Adventures in Utopia?

[Trachmyr]

My gaming group is looking to try something a bit different than the TL10 game I’ve been running; a “historical” game within the setting that I’ve created.


A brief overview of the current campaign:

• In 2017, the Terrestrial Planet Finder project takes images of the closest exoplanet to earth, in orbit around Alpha Centauri B. It lies within the habitable zone, and absorption bands give proof positive of water. While this increases interest in space exploration, it will take five decades, breakthroughs in Fusion technology, and an eccentric billionaire to launch an AI controlled seed ship to the Alpha Centauri system, that will take just under 400 years to arrive.

• A century after the launch, the ship is all but forgotten, and Human Civilization has yet to have a Technological singularity… Resistance to change, inequality of classes, and corporate concerns for their “bottom line” are all to blame. Then the Unimaginable happens… A short gamma ray burst “grazes” the solar system, instantly plummeting the Earth into a massive technological crash, and causing significant ozone damage. It will take almost a millennia for civilization to recover to it’s previous point… the “nature” of the reemerged Human Civilization(s) has been left intentionally vague. The only thing that has been said is that the environment never recovered, and indeed worsened as society returned to Industrial-era technology.

• During this time the AI seed ship arrived at the discovered world… but it too was affected by the GRB, critical system malfunctions plagued the vessel, but the AI was able to carry out it’s primary mission. Colonization of a new world (Named Thalasia). The world was a vast ocean with millions of volcanic islands and atolls, it had anaerobic life, but lacked free oxygen. The AI seeded the world with a new ecology, creating an “Oxygen Catastrophe” ending most native life. It would be several hundred years before the “new colonists” were transplanted, which was several hundred years for the AI to perfect a panhuman for the new environment.

• The Selk were the product of the AI’s genetic program; an amphibious, parthenogenesis, homogenous species that were genetically modified to be gregarious, open, altruistic (but very protective of their species) and curious. Even a basic language was part of their genetic memory. The first Selk were given instructions on how to live in their environment, harvest resources, and craft tools. The AI portrayed itself as a quasi-divine being, the mother of the Selk… who were children of the sea of stars. This world was to be their home until they were ready to return to stars above.

• The Selk lived in a Utopian society, although threats from nature and beasts still exist. They managed quite well, their TL varied significantly in various fields. Then came the Humans, refugee vessels filled with sleepers arrived, they colonized the worlds of the Centauri System, and the asteroid bodies that lie in the outer orbit of both stars. The humans polarized into two main governments, each controlling one of the two star systems. Tensions and skirmishes between the Selks and the Humans exist to this day, and though the Humans possessed superior tech, they are vastly outnumbered (and the Selk learn and adapt their Tech very quickly).

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Now my players want to play as Selk during the Utopian Times before the arrival of Humanity. I personally love the idea, as I would love to flesh out their culture and history more fully. But the problem arises on what to do in a Utopian Society without sentient threats. Selk vs. Nature is an easy theme, but that’s better for one-shot stories than an extended campaign… especially since the Selk are pretty much masters of their environment, only disasters (Tsunami, Hurricane) and crossing the deep ocean (due to the vastness and predators) present any real danger. “Quest for Fire" type games centered on the development of tech might work as well, but I’m not sure how fun they would be.

So I’m turning to the Forum for ideas… my players like to roleplay, but they also like a few scenes of Action or conflict per session. Thanks in advance!

-Trachmyr