Introducing something new and different isn't an easy task. A fantasy game like AoD offers many familiar concepts: a local lord in charge of a town, different guilds, rival Houses, traveling preachers, etc. None of it raises any questions or requires any lengthy explanations.
The Colony Ship Game is very different and there are a lot of questions that need to be answered and a lot of concepts that need to be explained without overwhelming the player with the new info. That's one of the reasons you start the game in the Pit, the container town, instead of the much stranger Habitats. It offers some familiarity and gives you plenty of second-hand information from other people.
The Pit will give you two locations: the relatively safe "main street" and the not so safe "bad part of town". Overall, it will give you more places of interest and things to do than Teron, including an arena that will allow you to test your character fairly early and figure out your limits. Did I say arena? I meant the Courthouse:
"This, my friend, is the cornerstone of justice in our little town," he says with pride. "Welcome to the Courthouse."
"I thought the Pit was a barbaric outpost where people went to hide from the law."
"No, no, far from it! We abide by the Constitution, and much more strictly than those fools in the Habitats. Every accused man in the Pit is guaranteed to have his day in court and face his accuser, just like the Constitution says. If said accuser is unable to make an appearance, an Arbiter appointed by the Court will take his place."
"What about the trial?"
"If the defendant slays his accuser, or the aforementioned Arbiter, he's cleared of all charges and released. If the defendant falls to the accuser he is declared guilty. Posthumously, of course."
"That's what you call a trial?"
"All contests conform to the process of law," he says with a reassuring pat on your shoulder, "and here is where our method is superior: it is immune to the corrupting influence of money. Try to find a system like that in the Habitats. Haw!"
"You mentioned a job."
"We're running low on legal representation for the prosecution," he admits with a sad shake of his head. "Lost three Arbiters last week in a string of challenging cases."
Other notable locations include the Regulators, a local church, a whorehouse, a prison, a gambling den, various stores, and entire town "blocks" occupied by different crews of scavengers and other men of ill repute. They will provide you with some bits of common knowledge as well as quests properly introducing other locations:
Cole:
"Combat tech and implants." He taps the data jack on the side of his head. "The good stuff, extracted with care and rehabilitated for my more moneyed customers."
"Extracted?"
"You know they don't make new ones, so where do you think they come from? Now take a look at this beauty." Cole dangles a small ball, made of some smooth, shiny substance, from a bundle of ultrathin translucent wires. As it slowly pivots, you see on its reverse side a much worn bar-code and brown spots that look like dried blood.
"Excellent pedigree," says Cole. "Four previous owners, no registered complaints, and still performs up to factory specs. It's a basic model though, which is why I'd be willing to practically give it to you for twenty chips."
"What is it?"
Cole shows you the recessed lens on the underside, the "pupil" of the device, ringed by an impossibly blue iris.
Solomon Kane:
"God has everything to do with it!" The preacher moves closer, closer than you like, leaning well into your personal space. "It is by the Lord's grace alone that the Ship was launched, and by His grace alone shall She arrive at that land He promised us so very long ago.
"And it was written," he shouts, the tendons of his neck leaping up, "I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey. The words of millennia ago, my son, millennia, for the truth of His word is eternal."
"Who are the Canaanites?"
"Those who dwell in the Promised Land, those who wait open-armed to embrace the righteous when, and only when, we prove our devotion to the Lord."
"Do you really believe that?"
"Did the Israelites not wander the desert for forty years before He allowed them into the Promised Land? Why did they go for so long without a home? They were not ready. The Israelites must first make their children worthy of the Lord's grace, and only then were those children allowed to set foot in the Promised Land."
