Era of Expansion
Scope
The motivation behind building Era of Expansion
This world is a backdrop for my TTRPG passion project, Era of Expansion. It will contain all of the lore and worldbuilding for the game; free for everyone to use and access.
The goal of the project
With this world, I hope to create a believable science fantasy world that people can become immersed in and used for their games.
Era of Expansion's Unique Selling point
So many times I see futuristic settings that focus on "grimdark" futurism, "high tech low life" cyberpunk, and post-apocalyptic games. These settings are ripe with ideas and potential and even have some of my favorite fantasy worlds in them, but these days worlds with these settings tend to blend together due to how numerous they are. With my world, I hope to create something that reflects a golden age of discovery and exploration for humanity, and all the positives and negatives associated with it.
Theme
Genre
My world is a fusion of Science Fantasy and Science Fiction. Where the boring reality stuff ends is where the fantastical elements begin.
Reader Experience
My goal is to create a world that captures the wonder and horror of the galaxy, and humanity's reaction to it as they colonize the stars and experience these things first hand. Thrusting the players into tense and awe-inspiring situations regarding cosmic curiosities will be a staple of the game.
Reader Tone
The overall tone of this game reflects a positive outlook of humanity's future, but also comes with its share of dangers to consider. The price of progress is often a lot of blood. Luckily for the players, that blood was shed hundreds of years in the past...
Recurring Themes
Despite the overall tone of the game being one of positivity to the future, fear is the most common recurring theme throughout the world.
The Arr'kai constructed their galaxy-barrier out of fear that other K2 civilizations would invade; then retreated to the Noosphere out of fear of losing their progress and memories. The Cognitorae sent expeditions to their neighboring galaxies because the fear of not knowing what was out there was simply driving them mad... only to fight anything they encountered out of fearing they may grow to become a threat to their civilization later on. Humanity installed neuro-peptide inhibitors within their Gesir races in fear of them revolting... only to give those same creations a reason to hate their creators.
Often times, a physical conflict is born out of a tumultuous mental state; one induced by fear.
Character Agency
Players start out small, and they are free to become as important as they want or to simply remain as the "little guy" in their campaigns. Progression is nonlinear and any character can become (almost) anything they want given time... provided they don't die in the process.