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[OOC] Exigency
Edcrab
Actually a hackRegistered User regular
Actually a hackRegistered User regular
Exigency
A discussion (read: crazy ramblings!) regarding the system used herein can be found in the Experimental D20 System thread.
IC thread up!
What the hell is Exigency?
The word itself means an urgent situation, or a situation requiring abnormal effort or attention to resolve. It's also the title of a short story I once wrote, so I reserve the right to recycle it!
But more specifically... it'll be a play-by-post based off a fairly simplistic six-attribute system. Currently a D20 is the only dice used, but it's hardly OGL d20 or similar.
The setting and the rules used are both homebrew. The game will take a very narrative approach- hopefully with a mixture of encounters, depending on who wants to do what- but that’s not to say that attributes will be useless.
What kind of setting are we dealing with here?
Far future- but not necessarily ours. Humanity has gone through the expected selection of wars and disasters to the extent that we can’t even remember exactly what happened.
As far as the people of the setting were concerned, there were Ancient times- when we spoke weird languages, used spears, and lived on a bunch of planets blissfully unaware of everyone else’s existence- and then the Common Era, when they all discovered phasedrives and began bumping into each other in the stars.
Then they learned about the Schism.
It became apparent that we’d all met before, all our worlds and cultures, but that something had put an end to the sprawling human empire- a prolonged event the peoples of the Common Era just called the Schism.
Pre-Schism humanity had been ridiculously technological, and even their dilapidated remnants put Common Era devices to shame.
And as if that wasn’t enough, mankind began finding Uclasion relics. Artefacts, millions of years old, which were blatantly the inspiration behind our pre-Schism findings. The Uclasions had been around 27-million years ago and then had all abruptly died or left the galaxy- so they couldn’t have been all that advanced, surely, if they’d let themselves go extinct.
But the mother of all relics was Ucelsia: the artifical, 3000-mile-diameter spacecraft the Uclasions had once called home. It was found by the Domarian Trade Organisation: and a few short years later the DTO had become the Domarian Legion and the sole superpower of Alpha Sector- that tiny shred of the galaxy that mankind had the nerve to refer to as “the galaxyâ€.
That’s because the Domarian Legion had found Maintonon: an ancient Uclasion Supercomputer determined to make his mark.
Maintonon obsessively plans and directs and prepares- because he predicted that it will happen again. There’s just one little problem: even he can’t remember what caused the original Schism…
That didn’t answer the question.
Sorry. The setting borders on science-fantasy on occasion; thanks to pre-Schism humanity messing around with genetics (that’s the popular opinion) we’ve got psionic potential and several human varieties beyond the “normâ€, to say nothing of ancient Uclasion-inspired robots stomping around or cyborgs kicking ass for a variety of causes.
For this test run, all the players will be human- or at least humanish. We’re talking mid-powered, fairly talented chaps taking on a job on an averagely-populated colonial world.
Let’s assume I understood half of that: how do we put a character together?
Every player has six attributes (4 points is the average for a human, even considering the widespread genetic modification in the past), which represent the bonuses they're given when rolling for the relevant challenges. The system shares a similarity with Mutants & Masterminds in that there's a Health check rather than hitpoints, but failing a Health check will actually reduce the player's Health attribute by one point (and thus make it harder for them to pass future checks).
Health: Endurance, physical resilience, and resistance to bodily threats such as toxins or diseases. If Health hits zero, the character loses consciousness and is immobilised- a character must start with at least 1 point of health.
Strength: Raw physical power- influencing feats such as heavy lifting, grappling with an opponent, kicking down a door, or the traditional “break a club over the enemy’s head†technique. Strength can act as a buffer for Health, allowing a character to sacrifice a point of Strength in lieu of having to test their Health.
Agility: Agility determines athletic and gymnastic ability, as well as broader categories like reflexes or speed.
Focus: Focus governs your hand-eye co-ordination, your perception of the world around you and your overall concentration. Focus is essential for marksmen and skill-users, but is also significant for psionic characters.
Willpower: Think of this as “mental armour†to protect a character’s mind. Willpower represents a character’s morale under fire and their ability to push past the pain barrier or overcome their fears. Willpower is very important to psionic characters, or characters that wish to resist psionics.
Intelligence: Intelligence is a catch-all mental stat covering a character’s ability to reason and their general knowledge. Like Focus, Intelligence can give bonuses to psionic abilities. If Intelligence hits zero, the character is assumed to have lost their mind, leaving them open to attack.
A character can only die if their Health reaches a negative value- i.e., an unconscious character is physically attacked, or an insane character is mentally attacked, causing exacerbated neurological damage or something suitably dramatic. For the test run it’ll be pretty difficult to die.
Don’t worry too much about whether you’re “allowed†to do something, the whole system is pretty much up in the air. Make a character you think will work but that more importantly you wouldn’t mind playing!
