[Game] Generate a Space Trader Setting

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Question 69b
What are the most common types of human divergers? biological, cybernetic, and so forth.

Typical? Man, to find three ideas of what's "normal" for divergers, just ask two divergers.

However, there are a few broad categories of improvements. Cybernetic enhancements that replace functionality are the softest flavor. They are even common in all but the strictest mainline human societies (although they are usually either unadorned and clearly artificial or else as subtle as possible- never aesthetic). Divergers take them farther, improving on natural limbs and organs with increased strength, new abilities, functional gadgets, and exotic designs. This ranges from Payload in a ST-20 arm to golden ocular implants with Ultra and Infravision, to full lung cybernetics that provide Oxygen Storage and Filter Lungs. Nonetheless, this second class of cybernetics sticks to the basic human form.

This fades into the full-body cyborgs. Distinguished by an organic brain (Plus the majority of the spinal column and, sometimes, natural liver tissue and certain glands to preserve certain elements of blood chemistry,) full-body cyborgs stick to the human form only by convention, and all sorts of alternate body forms exist. So long as it has enough room for a sphere about 25 cm, any sort of body shape is possible. Winged, space-adapted, aquatic, or even stranger robotic forms proliferate. Some divergers are fully happy to be simply brains in vats hooked up to spacecraft or even elaborate simulated worlds.

Genetic augmentations are usually systemic improvements such as better oxygen absorption from air or enhanced heavy metal chelating. Later improvements attempted to improve IQ (for the most part only specific kinds of intelligence, granting a variety of organic mental advantages), but in the vast majority of cases had drawbacks like increased anxiety, higher rates of mental disorders in general, and outright weird stuff, such as a navigational intelligence boost that causes an extreme phobia of the color blue and a delusion that random noise and data contains important patterns. The advantages - 3D spatial sense and a Talent for Navigation, plus Lightning Calcuator - were so useful that even today open-minded captains might consider preparing special quarters with an old TV set to static and a lot of orange decorations.

There are very few weird physical gene mods modifications today outside of the purely aesthetic dramatic blue or neon pink skin tones, biolumecent stripes, dappled spots, or natural fur. Cat ears are considered gauche and anyway terribly outdated.

Many divergers use all combinations of these. A ship-brain diverger might even use advanced nanomedicine, retroviral genetics, and full-body cybernetics to allow a brain three times the mass (mostly visual cortex to allow full-360 sensor inputs in ultra-high resolution and spatial working memory).

In game rules, cybernetics can give you nearly any non-supernatural advantage, and can be an Unusual Background allowing extreme skill levels or an Accessory granting skill bonuses.

Perhaps the one universal for Divergers is an ocular HUD which functions as a built-in display and input device. A diverger without that is probably from an interesting subculture, like the Life Writers, who are opposed to cybernetics but support gene mods.

Question 82: How much do light freighters and other highly independent travelers get along with Divergers?

[(E)]

Question 80
CommPac and the power blocks of earth

United Governments of Humanity is a centralized organisation that succeeded the U.N after the Birthright manifesto became ensconced in Earth constitutions. A largely bureaucratic institution it maintains a presence in human occupied regions, especially those too small or distant for individual earth governments to bother with. It runs the Terran Marshals as well as a centralized Navy. It is heavily influenced by the major power blocks of Earth.

New African Corporate Republics. One man, one share, one vote.

Eastern Theocratic Union. Afghanistan through to Vietnam.

CommPac. The history of CommPac can be traced to a brilliant bioengineer named Emelia Haste who pioneered the design of the aspidochelone life forms or as they were more commonly known Sanctuary Ships. While many of her contemporaries had left Earth to join the proto Diverger groups that where beginning to form she choose to stay and take care of the problems mankind had made for earth. The Sanctuary Ships are huge semiorganic psuedo life forms that where originally made to clean up the Pacific by harvesting the pollutants and providing a breeding ground for ocean life.
When the Warming Megastorms began to threaten the islands of the Pacific people began to migrate to these incredibly storm resistant ships/floating islands for protection. The island states of California and Hawaii succeeded from the US and joined CommPac when post Megastorm aid was not forthcoming.
Taking Many U.K refugees including the reigning monarch CommPac inherited much intellectual property. When the Warming came to an end most of the Pacific rim was under CommPac's authority and they had the strongest earth based economy as a result of the Sanctuary ships harvesting capabilities. CommPac's foundation ideals are personal responsibility and a fondness for technical development. "We rode out the storm" is their proud boost.

The smallest of the major powers is the Northern and Polar European Union

The Decentralized Democracy is a vibrant new player on earth's political scene.

