Beyond Star Trek – Ideas for Roleplaying from … Kindle Unlimited

Written Bydulac
Published On
11 October 2024
person reading story in Amazon Kindle tablet

Hello readers. My name is du Lac and I have a problem.

I am an avid reader and recently looked at my Goodreads statistics, discovering that I’ve completed 46 books since the end of February. This count only includes those read on my Kindle. In addition to that, I’ve likely read another 10 or so books using various other reading apps, such as the excellent Moon+ Reader on Android, or in traditional print form.

(If you’re curious about my reading speed, it’s around 2.5x the average at a similar comprehension level)

As an enthusiastic reader, I’ve been a dedicated subscriber to Kindle Unlimited for a long time. This service not only fuels my reading habit but also introduces me to a plethora of authors who might not be readily available at my local Waterstones or independent bookshops. Many of the authors featured on Kindle Unlimited have crafted intricate and immersive worlds, often interacting with their audiences through platforms like Facebook, forums, blogs, and wikis. These digital spaces support their self-published works on Amazon. Engaging with readers is crucial; much like Obsidian Fleet, without active participation, there’s no audience to appreciate the exceptional creations of these talented individuals. For these authors, it’s a relatively stable stream of income, although it can become unreliable if reader engagement wanes.

So this got me thinking about all the books I’ve read and got me thinking.

Could some of these universes be easily translatable to a collaborative writing environment? Would they offer something substantially different to the Star Trek roleplaying universe or provide a nice complementary offer?

Well, there’s one way to find out. Join me on a journey through some very different universes …

Starships Mage by Glynn Stewart

As much as I’m a consumer, Glynn is an ideas factory. Offering several different contemporary and scifi universes, one of Glynns’ most famous ones is the Starship’s Mage Universe. A universe where humanity had mastered their solar system, they swiftly found themselves being preyed on by the Reejit and experimented on to become masters of mind and matter. Those lucky enough to survive became the magi.

Like every good universe involving humanity, the magi didn’t take too kindly to being guinea pigs and eventually rebelled. Now humanity is spread across the stars, and ruled by the descendants of the leaders of that magi rebellion from Olympus Mons on Mars. However, the entire species is reliant on those magi to allow interstellar travel as a particular class, known as the Jump Mages, are the only ones capable of moving ships – 1 light year per day – between the stars.

It’s a good mix of sci-fi and fantasy which mixes up to be a funky space opera with plenty of scope within the universe to explore all kinds of different areas like the UnArcana Worlds, who deplore magic and would seek to be free of the dependency on mages, or mages who don’t press into service of the Mountain, or be a mage on an RMS ship. Or don’t be a mage at all and just explore humanity in that universe.

Omega Force by Joshua Dalzelle

Imagine you’re a US Marine. You go home after a tour of Afghanistan.

Next thing you’re being kidnapped by an alien, whisked to a distant part of the galaxy, fighting for your freedom, busting out with a crew of misfits, and forming a private security force where you try to fight for what’s right in the galaxy. While making money of course.

Welcome to Omega Force. Completely bonkers reality involving shifty cartels, rogue AI’s and humanity being introduced to aliens whether they like it or not. Also introducing aliens to coffee, never a bad thing.

It’s a pretty unique sci-fi environment, where you could host a multitude of games and storylines from someone running the coffee plantations which are fuelling the galactic addiction, corporations, various polities, mercenaries. It’s a very fertile galaxy for a collaborative writing experience.

Peacemaker Universe by JN Chaney & Terry Maggert

This series is formed of three sets of books – Backyard Starship, Peacemaker Wars, and Peacemaker Wars: Origins.

Emerging from the creative minds of JN Chaney & Terry Maggert is a captivating tale set initially on Earth in the near-modern era. The story takes a thrilling turn when the Van Tudor family is unexpectedly transported from their peaceful Iowan farm into the vast, uncharted territories of space, with its intricate political landscape. As the narrative unfolds, a civil war begins to brew among the Peacemakers, the law-keeping force of this known cosmic realm, threatening its stability. The Van Tudors, alongside their allies, embark on a mission to restore order. This richly imagined universe offers countless opportunities to immerse oneself in diverse roles, such as a Peacemaker, a member of various alien species, a crew on shipping vessels, or even a cunning criminal.

Hellequin Universe by Steve McHugh

Going off the sci-fi route, this one’s more of an urban fantasy story based round one question.

What if magic was real? That’d make all of the legendary characters from civilisation real wouldn’t it? What if Avalon was real? But instead of it being a city in England, it was a realm – a pocket world connected to Earth and just off the coast of England?

Admittedly, it’s a big question. One where the author wraps in all kinds of lore and mythology from the eras past with a good dash of heaven and hell, dwarves, elves, werewolves, alchemy, the supernatural and everything. Unsurprisingly, there’s good and evil in this universe and people on both sides fighting up and down the proverbial pyramid. You could work for Hades (he’s a good guy), you could be a dwarf, you could be a werewolf, or an elemental, or a wizard (licenced or unlicenced), or a hunter … lots of possibilities in a contemporary setting makes for an interesting universe.

Plenty of Roleplaying Inspiration

This is just the tip of a vast iceberg of content available. If you have an interest in writing, although our community is renowned for Star Trek, your work doesn’t have to be Star Trek-themed. This is where Task Force 47 comes in — begin with the Traveller’s Rest, draw inspiration from this or many other writers out there, and you could create your own game. The roleplaying opportunities are limitless, and worth the time to explore!