d100 Chess Scenarios

So like everybody in the world I'm trying to play Chess again.

I've done this every six months or so for the last decade, and the pattern generally goes like this:

• I'm in a pub or waiting room or ferry crossing with my partner and there's a chess board. We play it and have fun. She beats me, but she used to play at school, so I'm just glad if I can make it a challenge for her.
• "I enjoy games. Chess is like... the game. I should be all over this."
• Play some online Chess and lose by blundering away my Queen to an attack I didn't see because I'm not great at spotting things.
• Go and read up on principles, methods to avoid blundering.. Decide to really concentrate this time. I refuse to learn openings or memorise sequences.
• Play some more online, or maybe even just a low-level computer this time. Maybe I win as much as I lose, but only when it feels like the other player makes a huge mistake.
• Try some "creative" play thinking I'm a swashbuckling maverick, getting thrashed in return. 
• Abandon the cause until the next time we're in that pub or waiting room or ferry crossing again. 

BUT this time we're in lockdown, so I naturally have a little more time to be able to sneak in a game each day. I think the regular practice really helps. 

Maybe this is the time I break the cycle... I'm still giving away stupid pieces, but it's happening later into the game, so I feel more like I've been outplayed and less like I've just thrown it away myself. 

So I'm sticking with it for a bit longer. 

Chess Variants are fun too, but I wanted to see if I could create a list of Scenarios that maintain the fundamentals of standard chess but add a single twist to the game, ideally not requiring any additional pieces or more than a single rules change. 

There are already a million chess variants out there, so full disclosure that this list is going to be stealing from them liberally and even the ideas I'm pulling out of my own head are sure to have discussed somewhere else before now. The d100 format is by design, as the intent is that you use a different scenario for each match, so that you're always exploring something new based around that existing core.

Unless noted, all existing rules of Chess apply to these scenarios, including but not limited to:

• Put your opponent in checkmate to win.
• You cannot end your turn with yourself in check.
• Stalemate results in a draw. 

In terms of balance... ha! They're more a set of experiments to try out, and I suspect over half of them are fundamentally broken if you dig into them too deeply. I'd advise playing with them in a casual environment. 

Nomenclature

This seems to be not entirely consistent, so for the purposes of these rules:

Adjacent: In a neighbouring square in any orthogonal or diagonal direction. 

Centre Four Squares: D4, D5, E4, and E5. 

Centre Line: The line between ranks D and E. 

Minor Piece: Bishops and Knights.

Major Piece: Queens and Rooks.

Piece: Any of the 6 types of piece.

Protected: A piece occupying a square threatened by one of their own pieces. 

Threatened: A piece is threatened by a piece that is in a position to capture them on their next turn. 