Stat Bonus - Points Cost
1-4 - - - - - - - - - 1
5-8 - - - - - - - - - 2
9-10+ - - - - - - - 3
You’re allowed 45 points for character creation, but it costs five points for every psychic skill set you want to access (it’s assumed that these are expended on the appropriate training/skills/genes). So a telepath who also had telekinetic potential would “only†have 35 points to throw around.
10 is pretty much the limit for a stat at character creation, but I wouldn’t object too much to seeing higher if the rest of the character comes across as balanced. After all, with a +10 bonus to a check, you’re passing the average task automatically.
On a final character building note, you have the option of purchasing specialities: these are small bonuses to aspects of the abilities defined by your attributes. These are increased in the same manner as attributes, so, for example, 8 Strength and Melee +2 produces the same Melee effect as 10 Strength, but for a lower points cost. Specialities can be interpreted as anything from equipment to additional talent.
Specialities include the following:
Melee (increasing melee accuracy and damage with Strength)
Marksmanship (increasing ranged accuracy and damage with Focus)
Block (resisting damage with Strength)
Evasion (avoiding attacks with Agility)
Stealth (avoiding detection with Agility or Focus)
Parry (resisting melee with Focus)
Sense (detecting foes and threats with Focus)
Analysis (making sense of a situation or object with Intelligence)
Psi Defence (resisting psychic influence with Willpower)
Bravery (resisting fear effects with Willpower)
Pain Resistance (surprise surprise, resisting pain with Willpower)
Let’s talk about psionics.
This has always been where it's got interesting- i.e., complicated. The system allows psionic types a great deal of freedom: the player declares their intent, and the GM decides on the difficulty of the task. In much the same way that attempting to break a man's neck would take more effort/luck than merely kicking them in the shin, a psychic can expect to find it far easier to implant a suggestion in someone’s head than to mind-control them into being their butler for the rest of their adult life.
Difficulty examples:
Simple: <DC10
Challenging: DC15
Very Difficult: DC20
Virtually Impossible: DC35
Superhuman: DC50+
Telepathy: Boost Reactions, Suggestion, Deplete Will, Destroy Mind, Mass Mind Control
Telekinesis: Push Person, Shield, Crush Human, Throw Car, Sunder Building
Empathy: Soothe Will, Disquiet, Fear, Pain Immunity, Terror Aura
Telepaths and empaths (themselves just specialised telepaths) use powers with a predominantly mental component, while telekinetics can manifest their abilities in physical ways. Of course while telekinetics would be able to challenge psi-immune targets such as machines, their abilities tend to require significantly higher rolls.
As a general rule, psychics with higher Focus and Intelligence will be allowed more accurate abilities and more complicated effects. If a telekinetic has 10 Willpower but the rest of their mental stats are lacking, they can expect to shatter the average wall with little effort but they’d find it impossible to construct a lovely light show out of individual dust motes.
Anyone else involved?
Pretty much everyone who has posted in the various threads, or better yet, created a character and participated in the campaign has contributed in some way- as I say, this is very much an ongoing project, and it's changing all the time.
Neat. Can I still join in and/or put forward rules ideas?
Hell yes. I’d be eternally grateful to all participants and contributors :P
For player reference: Current Party Aspects/Encounter Powers, List of Aspects/Encounter Powers
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Domarian Legion
Type: Various
Notable worlds: Domarius (Original Homeworld), Ucelsia (Surrogate Homeworld)
The Domarian Legion is the largest and most technologically advanced nation in Alpha Sector. Part nation, part military, part supercorporation, there’re the closest thing the setting has to a superpower.
As the Domarian Trade Organisation they had a reputation for reliability and honesty, but when Maintonon took control, the newborn Legion quickly became known as a peerless military player on the galactic scene.
They’re currently the target of the Workers Against Legion- a gigantic terrorist alliance seemingly intent on their destruction. WAL is just a drop in the ocean for the Legion, but it’s rumoured that they’re funded by the Legion’s competitors.
The Domarian Legion is massive in population and renown, but much of that comes from the fact that every Domarian company or effort must be registered with one of their facets. As well as the eponymous Legion itself- complete with its ground forces and navy- the Domarian factions include:
Maintenance Association
The largest of the Legion’s facets, the Association is a billions-strong alliance of technicians, engineers, and manual labourers of all kinds. With their distinctive jackets and infamously complex ranking system, Association buildings can be found throughout Alpha Sector, and most maintenance-related companies work closely with them- that is, if they’re not already registered with them to take advance of their subsidies. The MA is itself host to the departments responsible for the health and environmental care of the Domarian populace.
Security
The Domarian Security Service- known universally just as ‘Security’- is their small, highly trained, brilliantly equipped police-force. Although they employ millions of personnel, Security is nevertheless grossly outnumbered considering the sheer scale of the Domarian colonies and the various nations that apply for Security protection. The average Security guard is a power-armour wearing, plasma-rifle carrying veteran- to say nothing of Security Mechs, the infamous Uclasion-derivative robots that are more tank than policeman.
