Yars' Revenge (Part One - Razakspace)

I don't know.  I have been fiddling with Blogger for hours, trying to figure out how to add the pictures I had set aside for this blog entry but every attempt has ended in failure.

To that end, I am including the following link here that will take you to a full version of the article.  I hope you enjoy.

 

Yars’ Revenge was a game released for the Atari 2600 back in the 80’s.  I was lucky enough to get it the week (depending on your point of view) I came down with chicken pox.  I spent an entire week off from school, soaking in oatmeal baths, smearing myself with Calamine Lotion, and playing this game.  It was awesome.  I haven’t thought about it in years and then, one day last week, I was watching videos on You Tube and Yars’ Revenge was mentioned and that got me to thinking I could make something for my campaign based on the old video game.

At first, I thought I would just do creature stats but as I worked on that little project, I decided to expand on my original ideas and incorporate some of the original game’s mythology as well and from there, I started putting together an entire sphere for the Spelljammer setting.  This is what I came up with.  I hope you enjoy it.
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Razakspace, to the few spacefarers who know of it, is considered to be something of an interstellar backwater.  It is a fairly small crystal sphere containing a central sun and four (formerly five) planets.  Being of little strategic importance militarily and offering few natural resources that cannot be just as easily obtained elsewhere, Razakspace is only rarely visited by travelers.  The only continuous “outside” presence in the sphere is that of a single Elven Armada, the Qotile that has been stationed on the outermost planet since the Unhuman Wars and a consortium of dwarves who are mining on the second planet.

NAME:                  Razak (the Sun)
TYPE:                     Spherical Fire Body
SIZE:                      F (39,719 miles in diameter)
ESCAPE TIME:    18 turns
SATELLITES:        5 Planetoids
DAY LENGTH:     23 Hours
YEAR LENGTH:   None
POPULATION
ANALYSIS:           Apparently uninhabited

DISTANCE/TIME FROM:
Tides                     40 million miles
                                10 hours travel

Aggregate           75 million miles
                                16 hours travel

Razak III               150 million miles
                                36 hours travel

Razak IV               200 million miles
                                2 days travel

Epp                        300 million miles
                                3 days travel

Razak is a bright star at the center of Razakspace.  It sheds red light on everything in the system.  The size of the star compared to its comparatively small crystal sphere means that Razakspace is incredibly warm.  As far as anyone has been able to discern, there is no life anywhere on this sun.



 

 

NAME:                  Tides
TYPE:                     Spherical Water Body
SIZE:                      C (785 miles in diameter)
ESCAPE TIME:    9 turns
SATELLITES:        None
DAY LENGTH:     12 hours
YEAR LENGTH:   70 days
POPULATION
ANALYSIS:           Creatures from the elemental plane of Water and quasi-elemental plane of Lightning

DISTANCE/TIME FROM:
Razak (the Sun)                40 million miles
                                           10 hours travel

Aggregate                        35 million miles
                                          10 hours travel

Razak III                            110 million miles
                                           27 hours travel

Razak IV                           160 million miles
                                          38 hours travel

Epp                                   260 million miles
                                         2.5 days travel

Tides is covered with boiling oceans and is wracked by extreme storms.  The few small landmasses are constantly battered by hurricanes and lightning.

NAME:                  Aggregate
TYPE:                     Irregular Earth Body
SIZE:                      B (89 miles in diameter)
ESCAPE TIME:    6 turns
SATELLITES:        None
DAY LENGTH:     Varies, planet tumbles along its orbital path, pitching and yawing on both of its axes
YEAR LENGTH:   248 days
POPULATION
ANALYSIS:           No permanent inhabitants

DISTANCE/TIME FROM:
Razak (the Sun)                75 million miles
                                            16 hours travel

Tides                                   35 million miles
                                            10 hours travel

Razak III                              75 million miles
                                             16 hours travel

Razak IV                             125 million miles
                                            1 day, 6 hours travel

Epp                                     225 million miles
                                            2 days, 6 hours travel

Aggregate is a massive asteroid that has taken up orbit around Razak.  Essentially barren and having an incredibly thin atmosphere, this planetoid is devoid of any permanent inhabitants.  The only residents are Hammer Golems who mine the asteroid for the Iron Pit Consortium.  The dwarves make quarterly visits in a flotilla of Tradesmen, load the cargo, and transport it to their citadel ship.

