[Space] Baseline Universe

[David Johnston2]

Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

What would your Tech Level be?

Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?

What would be your preferred propulsion model?

How far in the future would it be?

Why would be good.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Tech Level? Around 9 (anywhere from 5+4 steampunkish to 9 Not-quite-what's-at-Wal-Mart). Advanced enough to feel advanced, but not utterly incomprehensible or unpredictable.

Aliens? Both Genetic Variants (for the majority that are contacted) and Utterly Alien (barely comprehensible). So I can swing from Space-Opera to Hard-Scf-Fi mid-adventure and give my players existential whiplash. :D

Preferred FTL? Jump Drive with limited range. This allows strategic moves and defending solar systems and territory-claiming.

How far in the future? I'd go for a "timeless" feel, like Star Wars or either version of Battlestar Galactica. The players might not even know there's an Earth out there or what year it is there. Maybe their parents were born on Earth, or maybe Earth doesn't exist yet or it died millions of years ago, and either way no one cares. Set the focus on NOW and forget about future history.

[lvk]

TL 10, superscience is limited to FTL and effective (but not reactionless) STL. Plus, plot device wonders of hyperadvanced alien races.

Aliens and human subraces both. Aliens are alien, and variant humans take all the niches of typical space-oper'ish "funny forehead aliens".

For propulsion, I have two worked models currently:
1) More hard: high-impulse low-G fusion STL + fixed jump point FTL.
2) More "opera": high-G plasma STL + fairly precise warp FTL.

For now, I have one setting with three playable periods in future history:
1) 2100, first interstellar steps of humanity
2) 2200, interstellar dark ages / technofeudalism
3) 2300, far exploration and interstellar politics of superpowers

[Captain-Captain]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

What would your Tech Level be?

Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?

What would be your preferred propulsion model?

How far in the future would it be?

Why would be good.

TL 10. TL 9 is 'in system' and my personal definition of Space is that it is short for Interstellar Space.

Aliens: Yes, few and far between and alien ecosystems are generally lethal to other aliens. You wear an encounter suit if you go planetside. The alternative is you either get sick and die, or you intrduce germs that wipe out a good chunk of the populace, or both.

TL 12 biology can solve this problem. Earlier than TL 12 is superscience, which may be allowable if this tech is effectively not duplicatable.

NO Half-Vulcan types!!!!!!!!

Primary Weapons for ships are FTL beam weapons which can and do interact with things in the normal universe. In point of fact, they are very powerful versions of FTL Comm, in the sense a Comm Laser is a smaller version of a laser cannon. If FTL Comm is less than instantaneous, delays are only a matter of moments within the range of the campaign's parameters. Perhaps communicatring with the guys in Andromeda take years, but FTL comm in the campaign's work area is essentially 20th century radio on Earth.

Warp Drive and you're detectable from normal space. Just because you're retreating at 5 parsecs a day doesn't mean my FTL beam wweapons can't tag you as you flee.

Primary power sources for ships are H1 to He 4 fusion reactors. No futzing around with distilling tritium required.

Remembering the final DR of heavy armors in 3rd edition's Space (first edition) where each improvement in tech level added TWENTY - EFFING - FIVE DR!!!!! new rule: TL does not significantly add DR. Higher level armors retain DR but add IT:DR /2, /3... if you extend past TL 12 in your game.

[BlackLiger]

TL ranging between 7 and 11 is my most common (as in, some worlds are TL7 with some advanced tech imported from offworld and a spaceport, while some have tech up in the TL11 area, with personalised android assistants and advanced tissue regeneration. Tends to average as 9, with TL10 FTL.


Depends what the setting needs for the story as to whether aliens show up. It's possible to make very very alien humans without even altering their DNA. After all, Chinese Culture is in some ways VERY alien to a westerner today.


The propulsion model, I took from Azimov. "It just works". Unless it's key to the plot knowing how it works, it simply does. I will work out how fast I want it to be, and whether it needs you to stop regularly. Otherwise, it's simply background fluff.


As for how far in the future... I tend to have it so that it's not THAT far (to explain why the TL isn't THAT much higher) but with no precise date. It's "Today + X years", where X is the number I want. So often it's "Today + 150 years" or "Today + 500 years". Mostly it's dependant on how many worlds I want humanity to have colonised.


The basic idea for me with Sci-Fi is it's still a story about people. Their problems might be different, but it's still a person based issue.

[Joseph Paul]

What would your Tech Level be?

For Terrans around 10. I want the Terrans to have just figured out how to do FTL after a period of STL colonization to the nearest habitable exosolar planets. For other civilisations tech could be from 0-superscience. In fact one campaign I am working on has as its cornerstone that the Universe actually has different rules than Terrans can access.

