Descent to Inner Space

Creating your character

Character creation will happen collaboratively before play begins, with final details confirmed during Session 0. You are welcome to arrive with a concept, a draft character, or just a broad idea such as “ship engineer,” “ex-pirate,” “xenobiologist,” “Assembly patrol officer,” or “reckless pilot.” Characters will start at level 3 using the standard Starfinder 2e character creation rules. Ability scores, ancestry, heritage, background, class, starting equipment, and credits will all follow the normal rules for a new character unless we agree otherwise during Session 0. The whole party will also create the crew together. This campaign begins with you as the crew of a shared ship, so we will decide as a group what kind of vessel you have and what sort of people you are: explorers, salvagers, smugglers, patrol officers, mercenaries, scientists, diplomats, luxury-cruiser staff, pirates, or something stranger. Your character does not need to be a conventional hero, but they should have a reason to accept a dangerous expedition into Inner Space and be able to function as part of a crew. Any official Starfinder 2e player options are welcome. Please check with me first for rare options, unusual concepts, third-party material, or anything that might strongly affect the tone of the campaign. I am very happy to help newer players build characters and explain the system as we go. Please come prepared to answer three questions: 1) Why would your character risk entering Inner Space? 2)Who receives your share of the five million creds if you do not return? 3)What might make your character question the mission?

Preparing for the session

We will use Discord for voice chat and Roll20 for battle maps, so players will need free accounts for both before the first session. Before play begins, please: 1) Create or confirm access to a Discord account. 2) Create or confirm access to a Roll20 account. 3) Make sure your microphone works clearly enough for voice play. 4) Join the Discord server and Roll20 game once the links are shared. 5) Bring either a completed level 3 Starfinder 2e character, a draft concept, or a rough idea you would like help building during Session 0. You do not need to be an expert in Starfinder 2e. I am happy to help with rules, character creation, Roll20, and anything else needed to get started. I am also happy to accommodate another platform if the table strongly prefers it. Please let me know before Session 0 so we can agree the best setup together.

What Craig Wilkinson brings to the table

I aim to provide an immersive, cinematic, player-driven game where the world feels alive and your choices matter. For **Descent to Inner Space**, that means a rich sci-fi setting full of strange worlds, alien cultures, political tension, dangerous science, first contact, starship missions, and mysteries that unfold through play. I will provide character voices, ambient music where appropriate, visual handouts for those sneaky one player only whispers, and a wide range of detailed battle maps through Roll20. Combat encounters will often include more than simply “defeat everything in the room”: expect secondary objectives, environmental hazards, shifting terrain, time pressure, tactical choices, and unexpected complications. Starship encounters, exploration scenes, social conflicts, and investigations will all have a place in the campaign. Character story and development are central to how I run games. I enjoy working with players to explore their character’s motivations, history, relationships, fears, ambitions, and personal stakes — always to the extent each player is comfortable. Your backstory does not need to be huge, but I will look for ways to make your character feel connected to the world and the unfolding story. My table has a strong mix of roleplay, investigation, exploration, tactical action, and collaborative storytelling. I want players to feel that they are part of a crew with real agency, not passengers on a fixed plot. The universe will move around you, factions will act, events will escalate, and consequences will follow, but your decisions will shape how the story develops. Rules matter at my table. I use them to structure NPCs, environments, combat, challenges, and consequences, and I expect players to use the rules as the foundation for how they interact with the world. That said, I am absolutely open to exploring the limits of the system, rewarding imagination, and finding fair ways to support creative ideas. If you want to try something bold, cinematic, or clever, I would much rather work out how it could happen than simply shut it down. The goal is a game that feels tense, exciting, collaborative, and memorable: a place where tactical choices matter, character moments matter, and the impossible unknown is always waiting just beyond the next jump.

Homebrew rules

I will mostly run Starfinder 2e rules as written, especially while the table gets comfortable with the system. Rules provide the shared foundation for combat, exploration, starship action, and consequences, but I will always try to support creative problem-solving where it makes sense. The main quality-of-life rule I use is Galactic Hero Points: when you spend a Hero Point to reroll a d20 check, any result below 10 is treated as a 10. This makes Hero Points feel heroic rather than frustrating, while still keeping risk and uncertainty in the game. I also use a practical approach to information-gathering checks. When a character succeeds on a Recall Knowledge, science, culture, perception, or investigation-style check, I aim to give useful, actionable information rather than vague trivia. On a strong success, players may get extra context, a tactical clue, or a follow-up question where appropriate. Creative actions are welcome, but they still need to fit the action economy and the fiction of the scene. If you want to try something cinematic, unusual, or clever, I will work with you to find the fairest roll, cost, risk, or consequence rather than simply saying no. For this campaign, there may also be a light campaign-specific Dimensional Resonance rule when travelling between the Outerverse and Inner Space. This will be introduced clearly in play and will usually involve one strange advantage and one unsettling drawback when operating outside your native reality.

How Craig Wilkinson creates a safe table

Player safety and comfort are important at my table. Descent to Inner Space is a sci-fi campaign with mystery, danger, first contact, war, political tension, and cosmic unease, but it is still a collaborative game where everyone should feel respected and able to enjoy themselves. Before play begins, we will use Session 0 to discuss tone, expectations, character concepts, table etiquette, and safety boundaries. I will ask players to share any Lines and Veils they want observed. Lines are content that will not appear in the game; Veils are content that may exist in the world but will fade to black or remain off-screen. Players are welcome to share these openly, by private message, or in whatever way feels most comfortable. During play, I am happy to use simple digital safety tools such as X, N, and O via Discord chat or private message. X means stop or remove the content, N means the scene is approaching discomfort and should be adjusted, and O means the player is okay and wants to continue. No one needs to justify using a safety tool. I also support an open door approach: players can step away, take a break, or message me privately at any time. If a scene gets intense, I will check in with the table, and I am happy to pause or redirect as needed. After difficult or emotional sessions, I like to allow a little space for decompression, questions, and feedback. Players can also message me afterwards if something did not land well or if they would like anything adjusted for future sessions. The table is inclusive and open to all respectful players. Bigotry, harassment, or behaviour that makes other players feel unsafe will not be welcome.