Winds of Uranus Campaign Player Primer

Dark Matter Setting

    The Dark Matter sci-fi setting is really cool and features compelling spaceship combat, mobile suits (it's a Gundam!), and cool new magic tricks and monsters! It also allows for compatibility with the rest of the D&D 5e catalog as well as planets as lower tech levels. No joke, you could play a fucking caveman or a Cylon if you wanted to.

    Large organizations and mostly race-based nations dominate the setting and have been known to come into conflict with each other. Between all of that are the little guys, including your party, who are trying to make ends meet and up their quality of life without getting stamped out. 

Ships

    Starships as both settings and characters, NPCs, and threats are a huge part of Dark Matter and this campaign. While the party is always welcome at home on the U.E.E. Winds of Uranus, page 75 of the Dark Mattter rulebook mentions player ships. A party/crew of 3-4 players would normally receive a Personal sized ship, or 10,000gp to buy a ship and customize it as they see fit. Think of the Milennium Falcon, or a Freelancer. Big enough to keep its crew busy, but not huge.

    Keep in mind some people might just want a fighter or battle frame (It's A Gundam!) in this campaign. You can either make it work with each other, or wait to be able to afford a bigger ship on your own. Alternatively, talk to the Dungeon Master if you want fighter combat from the get-go. This could mean a barebones/downgraded freighter with room for fighters, or starting the campaign as a fighter squadron launched from the U.E.E. Winds of Uranus.

Race Options

    All of the races are listed on this World Anvil site for your ease of use. The vast majority are fair game, but I ask that if you want to use one of the low-tech or ancient races, use the Low-Worlder background option. I promise it'll be fun! This background even allows for you to be a time traveler escaping the 2020 hellscape of High Terra. Just have fun with it.

Player Options

• Maximum of 2 Player Characters at a time. This allows you to explore the myriad of character options, and makes it easier to have multiple parties with multiple DMs later. You can make both characters from the start if you want.
• Standard Array or Point Buy for characters, please. It may seem like a drag, but I promise you'll still be able to shine.
• Permadeath isn't necessary, as the U.E.E. Winds of Uranus has advanced and illegal cloning facilities. Still, if you'd like your character to have a heroic death to save a crew or something, we can work that in! Normally, though, a TPK in this campaign would just lead to more financial constraints and debt owed to the U.E.E. Winds of Uranus.
• For the first session, characters will start aboard the U.E.E. Winds of Uranus as a mothership. Characters either know "Fuselage", its Captain, or each other. If characters are part of the same crew prior to the first session, get with each other and feel free to flesh your backstory out. I.E. two characters are crew of their own ship, and are refueling aboard the U.E.E. Winds of Uranus between missions, and will ferry the other characters around.

Background Player Options

• Much like an "Extra" or "Background Actor" if you don't have the time to commit to regular sessions, please feel free to still make a character and we'll roll for downtime between sessions to see how you can impact play. Maybe you can create a new device that a regular party could use, or repair a system. Regular players can interact with this as well, and even if you initially create a background character, you're still welcome in a normal game/one-shot. The more characters in the 'verse, the merrier!
• If you wanted, we could even resolve some rolls, downtime, or even space combat over text in the Ivory Wolves Discord. That may not even be necessary, but we have a lot of options at our disposal.

Whichever Player Option you choose, if you want them included in the World Anvil campaign to try out interesting new ideas, click here.

Theme