New Sci Fi Setting Seeds

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

In many ways this takes GURPS:Alpha Centauri and reworks it. Remove the Manifolds and the intelligent aliens, you can keep the mind worms if you like...

I like it as a fairly straight take on the setting. But yeah, most of the expansion narrative can go away. Deidre and Lal end up way over on one side of Planet and the rest are on a major land mass, and that could work just fine.

The Spartans, Hive, and Believers are all prone to mutual conflict but are also pragmatic enough to work together at times. The Morganites are the closest to a dedicated diplomatic faction on their continent, but they have their own interests and are probably the only economic threat for the islanders. University fits on the island or on the continent. They are willing to be quite pacifist, but they aren't very humanist. They could be great false friends for the islanders, or a great PC faction from the mainland who's suddenly found allies.

The expansion factions are really more subfactions. Cult is a militant split-off of the Gaians and may have fled to the mainland to cause trouble. Conciousness probably doesn't appear until late in the game. Data Angels fit in as a dangerous potential ally on the mainland. Free drones presumably develop as the islanders interact with the mainlanders. Oh, and the pirates can be a minor faction living on the high seas.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by PTTG

I like it as a fairly straight take on the setting. Deidre and Lal end up way over on one side of Planet and the rest are on a major land mass, and that could work just fine.

If not a very civ-like outcome. In civ-terms Australia is pretty small for two factions/civs while the rest of the world is pretty large. They'd probably hit a limit of growth and be forced to swallow the other in short order. The mainland factions would either have been boxed in and swallowed or blobbed out and gotten strong.

Then again, civ isn't exactly the most realistic, nor does it really facilitate going tall.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by TGLS

If not a very civ-like outcome. In civ-terms Australia is pretty small for two factions/civs while the rest of the world is pretty large. They'd probably hit a limit of growth and be forced to swallow the other in short order. The mainland factions would either have been boxed in and swallowed or blobbed out and gotten strong.

Then again, civ isn't exactly the most realistic, nor does it really facilitate going tall.

Also, although the continent they're on is the size of Australia, it has the climate and soil fertility of New Zealand. I.E. it could achieve a US level of wealth/population/power.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The Neighborhood

What did you call this meeting for?

I think the other groups of colonists see us as a threat and are planning to attack us.

Are we surprised? The other groups are paranoid,
authoritarian, and can only unify to attack someone.

Aren't you worried? We are on the same planet.

We are alone on the far side of the planet with an ocean between us and them. We haven't been at war so we built an agricultural and an industrial base. They lack both and are always on the brink of famine and technological collapse. Heck, they don't have a navy. How are they even getting at us?

They think the only way they can build their own futures is to unite against us. It doesn't have to be sane to be dangerous.


In many ways this takes GURPS:Alpha Centauri and reworks it. Remove the Manifolds and the intelligent aliens, you can keep the mind worms if you like. Basically, a group of democratically inclined and peaceful factions are settled on a roughly Australia sized continent with a climate and soil conditions roughly equivalent to New Zealand. These groups focused on building their settlements. This community is on the edge of being able to advance technologically. They have prosperity of a sort and are raising lots of kids.

Meanwhile the other groups are at war and are culturally and technologically retrograde. The leaders all fear the "Sea Folk" as they call the isolated democracy. They also all realize that they desperately need to redirect the violence of their neighbors away from themselves.

Basically, this is diplomacy and espionage on a frontier. The PCs are either "Sea Folk" trying to prevent an invasion attempt (it couldn't succeed, but it would be a burden) or agents of "The Alliance" who want to buy time so their group can heal and grow without allowing the other allies a chance to do so.

To clarify some points. The Alliance (the mainland group) can fabricate new equipment. But every new piece is a one-off. Most people in the Alliance have to grow at least a substantial part of their own food. The Alliance does have children but the average is around 0.9 children per woman. Their is no regular system of schooling anywhere. Literacy widespread but of poor quality.

The Sea Folk (they simply call themselves the settlers so we'll use the Alliance term) have fabrication centers people can order new equipment and the equipment is standardized and adapted to planetary conditions. It isn't of a higher Tech Level than Alliance gear, but it does far the advantages of interchangeable parts and standardized manufacture.

Farming and food production, like most jobs is standardized. Many communities have communal cafeterias. Small shops exist selling food and other small necessities.

The Sea Folk have an educational system and the young are fully literate and numerate. Mind you, a snob might not find them well cultured. But remember that these people are living on a frontier.

The Sea Folk are a growing population. The average woman has 2.5 children. So, growth is slow, but real.

Neither the Sea Folk nor the Alliance has a navy worthy of the name. That said, the Sea Folk have more Sea worthy ships and larger numbers of capable seamen and navigators. The Sea Folk do not want to be drained of vital resources to build even a small navy. Nor do they want to have to put up with pirate raids and slave raids either.

Both the Alliance and the Sea Folk are at the same Tech Level. The Sea Folk, because of greater stability, are better able to use what they know and are beginning to achieve some interesting progress.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The Alliance does have children but the average is around 0.9 children per woman. Their is no regular system of schooling anywhere.

The Sea Folk have an educational system and the young are fully literate and numerate.

The Sea Folk are a growing population. The average woman has 2.5 children. So, growth is slow, but real.

