New Players Guide
A streak of green light across the sky lasted no more than a moment and was gone just as suddenly as it had appeared, but its impact has left a legacy on my people. Our scientists were fascinated and tried to isolate what it could mean. Our artists were inspired, and an entire art form, Beaconism, arose, marked by momentary invocations of green light. Great Theologians explained the symbol as a sign from the Deities, some considering it an ill omen, yet others claimed it was the promised land. Politicians muddled the debate even more, controlling significant investments in identifying this phenomenon. In the end, none of the above enabled our great flight to the sector but the acceptance of our own planet's demise and the lure of the promise of a new place to establish our community. And now, after a long journey, we arrived only to discover just how many people had arrived first.
- ~ First-hand account of the Beacon Activation from initial arrival to Beacon Space
Welcome to Beacon Space. We're glad you've joined us. This wiki page aims to summarize the information you likely want to know about the structure of the Game and World Building community. If you have any questions feel free to ask on Discord or on the discussion page.
Layers of the Game
Beacon Space is a sector constructed of multiple meta-layers to create an engaging world-building community around a central board game. In addition to the core Faction Turn, a tabletop role-playing game is run in the sector via the world of the Penumbra, where Agents interact with the world below the Factions, exploring the morally grey operations they undertake. Adjacent too these two organization-run events, the community constantly creates new lore and engages in scenes with their own characters.
Faction Turn
A custom version of the Stars Without Numbers Faction Turn System, designed for a multiplayer experience through Faction membership on Discord. Modifications to the system evolved from a playtest into what is used by the community today. While the complete rules are long, the basics are simple. Each Turn, approximately once a month, Factions submit a Turn Slate, which contains all the actions the Faction takes for a given turn. These are then processed by the Game Facilitator, who runs through the actions on the Faction Turn Spreadsheet in a Twitch stream.
This meta-layer game provides the impetuous behind lore building in Beacon Space, fleshing out the sector through the whims and machinations of the factions involved. The Facturn also impacts the structure of the Discord, limiting individuals from changing their Faction via Faction Tag in the Discord to once-per-turn. Such times of change are announced in advance and always occur for at least 48 hours after the Faction Turn Stream. The best way to learn the game is by participating in a Faction and helping steer its course. All factions are welcoming to guide those interested in learning the game! For more details check out Faction Turn.
Free Agents - Table Top Role Playing Game
Free Agents are individuals who have, in one way or another, slipped through the cracks of regular society. They live paycheque to paycheque, score to score, mission to mission, operating under the couch cushions where nobody wants to look. Inspired heavily by Shadowrun, Blades in the Dark, and the heist/organized crime genre in general, they band together to achieve goals that they could not accomplish individually. The TTRPG, based around the Cypher System, is framed as an episodic TV show where each episode is a “complete” show, but questions may be left unanswered for future crews to discover.
More details can be found by joining the ‘Free Agent’ role on Discord, which will give you access to channels used to organize the game, including scheduling, job posts, and other inter-agent discussion spaces. The game is run in a shared Roll20 instance, and audio is available over a Discord stage channel for other community members to listen in to the active sessions.
Lore Writing
As a component of the game, Factions develop fictional positioning to better describe the sector and/or themselves. This lore takes a variety of forms however ideally resolves into either (1) articles on this wiki that expand the known fiction or (2) propaganda or missives for the Beacon Space Tonight lore stream. While Factions differ in how their process works all follow a similar strategy of developing documents in-house discussing in Discord. After collaboration most factions vote (either informally or formally) on accepting the lore before the document is conferred to the wiki. This process can mean that Factions have elements of themselves defined in information not on the Wiki, however such internal lore should be conferred to the wiki for public consumption if you want others to know the cool facts about yourself!
Role Playing
As a component of Lore Writing many individuals within Factions will write in-fiction scenes through a collaborative role play experience. These stories may or may not involve dice rolls but they allow exploration of the fiction at the individual's scale rather than the bird's eye-view of a Faction. If you're new to role playing but want to give it a try, you should join the always open Cacti Oasis Bar Scene as the pinned thread in the beacon-rp discussion forum on Discord.
Factions
Factions populate the world of Beacon Space and contain members on Discord who actively contribute to the turn slate submitted for the Faction Turn, write lore, and develop their fictional position. As individuals, members can become Free Agents joining the world of the Penumbra or engage in Role Play, developing the world through scenes. Each Faction has provided a pitch below granting an overview of their lore and links to additional reading.
