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

[Stoob]

A dark and mysterious cult within Selk society threatens to disrupt Utopia. They hear the cult leader is a charismatic (and possibly insane) prophet. The PCs must investigate the cult to preserve the Selk peace and way of life.

When they spend more time on the job, the PCs expose more information. This prophet who claims to see the future says that the Selk must transform their society into a warlike and authoritarian culture to prepare for a "great invasion from the heavens" where "foul demons from afar" ride "beasts of metal" and threaten to destroy the Selk.

Does this leader actually see something that is really going to happen? Should his warnings be heeded? Or is he just a crazy Selk with a lucky hunch and a lust for power!?

[Edges]

A couple ideas:

The Selk could discover evidence of their biological history. Social/political/cultural/religious implications ensue. Various groups form. Each contributes to a program of gathering more conclusive evidence. Maybe a quest to find a piece of tech that the AI lost long ago on entry. The tech could even be an Earth-linked communicator.

Maybe the AI didn't get it right the first time. The Selk could discover a another version somewhere that creates conflict.

[knarf]

And even people with the same goals and motivations don't always agree.

[thedot]

Originally Posted by Trachmyr

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.

Perhaps in X% of the population there is a mutation which has evolved since the AI geneered the Selk. This mutation could undo one of the seemingly positive personality traits originally engineered by the AI. Maybe the mutant Selk are fiercely independent instead of gregarious, altruistic and (reading between the lines) conformist. It would be interesting to see how the Selk handle those who do not fit into their cultural/societal mold, particularly if the mutant Selk were not inherently bad, but merely different.

Would the Selk as a whole accept them, or not? My guess, is if they have been living in a world where everyone was the same and generally worked towards the greater good, then I'd say not. My thought is anything that upset the balance of their society would scare the bejeezus out of them, and many would react accordingly.

Also, as knarf pointed out, there would inevitably be differing factions, even in a utopian society. How would the various factions handle the mutant Selk?

Well, that's my $0.02. Hope it helps!

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by Trachmyr

• 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.

An Orion-drive ship (using current technology) could get up to 10% lightspeed, making the trip to Alpha Centauri in less than 50 years. Fusion tech is not necessary. If anything, a fusion ship might make the trip in less time - possibly fast enough to make time dilation a factor. The time factor might allow a crew to make multiple trips to Alpha Centauri over a couple of centuries of outside time..

• 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 millennium 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.

A gamma-ray burst that would affect earth would also affect Alpha Centauri - on the scale of space that gamma-ray bursts operate on, Sol and Alpha Centauri are practically touching. And the primary effect of a gamma-ray burst would be a massive die-off of all life. It would be a death-toll unseen since the Precambrian Era, affecting everything from plants and animals to bacteria.

• 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.

This sounds familiar ...
Ah here it is!

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.

An alien version of Bunnies and Burrows or Ice Age?

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!

Politics? An adversary who is masterminding a social revolution and the PCs are preserving the status quo? Or vice versa? An Illuminati campaign with secret societies? Or a Bio-tech/Horror campaign with hideous genetic-level compulsions implanted by the gengineers to fulfill their own dark designs?

[cptbutton]

(Rereading this, it looks kind of like badgering or an attack. I don't mean it that way, I'm just phrasing ideas as questions.)

What is the AI in the starship up to?

Did it just give them their version of Holy Scripture and then cut contact?

Or is it still in contact with Selk in some fashion?

If it is in contact with them, what is it trying to encourage and what is it trying to discourage? How inclined is it to intervene?

Is the terraforming finished, or is the AI still tweaking the planetary environment? What if something goes wrong with the terraforming?

What if the AI changes? Recontacts if it wasn't in contact or cuts contact if it was?

What if the AI changes its messages or actions? Why is it changing? Is it part of the plan? Has something broken in the AI? Did someone or something gain influence over it?

[Trachmyr]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Much appreciated.

• Stoob: The idea presented is an interesting one... because it doesn't go against any of the base cultural views of the Selk. If the selk would have known ahead of time what was going to happen when humans first arrived, they probablly would have immediately attacked the newcomers.
  
  The difficulty is in how the prophet came to her knowledge, one possible way is through the AI (the ship is still in orbit even when the refugees arrive in Alpha Centauri). It can't communicate with the selk in a normal fashion, but a message in the bottle dropped from orbit may suffice. If the AI detects the approaching vessels, it may become worried about it's progent, and try to send a warning. (The AI does devolve into a case of multiple personalities as time passes, so this is feasible).
  
