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Old 06-04-2018, 07:02 PM   #331
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Default Re: New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

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Yes. Remember they had a place in their world but that place is going away. The PCs are in a place much like tribal peoples faced with a rapidly expanding modern or modernizing society.

Note: The PCs are mutants in a conventional post-apocalyptic setting. So they could have superpowers.
But you've already ruled out psychic powers as belonging to the enemy along with all the technology. So what players are going to sign up for a "Your characters are villains who have no hope and are going to get their butts kicked until they all die out" campaign?
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Old 06-04-2018, 07:26 PM   #332
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To be fair, people play Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu, and (both RPGs and) wargames set in the Warhammer Universe (Fantasy and 40K). Those universes are very grim - the latter two specifically point out that humanity is doomed.
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But you've already ruled out psychic powers as belonging to the enemy along with all the technology. So what players are going to sign up for a "Your characters are villains who have no hope and are going to get their butts kicked until they all die out" campaign?
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Old 06-04-2018, 10:09 PM   #333
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So you play thieves?
If you want. Your tribe could also seek to move away from "civilization" or try to join up. Think about real world barbarians, tribespeople, pirates, Cossacks, and other marginal or marginalized groups. What did they do to adapt? What could they have done?

Plus mutant powers. Think of your tribes mutant powers as useful but Professor X won't be recruiting any of your group. Your powers are definitely low key and weak. But still useful!

Also remember that your tribe is successful at raiding, rustling, and robbery. Your tribe isn't helpless. But you are in serious trouble.
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Old 06-04-2018, 10:13 PM   #334
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But you've already ruled out psychic powers as belonging to the enemy along with all the technology. So what players are going to sign up for a "Your characters are villains who have no hope and are going to get their butts kicked until they all die out" campaign?
No. The "witchfolk" have no monopoly on psi powers. They're simply better at such than your tribe. Plus your tribe labels anyone with "gifts of power" from outside your tribe "witches."
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Old 06-05-2018, 02:18 PM   #335
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Dawn and Dusk

The people who the tribespeople (ie the PCs) call the witchfolk, call their town Aurora, after the goddess of the dawn. At first, their community had an alphanumeric designation as a homeland security base, they gave it a name when they realized they'd become a community. The people of the town of Aurora call themselves the Aurorans.

The Aurorans refer to the tribe the PCs belong to as "the raiders" or sometimes the Buzzard Creek raiders. The name Buzzard Creek is the old US map designation for the otherwise nameless creek near where the PCs live.

The Aurorans are rapidly integrating into the new trade networks and feel a new security. The people of this community are parahumans, among the very few groups of parahumans that have survived since the wars that ended the old civilization. They have many advantages but the serious problem of needing twice as much food as normal humans and a higher percentage of that as protein. Thus the raids the PCs' tribes made on their cattle and farms were brutally threatening to the Aurorans.

Trade has allowed the Aurorans to take practical steps to make their food supplies more secure. Mainly using indoor farming and piping water to the tops of isolated and defensible mesas to create grazing lands for their dairy cattle. The tribes still raids the Aurorans' beef cattle and hogs, which causes great bitterness.
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Old 06-05-2018, 05:03 PM   #336
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Dawn and Dusk

The people who the tribespeople (ie the PCs) call the witchfolk, call their town Aurora, after the goddess of the dawn. At first, their community had an alphanumeric designation as a homeland security base, they gave it a name when they realized they'd become a community. The people of the town of Aurora call themselves the Aurorans.

The Aurorans refer to the tribe the PCs belong to as "the raiders" or sometimes the Buzzard Creek raiders. The name Buzzard Creek is the old US map designation for the otherwise nameless creek near where the PCs live.

The Aurorans are rapidly integrating into the new trade networks and feel a new security. The people of this community are parahumans, among the very few groups of parahumans that have survived since the wars that ended the old civilization. They have many advantages but the serious problem of needing twice as much food as normal humans and a higher percentage of that as protein. Thus the raids the PCs' tribes made on their cattle and farms were brutally threatening to the Aurorans.

Trade has allowed the Aurorans to take practical steps to make their food supplies more secure. Mainly using indoor farming and piping water to the tops of isolated and defensible mesas to create grazing lands for their dairy cattle. The tribes still raids the Aurorans' beef cattle and hogs, which causes great bitterness.
Those lifestyles are incompatible. If you rustle a militarily superior people you have to be able to leave in a hurry.
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Old 06-05-2018, 05:18 PM   #337
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Those lifestyles are incompatible. If you rustle a militarily superior people you have to be able to leave in a hurry.
The PCs are rapidly becoming aware of this. As of yet the Aurorans haven't gotten a sufficiently forceful military to drive out the tribe, they had other problems. However, the elders of the tribe know they're on borrowed time.

Other tribal peoples have faced similar problems. The game would be about the PCs tribe adapting or failing to. Either way you've got a story.
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Old 06-06-2018, 03:48 PM   #338
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Dawn and Dusk
I'm going to give random bits and pieces to support the setting.

First This setting takes inspiration from Genesis II, Andre Norton's post-apocalyptic novels, World Without End, Westerns, and the historical experience of indigenous peoples and peasants in rapidly modernizing areas. The thing that started the mental ball rolling was wondering about the fate of the mutants driven out and split off from their tribes in the film "World Without End" how did they feel. Some of the worldviews of the Aurorans was distantly suggested by Planet of Exile. Mainly the feeling of being a fragile island of civilization threatened on all sides.