Aguamala Syndicate
| Your dice have not yet been cast. Will Fate guide your Lodge to prominence by adding another Orisha to El Destino’s side? Succeed in sparring with our legendary quarries bringing glory to yourself and the Syndicate. Perhaps instead an Elysian you desire to be, guiding society, culture, or the Aguamalan people to greater achievements. Yet the threads of Fate may weave you into the Cartel Aguamala who ensure a smooth operation of the Syndicate’s facade.
El Destino pulls your strings, choose wisely. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
Latin America |
Hunters of Space born Fauna. |
Amelhart Institute
| Without T.I.N., the adventures and research of The Institute would have been bound by classical physics, potentially never being exposed to the world beyond. Freed of our singular system, our biologists collected immeasurable plant life while our physicists pushed the boundaries of Mother’s capabilities driving us to develop into the beyond. While we provide Mechs for those worlds which we pass by, Mother’s decree pushes us ever forward, ever towards new discoveries and new lands. For Beacon Space is our home now, but not always…
With Mother’s Guidance, we proceed. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
Battletech |
Specialists in manufacturing and piloting mechs. |
Ascent
| The shadows of the Decadentian Epistratum conceals its constituents' dedication to the Tenets of Progress. Embrace the darkness and secrecy by which the insectoids orchestrate their plans and power. Emboldened by their inevitable destiny of Decay and sustained via a complex caste system they navigate the cosmos with a singular purpose: To impose the power of Decay upon the sector and establish a Truth where Decay is the key to transformation.
May the Whispers of Entropy guide your Path. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
Cosmic Horror |
Built around the crashed remains of an old archive ship. |
Assembled Commonwealth
| Trade. Security. Colonial Expansion. Three unifying pillars of the Assembled Commonwealth, whose union covers city-states, colonies, and extraplanetary settlements governed by the Assembly and the Aetharch (Constitutional Monarch). Combined with the Merchant Guilds and the Navy, these four institutions hold immense political and social sway. Recent societal crises instilled a strong focus on the Common good, focusing on all citizens of The Commonwealth as a whole rather than the individual.
Valoru, Fortune, Assembly. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
Victorian Era Europe (High-Level Organization) |
Imperialists who wish to see their power and wealth expand. |
Children of the Vein
| The Children of the Vein are a vast myriad of rival clans, alien peoples bound by faith to a mysterious god. Survival of the fittest is a sacred mandate, with failure a lesson and death merely an obstacle. With the Blood of GOD, the Veins hone their mastery over medical science, cloning, genetic engineering, and all manner of biotechnologies with which they grow drones, bioships, weapons, and more. By manipulating life and nature, the Veins seek ultimate apotheosis with the divine.
Blood reigns. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
Phyrexians |
A cult in service of a dark god. |
Concord of Mutual Disdain
| A coalition unified by their hatred of the Jailors, an ancient tyrannical regime that has disappeared from the sector, these once isolated species set aside their differences and pushed their reach to the stars to assist others who suffered a similar fate. Brave new alliances and the Zoanthi Chain, a string of worlds winding their way southeast from sector core, have been formed as the hunt for their long lost enemy continues.
Aliens, exploration, diplomacy, and vengeance welcome to the Concord. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
Hungarian |
Aquatic adapted society who lives on in ocean cities. |
Larkspur Combine
| The hard work of the Frontiersfolk built Mos into its own little sector of space. Despite its newcomer status the government is well established. Look too deeply into the cooperative nature and discover the secret behind the shiny cogs. True power lies with the underground enterprise of ‘The Combine’ and its familial ties, with a focus into researching the Bleed and the many wonders it can provide in spite of its dangers.
With our secret unveiled, Welcome to The Family. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
American West |
Religious frontiersman and unorthodox inventors. |
Starlit Court
| Unity, Diligence, Justice: three virtues of the Starlit Path, with more to follow should you choose enlightenment. Under the guidance of the Path and the Knightly Orders, we offer our honorable services -- for the right price. If the path of a mercenary is not your path, apprenticeship to a mech forger may suit you well. However, be wary; few learn all of our secrets. Our Sidhe and AI guides, the Fae, hold much of our knowledge.
For Sihi, in search of glory. |
Touchstones | Truths |
|
Gundam |
Knightly order of mech pilots, their skills for hire, based out of a giant space anchorage. |
Tahora Whai
|
Going out west to the Kikorangi o te Tahora Whai is fraught with dangers, not least the Whai who live there. These pirates and whalers work in harmony to survive this hostile space. To be Whai is to sing the Erinaa, a cybernetic coms network that creates semi-telepathic links between members. It manifests an empathetic and community-minded society which champions individual feats. From the world of Dynae, they guard the whales who inspired their song.
|
Touchstones | Truths |
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Sea Shanties |
Ritualistically tattoo themselves to show their personal achievements. |