SHARD
The Scientific and Historical Artefacts Research Department is, unusually for a Legion facet, secretive and unlikely to co-operate with the scientific community as a whole. They have a reputation for being cold and unsocial- even amongst other Domarians- but they’re linked with some of the greatest scientific finds in history.
Duality Corporation
Type: Supercorporation
Notable worlds: Dulicon (Homeworld/Nation purchased from Kerenth)
The Duality Corp is a fairly recent arrival to Alpha Sector, having been born of a merger between various smaller groups.
Despite this they quickly secured a variety of contracts from all walks of life, and they appear to research and develop products at an incredible rate. They’re currently one of the main weapons manufacturers for the Mercenary League.
They refuse to declare their personnel and budget, leading to rumours of illegality- which the Domarian Legion hasn’t exactly discouraged. After all, they’ve been founded for less than a century and they already managed to purchase an entire six-planet star system from a Kerenth surveying corporation.
Although Duality does not operate at quite the same technological level as the Legion, their willingness to sell such technology to the nations of Alpha Sector gives them cause for concern.
They’re not the biggest of the galaxy’s supercorporations, but they're still sizeable enough to warrant various departments, all ran by boards with their own agendas.
Goyermontakon Confederacy
Type: Nation
Notable worlds: Monrhein (Montakon Homeworld), Thoyigos (Thoyigean Homeworld), Gef (Presumed Gef Homeworld)
The Goyermontakons are an alliance of three nations: the Montakons, Thoyigeans, and Gef. While the Montakons and Thoyigeans are classified as ‘standard’ samples of humanity, the Gef are larger and more powerfully built- causing scientists to argue over whether they’re natural mutations or remnants of pre-Schism genetic experimentation.
The Goyermontakons are arguably the ‘number two’ to the Domarian Legion. Although they do not nationalise their corporations, they work very closely with them, and the Confederacy is known for being an industrial powerhouse- famous for their heavy engineering, and also for being the birthplace of some of the earliest cyborgs in history.
The Goyermontakon Confederacy briefly fought the Domarian Legion during the Second Colonial War, but the two nations are now surprisingly close, seeing much to admire in each other.
While the Domarians have Ucelsia as their base of operations, the Goyermontakons have the Strachenklaud, a far smaller but no less impressive man-made space station orbiting Monrhein.
Most of the Goyermontakon’s economic power comes from two main supercorporations:
Haegtnol Industries
Haegtnol is their largest supercorp- originally a surveying and mining group, sales of land and ore quickly allowed them to move into other fields. Although best known for their cars and starships, Haegtnol recently expanded into more mundane commodities, mostly to try and force out their competition.
Ahmteller
Although smaller than Haegtnol, Ahmteller is significantly older- they specialise in pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs, and the leisure industry. They’re so long-established that they’ve developed a public image so strong and family-friendly that no amount of muckraking and scandals can shift them from the top spot.
Jaoshijea
Type: Nation
Notable worlds: Jao (Homeworld), Tynro, Birshimi
The Jaoshijeans are one of the richest and most technologically advanced nations. They’re thought to rival the Domarian Legion in many fields, especially cybernetics.
Jaoshijea is positioned quite remotely in relation to the rest of Alpha Sector, which left them isolated and independent in their earliest days. They quickly adapted once phasedrive-technology became commonplace, and slotted into the trade networks as if they’d always been there.
Jaoshijea has more zaibatsu (conglomerates) than most economically developed countries do combined. Stereotypically it’s thought that the Jaoshijean government lives in fear of their various supercorps and their associated private militaries, but the truth of the matter is that they’re behind innumerable clever laws and ordinances to stop any one of them from becoming too powerful- and they do of course field an impressively equipped military.
They’re host to so many zaibatsu that they couldn’t possibly all be listed, but the most infamous of them was undoubtedly Karamanit:
Karamanit
A small (by modern standards) but legendary corporation founded by Isuru Karamanit. Karamanit was the first to develop and distribute mental implants, ultimately being responsible for the first muses (cyborgs with augmented minds)- but human rights abuses, and the dreaded subconscious military programming devices dubbed ‘macros’, led to their founder’s suicide and the liquidation of the company’s assets. Their bases of operation evaded demolition and went to the highest bidder- the Duality Corporation...
Council
Type: Government/Regulatory Body
Notable worlds: Ucelsia (Main base of operations)
A nasty civil war in Ucelsia eventually persuaded the home nations of all its residents- which meant virtually everywhere was represented- to found the Council. It began life as a regulating authority to relay the wishes of the non-Domarian populace to the heads of Ucelsia, but it quickly came to represent the colonies as a whole, and in time the whole of the civilised galaxy. Every nation nominates speakers (sometimes hundreds, if the place is populous enough) to act as their voices when the Council is in session in the heart of Ucelsia.
