Coventry--a campaign twist

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

(SNIP)

The survey ship very quickly realized that this isn't a civilization's homeworld, but some form of colony. After a few weeks in orbit, they could tell that people were arriving and departing without space ships, and the demographics and settlement patterns were all too familiar: Coventry is a prison planet, of an unknown civilization that travels without space ships.

On realizing that, they leave post haste.

A few days/weeks/months later, a heavy cruiser arrives to begin first contact...

The idea here is that The Secret is effectively blown regarding the spacegoing civilization, but it won't do them any good--Coventry is only reachable with conveyors boosted by projectors on homeline. (At least for now.)

Interstellar technology does Homeline no good, either; it doesn't work on homeline.

Can of worms cracked, but not necessarily opened...

I don't know that the secret is necessarily blown, although it's certainly threatened.

If the aliens have no familiarity with parachronics, they may simply (!) assume the colony on Coventry was founded by an interstellar civilization that travels by means of wormhole stargates.

That's scary enough, especially if relativity is a thing in that universe. The notion that humans might open gateways to the past of the alien homeworld would have them dumping the contents of their cloacas, all by itself -- especially if the energy signature isn't all that high.

The aliens would, at the very least, feel they're tiptoeing through egg-shells scattered thickly across a field of Bouncing Betties.

[YankeeGamer]

Originally Posted by tshiggins

I don't know that the secret is necessarily blown, although it's certainly threatened.

If the aliens have no familiarity with parachronics, they may simply (!) assume the colony on Coventry was founded by an interstellar civilization that travels by means of wormhole stargates.

That's scary enough, especially if relativity is a thing in that universe. The notion that humans might open gateways to the past of the alien homeworld would have them dumping the contents of their cloacas, all by itself -- especially if the energy signature isn't all that high.

The aliens would, at the very least, feel they're tiptoeing through egg-shells scattered thickly across a field of Bouncing Betties.

IF the folks on Coventry travel by wormhole gates, that's interesting right there. The locals are decidedly primitive, which means they either FOUND wormhole gates, STOLE them, or they don't need high tech. This planet is a subject of grave concern. Ground based gates are a gamechanger however you look at it. The energy signature is trivially low--not even enough to get a small ship up to orbit, when you think about it.

Essentially any science fiction setting could be the one that arrives at Coventry. If you want to use a familiar one, it's even possible that Coventry is not Earth, but a planet around a nearby star--take a good dose of handwavium, but then you could insert your favorite Sci-Fi setting in there. (The fact that it's NOT EARTH could be a well guarded secret, or just one of the anomalys that make it the world that it is.

How would Captain Kirk react? Or Traveler's Third Imperium?