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Old 04-12-2011, 02:55 PM   #1
D10
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: In Rio de Janeiro, where it was cyberpunk before it was cool.
Default Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

I always have this feeling that im missing something, and this is gonna be my first sci fi campaign im feeling a tad bit overwhelmed by the ammount of information I need to account for.

The campaign is set to in the year of 2267, with humans having colonized several planets in stars near by after discovering a miracle substance (think Johny1A.2 Orichalcum) that allows them to travel FTL, artificial gravity, and interacts heavily with psionic powers.

Earth like planets are fairly common, when the star is able to sustain it, scients are mindboggled by this commonality of life, but so far only one other sapient species has been found, and sadly, its a type of anthropomorphic sea crab, 3 to 15 meters high who live deep into the ocean of Alpha Centauri-3, no communication has been possible so far, but their society seems to be
TL-3 trying to build oceanic castles and armors and waging wars.



Major players would be:

NATO:

US + EU albeit with some cultural differences they were never closer in a really strong alliance in all angles, the only reason its not a single country is proudfull diplomatic technicallities. They would have cutting edge tech, and they would have been the firsts to discover the miracle substance, altho in very limited ammount.

They lead the charge into unknown space searching for the miracle substance above everything else, they were forced to share Jupiter's income of (they manage to extract it from jupiters outer layer at extreme expense) with the other major players to avoid a political nightmare, but they managed to keep enough to have an edge, and they wanted to use this edge to get more ahead and more ahead.



China:

Bigger and greater than ever, china can only be described with one word, unrelenting, with the biggest population in earth, their main goal has been to build huge colony ships and get as many planets as they can before others.

Biggerst industrial base of the planet, biggest mining operation in the solar system, and the leader in manufacturing TL 8 products by far, china is a titan in terms of acquisition power, army, and sheer potential. her borders were expanded and a few asian countries are effectively puppet states.


Eurasian Dynasties:

Many revolutions happened in russian and its borders in these turbulent war times, when the government realized they wouldnt be able to squash em all and still look legitimate, they decided they didnt need to look legitimate.

managing to make it seem like the revolutionaries were winning, the powerfull autocrats squashed the rebels, and instituted a military junta that split their conquest as rogues split their loot, but moscow still stood above em all, and they managed to carve out of Eurasia a new state doing the jobs no one wanted, and more often than not resorting to durty jobs to even up the competition.


The Caliphate:

More than a hundred revolutions happened in islamic countries, but in the last 100 years, a great religious man united a new generation of islamic people into an unstoppable fighting force, making members of other organizations just leave them and join his, he fascinate a whole generation and crushed whatever regime was in place, creating the last theocracy in the world, spanning from lybia and turkey to pakistan and afghanistan, this state thrived in the use of Bio tech, and they some understanding of psionics.


Liga Panamericana

South america, african countries, some other independant countries, united in a big league, specially countries in the south atlantic, and they would have an edge in aquatic habitats with Brazil as the most powerfull member of the league, they would be US lite in terms tech, and have a more cultural and economic mindset. They would have a lot of burocracy concerning building of ships, but less burocracy when it came to repairing or launching them.


The players will be hired by an american Doctor named Dennis Herbbert, or Doctor Herb.

He will be a millionare and will also be a political activist in a strong underground psionic movement.

Because some members of this group are invading facilities and rescuing fellow psions who have been arrest or else .. they started being hunted en mass

And doctor herb too! he talked with his russian contact who promissed him that if he 20 passengers of the russian's choice he would get him the ship he would need to get out of the solar system.

And he did, he got them a really big cargo ship, who was hit in an accident in an asteroid field and crashed on earth in a failed rescue mission.
It was basically a very very damaged ... hull.

But when they got it the full was completely fixed, not as good as before but totally air tight. He got them old and used dimensionator drives that allow a ship to go 50 times the speed of light.

Fission reactor with 12 MW potential, and 6 5MW capacitors.

