The Name Of The Place... Is Babylon 5

Babylon 5 Station

Today is the 20th anniversary of the debut of Babylon 5 pilot episode, "The Gathering". It hardly seems possible that my favorite SF series (with the exception of original Star Trek) is now 20 years old.

I have been running an occasional series here on FATE SF featuring B5 conversions for the Diaspora RPG; that series is called B'abSpora. Today seems the perfect day to announce an ongoing sub series here on FATE SF about the station itself. The series will include NPCs, encounter tables, scenario seeds, and more. A metagame may emerge.

The series will be based on The Babylon 5 Station Guide boxed set, published by Mongoose as a resource for their B5 RPG's second edition.

While Mongoose has a well deserved reputation for low quality and errors in many of their publications, this particular product seems fairly decent to me.

Let's open the box and spread out the contents. Here's what we see:

Here's what the box contains:

• Four double-sided large station maps. They provide station cross-sections to orient the viewer, as well as detailed floor plans for key locations and typical locations. These are quite well done.
• The Babylon 5 Visitor's Guide (Human Edition), a 16-page booklet with quick details on the station, including a key to the symbols used on the station maps, a two page center spread with station schematics, and overview of station sectors, and quick highlights of tourist attractions (Dining, Shopping, etc.).
• Guide to the Station, a 96-page book that provides detailed information on the different levels and sectors of the Babylon 5 station.
• Life on the Station, a 64-page book covering station services, social organization and groups (military, civilian, and alien), law, a more in-depth treatment of life on the station than is offered in the Visitor's Guide, and alien governments and factions based on the station.
• The Station and the Galaxy, a 32-page booklet on the political, military, and trade missions of the station, stages of the station's history in the broader interstellar political context, support craft and station's fighter and point defenses, station security codes, and more.