  Have to think about this one, but it may work fairly well.

• Edges: I like the first idea quite a lot, although the upheaval wouldn't be as extreme as it would from humans. The Selk know they are from space, they know they were created by NYX (the AI), an intelligence beyond their own, they know that the world (or at least it's ecology) was made for them. It wouldn't be a surprise or shocking, but they are curious about who they are and their "Star Mother". Finding Tech is interesting. It could even be tied into Stoob's prophet idea with ease, increasing the complexity of the plot... especially if it's a comm to the AI.
  
  As for other Panhumans, this doesn't fit with the history that the Players have come to know. That there has been no "Selk Wars" before humanity was a common theme, and fairly proven to be true in one previous game. The AI was very careful to get things right the first time (and hadn't split it's program into multiple personality shards yet), and she destroyed a lot of embroys that weren't up to her standards. There are dangerous creatures, some fairly intelligent, but the selk are the only Sentient species until humans arrive.

• knarf: Quite right, the selk get along very well compared to humans, especially at the Community Level, but they disagree, argue, have rivalries (Most selk consider other selk of different clans but the same generation to be "friendly rivals"), and occassionally even fight. But this is on an individual basis, on any larger scale, the selk work to find consensus and cooperation.
  Even where individuals conflict, it simply won't go to the extremes that humans would. You might want to beat your rival, or prove her ideas wrong, but you wouldn't want to really hurt or humilate her.
  
  Consider the ramifications if the Primary Motivation of Humans was changed from "Self-Preservation" to "preservation of the Species". Now add in the fact that basic language and cultural concepts are hardwired into genetic memory. Even as the selk spread out into the world and become increasingly regionalized, they still share the fundamental core to both language and culture.

• thedot:
  Mutations are actually quite rare (the AI programmed significant DNA repair and failsafes, as the AI considered them perfected... thus natural evolution was undesirable), and even so cannot spread into the gene pool except through direct decendants... these individuals would likely die unless isolated from all other Selks. The reason is that Selk frequently swap antibodies (using their own lactate in communal foods), these carry antibodies to fight off not only disease, but destroy any cell that does not carry the same DNA.
  
  The Selks themselves all have identical DNA, they are in fact a race of clones, but they express individual uniqueness through variations in the Dominancy/Recessiveness of their 81 genes.
  
  A mutaion in a single faimly line is possible, but they would be disconnected from Selk society as a whole. This could lead to conflict, but it is unlikely to be on a large scale.
  
  As to would they be accepted... if they "fit in" to Selk Society in terms of openess, cooperation, ecological responsibility, and peacefulness... then yes. Some of the human refugees "went native" and were given a place in Selk Communes. But if they display an isolatist philosophy, or become aggressive, disruptive to the environment, or become uncooperative... then there would be a problem.

• Mysterious Dark:
  You are ofcourse correct as to the Orion Drive and that the ship could arrive far earlier than 400 years, especially with Fusion Tech. However, those designs are incredibly expensive and transpot only a fraction of a percent of their mass as payload. With the corportatization of the world, how could they justify such a major expense that offer no return on the investment. The time and speeds I use take this into account, a relatively cheap vessel using cheap Hydrogen fuel achieving just over 1% C, transporting about 10% of it's mass as payload. This project can be taken on as a relatively trivial expense to someone who is extremely wealthy who happens to have an interest in space and is looking for some publicity. The Human refugees that arrive later on do so much more quickly, but they see a payoff for their investments.
  
  The GRB in question is a Short Burst GRB (less than a tenth of a second), from the collision of two nuetron stars. From what I've been reading, the Earth would survive... though loose significant amounts of Ozone, and technology would fry out. The long term environmental effects of increased radiation would be disasterous. And Alpha Centauri was indeed hit, but Thalasia did not have any Ozone to begin with, and life there was anerobic life in the seas... thus the die off was not a cataclysm (the AI would do that later with the introduction of photosynthetic life).
  
  The Ship is another question, the AI core (fiber optic) and genetic library were highly shielded both by matter and magnetically to protect against long-term exposure to cosmic rays, but a certain amount of handwavium is probably required to keep it from being completely destroyed.
  
  ----
  
  Thanks for the link to the Blue Planet book... I've never even seen that one, I hope it's available on e23, because I deffinately want to check it out.
  
  Yes, I've used Ice Age to flesh out some tech and environmental threats. I hope Low-Tech comes out soon ;)
  
  An Illuminati campaign sounds interesting, perhaps tied into the earlier ideas of Prophecy and Technology falling from the sky. Hmmm, that might just work.

