Black Skies, Bright Stars
A campaign starter for Dungeon World Sci-Fi campaigns by D.
Kenny (2018 CC BY SA), based on Jeremy Strandberg’s “Sailing
the Sapphire Isles” and inspired by Dirk Detweiler Leichty &
Brian Holland
Before creating characters, roll 8d6 and take turns
assigning them to the questions below. Set the
remaining 2 dice aside.
What happened here recently?
1. A time-space anomaly that’s left you crippled and
shorthanded
2. A narrow escape from an Hegemony destroyer
3. Open revolt of the Hegemony’s far-flung colonies
4. The Pirate Queen’s capture and the shattering of
her fleet
5. A tenuous treaty between Hegemony and The
Orcochik Union
6. A successful raid on a fat merchant ship
What here is not what it seems?
1. There’s a spy for the Hegemony in your midst
2. The prisoner in the hold keeps a dangerous secret
3. This system… it’s not on any of the charts!
4. You joined the crew under false pretense
5. You’re smuggling dangerous, valuable cargo
6. You’ve been flying on forged documents since
leaving port
Who or what is really in control here?
1. An unstable AI, programmed to preserve the
mission at all costs
2. The bounty recently laid upon the crew
3. The Orcochik Union (territorial & xenophobic) and
their vassals
4. The Hegemony armada, who dominate the space
lanes
5. The rebellious senator funding the voyage
6. The admiral who sent you on this mission
What (else) should we be on the lookout for?
1. Space monsters... big ones
2. Bounty hunters eager to claim a massive reward
3. The Golden Cloud, rumoured to have reappeared
after 1000 years lost in hyperspace
4. The captain’s dangerous, all consuming obsession
5. Space Pirates who prey on the shipping lanes
6. A dense field of unstable asteroids
What here is useful or valuable to us?
1. A map to the lost Alaran system
2. A vast treasure, concealed somewhere on this
moon or lying in a crashed wreck
3. A fearsome and far-flung reputation
4. The stolen plans with the secret route to get back
what’s yours
5. A favor owed you by a powerful rebel leader
6. Your ship, the fastest in the sector (+1 Speed)
What is about to happen?
1. A ship-killing meteor shower fills your scanners
2. A bloody mutiny boils, long overdue
3. Three fighter craft are set to intercept you
4. A robot in disguise is unmasked and about to be
executed on ship
5. Your shuttle descends toward a mysterious,
ruin-dotted plain on an alien world
6. After months in pursuit you spot your quarry
When all questions have had a die assigned to them,
set the two remaining dice aside and spend some
time to extrapolate the results and flesh out the
world.
Starting Disposition
Next, create characters. While establishing Bonds, the
GM asks any or all of the following:
✶ Which one of you, if any, is the captain?
✶ Which of you are officers? What is your post?
✶ Which one of you was crew long before the rest?
✶ Which of you are clearly still planetsiders?
✶ Why did you go to space? Why join this crew?
Starting Disposition
Now, take those 2 remaining dice and total them up:
10+ You start play with the initiative—there’s an
opportunity for you to seize, time to make a plan,
and/or an opening to exploit.
7-9 You start play facing down danger, but things
haven’t gone south just yet—it’s tense!
6- You’re pinned down, imprisoned, or on the run
The GM will set the scene. What do you do?
When Things Calm Down
Follow the procedure in The Perilous Wilds (“Draw the
Map”) to create the local sector together.
Your Ship
is named the: ___________________________________
Ex. Intrepid, XT4000, Star Hunter, Century Hawk
All three start at +1. Add +1 to one of your choice:
Speed Hull Crew
☐ ☐ ☐
Choose 2 advantages:
☐ Increase a second stat by +1
☐ It’s fitted for battle (missiles, turrets, combat gear
for the crew); +1 to Battlestations! to attack!
