Here are
some ideas I have been kicking about for a while, that may well not
work but could be worth trying.
Lots of
fun has been had over on G+ with hangout based games of D&D and
near D&D, with players with characters made up in any number of
different systems dropping in and out of various GMs games more or
less on a whim, GMs linking different campaign worlds, running games
in other people's homebrew settings, all kinds of unholy inter-game
miscegenation and perversity.
While
there have been some Traveller games run, there hasn't been the same
buzz. The closest thing to it has been Jez Gordon's Star Wars game,
with ever changing parties drawn from a moderate sized group of
characters.
Traveller
ought to be ideal for the Flailsnail style of play – PCs are space
bums, liable to turn up on any planet anywhere (any GMs pet
planet/subsector) and dive into the first outrageously daft money
making scheme dangled in front of their snotty noses by a patron
(whatever evil scheme the GM has up his sleeve for this session).
But things
have got a bit chaotic in the Flailsnails looniverse – I have to
say I roll my eyes whenever a mutant race/sub-class undead amphibiod
PC whips out a ray gun these days.So rather than colliding universes,
how about a loose-ish collaborative meta-setting thingy in which a GM
can concoct some pretty outlandish planets and scenarios, but which
maintains some internal coherence and puts some limits on the crazy?
If it takes off a wiki will have to be organised to collect the
bumph, but I'll worry about that later
Known Space 2312AD
Tech level
maximum 12
Guns and
lasers, no (or very, very few) twerps turning up in power armour with
a plasma cannon and wasting everything in sight.
No
Psionics
State of
play with spooky powers is as it is today, the province of a lunatic
fringe, charlatans and conspiracy nuts. Doesn't happen, won't work,
and if your cousin's brother-in-law's mate's sister reckoned she saw
some twit levitating on Epsilon 5 it was because she was high as a
kite on Cake (THE party drug of the 24th century). Of
course if the GM wants to deploy them then that's just fine, as long
as they are in the hands of some drastically alien villain NPC, but
see below...
No Aliens
The human
race has bimbled across a good couple of thousand cubic parsecs of
the galaxy and has found some alien ecosystems with suitably oddball
animals, but no actual intelligent alien civilisations. There's
arguments as to whether species A is actually intelligent, and
whether humans would recognise an alien civilisation if they saw it.
But no blokes in furry suits and bandoliers making bear noises, no people in fake
tan with corrugated heads, humanity it appears is alone. Of course
there almost certainly will be alien civilisations out there
someplace we just haven't met them yet.
As with psionics, aliens should be something truly spooky and out of this world, and first contact fraught with strangeness and unguessable hazards and complications, not something you meet by the zooload down at the local bar.
As with psionics, aliens should be something truly spooky and out of this world, and first contact fraught with strangeness and unguessable hazards and complications, not something you meet by the zooload down at the local bar.
Limited
Cybernetics
Not that
many people have managed to successfully stick silicon into
themselves in Known Space and most of those only did it to replace
genuinely injured and damaged parts of the body. I have no idea of
how real science is really doing at splicing electronics onto nerves,
but in the Known Space setting it's dubious and unreliable and the
people that do it are regarded as a bit wrong in the head and to have
eaten too much Cake.
Anarchy!
Human beings in the 24th century are no better organised than humans now. World governments? Only on worlds of a million or fewer people of the same general origin, otherwise there is bound to be several rival statelets, factions, commercial exploitation enterprises etc.
When the human race made jump drive work every country on Earth launched colonisation missions, mostly grabbing land on the same few vaguely inhabitable planets. Then it got cheap enough for corporations to have a go, then every separatist, religious, extremist, utopian, libertarian, authoritarian and otherwise misunderstood gang of loons leapfrogged the lot and plunged into the void looking for a place to set up their dream society away from anyone else. Some worked, some didn't. Any world in known space could have any kind of society on it, usually several, and usually at loggerheads with each other, if not actual war.
Genuine interstellar wars have been few and far between, but plenty of Earth states and alliances and the more established and populous off-world colonies are geared up with space navies. With Known Space so vast and sparsely populated and so many colonies having hostile planetbound rivals to fend off there hasn't been much call for them as yet.
Human beings in the 24th century are no better organised than humans now. World governments? Only on worlds of a million or fewer people of the same general origin, otherwise there is bound to be several rival statelets, factions, commercial exploitation enterprises etc.
When the human race made jump drive work every country on Earth launched colonisation missions, mostly grabbing land on the same few vaguely inhabitable planets. Then it got cheap enough for corporations to have a go, then every separatist, religious, extremist, utopian, libertarian, authoritarian and otherwise misunderstood gang of loons leapfrogged the lot and plunged into the void looking for a place to set up their dream society away from anyone else. Some worked, some didn't. Any world in known space could have any kind of society on it, usually several, and usually at loggerheads with each other, if not actual war.
Genuine interstellar wars have been few and far between, but plenty of Earth states and alliances and the more established and populous off-world colonies are geared up with space navies. With Known Space so vast and sparsely populated and so many colonies having hostile planetbound rivals to fend off there hasn't been much call for them as yet.
When a
player generates a PC he generates a home nation and sketches in a
planet for that PC too, all of which will become setting canon, to be
drawn on by any later GM or player if they so wish.
Earth
In 2300AD
Earth is still the centre of the human universe, and I have no better
idea than the next man as to what is likely to have happened to it in
the next couple of hundred years. Players and GMs will be free to
make up whatever stuff they like about the history of their own
nation or district, and how this affects Known Space at large.
Rules
I only
know Classic 1ed Traveller and Mongoose, but any Traveller ruleset
should in theory be permissible, and if reliable conversions from
other sci-fi systems can be made then lets use them.
