You weren’t sure about volunteering for this mission. But your fiancée insisted you go. ‘You’re the best for the job after all,’ he said. So, as top of your class in the psychic field and in using certain crystals, you signed up. Seven months in partial stasis while you and one other pilot the ship with your minds. It wasn’t your first choice, but Titan seemed to be the next big thing for the Worlds United.

Your fiancée’s little brother was another one chosen for this mission. You found that out after the fact. Your fiancée’s push made more sense once you knew. He trusts you to bring him back in one piece. He’s always been fiercely protective after their parents died during the Second Worlds War. That’s why he and his brother learned to fight. Tim was acting as security on this trip. His close friend, an Ophidian named Srrecki was the medic and the one putting everyone in the Blue Sleep stasis for the trip.

At the start, the sheer number of weapons aboard concerned you, but Tim explained that its just options. Your job–all of their jobs, is simple reconnaissance of wherever you land. And the ship–well, as you soon discovered, it was designed to break into two parts. You didn’t tell Tim that or your fiancée. It was the wiser option since if you and Tim got separated, there’s no telling what either of them would say.

If this isn’t your flavor of character, that’s okay. This was more set-up for the story hook of heading to Titan. Heyo, I’m Kat, a Games Master (GM) of over a decade. And I’m here to show you around the setting of Worlds United. While space travel is all well and good, there are plenty of other options for this setting beyond heading to Titan.

Psychic powers are huge and 1 in 4,000 people on Earth has at least one. That’s not even the cool part. Worlds United is just the gateway to the stars for Mythras. Let’s talk about how the Worlds became United.

What is Worlds United?

Worlds United is a Planetary Romance setting, drawing inspiration from the Science Fiction of the first half of the 20^th Century, along with a healthy sprinkle of Pulp influences from the Gernsback-era of SF magazines and galactic adventures. This is the SF of Wells, Verne, Merritt, Hamilton and others, rather than Star Wars or Star Trek. It takes its major cues from H. G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds”, one of the seminal SF novels.

Remember when you learned about the story “War of the Worlds”? At the turn of the 20^th Century, Martians in tripod walkers came to Earth and enslaved humanity. Now I want you to remember also that the Martians–octopoids–succumbed to Earth’s pathogens and left behind their tools.

So, what happens when the world gets its hands on Martian tech? We learn from it, dissect it, and build new things based on it. In this case, we did so with the help of some of the Martian humans that were enslaved by the octopoids. I hear the sudden screech of brakes. For those of you who did not have a better understanding of ‘War of the Worlds’ like myself, the octopoids weren’t here to destroy according to the books. They were here to harvest and enslave the human race. They feast on human blood and have us do the work they deem beneath themselves.

That’s why they came to Earth. The human race is abundant here. Martian humans, however, were starting to decline, at least those under the octopoid control. Now, let’s fast forward a touch to when our World War II broke out. This is where I thought it was a fun and functional twist on our history, much like many of the authors and creators of Mythras content are. There are some elements of realism, of touches of our own world, that blur the lines of what we know and what’s fiction.

World War II becomes Worlds War II. The octopoids rain down on Earth in a second, more violent wave after a few decades of developing an immunization program to counter the common illnesses that took down their first force. This time, though, humanity was ready. We had reverse-engineered many of the psychic weapons that the octopoids used. We had easily tripled our number of psychics too, via testing and teachings from the Martian Humans.

When the octopoids landed on Earth, they weren’t expecting as much of a fight, nor were they expecting the Martian humans to rebel. After another set of grueling battles and the octopoids’ retreat, we sent 75 rockets full of troops, tanks, and explosives to the octopoid controlled cities and brought the war back to Mars.

To this day, in 1959, there are still a few Martian cities held by the Worlds United and by the USSR and the minimal population of ocotpoids has retreated beneath the surface of Mars to survive the onslaught that Earth brought to them. Soon after this, Earth discovered life on Venus as well.

Now, where the cities of Mars were much more technically advanced than Earth, Venus was like stepping into the primordial. Vast jungles are populated by lizard people. Both Ophidians and Lizardfolk, are the ruling species, along with a smattering of Venusian humans. The Venusian jungles and wilderness is also populated by huge, dinosaur-like lizards, hunters and the hunted, providing a healthy dose of prehistoric adventure.

Humans on Mars and Venus? Where did these humans originate? There is a story that millennia ago The Elders came to Earth and took humans by the thousands. The Elders modified them before placing them on Venus and Mars as an experiment, to see how humans would adapt to these environments. The humans of Mars, Venus, and Earth have followed very different evolutionary paths, with Earth representing the baseline, but the greatest concentration of psychics comes from Earth, and no one knows why. I’ll cover the differences in more detail in the next section.

