GURPS Steel Ships & Space Marines: DSD Chronicles

Themes & Tone

Firefly+The Expanse

• PCs just trying to run a successful business, make some money, and otherwise live in peace, but keep getting dragged into the Universal meat-grinder
• Centered around home base, Tamborro Station; voyages should always return there, and action often happen there
  • Tambo is being evaluated for possible decommissioning; residents struggling to make it shiny & chrome for the SPA auditors, while others who consider it a hive of scum & villainy, or want their percentage of (legal or illegal) business traffic, are trying to devalue it
  • All the players want Tambo to succeed and thrive, but for differing reasons, using differing methods
• Ever-present professional rivalry (w/ Sophie crew)
• Backdrop of International Espionage, Wilderness of Mirrors, as Tamborro Station always gets caught in the middle and/or tossed about (Tambo is a hub of international espionage activity, as a convenient backwater/fringe station out of direct view of authorities, contrasted with Celestia Station, which is newer, more modern/classy, safer w/ a large Navy presence—and more visible)

Tropes

Setting:
Post-Cyberpunk, Space is an Ocean, Space Pirates, Used Future, Wooden Ships and Iron Men (of course)

Campaign:
Nebulous Criminal Conspiracy