A giant cargo bay (dunno how much honestly but the ship would be 1.5k long, 800m diameter, like a big flying submarine with lateral thrusters and a back thruster)

She would move burning fuel cells, and would have a fuel processing plant, and all the tools it would require to mine and refine (to a small degree) the contents of tha asteroids the ship mined (they needed those to pass some inspection of the ships purpose)

a big living quarter with space for 100 people, 1 captains cabin, 6 officers cabin, bar, gym, ball court, video lounge, music lounge, food lounge (expensive, but the millionare wanted comfort) and a new cutting edge tech, mini grav generators that worked with the miracle substance, Herb managed to smuggle one (at the cost of a man's life) with his medical contacts (it was considered medical since the main excuse to make them, was surgeries in space), to make almost 10% of the ship with artificial gravity

Players will start loading the ship and getting ready for departure, a being briefed of whats going on, one is gonna roleplay the chief engineer of the ship who faked his own death to get out of the army, another one plans to do an ESPer /telepath computer operator/programmer hindu who hates teh caliphate and would probably be invoved with the movement.

and the third is gonna go for a cyber infiltrator kind of character

The ship primary mission would be to deliver a few people in a few planets, on the road to a planet colonized by Brazil in Epsilon Eridani where psichic phenomenae was studied far away from the eyes of opressive governments.

The subplots so far.

There are around 20 russians in the ship, and of those, around 10 are trained agents pretending to be ordinary crew man, and they seek to sabotate russias enemies any chance they get.

There would be at least one american spy, probably a psion.

And their head eletronics and sensors operator would be a double agent selling information for the chinese government or anyone who offered him the carrot and the stick.

Around 10 psions would be there to escort a little girl, the most powerfull ESPer they knew had a precognition with her, and said she would have to free all the minds ... or something of that sort, in fact, she was the most powerfull telepath alive, and that was almost as valuable as the miracle substance in itself, since FTL communications dont really exist.

The ship is old and battered, but some systems are shinning new, but some others not so much, she has some bots that can bug and attack people (if they think they are trash)

Using FTL makes psychic power incredibly unpreditable.

Can make it stronger in some cases, weaker in others, and maybe both in the course of one hour, over the course of several days, the psion must make several will rolls (starts at +10 and goes -1 every 2 days) or he will start to gradually become insane.

Usually people with no active psionic power, also have to make that power, but at a tremendouly reduced rate, starts at +10 but reduces for -1 every week.

Takes a third of the time exposed to fully recover

Ill post more later now i gotta go give my sis a ride.
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Old 04-12-2011, 09:08 PM   #2
Johnny1A.2
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by D10 View Post
I always have this feeling that im missing something, and this is gonna be my first sci fi campaign im feeling a tad bit overwhelmed by the ammount of information I need to account for.

The campaign is set to in the year of 2267, with humans having colonized several planets in stars near by after discovering a miracle substance (think Johny1A.2 Orichalcum) that allows them to travel FTL, artificial gravity, and interacts heavily with psionic powers.
I'm flattered.

Quote:

Earth like planets are fairly common, when the star is able to sustain it, scients are mindboggled by this commonality of life, but so far only one other sapient species has been found, and sadly, its a type of anthropomorphic sea crab, 3 to 15 meters high who live deep into the ocean of Alpha Centauri-3, no communication has been possible so far, but their society seems to be
TL-3 trying to build oceanic castles and armors and waging wars.



Major players would be:

NATO:

US + EU albeit with some cultural differences they were never closer in a really strong alliance in all angles, the only reason its not a single country is proudfull diplomatic technicallities. They would have cutting edge tech, and they would have been the firsts to discover the miracle substance, altho in very limited ammount.

They lead the charge into unknown space searching for the miracle substance above everything else, they were forced to share Jupiter's income of (they manage to extract it from jupiters outer layer at extreme expense) with the other major players to avoid a political nightmare, but they managed to keep enough to have an edge, and they wanted to use this edge to get more ahead and more ahead.
If they're an alliance and not a sovereign state, no matter how tight the alliance, you've got the potential for political intrigues and their enemies are going to try and 'wedge' them. Plus the member governments are going to be (as you said) jealous of their status (otherwise they'd be merged). Which could give you 'hooks'.

Quote:

China:

Bigger and greater than ever, china can only be described with one word, unrelenting, with the biggest population in earth, their main goal has been to build huge colony ships and get as many planets as they can before others.

Biggerst industrial base of the planet, biggest mining operation in the solar system, and the leader in manufacturing TL 8 products by far, china is a titan in terms of acquisition power, army, and sheer potential. her borders were expanded and a few asian countries are effectively puppet states.
How are they run? Is China still Communist, even in name? Is her population falling? Do they have a surplus of young males (as the real-world China now does because of the one-child policy? Stuff like that will help determine what China does.

