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gridloreHaving finally finished my work on the religion stuff (Islam? Heretical sect that believe that Law is the supreme virtue. Except for the western Sahara and Spain, it has a similar spread.) I need a break before tackling the political layout and history.
I've been jonesing for some good old-fashined Space Opera. Between reading the Ultramarines Omnibus and re-watching Babylon 5 I'm in a mood for fast ships and handy blasters. and when I say Space Opera, I mean Space Opera, FGU's epic RPG. Where Traveller took a semi-hard science, toolkit approach to mechanics and setting, SO gleefully threw in everything they could think of, including the kitchen sink. You could play a lightsaber-wielding Vulcan fighting the Arachnids from Heinlein's Starship Troopers without having to add a single house rule. Did I mention that the Vulcan is also a Lensman? Yeah, great game.
Very amused to see that my spell-checker recognizes lightsaber as a correctly spelled word.
Space Opera had one of my all-time favorite easily misinterpreted rules. One section of the character generation rules lists all the goodies characters get from their previous careers. Several of the space related careers had the following phrase inserted into the list: "one complete ship, Summer and Winter uniform," As a power gaming 14 year old, you can see how I read that one. Especially as the list was a block of items set apart by commas.
Along with the Vulcans (called "Transhumans" in the rules) there was also the usual animal people aliens. Dog people, Caqt people (two versions, the MekPurr and the savage Avatars), bear people, bird people, lizard people, etc., etc. Even as a kid raised on Star Trek this bugged me. We're the upright, tool-using animals we are because of how we evolved. Even assuming that an effective predator like a cat would evolve full intelligence, the odds of it having the same body plan as we have is remote at best. So, being me, I've written a solution.
Our early FTL drives were slow FTL. Months to get to Alpha Centauri. Even at superluminal speeds, sleeper ships were still the rule for colonization efforts. Trade was non-existent due to the travel times. Now everywhere we went we find two things: Ruins, and life that is at least somewhat related to us. Seems that Our local neighborhood was home to an ancient civilization that spread Terran life around, modifying it as necessary. Some of these ruins lead to technological breakthroughs. Others swallow anyone who enters them without a trace. One colony far out on the edges of explored space finds a treasure trove of biological engineering data and equipment. They use this to improve themselves, becoming the Transhumans.
At this point, a threat appears. Say it's the Bugs. Needing soldiers, the Transhumans uplift and mass produce soldiers based first on dogs, then on big cats. Around this time, Terra develops the "fast" FTL, and begins forming what would eventually become the Federation with several alien races. Eventually, with the Bug threat mostly dealt with, the Federation realizes that the Transhumans are keeping intelligent species as slaves. The resultant war would be short and decisive. Without too much detail, here are the results:
I can play with ursine and avian aliens to make them alien enough for my satisfaction.
I've been jonesing for some good old-fashined Space Opera. Between reading the Ultramarines Omnibus and re-watching Babylon 5 I'm in a mood for fast ships and handy blasters. and when I say Space Opera, I mean Space Opera, FGU's epic RPG. Where Traveller took a semi-hard science, toolkit approach to mechanics and setting, SO gleefully threw in everything they could think of, including the kitchen sink. You could play a lightsaber-wielding Vulcan fighting the Arachnids from Heinlein's Starship Troopers without having to add a single house rule. Did I mention that the Vulcan is also a Lensman? Yeah, great game.
Very amused to see that my spell-checker recognizes lightsaber as a correctly spelled word.
Space Opera had one of my all-time favorite easily misinterpreted rules. One section of the character generation rules lists all the goodies characters get from their previous careers. Several of the space related careers had the following phrase inserted into the list: "one complete ship, Summer and Winter uniform," As a power gaming 14 year old, you can see how I read that one. Especially as the list was a block of items set apart by commas.