With a bit of the history under your belt, you can see why this is an interesting interstellar playground. It is confined to our Solar System, but the planets are teeming with life, and the outer worlds, such as Jupiter and Saturn, are within the grasp of human exploration.

But enough about that, let’s move into the different species you can play before I dig into the planets to show you why I found Titan to be a fun trip.

Humans, Lizardfolk, and Ophidians

If you’ve read prior blogs, you should be familiar with the terms ‘Lizardfolk’ and ‘ophidians’. That’s because these two species are used in The Design Mechanism’s Monster Island. And while they do have similarities, they are their own entities in Worlds United. Venus itself has a very Monster Island feel. It has similar environments and a similar population of monsters/playable species; indeed, enterprising GMs could base Monster Island on Venus and it will feel right at home.

For those of you who didn’t manage to read the blog about Monster Island, here’s a quick summary.

Ophidians: The smaller serpentine humanoid character with tremendous intelligence and magic. In the case of Worlds United, their magic is science. They have access to a career option in chemistry, which is something that they have excelled at so much that they have found a mixture that can extend life.

Lizardfolk: While larger and more imposing than the ophidians, the Lizardfolk have a brute strength that matches the prowess of the ophidian intelligence, which is keener than their Monster Island counterparts. Lizardfolk often specialize as dinosaur wranglers or security and excel far enough that plenty pay top dollar for their services.

You see, Ophidians and Lizardfolk are two halves of a very potent whole. Ophidians have the intelligence; Lizardfolk, the brute strength. And last but not least, there are the Venusian Humans. Humans have evolved on Venus for the last 115,000 years. They are adapted to jungle environment and have a fair number of psychics among their population.

As I mentioned prior, each style of human: Earth, Mars, Venus, has its own unique set of traits. Let’s go over those below:

• Earth Humans: Think of this as your basic human from any Mythras game, just with a psychic twist. Earth humans have a larger career pool to choose from. This being careers that revolve around technology specifically.
• Venusian Humans: The career options are the main difference between Earth and Venus, more so than the physical build options. Those from Venus don’t have the specific access to tech like Earth humans; however, they can have the amazing ability to be a dinosaur wrangler if they so choose.
• Martian Humans: Martian humans are shorter and more slender than Earth and Venusian humans; thus, they r

This list is just the beginning of what makes these playable characters different. Careers and gifts give you extra customization. Let me give you a taste of each before we move on.

Unique Careers: Dinosaur Wrangler, Crystal Carver, and Ophidian Chemist. There are the more unique and technically planet-specific careers. Still, each has its own skills it grants, and honestly? Who wouldn’t want to wrangle dinos or mix life-saving chemicals?

Gifts: Gifts are specifically designed within Worlds United as their own NEW piece. Each gift is listed within the Worlds United chapter on character creation and gives its own flavor. Things like, Exceptional Luck, Regenerative, or Null-Psi to name a few, but the biggest one that has been our theme here is Psychic.

Those who roll the Psychic gift, gain access to a new pool of abilities that run a lot like Sorcery from Mythras, though instead of Magic Points (MP) you gain a pool of Tenacity Points (TP). If you choose a human, very likely (unless the GM specifies differently) you will gain at least one psychic ability. If you’re familiar with the Luther Arkwright setting, then you’ll find Worlds United psychics are very much the same.

Psychic powers can be enhanced though through the use of certain crystals and foci. Things like Bioelectric Shock (think Star Wars and force lightning), Computer Telepathy (psychically controlling technology rather than through physical touch), Regenerate (just like it sounds), or my personal worst nightmare as a GM, Synaptic Puppetry (this is a kind of casual possession. The target is aware of what they’re doing, but you control them through use of your body). And those are just to name a few of the powers.

You can see how each species could easily have its own unique way of using its gifts and psychic powers now that you know a bit about each of them. Now let’s talk about where they’re all from.

The Planets of Worlds United

Earth, Mars, Venus, Jupiter and its moons, Saturn, Titan, Neptune, Pluto. I know some of these aren’t planets specifically; however, these are the ones that our scientists in Worlds United have begun, theorized, or actively are studying. And by ‘our scientists’ I mean the combined efforts of Earth, Mars, and Venus. These are not just humans; they are also Ophidians and Lizardfolk.

