Bellerophon

 

Beneath Twin Suns: A New World Awakens

For decades, I’ve carried Aranor in my heart and head. Its foundations were laid long ago, its bones shaped by years of thought, play, and testimony. Aranor is the long‑rooted myth, patiently cultivated, canonized piece by piece.

But sometimes, a world doesn’t wait decades. Sometimes it erupts overnight.

Bellerophon was born less than a day ago, sparked by a sound—Alice in Chains—and forged in conversation with a friend. What began as riffs and fragments has already grown into a setting with factions, worlds, mechanics, and even a publishing roadmap. It is beleaguered, industrial, mythic. It is a closed system beneath twin suns, where survival is testimony and every choice grinds against the axes of Agriculture, Industry, and Knowledge.

This is not a replacement for Aranor. It is a sibling myth, a sudden fire beside the long‑burning hearth. Aranor remains the epic, the legacy. Bellerophon is the crucible, the immediacy, the proof that inspiration can strike and take shape in less than 24 hours.

So consider this your warning: something new is coming.

Bellerophon Science Fiction RPG: Beleaguered Roleplaying Beneath Twin Suns.

It will not sprawl across galaxies. It will not leap between stars. It will live, and die, beneath twin suns. And soon, you will too.

My First Sci-Fi Love

A few weeks ago I took a quick peek at Alternity. While I think Alternity is great, it isn't my first sci-fi love. Judging by my age and history with the hobby, you may be tempted to think my first love would be Traveller. I do love Traveller, and maybe I did indeed love it first, but it is not my First Love. Traveller's design was completely linked to the Imperium, no matter how much anyone may try to deny it. Sure, you can make up your own setting, but at the end of the day Traveller's design paradigm will leave you with your own version of the Imperium. Not that there is anything wrong with that, the Imperium is a fine sci-fi setting. Traveller, for me, never seemed to have a wide-open, anything-is-possible attitude. Then, along came a darling of a sci-fi game that was over-the-top, gonzo sci-fi at its free wheeling best.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you . . .

This little beauty had it all (except starships). That cover tells you everything you need to know. Of course, it wasn't a perfect design, but it was fun. It had that lightning-in-a-bottle of OD&D. Just enough of a framework to hang your own adventures and house rules on.

Then, along came . . .

Knight Hawks actually has a nice physics model under the hood. Not perfect, it is science fiction, but the rules for starship movement are pretty well thought-out. A real surprise given the general aura of "thrown together" that surrounds these two games. There has never been any doubt that everything in the TSR stable took a back seat to D&D, so to discover that these two titles actually comprised a good, consistent, fun gaming experience proved a very pleasant surprise.

They are still available, and free, at Starfrontiersman.com. Also available at that site is Starfrontiersman, a free fan e-zine. It looks pretty good, with 17 issues for free download, the most recent being from October 2011.