The Council, while ostensibly in existence to protect the colonies and territories of Alpha Sector, seems to spend an awful lot of time getting in the way of Command- the Legion’s ruling facet. This is mostly because there’re so many agendas jostling for position that even the most simple decision takes ages to resolve, but there’s widespread corruption to contend with too. There’ve been plenty of occasions where a Councillor has been quietly ousted because they were caught accepting bribes from a supercorporation to prevent the Legion from beginning a new outpost or research development.
Because the Legion is gigantic and seen as Alpha Sector’s undisputed superpower, nobody really questions why they’d host such a disruptive political body of their own accord- perhaps the Domarians wanted to show they’re not so expansionist (or even fascist) as some have claimed.
Very few know the truth, however: that the Council is a laughable front to give the Legion some semblance of democracy. In reality, the Supercomputer runs their society from behind the scenes and pays very little heed to the angry shouting people in a chamber hundreds of miles below his core. Of course, while Maintonon can let them take the blame for their disasters, they also take the credit for his successes...
High Council
Type: Government/Regulatory Body
Notable worlds: Lodor, Maladria, Hestelle (Main bases of operations)
The High Council was co-founded by the Lodori and the Domarian Legion, but it began life as the Extrasensory Protection Society- this was back in the days when psionors were a lot rarer and much more likely to be prejudiced against. But eventually such abilities were recognised as major assets, and the EPS changed their name and their duties- declaring themselves the voice and regulator for the now-blossoming psionic community.
It was in their best interests to train every psychic they came across, because to the High Council each of those individuals was a potential lifetime contract and cash cow. What’s especially worrying is that, nowadays, every High Councillor is themselves psionically potent instead of just an activist: and they don’t see anything wrong with treating ‘lesser’ psychics like this. They see fit to meddle in the affairs of any nation that’ll host them, simply because they feel that they’re more entitled to do so than anyone else- in their home nation of Lodor, they wield more power than the government.
The Domarian Legion watched the foundation they’d nurtured go from being an anti-defamation movement into an elitist enclave. They resented the very idea of shipping off their psionic adepts to Lodori space ‘for their own good’, and the High Council’s dismissive attitude towards societies dependant on ‘mundane science’ was incredibly galling to a civilisation that was traditionally reliant on high-technology.
The Legion have never got along with the Council, but the two bodies have an intense dislike of the High Council in common- or at least, the core hierarchy of the Council itself does, if not the nations its innumerable speakers represent. The Council dislikes the HC’s focus on hereditary peerage rather than something more democratic, they dislike being told what to do by a far smaller (and proportionately more powerful) group, and they utterly hate some bastard in a robe referring to them as the Low Council.
I've always been a sucker for SF with ancient relics and things though.
How does travel (particularly space travel) work?
While between planets in the same star system a ship would likely just employ what every SF franchise ever calls "conventional drives", distances beyond that are crossed courtesy of phasedrives- the token FTL method in this instance.
Phaseshifting involves increasing a craft's dimensional harmony threshold so that they can speed across an essentially frictionless (and very compacted) alternate plane of existence for mere seconds before re-emerging at another point in space. The method is made more efficient by a series of dimension-weakening beacons throughout established trade routes.
...and trust me, that's gibberish even in the setting's context. A recurring theme is that all the realllly advanced stuff is beyond Common Era science and people can only guess at how it works: hell, there're probably parts of the scientific community who are convinced phasedrives will someday cause the entire universe to implode.
Phasedrives are more like the "jump" drives of other settings rather than, say, something like warpspeed. You phaseshift a distance appropriate to the strength and technological potential of your drive within a short time period: you don't/can't stay in phase for a prolonged time period. Travelling consists of phaseshifting whenever possible and then using basic engines while waiting for the phasedrive to recharge.
High-yield phasedrives are rare and thus in great demand- that is, the kind of massively powerful engine that could let a ship cross the whole of Alpha Sector in a few hours with a few jumps. Supercorporations commission gigantic space-craft called Worldcarriers- intended to ship personnel, cargo, and smaller shuttles between their destinations- which will repeatedly go back and forth between the same points to speed trade.
Ucelsia, of course, has a stupidly potent phasedrive and can go pretty much go anywhere, anytime: but in practise it has to be positioned carefully and with forethought because it's essentially a mobile planet.
It's basically just another version of the "you all meet in a tavern" cliche, but I wanted to give players a little free reign. You can be on the ship for whatever reason, with any backstory or profession desired: although as mentioned, 45-point builds are pretty competent, so you've probably had low-powered adventures of your own before reaching this point. For a change, you're not all complete hopeless rookies :P
In the mean time I'll roll up something different for kicks. Is this meant to be a combat-heavy game?
And yeah, there'll be a little spaceflight/combat, although most of the vehicle sections will probably be confined to the planet. Either way, driving any vehicle is based off the Pilot speciality (Focus based).
