Shatterzone is a space opera role-playing game by West End Games. Space opera is a subgenre of Speculative fiction or Science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often Melodramatic adventure set mainly or entirely A role-playing game ( RPG; often roleplaying game) is a Game in which the participants assume the roles of Fictional characters. West End Games (WEG was a company that makes board, role playing, and war games The game went out of print in 1997 after the company went bankrupt.
The Shatterzone universe shares much in common with the Star Wars Roleplaying Game produced by the same company and was a repository for original ideas produced for Star Wars but which were turned down by the legal department of Lucasfilm. The Star Wars Roleplaying Game is a D20 System -based Roleplaying game set in the Star Wars universe Star Wars is an epic Space opera franchise initially conceived by George Lucas during the 1970s and significantly expanded Lucasfilm Limited' is an American Film production company founded by George Lucas in 1971, based in San Francisco California As such, the universe of Shatterzone shares some structural similarities to the Star Wars Expanded Universe including an intergalactic government called the Consortium (like the Republic from Star Wars) run from a central region of space known as the Core Worlds, large megacorps that run galactic affairs (a theme common in the cyberpunk genre of storytelling), and a super-industrialized capital world, called Centaurus but similar to Star Wars' Coruscant. The Star Wars Expanded Universe encompasses all of the officially licensed fictional background of the Star Wars universe outside of the six feature films A consortium is an association of two or more individuals companies organizations or governments (or any combination of these entities with the objective of participating A republic is a State or Country that is not led by a hereditary Monarch, but in which the people (or at least a part of its people have impact on its Core worlds or core planets often exist in works of Science fiction, especially Space operas. Cyberpunk is a Science fiction genre noted for its focus on " High tech and low life. Centaurus ( Centaur) is a bright constellation of the southern hemisphere. Etymology and naming The word itself originates in the late 15th century from the Latin coruscant- 'vibrating glittering' from the verb coruscare. Likewise, there is a sentiment of xenophobia in the setting similar to that of the Empire in Star Wars. Xenophobia is an intense and/or irrational dislike and sometimes fear of people from other countries Humans, Glahns, and Ishantras, the three ruling races of the Consortium and a few others are given full citizen status while other races suffer under prejudice and second-class-citizenship.
The namesake feature of the setting is the "Shatterzone", an unchartable and mysterious sector of space consisting of dark matter and strange gravitational phenomena as well as strange energy storms and asteroid fields. In Physics and cosmology, dark matter is hypothetical Matter that does not interact with the electromagnetic force but whose presence can be inferred from The asteroid belt is the region of the Solar System located roughly between the orbits of the Planets Mars and Jupiter. The Shatterzone is home to cult worshippers, bands of alien exiles called "bolters" seeking to flee Armagon oppression, and groups of deep space miners looking to make a fortune off the rare minerals to be had in this unusual sector of space.
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Alien Races
In Shatterzone there are three classes of race: Citizens, which only Humans, Glahns, and Ishantras have the right to become; Allied, which consist of races who have signed nonaggression pacts with the Consortium, but which have no rights to representation; and Hostile/Unidentified, which are considered suspicious and are treated with caution.
- Glahns - one of the three ruling races in the galaxy, blue skinned humanoids organized into clans
- Ishantras - another ruling race, bipedal aliens who lost their homeworld in an ancient cataclysm
- Armagons - an incredibly powerful alien empire of various races which rule from beyond the Shatterzone, pillaging and destroying one world after another
- Yithras - a violent race whose bodies emanate chill rather than warmth
- Kestarians - primitive four-armed matriarchical humanoids
- Rednas - reptilian humanoids whose pre-spacefaring civilization is prized for its metalwork.
- Veronians - shapeshifters from an unidentified homeworld
- Reavers- aggressive humanoids allied with the Armagons as shock troops
Planets and Regions
- Xenos Sector - a little explored region near the Shatterzone
- Planet Haven - torn apart in a civil war, now a staging ground for pirates and mercenaries
- Planet Bartonrealm - corporate owned world, home of BartonCorp
- Planet Ral Sikkim - desert frontier world claimed by an alliance of pirate organizations
- Planet Centaurus - superpopulated capital world, Core World and center of civilization
- Planet Delera - home to race of technophobes
- Planet Mandamus - mining planet that produces terraforming compounds
- Planet Vantage Point - old corporate world overthrown by colonists
- Planet Aureus - arid world populated by mystics who disbelieve in space travel
Timeline
Current era is the 25th Century. Centaurus ( Centaur) is a bright constellation of the southern hemisphere. Technophobia (tek-nə-fō-bē-ə is the fear or dislike of advanced Technology or complex devices especially Computers. A writ of mandamus or simply mandamus, which means "we command" in Latin, is the name of one of the Prerogative writs in the Common The terraforming (literally "Earth-shaping" of a Planet, moon, or other body is the hypothetical process of deliberately modifying its The aureus (pl aurei) was a Gold coin of Ancient Rome valued at 25 silver denarii.
The development of coldsleep technology and mastery of nuclear fusion engines enable easy travel within our solar system, and the possibility of extrasolar colonization. In Physics and Nuclear chemistry, nuclear fusion is the process by which multiple- like charged atomic nuclei join together to form a heavier nucleus The overwhelming desire to escape the restrictions of life on Earth drive some to establish illegal "black" colonies without the consent of government. The Secessionist Wars ensue and the first intergalactic fleets of warships are created.
2276: Humans discover a derelict alien space vessel, and while the science of how its quantum drive (or Q-Drive) functions is beyond to grasp of human science, it is a relatively simple mechanism which researchers are soon able to recreate and mass produce. Using the new alien technology, human ships become capable of reaching speeds 365 times the speed of light. Abundant faster-than-light engines allow a phenomenon called the Diaspora, in which the world population drops from 25 billion to 500 million over the next two centuries as extrasolar colony worlds become genuine home worlds to large populations of humans.
2320: First contact with the Glahn.
2486: The establishment of the Consortium of Worlds, a joint government of the homeworlds of the Humans, Glahn, and Ishantra.
References
Shatterzone: 1993, West End Games. ISBN-10: 0874312272
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