☐ Spacious cargo: add an extra ☐ to “Low Stores”
☐ Unkillable: add an extra ☐ to both “Crippled” and
“Hull Breach”
Choose 2 disadvantages:
☐ Reduce one of the ship’s stats by 1
☐ Cramped: permanently mark Low Stores
☐ Old & falling apart: permanently mark “Battered”
☐ Bitter crew: permanently mark “Grumbling”
☐ Savage crew: it takes work to keep them in line
when they have the opportunity for excess
☐ Distinctive profile: the ship is easily recognized
Conditions
☐ Low Stores (worrisome, but no effect just yet)
☐ Depleted Stores (cannot Refit in open space)
☐ Battered (mostly cosmetic damage, no effect just
yet)
☐ Crippled (can’t maneuver)
☐ Hull Breach (venting atmosphere, getting worse)
☐ Doomed (it’s breaking up, quickly)
☐ Grumbling (the crew is unhappy, but no effect yet)
☐ Miserable (need convincing to roll +Crew)
☐ Depleted (-1 ongoing to Crew and Speed)
☐ Mutinous (good luck with that)
Crew Members: Halan Portus, Kaz the Hammer, Beliza
Ciel, Asam “Moonpox” Alixis, Fritz Only, Short Jardine,
Chaat Ultima, Myles Grin, Young Phantom, Vlad the
Blade, Diamond Hikaru, Filmor Sawtooth, Akhihari,
Somat Filch, Yué Cympress, Rikard Makeso, Skycoin
Marka, and any unused names from your playbook
http://www.fantasynamegenerators.com/
Wayfind
When you chart a course across open space to a
known destination, ask the GM roughly how long
the journey should take. Then, roll +INT: on a 10+,
you chart a sound course, though the GM might still
pick 1 from the list below; on a 7-9, pick 1 from the
list below; the GM might decide to choose another:
✶ You’ll need to mark Low Stores (or Depleted
Stores) by the journey’s end
✶ The route goes through an asteroid field,
space anomaly, etc.
✶ You risk running afoul of someone or
something dangerous
Battlestations!
When the ship and/or crew acts despite an
imminent danger or suffers a calamity, say how
you all handle it and roll…
… +Speed if you try to outrun or outmaneuver it
… +Hull if you hunker down or power through
… +Crew if you rely on the efforts of the crew
On a 10+, it works as well enough, but the GM may
still choose 1 from below; on a 7-9, it works, but the
GM picks 1 and may ask you to pick another.
✶ You’re not quite out of trouble just yet
✶ Individual crew members are endangered
✶ It’s taxing; mark a condition on the ship
Refit
When you spend days drifting or docked to
recover, make repairs, resupply, or modify your
ship, roll +Crew: on a 10+, spend 3 on the choices
below; on a 7-9, spend 2; on a 6-, spend 1 but ask
the GM what crisis interrupts your work.
✶ Remove a condition from the ship
✶ Work quickly, time spent refitting reduced
✶ Trick out the ship for a specific purpose;
take +1 forward to Battlestations! for that
purpose
If you Refit in open space, spend 1 less. If you
Refit at a port of call, spend 1 more.
Space Walk
When you venture into the vacuum of space, hold
Breath equal to CON+1 (minimum 1). Each time you
roll 2d6 to make a move, pick 1 (after you roll):
✶ Spend 1 Breath
✶ Mark a debility (that you haven’t marked yet)
✶ Take your Last Breath
GM Toolkit
Ship names: Augustus’ Gloom, Andromedon, Big
Baby, Sweet & Salty, Halifax, Rat’s Maw, Drakken,
Diamon’s Folly, Emris Ray, Taker of Men, Goodboy,
Gray Walker, Hammerhead, Magicienne’s Apprentice,
Mixer, Moonraker, Skycutter, Lust for Life, Last Hope,
Poor Wesley, Rogue Two, Sundevil, St. Alderan,
Starlight, Unswerving Justice, Witchwing, White
Torment, Elysian Beacon, Golden Legend, Space
Invader, Integrity, Impera Noctis, Nostromo II
Planets, Features, and Ports of Call: Arzikos Five,