Health - 3 (-3)
Strength - 2 (-2)
Agility - 4 (-4)
Focus - 5 (-6)
Willpower - 6 (-8)
Intelligence - 6 (-8)
Skill: Analysis +2 (-2)
Skill: Sense +2 (-2)
Psionics: Telepathy (-5)
Psionics: Empathy (-5)
Please do!
Ryadic: I was going to distribute equipment to players based on their requests and their balance. So it'd would've been dependant on your character's background with me trusting no one would go overboard.
Put simply, a non-psychic is going to get more generous equipment, and a cop would get better than a diplomat, but worse than a soldier. But since I’ve had so many people requesting an equipment/cost allowance chart type-thing, I think that’s something else to go in the reserved post…
Or, I would like a bag of marble-sized steel balls with which to pelt people, kind of like Magneto in X-Men 2.
The below is the old item allowance chart I worked on, please note it's not "fact", i.e., you can go beyond it if necessary:
These are examples: you can have virtually anything, assuming it fits within the guidelines.
Speciality bonuses from equipment or tools aren’t quite as desirable as skill or talent-based specialities, as there may be circumstances where you can’t use them. Bonuses do not stack for the same speciality- i.e., having two tool-sets has no bonus, neither does owning two suits of armour.
Everyone is allowed unlimited mundane items. A player can either have three minor items and one specialist item, or five minor items. Psychics are an exception: they’re only allowed four minor items and no specialist item.
Please don’t do anything like filling up on grenades if you’ve decided to have a peace-ambassador background, or taking heaps of drugs onboard if you’re a cop.
Mundane items – No cost.
Clothing/uniform
Simple tools or devices appropriate to your profession (generally granting a +1 bonus to a non-combat speciality).
Minor items
A sidearm with a firepower of DC9 or less.
Two (one-use each) grenades of DC20 or less.
Armour with a +2 bonus or less.
A melee weapon that grants a +2 bonus to melee damage rolls (i.e., not to hit).
Advanced tools (+3 to a non-combat speciality)
Performance enhancers (one-use, illegal!) - +2 to a physical stat of the user’s choice for 4 hours.
Icedrip (one-use, illegal!) - +2 to Focus and Willpower, +4 Psi-Defence for 1d20 hours minus Health bonus (2 hour minimum). Nasty side-effects.
Vibe (one-use, illegal!) – Doubles Willpower for the purposes of offensive psionic powers- lasts two hours. Afterwards, the user’s Willpower is halved for five hours.
Specialist items
A pistol or rifle with a firepower of DC18 or less.
An armour-piercing firearm with a firepower of DC14 or less (can ignore up to 6 points of an enemy’s armour).
Two grenades (one-use each) of DC35 or less.
A melee weapon that grants a +5 bonus to melee damage rolls (i.e., not to hit).
Armour with a +3/4/5 bonus or less. (Caps Agility bonus at 6/5/4 respectively.)
Armour with a +8 bonus or less. (Caps Agility at 3, requires a Strength of 6 or more).
A bag of metal spheres definitely counts as a mundane item, as does a basic blunt weapon.
Ryadic's request pretty much fits the old chart really: he could have a +5 damage melee weapon (if it was a good-quality club or sledgehammer or something) with a DC9 pistol and maybe light armour, or heavier armour with a weaker melee weapon.
Quoth: sure :laugh:
Zetetic: While pre-Schism society would’ve been very Fading Suns/Dune-ish: lots of guilds and houses and the only thing holding the hedonistic chaos together was a feared central hierarchy: there’s a lot less unity (and more variety), depending on the nation in question. Alpha Sector has a combined population that goes well into the trillions.
Most nations rumble by in an uneasy true between their governments and their native supercorporations: Dulicon is noteworthy because it’s a corporate nation, founded by the massive Duality Corporation, and the territories belonging to the Domarian Legion are of note, because the Supercomputer has nationalized virtually every aspect of their civilisation to turn them into an unstoppable economic powerhouse. People know about the Supercomputer, but few know it by name and even fewer recognise it as the Legion’s ruler, not just an advisor.
Ascorvia and Crivinia are colonial nations, founded in the earliest days of the Common Era; but while Ascorvia thrived and gave birth to some of the sector’s most successful supercorps, Crivinia fell into a constant cycle of war with their neighbour, Lodor.
The Lodori (or Lodorions to the non-Lodori speaking universe) founded Crivinia and feel they have the right to deny it independence, and the conflict rages from blazing political argument to terrorist atrocities.
Imagine if the pre-revolution nobility of France founded a nation- Lodor- and that they gradually got richer and more powerful due to corporate luck and sky-rocketing psionic potential. Now imagine that those of a pioneering spirit branched off- Crivinia- and wanted independence and the rights to their own worlds. The badasses who made up the French Resistance facing an outmoded society of interventionist psychic elitists instead of Nazism. All bets are off.
