RogueShip is a turn-based, sci-fi trading simulation played on a 2D starmap of the Vespasian system, a distant stellar enclave filled with pirates, merchants, and sinister cartels.

As a rogue space trader, you pilot your starship from one colonized world to the next, exploiting the planetary commodities markets and fighting to earn enough Astra to pay off your debts to the Star Guild before time runs out. Skilled captains know that profitable spacefaring is a matter of risks, and you will succeed or fail on how well you gamble against the perils of space for a chance to trade at the best prices.

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The Vespasian Star System

An unstable but resource-rich solar system, Vespasian is home to many kinds of worlds, though only a few have been colonized and advanced into the Age of Space. While each planet is a sovereign power, commercial interests have compelled the emergence of various interplanetary trade organizations, such as the almighty Hansa Star Guild.

Open space remains a lawless frontier, with planetary forces guaranteeing only the safety of their individual orbits. Piracy runs rampant while only privateers and guild regulators dare to impose their authority on the vast reaches of Vespasian.

Many patches of the system remain uncharted and have become home to slumbering alien lifeforms, stirring only to feed on the ample Astra drifts and the engines of wayward starships.

Astra

Astra is a unique form of stellar matter found in the Vespasian system. Not only does it produce the fuel for spacecraft engines, but it also functions as the basic unit of interplanetary currency. Because both trade and travel depend on Astra, it would be accurate to think of it as the lifeblood of a star captain.

Hansa Star Guild

A cartel of merchant barons and chartered star traders. Together, the cartel’s titled members rule interplanetary trade as the lone authority in dispensing law through the militant arm of the Guild: the Regulators. Their prime objective is the banishment of contraband from the monopolies market.

Known for exploiting indebted pilots to serve as an expendable workforce, few can lease a ship from the Guild and come out ahead. Most are executed after failing to meet their debts, their ships unceremoniously reclaimed for release to a fresh pilot.

Griffon Class Starship

The Guild’s trade ship of choice is the Griffon, a small but reliable starcraft whose engines, shields, weapons, and hulls can be further upgraded to support the captain’s needs. Cheap to produce, the guild expects its captains to finance improvements themselves. If the Guild reclaims the ship, they turn a profit, but if the captain can fulfill his contract he soars away with a formidible investment.

Galactic Trade

With individual planets suffering from resource shortages and a galaxy of billions to support, interstellar trade has become the theater of power in the Age of Space.

Each world prefers some commodities and disregards others, with exotic items traded only in a few, obscure markets. Additionally, the Guild maintains a galactic index tracking the turbulent market trends as demand for commodities periodically rises and falls in accordance with mankind’s struggles. A successful trader will play to these facts, following the path of opportunity to the right planets at the right times.

While any commoditiy can be turned to profit, it is the insatiable demand for contraband that carries the greatest promise of windfall fortune (or for those apprehended by the Regulators, a life of slave labor on a lunar penal colony).

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