21. The setting of Asteroids23

I want these adventure sites to provide a wide array of adventure sparks for my own sci-fi campaign, but naturally I (not so) secretly hope someone else will get some use out of this material. Therefore, Asteroids23 is setting agnostic, and rules are only hinted at in general terms. That being said, there are quite a few inherent assumptions in my writings. I will attempt to share them here.

1. The PCs have a ship. Either they start with one, or acquire one early. This is of course imperative to be able to reach the various sites.
2. The PCs are freelancers. At most loosely connected to some organisation, they are independent traders, pirates, smugglers, bounty hunters… They are out to make a (probably non-honest) living, they are curious and daring and jump at opportunities.
3. The PCs live among asteroids. The campaign mostly occurs in an asteroid belt or something similar, with isolated islands of civilisation and adventure.
4. Distances are great. The asteroid belt is nothing like some sci-fi media would imply; it’s mostly empty space. Objects are separated by hundreds or thousand of kilometers, and the chance of randomly finding anything at all is almost nil. Travel commonly takes days at best.
5. No artificial gravity. Beyond being on a planet, the only way to get gravity is to rotate whatever it is you’re on. On spaceships and stations, this is usually solved with a carousel (like in Kubrick’s film). Asteroids are commonly set to rotate using rocket engines. You should imagine the interior of inhabited asteroids to consist of tunnels and rooms arranged in cylindrically concentric shells, and the inhabitants walk around with their feet pointing outward at all times. All floors always seem to gently curve upward in both directions.
6. No superluminal travel. Deep space vessels are usually propelled by plasma rockets or chemical engines. There is no (commonly…) known technology that can allow you to come even close to breaking the tyranny of the speed of light.
7. No “magical” forcefields. They way to keep vacuum out is metal and stone. Ships don’t have energy shields to repel attacks either.
8. Space is dangerous. Cold, dark, full of radiation. Windows are a luxury and a radiation hazard, extravehicular activities (EVA) rare. In between ports, things can go wrong and then you are utterly alone.
9. Travel is tricky. Between planning slingshot manoeuvres and managing fuel economy, you won’t be making any sharp turns and sudden stops. Miscalculation can mean you miss your target and drift hopelessly into space forever.
10. Fusion power is common. This technology might feel distant today, but in the world of Asteroids23, toroidal reactors fed by deuterium-tritium ice is what powers most vessels and installations. There are no equally reliable sources of energy, but fission is sometimes used as well.
11. Few aliens. Rare examples of xeno life forms may occur, but you will not be bumping into little green men in your local bar.
12. Grim and gritty. Between the hegemony of oppressive corporations and draconian states - constant feuding and fighting - there is little space for the common human. Poverty and squalor is widespread.
13. People in the asteroid belt are usually miners. That’s where most of the economy lies.
14. Long history. The system has been settled for a long time and plenty of things have happened. It could be our own or some distant star, colonised a long time ago with generation ships.
15. Psychic powers. Subtle, dark abilities, psykers and witches. Rarely seen, these abilities nevertheless exist. Sometimes they come naturally, sometimes they are triggered by something resembling witchcraft. They are connected to mysterious Void powers, whatever those are.
16. Ancient technology. Most of the setting is semi-hard sci-fi, but something (aliens or a fallen human civilisation) has left scattered, amazing relics. These might be star gates, superluminal drives, hyper intelligent AIs or anything else that belongs in space operas… as long as it’s rare and special.