Let me give you the dash facts about each planet:

Earth:

• Our planet with 1970s tech in the year 1959. Pretty cool concept.
• 1 in every 4000 people is psychic to one degree or another.
• The location of the Worlds United ‘main hub’
• The world has embraced all alien species (that aren’t going to drink our fluids) and has welcomed them on the planet while we venture and explore theirs.
• Two main political factions: the Worlds United and the USSR.
  • If I were going to run a campaign on Earth, it would be a political espionage campaign based around infiltration of the USSR using Worlds United operatives.

Mars:

• As we know, Mars is a rather arid planet.
• It has several large cities circling the few waterways that exist.
• There are still Octopoids living beneath its surface, and they took their human slaves with them.
  • This is where I would stage a campaign on Mars if I were to do it.
• There are pirates here who raid cities and smaller isolated locations for supplies.
  • This is something else I would toy with for side quests.
• While not as technologically advanced as Earth, it’s still advanced in different ways.
  • Main source of psychic crystal production.

Venus:

• This is our jungle planet. Hot and humid only scratches the surface.
• Prehistoric environment. Dinosaurs are a normal interaction for the species of Venus.
• This is the only known origin of Ophidians and Lizardfolk.
• There are plenty of ruins here, and some indicate that the Octopoids came to Venus prior and didn’t return.
  • Based on this concept, much like I suggested in Monster Island’s blog, I’d run a more Indiana Jones style campaign where the groups are investigating ruins and discover a much greater peril or secret than expected.

Jupiter:

• Jupiter and its moons are surrounded by a deadly radiation belt. All but Callisto, which only serves as a refueling station beneath its ice packs.
• Any adventure here is brief, and even staying in orbit will kill players in a matter of hours.

Neptune:

• Neptune along with its moon and Uranus are listed as cold gas giants devoid of life.
  • Mind you, that doesn’t mean you can’t start something here for your own interstellar campaign. No telling what hides beneath the surface of both planets.

Pluto:

• Despite being the most distant and coldest planet, there was evidence found that someone or something had been to Pluto at some point in time.
  • This has an entire section within the book about the Caves of Pluto. It’s a campaign story hook that you can use to your advantage.

Saturn:

• Much like Jupiter as a gas giant, there are reports of life within its clouds.
• This would be a seven-month journey, and there is no telling what might be beneath the cloudy surface.
  • This is also where my idea starts. There are details in the book about Titan and Saturn that sparked the trip.

Titan:

• Titan has as much if not more activity on its surface than Saturn, and the trip here would be equally dangerous AND is already outlined to a mild degree in the Worlds United book itself.
• The description of the moon alone gives you details about how the shuttles or ships would get there and onto the surface.

Within the Storytelling Chapter of the book, the author, John Snead, has given plenty of details of Titan’s potential alongside information for Pluto and The Elders of legend. I won’t spoil anything, but this is where plenty of my own ideas were spawned.

Where would I start?

I’ve mentioned a few times the concepts of Saturn and Titan, and I think I will stick to those guns. I did, however, give a few other options throughout the planet listings too. But the concept of heading to Saturn or Titan gives you, as the GM, the opportunity to throw space encounters at your players as of course they need to pass through the asteroid belt.

This creates a sequence of unique tasks beyond just navigation. Granted, navigation is key, but with everyone in Blue Sleep (the drug that Ophidians created to slow the body’s needs and aging down by 1/24^th), it makes attacks by pirates an interesting opportunity. So, with the decision of bringing the group on this long journey, you can impose a few different potentially catastrophic situations.

The other thought is creating the opportunity to potentially interact with other intelligent alien life forms. Within the Storyteller chapter, Mr. Snead describes images were sent back from Titan that had strange insect-like humanoids walking around that are about 2 metres tall. This can make things more diplomatic or more warlike depending on your group.

This also does not include interacting with potential creatures that wish to eat your players. Not all of them can be nice, you know.

Conclusion

While this wasn’t one of my favorite settings so far, it still has many intriguing aspects. With the concept of bringing Mythras out of the medieval and into the realm of SF, it hit a spot that isn’t normally explored. We discussed the different planets, unique species, the twist of our history when it meets science fiction, and even touched on psychic powers. As you might guess from the hints, there’s a lot more than just war and space exploration when it comes to Worlds United. The planets are just the start. The politics between planets and factions is much deeper than I was able to explain within this blog and creates a huge thought for political intrigue throughout all inhabited planets.

If you’re ready to bust right in and learn more, check out Worlds United on the Design Mechanism site. If you’re a little hesitant, join the Discord channel and get into the discussion with the rest of us!

And HEY, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter and get your 15% off discount. Fun and exciting things come in your mailbox from us, like tips and tricks for d100 game play, new releases, sneak previews, and even free scenarios. So don’t miss out!