Along with the Vulcans (called "Transhumans" in the rules) there was also the usual animal people aliens. Dog people, Caqt people (two versions, the MekPurr and the savage Avatars), bear people, bird people, lizard people, etc., etc. Even as a kid raised on Star Trek this bugged me. We're the upright, tool-using animals we are because of how we evolved. Even assuming that an effective predator like a cat would evolve full intelligence, the odds of it having the same body plan as we have is remote at best. So, being me, I've written a solution.
Our early FTL drives were slow FTL. Months to get to Alpha Centauri. Even at superluminal speeds, sleeper ships were still the rule for colonization efforts. Trade was non-existent due to the travel times. Now everywhere we went we find two things: Ruins, and life that is at least somewhat related to us. Seems that Our local neighborhood was home to an ancient civilization that spread Terran life around, modifying it as necessary. Some of these ruins lead to technological breakthroughs. Others swallow anyone who enters them without a trace. One colony far out on the edges of explored space finds a treasure trove of biological engineering data and equipment. They use this to improve themselves, becoming the Transhumans.
At this point, a threat appears. Say it's the Bugs. Needing soldiers, the Transhumans uplift and mass produce soldiers based first on dogs, then on big cats. Around this time, Terra develops the "fast" FTL, and begins forming what would eventually become the Federation with several alien races. Eventually, with the Bug threat mostly dealt with, the Federation realizes that the Transhumans are keeping intelligent species as slaves. The resultant war would be short and decisive. Without too much detail, here are the results:
- The Federation is the largest interstellar government.
- Humans who object to both alien influence and genetically modified humans break away to form the Azuriach Imperium.
- The Transhumans renounce genetic manipulation and turn inwards, exploring the growing field of psionics.
- The Rauwoof, with their high birthrates, soon dominate several star systems.
- The feline Mekpurr and their more animalistic relatives claim several worlds still infested by Bug nests.
I can play with ursine and avian aliens to make them alien enough for my satisfaction.
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Date: 13 May 2011 19:57 (UTC)Played a Canine who was a grizzeled old spec ops sergeant, he was a fun character.
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Date: 13 May 2011 20:55 (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 May 2011 23:02 (UTC)no subject
Date: 13 May 2011 23:35 (UTC)I remember the design discussions over the B5 RPG. Epic flamewars over what exactly a Starfury was shooting, long, math-filled rants about power density of batteries, and so on.. all failing to accept that JMS hadn't been writing a thesis in projected technological advances, but instead a damn good story. I'm just happy he recognized as much physics as he did!
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Date: 13 May 2011 23:18 (UTC)My campaign was influenced by Foster's 'Flinx' universe, so having the Commonwealth as the hub for adventures was a natural. I did various alien races as playable for PCs ... some just for NPCs - and of course did a version of the Thranx as the most common aliens found there, alongside humans. It worked pretty well, but was the sort of thing that only was played for a few months every couple years.
Along the way, Brin cam out with his Uplift series. I just settled the Commonwealth in that larger framework and had the Galactics be a bit less uber. They had communication problems based on distance, so 'wolfing' races that had been uplifted weren't so incredibly unusual - and it made humans & Thranx both wolfings, helping the Commonwealth's cohesion [with some added it's us against the universe sentiments].
That version of the campaign has been getting played continually online [in one of my text/response games] since about 1993. First on the Gnome's Guesthouse, then amicon and now on the Warren. It's very slow progress, as are most text/response games - but it's one of the ones that never dies for lack of interest.
IMO 'Space Opera' is an example of a game that succeeds despite the shortcomings of the rules. It's just generic enough to be adaptable - especially once one has hammered the 'force' rules into a more consistant set of rules for psionics.
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Date: 13 May 2011 23:30 (UTC)You can say that about most of FGU's offerings. Space Opera, Chivalry & Sorcery, Aftermath... all had questionable rules but remain popular decades later. Hell, Villains & Vigilantes is experiencing a renaissance!
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Date: 14 May 2011 08:39 (UTC)I still need to upgrade to a proper widescreen tv too, and Babylon 5 is definitely on the block to screen in full once that happens.