A is for Atlas.

Star Sector Atlas that is.

The Space Opera default setting is published in a series of numbered sector atlases. Five of these were published. Each starts with a historical essay, written in character by a fussy academic or scheming intelligence officer.

In each Atlas, there's a two dimensional projection of the sector. Sectors are a 3d cube, 200 light years on a side. Yes, that means a little high school level geometry is required for space travel. Given the Space opera game's typical 10 or 15 light year a day  hyperdrive, this means no two worlds in the sector are more than a few weeks apart. Major shipping lanes are marked. There are lists of transport lines operating in the sectors.

The map is followed by an alphabetic listing of the various planets, each with about twenty useful statistics (major imports, exports, types of government, gross national product and personal incomes, probability of being lynched by cheerful xenophobic lynch mobs, military installations and like that). Several of the atlases include orders of battle for local armies and space forces, with notes about unique local weaponry.

Atlas number 1 is for the Terran Sector, home of Earthlings and the Federation. The Atlas begins with an essay written by an IRSOL (UFO aliens in flying cities) leader and academic. He tells how the IRSOL found Earthlings living in gravity well squalor and fighting each other. With his leadership, his benevolent alien race intervened to  lead Earth to a new age of Galactic Enlightenment. After centuries of light handed manipulation the Earth became a Mature Civilization(TM), with only a few billion deaths along the way. They would have died anyway.

In turn Earth leads the idealistic do-gooder United Federation Of Planets (where have we heard that before?). Now the IRSOL are preparing the Eartlings and their Fed for their role as cannon fodder in their upcoming defense against the Big Bad sometime expansionist and mysterious Starrkadd Empire.  In the meantime there's galactic do-gooder fun to be had taking up the Earthman's burden of civilizing the Aliens.  And dealing with renegade Earthlings, all of whom you can bet voted for the wrong side in the last election.

The planets in sector one include a mix of human and aliens. All the major Human Powers have some presence in the sector, along with the Bugs and Lizards and other hostile inhuman enemies. There are, therefore, lots of folks to trade with or kill as appropriate for the Players campaigns. Plants in this sector include the obligatory ice world with big game, a jungle planet with really big (dinosaur) game, and a clone of Dune. Dune clones show up two or three times in the different sectors, so every campaign has an opportunity to smuggle drugs and guns and rebel against off world oppressors, while riding big worms. Something oddly Freudian about that, but I digress.

Atlas 2 is set umpteen hundred light years away, in the home sector of the Mercantile League, a bunch of Libertarian Earthlings who ran away from cruel earth oppression back in the day. Now they have their own planets. In Sector 2, the Leaguers can trade with and otherwise exploit their alien neighbors, keep an eye on pretty much the same foreign earthling ex patriot star nations as the Federation in Sector 1, and sweat over the menace of the local snake people to their greedy little hearts content. Oh, and dress funny, in homage to the honest plain dealers of the Roman Republic. (????)

The League is a pretty nice place to live, comparable to the Federation. However, the League is not such a big deal in interstellar politics as the Feds. The plutocrats in charge see little profit in meddling in others business, except if there's money in it. I reckon most traditional space mercenary action adventures would be set in the League.

Atlas 3 is another umpteen hundred light years away, at the center of the Azurich Imperium. The Imperium, as much as they deny it, are Space Nazis, Earthling self-exiled space Nazis. So heroic adventurers from the Fed or the League don't have to feel the slightest bit upset when they blast Impie bastards into itsy bitsy pieces. The Starmaster will make more. The Azzies oppress Doggie aliens, raise bird aliens for meat, and are just generally despicable. Their only good point, (and it's rather dubious) is they hate space commies. Oh there's hidden rebel bases and a bigmongous Federation Space fortress for those that like that sort of thing.

Atlas 4 would have been about the exiled earthling space commie soviet socialist republic if they'd ever published it, which they didn't. Instead they jumped to the much more interesting Ranan space Maoists in Altas 5. Ranan have the distinction of not being earthlings. They are humaniods with retrograde feet. The Ranan inhabit bunches of overpopulated politically oppressed (or occasionally, semi liberal) Chinese Maois sterotype planets. They  trade with the league, but have running cold and hot wars with the Fed, the Azzies, and the Bear aliens. The Atlas includes a brief description of another space commie group canine alien Mir.

They skipped more numbers to get to Atlas 11 and 12, from Phil Mcgregor's home campaign. Evil Korellian bastards (Spartan Mongol Klingon type aliens) oppress the noble and heroic rebel Earthling Confederacy. Pretty good stuff, but hard to move characters from other areas here, as it's umpteen Thousand Light years away. But some how the IRSOL and Federation Intellegence are snooping around and writing the footnotes.  Oh, and the Korellians are distracted by border wars with (guess who) the Starkadd. It's a perfect time for the Confederacy to rise and overthrow their oppressors.



The Space Opera Sector Atlas series contains many playable adventure settings, providing a place for just about every space opera thrope imaginable. They're available from drivethru in scanned PDF format for a few dollars. Many are available in print directly from Fantasy Games Unlimited.