And the luckless NAQ- the Non-Aligned Quadrant- is occupied by virtually every power imaginable, and is frequently a battleground because of its incredible mineral wealth. Of course, the fights are never between the respectable nations of Alpha Sector- they’re blamed on terrorists and splinter cells.
So it's no Warhammer 40k, but there's a lot of crap going on in some parts of the galaxy. Political intrigue and corporate espionage in the developed nations (particularly between the Domarian Legion and the Duality Corporation) and sometimes outright war in the outskirts.
I'm thinking of maybe making a librarian-esque character. Not the 40K kind, the literal kind. Focused on Intelligence and Willpower, maybe. Are there any particular knowledge-based specialties lying around I should know about?
Then there's what physical form his 'library' would take, I suppose...
As for a library: muses interface with computers or the intranet (the misnamed galaxy-wide information grid perpetuated by the Supercomputer's UCS network) through brain implants, but there're plenty of operatives and technicans and experts who access computer systems or other knowledge bases in more mundane ways.
Confusingly, you can get Ancient books with are nevertheless younger than Uclasion-era computers and hard-disks, but even in the Common Era some places will maintain hard copies of their information.
Companies, foundations and research bodies maintain their own databases, which are part Wiki, part Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: containing the sum of all their findings and constantly updated. Perhaps this chap is in charge of one, or is hired to contribute to one?
EDIT: Quoth, you are creeping me out. GET OUT OF MY BRAIN YOU PSYCHIC MADWOMAN
A compromise, of course, would be a bag full of old-yet-advanced computer libraries that merely look like ancient crumbling books. There are prototypes of electronic paper around today; it would be kinda fun to have books whose pages and spine-titles change at will.
edit: edcrab, a part-mumbly-old-scholar, part-journalist would be brilliant, I think.
Zetetic: that's a pretty cool concept. Leather-bound books with paper-thin screens that can display any text or image required. For research purposes you could have excerpts of several works combined or spread across a number of videobooks for convenience.
Sounds like a +3 advanced tool if ever I saw one :P
This sound good to you, Edcrab? If it fits with your universe and you're happy, I'm happy.
Is it recommended I take at least a little civilian firearm, or should I just try to acquire a weapon if we run into trouble?
And even if you don't grab a weapon I've seen some pretty impressive Deadlands characters that were using nothing more than a derringer or a boot knife. Those charming saloon girls and knowledgeable herbalists come in handy more than you think.
I really need to work on another setting infodump in the reserved post, because I haven't mentioned things like lifespan etc.
The average human lifetime has been more than quadrupled, for a start- a 200-year-old is physically still in the equivalent of their late thirties, and they can expect to live for another two centuries. This is purely due to genetic tampering, by the way: not just a massive leap in quality of life :P
For some reason I really want to know more about the corporations. And the giant robots, of course.
There're various independant and multi-national factions still left to appear: including the Mercenary League and Vigilante Movement. Every SF setting needs mercenaries!
For the most part, virtually any career or background you can think of will exist in some part of Alpha Sector-what gets complicated is when the various different cultures (and their differing concepts of the law and legality) are all packed together on multi-colony worlds and similar...
EDIT: although failing that, maybe a big list of potential backgrounds would help matters...
EDIT: More or less completed them now. And of course, these are only examples- plus they'd mix and match quite well.
Backgrounds
“Is that so? Because I don’t mind admitting that I used to work for Haegtnol Industries. They got me where I am today. Difference is, now my ideas come with my name on them.” – Marcus Unicrail, co-founder of the Accelance supercorporation.
It’s hard to find a developed world which isn’t under the thumb of some supercorporation. Whether you toil for them as cheap labour or hire yourself out to them as a hotshot salesman, you’re shackled to the supercorporation for the duration of your contract.
Those of a Corporate background are likely to be big-picture types, willing to sacrifice years of their life to ensure a solid career, or perhaps just to work off a family debt so gargantuan that even their great-grandchildren are likely to feel the pinch. They’re reliable to those they see as friends, but years of propaganda have no doubt left them unimpressed and untrusting of the competition- whether they’re individuals or something as mundane as a rival soft drink.
Vigilante
“I suppose it’s a job I was made for. Heh. Oh, don’t look at me like that. I’m a cyborg. We’re allowed to make those puns.” - Voln
The Vigilance Movement was founded hundreds of years ago in a Domarian-led effort to address the issue of their Security forces being universally outnumbered- but it’s still failed to catch on in other parts of the galaxy. The Vigil is a self-policing union of bounty hunters and thugs-for-hire, but they’re rarely seen operating outside of Domarian jurisdiction.
Those of a Vigilante background are often combat-orientated, but they’re just as likely to rely on their wits and good detective work. While Vigilantes may range from the members of Councillor-sponsored private militias to violent individuals who could just as easily be the sort of scum they’re paid to hunt, they’re all invariably good at their jobs.
