About Stellar Horizons

Stellar Horizons is a dice-and-paper role playing game designed for two to seven players.  The game is set in the near future where Humanity maintains a tenuous hold on a vast unexplored frontier.

The game itself has an open-ended style of play common to role-playing games.  It has no time limit, no defined ending, and no final goal that marks the end of the game.  There is no winner or loser.  The object of the game is to have fun while using your imagination and playing a character of your creation.

  The World of Stellar Horizons
  Inhabitants of the Frontier
  What's a Role Playing Game?
  What do you need to play?

 

 

 

The world of StellarªHorizons®

Stellar Horizons is a universe of science fiction excitement, exploration, and adventure.  Set nearly a half century in the future, it is a world where an unready mankind has been thrust in the center of a vast galactic stage populated by exotic alien civilizations.

For the past fifty years two generations of Humanity have been forced to rapidly adapt to a hostile universe with little experience and few advantages.  These people endured two brutal inter-stellar wars, encountered no less than five intelligent alien species, and made greater technological progress than ever before in history.  It is on their shoulders that the explorers of today now stand as they face the infinite blackness before them.

A Prelude to the Future

The world as we know it began some two decades ago when a troubled Earth was forced to accept that the universe was larger than their small world.  It was true that Humanity had taken tentative steps into space.  Mars and the Moon even had colonies, but by and large the nations of Earth concerned themselves with Terrestrial affairs and typically warred, threatened, and intrigued against each other. 

This changed suddenly in 2038 as they became caught in a wider drama between long established alien powers.  In desperation the nations of the Earth threw themselves against the intruders in a valiant struggle against overwhelming odds.  The war appeared without hope of victory until an inadvertent emissary from a race known as the Sha'kavri arrived and provided Humanity with the means to bring the war to an end.

Soon after, an armistice was declared as the powerful Krylan Federation withdrew its forces to combat another distant unseen foe.  The war left a shocked mankind in its wake who was left to rebuild his cities, rearm his armies, and reexamine his place in the universe.  It was a formidable task, but to aid the people of Earth in this endeavor Humanity had one advantage . . . the hyperdrive.

It was a device whose secrets were revealed by the departing Krylan Federation as a form of reparations for the conflict that, in the end, neither side wanted to fight.  Still, it would not be easy.  Unraveling the enigmas of the hyperdrive would take two full years of investigation by Earth's greatest minds, but through hard work and determination the device yielded to the scientists and engineers.

Colonies orbiting distant stars were built, new worlds explored, and formal relations were established with both the Sha'kavri and Krylan Federation.  It was a hopeful time when new trade routes were established, universities founded, and settlements colonized.  The worlds of the Terran Inner Colonies looked forward to an era of peace and cooperation between both the nations of Earth and the alien powers it had encountered.  It was not to last...

In 2045 a new menace entered the Terran system intent on destroying all before it.  These were the Hydrax.  An ancient  species that travelled the stars in massive living starships escorted by swarms of parasite creatures.  The goal of the hive mind was simply to locate worlds suitable for their continued procreation.  Once located they would savagely exterminate the native life forms and terraform the planet to one suitable for their purpose.

Taken by surprise and nearly overwhelmed by the vast alien armada the people of Earth once again fought a desperate battle to save their home world.  As the war continued its cost in resources, lives, despair mounted.  Wealthy nations began to evacuate their governments and national treasures to their colony worlds.  While the rest fought holding actions or epic last stands.  During this time of desperation the worlds of the Outer Colonies provided relief to the battered Terran armies.

The war against the Hydrax raged across the solar system and Inner Colonies for over a decade before the Terran nations, with the aid of the Sha'kavri and Rogue Hydrax, could marshal sufficient resources to challenge the invaders.  The final campaign saw the Earth liberated and the last vestiges of the Hydrax horde vanquished.  Since that day the known universe has settled into a fragile peace that no one believes will last long...

Where your story begins...

Your story takes place in the during the uneasy peace following the Hydrax invasion where the Earth itself was invaded by a marauding alien horde.