Roll d100

1. Warrior Queen: Queens can also move like a Knight.
2. Archbishops: Bishops can also move like a King.
3. Cataphracts: Knights can also move like a Rook.
4. Watchtowers: Rooks can also capture like a Pawn.
5. Sentries: Pawns can also capture like a King.
6. Excalibur: Kings can Capture as Knights.
7. Phalanx: Pawns capture as normal but do not move from their original space.
8. Horse Archers: Knights capture as normal but do not move from their original space.
9. Holy Spear: Bishops capture as normal but do not move from their original space.
10. Artillery: Rooks capture as normal but do not move from their original space.
11. Mountain: Place all Rooks in the centre four squares of the board. They cannot move or be captured. 
12. Fortresses: Remove all Rooks. On their first turn each player places a Rook in an empty space on their half of the board. On their second turn each player places a Rook in an empty space on the opponent's half of the board. Rooks cannot move or be captured. 
13. Angels: Place Bishops aside. Instead of a normal move a player can move either of their Bishops from off-board to any empty space.
14. Archangel: Place Queens aside. Instead of a normal move a player can move their Queen from off-board to any empty space.
15. Pope: Remove Kings and one Bishop from each side. Place the remaining Bishop in the King's space. You win when you place the opposing Bishop in mate. 
16. Trenches: Start the pawns rank 4 and 5. 
17. Barbarians: When a pawn captures they must capture again if able, repeating as many times as possible.
18. Slaughter: Immediately lose if you have no pawns remaining.
19. Scouts: You can only move Knights until a piece is captured or a piece enters check.
20. Infantry: You can only move Pawns until a piece is captured or a piece enters check.
21. Throne: The King cannot move unless they are capturing.
22. Cathedral: When a Rook is adjacent to a friendly Bishop either piece can choose to move in the matter of the other instead of their normal movement. 
23. Panic: When the first piece is captured all pawns on their starting rank are captured.
24. Skirmishers: Pawns may also move backwards as if you were playing on the other side of the board.
25. Honour: Non-pawns cannot capture pawns.
26. Assassin: The Queen can only capture and be captured by the King. 
27. Elitism: Pawns cannot capture non-pawns.
28. Sunrise: Place a barrier between both player's halves of the board so that neither player can see the other half. You can only move into spaces you can see. Lift this barrier when a piece enters a space adjacent to it. 
29. Hill: Move your King into one of the centre four spaces to win.
30. Betrayal: You can capture your own pieces.
31. Ghosts: Bishops can move to any empty space on the board. They cannot capture or be captured.
32. Torpedo: Pawns can always perform their double move as if they were on their starting space.
33. Strikes: Win by putting your opponent in Check three times.
34. Combined Arms: On your turn you must move a pawn if able and then must move a non-pawn if able.
35. Princess: The Queen can only move as a King.
36. Lancer: Knights leap three spaces in any direction instead of their normal movement.
37. Flankers: Pawns in the A and H file begin on ranks 4 and 5.
38. Civilians: Pawns cannot capture or be captured. 
39. Order: No castling or en passant. Pawns can only move a single space forward, capturing only in this way too. 
40. Coronation: Win when you promote a pawn. 
41. Holy War: Bishops can only move a single space diagonally. Capture both enemy Bishops to win. Normal Checkmate does not apply. 
42. Blessing: Pieces protected by a Bishop cannot be captured.
43. Deserters: When you move into Check, capture any one opposing Pawn.
44. Arthur: Remove both Kings from the board. When a player has one Pawn remaining, replace it with their King. 
45. Dragoons: Rooks and Knights that begin their turn adjacent to each other may move in the manner of the other piece. 
46. Summer: When a pawn crosses the centre line all pawns can move as Rooks for the rest of the game. 
47. Winter: When a pawn crosses the centre line all pawns are removed from the game. 
48. Revolt: Pawns can also move or capture one space in any direction as long as they move closer to the enemy King.
49. Extinction: Capture all pieces of one type to win. 
50. Scholars: A pawn can move in the manner of any friendly piece it is orthogonally adjacent to at the start of its turn. 
51. Revenge: If your opponent captured one of your pawns their last turn your Pawns can capture as a Queen for this turn. 
52. Warrior King: Kings can perform a second move if it results in a capture. 
53. Vampire: Win if your Queen captures three pieces. 
54. Chivalry: Knights can only be captured by other Knights or the King. 
55. Turncoat: After three moves, swap sides.
56. Shieldmaiden: Pieces orthogonally adjacent to their Queen cannot be captured. The King cannot be protected in this way. 
57. Outgun: Instead of performing a normal move you can capture a piece that is threatened by two or more of your own pieces.
58. Dragon: When you capture with a Knight you may move that Knight again as a King. This effect does not stack. 
59. Isolation: Win by having your opponent end a turn with their King having no adjacent friendly pieces.
60. Tanks: Rooks can only be captured by Rooks, but can only move as part of a capture. 
61. Monks: Pawns can capture as Bishops.
62. Chasm: Pieces can only cross the centre line of the board by capturing. 
63. Squires: Pawns can capture as Knights.
64. Arena: Pieces in the centre four squares can only be captured by pieces in another of the centre four squares.
65. Priestess: Queens move as Bishops and cannot be taken.
66. Bloodbath: The first player to capture 6 pieces wins.
67. Invasion: Win if your King crosses the centre line.
68. Spears: Pawns cannot be captured by non-adjacent pieces. 
69. Queen of Hearts: When either Queen is captured, pawns can no longer move for the rest of the game. 
70. Duet: After the white player's first turn, each player move two different pieces each turn. If they only their King remaining then they move the King twice. 
71. Formation: At the end of your turn lose all pieces that are not adjacent to another friendly piece. The King ignores this rule. 
72. Ice Queen: When either Queen captures, pawns can no longer move for the rest of the game. 
73. Gorgon: Pieces that are threatened by the Queen cannot move. Kings are not affected by this. 
74. Mad King: Kings can capture all pieces (of either colour) adjacent to them in place of a normal move.
75. Knighthood: If one or more of your Knights are currently captured, when you capture with a Pawn you may replace that Pawn with the captured Knight.
76. Snipers: Pawns that move into a position where they are not protected by another piece are captured.
77. Blood Sacrifice: On any turn you may sacrifice one of your pawns to have a major or minor piece move as a queen. 
78. Menagerie: Win by capturing at least one each of Pawn, Knight, Bishop, Rook, and Queen. 
79. Border: Pieces cannot capture across the centre line of the board. 
80. Dethrone: If you end your turn with your King not protected by another piece then you lose. Normal checkmate does not apply but Kings cannot be captured.
81. Royal Guard: Pawns can also move like a King.
82. Great Wall: Rooks cannot be captured if they are protected by another Rook. 
83. Apathy: If your opponent did not capture on their last turn, your Pawns cannot capture or be captured.
84. Fatigue: You cannot move the same piece in two simultaneous turns. Stalemate counts as a loss for the player that cannot move.
85. Schism: Both players swap starting position of their Queen Side Knight and Bishop.
86. Etiquette: Queens cannot be taken, but must end their move on a square of their own colour.
87. Royal Guard: Pawns that are adjacent to the King cannot be taken. 
88. Runners: Pawns can move as Queens but can only capture by their normal method.
89. Politician: A Bishop cannot capture as normal, but can sacrifice itself to remove any one Pawn from the board.
90. Plague: When you capture a pawn, immediately lose the capturing piece.
91. Diplomatic Immunity: Pieces in the same File as their king cannot be captured. 
92. Vizier: If the King begin their turn adjacent to their Queen they can move as a Queen.
93. DMZ: Pieces in the centre four squares cannot be captured until at least one Queen is captured.
94. Populism: Your King cannot be captured while you have at least four pawns on the board.
95. Conscripts: Pawns cannot double-move and are captured if they perform a capture themselves. 
96. Stealth: When you move a piece without capturing, that piece cannot be captured on your opponent's next turn.
97. Werewolf: Remove both Queens. At the start of any turn a player may replace any of their pieces (except the King) with the Queen, who they must then use to capture another piece. 
98. Duel: While both Queens are alive, Queens can only capture and be captured by the other Queen.
99. Deployment: Start with only Kings on the board. Instead of a normal turn a player can place any of their pieces on any space on their back rank.
100. Deathray: When two of your rooks are adjacent and occupy the same file, or your queen and bishop are adjacent and occupy the same diagonal, you capture all enemy pieces on that file or diagonal respectively.

