What's Next for Thousand Suns?

A Look at Plans Past and Present

The Grognardia Games edition of Thousand Suns was released in 2011 and, in the fourteen years(!) since its release, it’s seen only a handful of follow-up products, most notably the Starships rules supplement and the Five Stars setting supplement. There’s also the single issue of the Imperio ‘zine, about which I’ll talk at greater length in a separate post.

There are a number of reasons why I’ve never produced any additional material for Thousand Suns, but a lack of ideas isn’t one of them. In fact, sitting on the hard drive of my computer are files for three more books in various stages of completion, as well as issue #2 of Imperio and some notes toward a revision of the rulebook (another topic worthy of its own post). These three books are:

• Technology: The 2011 rulebook includes a reference or two to this supplement, which would, as its name suggests, focus on the advanced sciences, engineering, and techniques of the Thousand Suns setting – both from a high-level, theoretical perspective but also from a low-level, practical one in the form of new equipment for the game. Another aspect of the book are systems to enable the Game Master to create his own pieces of equipment, like weapons, armor, and robots.

• Companion: This is a grab-bag kind of book, covering a wide variety of optional expansions and even alterations to the existing rules. So, there’s stuff like new species (human and non-human), careers, psi powers, career packages, etc. The intention here was to aid GMs and players alike in using Thousand Suns for a wider range of future visions without having to change too much. This is a book that’s very near and dear to my heart and is actually quite close to completion.

• Threshold: This is another sector book, like Five Stars. This one, though, focuses on a sector that’s largely uninhabited, with new colonies being established by the Terran State. Furthermore, there are Traveler sites located on several worlds, so the included scenario focuses on unraveling mysteries related to these sites and the larger mystery of the Travelers themselves.

I’ve been revisiting the drafts of these unpublished books for Thousand Suns, with an eye toward finally doing something with them over the next year or so. None of them is quite ready for publication as-is, though some are reasonably close. That’s not surprising; each was written at a time when my ideas about the game and about imperial science fiction more generally, were somewhat different. Not radically so, but enough that I now feel the need to revise them in light of my current thinking.

Take the Companion, for example. It originally included an entire chapter devoted to a simplified system for starship construction and combat. At the time, I thought this would be a useful alternative to the more detailed rules found in Starships. While I’m still fond of those original systems, I’ve come to better appreciate the desire for something more streamlined, so much so that I’m considering a revision of the rulebook itself (the topic of next week’s post). If I go that route, the chapter in the Companion would no longer be necessary.

Similarly, I’ve been toying with the idea of a dedicated book on psi powers. If that project takes shape, I’d likewise want to move some or all of the psi-related material out of the Companion and into this new supplement, where it would have more space to breathe and develop.

In short, I have a backlog – of text, of art, and of ideas – that could serve as the foundation for new Thousand Suns material. However, before I proceed, I’m weighing whether a revision of the core rules should come first and what implications that might have for everything else.

That’s where you come in. If you’ve played Thousand Suns, what kinds of support would you most like to see? If you haven’t played it, what might entice you to give it a try? More broadly, I’d welcome any thoughts you might have on the game and where it could go from here. After a long period of dormancy, I’m returning to Thousand Suns with renewed vigor and your input would be invaluable as I chart the course ahead.