Sky Pirates of Mars

[Desdichado]

The year: 15,000 A.D. Give or take a few centuries.

The place: Mars.

In the Twenty Third century, people from earth developed terraforming technology. Cramped for space, and running low on many essential natural resources, Mars and Venus were terraformed and settled by both humans and genetically engineered animals specifically designed to develop independently into sustainable ecosystems.

However, it couldn't last. As the population on Earth grew well beyond the ability of the planet to support, it erupted into anarchy and planet-wide riots for food, water, space, and air. The colonists on Mars and Venus were capable, rugged pioneers and individualists, but did not have the resources themselves, or the capability to maintain their standard of living as access to Earth itself was cut off. Gradually, over the course of centuries, knowledge faded, technology degraded, and civilization regressed.

Now, after more than 12,000 years, entirely new cultures, societies and ethnic groups have developed, adapted specifically to Mars and having forgotten that they ever came from anywhere else. Into this world come the PCs.

The setting: Sky Pirates of Mars.

The system: d20 Modern + d20 Past (Shadow Stalkers campaign model). Maybe. Possibly the True20 variant from DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND. Or possibly something else entirely.

The venue: I don't know yet. I need to do a lot more work before I'm ready to do anything with this, yet. Any ideas? I'm imagining a kind of Barsoom + Golden Age of Piracy as written by Rafael Sabatini + Sergio Leone Westerns vibe here, though.

 

[Piratecat]

I would like to announce that I'm in love.

This sounds totally nifty.

 

[Alikar]

First off I love the idea, but I have problems with this:

The colonists on Mars and Venus were capable, rugged pioneers and individualists, but did not have the resources themselves, or the capability to maintain their standard of living as access to Earth itself was cut off..

How? I mean seriously how did they not have resources? Your talking about a civilization that is space faring and capable of dramatically altering the ecosystem not just a planet, but several. Secondly your description of the colonists are the people most likely to have their civilization survive and prosper not regress and fail. Frankly if Earth nuked itself I could buy a new set of Earth civilizations, regardless of the fact that after 9 days there wouldn't be any major radiation and that society would rebuild itself in only a couple generations, but really once your able to move people permanently to Mars, they will have the ability to sustain themselves. They will not lack food, material resources or water, so I'm confused as to what resources they would be missing. Any society by then will have mass robotics and artificial intelligence, not to mention unimaginablly large data storage.

I'm not saying that your idea is bad, I actually love the idea of pirates on Mars, but I'm saying you need a better story for your "fall."

 

[Desdichado]

How could they have resources? They were a relative handful of people living in an austere, frontier environment. To be honest with you, I'm not interested in the fall, or describing what happened on earth. For all I know, the entire planet may have blown up. It really doesn't matter.

Did anyone care what happened in H. G. Wells The Time Machine? Nah, you just accepted that it did.

 

[JeffB]

Sounds cool- I'm all over Sword & Planet stuff (the setting anyway- not a fan of D20 modern as a system, though I enjoy my copy of D20 Past).

Looking forward to hearing/seeing more

 

[Desdichado]

Here's an idea hafrogman gave me that I'll almost certainly be adding: the wealthy live in gigantic floating estates. Mansions that never touch the ground, and are instead supplied by smaller flying vessels. This is why the pirates are, after all, sky pirates. There ain't much to pirate on the ground, which still remains, despite terraforming, largely wilderness and desert.

Also; I'm thinking water has collected in the Vallis Marinaris, which is now a long, jagged gash as long as the continental US and as wide as Tennessee is tall that is perpetually enshrined in fog and mist. Because of this water and lack of sunlight, the floor of the canyon is covered with vast fungus forests; mushrooms nearly as big as trees.

Trying to figure out what to do with the Tharsis region; volcanos the size of Arizona are begging to be used for ... something. I dunno what, though. Maybe the base of pirate fleets are nestled in the calderas, kinda like Somali cities. In a volcano.

 

[Desdichado]

Arr!!! A fleet of sky pirates sails off into the sunset.

 

[Desdichado]

Whoa. I was just googling around to see if I could find any ideas, and check out what the search Sky Pirates came up with?

The Heliograph: Steampunk Culture: Sky Pirates!

I love it already. The more I think about it, the more this setting is evolving a pseudo Space: 1889-like vibe, except that everyone's stuck on Mars already because interplanetary travel technology has been lost for millenia. Not that that contradicts my earlier claim of wanting a Barsoom + Rafael Sabatini + Sergio Leone feel. I think they're compatible with each other, after all.

 

[Wombat]

Another nice one to check out is Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies. Probably not your kind of system, but it might have some ideas that might well spark your game:

S7S: Captain Wiki's Swashbuckling Atlas of the Far Reaches & Less-Trodden Paths of the 7 Skies

At least some food for thought.

 

[Herobizkit]

What you need is the Titanic. In space.

If the wealthy can afford floating houses, then they can surely afford a ticket on the greatest luxury ship ever conceived. Sporting a ballroom, a full casino, live entertainment, and the finest wines and foods on three planets, just about anyone would kill to be on board such a vessel.

... including Sky Pirates!

Between this, and the possibility of a fantasy/steampunk "Deep Space Nine", I am in happy land.