The Twelve Failed Careers of Oddmas

Did you enjoy all of the weird stuff and silly references in Electric Bastionland's Failed Careers?

Feeling festive?

The Twelve Failed Careers of Oddmas is now on sale!

(also on DrivethruRPG but Itch takes a smaller cut)

Twelve more Failed Careers for your seasonal Electric Bastionland game, focusing on the council-endorsed winter conglomerated-festival of Oddmas. A 30 page PDF. 

Featuring (in reverse order):

12: Drumbelleer

11: Primal Piper

10: Lady/Lad-a-Loopin

9: Layman Duncer

8: Malady Milker

7: Sworn Swimmer

6: Goose Allayer

5: Gold Ring Grappler

4: Coalie Bird

3: Fancy Poulterer

2: Turtle Devotee

and

1: Apprentice to a Paired Tree

d6 Urban Monstrosities

It's easy to think that you're only likely to encounter monstrosities in the darkest corners of the Underground, out in the wilderness of Deep Country, or if you draw too much attention from the Living Stars. 

Fact is, Bastion has everything, including its fair share of terrors, each specially adapted to urban life.

1: Ur-Urchin

5hp, Stony Body (Armour 1), Choking Hands (d8) and Thrown Rocks (d6)

• Emerge from, or disappear into, any stone building at will.
• Encourage others to perform acts of escalating mischief against adults, the older the better. Turns hostile if you refuse.
• On Critical melee Damage the victim is dragged into a wall and becomes a stone gargoyle until the Ur-Urchin agrees to release them.

2: Spirit of Surveillance

10hp, Shapeless Body (normal physical attacks are Impaired). 

