I posted this to the Cartographers Guild. I'll repost here:
How many of the planets in this system are habitable. You could have mysterious and dangerous Ancient installations on many or most of the uninhabitable bodies, derelict ships perhaps of the Relay Builders and many asteroids may be positively riddled with tunnels and caverns dug long before the various races were summoned by the Relay signals.
All of these could be defended by ancient robotic defenses, occupied by space orc raiders or there might be rival explorers looking to exploit the treasures of antiquity or survive terrors they've accidentally unleashed. The possibilities for dungeon crawls could be endless.
More habitable worlds could also harbor ancient installations and wreckage of their own or be good places for overland adventures. Perhaps you could have fusion-powered hot air balloons sailing between floating cities in the storm-ravaged atmosphere of a gas giant.
Look at all those new pictures of Ceres and Pluto and tell me you don't see whole worlds to map on mere asteroids and dwarf planets. Imagine a castle looming over Philae's landing site. This isn't necessarily a project you can fit into one map. You could do anything from an atlas with pages dedicated to each world in the system to a single map with the larger planets represented as textured balls and a brief notation of what's present on each body. Or you could start with the latter and work your way to the former.
In addition to what I've already mentioned, you could have acid seas, fierce alien jungles, deep frozen tunnels under planet-girdling glaciers, etc.
Look at all the moons and planets of the Solar System and then add fantastic elements. Not just fantastic. Steal ideas from conventional science fiction, westerns(ala Firefly), and horror genres. Perhaps something like Lovecraft's Mi-Go or Old Ones lurk or sleep under the ice of some outer planet or bake under the sands and stone of some inner planet.
Additionally:
I'm assuming the Vries, Uon, Human Kexx and Autons are capable of coexisting and cooperating in a united party. I also assume the Drenn live in similar environments to the others. The Drenn, though pretty unremittingly hostile to the others, are capable of communication and reasoning with the others. To the point at least that one can use bargaining or trickery to get them to spare one's life or freedom or even discuss some mutually beneficial arrangements.
Exotics may live in similar environments to the others, but be sufficiently alien as to be incapable of communication. They may be uncompromisingly hostile or they may generally be peaceable unless provoked. The nature of what may provoke them may be mysterious, confusing and seemingly unpredictable.
Other exotics, such as Tumey's Krakens or Gas Dragons may live in environments completely unsuitable for Humans(etc), but they could still be a threat to the floating cities or hot air dirigibles' operations. They may also be useful allies for operations in those environments if characters can communicate with them and arrange cooperation.
A lot of how this works would depend on how closely you want to hew to the Fantasy genre. If all your foes are strictly evil and you deal entirely in a shirt-sleeve environment, then that will set particular and strong limitations on the sorts of adventures and environments that will be of interest to you...
How many of the planets in this system are habitable. You could have mysterious and dangerous Ancient installations on many or most of the uninhabitable bodies, derelict ships perhaps of the Relay Builders and many asteroids may be positively riddled with tunnels and caverns dug long before the various races were summoned by the Relay signals.
All of these could be defended by ancient robotic defenses, occupied by space orc raiders or there might be rival explorers looking to exploit the treasures of antiquity or survive terrors they've accidentally unleashed. The possibilities for dungeon crawls could be endless.
More habitable worlds could also harbor ancient installations and wreckage of their own or be good places for overland adventures. Perhaps you could have fusion-powered hot air balloons sailing between floating cities in the storm-ravaged atmosphere of a gas giant.
Look at all those new pictures of Ceres and Pluto and tell me you don't see whole worlds to map on mere asteroids and dwarf planets. Imagine a castle looming over Philae's landing site. This isn't necessarily a project you can fit into one map. You could do anything from an atlas with pages dedicated to each world in the system to a single map with the larger planets represented as textured balls and a brief notation of what's present on each body. Or you could start with the latter and work your way to the former.
In addition to what I've already mentioned, you could have acid seas, fierce alien jungles, deep frozen tunnels under planet-girdling glaciers, etc.
Look at all the moons and planets of the Solar System and then add fantastic elements. Not just fantastic. Steal ideas from conventional science fiction, westerns(ala Firefly), and horror genres. Perhaps something like Lovecraft's Mi-Go or Old Ones lurk or sleep under the ice of some outer planet or bake under the sands and stone of some inner planet.
Additionally:
I'm assuming the Vries, Uon, Human Kexx and Autons are capable of coexisting and cooperating in a united party. I also assume the Drenn live in similar environments to the others. The Drenn, though pretty unremittingly hostile to the others, are capable of communication and reasoning with the others. To the point at least that one can use bargaining or trickery to get them to spare one's life or freedom or even discuss some mutually beneficial arrangements.
Exotics may live in similar environments to the others, but be sufficiently alien as to be incapable of communication. They may be uncompromisingly hostile or they may generally be peaceable unless provoked. The nature of what may provoke them may be mysterious, confusing and seemingly unpredictable.
Other exotics, such as Tumey's Krakens or Gas Dragons may live in environments completely unsuitable for Humans(etc), but they could still be a threat to the floating cities or hot air dirigibles' operations. They may also be useful allies for operations in those environments if characters can communicate with them and arrange cooperation.
A lot of how this works would depend on how closely you want to hew to the Fantasy genre. If all your foes are strictly evil and you deal entirely in a shirt-sleeve environment, then that will set particular and strong limitations on the sorts of adventures and environments that will be of interest to you...