The Gorgonis Sector

Art by Daniel Vega

Well, it happened again. It seems my post from last week about Rogue Trader: Warhammer 40,000 and how its setting, taken in a vacuum, is something very different than what would evolve later on is doing numbers. This isn't the first time that I made a one-off post about an existing setting that I found gameable only for that post to end up breaching containment and generating a lot more buzz than I thought it would, but this time the reception is a lot warmer, so there's that at least.

But it did get me thinking, and I've decided I want to do more with this idea.

Probably my favorite part of the Warhammer 40,000 universe is how it was specifically designed to have room for just about anything fans could imagine. Space, after all, is big, and an entire galaxy is especially big. The factions of 40k were created to be just vast and decentralized enough that every player's army is canon - there's room for every concept and fan creation to exist somewhere in the universe. I love that. Not only does it do a much better job capturing the sweeping scale of a grand space opera than pretty much everything else I've ever seen, but the way in which it integrates the players and their creations gives people the license to do whatever they want with the setting. And that's an approach I wish more of the big names in the TRPG sphere did, as I've discussed before.

In my opinion, it's the 40k RPGs that have taken this conceit and ran with it. One of the best things Fantasy Flight Games ever did with their line of 40k RPGs was to have the default setting of each game take place in a different sector of the Imperium, a tradition carried on with Wrath & Glory, the new RPG by Cubicle 7. This not only allows for a greater breadth of coverage that can truly delve into how diverse the Imperium is and how wildly culture can vary between planets and sectors (something increasingly vanishing in the wargame - I will never forgive Games Workshop for what they did to the Imperial Guard), it also keeps each release feeling fresh. But it also opens the door for a whole new level of creative potential. Why stop at creating your own Space Marine Chapters when you can create entire sectors of space for them to inhabit?

This approach has caught on with a number of fan projects. 4chan, for example, came together to create the Tiji Sector, and later a more serious attempt in the Victorum Sector. But in light of the reception to my post on the setting of Rogue Trader, I thought about taking a different approach: what about making a sector that could only exist in that universe?

One of my favorite blogs kitbashed one of those things.

I'll be devoting the next few posts of this blog to my current hyperfixation: creating a homebrew sector specifically for the setting of Rogue Trader, ignoring any subsequent 40k lore. For my purposes, only what's established in Rogue Trader is canon. I can bring in elements from later 40k lore if I want to, but I cannot contradict what's established in the first core rulebook, and I cannot introduce new factions wholesale.

For instance, I love the concept of space hulks - the idea of massive derelict spaceships (or conglomerations thereof) filled with valuables and threats alike is perhaps the best translation of a traditional fantasy RPG dungeon to the realm of science fiction that I've ever seen. I want to use them. Space hulks were only established as a thing by the eponymous board game two years after Rogue Trader, after the addition of Chaos as a faction. But I feel like the existance of Chaos has much greater implications for the setting than the existence of space hulks (and indeed, they're implications that make what's shown in Rogue Trader impossible), so I can use space hulks but not Chaos.

This is a look into what a sector of the Imperium might look like if Warhammer 40,000 never abandoned being a pulp-drenched gonzo space Western envisioned by an insane person (affectionate). Lore purists need not apply. Gaming in the Gorgonis Sector is not a cerebral examination of the self-destructive nature of fascist extremism. Gaming in the Gorgonis Sector is about teaming up with an elf space pirate wielding a pistol-sized grenade launcher and a power-armored coked-up cyborg barbarian wielding a gun that shoots ninja stars to blow up interdimensional space vampires on Dinosaur Planet. I highly recommend you check out my previous post if you want to get up to speed with the setting we'll be working with here. And no, I did not get those weapons backward!

So for those of you who are still here, sit back and watch this space as we take a tour of the last stop 'til Logan's World!

When the Eye of Terror blinks, ships fly between the Lost Worlds and the rest of the galaxy. Miners ship their ores and slavers play their loathesome trade. Where chance permits, the forces of the Imperium make their mark, bringing to the Lost Worlds the brutal order of the Imperium, if only for a few days.

What perhaps galls most at the local Imperial Commanders, however, is the Cambion Spur - a warp-lane located at a relatively stable point in the Eye of Terror, located in the Gorgonis Sector. Though the route is still dangerous without a trained Navigator, advanced pathfinding computers, or (preferably) both, vessels are capable of crossing the Spur into the Eye of Terror year-round, allowing traders and travelers to bypass the need to wait for the storm to dissipate.

Such a safe route would be a tremendous strategic asset to the Imperium - were it not for the dastardly Naraka Syndicate, a criminal enterprise that controls passage through the Cambion Spur. Their talons extend into all sorts of bloody business conducted through the sector, from the pirates who menace shipping lanes to the hoverbus gangs of Helsreach.

One system stands as the last bastion of Imperial law in the Gorgonis Sector. From the capital world of Gorgonis Major, the Imperium holds against pirates and raiders, but there is only so much they can do with their stretched resources - supply lines from the distant Imperial core are unreliable and often tied up in the intrigue of Earth's noble houses.

But even they enjoy a comfortable existance in comparison to Pacifica, an Imperial holdout on the inside of the Eye of Terror that must hold its own with woefully outdated technology and dwindling stockpiles.

And it is not just pirates that Pacifica deals with, for the planet lies dangerously close to the Orrathi Empire, an Orkish domain. The Imperium has only recently negotiated a tenuous peace with the Orrathi, but who knows how long that will last?

On the fringes of Imperial society and with threats from all sides, the Imperium cannot police the Gorgonis Sector with the full might of the Adeptus Arbites. Instead, many planets abide by a rough frontier justice, with Commanders having full authority to deputize civilians, mercenaries, and privateers - be they human, abhuman, Astartes, Eldar, or even stranger yet - for official missions. But those same individuals are just as likely to go into the business for their own bottom line, or to make a name for themselves in the annals of history.

The Gorgonis Sector is a place where fortunes can be won and lost at the barrel of a laspistol at any moment. It is a place where would-be adventurers just might carve out a place for themselves in the face of the relentless Imperium. But the universe is a big place and, whatever happens, you will not be missed. . . .