You are the new kids in a galaxy that was already full.
Humanity just took its first steps between the stars. Fifty years ago, we pulled an ancient, crashed alien ship out of the red dust of Mars and reverse-engineered its jump drive just well enough to make it work. We pooled our nations' fleets under a unified banner called Sol Command.
Then, out past the rim of our solar system, an ancient Precursor Gate — the Sol Gate — woke up and hostile alien raiders — the Hundred Claws — came pouring through. Sol Command met them in the void, traded blood, and managed to blunt their advance into a grinding defensive standoff. But Command knows the hard truth: in a long war of attrition against an entrenched alien force, Earth cannot win on raw numbers alone. We need an edge.
While the main battlefleet holds the line at the Sol Gate, Sol Command dispatched an expeditionary crew in the opposite direction — chasing a faint, mysterious signal toward Barnard's Star in search of another Precursor gate, advanced technology, or anything that can tip the balance. That is where the story begins: aboard a starship pushing deep into uncharted space, stepping out into a crowded galaxy of ancient empires, ruthless cartels, and forgotten machines.
In this game, you play a human crew serving Sol Command — officers, pilots, grunts, engineers, scientists, and operatives. Your job is to keep Earth alive, hold the frontier, and find a way for humanity to survive.
How the game works
The Game Master (GM) describes the situation. You state what your character does. The rules are light, fast, and designed to keep the action moving without bogged-down math.
- Stats range from 1 to 20. Six core stats define your capabilities: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.
- Checks use stat-against-difficulty. Outside of combat, you do not roll dice. If your stat meets or beats the difficulty number set by the GM, you succeed.
- Combat uses a single d20. In ground and tactical ship combat, you roll a single d20 to hit. There are no modifier chains or damage dice — weapons deal flat damage, armor subtracts flat damage reduction, and positioning determines your shot.
- Health is Constitution. Your maximum health equals your Constitution score. When your health hits zero, you go down.
- Humans only. Every player character in Sol Command is human. The alien species out in the black are ancient, powerful, and strange — you are the underdogs learning how to survive them.
- Your ship is your home. Sol Command vessels feature distinct crew stations, jump drives with limited charges, and mounted AI cores that manage combat targeting and range.
What you need to play
- A character sheet: Chapter 3 walks you through building your human operative.
- A Game Master: To frame scenes, adjudicate difficulty numbers, and control alien factions.
- A crew: Your group of fellow players working together.
- A ship: Your ticket across the stars, detailed in Chapter 8.
The tone
Grounded, tense, and gritty. Humanity does not have miraculous shields, nanotech swarms, or exotic beam weapons. We fight with kinetic rifles, heavy titanium hulls, tactical jump hops, and stubborn resolve. The galaxy is crowded with species that look down on us — your job is to prove them wrong.
