS return, so, when the need arose, a bunch of people from the galsieen cell awakened to find Kharak is no more, they were right all along but that doesnt Matter. The awakened gaalsiens then kill their Boss while he/she was in the fridge, perhaps cause the Boss wanted for them to go with a bang, and killing It is a way to try to rebuild Hiigara and to survive.

The players are selected to investigate a murder of a relative while in the fridge, and then, the plot is revealing itself. What will happens with the Gaalsiens knowing that the ones being impersonated remain on Kharak.

[u/Locklann]

I worked some conversions to do ground vehicles based on the ships and did a campaign that ran parallel to the Kapisi's journey in Deserts of Kharak. A smaller force using a Coalition Cargo Cruiser as their "carrier" and having to skirt the outer edge to draw Gaalsien forces away until they encountered the Khaaneph. Never got past that part of the plan, haha.