Premise and Feel of the Setting

**Feel, Players and Party**

* DnD by way of Firefly\Sincerity with elements of Warhammer 40K and Soul-esque lore (well that's the goal at least). I hope this will work out, but it's likely there'll need to be some course correction as we go.
* The party will start off as exiles, outlaws or vagabonds. Those who either can't or don't wish to live in the heart of the Oecumene. However the party doesn't need to be in fear of bounty hunters. The population of Creation is counted in the billions; it's unlikely you've pissed off anyone powerful enough with the resources to find you across dozens of worlds'…..yet.
* You'll have a ship, tentatively called the Second Chances. This might not be yours at the start of session 1.
* Planet of the week(s). I want the campaign to be fairly episodic with pretty clear start and endpoints for each "episode". Though an "episode" might last more than a week.  Characters staying on the ship for some adventures is perfectly valid, not all TNG episodes had Data on the away team, sometimes he just stayed behind to learn what love is. Levelling however will be shared across the party regardless of adventure party make up.
* I plan to call planets/worlds, spheres because Witcher and it sounds more "swords and sorcery".

**Basic Lore and Setting**

* The gods of Creation are real, physical, apathetic and horrific. Few who meet them live to tell of it. Religion is based on transactions of power for service. The only real difference between a priest and a warlock is how mainstream a patron is.
* All of Creation falls under the domain of Oecumene
* The Oecumene  is an imperial autocracy it is huge and unimaginably complex. It is very possible to fall through the cracks between its many bureaucracies. Many crimes, even against the representatives of the Sovereign themselves, might be "lost" with a bribe or some convincing words.
* The Oecumene  encompasses almost every world which each has a regional government. These local systems might vary from noble houses to democratic parliaments . However all these worlds must pay a tithe to the Sovereign or face the Thrones wraith. It is fear not loyalty that keeps the countless minor factions in line. Take this that even if the Oecumene  is after you many planets will still be friendly to you.
* The Oecumene  is not actively discriminatory on a legal level you should expect races like Aasimar to have an easier time navigating imperial bureaucracy while Tiefling might struggle. Basically legally it's equally but culturally it's not (there won’t be any pogroms!!)
* The Oecumene doesn't encode racism into its laws it does encode religion. Being irreligious is tolerated, some more fanatical worlds may shun you ( being a full blown atheist is just factually wrong), worshipping the wrong gods will have you in-prison and worshipping a certain god will have a mob trying to lynch you in the street. I will stick to this, if you even jokingly mention his name in a positive light the vast majority of people will try to get you strung up. (Said forbidden god is called Taknaz-Dutu. He is the creator of Mind Flayers).

**Other**

* Hp: I'll try to be treating hp a little differently to explain why a long sleep heals grievous bodily harm. Think of hp as the number of mistakes you/an enemy can make before a major wound is taken. Basically meaning I might narrate a "hit" as a miss that causes the target to panic a little and so lose their stance etc. This might not be true for huge dragons etc which would take many blows regardless. Hopefully this makes sense. Again I may drop this if players aren't liking it.