Second The Aurorans are attractive healthy looking people, most of them would, in our time period, would get Attractive to Handsome/Beautiful in GURPS terms. However, because of the plagues that collapsed the old civilization, plagues that caused genetic damage, most people in the setting aren't good looking. The Aurorans are very rare in the healthy good looks. Thus they effectively have the Very Handsome/Very Beautiful advantage simply because their good looks are so rare/extraordinary.

Third The Tribespeople the PCs are part of call themselves "The Cartrights." The place where the tribe of "Cartright" lives was once a "Bonanza" themed campground called "The Ponderosa." The campground was a good place for a group to survive during the crisis. It was isolated and had good wells and its own source of hydropower from a small nearby creek. The power generation is long gone, however, the site still has excellent wells and a good defensive position.

The Cartright clans believe that they are descended from Ben Cartright. They believe Ben Cartright had three sons Adam, Hoss, and Elvis, and a daughter Morgan. Morgan was so beautiful that she was said to be a fairy princess, Morgan the Fairy. They believe that Jesus appeared to Ben Cartright after he invented the lightning rod and told him to marry Betsy Ross and move to the far West after he helped George Washington defeat his evil twin brother George the Three.

Jesus led Ben to the Ponderosa and gave Ben magical birthrights to give to his worthiest Child. Adam and Morgan became lovers and Ben drove them away for their sins. Hoss simply left and married into the Native Tribes (which particular tribe tends to switch according to the politics of the day). Elvis was to get the Birthrights but Adam and Morgan tricked Ben and Betsy into giving them most of the Birthrights. The "Witchfolk" are the Children of Adam and Morgan. The Cartrights are the children of Elvis and his bride Cinderella.

In the Cartright version of Cinderella, Morgan is the Fairy Godmother. She knew Cinderella was Elvis' fated bride. So she planned to get the woman married off to a powerful Prince in order to prevent her marrying Elvis. Elvis still wins Cinderella's heart and they run away from the Prince. The tribe uses this story to explain why a certain group hates/despises them, sour grapes because they're still bitter about their Prince's humiliation.

Fourth The Subshuttle system isn't fully operational. Most of North America north of Guadalajara and south of Alaska can be reached. There are links to Hawaii, Puerto Rico, New Zealand and Ireland, but further access is blocked mainly for unknown reasons. But also for simple deterioration of the tunnel system.

Fifth The Aurorans have developed new systems of pedagogy. They simply know more about teaching than any past group of human beings. This is becoming more and more obvious to the other people in the trade network. The town of Aurora is becoming the site of the first new University since the crisis that caused the collapse.

Among the GURPS advantages the Aurorans can teach are Versitile, Language Talent, Ambidexterous, Intuition, Sensitive, Empathy, Intuitive Mathimatician, Musical Talent, Mathmatical Talent, and Voice. Add others if they fit your campaign.

The library the Aurorans have was created as a backup for the University libraries of the United States of America. One of several such repositories and by far the most accessible one still in existence.

Sixth I envision this setting as being somewhere near or within the Four Corners region. This is both inspired by the Roddenberry TV movie and the complexity and grandeur of the area. The local environment is built up of radically distinct microclimates. Areas of woodlands or even swamps can be next to harsh and dangerous deserts. Snowy mountains and tropical valleys are within a few miles of each other. I see this as adding to the drama of the setting and giving the GM more ways to build stories and adventures.
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Last edited by Astromancer; 06-08-2018 at 03:07 PM.
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Old 06-06-2018, 05:40 PM   #339
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I do love mangled modern mythology.
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Old 06-07-2018, 06:53 PM   #340
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Dawn and Dusk

The reason this setting is called Dawn and Dusk, rather than the more normal pattern among post-apocalyptic stories of the title ending with the light of a new day, is that it is about the fate of those who are losing out or just don't get to be among the winners. Neither the Aurorans nor the Cartrights are evil. Both groups have been competing with each other and other local groups and tribes for survival. The Aurorans certainly have more advantages in the struggle to survive, but the Cartrights were an ongoing threat.

Now the Aurorans have done the equivalent of winning the lottery and they're bringing most of the neighborhood along with them into a bright new tomorrow. The Cartrights aren't singled out for vengeance or anything, they are simply seen as bandits in a setting that will have less and less tolerance for them as the economy improves and the local governments modernize.

One way this setting draws on Westerns are stories of people who can't stop being part of the Wild West even as the modern world starts coming in. The Cartrights are in an especially bad fix. Their home was a good place to survive the collapse mainly because it had a secure water supply, was very isolated, and was in the rainshadow of some mountains, and thus shielded from certain problems. The water supply, for both the creek and the wells, came from a rain fed aquifer, which is why a valley in the rainshadow of some mountains had a good water supply. The Aurorans, causing themselves trouble without knowing it, helped the Navahos drill into the aquifer in order to gain more irrigation water. This has diverted most of the water away from the Buzzard Creek area. Which means the tribe will need to leave or find another way to live.

In many ways, the Conan stories were about a displaced tribesman trying to survive without his tribe or the traditional context of their culture. The whole Cartright clan is in Conan's basic fix. They need to survive in a society that sees them as barbarians with little to offer but a knack for violence and maybe some scouting skills. This might not be so bad for the tribe's healthy young men, but women with children and elders are in huge trouble. Keeping the tribe alive would be a serious problem.
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