• Has no means of attack, but knows everything about you and knows people that would like those secrets. 
• Wants you to acknowledge that the Spirit's existence makes everybody safer, and spread that word around.
• Slips into a stupor if given an opportunity to view a particularly juicy secret. 

3: Portraitor

No physical presence.

• Shows up in place of another person in a particularly beloved photograph or painting, with a mocking expression.
• If you go a day without returning to look at the image, he takes something valuable from the image for himself. It is also stolen in reality.
• If you destroy the image then everything in the image is also destroyed. 

4: Hospitalliteth

STR 16, 10hp, Huge Body (Armour 1), Trample (d6 Blast) or Chew (d12). 

• Rumoured to appear if restaurant staff are treated poorly by gluttonous patrons. 
• Only wants to devour those that have over-eaten their fill of delicious food.
• Gives victims one final chance to make amends with their scorned hosts.

5:Fleetlamp

STR 18, 10hp, Huge Metal Body (Armour 3), Colossal Claw Swipe (d10 Blast).

• Can disguise itself as a regular streetlamp before unfolding into its true form.
• Carries out disproportionate justice against those causing petty vandalism, seeking them down until killed.
• Each Fleetlamp has varying standards for what qualifies as vandalism, but they all lack any tolerance for people dropping chewing-gum. 

6:Detritan
STR 18, 10hp, Hefty Body (Armour 1), Fists (2x8).

• Born out of a waste heap that has been left for too long, now defending it so that other Detritans may be born. 
• Incredibly sensitive about their appearance and smell, seeing themselves as noble knights, swiftly avenging any perceived slight.
• Any melee attacks that roll a 1 have their weapon absorbed into the Detritan. They regain 1pt of lost Strength and can use the weapon in addition to their Fists. 

Upcoming Electric Bastionland Live Play with TPKRoleplay

This Friday I'm running four players through the Prison of the Worm Queen.

And I'm told there are some surprises waiting for me .

You can watch on TPK Roleplay's stream at Midnight GMT on Friday night. 

I'll also be hosting the channel on my stream, so you can follow the usual link too. 

Mark of the Odd Licence and SRD

Want to use Into the Odd as a basis for your game or adventure?

Now you can give it the Mark of the Odd and use content from the MOTO SRD.

Click here for the full licensing info and SRD.

Kitbash Attitude

Working on GRIMLITE keeps me thinking about the connection between RPGs (especially the type that I enjoy and make) and miniature wargames. 

I'm especially interested in looking at ideas that might seem out of place in a miniature game. It feels like the design space is much tighter than that of RPGs, and I'm only really interested in making a game if it does something different to what's already out there. How far outside that typical space can we push?

How much RPG-stuff can be crossed over? What must be left aside?

I wrote a list of the key strengths of RPGs for me, and gave some thought to their place in GRIMLITE as a miniature wargame. There's lots of blurring between these topics, so think of it more as a series of prompts then an analytical breakdown of each one in order. 

Rulings Not Rules

Perhaps the biggest difference I've encountered between miniature games and roleplaying games is the desire, almost need, for watertight rules. Some RPG players like these too, but here it's right at the forefront. Can you ditch this rules-focus for more expectation that rulings will be made as needed?

There's a long history of wargames that have one player acting as GM or Referee, making ruling calls for the two or more opposing players. This is even more precarious than the GM-Player relationship of RPGs, as you've got to be firm but fair and make sure both sides feel they are being treated equally.

To be honest, it's never really appealed to me. I like miniature games to focus on the relationship between the players, typically one-on-one, and the idea of inserting a neutral party in the middle doesn't feel right for what I enjoy at the table.

But that really makes the next point a problem...

Tactical Infinity

For me, the core selling point of an RPG when talking to prospective players is "you can try anything!". This is perhaps inseparable from the point above, and a folly to consider allowing it in a competitive game without a GM. 

And yet...

The idealist in me believes that two players could be trusted to make judgement calls for actions outside of the rules. For solo and coop this is easy, but when we're also trying to beat each other? I feel like I could do it when I'm playing with somebody I trust. I mean I have done it during GRIMLITE games on both the physical and virtual tabletop. 

Perhaps the difference is that those battles were always framed as a playtest. We all wanted to win, but we were having fun toying around with the system too. Would that spirit disappear if we were playing a finished game where the rules were cast in ink? Is it unthinkable to hope for this attitude in a pick-up game with a stranger at the local club?

