[Space] Insufficiently Advanced

[Frost]

Originally Posted by mburr0003

Memer and Saret? From GURPS 3E Aliens?

Yes, somewhat rewritten but still those guys. I probably should get round to finishing my list of known species and posting it although at the moment I have only four definite selections of a planned nine.

Those are the Rhee Tul and the Darhani who are homebrew species, the Rhee Tul actually being reused from another of my campaigns. The Memer/ Saret (that part being a secret in game) as you said from GURPS Aliens and the Jisa a Traveller minor species.

I am considering the Pechekki and the Cidi from GURPS Aliens, but I am not sure how well they fit, for two of the other five spots with three left for later outbreaks of inspiration.

[Frost]

First species write up (if it seems familiar I posted a version of these guys on here many years ago and I think bits were written for that):

Rhee Tul -8 points

ST -3 [-30]

Brachiator [5], Extra Arms [20], Fur [1], Sharp Beak [1]

Chummy [-5]

Hermaphrodite [0]

The Rhee Tul are fairly unimposing creatures standing no more than 1.5m tall. From the neck down they resemble stretched monkeys with a distinctive double thorax and six limbs, the upper pair being longer and noticeably more muscular than the middle pair. The head sits in a stooped position on a stiff neck with limited movement and is dominated by the beak and four bulbous eyes. The 'fur', which is closer to feathers on detailed inspection, is typically a lustrous green (although yellow and blue patches are common) and covers everything baring the hands and base of the beak.

Rhee Tul can and frequently do stand and walk short distances on the hind legs but serious travel is usually accomplished by either brachiation with the upper arms or trotting on their front and hind limbs.

The Rhee Tul are gathering herbivores favouring nutrient dense foods including fruits, seeds and fleshy stems or roots.

They are sequential hermaphrodites and display little if any biological or social dimorphism between phases. They are all born in the female phase shifting into the male phase, either in response to pregnancy or pheromone cues produced by other females at peak fertility. They remain male for a number of years before the 'testicle' atrophies producing hormones that promote the shift back to female and the cycle repeats.

Rhee Tul give birth to live young and pregnancies typically produce a single child which as in humans receives extensive care until adolescence.

They do not display strong pair bonding. Children may be born from casual encounters or temporary arrangements. In either case the mother raises their child with the assistance of their fellow troop members rather than their mate.

Troops are usually formed from siblings or coworkers and their children and may contain anything between three and thirty adults. Troop structure is quite fluid, some break up after a few years while others may come to include adult children or grandchildren.

[Frost]

Humanity Continued

Society and Government

Since only one of Los Despordados posses a habitable world (although the remaining four have six terraformable bodies between them) local humanity is largely confined to the original small colonies mostly habitats created by expanding disabled colony ships.

Prior to contact the plan was that the colonists would commence preparation of terraforming infrastructures where needed or perform a leisurely exploration of the target planet while occupying these habitats.

Each system was to be a self governing unit with its own confederal government acting as a claims arbitrator and terraforming coordinator. The sheer separation made a multi world government an impossibility despite the prospect of limited contact between the systems.

First contact with the Commonality at an early stage in development changed this model considerably. Most systems moved to form stronger federal governments and suspended terraforming works pending agreements with the Comonality over the ownership of the target bodies.

Unused personnel and machinery were redirected toward improving the comfort of existing colony habitats or to servicing small scale trade at first with Commonality outposts and later after the 'gift' of local pulse gates on a larger scale with human and Comonality colonies in other systems.

The most recent developments in this regard have been the conferences at Mesa Verde and Tranquility. The goal of these conferences was to facilitate a favourable long term agreement between humanity and the Commonality.

At Mesa Verde the system governments finally agreed a common platform for negotiations and created a single administrative body The Central Civil Government aka CenGov. Six months later at Tranquility CenGov negotiators and Commonality representatives secured a provisional agreement that legally recognised the status quo for not less than 144 (earth) years.

[ericthered]

So we're going for setting where living on planets in habitats is preferred to living on orbital stations around said planets? Any particular reason for that choice?

[Frost]

Originally Posted by ericthered

So we're going for setting where living on planets in habitats is preferred to living on orbital stations around said planets? Any particular reason for that choice?

