With threads available for the LMC and M33 settings, I figured it was probably overdue to have one for arguably the most prominent non-Alpha setting currently in print for SFB (and the first to reach playtest form in FC); the Omega Octant.
The Omega Octant is in one of the five main inhabited regions of the Milky Way galaxy; divided from the Alpha Octant on one side (and the yet-to-be-explored Sigma Octant on the other) by great Voids, highly dangerous regions which no (normal) ship can safely cross. (You can try to get there and back by going "up and under" the galactic energy barrier, or you could try skirting the very edge of the Storm Zone closer to the galactic core; but until you start getting very late in the timeline, doing this is not all that feasible. So, the five regions can develop of their own accord, until the likes of the Andromedans turn up to crash the party.)
In contrast to the Alpha Octant, where empires can go through long periods of, if not peace, than at least lower levels of tension (and which those convenient neutral zones on the Federation and Empire map to help matters), the Omega Octant is a place of much greater turmoil. Empires rise, fall, and sometimes rise again; borders (which have no neutral zones to reduce tensions) constantly shift from one end of the region to the other and back again; fierce opponents can find common ground in some cases, only to go back to their old hatreds later on; and the technologies and logistical efoorts backing each empire's ambitions have a far lower degree of commonality than they do for the Alpha Octant belligerents.
In terms of starship design, (some of) the Omega empires reached the modern standard of warp technology several decades before their peers in the Alpha Octant, though with a slightly less efficient tactical warp field that limits most "early" cruisers to speed 27. However, due to the constant demands on each empire's economies (which took a toll on their various research projects) it took much longer to match the later achievements in Alpha; most speed-30 cruisers only appeared from Y173 onwards, the first war cruiser didn't sail until Y188, and more advanced technologies (like gunboats and X-ships) only emerged in the Y190s, amidst the darkest hours of the Andromedan invasion. And even then, the adoption of these systems was by no means uniform; some empires took many years to catch up to their rivals, if they managed to close the gap at all. And for those that did, each empire took the technologies in question in their own direction; in the case of gunboats, the size of each PF (and of the flotillas they served in) varied from one empire to another.
And to make things even more interesting, several empires in Omega have entirely different ideas of what exactly constitutes a starship. To the land-octopus Mirn, the ideal ship is bio-engineered from an Alunda space whale; to a warm-blooded Branthodon reptile, a cloned lobotomised space dragon with a cybernetic "hull" mounted to its back is the way to go; to the tiger-like Ryn, whose home space is short on dilithium crystals, why not use their highly powerful transporters to let them literally beam a ship around the board? Plus you have the Loriyill, faerie-like beings with ships that look like brilliantly shining butterflies; or their arch-foes the Souldra, dark energy creatures from another dimension, who use crystalline warships able to deploy vampiric Black Shards capable of draining entire worlds of life.
Fortunately, if you're looking for a friendly port of call to start off with, you can try the Federal Republic of Aurora. Founded after an entire Federation star system (and everything in it at the time) was scooped up and deposited in Omega in Y130, the Aurorans later incorporated displaced Klingon and ISC colonies, while using all of the resources and ingenuity at their disposal to build a home away from home. Plus, the FRA are generally on good terms with the Maesron Alliance, a union of several species that acts as the lead protagonist of the Omega setting (and which the Republic eventually joins as an autonomous member in Y209).
From there, a vast and fascinating setting awaits.
At present, five published modules have covered the Omega setting; the rules portion of these releases have been consolidated in the Omega Master Rulebook. Available on e23, this tome is perhaps the best way to get to grips with Omega (not least since each module's SSDs and countersheets can be mail-ordered separately).
So, for those of you who may have picked up an interest in Omega (from an SFB or FC perspective), what is your take on the setting so far, which aspects of it do you like best (or least, for that matter), and where would you like to see the setting go next?
