So what universes are people building? Here's what I've got.
Big Picture: Chartered Space probably encompasses around 750 light years of space. The "home nation" that players are expected to belong to encompasses only a third of that with not much being known about the other two thirds of Chartered Space (both belonging to their respective interstellar nations).
Where & When: Using a fictional Stardate dating method, the exact time is unknown but is likely to be somewhere around the 23rd century with the action taking place in the Orion Arm (which is a REALLY big part of space when you start looking at Warp speeds).
Theme: Exploration and hope. When humanity discovered how to travel to other worlds, they stepped into a rather dark galaxy filled with war and turmoil. Humanity, of course, added their own misery and hate into the mix. However that all finally came to an end with the formation of the League of Planets. Now, 70 years after the League's formation, the first starships of a brand new deep space research program will see the League send out research vessels into unchartered space where they will discover strange new phenomena and make contact with brand new species. It is the League's first major project since it's founding and represents the League maturing and stepping onto the Interstellar stage. Of course, the Spartan Empire which the League is ostensbily at peace with will likely be encountered. Out in unchartered space, far from the navies of their respective interstellar nations, who knows how things will play out.
Genre: Somewhere between Hard Sci-Fi (Genre A) and Space Opera (Genre C). I question the placement of either Star Trek as Sci-Fi (Genre B) or psionics as being Space Opera-ish. Star Trek has more then it's fair share of psionics (how many psionic alien species did Kirk and company meet? How many vulcan mind melds did they go through? What about Next Generation's counseling empath?). The exact role of psionics has yet to be fully determined though. I'm swaying between "it's there for anyone who wants to explore it, but not the central focus" to "it's an intrinsic part of the setting".
Technology/Advancement: I'm going with AL 8. Although there has been an interstellar community for quite some time in one form or another, warp drive technology was really only first advanced a hundred years ago by human scientists. The previous rulers over what is now League Space had relied upon gateway technology which created artificial wormholes which had been adapted from artefacts left behind by an ancient alien civilization. For the specific technology decisions:
- FTL: The maximum engine that the League of Planets has is a Panwatch-Microbeam EA-2 antimatter engine, which allows a Class X Cruiser to go at Warp 5 while a Class V Carrier can travel at Warp 11.
- Transporters: TOS created transporters due to budgetary constraints. I'm not limited by them so I'm tempted not to include them. Including them gives the players a lot of easy ways to bypass various different obstacles. I might go the Star Trek: Enterprise route and include them, but have them be unreliable and dangerous. If the obstacles are "boring" and get in the way of "fun" I can either stop including them or have the "technical difficulties rendering transporters unsafe" get solved thus allowing them to be used.
- Communication: Warp drive is theoretically possible. Subspace communication, however, does not seem to be possible, not even theoretically. So here I have four options: 1. use subspace communication and invoke tachyon particles as the reason why it works 2. go with psionic telepaths (thus making psions an integral part of the setting) 3. Have portable gateways get deployed which allows signals to be sent through back to HQ. The gateways would need to be configured before they are deployed which would introduce delays between a starship communicating with HQ and would require the starship to act independently in a crisis, but it would allow communication to occur when necessary. 4. Use courier ships. Leaving behind beacons would allow the courier to eventually catch up with the starship at which time it could relay orders. It would mean require the starship to act independently but would still allow the League to send people to the ship for diplomatic missions or to get ferried to a specific planet (as seems to happen more often then not).
- Weaponry. Energy weapons will be the norm with a "subdual" setting being available.
- Mechanoids. Yes, these are an integral part of the setting. When the mindlords (human psions) ruled over what is now League Space the rebellion relied heavily on androids for it's critical missions. It was these actions that caused the League of Planets to give androids their independence and an equal right.
Aliens: I have all of the N.E.W. races incorporated into the setting along with a couple of new ones (Huldans who are a parasitic race who live on the outskirts of League space and are very similar to the mafia along with Tuliktay who are the stereotypical bug people).
Psionics: Originally psionics was going to be limited to humans. But upon adopting N.E.W. for the ruleset for my setting I decided to embrace the N.E.W. races which means Venetians would need to be psionic. Venetians, however, were on the path to extinction with only a few thousand being alive and none of them being fertile.
However in keeping with the tones of the setting which are of hope and exploration I don't feel it's appropriate to have the Venetians be completely doomed. And so, 90 years before the present era, the impossible happened when a human/venetian pairing resulted in an impregnation. Since then Venetians, both male and female, have successfully mated with humans and a mating program has been instituted to ensure that the Venetian genes are retained as much as possible in this new hybrid race. The exact how and why Venetians became infertile in the first place is poorly understood. The last Venetian to be able to get impregenated died over 400 years ago at the young age of 35. He had a number of genetic abnormalities due to the amount of inbreeding the Venetians had been forced to perform in the centuries prior as less and less fertile Venetians were born. Without a female Venetian to impregnate however, even had he could have done little to save the Venetians.
So Venetians are a viable race in my campaign. The character must be over 600 years old (with them being restricted to five career grades) if they want to play a full blooded Venetian, but if someone wants to play a Venetian they are welcome to. Otherwise they can play a Half-Venetian who isn't inherently psionic, although with a flexi-stat they CAN be psionic if the player so desires. There could also be an ancient (fertile) off-shoot of the Venetian race out there in unchartered space unbeknownst to anyone else.
Whether or not other races (including humans) are psionic is a group decision. Venetian monasteries do teach psionics to those who wish to learn psionics. But anyone who attends them must conform to the monasteries philosophy. Overall though, the monasteries have since fallen out of favour following the Great Galactic Wars.
So there's a high-level snapshot of the setting I'm fine tuning. What are other people building?
