Suns Over Alaraes is a high techno-magic campaign setting designed for the 5th edition of the world’s greatest roleplaying game. Set on the distant planet Ouran, and the continent of Alaraes. You are an adventurer in the post-post apocalypse. Remnants of a distant technological age litter the landscape, from the great Foundries that produce a myriad of technical marvels beyond modern comprehension, to the remnants of lost tech found in curio ships and ancient temples. More often than not these ancient technological remnants have been put to use by the peoples of today, as often for their intended purpose as not.
Mixed among these scattered marvels of the ancient past are the modern magical wonders that influence and enable the day to day life on Alaraes. Ouranite augments armor and weapons to better prepare you for the dangers of thrill seeking in the wild, strange gods wander the lands investing their divine Sparks into chosen champions for some mysterious and unknowable divine game, and great wells of raw liquid magic pool in great lakes on the surface.
The people have moved on from now forgotten disasters, as much as they are able, and try to live their lives as best they can. But fate often has other intentions.
On Alaraes you will discover the Steelborn, androids searching for something long forgotten; their paths meandering and slow, seemingly at odds with the zeal with which they search. The desperate crew of a crashed starship that is trying to find a way home to Deva; a forgotten god seeks to overthrow the pantheon and halt their ceaseless game while a mischievous one schemes to help a young woman find her own path, and thus win it. A halfling tries desperately to find his way home to the techno-future he has fallen in love with, and a goddess races through void of space to save her lover from her son.
The fat, lazy, conniving, and prosperous Sha’s of Kaldar spend their days idly plotting and scheming on how overthrow one another with halfhearted enthusiasm; while unseen forces move to depose them. The last baron of Reiben tries to reunite a shattered people and put down warlords after a devastating civil war, and seeks the heir to the fallen empire he is barely holding together.
In Farneas the Obsidian Tower does what it can to combat the corruption that continues to overtake the lands, turning all it touches into mutated abominations. The uncaring emperor of Qokon makes deals with dark gods for riches and power while his citizens starve and revolt foments. The young king of Ilkor reels from the assassination of his father and tries to prevent his own. On the fringes of the continent, in forgotten and insular Oshear an ancient sleeping sky god nears his awakening. Finally, Arkon the Destroyer watches it all from his forgotten prison.
Magic is near ubiquitous in Alaraes, with even small hamlets having access to an enchanter or artificer, usually of some limited skill. Magic items are abundant and not considered especially precious. Generally treat item rarity in other settings as one step below what they are listed at (Uncommon becomes common, Rare becomes Uncommon, etc.) Keep in mind this also effects their monetary value as well.
Alaraes is set in the post-post apocalypse. While society has somewhat recovered from the Collapse, and technology is abundant in the world, much of it is poorly understood at best. A prime example are Foundries; large black-box production centers that are relics from before the collapse. Each Foundry produces one or two specialized items given the appropriate materials are provided to the input. The peoples of Alaraes may be able to perform simple maintenance and repair, but should one of these relics be badly damaged or broken, they would have no idea how to fix it. The same can be said for auto-docs or augmentation centers. Some technological concepts have simply been lost to the sands as time. However, technology is still an everyday occurance. Farmers may have grav-carts and electric razors. Hostels and Bread-and-breakfasts may have access to electricity. Adventurers may have firearms, tanks, or radios. Just because something is poorly understood, does not mean it is not used.
Suns over Alaraes is designed as a high magic/high tech setting where magic items and lost technology are around every corner. As such the balance of normal encounter design has been skewed to the more bombastic. Characters will have a wider access to strange new powers and resources, and may deal and receive more damage as well. New methods of healing are introduced, but to help offset this. This is by design. The stories in Suns over Alaraes are designed to start mundane and quickly skew towards “epic” around level 5 or 6.
With that in mind, while all mechanics are designed with gameplay balance in mind, certain higher power items are not. It is recommend that any dungeon master looking to run games in this setting, or take them for use in their own, keep that in mind. An effort has been made to keep static bonuses to a minimum, as well as continuous effects. The idea being that a one-off effect you remember is better than an ongoing one you do not.
After level 5 or 6, assuming the item rarity suggestion has been followed, it is suggested to design encounters as one step harder than intended in other settings to get an accurate read on encounter difficulty. So for a medium threat encounter, it is suggested that you design a difficult encounter to achieve the same effect. Action economy has been touched by a couple high-rarity items, and these are intended to be difficult to obtain, and may even be the subject of an entire quest or campaign in and of itself. They are to be placed in the game with caution. Damage dealing items often specifically stack, and some healing items function outside of the normal rules. The number of items with these effects have been limited to avoid number bloat, but the effect is intentional.