Adventures in Utopia?

[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)

--------------

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.

[whswhs]

The basic question for any campaign is, what kind of conflict do you want to have? Utopia limits the range of possible conflicts.

* Man versus society: Right out; a utopia's inhabitants are all morally committed to their society's ideals, and their society is able to live up to them.

* Man versus man: Most utopias manage to eliminate this, but there can be exceptions; even in a perfect society, two men may love the same woman, or two women may both want a job that can only hire one. There can also be rare crimes, frauds, or other unethical acts by the minority of people who don't live by utopian values. Think about how your utopia works.

* Man versus God: Many utopias are godless; those that have gods usually are morally committed to the ethics their gods support.

* Man versus self: Most utopias have inhabitants with superb psychological insight that frees them of conflicts; but someone with dystopian impulses might have to struggle with them.

* Man versus nature: The obvious topic. Heroic engineering is an obvious theme, but you can also have exploration, the pursuit of abstract knowledge, or even the creation of a new enterprise or community.

Bill Stoddard

[Stoob]

Stoob: The idea presented is an interesting one... The difficulty is in how the prophet came to her knowledge....

The interesting twist about your campaign is that by playing in before-the-humans-came time is that the players actually KNOW what happens in the future, because they've played in the campaign setting (in the future) before. This is unavoidable.

By having an ememy (this cult prophet) who actually somewhat-accurately predicts the future begs the question...how does the prophet know.

But what if the prophet DOESNT know? What if the prophet is crazy and just totally made up a compelling gloom-and-doom story, and there is no evidence that the prophet actually knows the future at all? It's just by chance that the prophecy sort of reflects the future, that only the players know is actually true. The PCs will be obliged to try to eliminate the cult and the prophet because there is no truth to it, not in the game world at least. The players (as PCs) will explain why the humans weren't attacked by the Selk when the humans first arrived, cause no one ever had any idea that this prophecy was true and the PCs stamped out the cult. The PCs will make history (in a weird way) and do their part to create the campaign setting as it exists...a big and important job!

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by Trachmyr

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.

Where are the bodies of the ancestor Selk?
Where are the neural interfaces they used?
Could they be dusted off and re-activated?

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Just remember that one person's heaven is another's hell. Any Utopia will have dissenters who think things could be better. (Example: The wealthy in the 1920's and 1930's lived in a sort of Utopia. However, many of them were swept up in the Fascist movement, which led to their Utopia being destroyed.)

[Trachmyr]

• @whswhs: Traditionally I run Man vs. Society games with a side helping of Man vs. man. This is probably the reason I'm scratching my head trying to come up with ideas... the ones I'm most experienced with are pretty much not available.
  While I could focus on a Selk vs. Selk game if the conflict is on the individual level, or on a Selk vs. Self game, it's not really possible except in a solo game.
  For the Selk spirituality (God) and society are pretty much the same. And in my experience Man vs. Nature games make for good one-off adventures, but not for lasting campaigns.
  
  So yes, I'm limited. What I have to do is find a set of circumstances that make an exception to how the Utopian selk society normally behaves, even if the goals are unchanged (or better yet, due to the Selk's goals).

• @Stoob: I can see the irony in making the "prophet" crazy, and the prophecy just coincidental. But fundamentally, it wouldn't be... whether she was crazy or not, the prophecy is still true. Trying to force the players to uphold the Irony of the situation just isn't nice... and they'd be unlikely to do so, they would actively look for reasons to believe (after all it *is* true).
  
  I'd much rather let the prophet or cult know something and tie it in to other historical events. For instance, when the Selk did begin to "fight back", the Humans were surprised how quickly they were able to understand and adapt their weapon technology, creating an indusrty for weapons production "overnight". Perhaps it wasn't overnight, it was a stockpile.
  
  There was also a controversy over a newly appeared species of Diatoms that produced extremly powerful neurotoxins that only affected humans. The Diatoms did major damage, caused the humans to retreat from the seas, and had a high death toll. The Selk were accused of engineering the Diatoms as a biological warfare agent, but scientific study proved that they had evolved naturally, and could not have been recently engineered (the PC were part of the analysis, they collected the Diatoms and transported them to a neutral third party)... The selk, given a bit of help from their AI are cpabable of selectively breeding this species... if they had forewarning and an understanding of human biochemistry.

• @Diagoro: The interfaces were implants, and the Selk cremate their dead... so for many reasons, the Interfaces are unaccessible even if not destroyed.

• @Myserious Dark Lord: On this I will have to quibble a point.. the Quote may be true for Humanity, but the Selk are quite Psychologically different. Possessing Sense of Duty (Race), Selflessness (SC 9, Racial -20%) [Sense of Duty means you help when you can, Selflessness means you help even when detremental)], Empathy (Racial -20%), Cultural Adaptation (Own Race, Onset 1 Week -40%), Language (basic Selkie, Accented) and Chummy as Genetic Traits. The society they live in is not an artificial construct, but instead an extension of their own (quite homogenous) personalities. And while there is variation amongst individuals, even an unfriendly and unsocial Selk is still still pleasant by human standards and not by any means anti-social.

Thanks for your feedback, much appreciated!
(and I think I have an idea I'll try fleshing out later, but I'm still open to other ideas...)

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Trachmyr

@whswhs: Traditionally I run Man vs. Society games with a side helping of Man vs. man. This is probably the reason I'm scratching my head trying to come up with ideas... the ones I'm most experienced with are pretty much not available.
While I could focus on a Selk vs. Selk game if the conflict is on the individual level, or on a Selk vs. Self game, it's not really possible except in a solo game.
For the Selk spirituality (God) and society are pretty much the same. And in my experience Man vs. Nature games make for good one-off adventures, but not for lasting campaigns.

So yes, I'm limited. What I have to do is find a set of circumstances that make an exception to how the Utopian selk society normally behaves, even if the goals are unchanged (or better yet, due to the Selk's goals).

If that's what you want I suggest a look at Le Guin's The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. The chapters set on Anarres are somewhat along the lines of deconstructed utopia that you seem to want to follow.

Bill Stoddard