You think it'd be the other way around, with the poor and badly educated alliance having birth rates comparable to developing nations and the wealthy and well educated Sea Folk struggling to maintain zero population growth.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by TGLS

You think it'd be the other way around, with the poor and badly educated alliance having birth rates comparable to developing nations and the wealthy and well educated Sea Folk struggling to maintain zero population growth.

Until recently the members of the Alliance have been at war with women fighting nearly as much as the men. Also, remember the planet is not a shirtsleve environment. Most people don't have a place to raise a child. A birthrate of 0.9 per woman is highly impressive.

[Astromancer]

To follow up on something PTTG said. The Morganites, or a group like them that might actually work in a realistic frontier, might be the key diplomats of the Alliance. They might choose this role for two basic reasons A) to delay or prevent attacks against themselves, and B) to profit from the conflicts between the others. For whomever you choose as the diplomatic faction or factions of the Alliance, the Sea Folk as threat is a vital idea. It makes the diplomats valuable enough not to attack without a serious cause.

If the PCs are members of the Alliance, other Alliance members are far more likely to be a serious threat than the Sea Folk which realistically your PCs would be unlikely to meet.

[PTTG]

In the 2030s, a divided mankind invented the AI-Neuromorphic K-type Hybrid IC, a vast miniaturization of earlier AI technologies. Cheap to build, using tiny amounts of power, the technology took AI out of server farms and put it onto phones.

However, as the ecology and the economy showed ever-increasing climate impacts, ANKH-ICs were soon deployed to the ever-escalating conflicts of the time. Everything from tiny assassin drones (cheap and disposable quadcopters with small explosive charges, using face recognition to eliminate specific targets) to classical automated warplanes, to massive "breachers," (essentially a crewless spider-tank made of more armor than anything else, designed to punch through enemy fortifications).

The war escalated as the planet declined. In the face of a growing food shortages (following blights which affected soybeans, corn, rice, and wheat simultaneously, suspected to be biowarfare), more labor was needed to control riots and prepare what food there was. More drones reached the front line, with greater autonomy and ever-increasing combat power.

When nuclear war arrived in 2051, it came almost as a relief. Historians have only vague records, but it is clear that the weapons were not as effective as planners had believed; failures, refusal to fire, and ANKH-powered interception technology reduced the apocalypse to simply a sad denouement, leaving the most powerful nations decapitated and now unable to even shut down the autonomous war-drones they had unleashed.

In the aftermath, none wanted a war like this to come again, nor the environmental and economic decay which brought it about. As diplomatic channels re-opened, a newly empowered United Nations set about to ensure a lasting peace (use your favorite policy means to this end; I myself favor a federation of strong consensus democracies building green socialism with market elements). As for the armed forces... well, those who weren't retasked to the massive rebuilding projects, protecting refugees, fallout clearing, or biosphere restoration projects... there is one field of duty which is more dangerous than anything else: bot control.

In many regions, ANKH war drones remain. They serve piratical cartels in some places, or revanchist regional juntas. Generally, they are barely controlled even by these forces. Lacking codebooks or proper authorization, they can do little more than turn them on and off and unleash them at their enemies. Some of these autonomous war machines are powered by RTGs with decades of endurance. Others are clever enough to tap remaining power networks. All of them function with an alien intelligence capable of providing a serious threat to human soldiers. Specialists known as Bot Hunters find these weapons and take them down.

Yes, this is a take on "A Farewell to Arms" from the film Short Peace.

EDIT:

Further thought on adventures...

If you prefer, play as a regional militia on the losing side of a local conflict. Their opponents are in a strong enough position to act as the de-facto administration of the region, and the peacekeepers are more interested in ending the fighting than overthrowing the corrupt and exploitative regime. Your only remaining hope lies in your old military contacts and their familiarity with ANKH-based warbots. There's a lightly irradiated military base rumored to still have some active units. Defeat the sentries and security systems, and then see if you can find the access keys, and you might yet be able to turn the tide of your local war.

[Astromancer]

This steals from the 1964 film the Time Travelers and several 1950s short stories. Basically, the PCs are working for a group with a Time Portal.

In viewing the future the group that controls the portal has discovered that an asteroid stikes the Earth in about forty years. Between the effects of the asteroid strike and previous pollution Earth needs millennia to recover.

The PCs are part of the project to set up a stable human community in that distant future.

There are many roles to take. You can be explorers looking for resources and places to build settlements in the far future. You could be a gene raider seeking to secure rare and valuable plants and animals to the distant future. Recruiters would be needed to. Finding good pioneers isn't easy. Conspirators trying to either prevent evil people from taking the portal over, or perhaps, taking over from evil people who control the portal now.

There could also be a lively campaign nearer the asteroid strike with the PCs trying to round up people to take to the bases that have been established in the far future. You'd need to keep the fact of a place of safety secret while motivating your targets to come with you. Sadly you might have to motivate them by stuffing them in a bag and running off with them.

[Astromancer]

Another twist on the Time Portal scenario is to keep it a mystery until later in the game. Picture a government agency that needs colonists that leave no loose ends behind. Assume they can get into the orphanages of a large nation. They look for orphaned children of and age that rarely gets adopted. They find the healthiest and smartest of this group and they show up as relatives or the agents of such and smuggle the children away.

The children (let's assume the target age is five to eight) are raised in a camp in the future after the apocalypse. The children think they are on another world.

Have the adventure start with the young people discovering that they are wrong about many things and a slow awakening to the truth.

From there you can go in many directions.