World Building
Raider Playthrough
Quick Walkthrough
- Prologue - Player chooses avatar, story background, and star ship.
- Going down with the ship - manage a crisis on the ship
- Down with the Raiders - Raider Leader tasks the player with meeting up with Old Coot in town.
- Jail Bird - get Old Coot out of jail, one way or the other
- Out & About - Old Coot wants to scope out the town for possible side jobs and then take you to meet the Archeologist
- Archeology & Teamwork - get the job, choose the team
- Explore that Hole - navigate the undergound area and help Archeologist retrieve the artifact.
- Betrayal! - choose who to help when Raiders double-cross Archeologist. Return to raider hideout.
- Time to End it - get ship back, (optional) double-crosses Raiders and take artifact, or let Raiders take artifact.
Detailed Walkthrough
1. Prologue
You find yourself standing in the middle of a used ship lot. While the sales man lays the sales charm on thick, he also pumps you for information about yourself to better focus his pitch. You choose your background to tell him. Regardless, the salesman points you to the same stellar ship, guaranteeing it will never let you down.
2. Going down with the ship
You awaken in your ship to an alarm. A planet visible through cockpit windows. The onboard computer shows a Raider ship's grapple locked onto a section of your ship and a readout of critical failure
Your options are to:
- Full thrusters to snap the grapple's cable. (crash landing in on farm)
- Radio for help (raiders respond → board → dismayed at lack of booty take you onto their ship leaving your ship to crash land where it will.)
3. Down with the Raiders
You are led out of your ship into the Raiders' hidden forest base. The Raider Leader lays out an offer to you. They were hired for a job involving a secret underground site. They'd sent the Old Coot ahead to scope out the town but he missed his last check-in. They're a little obvious as Raiders and don't want to raise suspicion.- They need the player to retrieve the Old Coot from town. In return, you'll get your ship back.
Your options are to:
- Offer to join the raiders → in which case, retrieving Old Coot becomes a loyalty/proving test.
- Refuse to cooperate → in which case, retrieving Old Coot is the only way to get the ship back.
4. Jailbreak
Either way, you're off to town. Once in town you can ask the various shop owners and townspeople wandering around if they've seen the Old Coot around. The more you ask, however, the more suspicion you raise. Eventually, you are directed to the Sheriff's Office.
In the Sheriff's Office, your options are to:
- Convince Sheriff to let you speak to Old Coot.
- Convice Sheriff to let the Old Coot go under your supervision. Requires level of trust/affinity
- Antagonize Sheriff → jailed with Old Coot. → break out with Old Coot
- Reveal the raider plot (branch into town‑aligned path).
When you speak to the Old Coot, you have to convince him you were sent by the Raider Leader, and from either side of the bars, you learn: He got arrested after starting a bar fight. Sheriff suspects something but doesn’t know anything. He won't give any more info until he's safely out of jail.
5. Archeology & Teamwork
You leave the Sheriff's Office and the Old Coot leads you to the hotel where you are introduced to the Archeologist. He explains hiring the raiders The underground mystery. His displeasure with the Old Coot bringing attention to himself. He gives the location of the entrance to the underground. He insists he needs a team of at least 3 people; you, at least one raider, and the Archeologist himself.
You have the option to:
- Agree to his terms → decide on which Raider members you trust to join you.
- betray his trust and go tell the Sheriff (branch into town‑aligned path)
- Offer to cut the raiders out of the deal. → Old Coot becomes hostile → fight → he flees if defeated. (town-aligned or independent path)
6. Explore that Hole
You choose the Raider member(s) to go. They aren't happy that the Archeologist has now seemed to put you in charge so it takes some convincing. You arrive at the underground entrance where the Archeologist is waiting for you. The Sheriff appears, he knows something is up but the Archeologist is evasive which raises his suspicions further → fight breaks out
After winning, your party goes through the entrance. You explore the underground facility. Your intrusion activates the ancient, underground facility to power up as best it can. Glitched service and security robots come to life. The party finds locked or collapsed sections that need to be bypassed as well as other hazards all acting as environmental puzzles.
