URUTSK: The World of Mystery is a setting, which in its simplest terms, is a world with its history, starting in a period where star-faring Humans from some undisclosed origin form an Imperium of worlds united under a central figure known as the Emperor. The Imperium includes the Allied Peoples, humanoid species, as well as other life forms who have pledged their loyalty to him. The foundation of the Sphere of Stars -- a Dyson sphere around the galactic core and its supermassive black hole -- provides a 111 year golden age for those within the sphere, but leads to a galactic war with all of the species the Imperium wronged in its conquests. Something happened to destabilise the Galactic Abyss (the supermassive black hole) the Emperor was using as an entropy sink, and this led to the destruction of the galactic core, the Sphere of Stars, and 90% of the stars in the galaxy. Only the periphery of the spiral arms survived, and these systems played host to the folk who had the foresight to leave the Sphere before the end, one such star system was the one around which orbits the wetlands planet, Urutsk. Urutsk was the Imperial exodus' name for the planet, which the Human natives called Mada. The refugees of the Sphere of Stars had to dig in and buried their system ships and smaller craft under mountains of earth in the hopes of surviving the debris and hard radiation storm-front known as the Starshock. Natives, too, found refuges in mountains, underground, on the floor of the oceans, etc., while the failed star ships (no longer powered by the Sphere of Stars) were sent into cometary orbits in the hopes some would survive and later be reclaimed.
There are four Grand Seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Autumn; each of these Seasons lasts roughly 1,750 years. The version of the rules many are familiar with was set in Autumn, where colonisation of the Marnharnnan Continent was new, and the hopes were to find remnant technology that would get the Vrun (the descendants of the Imperial Humans; genetically engineered and caste-class-based) back into space, and eventually back to star-faring.
I run Urutsk over G+ Hangouts on Thursday nights. I run a face-to-face game on Sunday afternoon-nights.
I am writing towards finishing a 300+ page sci-fi game which allows groups to play in any of the five Eras (1). pre-Imperial, 2). Imperial pre-Sphere, 3). Sphere and collapse, 4). Urutsk history with Vrun influence, and 5). Space exploration after flight from Urutsk due to alien invasion.
The game system I chose to build off of is S. John Ross' Encounter Critical. It has a basic structure, peculiar skills, and quirky features which homage Star Trek, Star Wars, and many other gaming sweethearts. My work builds on that rules foundation, greatly expands upon it, and provides a great number of random tables which allow the GM/Group to build their version of the setting. It features 20+ player 'races', 30 or so classes, and features specific to my metasetting. Starship construction and combat are included.
-Kyrinn S. Eis