Mercenary
“Practically by definition, they choose money over a cause. If we regulated them- forced them to work for noble causes- then when they picked up their pay cheque, you’re looking at a soldier, not just a thug with a little extra discipline and a little extra firepower. But it’s not always up to us to say what is and isn’t noble.” – Siles Dranich
The Mercenary League is a gigantic multinational register of “freelance” units and fleets, all regulated by an aging Legion-made computer-cum-flagship called the Myrmidon. Mercenaries are deployed to hotspots and other troubled areas to prevent war torn nations racking up civilian casualties, but, as might be expected, they also perform more mundane (and less noble) duties for powers prepared to produce enough cash.
The Mercenary background would be similar to a regular military background, but each often considers the other to be cocky and overrated, and Mercenaries are more likely to see varied deployment.
Colonial
“I’ve seen men treed by a single bearcat when they’re carrying enough hardware to outfit a Montakon strike unit. All that firepower means nothing without the skill, the planning, and let’s face it, the luck to go with it.” - Anton Vickers, Wild Runner (ranger) on the planet Arqinfore.
Whether they’re founded by nations or corps, there are thousands of colonies in and around Alpha Sector. They range from tiny science outposts to multinational metropolises, but colonists are an essential part of developing the Sector.
Colonists might be born and raised in these places- fiercely independent and unaware of the greater universe until the time comes to move on- or hardcore pioneers who have assisted in establishing innumerable habitats. Some might have subsisted with the barest of luxuries and technology, others might have experience with monstrously complex terraforming apparatus.
Spacer
“It’s boring but it pays well. Next question.” - Truce Calreign, famous freighter pilot.
Spacers are the staff who pilot the craft and man the space stations that are the lifeblood of Alpha Sector’s trade and transit routes.
Some spacers are truckers, stuck in phasecraft for weeks at a time as they make their deliveries. Others are posted inside cramped orbital platforms for months or even years. The lucky ones might work at gigantic leisure complexes or cruisers- but most wouldn’t consider these people to be real spacers until they’ve had to deal with a life-support failure or a similar disaster.
Spacers tend to be well trained and at home in confined spaces or around high-technology- and they’re known for being eccentric. Rightly or wrongly, they’re often associated with illegal trade and drug trafficking.
Ucelsian
“Eh… defining a Ucelsian is like tryin’ to define a man. The place is bigger than you think. S’got those stompy robot things though. Not a lot of people see stompy robots everyday.” – Hadley Anitchem, Ascorvian Senator
A Ucelsian is defined as a resident of Ucelsia: the ancient 3000-mile diameter superstructure currently serving as the Domarian’s surrogate homeworld. But due to a complicated history and its mobile nature, less than half of Ucelsia’s population is actually Domarian by nationality.
Ucelsia is massive enough to house virtually every possible combination of culture and class. Paradisiacal or deadly in its extremes, it’s a mishmash of architecture laid over ancient alien foundations.
A Ucelsian is a colonist who has seen it all. While a fifty-mile-long Grandcruiser might impress anyone else, a Ucelsian wouldn’t bat an eyelid. Their rich are really rich, and their underclasses are hard as diamond.
Heights
“You can see everyone’s house from up here. But they’re not much to look at compared to this place, right?” – Unknown Estate Agent
Most developed worlds have a capital- and in some cases this capital can cover most of the planet’s landmass. Their skyscrapers can be miles tall, hosting some of the most desirable homes and office spaces imaginable. Some buildings are colossal enough to be small cities themselves.
Someone claiming from the Heights of a major city will either have been born into a wealthy family or made a great business decision somewhere in their lifetime- they’re used to luxury and advantages most people could only dream of: so rich they could probably afford to staff their penthouse/mansion with non-robotic staff, or spend hours of time in top-notch pleasure simulations.
Unsurprisingly, no matter how hard someone might’ve worked to get there, others often resent this.
Police
“No, it’s true, we didn’t discover the cure for the intarl plague, or deal with the logistics necessary to evacuate an entire quarantined planet. But a week before you did all that, we arrested a guy who was about to firebomb your HQ.” – Anonymous response to a press conference following the ‘545 intarl outbreak.
Every civilised nation has a police force.
Gattapol- the policing arm of the Galactic Trade and Transit Authority- has been given the authority to operate between national boundaries. The Domarians grant their Security guards the authority to shoot on sight. And there are myriad police forces all working within precincts of widely varying size.
Some police officers are little more than glorified rent-a-cops in the pocket of a supercorp using legislation to bypass the Mercenary League and the Vigilance Movement. Others are veterans responsible for tracking down some of the most dangerous people (and entities) ever seen in action. Repeatedly.
Thanks to the same rulings that allow Gattapol to do their work across all of Alpha Sector, police are entitled to aid and assistance from any civilised planet- assuming they’re there on business relevant to their own precinct.