I think it's possible with the right framing...

Play to Find Out

This is a line originally from Apocalypse World, and it's been interpreted in numerous ways. Regardless of any of these, I like it as an alternative to play to win or even play to have fun. You should definitely play too win to make any victories feel earned, and fun for me is really an outcome rather than a process. But ahead of all that, I'd urge anybody playing GRIMLITE to adopt the Play to Find Out attitude. 

This is the story of your warbands. For miniature games I'll always favour an exciting, memorable story over a perfectly balanced tactical contest. I don't want to remember the time I triggered a powerful synergy of three different special rules to mathematically crush your army. I want to remember that time we had three Greater Horrors appear on three successive rounds and ended up just trying to get off the board alive. 

There are ways to encourage this, but it's a balancing act. You want to reward victory and have consequences for failure, but too much and the players will only be thinking of those carrots and sticks instead of what's unfolding in the miniature reality on your table. 

For GRIMLITE it sucks to end the battle with most of your Warband dead and no Glory to show for it, but if even those casualties can give you advantages in the next game. Getting lots of Glory is great, but if you can scrape even one or two Glory then you'll have some good options for rewards. 

I've previously looked down on campaign-based wargames that had permanent death be an impossible or very unlikely result. I thought they were overly precious and concerned with maintaining balance, but I'm starting to see the error of my ways. Characters dying makes for memorable moments, but it comes with a hefty dose of punishment that can leave more of a mechanical sting than a dramatic one. So in GRIMLITE it's now quite rare, and often avoidable entirely if you have a Glory or two to spend. 

But isn't this all contradicted by...

Big Impact

This is when you make a tough decision, then get to see massive consequences sweep across the game. Tabletop RPGs aren't like some old CRPG where you can't fight the King's advisor that's secretly the villain until the designated moment. Want to stab them right here and now? Sure, but this decision will drastically alter the course of the narrative. It's a great feeling!

I'm working on some systems for GRIMLITE now that will ramp this up. At the moment battles feel quite separate from each other, with the thin campaign layer draped on top. 

Horrors are especially ripe for exploration in this area. At the moment there are only a few Scenarios that reward killing Horrors, but what if leaving them alive meant they were more likely to reappear later? What if killing the Horror was actually the risky choice, with that warband member suddenly facing the wrath of those that worshipped the monstrosity? 

These touches are tricky to include without adding in lots of elements to track, so I'm exploring a number of approaches, none of which I've been entirely happy with so far. Stay tuned.

On Balance

Originally, I really wanted to fully embrace the ideas in this brilliant post. Fully narrative wargaming, no points, no army composition limits. That OSR attitude of putting a Purple Worm on the first level of your dungeon or rolling 3d6 down the line for your Ability Scores. Or, as Emmy suggests in that post, just making the character you want, to hell with costs and restrictions. We're all reasonable here, right?

Truth is I just can't hack it. Not yet, at least.

I like picking things from a menu with certain restrictions. Maybe I need to work on my own attitudes here, but building warbands completely freeform feels like I'm cheating, and not in a good way. I didn't feel the same sense of ownership and permanence to the miniatures as when I built them within some sort of mechanical framework. 

Random generation would help with this, but it's not worked for me so far. I tried warband advancement that was purely random (roll d66 on this big table of stuff after each battle) and while it was fun to spin the wheel of fortune, I did miss the feeling of being able to steer the direction of my warband. If my theme is "small, elite squad of Exiles" then randomly recruiting some 1pt grunt feels like it's working against that. In moderation it's a fun "restriction breeds creativity" thing, but I don't want it happening between every game. 

Joseph McCullough spoke about how Frostgrave was designed as a both way to use his dust-gathering monster miniatures, and an excuse to buy new ones. I hate the idea of somebody getting excited about adding a new miniature to their warband and having to wait for the right roll to come up. As it stands now your options are restricted, but you can at least work toward getting that new creation onto the table.

Again, Horrors are where I really get to go wild with things, and encourage players to do the same. 

Horrors break the rules. They should be horrifying. Some Scenarios require a warband to kill them, so you shouldn't make them all entirely invulnerable, but other than that it's a free-for-all. As the neutral enemy of both warbands I'd always lean towards making them too scary rather than too weak, but the best balance is to have both options. Not all Horrors are created equal, and I like the idea that some encounters are especially bad, rather than aiming for some ultra consistent experience.