House
rules for world generation
As per the
Mongoose Traveller/Classic Traveller rules with the following
exceptions:
Starport
roll is at -1, -2 for pop 6, -3 for pop 5, -4 for pop 4 or less.
Refers to the biggest atarport on the planet, often multiples exist.
Population
is maxed at 8 for everywhere except Earth. Colonies simply haven't
been there long enough to get that big.
Population
is still rolled on 2d6-2, with -1 for size 0-2 or A+, -1 for
atmosphere not 5,6 or 8, +1 if it is 5,6 or 8. An additional -1 is
levied per 5 full parsecs away from Earth – the frontiers are
sparsely inhabited.
Government
stat refers to the number of different governments, what type they
are is up to the GM.
Number of 'states' table
|
Population
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
|
D6 roll
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
1d3+1
|
|
2
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1d3+1
|
1d3+1
|
1d6+1
|
|
3
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1d3+1
|
1d6+1
|
1d6+1
|
2d4
|
|
4
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1d3+1
|
1d4+1
|
1d6+1
|
2d4
|
3d3
|
|
5
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
1d4+1
|
1d6+1
|
2d4
|
2d4
|
3d4
|
|
6
|
1
|
2
|
1d3+1
|
1d6+1
|
2d4
|
2d6
|
2d4
|
3d4
|
For the
proportion controlled by each state roll 1d10 for each state and
divvy up the population accordingly. Eg Ares has a population of 3
000 000 and 5 states. Rolls are 1, 5, 6, 10 and 10. State 1 has 1/32
of the population = 93 750, state 2 has 5/32 = 468 750 and so on.
Law level
refers to the largest state on the planet and is based on population,
not govt type.
Tech level
always has a +2 and a maximum of 12.
3D Mapping
IMO the
main reason Traveller maps are the way they are is the A5 format of
the original LBBs and lack of space in them. 3D subsector maps won't
make a huge difference to the game, but I like them for atmosphere's
sake and they are honestly not difficult to do, as I will show in a
future post.
A planet to start on
Epsilon C
643 643 A
Epsilon is
a moderately sized rather cold world, with massive ice caps reaching
down into the tropics and a water sea surrounding its equator
bordered by inhabitable land and with a few islands. It has a
primitive ecosystem, algae and bacterial sludge in the oceans with a
few multicellular sponge and graptolite-like creatures, and a few
hardy liverwort-cum-lichenoids on land. Humans have mucked about with
this quite extensively in many areas, but the air remains low in
oxygen, low in CO2 and high in SO2 and thin as the high Andes even at
sea level.
Epsilon
has a population of 7 000 000 and four rival colonies, Neuland, New
Canaan, Adelbert PLC and the Cyber-Raj (relative sizes 8, 7, 2 and 3)
Neuland (the Bakhuninite Extents)
Leftist
Euro-anarchists with a participatory democracy (Govt Type 4, Law
level 3, TL 10) and a bit of a fetish about computers and software
(TL 12 electronics available), often called 'the Bakhuninite
Extents' or 'Sodom and Gomorrah' by the New Canaanites. One of the few places you can get cyberware, but it is
expensive. Everyone is an eternal student plugging into online
university courses, only local currency is used (Roks) and handcrafted goods are sold offworld at premium prices. Main exports; subversive MMORPGs,
expertly pirated media and software, freelance 'creatives', punk rock
bands, designer drugs and financial brigands who use corporate
buyouts to break up other states economies to keep their own
ramshackle system going.
New Canaan
Dominated
by fundamentalist Christian religious nuts, theoretically an extra planetary
territory of the US. Govt Type 13, Law level 8, except for guns, TL
8, but with plenty of higher tech imports. Everyone is required to be
armed and all males required to put time into the national guard.
Plenty of small farming communities defecting to the Neulanders as
they like the libertarianism and lack of interference by pontificating religious busybodies. Government is a not very representative democracy (only true believers may vote and only pastors can stand for office) and is heavily influenced by the corporation running the only viable
industry, dredging biological gunge off the sea floor and turning it
into oil. Exports are petrochemicals, a little bit of farm produce
and missionaries. Many people hate the Neulanders and claim they are 'squatters' on
New Canaan territory and limbs of Satan to boot, while corporate contractors and bored US
colonial marines love going there to have some un-Biblical fun on their days off.
Adelbert
PLC (the Napoleonic Tendency)
A
corporate state within Neuland, citizen/employees have traded in a
lot of democracy for stability and protection. Govt Type 3, Law Level
5 (within their own installations and when protecting their own
people), TL 10. Often called 'the Napoleonic Tendency' by Neulanders,
and has a constantly rotating citizenship as people fall out with the
petty bureaucracy and snotty Francophone bosses and leave, or get
equally pissed off by the uncertainty of self-employment, temporary
workers coops and outright violence of some bits of Neuland. With
tensions rising with the New Canaanites many feel being part of
something with a proper army would be a good idea, not trusting the
bolshie survivalist eco-terrorists who 'defend' Neuland by picking
fights with the Christian Militia and blowing up oil installations.
Adelbert's execs are trying to get recognition as an EU member state. Mainly involved in mining, but also food production and manufacturing.
The
Cyber-Raj (the Principality of Silikanbagh)
The oldest
colony on Epsilon, the Cyber-Raj occupies an equatorial island where the eccentric CEO of an
Indian cybernetics firm has created a Hindu Bollywood version of
North Korea with robot peasants and computerised Brahmins. Govt Type
10, Law Level 11, TL who knows? Have extensively mucked about with
the environment, and have a forest they claim is stiff with cloned
Bengal tigers who will eat intruders. Export only foodstuffs,
including tea and spices, their robot technology while obviously
advanced is a secret. Very few people go in or out. What are they
building in there?
So what is
your planet like?
