How Star Wars and other sci-fi will impact my game and wondering how others plan to run their game.

[dm4hire]

I'm looking forward to running Numenera when it finally releases. An interesting idea came to me the other day when thinking about how it is set a billion years in our future. What if the Star Wars concept of Jedi evolves into more than the religion which has sprung up recently and becomes a dominant world wide religion? Far into the distant future all knowledge of the movies have been lost and all that remains if a perverted history of Star Wars that the people of Numenera take as fact. Jedi (nanos) seem to have the ability to control things around them through the manipulation of the "Force."

Mean while across the world where the land is sand and silt the nomads await the return of the prophesied "Sleeper" who will return their world to its former glory, bring back the rains of ancient days and ending the storms of metal that transform land and men.

There is just so much potential to mix traditional sci-fi and fantasy in this game to make the world come alive and play off preconceived notions people have about their favorite books. I definitely think it will add to the enjoyment of the game throwing popular stories into the setting with a twist.

What ideas have you been thinking for either your campaign or character design?

 

[CAFRedblade]

The latest Transmissions from the Ninth world Podcast talk a little about various religions and how they take place in Numenara.

Personally, I find it unlikely that a Jedi based religion would survive that length of time, but some of the underlying kernals may have left and returned to earth at some point. Heck, I could see another planet within the same universe as the Earth Numenara could be founded long ago by 'Modern' Jedi and survived.

But since it's your campaign, if you can work it in, in a satisfactory way, go for it.

 

[Aldarc]

I'm thinking mainly 'Thundarr the Barbarian.'

 

[sabrinathecat]

Yay!!!! Thundar! Ariel! Uukla! RIDE!

I like the ideas of a corrupted jedi lore (heck Lucas has already corrupted it pretty badly), combined with other aspects of Samurai or Aikido training. And in the desert sands--what could be more perfect than Mad Max? With maybe a bit of Space Hunter:Adventures in the Forbidden Zone mixed in?

Or if you want something really twisted, how about looking into Highlander:The Animated Series? I'd be scared if my players wanted to be in a world like that.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A billion years? I doubt anything of humanity will remain, so don't let that kind of thing trump the rule of cool.

However, don't make it too unified, too close to the original source material. Let the passage of time have SOME kind of drift effect. If you do have communities based on the ethoi of genre fiction classics, let their boundaries be muddled if not outright blended into un recognizability: have Jedi and the Bene Gesserit philosophies cross pollinate, for instance. Have a tribe of Klingon-speaking quasi-Druidic types living like Ewoks. Have rogue humanoid robots from a ruined Westworld-type amusement park operating as if they were Reavers from Firefly.

Etc.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

A billion years? I doubt anything of humanity will remain, so don't let that kind of thing trump the rule of cool.

However, don't make it too unified, too close to the original source material. Let the passage of time have SOME kind of drift effect.

Perfect example: the term Kwisatz Haderach from Frank Herbert's Dune series is clearly derived from the Kabbalic term, Kefitzat Haderech. It would not be a stretch to say that such linguistic drift could- within that universe- be evidence of the Jewish Kabbalic tradition being partially absorbed by or completely transformed into the faith of the Fremen of Arrakis.*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwisatz_Haderach

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefitzat_Haderech








* the inference is stronger still when you consider the Kabbalic belief in the power of names and other parallels.

 

[dm4hire]

Danny that is a great idea about the Klingon language developing into an actual dialect. I was planning to break away from the actual story line and just make Jedi a form of religion for the most part with a sect of Nanos believing in the force when it was actually tech that was involved. And thanks for the info on the Kabbalic term usage in Dune. I recognized a lot of mixing of religion in the series, but didn't know where some of it came from.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

That far in the future = endless possibilities.

That kind of time means you could put ingredients from anything- real or fictional- into your campaign blender and come out with awesome. Genetically engineered super soldiers (Dorsai), mutant humans (Wraethu), evolved animals (Moreau's experiments), Jedi philosophy...

 

[Stormonu]

...Deathsports - Bloodbowl, Dreadball, Gladiator games, The Lottery (short story), The Most Dangerous Game, etc.

Imagine what a billion years, changes in morality and science could have on sports stars and the like - perhaps a planet of genetically enhanced, chemically altered super-beings that organize into groups known as 'Themes' led by a Ko'ach who travel from planet to planet in search of challenges, forcibly broadcasting their struggles to nearby planets for exorbitant fees. Perhaps some of them even do good deeds ...

<Edit> Whenever society forms, and people can get beyond the basic need of food and shelter, games get made. And people get good at them. Good enough to make a living at it. And people want to watch, possibly emulate them. Throw in super-science and a healthy dose of disregard for sentient beings, and you've got a good spot for throwing in something where folks make a sport of watching each other in life and death battles.

Then all you have to do is throw in the characters - as willing or unwilling participants.