Quote:

e will be a millionare and will also be a political activist in a strong underground psionic movement.
Why are they underground, and what is their goal? Who are they hiding from and why? What kind of power do they have? (An underground of psions who can lift a pound with PK is going to have very different motives than one made up of psions who can lift tons, for ex).

Quote:

Because some members of this group are invading facilities and rescuing fellow psions who have been arrest or else .. they started being hunted en mass
By who? Why?

Quote:


But when they got it the full was completely fixed, not as good as before but totally air tight. He got them old and used dimensionator drives that allow a ship to go 50 times the speed of light.

Fission reactor with 12 MW potential, and 6 5MW capacitors.
I don't know how realistic you want to be, but 12 MW is feeble for a spacecraft of any sort, esp. a starship. GURPS was never entirely realistic about the energy requirements of space flight, a serious spaceship is going to need gigawatts, not megawatts, at least. The Saturn 5, for example, used nearly 200 GW during its takeoff. 12 MW is more like a big military tank or maybe a modest sea craft.

Quote:

The subplots so far.

There are around 20 russians in the ship, and of those, around 10 are trained agents pretending to be ordinary crew man, and they seek to sabotate russias enemies any chance they get.

There would be at least one american spy, probably a psion.

And their head eletronics and sensors operator would be a double agent selling information for the chinese government or anyone who offered him the carrot and the stick.

Around 10 psions would be there to escort a little girl, the most powerfull ESPer they knew had a precognition with her, and said she would have to free all the minds ... or something of that sort, in fact, she was the most powerfull telepath alive, and that was almost as valuable as the miracle substance in itself, since FTL communications dont really exist.
What keeps the little girl from recognizing the various spies and agents? And you need to decide why the secret mission is able to go off the way it is if so many governments know about it (since they apparently have agents aboard). Who are they keeping it secret from, and if nobody sees through their facade, why are all these agents aboard?

You need to know so you can refuse to tell the players. :lol:
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Old 04-12-2011, 09:41 PM   #3
combatmedic
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Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

Those crab men sound nifty!


How does the Caliphate deal with the Sunni/Shia division, and with smaller divisions in the ummah? Has some form of peace been made? Have the Sunni conquered the Shia and exiled them to the stars?
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Old 04-12-2011, 09:42 PM   #4
D10
 
Join Date: May 2009
Location: In Rio de Janeiro, where it was cyberpunk before it was cool.
Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
I'm flattered.
Ill be honest, reading thro the universe of orichalcum made GMing was a huge inspiration ;)



Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post

If they're an alliance and not a sovereign state, no matter how tight the alliance, you've got the potential for political intrigues and their enemies are going to try and 'wedge' them. Plus the member governments are going to be (as you said) jealous of their status (otherwise they'd be merged). Which could give you 'hooks'.


Indeed! And I intend to use them! OTH, many european countries like poland and hungary succumbed to the revolutions of the eurasian rising, and the europeans altho egalitarian in their alliance, are being controled by the US by propaganda and scare tatics to make them believe US is their savior against the evil east.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
How are they run? Is China still Communist, even in name? Is her population falling? Do they have a surplus of young males (as the real-world China now does because of the one-child policy? Stuff like that will help determine what China does.
China is still communist, one party rules the whole land, but this party is heavily divided into groups who are influenced by diferent players.

At the end of the day, the PM has the final word, and for the last hundred years, they were almost emperors, with the old PM's protege becoming the new PM 100% of the time.

They would certainly have more man than woman, and be against crews with mixed sexes unless it was shown to be of the essence. (obviously colony ships had mixed sexes for instance)

The one child would have been lifted after the great fleet managed to transport 1 billion chinese to colonies over the course of 50 years, and they realized they would actually need more people to populate the vastness of space.



Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
Why are they underground, and what is their goal? Who are they hiding from and why? What kind of power do they have? (An underground of psions who can lift a pound with PK is going to have very different motives than one made up of psions who can lift tons, for ex).
The american government (and some others too) were deliberately capturing psions and using them for their own needs, in less complicated instances a gifted son was being sent for an "elite school for special needs children" but it was actually something more like sector 7 but for psichic powers, hundreds of psions arrested, most of them really powerfull and/or with severe mental problems, and on another building several prodigies that their psions managed to precog and track.

They did this becase they were almost certain that if psions from other major players found them first they could be captured killed and most importantly, not serve the american government.

