Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: FTL Travel

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: FTL Travel

Space travel is a major part of most sci-fi settings, and to handle such a large scale, FTL travel must be fast. As I mentioned before, I want to make FTL radio rare, cumbersome, and slow, so fast messenger ships will be important.

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Basan Worlds

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Basan Worlds

And here we have another interstellar diverse faction of a relatively mundane species. The racial template is nothing special, but is relatively cheap.

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Sto Astrocracy

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Sto Astrocracy

And now we have another weird species. The plant-like sto worship the stars that give them light and life, look for their uplifters, and sometimes exterminate all non-plant sentient life. Their racial template is quite expensive and exotic and I do not see many players wanting to use it.

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: MonoTech and MacroDynamics Tech Alliance

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: MonoTech and MacroDynamics Tech Alliance

The post about United Solar Alliance mentioned two other human civilizations, unrelated to Earth. They are similar, and some parts of their descriptions are straight identical, so I present them in a single post.

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: United Solar Alliance

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: United Solar Alliance

But where are the humans in the setting? Time to answer this question, at least partially. I decided that the humans will have a loose alliance instead of one big empire to make them more diverse. Within the United Solar Alliance one can find worlds under a despotic militaristic rule, democratic federations, theocracies, eugenic cults, and many other types of government, culture, religion, etc. I left many of the details vague on purpose, so the players could make up their own culture.

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Macerid Territories

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Macerid Territories

And now we create a mostly antagonistic faction of insectile aliens. These aggressive arthropods do not have a hive mind, like many similar species in other sources, and are not a faceless menace, but tyranids from Warhammer 40,000 or, to some degree, zergs from Starcraft. They hostility and possession of a very rare resource can create opportunities for adventures or military campaigns, if we want to use GURPS Mass Combat. As a racial template, the macerids are cheap, but unremarkable. You probably have noticed that none of the racial templates so far have any adjustments to the primary or secondary attributes, and it is intentional, but will probably end soon.

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Belue Coalition

Sci-Fi Worldbuilding: Belue Coalition

Now we have two exotic silicon-based races, so it's time to make something more mundane. The Belue Coalition is a neighbor and an ally of the United Solar Alliance, a major human faction that is not yet described. Covering a vast swathe of space, its colonies often incorporate aliens into their caste system. The belari are curious and generally friendly, but they do practice slavery. This may create opportunities for activist adventurers. As a racial template, the belari do not have anything exotic. They have good hearing, night vision, and they move fast. The belari have short arms, so they are not good with melee weapons, but this is not a big drawback in high TL societies. The belari have 5 major ethnicities with their own languages, but they are not expanded upon, at least yet.