Would you have space faring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?

Both but the first encounters for Terrans is with the results of their own colonization. Throw in long lost cousins and the non-Terran derived aliens later on.

What would be your preferred propulsion model?

For Terrans an FTL drive that goes a LY a week to a day depending on model and maintenance. I want the Terrans to have an Age of Sail feel about their interstellar travel.

For other civilisations faster FTL drives are available including a long range Warp. Faster but also larger areas to cover.

For maneuver drives antimatter reaction engines and for some species reactionless drives.

How far in the future would it be?

I am looking at 300 years.

Why would be good.

That is as close as I could time things with needing to settle the solar system to the point that I have enough people to work on the STL colonization effort. I wanted to allow the colonies about a hundred years of divergence.

[Kissamies]

TL: Slightly safetech'ish early TL11 superscience.

Aliens: All kinds from human variants through "animal aliens" to the utterly alien with exotic biochemistry.

Propulsion: Hyperdrive with limitations to how deep in a gravity well you can engage it, so you'll have to do some realspace travelling away from the planet and perhaps even the star before engaging the FTL drive. For STL, reactionless, that has up until recently been limited to military use, so it's not uncommon to see fusion rockets and such on civilian ships.

Future: Alternate universe stuff. Possibility to tie in with fantasy setting.

As you can see, I have a strong Star Wars influence going on. I would have much less species though. No more than 10 at most.

[AmesJainchill]

Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

What would your Tech Level be?

9, with maybe some 10 stuff. Not too sure. Superscience EM Disruptors definitely.

Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?

Not sure. Both sound good...but definitely much fewer than Star Wars!

What would be your preferred propulsion model?

I want to diverge it from my previous SW game, so I'm thinking STL reactionless drives or...fusion rockets?, plus FTL jumpgates (anywhere you might really want to go) and FTL jump drives (expensive and uncommon).

How far in the future would it be?

Not sure about this. If you set it near to now, you can name-drop all kinds of familiar names, but then you have to explain how they got to where they are.

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Suppose you were going to run an (interstellar) Space game. Or in fact are.

What would your Tech Level be?

Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?

What would be your preferred propulsion model?

How far in the future would it be?

Why would be good.

TL would be a minimum of 10. 9 is one step beyond tomorrow and for all but the most halting and limited (or unrealistic) interstellar travel (STL or FTL) you need to go at least 1 step farther than that. I'd be comfortable enough running at TL11 or early 12 and if my group wanted Space Opera that's what I'd pick.

Aliens v other humans (genemod or not) is a highly specific question. It would depend on campaign factors.

Propulsion is tricky. Settings where relatively long distances are covered by realistic STL drives tend to be militarily dominated by fast passes with kinetic energy weapons. Maneuver battles with diverse weaponry are terribly difficult to arrange.

So I would tend to avoid these situations. Either going with a Jump or Gate situation where long distance STL travel is not necessary or there are very few space battles and they are not a campaign focus.

The alternative (particularly for Space Opera) is a pseudovelocity/warp sort of drive. This generally allows for both long distance maneuvering and close-in battles.

How far in the future is also terribly specific. Earlier than 2100 is not likely but I have a belief that the large masses of archival media dating from now could reasonably delay cultural drift for very long periods so that making the characters comprehensible to modern day players is not a strong constraint.

[Haseri]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

What would your Tech Level be?

Medium Advancement 10, with the New Space Opera technology path (with a few ajustments). 9 for me is always in system, and I haven't really considered 11/12. But superscience always has some limitation.

Would you have spacefaring alien rivals to humanity or just genetic variants of humanity?

I like aliens, but they have to be rare and just inhuman enough. I don't like the idea of having things so alien that we can't interact with them, but neither do I really like exaggerated humans. However, intelligent aliens are rare. Wars might occur, but humans vs. humans are far more likely.
Transhumans are a definate - in my universe its against the law to terraform a garden world, so modification is really the only way forward.

What would be your preferred propulsion model?

STL - Subwarp Reactionless, with the caveats that it can only be used a) in the gravity well of a star and b) only go up to 5/83 of c per engine. This means it takes only days to cross a medium-sized system.
FTL - technically, no FTL. Interstellar travel is taken through Keyholes - a cross between a wormhole and an Alderson point - close to the outer limits of a system, that require the key drive to focus energy at them to open wide enough for a ship to pass through into the system. If I ultimately decide to have psis in this setting, this is their ultimate origin.

How far in the future would it be?

I'd like it to be really any point in the future. I think I'll go through TL 10+ before going back to 9. We might even be in 9 by the time I start thinking about it.