Morthrii Gate, Skull Nebula, Bulqetz’s Maw, Cyclops
Station, Forsaken Rest, Sky Fortress Leuthil, The Ruins
of Cardai, The Spice Mines of Kazhir , Dishonor’s
Landing, Moon of the Rot Lords, The Crystalline Cities
of F'Heri, The Metallic Sea of Phaeton, Pearl’s Sorrow,
Oxl Barrier, Port Aran, Sundevils’ Hole, Skyheart,
Lex-Luna, Amazone VII, Exposure Station, The Halo,
Hera Colony, Alliance Terminal, Phoenix Base, the
Shattered Moon of Ai, Tower Gate, Twelve Head Ring,
Vaknot Station
Hegemony Names: Zair, Barys, Rasolka, Uladzimir,
Rahula, Yaraslau, Sciapan, Valadar, Lojka, Ihar,
Marackin, Zmitrok, Janus, Hilar, Alzhbeta, Larysa,
Zalockus, Valantyna, Jaras, Veranika, Novik, Navuma,
Renya, Lecka, Ahnesya, Lyutsyna Lojka, Kaspiar
Alien Names: Ch'Ziame, Twedi, Meru, Aril, Drani
D'Lithi, B'Karra, Mina Fori, Taxxu, V'Tokiee, Tradi, Xari
Drypta, Neti, M'Leki, C'Sicia, Tencta, V'Droni, Mautai,
Abek Boppa, N'Taloo, Boly Eman, Otan, Centau
Ship Conditions:
The PC’s ship (and other ships, if you like) can suffer
conditions. A ship marks a condition when:
✶ A move (like Battlestations!) says it does
✶ It’s your turn to make a move, and you choose to
apply one or more conditions to a ship
✶ The fiction demands it
Applying a condition to a ship is like dealing damage:
it’s a GM move on its own, but you can also do it as
part of another GM move when it makes sense. If
they’re caught in a gravitic distortion, you’ve put
them in a spot but the ship might be Breaking Up,
too.
Ship conditions last until they Refit or take some
other fictional action to remove it. Conditions often
require that the PCs make moves to get something
done despite that condition, or to keep it from getting
worse. But that won’t remove the condition. Parley
might convince a Miserable crew to keep going
onward to the next island—but they’re still Miserable.
Battlestations! roll might patch a hull breach, but it’s
still got the condition and it’ll take ongoing efforts
from the Crew to keep it stable.
Setting Out:
When the PCs set out for a location they pinpoint on
their star charts, make GM moves (change the
environment or point to a looming threat or
introduce a faction or whatever) to describe what
they encounter.

When the PCs Wayfind, note the challenges indicated

Spacer Names: Addonia Scarhand, Satoshi ibn
by the roll. Also note any encounters that your prep
Raman, Baalut, Belin the Void, Big Ceno, Bitse
demands. En route, use your GM moves to introduce
Rockhopper, Carolis an Ezar, Ravi Three-Punch, Garen
these encounters in whatever order makes sense.
Oilick, Hemit dan Hemit, Javiar Val de Luz, Little Big
Qin, Jinoquo, Junia the Snake, Keka the Hex, Kesi If you’re unsure what they’ll encounter next or on the
Venkrisja, Lashe Godel, Leoz the Block, Lexia Vash,
way, ask them to roll the Die of Fate (d6) and see
Nanti Drak, Ninye Noee, Oki, Onyesha, Pale Moon
what they find:
Pashe, Rajabu, Rangi Stilleye, Red Bayana, Dan the
1 a Danger
Germ, Rozelle Lutest, Slick Sebastana, Sno Crush,
2 a Danger that hides or points to a Discovery
Ubaldo, Velerea, Ol’ Wile, Canis Darkmoor
3-4 nothing of interest (a barren planet, a lone
comet, etc.)
Faction Names: The Last Alliance, The Blinded Eye,
5 a Discovery, guarded by or harbouring a
The Inquisition of Hera, Sisterhood of the Phoenix
Danger
Confederacy of the True Bones, The Orcochik Union,
6 a Discovery
The Ashborn Syndicate, The Ghost Armada, The
Howlers, The Golden Coup, The Ancients’ Secret Use the tables in The Perilous Wilds to generate
Guard, The Halo Insurgency, The Flagellants of Ai Dangers or Discoveries on the fly.