Earlier this week, Theo Sanderson released a map of 3.4 million Bluesky users, visualized by follower patterns. Because I have some sort of cursed brain, my first thought was “I wonder if I could use this as inspiration for an on-the-fly galactic sci-fi setting.” After thinking about it more, you definitely can, and I’ll show you how. Welcome to BLUESTAR!

As is often the case in solar system generation, I’m using Classic Traveller’s Book 3: Worlds and Adventures to give me a solid frame to build from here. Beyond that, I’ll be leaning into the “inspiration” rather than “generation” aspect of this idea. We’ll build our few key aspects of the system from an account’s followers and then look to their place within the galactic profile map and then at their profile itself to inspire the rest.

As an example, I’ve picked a random account (Greer Jackson Food) and will be building out the rest of the system as we go through this post.

Starports, Population, and Bases

Use the account’s followers to determine the number of starports, its approximate population, and the type of larger government/military presence in the system. A starport could be a space station, a planetary settlement, an asteroid installation, and more. If a starship can dock there, it’s a starport. Scout bases are small military outposts while naval bases are full-scale military bases with fleets and standing armed forces.

100 Followers = 1 starport, 1k population
200 Followers = 2 starports, 5k population
500 Followers = 3 starports, 25k population, scout base
1,000 Followers = 4 starports, 500k population, scout base
2,500 Followers = 5 starports, 10m population, naval base
5,000 Followers = 6 starports, 100m population, naval base
10,000 Followers = 7 starports, 250m population, naval base

If the account exceeds the max followers listed here, upgrade the quality or number of ports and multiply its population by its follower account divided by 10,000. For example, an account with 50k followers would have 7 Grade-5 starports OR 13 Grade-1 starports (or any combination in between) and a population of 1.25 billion.

While the largest Bluesky accounts have millions of followers, the majority have less than a thousand so I wanted to give a baseline here to a system filled with interesting things. If you want an emptier (and a more “realistic” setting), I’m amp those numbers way up.

Using this, GREER - our example account/system - has 7 low-grade starports, a population of approx. 250 million, and a naval base. So this is probably a system with a lot of planets or other astral real estate but is fairly low-value (giving us a reason for so many minimum quality ports).

SUPERCULTURE

Next, zoom in a bit and see where our account sits within the larger subculture clusters. We’ll use this to inspire the larger-scale culture the system find itself within or between. If your account is in the “Ruby Programming Language Grove” cluster, what does that say about the culture at large? It’s likely highly technology rich, perhaps fairly advanced, and may value soft skills and software over physical labor and hardware. If your account is part of a "Animation Enthusiasts” cluster, the superculture may be one embracing the arts, public merriment, and supporting culture over tech. Accounts sitting outside of a discrete cluster I envision as being “outer rim” style settlements. These are one of the many places between - either lacking in a distinct culture or filled with subcultures that have taken to a location off the beaten path.

Follow your own inspiration here - you can make a really weird universe if you dig deep into this layer (and the next).

GREER sits between the aforementioned Ruby programmers and a Red, White & Royal Blue fanfiction community but far from either. This suggests to me a unique blend of technology-enabled art as the superculture of our system, but it’s likely thinner than the subculture that lives uniquely within it.

SUBCULTURE

Now, we look to the Bluesky account itself for inspiration. What’s this account’s primary purpose? What’s the tone and style of posting? The official account for a competitive video game may inspire a massive bloodsport arena in the system’s main spaceport while a system dedicated to posting Bible quotes may suggest a monastic hermitage nestled away in the quiet corner of the system. Take a few seconds and look at their recent posts, browse the media tab, etc. We’re taking a single account and sometimes that means a single person’s online persona and extending that out to a solar system.

Many interests may suggest several key aspects of the system - a TTRPG writer who posts their food pics (this is me) may suggest a subculture of storytellers with a number of unique delicacies to enjoy in each starport. Let your imagination run wild - and add to it as you build out neighboring systems during play. You don’t need all the details now (and may never need them).

GREER, based on the account (seen above), is a largely agricultural system (which explains the high number of low-quality ports from earlier). This is a population of farmers and brewers that only export their goods once their entire population is fed and cared for. They have a variety of specialties only made and served here. The distance between the superculture clusters is the selling point to many who live here. This is their special place among the cosmos - likely after past or ongoing persecution elsewhere in other systems.

FASTER THAN LIGHT TRAVEL

Jump points, hyperdrive gates, etc. can be pretty intuitively drawn on the fly as you play. If the account in question is relatively close to many systems, you may want to use its follower count to inspire your number of connections in and out. Every system would have at least one entrance but a system built off of a 5.5k follower account would likely have several while a 250 follower account system may only have one. Still, I wouldn’t adhere to that to strongly. Build an interesting but logical network, as if this was real space. Even small towns are near highways.

GREER is only in close proximity to two other accounts (shown above) so I decided to have it be a hallway system (one way in and another way out). I also drew out the other nearby systems to give you an idea of how I expect this map to build out as it is explored (but there are dozens of possible interesting pathways here).

OTHER DETAILS

For anything else you may want a spark of inspiration for, look deeper into the account. For character or location names, check the account replies tab - who have they been talking to? For planet/biome inspiration, look at their media or glean their location from the posts. An account in Thailand may have its primary spaceport share similar geography (though of course no solar system will be entirely like any one place on Earth).

For GREER, a quick view gives me several names (Georgia, Gilmore, Arugala, Russel, Optimum, Abbaetha, etc.) and plenty of landscape inspiration (rolling green hills, well-loved gardens, horizon-wide fields, deep root cellars, and hidden stores of fine ferments, alien livestock roaming freely, etc).

Get exploring

With all of this (which can be easily done in just a few minutes), you should now have a broad view of a unique and hopefully unexpected solar system, ready for you and your players to explore further through play.

Plus with our massive spark table that is Bluesky, you have 3,137,171 more systems ready and waiting to be dreamed up. Fly safe!

That’s my initial guide to BLUESTAR! I hope it inspires you to create some cool systems of your own and I may continue to add to it over time. If you’ve got a cool idea for an addition, let me know and I may add it here (or better yet, create your own blog post)! - Christian

In the meantime: What does your account look like as a solar system?