Gaming w/Jemal : Star Drift

[Jemal]

Aliens will be playable but I'll be following the 'mostly humanoid' style of aliens.
No 'super powers.'
As far as tech, think of things like stargate, firefly, star trek(kirk), or star wars(minus lightsabers), etc. That kind of tech is fairly common through the galaxy. Higher tech (newer star trek style) exists but is rare, and typically lost tech.
I can't get much more specific about what tech exists without just giving a huge list. Basically if it's part of a (reasonably realistic) sci fi it exists.
Game-mechanically.. assuming M&M; if it's in the 'common' category I'll allow it as equipment. Higher tech stuff would have to be bought as a device (removable power)
I'd like to keep the amount of supertech minimal at start.
For specifics if you're wondering just ask and I'll tell you where it falls or if it's a bit too far-out.

Two notes :
First, any and all 'space tech' (ships and ship equipment) will be gained or created in game, it will have nothing to do with character creation.
Second, the game will be much more focused around character interaction, role-playing, and ship-life. Combat and personal trinkets will be secondary.

 

[Voda Vosa]

Of course, you hooked me like a fish in a barrel. I'd love to play, perhaps one of the alien species.

Here's an idea:

Paramax Prime, a world in which evolution never give the steps to pluricelularity, organisms developed as big blobs of protoplasm, but developed telepathic communication, and a hive communal mind. These organisms developed a complex society, and mastered several degrees of technology advancement. They lived and evolved peacefully throughout the aeons, until humans discovered their world. Initially they didn't deem these creatures worth of nothing but scientific study, but suddenly discovered their telepathic abilities, and the potential to turn these creatures into intergalactic translators. This forged an alliance between the two species. Humans later discovered other important traits of the paramaxes, which were able to survive to several adverse conditions. Their constant hunger for any organic or inorganic matter also came in handy, as they could live of waste produced by humans, and perform cleaning all around the ship. Their techno-organic knowledge also integrated greatly, many of these paramaxes becoming mechanics.
Later, the Enemy attacked Paramax Prime, but not knowing war, the creatures didn't know how to react until it was too late. As their planet was ravaged out, protective spores left the world, with a handful of survivors. The spores spread, like coconuts floating in the waters of the dark sea that is space, and where they landed, the creatures emerged and dispersed. Other paramaxes were stationary in several ships. Their civilization is now broken, scattered, unfortunate nomads, victims of the ruthless Enemy.

These guys will all call themselves "Paramax" and have a hive minded notion. I had in mind to play him as a techie or diplomat for the group.

 

[Jemal]

Sorry, but I'm gonna have to say no to blob-people and hive minds, and a 'soft no' on telepathy.

 

[Binder Fred]

Two notes :
First, any and all 'space tech' (ships and ship equipment) will be gained or created in game, it will have nothing to do with character creation.

Does that include space suits? I guess what I'm asking is: what does the begining situation look like, roughly? How do the characters know each other, if at all (same employ, same general location/ship/planet/system)? Are they a salvage company that's found the ship somewhere out in space/depth of the earth? Random abductees "teleported" to the ship when it crossed this or that system? Something else?

 

[drothgery]

Yeah m&m is definitely the leading contender bc it's flexible, relatively simple, and easy to obtain (go open source SRD!).
Mark: I'll check out that link once I'm home(at work now)

Hmm... I was wondering if I'd be able to drop a planet as sort of stereotypical Victorian England in space (which is to say stuffy arrogant SOBs, don't have a lot of regard for 'barbarian' cultures no matter how friendly they might be with individual 'barbarians', will try to press their religion on you ... but probably are doing more to revive 'modern' tech than anyone else, and tend to do things like stomp out the slave trade and are clearly less bad colonial overlords than anyone else). And then build something like a Simon Tam type from there.

 

[Jemal]

First up : I've been looking into stars without number. It does look like a passable system, and the opening blurb caught my eye - aside from the 'psychic' thing, it could be a good fit for what I'm envisioning, so right now I'm going to open it to a poll:
Low level M&M or Stars without Number?
*NOTE: Stars without number seems to be very similar to 1st ed D&D In Space.

Stars Without Number.

Secondly, when I say 'ship equipment', I'm referring specifically to ships and equipment for those ships (Guns, engines, shields, etc) - not items that would be found IN ships, but items that are PART of ships.

drothgery, that would be perfect, there are probably dozens of worlds like that. I can see them forming into an alliance of sorts and being one of the more powerful, forward-thinking but stuck-up/full of themselves empires that have risen up.