Historical note.
The U.K had a crisis when the Royal Family was revealed to be the recipients of Genetic engineering. The crown went to the nearest fully human heir while the GE royalty left Earth with a large number of followers.

Question 81
With many militaries changing to the Black Bess their old weapons are being sold off, What exactly is hitting the markets, legal or otherwise?

Random central worlds conversation fragment: Old-tech is so last year the next big thing is Retro-tec. That reminds me my CyKoi contact still wants those hand made cloaks from Shadaisy 7 if you can get them cheap.

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by (E)

Eastern Theocratic Union. Afghanistan through to Vietnam.

Oh, definitely. The Bhuddists made some major strides.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by (E)

Question 80
CommPac and the power blocks of earth

Dagnabbit! I was working on this all day.
Here's what I can cannibalize from it:
Eastern American Trade & Defence Pact (EATDP)
Presidential democracy, vaguely after the American model, formed as response to CommPac. Composed of much of South America, the Caribbean, and US/Canada east of the Rockies. Positive relations with the Europe and China.

Chinese Fifth Republic
In the mid-21st century, China was riding high. It was dominating East Asia, it had developed the strongest economy in the world, built the first space colony, and no one could say that it had ever been better. Then, a coup backed by corporatist counterrevolutionaries and self-serving traitors brought China to its knees.

China recovered, and under the leadership of technocrats, Diverger races of Chinese began to emerge. Then, in the wake of the terror attack on the Indonesian space elevator, the so called humanists opportunistically attacked China because they feared Chinese power. China was defeated on Earth, but was victorious in space, leading to the Zurich accords mediating a truce.

The Chinese Third Republic was founded by the occupation, namely, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea and Vietnam. Chinese Divergers (over 45% of the population) were being treated as second class citizens in their own country. Few were allowed exit visas to travel into space, where they joined the predominantly Chinese colonies already there. The policy of official discrimination (which treated many as little better than slaves) lasted for almost 450 years, until the People’s Revolution of 2789, brought about by Chinese spacer agitation. Following the ejection of the occupation forces, the Second China War began.

Following the Second China War, the Chinese Spacers were forced out of the solar system, most moving to existing Diverger colonies. China had spheres of influence carved out of it by the occupying powers, India taking Tibet, Russia taking Manchuria, Japan and South Korea taking Shanghai and Taiwan, and Vietnam taking Guangzhou, Hong Kong, and Macau. Vietnam also annexed significant parts of Southern China, including Hainan. The Chinese Fourth Republic was created in the ensuing defeat, and allowed occupying troops to return. The repression was slackened slightly. In 2964, the occupying forces were withdrawn, and in 3022, the government was toppled by a corporatist faction. The government moved quickly to ensure the nearby powers that it was not interested in returning to the old Diverger ways, and continued to repress the Diverger minority as effectively as the previous government, only favoring large corporations even more.

Modern China is facing instability from Neo-humanists, who want to suppress the Divergers even more, Divergers, who want more rights, Nationalists, who are angry about the Chinese puppet states, Militarists, who expected a significantly larger army, and Corporatists, who expected better returns. Another coup looks imminent, and the jackals are circling.

Russia
Corporate pseudo-anarchy. Dominates buffer regions in Manchuria, Belarus, Turkey, and Central Asia. No organized military, all mercenary forces. What minimal government exists is essentially forced to make compromises with corporations, so it is heavily geared toward economic output.

North Korea
Technically a major power on earth, but mostly uses its tiny enclave to exert pressure on earth, if needed. More focused on off-world holdings now.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Dagnabbit! I was working on this all day.

Should we allow some kind of "dibs" with long answers? You could post an "I'll get this". As we have multiple questions open it doesn't hold up other people continuing the thread. I think it might only be a problem if someone ends up not posting their long answer (which I've done before in similar threads.)

[(E)]

Question 72
What makes Vather so special?
(I'm answering my own question here but Daigoro's part answer got me thinking)

Vather has been cosmopolitan right from the start, about four and a half million years ago to be exact. Vather was formed when two solar systems collided in such an unusual manner as to form what is called a super system. Vather has four suns, five gas giants, three vast asteroid belts, fourteen solid planets and forty nine moons of significant size.

At the center of the Vather system there are the binary stars Romulus and Remus in orbit around them are three of the gas giants, two of the asteroid belts and six of the planets and one other star, Mowgli. Mowgli has four solid planets in orbit and orbits in the opposite direction to the rest of the bodies orbiting the binary. Then there is Enkidu a large star which orbits perpendicular to the orbital plane that the rest of the bodies follow. Enkidu Has one gas giant, four planets and a major asteroid belt.