Criminal
“The common people approve of conning a supercorp out of billions, but they frown if one man gets mugged for a single credit. It’s all about proportion.” – Quarir Nalore, infamous con artist.
Alpha Sector has an awful lot of laws to break.
Some people are petty thugs and thieves. Others are syndicate masterminds and con artists that make so much money they can pass for business geniuses.
These are the people that the Supercomputer imposed the death penalty for- the unrepentant, the dangerous, the skilled and talented people who put their abilities towards less-than-commendable causes.
Unfortunately, the rest of the galaxy has to operate with laws that aren’t so morally objectionable, and repeat offenders strike again and again. Career criminals, and some make a pretty damn good career out of it.
Note that things like character name and background are actually a lot more important than finalised stats at the moment. This is the first time I've used this system for a play-by-post, so since I'll probably be changing my mind a lot, I wouldn't hold it against the players if they did the same with their attribute distributions :P
Is there widespread or mandatory testing for psionic ability? Are psions of various stripes given special education automatically, or do they have to pay for "schools for the gifted"? Is there a "psionic registry" or anything like that? Can psions be ignorant of their abilities (and still use them)? Does some or all of this vary by region/planet/corp/government?
Considering the emphasis my guy has on psi stuff, these kinds of things will have a significant impact on his backstory.
This is the simplest way of thinking about it, but I’m about to screw around and make it complicated. Most nations stick to the outline below- corporate colonies stick to the same guidelines for legal reasons- but there’re plenty of independent worlds where drastically different things could happen.
Except in Crivinia- which is more a mishmash of disparate worlds than a unified nation- people who are found to be psionically adept are legally obliged to attend an academy of some description. Although it's possible to take a free, government-funded six-month course (where you'd simply confirm your abilities and assure the psionic community that you have enough self-control to not start frying brain cells), those that can afford it sometimes spend years in training.
The Lodorions, who have a higher-than-average psionic populace, have the most (and theoretically best) academies- it’s not unknown for families to send their psychic kids across half the galaxy in order to get the best education money can buy.
There isn’t a legally-enforced psionic registry, but the High Council does their best to maintain one, despite uncooperative action (and sometimes downright hostility towards it). More on that in the spoiler…
As for being a psionor without knowing it: it’s more than feasible that a charismatic diplomat might be a projecting empath of some description without realising it, and if they’re very low-level it might take years before a sufficiently talented telepath is close enough to realise their potential. In such cases there tends to be legal complications- i.e., the authorities suspect fraud and similar- but usually the situation can be cleared up without any lasting implications.
But you’d have to be very naïve- or completely ignorant of psionics- to not realise you had high-level abilities making themselves manifest.
Of course, no two psychics are alike, and some don’t (or can’t!) manifest their powers without a great deal of practise and concentration. Others can effortlessly hold a telepathic conversation over a distance of miles, or telekinetically manipulate cutlery to chop up the family roast from across the table- but they might find it hard to stealthily probe a mind (because they usually resort to the telepathic equivalent of SHOUTING VERY LOUD) or lift anything heavier than a few kilograms (because they’re a precision telekinetic, rather than a vigorous telekinetic.)
High Council info dump:
Around a similar time, the High Council was co-founded by the Lodori and the Domarian Legion, but it began life as the Extrasensory Protection Society- this was back in the days when psionors were a lot rarer and much more likely to be prejudiced against. But eventually such abilities were recognised as major assets, and the EPS changed their name and their duties- declaring themselves the voice and regulator for the now-blossoming psionic community.
It was in their best interests to train every psychic they came across, because to the High Council each of those individuals was a potential lifetime contract and cash cow. What’s especially worrying is that, nowadays, every High Councillor is themselves psionically potent instead of just an activist: and they don’t see anything wrong with treating “lesser†psychics like this. They see fit to meddle in the affairs of any nation that’ll host them, simply because they feel that they’re more entitled to do so than anyone else- in their home nation of Lodor, they wield more power than the government.
The Domarian Legion watched the foundation they’d nurtured go from being an anti-defamation movement into an elitist enclave. They resented the very idea of shipping off their psionic adepts to Lodori space “for their own goodâ€, and the High Council’s dismissive attitude towards societies dependant on “mundane science†was incredibly galling to a civilisation that was traditionally reliant on high-technology.
The Legion have never got along with the Council, but the two bodies have an intense dislike of the High Council in common- or at least, the core hierarchy of the Council itself does, if not the nations its innumerable speakers represent. The Council dislikes the HC’s focus on hereditary peerage rather than something more democratic, they dislike being told what to do by a far smaller (and proportionately more powerful) group, and they utterly hate some bastard in a robe referring to them as the Low Council.
Put short, the Legion have their own network of academies for the psi-adept, with a similar focus on discipline and responsibility- but on the basis that “ordinary†people were equals, not something to be pitied and shielded from the wider world.