01-14-2019, 01:48 PM | #41 | |
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Southern New Hampshire
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Re: Alien Invasions
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I'm trying to think of reasons the aliens might want to occupy the planet without killing humans off entirely...
I feel like no matter what, if the campaign is the long game to becoming allies with the aliens is a difficult to make interesting for players. And resistance is a much easier formula for adventure. Finding important artifacts before the aliens do; helping the people trying to hide on Earth; and finding ways to genuinely fight back if we're hyperspace navigation systems... it all makes a little more sense to me as a campaign hook. One final thought... aliens crashing here in enough number to be a problem but without the ability to get infinite help from space could be fun too. They use their tech to try to rule the planet and bring technology up enough so they can get back into space... but they treat us horribly in the process. So, players either try to work with them to change things from the inside and save people, or try to fight back and just take the tech for humanity. |
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01-14-2019, 01:49 PM | #42 | |||||||||
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
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Re: Alien Invasions
Can we have a little more fleshing?
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Last edited by Donny Brook; 01-14-2019 at 01:57 PM. |
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01-14-2019, 02:00 PM | #43 |
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Re: Alien Invasions
It sounds like Earth is a potential advantage for a larger galactic community. I'd suggest introducing various alien factions (ala uplift) or just aliens that want to oppose what's going on (5th column).
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01-14-2019, 02:30 PM | #44 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Alien Invasions
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01-14-2019, 02:35 PM | #45 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
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Re: Alien Invasions
I haven't read everything in this thread, so forgive me if it's already been suggested.
But what made the miniseries V really interesting to me was the fact that there was a fifth column among the aliens. Even with all the rubber science in the show, humanity had no chance without such allies.
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01-14-2019, 03:25 PM | #46 | |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Alien Invasions
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01-14-2019, 03:53 PM | #47 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Alien Invasions
Which is a viable story line. If you assume that Empires expand until they encounter another Empire, then they could have encountered equally powerful neighbor(s) and are securing their flank against another polity. The Sol System would just be another system that they are trying to secure against their enemies and, because there are technologically advanced natives, it would have some marginal utility (it would not be terribly difficult to uplift human civilization to the point where humans could help defend the frontier).
Concerning points 1 and 4 being contradictory, they are not necessarily contradictory because the Empire does not care about owning anything in the Sol System but individual Imperials may. With relatively little Imperial money, an Imperial could retire on the Earth and live quite well, much like Americans retiring to Thailand. For example, an Imperial with Average wealth and Independent Income 5 would have personal property equal to $50,000 and annual income equal to $30,000 due to being TL10. If they purchased gold at Imperial prices (and had their annual income sent to them in gold), they could increase their purchasing power by 30x, effectively allowing them to purchase $1.5 million worth of personal property and to earn $900,000 per year (effectively increasing them to Very Wealthy). Concerning trade, the Empire would probably leverage their economic superiority to keep humans dependent, at least until they become citizens. They would likely pay in gold m and require payment in gold, in order to keep the exchange rate favorable. Since humans would likely not be producing anything that the Empire would find worthwhile to import, humans would be dependent on working for the Empire in order to receive payment in gold. TL9 goods, which would be worthless to the Empire, would be worth vast amounts of money to human civilization, especially if the Empire made sure to enforce IP on them. |
01-14-2019, 05:13 PM | #48 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Portland, Oregon
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Re: Alien Invasions
If they are coming to Earth in the first place, one would think they want to land on it to get whatever unobtanium they want.
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"The navy could probably win a war without coffee but would prefer not to try"-Samuel Eliot Morrison |
01-14-2019, 05:22 PM | #49 | |
Join Date: Jan 2014
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Re: Alien Invasions
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01-14-2019, 06:39 PM | #50 |
Join Date: Feb 2011
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Re: Alien Invasions
An alien invasion that makes (some) sense and that has a (moderate) chance of going well for Earth could be something like this:
First off, there's a large and anarchic galactic society. New space civilizations arise fairly frequently, and there are enough of them that no one can establish itself as a galactic hegemony. The galaxy is still a very big place, though, so it's no surprise Earth was never visited. Until now. A fleet of alien mutineers (proportionately equal to a small but highly industrialized terrestrial nation) enters the solar system. They are water-based oxygen breathers originally from a world with 1.9Gs; the harsh chemical environment of their homeworld means that their skin has an impermiable layer not unlike plastic. All in all, Earth with its current biosphere is a suitable home for them. It's no coincidence they ended up here, of course. The signs of industrial activity are also convenient for them, as they have a desire for sapient slaves. As a design switch, this can be for one of two big reasons: first, that their group has a cultural quirk of valuing slaves inherently (which goes some way to explaining why they ended up mutinying); second, that sapients have access to psionics, and that potential can be used in some way. I favor brain extraction to produce FTL jump modules, in order to give the players a nice horror to fight against. Either way, the invaders want to keep this a decidedly local affair, since they don't want to attract the attention of their parent civilization -- and yet, the parent civ is hedged in and might not have the spare resources to devote to finding the mutineers on its own. It's up to Humanity alone to defeat the invaders, but it might be possible to do so. |
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