Protocol Era

In the hard science fiction future of Protocol Era, corporate-feudal states own all extrasolar colonies. Most people are indentured workers, happy to have escaped the backwater of Earth but miserable working off the debt of getting transported off-world. Military service is the easiest way to become indentured, and kataphract pilot is the easiest role to fill. These space grunts fight the corporation’s wars as they battle for control of colonies and markets.

Exclusion Zone is the setting’s operational wargame. You take on the role of an admiral in the service of one of the major polities. Issue orders and watch them get executed by your staff and officers, but be careful, because you don’t know where the enemy is hiding. Your orders take time to propagate throughout the fleet, so your officers on other ships may be following orders issued against an outdated tactical picture.

Letters of Marque is tactical wargame in the Protocol Era setting. It features privateers, pirates licensed by one of the great corporate houses to steal cargo from rivals. You must chase down your quarry and convince them to surrender their cargo before they can jump away. Sometimes the threat of violence is enough, and sometimes you’ll have to deploy your own kataphracts and board the target vessel.