stories shaped by dice – a tabletop RPG actual-play podcast with emphasis on storytelling – listen to us play or read the serialized narrative
Alpha Centauri video game setting
Cleve is the exact sort of man you would want out in the wilderness. He seems to have a head for appropriate supplies and knows how to shoot a gun. He also has that sort of rugged “man’s man” look to him. Brown cargo pants, rumpled off-white safari shirt with sleeves rolled up to the … Read more
We clamber out of the beetle nest, Cleve all taken with his new prize, an acid sac. Once out on the hillside, the grandeur of Chiron spills out before us. In the distance we can see a huge stretch of water. It could be a large lake or the edge of an ocean. Around us, … Read more
The new arrivals are like beetles the size of deer, but their legs and parts of their body are covered in fine gray fur, like the way some spiders are. They have giant pincers in front, and they are screeching! I have the presence of mind to step away from the eggs, in case they … Read more
The first extraterrestrial lifeforms that Mariah and Cleve encounter are less than happy to see them.
With Cleve up beside me, I finally take a moment to look around where we’ve escaped to. It’s illuminated by dappled sunlight, but I can’t really call this place a room. It’s more like… a nest. Branches, stems, vines, whatever these are, they are woven together around the small space. It reminds me of some … Read more
“Warning, emergency cryopod opening. Please proceed to the nearest muster point.” Those are the first words I hear as I swim back to consciousness. They repeat again more slowly, and my pod unseals with a click as the injectors withdraw from my flesh. The lid flips up, and I blink my eyes open, trying to … Read more
The trick for getting around in a place you don’t belong is confidence. If you act like you belong, no one will question you. (Actually belonging is, of course, much harder.) I know the floor plan of Unity. I know exactly where I need to go and what I need to do when I get … Read more
Mariah and Cleve leave Earth aboard Unity, seeking a new life on the planet Chiron in the Alpha Centauri system. But something goes wrong on the way there.
Mariah Esteban Thorne had an unstable childhood in a rundown section of Los Angeles. He spent his teenage years working retail and con jobs, then secured a position in sales for the Unity Project. Denied a slot on the expedition itself, he stowed away aboard the ship. Pronouns: he/him Physical description: Twenty-six years old, Mariah … Read more
Augustus Octavius Cleveland, who goes by Cleve, is the oldest child of self-sustaining farmers on the central plains of Canada. After several years in the military, he returned to civilian life, where he took a job as a survivalist and guide on the Unity Project for the Santiago family. Pronouns: he/him Physical description: Thirty-one years … Read more
Alpha Centauri: Chronicles of Chiron is a tabletop roleplaying campaign set in the world of the video game Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.
