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01-18-2022, 02:01 PM | #11 |
Hero of Democracy
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: far from the ocean
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
So my gut take from the thread title is that realpolitik demands garnering allies of one form or another where ever you can.
So enemies or a natural disaster, yeah.
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Be helpful, not pedantic Worlds Beyond Earth -- my blog Check out the PbP forum! If you don't see a game you'd like, ask me about making one! |
01-18-2022, 02:10 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
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That said, it would work for this scenario. Even worse if the original Berserker was built by Humanity, which might make it hard for Humans to ally themselves with others (at least at first, until the other aliens realize that the Berserkers will kill them all if they aren't stopped somehow).
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Warmest regards, StevenH My current worldbuilding project. You can find the Adventure Logs of the campaign here. I try to write them up as narrative prose, with illustrations. As such, they are "embellished" accounts of the play sessions. Link of the moment: Bestiary of Plants. In a world of mana, plants evolved to use it as an energy source. It is also the new home of the Alaconius Lectures, a series of essays about the various Colleges of Spells. |
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01-18-2022, 02:15 PM | #13 | ||
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
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GURPS Overhaul Last edited by Varyon; 01-18-2022 at 02:23 PM. |
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01-18-2022, 02:50 PM | #14 |
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
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01-18-2022, 03:44 PM | #15 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
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01-18-2022, 11:39 PM | #16 |
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: England
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
Taking this and going one step further, maybe going out to the aliens and learning the psionic secrets of the galaxy, with a view to humanity undergoing some sort of psionic transcendence of the material world and becoming immortal? (Like the Ancients in the Stargate franchise). Humans have done all sorts of weird and wonderful things in search of immortality.
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01-19-2022, 03:16 AM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
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01-19-2022, 04:55 AM | #18 |
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Rome, Italy
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
Everything boils down to the type of game you want to run, since you have mentioned Star Trek then the challenges are meant to be built around diplomacy (which I personally find very difficult because there are too many variables to consider) with the occasional fight.
Going along this route the I would consider a proper diplomatic challenge: a threat that other factions could see as a resource, so discarding any "big bad enemy" (a la Mass Effect) in favor of something more subtle and nuanced. - A resource starving Earth find an "unobtainable" energy mineral on Mars but earthlings don't have the logistic or tech to properly exploit it, so commercial partners are needed... It's a race against time but maybe those partners want the resource for themselves. - The FTL expose earthlings to a previously raging interstellar war with an intricate web of factions and forces, Earthlings must choose its side trying to get the most of it while avoiding being obliterated. Meanwhile some terrran factions may dissent on the general choice. - The Sun is dimming or some LHC accident opened a Black Hole on Earth, it's again a race against the clock but some alien faction could not be bothered to help "system destroyers". - Colonies and border friction are a staple of the genre: add in some lost in translation and/or precious resources and you have an explosive mix with no real "right" stance. - Refugees are always a tricky diplomatic issue: add terran (or alien) exiles to any of those scenarios and you have an even hotter plate to spin. All those ideas could offer interesting diplomatic and exploration games, with the occasional fight with splinter groups or hostile factions. I repeat, in the end everything depends on what you want to be focus of your sessions.
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“A strange game. The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?” |
01-19-2022, 06:11 AM | #19 |
Join Date: Jul 2006
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
I recall Babylon 5's narrative was that the first human FTL ships were picked up by Centauri explorers, who were surprised by the physical resemblance and struck up friendly relations. Under Centauri patronage humanity then expanded into our local area and joined the Space UN (I forget the actual name), as part of which we played a significant role in the Dilgar war and earned much prestige.
The we fought the Minbari ... which was a much worse idea as they were on the high end for an involved species. |
01-19-2022, 07:09 AM | #20 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: [Plot] What would cause a newly FTL-capable Earth to seek out allies among the st
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Of course, turning that on its head can also be interesting. I read a short story some time back wherein it turned out that every species that had evolved intelligence and went to the stars were obligate carnivores... except for humans. Every other space-faring species is bigger and meaner, and we all smell like prey to them. That story was basically about a single human in a "fish out of water" scenario, on a space station and having to rely on the one alien there who wasn't interested in eating him/her (I don't think a gender was given, they were just "the human"). I always thought it would be interesting to explore such a setting, but with an organized group of humans rather than a single one well out of their depth - after all, all the "meaner" aliens may find it an unpleasant surprise to discover that part of what allowed humans to become top dog was largely us wiping out anything that had the nerve to eat us. In a scenario like that, humans are looking for allies who will spread their "Humans are Not for Eating" message, without them having to wage an existential war. I don't think that really works for a scenario where the humans are initially doing the Star Trek thing of exploring new worlds and interacting with alien cultures until Crisis happens - because they'd be contending with aliens mistaking them for prey pretty much from the beginning.
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GURPS Overhaul Last edited by Varyon; 01-19-2022 at 07:18 AM. |
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