A vertical map of a deep space radio relay beacon. I’m working on “Termination Shock” – a mini campaign/setting for OSR games, where we set off in the solar system, exploring planets and asteroids in the wake of a cosmic storm that took out most of our space-faring technology. These radio beacons will be highly important in the setting, as described here:
“For the last hundred years or so, cosmic phenomenons, radiation fields and electrical storms has increased in our system, and it has made communication over vast distances much harder than it used to be. We now rely heavily on a network of radio relay satellites to facilitate transmissions between planets, stations and ships. Bandwidth is low. We cannot submit video, and images arrive distorted. Since the cosmic storm, all of these satellites needs to be repaired.”
I intentionally wanted adventuring in space to be a quite scary, silent and isolated activity, hence the above setup. I don’t want Earth to be just a call away. Phoning home should be hard, and establishing contact with other ships or planetary outposts should feel like an accomplishment.