I never specified where the habitats were (my mistake).

With the exception of the already habitable planet (tentatively named New Australia) where the current population is still almost exclusively in high orbit habitats are located where a permanent workforce is needed. There certainly are surface habitats but they are a minority, most are in orbit around either the target planets or small bodies set to be mined for volitiles.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Frost

My underlying premise is the sort of 'reverse star trek' vibe I have encountered a number of times in recent books and through online stuff playing with the humans are weird meme. In a nutshell humans are eccentric newcomers moving into the fringes of an established multi-species society.

My very first GURPS campaign, back in the nineties, had that assumption. It was based on the GURPS supplement for David Brin's Uplift series, which had intelligent races all over several galaxies being created by genetic engineering by older intelligent races—but humans seemed to have gained intelligence with no patron race in sight. It might be worth a look for inspiration.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by whswhs

My very first GURPS campaign, back in the nineties, had that assumption. It was based on the GURPS supplement for David Brin's Uplift series,t. It might be worth a look for inspiration.

Sadly, Bill's recommendation probably has to be for Brin's series. Both editions of Gurps Uplift were for 3e and do not seem to be available in pdf form (I just checked). This was actually what I expected. It's a sadly common fate for licensed Gurps books because licenses are normally time limited.

There's no telling if you can get a copy of the softcovers somewhere on the 'net.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Sadly, Bill's recommendation probably has to be for Brin's series. Both editions of Gurps Uplift were for 3e and do not seem to be available in pdf form (I just checked). This was actually what I expected. It's a sadly common fate for licensed Gurps books because licenses are normally time limited.

They may also be limited in ways that didn't take into account the appearance of new distribution methods. Also known as the WKRP DVD problem.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

Sadly, Bill's recommendation probably has to be for Brin's series. Both editions of Gurps Uplift were for 3e and do not seem to be available in pdf form (I just checked). This was actually what I expected. It's a sadly common fate for licensed Gurps books because licenses are normally time limited.

The alien race creation rules, if you want them at all, were imported into the 4/e GURPS Space. If you want starships (rather than just treating them as vehicles that get your players to the scenario), many people seem to find GURPS Spaceships satisfactory. What you're left with in the Uplift supplements is the world creation and character concepts, and those are generally transferrable across editions, if you want them.

On the other hand, the novels are worth reading. At least the first three are; I've never been able to get into the second series.

[Frost]

Humanity Continued

The Central Civil Government is a semi-parliamentary constitutional federal republic, Created to coordinate negotiations between the existing system confederations and the Commonality.

The constitution proscribes a two tier federal model that essentially absorbed the confederations on an as is basis. Each colony is treated as a autonomous federal subject which is entitled to representation in a system government which sends delegates to the central parliament.

Both the parliament and the system congresses are elected by parallel voting, half of the seats in any body represent specific constituencies (with each colony or system forming a constituency) while the other half are elected at large. Open list proportional representation is used for the at large seats and multi-member constituencies.

The president and system premiers are directly elected from the sitting members of the relevant legislature by a simple plurality. Presidential elections are scheduled for thirty days after a general election.

The constitution is subject to amendment by ordinary legislation although amendments require an absolute majority in parliament and confirmation (on the same terms) by more than half of the system congresses.

Given the short history of both Los Despordados (less than twenty years) and CenGov (not quite two years) political factions are still fluid and loosely defined. Often parties are little more than loose federations of more or less like-minded groups. However there are three broad groupings based on their attitude to relations with the Commonality:

'Colonials'- in favour of rapid development while delaying a final settlement in order to provide an improved negotiating position. Often favour contacts with the Memer and some of the lesser clients over the Rhee Tul and the Darhani.

'Accomodationists'- argue that the human negotiating position can't be strengthened, favouring accession to the Commonality in the medium term. They tend to give more weight to the Darhani in their planning.

'Groundsiders'- indifferent or hostile to accession with a tendency to focus upon the settlement of New Australia at the expense of trade or terraforming.

The current President, Julia Parmentier, is broadly colonial but presides over a unity government comprising representatives from all three tendencies.