Most of the action takes place deep ranges of the Terran Frontier - the vast area of space beyond the Outer Colonies.  A frontier that was claimed after the last war in an attempt to ensure that Humanity had a place to expand among stars populated by advanced alien species.  It was also to reassure the people of Earth that the dangerous aliens could be kept at bay and no longer threaten them.

In reality the nations of Earth have no way to explore, let alone enforce their claim over all space 90 light years from Earth.  They instead use the uneasy peace to fortify their tenuous hold on established colonies along well patrolled jump routes, all the while intriguing against each other.  Against this backdrop colonists, scientists, and former soldiers attempt to make a living. 

It is they who found and work for the corporations that build civilization on the frontier.  It is they who bravely venture off the known jump routes to survey worlds orbiting unknown suns so that Humanity can push his frontier outward.  It is they who battle unknown dangers that threaten mankind in the empty blackness of the deep range.  And now you can join them in exploring this universe of great risks and unimaginable rewards.  The universe of Stellar Horizons!


 

 

Inhabitants of the Frontier

In the years following the Contact War, as the war with the Krylan Federation came to be known, Terran explorers have made contact with a total of five alien species.  These are the highly advanced and psionically endowed Krylans, the feral winged Sha'kavri, the rapacious Hydrax and their curious Rogue cousins, and the enigmatic Shraziss.

These aliens occupy territories far beyond the periphery of the Terran frontier and most have been space travelers much longer than Mankind.  This fact unsettles many Terran frontier colonists as it has been shown that several are currently the technological superiors to the people of Earth.  One fact that has been learned is that all but one of these species are made up of distinct nations and cultures many of which share the same rivalries as the nations of Earth.  (click on each species below to learn more)

Krylan Sha'kavri Hydrax Rogue Hydrax Shraziss

    

 

What is a Role-Playing Game?

A role-playing game is a game of creativity and imagination in which a group of friends get together and create stories of action, adventure, and drama.  The group is comprised of several Players and a single Mission Director.

Role-playing games differ from other types of games there is no winner or loser.  The players use their unique abilities and cooperate with each other to accomplish a goal or complete an adventure.  It offers limitless choices and endless adventure opportunities because the only boundary is your imagination!

The Players

Most of the participants in a Stellar Horizons game are players.  Each players creates a larger-than-life heroic character in the game that they guide through a series of adventures, meet unusual personalities, and explore the game world.  In the process of doing this they will speak for the character and tell what actions they take.  Its like being in a story where you and your friends can change the ending!

 

Perhaps the most exciting thing about the characters that the players control is that they are not dry, unchanging, sets of statistics.  They have backgrounds, friends, contacts, goals, and achievements.  They characters also grow and develop as they complete one adventure after another.

The Mission Director

If the players are like the actors in a movie then the Mission Director is the one running the show.  The Mission Director sets up the adventure, controls background characters and enemies, and referees the game.  He knows the secrets of the adventure and gradually unfolds them to the players as they progress through it.

A Mission Director can also create adventures for the players where you can show off your creativity, and unlike computer games there are no clue books or cheat codes for these games!


 

 

What do I need to Play?

All your group needs to play is the Stellar Horizons Basic Set, a set of dice, pencils, and some paper. The two book Basic Set contains all of the information that you and your friends need to create exciting characters and develop adventures on the Terran Frontier.

The set of dice must include one 4-sided die (d4) and two ten-sided dice (d10).  These are used to generate random probabilities that are used to resolve tasks.  The pencils and paper are used to draw maps, record character information, and keep track of adventure notes.

Other items by other manufacturers can be used to enhance your gaming experience and can be found on-line or at your local hobby store.  These include dry erase markers, 28mm miniature figures, a gaming mat, terrain pieces, and other accessories.  There will also be numerous sourcebooks and adventure packs published for Stellar Horizons in the near future!

 

 

.

 

All contents on this page is copyright 1999-2011 Valkyrie Games. All rights reserved. Stellar Horizons is TM and copyright 1993-2010 by Valkyrie Games. Unauthorized reproduction of material without express written consent of Valkyrie Games is prohibited.