In addition to planets, there are plenty of other things in space that we can mine for adventure. In addition to the biggest gas giants and the rockiest of solid planets, let us use the remains of failed planets.

Welcome back to Terraforming, where we take a look at creating content for Starfinder in the form of locations, organizations, and sandboxes that often include multiples of both. I am Randal and in today’s Terraforming we are going to work with a dwarf planet, the three asteroids that share its orbit, and the goblins that inhabit them all.

The Egg Planet. The roughly egg shaped dwarf planet GreyEggShine orbits its star with the bulb as the leading edge, the taper trailing behind, and a slow rotation similar to the that of a bullet fired from a primitive rifle. When the system was young, a humanoid civilization began sending exploratory missions to learn and advance their sciences and technology. Hundreds of years they spent doing so, but unable to leave their home world before they ultimately disappeared. Eventually, a fleet of damage starships found their way to this system, and while charting a course for the Golarion like planet the captains noticed something shiny in the other direction. They spied, against the black of space, a body of grey rock and stardust that was littered with the remains of centuries of small craft being sent to roam its surfaces. The goblin captains could not resist the urge, and so they changed course to their new home that they named GreyEggShine. Half of the fleet was dismantled and reconfigured into housing and mining facilities while the remaining ships maintain an orbit for defensive and shuttle purposes.

The Asteroids. Following it at a distance of about 1,000 miles are three smaller asteroids about 200 miles across that share a common point of gravity that keeps them rotating in formation about 100 miles apart.

• Skinny Long. This asteroid is elongated and spins on all three axes, but with roughly evenly distributed mass it doesn’t affect the trio.
• Dark Orb. This asteroid strangely resembles dark basalt and is almost perfectly spherical.
• Donut. This asteroid looks as if it were almost disk-like in the past, but a very jagged hole near the middle clearly indicates that it was struck by something.

 

The Goblin Factions. There are currently five factions within the goblins of GreyEggShine, and they do a pretty good job of getting along when they need to. As with any society that works harder than they play, especially when confined to close quarters in a closed environment, there are many issues that crop up daily.

• The Miners. This faction is comprised of all the laborers across all the mines. While the mines look separate from above, there are underground tunnels that all lead to a centralized living center that is pressurized and has some protection from space. They work the most, the lead the worst lives, the play and fight the hardest, and they get into the most trouble when away from the prying eyes of the other factions.
• The Scavengers. This faction was originally responsible for collecting all of the craft sent in the past so that it could be repurposed. As they finished collecting the large pieces, and had to start spending more time looking for the smaller pieces, they started sending vessels to the asteroids and other places in the system to find other primitive technologies.
• The Makers. This faction contains the smartest and handiest of the goblins. They turn all the junk they find and all the materials they mine into product that can be sold to passing starships or by the merchants.
• The Merchants. These goblins are the most charismatic of the bunch (as viewed by non-goblins). They are sent to approaching ships as envoys and also travel the stars selling the wares created by the makers.
• The Military. The military includes the ruling body, as they are technically one and the same. While their military appears to operate like a normal military, it has all the quirks of goblin society and thus cannot be truly explain or understood by outsiders. Leadership can change via formal promotion following retirement or death or challenge by combat, intellect, or prank (in which the winner gets the higher of the two ranks and the loser the lower).

The Wow Factor. These goblins have been functioning as a cohesive group with little in the way of revolution or self destruction for the better part of 20 years.

The Villains. Villains from one point of view, are really just heroes, patriots, or revolutionaries from another.

• The Viziers. From admiral to admiral, every new leader has managed to keep a grip on the military and thus keep the factions all cooperating, regardless of how short they time in charge. Born when the factions were first created on GreyEggShine, these twin goblins found their calling as technomancer and mystic, and between the two of them they were able to install themselves at the top and have guided their society ever since. They rule fairly from staying in the shadows, by goblin standards, but are swift to silence any threat to their position.
• The Sullen. Ever since the first admiral was dethroned and attempted a coup by force, the viziers decided that they should no longer be allowed to play with others. Therefore, each former-admiral is taken to a small mine on Donut where they are put to work in the least difficult and dangerous mine of the operation. The most recent ex-admiral to join has devised a plan to steal the next cargo transport, attach it to the asteroid, and abscond with into the Drift where he can start anew.
• The Scared. A group of miners in the core of GreyEggShine encountered a natural fissure during a recent dig and only one returned. That entire clan refuses to return to the dig site, and are willing to decompress their entire wing to avoid whatever fate they thing awaits them.