Mean Streets to Hostile Environments
After last week's Grand Galactic Tour, the final Judge Dredd & the Worlds of 2000 AD blog for 2020 delves further into the Judge Child supplement with a look at Chapter 5 of the book: Judging the Galaxy. Time to leave your Lawmaster behind, or secure it on your transport at least, and head out into the vast, dark wilderness of the solar system and beyond.
As the opening line of the chapter states, Mega-City One might be huge, but space is a lot bigger. That clearly defined statement sets the tone for the entire chapter. In the year 2102, which is the year that the Judge Child saga is set, the Justice Department, and humanity in general, are getting to grips with the vast regions of space that are able to be accessed through interstellar travel. With so many regions and civilisations to consider, this chapter provides a suitably nebulous means of categorising the location of various planets and cultures a player might find themselves visiting. Rather than precise locations, regions of space are broken down into Earth and Luna, Near Earth, Colony Space, Frontier Space and Unexplored Space.
With the regions of space categorised, the chapter then takes a look at alien civilisations and the laws one might expect to encounter whilst travelling. Again covered with a broad brush, these headings provide an overview of life beyond the Big Meg with enough nuance to leave plenty of flexibility to allow the GM the opportunity to push the players outside of the strict boundaries that are part and parcel of life inside Mega-City One.
Types of spaceship and methods of travel are covered next. The entire chapter is written with a view to fully engaging the players of an interstellar story set within Judge Dredd & the Worlds of 2000 AD, which is where this section and the next part covering space combat really come into their own. Paced to the plot and pithy is the name of the game here!
The end of the chapter is rounded out with some excellent random tables that will help any GM instantly create interesting locations within the vastness of space.
That's it for now. Check back in next week as we take a look at some of the projects you can look forward from us throughout the next year. Don't worry, this isn't the final blog post covering the content you can expect in Judge Child, just the last one for this year as we take a short break next week to highlight some of the exciting products you can expect for 2021!