[Trachmyr]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

(Rereading this, it looks kind of like badgering or an attack. I don't mean it that way, I'm just phrasing ideas as question.)

First off, doen't look like an attack at all... just brainstorming. Thanks for your feedback. I also want to point out that my answers take into account the known history once the Human refugees arive, the campaign that I've been running for my players for quite some time now. I want to keep the History consistent with what they know (for the most part), thus I don't have as much wiggle room as I would if I was creating a setting from scratch.

What is the AI in the starship up to?

Mostly lying dormant, occassionally adjusting it's orbit, analyzing the planet's current atmosphere and weather, or spying on Selk communes. But 99.9% of the time it is in "Power-Saving" mode. It has consumed most of it's reactor fuel, and it cannot break orbit. It has an onboard fabricator, but no raw materials (much of the ship was canabalized to create drop capsules to terraform the planet).

The ship was designed to land, to become the center of a colony. It had habitats, life-support, factories, ore proccessing cpability, and everything else needed to jump start a technologically adavanced colony. But the damage it suffered means that landing = crash. Thus it stays in orbit to preserve it's massive databanks, so that one-day the Selk can claim their history and Technological birthright.

Did it just give them their version of Holy Scripture and then cut contact?

Or is it still in contact with Selk in some fashion?

If it is in contact with them, what is it trying to encourage and what is it trying to discourage? How inclined is it to intervene?

The original 96 Selk that were created all had Wireless Neural Interfaces, and were trained via the Deep Learning technique (from Bio-Tech). They were taught how to utalize and preserve their environment. NYX (the AI) appeared to them as their mother, and have them "spiritual teachings". NYX believed that wrapping their culture and history into spitualtiy would do best to preserve the information through the generations. Fully disclosing her nature and the Selk's history at that time was viewed as not being beneficial to their survival.

Through the Interfaces she stayed in contact with the original Selk (who survived reentry) throughout their lives, in the form of dreams. Making sure that they had the best head start she could give them. But eventually the last of the original selk died, and since then there has been no contact. If contact was to resume, some form of communications device would have to be delivered to the selk.

Is the terraforming finished, or is the AI still tweaking the planetary environment? What if something goes wrong with the terraforming?

The AI considered the changes to be complete, and has since stopped modifiying the environment. However, much to her surprise, the Selk have been unknowingly continuing the terraforming process. CO2 was a significant component in the Atmosphere when the Selk were transplanted, at about 8%. Selk were modified to tolerate these high CO2 levels. When the selk inhabit a new region, they modify the environment to allow them to enter into the food chain without disrupting the other apex predators (primarily through nutrient enrichment of waters, including iron seeding which increases algea growth). CO2 levels at the time of the refugee arrival is about 3%, the Atmospheric Pressure slightly lower, and the average temperature cooler, which in turn has reduced the serverity of hurricanes.

What if the AI changes? Recontacts if it wasn't in contact or cuts contact if it was?

What if the AI changes its messages or actions? Why is it changing? Is it part of the plan? Has something broken in the AI? Did someone or something gain influence over it?

This could be a hook to a campaign plot, but it would probably best fit in a Illuminati style campaign, as recontact is not part of known history.
The AI did break up it's program into smaller personality shards, in effect a split personality. The smaller programs allow the AI to go online but use fewer servers, thus significantly reduce power consumption. Some of these Shards did turn out to have highly variant personalities and points of view, although their goals remain the same. (AI's in my setting are not truly sentient, they cannot modify their core programming... nor do they *want* to)

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The more I look at things, the more an Illuminati style campaign seems the way to go... it gives me more wiggle room, and my player's won't expect it at all. I just never considered Illuminati as compatible with the open Selk society, but in the right context it might be an interesting approach!

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by Trachmyr

The AI did break up it's program into smaller personality shards, in effect a split personality. The smaller programs allow the AI to go online but use fewer servers, thus significantly reduce power consumption. Some of these Shards did turn out to have highly variant personalities and points of view, although their goals remain the same. (AI's in my setting are not truly sentient, they cannot modify their core programming... nor do they *want* to)

While it is unlikely to be useful for your game, this bit reminds me of Voyager in Night by C J Cherryh. It is set on an ancient interstellar probe where the original AI now shares space with a large number of very divergent splinter versions of itself, and software uploads of all sorts of different aliens it has abducted and "analyzed" over the eons.