Long ago, astronomers on Earth designated this distant, medium-sized yellow star with an alphanumeric code. Later on, when better telescopes revealed the details of its planetary system, someone renamed it after a minor goddess in the old Greek pantheon. But to the crew and passengers of the giant colony ship ${Name of your ship?}, it’s universally known by the nickname Geelox. That’s a shortening and corruption of Goldilocks, because the fourth planet from this new sun is just right. It’s a little larger than Earth, spins a little slower, and orbits the star a little faster. But the average global temperature is within a few degrees of the slowly warming planet you left behind, there are signs of plant and animal life, and the atmosphere is even breathable.

You’re ${character.name}, Captain of the ${Name of your ship?}. Even at the unlikely superluminal speeds enabled by the Mason Drive, the journey to your new home has taken seven years, three months, twenty-two days, and eight hours. In that time, you’ve dealt with asteroid damage, equipment failures, unexpected course corrections, and even had to put down a near mutiny. But at long last, you’ve finally arrived.

At your order, the ${Name of your ship?}‘s maneuvering thrusters fire, breaking orbit to begin the enormous ship’s first and only descent into the atmosphere. The hull begins to glow red-hot from friction with atmospheric gases. You begin a controlled burn, expending much of your remaining fuel to slow the ship’s meteoric fall into a controlled descent, towards the largest of the planet’s three southern continents.

Viewscreens show your chosen landing site below as a brown-green blur that gradually fades into focus. You see plains, rivers, forests, a large silver lake, a range of jagged mountains. The strange alien treetops come closer, and you give one final blast on the thrusters, scorching the ground below as the ${Name of your ship?} comes to rest for the last time.

It’s done. You’re still the Captain, but your beloved ship will never fly again. The ${Name of your ship?} will become your base and staging ground, to be slowly dismantled and repurposed as your new colony builds itself. You’ll serve as expedition leader and interim Governor until the colony is well established, at which point its already written Constitution will take effect, and the colonists will elect their own leadership. Then, you can enter a well deserved retirement. But before that, you have lots of work to do.

Your first priority is to