From publisher blurb:
What is Junker Space Fantasy?
So let’s break down these two separate genres as they are quite different -- beginning with space fantasy. The genre of space fantasy is usually categorized by several items: the inclusion of some sort of “mythic quest,” a young pupil and aged master, a kind of knightly order or analog, and a dark force or power which the pupil and master must fight against. The most clear example of this is George Lucas’ Star Wars or something like the Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon serials of the 1930s. Whether it is in the far future or far past, there is this fantastical quality to the science fiction story that grants it that moniker of space fantasy. To coin a phrase, “magic space wizards” is a perfect description of what space fantasy is at its core.
Now the junker element. Films like Mad Max or Waterworld would count as junker films as they are post-apocalyptic or occurring during the apocalypse and place an emphasis on a junky, rusty, rough and tumble kind of aesthetic. Fury Road does perhaps the best job of exemplifying this genre, followed by video games like Borderlands or Destiny, both of which have those rough-around-the-edges kind of quality to them that lend well to the junker aesthetic.
So junker space fantasy… how the hell does that work?
Junker space fantasy plays on the visual inspiration of the junker theme but has the mythic and fantastical elements of the space fantasy. The plethora of worlds and the biotechnological nature of the planet of Adelphos are designed to feel like a hybrid of scientific engineering and magic or perhaps a kind of union of one overtaking the other. A young speeder pilot who built his suit from scrap metal under the tutelage of an old battlesmith who is fighting against the expansion of a shadowy empire is an example of a union between those two genres.
Whether it is forming a guild to clown around the stars while exploring alien ruins; blasting huge monsters aside with a rune-powered gun; working in the hold of an old treasure galleon on your scrappy speeder; or performing powerful cosmagic in the depths of a black hole being opened in the middle of the county capital surrounded by xeno-necromancers -- Comets & Cockpits invites you to strap on your armor, grab your saddle and coneslinger, gather some other junkers and make the deep dive into wild and zany space fantasy that we present for your 5e table.
From the Journal of Ironbashk, Space Goblin Warlock and Junker Extraordinaire
Hello there, junkers! Welcome to Adelphos, and in turn welcome to Haven! Arlo Runewright is the usual greeting committee, but he got tangled up taking care of some stuff in the Map Room with Tessin and Edmora, so he put me in charge! Dangerous choice! Anyhow, it is my job to welcome ya ta our little nook in the universe. Well, technically it ain’t little, since Adelphos is 39 billion square kilometers -- but that is beside the point! I am here to tell ya argon from apples, so here is the dealio: there are three important rules to surviving in Haven.
First rule -- ya are gonna see a lotta strange shit around, go figure! Ya are on our ancestral homeworld, something we ain’t seen in a couple millennia, SURPRISE! So the more you learn to go with the flow, the lot better this whole “acclimating” process is gonna go.
Second rule -- do not drink the blue water. Don’t give me the crock of “Oh, Ironbashk, water is blue!” No it ain’t dumbass, water is clear! I mean do not drink for the areas where you see a lurid blue spill of some kind of gunk. Means dire tardigrades have been there and gotten their rune goo everywhere.
Third rule -- throw everything ya know out the window. Ya would think with rule number one that would be self explanatory. WRONG! Shit don’t work here like it does back on yar normie homeworld, punks. Magic, monsters, money -- all different in Haven.
And the fourth rule -- fruk ya, I am adding a fourth one -- trust yar gut. Sure, there are times that ya can use yar head and logic yart way outta some shit ya might have landed in. But here in Haven and on Adelphos, ain’t got time for that shit. Eat or be eaten, shot or be shot, live or unlive.
We are visitors here on this rock - our ancestors might have lived here thousands of years ago, but it outgrew us while we was gone. Our fancy tech and magicks and speeders and whatnot ain’t jack against a planet that SURVIVED A TITAN EXPLODING HERSELF. So keep that in mind when ya are out and about. Oh, and here is this, some sorta guidebook that Arlo threw together on the planet and Haven. I added my own notes, of course.
Good luck! Ya gonna need it!