Last week, many of you dared to hope.
Burn Bryte launched on Roll20, and we couldn’t be happier with the reception. Thank you so much to everyone who has already picked it up, shouted about it online, or organized a group to have some fun in Olaxis. If you want to talk more about the game, a few awesome fans have already started a Discord server that you should join.
Burn Bryte takes place in the shrinking Olaxis galaxy. This setting sits at the heart of all Burn Bryte stories, so we want to drop an excerpt from the Burn Bryte Core Rulebook about Olaxis to show you what life is like in the galaxy. Here you go!
The sapient species of Olaxis have long histories, and most have been expanding across the galaxy for centuries. While each is distinct and has its own home world, there are many places in Olaxis where no single group of sapients dominates. In these systems different species live, work, and love together, creating new cultures and governments from a variety of customs.
A century ago, a red and orange phenomenon, now dubbed the Burn, began to engulf the Olaxis Galaxy on all sides. Everything the Burn touches is consumed by it, and nothing that enters the Burn returns or is heard from again. It advances at an erratic pace and has already overtaken many worlds. As the Burn constricts the galaxy, panic increases as every being in Olaxis fights for increasingly scarce resources and a home as far from the Burn as possible. Corrupt overguilds, wicked pirates, and nefarious politicians take advantage of the situation and use the disaster for their own gain.
The technology of Olaxis relies primarily upon plasma, a magic fluid found below the surface of some of the galaxy’s terrestrial bodies. Plasma powers technology that makes convenient space travel, instantaneous language translation, the generation of force fields, and more possible. At its height Olaxis was a utopia of magical innovation and technological expansion. Even the most derelict and desperate locations in Olaxis have magic integrated into parts of their infrastructure, though not all have the resources to power it.
The galaxy is divided into three lobes. Nestled in Olaxis’ center are the Heartworlds, where the wealthy have centralized the dwindling resources to wrest control of the systems furthest from the Burn. The Midbelt houses laborers and others who struggle to survive. The Ghost Belt touches the Burn and is home to bizarre hazards, abandoned ruins, unexplored space, and unsubstantiated rumors.
The governments of Olaxis attempt to maintain rule of their peoples as panic and war erupt, but they’re not the only power players. Five overguilds control transportation, communication, construction, medicine, and security forces in the galaxy. Meanwhile, organizations of criminals, scientists, and heroes travel Olaxis looking for profit, destruction, or worthy causes.
As worlds disappear and the Burn creeps closer, sapients all over Olaxis flee their homes, looking for refuge closer to the center of the galaxy. As the number of habitable planets dwindles, more governments close their borders, leaving refugee Olaxans nowhere to go. They crowd failing spaceships, inhospitable moons, and doomed planets looking for a place to live.
Though the Burn is slowly wiping Olaxis from existence, many estimate that it will take hundreds of years before the galaxy is fully consumed. There are heroes in Olaxis, called adventurers, determined to help those in need, despite the fate of the universe. Some even dare to believe they might find a way to stop the Burn or reverse its effects.
So there you have it! If you’re interested in reading more about or telling a story in Olaxis, head on over to burnbryte.com. We’ll see you at the edge of the universe.
As a reminder, we’re matching donations to Code2040, “a nonprofit activating, connecting and mobilizing the largest racial equity community in tech to dismantle the structural barriers that prevent the full participation and leadership of Black and Latinx technologists in the innovation economy.” Learn more and donate through our Tiltify campaign here: Nonehttps://tiltify.com/+roll20/roll20-community