Fear and Laughter

When I think about the two things I expect to see in a particularly good RPG session, I think of Fear and Laughter.

Not every game needs to have Horror elements, but even the standard dungeon-crawling fear of death is rocket fuel for any table. We've got to work together here or we're all dead. Tread carefully, watch the darkness... wait, what do you mean I hear breathing from around the corner?

And of course laughter is almost inevitable when you're having a good time, even when your game is playing it straight. In fact, I've always enjoyed the idea of the game that takes itself fully seriously while the players have fun laughing at the shocking consequences, unexpected twists, and of course the unceremonious PC deaths.

I'm glad to say this is one of the RPG strengths that's super easy to translate to Miniature Games. The Scene Events and Shock tables were basically designed to create those moments. Your prestigious fighter getting mauled by an overgrown rat and crawling away in panic, your Grav Gun pushing a nasty Horror right into the middle of my warband, or both leaders simultaneously stabbing each other to death through a nasty roll on the Shock table. You're horrified at what might happen to your precious warband, but when it happens you can't help but laugh. 

But now onto what I feel is the strongest connection between these two styles of game for me:

Kitbash Attitude

The first miniatures I bought at the start of my 2020 revisit of the hobby were a box each of Genestealer Neophytes and Adeptus Mechanicus Skitarii and assorted bits from bitzbox. As far as I can tell I didn't build a single miniature from those sets using the proper instructions. 

In fact, the idea of having a miniature that already exists on somebody else's table genuinely saddens me. When I look at other people's creations from the incredibly versatile Frostgrave sets, I cringe when I see that somebody chose the same combination of parts as me. I want my miniatures to feel like my own. I can't make miniatures that look amazing, but I want them to look like my own unique creations.

Work-in-progress with bits from six kits across three model lines. They're janky, but they're mine.
They don't have names or a proper identity yet, but they'll get them when they're ready for the table.

It's sort of adjacent to the idea of anti-canon. This is a creative endeavour. Don't look for permission from above to carry out your ideas. If you want to do something, do it. Make the thing you want that doesn't exist. 

In the OSR there's a joke that everybody ends up making their own Frankenstein's Monster of a system by chopping bits off existing games and stitching them together. I love this spirit of not being satisfied with what's out there. Not waiting for permission to become a game designer, or in this case not waiting for Games Workshop to release that creature you're imagining. Get some sprues from different miniature lines and slam them together. Make something weird and put it in your game. 

You made a bunch of bug-men with big guns? Give them some names and get thinking of how to get them on the table.

Let your Horrors emerge as a mess of plastic and putty, painted in whatever way you like. Throw away that official painting guide. I've never felt like my painting was good, but I felt a real sense of achievement when Grant mentioned that my painting style said something about the game. 

I'd never thought of it that way before, but he might be onto something. 

Of course you can be creative within the official Warhammer 40,000 or Age of Sigmar Canon, but those games sit under the shadow of a greater authority. You can't bring your Imperial Guard to the table in a Games Workshop if you've used the Frostgrave Soldiers 2 set to make an all-female Valhallans squad. You can't show up and run your own Inq28 system, even if you're using all GW miniatures. 

I understand it from a business perspective, but it certainly sets the tone of what's permitted here. It's a different focus. 

But I want that untamed creative spirit. I want to feel like we can do anything on our tables. That RPG spirit of "you can try anything", whether we're talking about rules or modelling or painting. 

Chop up the bits you like.

Stick them together.

Get it to the table.

Intergalactic Bastionland - The Sprawl

The Sprawl

While the Stars themselves appear to be infinite in number, most reckoners would say the vast majority of stuff going on in the Living Stars is happening in the vast network of floating places and people that string the stars together. Out of the restrictive light of the Stars, but pushing back the lurking claws of the Dark. This in-between world is where you'll likely spend the majority of your time up here. 

Yes there's a Star in this picture, but I wanted to wear this particular influence on my sleeve.

Key Principles of the Sprawl

• Things are strangely familiar.
• Everybody is on a Journey.
• Everybody needs something.

How does this Work?

Yes, it's literally a galaxy-wide scattering of wandering planets, artificial outposts, and orphan moons. Anything but Stars (maybe some dead Stars drift out here without disrupting things too much). 

