Scrapyard was a waste storage site on the planet Belgaroth. Although Belgaroth had many junk fields, only one of them became known simply as the Scrapyard. It covered an area of 900 square kilometers and served as the main dumping ground for obsolete equipment, worn-out ship parts, expended weapons, burned-out droids, toxic waste, and the occasional victim of the local crime syndicate. Piles of debris sometimes reached 50–60 meters in height. There was no security at the Scrapyard, as there was almost nothing worth stealing. Chemical clouds constantly hung over the area, and the soil was saturated with poisons that had been dumped there for years.
During the time of the Galactic Empire, the planet Belgaroth became a textbook example of a small, insignificant world destroyed by the New Order for its own selfish purposes. The ecological disaster caused significant changes to the planet’s natural environment and forced local species of flora and fauna to adapt rapidly to the new conditions. Predatory swamphulks quickly learned to digest aggressive chemicals and consume processed metal waste. In this altered world, wild swamphulks settled in the surroundings of the Scrapyard, and, despite the harsh conditions, they learned how to survive there.
Behind the scenes
The Scrapyard was created for the sourcebook Coruscant and the Core Worlds (2003) for the Star Wars Roleplaying Game by Wizards of the Coast. In the informational section on the planet Belgaroth, a brief entry is provided about the Scrapyard and other locations associated with the planet. The sourcebook presented the Scrapyard as the setting for two game adventures – «Let's Pick through Garbage!» and «A-Hunting We Will Go».
The first scenario began with the player characters needing a redundant hyperdrive governor unit – a rare and hard-to-find component without which their ship would be unable to lift off into space again. A dispatcher told them that their best chance of finding the required part was to head to the Scrapyard and try to locate it among the wreckage of thousands of ships that had been brought there over many years. The Scrapyard’s territory was vast, meaning a long search operation lay ahead, complicated by the local aggressive fauna. Additional trouble came from a gang of smugglers who had buried some contraband there until they could safely move it. When the heroes became unwanted witnesses, the smugglers decided to get rid of them.
The second adventure once again forced the players to return to the Scrapyard – but this time not of their own free will. While the heroes were on the planet, they were approached by the local criminal syndicate. Soon after, their ship was confiscated under the pretext of violating some local codes – although careful observation could suggest that the charges were fabricated. To get their vessel back, the group had to carry out a job for the syndicate. The local crime lord wanted to obtain the carcass of a wild droidbreaker and promised to return the ship only after that.