The Archeologist points out to the party that the facility appears to be human-centric, and not an alien ship as he expected. Clues discovered about reveal that this was a terraforming control center.
Everyone in the party contributes based on their skills. Poorly chosen companions may have nothing to offer or even hinder progress.
Archeologist acquires the artifact. Group must escape the facility.
7. Betrayal!
Once escaped from the underground facility, the Raiders attempt to double-cross teh Archeologist. Your options are to:
- Side with the Raiders
- Side with the Archeologist
8. Time to End it
You return with the Raiders to their forest camp. The Raider Leader offers the ship and also a place in the gang. Your options are to:
- Accept just the ship → Raiders leave with the Artifact without you → portal triggers in the sky as you watch from the ground
- Accept entry into the gang → You follow the Raiders into space with the Artifact → portal triggers in front of you through the view of your ship with the other Raider ship nearby
- Attempt to double-cross the Raiders by yourself to take the artifact. → you leave with the Artifact alone → Artifact comes to life and portal triggers in front of you through the view of your ship
Town Aligned Playthrough
Quick Walkthrough
- Prologue - Player chooses avatar, story background, and star ship.
- Going down with the ship - manage a crisis on the ship
- Crash Landing & Consequences - destroy some crops and decide your fate
- Straight to Jail - you learn the terms of your sentence and meet the Old Coot
- Jail Bird - you decide to either break out with Old Coot or wait
- Out & About - you visit the various people & shops looking for work & run into the Archeologist who has an enticing offer of his own.
- Archeology & Teamwork - get a job, choose the team
- Explore that Hole - navigate the undergound area and help Archeologist retrieve the artifact
- Betrayal - choose who to help when the Sheriff demands the artifact be turned over to his authority and Archeologist refuses.
- Time to End it - get ship back as thanks for helping the Sheriff, (optional) double-cross the Sheriff and take the artifact for yourself, let the Sheriff send the artifact through the Pony Express courier.
Detailed Walkthrough
1. Prologue
You find yourself standing in the middle of a used ship lot. While the sales man lays the sales charm on thick, he also pumps you for information about yourself to better focus his pitch. You choose your background to tell him. Regardless, the salesman points you to the same stellar ship, guaranteeing it will never let you down.
2. Going down with the ship
You awaken in your ship to an alarm. A planet visible through cockpit windows. The onboard computer shows a Raider ship's grapple locked onto a section of your ship and a readout of critical failure
Your options are to:
- Full thrusters to snap the grapple's cable. (crash landing in on farm)
- Radio for help (raiders respond → board → dismayed at lack of booty take you onto their ship leaving your ship to crash land where it will.)
3. Crash Landing & Consequences
You find yourself crash landed in a field of alien crop. You are confronted by an angry farmer for damaging his cash crops. You're told to stay put for the Sheriff to arrest you.
Your options are to:
- Obediently stay put
- Attack the farmer (potential Raider path)
- Run away (potential Raider path)
4. Straight to Jail
You stay put. You can try to chat with the farmer but he's understandably not in the mood. When the Sheriff arrives, he takes you into custody and drives you back to town.
He is more agreeable to conversation and asks you all kinds of questions, trying to gauge if this "accident" is not a cover for something else.
At the Sheriff's Office you're taken to the single cell jail, which already has a single occupant, the Old Coot. There the Sheriff informs you that your ship will be impounded and you will have to pay back the farmer for his lost crops before you're allowed to leave. He offers a few people/shops that may have work for you. You'll have to spend your nights in the jail.
The Sheriff then snoozes at his desk in sight of the jail. The Old Coot decides this is the time to chat you up.
Without prompting, he says an obvious code phrase.
Your options are to:
- guess at the answering code phrase → on success, convince him you're a friend of his Raider Party (raider path)
- admit you have no idea what he's talking about → he offers to team up to escape
5. Jail Bird
He knows you're not a friend of his group but wants to team up to escape anyway.