It is this chaotic arrangement that first brought academics to the Vather system and it was a joint expedition from Oxford University and MIT that set up the first base a mere thirty years after Deep Jump capability became a reality. When a disgraced former Blue Danube scientist heard about the system she jumped at the chance to visit so that she could study the unique gravitational environment present. Desperately in need of cash to fund her research she accepted funds from family members and several universities including one that was a front for Diverger interests. Sophia Morris convinced an elderly Skepp to give her and her equipment a ride to Vather and set up the first 7D navigational observatory not to be in corporate or government hands. It was this fact that first caused visitors to seek her out for up to date Jump data, they in part traded the data that they possessed.

It was about this time that Diverger sympathizer organization responsible for a large portion of her funding was targeted by increasing violent and well supported Recedent groups. The members of this group fled the core worlds and sought refuge in Vather. Over the rest of Sophia's life she faced increasing pressure to surrender these people, she choose not to. At the end of Sophia's 82nd year she was faced with a cruel choice, the Recedents had forced the rest of Sophia's backers into a position where they were forced to sell their stake in the system, Sophia was offered a choice, surrender the sympathizers or have her station bought out. Sophia choose a third option using the huge amount of money she had quietly accumulated and a astronomical loan from the CyKoi bought the entire Vather system with the universities assistance. The next few years where hard and several of the planets got sold off to various factions to pay the interest but Sophia continued in business and began to thrive. The Deliberate avoiding of showing any favor towards or against Divergers grew into a political neutrality that now takes a lot of work to maintain.

Just before Sophia's death she got to see the completion of the first High resolution fixed point jump map (jump traffic "tower"). This lead to a sharp increase in traffic through the system. Vather had become the central point where every independent captain traded their jump logs for up to date rutter software. More and more companies, governments, information brokers, entrepreneurs and investors came to get the most up to date navigational information they could. The original university bases and habitats turned into galaxy renowned campuses for the study of navigation in real, 5D and 7D space. More came to learn, more came because of the political neutrality and more came because so many where here already. Vibrant is an understatement when it comes to describing Vather the super rich are outshone by the mega rich and they in turn by the Ultra rich. Every part of the system has something happening on it be it mining, fuel refining or the construction of a playboy's bespoke Habitat.

While Odysseus is the Human trade hub, Vather is the galaxy's. To maintain its position trillions are spent on Navigation technology and blue sky research every year. One sign of the Navigational supremacy is the Vather Scouts the fastest ships known.

While Vather is used by the Big Nine when they want to talk diplomacy. It is ruled by a coalition that includes Professors, bankers, Sophia's Heir, World owners and an Enclave worm "Jim" currently in the executive seat.

Additional
The complex gravity of Vather has two effects, funnels 5D traffic into smaller areas than most systems and increases the vulcanism of the planets which means most of Vather's planet's have a strong magnetic field. This plus some panspermia (?) During the collision has given most planet's a foundation of bacterial life. There is a vast interconnected bespoke terraforming operation on going.

Question 86
What powers the ships and worlds of the galaxy? Solar? Fusion? Antimatter? Something else or a combination?

Dropnet conspiracy board chatter: What about Ares??? Look, see those two pixels there!! that's just before Olympus Mons went up!! Ares clearly had forty seven whole seconds to get his hardware off Mars!!!!!! He's out there you know. He did it all for the good of humanity, he is the Reviled Messiah who saved us from ourselves. (the monologue continues for some time)

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by (E)

Vather has been cosmopolitan right from the start, about four and a half million years ago to be exact.[/I]

Just a quick note here- that's an exceedingly short amount of time on astronomical time scales, I'm not sure there'd be any orbital stability yet, unless that's a feature you want to include.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Question 82: How much do light freighters and other highly independent travelers get along with Divergers?

The bulk of diverger to mainstream traffic does go through light freighters, but many light freighter crews are as hostile as anyone. The main reason is that the light freighters can take jobs that would be bad press for someone bigger. You do get some friendly relations there, but light freighter crews mostly come from mainstream humanity, and among the captains for every ferrying sympathizer is a nay-saying skeptic.

Question 84: Have other galaxies been explored? why or why not?

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Question 84: Have other galaxies been explored? why or why not?

I'm gonna claim this one for the moment, as I have a post brewing about drive performance which may also answer this. Do you have a q85, ericthered?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I'm gonna claim this one for the moment, as I have a post brewing about drive performance which may also answer this. Do you have a q85, ericthered?

What are some other pests and pets?

(yes, this is a love of mine)

Question 85: What usually happens to would be Conquerors looking for glory? why haven't they put together 100+ sized empires?