As far as how you guys get onto the ship, that's one of the things I wanted to talk about. There are a few major options I had been considering, but wanted Player input, as it will likely play a role in what kind of characters you all choose, and how (IF) they know each other.
Option A: Salvage crew. This could be legal salvage, illegal salvage, or even a military/science expedition. Basically this is the option for "We CHOSE to come to the ship"
Option 2: Accidental Refuges. This would be an option wherein the PC's are on a ship travelling between systems which has a 7malfunction: FTL/Hyperdrive gives out, no communications.. sabotage or just bad luck? Either way, they end up dropping out near an old and unrecognizable ship, and head over hoping to find something to help - parts to repair their ship, or a way to use the new one.
Third Choice: Explorers. In this option, the ship is actually buried under a city on a planet, and some people are exploring it thinking it's an ancient lab/complex. This is a bit of a mix of the others: Some PC's are there for a purpose while others may have just been in the vicinity when the ship was activated by the first group, and get taken along for the ride. This is I think my personal favourite because it allows for the largest scale of different PC's.
*NOTE: The first choice would have the least NPCs involved. Both the second and third would involve numerous NPCs. If you're interested in a small group with little 'on board' NPC interaction, go with the first one, if you're OK with (Or look forward to) NPCs on board with you, then the other two would be better fits.


And now, a bit of info about the two types of ship drive (Will edit this into the opening post, along with any new information I add in the future)
FTL: Practically all ships have FTL capability, and most advanced civilizations are capable of reproducing it. FTL drives vary in speed, being measured in Kc (1 Kc = 1 Thousand times light speed). The fastest being able to travel at 50 KC, the slower ones being around 1 Kc(Equivalent to Warp 9 in star trek). Most are around 20 Kc . Even at the fastest FTL speed, it takes over two years to traverse the galaxy, and the average is around 6 years.
Though many civilizations are only weeks or even days apart by FTL.

Hyper-drive: Hyper-drives, also known to some as "Jump Drives", can no longer be manufactured by any known civilization in the galaxy, but some do still exist, and are heavily guarded and kept in top shape. Ships with Hyper-drives are capable of essentially teleporting through space. They require a cool-down time to recharge between jumps, or risk causing a catastrophe that will essentially spread the atoms of the ship (And everything/body on board) across the galaxy. The most advanced hyper-drives currently in service can transport up to 10,000 light years and require a day or so to recharge, capable of crossing the galaxy in a couple weeks. Most can move around 2-5,000 Light Years per jump and often require several days to recharge. They are still orders of magnitude faster than even the best of FTL's.

**Civilizations do the majority of their interactions with close-by planets, and reserve whatever hyper-drives they may have for long-distance or important, time-sensitive journeys.
Also just for a bit of fun, the average FTL drive travel time from Earth to the nearest star (Proxima Centauri) is about Two hours.

 

[Voda Vosa]

I take M&M blindly. =D And I'd lean to explorers

A question: If I decide to go with an alien race, what would be acceptable? I mean, what small features could the species have in order to make it paticular? Blob people is a no, but you can't pretend that there would be humanoids in other planet, seriously.

 

[Moon_Goddess]

I kinda like "Third Choice: Explorers." but I don't really feel right voting on it as I don't want any coruption from how close my my game is.

I guess in the end we both made VERY different universe, but if you're stealing the basic thing for Stargate: Universe, you're still stealing the same thing.

You'd think if they're that mean of us wanting to steal from it, it would have lasted longer.

 

[Binder Fred]

I'm favoring M&M and options 1 or 2 myself, perhaps in combinaision? Crash/stranded near the ship, send an ad hoc boarding party to try to solve the problem/scavenge (composed of the most abled present (i.e. the PCs)), ship triggers with just/mostly just the party aboard? Combine 1, 2 and 3? Ship found (embeded in comet?), towed to nearest habitat and put in orbit at what they *thought* was a very safe distance, early activation of some of the ship's functions cause widespread shut-downs (killing some/all of the original science party on board?), ad hoc boarding party sent to try to solve the problem, combined with those stranded in the immediate viscinity (press, police/security, the curious, the ambassador standing by in case this is a first contact), etc?

Re FTL, what about in-system transportation, Jemal? Can it use FTL/Hypers or is there the equivallent of a "not in a gravity well" restriction on the technology?

You've also talked about speed, but what about price? i.e. 2h to get to the nearest system, but at what cost? Do people commute between systems? Work in the outer system by day, go to bed in the heart of the system's capital at night? What about freight? Is it economic to ship base, high-bulk material across systems (metals, frozen gases, food), or is it all low bulk-high value stuff?

 

[Raivon]

I shall play this game!! Hehe