Your options are to:
- Team up with the Old Coot to break out of jail (raider path)
- Alert the Sheriff (get attacked by Old Coot/die)
- Turn down his offer and wait until morning.
6. Out & About
It's the next day and the Sheriff releases you to seek work among the shop owners in town. You find the shop owners' attitude toward you to be on a scale from pleasantly indifferent to hostile. You also find the tasks are small and so is the pay.
One of the Sheriff's suggestions was to ask at the Inn. When you ask the Innkeeper for work, they have the same pittance to offer, but patron of the inn overhears and approaches you. It is the Archeologist
7. Archeology & Teamwork
The Archeologist explains he hired a group to help him explore an underground mystery and admits the Old Coot was a part of this party. He expresses displeasure with the Old Coot for bringing attention to himself. He gives the location of the entrance to the underground. He insists he needs a team of at least 3 people; you, at least one other skilled person, and the Archeologist himself.
You have the option to:
- Agree to his terms → find at least one townsperson who likes you enough to join
- Betray his trust and go tell the Sheriff → he insists on joining the party
- Offer to get the Old Coot out of jail (branch into Raider path)
8. Explore that Hole
With the townsperson/people you've chosen and liked you enough to go, you arrive, you arrive at the underground entrance where the Archeologist is waiting for you.
The Raiders appear, realizing they've been cut out of the deal → fight breaks out
After winning, your party goes through the entrance. You explore the underground facility. Your intrusion activates the ancient, underground facility to power up as best it can. Glitched service and security robots come to life. The party finds locked or collapsed sections that need to be bypassed as well as other hazards all acting as environmental puzzles. The Archeologist points out to the party that the facility appears to be human-centric, and not an alien ship as he expected. Clues discovered about reveal that this was a terraforming control center.
Everyone in the party contributes based on their skills. Poorly chosen companions may have nothing to offer or even hinder progress.
Archeologist acquires the artifact. Group must escape the facility.
9. Betrayal!
Sheriff (shows up if not already a part of the party) and demands the Archeologist turnover any artifacts taken until he can understand what's going on. The Archeologist refuses, suddenly aggressive with his goal so close at hand. The townspeople, confused, either run away or side with the Sheriff.
Your options are to:
- Side with the Sheriff & townspeople
- Side with the Archeologist
10. Time to End it
You return to town. The Sheriff keeps the confiscated artifact and affects of the now deceased Archeologist locked up in the Sheriff's Office.
Terraforming Station Dungeon
Layout Ideaas
🌀 Overall Shape: The Ringed Geothermal Base
Think of it as a cylindrical arcology built around a central geothermal shaft.
Each floor is a ring, with occasional radial corridors leading inward toward the generator core.
Vertical Structure (Top → Bottom)
- Surface Access & Docking Level
- Habitation & Social Level
- Science & Research Level
- Terraforming Operations Level
- Engineering & Robotics Level
- Generator Interface Level
- Deep Geothermal Shaft (inaccessible, miles deep)
Each ring is large enough to feel like a small town — corridors, labs, gardens, cafeterias, rec rooms, etc.
🧱 1. Surface Access & Docking Level
Intended Design
- Shuttle docking bays
- Cargo intake
- Decontamination chambers
- Security checkpoint
- Observation deck overlooking the planet’s surface
Current State
- The farmer’s breach opens into a collapsed cargo bay.
- Once past the collapsed barrier:
- Maintenance drones awaken to try to “clean” the breach.
- Security robots awaken and are the most hostile
#Potential Dungeon elements
- Combat encounter with awoken security bots
- Environmental hazard (decon lasers, sterilization foam)
- Glitched logs at security and logistics stations just barely hinting at the portal going dark & faction fighting
🏠 2. Habitation & Social Level
Intended Design
- Living quarters
- Cafeteria
- Recreation rooms
- Hydroponic gardens for fresh produce
- Medical bay
- Meeting rooms
- Small library / VR entertainment pods
Current State
- Hydroponics has become a feral jungle of mutated plants (terraforming prototypes gone wild).
