New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by malloyd

See this is the fundamental problem of space drives in an RPG. *Any* decent space drive is a weapon of mass destruction. It doesn't need to be reactionless, a space drive that can hit 100 km/s - a number that still will require *weeks* to travel between planets, i.e. slow by the standards of most SF settings - provides enough energy to allow your naked body to hit with the energy of a kiloton nuke.

Any realistic setting will necessarily treat good space drives the same way they do nuclear weapons. And given that the setting hasn't burned down yet, it must succeed most of the time. The problem with that is even those few governments that might consider allowing private individuals or companies access to a nuke wouldn't allow a typical bunch of PCs to. Which makes it next to impossible to use a spaceship in an adventure - because there are reliable mechanisms in place *specifically* to keep them away from the sort of people who would have adventures.

This is something 2300 AD did right. In the original setting, nobody ever owned a starship, unless they were already fabulously wealthy, really. Governments and corporations owned starships, and PCs only had command of them if that was part of the campaign premise -- and such command was never absolute. They had to answer to people.

Trade wasn't nearly as significant in 2300 AD as it was in Traveller. The PCs were mostly mercenaries or bounty-hunters or "trouble-shooters" or other roustabouts who did dangerous stuff for money.

The mostly travelled as passengers, seldom as crew.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

This is something 2300 AD did right. In the original setting, nobody ever owned a starship, unless they were already fabulously wealthy, really. Governments and corporations owned starships, and PCs only had command of them if that was part of the campaign premise -- and such command was never absolute. They had to answer to people.

Trade wasn't nearly as significant in 2300 AD as it was in Traveller. The PCs were mostly mercenaries or bounty-hunters or "trouble-shooters" or other roustabouts who did dangerous stuff for money.

The mostly travelled as passengers, seldom as crew.

Myself, I assumed that starships would be about as expensive as military vessels. Ergo, I don't think terrorists would be able to buy in.

Frankly, I saw this setting in terms of colonial competition. Mainly, in my mind, I saw the USA, China, Europe, and maybe India, Indonesia, and Russia, exploring the stars and competing, none to sweetly, for extrasolar territory and resources.

[PTTG]

What if we turn that around? A science fiction setting where a new industrial process (outright startrek-style replicators?) allows the easy manufacturing of anything, including nukes?

So yeah, your society is really unstable, but it rebuilds really quickly too. After all, you can clean up the fallout by converting it back into mass-energy for your replicators!

[AlexanderHowl]

The craters caused by pure fusion weapons might be problematic, as might the fact that combatents would likely target replicator facilities during the first salvo to wreck the industrial capacity of their enemies. With pure fusion weapons, you do not even need to have radioactives, you just use helium-3 fusion to release the energy (207 GJ or so per gram released translates to over 49 metric tons of TNT per gram). With a metric ton of helium-3, you could make a Tsar Bomba (which makes the THS cost of $1,000,000 per metric ton of helium-3 really too cheap).

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

The craters caused by pure fusion weapons might be problematic, as might the fact that combatents would likely target replicator facilities during the first salvo to wreck the industrial capacity of their enemies. With pure fusion weapons, you do not even need to have radioactives, you just use helium-3 fusion to release the energy (207 GJ or so per gram released translates to over 49 metric tons of TNT per gram). With a metric ton of helium-3, you could make a Tsar Bomba (which makes the THS cost of $1,000,000 per metric ton of helium-3 really too cheap).

I suppose it depends on how small and distributed the manufacturing facilities are. If a desktop replicator can get you to a full-sized factory in a week, and costs as much as a desktop printer does today...

[jason taylor]

Aliens arrive in the Earth's system and open contact. The catch? Their information on humans is based on an unmanned probe which sent messages back a thousand years ago.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Aliens arrive in the Earth's system and open contact. The catch? Their information on humans is based on an unmanned probe which sent messages back a thousand years ago.

The Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove. The unmanned probe arrived in the fourteenth century, so they sent out their generation-arks with their circa-2000-AD technology to conquer the sword-swinging horse-riding primitives. Instead they arrive at the beginning of World War 2.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

The Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove. The unmanned probe arrived in the fourteenth century, so they sent out their generation-arks with their circa-2000-AD technology to conquer the sword-swinging horse-riding primitives. Instead they arrive at the beginning of World War 2.

The reverse theme - the humans get access to a horde of data, including interstellar travel technology, but it's all very outdated - has spawned a number of good stories too. This almost requires something horrible to have happened to interstellar civilization since, to explain why they left something around long ago but haven't been back since. Not absolutely, maybe they accomplished whatever goal they sent out these things for or otherwise just lost interest, but usually make sure the unknown horrible thing doesn't happen to us too is a significant plot element.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Aliens arrive in the Earth's system and open contact. The catch? Their information on humans is based on an unmanned probe which sent messages back a thousand years ago.

How is that a catch? It's functionally no different than aliens who arrive without having sent a probe in the first place. Unless they intend to invade and haven't properly prepared because of out of date intel it doesn't make any difference.

[(E)]

Originally Posted by malloyd

The reverse theme - the humans get access to a horde of data, including interstellar travel technology, but it's all very outdated - has spawned a number of good stories too. This almost requires something horrible to have happened to interstellar civilization since, to explain why they left something around long ago but haven't been back since. Not absolutely, maybe they accomplished whatever goal they sent out these things for or otherwise just lost interest, but usually make sure the unknown horrible thing doesn't happen to us too is a significant plot element.

I was toying with a setting based on a similar premise with the twist that the ancient civilization was also humans. As a species we had been recruited into an intergalactic war then our side either won or lost. Either way it resulted in a human population that was scattered and reduced to more primitive technology.