Psions with amazing power were incredibly rare, altho the number was increasing in an exponential rate, it left other problems, as to the kind of psychic powers they wanted, and if that individual was willing to be there.

They quickly found out that children are easier to breed into a loyal soldier than an old and powerfull psion.

And the movement would be a mix of psions and ordinary people who knew about this and were trying to free some specific psions (usually the children) and also stay hidden from government.

Laws were passed after some flashy escapes that forced all psions to be registered and to submit to the government for evaluation of danger.

And thats when the movement really went underground, they are powerfull enough to break into a heavily defended prison but mostly due to inside information and months preparing situations to unfold, not to sheer power.

That would have happened 1 year before the campaign started


Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
I don't know how realistic you want to be, but 12 MW is feeble for a spacecraft of any sort, esp. a starship. GURPS was never entirely realistic about the energy requirements of space flight, a serious spaceship is going to need gigawatts, not megawatts, at least. The Saturn 5, for example, used nearly 200 GW during its takeoff. 12 MW is more like a big military tank or maybe a modest sea craft.
I was under this impression, but kept following the book until someone told me otherwise, now that you did, I think it indeed makes more sense, but what way could a that ship produce that much power ? Does the dimensionator drive itself produces the power of the takeoff ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2 View Post
What keeps the little girl from recognizing the various spies and agents? And you need to decide why the secret mission is able to go off the way it is if so many governments know about it (since they apparently have agents aboard). Who are they keeping it secret from, and if nobody sees through their facade, why are all these agents aboard?

You need to know so you can refuse to tell the players. :lol:
[/QUOTE]

Everyone knows theres something fishy, so its kinda of a sleep with your gun kind of ship from the get go.



The agents are very well trained (well at least the double agent and the american psion) and wont get caught unless they get caught doing something suspicious (im talking heavy mindshield and some specific implant) and the little girl (which would be around 6) was really strong but didnt know how to use her powers corretly, and the group of psions were good in anti psi focused on neutralizing her power to make the signature as low as possible, and prevent any FTL sideffects (they will cause psychic field alterations as well) and obviously prevent her from unwary rape everyones mind
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Old 04-12-2011, 09:43 PM   #5
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Join Date: May 2009
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Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by combatmedic View Post
Those crab men sound nifty!


How does the Caliphate deal with the Sunni/Shia division, and with smaller divisions in the ummah? Has some form of peace been made? Have the Sunni conquered the Shia and exiled them to the stars?
Im not really sure, but I was inclined to something resembling the later from the get go, the Sunni overwhelm the sunni after a bloody war, the remaining survivors were exiled to mars or other space stations.
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Old 04-12-2011, 09:45 PM   #6
combatmedic
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Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

Quote:
Originally Posted by D10 View Post
Im not really sure, but I was inclined to something resembling the later from the get go, the Sunni overwhelm the sunni after a bloody war, the remaining survivors were exiled to mars or other space stations.


Cool, you can have Martian colony towns named Qom, Karbala, An-Najaf, etc.
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Old 04-12-2011, 09:51 PM   #7
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Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

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Originally Posted by combatmedic View Post
Cool, you can have Martian colony towns named Qom, Karbala, An-Najaf, etc.
Located on Arabia Terra?
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Old 04-12-2011, 09:55 PM   #8
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Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

Initially accepted by my players, the means I conceived of how terrans were acquiring it was the following, they found a way to beam jupiter's mass out of it thro a very complicated process they called the magnetic cannon.

They went thro trillions of tons of ultra hot jupiter materials (focusing mostly on that red spot) and eventually got like 10g of it, and used it to make the process better, and nowdays they have around 1500 coming each each reliably.

Not nearly enough for everyone, and heavily controled, the fact that the players have a ship capable of FTL will be a feat in itself,

10% space exploration
30% gritty space cowboys
30% politics
30% psychotechno babble
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Old 04-12-2011, 10:15 PM   #9
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Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

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Originally Posted by Diomedes View Post
Located on Arabia Terra?
-or Libya.

Neither Martian region is a name match with the terrestrial regions of the original cities- but at least we're talking about the right part of the world.
If Shia from Yemen end up in Martian Arabia, that would be fitting.
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Old 04-12-2011, 10:20 PM   #10
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Default Re: Interstellar campaign, what am I missing ?

What do you think their economic activity would be ? hydroponic subsistence farmers ?
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