Alien Species Generator – Beta

Hello, loyal readers! I’m back with a little more information about Dark Horizon and this time I need your help. Previously I described the random tables in the game and how they can help you to generate content for your game. Some of that content is for stellar systems (which I posted about before) but today I want to offer the chance to stress-test the alien species generator. This is for throwing together species on the fly, coming up with a new species quickly for your players to interact with, and overcoming that pesky GM writers block.

Go ahead and download a copy below and try it out. Post your thoughts (good and bad) in the comments below or shoot me an email at mephitjames {at} gmail {dot} com.

Click Here For the PDF

Random Tables in Dark Horizon

I’ve posted before about random tables for generating star systems in Dark Horizon: first on political systems and then on political stances. These are all part of a long section for creating compelling systems on the fly which provides one hundred different hooks for a star system. That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though.

Political Stances in Dark Horizon

Governments have a political structure but that doesn’t mean they have a particular leaning or policy. The political stance of a system’s government, or its stance towards a particular subject, can also be a useful tool in detailing the star system.

Political Systems in Dark Horizon

Hello everyone. You may have wondered what became of my Dark Horizon project that I started a while back. The last post I made on it was last summer which was just before I started writing for Continuing Mission. Contributing that blog and a grueling work schedule this spring has meant a gap in putting material out but I’ve still been quietly working at it on the side. Today I’m back with a look at part of the section on making stellar systems for your player characters to visit.

Dark Horizon: Human Species

We’ve discussed two alien species so far for Dark Horizon: the Jurganna and the dupalans. Both of these are strange and unfamiliar creatures, though their motivations and cultures might have familiar aspects. Now let’s flip things and look at humans, a species we all know pretty well but which sees the galaxy in a very strange way…

Politics in Dark Horizon

One thing that I’ve been thinking about frequently when designing Dark Horizon is how things actually work. There are galaxy-spanning powers but they rely on a network of interspatial tunnels the require hops through all these different systems like some weird island-hopping military campaign. I’ve worked it out in my head over the course of thinking about this for years but it deserves a long discussion in order to establish the setting. Here’s a preview of a sidebar discussing the intricacies. Feedback welcome!

Dark Horizon: Jurgann Species

The pre-contact history of the Jurganna is mostly lost in legend at this point, although considering the emphasis that Jurganna put in legend and retelling stories these may be surprisingly accurate. Tales tell of warring states that took their conflict to the stars and fought each other in epic space battles. These squabbling states were conquered by an emperor serving as a divine mandate who forged a single group from these disparate pieces. His conquest was the only thing to survive his rule, however, as both his religious reforms and military focus dissolved soon after his death. The unity that he inspired did not, however, and the Jurganna struck out for the stars again, this time as explorers.

Dark Horizon: Dupalan Species

In my post on character creation in Dark Horizon, I explained that your character will have the descriptor, type, and focus common to all Cypher System characters but also a Species and Culture that will make them more unique with more options for abilities. This is the first of those options, a Species template for the octopus-like dupalans. There are five more of these in store so let me know what you think of this one before I get too off base!

Character Creation

Having introduced everyone to the background elements and the long-running history of Dark Horizon, I’m back with some actual game mechanics. Or, sort of. This post is to clue everyone in to how player characters are designed in the setting and why they are slightly different from other Cypher characters.

History of Dark Horizon – Part 2

Last time I went over the history of the Dark Horizon setting and today I’m back with more! Since the last post was so long (#selfpromotion) it might surprise you that there were zero humans in the whole thing. Even discounting the long history of the galaxy before this timeline begins, there is nearly eight hundred years of setting events before we even get to humans. Since you all are humans^{[citation needed]}, though, you might be interested in what happens after that happens.