Remember, it's helpful to move away from thinking of the Living Stars as "Space as we know it". There are pockets of gravity, air, moisture, even warmth. It's still dangerous and difficult, but nothing compared to the lifeless vacuum of our own skies. 

Your Journey

I spoke a bit about Journeying through the Stars a while ago. Let's deal with the vague and then some specifics.

The Sprawl keeps its inhabitants moving. Even those trying to establish a stable life find that their life begins to drift even without their input. Most people embrace this as a way of Sprawl Life, romanticising their own particular Journey.

A physical destination isn't essential, some folk get really abstract. 

And what happens when you reach the end of your Journey? Well it really goes one of two ways. You're either in a position to discover that a new Journey now lies ahead of you, or you aren't. The latter is rarely a happy outcome. 

Riding the Sprawl

Look, this is a hard truth to accept at first, so make sure you're sitting down.

You probably don't own a ship.

Disappointing I'm sure, but look at the opportunities! The real joy of riding the sprawl is getting tangled up in it. You aren't bound to your home ship, doors locked to the outside world. You've got to get stuck in. Meet people, earn favours, hitch hike, stow away, hijack, whatever it takes. Much better than worrying about the fuel gauge on your own shuttle, right?

d8 Sprawl Locations

1: Slab

• Resembles a flat square of city that was lifted from its home and left drifting in space. 
• All life is gone, all salvage stripped, even the air has been taken. Only a hazy glow remains.
• Al pack of colossal war engines (STR 18, 12hp, Armour 3) roam the ruins, blasting any intruders with Black Light (d10 Blast). Rumoured to be built out of old ship parts, so that thing you need is probably in there somewhere.

2: Prismurk

• A jump gate in parts. It's been under reconstruction for some time but one worker has insisted on performing the work alone, with only their machine assistant.
• The worker, Gellan, will viciously refuse any help with the task, but does have a bunch of other errands you can do to help free up his schedule. 
• Gellan's machine assistant, Bisi, appears mostly to check Gellan's work and fix any errors he's made. 

3: The Silver Slumber

• Kindly-appearing simian-aliens offer you free transport on their incredibly slow, uncomfortable, boring ship.
• Once you're on the way they offer to put you into Slumber for as unreasonable a price as they think you'll pay. 
• If they hit trouble they'll wake up their slumbering passengers to help, but anybody woken from this sleep is disoriented for their first waking hour. 

4: Ovard's Ovules

• Experimental Engineer Ovard Flax will boast of his rental ships having a near 100% safety record, but cannot provide any sort of proof of this.
• Each Ovule is a one-person vessel with enough thrust to ride bumpily onto the next closest place in the Spawl.
• For an additional fee Ovard will launch you from the Thruster Cannon, giving you a boost to a further location. He stresses beforehand that this cannon isn't subject to the near-100% safety record, but it'll probably be fine. 1-in-20 chance that you get blasted to the wrong location. 

5: Mess Street

• Might appear like a mini-Bastion at first. Shops, bars, hotels, and every type of Alien you can imagine, all in a ring-like structure. 
• When you enter one of the buildings you soon discover they're all selling the same overpriced, low quality goods, and their individuality is all a front for one company that owns the whole street. 
• If you ask around you can get to the lower-street, which is where all the really interesting places are. 

6: Big-Rutt the Cleanser

• An open-topped outpost shrouded in rain clouds.
• A huge, tentacled creature called Big-Rutt will writhe into every nook of your ship, cleaning it and giving it a general service while it's in there. This is something to do with organic fluids and thousands of tiny mouths but you're better off not knowing. 
• The mostly human staff here are charged with feeding and tending to Big Rutt between jobs, but while they wait they run a little gambling den on the side and have a small shop selling "things that Big-Rutt ate and were not claimed". 

7: Uglow

• A lovely, lush little planet eternally under the calming glow of its multiple luminous moons. 
• Anybody sleeping here rests so well that any other sort of sleep just doesn't cut it. They are Deprived for the next week unless they return for more sleep at Uglow.
• Helpful birds seem to know when to wake you up. 

8: Little Dreg

• A chunk of planet, blasted out from whatever Star is previously orbited. 
• Its ruins are popular with travellers, especially those looking for other open-minded travellers wanting to consume the psychotropic fungus that grows in the darkest corners of the ruins.
• The largest ruins are sealed up, and other travellers will warn you away from them.