[Game] Generate a Space Trader Setting

[Daigoro]

So this Setting Generating Game thread was almexactly a year ago, and I thought it was time for another.

We can use the answer a question -> ask a question format as before.
Try to keep the questions open-ended and avoid "leading" questions, which sneak in too much detail in a question that should be in an answer.

The goal this time is to make a space opera setting which supports a free trader campaign. Apart from that, it's open slather!

Therewith, the first question:

Q1- What kind or kinds of FTL transport are there?


ETA:
Here's a summary of what's been contributed as far as post #62.

Addendum: A partial mirror of this thread is available at this wiki, organised by topic.

Summary
The Interstellar Drift
It's the year 3116...

Groups & Polities:

Spoiler:  

• Weir Labs
• Grimm Labs
• Divergers

- Elysian Cyberocracy
- Galadriel- genegineered w/ symbiotes

• Durras Cluster Postal Union
• CyKoi Coalition
• Blue Danube Corporation
• Librarians of the Ashes
• Grabin Shipyards

Other Details

Spoiler:  

• Currencies

- Giga-Yen- near Earth
- Thay-D- humans in space
- Xylysus - 'credits'
- 'Aqua-dollar' - Akrit

• Languages

- Humans- Afrikaans, English, German, and Vietnamese
- Divergers- Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish, and Turkish
- Trade Conlang- Tenwyn-Omnilang

Locations

Spoiler:  

• Kanagawa Group
• Durras Cluster
• System: Grabin

Gas giant: Yarra

Skyhook habitat: Old New Melbourne

• Hass VIIa

○ Glasshouse habitat: Angkor Mekh

• System: Galadriel -

○ Harsh/Penelope binary planets
○ Elysian Cyberocracy

• Earth

○ Mercury Foundry
○ Jupiter Skyhook

• System: Whitworth

○ 2 habitable worlds
○ major gas giant

• System: Barrier

○ major industrial centre

• System/Planet: Odysseus

○ central trade hub

• Planet: North Korea
• Mining Habitat: Victoria

Races:
7 of the 12 known sapient races have been named or described.

Spoiler:  

Humanoid:
1. Xylysus- robotic shells for extinct bio species
2. CyKoi- tall, turquoise traditionalists
3. <blank>

Non-humanoid:
4. Vacuum Whales- mysterious jumpers
5. Chetai- tentacled snail pilots
6. Rhii- bidepal stingrays
7. Akriti- squid with forked tentacles
8. Mar Kan- pear-shaped hexapods, illiberal democracy
9. <blank>
10. <blank>
11. <blank>
12. <blank>

Animal:
• fractal quantum parasites

Artefacts:

Spoiler:  

• Fetches, built by the Fetch Builders
• Rhine-Abas Jars
• The Useless
• 524 Solov Mindswap Cup
• Null-life coffer

Ships

Spoiler:  

• Durrant Freefaller class
• Sherwood class

○ Catriona Roberts- William Swift's long-range trader

• Jump carriers transporting fighters
• Hive ships with thousands of drones
• Gumdigger class- small trader

○ Rogues Endeavour- sample ship & crew

Ship Weapons & Systems

Spoiler:  

• Titleist Shield- magnetic-plasma sheath
• CyKroi- solid artillery
• Diverger hull ripper drones
• Rhii/Akriti quark lasers

Name Characters

Spoiler:  

• Kim Sun-Rok: 700 y.o. dictator of Nth Korea
• William Swift- missing trader
• Catriona Roberts- Swift's grandmother
• Librarians of the Ashes unnamed leader

Equipment

Spoiler:  

• Dirk-Scales equations- navigational software
• Weir Labs experimental power armour
• Grimm Industries experimental power armour

Weapons
• Cat series- short range disruptors

History

Spoiler:  

• 1900s- CyKoi begin colonisation
• 2400s- Earth starts hyperspace exploration

[ericthered]

Answer: FTL is capable of huge jumps at a time, but the more you take in distance, the more you loose in accuracy -- you can cross the galaxy in five jumps, but once you're there it takes five MORE jumps to actually get close to your target. Each jump takes quite a bit of time

Which, if any transhuman aspects are prominent? (true AI, Neural interfaces, human genegineering...)



