When setting up the game one person will be the Game Master controlling the scenarios, NPCs, creatures, items found and more. The other people will be players making unique characters to play through scenarios and campaigns controlled by the GM. For our system you'll need a standard tabletop dice set (20-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided, 8-sided, 6-sided). How these dice are used will be explained in the later sections of this corebook. 

In this game you will travel the galaxy both civilized and wilderness on adventures pursuing power, fame, wealth, or the betterment of the galaxy for yourself, your party, or factions you're allied with. You'll interact with the galaxy through Civil gameplay like talking and trading, Combat gameplay allowing you to fight a large variety of enemies with many different approaches, and Exploration gameplay involving navigation and the surpassing of obstacles and hazards.       

        We seek to offer you a detailed galaxy entirely separate from our own at a point of highly advanced technology allowing interstellar travel and tons of other fantastical abilities, but in both lore and gameplay we wanted to be as grounded as we could in a galaxy spanning science fiction setting. We wanted to be as realistic as possible without bogging down the fun or getting caught up on grandfather paradoxes.

      With our technology we tried to come up with things by branching off modern technology, science, and theoretical things in both. Some of our most advanced tech probably comes up towards science fantasy. But with our factions, characters, and societies we wanted to make them feel like they were made of real people reacting and forming to this advanced technology and new understandings in realistic ways. Deriving our factions from a mixture of real world history, science, psychology, religion, and philosophy and the question of how the differences in our universe would change these ideas or bring them about in different forms.

       Our game mechanics have been built from the ground up to work in a realistic and dynamic way. Making it possible, but unlikely, to achieve things you're unskilled at. This game is heavy on lore which aims to give you a vivid setting in which you can create and play out many different roles that fit within the galaxy in an interesting and unique way. 

Our classless roleplaying system provides flexibility allowing you to make distinct and varied characters through combinations of our Stats, Skills, Perks, Items, and more. While flexible there is still structure to our character building systems. Completely nonsensical combinations won't end up doing all that well, but most characters can solve issues in their own ways. Combining with the party to play a role amongst the group.

     Bolstered by the lore and stories, our mechanics can allow you to truly feel like a part of your desired faction (or like a lone wolf struggling to stay out of faction issues), and this faction will have enemies and allies. Helping an enemy could provide an olive branch between groups or it could get you marked as a traitor. 

        Within these factions (or as a lone wolf) there's a varied set of roles one can fulfill. Scientists, Diplomats, Soldiers, Tech Experts, and much in between. Depending on where your loyalties lie or who your character is these roles may be quite different. A combat expert could be in a nation's military, a mercenary group, a criminal enforcer, or just a wandering nomad who happens to know how to kick ass. A scientist could work for a college studying to help the understanding of the universe or he could be developing drugs for a corporation or crime syndicate. 

        There are many roles to play in Within Cold Stars and many combinations of these roles that can lead to unique party dynamics and gameplay solutions. You'll build characters together with the players and Game Master talking about the experience each individual is looking for and how to build characters that fulfill those experiences and work together while also remaining accurate to the lore of the world. 

          Our goal is to give you the tools and foundation to choose a place and your own unique role in the distant and detailed galaxy of Eradonis. For an experience that takes notes from RPGs old and new to hopefully give you an engaging and memorable experience. Welcome to Within Cold Stars. 

The Universe is unfathomably vast. Countless Planets, Star Systems, and entire galaxies stretch across the sky every night as many wonder what answers and further mysteries exist throughout the cosmos. 

Thousands of lightyears from the Milky Way there sits a galaxy floating slowly away as the universe continually expands… Eradonis. A spiral galaxy very similar to the Milky Way. Humans have never, and likely will never set foot anywhere near Eradonis. 

Nonetheless life has grown here, some vastly different biologically, some eerily similar. Even intelligent life and civilization are widespread. Eradonis is home to various intelligent beings that have developed to be more advanced than human society could be for hundreds; even thousands of years

Despite all this advanced technology the laws of physics in Eradonis are the same as our own. While these technological wonders can do insane things, nothing in this galaxy is magical. 

The intelligent beings in this galaxy may not be human, but they are people. They fight many of the same issues we do: Survival, Injustice, Tribalism, Greed, Gluttony, etc. Most simply want to find safety and happiness for them and those around them but bureaucracy, power, fear, and responsibility can cause any being to make mistakes and concessions.

The advancement of civilization and technology has made life more complicated and morals harder to set. But the benefits of a community of technological wonders are vast and glorious. Interstellar travel was cracked long ago and the galaxy has become intertwined through mainly Hyperlanes and good old-fashioned cryo stasis although there are whispers of the rich and powerful using wormhole travel. Bioengineering, gene editing, and medical marvel's have allowed mere mortal life forms to beat the aging process and create living beings for their own needs and desires. Robotics and Cybernetics have made life easier for many, and thanks to the aforementioned bioengineering and advanced hydroponics hunger is a rarity. These are just a handful of the gifts that the great minds of Eradonis have brought to its people although they aren't spread equally, and as the third law of thermodynamics dictates every benefit brought by these wonders has an equal detriment.

For the last ten thousand years Eradonis has seen an age of connection and cohabitation of species, culture, and technology. While some do prefer individuality, most advanced sentient life is known to enjoy congregation and many seek a tribe be that a family, town, nation, or interstellar society. But be careful because you never know what might happen if you mess with the wrong person. Piss off the bar owner; you may have to deal with the whole town. Piss off the leader of a Nation and you may have an entire planet gunning for you.