- Quarters show signs of factional division:
- Terraformers kept communal spaces tidy
- Escape faction hoarded tools and parts
- Cult faction carved symbols into walls
- Medical bay contains corpse husks from early fighting gone too far
#Potential Dungeon Elements
- Environmental puzzles involving overgrowth
- Glitched, half-recovered Social logs revealing early faction tensions
- Optional stealth route through collapsed dorms with roaming security robots
- First “hallucination” event if the cult wing is active
🔬 3. Science & Research Level
Intended Design
- Atmospheric chemistry labs
- Soil analysis labs
- Xenobiology labs
- Data archives
- AI-assisted research suites
- Clean rooms
Current State
- Many labs sealed due to contamination.
- Others were cannibalized by the escape faction for parts.
- The cult faction used the data archives to reinterpret scientific logs as “prophecies.”
- A caretaker AI here is still functional but glitching — it can be reasoned with.
#Potential Dungeon Elements
- Puzzle-heavy floor
- Logs explaining the scientific goals of the base
- First major branching path:
- Restore power to the labs
- Or reroute power to the escape faction’s workshop
- Or unlock the cult’s sealed sub-lab
🌍 4. Terraforming Operations Level
Intended Design
- the rooms are bigger and warehouse like to house machinery at this scale
- Atmospheric processors
- Water vapor generators
- Soil enrichment systems
- Weather modeling center
- Drone launch bays
- Terraforming control hub
Current State
- Most Machinery is still, but some still run in low-power mode.
- Some systems are dangerously unstable.
- Terraformer faction tried to keep everything functional until the bitter end.
- Escape faction sabotaged some systems to steal parts.
#Potential Dungeon Elements
- Environmental hazards:
- Sudden pressure changes
- Toxic gas pockets
- Rogue terraforming drones
- Big puzzle:
- Rebalance atmospheric mix to open a sealed door
- Boss:
- A terraforming drone that misidentifies the party as “contaminants”
🤖 5. Engineering & Robotics Level
Intended Design
- Robot fabrication bays
- Power distribution center
- Maintenance workshops
- Waste recycling
- Water purification
Current State
- This is where the escape faction built their prototype ship or signal array.
- Many robots here are half-reprogrammed and unpredictable.
- Cult faction sabotaged the escape faction’s work, causing a catastrophic failure.
#Potential Dungeon Elements
- High danger zone
- Power rerouting puzzles
- Robot reprogramming opportunities
- Gravity puzzles (platforming, floating debris, crushing hazards)
- Logs revealing the final days of the escape faction
🔥 6. Generator Interface Level
Intended Design
- Control room for geothermal tap
- Heat shielding corridors
- Coolant systems
- Emergency shutdown controls
- AI core access (restricted)
Current State
- Extreme heat in some areas
- Coolant leaks forming supercooled frost in others
- The cult faction attempted a ritual here, believing the generator’s “deep hum” had a resonance they could use.
- The AI core is partially corrupted but still functional
#Potential Dungeon Elements
- Final puzzles
- Final boss (corrupted caretaker AI or cult echo)
- Reveal of the base’s true history
- The Archeologist’s moment of truth
🌋 7. Deep Geothermal Shaft
Intended Design
- Purely mechanical — no human access
- Miles of reinforced structure
- Heat exchangers
- Power conduits
Current State
- Still functioning
- Emits a low-frequency vibration that the cult interpreted as divine
- Can be used for a dramatic set piece (echoes, visions, vertigo)
#Potential Dungeon Elements
- Not a playable area, but a powerful atmospheric element
- Can be glimpsed through windows or maintenance hatches
- Could be the source of hallucinations or eldritch resonance
🧩 How This Structure contributes to the Dungeon
- Each floor has clear purpose, clear faction scars, and clear puzzle types.
- You can create multiple paths by letting players choose which floor to descend into first.
- NPC companions can shine on different floors.
- The generator core gives you a natural “final confrontation” space.
- The verticality makes the base feel ancient, massive, and real.