EDIT: I love this game! And I've had this FTL method eating at me for a long time!

[Humabout]

No transhuman aspects are present aside from ancient and highly stigmatized sapient robots, all of whom have long since stopped functioning. All that remains is the stigma and a faded memory of how mankind was semi-enslaved by their own creations and atrophy of their own ingenuity and initiative.

Is there a galactic empire?

[thrash]

There is no galactic empire as such, since the FTL drive makes a mockery of political boundaries and subdivisions. There are, however, a number of widely accepted conventions with the force of customary law, which allow traders to function throughout civilization with some sense of security. Some groups of worlds also from trade compacts or postal unions to further protect and promote their agendas.

Q: What kind of goods are most frequently traded?

[Humabout]

Heavy elements remain rare throughout the univers as compared to most volitiles, and are widely traded. Livestock and seedstocks are common goods, as well, since populating new worlds with sources of human-eatible foods is rather important.

How common are easily inhabited (habitability rating 7 or 8) worlds?

[ericthered]

Finding a shirtsleeve world is easy -- you've got an entire galaxy to choose from. Finding a world that is pleasant is hard: alien vegetation generally isn't edible, and atmospheres are really fond of being too dense, too thin, or having 'off' mixtures of gasses.

How 'full' is the galaxy? Are new worlds being settled all the time? is it pretty much mapped out? are worlds as full as earth common?

[Nostri]

Fairly? Sort of like the areas in "flyover country" in the US, there are definitely settled areas; tons of them in fact. And as long as you stay on the established spaceways (well mapped jump points) you're guaranteed to be able to find civilization or at least have someone come across you. It is possible however to go off and find thinly inhabited worlds and systems, or even go a long time without meeting a soul if you go off the beaten track so to speak.

Are there sapient species beyond humans in the galaxy?

[Phantasm]

A: There are about a dozen sapient non-human races out there of extrastellar origin. Of these, only three are of the humanoid frame.

Q: What phenotypes make up the other nine alien races?

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by thrash

There is no galactic empire as such, since the FTL drive makes a mockery of political boundaries and subdivisions. There are, however, a number of widely accepted conventions with the force of customary law, which allow traders to function throughout civilization with some sense of security. Some groups of worlds also from trade compacts or postal unions to further protect and promote their agendas.

Q: What kind of goods are most frequently traded?

Not if you think of it less like a continental empire and more like a maritime empire. Venice, Imperial Japan, and parts of the British and American hegemonies all depended on a series of sea stops with ocean in between rather then a definite border. Borders in any case were surprisingly ambiguous through most of history and had to wait until someone got it into their heads to do a proper survey. Even so they still can be kind of weird because settlement patterns never really are as neat as rulers want them to be.

[Daigoro]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

A: There are about a dozen sapient non-human races out there of extrastellar origin. Of these, only three are of the humanoid frame.

Q: What phenotypes make up the other nine alien races?

Nine's a lot to cover, so I'll do one now.

Communication hasn't been established with the "vacuum whales", so we can't be sure if they're sapient, but other indications point that way.

These are gigantic creatures only seen in the depths of the interstellar medium. They're sometimes glimpsed when a ship stops for navigational corrections, and there are stories of stranded jumpships being surrounded by the whales who then ferry the ship through jumpspace to the nearest inhabited system.

Other stories tell of what look like great battles occurring between armies of whales, but such tales are rare.

Of course, how these biologicals travel through jumpspace, how they know which systems are inhabited, and what they feed on in the interstellar medium are still mysteries.

If only we could communicate with them, we'd know what to try to sell them.

I'll leave the other 8 alien types up for grabs.

Question- Which company or planet makes the best jumpdrives and jumpships (from a free trader's point of view)?