Starset RPG 2nd Edition, No AI

Starset: The Great Dimming (PDF $16.99) is a tabletop roleplaying game designed to tell hopeful, horrifying, and thought-provoking stories staged in a grimdark future.

The Starset Universe is inspired by Dune, Arcane, and Game of Thrones in a loosely realistic, near-future where titanic religions, corporations, and politicians clash. Characters are helpless individuals—faces in the crowd—caught in the grinding gears of powerplays and profiteering. As the Oort Cloud collapses into the solar system and history is at its darkest, players explore the question of where their purpose lies as everything ends.  

EXPLORATION OF ISOLATION.

Starset: The Great Dimming was originally created during the COVID-19 pandemic as a method of exploring how people deal with isolation. The game is set in a sci-fi future where the Oort Cloud—a bubble of icy asteroids that surrounds our solar system—collapses in. Humanity cannot leave the solar system or escape itself and must reckon with what it has become.

FACTIONS.

Starset’s numerous factions explore how people deal with isolation. Each is an extension of otherwise good and normal things—freedom, science, art, entertainment, business, faith, and religion—taken to fanatical extremes. Players explore the promise and pitfalls of each as each faction promises purpose and meaning to a solar system facing extinction, giving players chance to grapple with familiar demons.

STORYBORN CHARACTERS.

Create Starset characters by resolving semi-randomized backstory plot points which knit characters into the lore and grant their starting skills, abilities, and keywords. Major decisions mark characters with keywords that change how backstories unfold and characters progress. Making more decisions creates older, more experienced characters with deeper stories, while fewer backstory choices make for greener characters full of opportunity.

MECHANICS.

Starset is driven by a unique dice pool system where players’ dice pools double as their health. Dice are spent for actions, but players receive fewer and fewer dice as fatigue and injuries build up. Actions targeting other players or NPCs resolve after the targets’ turn, allowing strategic interactions and active assistance or inhibition. Rules for exploring and space travel keep characters evolving during long treks across the solar system, and a lists of pre-written actions keep gameplay smooth for even the newest players.

Josiah Mork © 2025

Art by Ryan Thompson Harmon.

Cover art by Martin Buffery.