NAME:                  Razak III
TYPE:                     Spherical Earth Body
SIZE:                      D (3,305 miles in diameter)
ESCAPE TIME:    12 turns
SATELLITES:        2 moons
DAY LENGTH:     26 hours
YEAR LENGTH:   378 days
POPULATION
ANALYSIS:           Refugees from Razak IV

DISTANCE/TIME FROM:
Razak (the Sun)                150 million miles
                                            36 hours travel

Tides                                  110 million miles
                                            27 hours travel

Aggregate                         75 million miles
                                           16 hours travel

Razak IV                            50 million miles
                                           12 hours travel

Epp                                    150 million miles
                                           1 day, 12 hours travel

Razak III is the planet the Yar fled to when their world was attacked by the elves.  The Yar have built their new civilization into the sides of the highest and steepest mountains for defensibility.  Razak III has two moons (Size A Spherical Earth Bodies) that inhabit the same orbital path.  These moons have been named Zorlon and Qotil by the Yar.  Zorlon is slightly faster than its sister moon and in the next ten thousand years or so, it will overtake and destroy Qotil, much in the same way the Yar rulers plan to eradicate the elven invaders to their sphere.

There are only two hive cities of note, each named for its current queen.  The older and larger of the two is Apis and the second is Micrapis.  The queens have brokered peace with the Yars' long-time rivals, the Formians and the two races are working together to ensure their mutual survival.  Plants brought from Razak IV have been introduced to Razak III and these invasive species have quickly overwhelmed the native flora, transforming the world into a smaller version of Razak IV.

Those few Myconids and Treants who were able to flee Razak IV’s collapse are opposed to the Yar-Formian alliance and the transformation of Razak III’s ecosystems but thus far, have been unable to slow the spreading influence of the two insectoid races.

NAME:                  Razak IV
TYPE:                     Asteroid Belt (formerly Spherical Earth Body)
SIZE:                      (formerly B)
ESCAPE TIME:    1 turn
SATELLITES:        None
DAY LENGTH:     N/A
YEAR LENGTH:   224 days
POPULATION
ANALYSIS:           Carnivorous Plants, Formians, Myconids, Treants, Yar

DISTANCE/TIME FROM:
Razak (the Sun)                200 million miles
                                            2 days travel

Tides                                  160 million miles
                                            38 hours travel

Aggregate                         125 million miles
                                           1 day, 6 hours travel

Razak III                            50 million miles
                                          12 hours travel

Epp                                    100 million miles
                                           1 day travel

Razak IV was once the homeworld of a sentient insectoid race known as the Yar.  The planet was ravaged during the First Unhuman War when a Witchlight Marauder was unleashed by the Elven Armada Qotile in an attempt to root out and destroy a rumored Orcish supply depot hidden in the planet’s subterranean caverns.  As the Witchlight Marauder and its subsequent spawn destroyed everything in its path, Razak IV began to tear itself apart.  The planet, which was tectonically unstable, had been held together by the roots of the numerous plants, carnivorous and otherwise, covering its surface.  As the root system was destroyed, the planet simply fell apart, leaving nothing but a nearly-lifeless asteroid belt in the path of the former fourth planet‘s orbital track.

Until its destruction, Razak IV was home to dozens of species of carnivorous plants, several varieties of monstrous spiders, other plant-based creatures like treants and myconids, the Yar, and their chief rivals, the Formians.  Those creatures who were able to do so fled to Razak III.

NAME:                  Epp
TYPE:                     Irregular Earth Body
SIZE:                      E (6,328 miles in diameter)
ESCAPE TIME:    15 turns
SATELLITES:        1
DAY LENGTH:     61 hours
YEAR LENGTH:   678 days
POPULATION
ANALYSIS:           Elves, Formian, Rancor, Yar

DISTANCE/TIME FROM:
Razak (the Sun)                300 million miles
                                            3 days travel

Tides                                   160 million miles
                                            38 hours travel

Aggregate                          225 million miles
                                            2 days, 6 hours travel

Razak III                             150 million miles
                                            1 day, 12 hours travel

Razak IV                             100 million miles
                                            1 day travel

Epp is the largest planet is Razakspace.  It has numerous continents that are overrun with primeval forests and wetlands.  The few seas is has are relatively small and shallow.  The primary inhabitants of the planet are elves from the Imperial Navy who have maintained a forward base here since the Unhuman Wars and large, semi-sentient reptilian carnivores.  Numerous carnivorous plants that landed on Epp after Razak IV was destroyed have taken root but these have struggled to survive in the cooler climate on this outermost planet.

The Yar and Formians have a presence on the planet as well and conduct guerilla raids against the elves.